beat happening | london | 1988
here's where this blog stops being linear and starts being random rememberances.
early 1988 i found out beat happening were visiting the uk.
i got excited.
well you would, right?
paul & gillian bi-joopiter invited me down to stay with them in finsbury park so's we could go see beat happening at the fulham greyhound.
it was a wonderful weekend for an indie-kid such as i.
we spent the afternoon in paul's flat listening to his old swell maps singles and scritti's "songs to remember" before heading over to the venue.
the bill that night was supposed to be beat happening, the vaselines and the boy hairdresser, but boy hairdresser didn't show.
this pleased me no end.
firstly because i wasn't a big fan - their 12" on 53rd & 3rd ("golden showers") didn't do a lot for me.
secondly, and more importantly, it meant duglas from bmx bandits - who happened to be around - did an impromptu set singing along to a cassette of queen greatest hits while wearing pyjamas.
i bumped into bob stanley (latterly to be known for his band saint ettienne) who i knew through his fanzine caff (i still have a caff valentine card from him and pete somewhere), and we had our first and only conversation face to face.
the vaselines were great actually. pretty dirty rock'n'rolly live. and frances looked lovely.
but beat happening were something else.
raw, fun, funny, energising - calvin was the sexiest man in the world for the 40 minutes they were on stage.
it was the first time i'd seen a band swap instruments, not worry about guitars being properly tuned, go out of time without a care in the world and that was a crucial moment for me in terms of how i would change the way i made music with my band(s).
on the way home on the tube we bumped into everett true and then robert secula - leader of the 14 iced bears. i'd met him once before at a show in birmingham and we agreed we should play together soon - more of that in a later post.
paul & gillian bi-joopiter were incredibly important to me. paul was in the mctells and gillian ran the bi-joopiter cassette/record label, and between them they pushed me towards the things i did. from cassette labels to bands to the music i bought.
there'll be more about them later too.
early 1988 i found out beat happening were visiting the uk.
i got excited.
well you would, right?
paul & gillian bi-joopiter invited me down to stay with them in finsbury park so's we could go see beat happening at the fulham greyhound.
it was a wonderful weekend for an indie-kid such as i.
we spent the afternoon in paul's flat listening to his old swell maps singles and scritti's "songs to remember" before heading over to the venue.
the bill that night was supposed to be beat happening, the vaselines and the boy hairdresser, but boy hairdresser didn't show.
this pleased me no end.
firstly because i wasn't a big fan - their 12" on 53rd & 3rd ("golden showers") didn't do a lot for me.
secondly, and more importantly, it meant duglas from bmx bandits - who happened to be around - did an impromptu set singing along to a cassette of queen greatest hits while wearing pyjamas.
i bumped into bob stanley (latterly to be known for his band saint ettienne) who i knew through his fanzine caff (i still have a caff valentine card from him and pete somewhere), and we had our first and only conversation face to face.
the vaselines were great actually. pretty dirty rock'n'rolly live. and frances looked lovely.
but beat happening were something else.
raw, fun, funny, energising - calvin was the sexiest man in the world for the 40 minutes they were on stage.
it was the first time i'd seen a band swap instruments, not worry about guitars being properly tuned, go out of time without a care in the world and that was a crucial moment for me in terms of how i would change the way i made music with my band(s).
on the way home on the tube we bumped into everett true and then robert secula - leader of the 14 iced bears. i'd met him once before at a show in birmingham and we agreed we should play together soon - more of that in a later post.
paul & gillian bi-joopiter were incredibly important to me. paul was in the mctells and gillian ran the bi-joopiter cassette/record label, and between them they pushed me towards the things i did. from cassette labels to bands to the music i bought.
there'll be more about them later too.
posted by Crayola Sarandon @ 1:31 AM
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