Jarvis Cocker on the cover of Melody Maker, 2nd March 1996. Photo by Andy Gatt
Before we go back in time for some more Stone Roses let’s stick with 1996 for one more issue. This for Kate who wrote me a lovely email and mentioned it as a favourite of hers.
Simon Price reviews Casanova by the Divine Comedy and David Stubbs reviews Expert Knob Twiddlers by Mike & Rich, 13th July 1996.
Also David Stubbs reviews Das Est Ein Groovy Beat Ya? by Jake Slazenger, Simon Reynolds reviews Tech Steppin’ Various Artists, John Robb reviews BlueTip by BlueTip. Ian Watson reviews Miracle by Bim Sherman, Martin James reviews Mexican Church by Blue and Julian Craven reviews Warm Nights by Robert Forster.
Be sure to read those in-depth Q&A’s in full. Vital stuff!
[loads gun, pulls trigger]
Talk Talk Talk featuring Mr Agreeable, 13th July 1996.
Liam and Patsy – fookin’ hell!
There is something wrong with my internet again. I’m stealing the neighbours wifi but it’s slow going. Please bear with AMP during these testing technical times.
Everett True interviews Screaming Trees, 13th July 1996. Photos by Steve Gullick
I have never knowingly listened to a Screaming Trees record. Should I?
Allan Jones interviews Lambchop, 13th July 1996
May 25, 2009
Allan Jones interviews Lambchop, 13th July 1996. Photos by Tom Sheehan.
Suspect this post will prove popular overtime. Love Lambchop but haven’t been able to keep up with their complete output over the years. Shynola made a lovely video for them with a leaf floating down stream. I wonder if I can find it on youtube – ah yes – here it is. Enjoy!
God it’s a chilling thought that this ‘new’ incarnation of Suede is now 13 years old. I still remember the début live review where Richard Oakes, the new 17 year old guitarist, was described along the lines of looking like “an awkward teenager in Boots trying to buy condoms” and all I remember thinking as a 25 year old was, fuck; he looks sooo beautiful and perfectly cool to me. I wish I could have looked like that at 17. Or indeed 25. And obviously I wish I could look like that now at 38. But so does he probably. I only hope he’s fat and bald now so I can enjoy some retrospective solace.
And who the fuck is Tania Branigan? Well a quick Google tells me she’s migrated to The Guardian and seems to have dropped the frivolous world of rock and pop music journalism for serious political commentary. Well done Tania. And your hair’s better these days too.
Dave Simpson reviews Spooky live at The Banks of the Tiber, Rome and David Bennun reviews Kenickie live at The Zap, Brighton.
Well well, who’d have thunk it huh? As Bennun swoons over the gestating Kenickie from the outset, halfway through, there’s this paragraph;
“Just assuming that you can’t justify a band on banter – and if you ever could, this would be the band – how about the fact that they’re stylish, sexy, funnier than life itself? And yes, most of the male music journalists I know want to sleep with them.”
With the benefit of hindsight that really is most amusing as one of them rather famously went on to do just that. You lucky sod.
But that banter was as real and intoxicating as Bennun describes. You just couldn’t help but fall for it. And yet now Lauren Laverne has transformed herself into the de facto face of all things cultural for the BBC, it’s easy to forget quite how intelligent and spunky she used to be.
I’m aware that I need to be respectful when talking about individuals here who could easily be reading, however the sad fact remains; the prettier Laverne gets, the less relevant she becomes. Her personality has now been diluted, flattened and pummelled to a shadow of its former self in order to make her palatable for a mainstream audience. What’s so wrong with allowing women to be intelligent, witty and feisty? Let her be herself. Closest thing these days is her radio show on 6Music but it’s still a pale imitation.
This clip from Planet Pop shows how good she was, and probably still is, despite the annoying editing and her rather lank, greasy hair. But hey…that’s showbiz and these are the compromises it seems you have to make if you’re gonna get on in the world of TV.
Is this the way they say nostalgia’s meant to feel, or just 30,000 people standing in a field?
After me being so sniffy about the new look Maker, there’s this anomaly where Reynolds very intelligently explores the “post-rave diaspora” of styles and sub-cultures born out of the original rave scene and tries to snatch some sort of meaning from it. An amusing, must read, last paragraph reports, “There’s a sense of aftermath. You know you’ve been through something; you just don’t know yet what it was. But it doesn’t mean nothing.”
Interesting to note that this double page feature isn’t mentioned at all on the cover.
Note to Russian viewers: There have been a lot of comments in Russian in the last week or two. I’m only going to publish comments to AMP in English. It doesn’t have to be perfect, ‘correct’ English, it just needs to be understandable enough for me (and everyone else) to know you’re not spamming the site.
David Bennun interviews Super Furry Animals, 13th July 1996. Photos by Steve Gullick.
I’ve not read it but I will. Then I might leave some retrospective commentary. Then again I might not. I bloody love Radiator though.
Super Furry Animals on the cover of Melody Maker, 13th July 1996. Photo by Steve Gullick
Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
Mother of fucking God – look what happened to Melody Maker. Why didn’t they just set the title in Comic Sans and have done with it?
WHO THOUGHT THIS MAKE-OVER WAS A MOTHERFUCKING GOOD IDEA? WHO!
This issue in response to a request from Paul in Leeds. Bennun’s interview to follow with further shocking Look-In style album reviews etc. following that.
Archived Music Press 