Grant McLennan - RIP

Two days later and I'm still finding it hard to believe. The odd thing is I spent much of Sat before hearing the news talking about the GBs and listening to them; I was hanging out with a friend I met a few years ago through the GBs email list. Dave, were you also at the 7th House gig?

I saw the Go-Betweens twice on what may have been their first US tour. New York City, right around New Years Eve 83/84, @ CBGB and Dunceteria, liked them enough to go back the second time and follow the rest of their career on albums that just seemed to get better and better. The one thing I really remember from those early gigs was how young and fresh-faced the bandmembers looked, esp. Robert Forster who appeared to be about 15 years old. Reading Grant McLennan's obituary 22 years later I couldn't help noticing he was two months younger than me. It's especially unsettling to lose a peer, but what a body of work he left us. Thank you and RIP.

I'd love if you posted some of that Pontiac show.... I hear that yousendit is the way to go, only change the file names to .txt to avoid the site's screening functions.

TRG - The Pontiac show was the day after the CLE show where we all met up.. I got to the 7th House late though, so I sat in the back through the show & had to drive back to Columbus afterward - so I didn't stick around.

Here's Cattle & Cane from the 7th House.
http://download.yousendit.com/2401DE992BD823E4

Mods - my understanding of the policy is that anything we have recorded ourselves is OK to post here. This is technically an ambient recording of an hour of my life, with some music going on in the background. If that's taboo, please remove the link & email me.

No worries, Dave. I can't imagine anyone complaining about it in this case.

Thanks Ned. Here's the rest* of the 7th house... (30Mb)

http://download.yousendit.com/DBC560E0147F6B36

(*that I have)

The tribute thread continues and grows ever more moving, and yet more well-known names are starting to appear (Luke Haines posted briefly). I like this post from a Brisbane writer, Noel Mengel:

As some of the readers here know I have been writing about The Go-Betweens for many years now in my work as a magazine editor and later as the music writer at The Courier-Mail in Brisbane.
I've been privileged to know Grant and Robert and to be present on the Sunday after their last Tivoli show in Brisbane, asking the questions for the DVD documentary section of That Striped Sunlight Sound. One of the many Go-Betweens moments I will always cherish. Here is a personal piece I wrote for this morning's edition:

I can't remember the first time I met Grant McLennan.
It might have been in about 1981 at the Basement recording studios in Roma St, Brisbane, where The Go-Betweens were recording.
I will never forget the last time we met, on Wednesday, at a film screening I hosted for the new Neil Young concert film Heart of Gold.
Introducing the film, I told my one paltry Neil anecdote: that I had interviewed him on the phone, found him sweet and kind, but on the afternoon of his Brisbane concert I actually walked past him in Edward St and, in shock, neglected my chance to introduce myself.
Grant chipped in: ``You should have.''
After the screening, I missed my chance to say to Grant what I had intended to: that after a year of listening I still stood by my five-star review of The Go-Betweens' Oceans Apart album, that it sounds to me as strong as any album I have heard in years.
I should have.
In numerous conversations and interviews I conducted with Grant, he was unfailingly enthusiastic about the arts, film, books, painting, music.
In his student years he wrote perceptive film reviews.
He was always mentioning that he had been to some exhibition or other, some book he had found, or would talk about two of his great loves; the music of Bob Dylan and the music of The Monkees.
Loving Dylan and The Monkees was not a paradox in his world, and it said something of the kind of songwriter he became, with his love of precise yet poetic language and sharp, memorable melodies.
If good reviews were dollars Grant McLennan would have been a millionaire. But his ability to write so many great songs, so many enduring songs, so many songs that cut so deep with so many people, is testament to his achievement, to the kind of life he admired and lived.
An artist's life.

David Nichols of the Cannanes and Ian Haug of Powderfinger/Far Out Corporation have also posted too. But of course it's hardly just about famous folks -- the many stories from fans or people who knew him as a good guy around town are all overwhelming taken in toto.

Thanks Dave. I was up front at the 7th House which would explain why I missed you that night. Remember meeting you at the CLE gig though (I've a recording of that one).

Reading back over the liner notes I posted above I paused at this one because it seems so similar to Grant's fate:
Dusty in Here
This is a song about my father who died when I was four. -GM

A friend just passed this along, it's short but good --
http://www.couriermail.news.com.au/story/0,20797,19061372-5003421,00.html

Haha Ned, you beat me to it!

(I recorded that CLE show - I have a better version than the one I treed out to the GBs list - I'll be putting that on DIME...)

I've been listening to live shows today ... I'm guessing that Grant is uncomfortable in his casket and the bright light at the end of the tunnel is in his eyes and he needs more of his guitar in his monitor because he can't see and he can't hear and he can't play if he can't hear.

Haha!

haha, so true. it wasn't a show if he wasn't complaining!

Go to yo la tengo's site and click on satisfied customer.

A month ago this made me smile and laugh, now i want to cry.

I really don't know what to say, this is so unexpected. But I saw Forster and McClennan play back in 1999 in NYC and it really stands as one of the best nights of music I've ever witnessed. I was only slightly familiar with the Go-Betweens at the time, but I remember thinking that every song—every song—was incredible. The warmth coming from the stage and the audience was amazing and I really didn't want the night to end. It was one of the bright spots of a not-very-pleasant summer. Can't believe that there won't be any more Forster /McClennan songs or performances...But he certainly gave us a lot. RIP.

Good grief, I've only just started to explore The Go-Betweens wonderful catalogue. RIP & thank you for the music.

I have a feeling a lot of people will be checking out the Go-Betweens now and wondering why they never bothered before.

Thanks, Dave's Good Arm for posting the acoustic show. I'm stuck at work without any Go-Betweens / McClennan and it's doing the trick. Kinda hard to listen to, but great anyway. I always wanted Forster and McClennan to do a duo record (just the two of them, acoustically). Grant's songs in particular really shine in this format. I think a lot of his best songs they may have really tried to get "super-pop" versions in the studio (understandably, because of the great melodies). But a song like "Right Here" is amazingly good in its simple, acoustic form. Ugh, I'm depressed...

Thank you so much for posting the live tracks. Cattle and Cane is just as beautiful as I remember it was.

> I'm kinda pleased to realize that Kilbey feels the same way about "Providence" that I do.

Yeah, me too. The Jack Frost album is damn-near flawless, but even so, Providence is a stand-out. It conveys such a sense of deep melancholy, and yet isn't self-pitying in the slightest. It was also interesting and not at all surprising to learn after all these years that the sad, beautiful Civil War Lament was Grant's composition.

R.I.P.

I saw Grant perform about 10 years ago - and he opened it up to the crowd to request songs. Someone asked for Providence. Grant said, "Ah, Providence" - It was almost as though he was melting at the very thought of such a great song. That's stuck with me ever since. The word Providence is now pronounced as "Ah, Providence".

if anyone's got "Providence" on their hard drive, I'd love to hear it.

Oh, oh, oh. I was just listening to BBC Scotland and they played a repeat of 'Boundary Rider' in session from last year and I was happy and then the DJ said "Grant McLennan rest in peace" and it took me a few moments to take in what he meant. I hadn't heard till now.

media vita in morte sumus.

Lindy Morrsion, the drummer of the first incarnation of the Go-Betweens is quoted here:

She says McLennan, 48, was getting ready for a housewarming party on Saturday when he fell ill.

"He'd moved in with Adele, the bass player in the second version of the Go-Betweens, and they were putting up decorations and he didn't feel well.

"And he went to lie down and everyone left him for an hour to sleep, then tried to wake him as people were coming, and he had gone."

Apparently it was a heart attack.

:-(

What can you do? If he had no history of trouble he probably didn't think much of it himself. At least he was at rest, and I can only hope it was as quick and as apparently painless as Nikki Sudden's own passing.

Grant's father died young so my guess is that there was history in the family. And he smoked (French cigarettes no less) which couldn't have helped if the family history part is in fact true.

Update on Billboard: Forster says Go-Betweens have made "their final album."

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002464163

It couldn't be any other way, could it? There will be no more Go-Betweens and there can't be. The story's told.

It would have been nice, though...just to have three more albums, even that. Six and six, as it were, a round dozen. Though I suppose with 78-79 and Very Quick on the Eye we had eleven already. Still not enough.

What makes it worse is their last two albums showed them hitting a creative peak again. They certainly went out on a high note.

I'd guess the Australians would know this Steve Haddan feller, but in any event turns out he was a friend of Grant's and just posted a massive message on the thread. Worth a read.

And almost right after that, this treasure from one Rebecca:

I went to see the Go-Betweens last year when they played at Hepburn Springs. We had booked both dinner and the show and my friends were running late so I made my way out to the bar to look for them and sneak a quick ciggie. Instead I saw Grant sitting at the corner of the bar, contently cupping a glass of frangelico with one hand while the other held a cigarette. I did a little bit of mental juggling about privacy and respect and intrusion but figured if he was sitting at a bar at his own gig he might not be too suprised if someone spoke to him. I approached him with my heart racing, aplogised for interrupting him and asked him if I could tell him a funny story. He smiled, asked my name, introduced himself(!) and said he'd love to hear a funnny story. I relayed a childhood adventure which, as I told him, was in fact more embarrassing than it was funny, and I could feel my cheeks burning hot with the rush of memory. I told him how over half my lifetime ago, when I was just fifteen years old and in love with the Go-Betweens music, my best friend and I had stayed at the same hotel as they had after one of their gigs. We were so in awe of them that we did not want to disturb them and spent the night in our hotel room, innocently enjoying the fact that it was enough to be close to them and we had managed to pull off a night away from home without our parents knowing! The next morning as they were leaving we rushed down the stairs and asked for their autographs. Robert was reading "On The Road" and did not want to be disturbed. Grant and Lindy chatted with us and signed a school book. I finshed my rather slighly stupid breathless account and was astonished to find that not only did Grant remember that day, he remembered the colour of our uniforms too. We then spoke of everything from politics, to boarding school, from surfing to the heat and light of Qld, about other languages we spoke and the places we had lived in. We smoked and drank till I was wobbly, I missed my dinner and my friends by by the time we had finished speaking my life was already changing.
Thankyou Grant for your gentle humour, your emotional generosity and your grace. Thanks too for getting me to Qld, onto a
board and over my fear of sharks.x

This posted on the Go-Betweens message board about an hour ago:

"Today I went to the website and read some of the magnificent tributes that have flown in for Grant. People for some days have been telling me of the beautiful things written there. And today I felt well enough and strong enough to go in and read. I thank you all. In time I shall read every one of them. I see familiar names scattered from our past. The vast majority I don't know. All of you Grant and I have met through our music. Your words and thoughts I find very, very moving. I sense the love and understanding for Grant and his music, and I take the support you send to me to my heart.

These last days I have Grant in my head. He talks to me in odd moments. I hear him... and I always will.

all my love
Robert Forster"

Here's my tribute to him: http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/pop_playground/didnt-know-a-heart-could-be-tied-up-and-held-for-ransom.htm

'time to time the waste, memory wastes'

A lot of melancholia and loss here amongst Brisbanians for whom these globe-trotting gents were the poets of our corners.

'time to time the waste, memory wastes'

A lot of melancholia and loss here, amongst Brisbanians for whom these globe-trotting gents were the poets of our corners.

Ally C - I remember that night too. I was lucky enough to be up there smoking that spliff with him, an absolute joy, what a lovely lovely man he was.
The first time I saw them play was The best gig I have ever seen: the Grant/Robert solo tour late 90's at a place called the Botanique in Brussels. It really made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, they played as if they were one...
I went with no expectations and they completely blew me away. I "got it" then.
Feel extraordinarily upset by this. Been playing his songs all day. Can't do any work.

Beggars have done a tribute putting "fingers" online: "http://www.beggars.com/news/fingers.mp3".

RIP Grant, you'll never be forgotten

Alfred, that is a beautiful piece in Stylus. Sympathetic and just in equal measure. Thanks.

Thank you! It was immensely difficult to write.

Understandably. Ya did well.

Praise thirded! Brings to mind those descriptions of their relationship as "platonic homosexuality," which neither GM or RF seemed to baulk at.

Kilbey's now added his thoughts about Snow Job, but also starts with an in retrospect heartbreaking story about the last time he spoke with Grant -- not that it was too sad at the time, but like I said upthread, you always think you'll have the time later to do something, which is what happened there. (Kilbey's on a pretty sharp tear this week, his follow-up post talking about his heroin hell of years back is brutal.)

Partly because of recent changes to ilx, or at least my experience of it, I have only just seen this thread, and only heard the news last night on the Radcliffe show. He played a recent song - 'Finding You'? - then moved on.

The news was stunning, somewhat bewildering. The man was only 50% older than me. It seems particularly sad, perhaps, in that he was part of a partnership, which must now end.

I have not always shared the view of the Go-Betweens held by many others (including, for instance, people on this thread). Curiously, though, my doubts about them have often led me to listen to them more extensively and even intensively than to lots of other artists. Through the struggle to hear the alleged greatness, I have become fond of them. Just recently I had dug out the tape that Cook made me and played it over and over - I had to write to Cook and tell him, and revive that conversation. I nearly revived the old GBs thread yet again, to express awe at some magnificent moment - of which there were, to borrow a phrase from Elvis Costello, more than one or two.

32. you are a young man still, pinefox.

Just a quick note to say that Grant's funeral service is happening later today in Brisbane -- 1:30 pm Friday their time. In Los Angeles that's 8:30 pm tonight, NYC 11:30 pm, etc. As the note on the official page says:

"We encourage you to remember Grant at this time, wherever you are in the world. Thank you."

I plan on doing just that with a playing of "Dusty in Here" and a glass of red wine.

And the various tributes on the thread continue, from all corners -- among more well known musicians, Tracy Thorn of Everything But the Girl had a marvellous story, Corin Tucker had some brief but moving thoughts while Guy Picciotto of Fugazi, much like me, felt that the news was 'like a punch in the stomach.' And the Pinefox's fave Lloyd Cole chimed in as well!

TRACEY THORN (Everything But the Girl): reading through all these messages of love yesterday, familiar names kept leaping out at me. peter walsh, dave haslam, lloyd cole, edwyn and grace....must be edwyn collins, i thought, and all at once it was like being spun back thru time.
must have been about 1982 or 83. i was in my band the marine girls, and we got a dream gig supporting orange juice and the go-betweens. if i look up just to my left now, i have the bright orange poster still on my wall. thursday 31st may at the lyceum in london.
we turned up with our 2 guitars and tiny amps, probably at around 6.30 to do the gig. only to be greeted by furious soundcrew and management people, demanding to know why we'd missed our soundcheck. "what's a soundcheck?" we asked in all innocence. we'd never had one before. it took the kind intervention of edwyn himself to stop us being sent home there and then...
backstage in our dressing room (another novelty) we encountered the whirlwind that was lindy morrisson, who burst in demanding to borrow lipstick.
that night marked the beginning of a friendship with the go-betweens, and for the next few years they just seemed always to be there, and those amazing songs were part of the soundtrack. after some pestering on my part they even let me sing backing vocals on the liberty belle album, and after that, at every gig i'd always be singing along inside my head. "there's only one thing that precious..."

such a lot has happened to all of us since that night at the lyceum, hasn't it?
i was reminded of how much time had passed when i last saw the go-betweens play, maybe a year ago, at the barbican.
grant sang cattle and cane, and i had to swallow hard and blink a few times. i guess i always will when i hear it now.

this goes out with much love to everyone at planet go-between, especially robert.
and grant, we always knew you didn't steal that line about his father's watch being left in the shower. it was just a joke...!

I just listened to "Quiet Heart" and wondered why on earth U2 ever wrote "With or Without You."

Wow.

Orange Juice, The Go-Betweens and the Marine Girls all one one bill.

If only I had a time machine.

some pieces from various Australian musicians and folks in memory of Grant

http://blogs.smh.com.au/entertainment/archives/club_metro/004542.html

Also from the tribute thread -- it's only signed as 'Martin' but context leads me to guess this is none other than Beggars Banquet head Martin Mills:

I got the news from Bob on the rainy saturday afternoon in England.While driving home, I was trying not to think of the songs.

Keep away from Cattle and Cane. Keep the bloody beautiful song from creeping into my head.

I have to play a record. Keep away from the old records. Play it safe.
Oceans Apart.Think of the time you and Grant went to Oceans Apart for a pint. I'll be fine.

No Reason To Cry and everything falls apart.Tears for Grant. Tears for Robert,Bob, Sharon, Bernard and all the Go-Betweens family.

Then tears for me. No more Grant songs.No more joyous happy shows with Robert.

I am priveliged and proud to have looked after and baby sat Grant's (and Robert's) songs for a quarter of a century.

Grant leaves behind an amazing and beautiful body of work that will be forever timeless.

Love Goes On !....