NME
EP tour diary parts 1 & 2
21.06.2010Friday 11th June – Skibunny arrive in INVERNESS, bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready for action. We already have fond memories of Highland good times, having previously DJ’d at Rockness and Belladrum festivals over the years. But this time it’s different, cause this time we’re playing LIVE! So first up it’s a showcase at Madhatters, part of the Go North event. We have time to catch Woodhands, a duo from Toronto whose equipment has been blown up with a dodgy converter and we are unfortunately deprived of all the synths and keytars they’ve brought along. We get the general idea however, and very much enjoy their synth/drum party vibe. Soon it’s 12.30am and time to play. The audience are in good spirits to say the least, and the show is super fun, and so we reward ourselves with a pint or two at the hotel bar with some old friends. My back is to the elevator, and therefore I do not see the doors open to reveal the sleepwalking naked man, who is… well… pleasuring himself! I am assured it was not a pretty sight. This story is told and retold throughout the weekend and has now become the stuff of legend.
Andy & Jon
Sat 12th June – ROCKNESS! After a stomach lining brunch we head out to Rockness and make our way over to the Go North stage. Once again we are reminded what a beautiful location this is for a festival. I stand and watch the Loch for some time to see if I can catch a glimpse of the monster, perhaps all this loud music has scared it off… Later I’m introduced to Toki from the band Mothercoat from Tokyo, Japan, and I try to remember my Japanese lessons (pretty rusty I’m ashamed to say). We manage to catch a few bands on the Go North stage, including Miaoux Miaoux from Glasgow, (he’s playing with us in Edinburgh too) and then we’re on. Again the crowd are up for the craic and lots of friends have come along to lend their support, thanks guys! After the show and a quick podcast interview, Andy (drums) and Jon (bass) head off to meet friends while I make it back to Inverness to catch Mothercoat at Madhatters. The place is packed and they are totally brilliant. Glow sticks are flying around the place and the band and audience are jumping in unison. A fantastic way to end the night.
Mothercoat
Sun 13th June – Back to Rockness for some more interviews, and then it’s time for Blondie. Everyone is super excited and it’s great to hear the hits. Then it’s time to go, and we start our 2-part journey to London, where we arrive on Mon 14th June Chez Liana in time for a couple of pints at the local and a good nights sleep.
Blondie
Tues 15th June – LONDON! Tonight’s show is at the Monarch in Camden. At this stage we are joined by soundman and good friend Finian. He works with Rolo Tomassi, Gallows and just last weekend was mixing Shy Child in Portugal! The gig goes really well, with a great deal of dancing going on down the front, so we are all very happy indeed.
Fin & Tanya
Wed 16th June – NOTTINGHAM! Last time we played Nottingham was on the Har Mar Superstar tour, such a great night, so we are excited to come back. Plus it’s Wednesday, or “Big Wednesday” which means ditching the car early and getting the jeagerbombs in. Spanky Van Dykes is a pretty new venue, with awesome TOTP style lights behind the stage, we love it. The show is a little quiet (don’t they KNOW it’s Big Wednesday??!!) but those in attendance are won over, they buy merchandise and we give them free badges. Then promoter Jeremy takes us all to the Bodega Social Club, where Big Wednesday is happening big style! We just miss Fin’s pals Pulled Apart By Horses, but we do get to meet James from Rolo Tomassi who seems like a top bloke indeed. Many Jaegerbombs later, it’s time for me to call it a night, leaving the boys to continue the Big Wednesday fun, and the next day I hear stories of parties in student Halls of Residence.
Spanky Van Dykes
Thurs 17th June – We awake to news that our show in BRISTOL was double booked, and therefore we are forced to cancel the trip. Major bummer… We settle instead for a couple of nights at home and the chance to do a bit of laundry and eat some fruit. Bristol, we’ll reschedule as soon as is possible!
Sat 19th June – LEEDS! The one way system in Leeds is very frustrating indeed, and with a Sat-Nav that has no signal and an iPhone map app that just tells lies, it takes us some time to find the venue. But we do eventually, and arrive at Carpe Diem ready to rock. We’re know we’re in the right place when we see the bartender is wearing a Lafaro tshirt (up the STA hoods!) The kitchen has closed though, so we wander off to find food, and decide to treat ourselves to amazing burgers at Nation of Shopkeepers, which looks like a pretty sweet venue too. Back to Carpe Diem and while we get set up, the DJ is playing our remix of Forward Russia’s “Thirteen”. Yay! By the end of our set we have definitely won over some new fans and we look forward to coming back to Leeds again soon.
table 5
So that’s half time I guess. Part 2 follows soon!
Thurs 24th June - BATHGATE, Harleys - FREE Fri 25th June - GLASGOW, Capitol, £5 on the door Sat 26th June - EDINBURGH, Electric Circus - BUY TICKETS Sun 27th June - FIFE, The Greenside, Leslie - FREE Fri 2nd July - ABERDEEN, Polar Bear Club @ Tunnels - £3/2Tour diary part 2
Thurs 24th June - After a few days off the tour continues, starting in my mother’s hometown of BATHGATE. We’re playing in Harley’s – “Midlothian’s no.1 live music venue”. There are 5 other acts on the bill, 3 of them play only covers. One of them plays 2 Oasis songs in a row. Clearly this is going to be a tough crowd. But I think we get away with it!
Fri 25th June – GLASGOW’s venue has been double booked, so we are moved to a slot downstairs in Maggie Mays. There’s a good turnout and although nobody knows who we are we receive a very warm welcome and leave with a bunch of new friends.
Sat 26th June – Can’t believe this is only our first EDINBURGH show! We’re playing Electric Circus, a great wee venue with amazing karaoke rooms. MIAOUX MIAOUX are also on the bill, it’s nice to finally get a proper chance to chat to Julian, he’s a lovely chap, check out his stuff immediately! PILOTCAN are playing too, the new line up sounds good, and later their soundman gets in trouble for making it too loud! Despite the 16 or so screens on the back wall, we are unable to make our visuals work but despite the technical problems it’s a fun gig. It’s great to finally play for some old friends and afterwards there is much catching up to be done.
Sun 27th June – Pretty excited to be back in FIFE again. We played at The Greenside in Leslie before, supporting YUCK, so it’s cool to be back headlining so soon. We’ve just found out that the other band on the bill (Be A Familiar) have cancelled, which is a shame. But the gig is fun, the crowd is up for it, good times all round! One thing is for sure, Fife KNOWS how to party, not bad for a Sunday!
Fri 2nd July – We head north up to ABERDEEN for the final show of the tour. We go to a nearby courtyard bar to meet the promoter and watch the end of the football and then it’s back round to the venue. We’re playing the Polar Bear Club at Tunnels, a great venue that will soon be hosting the likes of Mudhoney and The Wedding Present. We are warned that the students are all away and that the club may be quieter than normal, but we manage to make everyone come down the front and it turns out to be quite a laugh.
So that’s the end of the tour then, we have a bunch of festivals still to play through the summer, then we’ll be touring the album release (6th September! Not long to go now!) Thanks to everyone who came along, hopefully you’ll spread the word and we’ll see you all again very very soon!
SKIBUNNY xox
T.U.I (Touring Under The Influence): 7 days on the road with HAR MAR SUPERSTAR…
07.12.2009Day one - Sunday - Oxford
We meet up at Heathrow, Nick and Mark having flown over from Belfast, and Tanya having driven the bad-ass tour mobile (a sweet Peugeout 406, no less!) down from Edinburgh. After a bite to eat, we head to a practice room in deepest Oxfordshire to reherse the two new songs we’re going to be playing on the tour. It’s the same room that, many years ago, Tanya and Mark stayed in whilst supporting Gorkys Zygotic Mynci, so its very funny to be back again. To the venue, and meeting team Har Mar. They’re all very great people-Sean (HMS to you), Denver (bass, tall, laconic) Jeff (Guitar, Catfish, funk), Will (drums, new york dolls lookalike) and T (best tour manager ever). As T’s the tour manager of Skibunny guest vocalist MAPS, there’s already much to chat about. The show that night in Oxford is great, and late that night we hit the road for London and the flat of Tanya’s sister Liana (a most convivial hostess).
Day two - Monday - London
A London show can be a thing to fear, and in order to guarantee that we’ll be cooking with gas, we decamp to a practice room to go over last minute tweaks to the new tracks (which have new Bandwidth videos to accompany them for the AV part of the set - AWESOME people!) Things are sounding good so we wrap up early and head for The Garage - the last time Tanya and Mark were here, one of our band ended up lending Stuart from Mogwai pyjamas (loooong story….) and its great to be back in an 800 capacity venue with so many good memories. Soundcheck done, and introductions made with New Zealand’s Bang Bang Eche (opening act, they did the Har Mar US tour, and are blistering live), we head to the pub to meet Liana, Nick, and everyone’s favourite Dandy - Jim “Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer” Burke. The show tonight is really perfect, and we’re happy to see Ash from Smalltown America, who has come down to see Skibunny for the first time. Har Mar rocks it, and the night ends in The Lexington with many many drinks and toasts to one and all. Phew, London DONE!
Day Three - Tuesday - Bristol
It’s Bristol, so of course we’re playing on a boat! Having got up late and devoured some bacon sandwiches, we hit the road, and are soon loading into the bowels of the ship we’re playing on. A bracing walk round the town leads us into an amazing art bookshop in one of Bristol’s biggest galleries - anywhere with Yoshitoma Nara postcards will work for Tanya…..The show’s great, team Har Mar have taken delivery of their US merchandise (ladies and gentleman’s underwear included) and late at night we hit the road for the Southampton. This is where the sat nav throws a hissy fit, and starts driving us round sets for The Midsummer Murders for about an hour….tiny villages with thatched cottages, and wild-eyed locals. Not what you need at 2am. Finally we get to the damn hotel, where some of us head for bed, and some of us stay up and finish the Jagermeister 
Day four - Wednesday - Portsmouth
Yaaaarrr. Tis another sea-faring town, you salty dogs! Actually, it’s only an hour down the road, and so there’s plenty of time in the afternoon to do some Christmas shopping and get our daily soaking from the shitty weather that’s been following us round all tour. Uugh. The Wedgewood rooms is a venue clearly run by people who love music, so everything’s very easy and comfy. Nice. The show’s great, and spirits are high as there’s a day off tomorrow for everyone apart fro Mark who has to fly home for 24 Hours. He’s deposited at his Heathrow hotel for a 6.40am flight, whilst Tanya and Nick head back to team Liana’s.
Day five - Thursday - Nottingham
Day off people! Whilst Mark is staggering around the streets of Belfast bleary-eyed, Tanya and Nick head up to Nottingham to join the Har Mars for a night on the tiles. And what a night! The Horrors are playing and Sean’s mates with Farris, so he ends up coming out for drinks and punk-rock Bingo, champagne and more Jagermeister…
Day six - Friday - Nottingham
We’re playing the Bodega Social tonight, and from the odd looks of the barstaff, its clear that somethings up. Ahhhh yes, various people were in the bar/kicked out of said bar last night! Nice! Nottingham’s looking very Christmassy, there’s an ice-rink and full Christmas market a happening in the town-centre. Mark heads to the Oxfam boutique shop to pick up a lovely scarf, and then it’s another easy soundcheck and what is, by team Har Mar’s accounts, our best show of the tour so far! Many many friends are made in Nottingham. Sean is doing a DJ set so Nick and Mark hit the road for Doncaster whilst Tanya stays to Dance to ‘Buffalo Stance’ and ‘No Scrubs’ at the club, hitching a ride up to Doncaster with the Har Mars.
Day Seven - Saturday - Carlisle
Wooh! Where did the week go??!! Last show already - You serious?! Ok, we get to Carlisle and go off in search of presents for everyone. We end up choosing a selection of biographies for Team HMS including Chevy Chase, William Shatner and.. erm… Chantelle “Living the Dream”! We also get everyone snow spray for general mischief, bottle-openers, stickers (of a stupid variety) and festive snacks. As well as that, there’s a communal bottle of buckfast, so they can blend in with the Glasgow mob the following night. In return there’s Champagne in the dressing room, and before a really amazing Carlisle show, we toast what’s been an unforgettable week. Then it’s up the road to Tanya’s flat in Edinburgh and our tour is officially over… or is it….
Ain't it the truth...
Day Eight? Sunday?! Glasgow??!!
You didn’t thing that was the end of the story did you?! Mark and Nick jump on a plane back to Belfast, that much is true. But who is this singing “I got next” with Har Mar Superstar in King Tuts?!
*warning, this video is not suitable for young ‘uns!*
So, thanks again to Team Har Mar Superstar for an awesome week, and thanks to everybody who came out to say hello, we can’t wait to get back on the road again early 2010!
New York, I love you…
28.10.2009The CMJ is North America’s premier music industry showcasing event. For five days in late October, delegates from all over the world congregate in New York to discuss, pontificate, listen, drink, and occasionally sleep. Team Skibunny are over to play live and DJ as one of the acts chosen to showcase. Here then, we present their day by day account of the 2009 CMJ.
Day One - Tuesday
Day one is a travel day, so we hot-foot it direct from Belfast to NYC (same flight as General Fiasco and Jimmy from Tiler!!! I love that guy!) and upon arrival head off to artist registration straight from our apartment on 3rd street. Turns out you delegate just past Washington Square Park (as seen in the film Kids). We pass CBGBs (now a clothes and record shop) and one of our favourite bars, 200 Orchard. That evening we catch Lovvers playing, and have drinks with friends old and new (including Feddi from Casiokids, over with his other band The Megaphonic Thrift).
Day Two - Wednesday
Day two in New York City, and after some much needed sleep we’re up ‘n’ at ‘em early. We head to the conference centre to meet Angela from Music From Ireland. She’s been giving away our CDs and flyers at their booth and generally helping us push the Skibunny show. We get to meet Matt McDonald who basically runs CMJ. He looks pretty calm considering how busy he his. After some amazing Mexican food, we head up to the artist’s lounge where Mark & Nick get free haircuts. Then it’s off to Arlene’s Grocery for the Canadian showcase, including free poutine - chips, gravy and cheese - mmmmmmmmm! The SXSW “meet and greet” is a rather fancy affair in a winery, then we walk downtown to meet Matt, the drummer from Holy F**k, who is kindly lending us a load of drum stuff. He also shows us the fire station from Ghostbusters!
Later, we go to The Suffolk to see Megaphonic Thrift, but first we get to see a US band called International Espionage, who we all agree are the best band we have seen in ages! We’re playing the same venue tomorrow night, can’t wait!
Day Three - Thursday
Finally it’s SHOW DAY! Our official CMJ showcase is at The Suffolk, a really cool arts space with lots of interesting rooms and galleries.
We’re playing the main room and as showtime approaches we are pleased to see some friendly faces in the audience, including Phil (Lo-Fidelity Allstars), Graham (guitarist on the last Dave Gahan album) and Matt (Holy F**k). Like SXSW, these kind of showcases are always high-pressure situations, you don’t get to soundcheck, you have just 15 minutes from the moment the band before you finishes, to clear their stuff off the stage, set your stuff up, and hope to god the local inhouse soundman actually gives a crap. Luckily for us, he does! A small drum kit problem means we have to play a very stripped down version of Aah Ooh, which ends up sounding so lovely that we will definitely do that again, and overall good times are had by both band and audience. Nice!
Afterwards, we head to an awesome bar called The Marshall Stack, for a well-earned beer and food, then it’s over to the Bowery Poetry Club for the Irish showcase, where we catch Super Extra Bonus Party. They sound amazing, and have great visuals, just what the doctor ordered.
Finally we head to our local, the 6th Ward, for a nightcap. After last night, the bar staff seem surprised to see us leave after just one drink, but hey, it’s been a very long day
Day Four - Friday
Day 4 in NYC is a very productive one. During the course of the day we attend several panel events between us, including “Music In Film & Television” and “Why Your Live Show Sucks!” (must’ve wandered into the wrong room there!) In the afternoon we attend our first ever “gifting lounge”, which basically means you turn up and they give you free stuff! Everybody loves free stuff! This one was run by Onitsuka Tiger and after some press shots, we all left with a new pair of lovely trainers, cool hats, little japanese toys and other cool stuff. Great!
Around 7pm we go to Housing Works Bookstore, a really fantastic place run by a charity that provides housing for homeless people with Aids and HIV. We’re here to see a reading from a book called “Our Noise“, the story of Merge Records, and as well as the author, we hear readings from Mac & Laura from Merge Records (and awesome US band Superchunk.) They also play some songs by Superchunk, Magnetic Fields and Spoon. It’s a really really great event, and so we buy the book and get it signed, allowing us the opportunity to meet Mac & Laura!
Then it’s time to head over the bridge to Brooklyn, where we’re DJing at The Bell House. The Polyvinyl showcase is going on so we get to see a bunch of bands including the awesome band Headlights and one of the CMJ picks of 2009, Japandroids. We’re DJing after Bryan from The National who is a lovely chap, playing lots of joy division records and generally having a good time. Suddenly its 2am and time to jump in a cab back to the lower east side, where the night ends at 200 orchard, Andy Rourke from the smiths is spinning, and the irish whiskey tastes good.
Day Five & Six- Saturday & Sunday
As our time in NYC draws to a close once more, we try to pack as much as possible into the last couple of days. We walk around a lot, we do a fair bit of shopping, we DJ again at 200 Orchard, and we see Where The Wild Things Are at the cinema! It’s been such a great trip, and we have really enjoyed playing, DJing, making new friends and catching up with old friends. And so until the next time, a big thanks to all involved including everyone at The Suffolk, The Sixth Ward, 200 Orchard, Matt Schulz, Angela Dorgan, Skippy, and anyone else we may have forgotten in our current heavily jetlagged state. Can’t wait to see you all again soon!
Skibunny xox
Skibunny thanks the Scottish Arts Council for their support for this event
Canadian Music Super Rad Week, NYC baby, and South By South Awesome. Rooooaad Trip!
26.03.2009Day One-Thursday
At 6am team Skibunny meet up in Belfast International Airport for the start of our trip to America. Bleary-eyed we get on the first of 9 flights we’ll be taking over the next 12 days. In London, there’s enough time for a swift drink in the bar of Terminal 5 (too swift for Mark’s wallet, who decides not to board the plane and stay in the bar for another couple of rounds). 9 hours later - hello Dallas! Now, where is all of our luggage? Our fellow SXSW teamsters Enter Shikari are thinking the same thing…..BA has left a TON of luggage in London, including all our CDs, meaning that our NX35 Festival DJ Set in Denton that night is scuppered. Bugger! We do the only logical thing, and proceed to a bar for Nachos and drinks. After toasting our good fortune once or twice with Buddy, our amenable waiter, its off for a well-earned sleep.
Day Two-Friday
Up with the birds, and back to Dallas for a flight to Toronto. We love the sofas in the airport, and we love the sports bar for lunch. Finally we touch down in Toronto - its HUGE, and very flat. Looks amazing from the plane as the sun is setting. We’re not playing until Saturday, so Mark and Christine head down to the Bloc Party/We Are Wolves show, as we’re on Kele’s list on the door (wooh!) and Tanya heads off to see her friend Laney. The night ends in a punk rock dive bar (as all good nights should) .
Day Three-Saturday
Show Day! Yeah! Finally we’re getting to play a show! Pity we STILL haven’t got all of our luggage from BA!!! Undeterred we head out to the convention centre to meet Ross from NIMIC (NI Music Commission) for lunch, and meet up with a couple of labels interested in getting that sweet skibunny remix sound. Then it’s up the road to our venue, Central, where we’re due to perform at 1am. Tanya and I head off to buy some pedals from a music shop, where we’re served by none other than super-dude from The Hidden Cameras Mike Olsen. And what a nice chap he is, trying out mics and pedals, getting us “sweet sweet deals”, and being very helpful. His business card says “Mike Olsen sucks”. This is not true!
Then we’re back to Central. Finian, our soundman, is in America, so very kindly Holy F**K have recommended Diego , another soundman, to us. And what a super-nice guy he is - he’s just bought an old music hall out in the countryside where he’s going to set up a studio. Book us in!!
We also meet the awesome Julie Fader who is playing with us, and a great band from Denmark called Said The Shark-they’re really good-kind of Nico meets Mazzy Star. As usual in situations like this, Mark bonds with them over chats about old obscure guitars and keyboards.
Tanya then runs down to the place where Holy F**k are opening for Bloc Party, she counts 2 or 3 new songs and possibly a Stevie Wonder influence! It is super rad to see them play in their hometown.
Back to Central and the Skibunny show’s great fun. Holy F**K hot-foot it up from their show to see us. There are toasts with Matt and Graham HF, and we have to say again, thanks for staying up and coming down! They’re off on a tour the following day, so we call the night early and head to sleep.
Day Four-Sunday.
We can hear music. Its not good music. Its cod-Irish music, and it seems to be coming from outside the window. We look out and even though we know we are in Toronto it seems like we can see something saying “County Armagh”. WTF??!!Oh. It’s the Toronto St Patrick’s Day Parade. There’s a pope-mobile. There’s a rugby team. There’s a bit of line-dancing. This is not a good way to start the day. Actually its just plain weird! We head off for lunch and a wander, knowing that our tine in Toronto is coming to an end. Off to the airport and a quick (and delayed again) flight to NYC. Its midnight by the time we get to the hotel, a fact which does not stop Tanya and Christine from going out and “making party” until 4am. The girls end up in a very cool bar in Soho called McGoverns. They are told that Chloe Sevigny hangs out there, she’s not there tonight though, but they do meet lots of awesome locals, all of whom are invited down to our DJ gig the next night.
Day Five-Monday
Hey-its Mark’s wallet!(Thanks Rich Escape Act for grabbing it at Terminal 5!) A day of contrasts. Whilst Christine heads up the Empire State Building, Mark is in a day of meetings at The British Embassy with a bunch of people including the aforementioned Rich, Liverpool Sound City, the manager of the awsome We Have Band, Andrew Ferris from Smalltown America, and a whole lot of other guys. We meet The Chemical Brothers booking agent, and NIN’s press agent. We meet Tommy Silverman (Tommy Boy-how many amazing records has he put out??!!Legend!). We end up, quite literally, at The Ambassador’s reception, a penthouse overlooking the river. Mark feels a looooong way from home!
Meanwhile, Tanya goes shopping and bizarrely, bumps into Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth in Urban Outfitters. After a little light hero-worshipping, Tanya heads off to Brooklyn to meet Chris Brokaw and his gf Leslie for Japanese food. Having had many dinners together in Belfast over the last decade, it’s nice to finally meet up in his neck of the woods.
Off to The Bellhouse in Brooklyn to DJ at the Oya/O My Rockness festival party with Casiokids. Phil from the lo-fi Allstars and his wife Holly come down-they’re always such lovely company!! He gives Mark some great new music he’s doing which we immediately play out. Chris & Leslie also drop in, as does Tanya’s friend Josh, the Brooklyn dwelling Texan. The venue is full of crazy European kids wanting to dance, and as we play through midnight Christine realises that its now St Patricks day, so adds a Guinness to her Cosmopolitan. We don’t NEED to go on to a bar afterwards, but that doesnt stop us. A long, but “super-rad” day.
Day 6-Tuesday
Off to Austin!!!!!Yeaaaaaaaaahhh!We jump in a cab and hit Newark. After 4 hours and a stopover in Chicago we touch down in Austin. It must be SXSW. Jarvis Cocker and a whole bunch of bands are on our plane. The airport is chaos! Filled with louche rock-kids scuffing their heels and trying to look moody.hahahaha!F**K that, lets go out! We are picked up by Kurt, who has sorted us for some sweet sweet accommodation, and a flash 1989 Peugeot to drive in and around Austin for all our shows. What a guy! He’s a friend of Tanya’s, but soon a friend of all of us. We meet his Chiwaya “Dude” and head out for “Irish nachos “ (mainly potato), in our new favourite diner is Austin, Kirby Lane Cafe. Christine and Mark hit the hay early, while Tanya heads to the Art Disaster party at Beauty Bar to meet up with her brother, Juliana and other various Austinites. They also drop in to the Team Fabrication party across the road where DJ Kwik-E-Mart from LA is tearing up the patio.
Day 7 Wednesday.
First SXSW Show day! Two times! First, its off to The Red House Pizzeria where Michael and Orlando from Music For Listeners is putting on 4 days of shows. He’s a big friend of Oppenheimer who’ve played there before, so all must be well. We watch Scissors For Lefty who are really nice people, and also Esser from London, who are on one of our favourite London labels, Transgressive. And then we’re up. It’s a really relaxed way to start, some really nice kids (one of whom, I think, had actually gone to Ireland to see Oppenheimer), sun and beers, slices for everyone, and good times. Also, Finn our soundman is here!Cool! He’s doing all our gigs, and doing Rolo Tomassi’s shows as well-so he has a VERY busy week! Michael’s asking where Gerry Bannon, Oppenheimer’s soundman is. I tell him he’s in Ireland but sends Irish greetings! Then we’re down to Barcelona for our 1am showcase. This gig is NUTS!There are loads of people dancing, Tanya’s high-fiving after every song, there’s wooping and a shouting, and really we have more fun playing that we’ve had for ages. Awesome show!!!Thanks to all the Irish people who came down as well-from Johnny from AU to David from CDC. It’s good to have your support. And our friend John Cullen comes too, its his first time seeing us, so we’re really happy that the show goes well! By the time we’re done the bar is shut, so its home for a “what was your favourite bit…..?EVERYTHING!” type conversation, and then bed.
Day 8-Thursday
We drag ourselves out of bed, as we have to be at the venue at lunchtime. This is for the NIMIC Irish showcase, we’re on after General Fiasco who play a really good show. Again the venue is super-full and we really enjoy playing to everyone! As we run off-stage Fighting With Wire are running on to play. Cahir is a BEAST with the guitar!We LOVE it!Anyway we hot-foot it as we have a second show about 50 minutes after the NIMIC one ends, this time at Fado’s Irish Pub for Julianna, who was very kind in getting us a drumkit for our Barcelona showcase(thanks!) BOY is it hot on-stage!And we’ve just run 6 blocks with our guitars. But actually it feels great and it’s a fantastic party. Exhausted , we grab some wings and head back home. Mark decides to stay in, but there’s NO stopping the Skibunny ladies!!! Tanya tries to see Passion Pit, but it is already full and so her artist wristband is useless. Instead she goes to meet Christine and Fin at the Rye Rye show. On their way to see Datarock they are detoured by Scissors For Lefty and there is quite a lot of drinking, before heading to the Beauty Bar to meet friends. Finally the girls end up at an Austin house party!
Day 9-Friday.
Another day, another show-right?!This time it’s the Full Irish Breakfast at B D Reilly’s and we’re on just before Fight Like Apes. This venue is a lot like Katy Daly’s, and we’re playing right by the open windows looking onto the street. We only do 4 songs , but this ends up being one of the most enjoyable shows yet-great sound, really nice people, and we have to say a big thanks to Angela for having us-we’re available anytime!!!!!After getting an actual full-Irish breakfast, we head home to dump the stuff and get ready for some music. We have seen SO little as we’ve been playing we’re really determined to make tonight count. First its Dag For Dag at the Saddle Creek show. They’re AMAZING. Primal and passionate. We say hello and chat about how much we loved remixing them for their forthcoming EP.We dander off and meet up with John C for some well-earned drinks and chats (about tattoos among other things, more on that later……) and then its time to hot-foot it up to see The Bird and The Bee. Wow. Even though they did 2 covers!!they were simply unbelievable. Could have listened to them all night-we were blown away and were so gald we’d made the effort to go up. Time to head to The Beauty Bar for a last drink-and who was spinning….? DJ CRAZE!Bloody hell!There’s about 50 people going wild, another 20 on the stage-dancing is DEMANDED and fulfilled!We jump in a cab home eventually, giving a lift (and interview) to one of our favourite NI people at SXSW-lovely Gawain from Seemless Films.Collapse into bed.
Day 10-Saturday.
Oh crap we have a lunchtime show!Better get up! We’re playing for the mighty Dirty Boots-our number one place to go to in London (we’ve played live there, and DJ’d at their xmas party as well, a night so great we TOTALLY missed our flights home for the first time ever-eep!) We hit the stage and play our last set at SXSW-very sad!!Dag for Dag turn up which is very nice of them, and we have good chats, and hugs with Sam from Dirty Boots, thanks for having us Sam!!Later on we’ll watch Local Natives play the same stage, the buzz band of the week, it was great to play the same party as them!Our time is coming to an end……and we need something to cheer us up……….what’ll we do…..? Get TATTOOS of course! Christine takes one for the team and gets an amazing boombox on her ankle-fresh ink baby! Tanya got her tattoo a few days before the trip, so the pressure’s growing on Mark to have something done.Maybe next year. We stop off to see Theoretical Girl-very C86 like, gentle and wistful. Then Christine heads off to see a band from Dublin who were at our Irish Breakfast show, and were really nice, while Mark and Tanya head up to The Mae Shi. Having booked them in Belfast Tanya’s off to say hello to the band. Next thing they’re saying “Hey-you singing with us again?” Hell yeah! So after an astounding “run to the facts” featuring Kid Static”, she ROCKS “Run to your Grave” in front of a capacity audience. Tanya has often talked about the time she did this before in Lavery’s Bar, Belfast, as one of the greatest moments of her life, so now she is actually bouncing of the walls with excitement! Go Tanya!Its your Birthday!
Wow. Time for last orders at The Beauty Bar, and then home (again taxi sharing with Gawain!) for big sleeps.
Day 11-Sunday
And then it was all over. Hugs for Kurt and The Dude, and we hit the road for Dallas Airport, stopping only for an IHOP breakfast stack. We get on the Dallas-London flight (upgrades-wooh!) and then its Monday and home for everyone. What a crazy trip. We met so many people, we made so many friends. If we could high-five you all again we would. Thanks to everyone, ESPECIALLY Kurt and Finn.
Interviews, analogue keyboards, and the rest
29.01.2009Bill Drummond Interview by Mark
14/01/09
Bill Drummond is many things to many different people. In the Seventies he was a member of Big In Japan. When the band came to an end he set up Zoo Records. He later managed The Teardrop Explodes and Echo & The Bunnymen. In 1991, as one half of The KLF, Drummond sold more records than any other artist in the world. He is an artist and controversialist, having once burnt a million pounds. He runs the Curfew Tower in Cushendall on the Antrim coast, a place for artists to work and engage with the local community. He is also the erudite and engaging author of books such as 45 and his latest, 17, an exploration of a new form of making music that casts aside modern musical references and instead uses only the human voice and the surrounding environment.
The new book feels like two things – a hybrid between the personal recollections that made 45 such a fascinating read, and your obsession with this new way of making music, this idea that all contemporary music has run its course. Was it your intention always to write it this way?
I didn’t set out to write the book in a certain way – if you’ve read some of the stuff I have written before you’ll know I write in a very matter-of-fact way, and that’s still the same here. I knew that I wanted to keep the book about music and explore a lot of the things I felt about music. In doing that I had to bring in a lot of other stuff that was happening at the same time in my life. You can’t have music cut off from the rest of your life.
Your writing does have that ‘stream of consciousness’ feel to it, and there are references to the style of people like Kerouac – would you that the lineage of your writing method can be traced back to him?
When I picked up On The Road when I was 19, I hadn’t heard anything about Jack Kerouac – I couldn’t even pronounce his name. I walked into a bookshop, read the blurb on the back; there was no picture of him, nothing, and I didn’t even know what decade it was set in, but I just decided to buy it and read it. From that point onwards I thought, ‘Sod the painting, I want to be a writer’.
There’s a point in the book where you’re in Stockholm working on recordings with 13-year-old children, and you write about the extent to which, at that stage of their lives, they are just starting on this fantastic journey into music. With your idea of ‘the 17’, is it possible to find people who haven’t been saturated with pop culture and therefore influenced by it in terms of their musical perceptions?
When I get into situations when I am recording these kids, I sometimes do think, ‘who the fuck am I?’ Some middle-aged bloke who is trying to say to them, ‘Hey… recorded music… that’s so 20th century’. It just doesn’t wash with them. I know that for me personally, I have arrived at this situation because in my musical life I have gone through a lot of things. And these kids are at the start of their life, they’re finding out about who they are.
Now that we have iPods, we can conceivably have every piece of music we would ever want to listen to in our pockets and we can be listening to it anywhere at any time or any place whilst doing anything. This does fundamentally change our relationship with music and what music people will want to make. There’s a part of me that does think that if these 13-year-olds get to a stage where they are starting to think about wanting to make music they might not want to make stuff that is really accessible, that their peer group can just flip through on their iPods thinking, ‘Nah, I have had enough of that, lets hear 30 seconds of something else’. These kids might want to make music that isn’t that easy – music you have to go to, music you have to find and track down.
Up until now, every generation has had some kind of musical revolution which has defined their identities and lifestyles – from The Beatles to punk, from hip-hop to acid house and dance music. Has there been a music revolution since the early Nineties that has really affected the children and young adults now entering society, and is this in itself anything to be worried about?
I suppose the big changes that have happened are to do with lots of other things affecting people that aren’t strictly musical. The whole MySpace thing, the whole MSN thing. Text messaging. These are the things that define their generation. They haven’t had the same need for a musical revolution. I have a 13-year-old and a 12-year-old, and they listen to a lot of music, but it doesn’t seem to inform them about, ‘This is the type of people that we want to be’ or, ‘This is where we’re at’. They’ll just download a track because they like the tune.
Which I suppose is a very visceral and honest way to react to music.
Yes it’s a very matter-of-fact thing. For the generations you’re talking about, whether it was people in the Sixties or people liking hip-hop, there was still the idea that you went to a shop to buy the music, and there was clothing and an attitude that went with it. That’s changed now, and that situation will never come again. But it also didn’t exist before the Fifties as well.
Let’s talk about the Curfew Tower. Many artists from Northern Ireland and beyond have used it over the years since you bought it to make many different works of art (and I recently interviewed Declan O’Neill, who created the sensational ‘Turf War’ Exhibition). Is it true that you burned a lot of the art in the tower at some point because you felt that the works being created simply were not good enough?
Sadly it’s true, yeah. And I feel bad about it. I got quite angry because a lot of people had been staying there and part of the concept was that everyone who uses the tower leaves a piece of work behind. It felt to me that everyone was leaving the worst elements of what they had done behind, and I felt that was an insult to the people of Cushendall. So I had a ceremonial burning in the back garden.
Because as I understand it, engagement with the people of Cushendall and the wider community is an important element of the usage of the tower…
That is the idea, yes, that the artists somehow engage with the landscape, the tower itself, or the people of the village.
How did you originally come across it?
This goes back to 1992. Before my book Bad Wisdom was published I had this idea that the Internet (which was in its earliest stages of creation) was somehow going to affect the written word, and literature. The idea I had was that the Internet was going to make the book, the paperback, redundant. And so I then thought that this would push the hardback the other way – that the hardback would become the hand-written artefact; a one-off piece of literature that the reader would have to make a journey to engage with, like it used to be in the middle ages. I wanted to get a building that was something like a toll-box – something where we could keep hand-written copies of Bad Wisdom, that people would have to travel to read.
Mark Manning, who I was writing the book with, saw an advert in The Sunday Independent for a tower. It didn’t say where it was; it just had a phone number. I phoned up, found out it was in Northern Ireland, and found out that it wasn’t expensive. So I had the idea that we’d have the hardback copy in the tower, and then we’d put the book on the Internet. Of course, then Penguin came along with a chequebook, and we ended up using the tower in a very different way. The interesting thing is that we did get the big hardback book made, but we didn’t use it, so now it stays in the tower and the artists can draw in it or write a log. For me, this is the best thing about the tower.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE 17, VISIT WWW.THE17.ORG.
Grant Gee Interview by Mark
21/12/09
I Interviewed him for a magazine-he’s one of the most prolific music documentary film makers in the UK today with films such as Joy Division (Director), Radiohead’s Meeting People is Easy (Director)and Scott Walker: 30th Century Man (Cinematographer/Editor) to his credit.
■ Given the amount of time you’ve spent around bands I was wondering if there had ever been a time when you’d been filming them and thought to yourself “I wish it was me up there…?”
“Absolutely not! Never. The problem is that as soon as you start working with a band, then it becomes the world of work, and as such it’s very dangerous working with music at all because it very often screws up the simple fan-like enthusiasm you have for things. It’s like seeing the strings and wires behind the illusion – it’s work, it’s constructed, it’s rehearsed and it’s repeated … so no.”
■ I was reading about Scott Walker and the Meltdown festival he curated which you filmed – do you have any thoughts on the musical journey he has taken? The ride from The Walker Brothers to albums like “Tilt” and “The Drift” (which some people find as difficult to listen to as Lou Reed’s “Metal Machine Music”) is really unparalleled in terms of figures from popular music culture…
“Yes, I don’t think there is anyone else like him. That’s why you can make a film like 30th Century Man about him. I love albums like “Tilt” to death – I bought it when it came out and it took me about 5 years before I got my head around it, and now it seems to me like a pop record. And there’s not anything like it.”
■ I noticed a recent reference by the singer from the Arctic Monkeys to “Jackie” in terms of music he found inspiring, and for me I love that part of his career as well, the Jacques Brel stuff.
“The funny thing is that when I was working on that film I got used to thinking of the career as starting in one place and ending up somewhere completely different, but as we were listening to tracks we started to notice similarities. For a start you have to try and imagine what it was like to hear his solo records in 1968, because they did upset people and people did stop buying them – “Scott 4” got to number 70 something in the chart. Talk to people like my parents and they picked up that there was something wrong with those Brel songs. There is a track on that record we heard, and suddenly we could start to see a continuity in his later stuff because there are string drones going on which are very similar to what’s going on on “The Drift” – you can tell that he was trying to do that stuff in the ’60s, it’s just that he didn’t have the vocabulary because there was no-one like him to copy.”
■ Moving on to the Joy Division film – will we ever see another (Joy Division manager and Factory records impresario) Tony Wilson in the music industry again, and is that a good or a bad thing?
“I cant imagine you would in music now … no is the simple answer. It’s funny actually because talking to him and (Factory graphic designer) Peter Saville, if you asked them if there would ever be another “Factory”, they would have said “There is another Factory, and its called Urban Splash Redevelopment Agency”. That was the way they moved, it became not about music, it was about architecture. There’d be no need for a Tony Wilson now because at that time he was a kind of link-man between music culture and a kind of higher culture, and now there’s no need for that link because there’s no underground and there’s no overground. Everything’s on the same plain now.”
■ Which seems a little disappointing …
“I don’t know – pop culture is so completely different now in terms of its position with the wider culture, I can’t even begin to think whether it’s better or worse.”
■ I find it very hard to imagine what it feels like in 2008 to be a 16 year-old starting to be exposed to vibrant, challenging and fresh music.
“Well exactly because if you do want to discover music you go to your laptop in your room, and you can discover the history of popular music without leaving that laptop, and you could do it, if you took a crash course, in about two weeks. You could hear everything, see everything, read about every artist, and buy the documentaries about them. In a world where everything is available to you, that weightlessly, it’s a completely different scenario to having to spend literally years digging stuff out and being a total obsessive and collecting this stuff. Now, no matter how obscure something is, you could find like-minded people to talk all day every day about that stuff, whereas 30 years ago you might go years without meeting someone who had heard of, say, Love. And 30 years ago if you did find someone who had heard of Love you’d form a band with them”.
■ Which reminds me of the now legendary Sex Pistols concert at Manchester’s Free Trade Hall in 1976 – there may have only been about 30–40 people in the room but those people went on to form Joy Division, The Buzzcocks, The Fall and The Smiths – it literally changed the lives of every person in that room, which then changed popular music culture.
“An event just can’t be as obscure as that anymore – it’s not going to have that intensity. It’s like an explosion in a field, because it was completely off the cultural radar. These days everyone would know everything about it immediately.”
■ And it would be on you-tube …
“Of course – and within a week everybody would be able to download everything that band had ever done, rather than having to seek out and make the effort to do that. Once you’ve made that effort and put that investment in, it’s going to mean more to you. Which is why Joy Division are precious in this day and age - it’s because you still have to put some work into finding anything out about them”
■ And I know about the work you did in seeking out this kind of original footage for the film.
“Yeah. Most of it was out there, I knew there was a bootleg called ‘Here are the young men’ made in 1984 with a lot of this stuff on – like all bootleg stuff it’s out there if you want it, but the problem is getting back to the source. That’s where it gets interesting because the closer you get to master footage the more odd the people and situations become. Jon (Savage, author and writer of the film) has a fabulous personal archive – mention anything to him about music from the last 40 years and he’ll probably have it. We both loved that aspect of making the film.”
■ Had you read and been aware of Jon Savage’s work – stuff like England’s Dreaming (his landmark work about Punk and British youth culture in the 1970s)?
“Its weird because I can remember him writing for Melody Maker in the late ’70s and early ’80s, so I always knew about him and who he was. For me I was always very interested in music journalists around that time, because people like Jon and Paul Morley were a serious part of my education really. They were people who were referring my generation to books, art and artists way outside of what we were getting exposed to at school. England’s Dreaming is a fantastic book, and as much as anything I was struck by where that generation of journalists could go – Paul Morley’s become a media pundit of a pretty high order and Jon’s going towards more of a professorial academic angle – the fact that this was about scummy kids in 1977 doesn’t mean that you need to treat the subject less seriously than say the Weimar Republic”.
■ Having now made the film has your opinion changed on the reason why Ian Curtis took his own life?
“What hit me was how in the 1970s, if you had anything wrong with you that was on the borderline of mental health issues, the treatment would be brutal. Epilepsy isn’t a mental health issue but alongside it goes a kind of depression, and the way he would have been treated by the medical profession, and the drugs he would have been put on, would have not helped him in any way. If you’re in a band anyway and are having emotional issues, then taking large amounts of prescribed barbiturates is going to give a 22 year old kid serious problems.”
■ Given your passion for music from this era, do you think John Peel’s assertion that “Teenage Kicks” by the Undertones is the best song ever written, is true?
“Nah. I think ‘Roadrunner’ (Jonathan Richmond) would be my one.”
■ And what’s next?
“Not sure – I’ve been trying to get a film called The Western Lands commissioned this year, it’s about a guy called Jim Perrin who was a climber and is now an astonishing writer. I made a short film about him last year which won some awards, and I thought “Great, the full-length version, 2008, let’s do it” and I just couldn’t get a penny for it which I just couldn’t understand. So I am still kind of pushing for that.”