The Icicle Works – Clitheroe, The Grand

Posted on October 12, 2019 by writewyattuk

Works Outing: Ian McNabb, getting low down and dirty around the UK, including this Clitheroe stop-off

I’ll start with a confession. When Ian McNabb mentioned in our recent interview that those coming along to his forthcoming shows were in for something approaching a three-hour dose of rock’n’roll, I wondered if he might be outstaying their welcome.

I thought I was more about incendiary Jesus and Mary Chain type blink-and-you-miss-it, mesmerise-then-scarper performances, where you have grounds for a refund but still come out on a high, knowing you’ve witnessed something special.

I’ve read plenty about Springsteen gigs that go on for what appear to be days on end, crowds loving it, but that’s not me, right? In the same way I love three-minute pop that doesn’t hang around, I prefer short-sharp live sets leaving us craving more.

But while McNabb’s Icicle Works performances will have you worrying if you’re going to miss that last bus or train home, it’s worth it, believe me. Even if he seldom provides employment for support acts looking to get their faces known.

When it came to The Grand, it would take some organisation to arrange public transport anyway, this punter opting instead for the trusty family Volvo (don’t judge me) for a 40-plus-mile round-trip. And I just about had time to start on my solitary pint before the band clambered on stage at 7.45 for a 90-minute opening set, part one of a spellbinding 22-song salvo spanning 35 years.

That number’s nothing extraordinary on paper, but when you scheme in how much is packed into each number, that often defies nature, not least with three of the band closing in on their 60s.

I loved The Icicle Works, the beauty of ‘Birds Fly (Whisper To a Scream)’, ‘Love Is a Wonderful Colour’ and ‘Hollow Horse’ dragging me in as a teen. I guess there’s nostalgia too, recalling times and places through key tracks. And many more great moments would follow, whatever mode of transport McNabb was driving. Take for example 1990’s ‘Motorcycle Rider’, occasional kick-starts taking us in new directions.

But here’s a second confession. The original production on some of those Works LPs occasionally turned great songs into something a little dated. I could still feel the quality and admire the width, but sometimes those recordings didn’t do them favours.

However, as the years progressed, Ian got over that, in style, a number of solo albums incorporating a far beefier sound that suited him so well, and if you’ve seen them live you’ll know for sure how much of a sonic punch they pack, absolutely owning those songs.

In that same interview, Ian labelled his more recent band project, Cold Shoulder, a rougher version of the Works, but that only told half the story. Fact is that the Works too are a far more rough and ready yet sharper version of the original band. Days alongside leading lights from Crazy Horse and the like have clearly paid off. All these years on, he’s at the top of his game, with his band shit-hot.

That was pretty much apparent from the moment they kicked off with 1985 second LP stormer ‘When It All Comes Down’ (good enough to finish most sets, let alone start one) and followed that with the Cope-esque pop perfection of ‘Evangeline’ from the third long player, the clock yet to strike eight and the place already jumping, with guitars searing and a devoted following singing along.

Their on-stage passion is infectious, Ian funny and charming between songs, the full-grown beard and baker boy cap suggesting to those who haven’t seen him in a while that he’s trying to avoid a local he borrowed money from in 1988.

At Boots’ side we have fellow guitar supremo Chris Kearney, part of the Cold Shoulder set-up, and Roy Corkill on bass, previously involved from 1988/90 and again since the 2006 reformation, as is the case with the unmistakeable Richard Naiff (with whom Ian guested with the latter-day Waterboys), his long hair flying as he bobs up, down and around behind two banks of keyboards as if powered by Lord alone knows what, having the time of his life, the sounds produced sublime at times.

And then there’s Nick Kilroe, owning those drums. I expected the Keith Moon-like splendour of Dodgy’s Mathew Priest, but was mightily impressed by this second Cold Shoulder loanee, who clearly knows his way around a kit, with support on the fringes by Tim Devine, for the most part keeping his head down.

On they cracked, 1985’s ‘Seven Horses’ leading to the reflective ‘Little Girl Lost’ from three years later, Kilroe at its epicentre. And then there was ‘86’s Scott Walker-esque ‘Who Do You Want For Your Love?’, your scribe in no doubt he was in the presence of an artist who still has a great voice 30-plus years down the line. Arguably, it’s even better, plenty of living reflected in that deep timbre.

On we went with the proggy ‘Rapids’ and slow-building ‘Starry Blue-Eyed Wonder’, the main-man telling us – punters still turning up, clearly not getting the memo – ‘It gets better, la!’ as if we needed convincing. Meanwhile, ‘Up in the North of England’ was as powerful as I hoped, Ian adding ‘Fuck the Tories’ at the end in case we’d missed the underlying theme. Well said.

We went further back for the self-titled debut LP’s ‘A Factory in the Desert’, giving rise to the following year’s Teardrop Explodes-like ‘Out of Season’, then another personal highlight, 1990’s beautiful ‘Melanie Still Hurts’, our guest revealing how he changed the names to protect the once-innocent when writing it, but reckoning he’d met all those girls since. The scamp.

And then came two brooding first album choices to end part one, ‘In the Cauldron of Love’ and ‘Nirvana’, the bandleader almost apologetic in explaining how this ageing collective needed more wees these days. He wasn’t fooling anyone though. They have more dash and bollocks than 90 per cent of today’s feted rock and pop acts.

They soon reassembled, the glorious Rust Never Sleeps-like guitar assault of Permanent Damage’s ‘What She Did to My Mind’ dragging us back from the bar, and ‘85’s similarly-robust ‘Perambulator’ leaving the Grand clientele gasping, the old ‘uns on guitar, bass and keys still going strong, no medical attention required.

It was largely solo year territory from there, Head Like a Rock’s majestic country rock-tinged powerhouse (maybe that should be powerhorse) ‘This Time is Forever’ followed by a mighty left turn, Merseybeast’s glorious ‘You Stone My Soul’ – part-Edwyn Collins, part-Sly Stone – having me daydreaming about the Rev. Al Green joining them up there. As a wise man said, ‘Be careful what you dream of, it may come up and surprise you.’ Well, wouldn’t that be something.

There were concerns about the venue’s curfew, but somehow they still fitted in ‘Clarabella (Come to the Window)’ – think Neil Diamond writing for the Faces – barely two years old but truly at home among these classic songs of yesteryear. And then there was a raucous return to 1994 for the celebratory ‘70s rock of ‘You Must Be Prepared to Dream’, another hour having sped by.

The clock almost run down, out went the 1983 singles. But did we feel cheated? Not a bit. How could we? Instead we got ‘86’s wondrous ‘Understanding Jane’, me realising I hadn’t told my better half I’d even arrived on this dark, wet night in rural Lancashire, potential recriminations on the cards.

A grunge-driven ‘Our Future In Space’, from the latest Cold Shoulder LP, saw the lines between McNabb’s band projects blur and the floor reverberate, an intergalactic juggernaut (more a space station, I guess) of a song followed by the 35-year-old ‘Hollow Horse’, the decades melting away, the audience drained but Ian and co. reliant on wild horses to drag them away … possibly. What a night. Come back soon, fellas.

For this website’s most recent feature/interview with Ian McNabb, including a link back to our October 2015 chat, head here.

Remaining Icicle Works dates: Southampton Engine Rooms (Saturday, October 12th), Cottingham Civic Hall (Friday October 18th), Norwich Arts Centre (Saturday, October 19th), Derby Flowerpot (Friday, October 25th), Douglas (Isle Of Man) Villa Marina (Saturday, October 26th), Bristol Thekla (Friday November 1st), Birmingham O2 Academy 2 (Saturday, November 9th), Leeds Brudenell (Friday, November 15th).

Cold Shoulder date: Liverpool Arts Club (Saturday, December 7th).

Spatial Future: Ian McNabb, still a force to be reckoned with, approaching his fourth decade on the road

For more details and all the latest from Ian McNabb and his side-projects, seek out his Facebook and Twitter pages and visit his website.

Posted in Books Films, TV & Radio, Music | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Richard Hawley – Mountford Hall, Liverpool Guild of Students

Posted on October 11, 2019 by writewyattuk

For five months now, Richard Hawley’s Further has provided a fitting soundtrack to my travels north, south, east and west, the amount of personal playbacks fast approaching those previously afforded the artist’s landmark Coles Corner, Lady’s Bridge and Truelove’s Gutter LPs, getting me from A to B and the sea in style.

That’s included regular trips over t’ tops to his beloved Sheffield, but I’ve found our Richard – now two decades into an amazing solo career – sounds just as good in Cornish, Lancashire and Surrey settings, those beautifully-crafted songs proving universal.

The man himself suggested at Mountford Hall on Tuesday night that he feels he can say more about his true feelings in cities like Liverpool, Manchester and his own South Yorkshire birthplace, that after his withering dismissal of the ‘wrecking ball’ PM in charge of our political destiny right now (quickly changing that description to something more choice and even more apt, clearly warming to his theme).

He’s possibly right about reactions elsewhere, but if you’re reading this, Richard, feel free to say it wherever you go. You’ll be surprised how well that’s received by audiences everywhere.

Dynamic Duo: Unfortunately I didn’t get to Liverpool early enough to catch Southend troubadour Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly, here with Richard at Manchester’s Albert Hall, but check him out via http://www.getcapewearcapefly.com/

Don’t get the wrong impression. Down to earth he definitely is, and genuinely affable, yet I get the impression he’d rather let his songs speak for themselves, nervous at asking much more than how we’re doing and if we’re enjoying ourselves at first, the responses to both questions on this occasion 100 per cent positive of course.

I’d like to think most of those who shelled out for tickets already had his eighth long player, and on the night we were treated to 10 of its 11 great tracks, leaving room for just eight oldies, the earliest being the title/lead track of 2005’s Coles Corner, gloriously received and forever timeless.

From the next record we had perhaps my highlight of so many on the night, his hope that ‘Tonight the Streets Are Ours’ might one day become a reality (bearing in mind his earlier political outburst) truly stirring, the sheer optimism of that number seeing tears well up for this audience member.

‘Open Up Your Door’ from 2009 had a similar effect, another classic slice of Hawley given a full band treatment and going down a storm, a feeling of communal love sweeping the floor. They don’t write songs like that anymore, right? Well, actually Richard does.

He started the night as he opens Further, with a tone-setting raucous double, the thunderous ‘Off My Mind’ and rollocking glam stomper ‘Alone’ paving the way for the title track, the inherent harmonies and musicianship apparent from the word go. Meanwhile, next choice ‘Standing at the Sky’s Edge’ was the first to cause the hairs on the back of the neck to stir, the backdrop of Steel City high-rises a telling touch.

On that front, my eldest daughter, studying in Sheffield, has the better of me, having seen the musical which takes its name from that 2012 title track, so I’ll use this space to appeal to its inspiration, writer Chris Bush and his theatrical collaborators to bring that on the road too.

At the mid-point of his 12-date UK tour, this was quality fare in a city which famously appreciates sonic creativity and has a proven track record for warming to artists giving it their all. And as gifted songwriters who truly know their music history, Hawley and his band were a perfect fit.

Later we got two more cuts from Standing at the Sky’s Edge, Shez Sheridan (guitar) and his cohorts getting down and dirty on a mighty wade through old blues to The Stooges and beyond on the epic ‘Down in the Woods’, before the dreamy, slow-building ‘Don’t Stare at the Sun’.

Actually, I’ve … erm, a notion that a future Hawley ‘best of’ might be called Sun, Stars, Oceans and Open Doors. Every great songwriter has themes they return to again and again, and for our Richard those are themes that clearly resonate.

There were technical gremlins as he switched to acoustic guitar early on, deferentially suggesting it wouldn’t really matter if we couldn’t hear his strumming before launching head on into 2007’s high-tempo ‘I’m Looking For Someone to Find Me’, then back to the new LP for a typically evocative modern masterpiece in ‘Emilina Says’.

While so many tracks stand out on Further – and tonight the Smiths-esque ‘Doors’, equally exquisitely-reflective ‘Midnight Train’ plus a laidback rocking ‘Galley Girl’ (a reinvented sea shanty I’d like to hear Fisherman’s Friends tackle) also impressed, with just the deeply-personal ‘My Little Treasures’ omitted – I’ll put my neck on the line and say ‘Time Is’ could be my favourite song of 2019, Clive Mellor playing a blinder on harmonica, not for the first time that evening.

I should mention more about Richard’s bandmates, but what do you want to hear? I could mention that Colin Elliot’s violin bass looked the part in this Merseyside setting for starters. But like Richard himself, his fellow musicians don’t go out of their way to get noticed. They’re just there, dependable, perfect accompaniment for a top-notch singer and talented tunesmith and musician who’s probably still a little embarrassed it’s just his name on the records’ front covers.

I’m pretty sure they were enjoying themselves more and more as the night progressed though, and not just because of their leader’s occasional pronouncements and thumbs-ups to us, his stance, denims and greased-back hair evoking classic rock’n’roll cool.

We were taken to the sun again for rousing showstopper, ‘Is There a Pill’, a veritable mountain of a song that unfortunately arrived three decades too late for the Big O. And on returning there was one more delve into the grooves of Further, the poignant ‘Not Lonely’ pre-empting a gorgeous send-off, familiar tinkling announcing 2010 EP interlude ‘There’s a Storm a Comin’’, with chills throughout and hearts truly tugged, these North Country treasures leaving us on a high.

Looking Further: Richard Hawley, still in his songwriting prime and at a venue near you (Photo: Chris Saunders)

Remaining UK dates, with support from Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly (most are sold out, check for details): Friday, October 11th – Sheffield Octagon; Monday, October 14th – Newcastle Northumbria Institute; Tuesday, October 15th – Glasgow Barrowland; Thursday, October 17th – London Roundhouse; Friday, October 18th – Brighton Dome. Visit Richard Hawley’s official website for more information, and check out his Facebook page.   

 

 

 

Posted in Books Films, TV & Radio, Music | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Turning up the Voltage – the Jeffrey Lewis interview

Posted on October 2, 2019 by writewyattuk

Three’s Company: Jeffrey Lewis and the Voltage, namely Brent Cole, left, and Mem Pahl, right (Photo: Nic Chapman)

I’m guessing cult US indie singer-songwriter and comic book artist Jeffrey Lewis is back home in New York right now, after a recent run of UK dates with his band, The Voltage.

And again, he picked up plenty of new friends, having received jaw-dropping praise from major news and music outlets before now, along with awed testimonials from big names on both the underground and overground scenes.

Listen to his new record Bad Wiring in a few weeks and you’ll see why, a 43-year-old now some 18 years into his recording career clearly on a creative high. And while waiting for that November 1st release you can always catch up with his tremendous Modern Lovers-like lead single ‘LPs’ and trawl back through an impressive back-catalogue.

As those who put his records out succinctly put it, ‘In all of indie-rock there is no force like Jeffrey Lewis. Although mostly recognised for his lyrical skills as well as his illustration and comic book skills, the secret weapon in Lewis’s arsenal has been his slow evolution from DIY folkie in the late 90s to barn-burning indie-rock live sensation.’ Is The Voltage frontman guilty as charged on that front?

“Well, it’s certainly true that over the years we kind of went through this evolution of turning into a band from just being kind of me in a bedroom with a tape recorder, with my brother Jack playing bass. It was the two of us for a while, we started making up songs and by 1997, playing little places in New York.

“By around 2002 we started playing with a drummer, starting to go on tour, learning the ins and outs of what it meant to play shows on stage and make recordings. It was a very slow, weird learning process that we sort of accidentally found ourselves engaging in until at this point we were like, ‘Oh yeah, we’re a band, here we are on tour, and we know how to talk to a venue, do a soundcheck and ask for ‘more keyboard in the right stage monitor’ and professional sounding stuff.

“I guess that just slowly happened, but then with all these bands we love, like Yo La Tengo, The Velvet Underground and all that kind of noisy full-on sound like The Fall, and Stereolab … for a long time I felt there was this disconnect between the fact that we’d be getting press that would consider us a solo, acoustic singer-songwriter thing, then we’d show up and play this loud, full-on rock’n’roll stuff with distortion pedals and everything.

“And still to this day I show up at a venue and they’re surprised that the guitars will be going through an amplifier, or that there’s a microphone for the guitar, or we have a DI box, and so on.”

Is that all down to the Lightning in your name (apparently, his parents actually named him Lightning Jeffrey Lewis, on account of adverse weather conditions when he was born, or as he put it, ‘the result of being born on the Lower East Side in the 1970s to hippie parents’)?

“Yes, but we were always a bit noisier than advertised, I guess. The quiet stuff is an important part of what we do also, but that dynamic and ability to just throw in all the things we love into this project has always been part of it.”

He calls The Voltage his new band, but the musicians are the same he had in previous incarnation Los Bolts, namely bassist, Mem Pahl and drummer, Brent Cole (also of the Moldy Peaches), that pair having toured the world with for the past four years.

As for that more recent name change, as he puts it, ‘Everybody knows most good bands have a ‘v’ in their name – the Velvets, Nirvana, Pavement, Vaselines, Violent Femmes, Camper Van Beethoven, Modern Lovers, and so on’.

In fact, before Los Bolts it was The Rain, seemingly also in reference to the Lightning in his name.

Triple Voltage: Jeffrey Lewis and arm-wrestling bandmates Brent Cole and Mem Pahl (Photo: Bristol Mather)

The new LP was recorded and produced in Nashville by Roger Moutenot, also responsible for producing several influential Yo La Tengo albums, and who also worked on Lou Reed’s Magic and Loss and Sleater Kinney’s Hot Rock, more than enough to convince Jeffrey he was the right man to capture these 12 great new songs in the studio.

“As an experience of working with a producer, it was a dream come true. I obviously worship a number of records Roger had produced in the past, so I specifically sought him out. The fact that he’s in Nashville was just accidental. We would have travelled to record with him anywhere. But now when people hear we made our album in Nashville, everybody’s like, oh, I guess this is your country album.”

It’s a great record, I can reveal, with plenty of memorable moments and clever twists and turns, and above all gifted songwriting. As the line from opening track ‘Exactly What Nobody Wanted’ puts it, ‘So awesome, just awesome’.

And from the cracking punk riff driving ‘Except for the Fact That It Isn’t’ to Jeffrey’s breathless alternative state of the nation address on ‘My Girlfriend Doesn’t Worry’ right through to pensive, poignant closer ‘Not Supposed To Be Wise’, I’m hooked. What’s more, songs like ‘Depression! Despair!’ have Lou Reed writ large on them, echoes of his ‘New York’ album heard on the latter.

I’m only a few listens in, but the fruits of their labours suggest the band and their producer had a winning working relationship.

“Oh yeah, that was fantastic. I would definitely record with Roger Moutenot again. He was such a great person to work with and it really seemed that he got the atmosphere andthat was some of the sound I’ve been going for many years, a sound he cooked up initially in the ’90s with Yo La Tengo. Yeah, it just seemed a natural fit.”

Jeffrey continues to get lots of great press, and is ‘slowly but surely on a trajectory to immortal cult status’ according to Line of Best Fit, ‘dazzling’ according to Mojo, ‘Weird? Very… but also downright inspiring’ in Rolling Stone’s view, and was seen by the NME as ‘The Big Apple’s best-kept secret…. Genius-gone-ignored… mind-blowing.’ What’s more, former Pulp frontman and BBC 6 Music presenter Jarvis Cocker reckons Jeffrey is ‘the best lyricist working in the US today’. High praise indeed.

He recently undertook an 11-day, 11-date UK tour including Oslo in London, two shows in Scotland and a Welsh finale at Cardiff’s Clwb Ifor Bach. When we caught up he was just set to leave Lancashire for the long trek up to Scotland. How was The Ferret in Preston that previous night?

“It was great. And a good crowd. It’s been quite a while since I was there, and not since it was the Mad Ferret, going back – off-hand – to maybe 2011. It’s been a long time.”

So long it’s no longer mad?

“Right. Yes. It’s straightened itself out.”

Lewis Carols: US treasure Jeffrey Lewis supplying a little six-string sonic therapy for us (Kelley Clayton)

There seems to be a lot of love for you on this side of the Atlantic.

“Well, I guess, I mean people are coming to shows, so that’s good.”

The UK became in a sense a second home for you, the first country to put out a CD by you, for instance.

“Yeah, we really got just a fantastic leg-up and head-start over here, first of all with Rough Trade putting out my stuff, even though it was just home-recorded cassettes. It’s amazing that Geoff Travis took a chance on it and put it out, and we were able to do a Peel Session in 2002 – that was also a tremendous big start in England.

“And one of my first gigs in London, a very tiny show in November 2001, Ben Ayres from Cornershop just happened to be in the audience, even though there were only about 30 people in there, and invited me to go on tour in England opening for Cornershop. That was also just tremendous. So within a very short time, just a few months, somehow I just had all this exposure, and was really off and running quite quickly.”

And the UK’s always been in your musical DNA, I’m thinking, with all those cool indie bands and so much more you appreciate coming from this side of the Atlantic.

“Yeah, definitely. I was always a fan of Cornershop, for example, and stuff that Rough Trade had done. “

Jeffrey had a long drive up to Glasgow that day, but I put it to him that he was used to all this by now, surely.

“Yeah, and it’s also such a beautiful drive, the journey up to Scotland.”

Lightning Reactions: Jeffrey Lewis, hoping to see us next summer (Photo: Sonya Kolowrat)

Beyond that he had several more UK dates, then it was on to Italy before returning home. Can he take inspiration on the road while he’s out there, writing songs between shows? Or is that something that happens when he’s home and reflecting on it all?

“There’s usually just too much other stuff to do. Songwriting doesn’t usually happen on tour, and then it’s usually on to organising the next tour. There’s a USA tour in November, so I need to make all the posters and mail all the posters out for that and sort out where we’re staying each night on that tour. And with the new album, Bad Wiring, coming out on November 1st, there’s quite a bit to do with that. It’s sort of juggling three, four or five full-time careers, basically.”

How very indie D-I-Y, and that’s even without mentioning his other career, other than to say that we should also keep an eye out for other interesting Jeffrey Lewis projects, such as his new giant-size comic book issue, Fuff#12, and first book Revelations in the Wink of an Eye: My Insane Musings on Watchmen, from Conspiracies to Stupidities. 

I was only on my first listen of the new LP when I spoke to Jeffrey, but already loving what I was hearing. It’s difficult to keep track with various formats involved, so what number recording would he class this one as?

“Well, I’ve got seven albums on Rough Trade and this will be the first on Moshi Moshi, but I’ve also got a few others, various self-releases, and a couple of projects on Don Giovanni Records, so it sort of depends what counts. I guess I’d say I have seven official albums and this will be number eight.”

With this recent UK visit a pre-release tour, any idea when he might return for those who missed out this time?

“Well, we usually come to England at least once or twice a year, so I’m thinking maybe next summer, depending on whether there’s a festival situation or something. Maybe that could be a good time to come back.”

This tour was with The Voltage, previously knoqwn as Los Bolts – was it just you, Brent and Mem?

“Yeah, although actually at the moment we have my brother Jack, who’s been in my band quite a long time in my early years, and once in a while we get him to join us again. So we’ve got him jumping in as a special guest band member, just for these UK dates. He wasn’t with us in Germany last week. Usually we’re a three-piece, but once in a while Jack joins us.”

Electric Performer: Jeffrey Lewis hanging out, without his Voltage, as heard on Bad Wiring (Photo: Sonya Kolowrat)

On the sublime ‘LPs’ from this new album, you talk about some of your key influences, and you also paid tribute recently to cult lo-fi underground US singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston (who died barely a week earlier), clearly a major inspiration on all you’ve gone on to do.

“Yeah, absolutely, going back to when my brother Jack and I first heard his stuff in 1995, with the album he put out on Atlantic Records. That was my first exposure to him, and we became completely devoted fans. We weren’t really making songs prior to that, and then it just inspired our entire approach and us making recordings in the late ‘90s. Yeah, without Daniel Johnston’s influence and all his cassettes … I think I have pretty much all of them, and  that’s really how I got started.

“I even lived in Austin, Texas briefly, on a sort of Daniel Johnston pilgrimage back in 2000, and while I was there I was able to get my hands on quite a number of his tapes I hadn’t been able to find in New York City prior to that. I also did a number of gigs with him over the years, the first in New York in 1999, and later also in Texas, Manchester and London. He was also such a great guiding light for how strong and true a song was possible to be.”

Was he encouraging of your work too?

“Well, he was quite introverted. It’s not like he would reach out and give encouragement to somebody who just did his thing and was very … he wasn’t a person you could have a normal conversation with. He was very much in his own head, and wouldn’t really engage in that way.”

I mentioned the track ‘LPs’, the first track aired from the new album. Call it an obsession or perhaps even a disease, but so many of us relate to that musical journey you embarked upon, finding our way through the record racks, so to speak. And in your music there’s so much within that we can identify, from Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers (there’s even a subtle nod on ‘LPs’ in the way he phrases ‘Radio in the first line, and the Voltage’s echoed harmonies) back to the Velvet Underground …

“All band names with a V!”

Well, exactly. I love that, and reckon I hear Violent Femmes in your work in places.

“Yeah, Silver Jews, Pavement … I don’t know why these bands have Vs in their name but at a certain point I noticed a proper band seems to need a V.”

Indeed, and Silver Jews are another band receiving plenty of interest of late, with the all too early departure of founder David Berman in August. at the age of 52. I was also going to mention past WriteWyattUK interviewees They Might Be Giants there, not least from their more new wave-like early days, but they don’t quite fit Jeffrey’s flying V remit. But no matter. He’s still got plenty of influences to fire at me …

“Television, Richard Hell and the Voidoids … the list goes on and on!”

Crown Joules: Jeffrey Lewis and the Voltage bandmates Brent Cole, left, and Mem Pahl, right (Photo: Nic Chapman)

Jeffrey Lewis’ new LP, Bad Wiring is out via Moshi Moshi on November 1st. For more details and all the latest from Jeffrey, try his Facebook page and website.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Books Films, TV & Radio, Music | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Reverend and the Makers – Action Records, Preston

Posted on September 27, 2019 by writewyattuk

Queue Action: The congregation, including this reviewer, await the Reverend and a Maker (Photo: Action Records)

Half past six it said on the advert, so there I was – unfashionably early – going twice round the block to find a space, sheepishly passing a long queue outside the shop.

Having checked parking restrictions several times, convinced Preston’s traffic wardens were hovering menacingly nearby, I made my way down Derby Street to join the punters, a few minutes spare.

That next 20 minutes or so seemed to take forever, a nearby bar having hit happily pissed up hour, echoing karaoke seeping into my brain. Or was it in my head? Nobody else seemed to pick up on at least two murders of dreadful Bruce Channel song, ‘Hey Baby’. A favourite at Preston North End, I seem to recall (please tell me it no longer is), the words in the chorus mutated into more or less one slurred word then an ‘oof’ and ‘aah’. Painful.

A week before, Jon McClure told me he hoped to get along early to flick through the racks at this iconic Church Road store, having missed out last time he called. Was he already in there? No, voices carrying from the front end of the queue suggesting excitement or relief, Jon and Makers’ guitarist Ed Cosens soon walking nonchalantly along from the direction of Fishergate, guitar cases in hand, The Reverend’s new moustache leading to collective double-takes. Was that really him? Course it was.

Not long after we were in, this punter taking the left aisle, tempted to leaf through some vinyl. But it seemed rude, Jon and Ed already strumming, even that early jam impressing, the acoustic pair with a couple of runs through ‘Son of a Gun’ by The La’s. I always felt they had good taste.

Action Stations: Ed and Jon from Reverend and the Makers with host, Gordon Gibson (Photo: Action Records)

This was the last of four intimate acoustic record store sessions and the only one outside Yorkshire, the 27-track Best Of album – double-CD or double-LP – launched five days before on their home patch at Bear Tree Records, Sheffield. And this time, a 35-minute set ensued, Jon telling us, “I feel I’m engaged in an exercise to ascertain how many people we can fit into a small record shop.”

Prompted by flattery from a woman close up, Jon introduced his ‘tache, suggesting she liked it far more than his better half, bandmate Laura, who he reckons looked at it with disdain. And having mentioned the record, suggesting it made sense to ‘get y’sen a copy’, we were off.

We helped them get going with a communal singalong on ‘Open Your Window’, one of the tracks that ensured the success and continuing appeal of their 2007 debut LP, The State of Things, our ‘we’ll be together in the Springtime’ hardly the singing ‘like your life depends on it’ he requested, but fairly together in the circumstances.

It was all going well, even if we couldn’t bounce along like a regular Makers gig, ‘in case we knock a Forrest Gump VHS on your head’ or ‘be injured in the critical case of a Fall boxset coming down on us’. Jon liked the imagery of that, suggesting ‘what a way to die’, adding, ‘If that does ‘appen to anyone and you’re killed by a Fall boxset, I’ll ‘appily deliver a glowing eulogy at your funeral’. Touching.

A more mellow ‘No Soap (In a Dirty War) from 2009’s A French Kiss in the Chaos was next, the quality coming through in this near-raw form, the lyrics all the more stark on a number that could only have been penned by a band with genuine, burning frustrations to voice, and achingly personal in this setting, delivered at close quarters in front of less than 100 people.

In fact, Jon told us how now and again he’ll forget a line, admitting feeling a little flustered when he spotted a girl near the back who knew his words better than he did, adding, “I could feel mi’sen about to fuck ‘em up!”

Reading Matter: Ed Cosens and Jon McClure review your reviewer’s Clash biography at Action Records

A gruesome tale followed about an ex-girlfriend and a poo sample before Jon and Ed gave us ‘Sex With the Ex’, so to speak, the show being live-streamed and The Reverend letting on how his Mum, holidaying in Spain, would be watching, uneasy about him telling that previous tale.

A rant about Thom Yorke refusing to play first crossover hit ‘Creep’ live with Radiohead preceded their crack at breakthrough single ‘Heavyweight Champion of the World’, discussion following between Jon and Ed over whether to try another bash at ‘Hidden Persuaders’ from the second LP, the Rev suggesting it was ‘shit‘ in this format last time. Well, it was great on this occasion.

A talkative young lad halfway back was getting restless, Jon mocking a telling off before namechecking him, announcing, ‘When you’re older, you might be able to play as badly as me’. But a poignant solo rendition of ‘Long, Long Time’ proved his stage and songcraft is not in question.

Ed re-joined for a more upbeat ‘Bandits’, the lads back to the first LP, with laughter part-way in when Jon’s right-hand man stepped across to take lead vocals, a shared microphone causing hassle, Jon a fair bit taller and Ed struggling to stretch and hit those notes, doing commendably, his bandmate in hysterics. And where Laura would have chipped in with her lines, Jon covered, telling us mid-song, ‘Obviously, my wife’s not here, so you’re going to have to put up with me doing an impression, in my own inimitable way’.

Then came ‘What Goes Around’ from 2012’s ‘@Reverend_Makers’, the duo’s harmonies impressive in a perfect finale, the next half-hour seeing the pair carry on their community service, signing records and sharing more stories. There’s one I’m tempted to retell, but I best not. Next time you see the Rev though, ask about the couple with the shared Best Of at Chesterfield’s Tallbird session.

And if you haven’t yet, ‘get y’sen a copy’ of The Best of Reverend and the Makers. Highly recommended. I look forward to an Unplugged follow-up.

Happy Shoppers: Jon and Ed of Reverend and the Makers live at Action Records, Preston (Photo: Action Records)

With thanks to Gordon Gibson, Action Records’ next event taking place at the nearby Blitz nightclub with The Sherlocks on Tuesday, October 8th. For more details head to the store’s Facebook page or pop in and splash out on more great music than you planned to.

If you missed this site’s interview with Jon McClure last week, including links to a previous feature/interview and live review, head here. Meanwhile, Reverend and the Makers’ Best Of tour starts on Thursday, October 3rd at Nottingham Rock City. For more details head to their Facebook page or www.reverendmakers.com.

Finally, it is still possible to follow Jon McClure’s example and get your hands on a copy of This Day in Music’s Guide to The Clash by Malcolm Wyatt, with details here.

Posted in Books Films, TV & Radio, Music | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What the Butlers saw – the welcome return of the Psychedelic Furs

Posted on September 26, 2019 by writewyattuk

Stage Presence: The Psychedelic Furs are all set for their latest UK return this October. Photo: Maggie Butler

It’s been 36 years since The Psychedelic Furs relocated to America, but you wouldn’t know it, listening to bass player and founder member Tim Butler.

Tim, the younger brother of lead singer Richard in a post-punk outfit best known for hits such as ‘Pretty in Pink’, ‘Love My Way’, ‘Heaven’ and ‘The Ghost in You’, still has a strong London accent, despite all those years away. And how’s life right now?

“I can’t complain, although it’s brutally hot out here.”

Ah, wel, we just happen to be having a bit of late summer sun too, I replied, keen to compete and let him know what he’s missing out on.

“So are we. It’s supposed to get to 103, so that’s some late summer heat as well.”

Okay, you win, Tim. Is home still Kentucky?

“Yeah, I’ve been here 11 years now.”

But you’ve been based in the States a lot longer.

“Oh yeah, Richard and I moved over to America in 1983. So I’ve lived over here longer than I lived in England.”

Do you get back to your old haunts when you visit?

“We don’t really have time. It’s normally a pretty tight schedule.”

Front Man: Tim’s older brother, Richard Butler, who first floated the idea of them forming a band (Photo: Mike Pfeiffer).

If you could find that little bit of down-time, would it be a case of heading back to your native Middlesex?

“I think it would probably be down the pub we used to go to on afternoons when we were first in the band and unemployed, when we both lived in Muswell Hill.”

Ah, on The Kinks’ old North London patch.

“Yeah, yeah, the Muswell Hillbillies, yep!”

Incidentally, despite those London roots, Tim told me his folks – he’s one of three lads – were originally from Bolton-by-Bowland, near Clitheroe, Lancashire, and Ripon in Yorkshire’s West Riding, Yorkshire, so has a fair amount of Northern England pedigree.

Richard had an art school background. Was it a similar story with his little brother?

“Actually, I’d just left school after O-levels and CSEs, and pretty much immediately he said, ‘Do you wanna form a band?’ Like millions of people before, I said, ’I can’t play’. He asked what I wanted to play. I fancied drums but couldn’t afford a kit, yet wanted to be at the bottom end – either bass or drums. So I got a bass, learned to play it, and within around six months we were playing our first shows.”

Do those early appearances (they started performing in early 1977) remain clear in the memory?

“Yeah, we did one at the old Roxy club. Richard read about Iggy Pop taking a vacuum cleaner on stage with The Stooges, so we tried that there … but it just sounded like bass feedback, so we stopped that pretty quickly. Ha ha!”

If I recall right, the Roxy wasn’t running that long in the scheme of things.

“No, and I think we were playing there at the tail end of it. That was probably ‘77/’78.”

Did you happen to see The Clash open that iconic punk venue on New Year’s Day, 1977?

“No, but I saw The Clash play the 100 Club with the Sex Pistols, which was what really made us talk about getting a band together. That was with Keith Levene playing with The Clash, and there was Siouxsie and the Banshees playing, with Sid Vicious playing drums and Marco Pirroni playing guitar, and of course the Pistols had Glen Matlock with them.

“That was a transformative gig for us, with the Pistols a kick up the arse to the music business and the whole prog rock, denim-clad sort of music scene. Sort of like Nirvana were in America in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s.

“I think there needs to be another kick up the arse now. For a while I thought it was going to be The Killers, but they didn’t turn out like I thought. A great band, but I think the mainstream pop chart is still a bit stagnant. It all sounds the same. There’s nothing that stands out. It could all be the same person.”

On this UK tour you get to finish at The Roundhouse, Chalk Farm, another treasured venue with a punk past. Is that old ground for you?

“Sort of. It’s great. Last time we were here we ended up playing (The Cure’s) Robert Smith’s Meltdown Festival – getting to play the Royal Festival Hall, which was a great call to be asked by him to do it. But anywhere in London is sort of like home territory.

“We started there and played the Electric Ballroom and the Music Machine (both Camden, not far from The Roundhouse), where I remember playing when they had the original stage up in the air, this huge jukebox underneath the stage. I’m talking way back now!”

That sell-out Royal Festival Hall date was one of a handful of successful UK summer shows for the band in 2018, The Psychedelic Furs now returning – for a third year in succession – for a nine-date tour starting next Tuesday, October 1st, at the O2 Ritz in Manchester, just across the road from Oxford Road station.

The Psychedelic Furs’ story properly started with the brothers rehearsing in their front room some 42 years ago, until their Mum threw them out for being too loud, their first self-titled debut LP following in early 1980. I wasn’t even a teenager until later that year, and admittedly it took me a while to catch up, brought up to speed by night-time BBC Radio 1.

I certainly knew a lot more about them by the time the success of John Hughes’ 1986 US high school rom-com movie Pretty in Pink led to a re-release of the 1981 single (from second album, Talk Talk Talk) that inspired its title. But it was really 1988’s All of This and Nothing compilation that proved to be my Furs gateway LP, and it remains a favourite, along with the single that came out that year, ‘All That Money Wants’.

What’s more, I was fairly surprised to learn that following year they were still a going concern, writing great songs, when I shelled out on vinyl for the somehow less celebrated Book of Days, the sixth of seven studio albums so far. And now even that’s 30 years ago.

“Book of Days was sort of a weird album for us. We’d done the whole Midnight to Midnight thing (1987) and got completely disillusioned with the way we were going, chasing the successful American market, veering away from our original goals. Trying to fit in with what was going around.

“So we made a severe right turn, and went back to not using any synthesisers. It was all natural instruments. We didn’t really want to do any videos, although we did one. But that sort of disillusioned fans and they drifted off. And when we came out with World Outside (1991), I think people were just ‘nnnhh’.

“That’s when we decided to take a break. We didn’t realise it was going to be so long! Richard and I did Love Spit love (their offshoot band), then I became an engineer at Electric Lady Studios in New York for two years. And then we got a surprise call from our agent, asking, ‘Do you want to do this tour with The B-52’s and The Go-Go’s? You only have to do 40 minutes’. And we said, ‘Hey, why not! See if the chemistry’s still there’.”

And it clearly was.

“Yeah, and it was fun being the Furs again. We’d grown tired of the whole music business – tour, have a little rest, write, record … that old treadmill.”

Is it a different motivation these days, with the pressure off, playing for all the right reasons?

“Yeah, we’re about to release a new album after all these years, and we’ve done it all on our own terms, with no pressure and no, ‘Why don’t you write another ’Pretty in Pink’ or another ‘Love My Way’?’ We wanted to be as good as our best work from the ’80s … and I think it is, but we’ll wait and see what other people think.”

A friend who caught you live a couple of years ago told me he was pleasantly surprised you still had it as a live band, having feared that wouldn’t be the case all these years on.

“Yeah, I hear that, and see it in reviews, the fact that we don’t phone it in. A lot of bands that get back together and are touring from the ’70s or the ‘80s sort of phone it in, but we go out there and put everything into it. And it shows in the way the audience reacts, and come back to us so we get more into it. It makes for a better experience, and there’s nothing better. We come off stage and say to each other, ‘Shit! That was a really great show!’”

I’m guessing you’re attracting younger fans too. Does it surprise you looking out at the audience sometimes?

“Yeah. That’s great too. Recently, ‘The Ghost In You’ was used in Stranger Things on Netflix, and the film Call Me By Your Name (2017), used ’Love My Way’ quite a lot.”

Well, so many of those tracks are timeless.

“Yeah, and that’s the whole thing. Except for that album, Midnight to Midnight, I think our whole catalogue could come out now and not be out of place on alternative radio.”

Like so many great bands that came though from that era, you weren’t content to stand still, that old punk approach still in there somewhere, remaining keen to move into new directions.

“Yeah, if some bands find that hit sound they’ll stick with it, playing it until people are bored with them. But we’d get bored. You have to keep getting better, striving to get better from album to album to keep it exciting.”

I always felt you packed a big sound. Was that intentional from the start? How important were the likes of first LP producers Steve Lillywhite and Factory production supremo Martin Hannett, and later Todd Rundgren when you relocated to America?

“We always had that. Our sound came from the fact that in the original Furs, nobody really knew how to play their instruments or how to write songs. Someone would come up with a riff and everyone would pile on, try and make themselves heard and stick out.

“It became like a wall of melody. Somebody – I don’t know if it was Richard or a review – described it as ‘beautiful chaos’. By the time we got to my favourite album, Forever Now, we’d got the art of songwriting down better, but still maintained a certain sort of anger and strange way of writing songs – not the normal way.

“I think that came from that early spell – everyone battling to be heard, people changing half-way through a verse, changing their guitar line or whatever, or maybe a chorus or vocal coming in halfway through a verse and continuing. All these strange structures.”

You mentioned Forever Now, and I understand that was the first Furs LP your other half heard. I guess she (Robyn) must have been equally impressed.

“You mean my wife? Yeah, yeah. She’s been a fan since that album, when I think she was 14 or 15. We’d both been married twice before but finally talked to each other on MySpace. You remember that? Ha ha! Yeah, I guess that was a pivotal album for her.”

And is there another generation of Butlers coming through, waiting to set the music world alight?

“Erm, I’ve got two stepchildren – one 21, the other 26 – but they haven’t shown any ambition to get into the music business. Richard’s daughter’s been interning for a record company in England though, so I guess into more of the business side.”

Richard’s based in upper New York state, while Tim’s in Liberty, Kentucky, around 800 miles away. How do they rehearse and send songs to each other?

“Ah, it’s the age of the computer, using a program where you can write something and record it, then send it via the internet.”

And that works for you, I guess.

“Yeah, and what’s cool about this band is that we actually have two other people putting song ideas in – Paul Garisto and Rich Good. They’ve sent ideas and have songs on the album. So it’s a collaborative effort as opposed to either Richard and I writing the songs or Richard and John (Ashton, guitar, par tof the set-up from 1979 onwards, and again when they first reformed).”

Ever think back in 1977 you might still be doing all this at the age of 60, still being discovered by new generations of fans?

“No. It’s great knowing you’ve actually done something that’s changed – however small – alternative music and people’s lives. You never think that when you start up. You think, ‘Let’s go out and play, get drunk, pick up some chicks …’ You don’t think past your next gig.

“To still be doing it after all these years, I think it shows we’ve written songs that are lasting and still tap a nerve when someone new hears them. And we’re very proud of our legacy.”

Bass Instinct: Tim Butler hogs the camera, with brother Richard on the right, in live action with The Psychedelic Furs

Support for The Psychedelic Furs’ nine-date UK tour tour comes from the Wendy James Band, led by the singer of late-‘80s/early ‘90s indie success Transvision Vamp, best known for ‘I Want Your Love’ and ‘Baby I Don’t Care’, Elvis Costello having produced and written her 1993 solo LP Now Ain’t the Time for Your Tears, before she stepped away from the music industry. Wendy returned in 2011 with second solo album I Came Here to Blow Minds, followed in 2016 by The Price of the Ticket, with another LP following soon. For more details about her, head here.

October tour dates: Tuesday 1st – O2 Ritz, Manchester; Thursday 3rd- Pyramids Centre, Portsmouth; Friday 4th – Dome, Brighton; Saturday 5th – O2 Institute, Birmingham; Monday 7th – Stylus, Leeds; Tuesday 8th – O2 Academy, Glasgow; Wednesday 9th – O2 Academy, Newcastle; Friday 11th – Rock City, Nottingham; Saturday 12th – Roundhouse, London. For ticket details try www.aegpresents.co.uk.

Posted in Books Films, TV & Radio, Music | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Best of Times with the Right Reverend – back in touch with Jon McClure

Posted on September 19, 2019 by writewyattuk

Reverend and the Makers’ frontman Jon McClure was enjoying a little home time in South Yorkshire ahead of his band’s latest UK jaunt when I called. And Sheffield is clearly still at the epicentre of his universe, a dozen years after breakthrough indie No.1 single, ‘Heavyweight Champion of the World’, and subsequent top-five debut LP, The State of Things.

“I’m just having a bit of dad and lad time with my youngest son. His Mum’s gone to the shops. It’s Batman and Superman vs the Giant Squid, having a play with his figures. He’s loving it.”

I suspect Jon – joined in the band by wife Laura, Ed Cosens, Joe Carnall, and Ryan Jenkinson – is loving it too, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that in-house battle ends up as a Reverend and the Makers album title one day.

Jon and Laura’s youngest, Reggie, is two, ‘‘loving life, angling all his figures up’, his four-year-old brother having just started school, but their folks will be off again soon, with nine UK headline dates just three weeks away when we spoke.

“I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be good. Tickets are selling really well, with a few places already sold out. Everyone’s buzzing.”

There’s clearly still plenty of love out there for Reverend and the Makers.

“It’s weird really. We had a real lull during the middle period of the band, when nobody seemed to care anymore. But the last few years have been better than ever in lots of ways.”

They cross the Roses’ border to play Manchester Academy on Saturday, October 19th, and prior to that come even closer to my patch, visiting Action Records, Preston, on Wednesday, September 25th for a 6.30pm in-store acoustic set publicising their Best of Reverend and the Makers album.

With six top-20 albums and five top-five indie chart singles ‘under us belts’, sharing bills with the likes of fellow Sheffield success story Arctic Monkeys, Oasis, The Courteeners and The Libertines along the way, the latest platter is out via Cooking Vinyl on Friday, September 20th, a double-vinyl, double-CD and digital download release spanning the band’s career and including singles and fans’ favourites alike, 27 songs over two discs split into ‘Uppers’ and ‘Downers’ and including new songs ‘Elastic Fantastic’, featuring Rich Westley from The Moonlandingz and described by Jon as ‘a fantasy about killing Donald Trump with a bow & arrow’, and ‘Te Quiero Pero’.

But it’s not like they’re dependent on past success, 2017’s Death Of A King, their sixth studio album, having charted higher than the previous four, debuting in the UK album chart at No.11.

“Yeah, I think that’s testament to how good we’ve been live. We never used to be. We were rubbish.”

You really think so?

“I think so, yeah. The last two years we’ve got dead good live, that combined with making interesting records it’s gone from strength to strength. I feel very blessed, and we had a great festival season. The entire festival turned out to see us at Tramlines, and Kendal, and Y Not. We had some of the best crowds of the weekend. That was really kind of flattering, y’know.”

My sources tell me Cotton Clouds was buzzing for you too.

“That was wonderful. We had a great time, and they tweeted that was the best set they had. So what else can you do? The usual frustrations remain about the industry at large, but we just do us own thing. It’s wonderful, it’s a party when you come and see us.”

No doubt those festival sets are largely ‘best of’s, which tees you up nicely for this tour and the new release. But why now?

“Just because we’ve had six albums out, and I think a lot of people might have been early fans who missed the later stuff, or later fans who missed the early stuff. This is just our way of connecting the dots, really, with a CD of bangers and a CD of ballads. What we’re moving on to next is a bit mad, so I kind of wanted to draw a line under this period.”

Last time we spoke was in 2014 for the Thirty Two album, signifying your age at the time (and one of his Dad’s lucky Lottery numbers apparently), so maybe this one should be Thirty Eight, and by virtue of mathematics alone twice as strong as Adele’s 2008 debut.

“Ha ha! Do you know what though, the only album I made that I really don’t like is Thirty Two. It was the last of me being kind of young, getting a bit older, trying to figure out how I fitted into what’s trendy on the radio. I’m almost second-guessing myself on that album. Ever since I’ve been doing what I want, and the next album involves artificial intelligence, partnering up with the University of Sheffield to do some crazy machine neural network stuff.

“Lots of people write less good versions of their first album forever, or until they stop doing it, but I feel more powerful than ever in lots of ways, with a better angle on who I am as an artist. I’ve been fortunate enough to spend quite a lot of time with Damon Albarn. I look at him and a few other people, and think you can get better as you get older if you don’t try to be 21, accepting where you are and what lane you’re in, pushing at the boundaries.

“I feel really positive and in lots of ways I’m completely divorced from the rest of the music industry. And I’m alright with that. I live in Sheffield, my fans are there, and I’m a bit old school, me, starting to put artistry before everything else, and it’s gone dead well. When I tried to fit into the music game, it went really badly. If I’ve got any advice to young ‘uns it’s just to do what you want, do what you think is good.”

I always felt you were old beyond your years in the influences you cite, many of  which are artists I admire, from Bob Marley to The Clash, Madness, The Specials …

“I’ve been very lucky. Mick Jones asked me to come and sing, and I’m just trying to learn from my heroes, and when I think about what my heroes would be doing now, they’d be doing stuff like the AI thing and they’d definitely be having a say about politics.

“Imagine in a few years, people will be saying, ‘You were living through one of the most tumultuous periods of British politics’. I’m not going to name names, but there will be so many whose music said nothing about it. Almost as if you lived in some strange vacuum. A lot of these artists are cowards. They‘re careerists. And anybody who’s silent in this day and age needs to ask themselves why. If you don’t know anything about it and don’t have an opinion, that’s fine. But if you’re silent because you fear what impact you’re going to have on your career, you’re just a coward in my mind … and you would be in the mind of Joe Strummer, I’m certain of it.

“I think people are scared to push the ball forward, whether that’s in a political way or in an art-experimental way. And let’s be honest, the music industry is a strange place.”

Bearing that in mind, the locations you’ve chosen for LP launch dates (in-store record store shows at Sheffield Bear Tree on Friday, September 20th, Huddersfield Vinyl Tap on Saturday, September 22nd, and Chesterfield Tallbird Records on Monday, September 23rd, before heading over to Lancashire) are in the sort of towns and cities Boris Johnson is visiting right now in his ill-advised bid to gain hearts and minds and push on with his masterplan, telling us austerity’s on its way out, he’s spending gazillions of money on us, and it’s all going rather swimmingly, old chap.

“He’s actually near Sheffield as we speak, in a satellite town, Stocksbridge, more or less founded on the steel industry, where the best thing to happen to it in my lifetime was this shopping centre, which was funded by £40m of EU money. So what are you going to do? Remain silent and become some massive rock star, or stick your next on the line, stand for something and be a midtable rock star? Give me midtable, any day!”

Conversation followed about my daughter studying at the University of Sheffield, the history department where Jon studied for his degree. I also reminded him that last time around he told me he was a third of the way through writing a historical fiction novel.

“I’ve been trying to do that for some time. Sometimes it can take me as long as it takes to play a song as write one, in my back garden maybe, and it’ll come out like ‘bang’. But I look at other disciplines and at authors sometimes and see an absolute genius – the amount of investment of brain power, time and energy is incomparable to music. What we do is instantaneous. I’m still trying to get there with my novel.”

Is it odd that you chose Sheffield for your degree. Did you already have it in mind that you’d be travelling the UK and the wider world through music instead?

“In some ways I wonder if I should have had that other city experience. I lived in Leeds for a bit. I did wonder if I’d denied myself something, but then I think, ‘Y’know what – not really’. I’m glad I stayed in Sheffield. It’s a fine uni and it allowed me to keep part of that Sheffield scene that developed. If I had moved away I’d have never been that guy. It happened during that last year at uni really.

“For everything there’s a reason, and I think it were good that I stayed here. We’re the home of British electronica, we’ve had some amazing music over the years, and continue to. I don’t think we really get the credit we deserve, in the way Manchester and Liverpool have.”

That music’s part of the city landscape for me, not least The Human League, Heaven 17 and ABC, then Pulp, right through to Richard Hawley, whose LPs have been a constant in my car these past few years.

“Richard’s amazing, and like a big brother to me. When he’s on the radio he always says lovely things about me, and when he comes around our house he imparts his wisdom and that. Sheffield’s full of them people. Richard Kirk’s up the road, who started Cabaret Voltaire, Phil Oakey lives up the road from me, Nick Banks from Pulp lives up the top of the road. We’re just immersed in this wonderful music scene. It’s not one of those where everyone goes and lives in London. With the exception of the Arctic Monkeys and Joe Cocker, everyone who’s really done it still lives here. (Fellow ex-WriteWyattUK interviewee) Martyn Ware lived in London for a while, but is now back here.”

Steel Relevant: Fellow Sheffield outfit Sophie and the Giants, duly praised by the Reverend

Paul Carrack’s not far away either, is he.

“No, and I think Jarvis (Cocker) lives nearby again now. And even on a local level there’s lots of exciting things happening. There’s a band called Sophie and the Giants who have just signed a big record deal and are doing very well.

“I’ll give you another example regarding the diversity of Sheffield’s music scene. There’s this metal band, Bring Me the Horizon, who I’d never even heard of until they were playing Wembley Arena. This is a band from Sheffield, and this lad’s got a clothing firm from which he makes millions more than he does from his band. They’ve got a bar and a studio and all this stuff. And that’s just the indie heavy metal scene in Sheffield. It’s wonderful. It’s not like we’re trading on past glories. And because it’s not fancy and it’s not trendy, it allows us to operate slightly out of the spotlight.”

That came over in a BBC documentary and my 2014 interview with Paul Carrack.  The fact that if he were to step out of line he felt he’d be gently reminded of his South Yorkshire roots – that element of not getting above your station.

“Yeah, absolutely, and I think there’s a musical freedom in Sheffield. My music’s nothing like Richard (Hawley)’s, his music’s nothing like The Human League, they’re nothing like the Arctic Monkeys, whose music is nothing like Bring Me the Horizon. But for some reason we all co-exist and do these interesting, cult things, and I think that’s wonderful. I feel very lucky to live here.

“There is that ‘when are you moving to London’ thing, but I’d sooner move to Rio. I can travel the world and come back to Sheffield, especially in the digital age, man. It’s not like London’s paved with gold. If anything, it’s a cultural vacuum. It sucks people’s creativity out of them. The grime scene is wonderful, and what they do is cool, but I can’t think of a great band to come from London in a long, long time. And there’s more than five million people there. There’s half a million in Sheffield.”

First time I stayed over in Sheffield, I made a pilgrimage to the (rather underwhelming) site of the Black Swan, scene of The Clash’s first gig on July 4th, 1976, supporting the Sex Pistols. I guess you were there regularly in its later incarnation as The Boardwalk.

“I worked on the bar, and got a job there for Alex (Turner, Arctic Monkeys), Ed (Cozens, his bandmate) and all these Sheffield bands. And we were very fortunate in that time to see Arthur Lee play with Love, John Cooper Clarke, The Fall … There’s obviously also that legacy with the Sex Pistols, The Clash, and all that. Sheffield’s just that place, man. In lots of ways we lag behind, but in other ways we’re very kind of futuristic. It’s a musical city. You turn on a tap and a song comes out. There are certain places like that. Jamaica’s like that. In the great scheme of things the population’s tiny, same as Cuba, but everybody’s got a song to sing and a story to tell. And Sheffield’s like that. I’ll go and see my auntie and she’ll give me a subject of a song. She’s 80, she’ll be nattering on and say something, and I’ll say, ‘That’s a tune!’ It’s in the water.”

Acoustic Outing: Ed Cosens and Jon McClure at Action Records in Preston in 2017

When I saw you at Preston’s 53 Degrees you finished your set then memorably popped outside to do two more songs, the latter a cover of Dandy Livingstone’s rocksteady classic ‘A Message to You, Rudy.”

“That’s it.”

I guess that was just another night for you though.

“Yeah, but the selection of ‘Rudy’ was deliberate, having famously been covered by The Specials. I always try and place myself in a musical lineage that means something. I’ve come to know Horace (Panter) and we collaborated on a lyric book I did.”

At that point, parental duties are required with Reggie, with Jon losing track of where we were up to, coming back a little distracted at first.

“The obvious thing now is just balancing being a musician with being a Dad. I’m not going to pretend it’s easy. It’s hard, but you get another set of perspectives, and an honest lyric writer will try and reflect where you are at that time in life. And I think your fans grow with you.

“The weird thing with the last few years is that loads of young ‘uns have got into it, like at those festivals. We’re becoming that band anyone can like. It’s like Madness a few years ago – they’ve never been trendy, but they’ve got loads of great songs, and anyone can get into them. I’m not comparing myself to them – they’ve had loads of No.1s – but when you stick around a while it’s like anyone’s allowed to like it now. We’re not trendy, and haven’t been since when we first came out. But you see people watching, having a proper rave-up, and that’s wonderful. And long may it continue, mate.”

Finally, I see you’re playing just up the road from me at Action Records, Preston (having previously appeared there for most recent studio album, 2017’s Death Of A King, in another in-store acoustic show …

“Ooh, I love it there!”

What’s the set-up this time – is it just you and Ed on acoustic guitars again?

“Most probably. I really do like that record shop. It’s a wonderful place. I follow them on Twitter and see all the cool things they do. And that vinyl revival thing is wonderful for places like that. We’re looking forward to being back in Preston. I always think towns like Preston are the lifeblood of this country, proper places where people appreciate the music in the way equivalent towns in maybe the South of England don’t perhaps.

“I might turn up a bit early so I can get dusty fingers for half an hour, have a root through old records there. We turned up late last time. There were loads of people already there.”

Best Practise: Jon McClure, aka The Reverend, meets his Makers

For the previous WriteWyattUK feature/interview with Jon McClure, from early 2014, head here. And for this website’s verdict on the band’s subsequent appearance at Preston’s 53 Degrees, try here. 

Reverend and the Makers dates: Thursday, October 3rd – Nottingham Rock City; Friday, October 4th – Portsmouth The Wedgewood Rooms; Wednesday, October 9th – London Electric Ballroom; Friday October 11th –  Birmingham O2 Institute 2; Saturday October 12th – Norwich Epic Studios; Thursday October 17th –  Glasgow St Luke’s; Friday October 18th – Newcastle-upon-Tyne University Students Union,  Saturday October 19th – Manchester Academy; Friday October 25th – Sheffield O2 Academy; Saturday December 7th – Leeds First Direct Arena (supporting Shed Seven). For more details, visit www.reverendmakers.com. You can also buy the album via this link.    

Entry to Action Records’ in-store acoustic show is via wristband in exchange for pre-orders of The Best of Reverend and The Makers, from the Church Street store or through this link. 

Posted in Books Films, TV & Radio, Music | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Next Train From Yeovil – The Return of The Chesterfields

Posted on September 12, 2019 by writewyattuk

Earlier Incarnation: Davey Goldsworthy, Dom Manns, Simon and Mark Barber’s 1988 manifestation of  the band

Thirty-five years after taking their first tentative steps into the world of independent pop fame, The Chesterfields are back for a string of UK dates this September.

Founder member Simon Barber (bass, vocals) will be joined on the road by Andy Strickland (lead guitar, also known for his work with The Loft and The Caretaker Race), who briefly featured with the band in 1987, and more recent additions Helen Stickland (guitar, vocals) and Rob Parry (drums), the quartet celebrating an alternative scene success that led to a string of indie hit albums and singles, including iconic debut LP, Kettle.

The latest tour comes two years after their last UK jaunt, and in classic DIY independent style the West Country comrades and Isle of Wight-based Andy are all pitching in, with further friends from the original scene doing their bit to make it happen, as Simon – like Helen based in Sherborne, Dorset – explained.

“Yeah, we get on! This was the line-up we got together for the C86 reunion shows, and might even have lasted longer the original line-up now. I wouldn’t do it if Andy wasn’t involved. We get on so well. He makes us The Chesterfields really – he has the jangle and the edge. I went to the Isle of Wight to sort things out a couple of weeks ago with him, and we get on like a house on fire.

“I’ve also rehearsed locally with Helen, and that’s great, while Rob’s nearby in Yeovil. He’s so can-do. He’s booked the van and organised accommodation, and he’s going to drive. Without him I don’t think I could contemplate it. There’s so much to organise.”

It all sounds proper DIY indie, old style.

“Yeah, it’s just like it was, but back then we had managers, and pretty good ones who looked after lots of stuff. And looking back at my diaries, it’s incredible how busy we were. We were out playing gigs all the time. I don’t know how we held down jobs.”

Simon co-founded the band with fellow frontman Dave Goldsworthy in Yeovil in 1984, initially with drummer Dominic Manns, various personnel changes following, the band signing to Bristol’s Subway Organisation (also home to the Soup Dragons, Shop Assistants, Razorcuts, Flatmates, Rosehips and Rodney Allen, the latter having a spell with The Chesterfields in 1987, and also guesting on the forthcoming tour), emerging alongside fellow West Country indie luminaries The Blue Aeroplanes (for whom Rodney went on to feature) and The Brilliant Corners.

Post Kettle: The Chesterfields in 1987. From the left – Rodney, Simon, Dom, Davey (Photo: The Chesterfields)

A volley of memorable 7″ singles followed, including ‘Sweet Revenge’, ‘Completely & Utterly’ and ‘Ask Johnny Dee’, that first album – with its distinctive yellow and pink cover – only denied a UK indie chart No.1 by Sonic Youth’s ‘Sister’. What’s more, each release was co-designed by Simon and his then-girlfriend Amanda Wallwork under the guise of The Terrible Hildas, the band’s co-founder and graphic artist in later years setting up successful West Country monthly arts magazine Evolver, while Amanda became an established artist in her own right.

The Chesterfields came to prominence as part of a happening UK underground scene that turned its back on over-produced chart music in favour of back-to-basics pop, a plethora of bands, small record labels, gig nights and fanzines emerging, groups such as The June Brides, Primal Scream and The Wedding Present helping spearhead the movement.

Along the way, they were endorsed in particular by Janice Long on BBC Radio 1, as well as several fanzine writers and club promoters on a thriving DIY scene, including Johnny Dee, who later wrote for the NME after being immortalised in a Chesterfields hit, and just happens to be lined up for a DJ slot at London’s iconic 100 Club on this latest tour.

Kettle was followed swiftly by singles compilation Westward Ho! then 1988’s Crocodile Tears on their own Household label, by which time Simon’s brother Mark Barber had joined, the siblings briefly co-fronting the band before a split in 1989.

The band also appeared on national Saturday morning television, played several prestigious festivals, and toured the UK and Europe non-stop before calling it a day, with Andy’s previous spell including their biggest gig at 1987’s Glastonbury Festival (something this punter somehow missed, despite being there).

A later line-up again included Davey, with 1994 LP Flood following via the Vinyl Japan label, the band also getting to tour Japan with the Television Personalities. However, by the time the band were the subject of Cherry Red Records’ best of retrospective Electric Guitars in their Hearts in 2005, it was long since over, with Davey the victim of a fatal hit-and-run accident in Oxfordshire two years earlier.

In fact, Simon – who additionally fronts the band Design, also featuring bandmates Helen and Rob – resisted all offers to use The Chesterfields’ name until persuaded by New York City’s PopFest to perform in 2016, describing that memorable show at The Knitting Factory in Brooklyn in our previous interview as ‘fantastic … to be up there singing Davey’s songs and my songs with friends, in a place I never thought I’d go to with the band, the audience seeming to know all the songs.”

And the resultant response and revived interest ensured they remain a going concern, Simon more than happy for Helen – who runs a West Country flower farm and a bookstore between band outings – to share the limelight out front these days, telling me last time around, “I found my other perfect side-kick in Helen, after Davey, with whom I had that sweet’n’sour Lennon-McCartney thing. I don’t have to be a front-man, even when they’re my songs and I’m singing lead.”

Wessex Wonders: Being asked Johnny Dee’s whereabouts at Preston Continental, 2017 (Photo: Julie Wright)

As it turns out, the band are also set to record a new LP, due out next year. But first there’s a week of dates, starting next Monday (September 16th) in South Wales, featuring a number of special guests, including Rodney Allen, Dai-Nichi, The Proctors, St James Infirmary, The Suncharms, and The Waltones, plus guest DJs, among them not only Johnny Dee, but also Rocker from The Flatmates.

“We’ve managed to persuade The Waltones out of retirement for the London gig, and we’ve got The Suncharms playing in Manchester – I don’t think they’ve played since last time we played with them a couple of years ago, and apparently they’ve never played Manchester before, despite the fact that Richard (Farnell, bass) from the band runs Vinyl Exchange there.

“They’ve made a couple of records since, on interesting American labels too, including Slumberland, a very cool indie label. Richard turned up when Design played songs by The Chesterfields for the C86 gig in London, introducing himself and saying how he saw us at a small club in Sheffield. Apparently, they decided to stay for the encore and missed the last bus home, with a long walk home as a result.

“What I’ve been trying to do is get people on the ground I’ve known a long time, such as Stephen Joyce in Newcastle who ran the Woosh label, who also put gigs on and put out flexis, and I’ve put a couple of his bands on down this way before. He was up for coming along to DJ and suggested another band that would bring people along from that era. Then Adrian Gent popped up, a house DJ who was an indie kid. He’s coming to DJ in Manchester.”

Talking of DJs, you have a certain fella called Johnny Dee involved.

“Yeah, he’s doing the London gig and possibly one in the West Country too. Adrian Gibson who runs AGMP was another Indie kid who used to come into London from Kent to see the Chesterfields, and he’s organised a few more, namely Manchester, Newcastle and Birmingham.  And we have a gig every night for seven nights.”

And the guests include another former Chesterfields bandmate, Rodney Allen.

“Yeah, for a while he wasn’t doing anything and was resistant to do so, other than sets of covers at Pilton Working Men’s Club, but last year he supported Australian band The Church at the Fleece and Firkin in Bristol, coming back out of retirement, putting his toe back into the water. He loved that and was well up for the 100 Club, especially when he also heard The Waltones were doing it. He’s also been guesting with The Blue Aeroplanes again.”

Another West country indie favourite, of course.

“Yes. I remember a Bristol Bierkeller gig we did (back then) with The Brilliant Corners and The Blue Aeroplanes. That was a real highlight. They were amazing. And it’s all still pretty chaotic with them today!”

Incidentally, Simon also dropped hints – albeit under intense questioning from yours truly – that he might be able to persuade not just Rodney to guest with the band during their set, but also his brother Mark. We shall see.

And above all else, despite Simon’s initial and somewhat understandable reluctance, I guess this is a nice way of paying tribute to Chesterfields co-founder Davey’s memory.

“It’s 35 years since Davey and I put the band together; his lyrics, I think, are amazing; and I’m just so happy to be out there singing his songs and hopefully doing them justice. And if I didn’t think that was the case, I wouldn’t do it.”

Chesterfields dates, September 2019: Le Pub, Newport, (Monday, September 16th); The Cluny, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Tuesday, September 17th); Night & Day Café, Manchester (Wednesday, September 18th); Hare & Hounds, Birmingham (Thursday, September 19th); 100 Club, London (Friday, September 20th); Electric Palace, Bridport (Saturday, September 21st); and The Louisiana, Bristol (Sunday, September 22nd). For ticket information and more details, including the full list of support acts and guests, visit the band’s Facebook page.  

Duelling Guitars: Andy Strickland and almost-namesake Helen Stickland get stuck in with The Chesterfields

For this website’s February 2017 feature/interview with Simon Barber, talking about The Chesterfields and much more, head here. And for the WriteWyattUK verdict on The Orchids, The Chesterfields and The Suncharms playing together at Preston Continental soon after, head here.

Posted in Books Films, TV & Radio, Music | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Edwyn Collins / Gabi Garbutt and the Illuminations – Manchester Gorilla

Posted on September 11, 2019 by writewyattuk

Slam Dunk: Edwyn Collins at home while venues up and down the UK hid their biscuits in readiness for his visit.

Amid the post-summer holiday trudge back to work, I reckon we all need pick-me-ups, familiar despondency at days getting shorter and temperatures dropping – irrespective of global warming crises – taking its toll.

Meanwhile the Government and UK itself is on its arse amid ill-thought out, poorly-executed, blinkered policy, democracy itself on the rack as self-interested, destructive forces gather on both sides of the Atlantic.

“And you turn to them and you say, ‘Love is in this season’.

But the seasons change, then what will you believe in?

When the winter comes, that’s when I’ll be leaving.

I leave to find a way to break out of this world.” *

But I’ll remain positive thanks to the healing power of music. And hope will triumph over hate all the time we’re party to moments such as those experienced on Sunday night under the railway arches off Whitworth Street, Manchester, Edwyn Collins showing us the way forward.

“Yes, there’s got to be a way to break out of this world.” *

Surely you know the background story by now, so I’ll cut back on any further pre-amble, other than to mention how this gifted artist’s return from the brink remains nothing short of an inspiration. And this was no consolation prize, but a celebration of exquisite songwriting and great musicianship, a love crowd willing on the players.

We got off to an enlightening start courtesy of openers Gabi Garbutt and the Illuminations, their set enough to convince me to snap up debut LP, The Discredited Language of Angels, each track showcased here neatly delivered.

Lighting Up: Gabi Garbutt and the Illuminations, including guest performer and Edwyn Collins loanee Sean Read, left

My gig buddy on the night, Jim, and I felt they might have stepped out of any of the last few decades, and there was certainly a late ‘70s new wave vibe. The last track had a touch of fellow Londoners The Only Ones, and I imagined snatches of everyone from Graham Parker and Chrissie Hynde through to 21st century indie stars The Kooks and The View.

Part of the ‘70s throwback vibe was probably channelled from Gabi’s hairy band, who might just have stepped out from dates backing Alex Harvey or Alice Cooper. But a further element took them to another level, the LP’s producer Sean Read, a long-time Edwyn Collins cohort with past links to Dexy’s, adding sax, keyboards and the same soulful touches afforded the main act later.

Check out cracking single, ‘The Fool’ and Gabi’s Soundcloud page, then get that record ordered. Mainstream success will follow … if there’s any justice.

It wasn’t long before Sean – 25 years after first contributing to the landmark Gorgeous George album – returned, this time with guitarists ‘Little Barrie’ Cadogan (ex-Primal Scream) and Andy Hackett, Colorama frontman Carwyn Ellis on bass and Jake Hutton on drums, Edwyn following, walking stick and roadie on hand; his mic., stool and lyric book already set up.

We were soon into the hits, 40-plus years of gems led off by Orange Juice’s ‘Dying Day’ – no brass on this occasion, but still a delight – and edgy recent single, ‘Outside’, a tribute to those heady days of post-punk, the harmonies spot on.

Edwyn has seldom stood still throughout a glittering career, the next two choices reflecting that, ‘What Presence’ and ‘I Guess I’m Just a Little Too Sensitive’ examples of one such style swerve, when Dennis Bovell was at the controls 35 years ago.

We were back to the new LP for another indicator that EC’s writing acumen remains intact, ‘It’s All About You’, while ‘In A Nutshell’ reminded this punter of a period when he belatedly discovered the joy of 1982’s, You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever’, a turntable must for me from the mid-80s onwards.

Location Helmsdale: Edwyn Collins outside his studio, shot by fellow Scots-based new wave legend John Maher

We fast-forwarded a quarter-century for Home Again’s sparky ‘One Track Mind’ before William Collins stepped up, nervous as hell by the look of it, joining Dad for a touching ‘In Your Eyes’ from Losing Sleep, the sheer relief on his face in the closing bars as poignant as the brief kiss landed on his father’s head on departure.

Occasionally our star performer was briefly lost, struggling with memory, a lyric or the ability to express himself. But only briefly, his bandmates there for him and the audience willing him on, his humour and warmth coming over loud and clear and his talent intact.

I admit brief disappointment when ‘Upwards and Onwards’ didn’t follow the sumptuous  ‘Intuition Told Me, Pt. I’, but only fleetingly, ‘Simply Thrilled Honey’ in its place providing a Postcard from the past.

We returned to 2007 for a wistful ‘You’ll Never Know (My Love)’ before Badbea’s beautifully atmospheric ‘It All Makes Sense to Me’ and similarly reflective ‘I Guess We Were Young’, each already as familiar as the rest of a distinguished solo catalogue.

Talking of young, we stepped back to the days when Orange Juice briefly ruled the pop world, the zeitgeist of the times bottled in soulful reinvention masterpiece, ‘Rip it Up’, with no visible or audible signs of wear on this airing.

By the time he delivered early solo single ‘Don’t Shilly Shally’, Edwyn was on his feet, determination personified, and confident enough to swirl his stick around as we reached the sublime ‘A Girl Like You’. Timeless, and to coin a phrase from this neck of the woods, another music from a different kitchen.

I expected a fairly short outing, so was pleasantly surprised (simply thrilled, in fact) by a 15-song set. And it was soon clear it wasn’t over yet, with three cheers for our side as Edwyn returned, hearts duly melted as he and Carwyn delivered ‘Home Again’, a proper ‘pin-drop’ moment, the latter’s harmonies and delicate acoustic picking perfect accompaniment for the star of the show.

Back came the rest for ‘Badbea’, better than ever for these ears, before two more blasts from the past, the evergreen ‘Falling and Laughing’ followed by the Bonanza-like intro of  raucous crowd favourite ‘Blue Boy’, those formative Glasgow School days recounted in a fitting finale on a night of sheer emotion from a treasured artist in a room full of friends.

Family Way: William Collins joining his Dad on stage for 'In Your Eyes' at Gorilla in Manchester (Photo: Jim Wilkinson)

Family Way: William Collins with his Dad for an ‘In Your Eyes’ duet at Gorilla, Manchester (Photo: Jim Wilkinson)

For this website’s recent feature/interview with Edwyn Collins and Grace Maxwell, head here. 

For the latest from Gabi Garbutt, including details of her September 24th LP launch at The Slaughtered Lamb in East London, head to her Facebook and Twitter pages. 

  • Lyrics from Edwyn Collins’ ‘Out Of This World’ from Gorgeous George (Setanta, 1994).
Posted in Books Films, TV & Radio, Music | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Space: the vinyl frontier – back in touch with Ian McNabb

Posted on August 30, 2019 by writewyattuk
Guitar Man: Ian McNabb in live action, clearly pacing himself for a threatened two-hours-plus set.

Guitar Man: Ian McNabb in live action, clearly pacing himself for a threatened two-hours-plus set.

It was the morning after the night before when I called Ian McNabb, and it was just sinking in that it wasn’t just a bad dream. Boris Johnson really was the new Prime Minister, as the Cold Shoulder and Icicle Works frontman confirmed to me.

“You’ve woken up in reality. I’m afraid it wasn’t a nightmare. But let’s all go backwards together. My attitude is that if we’re going to hell in a bucket, let’s party!”

That was a few weeks ago now, yet we somehow continue to plunge further in reverse gear towards some form of 21st century purgatory, initial whispers turned into screams. Yet Ian carries on regardless, having long since finalised details of two tours – one for his most recent group project and another for the band with whom he first broke through.

A full-time carer for his 85-year-old mother between live and studio outings, he’s made three Cold Shoulder LPs alongside Andy Lord-Ashton (bass/vocals) and Christopher Kearney (guitar/vocals). But while Nicholas Kilroe drummed on 2013’s Eclectic Warrior and 2015’s Krugerrands – and is set to feature live with the band soon – the most recent release by this Liverpool-based psych rock outfit, Our Future In Space, features Steve ‘Smiley’ Barnard (From the Jam, Robbie Williams, Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros, The Mock Turtles, The Alarm), introduced to the outfit by mutual friend, late BBC Wales DJ, Alan Thompson, to whom the latest LP is dedicated.

Our Future In Space also includes a co-write with R.E.M guitarist, Peter Buck on ‘Aquamarine’. And it’s an impressive record all round, as you can find out yourself if you catch Ian out on the road and snap up a copy, either during an Icicle Works jaunt from late-September to mid-November (and according to the Dyserth Courier, ‘You’d be a c*nt to miss it!’), or through a Cold Shoulder date in their home city in early December.

And as the main man himself put it on his Facebook page about the latter show, “There’ll be tunes from all the Cold Shoulder albums and other stuff from my solo oeuvre. Just so you know though, we’re not playing any Icicle Works songs. OK? Don’t want you to be disappointed if that’s what you’re expecting. Been a long time coming this. We’re buzzed about this. It will be self-indulgent, no hits, too loud, and will go on way too long.”

It’s fair to say Cold Shoulder focus on the heavier side of Ian’s music – ‘stripped-down, as-recorded-live two-guitar, bass and drums, somewhat reminiscent of his mid-‘90s work with Crazy Horse’. So how would he compare Cold Shoulder as opposed to the band with which he broke through?

“Well, there’s a line of thinking that is a little lazy, but I suppose it’s a fair comparison – they’re my Rolling Stones and the Icicle Works are my Beatles.”

More Crazy Horse than ‘Hollow Horse’ then?

“Yeah, there’s obviously always going to be that element as well. Basically, I do many records and many gigs, and a lot of them are solo acoustic shows, and then every 18 months we get the Icicle Works machine rolling and play all the tunes people want to hear.

“I’ve done three albums with Cold Shoulder now, and a lot of the fans are saying, ‘Why don’t you do any gigs with them?’ I say it’s because I’m not sure how many would be interested in coming if we weren’t playing any Icicle Works stuff. We’d just play stuff from those albums and maybe a couple of tracks from my solo work. It’s a more niche market.”

Maybe those songs just need to be heard a little wider.

“Well yeah, that’s why we’re taking a bit of a gamble taking these gigs. Also, we’re a jam band. We’re guitar players and can be a little self-indulgent, to say the least. It’s also a lot scruffier and I won’t say it’s a lot louder than the Icicle Works, but it’s certainly its dirty cousin!”

Funnily enough, I used that very word putting together some questions, thinking the track ‘Reeperbahn’ has a real AC/DC dirty blues feel.

“We were playing that the other day. There’s definitely a bit of that. As well as a bit of Faces. The Icicle Works were a pop rock band, more pop than rock if you like. This is just down and dirty, another outlet for me and a different way of playing. I think it’s really important to have that.

“What I would like in the future is if we could establish the Cold Shoulder thing. Although to be honest I don’t really care if people don’t enjoy it … because I do! But then I’d have my three strands – my solo acoustic work, my Icicle Works stuff and my Cold Shoulder thing. And that’s important to me because I don’t tour overseas anymore.

“You see bands tour, then won’t see them again for a year, because they’ve gone off around Europe or North America. I don’t do that, but if I want to keep playing regularly, I need to do that, not least as sales of records don’t exist anymore.

“Now we’ve done three albums, so I think that’s enough to do a decent two-hour set. I would never go out and play anything less than that. I’m not a new act, so wouldn’t come on and just play an hour. People are used to seeing me play for a long time. And they can always leave if they don’t like it.”

We mentioned Neil Young. There’s someone who’s taken on that principle down the years.

“He’s one of my great heroes, and how many different bands has he played in? He seems to have settled down now with Promise of the Real, who seem to be his full-time band, and evidently they can play anything from his catalogue, which Crazy Horse can’t.

“I’m a little miffed about that because Crazy Horse are friends of mine and this is their 50th anniversary, so hopefully he’ll do something with them. Possibly because they’re all so old now … the insurance premium must be huge. But the way Neil Young hops around from band to band has always been an inspiration to me. I think that keeps you fresh.”

Speaking of inspirations, I loved your take on Bruce Springsteen’s latest single, ‘There Goes My Miracle’.

“Oh, you’ve heard that, have you? About 10 years ago Bruce recorded a single, ‘Girls in their Summer Clothes’ and people were sending me messages, saying, ‘Bloody hell, I thought I heard you on the radio!’

“Bruce seems to have this voice when he’s not doing his ‘Down at the penitentiary …’ and ‘They’ve closed the oil refinery‘ thing, and it’s very similar to mine. I got a kick out of that, and we’re doing a new album at the moment and said, ‘Let’s knock off a version for a laugh’. We did a rough mix, put it up, and maybe it’ll end up somewhere, or maybe it won’t.”

Do you think Bruce has had word of it yet?

“I very much doubt it. People like to fantasise that he’s heard The Icicle Works, but I think it’s pure coincidence.”

Maybe though. He’s always been a keen student and a fan of music from this side of the Atlantic.

“Well, that’s a fabulous notion for me to hold in my head. The thing that’s really odd is that he uses all the same words that I use. In ‘Girls in Their Sumer Clothes’ he was going on about bicycles and on this single he’s singing ’That was my miracle’, while the cover of his album is a horse, something I’ve always obsessed with.

“I don’t know. Maybe. But I tell you what would be absolutely terrific – for somewhere in an interview for him to just drop my name. My stocks and shares would go through the roof!

“It is a very funny thing, and I just wanted to mark the moment.”

A respectful nod to everything good in the name of guitar rock in the ‘70s?

“Yeah.”

Speaking of which, on Our Future in Space, ‘Medicated Emma’ has a Sex Pistols-like riff in there.

“Oh God, and a few other things! It’s a direct rip-off of about seven songs.”

Well, there’s refreshing honesty for you. I see it more as a fan’s tribute to a sound and era you loved.

“Yeah, it’s in the open G key, so as soon as you hit the chord you either sound like the Faces or the Stones. I’ve also managed to make it sound a bit like ‘Hammer To Fall’ by Queen, although I’m not quite sure how that happened!”

I mentioned the Pistols, and Glen Matlock was a big Faces fan.

“Yeah, I suppose one of the things about the Our Future in Space album is that the one I made before was a very pleasant listen and didn’t really rock at all. It was all very acoustic, with lots of string arrangements. So I wanted the first four tracks on this album to pummel you to death, really come out of the corner fighting.”

But with your melodic self still in there.

“I’ve always got to have a bit of melody. I don’t mind shouting a bit, but it’s got to have a melody. I’m not one of those guys who can sing like Bon Scott.”

Works Outing: Ian McNabb in a Chris sandwich, back in the day

That said, I could hear Brian Johnson having a go at ‘Reeperbahn’.

“Well, if you mention in your piece all those songs are available …”

It’s now 35 years since the debut Icicle Works LP, and 44 years since your first forays into playing in bands. How did that all start?

“I was out with mi’ Mum on a Friday afternoon in Liverpool city centre in 1975, looking in Frank Hessy’s window, the guitar shop, before I had a proper electric guitar – I just had a copy. This advert read ‘lead guitarist wanted for vocal/instrumental band. My mother grabbed hold of me, wrote the number down and said, ‘You’re going for that!’ That was for a band called Young World.

“The Icicle Works didn’t even meet each other until 1981. Yeah, I’ve been doing it a long time now. And these anniversaries start to scare you after a while.”

It’s possible to schedule a living around such anniversaries these days, I should imagine.

“Well, we all love anniversaries. It kind of gives you something to hang a few dates on. It used to all be about looking forward and new music, and I do believe that to be true, but we’re now in a phase where ticket prices and going to gigs is so expensive. If people are paying £25 up to £50 and even more when you get to the heritage gig malarkey, you want to turn up and hear two hours of songs you absolutely love. Days of playing two oldies then seven tracks off your new album, that’s gone.”

So it could be the milk train home for anyone who comes into the big cities to see you play nowadays.

“Yeah, rock’n’roll’s so long in the tooth now and things have changed so much. The world’s a different place, and those songs have become classics now. It’s not just nostalgia to play them.”

At least you’re not tied to getting the original band back together. You kind of reinvented the Icicle Works line-up on returning in to the live circuit in 2006, alongside Roy Corkill (bass, who also served from 1988-90), Richard Naiff (keyboards) and Mathew Priest (drums).

“Reinvented is a good way of saying it. The original line-up wasn’t going to happen. One of the reasons being that I never got on particularly well with the bass player. We weren’t enemies but weren’t particularly friends.

“Chris Sharrock is one of the biggest drummers in the world now, currently playing with Noel Gallagher. We’re still friends and he tells me he doesn’t want to do it, although he may consider it in the future. He’s one of the top session drummers in the world, always busy, so the idea of him coming back to do a tour with little old me seems a bit far-fetched. Also, he tells me there’s no way he could play that early Icicle Works stuff again, because it’s all too energetic. But Mathew is able to do it.”

That’s July 2015 WriteWyattUK interviewee Mathew Priest, best known for his work with Dodgy. And what a flamboyant player, his love of Keith Moon fairly obvious to those who catch him live and on record. As for original bass player Chris Layhe, I seem to recall Ian saying he’s more or less retired from playing these days.

“Yeah, he’d probably hate that term, but … We haven’t spoken for a long time, and it’s like, do you really want to go out with your first wife again? Because that’s what it’s like.”

Remind me how The Icicle Works came into being.

“After years of doing cabaret, about five years playing the working men’s club circuit in the North West, I put an advert in the paper. I already had Chris Sharrock. We played together in a couple of bands. We first met when he was nine, playing that circuit back then if you can believe that. Incredible!

“But we had an ad for a bass player in the Liverpool Echo and Chris Layhe was the only guy who turned up! It probably said, ‘Bass player wanted for new wave, post-punk three-piece rock band, influences – Echo & the Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes’. We were going for that type of thing.

“It was all looking forward, and a new way of doing things. It was only later that we slipped back into playing the stuff that came before 1981 and all the ‘60s and ‘70s stuff we were very much into.”

Were you an Eric’s regular in those seminal days when The Clash and other influential punk bands came through?

“No, I’m 18 months younger than (Ian) McCulloch and (Julian) Cope. That doesn’t sound a lot, but it’s absolutely huge when you’re 17 and they’re 19. I was too young for Eric’s, technically. I came along after that. When I was the age to go to Eric’s it was all closed down. I missed all that – the Pistols, The Damned, The Stranglers. I bought all the records though. I knew what was going on.”

Speaking of records, have you still got your own copy of The Icicle Works’ debut, the ‘Ascending’ EP?

“Sadly no. But I know people who have copies and they do copies on CD and pass them around to the fans. I was never a great hoarder. I gave everything away, and don’t really regret it. I’ve got enough crap blocking up the house as it is!”

It’s been 11 years since the Merseybeast autobiography came out. Is a reprint in order? Last time I checked they were retailing at scary prices.

“There is a reprint in order, and an update, plus an audio version which I’m very proud of – me reading it. And I’m half-way through a second volume, which is going to be unsparing. I was a little bit too nice in the first one. I thought people would stop talking to me, but they stopped talking to me anyway, so fuck it!”

Going back to anniversaries, it’ll be 45 years now since your live solo debut, at Fairfield Conservative Club, east of the city of Liverpool. Is that venue still there?

“It’s just around the corner. And guess what – it’s flats, just like everything else. I wished they’d turn a few more Conservative Clubs into flats, mind.”

As there’s a track on Our Future in Space called ‘Supermoon’, and this summer saw the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, I’m thinking you’d have been nine when Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon.

“I was eight, and Mum and Dad dragged me out of bed at four in the morning to get me to watch it. And I’ve never really recovered from that or seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey when I was seven.

“When we grew up – the children of the Apollo generation – it was all terribly exciting, so I’ve been glued to all this 50th anniversary stuff going on.

Future Space: Ian McNabb, stars in his barnet.

Future Space: Ian McNabb, of Cold Shoulder and The Icicle Works fame, clearly with stars in his barnet.

“But it was all so incredibly expensive to do something where effectively blokes walked round a bit then came back, when the money could go to so many better things. It’s a shame it stopped though. As soon as we hit the ‘70s it was like, ‘What was all that about?’”

Are there new Ian McNabb records on the way?

“I’ve got a new album started – my 20th studio album if you include The Icicle Works. It’s called Utopian and should be out next year. I’m about five tracks in.”

Recorded at home?

“God, no! I treat my home like my home. I think it’s really important to go away and do that stuff. I did have a 16-track studio here about 20 years ago, but used to get up and feel really depressed because I felt I couldn’t just loaf around. I had to go downstairs and do something.”

Instead, he works with friend and producer Kieron Bell, the latest recording happening in a studio called On Demand on the Wirral.

“I think it’s really important to get your stuff together, go out, get to a studio, work there, come back.”

Will there ever be a sixth Icicle Works album?

Key Character: Ian McNabb takes to the keyboards, unable to hold back his natural melodic flair.

Key Character: Ian McNabb takes to the keyboards, unable to hold back his natural melodic flair.

“Quite a few people have said, ‘Why don’t you call your next album The Icicle Works?’ Maybe more people would be interested in it and it might get a little more publicity. But I put The Icicle Works to bed in 1990.

“Also, I feel that would kind of negate all the solo work I’ve done, as if to say, ‘OK, this is more important than anything that’s got Ian McNabb on the label. Which is not the case. I’m quite happy with where it is. And I think that’s where it should stay.”

There’s an impressive array of people you’ve collaborated with on projects over the years. Anyone you’d like to add to the list?

“I’m not a great collaborator. I like to work on my own. I don’t mind playing other people’s music in their bands, but I’d be like a jobbing musician. I’m not really good at sitting down with somebody else and writing a song. It kind of gets in my way when somebody else is there.

“Don’t get me wrong. I’ve written with Ian Broudie and also Ralph Molina from Crazy Horse, but we don’t sit in the same room. He (Ralph) just sent me some lyrics and I put music to it. That’s a lot easier. But if somebody wanted to collaborate with me who I greatly respect, I’d be up for doing it.

“I get asked to do co-writes, where a publisher or record company signs a young artist who’s fairly pretty without any songwriting experience and they want me to go into a studio and write with them, but don’t want you to write for them. They want their artist to have half the publishing and they can get 25% of that. I’m very wary about any of that stuff.

“But if anyone I really love and respect wanted to do anything with me, I’d have to look at that.”

Looking Lively: Cold shoulder waiting on the tour bus to arrive. From left: Nick Kilroe, Christopher Kearney, Ian McNabb, Andy Lord-Ashton

Look Lively: Cold Shoulder await the bus. From left: Nick Kilroe, Christopher Kearney, Ian McNabb, Andy Lord-Ashton

To catch up with an October 2015 Ian McNabb feature/interview on this website, head here. 

Icicle Works dates: Newcastle, O2 Academy 2 (Friday, September 27th),  Sheffield Plug (Saturday, September 28th), Clitheroe The Grand (Friday, October 4th), Farncombe St John’s Church (Saturday, October 5th), Cardiff Globe (Friday, October 11th), Southampton Engine Rooms (Saturday, October 12th), Cottingham Civic Hall (Friday October 18th), Norwich Arts Centre (Saturday, October 19th), Derby Flowerpot (Friday, October 25th), Douglas (Isle Of Man) Villa Marina (Saturday, October 26th), Bristol Thekla (Friday November 1st), Birmingham O2 Academy 2 (Saturday, November 9th), Leeds Brudenell (Friday, November 15th).

Cold Shoulder date: Liverpool Arts Club (Saturday, December 7th).

For more details and all the latest from Ian McNabb and his side-projects, seek out his Facebook and Twitter pages and visit his website.

 

 

 

 

Posted in Books Films, TV & Radio, Music | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment