Books


various interviews with musicians and co- workers tells the whole story warts and all. The fascinating parts are the tales of


tensions between the four partners, two “heads” Lang and Artie Kornfeld best known at that point for writing ‘Deadman’s Curve’ with Jan Berry and hits for The Cowsills and the two “straight” money men Joel Roseman and John Roberts. Likewise the tensions between the local inhabitants and the organisers are also fully documented. However it’s the tales of meeting with a


reluctant Bob Dylan, pleading with Richie Havens, negotiating with Bill Graham and struggling to get the money to pay the Who so they would go on stage that bring the book to life.


The realisation that the festival was going to


have to be free and that they were, in the words of the stage announcement, “going to take a bath”, and accounts of the resulting financial wheelings and dealings and who got the money is the icing on the cake of a fascinating and highly readable book. Pat Curran


WHITE LIGHT/WHITE HEAT: THE VELVET UNDERGROUND DAY-BY-DAY Ritchie Unterberger Jawbone www.jawbonepress.com


I doubt the shit stains in Lou Reed’s underwear could get any closer to the Velvet’s daily routine than this


meticulously detailed, 50-year retroactive diary of the group that


launched a million bands. From Nico and Lou’s 1958 film and music


debuts to the Velvets’ controversial ’96 Rock ’n’ Roll Hall Of Fame induction (without Nico or Doug Yule), to the ridiculous $155,000 eBay price war over an early acetate, Unterberger traces their tumultous history through every known recording session, performance, personnel change, bootleg and beyond. Two thirds of the book cover the Lou years


(’65-70), and, although the formative years (’58-64) have far too much of Angus MacLise at the expense of Moe Tucker, the juicy bits are worth the price of admission. We discover that the Velvets once played at a frat party, several roller skating rinks, high schools in New Jersey and Beverly Hills, and were the wedding band at a ceremony in Detroit, which also featured The Yardbirds, who reportedly replaced the Velvets in Blow-Up! Unterberger also uncovers the first band


ever to cover a VU song, the story of how they saved Bill Graham’s career, and the revelation of how much Andy Warhol hated managing the band.


Unterberger has distilled the best info


from over 100+ bibliographical sources, and while the definitive truth about the Velvets may never be told (even here, numerous critical details have conflicting accounts), this may be the closest any author has come to capturing the key events in the lifecycle of one of the most influential bands in rock ’n’ roll history. Jeff Penczak


84


Zines


BRAIN LAPSE Issue 1 www.brainlapsefanzine.com


“Looks like you’ve got competition,” said a friend of mine after he’d discovered this new publication online. Admitedly Brain Lapse does plough the same furrow as Shindig!, namely under-


appreciated outsider sounds from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, but it reminds me much more of the handmade ‘zines of yore –all fanboy over- excitement and rabid obscurity. Exhaustively delving overviews/interviews


with NYC power-poppers The Marbles, ’70s Kansas City indie Titan Records and Eddie Grant of Britpop legends The Equals rub shoulders with pages of reviews of vinyl records, books and videos (and when I say videos, I mean out of print movies on VHS!) from back in the day. There’s nary a whiff of anything post 1982


and not a single advert to be found. The casual approach to editing leaves some of the text pretty flabby –particularly in the interviews, where every “Ha ha”, “oh”, “yeah” and “uh huh”, not to mention dozens of “oh wow”s, remain. Fortunately the enthusiasm and devotion to


their subjects shine through on every page, all 84 of which are brightly and boldly laid out to complement the often mind-boggling but always entertaining content. Andy Morten


MONGREL Issue 3 www.mongrelzine.ca


Indispensable ‘zines are few and far between in the UK and apart from those in the know, it’s far too easy to grow idle when it comes to actively seeking them out. The very nature and ardent


exclusivity of ‘zine culture perhaps, but in the US they are ten a cent and Mongrel ‘zine is leading the pack with its Zerox’d/CDR-ripped coverage of the best new garage/rock ’n’ roll/R&Beat punk exports around. Based in Vancouver, editors Janelle


Hollyrock and Bob Scott’s insider knowledge of their scene borders on affirmative xenophobia. Employing a flip-sided layout to cram in chat with this issue’s IAHT star King Khan, an overdue appraisal of forgotten Canadian legends Simply Saucer and for the first time in print (read by my eyes anyway), an interview with personal favourites, Demon’s Claw. Ever get that feeling you were born on the


wrong side of the water? Yeah, well Mongrel packages that feeling perfectly. Richard S Jones


Do you


run a fanzine? Please send us a copy!


Live


GREEN MAN FESTIVAL Brecon, Wales, 21st-23rd October


FRIDAY


If there’s one genre that has been rescued from the musical Siberia recently it’s prog, and that unlikely renaissance is fully represented at Green Man this year. DIAGONAL may not be the most well known of the new breed, but they’re one of the most vibrant. Mixing up freeform jazz-fusion with the pulsating electronic doom of Goblin’s Argento soundtracks, the Brighton-based septet are riding high on the triumph of their debut album and put in a performance that manages to be tight and sprawling all at once. She was the revelation of Green Man 2008


and this time around she is even better; it could only be MARY HAMPTON. Atotally mesmeric songwriter, singer and musician, Hampton shakes up the darkness of traditional folksong and the clang of modern classical to create a totally original sound. Her lyrics are oblique, her voice – usually emanating from the side of her mouth in a contorted half-scowl – is aurally arresting and her stage presence powerfully dignified. Hampton plays a few songs from last year’s My Mother’s Children album, still sounding as fresh as ever, but it’s the bitter dark despair of the new songs that really shine through and shows that this amazing woman probably is, incredibly, still a long way from her peak.


SATURDAY


Noon arrivals to the festival site are greeted by the sound by Shindig! favourites THE SOUNDCARRIERS wafting from the Main Stage. They open with ‘Caught By The Sun’ – just as said sun does indeed bless us with its presence (thanks, druids!) – and by the time we’re centre-stage this talented quartet have showcased much of their superb Harmonium album. Sadly, much of the fizzing analogue subtlety of the record is lost through the festival PA but the tunes survive intact. EMMA TRICCA is the Italian singer-


songwriter whose debut album Minor White caused a flurry of interest last year among those of us who appreciate the finer points of gossamer-woven female folk. For this performance she has, for some numbers, expanded the performances beyond her voice and guitar. With her band, her voice starts to take on a more resonant tone and her songs spike more queasily, their despondency turning into sharpness to great – and very different – effect.


The Soundcarriers light up Meanwhile, JONNY (AKA Teenage


Fanclub’s Norman Blake and ex-Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci’s Euros Childs) have attracted a capacity crowd to the Far Out Stage. Both men have built their reputations on melodic indie-pop with a heavy dose of evergreen ’60s craftsmanship and that’s exactly what they do today; Norman seated and hunched over his acoustic guitar and Euros (looking about 15) standing behind a crude ’80s keyboard/drum machine combo. Their harmonies shimmer, the tunes shine and the series of 7” singles they’re threatening to unleash on us have already got our thumbs up. VETIVER seem to rarely get the credit


due to them for having an evolving sound. Andy Cabic’s crew are certainly far, far from the acoustic introspection of five years ago, with their latest incarnation (as showcased on the album Tight Knit) an Americana good-timey soft-rock group. They’ve always been a hard- working live band and at Green Man, which they declare to be their favourite festival, they turn in a solid set with the reworked ‘You May Be Blue’ a highlight. THE MEMORY BAND, a periodically-


active collective centred around Stephen Cracknell, dwell in the after-hours shadows of the Cinema Tent for a reinterpretation of Paul Giovanni’s songs from The Wicker Man. The musicians and singers joyfully – and with much audience participation – crank out the pagan musical’s best bits, ‘Gently Johnny’ in particular works like a hypnotic pendant and the tent sways along with its every command.


SUNDAY


A musical ménage-a-trois between Kid Creole, Krautrock and Afro-funk may sound like a misguided trendy disaster, but ZUN ZUN EGUI is a band clever and bizarre enough to pull it off. Tight, chunky rhythms spill out over the top of genres and their hardcore no- popular-concession approach gained them a lot of respect from these quarters. The energy was unstoppable –a true find of the festival. TREMBLING BELLS have been


making all the right progressive folk noises recently and their performance on the Main Stage is more evidence that they are one of the most ear and eye catching bands around. The vocals of Lavinia Blackwall are histrionically beautiful, freewheeling over the songs from their debut album Carbeth. While an experimental approach is at the centre of Trembling Bells, today they truly let their poignant side shine through and it’s impossible not to feel carried along on the emotion. Jeanette Leech with Andy Morten


Photo by Steven Burnett


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