Caught Beneath The Landslide: The Other Side of Britpop & The 90s
For the uninitiated, Kevin Cummins is one of rock’s (albeit not exclusively) foremost photographers.
To anyone with a cursory knowledge of iconic imagery in music, his work will be familiar, having captured everyone from Joy Division to George Clinton.
Last year he released a book of his work which chronicled the Britpop years (While We Were Getting High) during which he was the NME’s chief photographer and now, so as to give the book the chance to shine, under his name an accompanying compilation is being released.
If you think you don’t need another Britpop compilation, think again. This is no ‘Biggest Britpop Anthems’ or anything so vulgar, but a collection of curios and lesser-heard tracks by the biggest (and not-so-biggest) bands of the 1990s.
The choices are summed up by the Oasis inclusion; it would be bizarre not to have the track which the compilation takes its name from (‘Champagne Supernova’), but rather than the over-played version from (What’s The Story) Morning Glory?, here we are treated to a lesser-heard, Brendan Lynch mix of the song.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2021/05/review-kevin-cummins-landslide/
Luwten - Draft
If you choose an unusual name it will stick with you throughout your career, as Amsterdam-based songwriter Tessa Douwstra is finding out.
However, if you’re clever about it, it can work in your favour. The literal meaning of Luwten is ‘a place without wind’, which reflects her second album more concisely than most reviews (including this one) will. There is no tumult or chaos within; Draft is a calm and ordered piece of work.
The looped staccato vocal clip which opens the album nags away throughout ‘The Thought Of You’, as if to reflect the anxiety and increased heart rate when a certain someone embeds themselves in your psyche.
Laundromat - Red EP
Meet Me In St Louis frontman Toby Haynes releases the final part of his ‘colours’ trilogy of Laundromat EPs after the Blue and Green efforts last year.
Exploring lyrical themes of mental health, friendship and erstwhile politicians, it’s arguably the most complete set of the three.
Once again the production is muffled, akin to Unknown Mortal Orchestra, yet that increases the intimate air; a scrape of orchestral strings announces Flat Planet, which begins with a strident bassline before gnarly guitars are introduced halfway through. It crams a lot into its three-minute runtime.
Brits & Pieces - Volume II
The first in this series (can we presume?) of compilations was released in back in December.
It was an initiative set up by indie fan Marc Rossiter (he of the Brits & Pieces) with a few objectives; to showcase the UK’s still flourishing independent music scene, to revitalise compilation albums as a whole and, most nobly, to raise money for the unsigned bands featured on the album.
With patronage from Robert Carlyle, Steve Lamacq, Clint Boon and Peter Doherty amongst countless others, and available from Rough Trade stores, Volume One hit number 54 on the Official Compilation Chart.
When compiling the first album, Rossiter simply floated the idea on Twitter and awaited responses. It’s not too much of a stretch to imagine that he was swamped with requests (and probably has been since), certainly more than could fit on one album, and so, some five months on, we have the sequel.
As is apparent from the title, the album spans the UK with artists from all over the nation but proves, by sheer volume, that the North is a hotbed of music. ‘Twas ever thus.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2021/05/review-brits-pieces-ii/
Interview - Ben Thatcher, Royal Blood
‘A lot of people have boxed us into the rock and roll thing, but Mike and I came from a pop background; pop and funk. This new record shows some of the other influences that we like in music.”
“Mike was always a fan of having an instrument and making it sound like another instrument; in the first band I was in with him, he had a keytar that he made sound like a bass. Then he had a bass that he made to sound like a guitar, and now he’s got it sounding like some keyboard.”
We don’t hear much about the keytar nowadays, so to hear it played a formative part in one of the biggest bands in the world is a surprise, but it shouldn’t be: Royal Blood defy expectations.
A duo consisting of bass and drums shouldn’t work, and yet the evidence suggest that it palpably does. After two wildly successful albums, Royal Blood have broadened their palette to incorporate French disco and The Bee Gees as influences (among many others) for new album Typhoons.
When I caught up with drummer Ben Thatcher for the second part of our Royal Blood double-header, he explained how the duo used the last year to their advantage.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2021/04/royal-blood-interview-2/
The Coral - Coral Island
Mainstays of British alternative music for nearly twenty years, The Coral purposely walk out of step with whatever is regarded as cool that week.
They’ve always offered glimpses of their unique viewpoint, whether it be of hickory docks or of gypsy market blues, but it has only ever been allowed to be witnessed from afar, a netherworld of mischief. No more.
On Coral Island we are specifically and cordially invited into their world across 24 tracks. For those intimidated by the time required to commit to such an undertaking, fear not; nine of the said tracks are interludes, narrated by the grandfather of the Skelly brothers. As we navigate the funfair of the island, the album clocks in at under an hour.
The narrator, Ian Murray (otherwise known as The Great Muriarty), has a voice which both evokes his years of experience but also has a sprightly, impish quality which suggests it’s a family trait, but he’s a teller of tales rather than a ringmaster, as whimsically befuddled as the rest of us.
On opener ‘Welcome To Coral Island’ (also the title of Part One of this double album), he tells us that, ‘you become an impression of yourself, whatever that means,’ a clear sign that we should leave logic in the harbour.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2021/04/review-the-coral-island/
Interview - Nick Power, The Coral
The Coral are arguably too big to be regarded as a ‘cult band’ but not big enough to dominate the festival circuit.
The Liverpool quintet have spent nearly 20 years sustaining a loyal fanbase; loyal for good reason. Despite forthcoming album Coral Island being their eighth studio effort (ish….it’s complicated), their quality control across each has been incredibly high.
Indeed, the new album can stake a realistic claim of being their best yet, as recent singles ‘Faceless Angel’, ‘Lover Undiscovered’ and ‘Vacancy’ emphatically attest to.
Yet surely it must be a source of frustration to the band that they’ve never truly cracked the mainstream permanently? Not a bit of it.
“Because we’ve been doing it continuously, we go up and down the (festival) bills like a yo-yo,” Nick Power, ivory-tinkler (amongst many, many other things) told Live4ever when we spoke recently.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2021/04/the-coral-interview-live4ever/
Joe Strummer - Assembly
All artists who make some form of impact in music are revered after they pass away, as is right.
From Buddy Holly to Bunny Wailer, all have been survived through their music, but there are a select few whose legends, deeds and significance take on greater appreciation the longer time goes on.
Joe Strummer is one such case: forever immortalised at Glastonbury (with a specific area named in his honour), the former frontman of The Clash’s legacy only gets stronger with the passing of time.
Albeit more in the United States than in the UK: last year, his legacy was the theme of a global livestream which included performances from Bruce Springsteen, Tom Morello and Josh Homme (in support of a National Independent Venue Association campaign to save venues), underlining his importance to that generation of musicians.
On the other side of the pond, his work with The Clash (undoubtedly a seminal band) is the key metric in discussing his influence. Assembly attempts to rectify that perception, focusing on Strummer’s output in the latter stages of his life, mainly as leader of The Mescaleros.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2021/03/review-joe-strummer-assembly/
NewDad - Waves
The labels being thrown NewDad’s way seem to largely consist of variations on ‘dreampop’ which, although partially accurate, only tell a small part of the story.
Part of the impressively long list of bands from Ireland that are making waves, the Galway four-piece may have taken their time (having been together for a few years) but this first EP is worth the wait and effort that’s gone into it.
Drown may shimmer, in the way the dreampop must, but its undercurrent owes more to new wave with a stoic and meticulously rigid rhythm section that intimates an undertone of menace, as reflected in singer and guitarist Julie Dawson’s lyrics, ‘Take me to the sea, then drown me’. The suffocating guitar at the outro adds further character and layers beyond the standard wistful fare.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2021/03/review-newdad-waves-ep/
Creation Stories Review
Creation Stories is an adaptation of Alan McGee’s 2014 autobiography (of sorts), and comes with a stellar British pedigree; scripted by legendary author Irvine Welsh and Herb Garden founder Dean Cavanagh; produced by Danny Boyle; starring Ewan Bremner (of Trainspotting fame), and directed by Nick Moran (most famously known for starring in Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, but a director in his own right).
It tells the story of Creation Records and its formidable roster, including My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream, The Jesus & Mary Chain and Oasis.
With so many giants of British culture attached to the project – particularly the contributions of Bremner, Welsh and Boyle, as well as the heavy Scottish influence – comparisons with a certain 1990s British youth film are inevitable.
They are valid to a point; with its anarchic spirit it channels Boyle’s 1996 classic, but Creation Stories is very much its own thing which takes its cues from another cult classic; Michael Winterbottom’s seminal 24 Hour Party People.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2021/02/film-review-creation-stories/
Foo Fighters - Medicine At Midnight
It’s impossible to be offended or actively dislike Foo Fighters; not only is Dave Grohl so nice (you may have heard), but they are good musicians and are doing it for love. You can see the glee as they play.
Their hearts are most definitely in the right place, which makes it a bit cruel to tear into them. It’s like putting your own dog down. It’s bang out of order, in fact.
But…It has to be said that they aren’t the most musically challenging act around. In terms of longevity, fanbase and record sales, only Radiohead are comparable, and you won’t be surprised to learn that’s where this comparison ends.
A great singles act for sure but, aside from their first few attempts, no record by the band is likely to trouble an all-time hit list. And that’s fine. It’s a winning formula that keeps their fans happy, as their perennial headline status demonstrates.
We don’t have headline acts right now though, so we have to judge them on the music. If you want comfort, step right in. Anyone seeking anything other than thorough and comprehensive expectation management should move along.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2021/02/review-foo-fighters-medicine-midnight/
TV Priest - Uppers
Lord knows the music industry needs some positivity right now.
Already crippled by the pandemic, the Brexit deal leaves musicians facing a future that’s even more uncertain, being forced to drown in the bureaucracy of visas and permits before they even board the bus to perform in Europe. That’s if there’s any venues to play at.
There’s no doubt about it, things are beginning to get very grim for our favourite industry, but there are chinks of light and hope – it’s just a case of looking harder.
TV Priest’s tale is almost one by the fairies: four childhood friends (vocalist Charlie Drinkwater, guitarist Alex Sprogis, bassist and keys player Nic Bueth, and drummer Ed Kelland) start a band which fizzles out for unremarkable reasons, with each member going off to live their respective lives.
With their sound eventually becoming more and more acceptable, the friends gravitate first towards each other then the rehearsal room, and put on a gig for their loved ones. Now, over a year on, they are signed to legendary label Sub Pop and releasing their debut album, still only with one gig under their belt.
It’s the sort of story that plays well on The X Factor but rarely happens in alternative music. However, good backstories don’t equal good music, so what of the album itself?
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2021/02/album-review-tv-priest-uppers/
Goat Girl - On All Fours
Goat Girl’s 2018 self-titled debut album was an intense but brief affair; nineteen tracks forming a whistle-stop tour through the devolution of their home, that bloody London, with only one track clocking in at over three minutes.
For the delayed (no prizes for guessing why) second, the quartet have expanded their horizons both sonically and lyrically.
A reshuffle of the pack in 2019 not only saw Holly Mullineaux replace Naima Redina-Bock on bass, but also a broadening of responsibilities: while their debut was primarily written by lead vocalist and guitarist Lottie Pendlebury, natural evolution has led to a more democratic approach in terms of songwriting, the duties spread over the four members.
Sadly, and despite being a year old, the subject matters taken to task (mental health, anxiety, misogyny, all still served with a dose of political outrage) are just as pertinent, arguably more so, as we live through what are hopefully the bleakest of modern times.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2021/01/album-review-goat-girl-on-all-fours/
Interview - Charlie Drinkwater, TV Priest
“There’s a reason why I’ve done this when I’m 32. Whatever’s been done before failed to connect on an audience level or a personal level. Not to say I think all of it was bad, but it’s not connected because I haven’t been truthful in some way. I couldn’t have made this record at any other time.”
Rock and roll is generally regarded as being a young person’s game. As well as the power it has over each generation of adolescents, the urgency, honesty and vitality required to spread the word are at their most effective when delivered by those who have barely experienced real life. So they say.
Paul Weller split up The Jam, at the time the biggest band in Britain, aged 24 as he felt he had little else to say to that generation. The 27 Club is the ultimate example of living fast and dying young, as legend and mythology has deemed it so.
It’s nonsense, of course: Messrs Cocker and Kapranos were in their early 30s when Pulp and Franz Ferdinand hit the mainstream and, more recently, Idles hit their stride as Joe Talbot entered his fourth decade.
Experience has its uses, and for TV Priest frontman Charlie Drinkwater, the passing of time has demonstrated just how important friendship and music are for his own personal well-being.
“So much of our friendship, and the foundations we bedded down into, were formed around music,’ he told Live4ever over Zoom earlier this month.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2021/01/live4ever-interview-charlie-tv-priest/
Pom Poko - Cheater
It’s always a shrewd move to release an album in early January.
New releases generally dry up before the festive period, for good reason. The charts are clogged up with Best Ofs or new releases by older acts (looking at you, Mr. McCartney) with the very obvious intention of becoming Christmas presents for the older generation, and so ‘standard’ album releases struggle to be heard amid the festive noise.
Fans of new music are therefore starved for over a month, so January often benefits from the demand of salivating indie kids, with the added benefit of slightly more exposure for artists than they may get later in the year.
Good things come to those who wait, and whilst on Friday 15th January middleweights Sleaford Mods and Shame unveil their latest offerings, Pom Poko also take a shot at the now traditional ‘early album of the year’ accolade.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2021/01/album-review-pom-poko-cheater/
Five Years On - And The Stars Look Very Different Today…
This was written in the immediate aftermath of David Bowie’s death. I don’t know why I wrote it, I certainly had no intention of publishing it. But it was cathartic. I heard the news on 6Music, an unusually solemn Shaun Keaveny breaking the story alongside an even more sombre Matt Everitt. Looking back at it now, it’s naivety and style makes me wince, but it comes from a place of truth.
And The Stars Look Very Different Today
‘He was one of a kind.’ ‘There will never be another like him.’
Platitudes that you hear and read all the time when someone dies. It’s just One Of Those Things People Say. However, as I write this on 11th January 2016, or ‘The Day That David Bowie Died’ as it shall be known henceforth, it struck me that tributes like that have never been truer, and indeed how inappropriate it seemed to use them on occasions in the past.
My wife, who is the most passionate and opinionated about music person I’ve ever known, has never been a Bowie fan. For whatever reason, nothing from his stupendous back catalogue ever stuck (although I’m sure there was one), but she can appreciate his impact and contribution to music, pop culture, indeed many elements of 21st century life full stop.
At surface level, the list of truly great songs is as formidable as you will ever see. ‘Space Oddity’, ‘Starman’, ‘Life On Mars?’, ‘Changes’, ‘Ziggy Stardust’, ‘Suffragette City’, ‘Rebel Rebel’, ‘The Jean Genie’, ‘Sound And Vision’, ‘‘Heroes’’, ‘Under Pressure’, ‘Ashes to Ashes’, ‘Let’s Dance’….and that is just scratching the surface. Mainly, that’s The Hits. Inevitably, his influence waned in his later years, after over 15 years at the top. That’s not to say the quality decreased, but the ‘rules’ of music means that every act has an imperial phase (whereupon popularity and quality are aligned) of, maximum, 20 years. The very nature of music, and specifically rock and roll, dictates that be the case.
Think in modern terms. Right now, the biggest band in the world is Coldplay. Their imperial phase lasted surprisingly long, from first album Parachutes in 2000 until fifth album Mylo Xyloto in 2011. Their latest effort has sold as well as ever, but whilst it’s a good pop album, reining in guest artists from Beyonce to Noel Gallagher smells slightly of desperation. They released five albums in that time. Bowie’s imperial phase lasted from 1971 to 1983, from Hunky Dory to Let’s Dance. That period covers 12 albums. Yes kids, twelve albums in twelve years. Not all were great, (Pin Ups) but all were at least very very good.
The influences he created are too numerous to list here, and in truth you’ll no doubt have read them numerous times by now. But the impact transcends anything we can truly comprehend. That’s without mentioning his dalliances in film, fashion, literature and technology. But the best thing about him was that he made it OK to be different.
I don’t remember the first time I heard David Bowie, he just was. My earliest memory is, like many of my age, the film Labyrinth. Aside from the very flattering trousers, he cut a wonderfully sinister villain in this children’s film. Better than that, however, was the soundtrack. ‘Magic Dance’, whilst designed to appeal to children, is still a tune.
My Bowie epiphany came, as most musical epiphanies did for me, through Oasis in the 1990s. When ‘D’You Know What I Mean?,’ their big comeback single after the …Morning Glory phenomenon, was first given airplay, Radio 1 played all four tracks from the single at different moments. Whilst I enjoyed the single, the track that caused me to wear out the cassette was their cover of ‘Heroes’ (no commas in this instance). Whether or not it is a good cover is open to debate, but a good song is a good song. And this was a great one. So, through rifling through my brother’s Bowie purchases (of which there were a handful, fortunately one being a Best of) I began my musical education.
And I’ve never looked back. Even now, with the release of Blackstar. We listened to it on Saturday night. In truth, whilst new Bowie music was always an event, I didn’t have the highest of hopes. The Next Day was a solid album, and worth his returning to the fray for. However, I had the nagging doubt that I listened to it so much because of the surprise of the reveal. Upon reading reviews, I thought Blackstar would be experimental, interesting, and therefore get a handful of listens from me. A ten minute comeback single will have that effect. But we listened to it on Saturday and I was quietly impressed.
(Those of a cynical disposition will say that the release of a new Bowie album is timed very well, and this will impact sales. Which, apart from being a disgusting thing to say, patently won’t be true. For one, a new David Bowie album would likely always get Number 1. But more remarkably, it means he left on his terms. A genuine innovator, Bowie very rarely looked back, and would have wanted to end with something new. No doubt his cancer diagnosis inspired him to record his album. Which underlines what a remarkable, classy, inspirational and true artist he was.)
So I played it again this morning, after hearing the news. Then I remembered the recent single was called ‘Lazarus’….surely not? Surely Bowie wasn’t that well prepared. And then, track 3 came on the iPod, and I just knew. There it was, David Jones’s last testament, so oblique that you wouldn’t know at the time, and yet now it makes perfect sense:
‘Look up here, I’m in heaven.’
If such a thing exists, then yes David, yes you are. As ever, he was one step ahead of all us. The most perfect ending an artist could wish for. Farewell, Starman, and thank you.
‘This way or no way you know I’ll be free. Just like that bluebird, ain’t that just like me.’
Richard Bowes, 11/01/16
Feature: Live4Ever’s Tracks Of The Year
Well, that was a laugh wasn’t it?
Officially The Worst Year Ever (at least we could drown our sorrows and sing aloud in 2016), 2020 has turned everyone’s lives upside down and still has the capacity to do so, but we know all this.
It wasn’t just COVID-19 that caused such a year of great upheaval. In Sean Connery and Diego Maradona, the silver screen and the beautiful game lost legendary figures, so much so that we should perhaps start checking up on soon-to-be octogenarian Bob Dylan (although, given he’s now $300m richer, he’ll probably be alright). Meanwhile, in the UK the agonising, incessant stench of Brexit lingered on.
Yet while the music scene lost some legendary figures too (Little Richard, Florian Schneider, Tony Allan and Andrew Weatherall to name but four) – and was hugely curtailed by the lack of live music – as it frequently it does, it adapted and found creative solutions.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2020/12/live4evers-best-of-the-lounge-society/
Interview - Mike Kerr, Royal Blood
“I was laughing at this idea of tyrants dancing, imagining Darth Vader coming back to his headquarters after a long day terrorising the galaxy. What does he listen to when he takes the mask off and pours a glass of red wine? It just made me laugh. It was a stupid thought process that lead to hopefully a good idea.”
So speaks Mike Kerr of ‘Trouble’s Coming’, Royal Blood’s latest single released back in September. An unusual gestation for a smash-hit single, one would agree, but Kerr is happy to add some context; “A massive influence for the record was Sam Rockwell.”
“There’s a scene in Charlie’s Angels where he’s the villain and he’s in his lair. He’s dancing in his suit and his snakeskin boots with a can of Coke to ‘Simon Says’ by Pharoahe Moach.”
“For years that was our walk-on music because I was obsessed with that tune. When ‘Trouble’s Coming’ came, I thought it was totally what Sam Rockwell would dance to. It’s disco music but I wanted it to be really menacing.”
Yes, Royal Blood are back with a slinky single and a new album to follow in 2021. ‘Trouble’s Coming’ made a big splash on arrival, hitting Number 1 on the UK Vinyl Singles Chart and garnering Hottest Record accolades on both Apple Music and Spotify, as well as being a contender for Radio One’s own Hottest Record of 2020 as a whole.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2020/12/live4ever-interview-royal-blood/
Brits & Pieces - Album
Here is an album which proves that anything is possible with passion, enthusiasm and hard work.
Nearly two years ago, a 90s indie fan set up a Twitter account with a view to sharing memories, merchandise and anything else from the decade.
Primarily centred (but not exclusively) around Britpop, Marc Rossiter’s feed quickly became a treasure trove for fans of the era, especially through his wealth of personal photographs of luminaries from the era.
As the account gained more and more followers, new bands were recommended to Rossiter and, inspired by the Shine series, he took it upon himself to release a compilation album of independent British artists.
Now, with the tracks having been mastered by Nick Brine (engineer of (What’s The Story) Morning Glory? and The Stone Roses’ Second Coming), the CD is available to purchase from Rough Trade, with all profits being distributed to the bands equally.
Interview - Goat Girl
As you probably know, there is quite a large gap between the recording of an album and its release.
Mastering, artwork, production, promotion…all these things take time, even before factoring in when is most financially beneficial to release said album. And while 2020 has given everyone the ‘luxury’ of time, for Brixton’s Goat Girlit has meant sitting on their sophomore album for well over a year.
Fortunately, the quartet are confident in it enough to take events in their stride, with no fear of losing the momentum built by their well-received, self-titled debut of 2018. “Not playing the songs, it still feels really new with not touring,” they tell Live4ever over Zoom during mid-Lockdown #2.
https://www.live4ever.uk.com/2020/11/live4ever-interview-goat-girl/