Loop - RFD

Meantime Robert's dropped a VERY heavy hint on FB that Austin Psych Fest is in the works for them next year. Makes total sense -- and also means not too far away from Coachella too. I'd say start heavily blocking time out in April and May next year.

It took them a couple of songs to get into their stride on Monday. Also seemed to be a few sound issues. The second set was, thankfully, a lot louder than the first. When they took off though, they flew. The version of Mother Sky that closed the set was astounding. I am glad they've gone grey, rather than bald, or fat.

It looks like Mark Stewart had a bit of a meltdown last night and started accusing Josh and the ATP people of being fake indie fascists or something along those lines. After the gig Josh got back to his hotel room to find that he's been sent several abusive Facebook messages by Stewart anyway.
Shame that, I have loved the Pop Group for years though I'm not 100% into what I've heard of the current group. But it looks like Stewart may have some mental health issues he needs to sort out at least on this basis. Josh has said that he will never listen to the Pop Group again and there will be no more versions of Thief Of Fire played by Loop. Think he overstepped the mark a bit by saying that nobody would have heard of Pop Group without a certain band covering them but maybe that is heat of the moment. I thought they were a legendary post-punk group that had a lot of recognition before taht anyway, I mean Minutemen echo bits of their songs on Double Nickels and cited them as an influence and I'm sure several others did too. I first heard of them through Birthday Party comparisons anyway.

So looks like there will be no Pop Group appearance this weekend. & I hope Mark Stewart is going to apologise and explain where this came from anyway.
I was looking forward to the apparently forthcoming Pop Group compilation set that I was told about earlier this year, won't be quite as much now. I guess the members of taht band today are 30+ years differentiated from the people who recorded the music so I can still isolate it enough to enjoy it?

all sounds a bit weird. who is josh?

Robert Hampson was always known by that name back at the time

of the first era of Loop that is

oh, that's not good

Ned posted about this on FB but it looks like most of the rants have been taken down from Mark Stewart's page this morning, as there's just a cryptic post about scabs there now with a bunch of people calling him a wanker.

From Robert's facebook:

To be absolutely crystal fucking clear.
I returned to my hotel room after a loop show tonight to find abusive messages and abusive posts by mark Stewart of the pop group here on Facebook.. I have absolutely no idea or involvement in what has made him behave in such a manner.
I called him out and asked him what his problem was, only to get called a cunt and that he would defame me til his dying day.

Again, I have NO IDEA why I get singled out considering that I considered him a friend for many years and a great supporter of his music for even more.

I love the pop group.

I fucking love the pop group.

It was an honour to look forward to sharing a stage with them.

But, you know what?

They can fuck off!

I'll never be able to listen to them ever again or mafia records without feeling fucking sick to my stomach. It's really bloody upset me.

I hope it will not spoil any ticket holders enjoyment of the loop curated day... And if we are all money grabbing fascists (all the bands that play) then why the fuck did he agree to play?

Words fail me. My heart fails me to think of this.

With that, I take my leave.

And no, Thief Of Fire will NEVER feature in a loop set ever agin. I haven't the heart or joy for it anymore.

Mark Stewart
7 hours ago via mobile
I will name these cunts time and time again
Share
14 people like this.

Grady Johnson Nothing moves so fast as a lefty bourgeois kid who rediscovers his 'family values'. (This often occurs at the same time as they inherit their parents' riches.) They should be named and shamed. They are unscrupulous opportunists and hypocrites, and the enemies of ANY revolution.
5 hours ago · 2

Mark Pavey You seem to angry about something Mark. What's happened?
about an hour ago via mobile · 1

got to respect Grady Johnson for locating the hidden meaning in what many might have dismissed as incoherent gibberish

dgi, does M.Stewart think IWatkins is Loop's lead singer?

He posted this just now:

Had a serious meltdown, I'm very sorry dear Robert, Loop & ATP. Please excuse my rants, love Mark.

It's gonna take more than that I guess, which I assume is also going to happen.

So, everyone came out of this well, then?

I don't know. Not sure if josh is still going to be posting to Facebook or if he got talked out of that. Not sure if Pop Group are going to play this weekend , doubt it really.
Think Mark Stewart may be looked at somewhat oddly but I think that documentary taht came out a couple of years back was supposed to be pushing things in that direction anyway. I still haven't seen it though I've meant to.

Are the current Pop group employing elements like slap bass and other jazz-funk features? Got the feeling taht they were from what I'd heard of them. Not been sure about how I feel about their current form and haven't really heard much of it.

& Josh has a naff haircut so there's always that.

This whole Josh thing is bemusing to me. Is it his middle name or something?

Not sure where it came from, just know that it was a name that he used back then.

how did this whole situation end up?

Robt has sacked Facebook, and I wouldn't be surprised if he sacks the idea of ever organising anything for groups other than his own.

Apart from that 'oops me' message, nothing since from MStewart.

wot a palaver

I did wonder whether the principled Mr Stewart had found out about the ATP/Wilwal phoenixing fiasco and was taking a stance over it - from the tweets that have been preserved this now seems the most likely thing.

http://exileonmoanstreet.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/mark-stewart-vs-atp-and.html

So nothing to do with Loop at all really.

Presumably Pop Group didn't play did they?
I was just checking to see what had happened and saw that they were apparently remastering For How Much Longer Do We Tolerate Mass Murder from the masters at the beginning of last month. I'd heard there was a compilation thing coming out which I'm not sure of the details of. Are they planning a full catalogue reissue campaign or something? I think the compi had been intended to include some more live material on top of what had come out on the Japanese live compilation a few years ago.

But if Mark is going to behave like this again in future he may be burning bridges rapidly.
I just looked on his Facebook feed and there was somebody with a french name on there shit stirring and trying to get him to avoid apologising which I would think was well dodgy.

Anyway, hope that the rest of the gigs are good and that I get a chance to see them before they resplit.

Not sure whether the ATP/Willwal thing can fairly be described as a fiasco or why M Stewart would be getting worked up about it. Hogan dissolved one company and started up another. Happens all the time in business. Yes ATP still has creditors but Hogan expects to pay all of them eventually.

I did wonder whether the principled Mr Stewart had found out about the ATP/Wilwal phoenixing fiasco and was taking a stance over it - from the tweets that have been preserved this now seems the most likely thing.

how exactly are you getting this from a clutch of context-free one-sentence rants which were disowned as soon as the dude sobered up/his meds kicked in/whatever

Yes ATP still has creditors but Hogan expects to pay all of them eventually.

Including ATP Concerts Limited's creditors, who Willwal don't owe anything to?

xp

xp

Because his ATP tweets are about Barry Hogan and not about Loop/Rbt. The initial reports made it all seem like it was a falling out between the two of them and not about ATP at all. OK, I'm totally stretching that it's because of the Wilwal thing but something set Mark off, feel free to speculate that Barry did something else to him.

I wonder if Barry was referring to the Wilwal thing in the programme notes last weekend?

We have had our share of heartache and been turned against by people who we thought were peers and friends but who turned out to be a big cup of dickmilk and ultimately were the victims of their own doing and went out of business.

> Presumably Pop Group didn't play did they?

i heard they did, via friends on facebook who were there.

"Pop Group not amazing but Mark Stewart bonkers brilliant"

Oh, assumed that they wouldn't after taht. Hope Mark did apologise personally to Robert.
That all sounds very confusing.
& it did appear that Mark's rants were directed directly to Josh's wall from what he said in response on Facebook the next day. maybe it was cc-ed but I don't think you can do that on Facebook can you?
My first hearing was after waking up and reading facebook on my phone on whatever day that was. Thursday? & it was Hampson's response that was the first thread I read.

So wonder if he'll be back on facebook. Seems that he's getting a lot happening negatively through there. he had been complaining about a stalker a couple of days earlier too.

At the moment both his band and personal pages are still up.

It occured to me that it takes a lot to get rid of a facebook page since I know a couple of people who intentionally did so. I think that you have to not sign in for several months after announcing that you were intentionally quitting.
Seemed to be a very heavy handed way of having to go about doing things but maybe Facebook prefers things that way. Which in and of itself sounds pretty dodgy.
So if he announced he was quitting last week it would be way too early to tell if he actually had done. The last message I saw earlier today was from his reacting to the Stewart fracas. So hope he is going to continue.
& if the Pop Group played maybe there was a chance for some degree of a patching up. Again hope so.

Well he is posting now anyway.

it takes two weeks after opting out for facebook to permanently delete an account. if you log in again within that time you reactivate it.

Pop Group were one of my highlights of the weekend. I remember Mark being full of praise for Loop, and I seem to remember he thanked ATP as well.

And as noted elsewhere the rumors are true: Loop definitely (and understandably) playing Austin Psych Fest next year, so start planning for the US tour around that time.

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=474277&page=0#startcomments
Bristol, listening to this now and it sounds about as good as the sets from 23 years ago.

bailed on this because of money concerns and the feeling that watching them on a Monday night after a heavy weekend, most likely on my own, probably wasn't the ideal setting. fuck it

I saw them in Bristol, they were brilliant and very very loud.

yep they wer pretty fucking great at the concorde tonight.

was going to give this a miss cos i'm dying pf snot at the moment, but i dragged my carcass along in the end anyhow. so loud, it's difficult to get into each song when it starts cos you're just pushed away by this tremendous wave of sound pressure breaking over your head, but once that's past you just ride through it like you're clutching on to some flying fragment of rock blown outwards by some huge astral detonation. collision, arc-lite and mother sky were all monstrous. the drums were kind of buried a bit in the mix but the guitar sound was as ferocious as ever, that fierce stooges-like teeth-bared snarling. if i had one complaint it would be that all the songs ended way too soon, felt like half of them were just getting going when they stopped, but other than that, great show.

http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=475074

New York show: http://www.lepoissonrouge.com/lpr_events/loop-april-17th-2014/

WAsn't the existence of a forthcoming US tour announced this morning too with that as the end date? Think the dates go from the Psych Fest in Texas to that. Though individual dates haven't been announced so far I think.

Yaaaaaaay

yeah just found the announcement, though oddly trying to find Loop in th efacebook search engine wouldn't take me to the page.
"Around the time Loop is scheduled to play at the Psych Fest in TX, there will be also a full US tour.
This will take the band to NYC at Le (le) poisson rouge on Thursday April 17. Tickets on sale now:
http://www.lepoissonrouge.com/lpr_events/loop-april-17th-2014/";

& it was on my feed as having come from Loop

And FINALLY the full US tour dates:

4.16.14 – Kung Fu Necktie – Philadelphia, PA
4.17.14 – Le Poisson Rouge – New York, NY
4.18.14 – Metro Gallery – Baltimore, MD
4.19.14 – Middle East (Downstairs) – Cambridge, MA
4.21.14 – La Sala Rossa – Montreal, QC
4.22.14 – Wrongbar – Toronto, ON
4.23.14 – Magic Stick – Detroit, MI
4.24.14 – Cactus Club – Milwaukee, WI
4.25.14 – Gabe's Oasis – Iowa City, IA
4.26.14 – Turf Club – St. Paul, MN
4.27.14 – Bottom Lounge – Chicago, IL
4.28.14 – Record Bar – Kansas City, MO
4.29.14 – New Vintage – Louisville, KY
4.30.14 – Pilot Light – Knoxville, TN
5.01.14 – Georgia Theatre – Athens, GA
5.03.14 – Austin Psych Fest at Carson Creek Ranch – Austin, TX
5.04.14 – Austin Psych Fest at Carson Creek Ranch – Austin, TX
5.06.14 – Soda Bar – San Diego, CA
5.07.14 – Church on York – Los Angeles, CA
5.09.14 – Great American Music Hall – San Francisco, CA
5.10.14 – The Rio – Santa Cruz, CA
5.15.14 – Chop Suey – Seattle, WA
5.16.14 – Doug Fir Lounge – Portland, OR

I really don't want to go to Austin because I fucking hate festivals, but I really want to see them.

US and Canadian, obv. Because I'm a goof. Anyway, there they are.

EZ, I'm reactionary against festivals too but I thought that the APF last year was pretty idyllic. More like a scaled up Terrastock than a scaled down Coachella.

I live near this Church on York and have never heard of it! Got a ticket and really looking forward to it!