Jimmy Cauty Interview about the Aftermath Dislocation Principle

A scene from Jimmy Cauty's Aftermath Dislocation Principle

One of earliest musical memories is seeing The Timelords performing Doctorin' the Tardis on an episode of Top of the Pops in 1988. I would have been five years old. Me and my friends would sing that song in the playground. It introduced Gary Glitter to a group of young kids from Nottingham, which I'm sure he would be delighted about. I had no idea of the people behind it, the former manager of Echo and the Bunnymen and an ex member of The Orb, but as a kid it was a catchy and fun song to sing.

As the 80s gave way to the 1990s, the band behind that song would go on to release more and more great songs that I would either hear on the radio or see on Top of the Pops. First and foremost they were entertaining and enjoyable to listen to. As I got older I started to understand what made them so unique; not only what it their knack of being able to write a damn fine song with a memorable hook, it was their sense of anarchy, their subversive attitude, the strange and intriguing culture and mythology that they built around themselves. Their career ending performance at the 1992 Brit Awards is one of the best live performances by any band ever. 

The ADP Riot tour visiting the New Art Exchange in Nottingham

Fast forward a few years and imagine my delight when it is announced that Jimmy Cauty will be exhibiting a few minutes walk from my house. "I wonder if he'll be up for an interview?" It turns out he is.

I'm always a bit worried ahead of an interview, anxious that the conversation won't flow or that my questions will fall flat, and hoping that whoever I'm talking to isn't a complete dick. Fortunately it goes great and Cauty is easy to talk to. Thinking that this is the only time that I am ever going to talk to a member of the KLF, I've got to make the most of the opportunity and ask him just a few questions about his old band, surely he won't mind me slipping a couple in.

"There is a self-imposed 23 year embargo on Bill and myself talking about anything that starts with the letter K. That 23 years is coming to an end next year." 

And with that I have to cross out half of my questions. 

Read my interview with Jimmy Cauty on the LeftLion website

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu - Koko, London (8 July 2016)

I have been a fan of Japan's J-Pop megastar Kyary Pamyu Pamyu since early 2014 when I visited Japan on a work trip and asked an associate to recommend me some Japanese pop music. 

Since that fateful day I have been an avid listener, buying her music and enjoying her always weird and wonderful music videos. As soon as she announced her '5ive Years A Monster' tour in support of the just released KPP Best best-of and saw that a date in the UK had been scheduled at Koko in London, I had to buy a ticket. Especially as I dithered over her last appearance in the UK, at the Roundhouse last October, and decided not to go. 

This was the first time I had see Kyary Pamyu Pamyu live and she didn't disappoint. It was a joy from beginning to end; a hyper explosion of music and colour. I wrote about what I thought of her show in what is a part gig review and part appreciation of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu for LeftLion. 

Below (and above) are a few photos in grainy iPhone quality and a short clip that I took...

Setlist
Cosmetic Coaster
5iVE YEARS MONSTER
Kyary An-An
Cherry BONBON
Furisodeshon
Candy Candy
Pon Pon Pon
Ninja Re Bang Bang
do do pi do
Interlude
Fashion Monster
Mottai Night Land
Crazy Party Night
Mondai Girl
Invader Invader
Saigo no Ice Cream
Kira Kira Killer
Sai & Kou

Encore:
Kimi ni 100 PERCENT
Tsukematsukeru 

#kirakirakiller #kyarypamyupamyu #5iveyearsmonster #kpp #kokolondon #livemusic #jpop @kyary_pp

A video posted by Pawl (@heypawl) on Jul 9, 2016 at 12:46am PDT

Takeshi Terauchi & Blue Jeans - Shinjuku Kento's (22 May 2016)

A couple of weeks ago I was in Japan visiting Osaka and Tokyo as part of an overseas business trip. 

As previously mentioned on this blog, mainly when I have bought his records, I am a fan of the Japanese surf guitarist Takeshi Terauchi, and when thinking about things that I could do during some free time, I thought that I would look to see if Takeshi Terauchi would be preforming as I understood that he had a semi-regular residency at a cabaret place in Tokyo. 

Due to a stroke of extremely good fortune, fortuitous timing, the stars aligning etc. he had two shows scheduled at a venue called Kento’s in the Shinjuku are of Tokyo the day after I was due to arrive in the city. 

I arrived in to Tokyo from Osaka in the late afternoon of the Saturday, the day before the gig. After checking in at my hotel, I did a Google Maps search to find the venue and proceeded to leg it across Shinkuku to try and buy a ticket as I was due to meet a friend for dinner in the evening. I was a little worried that there wouldn’t be any tickets left as I was leaving it very late and the venue looked pretty tiny judging from a few photos I looked at online and the venue’s floor plan. 

I found the building that Kento’s is in and got in the lift to the 6th floor. Thinking that I may have language issues when trying to buy the tickets, I grabbed a flyer for the gig that was on a stand outside of the lift and took it in to the venue with me. After some initial confusion, obvious bewilderment that I was even asking about tickets for Takeshi Terauchi, and a moment where I thought they might be all gone, I now had a pair of tickets to see him live.

I go to a lot of gigs and Kento’s certainly isn’t the type of venue I usually go to for live music. A cabaret venue and judging by the flyers and posters one that specialises in nostalgic and tribute acts. You sat at a table and waiting staff then bought out your drinks and food to you. I should also note at this point that as well as the cost of the tickets, food and drink, they slap a ‘live music charge’ on to your bill when paying at the end.

It’s hard to say what I was expecting from the gig itself. I was certainly excited to actually have the opportunity to see Takeshi Terauchi live as I thought the opportunity would never come about. But part of me was concerned that it would be terrible and I feared that I had spent a fair bit of money on a show that clearly wouldn’t be able to live up to my expectations. 

My friend who was accompanying was able to translate any onstage chat from ‘Terry’ and apparently 2016 marked his 50th year as a performer and tonight he was performing with his long-time backing band, Blue Jeans.  

Takeshi Terauchi and Blue Jeans were on stage at exactly 19:30 and played until just gone 21:00. He was really good even if the set felt a little too steady and one-paced at times. I think listening to many of those 60s and 70s LPs that I have bought made me think that it would be completely wild forgetting that he is now in his late 70s. 

The band performed mainly versions of old Japanese folk songs, songs he said that he finds himself always returning to and that remind him of mother, and their performance wasn’t that energetic if I am to be totally honest. I also had no nostalgic frame of reference for the songs, so to me they just sounded ‘pleasant’, whereas the rest of the Japanese audience knew what they were and seemed massively appreciative. 

There were times when Terry would step back from taking the lead and the other guitarist in the band took over and even if energy levels dipped at times – keep in mind that this was the band’s second set of the evening – Takeshi Terauchi and Blue Jeans played with a timeless elegance and respect for the songs they were performing. It was obvious that these interpretations were important and meant a lot to them. It wasn’t a touristy appropriation of Japanese culture. I felt that it could have done without the two keyboard players constant use of the ‘Panpipe Moods’ setting though.  

To provide respite for the now 77 year old guitarist, and I guess to inject some variation in to the mostly instrumental set, the band were joined by a female singer for much of the latter part of the evening giving Terry the chance to catch his breath – though he did remain on stage playing guitar.

There were some moments that were genuinely exciting; like when Takeshi Terauchi played through his delay pedal and it sounded like the notes were pinging across our heads and near the end when he started doing these fast palm-muted runs up and down the fretboard. He looked totally exhausted by the end. 

Asking him for his signature at the end turned out to be extremely awkward. I sort of had to pounce on him as he walked past my table barging loads of Japanese out of the way in the process. He then held the pen upside down and I had to grab it out of his hands and turn it the right way for him. 

I’m eternally grateful to have been to catch Takeshi Terauchi live and there something almost serendipitous about him finally seeing him play in the city where I have obsessively searched for and bought his records. 

Takeshi Terauchi website

First Listen: Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool

Radiohead - Photo by Alex Lake

At 7pm today, after a week of teasing that saw band delete their social media presence and the release two singles in the shape of Burn The Witch and Daydreaming, Radiohead released their new album, A Moon Shaped Pool. 

The band's new album comes out five years after their previous effort, King of Limbs - an album of glitchy experimental electronica that divided the opinion of many fans. Aside from the wonderful Lotus Flower I found King of Limbs to be a real struggle to listen to. It never really got out of third gear and it was more of an abstract mood piece rather than an album that ebbs and flows and takes the listener with it. 

Radiohead releasing their album on a Sunday, rather than the usual release day of a Friday, gives the release a sense of occasion (it's also a handy and cheap marketing gimmick). With message boards, blogs and social media full of chatter as fans listen to it for the first time, there is an old fashioned sense of it being communal listening experience; everyone getting the album and listening to it for the first time and sharing their thoughts with one another - even if it is a very 21st century communal listening experience as the only thing that connects us are our computers and devices. 

Nevertheless, I thought that I would join in the fun and attempt something that I have never done before. I will share my thoughts track-by-track as I listen to A Moon Shaped Pool for the first time. 

With the earphones on and A Moon Shaped Pool cued-up in iTunes, let's do it...

Burn The Witch
Early reports of A Moon Shaped Pool suggested that Radiohead would take an orchestral direction and Burn The Witch is evidence of that. Rapid fire strings drive Thom Yorke's anxiety ridden melody with lyrics that suggest outsiders are being hunted. Could be a reflection on the current refugee crisis in Europe.

Daydreaming
The second track that was put out by the band ahead of the album's full release. This is one of those haunted piano ballads that the band does so well, think Pyramid Song or Video Tape. Yorke and sparse piano with the band framing the song and adding texture. Instruments are plucked, scraped, blip and bleep floating around Thom as he sings about the end of his marriage. Some strings come in towards the song's end. Heartbreaking stuff. The reversed voice effect at the end ends the song on an unsettling tone. 

Decks Dark
The first 'brand new' song on the album. There's more piano, some electronic percussion, the bass and 'real' drums enter after a couple of minutes. There's a choir of voices too along with some percussive guitar that slowly comes in from the dark as the song progresses. The songs takes a turn at the end, the guitars get a slight sense of urgency about them, start prodding and I think York starts to sing "You had enough of me". Could this be another song about the end of his marriage?

Desert Island Disk
Opening with bluesy acoustic guitar while something buzzes away in the background. Eventually the bass and drums kick in. The song sits on the bluesy groove the acoustic guitar laid out at the start and builds up before one by one the instruments back away and we are left with just Yorke, the acoustic guitar and that buzz again. It's short and sweet but a really lovely and intimate moment. 

Ful Stop
This is the otherside of Radiohead. Warbling bass, an overwhelming sense of dread and jittering electronics that twitch around your head like a mechanical fly. There is a drone that sounds like it's played by some orchestral instruments that have been treated by some studio trickery. They do that thing where the band kick in mid-way through to up the intensity and inject some energy. I thought that this was going to be like Idioteque, Radiohead in full-on experimental electronic mood, but it's more like something off In Rainbows, the band playing nervy propulsive art-rock.

Glass Eyes
Back to Yorke and that gentle piano playing. This time it's just him and the piano accompanied by a soaring string section. It's very short, but the strings make it sound dramatic and reminds me of Kate Bush a bit. 

Identikit
As the song plays I start to recognise it. I've seen videos on YouTube of the band performing this on their previous tour. Driven by a catchy swaggering melody, first it's Yorke singing over a loop of his own vocals, but there's also a choir at a couple of points. This has a real groove to it, then band keep it simple, with the guitars going weird and a little bit prog and the end as they twist and turn replicating the confusion in the lyrics. Sounds like a classic Radiohead song to me. I immediately want to listen it it again.

The Numbers
The one thing that I am noticing is that there is a lot of piano on this record. The Numbers is driven by jazzy piano with strummed acoustic guitars, drums, and some rumbling bass playing. The orchestral influence on this record has also seeped in to the vocals. There's quite a few moments where either Yorke's vocals are layered to give a choir effect or the band use an actual choir. Here there is both. There's also more of those sweeping strings, here coming in as the songs works towards its climax. I wasn't immediately taken by this one if I'm honest. 

Present Tense
Twinkling picked guitars, a bit like in Weird Fishes, and more playing around with Yorke's vocals. This time there an ghostly, mechanized delay going on. It adds a woozy element. Then we have the real choir once again and the strings come in again for a short and breezy section. It'll be interesting to see how they tour this record. It feels like a band record but they've messed about with the songs in the studio, took them apart, and then built them back up with the orchestra and choir in mind. The songs appear simple at first but there's a lot of stuff going on in them. Lots of layers that will take multiple listens to discover. Will they take a string section out on the road with them?

Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief
This is the twitchy electronica version of Radiohead. Yorke yelping over a looped piano and some low bass. The rest of the band eventually join him playing creepy loose-knit jazz, the drums really holding it all together. And then there's those strings again soaring above everything else. It feels like the strings have replaced the guitars on this record. Whereas in the past they may have written a guitar part, on A Moon Shaped Pool they've put together a whole orchestra instead. This song feels like a good idea that never really gets off the ground. I would have preferred it if they had gone deeper in to the choppy electronic rabbit hole on this one. I can imagine it's got scope to go off when played live though. 

True Love Waits
Wow. Wasn't expecting this one to be on the record. It felt that the live version that they put out was the definitive version. This is different though. The band have really taken it apart. Mournful piano has replaced the acoustic guitar. There's a second piano in the background playing a counter-melody. Then some distorted bass as piano notes twist and tinkle as if taking flight. This is now the definitive version of True Love Waits. 

That's that then. You can't keep expecting Radiohead to re-invent the wheel with each album. And they haven't done that here. My initial thoughts are that they've done away with most of the electronic stuff only, using it subtly here. The songs feel stark and contemplative, they are often Thom Yorke brooding over a simple piano refrain or acoustic guitar with the band framing him by adding texture and atmosphere. It's lush and mellow. The orchestral moments aren't over done, but slot in comfortably alongside the band's playing. A great record that will take some time to really get inside the songs. 

Thanks for reading. It's now time for me to go to sleep. 

Goodbye To The Music Exchange

Snapshot of the article I wrote for LeftLion on the closing of The Music Exchange

It was with a heavy heart that we had to say goodbye to the Nottingham record store The Music Exchange earlier this month. 

Opening in 2009 just as Selectadisc had closed its doors and coinciding with the recent resurgence in vinyl sales, the Music Exchange quickly became a hub for the Nottingham music community. Set up as a social enterprise by the charity Framework to raise additional money, not only was it a record store, it was also a place where adults could gain valuable work experience to enable them to gain employment. 

All the staff and volunteers at The Music Exchange did a wonderful job making truly great place to buy records. 

It was always a pleasure to be asked to help them out, whether that was DJing at various events, writing about the store in LeftLion, assisting with events, or helping to plug their various events and causes. 

They had a farewell party on the last day on the shop on Saturday 19 March at The Bodega featuring live performances from Deadbeat At Dawn, Rattle and Crosa Rosa. With an afterparty featuring lots of drunk dancing later on in the night at The Broadway. It was a bittersweet way to say goodbye to the shop. 

More on my thoughts about the closing of The Music Exchange can be found in this article that I wrote for the LeftLion website.

The Music Exchange on Facebook 

Be: One - The Soundtrack Written For Wolfgang Buttress' Beehive Installation

Be: One article for LeftLion magazine

At the start of January I was lucky enough to interview the main creative minds behind Be: One, the soundtrack that was written specifically for Wolfgang Buttress' beehive installation that he designed for the UK Pavilion at last year's World Expo in Milan. 

The email came in at the last minute and following a couple of days of hasty organising,  the following weekend on a crisp and bright Sunday morning I found myself on the outskirts of Nottingham city centre getting ready to interview the artist Wolfgang Buttress, his daughter and vocalist Camille Buttress, and the musicians and Spiritualized members Tony Foster (aka Doggen) and Kev Bales. Wolfgang had known Tony and Kev for a few years as he used to have a studio close to where Tony's is. It is at Tony's studio where they have all agreed to speak to me. 

Speaking to all of them together was far-and-away one of the most enjoyable experiences I have had during my time writing for LeftLion. They couldn't have been any more welcoming and talkative. And it was really interesting being sat in a room with them hearing them discuss the creative process about how they created the soundtrack. I could have happily chatted to them for the rest of the day. It was really obvious that they were all pleased with how the soundtrack came out. 

Weirdly, after years of trying to interview Tony Foster / Doggen and never getting anywhere, I have now interviewed him twice in less than 12 months. It's funny how things somtimes work out.

As I was overseas with work a couple of days immediately after doing the interview, I found myself typing up my copy in various Starbucks around Seoul. It's not often that I can say this, but I am quite pleased with how the finished article came out. The article, as it appears in the above photograph, was published in LeftLion Magazine #75. 

The online version of my Be: One article can be read here. 

The collective premiered their soundtrack over two sold-out nights at Nottingham Arts Theatre on 18 and 19 February. I was fortunate enough to go the first night and you can read what I thought about it here. 

Wolfgang's hive installation has been shipped back to the UK from Italy and will be at Kew Gardens from June with the collective planning on performing their soundtrack live when it opens.

More about Be: One on Wolfgang Buttress' website 

I Was At David Bowie's Last Evert Concert

 
On Monday 11 January I was getting my stuff together ready to leave the house for work and listening to the Today Show on BBC Radio 4 as usual, when it was mentioned on the 7am news that they were getting early reports that David Bowie had died. 

I was devastated and it left me in a strange mood for the rest of the day. 

The outpouring of grief exemplified just how important he was too so many people and how far and deep his influence reached. He always seemed to be present, even when he actually wasn't like in his later days, because his work is woven deep in to the fabric of our culture - he has helped to shape and define so much of it. He is our Elvis, our Frank Sinatra, our John Lennon. 

Bowie was ground-zero for a lot of the music I got in to while growing up in the 90s. Bands like The Cure, REM, and Smashing Pumpkins all cited him as an influence. He even tipped his hat to two of those bands when he invited Robert Smith and Billy Corgan to join him at his 50th Birthday Concert in New York in 1997.

Although he had kept a low-profile during the last few years of his life, and there had been rumours of ill-health for a while ever since his heart attack in 2004, he had been going through a period of productivity and creativity that started with the surprise release of The Next Day in 2013. 

Bowie was always there. You never thought of him not being around, it didn't seem possible. The news of his cancer was a closely guarded secret, we didn't know he was seriously ill. Only days before he had released Blackstar on his 69th birthday and receiving some of the best reviews of his career. The news of his death came out of the blue and probably hit harder because of it, we didn't have time to prepare. 

I'm still gutted to think that Bowie is no longer around. Although he has left a legacy that will live on forever. His music will always be with us. On the day that Blackstar was released I posted on my Facebook that I was at his (to date) last ever concert. He made a couple of one-off appearances after that, but it was his final full David Bowie headline show. 

It was at the 2004 Hurricane Festival in Scheeßel, Germany. He was one of the headliners of the festival along with The Cure. I had gone there with my friends Ben and Marc. I had just finished university that summer and we were all skint students and made our way to the festival in the cheapest possible way - by coach from Nottingham. The journey took 24 hours and was awful, but the festival was good fun, sunny with lots of cheap beer and great music. 

Bowie headlined the second night of the festival. It was part if his A Reality Tour, his longest series of shows for a few years. I wish I could say that my memories of his set are crystal clear, but they're not, sullied by beer and time with it being 11 and a half years ago. I do recall that I missed the first few songs because I was watching Mogwai finish-up on the second stage, but got to Bowie to see the majority of his hit-packed, career-spanning set. I definitely remember China Girl with Earl Slick's gloriously over-the-top interpretation of that songs main riff, so I must have been there from at least that song onwards. 
  
As this Rolling Stone article states, and if you look back at the videos of his performance, dressed in a hoodie (although it should be noted that he was suited and booted earlier in the set), he doesn't look great, and his previous show had been cut short. But from what I recall he was very talkative in between the songs and gave his all when performing. You couldn't tell from being in the crowd that anything was wrong with him. It's strange to think that he was actually having a heart attack up on that stage, but he gave a fully committed performance until the very end. A true and dedicated performer.

It's weird and sad to think that it was the last time those magnificent songs would be sung by the great man responsible for writing them. I'm just honoured that I got to see him and I was there to witness it. 

RIP David Bowie.  

 
 

Up Close & Personal With Paul Gascoigne Left Me Feeling Bummed Out

As the title says. 

Tonight I went to Up Close & Personal with Paul Gascoigne at the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham. 

The scheduled start of 19:30 was pushed back to 20:00 making for a few restless people queuing up to get in to the auditorium. Once everyone was finally able to seat it was obvious that the event hadn't sold very well with most of the stalls full, but the first tier noticeably sparse and the upper-tier not used at all. It must be said that I didn't actually see any adverts for tonight, I only found out about it as I was bought a ticket. 

The evening was split in to two halves. Like a throwback to a cabaret event, the opening act was a comedian who had apparently been on Britain's Got Talent. I won't write his name as he wasn't very good. In fact, it was some of the laziest comedy I have ever seen. It felt like being transported back to the 1970s. I thought so-called comedy like this had died out, but I'm sadly wrong. There were fat jokes, sexists jokes, an oddly insensitive moment (and let me reiterate, un-funny) considering the headline act, were he tried to shame an audience member who went to the toilet by saying they had been taking cocaine. And not forgetting the rather meta section that was essentially a comedian doing impressions of far better and much more successful comedians. It was really depressing to think that these kind of outdated 'jokes' are still considered funny by some people.

In the interval the audience had the opportunity to buy signed shirts and have a short meet-and-greet with Gazza for £250 or buy a signed print that looked like something you would find in a dusty corner of a discounted store for £150. It had the air of money grabbing vultures rinsing money out of honest football fans. I'm sure it's a great way of making some additional income, especially if the tickets aren't selling too well, but it didn't sit well with me and felt kid of cheap despite the prices being touted.
 
Paul Gascoigne was out in the second half for an hour of chat about his career that took the form of a on-stage interview. 

It generally stuck to his footballing career; from his time starting out with Newcastle, signing for Tottenham, playing for England at Italia '90 and Euro '96, through to his time in Scotland at Rangers. His stints at Lazio and Middlesborough were only briefly mentioned. Although there was time for his short-lived spell at Boston United,  but I think this was shoehorned in as it sets up a story about how in his drunken stupor he thought he was signing for a club in the USA. There's nothing about his time at Everton. 

It's obvious that his time pulling on the Three Lions and playing for England was a career highlight and meant the world to him. He doesn't have much time for the current crop of England players apart from Wayne Rooney. 

He didn't talk about anything that has happened to him since hanging up his boots. Perhaps to gloss over how much his career and personal life took such a nose-dive after drink and drugs took hold. This means we hear nothing about the 2010 Raoul Moat incident where her turned up at the stand-off scene with chicken and beers hoping to talk to the murderer who was on the run from the police - Which is weird because earlier in this run of shows he did speak about this. It obviously generated too many negative headlines in the tabloid press and had been pulled.

Looking at Paul Gascoigne's mannerisms on stage it is obvious that he is not a well man. Swarming with nervous tics, constantly twitching and shuffling in his seat, his speech slurred and muddled to the point where it could be hard working out what he was saying. Someone who at his footballing peak looked so free on the pitch now seems trapped within himself. 

On the surface his many anecdotes were funny and played up to the idea of him as a bit of a lad, a bit of a wild, but harmless character who liked having a laugh. But they pointed to someone who was clearly very selfish individual who didn't think about the consequences his outlandish actions might have on others. Sure, joyriding a tractor at your first training session at Spurs might have been a funny thing to do. But crashing it in to the training block isn't as it's going to cost someone time and money to repair the damage. Likewise, when he decided to take the brand new Middlesborough team bus for a short spin and ended up crashing it. These are the actions of an individual with flaws and issues that run deep, and it's surprising as well as sad that no one in football tried to help him before it was far too late. 

I grew up on football in the 90s. One of my earliest football memories is of Italia '90 and England reaching the semi-final. Gazza's crying Spitting Image puppet. Throughout the majority of that decade Paul Gascoigne was this talismanic and highly gifted England midfielder, the kind of footballer that only comes along once in a generation. I imagine that dealing with current day Paul Gascoigne and all of the demons and issues that brings with it has got to be a complex situation, so hats off to the people currently trying to help him out. I'm sure they have good intentions, but dragging him around half empty theatres and flogging overpriced tat to hard-working football fans probably isn't the way to do it. It left me feeling sad for that man on stage.