Issue 30
August 2005
Cover star – Paul Weller
Word shuffle
1) P55 – half of a 2 page ‘Word To The Wise’ interview with Jon Ronson by John Naughton.
“We [people in general] stay in way too much and when we come out we’re slightly crouching and fearful and then we scuttle home and write aobut ourselves on our blogs. You have to fight your natural instinct which is to stay at home. The internet lures us all into a solipsistic funk which we should all resist.”
2) P109 – albums reviewed on this page are by Pajo, The Posies, the Raveonettes and Madness.The Nutty Boys ‘Dangermen Sessions Vol. 1’ is reviewed by Andrew Harrison. “Madness’s prodigal return…gives me and my fellow co-religionists the same delicious shiver that other Word employees experienced when Cream got back together.”
The Raveonettes get a less favourable review by Gareth James. The old cliché, ‘it’d make a good EP’ seems rather apt for ‘Pretty In Black.”
3) P15 – Sue Perkins, subscriber Mike Wilson and Luke Haines are quizzed for the ‘Word Of Mouth’ section. Music that gets a thumbs up is Basement Jaxx (Sue), Mars Volta (Mike) and ‘Here Comes The City’ by The Go-Betweens (Luke). “It’s got a fantastic, disturbing lyric about being stuck in a train carriage with three strangers. I tend to avoid modern music. I prefer late 60’s, early 70’s British singer-songwriters, Kevin Ayers, English whimsy music.”
Sue likes reading ‘The Essential Garden Book’ by Dan Pearson. “I don’t know anything about gardens, but when I’m really tired I look at the pictures of undulating hills or ferns blowing in the Cornish breeze, instead of my garden which is a small patio with my dog’s shit in it.”
Mike enjoyed ‘Sideways’. “I can’t remember seeing another recent film which so instantly felt like a classic.” and Luke raves about ‘Beloved Elektra’; “…an allegory to the Russian Revolution, enacted as a dance on a Hungarian plain. I saw it with a friend who thought it was the worst thing ever. I loved it! Imaginative, moving, quite pretentious…what more could you want?”
4) P58 – Third page from a six page Paul Weller interview by Paul Du Noyer. They talk about Paul’s latest child, born two months ago. “He wanted to name him after all four Small Faces, but had to settle for two: Stevie Mac. It’s believed negotiations broke down at bass guitarist Ronnie ‘Plonk’ Lane.”
5) P123 – a review of various music DVDs by David Hepworth. “There are a million live DVDs and precious few of them get beyond the clichés of form to reveal much about the personalities of the people playing the music. They’re a promotional obligation rather than an opportunity for expression.”
The documentary called ‘Rough Cut and Ready Dubbed’ gets a positive write –up: “…an intriguing documentary shot on three-minute Super-8 cassettes by Hasan Shah and Dom Shaw during that period at the beginning of the 80’s when the tide of punk had gone out and left the likes of the Cockney Rejects and Sham 69 on the beach trying to work out what had changed. The interviews with Garry Bushell, John Peel and Tony Wilson at the time are fascinating.”
Interesting
In the ‘Departure Lounge’ section, Andy Gill mourns the loss of Hasil Adkins, the lo-fi rockabilly one-man band. “His virtually all-meat diet proved a significant influence on his art, as reflected in such titles as ‘Chicken Walk’ and 1999’s ‘Poultry In Motion’. He enjoyed cars, girls, huntin’, shootin’, and drinkin’ routinely to excess, the various colliding indulgences sometimes drawing him into the orbit of the local police.”
The Zappa family are taking ‘Zappa Plays Zappa’ out on tour. Dweezil is asked about teenage rebellion. “The only way you could rebel in our family was to become an accountant, or a lawyer or a Republican!”
Some of the magazine staff travel to Glastonbury and report back. Mark Ellen witnesses “… over-experimental Costello, uneventful Doves, spirited Babyshambles, veggie food vendor called ‘No Bones Jones’, engaging Royksopp, feet-warming Fatboy Slim, spectacular White Stripes and chipper Indian cdnce act at divinely titled Croissant Neuf. Nobody fell on our tent in the night.”
Jude Rogers is “… hugged by a stranger. Almost buy a tin flute but remember that I’ve got to snap out of this ‘cos there’s work in the morning.”
Andrew Harrison is awoken “…at 6am to military tattoo of rain on tent roof. Lightning strikes the Dance Tent, proving that even God thinks rave has had it. Greenpeace climate change campaigners all wear ‘I told you so’ faces.”
Keith Drummond bumps into “George Galloway, Tony Benn and naked man painted white, dancing in puddle. Allow massively ‘refreshed’ loon dressed as a pixie to read to my daughter – the story seems to lack structure and goes on for ever.”
Jude reviews the ‘TV Cream’ book. “This book’s worth the cover price alone for its description of ‘Absolute Beginners’ era Bowie: “there’s meandering around LA with orange hair or wailing underneath the Berlin Wall, but there’s also hoofing around with Mick Jagger on a piece of urban scaffolding.”
Longer article
Jude meets the engaging and thoroughly bonkers Tori Amos.
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