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

it says he is 'variously hailed as' that, not that it's something he'd self-apply, i.e. WELCOME TO MARKETING.

HOW DARE HAINES NOT READ THE BLURB ON THE BACK OF HIS BOOK

Well, yeah.

Goes alongside Martin Hannett's "best friend" Colin Sharp's book blurb.

uh the TITLE of the book is not the blurb on the back!

Author of "HI DERE I AM HITLER'S GODFATHER" pictured below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/content/images/2007/09/17/spikemilligan2_396x222.jpg

http://www.axelmusic.com/resources/covers/0/024543102625.jpg

http://www.p-o.se/bilder8/1982-I%20Shot%20The%20Sheriff.jpg

Found this elsewhere:

ABOUT OFF MY ROCKER
OFF MY ROCKER is the blackly comic memoir of Luke Haines, founder member and acclaimed singer songwriter of the Auteurs, Baader Meinhof and Black Box Recorder and a legendary figure in the music world where he is variously heralded as the pioneer, the godfather or the forgotten man of Britpop.

In OFF MY ROCKER he remembers the early years of non-recognition: living on the dole and taking his kit on a tractor-tailor to the empty concert halls to the sold-out tours, rivalries with contemporaries such as Suede and Blur, losing the 1993 Mercury Prize award by one vote (and the resultant spell in A&E in the dark hours of the following morning) the fights, the sackings, the press and of course the drugs. Haines has lived it all. Some of the most famous names in the music industry of the 80s and 90s– Alan McGee, Bobby Gillespie, The Go-Betweens, Suede, Sting, St Etienne, New Order, Elastica, Blur, Boo Radleys, The Verve, Oasis, Jarvis Cocker and Pulp, Kurt Cobain, Payul, McCartney, Iggy Pop, Steve Albini and Metallica – appear anecdotally. In the book and Haines is never anything less than acute, observant and witty about his contemporaries.

OFF MY ROCKER takes an even darker turn when Haines throws himself from a wall in Spain, an incident, which leaves him in a wheelchair for six months. Although it inspires him to do some of his finest work, the commercial failure of After Murder Park and Baader Meinhoff prompt his to embark on a surreal period of self-administered medical procedures. The final chapter of the book takes place when Haines, now fully restored, returns from self-imposed exile with a new band Black Box Recorder. They begin recording their new album England Made Me on the same day that New Labour comes into power. The book ends in August of that year with two deaths: those of Diana, Princess of Wales and Britpop.

lol it's gonna be impossible to tell how much of this is "true" right? Except the bits where he says how all those shit bands are shit.

I wonder if the wife will help him write it...

Who's the wife?

Mrs Haines.

I wonder how their career would have panned out had they won the Mercury prize that year instead of Suede. As much as I love them they weren't a band the great British public were going to love, a little too sour,a touch too nasty.

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.

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.

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.