What happened to LUSH?

Miki: Steve left after our 'secret' support appearance with Ride at ULU in London, in December 1991. To be honest, when Lush started, we needed a bassist and I asked Steve because he was a nice bloke, not because he was an amazing bass player! His taste in music was quite different to ours and I don't think he even liked any 4AD bands. Once he'd had the experience of a headline tour and making a record, he was done.

Steve: I'd had a brilliant time in the band but I wasn't keen to get on the tour-record-tour bandwagon which I could see looming, so I got out while I was still enjoying it. I missed Miki, Chris and Emma, but I spent my first year out of Lush travelling round the world with my girlfriend and it was the best thing I ever did so I didn't regret leaving.

^ Interesting. I was wondering why they had chosen to go with Phil rather than Steve for the reunion. I was at that gig (the Ride one) and I remember them announcing that it was Steve's final gig with them.

yeah some fascinating stuff in this. good to hear from Steve again. i recall the last gig i saw with him (October '91) they said he was going off 'to write a book'. i sorta forgot just how 'different' each of the first 3 EPS/singles sounded, each having a different producer. they don't sound that separate from each other now.

had to lol at this

Emma: I remember a meeting at Columbia. While they were schmoozing us with all the amazing things they were going to do for us, one of their people was sitting next to me taking notes. I caught a glimpse of his notepad and he'd written: "We already have Ultra Vivid Scene, do we need this band as well?"

And my interview with Miki!

http://www.sfgate.com/music/article/After-two-decades-British-band-Lush-returns-to-7245970.php

Neg Raggett is a freelancer writer.

lol is that your PUA name?

Having seen the set lists for the two gigs they've actually managed to play, it doesn't look like they're going to play my favourite (Ocean) or one that I thought they would definitely play (Nothing Natural).

xpost -- Good ol' Neg.

Neg Radget

Neg Ratchet

lol

I'm at The Roundhouse. They'll be on in an hour. Support band is awful.

Support band were so irritating. "Tallyho, gollygosh this is a big crowd" put down your Innocent smoothie please

Lush were ace despite not doing "Nothing Natural", and the dedication to Chris had me a little teary.

As someone who didn't see them in the 90s,they were fantastic. It's been a long time since I've heard guitars sound that good. Also Miki was clearly having the time of her life up there.

They were literally giving tickets away outside though.

who was the support?

oh Pixx. she's on 4ad. I liked one song I heard about a year ago

?

It wasn't Pixx last night, some group called Spectres

I was there on Saturday. First time I'd seen Lush since Glastonbury 1992, and they were just great. Very fortysomething-pleasing. And though I love Lovelife, I was pleasantly surprised that they didn't draw much from it for their set.

New EP is swell. "Lost Boy" the highlight for me so far.

I wasn't as close for the Chicago show Sunday night as I was for Belly on Saturday, but I did get a few pics you can see here. I love that Phil King was just wearing a black t-shirt that said SHOEGAZE in white letters.

https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/14379927_10209618056464937_121885206211117349_o.jpg

How were they?

Outstanding -- just like with Belly, they haven't missed a beat. Miki plays that 12-string -- and the Gibson Firebird she switched to for a few songs -- with amazing ferocity, and Emma sounds as great as ever. Rhythm section was super-tight. They opened with De-Luxe and it was like being back in 1991.

Full set list:

De-Luxe
Breeze
Kiss Chase
Hypocrite
Lovelife
Thoughtforms
Light From a Dead Star
Undertow
Lit Up
Scarlet
Etheriel
Desire Lines
For Love
Out of Control
Ladykillers
Downer
Sweetness and Light

Encore:
Lost Boy
Nothing Natural
Leaves Me Cold

Encore 2:
Monochrome

am so jealous. Thanks for posting pics Phil.

I am so gutted they didn't do Nothing Natural when they were in London

Saw them in Boston, equally great. Miki was pretty funny, "Do you remember this one? That's because you're fucking OLD!" Also said "If you have teenagers, you'll relate to this song" before they played "Out Of Control" from the new EP.

Someone put up De-Luxe from the show the other night. Does not capture Miki's frequent between-song vaping.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DhH07e_yzg

Huh.

Band Statement:

We are very sad to announce the departure of Phil King from the band. As a result, we will no longer be able to appear at the Iceland Airwaves and Rolling Stone Weekender festivals - massive apologies to everyone who was looking forward to seeing us play there. We are in the process of acquiring another bass player and look forward to our final show at Manchester Academy on November 25th.

Phil's twitter:

Before you ask...no comment.

Does "final show" mean final show ever? Have they said anything about carrying on vs. stopping?

I'll do it!

his twitter said "before you ask, no comment" and then "I would say "I need to spend more time with my family" - but that just makes me sound like a disgraced politician." so who knows; could be a personal family thing.

it's a weird one.. i mean there were only a few dates left to play. i wonder why he couldn't have hung on a few more days, especially now they've had to cancel some shows. bit of a downer to end the tour on! still i hope they find a bassist. it's been a successful reunion it seems, although cursed with some bad luck (visa hassles, rescheduled dates.. ) 20th anniversary yesterday of Chris Acland's passing too. after this tour i guess that's 'that'?

Hey, if Steve Rippon's not doing anything...

So what really happened with Phil that caused him to up and quit?

He's in the Jesus And Mary Chain now, by the way:

"Damage and Joy is out March 24 via ADA/Warner Music. It follows the band’s 1998 LP Munki. The new album was recorded with producer Youth. It features contributions from the band’s touring drummer Brian Young, ex-Lush bassist Phil King, and Youth on bass. They’ve so far put out “Always Sad” and “Amputation” from the album."

He's been playing with JAMC for years.

ah, ok - didn't know, sorry :(

Yeah he completed those sessions before he left for the reunion, IIRC.

Should note that the two Thoughtforms fanzines that were put out last year essentially act as the perfect complement to the box set, being de facto liner notes for it.

it's not clear at all but I got the feeling he maybe wanted to spend more time with his family. but there was some weird twitter back and forth with mickie where he insinuated she was unpleasant to him or had said nasty things about him.

https://twitter.com/berenyi_miki/status/803268520586989569

Miki Berenyi‏ @berenyi_miki 28 Nov 2016
@londonphilking I admit it, I was angry. You dumped us in the shit Phil, refused to play the show. Didn't have to be this way.

and his posting that ('classy') was in response to her saying "you might have noticed Phil’s got shorter, and blonder, and better at playing the bass…sorry!" Seems innocuous unlesss she was giving him shit the entire tour or something. dunno.

it's too bad because there was an interview with her and emma that came out in tape-op that was done before that happened, but published well after phil had quit, and they were pretty obviously talking about recording more and how great it was. and since he quit, they've said they are done.

Anyone here have problems with the box set? Only one of my five discs play okay and that one wont let you jump tracks without screwing up. I've seen a few reviews complaining about faulty discs, so I'm far from the only one. One reviewer says this is because the discs exceed 76 minutes but I've never had issues with such lengthy discs before.
This is such a shame and I'm surprised 4AD put out something this bad, hope they do a better version in a less limited edition. A shame 4AD doesn't do many cheapie CD box sets.

Just bought second hand copies of Gala (which is getting a bit scarce) and Spooky. I waited far too long for this band.

On revisiting Split I was taken aback by how moved I was by "Lovelife". I always liked it but I didn't remember it being this good. Favorite might be "Blackout" though. Shame my first disc of the set is so dodgy because the session version of "Blackout" is pretty great.

"kiss chase" through "blackout" is just a spectacular sequence

i mean through "lovelife"

<3 Kiss Chase

Discs exceeding 74 minutes should not be a problem this century

(or even most of the CD era tbh. CD's went over 74 minutes some time in the late 80s apparently)

Didn't know where to post this but...

...there's a new band called Piroshka, with Miki, Kevin McKillop from Moose, Justin Welch from Elastica, and Michael Conroy from Modern English.

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/members-of-lush-elastica-moose-and-modern-english-form-new-band-piroshka/

I have no idea if they'll be any good, but I'm super stoked! ...especially considering I've been waiting almost 20 years to hear anything from Moose.

So far they only have a couple of gigs lined up (one in London and one in Oslo).

yeah this is cool. I'm glad Miki is still playing music and the rest of that band is promising. Still too bad about Lush, still don't know what happened there.

Awesome! Glad to hear Russell from Moose is still doing stuff. That was an interesting band.

The return of Moose!!!

Moose were one of my favorite bands, I own all four albums plus eight singles. Loved Lush too

So far they only have a couple of gigs lined up (one in London and one in Oslo).

lol Oslo is a venue in London, both gigs are in London (I saw Lush at Oslo in 2016)