Record Mirror, March 11, 1978: Difference between revisions
(+Nick Lowe interview text part 1 / +Sheila Prophet Live Stiffs screening) |
(formatting / +remaining Nick Lowe text / +more chart detail +update worldradiohistory.com links) |
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{{tags}}[[This Year's Model]] {{-}} [[Nick Lowe]] {{-}} [[My Aim Is True]] {{-}} [[No Action]] {{-}} [[The Beat]] {{-}} [[Little Triggers]] {{-}} [[Blondie]] {{-}} [[Lipstick Vogue]] {{-}} [[You Belong To Me]] {{-}} [[Pump It Up]] {{-}} [[(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea | {{tags}}[[This Year's Model]] {{-}} [[Nick Lowe]] {{-}} [[My Aim Is True]] {{-}} [[No Action]] {{-}} [[The Beat]] {{-}} [[Little Triggers]] {{-}} [[Blondie]] {{-}} [[Lipstick Vogue]] {{-}} [[You Belong To Me]] {{-}} [[Pump It Up]] {{-}} [[(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea]] | ||
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"This is extraordinary. Whereas I really like Bowie a lot, I have never heard a David Bowie album. | "This is extraordinary. Whereas I really like Bowie a lot, I have never heard a David Bowie album. | ||
"It wasn't until I'd finished 'I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass' that someone told me that Bowie had done a number called 'Breaking Glass' | "It wasn't until I'd finished 'I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass' that someone told me that Bowie had done a number called 'Breaking Glass.' I had no idea at all. | ||
"Of course, coupled with the '' | "Of course, coupled with the ''Bowi'' EP it looks as it I'm some sort of devotee of his. And whereas I do like him, it's pure coincidence. I still haven't heard his version of it." | ||
Implausible as that might seem, it's almost certainly true if only because Lowe wouldn't give a monkey's about telling the world if he had stolen it. | Implausible as that might seem, it's almost certainly true if only because Lowe wouldn't give a monkey's about telling the world if he had stolen it. | ||
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"If 'I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass' was a hit, I couldn't go into the studio and think 'Oh God I've got to have a follow up' because I don't take it that seriously. I just can't, it's not a question of calculating anything, I just can't take it seriously. | "If 'I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass' was a hit, I couldn't go into the studio and think 'Oh God I've got to have a follow up' because I don't take it that seriously. I just can't, it's not a question of calculating anything, I just can't take it seriously. | ||
"I never used to be flippant, I used to take things very seriously, take myself very seriously when I was with Brinsley Schwarz, but not any more. I guess it gets up people's noses ... but I was looking through one of the teeny magazines the other day, and there was a pin-up of Mick Jones. And it had 'my first date' by Barry Blue, Mick Jones and Someone Else. He was saying sort of on my first date I took my bird home and her mum was a smashing cook. | "I never used to be flippant, I used to take things very seriously, take myself very seriously when I was with Brinsley Schwarz, but not any more. I guess it gets up people's noses ... but I was looking through one of the teeny magazines the other day, and there was a pin-up of Mick Jones. And it had 'my first date' by Barry Blue, Mick Jones and Someone Else. He was saying sort of 'on my first date I took my bird home and her mum was a smashing cook.' | ||
"And I thought, Christ, nothing has changed, nothing has changed." | "And I thought, Christ, nothing has changed, nothing has changed." | ||
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But the idea of having a successful record isn't as unimportant to Lowe as he sometimes suggests. Though selling a lot of records to him would be little more than a bonus for something he'd be doing anyway, he retains an affection for, what I suppose in his formative years, was the Hit Parade. | But the idea of having a successful record isn't as unimportant to Lowe as he sometimes suggests. Though selling a lot of records to him would be little more than a bonus for something he'd be doing anyway, he retains an affection for, what I suppose in his formative years, was the Hit Parade. | ||
"I would really like to have a hit single. When I did the Elvis album, I never thought it would do as well as it did do. And when it went into the charts I phoned up the engineer at Pathways Studio where we did the album and I said to him 'you know where the record is this <!-- • CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 --> | "I would really like to have a hit single. When I did the Elvis album, I never thought it would do as well as it did do. And when it went into the charts I phoned up the engineer at Pathways Studio where we did the album and I said to him 'you know where the record is this <!-- • CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 --> week, it's number 14 in the charts' and he said, 'what, the single?,' and I said, 'no, the album,' and as I said, 'no the album,' I felt a sort of disappointment. | ||
"It's something that's been in me since a kid. There's something romantic about having a top 20 single." | |||
About the time of that Elvis album, Nick says he was going "a bit dicky with my marbles." | |||
This seems to be something of a prerequisite for artists signing to Stiff, but Lowe's was an exuberant rather than a depressive sort of madness. He describes himself as an acid casualty, but a long time after he stopped taking the stuff cogs were still shaking loose in his nut. | |||
"I was having occasional flashbacks, and I was doing a lot of recording. I began to panic a bit. I was getting too excited. I'd just started with Elvis and I was so excited there was no limit to it. | |||
"I found myself going into the studio and dancing or rolling around the floor in stitches. I decided I ought to take a rest." | |||
Consolidating the greenbacks, Nick took off for the flashiest place he could think of — Miami. | |||
"It was horrendous. All these geriatrics ... but when I got back I was OK. I'm in great shape now. I'm alright as long as I've got a few mates I can go and have a bevy with." | |||
<!-- Reputation --> | |||
One mate he came close to losing recently was Dave Edmunds, whose show he walked out on after Rockpile got slung off the Bad Company tour last year. | |||
"My relationship with Dave was very confused for a while. I thought he understood that I only wanted to stay with Rockpile on a very temporary basis. I didn't want to spend my time going up and down the motorway, I'd had enough of that with the Brinsleys. I'm sick of all that, I'm too old for it. I though Edmunds had realised that. | |||
"He'd either forgotten about it or he'd thought I'd changed my mind, because we were having such a good time. | |||
"But when we got slung off the tour — we were in Louisville or somewhere like that — I said, 'alright fellers, this is It, I'm taking the plane back tonight. See you when I see you.' | |||
"And they started going 'whaaaat? What do you mean?' There was all this confusion and I started to get really ratty about it, and I said, 'no <!-- f--- --> fuck off, I don't want to do all that, I've had enough.' | |||
"Later we had a few chats about it, and it's okay now. We fall in and fall out all the time." | |||
All this farting about between roles suggests that Lowe is a man who has trouble making up his own mind, when quite the reverse is true. | |||
"I can make up my mind easily, and I reserve the right to change it. I have no problems making up my mind it's just that people can't make up their mind about me. In a way that's why I've got a reputation as a fly-by-night." | |||
One thing that confuses me ... Lowe who is so vehement about the money orientated side of the music business has just released an album with five previously released tracks, a fact that resulted in a fair bit of criticism. | |||
"I picked up a lot of stick about that, yeh. But those records ... especially 'So It Goes' ... I mean, only about four people bought my stuff. Most people just haven't heard them. That ''Bowi'' EP, for instance, only sold 3,000 copies. | |||
"It's as if a magnifying glass has been on everything I've done, while the actual general public has known <!-- f---all --> fuck all about me. I'm extremely grateful for all the coverage but it's a phoney success. The things I've done have just been magnified ... I can't go into a bar and get drunk without somebody writing the next day 'Nick Lowe was really embarrassing at such and such a place last night." | |||
Lowe has just come back from Finland, where, to quote the sage, it is "brass monkeys." He's been recording with a Scandinavian super-group there, and playing to audiences of about ten blank faced sub-Russians. | |||
By the time you read this he'll be in America looking for an already established band to back him up on an American tour. He doesn't want to tour England because he finds it dull — "all those stupid students in all those stupid universities." | |||
The Rumour and Clover are slight possibilities at the moment for the tour. Richard Hell has been mentioned. But Nick Lowe is keeping schtum. He claims he's going to "keep it blighty" i.e. not invite any Yanks into the camp, but knowing his ability to change his mind at a second's notice the world or at least the USA — could soon be witnessing a very interesting trans-atlantic musical bastard. | |||
Which couldn't really be said of Lowe, whose neither trans-atlantic, or a bastard. He's very English, very genial, and usually very drunk. He's not the last pop craftsman, as has been [[Melody Maker, October 22, 1977|said]] about him; but it's enough that he's a craftsman, and a peculiarly skilled one at that. | |||
I'll think he's an idiot if he doesn't tour England, but then if 'Breaking Glass' isn't a hit, England doesn't deserve him. | |||
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{{tags}}[[Nick Lowe]] {{-}} [[Brinsley Schwarz]] {{-}} [[Jesus Of Cool]] {{-}} [[Nutted By Reality]] {{-}} [[The Jackson 5]] {{-}} [[Music For Money]] {{-}} [[I Love The Sound Of Breaking Glass]] {{-}} [[David Bowie]] {{-}} [[Bowi]] {{-}} [[Radar Records]] {{-}} [[Stiff Records]] {{-}} [[Mick Jones]] {{-}} [[Keepitasahobby|Keepitasahobby Productions]] {{-}} [[Status Quo]] {{-}} [[Chuck Berry]] {{-}} [[Vanity Fair, November 2000#Chuck Berry|Chuck Berry's Golden Decade]] {{-}} [[My Aim Is True]] {{-}} [[Pathway Studios]] {{-}} [[Dave Edmunds]] {{-}} [[Rockpile]] {{-}} [[Bowi]] {{-}} [[The Rumour]] {{-}} [[Clover]] {{-}} [[Richard Hell]] {{-}} [[The Beatles]] | |||
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[[Sheila Prophet]] reports on the screening of the ''Live Stiffs'' tour film. | [[Sheila Prophet]] reports on the screening of the ''Live Stiffs'' tour film. | ||
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"[[Single: (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea|(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea]]" debuts at No. 50 on the singles chart; ''[[Live Stiffs]]'' debuts at No. 29 on the albums chart. | "[[Single: (I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea|(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea]]" debuts at No. 50 on the singles chart; ''[[Live Stiffs]]'' debuts at No. 29 and Nick Lowe's ''[[Jesus Of Cool]]'' debuts at No. 48 on the albums chart; ''[[My Aim Is True]]'' remains at No. 38 on the US album chart. | ||
{{Bibliography images}} | {{Bibliography images}} | ||
[[image:1978-03-11 Record Mirror page 14 clipping 01.jpg| | [[image:1978-03-11 Record Mirror page 14 clipping 01.jpg|380px]] | ||
<br><small>Clipping.</small> | <br><small>Clipping.</small> | ||
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Hot on the heels of Steven Spielberg's new movie comes yet another celluloid epic, ''Close Encounters of The Blurred Kind''. Complete with 20 quids' worth of special effects, new advances in the development of naturalistic camerawork and a full mono soundtrack, the film examines the stunning concept: is there life on Elvis Costello? | Hot on the heels of Steven Spielberg's new movie comes yet another celluloid epic, ''Close Encounters of The Blurred Kind''. Complete with 20 quids' worth of special effects, new advances in the development of naturalistic camerawork and a full mono soundtrack, the film examines the stunning concept: is there life on Elvis Costello? | ||
Sadly, as the movie's 50 minutes draw to a close, the conclusion we must draw is no. It is obvious to even the most optimistic viewer that Costello is merely an immobile cardboard cut out. And Costello's companions on the road | Sadly, as the movie's 50 minutes draw to a close, the conclusion we must draw is no. It is obvious to even the most optimistic viewer that Costello is merely an immobile cardboard cut out. And Costello's companions on the road, Wreckless Eric, Nick Lowe, Larry Wallis and Ian Dury are only slightly more lively. | ||
It must have seemed like a good idea at the time to make a film of the Stiff live tour, but unfortunately, the result is a little like an animated postcard home — great fun to anyone who's in on the action (as the rowdies behind us obviously were) but to outsiders, a crashing bore. | It must have seemed like a good idea at the time to make a film of the Stiff live tour, but unfortunately, the result is a little like an animated postcard home — great fun to anyone who's in on the action (as the rowdies behind us obviously were) but to outsiders, a crashing bore. | ||
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The evening was completed by an entertaining little 'b' movie originating from Akron, Ohio, and featuring up and coming musical combo, DEVO. "Are we not men?" says the funny man in the white coat: "We are Devo. D-E-V-O" reply the figures in the stocking masks. An intriguing initiation into the group's crackpot philosophies. Stiff are planning to show it before the group's own live show at the Roundhouse next week — a great idea. If the band's live performance matches up to the film, it should be a fun evening. | The evening was completed by an entertaining little 'b' movie originating from Akron, Ohio, and featuring up and coming musical combo, DEVO. "Are we not men?" says the funny man in the white coat: "We are Devo. D-E-V-O" reply the figures in the stocking masks. An intriguing initiation into the group's crackpot philosophies. Stiff are planning to show it before the group's own live show at the Roundhouse next week — a great idea. If the band's live performance matches up to the film, it should be a fun evening. | ||
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{{tags}}[[:Category:Stiff's Greatest Stiffs Live|Stiff's Greatest Stiffs Live Tour]] {{-}} [[Nick Lowe]] {{-}} [[Wreckless Eric]] {{-}} [[Ian Dury]] {{-}} [[Larry Wallis]] {{-}} [[Live Stiffs]] | |||
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<br><br> | <br><br> | ||
<small>Chart pages.</small><br> | |||
[[image:1978-03-11 Record Mirror pages 02-31.jpg|380px|Chart pages 2-31]] | |||
<small>Cover and page scans.</small><br> | <small>Cover and page scans.</small><br> | ||
[[image:1978-03-11 Record Mirror cover.jpg|x120px]] | [[image:1978-03-11 Record Mirror cover.jpg|x120px]] | ||
[[image:1978-03-11 Record Mirror | [[image:1978-03-11 Record Mirror page 08.jpg|x120px|page 8]] | ||
[[image:1978-03-11 Record Mirror page 11.jpg|x120px|page 11]] | [[image:1978-03-11 Record Mirror page 11.jpg|x120px|page 11]] | ||
[[image:1978-03-11 Record Mirror page 14.jpg|x120px|page 14]] | [[image:1978-03-11 Record Mirror page 14.jpg|x120px|page 14]] | ||
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*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Lott Wikipedia: Tim Lott] | *[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Lott Wikipedia: Tim Lott] | ||
*[https://www.flickr.com/photos/57779449@N02/albums/72177720310431317 Flickr:] [[Michael Kane]] | *[https://www.flickr.com/photos/57779449@N02/albums/72177720310431317 Flickr:] [[Michael Kane]] | ||
*[ | *[https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Record_Mirror.htm americanradiohistory.com{{t}}][https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Record-Mirror/70s/78/1978-03-11.pdf {{t}}] | ||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Record Mirror 1978-03-11}} | {{DEFAULTSORT:Record Mirror 1978-03-11}} |
Revision as of 15:42, 17 August 2023
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