“ l Roddy Woomble finds comfort and commotion in a world of sea pups, Mediterranean fashion and the other M02. 1 The interesting thing about being in a band playing on tour is how cocoon-like it all becomes after a few weeks. Tour bus to venue to dressing room to stage back to dressing room then onto tour bus. This can repeat itself quite happily for days/weeks/ years. and is probably in some way accountable for the dazed detachment and glazed look on many a rock star face.
I went for a walk in Brighton last week. it was a sunny day and everyone walking past me seemed to be smiling, yet it wasn't long before I began to feel like one of those baby seal pups who strays too far from their mother. suddenly vulnerable to everything around them. Luckily. no one was going to brutally club me to death for my coat (dirty corduroy as opposed to glistening white fur). still. it wasn’t until I was back in the world where you need a laminated pass to get into certain rooms that my breathing returned to normal.
My attempts at romance are generally so botched that I often find myself having more fun talking to inanimate objects. or watching silent movies. which is my new thing. along with bulgar wheat salad and wooden beads, which I found on the street in Southampton. much to the dismay of those close to me. who suspect me of harbouring secret Jim Morrison fantasies. I mean. I like the Doors' music. but I always found the Lizard King's lyrics a bit far fetched. There's some myth that in a capital city you're never more than ten feet away from a rat. Well. I think you're never more than ten feet away from an Italian teenager wearing a bandanna and tie-dye Jim Morrison T-shirt. He’s there. holding hands with his holiday romance. also wearing an over-sized Doors tee. this one with the lyrics to ‘Light my Fire' crudely scrawled on the back. He's the poet laureate of Italian school trips. An accolade. i'm sure in some weird way. he'd be proud of.
Idlewild's LP Wamings/Promises is out now on Parlophone.
70 THE LIST 12-26 May 2005
INDIE ELECTRELANE King Tut's, Glasgow, Mon 16 May
Post-punk has been a rich source of inspiration for many a band. Yet one aspect of the genre that today's hip young gunslingers tend to neglect is its unabashed intellectualism. That's why Electrelane are such a revelation. Their last album. The Power Out. featured lyrics in three languages. quoted Nietzche and had a choir singing a Siegfried Sassoon poem. For all that. “On Parade' was catchy enough to be used as background music on teen drama The OC.
Formed in a Brighton bedroom by singer and multi- instrumentalist Verity Susman and drummer Emma Gaze in 1998. Electrelane evolve with every album. refining and expanding on their neo-krautrock template. Their latest. Axes. sees the band take a left turn from the relatively poppy direction of The Power Out. flirting with noise. drone and. on the ironically named “Business as Usual‘. free improv. It's a beautiful and powerful album nonetheless. its experimental flights underpinned by motorik rhythms and a raw. punky energy.
Axes has a political edge. most clearly expressed in the cover of French Resistance folk song ‘The Partisan'. famously recorded by Leonard Cohen. But while Cohen's take sounds weary and bruised. Electrelane's raging punkoid version is thrilling in its defiance. proof that you don't have to disengage your brain to
rock out. (Stewart Smith)
5"
WORLD
BATTLEFIELD BAND: ON THE GREAT SILK ROAD - MUSIC & DANCE FROM SCOTLAND & UZBEKISTAN
Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Wed 18 May; Usher Hall. Edinburgh, Fri 20 May
‘Yes, it was fantastic,’ says Robin Morton, one time Boy of the Lough and new manager of the Battlefield Band, ‘We were on the ancient Silk Road - in Samarkand and other incredible places - but we we’re working our butts offl’ In a ground-breaking tour organised by the British Ambassador, ‘They put us in this new hotel in Tashkent,’ continues Robin, ‘run by . . . a Scots guyl There is a lot of immigration there now — many Chinese, and Vietnamese. And of course Russians. They’re sitting on a lot of gold, oil and uranium. But the distances are vast. We played five concerts - all in huge former Soviet halls like the Tashkent Opera House. and to huge audiences - but were regularly travelling six or seven hours, often over mountains, and carrying our own PA system. We had been advised to take our own equipment, just in case.
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We were even made aware of Chechen threats to blow up a venue, but that thankfully came to nothing.’
The highlight was a simple dinner in their honour hosted by Ilyas Lutfullaev, a teacher at the Tashkent Conservatoire. He’d invited some musician pals round and the whole party played all night - bagpipes and Asian flutes, fiddle and long-necked two-stringed mandolin, all washed down with the local spirit. Now the Scots band has travelled the globe from Alaska to Tasmania over the last quarter of a century, but remain so enthusiastic about the musicians they befriended in this vast former central Asian Soviet republic that they decided that they would have to bring them to Scofland.
‘I knew these guys were fantastic musicians’ said Robin ‘But I didn’t know whether they performed, so I went to see them at a festival in Amsterdam, where they were playing all these instruments - dutar, kushkar. ruba, tabla, nai, gidjak accomanying a big Uzbeki dance troupe - and I saw how good they were on stage - they just blew me away.’
(Norman Chalmers)