Luke Haines's Memoir: Bad Vibes: Britpop and My Part In Its Downfall

He seems very fond of Momus.

this is pretty good

Best bit so far when he tells the drummer they're supporting Suede..."Brilliant" he says "I love Slade"

UNBELIEVABLE BUT TRUE FACT: I went to Waterstones with the person who the starter of this thread ganked his username from, and he bought this book (and enjoyed it)

I like how he just refers to Banbury as "The Cellist" throughout

Also going to do a Palestinian terrorist themed photo shoot at the Olympic Stadium in Munich, and getting his stand-in drummer to wear a balaclava and a Direct Action Against Drugs t-shirt, on TV - guy was a real prick in the 90s huh

^^ spoilers.

i am reading it and it is good.

gah, this'll never come out in America, will it?

the exchange rate is in your favour.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jan/18/luke-haines-britpop-louise-wener

louise wener there, doing herself no favours

These days, she rarely does.

I dunno, I think she nailed it.

Oh, and

I was a doe-eyed siren who sang with my band Sleeper about sex and suburban angst.

That's Louise, not me.

although...

It's not the fact that he writes "difficult" songs with titles like Unsolved Child Murder that defeats him - it's the fact they aren't about anything.

Um, this is demonstrably untrue

I was a doe-eyed siren

so is this

he also says in the book that he liked Modern Life is Rubbish, and explains in punishing detail what many of his songs are "about"

Wener should be careful about using terms like "perennial underachiever." If she'd concentrated in the nineties on making decent music rather than giving "good" interviews to the music press perhaps her records wouldn't be cluttering up the racks of every charity shop in 2009.

Yeah, but she did have the chart run, right? Admittedly with the downward curve at the end, but still...

So did Robson & Jerome.

true, but you wouldn't call them undeerachievers either.

I'm anxious to find out who the 70's Cult Legend mentioned in the book is, anyone know?

I could only think of Kevin Ayers but I know that must be wrong.

I like how he just refers to Banbury as "The Cellist" throughout

The whole Cellist thing is weird... Haines just hates him for no obvious reason, and then at the end (spoiler) he seems to reconsider and start liking him. That was nice.

has anyone ever read any of Louise Wener's books?

I wonder has she learned a new facial expression.

My gf read her first. She said it was shit.

I remember a particularly bad article she wrote for the Guardian which pretty much said that she was the first woman ever to give birth.

The very definition of tl;dr

I wonder has she learned a new facial expression.

Gormless hamster has got her this far...

when i saw Sleeper she performed without wearing shoes, which led to me hating her forever until the end of time

Hating someone for not wearing shoes is rather bootless.

It shows a distinct lack of sole.

Hell regret claiming that.

doh HEEL!!! oh forget it...

the cellist bites back : http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/jan/20/luke-haines-britpop

sorry meant to point to the comments section.

Good article. About time someone other than me stood up and said it.

Also reminds me that I need to sift through my two years of shitty unsellable promo singles to see if any of those pre-Hype Bands bands are in there on the offchance that some mong fancies paying me to let them own them

Well, the TingTings used to a portisheady type band called Eskimo buttox, or something. Their one and only single is going on ebay thesedays for, ooh, a fiver?

Dear Eskimo. I got a tenner for my copy.
Happy days.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dear-Eskimo-Be-Patient-EP-Ltd-Edition-The-Ting-Tings_W0QQitemZ330299311882QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CDsDVDs_CDs_CDs_GL?hash=item330299311882&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A13%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

happy days be over!

(for nonclickers... ep went for 99p)

Does he mention what band he's talking about in American Guitars?

Does he mention how fat he's got?

Does he mention what band he's talking about in American Guitars?

It's not about a band in particular, and I think he thinks everyone misinterpreted it. I'll elaborate later if no-one else has. Disappointing lack of explanation of Idiot Brother, which is about Clive Solomon I think?

Which is the band from this line-up http://www.last.fm/event/456266#lineup that travelled with the Auteurs, Oasis and (the) Verve?

An interesting thing I've noticed is bitter unsuccessful musicians (Haines, Paul Draper) using Bittersweet Symphony as some sort of pivotal 'what we were up against' thing, but either the Verve spent about 4 years working on it or people have poor memories.

Early 90s London is full of derivative charmless bands clogging up the live circuit. Everybody seems to be in thrall to the American bands on the ultra hip Sub Pop label, Tad and Mudhoney. Dinosaur Junior (sic)are lauded on a weekly basis. Nirvana's instant classic Nevermind is everywhere. I am working on a new song called 'American Guitars': part sarcastic riposte to British bands who cannot find their own voice, forever worshipping at the altar of US rock, part self-mythologising history of my fledgling band. Soon the British press will pick up on 'American Guitars', proclaiming it some sort of battle cry against the marauding Yanks. It won't be long before Britpop rears its ugly head, bobbing about on the perimeters, then brazenly cavorting around on centre stage like an attention-seeking moron.

Haines should have been in Singles.

ledge, capital lol

Which is the band from this line-up http://www.last.fm/event/456266#lineup that travelled with the Auteurs, Oasis and (the) Verve?

terrorvision.

Yeah, when I saw the line-up they jumped out immediately.

Another bit on American Guitars:
The other group was called the Auteurs. They were not as popular as the Suede group, although they had better songs. One of these songs was called 'American Guitars'. Some of the lance corporals of the kingdom of Britannia thought they heard a story in the song about an ancient mythical war between Britannia and the old kingdom of America. In their excitement the lance corporals hadn't listened to the words of the song properly. Nevertheless, it gave them an idea about a new kind of music for the children of Britannia. They announced their idea in Select magazine in April 193.

They announced their idea in Select magazine in April 193.

Aw what a waste of a good typo, 1913 would have been funny.

Aw, that was mine and all, rather than the sloppy editing in the book.

http://www.newstatesman.com/books/2009/01/luke-haines-vibes-britpop

essentially a Mod Revival Revival

essentially a reynolds stan stan, quoting leading morrissey apologist k-punk on how not making jungle music is racist, a meme almost as boring as "omfg the bbc reported on two singles being released on the same day!11!1!!" -- which needless to say also gets a look-in.

top marks for using 'provincial' as pejorative and bigging up that fascist fuck wyndham lewis.

o/t but is it a tendency that the people who most front with the "techno is FUTURE MUSIC, how could you possibly listen to SONGS by people holding GUITARS" babble actually tend to be people who got into the dance music late and still keep a flame for the indie rock of their youth?

this guy's last blog entry is something about those fearless revolutionaries pulp; and the cases of reynolds and k-punk are too obvious to labour.

i suppose one problem with life, and people, is that they are complicated and sometimes like different sorts of music at the same time, or like different aspects of different musics for different reasons.

but no, maybe not, maybe liking denim and saint etienne is just racist.

1995/96 was also a pretty lame time to be cheerleading for techno as musical revolution, as much as plenty of good stuff came from that period

lol at john harris "ennobling" anything.