Soap opera details and untruths for those who insist upon them.
Peter Crouch has disappeared and, to everybody's surprise, bitterly from the group. We think he was worried about his job. We think it's a shame, he's an extremely good player. He did a lot to make the morose stuff sound workable to my ears. With his departure, things have already started to get a lot less morose, but it's rockin', i guess. Watch for Pete on short haul European British Airline flights. Like he says, that Richard Branson's a wanker anyway. What's wrong with you that you have to drink like that?
Nick Burson aka Nicky Le Singe(*) has taken up residence in Toronto, where he is married and blissful. It's the plan that he should play on the European and U.S. tours that should begin around September.
Dooj Wilkinson is in London, as always. He took his Easter holidays in Salzburg, and who can blame him? He remains, in the core line-up as well.
Alex Lee has his band Strangelove, also involving Julian Poole (guitarist JBC US90), Joe Foster (bass, ex-Levitation, JBC Condition Blue recordings). John Langley (drums, ex The Blue Aeroplanes and an insane singer called variously Pat, Pad and Patrick. Food Records recording artistes. Dark and a bit like Television. If the JBC get any summer dates in the UK, he may well be involved. Core Mafioso.
Paul Mulreany remains the drummer with The Blue Aeroplanes. Has been recording (and writing) some 20 tunes with them. For two days in June the BA recording line-up was the same as that for Condition Blue with the addition of Rodney Allen Alex and Gerard Langley, i.e. Paul, Lix, Joe Allen and me. We did about half a dozen things which may or may not come out later. Paul also did a tour of France playing with Peter Astor during which he succeeded in macing HIMSELF. Again, if dates in the UK arise before Nick has been re-imported for the European tour Paul will most likely be playing the drums.
Joe Allen well, you can pretty much figure out what Joe has been doing by seeing what Lix and Paul have been up to. I love Joe. He is the best bass player ever to rob helpless off-licenses for cider.
Alex Green appeared from nowhere over Easter. He's living in Cambridge, playing some Jazz and doing a music theory course. As his owner, Jasmine, runs a club he is also in a position to say that he considers the Stereo MCs to be very impressive, but all style and no real content, whereas the Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy are, as far as he's concerned, high on content but low on form and presentation. Right. Alex has done some recording recently with someone we know, but I can't remember who it is. Damn.
Richard Formby produced Waiting For The Love Bus and plays guitar on it, alongside me and Peter Crouch . I had a vague dream of putting him and Pete onstage together, but that can't really happen now. Still, I've seen Richard and Lix playing together (at the sessions for Cult Of The Basement and Condition Blue), and the way things are going these days I might yet see it again. Richard has been in the studio all year, working with his flatmate Mike Stout, and occasionally tinkering with the tapes that he and I have made. We haven't done any serious work on these for months, but he's got people smashing his house to bits around him ("renovation") so he can't really entertain just now. I'd like to see him do more dates with the JBC, and I think he will.
Laurence O'Keefe is still in Levitation, with all the lunacy that that entails.
David J. has just returned from a lengthy personal odyssey around the USA. He is looking for some new business deals, writing and recording and he took me to see the Velvet Underground and when he dies I want to be buried right there in the same coffin with him, for they were wonderful beyond expression.
Max Eider is working on scripts for television shows. I saw him for about a minute at the Velvets show and he looked unbelievably dapper in a white linen jacket and the best pair of sunglasses ever. Hey - it was that kind of evening.
Owen Jones still lives in Hamburg, and this very fact shows that he is by far the most intelligent person ever to play in the JBC. No, I mean, we've had some smart cookies and everything, but really. He is expected to show his well chiselled celtic features over here some time soon, says David.
I've been recording with Sonic Boom . We did a cover of Indian Summer by Beat Happening-via-Dean Wareham, which is on an e.p. that is just being released. I've also played on about eight The Blue Aeroplanes studio recordings, some of which will appear on some kind of new l.p. some time soon. The sessions were splendid, very relaxed, but I don't think any of the players had a clue as to what was going on with the music they were recording. We'll see. I'm playing guitar for the Aeroplanes at some gigs in Portugal this summer.
(*) From Joe Foster's school French book: Ou est Nicky Le Singe? Nicky Le Singe est dans l'arbre.