Two of my favourite albums from the 90s are 'Ophelia' by Natalie Merchant, and 'Jet' by Katell Keineg. Natalie is the former lead singer of 10,000 Maniacs. Katell was raised in Cardiff but has lived in Dublin since 1990.
Listening to 'Ophelia' again today, it just dawned on me that it's been ten years since I first heard it. I started to think back to 1998. I visited Galway quite a bit that year and that album, along with 'Jet' by Katell, coloured so much about my moods, likes and loves at the time. It's always nice to listen to something that can still take you back to where and how you were when you first heard it - right now in my head I'm kicking a ball with a bunch of French people and street drinkers in the middle of Eyre Square, Galway, after France just defeated Brazil in the World Cup Final, and 'Veni Vidi Vici' is ringing in my ears, as is 'Kind and Generous', 'King of May' and 'When They Ring The Golden Bells'. Music's a powerful medicine, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Natalie and Katell worked together earlier in 1995 on Natalie's debut solo album, 'Tiger Lily'. They toured together as part of the Lilith Fair shows. Natalie also covered the Katell penned 'Gulf of Araby' live, a version of which appears on her 1999 album 'Live in Concert' and for many would be the centerpiece of the album.
Two different vocal styles but both with their own personal stamp on their deliveries, their catalogues are worth delving into if you haven't sniffed already. Here's both ladies with a live rendition of 'Carnival', which featured on Natalie's 'Tiger Lily' record.
Katell Keineg performing 'The Gulf of Araby'. Introduced by Glen Hansard.
Hailing from Armonk, New York, Preston Reed has for over twenty years been showcasing his “self-invented” guitar technique around the world. Since his debut album released in 1979, aptly titled ‘Acoustic Guitar’, Preston has released 15 albums, most of which have been instrumental guitar albums. His solo live performances have become the stuff of legend, so much so that one Irish Independent journalist declared Preston “the best one-man show since Bruce Springsteen”. Speaking to the Strabane Chronicle ahead of his show in the Alley next week, Preston was very welcoming of such high praise.
“I think that reviewer saw me play at the Crawdaddy in Dublin. It’s quite a compliment and publicity that I didn’t even have to pay for, which was nice,” he joked. “The technique I use when playing the guitar tends to draw people in and they get puzzled as to how so many sounds can be coming out of one instrument. It’s something people like that journalist tend to remember.”
Indeed, Preston is like a one-man orchestra, combining percussion, rhythm and melody lines all on one guitar. It’s an ambitious technique that Preston developed in the mid-eighties.
“I wanted to figure out how to play guitar and drums at the same time. Conventional guitar playing would never allow for such an idea, so I began by going at the guitar fret board with both hands instead of one. I wanted to get away for the finger picking techniques and basically leave behind all that I had learned previously and try to come up with something new. I developed an almost ambidextrous way of playing the guitar. Sometimes I’d have both hands on the fret board, sometimes just my right-hand, sometimes just my left-hand, with the other hand finger picking at the same time,” he explained.
While it all sounds very original and inventive, Preston is consciously aware that it serves little purpose if the music does not have a substance of its own. “It’s may be a style I invented, but it’s not a gimmick. It’s completely music driven, and has many facets and colours to it with so much going on at one time,” he stressed.
Preston’s beginnings on the guitar stemmed from a few chords learned from his guitar-playing father. While secretly practicing some of his favourite Beatles and Stones songs on his father’s guitar, he studied classical guitar for a while only to quit due to an overly strict classical guitar teacher and a teenage rebellious streak.
“I was a bit of a rebel back then and in many ways I still am, if I’m honest. If someone tells me how to do something, I’ll do it another way. When I play guitar I need to be in control. Unfortunately for me, learning classical guitar is steeped in rigour and tradition, so we were destined to be on a collision course from the start,” he laughed.
It was this determination to do things his own way that would eventually see Preston re-write the guitar rulebook and become the innovative figurehead he is today. After being disillusioned following his classical guitar encounter, his interest in the guitar was rekindled in a big way after hearing Jefferson Airplane's rootsy blues offshoot, Hot Tuna. After studying acoustic guitar heroes John Fahey and Leo Kottke, Preston played his first live gig, supporting beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Ginsberg had long been associated with musical figures like Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney and Preston found such unconventional collaborations to be beneficial not just to his rebellious nature but to his playing technique.
“I was 17 and playing tunes at a party for my sister. A friend of hers, who was at the party, rang me a few weeks later telling me that Allen Ginsberg was looking for a guitarist to accompany him for some of his readings. I was quite literary and read a lot of beat literature by the likes of Ginsberg, Burroughs and Kerouac, so I knew what he’s be looking for musically. He was big into improvising and would read his poetry while playing a squeezebox, stopping randomly to allow for me to play a guitar solo. It was all very interactive and a great thing to be around. “By the time I recorded my first record in 1979 I had pretty much perfected finger picking guitar techniques. By 1987 I was feeling held back by the guitar, so that’s when I started to develop the kind of guitar playing I’m known for now. It’s always been about creating new music for me and searching for fresh new sounds,” explained Preston.
Preston’s guitar style has influenced many, most notably American freestyle guitarist, Andy McKee, who, after seeing Preston perform in 1995, set about developing his own guitar technique from an instructional videotape made by Preston.
“Andy McKee was indeed influence by what I do. He has always been respectful of that fact and has actually helped build my audience. He sends a lot of people who go to his shows my way, which is fantastic,” Preston enthused.
Next Thursday will be Preston’s first visit to Strabane, but not his first visit to Ireland. He has been a regular performer in Dublin, Cork and recently performed in Derry’s Playhouse also. “Ireland has always been a great place for me to perform. The audiences really appreciate what I do. I’m looking forward to the intimate set-up at the Alley in Strabane. What I do can work in every environment. I’ve played rooms with only a handful of people present and I’ve played festivals in front of thousands. You get away with less at the more intimate gigs though, being more exposed to the audience, but that’s also exciting. I’ll have five guitars with me, including a solid body baritone guitar, steel guitar and an acoustic 12-string.
“The shows seem to appeal to all ages. It’s pretty much across the board – young kids, families to old ladies. They are always very complimentary to me after the show, which makes it all worthwhile. I want share the experience with people and hopefully they will have a great evening of instrumental guitar music. There’s a lot going on when I play and I’d like to hope everybody will find something in there for themselves,” stated Preston. His music can be heard on his myspace page (www.myspace.com/prestonreed).
Chris Helme was lead singer of The Seahorses, the band formed by guitar great John Squire following his acrimonious departure from The Stone Roses in 1996.
While Squire could've had his pick of lead singers when forming The Seahorses, such was his musical clout in the mid-nineties, he still opted for the unknown Chris. Legend has it that Chris was discovered by Squire while busking outside a Woolworths store. Speaking to Chris last week, the Chronicle had to find out if this was true, or yet another myth not uncommon with John Squire throughout his music career.
"It's true and then it isn't," Chris laughs. "John didn't actually see me busk. It was more a case of a friend of a friend of his called Denis who saw me. He asked if I could give him some recordings if I had any. It built from that. I was doing steady gigs at that time too and John, after hearing my tapes, came along and watched me a few times. After a couple of gigs he came up and asked if I wanted to sing in his new band. I gladly accepted of course."
Squire's psychedelic flavoured guitar innovations assisted in making The Stone Roses one of the most important bands of their generation. His departure from the band was mourned by a devotional tribe of fans. An outpouring of shock ensued among the 'baggy' generation. With his iconic status, whatever Squire planned to do next was certain to be watched with eager eyes. Was Chris ready to go under the unavoidable microscopic lense?
"It was a bit scary. I never even had a record contact before, never mind being in a band with John Squire. It was all quite bizarre to be suddenly on stage with the guy who opted to leave The Stone Roses but there was no point feeling nervous about it. No matter what we did we were never going to please that faction who never got over John leaving The Stone Roses. To be honest, they were only a minority. They used to come to the early Seahorses gigs and just shout for Stone Roses tracks. We called them 'Liam Browns' on account of them all looking like a cross between Liam Gallagher and Ian Brown. All we could do was ignore them, they eventually went away and what was left was the people who wanted to hear what we had to offer right there and then," he says.
In April 1997, The Seahorses released their debut single, the anthemic 'Love Is The Law'. With a big chorus and more traditional guitar approach by Squire, it became clear that The Seahorses would not be dabbling in the dance and rock fusions of Squire's former band. Two months later, the band's one and only album, 'Do It Yourself', was released and it featured hit singles 'Blinded By The Sun' and 'Love Me and Leave Me', which was co-written by Liam Gallagher. The album was produced by Tony Visconti, who worked on classic albums by David Bowie, T-Rex and Thin Lizzy. What was it like to be working with the guy who produced classic albums like Bowie's 'Heroes', T-Rex's 'Electric Warrior' and Lizzy's 'Bad Reputation'?
"It was great to work with someone like Tony Visconti," recalls Chris. "I'm a huge fan of the records he worked on with Bowie. He's an amazing string arranger and really knows what he's doing in the studio. He's got an advantage over most younger producers because they've learned their craft with modern digital techniques whereas Tony comes from the old-school recording process but is also well versed in the modern ways. He has an amazing musical knowledge."
To promote the album, The Seahorses toured extensively for three years, playing alongside The Verve at Slane Castle in 1998 and also supporting acts such as The Rolling Stones, U2 and Oasis. How did Chris feel mixing rock's aristocracy?
"It all got a bit mental. I was in the kitchen having a cup of tea one day and I got a phone call asking if I fancied playing with The Rolling Stones. Well I've never really wanted fame, I don't think 'celebrity' is a particularly healthy thing but when The Rolling Stones come knocking you can't say no - it's a one in a million chance," he stresses.
In 1999, John Squire pulled the plug on The Seahorses in the middle of the recording sessions for their second album. The results of those sessions are widely available on a bootleg album called '2nd Album Recordings', alternatively titled 'Minus Blue'. Squire would eventually retire from the music business completely and return to his first love of painting. Chris went on to form a band called The Yards.
"For a while I didn't know what to do," he recalls. "I just bought a house. I was about to become a dad. I started to do a few gigs - nothing big. It was all really chilled out and I started to be joined on stage by people I knew. What was first a series of solo gigs developed into full band gigs. Eventually we all decided to become a band. We called ourselves The Yards and split things five ways."
The Yards' self-titled debut album was released in 2005 and they're currently busy at work mixing their follow-up. Alongside his work with The Yards, Chris keeps busy as a solo performer. He released a solo album called 'Ashes' in May. He also helps run an acoustic night in York called The Little Numb Numb Club and believes that his home city is currently becoming quite the musical hub.
"There's a great scene in York at the moment and people are really starting to take notice. People like Mark Wynn, The Runaway Sons and The Sorry Kisses are all worth looking out for. There's a lot going on and I'm just glad to be in the middle of it, keeping busy and doing things the way I like to do them," he says.
The Seahorses, with the Chris Helme penned 'You Can Talk To Me'
Formed in London in 1994, The Bluetones had huge success in the nineties, achieving thirteen Top Forty singles and three Top Ten albums in the UK chart. Their debut album, 'Expecting To Fly', topped the UK charts in 1996. With classic tracks like 'Slight Return', 'Marblehead Johnson' and 'Bluetonic', the band, fronted by Mark Morriss, were at the forefront of what journalists deemed, the 'Britpop' scene; a period in the nineties when all things english were celebrated in the music of bands like Pulp, Suede, Blur and, of course, Oasis.
While much of the scene had an unendearing Norman Wisdom quality to it that quickly ran out of steam, The Bluetones were one of the few acts that remained loyal to their own artistic instincts rather than succumbing to the 'cheeky chappy' flag waving that dominated. They crafted guitar driven songs that reawakened a notion of 'indie' music that preceded them. Rich in melody, their songs floated above the hype and possessed a quality that makes them as fresh sounding today as they did in the nineties.
"Well 'Britpop' didn't really exist," explains Mark, speaking to the Chronicle last Friday. "It was invented by a few people to help sell magazines. But we were never part of any group or scene. Britain has had a long history of great guitar bands, from The Beatles to The Who to The Sex Pistols to The Smiths. These bands were never part of a movement, they just did what they wanted to do regardless, and that's what made them special. So for us, it wasn't about flag waving or being part of a scene. It was about writing great guitar tunes that we liked. It wasn't anything new, because guitar music had never really gone away."
As confident a band as The Bluetones were at that point, Mark admits that getting to number one in the UK charts with their debut album was a big surprise.
"We did hit a good wave at that point, but we never really expected that kind of success. But we were well prepared to take it on board. There is nothing else for it but to go with the flow," explains Mark.
Go with the flow is exactly what The Bluetones did. Following chart success with their debut album and with the single 'Slight Return', which was kept off the number one spot by the intensely irritating 'Spaceman' by one-hit wonder Bowie copyist Babylon Zoo, The Bluetones took to the road and toured the world extensively. The tour on the back of their debut album included a very memorable show with Radiohead at the Castlegar Showgrounds in Galway in the summer of 1996.
"That was a great weekend in Galway,” recalls Mark. “It was an amazing concert, although the weather was absolutely disgusting. Some quality acts played on that day and Radiohead were just unbelievable. There was such a great buzz about the place because not only was the gig on but the Galway Races were on too, so the place was really busy.”
Following on from their debut album and the extensive touring, The Bluetones then released their second album 'Return to the Last Chance Saloon' in 1998. Although it failed to repeat the number one status of its predecessor, the album still reached the Top Ten. It was also a much louder record than 'Expecting to Fly'.
"The second album was a development from the first one alright. It's definitely heavier, that's for sure. We've always tried to stretch ourselves as musicians and build on what we've done before. With my voice the music will always have The Bluetones stamp on it, but we always have fun with our sound," says Mark.
By the time the band released their third album 'Science and Nature' in 2000 the musical landscape had changed in England and many of the bands who stood under the 'Britpop' banner had fallen by the wayside. Despite this, and despite little or no support from the increasingly fickle NME, ‘Science and Nature’ went on to become The Bluetones’ third Top Ten album. While similar commercial success may have alluded The Bluetones since then, their fanbase has remained loyal, and the band still record and tour successfully today.
"We're very lucky in that people have stuck with us," says Mark. "It has always been about the journey and not the destination and I've been fortunate to be able to still do this with the guys in the band. The four of us are best pals."
While he remains busy touring with The Bluetones, most recently in May and again this coming December, Mark still found time in between to write and record a solo album called 'Memory Muscle', which was released in May this year.
"I got to a point where I was curious to see if I could make a record on my own. The rest of the guys in The Bluetones were very supportive. It was fun to make have final decision on everything for a change, but still nothing beats that chemistry you get with a band," urges Mark.
He is now looking forward to his first visit to Strabane and can promise a set mixed with Bluetones classics and new material and even one or two covers.
"I always get requests for Bluetones tunes and I'm more than happy to accommodate. Those songs are the reason I’m there in the first place, getting that chance to do what I do, so I'm happy to embrace all those songs and I look forward to playing them in Diceys in Strabane." says Mark.
Mike Joyce drummed with The Smiths from their formation in 1982 until their split in the autumn of 1987. Within that five year period the band, fronted by enigmatic lyricist Morrissey on vocals and Johnny Marr on guitar, stood out like a celebratory beacon of hope for the outsider left cold by the impending big-haired bland pop of the time and the uncompromisingly fatal ripples of Thatcherism. With a catalogue of songs laced with venom, wit, melancholy and tenderness and soundscapes that owed as much to Bob and Marcia, The Shangri-Las and T-Rex as they did to Punk and New Wave, The Smiths were arguably the most important British band since The Sex Pistols. Their music had a personality, a stomp and a bite.
The dichotomy between Morrissey and Marr, one being an idealistic guitar hustler, the other being a reclusive introverted Oscar Wilde reading New York Dolls fanatic with a his own special Northern-English croon, saw to it that The Smiths sounded and looked like nothing that preceded them or that has come in their wake. With four studio albums and a collection of exclusive non-album singles with B-sides that put their contemporaries' A-sides to shame, The Smiths packed a lifetime into five short years.
As lauded and as important as Morrissey and Johnny Marr were as a songwriting team, one of the key factors of The Smiths was the rhythm section. The band boasted one of the tightest live units around thanks to Mike on drums and Andy Rourke on bass. Did Mike feel at the time that he was part of something special?
"Well when you're young and starting a band, you like to think that you're going to be the best band in the world," he says. "Those early days in the rehearsal with Johnny and Morrissey were interesting, but it wasn't until we recorded our first single, 'Hand In Glove', when I stood back and realised, Christ, this is amazing. This sounds like a band I want to be a fan of. It just built from there. We knew we were a great band and were never afraid to say it. Every time we recorded something it just got better and better. We raised the crossbar each time we did a song and that went right up to our last album 'Strangeways Here We Come'. The fact that people still talk about what we did together twenty years after we split shows that it was something special. Those records still stand up today. The appeal of The Smiths endures and I'm privileged to have been a part of it."
Despite the attention of major labels, and the Manchester label Factory, The Smiths opted to sign for London-based Independent label Rough Trade. A dogged reliance to do things their own way saw to it that The Smiths had the freedom to present themselves in a way that many major labels prohibited their acts from doing.
"Rough Trade gave us the freedom to put out whatever single we wanted and tour in any manner that we wanted," reflects Mike. "Obviously releasing albums called 'Meat Is Murder' and 'The Queen Is Dead' would cause concerns to certain labels, but Rough Trade went with the flow. Morrissey took care of all the sleeves for the singles and the albums as well"
This approach saw the band break from the conventional touring path, taking themselves to venues many popular bands tended to ignore. This was perhaps realised best in the relentless touring The Smiths did of Ireland.
"It was Morrissey's idea to travel to parts of Ireland that other bands would ignore. Most bands still to do this day will play Dublin and Belfast and that's it. We would do Belfast and Dublin, but also places like Dundalk, Coleraine and Letterkenny. We also played the Leisure Centre in Galway, which was great for me because Galway is where my family is from. We had a big Joyce gathering that night, I remember," recalls Mike.
"We wanted to break away from that big arena set-up," he stresses. "The gigs were like celebrations between the crowd and the band - we were both the same. We never wanted it to be a case of, well you're way up on the stage and we're down here. It was a case of all of us together."
The band toured relentlessly throughout their existence and for Mike, it gave him an opportunity to approach the songs differently at times from their recorded incarnations. As a fan of the John Peel Session recordings of their early material as opposed to the studio versions that made up the band's debut album, I put it to Mike if he felt the same.
"John Porter produced that first album and he was keen on having a consistent beat running throughout songs like 'What Difference Does It Make?' remembers Mike. "When we played the song live it was broken up a bit more. I did prefer it that way and Morrissey did too. John convinced us into doing it his way in the studio, even though we continued to do it the way we liked live. Still, we had a hit with 'What Difference Does It Make?' and did it on Top of The Pops, so John knew what he was doing. I like both versions. I recently heard the studio version at a fairground and it sounded amazing. It was the perfect setting!"
For many, The Smiths' opus was their 1986 album 'The Queen Is Dead'. Undoubtedly one of the finest intros to an album ever, Mike's tribal drum roll led into Johnny Marr's furious and chaotic guitar swagger and Morrissey's wry and blackly comic tale of envious royal siblings, nine-year-old drug peddlers and tone-deaf piano players breaking into Buckingham Palace. Does Mike share my enthusiasm for that intro?
"Well I never get sick of hearing people tell me that," he laughs. "It was an unusual recording process for me when we did that track. There were drum loops and samples running through the song. But they were recorded live in the room. I wanted to do the whole thing live. Stephen Street, the producer, said I could do it when we played it live but the studio should be a different dynamic because of what's available. We all agreed for that to be the case throughout the band's history. That's why Johnny had so much scope in the studio for 'How Soon Is Now?' There must be about thirteen guitars layered on that track. Concerts were always a different dynamic and I always loved it when we played 'The Queen Is Dead' live - it was a killer!"
Despite all that has been written about 'The Queen Is Dead', Mike's favourite Smiths album is their final album together, 'Strangeways, Here We Come'.
"There is this idea that it was all falling apart when we recorded 'Strangeways', but nothing could be further from the truth," he stresses. "Everyone was getting on so well and we really were on fire as musicians. There was obvious pressure on Morrissey and Johnny to deliver, but once the songs were written we were so confident in them. It all came together so easily after that, and we felt like we had nothing to prove. For five years we were getting bigger and better. The momentum just kept growing by the day."
Yet despite the unified front during the recording of 'Strangeways, Here We Come', disagreements and tensions between Morrissey and Marr saw the band split just prior to the album's release. Since then, Mike has remained busy as a drummer.
"I toured with Sinead O'Connor after The Smiths. It was great to play with Sinead at that point. She had never really played with a band before and it was just before she had the worldwide success that she did. Those were precious times. I also got to go on tour and drum with The Buzzcocks, which was a great honour as they were always my favourite band and John Maher on drums was a major influence on me as a musician."
Mike also has his own band now in Manchester called Autokat, who have just recorded an EP, which will be available in October. He also fronts his own Radio Show called 'Alternative Therapy', where he plays rock and alternative classics from over the past forty years. He also tours as a DJ playing these classics.
Having one quarter of my favourite ever four-piece on the other side of the phone left me with no other choice but to ask Mike the, at last count, £40 million dollar question. "I think I know what's coming," laughs Mike. So, if Morrissey or Johnny Marr were to phone Mike up today and say lets reform, what would Mike say, in light, of course, of modern events such as a certain court case over an equal share of recording and performance royalties in 1996?
"It was all such a long long time ago," says Mike. "Morrissey is happy doing his solo thing. Johnny is busy touring with Modest Mouse. Andy has his own thing going on too. Ideally, I'd like to think that we did enough. Of course, if we were to get together for, say, a charity gig, and do maybe four songs, of course I'd do it. It would have to be all four of us. But it's all pretty hypothetical talk by now. The body of work has lasted and will always last - that's satisfying for me."
The Smiths in all their live glory in 1985 peforming 'Hand In Glove'
For many of my generation, 'Year Zero' was 1989. On the cusp of a new decade and having just reached our teens, we wanted to embrace something that was ours. Punk wasn't really ours. New Wave wasn't ours. The eighties, to be honest, were never really ours. Yet, an epiphany occurred in many bedrooms around Britain and Ireland in 1989. On dodgy cassettes we heard Stone Roses frontman, Ian Brown proclaim, "the past was yours but the future's mine, you're outta time!"
And so it came to pass that "on the sixth day, God created Manchester," which would soon be renamed 'Madchester', and with it, our sound and our time had arrived! Finally, music meant something again. We supported bands like people supported football teams, championing our boys and girls as they made a mockery of the, at that point, terminally ill Top of The Pops formula and social mediocrities we were forced to subscribe to. For the first time since the demise of The Smiths, we had 'indie bands' in the truest sense of the word, with no external influence over image, sound, tours or direction welcomed. Music was, once again, made by the people for the people. And It worked because the pre-internet youth of the time got up off their asses and demanded that it did.
Three bands led the charge with a magical mixed cauldron of psychedelia, guitars, dance-beats and baggy fashion: The Stone Roses; The Happy Mondays and The Inspiral Carpets. Strabane was awash with baggy jeans, hooded tops and t-shirts that donned either a John Squire collage or a cow proclaiming 'mooo!' or 'Cool as F**k'. These were halcyon days never to be forgotten, and to have one of the chief players of the scene, Tom Hingley, vocalist with The Inspiral Carpets, coming to Strabane's Dicey Riley's on August 10 has got many of us wondering if we can maybe slide a leg into those 28 waist flares again.
Over a period of five years The Inspiral Carpets enjoyed huge success in the UK and Irish charts, and on the road. Driven by the intense character in Tom Hingley's voice and the trademark Farfisa organ of Clint Boon, The Inspirals were a perfect representation of that glorious period.
"It was the biggest youth movement since Punk," Tom proudly announces, speaking to the Chronicle last week. "Between the guitar bands and dance scene, it all gelled together at that time. The ripples it started are still being felt now. It's not just confined to Manchester anymore, although I do like The Courteneers. But bands like The Arctic Monkeys from Sheffield, who are probably the biggest guitar band in Britain, owe a great deal to what happened in Manchester in the eighties and early nineties."
Tom was able to see the origins of the scene first hand in the eighties, working as a glass collector in the legendary Hacienda club in Manchester, which was owned by New Order and their record company, Factory Records.
"Tony (Wilson), Rob (Gretton) and the rest of the gang at Factory were really nice as people and Factory was a great label. But as business men they were terrible," laughs Tom.
Indeed, the business sense of a record label that lost five pence on every twelve inch vinyl issue of New Order's classic 'Blue Monday' track must surely be put into question, especially when the track became the biggest selling twelve inch of all time. Tom has yet another example of the comically bad business sense that engulfed the label.
"Mike Pickering, who went on to form M People, used to DJ at the Hacienda. At one point he had the only copy in Britain of this dance track called 'Ride On Time' by an act called Black Box. He tried to persuade Tony and Rob to release it through Factory. Tony said 'we don't do dance' and declined. That song went on to shift about ten million copies!"
Ironically, within time the Hacienda did do dance and it was soon to become the main counter-culture club in all of Britain, as the fusion of dance and rock took hold. As joyous and exciting as the scene in Manchester was becoming, Tom felt it was important for The Inspirals to stand on their own away from the pack.
"We tried as hard as possible to create a separate identity away from the hump of the movement," he stresses. "We went out of our way not to become the Happy Mondays' pet support band. In 1989 the Mondays booked the G-Mex in Manchester for this huge gig. Word spread that we were on the bill as support. The press contacted me and asked about the gig and I said we weren't doing it. When they asked why, I said because we'll be doing the G-Mex ourselves for our own headliner gig soon. No such gig had been planned but three months later we sold the place out!
"We always kept a careful distance from the Manchester pack for various reasons. When Morrissey publicly stated that he liked us, I slagged him off in an interview with The Face Magazine. It was nothing personal but historically any band Mozza champions tends to go by the wayside very quickly. We didn't want to become another Darling Buds, Bradford or Primatives, all of whom benefitted initially from his praise but all of them went quickly out of fashion."
The Inspirals were their "own light" throughout the early nineties. While the supposed leaders of the 'Madchester' movement imploded in a series of legal tussles with record companies and their own egos and addictions, The Inspirals looked after themselves well and maintained a discipline for five years. Classic albums such as 'Life', which reached number two in the UK album charts, and anthemic singles such as 'This Is How It Feels', 'She Comes In The Fall', 'Saturn 5' and 'Dragging Me Down' proved that The Inspiral Carpets had a consistency that was missing in The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays.
"They were great bands but there were so many bad decisions made within," reflects Tom. "Every decision of The Stone Roses' career was wrong: the legal wrangles that stopped them recording for five years, right up to the album that they finally returned with. It was 1995 and people were getting excited about the big comeback, but I'd say to them, it's too late, they've blown it because Oasis had capitalised in their absence!"
For the little that both The Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses did in a chart and album sense in comparison to the Inspirals, I've often believed that lazy rock journalism has elevated the two bands at the expense of The Carpets. Does Tom feel the same way?
"Well there does tend to be a lot of revisionism about the early nineties period now," he states. 'The NME did a 'Manchester Special' once and they had about ten pages on The Roses, ten on The Mondays, five for a few others and one page on us with a crap photo and a short article that slagged us off. I thought, well if you're just gonna give us one page don't bother putting us in at all. They looked on us like we were riding on the coat-tails of the other bands. They knew nothing about us or where we came from. They didn't even realise the Clint, our keyboard player, was mates with the guys in the Roses before any of them ever formed a band, and that he was eventually in a band with The Roses' bassist 'Mani' long before The Inspirals or the Roses ever happened. We were our own band and owe everything we achieved to ourselves. And you know something - no Inspirals, no Oasis," he states with a laugh.
Tom may be laughing but he certainly isn't joking. Throughout the early nineties, one member of The Inspirals' road crew was a guy in his early twenties from Burnage, Manchester called Noel Gallagher. He actually auditioned to be the singer of the band, but Tom beat him to it.
"Noel was and still is a canny fella, but I'm a better singer than him," he laughs. "He learned a lot of tricks in his years hanging with us. We used to go shopping during the European tour and Noel would sit in for us on the interviews and pretend to be a member of the band. I'm sure he's glad he never got the job as The Inspirals' singer in retrospect, but the band seriously would not have been as good with Noel fronting. He was wrong for The Inspirals but right for Oasis and I'm delighted for him personally that he went on to achieve what he did. But yeah, you could say that the Inspiral Carpets were responsible for Oasis - praise us or damn us!"
Tom has visited Ireland many times as a performer, both in solo in full band capacities. He even played at the, now legendary, 'Trip To Tipp' festival.
"The Inspirals played Feile '91 in Tipperary," he recalls. "Our flight into Shannon was a big dodgy I remember, but it was an amazing day. We met and played with some great people that day too, like the lads from Therapy?. I remember another Irish tour we did where we drove up from Dublin to Belfast. We stopped off in Dundalk after spotting an ice-cream van. It was beside a school and about 300 kids started shouting at us. They knew who we were. We couldn't believe it. It resulted in what was the probably the biggest game of football ever played. The story has apparently become the stuff of legend now for the kids who played because who was in the Inspiral Carpets team that day in Dundalk? Noel Gallagher, of course! The Irish audiences have always been great and I like to come back and try places I've never been before, so this'll be my first time in Strabane and I can't wait. I believe Dicey Rileys is a real hub of great music, it must be as it has Inspiral Carpets on the jukebox, " he laughs.
Aside from his solo acoustic gigs, Tom has a band called The Lovers, who he has recorded two albums with. He also plans to release a solo album and get back with The Inspirals for a tour in 2010. On top of all this, he is also a lecturer of Music Business at Salford University, so he leads quite the busy lifestyle. His acoustic gig in Diceys on August 10 should be a celebration of that golden era of the early nineties. I doubt any of us still fit into our baggy fashions of that era, so modern attire will be more appropriate as the gig will not just be about nostalgia, but where Tom Hingley is at in 2008. Speaking to the man last week, wherever it is sounds like a pretty good place.
Tom Waits returns to perform live in Ireland for the first time in 21 years this July. He'll be doing three shows in a specially designed tent called The Ratcellar in Dublin's Phoenix Park on July 30, 31 and August 1.
The ticket issue has caused a lot of heat on internet forums around the world for a number of reasons. Firsty, the tickets are quite pricey - over £100 each. Secondly, those in possession of a ticket must produce ID on entrance to the gigs to show that the name on the ticket matches that on the ID. It's an approach that Michael Eavis has taken with his Glastonbury Festival over the last five years and it has worked well in stamping out ticket touts.
It does sound like quite a bit of hassle but these are the times we live in and these are sadly the measures we have to take to stop people getting ripped off. Some may say it's quite rich for someone charging a face-value of over £100 for a ticket to take measures in stopping people getting ripped off - but it's a case of 'better the devil you know' in my opinion.
Tom Waits tours very rarely. When he does, he plays very few dates, so demand for tickets is always going to be very high. Imagine if this ID policy was not in place for the Dublin shows coming up. With people from all over the world looking to get their hands on 15,000 tickets, you can just see the problems. Online touts can charge any price they want and they'll get what they demand. People will pay vast amounts of money to see their favourite performers. £1000 for a Tom Waits ticket? People have paid that! People have paid a lot more, for that matter.
Some would say that anyone willing to pay that amont of money to see someone sing deserves all they get. Maybe, but everybody, even mad fanatics, has the right to pay face-value for a concert ticket. There is a moral code that many music fans abide by. If they can't go to the show they will give the ticket to a fellow fan for face-value. These people are sadly few and far between in such times. As pricey as the Tom Waits tickets are, thankfully this ID procedure will see none of them showing up on ebay for a ridiculous price.
I may have been nine-years-old but I vividly remember the day Bruce Springsteen played at Slane Castle. It was a perfect summer’s morning and all my older brothers and sisters were buzzing around the house getting ready to go to the gig, as was most of the town. Strabane was to be pretty sparse of teenagers and twenty-somethings that day and I remember looking on in envy as those old enough to go jumped into Slane-bound cars and buses and did so joyfully with obligatory farmers’ tans and ‘Born In The USA’ bandanas and T-shirts – well it was the eighties!
It’s a testament to the endurance of Springsteen as a performer and as an artist that on Sunday past, twenty-three years after Slane, I dragged myself out of bed, earlier than any Sunday morning this decade, to jump onto a Dublin-bound bus to catch the final of three sold-out shows at the RDS by the man himself and the legendary E-Street Band.
The band arrived on stage at 8.15pm, forty-five minutes later than advertised, and went straight into ‘No Surrender’. The overcast sky and strong breeze were genuine concerns, with the wind causing havoc with the sound, bouncing it all over the place, giving the technicians quite a headache from the off. Things thankfully began to settle down a few songs in and by the time the band kicked into ‘Spirit in the Night’, Springsteen made it very clear that everyone present was here for a party, as he got up close and very personal with the audience closest to the stage. Springsteen was very much in his element and has a passion and joy about performing that has never left him, so much so that he delivered the thirty-five-year-old ‘Spirit in the Night’ with a youthful exuberance that suggested he had just written the song that day.
Indeed, the setlist tonight covered every period of Spingsteen’s career, from 1973’s ‘Greeting’s From Asbury Park, N.J.’ to tracks from last year’s ‘Magic’ album. Full stomping band arrangements of ‘Atlantic City’ and ‘Reason To Believe’ from 1982’s classic acoustic album ‘Nebraska’ were followed by a moving tribute for E-Street Band member Danny Federici, who passed away last month after a lengthy battle with melanoma. The band performed ‘4TH Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)’, which was the last song Federici performed live with the band back in March. This was followed by the very apt ‘Growin’ Up’, a song that typified so much about Federici, Springsteen and co at an earlier time in their lives.
Live favourite ‘Because The Night’ allowed Nils Lofgren to demonstrate what an amazing lead guitarist he is, with a sharp blistering solo that has now become the central focus of it’s performance each night, and rightly so. All eyes were back on ‘The Boss’ for ‘Mary’s Place’, where he single-handedly got every pair of hands in the audience up in the air, even those shy punters you normally see serving no other purpose at live shows but to be an eight foot statue that blocks your view of the stage.
‘Mary’s Place’ is such a stereotypical E-Street sounding track, designed for no other purpose than to kick an outdoor party into overdrive. “We’re gonna have a party,” screamed Springsteen as he slid on his knees across the stage, putting guys half his age to shame. The rain started to descend but failed to dampen the high spirits of the forty thousand capacity crowd – to borrow from Springsteen, it wasn’t rainfall but a ‘rock n’ roll baptism’!
The breeze and rain helped create the perfect setting for a breather in tempo. Ballad ‘Racing in the Street’ had just enough in softness, darkness and light to fit perfectly into the set at the time it did: a ‘not dark yet but it’s getting there’ vibe and a one of the highlights of the night.
The 8.15pm start meant that the stage lighting could be appreciated better at the later stages of the show and it worked to full effect for ‘The Rising’. With a red backdrop engulfing the stage, the sight of rainfall only added to the effect. Recent single ‘Long Walk Home’ with its infectious chorus was just begging for a sing-along and that’s what it got – guitarist Steve Van Zandt getting into the action too with his own take on it.
As the song was ending, Springsteen gave one of his many ‘one, two, three, four’ counts and the band kicked into the classic ‘Badlands’ – a reason to be at the RDS that night alone! Roy Bittan’s choppy piano line instigated the lights being beamed on thousands of hands and fists in the crowd. The momentum increased for possibly Springsteen’s most famous song, ‘Born To Run’ – played every night of the tour and played with the passion of a brand new song each time. The nine-minute epic ‘Rosalita’ followed by ‘Dancing In The Dark’ had even those in the seated areas on their feet and the Celtic flavoured ‘American Land’ saw the atmosphere become that of a Pogues concert.
Looking at our watches we thought that was going to be it. Yet Bruce and the band were going nowhere and rocked us home with ‘Ramrod’ and fever-pitched ‘Glory Days’. The time was 11.05pm. After almost three hours on stage Springsteen bid Dublin ‘goodnight’. It was a glorious night; one that outdoor music should be all about if the right performer is on the stage.
Nobody comes close to owning the big stage the way Bruce Springsteen does. In a recent interview with RTE’s David McCullagh he said, “I want kids to come to the shows today and be able to go home to their mom and dad or older brother who maybe saw us back in 78 or 86, and be able to say to them, “tonight I saw the E-Street Band at their peak!”” Well, to all who were at Slane in 1985 while I had to stay home getting sunburnt in the garden – on Sunday night I saw the heart stopping, pants dropping, earth shattering, hard rocking, hips shaking, earth quaking, nerve breaking, Viagra taking, history making, legendary E-Street Band at their peak!
Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards has confessed that he is “not a huge fan” of David Bowie. Speaking recently to Uncut magazine, Richards said that ‘Changes’, which appears on Bowie’s fourth album ‘Hunky Dory’, was the only song by the artist that he could “remember”.
"It's all pose. It's all fucking posing. It's nothing to do with music He knows it too,” Richards said. “I can't think of anything else he's done that would make my hair stand up."
Like anyone, Keith is entitled to think what he likes. As Bowie fan myself I cannot help but disagree with the 'glimmer twin', but since we're on the topic of knocking other artists, let me throw my hat into the ring. You know who I find to be an insufferable bore? Keith Richards!
I adore The Rolling Stones. They have made some of the greatest albums of all time. 'Let It Bleed' would always in my top ten and Keith was key to all that was good and great about The Stones. But lets cut the crap - the guy has been having the same conversation for the last thirty years and The Stones' last decent album came out in the early '70s, 'Exile on Main Street'.
Yes, they fill stadiums across the globe still to this day, but it's on the back of their past and not their present. If anyone actually took off the rose-tinted glasses at these shows they would see that it's a cabaret version of something that once burned so brightly. Jagger and Richards are mere parodies of their younger personas, dishing out the 'been around the block' 'I can't remember recording that, man' soundbytes that assist in creating a new persona easily sellable to those who embrace the mere superficial surface of rock n' roll and nothing more - hence the multi-million pound industry that is The Rolling Stones today - it stopped being about the music long ago. Richards argues it's just rock n' roll; he said that when the creative tap ran dry! Since then he's been no less a 'poser' than Bowie. Whether it's the glitz and glam of Scissor Sisters or the down to earth John Everyman persona of Bruce Springsteen, everybody has a pose that appeals to an audience. Keith's emaciated wrinkly whiskey swigging chain-smoker is no different...and he's selling but I ain't buying!
Keith is a witty soundbyte today and nothing more. "It's great to be here. Then again, it's great to be anywhere y'know," he said when I saw The Stones in Dublin five years ago. Turns out he said this EVERY night - hardly thinking on his feet these days, more a cliche on autopilot. I don't care if he did or did not snort his old man's ashes. I don't care if he had a complete blood transfusion. I don't care if he fell off a tree or slipped on a library ladder. I don't care if Johnny Depp modelled his Jack Sparrow character on 'Keef'. I heard these things once but Keith feels the need to remind us constantly and frankly, I'm bored.
Change the record, Keith! Here, try this one, it's called 'Heroes', or maybe this one, 'Station to Station', or perhaps 'The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Startdust' or maybe this interesting electro record called 'Earthling' or maybe this one released a few years ago called 'Reality'. They're all quite different, quite envelope pushing in some ways and all by one guy forever in the process of becoming...never bemoaning. It's never too late to learn a thing or two from him 'Keef'.
After the euphoria of last week’s Strabane Unplugged, Tuesday night’s special, headlined by American singer-songwriter Liz Tormes, was always going to be a more intimate affair. The intimacy was such that it benefited the night greatly, giving it a true sense of occasion in keeping with the spirit of, say, the coffee bars and clubs of Greenwich Village in downtown Manhattan in the ’60s and ’70s.
Local rockers King Coma opened the night with a three-piece acoustic set taking in their own material and a series of covers, including an infectious version of Nelly Furtado’s ‘Say It Right’. But it was their own material that stood out best. Rich melodies and harmonies between guitarist SOD and frontman Chris Sharkey floated to every corner of the All Stars Bar on tracks like ‘Come Around’, ‘Beauty Queen’ and the stomping ‘God I Am’, with Chris’s commanding stage presence giving the tracks an added intensity throughout.
Fresh from touring the country with English singer-songwriter Teddy Thompson, Liz Tormes then took to the Unplugged stage and it was clear that the intimate crowd was perhaps a blessing in the disguise, as her soft lo-fi delivery would not bode well in a packed sweaty bar. The audience displayed a great respect as Liz worked her way through tracks from her latest album ‘Limelight’ and a selection of covers by the likes of The Carter Family and Nick Cave. Her version of Cave’s murder ballad ‘Willow Garden’ took the song somewhere softer but without losing any of it’s eeriness.
The hypnotic atmosphere was maintained for Liz’s original material such as ‘Tired of Waiting’, ‘Read My Mind’ and the simply beautiful title-track from her latest album. Comparisons with alternative acts such as Mazzy Star, Julianna Hatfield and Karen Peris would not be unfounded when describing Liz’s sound. With the ‘hear a pin drop’ atmosphere enveloping the hooked audience, it was a sheer delight to hear these flavourings of Americana in Strabane on a cold Tuesday night - just one of the goals that Strabane Unplugged was devised for.
Liz herself stated that her time in Strabane was the most fun she has had while on tour in Ireland. She even took time to take in the Guinness on the night, humorously conceding that the stout back in New York City simply cannot compete. It was a night of music that can be perhaps best described as quietly beautiful. Liz Tormes can be assured that she made a few new friends in Strabane on Tuesday night.
Somewhere between Bruce Springsteen and Kurt Cobain you'll find Paul Westerberg. One of the best singer-songwriters to come out of the US over the last two decades, Westerberg has never got the recognition I think he deserves. As front man of maverick alternative rockers The Replacements in the 80s, Westerberg was one of the key figures, alongside REM, Black Flag, Husker Du and Sonic Youth, who paved the way for the eventual global explosion of Alternative Rock in the 90s.
Back in the 80s, all these bands needed was a van, a series of dates in live venues that looked like public toilets and an army of college radio listening followers. Out of this, a scene developed a million miles away from the vacuous glamour and big-hair of MTV and mainstream radio. It was a scene more aligned with the USA of the 1980s, a USA of Reagan-omics, recession and discontent, a reality mainstream pop pretended didn't exist. Yet the alternative scene made a bang that spoke to a generation who failed to see themselves in the gloss of MTV and the radio.
Paul Westerberg said more about smalltown USA in the 1980s than perhaps anybody else with the line "well a person can work up a mean mean thirst after a hard day of nothin' much at all," from the song 'Here Comes A Regular' - a key song indeed. Henry Rollins, Michael Stipe and Thurston Moore may have eventually broken through in a global sense in the '90s. I'm sure they would all agree that Paul Westerberg should be there with them. I'd recommend you delve into his back catalogue.
Here's a classic track from his days with The Replacements. From 1985 and the album 'Let It Be' - (yes they had balls too!) - this is 'Unsatisfied'.
One particular topic of conversation may have taken up a lot of time around the pubs of Strabane over the past few weeks. A new topic began to be whispered around certain quarters at the beginning of last week. What began as a whisper went into overdrive last weekend, so much so that it rivalled that other big story on every pub drinker’s lips.
Could it be true? Could Paul Brady, the most famous singer-songwriter ever to come out of Strabane, be performing at the monthly Strabane Unplugged session which takes place in the All Stars Bar? Certain mobile phones never stopped ringing. Certain lips were sealed. It was a case of ‘come down and see for yourself’.
At an admission charge of just three pounds at the door one would be justified in dismissing the rumours; three pounds to see a guy who can count Bob Dylan, Tina Turner and Carlos Santana as three of his fans? Surely not! Yet the vast numbers that crammed into the All Stars before ten o’clock were not going to be denied.
Strabane Unplugged has always encouraged local artists who have not yet performed at one of the sessions to get themselves down there and up on that stage. At 10.30 on Monday night one local artist treaded the Unplugged boards for the first time. The rumours were true - it was Strabane’s very own Paul Brady.
After a roof-raising welcome in the sweltering heat of the packed All-Stars, he went straight into a solo set armed with just his acoustic guitar. What followed was an hour long delve into Brady’s back catalogue, taking in tracks off classic albums such as ‘Hard Station’, ‘Trick or Treat’ and ‘Spirits Colliding’. The crowd, which had in its rank many local musicians both young and old, looked on in awe as Brady illustrated his stunning guitar playing and flawless song-craft with all the ease of a man who has been doing it globally for decades now. Brady himself seemed at ease with what, for him, is a pretty scaled down show. He enjoyed the ‘in-yer-face’ intimacy that not even a venue like Dublin’s Olympia, which Brady always sells-out, could perhaps even rival. He was also buoyed on with the fact that sitting out there in the audience savouring the atmosphere was his father, Sean.
It was a sheer delight to hear classics like ‘Busted Loose’ and ‘The World is What You Make It’ in such a stripped down capacity. The crowd were especially vocal in their appreciation for Brady’s acoustic take on his 1981 classic ‘Crazy Dreams’, which saw everyone take to their feet at it’s conclusion.
On a night of countless highlights perhaps the biggest was the classic ‘Nobody Knows’. The lush production of its 1991 studio version was replaced with just a six-string acoustic and that unmistakable signature vocal delivery that is Paul Brady’s and Paul Brady’s alone. Once again the reaction of the crowd summed up so much about how everyone present was feeling – glad that one of their own had come along to join in on what is now a monthly celebration of all that is good and great about Strabane as a town and a community. Paul Brady himself was proud to be a part of it and loved every minute. As was said when he was introduced to the stage – it’s always nice to get locals up on the Unplugged stage who haven’t been there yet. That tradition was maintained on Monday night in the finest fashion possible. Long may it continue.
It seems impossible for anyone to address the new REM album, 'Accelerate', without looking back with much derision on the bands post-Bill Berry output. It would be naive to believe that REM found working as a trio easy after drummer Berry quit in 1997. For many, the band has never been the same - the studio dynamic had floundered and communication, if we are to believe what we read, grew colder by the record between Mills, Buck and Stipe. Whatever went on in the studio, live on stage is where REM has prospered since Berry's departure. Tours in '99, '03 and '05 cemented them as one of the best live acts in the planet. Despite this, they were selling less and less each record they released. The days of the ten million shifting 'Out of Time' and 'Automatic For The People' albums were long gone. This culminated in 2004's pre-dominantly flat 'Around The Sun' selling two million records worldwide.
Personally I quite liked many of REM's forays into electronica that spring up on the post-Berry albums. We should not forget gems like 'I've Been High', 'Falls To Climb', 'Walk Unafraid', 'The Lifting', 'Saturn Return', 'Electron Blue' and quality REM standard fare such as 'At My Most Beautiful', 'All The Way To Reno', 'Leaving New York', 'Imitation of Life' and 'The Great Beyond' - all classics from a so-called 'difficult' period. It's too easy to dismiss REM's last decade. Yes, those albums have their weak points - they were too fecking long for one - but they all have their moments of greatness, even 'Around The Sun', possibly REM's weakest album so far.
The duration aspect is something that 'Accelerate' deals with in dramatic fashion, running at just 35 minutes it's REM's shortest album in 24 years - 1984's 'Reckoning' in fact.
Is 'Accelerate' is the sound of REM retreating back to the tried and tested? Opening tracks 'Living Well is the Best Revenge', 'Man-Sized Wreath' and single 'Supernatural Superserious' charge with a momentum not realised since the opening to the 1986 album 'Life's Rich Pageant'. But with producer Jacknife Lee at the helm replacing Pat McCarthy, who the band has worked with since 1998, the songs sound dry and live, with little of the lushness that sprayed their most recent albums evident at all. 'Hollow Man' appropriately see's Stipe deliver an untouched hoarse vocal inbetween a chorus so infectuous it's destined for constant airplay if the track gains the 'single' status it obviously deserves.
'Accelerate' hits it's high points in the uptempo moments like those adressed above. Where it falters oddly is where REM prospered so beautifully at one point in their career - the acoustic moments. 'Houston' is a nothing track that offers little apart from perhaps an interesting organ. 'Until The Day is Done' is the kind of acoustic ballad that sounded so rich in the hands of REM in the early 90s, but just sounds tired and formulaic at this stage in their career. These are not the moments to get excited about on 'Accelerate'. 'Horse To Water' brings back the momentum the acoustic moments lost. With the celebratory tempo of early classic 'Just a Touch' 'Horse To Water' is a stand-out track destined to be a live highlight. It sounds like the REM of the past and the present - rocking hard, a great chorus and the unmistakable Mike Mills backing vocal. The tempo thankfully is maintained right up until the end, such is the 'hit and run' nature of the album. 'I'm Gonna DJ' closes the short but effective album. A regular live track on the band's 2005 tour, it's jaunty, juvenile and chaotic but very much in keeping with the rest of the album, making it the perfect closer for what REM have set out to achieve with 'Accelerate'.
Have they achieved their goal? Well yes, but not without some filler with the acoustic tracks. It's a fine album but not as good as some are making out, just as 'Up' and 'Reveal' are not as bad as those same people probably make out. As a life-long REM fan I'm just glad to hear them making great music still and if the critics think it's now ok again to like REM then whatever, welcome back guys!
I've been cheated. I've been conned. They reeled me in with some sweet cinematic soulful defiance and when they had me in their clutches they smothered me with formula and heartlessness; music plundered from a special place and time but which itself comes from no particular place, has no home and is born out of nothing but a desire to keep the Jones's happy that the background cd is adaquately drowned in enough syrup for them to lightly shimmy to, but never evocative enough to invest even a solitary drop of personal emotion into - you see, they're busy discussing mortage prices with Susan and Geoff, who they have over for dinner. How did I get here? What have I ever done to Bernard Butler to deserve such disrespect? I adored Suede. I was behind him when he left the band. I lost all interest in them after that. I embraced his work with Dave McAlmont in the 90s and early 2000s. I wished him the best as a solo artist. I've been nothing but a friend to Bernard Butler. How could he do this to me? How could he do it to himself? I tell you why - whatever some ranting blogger like myself thinks, 'Rockferry' by Duffy will be one of the biggest albums of 2008, that's why!
It all starts so full of promise. The debut single 'Rockferry' swoons, floats, sprouts wings and, regardless of what follows, is one of the best singles of recent times. With her Dusty Springfield in her prime vocals Duffy compliments Butler's special take on Phil Spector's 'Wall of Sound' and what results is a song that would fit so well in a Tarrantino scene with an appropriately cast femme fatale. Such glorious heights are sadly not realised again on the album until it's closing track 'Distant Dreamer', where we get reminded once again of what made Bernard Butler great as a guitarist and producer. It has a sound straight out of his period with McAlmont and you can easily imagine Dave the Diva putting his vocals on top of it. Duffy's delivery is by no means inferior. On the contrary, she takes herself into the realm of Nancy Sinatra, rising to the top, backed by an angelic choir of herself, beautful strings and sax.
'Rockferry' would've been a masterpiece had the momentum of the opening and closing tracks been maintained throughout. Sadly, it wasn't. What we have inbetween is a collection of weak, bland soul-by-numbers ditties. Duffy can sing, no doubt about it, but her voice is wasted on these tracks. 'Mercy' is upbeat, confident and quite a sexy floorfiller. Perhaps an extension of it's spirit may have improved the album also. Sadly, the albums falters because of bland fare such as 'Serious', 'Sleeping Stone' and 'Delayed Devotion' - all designed to convey an emotion non-extistant at any point of their conception, recording or clean-ass production. These are songs that no-doubt will be used to death by ITV when advertising the latest drama series starring the likes of Hermione Norris and her frozen face. These are soul songs without soul. They leave no mark in the sand and no desire to be played again. They may as well have been given to Gabrielle! I've news for you all too - we are set to be bombarded with this kind of 'Soul Diva' fare from all directions this year - you have been warned. Yet, for the merits of tracks like 'Rockferry' and 'Distant Dreamer' I do hope there is a future for Duffy. I'm sure there will be, but will I be listening? That really depends.
The Irish Times has just published a critics' All-Time Top 40 Irish Albums list. Everyone has their own list and each list is always open to scrutiny. This list is no different. Such lists are quite pointless in the long scheme of things. But they do make for great internet/pub conversations/debates/arguments/bloodbaths. As for this one, well the absence of Horslips is quite unforgivable, the presence of other albums equally so.
My Bloody Valentine at No.1? Well, it is a great record. Why does Van's 'Astral Weeks' always gain higher acclaim than his 'Moondance' album? 'Moondance' is better and at least the bass is in tune! 'Achtung Baby' is U2's best album. A House's 'I am The Greatest' is an amazing album well deserving a re-issue. Rollerskate Skinny..Yay! Ash? Boooo!!! Snow Patrol? Oh just fuck off!! BellXZZZzzzzzzzz!! Something Happens' 'God's Glue' Yay! Great album although I still hate that fecking 'Parachute' song!
What should've been there? Let the drunken weekend debates begin....LOL!!! Here's the list:
1 MY BLOODY VALENTINE: LOVELESS 2 U2: ACHTUNG BABY (1991) 3a A HOUSE: I AM THE GREATEST (1991) 3b THE RADIATORS: GHOSTOWN (1979) 5 VAN MORRISON: ASTRAL WEEKS (1968) 6 MICRODISNEY: THE CLOCK COMES DOWN THE STAIRS (1985) 7 ROLLERSKATE SKINNY: HORSEDRAWN WISHES (1996) 8 THE POGUES: RUM, SODOMY & THE LASH (1986) 9 THE UNDERTONES: THE UNDERTONES (1979) 10 WHIPPING BOY: HEARTWORM (1995) 11 ASH: 1977 (1996) 12 THE BLADES: RAYTOWN REVISITED (1985) 13 THIN LIZZY: LIVE AND DANGEROUS (1978) 14 U2: THE JOSHUA TREE (1987) 15 THERAPY? TROUBLEGUM (1994) 16 PLANXTY: PLANXTY (1973) 17 DAVID HOLMES: LETS GET KILLED (1997) 18 THE STARS OF HEAVEN: SPEAK SLOWLY (1988) 19 STIFF LITTLE FINGERS: INFLAMMABLE MATERIAL (1979) 20a THE REVENANTS: HORSE OF A DIFFERENT COLOUR 20b THE STARS OF HEAVEN: SACRED HEART HOTEL 22 U2: BOY (1980) 23 THE BLADES: LAST MAN IN EUROPE (1984) 24 MY BLOODY VALENTINE: ISN'T ANYTHING (1988) 25 SINÉAD O'CONNOR: I DO NOT WANT WHAT I HAVEN'T GOT (1990) 26 VAN MORRISON: MOONDANCE 27 SNOW PATROL: EYES OPEN (2006) 28a THE DIVINE COMEDY: PROMENADE (1994) 28b RORY GALLAGHER: LIVE IN EUROPE (1972) 30 VAN MORRISON: IT'S TOO LATE TO STOP NOW (1974) Recorded at 1973 31a BELL X1: MUSIC IN MOUTH (2003) 31b THE CRANBERRIES: EVERYBODY ELSE IS DOING IT, SO WHY CAN'T WE (1993) 33a THE FRAMES: FOR THE BIRDS (2001) 33b SOMETHING HAPPENS: STUCK TOGETHER WITH GOD'S GLUE (1990) 35a MARTIN HAYES & DENIS CAHILL: LIVE IN SEATTLE (1999) 35b THE HIGH LLAMAS: HAWAII (1996) Long before The Thrills were doing their 35c THE UNDERTONES: HYPNOTISED (1980) 38 DAMIEN RICE: O (2002) 39 THE POGUES: IF I SHOULD FALL FROM GRACE WITH GOD (1988) 40 MICRODISNEY: CROOKED MILE (1987)
If you're in and around Dublin City on Saturday night then you may want to take yourself to Whelans, which will be playing host to American Music Club. The San Francisco based outfit, fronted by the influencial singer-songwriter Mark Eitzel, have just released a new album called 'The Golden Age', which is the follow-up to their stunning comeback album in 2004, 'Love Songs For Patriots'.
Prior to 'Love Songs...' the band had not recorded together for almost ten years. Within this period Eitzel went on to have an acclaimed, if occasionally uneven, solo career. Known for a more hard-edged approach to folk and Americana, American Music Club took us on an alternative road-trip through some not always pleasant sub-cultures and characters.
When making plans to go to this show, a friend of mine persuaded a mutual friend of ours to go. Our mutual friend said, "aye, be a bit of craic", to which my friend replied, "it won't be a bit of craic! It'll be two hours in the dark and you'll love it!" Indeed, with American Music Club it may not be dark yet, but it's getting there. Amid the melancholy though, lies a sharp wit and some finely crafted songwriting. Also, Mark Eitzel is one of the most distinctive voices of the last 20 years.
Rumours prior to the release of 'The Golden Age' were that it was a lot more 'up' than previous American Music Club records. The dark sense of humour still prevails on the album, that's for sure, and it is a fine record. I still prefer 'Love Songs' and 'Everclear', but with all American Music Club records it takes a long time to absorb them fully, which is part of the fun. Yes, I said fun! I'm really looking forward to Saturday - it WILL be good craic!
REM are due to return on March 31 with their 14th studio album, 'Accelerate'. The album was recorded partly in Vancouver, partly Dublin, where the Athens trio held a residency at the Olympia in May last year for a series of live rehearsals. Much of the material that was road-tested in Dublin has made it on to the album. A new producer was also brought on board for the sessions, Jacknife Lee.
At an apparent duration of just 36 minutes, 'Accelerate' looks like being a return to the pre-'Automatic For The People' REM, where their albums had this wonderful habit of breezing along swiftly. 2004's 'Around The Sun' seemed to limp to a conclusion. It looks like REM are ready to make a bit of noise again. I look forward to their return and their live shows later this year - they remain one of the finest live rock bands on the planet!
Here is a taster of what to possibly expect on 'Accelerate'. Recorded during their rehearsals in Dublin in May 2007, this is 'Horse To Water'. Sounds very 'Life's Rich Pageant' era REM to me. No bad thing!!
One of most exciting new sounds of 2008 (yes, I know we're only a month in) has been electro duo MGMT (pronounced The Management). The duo's eccentricity on record is echoed on their website biog, which informs us:
"MGMT is: Andrew Vanwyngarden and Ben Goldwasser, two psychic pilgrims whose paths first intersected in the green pastures of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, circa 2002." Andrew and Ben realized that -- despite their opposing views on methodology (one is spontaneously practical, the other is practically spontaneous) -- they shared a common love of mystic paganism (ironic indeed on a campus named for the founder of Methodism), psychotropic sounds, and the belief that a joke (or a joke song) could be sad, profound, and funny at the same time." Interesting guys!
With influences from the mainstream pop world, the underground hallucinogenic electronica of Suicide and the sonic soundscapes of The Flaming Lips, MGMT have created a debut album, 'Oracular Spectacular', that is a headphones experience, a dancefloor experience and a live experience all rolled into one. With Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann at the helm, it is a perfect union.
For some absurd reason, 'Oracular Spectacular' will not be released in Ireland until the summer. But it really is worth getting your hands on before that, if you can. Here is a taster from the album to persuade you....opening track 'Time To Pretend'.
The nominations for the NME awards have just been announced and, as with every other year, I am totally indifferent. The once glorious publication, formerly the home of writers with the calibre, wit and wisdom of Nick Kent, Julie Burchill and Stuart Maconie, now gives refuge to thin-tied white boys so far out of their element they struggle to even have a vague knowledge of David Bowie.
The sins of the modern day NME and it's writers are many but I'm sticking with one just now that has really rattled my pissy bone. In the catagory of Villain of the Year they have nominated Amy Winehouse. I know in the wide scheme of things that this is quite a trivial category that is not to be taken seriously, although it could be tough to take being listed with Tony Blair and George W. Bush on the chin! It would certainly kill the fizz out of being nominated for Best Solo Artist, which Winehouse quite rightly was, following a year that saw her 'Back to Black' album barely leave the top ten. Regardless of how seriously we are to take the Villain of the Year category, it does speak volumes, whether the powers that be at the NME like it or not, of the contrast in how a troubled female artist is perceived in comparison to a troubled male.
Here we have a lady whose personal problems with drugs and her posh double-barrelled jailbird husband, whose name has never been with me to escape from me, have kept her in the media glare daily for over a year now. Like many, I'm fed up reading about the lady and her problems. I adore her 'Back to Black' album, but it seems to be of little interest to the snakes of the press who, bereft of a soul to enjoy such musical stylings, focus on the murkier side of Winehouse's life. Her problems are continually being used as a stick to beat her with and the NME are now part of the Winehouse lynch-mob with this Villain of the Year nod.
I do not know Winehouse personally. She may well be an individual deserving of such an award but her reasons for being nominated are the very reasons that see her male counterparts lauded and mythologised. Winehouse gets caught smoking crack and she's a villian. Pete Doherty gets caught shooting up and he's a troubled genius and a poet. Keith Richards tells us for the 234th million time that he should be dead and we call him a legend. Gil Scott Heron gets caught with heroin and they throw his ass in jail and deny him his HIV medication - but that's another story about how selective both the system and the music press are in relation to gender, race, sympathy, mythology and condemnation.
Keith Richards has been living well off his drug excess truths, myths and legends for well over thirty years now. What is so acceptable about t-shirts of a 'wasted' Keith Richards or Sid Vicious that is so unacceptable about images of Amy Winehouse with needle marks on her feet? There are no differences between any of these images, yet we seem to not only accept it in males (if they're white) but celebrate it, and that's wrong. So perhaps the NME should be praised for taking Winehouse to task like this. It may get a message to the lady that she needs help. But did the NME, even in its pomp, ever offer the same message to Keith Richards, Sid Vicious or Kurt Cobain? No they didn't. They don't see the need to villainise white male addicts because it's 'rock n' roll, man' and 'it's better to burn out than to fade away'. Yet, like stuffy old male Cricket Club House members, they wag their self-righteous fingers at any woman who dares to step into the boys club of 'sex, drugs and rock n' roll'.
So I now feel the need to reassure all the female artists and music lovers out there. I come from a club that welcomes women. If a walk on the wild side floats your boat you're more than welcome to jump on with us. We believe you have every equal right to indulge in excess if you so please. We'll make sweet rock n' roll with you. We may even take some (non hard) drugs with you, and yes - we'll even have sex with you........if you'll have us of course!
Imagine my shock when surfing the web yesterday and having a nosey at Chuck Berry's official website. After a number of text messages, I had to see it for myself. There it was - in the middle of his 2008 tour dates, March 24, Grill Venue, Letterkenny! His only Irish date on the list.
Berry is without doubt one of the original pioneers of Rock n' Roll. John Lennon once said that if you had to give Rock n' Roll another term, that term would be Chuck Berry. With his seminal self-penned classics like 'Maybellene', 'Sweet Little Sixteen', 'Johnny B. Goode' and, of course, 'Roll Over Beethoven' Berry laid down a template for Rock n' Roll that is still, to varying degrees of success, celebrated today - teenage promiscuity, a love for the road, escape, fast cars, partying and rebellion. Now in his 82nd year, mere words cannot do justice to his (and his peers') influence on the grand scheme of things.
Tickets are sure to be hot property as soon as they become available. It will be Rock n' Roll history literally before your eyes, and at a venue where many moons ago the showbands of the country would've knocked out more than a few of Berry's classics.
Here's Berry live in London in 1972 with 'Promised Land'.
Donal Dineen's late show on Today FM has consistantly been one the best things on the airwaves for the past ten years. Now under the name 'Small Hours', his shows continually introduce a whole new sphere of alternative music, especially in the electronica genre.
For the first time since his broadcasts began in 1997, they are now being archived on the Today FM website for your listening pleasure at any time of the day, not just after midnight in bed with the earphones on.
This is a movie with six different characters, none of whom go under the name Bob Dylan, who each represent a different aspect of the man, his many myths and his work. I thought this was a pretty brave step for director Todd Haynes. How do you make a conventional biopic about one of the most unconventional figures in popular culture? The answer is simple - you can't. 'I'm Not There' had to be off-beat right from the start.
This movie stands up where Haynes's glam-rock opus from 1997, 'Velvet Goldmine', collapsed. This is mainly due to the fact that he was able to use Dylan's music, something denied to him by Bowie for 'Goldmine', and the film suffered because of it. Ewan McGregor's awful American accent and sub-Iggy Pop parody Kurt Wild didn't help either. There's none of that here. The performances are solid, especially Cate Blanchett as the 'Blonde on Blonde' period Dylan - a definite Oscar nod for sure.
Blanchett's casting in not as pretentious as it sounds. Having a woman play Dylan is perhaps an attempted parallel of the shock Dylan caused by his transformation in 1965 from folk to 'that mercury sound' of an electric guitar. The songs are used at the right moments to signify a certain mood or situation. It would be interesting to hear what Dylan made of all of this. He would probably dismiss it as inaccurate. His myth is still intact. We know no more, and I don't think Haynes actually believed it was going to be any other way.
Would I recommend this film? If your interest in Dylan is quite minimal, probably not. You will hate it. If you're a little bit more of a Dylan anorak, then yeah, go for it! The title doesn't lie - Dylan is not there. Or is he? We'll never really know. Have we ever really known? He's a clever one, that Zimmerman.
An album of covers should make any listener fear the worst. Most covers are pointless exercises in rehashing someone else's music almost identically, yet without any of the original intent, sentiment and personal investment. One thinks of Jacques Brel's 'Dying Man' and how its various bastardisations down through the years as 'Seasons in the Sun' have all failed to do justice to the Belgian's sombre lament. Even the sight of a some kid barely able to shave thinking he has enough in the bank to take on 'My Way' is very hard to stomach. There are certain songs that you have to earn the right to sing - 'Hurt' by Nine Inch Nails, which, it would be fair to say, Johnny Cash earned well, although it's one of the few songs he didn't murder in his American Recordings series.
There are certain people who get the point of a cover and the need to bring something else to it. Hendrix's reinvention of Dylan's 'All Along The Watchtower' and Jeff Buckley's reading of Leonard Cohen's 'Hallelujah' are perhaps two of the most famous cases of a cover breathing new life into a song.
Cat Power, aka Chan Marshall, has been down the road of a covers album before. Her 1999 'Covers Record' saw her deconstruct standards by The Rolling Stones, Velvet Underground and Nina Simone. It was a beautifully haunting and tasteful collection of reinterpretations. Marshall has always striven to find something new, not only in cover material but her own. Her recent live shows have seen her step into that sphere of re-make, re-model, which has been a key factor of playing live for people like Dylan and Lou Reed for over 30 years now.
Given Marshall's approach to covers, the arrival of 'Jukebox' should not be met with cynicism, but intrigue. 'New York' is no karaoke trip down the Sinatra wannabe path but practically related to the original in lyric and lyric alone. Unlike the 'Covers Record', Marshall has recruited backing band the Dirty Delta Blues for this collection and in turn it sounds just as the band did on tour throughout most of 2007.
2006's 'The Greatest' album saw Cat Power step closer to the mainstream than ever before. Some feared that this would be at the expense of her earlier material, written at a different time emotionally for Marshall, so much so that she may not have wanted to step back into that skin. On 'Jukebox' it's pleasing to see that she is not blanking her past, but giving it the same reinvention that she does with Hank Williams' 'Ramblin' (Wo)man', James Brown's 'Lost Someone' and Joni Mitchell's 'Blue'. Her new rendition of 'Metal Heart', which first featured on her 1998 record 'Moon Pix', is at first more piano-led and merges into a chaotic climax, losing none of the drama of the original recording.
Having seen Cat Power live last summer and hearing some of the material that would end up on 'Jukebox', I recall being very excited by the live version of The Highwaymen's 'Silver Stallion'. The full band arangement is replaced with a more subtle acoustic reading on the album. As good as it is, it fails to live up to how it worked with the band live. The same cannot be said for 'Aretha, Sing One For Me'. With it's southern soul swagger, it's a definite highlight of the record.
Chan Marshall's voice is one of the most distinctive sounds of the last ten years or so. It is the perfect late night companion on 'Lord, Help The Poor and Needy' and 'Don't Explain'. What the hell - It laces with gold anything it sits on top of - just ask Faithless or Handsome Boy Modelling School. But it's difficult to gauge just how essential a covers album should be. Original new song 'Song To Bobby' is a welcome addition and sits well on the collection. It would've perhaps sat even better on 'The Greatest'. A lazy, sun-drenched auto-biographical narrative of a run-in with Bob Dylan, it's a fine hint that Chan Marshall has a lot more to offer. I look forward to the journey.
Tracklist: 1. New York (Frank Sinatra)2. Ramblin’ (Wo)man (Hank Williams)3. Metal Heart (Cat Power *)4. Silver Stallion (The Highwaymen)5. Aretha, Sing One For Me (George Jackson)6. Lost Someone (James Brown)7. Lord, Help The Poor And Needy (Jessie Mae Hemphill)8. I Believe In You (Bob Dylan)9. Song To Bobby (Cat Power **)10. Don’t Explain (Billie Holiday)11. Woman Left Lonely (Janis Joplin)12. Blue (Joni Mitchell)
* Original can be found on Cat Power's 'Moon Pix' record. A recommended album!
** A brand new Cat Power song never released before.
