When I thought I was alone…

Posted on August 30th, 2007 by Andy

There was a time in between Galaxie 500 splitting up (in 1991) and us getting the Internet (late 1993 or early 94 I’d guess [1]) when I thought I was the only Galaxie 500 fan in the world. Occasionally a journalist (normally Everett True) might drop their name into an article but otherwise it was just me. The friends I’d seen Galaxie 500 with didn’t seem all that bothered by the fact that they weren’t around any more. Of course there was Luna, but I never really knew any Luna fans either and was always surprised that there was anyone else at the Luna shows I went to. So the Internet was a glorious revelation not only did the people on there know of Galaxie 500 but some of them loved them as much as I did.

Whenever I find a post like this one at Indie Selections For Your Erections I get a buzz to know that there are people who cared as much as I did (and still care) - it’s probably a bit sad because most of my Internet existence since 1994 has been amongst Galaxie 500 fans - but most of them don’t make such explicit declarations of love - I think they should do it more often…I do it all the time!

[1]The earliest mention of my Internet presence I’ve managed to track down (after a couple of minutes searching) is this post to alt.music alternative in September 1994 but we had definitely been around longer than that (we’d had a Compuserve account before the Demon one that this post was from).

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It was 20 years ago today…

Posted on August 29th, 2007 by Andy

Galaxie 500’s first ever show
Read a bit more about the first show on A Head Full of Wishes

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A history of Decomposing…free album to download!

Posted on August 20th, 2007 by Andy

Sometime in the Autumn of 2004 I put forward the idea of a tribute album to the members of the Galaxie 500 Mailing List and a bunch of excellent contributions trickled in over the next few months…the plan was to put out a proper CD in a nice two colour package sometime in the spring of 2005.

The project slipped…and slipped…partially because I was trying to get up the nerve to put together a contribution of my own (something that never happened) but mostly because I was just crap at getting things together…I started trying to ignore the reminders I set for myself but by the end of 2005 it was getting embarrassing.

I decided to scale down the ambition and go for a CDR and a laser printed b/w sleeve and so in March 2006 the tribute finally saw the light of day. I can’t remember how many copies I sold/gave away (probably 80 or so).

But it was really too good a project to leave it at that. One of the contributers, mkorchia of the very excellent Watoo Watoo suggested a few months back that I should put the album on line somewhere - and even that took me bloody ages!

But here it is…finally…

You can download the complete album for nothing…

Decomposing - the songs of Galaxie 500 and Luna

Download the album

Please download it and enjoy it becuase it deserves a listen…and try not to think about the fact that it took me three years to do…I try not to!

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Lee Hazlewood 1929-2007

Posted on August 5th, 2007 by Andy

Image swiped from this Hazelwood fansite

A couple of months back on the Galaxie 500 Mailing List we were discussing the great Lee Hazlewood, who passed away yesterday. This is what I had to say back then…

The second Nancy & Lee album “Again” was played a lot while I was growing up - “Did You Ever” still always reminds me of my mum (although it’s not a favourite of mine, possibly because there was a time when I heard it too much!). But “Nancy & Lee” and “Nancy and Lee Again” are both great albums. I never really went beyond those two - not for any other reason than discovering my *own* music was more important than discovering my parents (or my older brother’s) music.

Lee Hazlewood pretty much dropped off my radar until Dean Wareham and Claudia Silver released the Cagney & Lacee album Six Feet of Chain with its two great Hazlewood covers - the title track and By The Way (I Still Love You).

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My Top 6…Dean Wareham moments…

Posted on July 20th, 2007 by Andy

(OK reading this back it sounds like the smug ramblings of a backstage ligger - but having written them out I may as well publish!)

Over the 12 years of the Galaxie 500 Mailing List I have trotted out the same old memories time and time again so I thought I’d use my last.fm journal to trot them out one more time…so here are my top 6 Dean Wareham (of Galaxie 500, Luna and Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham fame) moments…

1. The arse print incident…
   Hazel and I went to NYC in February 2001 for a weekend that just happened to coincide with a couple of Luna shows at the Knitting Factory (what luck!). An attempt to get a signed copy of the vinyl Luna Live album, turned into an invite to Dean’s home the next day. Hazel and I arrived wrapped up warm from the bitter weather and walked into the sweltering apartment. The room contained Dean, his (then) wife, his son, a large dog and a friend who had probably been asked over just in case the nutty Internet stalkers went homicidal. We sat on the vinyl sofa…and I started to sweat – a combination of the heat and the stress and the fact that I sweat at the drop of a hat turned me into a sodden mess. After a nice cup of tea and some awkward stilted conversation Hazel and I left – I didn’t dare turn round to see but I suspect the sweaty arse-print on the sofa was a sight to behold.
2. 28 seconds from Brussels
   In October 1997 after a show at the LA2 I finally got up the nerve to talk to Dean – he was really cool – signed the back of my ticket, was complimentary about my website and took my phone number so that he could let me know the other tour dates coming up. A week or so later I got home from work to find a message from Dean on the answerphone – he had phoned in from Brussels while I was out. Of course being out was so much better than being in. Being in would have been an uncomfortable series of umms and errrs that would be nothing but a fading memory in my head – instead I had (and still have!) a 28 second recording of Dean Wareham leaving me a message!
3. Chocolate and coke
   September 1999 was the first time I was on the guestlist for a Luna show – I went to the gig on my own (something I do too often) and I remember the guy on the door calling me "Billy no mates". I was surprised at the backstage pass that I was handed and therefore felt obliged to go backstage afterwards. Backstage at The Embassy Rooms was little more than a narrow corridor. Dean was chatty, handing out chocolate bars, that seemed to be an important part of the rider, and showing me a photo of his recently arrived son Jack. I got lost trying to find my way out and interrupted some smooth besuited individual setting himself up a line of coke.
4. Dear Paulina
   After the mailing list and web page had been kicking along for a couple of years I decided it’d be great to release a fan club single – my ideal was to have Dean/Luna on one side and Damon & Naomi on the other but a very sweet rejection letter from Naomi put paid to that. So the proposal turned into a Luna single – Dean was very good – he suggested that he might be able to send a demo but when the DAT arrived I was stunned and delighted to have the lovely (and unavailable anywhere else) track dear paulina to release (and a cool instrumental for the flip). I took the opportunity to put a picture of Hazel on the sleeve and mention Adam on the insert - how sweet!
5. Squash court
   Luna’s last show in London was at ULU and "backstage" at ULU is actually downstairs in a squash court. Matthew Buzzell was filming the excellent Tell Me Do You Miss Me on this tour and asked me to do an interview – which was an embarrassing babble that thankfully never made the final cut (sadly nothing from the London show made it into the film). Sonic Boom handed us a beer when we walked onto the court and I posed awkwardly for my only (so far) fan photo with Dean (and one with Britta).
6. Unofficial photographer
   After last months Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham show at the Metro Dean beckoned me into a quieter corner of the bar near the door for our now traditional awkward silences – being by the door meant being interrupted by folk wanting their picture taken with Dean and being the nobody standing next to Dean (and later next to Britta) made me the person they asked to take those photos. Most bizarre moment was someone asking Dean if he knew who Andy Aldridge was!

OK the last one’s a bit of a stretch but it seemed I only had five stories of any interest!

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You know I try to please ya

Posted on June 28th, 2007 by Andy

I love hearing (and seeing!) folk covering Luna or Galaxie 500 and while this might not be as weird as Tugboat on a steel drum it’s a very nice cover of Luna’s Anesthesia. The YouTube page has guitar tab and lyrics and mendi244 has done stacks of other cool covers for your enjoyment (although as yet no more Luna)…

I hated having to put “ya” in the title but “you” was wrong because no matter how hard I tried it just wouldn’t rhyme with anesthesia…

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Dean & Britta week - the end

Posted on June 22nd, 2007 by Andy

Twice during Tuesday night’s show at The Metro I started to video a Dean & Britta performance and twice I thought “bollocks” and put my camera away - it was too much of a treat to ruin my enjoyment by standing still and holding my camera as carefully as possible. So you never got videos of Bonnie & Clyde or Ceremony

Luckily YouTube comes up trumps, OK it’s not from London and it is of a song that they didn’t even manage to do in London! But here’s a great video of Dean & Britta doing Chinatown in Barcelona Madrid a couple of weeks back…

And that’s it for Dean & Britta week - normal levels of (in)activity will be resumed next week.

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All of a sudden - Dean & Britta play Luna

Posted on June 22nd, 2007 by Andy

Dean Wareham
(originally uploaded by grange85)

Dean & Britta week
Dean and Britta only played this one Luna song over the two London shows (although not counting Bonnie & Clyde and Indian Summer might be cheating a little). That’s not a complaint, I got two very good (if a little short) D&B shows which is more than most of Europe got this time around.

Bewitched is possibly one of Luna’s (bitter-)sweetest songs - and it pretty much has had me in a swoon live every time (and there’s been quite a few times over the years). Wednesday night’s version featured some guy I didn’t know on trumpet (Britta’s latest deanandbritta.com mailout revealed that Joe the sound man was the trumpeter) which just topped things off nicely (Luna missed having a trumpet on tour after Justin left).

I have recordings of both shows which I’ll share them on Dimeadozen when I’ve sorted them out but in the meantime here’s an mp3 of Dean & Britta doing bewitched at The Legion…

Dean & Britta - Bewitched (live at The Legion, London - 20th June 2007) - mp3 - 7.17MB

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You like the shoes I wear #13 - Britta Phillips (again)

Posted on June 22nd, 2007 by Andy

Britta’s knee highs
(originally uploaded by grange85)

Dean & Britta week

Having dissed Britta’s knee high boots earlier in the week they were on display at Tuesday’s show so Britta’s footwear makes a second appearance…

#13 Britta Phillips and her black knee-high boots

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You like the shoes I wear #12 - Dean Wareham

Posted on June 22nd, 2007 by Andy

Dean’s shoes
(originally uploaded by grange85)

Dean & Britta week

I like these shoes - like the photo they were black and white and I fancied hunting a pair down for myself - but maybe getting shoes like Dean Wareham might be taking the fan thing just a little bit far…

#12 Dean Wareham and his black and white sneakers

I went and checked on the Puma website and they were made of leather so I had to buy some different casual Puma shoes to express my obsessive-(borderline-stalker-)ness

Posted in Music, a head full of wishes, you like the shoes I wear | 1 Comment »