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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Corporate rock sucks #13: Last.fm and Sony

Posted on July 12th, 2007 by Andy

So last.fm have struck a deal with ugly major Sony (you know the same Sony who care so little for their customers that surreptitiously install damaging software onto their computers) - now I understand that last.fm is part of a major corporate media group and that jumping into bed with major labels was the inevitable next step but this quote from Thomas Hesse of Sony BMG was worrying…

The Last.fm streaming service will give our established artists a platform through which they can reach new audiences, and its unique recommendation system will provide our emerging artists with an important opportunity to build their fan base

So they plan to use last.fm’s recommendation system to promote their emerging acts…so the recommendation system isn’t (or won’t be) a genuine one but more a promotional/advertising platform for Sony? And at what cost? Independent labels? Artists not aligned with a record company? The customers who can no longer trust that the recommendations were made for valid reasons?

To be honest the CBS thing, and then the non-silence on the Day of Silence (although I’ll admit that this wasn’t quite a black and white issue), and now this have really saddened me. I like to think a community based site would care for its community - I’m finding it more and more difficult to believe that last.fm do.

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Just dug this one out #7 - The Men They Couldn’t Hang

Posted on July 2nd, 2007 by Andy

There was a period from about 1984, after I had drifted away from Heavy Metal, when the music I listened to was driven by three important factors…

1. It was an exhillarating and energetic live experience.
2. It was lyrically a little more challenging than most of the music I’d listened to before.
3. The more beer that had been consumed the better it sounded.

There were two bands that pretty much filled those criteria perfectly and for a couple of years were the bands I listened to and saw above any others. While I can still occasionally dig out and enjoy the first three The Pogues albums, I have found listening to The Men They Couldn’t Hang to be a more problematic thing.

For a couple of years we were seeing TMTCH regularly, possibly 20 or 30 times (maybe more) between 85 and 88 and most stick in my head as memorable and exciting experiences - although they had a following of a few unpleasant and aggressive fans who seemed to want to rule the moshpit and build tiresome human pyramids at every show.

They had some great songs but outside of the sweaty, agressive live shows the albums now sound weak, occasionally formulaic and often politically naive or unsubtle (that’s not to say the politics was wrong just that it was often not fully developed). Listening now it is still difficult to separate some of the songs from one live show or another. I suspect that my enjoyment of them at the time was driven by the fact that I wasn’t really listening to an album but re-living the excitement of those live shows.

How Green Is The Valley is probably as near to a perfectly balanced album as they managed to produce. The songs are mostly good, the production is clear, the sound occasionally drifts too close to The Pogues (I suspect they suffered comparisons) and it has their two real political gems in The Ghosts Of Cable Street and Shirt Of Blue.

The Men They Couldn’t Hang split up - they really did, I distinctly remember it happening - it was after I’d stopped following them - probably after the poor Silvertown album. I’m not sure when they reformed but it seems likely it was shortly after that split but by then they were completely off my radar. They still seem to be doing the rounds although I have no desire to re-acquaint myself with them live because that’s something that’s so special I wouldn’t want to risk ruining those memories (the same would apply to The Pogues).

Sadly YouTube has very little to offer from that classic period short of this clip of them on The Old Grey Whistle Test.

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Thunderclap Newman and Andy ‘Thunderclap’ Newman

Posted on July 2nd, 2007 by Andy

Andy ‘Thunderclap’ Newman, despite providing the band with its name, was only a part of Thunderclap Newman. Speedy Keen and Jimmy McCulloch were the other two key members and sadly neither of them are still with us, so a Thunderclap Newman reunion won’t happen - but that didn’t stop a Thunderclap Newman from playing their first ever gig in a West London bar last night.

Andy Newman was in the band so it would take a very mean-spirited person to suggest that it wasn’t really Thunderclap Newman and a small and old and enthusiastic crowd seemed happy to accept that what they were seeing was out of the ordinary. The 2007 version of Thunderclap Newman is a six piece which includes a close friend of mine, Steve, on guitar. If it wasn’t for him I’m pretty certain that the gig would have passed me by.

The band played two sets with selections from the only real Thunderclap Newman album, Hollywood Dream. Andy chipped in with funny little insights between songs and the rest of the band chunked through the performance, in my opinion with a little too much "rock" and not enough care or subtlety. The guitar solo in (almost) every song was a bit tiresome and the drums seemed a little overwhelming for a what was such a small venue. But when things worked it was fun and interesting - and things mostly worked when Andy Newman’s contribution was more prominent, whether it was his bar-room piano playing or the variety of wind instruments that he pulled out to add a little more depth to the proceedings.

Of course they finished with Something in the Air - they couldn’t really have finished with anything else…and then they did part of it again as an almost encore…and then it was over. I’m glad I took the time to go - it was nice seeing Steve again and Andy Newman is an engaging and likeable front man and things may work better if he was a bit more prominent…but I get the feeling that a front man is not what he wants to be so maybe it was good enough just to see him on a stage.

But for all that, for the occasional smile it solicited and for an audience brimming with character and charm it felt little more than a pub rock performance by an old and not quite ready pub rock band…

What Thunderclap Newman means to me…
Of course everyone knows Something in the Air - but being a one-hit-wonder generally means that the only real connection you have with the band is via that one hit. For me, however, there were a couple of other things that linked from my record collection (and my past) to Thunderclap Newman…

1. Speedy Keen was the producer of Motörhead’s first album Motörhead
2. Jimmy McCulloch was in the Venus and Mars era version of Wings

Sadly I never took my camera along so no pictures or video clips from me (although there were plenty of cameras in attendance) so instead this’ll have to do and you’ll have to imagine Andy is 38 years older…

Sun 1 Jul – Thunderclap Newman

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A wasted weekend in front of the TV

Posted on June 25th, 2007 by Andy

We watched a depressing amount of the Glastonbury broadcasts that were carelessly sprayed over the BBC channels at the weekend, and what became clear as we watched more and more was just how dire modern "alternative" music has become. Actually the mainstream edge of alternative music has probably always been a bit depressing but I can’t believe it has ever been as woeful as the dire ordinary rawk music that was churned out by the likes of The Killers or Maxïmo Park or The Kooks or The Fratellis (or most everything else)- a duller bunch of ordinary rock music you’d be very hard pushed to find.

It made me sad but we kept watching - like the ghouls slowing down to stare at the Motorway accident on the other carriageway - we just wanted to see how badly damaged things were…and things were in a pretty sorry state.

The thing that always bothered me about festivals is just how it clearly isn’t really about the music - if it was, you’d certainly choose somewhere that suited - and a muddy field wouldn’t be anywhere near the top of my list. So it must be about something else, something that I don’t get. For so many people to bond over dull rock music and comedy acts like Iggy Pop/The Stooges or Shirley Bassey there has to be something that makes it work but it’s beyond me.

Maybe this side of music - the bonding, the mass hysteria, the tiresome chunky blah - is built for different people…

Highs (and mediums): Björk, Bat for Lashes, The Arcade Fire.
Lows: Pretty much everything else.

That’s a pretty poor return for a weekends TV viewing.

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Dean & Britta @ The Legion

Posted on June 21st, 2007 by Andy

Dean & Britta week

Wed 20 Jun – Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham, The Clientele, Flowers Of Hell

Lots more dark pictures on Flickr

I sort of wish that nights like this weren’t so cluttered - maybe it’s a treat for some to see four bands in a night but when you have to fit those four bands into three and a bit hours it becomes a bit frustrating. Flowers Of Hell were first up and made a very lovely noise, eight people, lots and lots of instruments - the album is well worth picking up and I’d certainly see them again.

I’m not sure who the next band was becuase the singer didn’t say it loud enough - they did have The Clientele’s Mel Draisey helping them out on bits of percussion and a bit of violin - I think. Sweet pop music although the cover of Freight Train with the banjo was a bit clunky and pedestrian.

Next up The Clientele - who played a very short but good set with Alasdair’s miserable banter - I think he may be taking "curmudgeon" and "sarcastic" evening classes because he’s getting very good at it. It was good set all the same and the crowd wanted more, not me because by now I was trying to work out when the last train was and just how much Dean & Britta I could see before I’d have to leave.

1. Last westbound Central Line from Liverpool St = 00:22
2. Brisk walk from the Legion to Liverpool St = 20 minutes
3. Dean & Britta onstage = 23:00

An hour was the most Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham I was going to get…

They opened with Singer Sing (as seems the norm) and then gently eased it into Indian Summer (The Beat Happening one, not the Doors one) which was a treat. The set was not hugely different from the previous night although it was lovely to hear Bewitched - complete with trumpet (not sure who the trumpeter was but it was nice to hear). Sonic Boom guested on a couple of tracks.

They encored with Bonnie & Clyde and the lights came up at 00:02 - we were cutting it fine.

We made it onto the westbound platform of Liverpool St with a minute to spare - although, of course, the train managed to be a couple of minutes late. I’m too old for belting for the last train and getting home at 1:30.

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Dean & Britta @ The Metro

Posted on June 20th, 2007 by Andy

Dean & Britta week

I have to admit that I have always found it very difficult to be critical about anything that Dean Wareham has done…I might, for example, comment on how The Days of Our Nights was Luna’s worst album but in reality I listen to "Days…" pretty regularly and like it a lot. However I’m pretty certain that my inability to criticise is pretty much founded on the fact that there is very little that he has touched that is open to criticism. I thought it best to put this disclaimer front and centre as a warning that most of what follows is gushing sugary fan-boy praise and may be slightly lacking in any objectivity.

We arrived at the dingy and overly hot Metro while third on the bill act, who I guess were Exit calm, were finishing of a set of lively, shoegazery noise that seemed good enough to make me think I should have got there 20 minutes earlier. Asobi Seksu were next on the bill playing their first ever London show, and, it seems were responsible for the attendance of a large section of the audience. They played a too short but scintillating set of…well…lively, shoegazery noise. I picked up their two albums last year and Citrus was one of my [url= http://blog.fullofwishes.co.uk/swirling/2007/01/02/lists-of-2006/]favourite albums of 2006 so I’m glad not to have been disappointed…

We managed to get a prime position for Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham as the crowd noticeably thinned after Asobi Seksu’s set. The first half of the short show was pulled from Back Numbers and L’Avventura, You Turn My Head Around can’t help but be a live gem (even if I have concerns about the studio version), White Horses was beautiful (I’ve always been fond of it) and Night Nurse…and Ginger Snaps…and well everything else…were great.

The last four numbers however were just like being in a dream. Tugboat followed by an awesome Strange, then Bonnie and Clyde and Ceremony as the finale (it would have been the encore if the curfew wasn’t so strict). The first time I saw Galaxie 500 play Ceremony at the Subterrania many moons ago, still pretty much lives in my head as the single most awesome music-related moment of my life and while Dean & Britta’s version last night couldn’t quite match that it was still an absolute joy to hear.

I briefly chatted with Dean afterwards, but the chat was mostly awkward silences and watching other people being better at it than me. Funniest moment was Galaxie 500 lister Richard asking Dean if he knew who Andy Aldridge was…that made me smile (and it’s always nice to meet, however briefly, Galaxie 500 list members). I said a brief "Hi" to Britta and then we headed home.

I’m looking forward to seeing them again tonight…

Tue 19 Jun – Dean & Britta, Asobi Seksu, Exit Calm

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A nostalgia trip #3 - memories > reality

Posted on June 17th, 2007 by Andy

Maybe nostalgia is better left in the head. Adam and I stood through an hour of Motorhead at the Royal Festival Hall - it started OK - they threw in a few oldies just to keep me interested Metropolis almost got me thinking that it was going to get good. But the rest of the oldies sounded tired. The lack of dynamic range and the murky buried vocals just meant that, despite some effort early on, it just wasn’t working for me. The whole "lets see how loud you can shout" and "is it loud enough" banter may have appealed to me 25 years ago but it seemed tired and childish.

lemmy is still a phenomenal front man but sadly Motörhead in 2007 aren’t the band I loved in 1979. I’m well aware that this is mostly to do with me but I had enjoyed the week long build up…digging out the albums and watching clips on YouTube. I started to really think that it could be a good evening.

An hour or so in and we had a drum solo - I’m pretty damn certain that I have never seen a Motorhead drum solo - Motorhead didn’t go in for that pointless crap, they were different. They were about Rock and Roll not showing off…but there it was, a full on tedius yawn of a drum solo. Adam and I left.

We stood on the Royal Festival Hall balcony for a while pondering whether or not to go back in but we both decided that we’d had enough. We went down and messed around in the fountains, got wet and came home…Motorhead may well have still been on stage when we got home but I don’t think I missed anything.

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A nostalgia trip #1 - Motorhead

Posted on June 13th, 2007 by Andy

The last time I saw Motörhead was probably back in 1983 when Brian Robertson was playing guitar for them. It might have been at the Marquee and may have been the very gig at which I caught Lemmy’s pick when he chucked it into the crowd. Robertson left, the new tracks stuck on the No Remorse compilation were, without exception, grim listening and that was it for me and the band I had lived and breathed (and seen so many times) since 1979. I never stopped listening to them, they’re pretty much the only band from my HM period that I do still dip into (OK and AC/DC and Black Sabbath)…Overkill and Ace of Spades get a regular airing…

Over the last few years whenever I notice that they’re touring I get these bizarre little pangs of nostalgia that make me want to go see them but then I think that maybe I should just leave them in my past. There are some memories of seeing the band that I probably wouldn’t want to get watered down by seeing the current incarnation (which as far as I can tell bears little resemblance to the band I loved).

We were watching the Culture Show last weekend and an item on Jarvis Cocker’s Meltdown festival mentioned that Motorhead would be playing at the (newly revamped) Royal Festival Hall…well that’s just not something I’d be able to miss - Motorhead…at the Royal Festival Hall! I was surprised that tickets were still available and despite the price (30 quid a hit!!) I bought one for me and one for Adam.

I’m kind of ready for a disappointment - I know they’re not the band I grew up with, I haven’t listened to any Motorhead release since Orgasmatron (and I only listened to that once!) and they’ve released a stack of albums since then, and I’m different…24 years worth of different…but maybe I’ll lower my expectations and try and paint a nice nostalgic wash over the top of it…

A Flickr search for ‘Lemmy’ returns…

1/3 = photos of Lemmy
1/3 = photos of people dressed as Lemmy
1/3 = photos of cats called Lemmy

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Just dug this one out #6 - McCarthy

Posted on June 5th, 2007 by Andy

Banking, Violence and the Inner Life Today - McCarthy

My fondness for McCarthy was partly founded in their politics - at a time when Thatcher and her Tory party seemed hell bent on destroying all that I believed in, I was excited to find anyone who railed against them - and McCarthy railed…I vaguely remember them dissing Billy Bragg in an interview for being too right wing.

But beyond their politics they made just the sort of guitar pop that I loved then (and still pretty much love now). Their last album really does seem to be the end of the road though - not because it’s bad (it’s very good). But more because it seemed that McCarthy (like Thatcher) was a thing of the 80s (Thathcer was ousted within six months of the release of this album).

Let’s look at the evidence…

• It included a prominent role for Laetitia Sadier whose credits up until this point where for translating McCarthy lyrics into French. Laetitia and Tim Gane of course went on to form Stereolab.
• It included a shameless (and utterly brilliant) attempt to jump on the baggy bandwagon (Get a Knife Between Your Teeth).
• It was shinier, more produced than their previous efforts.

I saw what was (possibly) their penultimate performance at ULU supporting The Chills, they were plagued by poor sound but I still remember it fondly. I love Stereolab and for a while it seemed that Malcolm Eden’s Herzfeld would also help fill the hole that McCarthy left.

If pushed I’d probably say I prefer I Am a Wallet - but I definitely listen to this one more.

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