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| February 2008
Subterraneans new album Live in Berlin is released on 11th February. Recorded at the band’s show at Eiszeit Kino, Kreuzberg in November on just one microphone, the record harks back to the classic old style “live bootlegs” such as The Who’s Live at Leeds, The Velvet Underground’s Live at Max’s Kansas City and, of course, Sid Sings. Containing an hour’s worth of highlights from the 90 minute show, the set features fired-up renditions of tracks from Soul Mass Transit and Mona Lisa albums, as well as the world premiere of the title track of the band’s next album. Jude will be playing some more acoustic shows in Germany in March and April. January 2008 Jude will play an acoustic show at Le Petit Laboratoire, Berlin, on 12th Jan. November 2007 Dates for your dairy: Sat. 24th - BERLIN Eiszeit Kino Weds. 28th - LONDON Tate Britain (William Blake's 250th birthday) October 2007 Subterraneans will play a special one-off show at the legendary 12 Bar in London in celebration on their 15th anniversary, on 12th October. The gig will be filmed as part of a forthcoming documentary of the band being directed by D Rosier. Watch this space for more information. August 2007 Subterraneans have been forced to pull out of their AEON FESTIVAL appearance on 26th August, due to the impending arrival of Carl's new baby... Apologies and thanks to all concerned. April 2007 Subterraneans will open this year's UK festival season at the URBAN LAWNS FESTIVAL, Axminster on 25th May and close the season at the AEON FESTIVAL, Newton Abbot on 26th August. March 2007 Subterraneans' first live appearance of 2007 will be at London Shepherd's Bush Empire on Wednesday 28th March. Paul Haig and Christine Beveridge will join the band on stage. The show is a tribute to Billy Mackenzie, and also features Claudia Brucken and Andrew Poppy, Apollo 440, BEF and more. The Cadiz release of Soul Mass Transit is finally due to happen on 30th April. It must be true, because Amazon say so. Subterraneans will perform an acoustic set at the inaugural event of BLAKE 250 at St. Giles Church on Friday 27th April. Jude will be making several radio and TV appearances over the coming months, talking about his work as artistic director of Blake 250, and generally promoting the festivities. Meanwhile, Subterraneans are gearing up for their first festival appearances in YEARS. They play the Urban Lawns Festival in May and the Aeon Festival in August. Others are likely to be confirmed shortly. Current projects include an album with the actor Dudley Sutton for Blake 250 (you can hear excerpts at the Blake 250 Myspace page), an album based on Baudelaire's The Flowers of Evil, some 18 months in the making and now nearing completion, the DVDs of Pandora's Box and At Land featuring Subterraneans' soundtracks, the Cadiz release of Soul Mass Transit. And then, time permitting, the recording of the next album, most of which is already written, and a title for which has already been selected. Watch this space... November 2006 Jude is to be special guest on London arts radio station Resonance 104.4FM's "Late Breakfast Show" on Friday 17th November. The show is broadcast live from the Foundry from noon until 2pm. Jude will perform acoustic versions of tracks from the new Subterraneans album Soul Mass Transit, as well as joining the panel for the show's topical discussions. If you are not in the London area you can still listen to the show online at www.resonancefm.com. Several major festival dates are being lined-up for 2007, as well as a string of headline shows in the capital. In addition to Subterraneans activities, Jude will also be curating BLAKE 250, a series of events in London marking the 250th anniversary of the death of William Blake. Find out more at www.blake250.co.uk. September 2006 On Friday 29th September there will be a special event in London celebrating the words and music of the late Anno Birkin, and his bandmates from KicksJoyDarkness, who along with Anno were killed in a road accident in Italy five years ago. Please check out the websites www.anno.co.uk and www.kicksjoydarkness.co.uk for more information. Subterraneans will be playing at the Luminaire, Kilburn, London on Saturday 14th October. The magnificent Evi Vine will also be appearing. The new single, "Canticle in D", is currently scheduled for release on Monday 16th October 2006. This will be the band's first single since "The Last Time" in 2002, and the first major release for five years, as well as being their first release under their new deal with Cadiz. The single will be accompanied by the band's first video since "She Walks on Water" (the first single from the MONA LISA album); the video is being directed by the acclaimed animator Paul Barritt, currently making a major contribution to the performances of poet, storyteller and occasional collaborator Suzanne Andrade. Suzanne curates You Don't Bring Me Flowers in November, which will include a special acoustic performance by Subterraneans. STOP PRESS: Subterraneans and Koogaphone are finally to appear together. The show is likely to be the last live appearance of the year for both bands, and takes place at the legendary Hope & Anchor in Islington, London, on Thursday 7th December. See the concerts page for info for all forthcoming shows. Syd Barrett
I keep coming back to the same thing. Before Syd Barrett, there was nothing. Not in terms of English rock music. What is English rock music? That which lives within a creative tradition, for sure, but also that which is not either directly or inadvertently influenced by American blues music. I love American music, I’ve said so often enough. And I love the blues. But its not English, and we needed our own rock’n’roll identity. There was pop, and The Beatles excelled. There was music hall. There was even a tightly wound English pop/rock crossover, best illustrated in the early work of The Who and The Kinks. But there was no incendiary, radical, loose, raw, wild, experimental, poetic, proto-avant garde English rock music. Not until Syd Barrett invented it. And the psychedelic textures that The Beatles and George Martin constructed with huge orchestras, backwards tape loops and experimental production techniques, simply poured out of Syd Barrett’s fingertips; he needed nothing more than an electric guitar and a few echo boxes to orchestrate his wildest dreams. And Barrett’s dreams were the wildest ever committed to record, no one will argue with that. His entire recorded output numbers little more than Pink Floyd’s early singles and debut album, two official solo albums and one compilation. And yet his impact on music and culture has been and continues to be enormous to the point of near infinity. As for Pink Floyd, their best work either featured Barrett or was about him. The influence he exerted over albums such as Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall is anything but invisible. Even in his absence, Syd Barrett WAS Pink Floyd, and Roger Waters would probably even admit that now. Personally, I just loved him and I still listen to his records all the time, each listening as exciting as the first time I ever heard them. Barrett was the rock star’s rock star, the best looking Englishman of the Twentieth Century and then some, and the most uncaged and uncompromising rock musician this country has ever produced, as well as the first really important one. You’d laugh, cry, and freak out completely at the sheer honesty of his voice and the sheer psychic dissent of his lyrics. His songwriting and guitar playing would send you to places you never dreamed of before. There are too many to talk about singularly, virtually everything he ever recorded was pure unhinged genius; but the one I chose to play first when I heard he had died was “Late Night”, the closing track on his first solo album, The Madcap Laughs. Because I always thought it was the most beautiful song ever written, rivalled only really by “Long Gone” and “Opel”, also both from the pen of Syd Barrett, the former even on the same album. I used to perform “Late Night” with The Candy Tree’s Emma Jo Barrett in the early 90s, and even singing it with someone called Barrett turned into a completely religious experience for me. The only reason we never recorded it is because there was no chance of competing with the beauty of the original. I could talk about Syd Barrett all day, now that I’ve started. The only way to stop is to stop. God bless you Syd Barrett, you saved my f***ing life. June 2006 New live dates are being added now. The band play a benefit for the Practicum Theatre Group on 22nd June, at Upstairs at the Garage, Highbury Corner, London. Support from Evi and Nadege. See the concert page for full information. March 2006
SOUL MASS TRANSIT THE LONG AWAITED NEW ALBUM BY SUBTERRANEANS RELEASED MONDAY
27th MARCH 2006 Limited Edition UK only "Black Vinyl" CD digibox edition available at live shows and online ONLY from this website. Click on the SHOP link to buy SOUL MASS TRANSIT. Ivor Cutler 1923-2006
Scotland's greatest poet. Better than Robert Burns. Certainly funnier, and probably better looking. We all loved Ivor Cutler. That's quite something to say of someone, isn't it? Jammy smears to you, sir. January 2006 There's been a definite change in the weather.
Link Wray 1929-2005 In 1954 Link
Wray donned a black leather jacket, a pair of black
shades, a pair of ripped jeans, and an electric guitar.
Then he punched a hole through his amplifier speaker,
pioneering distortion and the power chord, and completely
reinvented the Twentieth Century. December 2005 Another year all but gone. Its been a rollercoaster, the peaks being the shows, the dips being somewhat personal. But I think we're entering 2006 with some momentum, and thanks to all of you for your unwavering support. We're still here, and it seems we are not alone. Fear not, your loyalty will be rewarded. Not only will Soul Mass Transit finally be released in 2006 (thank f***), and not only will we be subjecting you to the ever-swirling experience of Subterraneans - the greatest English White Boy Guitar Band Since The Smiths BAR NONE - AND the most unpredicatable and soncially interesting racket since The Who BAR NONE - but we'll also be taking a swift break to record ANOTHER Subterraneans album, and this you may take as a vow. As we speak the next record is at least two thirds written. Its different again, I think combining the best elements of both Mona Lisa and Soul Mass Transit, and I can't wait to unleash it. Let's see what music can still yet do. Speaking of The Who, I recently met someone who didn't agree that "Won't Be Fooled Again" is the greatest rock'n'roll performance ever captured on vinyl. I kicked his ass. Verbally. Vive le Rock! Jude x November 2005 What with all the gigs, there has been little time for anything else of late, but the band would just like to say a big thank you to the sensational Evi Vine for all her support; as well as adding real class to the Hackney and Brighton shows, she and Jude also provided both audiences with a really cool Sonny'n'Cher moment on the first ever live performances of "Still Life". Subterraneans will be playing their last show of 2005 at St. Matthew's Church, Brixton, on 17th November. This will be the first time they have played in south London for nine years! Support comes from Sol Devious. The cat is out of the bag. We can count the days until the official release of SOUL MASS TRANSIT. Meanwhile, if anyone still thought that Subterraneans' return would be nothing more than a temporary breaking of silence, rest assured that current plans extend well beyond the forseeable future. New material is being written, indeed two new songs, "Vita Dora" and "Lights" were debutted at the Hackney show (in front of a 20ft screen showing the films of Maya Deren). Jude feels that the next album is about half written, and there are plans to begin recording next summer. Until then, a short break for Christmas, and the band will be back on 13th January with a return show at the Dublin Castle, followed by a SOUL MASS TRANSIT "special" at the Betsey Trotwood in early February. Watch this space for more details... October 2005 EXCLUSIVE: Jude is currently working on a spoken word project based on French poet Charles Baudelaire's famous book THE FLOWERS OF EVIL. Click the link below to download an exclusive MP3 preview, featuring Suzanne Andrade: Dates for your Dairy: Tuesday 11th
October Wednesday 19th
October Tuesday 25th
October Stop Press! The release of SOUL MASS TRANSIT has been delayed, probably until January. An issue with the European licensees as well as other considerations has forced Rhythm of Life to delay several new releases. Whilst the issues themselves are relatively straightforward, delaying the album until October effectively means delaying until the new year, as the UK distributors Shellshock have been slow on the uptake and now we're too late to avoid the Christmas rush. Many apologies, this irritates us as much as it does you. All we can say is that this album is worth the wait... September 2005
Jude's new book, DIVINE IMAGES: THE WORDS OF WILLIAM BLAKE, his own selection of the works of the great poet, was published in the US a couple of weeks ago and has already been nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Literary Award. The wait is over... Subterraneans play their first live show since July 2002 this month. They will be performing a short set at the Dublin Castle in London on Wednesday 21st September as a warm up for the forthcoming SOUL MASS TRANSIT shows. Get ready for a very special show on Tuesday 11th October. The band will be performing possibly the most unusual gig of their career at the 291 Gallery (a converted church in East London); a retrospective which will combine live and recorded music, film, spoken word, guest artists, etc. The invitation to do the show came from poet/performer Tonny Ajoup, who will also be interviewing Jude on his radio show soon. Expect the set to include some rare and never previously performed songs from the catalogue. This one is not to be missed. There are still tickets available for the Brighton show on Wednesday 19th October. This will be an acoustic show, with support from the fantastic EVI VINE.
The Doors' Ray Manzarek singled out Soul Mass Transit as his favourite album of the year during an interview on "Egg: The Arts Show", shown on US television channel PBS. Whilst much of the interview was given over to the news that Manzarek and Robbie Krieger had just lost their four year court battle against John Densmore and the estate of Jim Morrison over the ownership of The Doors' name (they have been forced to change the name of their Ian Astbury-fronted band to "Riders on the Storm"), at one stage Manzarek was asked what he thought of "new" music. He replied that he believed the music industry doesn't support new music, saying "it's a myth that it used to, it never really did", before then naming a few of the records that had most impressed him recently, when he stated "there is a band from London called Subterraneans, their album is very good. I think that's my favourite thing I've heard this year." August 2005 Tickets for the Brighton show on 19th October are now on sale. Click HERE to buy online now. You can also buy tickets from the Ticketweb 24hour Hotling on 0870 0600 100. Calls charged at the national rate. To download flyers for the London show on 21st September, go to the concert page and click the link. You will need Adobe Acrobat to view/print the flyer. So there you have it. We'll see you soon... July 2005 HUGE NEWS!!!! At last, a release date for SOUL MASS TRANSIT. The album will be released on the Electric Label (who else?) through Rhythm of Life on 19th September. Subterraneans will be playing their first live date for three years at The Dublin Castle in Camden Town, London, on 21st September. More shows to come, so keep an eye on the Concert page, where you can also download flyers or link to ticket agencies. Keep an eye out for acoustic appearances at the 291 Gallery in London and the Sanctuary in Brighton (dates TBC). A new compilation is also in the pipeline. VOLUME: THE BEST OF SUBTERRANEANS 1992-2002 is slated for release before the end of the year. The fourteen track album will trace the history of the band from "Dream Fades Into Dark" to "The Last Time", and will run for an hour and a quarter! Don't forget to keep checking the Concert page for the latest updates on the forthcoming shows. June 2005 The first Subterraneans shows for three years will be announced later this month, so check back regularly, or get your name on the mailing list pronto for the latest info. Jude is back from another excursion to Charleston, where this time he went to meet none other than Angelica Garnett (Virginia Woolf's niece) herself. If you receive the newsletter, you will probably have already read his in-depth report on this most incredible of meetings. He is currently remastering two albums for EMI at Abbey Road, while Guy continues with the Van der Graaf with European dates this month and throughout July. There are also now plans in place for a special Subterraneans "unplugged" night in central London sometime in August, ahead of the full band shows, which are due to begin in September. Its all getting very real again... May 2005 What with Guy's Van der Graaf duties, Jude's new column in Camden Guide magazine (www.camdenguide.co.uk/news/blog/blog.htm) and more Billy/Associates reissues in the pipeline, Carl working on various film soundtracks and some more Marillion remixes, and Robin touring with, erm, Mud, its a bizzy month for extracurricular activities. There are plans in place for some Subterraneans shows in the summer, so you know which space to watch (this one...). April 2005 Easter is on Friday, I'm telling you... This month's direct debit from the archives is an MP3 of "The Death of Love", not exactly a classic (actually we hate it), but this is the ultra-rare (and much ripped off) Janice Long show version from the early 90s, with a rather surreal intro in which Janice subtlely warns mankind of Jude's autocratic tendancies by revealing that he would have liked to have guested as Number Two in sixties TV series "The Prisoner". Click the link above to receive transmission... It seems as though the wait for live shows is almost over. By way of a side-step, Jude has confirmed a week of public appearances in London next month. Although these will be predominantly spoken word events, he will be taking a guitar to St. Matthew's Church on Wednesday 4th May, and promises a sneak preview of the new material, so get down to SW2 for a world premiere! Jude has also announced plans for a second spoken word project, following up last year's CLOUDS UNFOLDED. As usual the project is shrouded in secrecy, but we can reveal that it will be another album of poetry, although this time it will be the work of a single poet, of whom all we know is that he or she is dead, and was NOT English... March 2005
STOP PRESS: Transcript of Artsweek writer Lisa Clark's massively in-depth interview with Jude is now available completely unabridged on the "Words" page. Jude has just
produced a contemporary soundtrack for the 1944 Maya
Deren film "At Land". The soundtrack combines
elements of Guy's Echo City/Siren Project work "The
Loss of the Church" with Deren's stunning avant-garde
visuals. Unlike Deren's better known film "Meshes of
the Afternoon", which featured a soundtrack by Teiji
Ito, "At Land" previously had no soundtrack.
Although the project marks Jude's first involvement in a
movie soundtrack since recording "Pandora's Box"
in 1999, there are no current plans for a commercial
release of the "At Land" project. February 2005 Click the link above to download a rare acoustic performance of "Mona Lisa", recorded live in session for San Francisco's Radio Lulu. Bum notes included gratis. A transcript of Jude's recent Artsweek interview will be posted as a PDF when we get it. The interview lasted for a whole afternoon, so the transcript will be about as in-depth as its possible to get. Everything you ever wanted to know about Subterraneans and related baggage, as well as pages of stuff you never even knew you wanted to know about anything. They'll never need to do another interview, they'll be sourcing off this one for years to come. To read it you'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader. That isn't a plug for Adobe, its just a sad fact of life. January 2005 STOP PRESS: Subterraneans' version of "The Last Time", recorded with Angie Bowie in 2002, is to feature on a comedy skit on top rated US television chat show "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". The show will be broadcast on NBC at 11.35pm (all time zones) on Friday 4th February. Jude recently gave an exclusive hour-long interview to Brighton radio station Juice FM 107. He and Christine Beveridge (who sang backing vocals on Subterraneans' Mona Lisa album) talked to DJ Boogaloo Stu about Billy Mackenzie, playing tracks from the Jude-produced albums Auchtermatic and Transmission Impossible, alongside classic Associates hits. The interview will air between 10pm and midnight on Sunday 16th January, and will be available online for two weeks afterwards. Auchtermatic and Transmission Impossible both get great reviews in the February issues of Uncut and Q Magazine. Both albums, along with the reissue of Memory Palace, are available now from One Little Indian at www.indian.co.uk At present, Carl is directing the film what he wrote, Jude is wearing his producer's hat again and interfering somewhat with Paul Haig's new album. Guy will be joining Peter Hammill, Hugh Banton and Dave Jackson for the much anticipated Van der Graaf Generator reunion concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 6th May. Tickets priced £20-£30 are selling fast! Be assured that Guy's VdGG commitments will not interfere with Subterraneans' plans for 2005 (once we know what they are). We think Robin is currently eating pizza, although we cannot be certain of this. Watch out for the Hampstead Artsweek issue of London weekly news rag "Ham & High" (it stands for Hampstead & Highgate, in case you don't get it) in mid-January. It will profile several local artists, including Jude, the late Deborah Weil, and legendary filmmaker Mike Liegh. November 2004 Jude will be reading from the diaries of Derek Jarman at the British Library's poetry recital "The Garden", at 8pm on Wednesday 24th November. He will be appearing alongside the novelist and poet Josephine Hart and the actress Charlotte Rampling. Tickets cost £7.50 and are available from the British Library & St. Pancras Conference Centre box office, Euston Road, London WC1. More archive pics added to gallery this month. Mostly taken during April May June rehearsals in 1993 by Moose, from whose website we nicked 'em. Cheers Moose.
Johnny Ramone 1948-2004 See the BLOG for a personal tribute to Johnny Ramone... July 2004
Jude’s new book CUL DE SAC: LYRICS, PROSE & POEMS 1987-2004 is published in the US this month by Lulu Books. The book is a large format paperback, 176 pages, and contains the complete lyrics for all Subterraneans songs, as well as a selection of Angelhead lyrics, plus poems, stories, and extensive notes and biographical details. If you are in North America you can pre-order your copy now from Barnes & Noble stores (ISBN 1-4116-0895-X). For everyone else, copies will be available from this website shortly, at the special introductory price of £14.99. Apologies if you were expecting live dates to have been announced by now, but unforeseen circumstances have forced the band to delay live plans temporarily. Shows will go ahead as soon as possible. May 2004 Loads of new content... On the Discography page, click on the sleeve images to access soundfiles (MP3 format). videos (WMV format), lyrics, notes etc. From the Words page you can access the new "Blog" online journal, extensive archive material, plus various politcal rants, several essays, and even some of Jude's sketches. Jude has begun work on a spoken word album of 17th century English Metaphysical poetry! Michael Wille Vargas has already agreed to supply the sleeve artwork for the project, provisionally titled CLOUDS UNFOLDED. Meanwhile Carl is remixing the new Marillion single... Subterraneans will begin rehearsing for forthcoming live shows later this month. From 20th May you may hear them if you are downwind of old Camden Town. SOUL MASS TRANSIT is scheduled for provisional indie release on 5th July.
Caron Keating RIP We were all saddened to learn that Caron Keating died on 13th April. Everyone knew Caron through her stint as certainly the most flamboyant presenter in the history of the BBC's "Blue Peter" show, and as the daughter of legendary Irish broadcaster Gloria Hunniford, but some may also remember her as the presenter of the groundbreaking 80s music show "Greenrock" in Ireland. She was a well liked and highly respected in the media for her intelligence, humour and integrity, shunning any pretence of a showbiz life in favour of being a real human being with a real flaws and real aspirations. I met her on several occasions (she even interviewed me for a short-lived late night show that I forget the name of, but I recall she also interviewed Curve, so it must have been a cool show) and I have an hilarious and enduring memory of her trying to manage multiple poodles whilst dealing with the parking attendant at the NCP in Wardour Street. Actually I think my dad was rather taken with her on that occasion. It was the Spring of 1992, the peak of her fame and pin-up status, she'd have been in her late twenties then I suppose. I heard she spent most of the last two years living in some place called Byron Bay. And she always wore such good hats... April 2004 Our pals down at Charleston are hosting an exhibition of Derek Jarman's "Black" paintings as part of this year's Charleston Festival. The exhibition opens on 2nd April (hence the early posting! Aren't we good to you?). Admission to the gallery is free. Last year saw a wonderful exhibition of photography by Patti Smith and the late Robert Mapplethorpe. You should NEVER miss anything these people do. If geography is a problem, move. Meanwhile, if you haven't yet caught the Roy Lichtenstien retrospective at the Hayward Gallery, you've got until the 15th May to do so. Can't stress enough what a rare and completely satisfying exhibition this one is. Well done South Bank! Patti Smith... there she was at St. Giles t'other week, talking and singing of her Blakean year (we've just had two of those). It was a typically unique Patti experience. Milton, Byron, Shelley, John Flaxman, and now Patti Smith. Quite a gig. Her new album TRAMPIN' is out on 26th of this very month... Subterranean news then... Rehearsals begin this month for the much anticipated LIVE THING. The noticeboard has been fixed. Also, there is a lot of new content on the site. Visit the WORDS page to access it. Question: whose bright idea was it to combine pineapple and coconut? They don't go together!!! Like chocolate and gherkin, or olives and custard... And what ever happened to the Banoffee muffins you used to be able to get at Coffee Republic? Did it go the way of the Maxwell's banana split? Time stands still for no one...
John McGeoch RIP I'd been thinking about John McGeoch a lot recently. Nik Jameson and I had been talking about Magazine, a conversation you can't have without singling out McGeoch as one of the best. It had inspired me to include one of their songs in the live set, something which I discussed with the others only a week ago. Also, working on B.'s stuff had pointed me in several directions, one being that of McGeoch's former bandmate Barry Adamson. And I listened to the Banshees just days ago for the first time in aeons. And when I say Banshees, I mean Juju; always was their best work to my ears. I met him only once, just after a PiL soundcheck at the Aston Villa Leisure Centre in 1992. John Lydon hadn't been at the soundcheck, and McGeoch giggled as he told me that he was fairly sure Lydon would actually be at the gig... We talked about Nirvana a bit, about how over-cooked he thought Nevermind was. And that is all I can remember. John McGeoch (or was it McGeogh? No one knows...) was right up there with Keith Levene, Will Sergeant and Alan Rankine. He was one of the most inspiring and sonically interesting post-punk guitarists. Neither Magazine nor the Banshees were ever the same without him. We'd been sorely missing him already, and now the hole can't be filled. I'm sure over the coming days you'll hear many other people rapping on about the greatness of John McGeoch. If you don't know why, then go to your record store and find out. The man deserves no less. March 2004 If you haven't heard The Sound's BBC REDCORDINGS album, rectify this immediately by visiting www.renascent.co.uk with your credit card. If it isn't one of the best live records you've ever heard I will personally refund your money. Ahem... But it is utterly fantastic. I can't quite believe it's five years since Adrian Borland left us. We miss the guv'ner. You still rock Adi. February 2004 Hurrah for Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation... not only is it a wonderful, funny, moving, thought provoking, beautiful and sublime film, but it also kicked the shit out of Cold Mountain at the Baftas... Several baubles, including best actor for Bill Murray (love the Roger Moore moment) and best actress for Scarlett Johansson, who we've loved ever since the movie of Ghost World... Having previously brought up the subject of Constantin Brancusi via Patti Smith's Radio Ethiopia, this last weekend I attended the Brancusi exhibition at the Tate Modern (Brancusi - The Essence of Things, until 23rd May, admission £8). Aside from the fact that the Tate has chosen to exhibit Newborn II upside down (for reasons most probably due to their sheer ignorance of Brancusi), it is a lively exhibition. Having only ever previously seen Brancusi's work in context - such as The Kiss as it appears in Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris - I was both impressed and slightly saddened at the sight of his works treated to such typcial Tate clinicality. Most saddening is the fact that there is so little of it. And the sight of The Kiss preserved in a glass box instead of living in the wind, drenched in the Parisien rain and baked in the sun is, alas, less than personal. It was also the first time I had seen the indoor sunrise on display in the Turbine Hall. Job's a good 'un. The Tate Modern is improving steadily, but they still do nothing as well as the original Tate Gallery across the river... - Jude January 2004 Read all about it... Click here to read background on the new album SOUL MASS TRANSIT Click here to read Jude's essay on Bloomsbury November 2003 Greetings from
Subterraneans HQ in old Camden Town. Would we bounce back?
Indeed, and here we are with a new-look website to
celebrate the completion of the new album SOUL MASS
TRANSIT. Many thanks are due to our friends and comrades
for hanging out and not hanging us. Thank you. Xtra
special bigs up to our friends in the electronic ether,
especially HOLLY LERSKI and MARIA McKEE, both of whom have
proven with music in 2003 that you should listen to
everything we tell you because if you don't you'll miss
something vital. Keith Richard says he hated Jim Morrison because he hates poets. I think that sums up Keith Richard more eloquently than any retort ever could. Interestingly, research seems to indicate that Keith Richard has actually been dead longer than Jim Morrison. What do you reckon to the new-look site? Yeah, we thought so. |
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Ray Manzarek
