Entertainment For Lively Minds
New podcast, with Steve Lillywhite. He's produced EVERYTHING.
"I'm the producer as Good Bloke," says Steve Lillywhite, the man who's applied his youthful enthusiasm for the last forty years to globe girdling smashes from everyone from U2 through Peter Gabriel and the Rolling Stones to his late wife Kirsty MacColl.
Sitting in the home studio where he recorded the vocals for Fairy Tale Of New York he talks about working with Eddie & The Hot Rods, the Pretenders, U2, Simple Minds, Brian Eno and Jared Leto and almost everybody else. He also advances his case as the judge that American Idol really needs. You know it makes sense.
This week's podcast is available in its entirety on both the new subscriber-only podcast feed, and on the old free feed, in order to facilitate a smooth transition between one and the other. If you're a subscriber and haven't set up your podcast feed yet, you can do so here.
It works
on't Pod with App and full shred in iTunes.
no longer peeved
Glasgow
As a subscriber
may I be the first to complain about those unwashed, freeloading non-subscribers and how they continue to sponge off us cash-paying listeners with not even a thank-you or tug of the forelock.
I believe a ;-) is in order at this point.
For different reasons I can't subscribe,
but since I'm paying GBP12,30 per issue here in Norway I don't see myself as a freeloader.
Likewise
I pay twelve quid an issue here in Australia for the air mail edition.
At that price, I almost expect Fraser to call round and deliver it personally (and perhaps even read it to me).
As a subscriber
must I really be expected to suffer the ill-informed twittering and class warfare-type jibes of our less fortunate Word brothers-in-listening?
Might I suggest a two-tier blog where subscribers receive premium treatment and an automatic 5 ups for every comment, and a standard class blog where the comments are only open between 1.00a.m. and 7 a.m. and topics are limited to Stewart Lee and Prog?
To sum up:
;-) ;-) ;-) ;-)
why? mojoworking
I live in Australia and subscribe. Works out cheaper and you get the nice front covers without all the promo headlines at same time as airmail edition is in (some) newsagents.
Averages about $10 (Australian) per issue with the current exchange rate which is a lot less than 12 quid.
Several reasons guy incognito
If I only read one magazine every month, there would be no problem. But as well as The Word, I also buy several other music mags (Mojo, Uncut, Record Collecor, Classic Rock etc - plus all the special one-off editions (and until recently, the now all-but-unreadable Aussie edition of Rolling Stone).
Then there's Viz, Private Eye, the BBC's excellent History Today and also a couple of car mags (including the painfully laddish Top Gear – yes, I know).
So, as you can see, it all adds up. On top of that I do already pay for a UK subscription to The Word for my kids in London (start 'em young, I say), but prefer to pay as I go with my own copies.
I wasn't complaining about the price, btw. It's worth every penny. I was just emphasising my unflagging level of devotion to The Word in the face of a not-inconsiderable financial outlay ;-)
As I mentioned on an earlier thread, I recently picked up a subscribers' issue of the Suede edition of The Word (with the beautifully unadorned cover) in a newsagent in Australia. I guess they had some left over and sent them overseas.
No worries
Was more pointing out how cheap the subscription was in comparison.
Agree with Oz edition Rolling Stone going downhill too. I now just borrow a copy from local library to just read the non-music related articles syndicated from the US edition. Sad really.
I take your point
totally guy, but I suppose it's the initial $120 outlay that makes me think twice about an international subscription. Especially as I buy so many magazines every month.
I forgot to mention in my earlier post that I also buy one or two of the UK/US guitar magazines every month. Even though these days they mostly carry features about grown men in unfeasibly baggy shorts and bad facial hair holding pointy guitars (and the letters pages make YouTube comments read like PG Wodehouse), but sometimes you get the odd vintage guitar feature or interview with someone interesting like Clapton, Beck or Page.
RS are doing a great deal on digital subscriptions
I'm paying something like $3 an issue for the full, unexpurgated US edition delivered through Zinio onto the iPad.
It's music coverage is woeful but, as always, the news/politics articles are indispensable.
Ooh, I like the sound of this
Hopefully includes an in depth analysis of The Members "At The Chelsea Nightclub"...
Kite
Just heard the great Steve Lillywhite podcast...good stuff word chaps! ....oh and by the way a kite is a cheque, I can't be the only one common enough to know that surely? Mind you D. Gilmour's no slouch in the class dept.
You're right. It is.
Thank goodness somebody can keep us in touch with the street.
And 'flying a kite' was a term for
writing a cheque one knew was going to bounce in the days before cheque cards.
but is that Lillywhite or the young Hepworth in the above pic?
Frankly it could be both !
Strictly speaking
...it could be either. Couldn't be both. Unless one is wearing a mixing-desk-hat.
Actually...
...that mixing desk does look like a face. I haven't seen a pic of Steve Lilywhite for years so it might be him.
"So we did the whole first (U2) album with a Flying V"
Oops, that's Gibson Explorer, surely?
and
"Adam (Clayton) didn't know how to play a 12 bar blues for years".
I can't find the words to comment on that.
Great podcast though. Steve tells some great stories and his enthusiasm leaps out of the speakers.
The Clayton bit
certainly has the ring of truth.
Yes, it was an Explorer
I remember an Edge interview when War released, and he said they'd got Steve Lillywhite in again because they fancied working with someone/anyone else but couldn't think of (or find) anybody. And that he only got his Les Paul and Strat after Boy.
"Indie rock bores me to fuck"...
I was quite enjoying Steve Lillywhite's interesting - if somewhat rambling - recollections when suddenly his thoughts coalesced into the moment of blinding clarity and truthfulness transcribed above.
Sir, I am in total agreement.
And if you're reading this, Peter Gabriel's third album is a masterpiece, so thanks for that.
I shall keep my thoughts about Dirty Work to myself.
I've only just realised
that Steve Lillywhite and Steve Levine are two seperate people.
When's Eno due in the pod ?
Great talker if that Arena doc of a couple of yrs ago was anything to go by.
Am I the only person who cringed when...
... Steve said "I am a good bloke" ..?
And he can't half talk, mind. Interesting stories about the Peter Gabriel and Rolling Stones albums, and an interesting take on the fabled U2 dynamic...
... but I would have loved to have heard a bit more about Kirsty.
No, I cringed
when he prefaced his "good bloke" status with the phrase, "I'm the guy that talks about tits".
If that's the only qualification/justification needed, then may I state that I am a fucking great bloke. Really, really great.
Curiously
The Hep didn't point out that all producers do is make sure the mics are turned on.
Cover Art
Enjoyed the Lillywhite's podcast.
Is there any chance of us getting cover art for future podcasts? The ol' generic Ellen and Hepworth mugs from the iTunes Store subscription would be fine.
Yours Obsessively and Compulsively,
James
try this...
go to http://cdn.webstatics.net/podcast/podcastimage_169689.gif
right click the image and select 'copy image'
open itunes
highlight your word podcast(s)
In the bottom left corner (where you can modify artwork), right click and 'paste'
Should do the trick. IIRC Fraser said that the way they have the podcasts hosted, the artwork doesn't come automatically. Not sure why.
Thank You Ivan
.
Was he rattling...
loads of jewellery or rosary beads about?
Steve Lillywhite. He's produced EVERYTHING
including Simple Minds' Sparkle In The Rain, unfortunately.
Sparkle In The Rain
I really like that album.
Don't get me wrong
I actually like Simple Minds. I think NGD is a masterpiece for example, and Theme For GreatCities is a great instrumental, but for me Sparkle is just a bit of an empty noise. Plus the production makes it sound thin, brittle and nasty.
Sparkle In The Rain
once described in the NME, I think, as "the sound of someone throwing a drumkit down a flight of stairs".
Damn sight better than Once Upon A Time, though
I remember that quote
A friend expanded it with "...while river dancing".
Couple of great songs though but I preferred the more straight up and down rhythms on the earlier albums, it seemed to fit better somehow
Good pod.
But hang on Steve, either making records is like making a movie, or it isn't. Make yer mind up!
the podcast
Really enjoyed this podcast but wanted to hear more about the infamous sole La's album.
Did the record label have to eventually steal the masters to release the album against Lee Mavers' wishes as legend has it?
What was the recording process like? Was it true Mavers refused to use any of that there new fangled technology?
Anyone know what he did with Keith Emerson?
Ta
New Word T-Shirt Slogan
Superb quote from Heppo -
"Can't remember what we did yesterday, but Chris Parry signed Siouxsie And The Banshees".
Great podcast.
Great 'cast
IMHO "An Evening With Steve Lilywhite" podcast where questions from the subscribers are sent in.
I'd have loved to hear more about The La's and, especially, something about Vauxhall & I, Morrissey's finest hour and a wonderful production job.
Great podcast, although…
I would venture that it's more likely the So album (and it's associated singles) paid for Real World studios rather than PG3. After all, PG4/ Security was recorded in a shed (based on the pics in the remaster)
My favourite guest to date.
While the old memory was a bit scratchy his honesty, enthusiasm and energy were a real treat. He didn't shirk any question and I could have listened to him for much, much longer.
Can you get him back please?
Congrats
On his well deserved CBE. Her maj must subscribe to the podcast
and also
like talking about tits.
that's a bit harsh
on poor ol' Quentin Letts, isn't it?
Actually, no. no it isn't. As you were.