NICK LOWE : THE ROAD TO THE BRENTFORD TRILOGY AND BEYOND PART ONE

The middle of the eighties was a difficult period for Nick Lowe. After honing his skills with Kippington Lodge and Brinsley Schwarz from 1967 to 1975, he had managed to become a central figure of the punk and new-wave movement by the end of  the seventies. He scored a couple of solo hits (Cruel to Be Kind, I Love the Sound Of Breaking Glass), formed Rockpile with Dave Edmunds and recorded and produced several Punk and New Wave acts (most notably Elvis Costello and The Damned). However by the middle of the eighties, everything had gone wrong. Lowe was putting out albums with too many filler (to keep up with the contract he had with his record company) and albeit a couple of songs that he put out charted during this period ("Half a Boy and Half A Man", "I Knew the Bride"), his audience was diminishing and he was wondering if he still had a future as a recording artist.

At loose ends, Lowe received a call from American singer John Hiatt at the beginning of 1987 to enquire if he would like to play bass on his forthcoming album "Bring the Family". Joining Hiatt with Ry Cooder (lead guitar) and Jim Keltner (drums), the whole album recorded in a very spontaneous way over a week showed Lowe that there was still life in producing records in the "old fashion way" without spending a whole week pondering on the snare drum sound ! That group of musicians went on to form the short lived Little Village group over 1991-1992. Reinvogorated by the sessions, Lowe recorded 2 albums that signaled a return to form ("Pinker and Prouder than Previous" and "Party of One") that showed a return to form and were pointing towards the direction he would take from the middle of the 90's.

In 1993 Lowe had everything in place for giving the direction he wanted for his carreer, he had written songs that he felt comfortable singing, found musicians that were sympathetic to his new style. The only thing that he was needing was money to record an album and tour without the pressure of a big record label. Money supplies arrived thanks to the million dollar payment that Lowe received for the royalties of the cover version of "What so funny about peace love and understanding"  that appeared on the multi-million selling soundtrack to the movie "Bodyguard" starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner. This enabled Lowe to finance the sessions for his next 2 lp's ("The Impossible Bird" and "Dig My Mood") and the accompanying tours that followed them. 

 The songs written for "The Impossible Bird" were written and rehearsed in the function room of a pub in Brentford where Lowe has been living for years. Released in 1994, the record is roughly divided in between ballads and up-tempo blues-rock numbers. Highlights are abundant, from the uptempo opener "Soulful Wind" (which features a nice little chord progression in between verses and choruses that gives you the impression of hearing the wind) to the rollicking "I'll be There". In between these 2 songs you get a series of well executed ballads of which the highlights are the perfectly paced  "Drive Thru Man", the lament of midlife cris "Where's My Everything" and the barebone tale of madness "The Beast in Me" (well-known for its cover version by Lowe's ex-father in law Johnny Cash) . As usual we get a couple of covers that include great version of "True love travels on gravel Road" (originally sung by Elvis Presley : one hell of a benchmark) and "Trail of Tears" written by songsmith Roger Cook. Musicianship is excellent and the band contains two musicians (Robert Treherne on drums and Geraint Watkins on Keyboards) that still tour and record with Lowe to this day. Guitar player Bill Kirchen only played and toured with Lowe but his idiosyncratic guitar playing distinguishes "The Impossible Bird" from it's follow ups.

 "Dig my mood", the follow-up was recorded over a one year period (from June 1996 to June 1997) and was released on January 1998. This album sees Lowe finally making the transition to "rock-crooner" he had started on his previous outing. The mood Mr Lowe wants us too dig here is definetely a mellow one, tales of  sadness abund with one single ray of light tossed in for good measure (the fantastic ballad "You Inspire Me", later covered by Englebert Humpferdink). You've got another number that's crying to be a covered by Johnny Cash with the misantropic "Man That I've Become. Fantastic songs about heartbreak and lost love ("What Lack of Love Has Done", "Lonesome Reverie", "High On a Hilltop, "I Must be Getting Over You"...). Covers are expertly executed as usual, with a spine-tingling vocal performance on "Failed Christian" that was penned by former Wings guitar player Henry McCullough. Too cut a long story short, apart from Freezing that's a bit slight, every song on the album is great. Dig My Mood sets the template for all the following albums. 

JOHN NIVEN : KILL YOUR FRIENDS AND SECOND COMING

 

 

 

I discovered John Niven's books in a peculiar way. Last October I went to see Joe Pernice play a gig in a small pub called the Wilmington Arms in the Clerkenwell area of London. At some point Pernice introduced a song by telling a story that John Niven (a friend of his) had told him prior to the gig that night. The story dating back to Niven's days in the record industry involved him choosing too sign long forgotten britpop combo Menswear instead of taking some shares in Yahoo. A Month and half later I was down in Brighton for the week-end. While we were waiting in the cinema before the screening of Art Will Save The World (review here : http://craigchaligne.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/art-will-save-world-film-about-luke.html), who enters the cinema with Mr Haines : John Niven (he's one of the talking heads in the movie too). I said to myself if this guy keeps popping up everywhere with musicians that I like, his books must be worth a read...

I went for the two novels featuring music mogul Steven Stellfox : Kill your Friends and Second Coming. 

 

The first one features Stellfox as an up and coming AR guy struggling to get a hit record. The book is set as the end of the 90's just before the music industry meltdown. We follow Stellfox in his crusade for fortune, which includes murdering colleagues, securing a distribution for a rather "crass" german dance record and spending an entire music convention locked up in a hotel room in Las Vegas taking drugs. Niven's insider knowledge of the music biz is really what makes the novel works. His description of the Midem convention that takes place every year in Cannes is mightily funny. Even though, the music business is described through Stellfox cynical eyes, you get the feeling that his views on the workers and artists must be pretty similar to Niven's (minus the musical tastes and absolute lack of any sense of morality). A very enjoyable read.

 

Second Coming is a different beast altogether. The main protagonist in the story is Jesus Christ sent back on earth by his father (God) to try and sort out the mess made by humans while he was away on a fishing trip (7 days in heaven time, 450 years on earth). We follow Jesus as he tries to spread his "Be Nice" theory while being an unsuccesfull musician in New York City. One Day he gets convinced by his bandmates to enter an "American Idol" like show where the main judge on the pannel is Steven Stellfox... Although quite differemt from Kill Your Friends, it shares one similarity with it : Niven doesn't mince his words with what he doesn't like (mainly about religion in this opus). You get plenty of music references (I'm sure Joe Pernice will appreciate the one on the Scud Mountain Boys) and it's still very funny (albeit slightly less than Kill Your Friends as the subject matter is less trivial)

I've just bought Amateurs, hope it's as good as these two.

LUKE HAINES : OFF MY ROCKER AT THE ART SCHOOL BOP

This album as Haines explains in his book "Post Everything" was written and recorded while a musical he'd been working on for two years was getting axed by The National Theatre. On top of that the release of the record was delayed for one year as the label that had agreed to release the album in the first place failed to pay Haines his advance. Even though the record came out only in 2006, it has been out of print for several years already which is a shame as it is one of his most satisfying solo releases. The lyrics display Haine's usual interest with sixties and seventies topics. On Leeds United he manages to combine references to Elland Road stadium, the yorkshire ripper and seventies surburbia lifestyle set to a fantastic tune (really nice piano parts on this song especially in the way they work with the bass line). Opener "Going off my rocker at the art school bop" is quite different from the rest of the album with its dance beat and blips (it wouldn't have sounded out of place on Black Box Recorder's "Passionoia" album). You get songs on underage discos (Walton hop), seventies glam rock star turned paedophiles (Bad Reputation), rock revisionism (Heritage rock Revolution), dead sixties gangsters (Freddie Mills is dead), suburban hooligans (Fighting in the city tonight) etc... you name it. It is a difficult thing to pen lyrics that are meaningful, funny and still manage to fit the melody without sounding forced, Haines pulls that off on every single song on this album. If you're a foreigner like me, it also brings to your attention parts of British culture and history that aren't... how we could put it...mainstays in history books. In fact you could almost say that this album is an early version of Haine's "North Sea Scrolls" side project" minus the plot and the narratives. At the end of the day a really good album that deserves to be discovered by the masses. 

LIVE REVIEW : THE FLESHTONES AT THE SHACKLEWEL​L ARMS 8/12/2012

As told in Joe Bonomo's book Sweat, the Fleshtones in the aftermath of a terrible English tour in the 1980's had sworn to never play a show in the UK again. That vow was first broken in 2006 when they played a one off London show and it was defintely burried this year with the short english leg of their fall 2012 tour. Organized by Dirty Water Club, the gig took place in the dancehall of the Shacklewell Pub in Hackney. The soundcheck started a bit late which meant opening act the DeRellas played to an already packed room. I must admit I wasn't very impressed by them and was glad their set only lasted 30 minutes (special mention to the bass player who despite his ugly mug was still confident enough in his "sex appeal" to display a unused condom popping up from his jeans backpocket...).

 After a short break, The Fleshtones came on stage and started playing "Hitsburg USA". The smallness of the room meant the band had to cut down on the stage antics that are usually featured in their show. We still got the wheel of talent routine where all the band members spin on themselves. The "shadows-like"choregraphed kicks in the air ended up with Keith Streng kicking a slightly over-enthusiastic female fan in the nose !!! The setlist was quite different from the show I saw earlier this year in Marmande (south west France) which shows that the band is not going through the motions and playing the same songs over and over again in the same order. Most of the bands recent lp's were quite heavily featured (for some reason I don't recall anything from "Take a good look" being played but I might be wrong). We didn't get "I want the answers" from Beachhead which is one my favourite Fleshtones track but that was more than compensated by rousing versions of "Pretty, pretty,pretty" and "Push-up-man" (followed by the usual push contest between Keith Streng and Ken Fox). The gig finished in grand style with Zaremba crowdsurfing over us which unfortunately involved him knocking a pint of cider on my girlfriends jacket...

LIVE REVIEW : THE NORTH SEA SCROLLS ST PANCRAS OLD CHURCH 6/12/2012

"Britpop survivors collaborate", that's the way Timeout summed up The North Sea Scrolls. That's selling the whole thing a bit short... Composed of musicians Cathal Coughlan and Luke Haines plus globe trotter / music journalist Andrew Mueller, The North Sea Scrolls was first aired at last year's Edinburgh festival. The show offers an alternative history of Britain where Oswald Mosley is lord protector, Enoch Powell a member of 70's prog rock outfit Gong and Chris Evans a martyr. A studio recorded version of the show has just been put out by Fantastic Plastic records and the small tour promoting it included 2 evenings at St Pancras Old Church.

For that second London date the place was packed (maybe because of that "attractive" blurb in Timeout...). Each song in the show was preceeded by a short story narrated by Muller (so hilariously good that even he struggled to keep a straight face). To give some gravitas to the proceedings, all 3 men were wearing pith helmets with added white army jackets with medals in the case of Coughlan and Muller. Songs are divided half between Haines and Coughlan. Haines songs are full of his usual lyrical wit (special mention to Enoch Powell : Space Poet) and catchy melodies, while Coughlan's ones need more repeated listenings to be fully appreciated. To add some extra sonic oomph to the Keyboard and Acoustic Guitar set-up, a Cellist was there (Audrey Riley). After concluding by inviting the audience to join in for "The Anthem of the Scrolls", the band came back for a  triumphant four song encore composed of Microdisney and Luke Haines solo songs.

LIVE REVIEW : GERAINT WATKINS THE UNDERBELLY HOXTON 29/11/2012

Geraint Watkins may not be a household name but his profile as a solo artist has increased considerably over the last 10 years. After releasing one solo album at the end of the 1970's, Watkins spent the best part of the two following decades being a highly sought after session man playing with the likes of Van Morrison, Paul Mccartney, Shakin Stevens, Dave Edmunds, Rory Gallagher. At the same time, he was the main driving force in the Balham Alligators, London's official source for cajun music, with whom he played in almost every pub in the city.

Since 1994 he has been playing in Nick Lowe's backing band. His second (Bold as Love) and third (Dial W For Watkins) albums were recorded at the same time and in the same stusios as Nick Lowe's "Dig my Mood" and "The Convincer". His latest CD "In a Bad Mood" was released in 2008. Thig gig at the Underbelly in Hoxton was a launch party for "The Mosquito EP vol1" that will be followed by a vol2 and a vol3 and the release of a full album. Watkins doesn't play many solo shows with a full band so it was a rare occasion to catch him live playing with a full band augmented by a 3-piece horn section.

The gig started at 8.30pm with just Watkins by himself playing "Only a Rose" and "Easy to Say (Bontemps Roulez)" from "In A Bad Mood". While the band was setting up, he thanked everybody in the audience for coming along and joked that as the EP is only coming out on vinyl, we could buy it but most of us wouldn't be able to play it. The setlist comsisted mainly of numbers off from "In a Bad Mood" and "The Mosquito EP vol1" intersped with a couple of numbers from the "Bols as Love" (I recall hearing "Happy Day" and "Wonderful life"). Watkins's fantastic piano playing was showcased on a several covers (including a fantastic rework of "Johnny Be goode" that has been a mainstay of his live shows for quite a few years now). I was hoping for more of my favourites to be played ("Don't Stop", "Unto You", "My Love") but the band probably didn't get much time to rehearse and they stuck to the set-list they have been playing with Watkins for the past few years. Nick Lowe was in the audience, eagerly grooving to his "ever-soulful" piano player.

Photo by Sonia Ballot

ART WILL SAVE THE WORLD : A FILM ABOUT LUKE HAINES AT THE BASEMENT BRIGHTON 24/11/2012

To celebrate our 2 years together, my girlfriend and I had decided to spend the weekend of the 24th and the 25th of November in Brighton. Being my usual "canny" self I managed to fit something musical into the proceedings by taking her to see the recently released documentary "Art will save the world" about former The Auteurs frontman Luke Haines.It was showing at a small Art Cinema called The Basement and was due to be followed by a Q and A session with Mr Haines and film director Niall Mccan.

 

 

 The documentary is quite short clocking at 1 hour and 15 minutes (could have been stretched a bit more without becoming boring) and avoids the usal rock documentary format. Apart from the appearance of the first drummer in The Auteurs in a surreal sequence where he is brushing leaves off the ground behind Haines on a stage, there is no interview of anyone who played music with Haines (not very surprising considering The Auteurs were composed of hired-hands and of Haines's former partner Alice but a bit weird when it comes to former BBR associates Sarah Nixey and John Moore). Not a lot of famous talking heads, apart from Jarvis Cocker (who makes a really great contribution to the movie), we get two writers (John Niven and David peace, respectively authors of "Kill your friends" and "The Damned Utd", Lukes former manager, his former clip director and a guy who wrote a book about him).

 

Niall Mccan depicts Haines as a man of strong principles that doesn't compromise his artistic vision to pursue commercial success ("I don't write for the man on the street" says Haines in the movie). The film is a bit pretentious sometimes but very funny (a little bit like Haines in fact). I didn't quite get the sequences of people auditionning to be Haines but the bits where Haines revisits his hometown of Walton-on-thames are hilarious (deadpanning at its best). Sometimes for plot purposes, the facts gets twisted a bit,"Bad Vibes" is presented as a kind of "career saving moment". Maybe the book sold well but I don't think it garnered Haines more record or ticket sales. He says that in 2005 he was playing to audiences of 50 people. Well I saw him at the Deaf Institute in 2009 (after Bad Vibes had been released) and there was about 50 people in the place... Shame some subjects weren't treated in a more thorough way (Das Capital, the pop strike, Black Box Recorder).There is also nothing about "Property", the cancelled musical that Haines was writing inbetween the end of Black Box Recorder and the recording of the "Off my rocker at the art school bop" album. I would have been nice to get Dave Boyd former head of Hut Records to reminisce about working with Haines. But choices had to be made and long rockumentaries are not good usually (major example : George Harrison : Living in the material). Haines appearing after the screening with the director proves that he must be pleased with the version of himself that's presented in the movie, which would mean it's probably not for the man on the street ;).

 

Link to preview : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3H61oDvflc