FELT (Go Kart Mozart, Denim)... Lawrence is amazing!

A nice look back at Forever here: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/felt-forever-breathes-the-lonely-word/amp/

Nice. That was my first Felt acquisition (well, the twofer with Poem of the River) almost a decade after its release, and seems destined to be my favourite forever. The "Cherry Red/Deebank >>>> Creation/Duffy" talk at that time seemed overwhelming so a piece just straight out stating that Forever is their best record is fine by me.

“a wave crashed on rocks” might be my favorite felt song

Surprise guest appearance by an ILX0r in that writeup.

"Denim On Ice", love that album, the songs are so catchy and the lyrics are stupendous.

I had the first two songs from that stuck in my head for weeks last year. A headband over the ocean! Great stuff.

I've only recently gotten into Felt and got into Ignite the Seven Cannons through the remaster/remix. Man, the original version is so different. I know it's somewhat unpopular (well, it appears to be somewhat unpopular), but I think it's pretty fascinating and even a bit enjoyable after fully submersing myself in the remaster/remix. I think the mix definitely gets in the way of the songs, particularly something hooky like 'The Day the Rain Come Down,' but it totally works on another songs.

I adore the original "Seven Cannons" and was quite taken aback by the new version. Which songs to you think benefit the most on the new version?

I definitely prefer the originals to the de-guthrie’d tracks, love all that shimmery icing...

but I think it’s cool on the new disc because it sounds more like Felt, the band, playing. maybe more of a direct line to the creation records

the first two felt albums are like tapestries that just kinda unfurl forever, a ribbon that ties around the whole earth. deserts, snowy tundras, the pacific ocean, all that

I'm going to listen to them all morning

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0539/8839/3128/products/SummerSmashcan_480x480.jpg?v=1623140724

https://carnivalbrewing.me/blogs/news/lawrence-takes-over?fbclid=IwAR0f1U5EatmF4k4QSYbwy06NE7dfGgPO30DwetK4ODXbr4S7AmZJFAZOYcU

https://carnivalbrewing.me/products/summer-smash-honeydew-melon-juniper-and-mint-sour-3-7?fbclid=IwAR1m-DgzEhXZhcIqx6VGz15DGqdwH2MZvZF4qP5gf4MGsoSvI0XTeoqfjrU&variant=40114676760744

I really appreciate that it is low alcohol in contrast to these rancid Special Brew-strength ales that are all the rage these days

I love both Lawrence and Wreckless Eric so it was a surprise to only find out now that Eric had done a response song to The Great Pub Rock Revival. It is quite something. Apparently they later made up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_mlFyn_1w4

We're gonna make a record and put it out on Record Store Day.

Not much of a song but it looks like Lawrence has a lot of the same records as me.

Lawrence interview in the guardian today

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jul/27/lawrence-interview-felt-denim-mozart-estate

Hidden away in there is the news that he will have a new LP out under the name "Mozart Estate"

i feel as if i have read a version of this article every few years for the last two decades. as a Lawrence agnostic it's still always interesting to read but i do wish they would get over the 'should have been / could have been famous' schtick, every single time.

Was going to say exactly that. Also, I think the main photo was almost identical to one featured in a previous article of maybe a decade ago ago.

yeah really not a great article, but nice there's a new LP on the way

Also, I think the main photo was almost identical to one featured in a previous article of maybe a decade ago ago.

You aren't wrong. Here he is from 2011:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/oct/20/lawrence-of-belgravia
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Music/Pix/pictures/2011/10/19/1319037517163/Lawrence-of-Belgravia-007.jpg?width=620&quality=85&fit=max&s=03b5935f966a6f8e7f800017649c2ba9

And from 2014:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/mar/01/lawrence-felt-denim-go-kart-mozart
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/static/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/2/26/1393422193018/Lawrence-011.jpg?width=620&quality=85&fit=max&s=e34c5d5aa3418d706d68a4f0da3dddcf

And 2022:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/jul/27/lawrence-interview-felt-denim-mozart-estate
https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/bf6feccce5c6cf744d7f6e7fdebb0e3ce0985d82/0_287_6612_3967/master/6612.jpg?width=1020&quality=85&fit=max&s=6e48138d9f91db121abc0970d54eab7b

Perhaps his right side is his best side.

I feel a bit weird about hearing the "you can't use the toilet" thing so much - if its a genuine thing (that Lawrence would find it actually distressing) and I've no reason to believe it isn't, then it feels weird to write about it (unless in a really compassionate way). And if its anything else, it just feels a bit ... repeated.

Was he always a bit camera shy, or is it "getting old sucks and I don't want to show too much"?

i'd like to know what's up with Maurice Deebank?

He did this interview a few years ago - https://www.outsideleft.com/main.php?updateID=1528

I finally watched ‘Lawrence of Belgravia’ the other night, thanks BFI Player! Was interesting if a little depressing. I think I already knew everything it contained from various interviews and articles around it.
One thing that struck me was that, yes, Lawrence has not achieved the level of fame and fortune he desired, but does he recognise that, at least with Felt, he’s got a greater artistic legacy than a vast percentage of the people who ever play music?
I’m sure he talks about the Go Kart Mozart material he’s working on at the time of the film being very pop, but it’s a refracted version of the pop of his youth, not the pop that will get him where he wants to be. But I guess it’s the gap between ambition/delusion and reality that’s meant to be captivating?

Xp I’ve already read that one! I’m curious what he has been up to since.

I think leading a quiet life outside of the business, and you can't blame him.

If I were interviewing Lawrence I'd ask about how he reclaims sounds which are considered tacky and cheap and foregrounds them to expose their hidden qualities and make us think about how / why we ever decided they were bad in the first place, that seems to have been his practice for the best part of 30 years, but nobody asks him about it and he doesn't seem to want to talk about it either. Maybe it just isn't interesting to anyone.

I feel a bit weird about hearing the "you can't use the toilet" thing so much - if its a genuine thing

It is, by the way.

I just love MD's guitar playing so much that I want to know if he is making music or not and if not why not

No idea what y'all are talking about wrt toilets, do not care tbh

The thing is, for 40 years visitors to his flat have been given The Toilet Chat

I still need to watch Lawrence of Arabia and wonder what else people watch on BFI Player.

i feel as if i have read a version of this article every few years for the last two decades. as a Lawrence agnostic it's still always interesting to read but i do wish they would get over the 'should have been / could have been famous' schtick, every single time.

― stirmonster

Yeah, this is the same theme for every interview I've read of his for the last 20 years now. There's no doubt he's some bad luck in the industry, but some of it has to be his own doing too. I remember him being on Mark Riley's show in 2012 and he was complaining about how he couldn't play live because nobody wanted to book him. As the interview went on, Mark mentioned how a number of people had called in from music venues saying they'd love to have him and to get in touch. He just kinda brushed it off and nothing came of it. The guy who made the documentary also says how he used to disappear all the time and he must be like that too when planning his career.

I'm not sure how much more mileage he can get from the Summer Smash/Diana story too. I seem to remember seeing an advert at the time for Summer Smash in the NME or Melody Maker that said it was coming out August 24th, a week before Diana died. I'm sure I cut it out and put it on my wall (along with all my Mansun and Boo Radleys pics). Maybe it got put back last minute as singles did at that time. As great as the song is, I'm not convinced it was going to be the breakthrough hit he was expecting. I don't remember hearing it on radio at all and I was desperate to hear it. I heard It Fell Off The Back Of A Lorry a number of times the previous year.

As I mentioned up thread, jeez, more than a decade ago, if Summer Smash had actually been released it would have been his worst single.

I was a teenage Felt fan in the 80s, and even then I found him an awkward sod. Every new release or gig was a costly gamble. And the thing that always made me doubt the toilet story is that it was commonly told about Kenneth Williams bitd.

There could be various reasons for the toilet obsession. My guess is that 50% of it is that he is embarrassed about the state of his bathroom (because he can’t afford a refurb and the council/landlord won’t do it ) and 50% hates people using his toilet.

Well, that make two people who etc.

Check your bathroom privilege ! Before my bathroom refurb last autumn (probably 15% more expensive now at least) , I dreaded visitors saying “can I just use the bathroom”.

Also, 3 people at least … I remember an Andy Warhol story about how Gala Dali (Dali’s wife) refused to let him use their toilet in their New York hotel suite when he was visiting.

Arabia
Belgravia obv

why take interviewers back to your home at all if it's such an issue?

It’s difficult to bullshit the journalist in a coffee shop! Some eavesdropping ilm reader might say “you really to drop this ‘could have been famous’ line - and Summer Smash wasn’t ever going to be the hit you thought it’d be…and a few live appearances would be good - you lazy so and so”.

He is playing in Glasgow a week on Saturday tbf.

I've written pretty much that same profile of Lawrence - as has seemingly everyone who's ever interviewed him - and yeah, the toilet stuff is both very played out but it is the genuine first thing he says to you. And even before then you're warned by the PR that he'll only do the interview in his flat.

He's friendly but not the easiest person to interview, which would maybe so go some way to explaining why the resulting pieces are so similar.

A few years after I was working in the Waitrose by his flat and he was kind enough to pretend to remember having met me as he paid for his can of Coke. I blurted out something about how I'd spent the bulk of lockdown listening to Felt and he seemed genuinely pleased to hear it.

Seeing him in Hebden Bridge next week and have no idea what to expect. Presumably absolutely zero Felt/Denim stuff?

Correct.

Plenty of musicians out there would kill to be as 'successful' as Lawrence is these days

I for one can't wait to see this plaster bust. Seems a bit rum criticising the snaps as he's clearly made an effort: three costume changes! (he's been raiding the famous cellophane archive) and a new baseball cap (thank god...). Intrigued to hear he's a Nick Cave fan. Yeah, it would be nice if articles could take a different angle to the great lost pop eccentric, but mostly just glad he still garners some attention and makes records. And I like the tramp line.

He knows what it’s like to be disappointed by your idols – “I couldn’t get over it in the 1980s when Lou Reed had a mullet”

Lawrence otm

i feel as if i have read a version of this article every few years for the last two decades.

It doesn't help that he tends to announce the title of the next album right after the last album has come out, and then it takes years before it's actually released. So you get multiple articles over several years that are like, "yeah, we're working on the next album now, it's called Mozart's Mini-Mart!"

Things I'd be genuinely interested to learn from a Lawrence interview in 2022: (i) dude wtf do you do all day? and (b) what do you make a month? like srsly, putting aside all the dismantled king shit, where does the money come from?

God, The Stagnant Pool fucking tears