Alright Steels, yeah I've been posting a bit closer to home!.. Been retrospectively listening a bit to the 80s Paisley Underground movement from LA recently. It's virtually a potted history of the 60s with jangly guitars and Psychedelia and Garage Rock and influences from The Byrds, Velvet Underground, The Doors and The Mamas And The Papas amongst others. Love this EP from Rain Parade.... PS. how are the nipper's band, have they made you rich yet?...
For today, I've avoided the obvious Friday I'm in Love and plumped for this great cover instead: The drummer is Jon Moss, later of Culture Club/Boy George fame/infamy.
Costing me a bloody fortune in transportation fees, as I'm the roadie!!! They're doing well, gigging regularly up in Glasgow now, and have played a couple of festivals this year too. I'll try and upload some footage from their last gig and tag you - they have improved a lot musically, need some proper management now to help them progress further and find their own musical identity and move away from covers (the set is now almost 50/50 with their originals and covers) - still not bad for 14 year olds though
That's good, maybe you could ask our very own Le Tissier's Laces, he has contacts in the music business I believe.
Here you go Saints, from a small festival they played in Paisley - they opened so only a couple of dozen watching, but we had sunshine!! This is one of their own tracks....
Good stuff mate, I actually prefer their own song!....they have definately improved just over these short few months...
Another nice album from the 80s Californian Paisley Underground scene (which Prince named his recording studios, Paisley Park after).... This is Green on Red....
I'm done with the days of the week theme. I could have put up Saturday Night's All Right For Fighting by Elton John, but I won't. So I'm going to suggest a First Song I Ever Heard By This Band or Soloist category. I've mentioned before that I always play Led Zep II the wrong way round. This is because the first thing I ever heard from Led Zeppelin was Heartbreaker. It was my brother's just released, just bought album, and the next day or so I bought the Led Zep I and II LPs myself. To me, Whole Lotta Love is just another track, and it's not so good anyway, in my humble opinion. Heartbreaker has one of those riffs that drives along and is unmistakeable. I could go to deepest, darkest Indonesia or South America and play that riff and then ask what's this.? And they'd go, "Itu Heartbreaker, kamu bodoh!"** Heartbreaker is where you start with Led Zeppelin. OK, it's where I start. This Youtube video throws in following track, Living Loving Maid too: **Indonesian for "That's Heartbreaker, you dummy.!"
Cheers Le Tiss, any pointers are appreciated ! They're getting plenty of gigging - opening a "Fake Festival" today locally, so should be a fair few to watch them (they played same one last year, which was their first ever gig!) - regularly playing in Glasgow, have even headlined two slots. Problematic year ahead as they head towards their exams though, although they are all studying music the rehearsals will need to fit around their studies (they do 6-8 hours a week in a studio).
Sounds great. You're doing all the right things there - just keep doing it for the time being. Write songs, gig, repeat. Grow a local fan base. Don't chase labels or agents or management - let them come to you (which they will as you build a buzz).
In a First Song I Ever Heard By This Band or Soloist category, I'll give you something from Jethro Tull. The first thing I ever heard from Ian Anderson was Living In The Past, although, as it was buried within the soundtrack of a documentary, I had absolutely no idea who it was. So the first thing I heard from Tull and knew it was Life's A Long Song. A couple of years ago I stumbled over a series where Rick Wakeman was talking to fellow musicians. The chat with Ian Anderson was particularly interesting. In it, Rick asked Ian why he took up the flute. Anderson's reply was amazing. He said that, although he was a guitarist, he'd recently seen Jimi Hendrix blow everyone else away, and so he decided that being a guitarist wasn't enough. He had to have a new angle. So he saw a flute in a music shop and decided to buy it. He taught himself within 6 months to virtuosity, although he still denies that he is any good.! Anyway, he plays all the instruments very prettily in this one:
