Tagged with: Interviews
Posts (109)
-
Manic Street Preachers' Generation Terrorists: Jarrad Owens, Amped
James McLaren
As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of Manic Street Preachers' d茅but album Generation Terrorists, Manics-superfan Jarrad Owens of the website Amped gives his thoughts on the album. Manics at The Marquee in London, 1991. Photo: Martyn Goodacre "Generation Terrorists (wo...
-
Manic Street Preachers' Generation Terrorists: Dave Eringa, session musician
James McLaren
As we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of Manic Street Preachers' Generation Terrorists, we ask session musician Dave Eringa about his role on the album and his friendship with the band. Dave Eringa with James Dean Bradfield, backstage at Reading Festival, 1992 "I was the...
-
Manic Street Preachers' Generation Terrorists: Traci Lords, guest vocalist
James McLaren
Twenty years since the release of Manic Street Preachers' Generation Terrorists, we caught up with Traci Lords, the guest vocalist on Little Baby Nothing, one of the best-known tracks on the album. Traci Lords. Photo: Meeno "I think it was a record exec by the name of Benjie Gordon whose idea it was to put me together with the Manic Street Preachers. I was 20-something, living in Hollywood and racing from audition to audition trying to launch an acting career and get a music career happening. "I remember meeting this cool but bizarre man, Kim Fowley, and singing for him. Somehow the word got out that I was interested in music. I met Benjie and then ended up in London with the Manics. "I remember Richey in particular. He was a very soft spoken sweet boy. It was very weird, later when I heard he had disappeared... makes me sad. "I still listen to Little Baby Nothing. I love that song and I absolutely love the tone of my voice on that track. I would love to sing it live with the boys one day!" Traci Lords is currently signed to Sea To Sun Records and has a single, Last Drag, which has been at the top of the Billboard Dance charts for several weeks. She also stars with Annalynne McCord and John Waters in the film Excision which just premi猫red at the Sundance Film Festival. Feel free to comment! If you want to have your say, on this or any other 成人论坛 blog, you will need to sign in to your 成人论坛 iD account. If you don't have a 成人论坛 iD account, you can register here - it'll allow you to contribute to a range of 成人论坛 sites and services using a single login. Need some assistance? Read about 成人论坛 iD, or get some help with registering.
-
Manic Street Preachers' Generation Terrorists: Sally Margaret Joy
James McLaren
In 1992 Sally Margaret Joy interviewed Manic Street Preachers for Melody Maker. We talked to her about how the group of young, politicised Welsh nascent rock stars seemed to her as they released their d茅but album, Generation Terrorists. Sally Margaret Joy, aka Sally Still, in Furniture When did you first come across the Manics? "When I first encountered the band I wasn't a journalist but was in a band called Furniture, on the road, promoting our single Brilliant Mind. Riffling through the press I came across their photos: black spiky hair, smudged eyeliner and attitudinous sneers. Fearfully, I noted they were prettier than our band, and two of us were girls!" Did any of their qualities or personality traits strike you in particular? They were un-intimidated by the media. They sported with it it like toreadors. They were irreverent, witty, and traded Nietzsche - the Welsh accents helped endear them, put them within reach. Yes, they shone a little brighter than others. In that sense, they were intimidating. "But then when I interviewed them in 1992, I realised they had that quality so many apparently rebellious, revolution spouting artists have, which was they could get you to do whatever they wanted by just smiling at you in an amused, conspiratorial way. They had an incongruity about them. "They were recording their first album in this grand castle - or was it a manor house? - and living like rock stars, yet insisted we do the interview in a bedroom where, plumped down on these little single beds adorned with children's duvet covers (pale blue with little red aeroplanes?), and me sat uncomfortably on a chair, we talked. Burrowing into their duvets, they seemed to me like vulnerable young men, unsure where it was all heading. Or maybe they were just knackered. Who knows?" How did they differ from other bands of the time? Was there any sense that this band and album were going to be important? "You know on X Factor when contestants go, 'I really want this!'? Well, the Manics were nothing like X Factor contestants but it was clear that unlike most of the shoegaze-y, depresso type bands of the time, the Manics actually wanted success. We were still in a post-punk, 'kill your idols', morose, grey knitted cardie-infested era of authenticity. "It felt like they had studied success, its geography, its pitfalls, and were ready to get out there. Perhaps one of their built-in story lines was that success might not turn out to be what it seemed, that under the eyeliner and cool stares, they were a little na茂ve? That's not a bad thing. If you aren't na茂ve, you won't try anything." They were always criticising other bands who were Melody Maker cover stars, like The Levellers, Slowdive, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and so on; was this manna from heaven for music journalists at the time? "They were very funny criticising other bands for being boring! I think the Manics escaped having a sell by date because they remained peripheral to any scene. They emphasised their differences by slagging other bands off. But they were never mean." How much was their Welshness a topic for remark? "As a half Filipino woman in the music press at the time, I was very aware that the music press had its share of racists, sexists and bores. Yes, some of them felt compelled to go into a cod Welsh accent when talking about the Manics. But I don't remember people remarking on the Manics' Welshness very much, because, being primarily a musician, I didn't hang around with music journalists." Feel free to comment! If you want to have your say, on this or any other 成人论坛 blog, you will need to sign in to your 成人论坛 iD account. If you don't have a 成人论坛 iD account, you can register here - it'll allow you to contribute to a range of 成人论坛 sites and services using a single login. Need some assistance? Read about 成人论坛 iD, or get some help with registering.
-
Introducing a new band: Violas
Bethan Elfyn
Violas started the year with a handmade limited edition EP release on the wonderful Owlet label, run by the Trwbador duo, and I've been playing it lots on my Saturday night show on 成人论坛 Radio Wales. They'll be playing live on the 成人论坛 Radio Wales show on 20 February, and here's an interview with t...
-
Jettset: a new dance music record label for Wales
Bethan Elfyn
Right, a little test for me: how many Welsh dance record labels can I name? There's Ten Thousand Yen from Swansea; Associated Minds from Cardiff (who are more hip hop than dance); there's Electroneg for pure electronica; there's Catapult Records' own imprint, but now, shamefully, I'm already sta...
-
Islet interview: "Doing It Together"
Bethan Elfyn
To celebrate the release of Illuminated People, the fantastic new album by Islet, I sent the band a bunch of questions to find out a bit more about what's gone on with the new record. Islet - Illuminated People Hi Islet. Your d茅but album is ready to go - you must be excited? "Yes w...
-
Sir Anthony Hopkins interview on 成人论坛 Radio Wales
James McLaren
Yesterday Roy Noble was joined on Radio Wales by actor and composer Sir Anthony Hopkins to discuss his d茅but album, Composer. You can listen to the interview here: Feel free to comment! If you want to have your say, on this or any other 成人论坛 blog, you will need to sign in to your 成人论坛 ...
-
Bassey! - How Goldfinger made Dame Shirley an international star
James McLaren
This week Shirley Bassey is the subject of a fascinating two-part Radio 2 programme Bassey!, in which the Tiger Bay singer tells her life story to Paul Sexton. In this clip from episode one, Dame Shirley remembers her classic vocal performance on Goldfinger (along with the late John Barry, Do...
-
Gruff Rhys interview (1 January 2012)
James McLaren
In a New Year's Day special, Adam Walton talked to Super Furry Animal and current solo star Gruff Rhys in an extended interview. Covering his career from his earliest forays into music, Gruff and Adam meandered fascinatingly through the last 25 years. You can listen again to the interview her...
