ROCK SUEDE Liquid Room, Edinburgh, Mon 2 Sep
There’s something thrilling about seeing a big band in a small space. It’s a mix of the thrill of intimacy and the thrill of exclusivity, of being one of the chosen few while the filthy masses huddle outside. Of course, the Liquid Room isn’t that small, and Suede aren’t as big as they could be. The indie scene they so persuasively led in the early 90s doesn’t really exist any more. Suede were one of those bands who had a buzz before they had a single - in fact, they were on the cover of NME before they’d had a single. Their eponymous debut was a dark, jagged record that lived up to all the column inches, and follow-up Dog Man Star was one of the albums of the 905, a pretentious, overblown and utterly essential release that saw the acrimonious departure of guitarist Bernard Butler (in Edinburgh with David McAlmont this Fringe) and the arrival of the then 17-year old Richard ‘Dickie’ Oakes. Suede’s next two albums both hit number one, but lacked a little of the magic that had set the band apart. Still, both Coming Up and Head Music had some cracking tunes, if you were prepared to ignore the terrible Eric Clapton rip-off that was ‘Saturday Night’. New album A New Morning, out at the end of September, had a troubled history: chiselled keyboardist Neil Codling left part way through what can only be described as an arduous recording process. The album was eventually completed with Stephen Street, best known for his work with one-time rivals Blur. Forthcoming single ‘Positivity’ (which is currently
ROCK POP
FUN AND GAMES SHOWCASE
Cathouse, Glasgow, Sun 4 Aug 0 and 00000
tendenCies.
Persuaded?
downloadable at www.suede.net) is a sprightly mid- paced number in which dour old Brett sings about free air and sounds almost happy. Whatever next?
Well, the live dates’ll do for starters. This three-date tour takes in London and Cardiff as well as Edinburgh (the full-blown tour in October takes in the Barrowland but there’s no Edinburgh date, so catch them while you can east coasters). Live, the band are more muscular than their somewhat fey image might suggest, Anderson strutting on the alternative icon/rock god dividing line that Dave Gahan so clumsily stumbled over, while tracks like ‘Film Star’ and ‘Animal Nitrate’ are enough to set anyone’s blood pumping. In a small space, and backed with the promise of new material the atmosphere will be feverish. (James Smart)
WIN SUEDE TICKETS!
We have ten pairs of tickets and ten copies of the new Single. ‘Positiwty" (out 16 Sept) up for grabs for Suede's one-off show at the Liquid Room. These tickets are harder to come by than a rain-free day in Scotland. so you better act fast. To be in with a chance, just tell us: At which internet address can you download Suede’s new single?
Answers by email only this time to prorriotionsr”list.co.uk. Mark your entries ‘SUEDE' and get them to us by noon on 30 August. Please include a daytime telephone number and address.
(Terms and conditions: entrants must be 18 years of age or over. Usual List rules apply)
This showcase of young hopefuls from East Kilbride veers alarmingly from shit- hot to. well, shit. If you're looking for a dull collection of miscreants on the road to nowhere. there's plenty to choose from: a beaver in a baseball cap leading the plodding Pearl Jam- dirge of Indian Bone. Cortez's recycled Stone Roses riffs. the pretty and posing but ultimately directionless Salt Ashes. and Foley. who boast a gormless. afro-permed lead Singer with a tuneless whine and serious Ashcroft
But get yOurself down the front fOr Down Niner: they arrive on stage resplendent in leather mini skirts. panda eyes and a decimating ability to rock. Tight. Wired and off the rage- scale. truly dangerous melodies combine With bruised riffs and screams as this peerless bunch claim the Down Niner delight Catliouse for their own.
The butch. skirted singer boasts gorgeously sunburnt vocals. his guitar explodes and smoulders; a human atom bomb of ferocious emotion. He flirts with and then head butts the Wiry. pop-socked Flea-ish bassist. who purnmels and pounds his bass to the limits of possibility while a shirtless drummer propels their Valhalla inspired riffage into the stratoSphere.
In this climate of garage rock yOu forget just how conformist it's all become. and Down Niner are the antidote. Navarro. Dean-Bradfield and Cobain are their past and the future is ripped right open. All eyes are on them: one minute we‘re pinned against the wall by the sheer power of their ‘highlight of your life‘ performance. the next we're questioning our sexuality. Their T-shirts read ‘I am an anti-cliiiiax'; their performance was anything but. (Camilla Pia)
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ls downloading music really MPfree?
The use of file sharing websites and the rapidly increasing practice of burning C08 is a subject that as both a musician who relies on royalties for a living and a music fan leaves me in a quandary of sorts.
It has become common practice nowadays to download music from file sharing websites like the now defunct Audiogalaxy and Glasgow’s own Swoptomo. As a method of finding out about new music and alerting others to music that is barely known it's second to none. There is however. a direct relation between falling record sales and the amount of albums being burnt as opposed to being bought.
When this issue was first brought up it was thought that the only ones to suffer would be the Sonys and Limp Bizkits whose profits would be eaten into by this new music for all socialist regime but it has actually turned out to be smaller independent labels that have suffered largest. in their situations the margin between profit and loss is much smaller and far less controllable than the majors. When you only need to sell 7:30 albums to break even. selling 20% less across the board can seriously damage the possibility of continuing as a business.
A down side for the music listeners is that this gives good ammunition to the powers that be in their bid to keep CDs at there present ludicrously high price. Another negative possibility would be for concert ticket prices to rise in a bid for musicians to counteract their loss in royalty revenue. So there you go.
2’? Aug} 1': Set? L’il‘.‘ THE LIST 31