How I learned to stop worrying and love the Second Coming

As I mentioned on my previous post, the summer of 1990 had started on a positive note. Having bought my 12 inch copy of "One Love", a song which featured on most of my summer mix tapes of that year, the future looked bright: We could look forward to more brilliant music from The Stone Roses in the months and years to come. Unfortunately, this was not to be. We had to wait until 1994 for new material to come out. This was in the form of the "Love Spreads" single. I remember seeing the video on MTV Europe and confusing its intro with the one from Beck's "Loser" which was also playing on MTV in the same period. It did not exactly sound like The Stone Roses but it was a good song anyway. As it turned out it was a typical example of the second album which under John Squire's influence sounded more like Led Zeppelin than like The Stone Roses. (What's funny is that because of this, "Second Coming" would probably appeal to classic rock fans who normally would not touch anything "indie" or alternative with a ten foot pole... or a selfie stick nowadays!). Anyway, I bought the single but not the album at that time and this had to do with the way I was handling my limited budget for buying records back in the 90's. I would buy the singles first, because these would be deleted after a while and as for the albums, well, these would always be available so I could buy them later. This of course meant that I delayed in buying some albums that I wanted to buy for several years, but this is not exactly what happened with Second Coming.

So let's go back in 1995 when the second single from the album came out: "Ten Storey Love Song". This sounded exactly like The Stone Roses, this was in fact what I had been waiting for since the summer of 1990. I was delighted.

In late 1995 (in fact on the same day as "Wonderwall" by Oasis as I read somewhere), the third single came out: "Begging You". I bought it without hearing it first. Well after all, I had all the other Stone Roses singles, and these were after all The Stone Roses so it could not be bad could it?. It did not have any b-sides just a few remixes. And by the time I put the needle on the record (or more precisely the laser beam on the CD since it was a CD single) the Roses were no more. They had split up. And to add insult to injury, the song was horrible. Just a constant "begging you begging you begging you" and not much else seemed to be happening. By the time I reached the 4th remix (which was the last song on the single anyway) I had had enough. "Put a sock in it Ian, I'm begging you to stop" I thought. And that was it. When the CD finished I took it out of the player, put it back in its digipak case which I then placed on the shelf... from where I never took it down again for the next 20 years! I was through with The Roses. And due to this traumatic experience I never bought the second album...

...Well I did, in 2001 along with "The Complete Stone Roses" when my interest in the band was re-awakened by the 10th anniversary edition of the first album. But still I refused to listen to it. I just put it on the shelf, probably somewhere closer to "Begging You".

And so the years passed until I finally got tickets to see them in Manchester this year. "I should really listen to the second album before going to Manchester" I thought. So I took it down from the shelf, opened the booklet... and almost placed in back on the shelf when I saw the duration of the first song: 11 minutes and 18 seconds. "This is going to be another nightmare" I thought. "Breaking Into Heaven" however is one of the best songs on Second Coming and one of the few they are more likely to play live from that album. "Driving South" is not really memorable but then comes the masterpiece (imho): "Ten Storey Love Song". I would probably not have paid much attention to "Daybreak" which comes next, but it is segued with "Ten Storey Love Song" so it forces you to listen to it more closely. But it's the following track that is a little gem: "Your Star Will Shine", followed by "Straight To The Man" and "Begging You" (and do you really want my opinion on that one again? Still it sounded better after 20 years. But only a little bit). Things slow down on "Tightrope" and continue to be slow on "Good Times" which surprisingly picks up after a while. They slow down again fo "Tears" (which is a very nice song actually) but the real surprise is the next one. "How Do You Sleep", its title bringing to mind John Lennon's song of the same name, is my favourite song on the album (after "Ten Storey..." of course) and makes you wonder what these guys could have achieved if they had stayed together. And finally the album closes with the well known "Love Spreads". Closes? Well, not exactly. "Love Spreads" is followed by 77 tracks of silence, each lasting 4 seconds (the minimum duration a CD track can have) and then, if you have left your CD player running all this time your senses are attacked by what is known as "The Foz", which is funny, but it is also quite good (in an.. ahem "funny" sort of way). This is followed by 9 more silent 4-second tracks, bringing the total to 99, the maximum number of tracks a CD can have.
And there you have it: An album review that is more than 20 years too late. Not a bad album, actually it's quite good, certainly better than the average Britpop album (are you paying attention there at the back, Noel?), but not good enough for The Stone Roses. Let's wait to see what their 3rd one (if there ever is one) will sound like. You never know. After all, if we all join hands we'll make a wall...

My 27 year love affair with The Stone Roses

I first noticed The Stone Roses when "What The World Is Waiting For" entered the UK charts. Yes, that's right, this was the original A-side of the single. But then some people turned it over and thus the world discovered "Fool's Gold" which was probably what the world was waiting for, something that did not sound like anything else we've heard before, from an indie band anyway. And we were stunned by the visuals when MTV Europe kept on playing it in 1989-90. My thoughts? It was "nice one, certainly one of the best of the Madchester era" of which my first experience was "Wrote For Luck" by The Happy Mondays (followed by "Hallelujah" and "Step On" of course). Indie bands you could dance to. But The Stone Roses were more than that as I was soon to discover thanks to the greed of their record companies, current and former. What happened? Well, after "Fool's Gold" huge success their company started re-releasing their previous singles. "Elephant Stone" was re-released and went in the top 20 and while it was still in the top 20 "Made Of Stone" was re-released and both singles were suddenly in the top 20 at the same time. And that's when I really took notice. "Made Of Stone" was awesome. "This song is featured in a movie, isn't it?" asked one of my fellow students. It wasn't, but it sounded like it was. So I went and bought both. Could they have written more brilliant songs? Yes they could, and I realized that when "Sally Cinnamon" was re-released by their previous record company to capitalize on their success. A re-release that sparked their famous court case when the band went and vandalized the company's offices. But "Sally Cinnamon" was probably one of their best songs ever! I bought that and then "She Bangs The Drums" followed by the American 12 inch of "Fool's Gold" on yellow vinyl to complete my collection. "You're missing one though" said one of my friends. Yes, "I Wanna Be Adored" proved a little bit more difficult to track down but once again I managed to find the American 12 inch. And just before I left for Greece for my summer holidays "One Love" came out and this was my latest addition and the one that made me think that yes, the summer of 1990 is going to be a great summer and the following years are going to be even better with more brilliant music coming from The Stone Roses...
And that's where I was wrong. The band went into a period of inactivity while caught up in another court case trying to get out of their contract and there was nothing from them. Meanwhile we would sit with my other fellow students to listen to the album and one of them concluded that "This Is The One" was probably the best song in there. A few months later my roommate came up to me and said "You like The Stone Roses? Well, you should listen to Waterfall, now that's a good song". Funnily enough, a month later "Waterfall" was released as a single in a remix that did not change the structure of the song, just added a drum loop to it. That was in 1991 I think and then a year later there was a remix of "I Am The Resurrection" in a shorter version again with a different drum loop. And then nothing. No second album.
Until late 1994 when "Love Spreads" came out. The second album did materialize then but before we knew what was going on, the band had split up.
I came back to the first album in 2001 though when along with the newly released "Remixes" album, I picked up the 10th Anniversary Edition of the first one which featured the non-album singles of that era plus some videos and more interactive material. 

Once again, I confirmed to myself that "This Is The One" was their best song, but I had the chance to rediscover others that would be my favourites, more importantly "Shoot You Down". And since at that time I was working in a record shop I finally bought "Second Coming". Why was I so late to pick that one up? Well, that's a whole different topic for discussion for my next blog post. Finally I bought "The Complete Stone Roses" to complete my collection. You see, there have been several compilations issued over the years but "The Complete Stone Roses" features all the singles (even their very first one "So Young" which I had found back in 1996), their b-sides, basically everything that was not featured in an album from their first era. So if you want to have everything by The Stone Roses you only need to buy 3 albums: The standard version of "The Stone Roses", "Second Coming" and "The Complete Stone Roses". That's it. Of course some people will mention "Garage Flower" a collection of demos from 1985 I think which the band did not want released, but you'll need that only if you are a completist.

But I would once again come back to the first album in 2009 when its 20th Anniversary Edition came out. Well, I had the 10th Anniversary edition why would I need the 20th one? Well, it was a box featuring 3 CD's (The album , the Extras-singles and B-sides, and some demos), 3 vinyl albums (The album and the extras), a live DVD plus a USB stick in the shape of a lemon that featured most of the above and more. I think it was the USB stick that did it for me and made me buy it. I remember I was abroad following Bruce Springsteen on his Italian tour of that year and when I came home I found the box waiting for me.

When I sat down and listened to the whole package in one go in the new year I said to myself "Now this is a band I would have liked to see live". This would probably seem like a wild dream, but with band reunions being in fashion it was a possibility. Confirmation of which came one year later when The Stone Roses announced they were coming back. However because of the Bruce Springsteen concerts I attended around Europe in these couple of years I wasn't able to see them in 2012 and 2013 when they played live (although I picked up this NME SPECIAL SERIES magazine from a newsagents during one of my visits to London in that period. I knew it would come in handy one day).

In the autumn of 2013 "Made Of Stone" the film documenting their reunion was shown at the Athens International Festival of that year. I watched it with my girlfriend and we made a promise to each other that the next time they would go on tour we would go and see them. We had to wait until November of 2015 when suddenly posters with lemons started appearing in Manchester...

Rockwave Festival 2016 - The Last Shadow Puppets, Dropkick Murphys, Suede, The Subways and more...

When The Last Shadow Puppets and Dropkick Murphys were announced for this year's Rockwave Festival this gig had already started to look tempting. But when Suede were added to the list it started to look challenging! However, I had already planned another gig for this summer, and I could not afford a ticket. And there were several of my friends who were pestering me to go with them. Luckily, a daily newspaper came to the rescue offering a "buy 1 get 1 free" deal, so I took advantage of it and (nearly) split the cost with one of my friends. That friend (and most of the others) wanted to see Dropkick Murphys. But he also brought a friend of his who wanted to see Suede. And if my girlfriend had come she would have wanted to see The Last Shadow Puppets! As for me, I wanted to see all three of them. The Last Shadow Puppets because as an Alex Turner side project this is the closest we'll ever get to seeing The Arctic Monkeys in this country. Dropkick Murphys, well if you need one reason (amongst many) is that they have collaborated with Bruce Springsteen. But I guess that it was Suede that clinched it for me. 5 years ago when I saw Pulp at this very same venue, Suede were due to (and did) play live a few days later in Athens. But it was mid summer and they played at an indoor hall and I ended up not going. So 5 years later, this was the perfect opportunity! Now, Suede and The Last Shadow Puppets were appearing at the Terra Stage, while Dropkick Murphys were appearing between these two at the Vibe Stage. So that meant we would have to do some moving towards the end of the night - twice! As for the Greek bands supporting them, I was looking forward to seeing (also on Terra Stage) The Callas. I had heard a lot about them and Jim Svlavunos has produced them. But I was to be proven - pleasantly - wrong...

Wrong because the best Greek band on that day proved to be Whereswilder which I had never heard before!

As for The Callas, they were good, but probably not what I expected...

The Subways were the second suprise of the day. Powerful and up-tempo it was exactly what we needed at that moment and it was the first time that day that we started dancing!

Not only that, but they also knew how to move the crowd, when they organized their very own mosh pit (which went extremely well)...

...but also when the singer crowd surfed (which went even better!). They left us, with "Rock 'N' Roll Queen" their big hit, which has also been used in an advert.

And now it was time for what I've been waiting for: Suede! Brett was in top form and yes I did get to hear my favourite song of theirs "Trash".

Another frontman who knew how to work the crowd. And they had the cheek to come back for an encore even though they were the third band on the bill!

After the encore was over it was time for a quick run to the Vibe Stage where Dropkick Murphys were performing. I missed the first song on my way there, but I certainly wasn't prepared for what I encountered when I got there!

My first impression was that I was in a football field, with all the flares being lit.

Not only that, but the band were playing were on top form and everybody was dancing like there was no tomorrow! Well, that's the Irish spirit for you (best experienced with lots of beer!!!)

Towards the end they brought most of the girls who were at the front onstage!

Now considering that most people that night had come to see them and the energy that was unleashed at the gig, this is a band that deserves to be invited back to Greece for their own gig in the future!

The Last Shadow Puppets were probably the best ending for that great night. After all the mayhem during the Dropkicks' set, we needed to cool down. As there were no VIP tickets issued fo that day, we went to see them at what is normally the VIP area where we could sit down and be able to see the stage.

And I myself, was more than happy that they opened their set with a Beatles cover "I Want You (She's So Heavy)"

"We love you too much to go away" they told us at the end. And as we ourselves were going away, we passed by the Vibe Stage and witnessed what was left of the big party Dropkick Murhys had thrown for us a while ago...

And as a final thought, here is a note to the organizers: Next time why don't you bring over the Arctic Monkeys themselves for a gig?

This is Radio Nowhere

It's official! Greece finally has its own Bruce Springsteen tribute band. And their name is Radio Nowhere.
They have played several gigs so far, but I could make it to none of them. Finally, a couple of weeks ago they played at a cosy rock club in the city centre and I managed to go. Of course, once again, public transport timetables meant that I could not see their whole set, but at least I saw about half of it, enough to get a clearer picture.

They play songs from all periods of Bruce's career including The Seeger Sessions and "the other band" era. In fact they play some songs that Bruce rarely performs at his concerts. My friend who was with me on that night said "they must have guts to have formed a Bruce tribute band". And I can see what he meant. They didn't just grab a couple of guitars, a bass and a drum kit to form a band. No, they also have a keyboard player, but most importantly a saxophone player. And while they don't have the size in members of The E Street Band, this means that they can play Bruce's songs the way they were meant to be performed. Their singer even danced with a girl from the audience during "Dancing In The Dark".
For me, it was a great introduction to them and I expect to see and hear more of them in the future!

Eurovision 2006

Last Saturday was the day of the final of Eurovision 2016 from Stockholm. But 10 years ago Eurovision was held in Athens because Greece had won the previous year. After having watched it for many years on TV since my early childhood I thought this was a good opportunity to watch it live. Well, live, in a manner of speaking. Eurovision is not really a "concert". Only the vocals are live. The backing track is in play-back mode of course. There's no orchestra anymore.

Surprisingly enough (or so I thought then) it was so popular that I could not get a ticket fo the final. So I got one for the semi final and a couple for the rehearsals which cost almost nothing. So I went to the semi final rehearsal first and the next day (Thursday) to the proper semi-final. (Back then there was only one semi-final).

Semi Final

Semi Final

Semi Final

Semi Final

Semi Final

Semi Final

Even on that day there was a feeling that Finland would win with the hard rock (sort of) song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" from Lordi. (There had in fact been a hard rock song at the previous year's contest in Kiev which did quite well). Anyway, on the day of that semi final it was the first time that I used my new phone (a SonyEricsson W550) on an event. This could take 1Mpixel photos (!) and even low quality videos (unlike the older one I had used on the Simple Minds gig a month before)
On the day of the rehearsal of the final I decided to hang around outside the arena to see if I could find a ticket for the final proper and luckily enough someone spotted me and offered me one at face value.

Final Rehearsal

Final Rehearsal

So I came back the next day, but this time I brought my first digital camera and my Mini-DV video camera (both new at that time - the digital camera would get damaged six years later by the rain at the legendary Bruce Springsteen concert in Florence) since I had noted that despite the warnings on the tickets nobody was checking for cameras and nobody would stop you from taking pictures of filming. There was a couple in fact on the row in front of me who filmed the whole show. I mean, couldn't they have programmed their video recorder at home and enjoy it live? As for myself, I filmed about an hour of video (one Mini-DV tape) mostly of what was happening outside. Which is why I'm writing a blog post about this. Having not travelled abroad for the last two years while stuck in a low-paying job, and currently stuck in a better paying job that however did not allow for much time off, it was finally nice to meet people from different countries and gathered together on top of that (For some strange reason, the ones I remember most are the Croatians singing their song "Moja Stickla"). 

Final

 

Final

Final

 

Final

In some way meeting all these people made me feel kind of sad for my situation. One week after Eurovision however, I found a really good job which allowed me to start travelling abroad for concerts from 2007. I would never have thought about doing that, what prompted it though was the fact that one month after Eurovision we were expecting The Rolling Stones who never came, due to Keith antics with a coconut tree, so I went to see them in Lyon in 2007.

Final

As for the Eurovision show itself, well it was probably one of the best with what was possibly the best (and not the usual Eurovision style) winner : Hard Rock Hallelujah!

Prince @ Wembley Arena, March 1995

In the past, there have been a couple of instances where I missed a concert to which I had already bought a ticket. The worst case would have been that of The Bangles. I bought a ticket for a 1989 London gig (I think it was at The Town & Country Club in Kentish Town). Then the gig was cancelled. In fact I think the whole tour was cancelled. To add insult to injury a few weeks later The Bangles split up. I got my money back (I think it was only 10 pounds), but there was no chance of seeing them again, right? Fast forward 11 years later in 2000 in LA, and while I was eating my burger in a fast food joint on Sunset Boulevard, I notice a huge billboard on the other side of the road advertising The Bangles Reunion tour. I could not see them in the US (I was due to head back to London a couple of weeks later), but The Bangles were back together and that meant there was hope! I had a chance of finally seeing them! Well, that chance came 1 year later, when the came to London for a gig at The Sheperd's Bush Empire. After only 12 years I saw them live! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Five days later it was September the 11th and several other gigs were cancelled. Oh well...

The other instance of me missing a gig was in 1990. And this time, as you've guessed it, it was Prince. Back then there was no internet, so if you wanted to buy a ticket you either went to a box office (I was always going to one at Westminster opposite The Houses Of Parliament which was unfortunately closed when works for the Jubilee Line extension started), or you mailed your check and hoped for the best, receiving your ticket in the mail. I don't know why, but in this case I used the latter method. Demand for tickets was bound to be heavy, so I probably felt safer having had my check mailed. If it was sold out I thought I would get a refund. Now Prince had announced 3 gigs initially (if I remember correctly), around the 20th of June. I asked for one of them, knowing that if I didn't get one for the date I had chosen I would get one on one of the other two dates. The timing was right, just after the exams. Well what happened was this: All gigs were sold out, so Prince kept adding gigs which were also sold out. Seven gigs were eventually announced in London, all 7 were sold out, then he went to Birmingham for 3 gigs at the NEC and after Birmingham he added 2 more to London. I was eventually allocated a ticket to one of these two, I think it was for the 4th of July. I received the ticket in the mail. The problem was that I had no way of staying in the UK until that date. The college would be closed, I would not have anywhere to stay and I could not support myself for all these days leading to the 4th of July. So I went home, and never went to that concert.
4 and a half years later, in January 1995, when I returned to London from my Christmas holiday, upon entering Tower Records for one of my regular visits there, I saw Prince tickets being sold at its Box Office. Needless to say, I immediately grabbed one. It was either for the 21st or the 22nd of March.

 

Prince's situation was much different by then. As the day of the concert was approaching, Time Out magazine featured a Prince interview. A Prince interview? Now that was something extremely rare. Back in the 80's at the height of his popularity Prince would not give any interviews. I bought the magazine and from that interview I learned that he had declared war on his record company which would not let him release his latest album "The Gold Experience" and that's why he had written the word "Slave" on his cheek.

To get back at them he said, he would not play any of his biggest hits on that tour so that the record company would not profit from sales of these records. Now this would seem like a big disappointment probably, but Prince was Prince and he was funky, so I knew I was going to have a good time anyway. In fact, the company tried to cash in by releasing a limited edition "Purple Medley" single which I did buy, though he would not play any of these songs on the day.

I was lucky enough after all these years to find the complete interview on the internet and you can read it here: http://princetext.tripod.com/i_timeout95.html

It's funny how many little things I remember while I'm writing this. Upon entering the arena I saw that I had to go through a security check in case I was carrying any illegal items. There were several people doing these checks men and women, so naturally (!) I went to one of the women. Very kindly she instructed me to go to one of the guys. Apparently the men were checking the men and the women were checking the women. Well, it was worth a try (:LOL:).

I remember my security guy finding my Stephen King (or Dean Koontz) paperback and telling me "It can't be that boring, can it?". I explained that I had a long tube journey back home. You see, while both Wembley and my place were in North London, I would have to travel through Central London to change to the Piccadilly Line and get back to Wood Green.
Anyway, I was finally in and I realized that in fact "Purple Medley" could be heard at the gig but only through the speakers while we waited for the concert to start and while the single was being advertised at the video projectors. Finally Prince came on stage and launched into a very funky set which looked like this:

01. Endorphinmachine

02. The Jam
03. Shhh
04. Days Of Wild
05. Now
06. Funky Stuff
07. Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine
08. The Most Beautiful Girl in the World
09. P Control
10. Letitgo
11. Pink Cashmere
12. Loose!
13. I Love U In Me
14. Peach
15. 7
Encore:
16. Get Wild
17. Billy Jack Bitch
18. Eye Hate U
20. 319
21. Gold

So, who cared that he did not play the earlier hits, when in fact there were other hits like "The Most Beautiful Girl In The World (#1 in the UK), "Peach" and "LetItGo", but most importantly, my favourite Prince song ever: "7"

Yes, my favourite Prince song is not from the 80's but from the 90's:

"All 7 and we'll watch them fall

They stand in the way of love but we will smoke them all

With an intellect, and a savoir-faire

No-one in the whole universe will ever compare

I am yours now and you are mine

And together we'll love through all space and time

So don't cry..."

There were also great b-sides like "Pink Cashmere", a cover of James Brown's "Sex Machine" and even a song from the album The New Power Generation (his backing band) released without him: "Get Wild". Oh and there was also "P. Control" the complete title of which was "Pussy Control". Prince introduced it as "a song about our favourite part of your anatomy ladies, which drives us crazy". He then proceeded to guiding all the women in the audience to sing along with him "Aaaaah, pussy control!". Priceless!

After the concert, on my way back to Wembley Park station, I found a guy selling posters on the street. I bought a Prince poster (of course) plus a laminated "Pulp Fiction" poster which was hanging for several years in my bedroom. Funny the things one remembers after 21 years... You will be missed Mr.Nelson...