First published July 2009

This years Serpentine Sessions has been an innovative and successful attempt to provide something new to London’s gig-goers. Inside a pink tent in the middle of Hyde Park around 2000 people have seen on successive nights Regina Spektor, Bon Iver and now Tindersticks supported by Big Star.

A glorious warm evening and a stroll through the park provides the perfect pre-amble to a compact but satisfying set from Big Star. With only 55 minutes onstage they are forced to play to their strengths with the result that the set-pacing problems exhibited at the Shepherds Bush gig last August are absent tonight. From the traditional opener “In the Street” to the equally traditional closer “Thank You Friends”  a great vibe emanated from the stage, with even the normally taciturn Alex Chilton grinning throughout  – he must have been thinking about the size of his fee for tonight’s one-off performance.  The sound tonight is crisp and well-balanced – everything audible and at sensible volume. Drummer Jody Stephens gets his chance to sing on “Way Out West” and “For You”, Posies Jon and Ken sing a reverent “I Am the Cosmos” to Chris Bell’s brother David, present in the crowd tonight. Also present are a relatively large number of young women – usually Big Star audiences are composed of indie fanboys muttering “seminal, seminal” so it makes a nice change to see ordinary music-lovers at a gig. Covers tonight are restricted to an authentically raunchy “Til The End Of the Day” plus “Patti Girl” and “Mine Exclusively”, where none of the band can remember who cut the original.

The band leave to warm applause and could definitely have played an encore. Instead Nick West and I talk to John Fry, a crucial figure in the Big Star story and here in London to do “tourist stuff”. John is very positive about the Big Star box-set due in September (contents here www.uncut.co.uk/news/big_star/news/13149)  and admits he has even mixed some of the previously-unreleased tracks. John confirms it is also planned to issue a 2CD expanded version of the I Am The Cosmos to tie in with the release of the box set.

The ever-amenable Jody comes over to say hello to Kent Benjamin (on his hols from Austin, Texas) but then heads off for an early night since he has to be up at 430 for the plane back to Memphis. Jon and Ken are nowhere to be seen but lo and behold Alex is hanging out in the outdoor bar, Diet Coke and smokes in a holder.

So we sit down for a chat and Alex belies his reputation by being excellent company. He says he only heard about the box set 2 weeks ago so it has been assembled without any input from him.  He is really pissed off with Bruce Eton’s new book on Radio City ( www.bigstarbook.blogspot.com ) and claims that Bruce included personal stuff that they had agreed was off-limits. Alex has no plans to write or record new material, feeling with the record industry in the state it ‘s in at present there’s not much point, plus he only really writes songs when has a deadline. A discussion on royalties revealed that Alex  does now get money from sales of the three  Big Star records, but that this is dwarfed by royalties earnt by the use of ”In The Street” as the theme for That Seventies Show in the US. Alex confessed that what he is really into at present is baroque and that he would like to do some composing, possibly for a film soundtrack.

He’s dry, he’s wry, he’s urbane – the Jimmy Stewart of Rock’n’Roll. But Alex Chilton, he’s still a mover.

First published May 2010

Spring 2010 has seen the simultaneous re-release of Exile On Main Street by the Rolling Stones and Raw Power by Iggy and the Stooges, originally released in May 1972 and June 1973 respectively. The Stones generated instant sales, a hit single and a sell-out US tour. By contrast this line up of the Stooges achieved no chart placings and managed just two gigs before losing their management and record deal. Over three decades later both records are widely recognised as classic recordings that continue to exert a significant influence on contemporary music and popular culture.

Someone who knew both the Stones and the Stooges intimately during the early 70’s was then-NME writer Nick Kent, whose recent memoir Apathy For The Devil offers excellent insights into both groups. “Exile on Main Street Street and Raw Power were both dark records, recorded in exile by two groups trying to deal with alien cultures.” The Stones were in tax-exile in the South of France, the Stooges transplanted from gritty Detroit to sleepy Maida Vale.  “Both records bear the mark of hard drug useage – Raw Power prior to recording, Exile more as part of the creative process.”

“Both records are linked to the blues. Raw Power is a more poetic version of John Lee Hooker, so something like Serves You Right To Suffer becomes ‘I’m dying in a story I only live in to sing this song’ (I Need Somebody) – that’s the Stooges whole career in a single sentence right there. This is what white folks should be doing when they sing the blues – focus on the economy and tell the story. Plus there is incredible foresight in Death Trip – ‘We’re going down in history…’ Iggy is saying I’ll have to kill myself before I get any exposure for this music”

Nick describes Exile songs like Soul Survivor as  “mysterious, dark but still tongue-in-cheek: ‘shit happens but we’re going to get out of this somehow’ The lyrics reflect the environment in which the songs were created – the sunbaked French Riviera in the company of the burnt-out idle rich. Hanging out with Paul Getty gave Mick Jagger something to write about. In ’68 he was a Street Fighting Man, by Exile it’s all about the wealthy and pampered.”

“Jagger’s lyrics reveal his concern for what was happening to those he was closest to – Keith Richards, Anita Pallenburg, Marianne Faithful. Although Jagger took heroin at this point he was not addicted like the other three. But I don’t really know what the Exile lyrics are about – Jaggers vocals are so low in the mix they almost become part of the rhythm track, like say Michael Jackson. It’s the last time he did this – from Goats Heads Soup onwards Jagger’s voice has been much higher in the mix. The ‘hidden’ sound of the lyrics on Exile reflect the lifestyle from which it was created.” The Only Ones’ John Perry points out “Exile is the Stones last record as Englishmen. After this they become rootless, stateless, international, and any real sense of Englishness is gone from the records.”

Is Exile still Nick’s favourite Stones record? ” For some years I thought it was, but now I think it’s Sticky Fingers where every song is 10/10, really well sequenced and not exclusively dark like Exile. Exile has the Stones ‘dream team’ firing on all cylinders. In addition to founding members Jagger, Richards, Wyman and Watts there was a fully-integrated Mick Taylor on guitar, Nicky Hopkins their best ever keyboard player who brought colour to the tracks and crucially producer Jimmy Miller. What Jimmy Miller brought to the group was groove – find a good groove, get Keith Richards to add a great riff and Mick Jagger to find an interesting lyrical topic beyond who he was fucking. Jimmy Miller started off as a drummer and was used to working with US black musicians.  Plus they really knew how to use the horn section of Jim Price and Bobby Keyes to add rhythm, like the Memphis Horns were used on Stax records. Don’t play much, accentuate the riff. Remember Exile came out at the time that rock bands like Chicago and Blood Sweat and Tears were using horns to play bad jazz”.

Nick is optimistic that both groups could make another record that compares well to these seminal works. “The Stones have the opportunity to make a really good record as ‘old guys’, facing the real prospect of death. Death is right in their faces now, and the blues is all about that.  They need to rethink their performing and recording agenda and ask themselves the question ‘Why do we need to make new album?’. Take a leaf out of Bob Dylan’s book when he did Time Out Of Mind. Do the old blues and r’n’b songs. Use that as a touchstone then write your songs from that. No power ballads, no contemporary stuff. Recently Jagger has given the impression that when he writes a song he is only thinking about how the video is going to look. You need a producer who is going to do more than referee between Keith and Mick. Don Was says that producing the band in the studio is great for the 30% of the time when the band are playing. But the other 70% of the time is spent negotiating with Keith and Mick as they slag off each others new songs. But I’m never going to count out the Stones from making a great final record.”

“Iggy could do another strong record with James Williamson. Both the groups are good live. The market is there – all it needs is the right material. The Stones could copy the Stooges and do some gigs where they play Exile all the way through.” It is rumoured that Jagger – never a big fan of Exile – rejected this idea when it was suggested by Universal Records.

By contrast the Stooges spent May 2 and 3 playing the whole of Raw Power to ecstatic audiences at a sold-out Hammersmith Apollo. The attraction for long-term Stooges fans was the return on guitar of James Williamson and a song selection to match.” James had unfinished business, now he’s finishing it – he’s a better foil to Iggy than either Ron Asheton or David Bowie ever was.” In addition to the eight songs from Raw Power the sets included five songs from follow-up Kill City and even songs never adequately recorded in ’73 such as the irrepressible Cock In My Pocket and the reflective Open Up and Bleed. Veteran Stooges fans such as Bill Allerton and Phil Shoenfelt were hugely impressed, commenting “stupendous – one of the best gigs I’ve been to” and “one of the most apocalyptic shows I’ve seen in a long time – truly amazing, a brutal, dark slaughterhouse of a gig. What a performance, what nerve, what courage, what heroism.”

In an interesting online interview James Williamson confirms he has now remastered Kill City, the follow-up to Raw Power and a criminally underrated record that shows Pop and Williamson at their most Stones-like. “I’m telling you, the end result is just fantastic. I mean, we finally reached the full potential of that album. We’re gonna re-release that some time this year” (more at www.clashmusic.com/feature/the-stooges-james-williamson-interview). Also later this year there is finally an official DVD release of ‘Ladies And Gentlemen The Rolling Stones’, documenting the 1972 STP American tour to great effect.

So Nick which is the better record today – Exile or Raw Power? ” Raw Power is the greatest rock’n’roll album ever. It actually describes what it is talking about. Songs about rock’n’roll are usually corny but Raw Power gets it. Raw Power is the bridge between prime Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard and the Sex Pistols. Kurt Cobain and Metallica. But unlike the Stones this is not copying Chuck Berry. This is the blueprint for how rock (not rock’n’roll) was going to be. In comparison Exile was almost a blueprint for what rock’n’roll had been up to 1972. Two real milestone records. There are never going to be greater rock’n’roll records made.”

Recorded Evidence

Electric Circus

The Stooges

Easy Action LP

This low-fi recording documents one of the rare live gigs featuring the twin guitar line-up of Ron Asheton and James Williamson. Recorded at the Electric Circus, New York in May 1971, none of the songs were to feature on Raw Power so with the exception of I Got A Right this material was effectively lost until now. Easy Action are to be congratulated for enabling die-hard Stooges fans to hear this short-lived line-up playing such rare material. Iggy’s solo rendition of The Shadow Of Your Smile is a nice touch. Pressed on bright orange vinyl so as to resemble a pumpkin.

James Williamson and the Careless Hearts

Easy Action Double LP/DVD

Prior to the high-profile Raw Power gigs James regained match fitness by rehearsing and gigging with San Jose’s Careless Hearts. This record was made when they played the Blank Club in September 2009, joined by original Stooges sax player Steve MacKay who featured at the Hammersmith gigs,. The selection of material also corresponds largely to the London gigs and James is in impressive form throughout. I have a problem with anyone other than Iggy singing ‘I’m a street-walking cheetah with a heartful of napalm” but singer Paul Kimball does his best here. The vinyl sounds flat to me and I preferred the simply shot DVD of the gig. Pressed on translucent red vinyl to look like giant Cherry-flavour Tunes.

Raw Power Box Set

Iggy and the Stooges

Sony Legacy 3CD/DVD/7″ single

There are cheaper and simpler versions but this box-set has significant advantages. CD1 is the original David Bowie production, remastered and sounding terrific, although the absence of the complete “violent” Iggy remix from 1996 is a missed opportunity (it would have fitted snugly onto CD1). CD2 is a multi-track recording of a live gig from Atlanta Georgia in October 1973 marred only by some guitar problems – when James Williamson’s guitar finally starts functioning just before the end of Head On it feels like the arrival of the US Cavalry. The live Gimme Danger showcases Ron Asheton’s bass playing, his interplay with Williamson worthy of Entwistle / Townshend or Fraser / Kossoff. I Need Somebody optimises the five-piece live Stooges, pianist Scott Thurston channelling Nicky Hopkins The rest of CD2 and CD3 collate studio out-takes and new mixes such as the Yardbirdsy I’m Sick Of You in best-ever sound. The DVD is an excellent ‘making-of’ documentary which only suffers from a lack of live footage  – just Shake Appeal from the Sao Paolo festival of November 2009 . Plus five groovy postcards, a repro of the impossibly rare Japanese Raw Power vinyl single with priceless lyric translation on the pc sleeve (it starts “Dance to the beat of Nelly’s dead”…) and a 48-page colour leaflet stuffed full of juicy Mick Rock pics and informative anecdotes. A nice touch is that the box itself looks like a well-worn copy of the original LP. A box set put together for fans, by fans.

Exile On Main Street

The Rolling Stones

Universal Records 2CD set

Like Raw Power this re-release comes in a bewildering variety of formats from single CD to box-set-multiple-vinyl-free-DVD-plus-T-shirt-give-us-all-your-money-limited-edition. This 2CD version pairs the eighteen songs from the original 1972 release with a second CD of ten further songs recorded there or thereabouts (rumours of extensive contemporary re-recording persist).

Virgin did a good Bob Ludwig remaster of the original release in 1994 and by comparison CD1 here sounds pretty much the same only louder. Of the ‘new’ tracks on CD2 some are mere curiosities to play once such as the instrumental Title 5, an early version of Soul Survivor where a half-hearted Keith Richards vocal degenerates into “Etcetera, Etcetera” and a slovenly out-take of Loving Cup. Good Time Woman realises belatedly that it wants to turn into Tumbling Dice the way a caterpillar wants to turn into a glittering dragonfly. The Japanese release will additionally feature an unrefined early version of All Down The Line.

More successful are the songs not officially released before. I’m Not Signifying is a relaxed and effective blues built around Nicky Hopkins bar-room piano and Jaggers’ mouth-harp. Despite being the most unlimited limited-release in vinyl history Plundered My Soul swaggers in all the right places and highlights some fabulous Mick Taylor fills and cool Jagger lyrics, whilst being oddly reminiscent of Ooh La La-era Faces. Pass The Wine plonks a recently-recorded Jagger vocal over a 1971 instrumental called Sophia Loren to create a latiny groove that goes nowhere at some length, thus saying “Mick Jagger solo LP”. Original Stone Ian Stewart playing piano on Dancing In The Light (aka Four And In) is a nice surprise and a further 60’s reference is the resemblance between So Divine and Paint it, Black. A final highlight is Following The River, the most convincing ballad here with more delicious Nicky Hopkins piano and a lovelorn Jagger.

Jagger has made it clear that any further excavation of the Stones capacious vaults depends upon this release being a commercial success. So on that basis I hope it sells. But three successes out of ten tracks is a poor strike-rate. Where is Fast Talking Slow Walking, Key To The Highway, 32-20 Blues, When You Got A Good Friend, the acoustic All Down The Line, even the ‘drunken’ Loving Cup or Exile On Main Street Blues? Compare this to Raw Power and weep.

 

First Published November 2010

Following on from the release of the Portobello Shuffle CD key members of the Deviants / Pink Fairy diaspora gathered in Ladbroke Grove to stage a gig that would promote the CD whilst raising funds to help the poorly Dave ‘Boss’ Goodman.  In the days before the gig drummer Russell Hunter, bass player Duncan ‘Sandy’ Sanderson and vocalist extraordinaire Mick Farren were all persuaded to review their legacy.

Fairies/Deviants ingénues begin here. Farren founded the (Social) Deviants in 1967, gradually being joined by Hunter, Sandy and guitarist Paul Rudolph. A disastrous Canadian tour saw Farren parting company from the rest of the band who on returning to the UK re-named themselves the Pink Fairies. The punky single The Snake / Do It was followed by LPs Never Never Land (1971) and What A Bunch of Sweeties (1972).  The Fairies built a reputation for fierce urban improvised rock’n’roll only otherwise available from Detroit. The replacement of Rudolph by (briefly) Mick Wayne and then permanently by Larry Wallis added melodic songwriting to the mix in time for career highspot Kings Of Oblivion (1973), a prophetic title which ended the first phase of Fairydom. Since then there have been sporadic reunions and collaborations which you can read about in Rich Deakin’s book ‘Keep It Together!’ and Mick Farrens autobiography ‘Give The Anarchist A Cigarette’. Rich is also the driving force behind the Portobello Shuffle CD and all-round good egg.

Running through all this sex, drugs and rock’n’roll like the letters in a stick of rock is Boss Goodman. Mick Farren explains “Boss Goodman arrived in my life just when the Deviants needed someone else to carry their gear and drive them around. He thought I was the worst singer he’d ever seen but we lured him in. He is the one continuous figure through the Deviants, Pink Fairies and all the projects that followed. He’s been the mainstay through the whole thing, he’s been a tower of strength. I turned to him often when I took too much acid and he was always there. A lot of people owe Boss Goodman a vast debt of gratitude” . Russell agrees “Boss was the rock on which we foundered. He was always there, learning his trade as a road manager as we were learning ours.”

Sandy has a theory as to why the Deviants and the Fairies still sound relevant today. “It was an after-effect of the Deviants going to Vancouver and then proceeding down the West Coast of the States, that had a real influence on me. Even the covers bands were musically very talented and were very competent musicians.  During our last month in the US we stayed in a house in San Francisco that had a music room so you got up, had something to eat and then made music as opposed to here where it was ‘let’s book a rehearsal room for next Tuesday’.  And of course Paul was from Vancouver and when he joined the Fairies we morphed into a different entity from the tail end of the beat boom”. Russell takes up the story “When we got back to London we tried to recreate that vibe and approach playing music in the way that other musicians played jazz. Not the complexity of jazz but we’d have a verse structure, and a bridge structure and an idea of how it was going to end and then nightly we’d launch into whatever and sometimes when that works it is absolutely magic.”

Russell: “When Larry came along we got much more structured, and we needed it. Larry is the master of the hook and the bridge and the little chorus so from Kings of Oblivions onwards we had songs. We learnt from Larry this idea of structure, and from us he learnt this idea of improvisation. Although the songs on Kings of Oblivion are quite tight, when we interpreted them on stage they were much looser.“ Sandy agrees that Larry Wallis joining the band made a huge difference. “We used to waste incredible amounts of money going in the studio without any songs. We would sit in Command Studios in Piccadilly for twenty-four hours @ £45 an hour – a fair whack in 1971 – and get terribly out of it and come out with nothing. We were trying to put things together the way we did on stage – we hadn’t really learned about demos. With Larry a lot of those songs came to us from his past when he was playing with bands like UFO and The Entire Sioux Nation. City Kids was originally called 52 Card Pickup until me and Larry had some time on our hands one day and it changed into City Kids. “

Even today there is little film footage of these guys in their prime. Sandy explains: “The motherlode for serious Fairies freaks is the promo shot on the set of ‘Oliver’ at Pinewood in the snow where we mimed to Do It and The Snake with dancing girls. Jeff Dexter has done some research but no-one knows who’s got the film. Plus there’s footage from Phun City – a lot of people said there wasn’t even film in the cameras but Jeff Dexter has contacted the director and he has confirmed we were filmed.” The Fairies reputation as the peoples band who would play anywhere, anytime could have a downside.  “We used to shoot ourselves in the foot with live work. One night we’d be charging the promoter of the Cambridge Corn Exchange £500 for our services then after the gig we’d get in the truck and go to some field and play for the same people all over again for free! There were a lot of phone calls to our agents about that.

All three Fairies LPs came out on Polydor, although as Sandy says “we didn’t actually sign to Polydor – we were signed to Deutsche Grammophon, the biggest classical label in the world! It was some kind of tax thing. We never had a lot to do with Polydor. We did some recording in their funny little studio in Stratford Place. We were stretched to finish Kings of Oblivion. They stuck us in there with their eccentric German engineer Carlos and we did most of Raceway then we had to rush off to get a plane to Scotland at 6 o’clock in the morning.  The last thing Larry said was “we’ll be back tomorrow to put the vocals on”.  As soon as we’d gone they pressed the record and that’s why Raceway is an instrumental, although we used to play it live with words. Larry really got screwed on Kings of Oblivion because Polydor took the attitude that Mick Wayne was on the contract so Larry was just a session musician. They never paid him a penny. After Kings of Oblivion we pretty much fell apart – drug problems, we had some personal issues.” What happened next, Russell? “Larry was getting pretty involved with Stiff producing the Adverts, I was falling apart – I spent those years trying to act out the lyrics to Sister Morphine”

Meanwhile Mick Farren had established himself as journalist at IT, Oz and the NME, followed by a series of novels and a move to the US. But now he’s back living in Brighton – how come? “ I was burnt out on LA and there’s no print media in California. Plus storm clouds on the horizon – it could get really unpleasant, the makings of fascism are all there. It’s great being back in a civilised country. I moved to Brighton because I can’t afford to live in London. All my mates are a twenty dollar cab ride from each other. Brighton is much more civilised – I’m a few blocks from the station and it’s where I grew up, it’s where I saw Gene Vincent, Johnny Kidd and the Yardbirds. I went to West Sussex art school. I’ve come home, I guess..” On the writing front? “A book called Speed Speed Speedfreak just came out – a beautiful little book shaped like a Black Bomber, a cultural and political history of amphetamines from 1890 to the present day. There’s also a few confessions from my youth, which is why I don’t have any teeth left.”

Mick still performs what he calls ‘lounge-dementia’. “Getting back on stage with these guys feels really great. In the US I was doing quite a bit with Andy Colquhoun, doing like a William Burroughs and Jimi Hendrix double act, poetry reading against some Jeff Beck type guitar. I’m 67 man, I don’t want to be singing bad rock’n’roll”. He is impressed with the Boss tribute CD “I love it, there’s a lot of my songs on it! I really like Wreckless Erics cover of I Wish I Was A Girl plus I didn’t realise Captain Sensible could sing so well. Wilko’s Wilko and I’m really happy with my track. Where else do you find Felix Dennis, Phil Taylor from Motorhead and Wreckless Eric all on the same record?”

The Inn On The Green is a short lurch from the traditional Deviants/Fairies stomping ground of the Portobello Road. The club boasted a Sold Out notice and an audience composed of Ladbrook Groovers past and present – Carol Price, John Perry, Maria McCormack, a dapper Jeff Dexter and Craig Sams plus the BoB massive – Nick West, Nigel Cross and Gerry Ranson. The first band onstage were unimpressive, as limited rehearsal time left Brian James backed by Russell and Sandy plodding through I’m Waiting For My Man and Route 66. However the musical highlight of the night followed in the unlikely form of Pink Fairies tribute band, Pink FA. The opening trio of City Kids, Street Urchin and I Wish I Was A Girl brought the spirit of Larry Wallis into the room, Larry himself being too ill to attend. Portobello Shuffle was accompanied by a bunch of sweeties thrown from the stage and not even the addition of Nik Turner could scupper them.

Guitarist Tim Rundall did a couple of songs alone (including an unexpected cover of Alex Chilton’s Underclass) before he was gradually joined by a seated Mick Farren, Russell, Sandy plus Jaki Windmill on tabla, Gregg McKella on oboe and Steve Mann on backing vocals  aka The Portobello Allstars. Farren has definite stage presence and the set worked well during his lyrical pieces, less so when the musicians started Hawkwinding amongst themselves. Half-Price Drinks and a singalong version of the Deviants Let’s Loot The Supermarket provided a rousing finish, with Boss making an onstage cameo.

Finally veteran Detroit beatnik John Sinclair performed some spoken word packed by the Dirty Strangers, all the way from Shepherds Bush (as they mentioned incessantly). Their backing of Sinclair was impressively sympathetic, although the songs they performed without him were pubrock at it’s stodgiest. Welcome visual distraction was provided by Angel, a true Pink Fairy in matching pink wings and bob who did her best to summon the spirit of Stacia. A splendid time was guaranteed for all, the CD was well and truly launched, Boss made a few bob and we all did the Portobello Shuffle.

 

First published November 2007

“It’s tough having heroes. Heroes are generally expected to produce something or other to reconfirm their mandarin-fingered clinch on the hot buns of the bitch muse, which sometimes comes closer to resembling a set of clawmarks running down and off the edge of a shale precipice. And that’s no office party, kiddo” Lester Bangs, from ‘Psychotic Reactions And Carburettor Dung” Paul Westerberg comes close to being my hero. When he was chief songwriter in the Replacements he married singer-songwriter sensitivity to punk thrash: during his solo career he has proved that a rock’n’roller can evolve and still keep his integrity. I’ve wanted to meet him since I heard my first Replacements record in 1986. And he does not disappoint. Sat in the Scala dressing room in the brief time between the soundcheck and his first UK gig in 11 years Westerberg reveals himself to be remarkably affable, thoughtful and good-humoured. Back in 1993 Paul had the full Warners/Reprise machinery behind him. He had soundtracked Cameron Crowe’s homage to the Seattle grunge-scene ‘Singles’ and his first solo record “Fourteen Songs” was just out. Seven solo records later it’s a very different story – the new record ‘Folker’ is released here on indie label Vagrant and tonights gig is just Paul, a sofa and a selection of guitars. Considering the Replacements started their career on Minneapolis independent Twin Tone Paul is positive about this development. “For my last record on Capitol/EMI, the president who signed me was fired the day the record came out so I just got put on the shelf and that disappointed me. I withdrew from the whole thing – fired my manager, fired my lawyer, didn’t have a label and felt really really free – like I was 18 again. My songs suit an independent approach. I’ve come full circle of not having to answer to anyone, simply recording and making the music that I like then turning it in and saying ‘Here You Go’ ” “ I do have a fanbase – its small, but I’m always trying to come up with a gimmick – I mean ‘Folker’s opening song ‘Jingle’ was perfect, I was literally trying to pitch that for any conceivable television thing ever so I would be selling a baby powder, wiping a baby’s ass just to make fun of the whole genre. Converse accepted the video for series of “Make Us Your Own Commercial’. I don’t know how it will work out. That was my stab at making it go beyond my usual 50-75,000 fans.” So does ‘Folk + Rocker = Folker ? “In essence – You’re the first one to sum it up so succinctly.  I mean if I’m standing there with an acoustic guitar my vision is that someone with long hair will walk in and say ‘that’s a folk singer’ although actually I’m a rocker who doesn’t have band. ‘Folker’ has some of my most rocking singing, the folk comes on when the verses change, the words change and there’s stories but there’s not a hell of a lot of instrumentation going on behind.” By contemporary standards Folker is a short record. “It’s deliberate. I hate records that go on and on just because they can. I kept two or three good songs off because this is a nice collection of 13 or whatever songs.” Despite the predominantly acoustic settings there are some nifty could-be-singles on the record “I hope ‘Looking Up in Heaven’ is going to be a hit for someone before I get there. ‘As Far As I Know’ was wanted for some movie, Liz Phair was going to do it, Julia Hatfield ended up cutting a version – I like my version, what the hell I just put it on, it was done few years ago but I thought it was too good to waste.” There is a definite Faces vibe on Folker, most noticeably on ‘Gun Shy’ where the descending chords have a real ’Ooh La la’ feel. “Probably – a dropped D string there, sort of Woody-esque. You can find the Faces in at least fifty percent of what I do. They’ve been terribly under-rated.” As a Faces fan, Westerbergs sleeve notes for the recent Faces box-set ‘Five Guys Walk Into A Bar’ are a real hoot. “I did the Faces box set notes as a favour to Ian McLagan. Mac called me up and said ‘I want you to be part of this’ and I couldn’t say no. He looks great still. We were talking recently about playing together in Minneapolis. I was trying to find him a show – it kind of fell through.” More surprising is the way the record ends with a snatch of ‘Who Knows Where The Time Goes?’. ”I’m not a real Fairport fan but I like Sandy Denny, I had a few of her records. I didn’t know if I was going to have to credit. The credit is Denny Sandy, I thought they had it wrong but that’s the way the publisher said.” During the soundcheck Paul played both Replacements songs and solo records and I was struck by how these days they all sound like a single body of work. “They are all my songs – the other guys did contribute, if nothing else they were in the room at the time I wrote it and maybe gave it a faster tempo than I wanted but I pretty much wrote ‘em. I would lift a lyric or two from Tommy.” Will Paul’s alter-ego Grandpaboy turn up tonight? “You never know – when he shows up on a good night we’re one and the same. It usually depends on the crowd. Sometimes you get out there ready to rock and you sense the crowd wants to hear ‘Sadly Beautiful’ and ‘Swinging Party’. But when there’s a good cross-section, Grandpaboy usually shows up. Something definitely gets broken when he shows up.” Having the couch onstage “started as ‘Where do we put the guitars when we don’t have stands ?’” I made the music sitting down in my basement so I sit down to play. And then we started inviting the people up to share the couch and that was loads of fun, they would hold the lyrics, people would give me the lyrics in my ear like Jimmy Reed. It was fun.” Paul’s inability to remember his own lyrics is legendary – I reminded him that I had to give him the first line of ‘Skyway’ when he played the Borderline in 1993. “I might need it again tonight. I’ve got the damn things and I look at them but it’s like a mental block.” Tonights gig sold out before it was announced, proof there is a Westerberg hardcore in the UK. Why fly all the way to London for one gig? One reason is Paul’s son Johnny, now aged six. “I go away for a week at a time, come back a few days then another week. He’s first grade. He doesn’t take it well. He was crying when I left, he’ll be crying when I get home. At first he thought it was Daddy’s job to play in the basement, now he knows the other part of it is when I go away and play.” Does he like your songs? “I don’t think so – he likes Deep Purple  – Woman From Tokyo, Space Trucking.” Paul is keen to distance himself from the Replacements tendency towards Heavy metal cover versions. “Bob Stinson was the one who took us into Yes – I always leaned more towards Hank Williams or Creedence.” “I wanted to do another night but I have to go home tomorrow to do a benefit for a guy for Karl Mueller (Soul Asylum – he’s currently being treated for cancer). I made a half-assed attempt to put the Replacements back together, our head roadie who owns the club came over and asked if I wanted to play and I said “Let’s go all the way – phone the guys up.” He made the call – Slim was more or less game, Tommy and Chris were hesitant and I don’t blame them – I felt a sigh of relief when it came back that it wasn’t going to happen. There have been some ugly jabs in the press.” Relationships between Paul and former ‘Mats bass-player Tommy Stinson continue to ebb and flow. “Tommy ? We’re not speaking this month. I’ve heard his new record is good but for me he’s forever my surrogate younger brother and to see him be the lead singer, I can’t but help think ‘that was my job’.  As soon as he grew up and wanted to have my job it was like ‘what am I going to do – play the bass?’“ Next on the agenda is a brace of films. First up is ‘Open Season’. “It’s an animated thing, computer drawn, two years in the making, out in 2006. I wrote them a bunch of songs which they liked and they’ve now hired me as composer to score the thing. It difficult – I’ve never done it before and its frightening and exciting at the same time. I’m working with two guys who’ve probably done 100 movies between them so it’s difficult for me to say ‘Steve can you please….’. This is the guy who’s just done ‘Alfie’, the real stuff. “ And then there’s the latest Cameron Crowe movie ‘Elizabethtown’.  “It’s based in Kentucky and I had a song with Kentucky in the title and I sent it to him with another tune that he liked. Its the first time I’ve worked with Cameron since Singles – he’s a good guy, he likes me so I still get paid, a pittance but I still get cheques from overseas viewing of the movie and stuff.” And after that ? “I don’t know. I haven’t thought past what  I am going to play tonight” What Paul played was a generous helping of 27 songs from throughout his entire career, although disappointingly only one track from ‘from ‘Folker’ (‘My Dad’). Kicking off with ‘Waiting For Somebody’ and ‘My Latest Last Chance’ it became obvious that most of the crowd are real-hardcore fans. The Only Ones ‘Another Girl Another Planet’ made its inevitable appearance. He switched to electric guitar for ‘Let The Bad Times Roll’ and pulled out a strong vocal for ‘Valentine’ but ‘Little Mascara’ ran out of steam. After ‘Born For Me’ Paul murmured ”But she was so stupid she didn’t even know it, then I didn’t write another song for three years until I wrote this…” and into ‘High Time’. In response to a yelled request we got ‘If Only You Were Lonely’, still convincing after all these years. Paul’s tribute to Sylvia Plath ‘Crackle and Drag’ was followed by the comment “here’s a little ingenuity using the same chords’ and so to “Lush & Green” from 1997’s Grandpaboy EP. Paul sat on the couch for ‘Sadly Beautiful’ and then forgot the opening line to ‘First Glimmer.’ Instead someone in the front row offered “Look in me in the eye..” but Paul never sings ‘Unsatisfied’ these days because he can no longer connect with the lyric. ‘I Will Dare’ got a punked-up superfast ending, then ‘Knocking On Mine’ got its lyric altered to include a schoolteacher from Sheffield, who judging from the whoop was in the audience. ‘Alex Chilton’ totally rocked, rather overshadowing ‘Mr Rabbit’. Halfway through the latter Paul suffered some sound glitches not resolved by roadie, eliciting a “I can’t fire him, I don’t know his name”. ‘Left Of the Dial’ and ‘Swinging Party’ were mostly sung by the audience. A thoughtful ‘Love Untold’ preceded a crowd invasion when on Pauls invitation a hundred or so fans sat in and around the sofa onstage, giving set-closers ‘Skyway’ and ‘Here Comes A Regular’ a definite ‘All You Need Is Love‘ vibe. Paul than left the stage, only to be hauled back for a rocking ‘Can’t Hardly Wait’ and a snatch of ‘Customer’. The gift of a ghastly straw hat caused Grandpaboy to appear briefly and maul a brace of country songs before deciding he’d had enough, or in Paul’s words “I’ll quit while I’m behind” . Vagrant hope to bring Westerberg back in January with a band. If you can’t wait that long look out for a CD on Thumbs Up Records entitled ‘Skyway to Buffalo’, the opening night of the ‘Come Feel Me Tremble’ tour broadcast live on local radio in January 2002 and featuring many of the tracks played at the Scala.

First published April 2007

Of all the reformations seen in 2007 surely the most unexpected and the most welcome has been the return of The Only Ones, namely Peter Perrett (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), John Perry (lead guitar), Alan Mair (bass) and Mike Kellie (drums). Newcomers should start with the bands first two LPs (‘The Only Ones’ from 1978 and ‘Even Serpents Shine’ from 1979, both CBS/Sony), selectively sample Album Three (1980’s ‘Baby’s Got a Gun’) and read cover-to-cover Nina Antonias highly entertaining and reasonably accurate account of the band. Sitting comfortably ? Now we’ll begin…

On a crisp spring evening John Perry is in fine form over a vegetable biryani out towards the Western extremity of the Piccadilly Line as I ask him the all-important question: Why Now? “Well, Easter is generally a good time for a resurrection…” Was it the increased visibility that came from Vodaphone using the Only Ones greatest miss ‘Another Girl, Another Planet’ in their current TV ad ? “For the band, not at all. As late as February this year there was no intention of reforming but then Alan felt like playing All Tomorrow’s Parties in Minehead and he and I talked and it was clear that we could have talked forever with Peter so we went down to the Perrett house with an attractive gig and an attractive sum of money attached and we put that on the table and that did the trick. Peter was willing to play festivals but I suspect his experience with The One (Peter’s band after the Only Ones) may have scared him about playing to half-filled rooms, but then Peter wouldn’t appreciate that The One and The Only Ones are a different proposition – as far as he’s concerned its just Peter Perrett and some musicians. Playing wasn’t a matter of indifference to me, but I didn’t much care if we reformed or not – its been in the air so long and hasn’t happened so many times. After that the whole thing happened in about seven days. No management – good agency, good accountant, good lawyer and Alan and I do logistics. “

A very frail and seemingly drug-ravaged Peter Perrett was last seen onstage at 93 Feet East in Brick Lane when he guested with Love Minus Zero, the band fronted by his two sons Jamie and Peter Junior. Perry paints a different picture. “Our rehearsals are going great. There was all this stuff after the 93 Feet East gig that Peter had to sit down after three numbers… At our very first rehearsal Peter sang thirty songs straight off, some of them twice, and was standing for five-and-half hours, no trouble at all. “ Of more concern is the health of drummer Mike Kellie. “Kellie went into hospital in December 2005 and they fucked it up – I remember speaking to him on the phone and he sounded like Death but now he seems fine.”

“ The first rehearsal was just the three of us – Peter, Alan and me – because I wanted to feel time between the three musicians which once you’ve got the drummer in you can’t do in the same way. The thing that became apparent is what a fabulous rhythm guitar player Peter is – playing absolutely steady in time, even when he’s singing in counter-rhythm. Kellie too has a lovely steady time. You take your time from the drummer but phrase around the singer. And Alan plays far from traditional bass lines. I’d never realised ‘til now quite how those components slotted together – you don’t analyse things while they’re happening, especially when they’re working well. We don’t sound any different. As soon as Kellie arrived it sounded like we’d had 25 days off, not 25 years. But if you took away any one member it wouldn’t work.”

So what songs can we expect to hear on their short UK tour in June?.  “The material we’re going to play chooses itself, same as it always did. Songs have lives. There would be songs that we would love playing and then we’d get bored of them and they’d vanish for nine months and then re-appear, revived. The majority of stuff that we play we’ll play at All Tomorrow’s Parties will be well-known Only Ones songs but there’s plenty more gigs coming along. And the situation is changing from day to day. Literally. I wouldn’t like to guess where we’ll be by June.It’s a democracy of sorts. If anyone has any really strong objection to a particular song then that acts as a veto. “

“Robyn Hitchcock has a maxim that revivals should come with built in expiry dates. Whether this is a revival, I don’t know – maybe we are just picking up where we left off. We won’t go on forever just doing old songs – that definitely has a built in expiry date, we won’t let it get tired. The first time round everyone all left the band at the same time. If we had been with Island – one of Chris Blackwell personal signings – instead of at CBS there might have been someone there with the wisdom to say ‘just take two years off’. Warners wanted us but the money they were offering wouldn’t have paid the CBS debt. And everyone was fed up with everyone else anyway. “

John served his musical apprenticeship in the West Country. “I was 15 when I did my first professional gigs in Bristol in 1967, playing with much older blokes who’d been influenced by the likes of Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran. I first saw Cream in 1966 when they still liked each other. This was at the Bristol Locarno – one week it would be the Who, next week it would be the Small Faces, next it would be Hendrix. By 1968  my band had the regular support slot at Bath Pavilion. Promoter Fred Bannister phoned at lunchtime and said “Want to do a support tonight?” but wouldn’t say who it was, so we think OK its the Who doing a secret tryout gig, but when we get there there’s a poster saying The New Yardbirds and then in tiny writing underneath Led Zeppelin – their third gig and they were rubbish.”

So who influenced your playing ? “At the time of the Only Ones I was hugely into lead guitar – Mick Taylor, Hendrix, Jeff Beck – whereas now I am far more fascinated by Brian Jones era Rolling Stones where its two guitars locking. Jeff Beck takes such chances – you can count on him to be odd. I’ve seen him deliberately start a solo in an impossibly awkward place just to see how he would get out of it. The Cream comeback gig was great – good to watch Clapton sweat, the other two really made him work.  Baker with his bad back gone had to sit up very straight and play more simply – he seemed an even more fantastic drummer without all the triplets twiddly-dum twiddly-dum. Jack’s singing was marvellous. Actually at rehearsals this week Kellie has been playing on a stripped down kit– just bass drum, snare and hi-hat becuase that’s all we could find – and the difference is really interesting. Changes the whole dynamic.”

After the initial demise of the Only Ones in March 1980 John formed his own band, Decline and Fall. “When a big thing like the Only Ones finishes you think ‘fuck that’ and put a band together with people from your home town – Nick who was my drummer in my Bristol band The Ratbites From Hell, our bass player had been in a band called Carmen. It was a three piece, I was looking for a singer or singer/guitarist, I was looking for a manager – I was having to write the songs, manage, do the singing – none of which I particularly wanted to do. The fact that it lasted a year was very good going, we did a couple of dozen gigs including Glastonbury but I was losing interest in it.”

In addition to his guitar prowess John has a growing reputation as an author who can put ‘classic’ albums into some sort of historical perspective.  “The three books I’ve done  – on the Stones (‘Exiles on Main Street’), the Who (‘Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy’) and Hendrix (‘Electric Ladyland’) – have all done very nicely financially. I’m speaking to people in Spain and Italy at the moment about editions there and I must make a trip to New York. It was luck writing about three albums that have stayed current. My publisher, Schirmer, were really leaning on me to do Who’s Next which the Americans view as THE classic Who album whereas the only bit of the Who I’m interested in is the singles pre-Tommy. After Tommy they became a great band of a completely different sort. “

“The Only Ones supported the Who at their lowest period (America, June 1979). It was a backward move for us because by then we could fill 1500 seaters on our own – it was a disaster from start to finish. Peter was indifferent but the other three of us were all huge Who fans. Members of the Who got the impression we were being stand-offish whereas we were probably just being respectful. This was the Kenny Jones era and nobody can play drums for the Who except Keith Moon, it’s just not possible – although Kellie thinks that current Who drummer Zak Starkey is doing a good job.” How about another book ? “There is a collection of Only Ones road stories – scurrilous and very funny and at some point I might get that together. We were in Manchester for my birthday in 1978 or ‘79 and BP Fallon (legendary on-road procurer and vibemeister) was on the road with us. I got back to my hotel after the gig and opened the door turned on the light and BANG! …there were twenty women in there. I thought ‘good’ but just the same I went into the bathroom just for a second to gather myself – and there were four more in the shower! After Decline and Fall I went off to Greece and took a typewriter to write some of this down and I’ve still got the typescript so at some point I shall assemble it. Disasters are always much funnier than successes.”

Have you ever thought about becoming a producer ? “I don’t have the patience or diplomacy for production. I like paying live, although The Only Ones were absolutely deafening on stage – we started with all the amps on full. When I look back now on the Only Ones stuff it was Alan that did the production. I would go in and just jam down three or four lead guitar parts and say ‘they’re all great’. It was Alan who was sufficiently mature to say ‘if we layer that bit on top of that…” and he was doing this from the first LP onwards but he was only credited with the second album. We made sure when we signed the contract with CBS that they only owned the masters we delivered ie the twelve songs that went onto each album. Even if they were paying for the studio time all the other songs were never their property so there isn’t a great deal left in the CBS vaults. ‘My Way Of Giving’ and ‘Momma You’ve Been On My Mind’ are in there (from the never-completed Only Ones covers album). Alan saw the masters from the third album the other day and there is another song of his (in addition to ‘My Way Out of Here’), and one of mine too. I do remember very distinctly that the situation was deteriorating, Peter wasn’t coming up with enough great new songs but he still wanted the credits to be Perrett, Perrett, Perrett. I mounted a campaign to get other material onto the album, I probably thought that it was diplomatically more sensible to push for the inclusion of Alan’s song so I couldn’t be accused of self-interest. That album is the sound of Peter losing interest in writing. but with one or two good tracks – ‘Lucinda’ (but as arranged on the Peel Sessions LP), ‘Why Don’t You Kill Yourself ?’, ‘The Big Sleep’.”

How about a visual record of the Only Ones in all their 70’s pomp and glory ? “ There is a live tape from the Minneapolis Longhorn gigs shot on Super 8 that has just shown up via Peter Jesperson (ex-Replacements manager) and it’s stunning – the most exciting Only Ones footage I’ve ever seen. Second US tour, November 1979. I’ve had the soundboards for ages. We are currently looking into getting the whole thing converted properly and released on DVD. And the video ‘Faster Than Lightning’ should be out on DVD soon.” What won’t be getting an official release is a much bootlegged video of a gig at Dingwalls from December 1980 where John is expressionless throughout. “Apparently Rachmaninov was the same, sitting at the piano, and he was the most passionate of composers…but Dingwalls was different, that’s active loathing. We’d already split up, that gig was to pay some debt. It was a wretched night.

Relationships with the record company are much improved. “Sony are being most co-operative now, even though we’re not currently signed to them. Alan sailed into there with such commitment, so buzzing and on the ball that they were phoning the Big Boys upstairs and saying ‘I think you’d better come down’. The poster for the tour has a small ad for the latest Sony Only Ones compilation and they’ve given us a useful chunk of tour support. Maybe we can sell Vodaphone the other corner!  I think I’m right in saying that Sony have just agreed to the three original Only Ones albums being remastered. I’d chose Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound in New York, the same guy who as a 19 year old whiz-kid mastered ‘Even Serpents Shine’. I worked with Ted last year and he is just SO accomplished – but apparently there are practical reasons for working in the UK. Alan says the first two LPs are mastered low (quiet) but they still sound great to me “

So how does it feel to be working again with Peter ? “We last played together onstage in 1990 – I’d done some recording for the Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters management were very keen to manage Peter and me – some band they knew were doing a gig in a club in Oxford Street and this band knew ‘Planet’ so Peter and I got up with them. I then stopped playing with Peter and resumed being friends with him.” How about the narcotic reputation that dogged the Only Ones first time around ?” I knew Peter before he took any drugs of a serious nature and he wasn’t much different, its not like he’s been transformed by them.”.

“People say it’s impossible to put our music in a pigeon hole and that seems bizarre to me because listening to it now it just sounds like timeless rock’n’roll. Could have been 1966, could have been 1996. Alan and I both had the thing when we first started the Only Ones where our friends said to us “Great band, great songs but can’t you get rid of that fucking singer?” But I listen to our stuff now and even the voice doesn’t sound unusual.”

POSTSCRIPT – UNPUBLICISED WARM UP GIG, SUNDAY 15^Th APRIL

The Inn On The Green off Portobello Road resembles a trustafarian youth club, a suitably incongruous setting for the first live performance by the  Only Ones since 1981. Taking to the stage characteristically late – due apparently to difficulties rousting Perrett – the quartet delivered  sturdy versions of From Here To Eternity, Miles From Nowhere, The Whole of The Law and (of course) Another Girl, Another Planet to an enthusiastic crowd of well-wishers and regulars.  A broken bass string gave Perrett the chance for a solo version of a new song that might have been called Is That How Much You Care ?, to the seeming bemusement  of the rest of the band. Teasingly Alan launched into the opening riff of The Beast, but closing time intervened. The rhythm section rocked and rolled, Perretts guitar and vocals were highly effective and Perry played liquid lead guitar whilst apparently thinking about the cricket scores. By the time they get to the Shepherds Bush Empire in June spontaneous combustion must be a real possibility.