of our lives
fucking golden retrievers round at my house and they can't touch me for it because I'm officially middle aged.‘ Luckily, Heathen Chemistry is raucous enough to banish the suspicion that OaSis are going too soft: they just have more contradictions to wrestle with.
The band have often been caught between hedonism and contemplation. but it's imponant to remember that. in mid 97. with their chart clash gone but not forgotten. Blur were shrieking: "Woo-hooil feel heavy metal', while Oasis sang: ‘Damn my education, I can't find the words to say About the things caught in my mind.‘ Like the tough lad at the back of the class with a good idea but a reputation to preserve. Noel's explanation of the titling of Heathen Chemistry seems wilfully self- deprecating. 'l'd love there to be some kind of really cosmic thing about it and I've tried a couple of times in interviews to dress it up. but I can't bullshit the interviewers. It came off a T- shirt I bought in a second hand shop. It had a Symbol of something on it and it said "The Society of Heathen Chemists" and one afternoon someone said: "What about a title?" And what I've been trying to blag peOple over the last couple of weeks is that we all believe in something, right. but we don't practise it. I think that's the true description of a heathen. and the album is the sound of the chemistry between the heathens.‘
Watch that chemistry react on a midsummer stage in Perthshire.
Oasis headline the Main Stage on Saturday
slit m
After treading a dark path with the vitriolic XTRMNTR, Primal Scream embrace hedonism once more in a ‘celebration of life’.
Words: Camilla Pia
he politics are firmly in the past:
Primal Scream have love on their
minds. Their seventh album is done and dusted, procreation is all the rage — a son named Wolf is the latest addition to the Gillespie clan — and the band have a summer of festivals to look forward to. They love life, love the new tracks and can‘t wait to play live — yup, you’ve guessed it — cos they love it. Bizarre behaviour perhaps from a band who released the venomous attack on Blair‘s Britain that was 2000’s XTRMNTR. Harsh electronics collided with sleazy rock’n’roll to produce the sexiest, hate ridden masterpiece this side of the Thatcher era, and some might say the pioneer to all this electroclash business. Two years on, Naomi Klein is out and Kate Moss is in.
Post 11 September sensitivity led to ‘Bomb the Pentagon‘ being lyrically reworked and re-christened ‘Rise‘, and subsequent tracks — the psychedelic electro-pop of ‘Deep Hit of the Sun' and techno melancholy of ‘Autobahn 66’ — suggest Evil Heat marks a return, in part, to the euphoria of 1991 ‘s Screamade/ica. That bliss-out of a third album took a
long look at its cultural surroundings, breathed it all in and exhaled in one deep, intoxicated sigh. Evil Heat has followed this pattern to equally awe-inspiring effect.
The garage thrash of ‘Skull X' cosies up to hard-edged, ‘electronic rock’n’roll‘ of new single ‘Miss Lucifer’ which sits neatly alongside Kate Moss’ “European, young, Nico-like vocals" on the Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra cover ‘Some Velvet Morning’. Everything we know and love from the past to the present features; even old cock-rocker Robert ‘Percy' Plant plays bluesy harmonica on ‘The Lord is my Shotgun' and the Jesus and Mary Chain’s Jim Reid takes lead vocals on ‘Detroit’. Since XTRMNTR'S output hardly made for ripe festival fodder, we can expect previews of new tracks along with the tried’n’tested classics of the distant past. It will be a home-coming to relish; ‘Movin’ on Up' is after all, the perfect soundtrack to soggy fields, lager in paper cups and steaming mosh pits. Mani, much loved and legendary bassist, has called Evil Heat ‘a celebration of life’ which seems as apt a theme as any for T in the Park. While onlookers might see their political U-turn as having all the trimmings of a class A cop-out, the Scream are back to making glorious music that you can actually dance to. The head has given in to the heart, and that’s sure to make most people smile.
.Primal Scream play the Main Stage on
Saturday
THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES
Who? Everybody's fav0urite Noel Gallagher-endorsed Swede trip-rock act. so dust down yer kaftan and head for the front early. Kaftan? Yeah. let‘s party like its 1971 and make sure the Kinks, the Beatles and the Who are on the rock finger buffet. Retro psychedelic cool, then? Uh-huh. Imagine if Oasis swapped Burnage for Gothenburg and took acid instead of all that coke. Did I mention they SOund amazing?
I The Soundtrack of our Lives open the Main Stage on
, Saturday
BADLY DRAWN BOY
Who? Damon Gough, the cat in the hat. Not to be confused With that Jamiroquai twat in the hat. Isn’t he doing dodgy soundtracks now? He did provide the tunes for Hugh Grant vehicle About a Boy, but the soundtrack was actually rather good. So he’s gone sensible? Hardly. Gough ploughs a wonky furrow, deSpite picking up prizes and praise galore for self-effacing meisterwerk, The Hour of BeWI/derbeast. He's working on the follow-up. so expect a mix of old and new.
I Badly Drawn Boy plays King Tut 's Wah Wah Tent on Saturday
‘-4 .‘ THE LIST 23