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

What doesn't make sense is why "New French Girlfriend" wasn't huge.

he had a go at bernard butler for giving the MERCURY cash to a cancer charity after they were beaten to the prize by suede. benard's dad had died from cancer earlier that year. laughs galore then.

Who's the wife?

http://sianpattenden.co.uk/

aka "Sian Solanas"

oo!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pop-Idol-Inside-Biggest-Superstar/dp/1842225367/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213261325&sr=1-1

Ha ha ha, now that's funny.

"The goal posts have moved. With Blur and Oasis, it was the first time any of those bands were starting to have real chart success. Suede really upped the anti and the whole bullshit of the Blur/Oasis thing was the idea that this was something new and different, that these were guitar bands who were exciting, when really they were just light entertainment. They had to go light entertainment to get to that point of selling shitloads of records. To me it didn't look like any kind of real battle, it just looked like Freddie and the Dreamers vs Herman's Hermits. You know, they should be on at teatime at the London Palladium. More derivative stuff. Write your own record!"

Oasis destroyed so much.

"We had a man here who proudly claimed he never read a book. Shut up, moron. I don't mind his bluff northern demeanor at times, but you know, what's that line... 'Slowly walking down the hall / faster than a cannonball'? How did he get away with that? Hahaha. If we still had the stocks, that man would be in them."

Hey,

I'll bet anyone here Luke Haines never wrote a bad song with The Auteurs.

Or used a metaphor where a simile would do!

Talk to the hand

"Seminal music genre...featured Menswear and Thurman...Ooh, don't get me started...Changed your life, didn't it? Cast at the Dublin Castle, tracksuit tops, Paul Weller back on top. Best days of my f**king life...All of which fails to explain why you mongs forgot to vote for me in the readers' poll. Can't-f**king-read-ers poll, more like. Wankers."

he's married to sian pattenden? sian pattenden from select magazine?

thats like a bizarro world Posh'n'Becks.

the same. or, to put in in sian style, the "same."

He's gonna play all the hits that we knew,
All of the new album too,
It's good to have something in these times to look forward to!

I'm reading the book at the moment... it is a barrel of laughs. I like how honest Haines is about what a total cockfarmer he is. There is a bit in particular where the band are flying back from a tour to Japan, on which Haines has been playing creepy mind games with them all, and his girlfriend and bass player breaks down into floods of tears... the others have loved ones to go back to and a life outside the band, but she is stuck with old Haines.

I find the idea of Haines marrying a music journalist amusing, given that he hates them.

I read this at the weekend. It was good. Martin Carr isn't going to enjoy it. I also hope that when the proof copy becomes an actual copy, no-one notices that he spells Mu-Ziq as Muzique several times

gah, this is isn't out til next year?

January I think

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.

lol at john harris "ennobling" anything.

http://www.culturedeluxe.com/music/interview/interview-luke-haines/

Confirms a follow up book, "Yep".

Read Bad Vibes in about 4 or 5 hours. Amazing book. I guess it might not make a whole lot of sense to people who aren't intimately familiar with Haines' oeuvre up to the beginning of Black Box Recorder. Regardless, I think the writing is funny and vivid enough to draw anyone in. Have his follow-up coming in in a few days. Can't wait. Seems like that book didn't attract much attention considering his career post-BBR/Auteurs isn't as interesting to the public.

Loved the bit about Liam sucking on an ice lolly as he waves at Luke from across the street.

Man, I loved Bad Vibes, but Post Everything is pathetic. Just felt like a rambling mess with no real sense of purpose.

I got the audiobook, read by the man himself. Loads of fun, and it's only $7.99

https://play.google.com/store/music/album/Luke_Haines_Bad_Vibes?id=Bolkdu73r5ndfs7vxcvfjvozchm&hl=en

His last two albums are pretty great. I'm not too sure about the new one. "Lou Reed Lou Reed" is terrible and "Alan Vega Says" didn't seem too great either.

I like the sound of this, though:

BV: What do you do when you're not making music?

LH: I've actually got a thing in the Berlin Festival in July with a guy called Scott King. It's a "micro-opera" thing with visuals. It's about Mark E. Smith of The Fall going on a caravan holiday. Do you have caravans in the States, what old people go off in when they retire?

BV: We call them RVs here. Winnebagos.

LH: Right. RVs. So anyway the opera is about that. It's a short thing, with actors and everything. It's very "art." The opera's called Adventures in Dementia.

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2014/04/luke_haines_tal.html

I like him when he just sounds like a guy who's into his own thing. The acerbic antichrist of Britpop persona he's got isn't a winner.

It isnt a winner but he's spent half of career basing himself on what he isnt, he isnt necessarily tiresome but all that shit is

I like Alan Vega says. He's got a shtick just like Lou Reed did. He is still making interesting music which is more than can be said of the rest of his 90s contemporaries.

My favorite song he ever wrote could be Fighting In The City Tonight, which is an unheralded masterpiece from a sol record. I even like his voice.

http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/reviews/albums/luke-haines-new-york-in-the-70s?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

The new one is surprisingly getting great reviews.

Luke Haines is such a country singer name.

now i'm a cowboy

always wers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FasitDgQfCk

can't get excited about it

god now i'm a cowboy is phenomenal. it has this sinister undercurrent--i think it's just the cello--that makes me feel all kinds of things. it's also a very nostalgic album for me. on the other hand, this new song...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEqRi5AFimI

why do all his new songs sound the same? i can't put my finger on it.

Hadn't checked in with him in a while:

Songs still sound like they're generated by the Luke Haines AI Foundation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCtkXukwdog

Audibly gasped when I heard him open the song with the song title. Almost every single time. "X did Y."

This is one of the better albums he's done in a while, honestly. I take back my initial criticism. It's the most band-like affair he's participated in in a while. There's harmonies, other people playing drums and guitar. It's not bad.

That's what the previous album is like. First album with Buck is a bit more like Haines' more recent solo albums. I think he's a quite a bit more inspired now, working with Buck and co.