Entertainment For Lively Minds
Who are the crossest groups in rock?
Posted by David Hepworth on 20 April 2010 - 1:09pm.
Listening to the new Teenage Fan Club record in the office. Sounds mellower than usual to my ears. But then, said somebody, maybe they're not angry anymore? But then again, interposed another, they weren't ever what you'd call cross, were they?
Which made me think, who holds the title of angriest group in rock? And who were the tetchiest? And who were the bitchiest? And the most cynical? Who's worn the grumpy trousers for so long they're almost sewn into them? Who's the cross patch? Who gets the prize for waspishness? There are manifold sub divisions of snide and we want a winner in each category.
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Henry Rollins
always appeared, to me at least, more than a little cross.
No!
Henry Rollins is hilarious. I don't think he's cross at all, really.
I'm not sure
there's a lot of his rants on line 60,000 of them!
http://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=navclient&hl=en-GB&ie=UTF-8&rlz=...
Shows someone not a peace with himself plus what's with all the bad tats?
Crass
Always sounded like they had stayed up past their bedtime to me.
Beat me to it.
They were the first that sprung to mind for me. All their chums who were released on Crass Records were pretty cross, too.
Penny has been writing for N16 magazine for the past few years and he's still angry, though the focus of his ire seems to have shrunk to Hackney Council.
PJ Harvey
always struck me as a stroppy madam.
Funnily enough
I've been putting off reading the Paul Weller interview in the current issue because over the last few years I got fed up of reading countless moany groany interviews with him. So I swore I would not waste any more time on "the grumpy sod father". It's odd I don't mind his music but can't bear his whinging any longer. Same goes for MR too Kool for skool Bobby Gillespie a man perpetually stuck in 1979 but not in a good way .
Plus it's an excuse to post this again
Actually Paul
is in really good humour in the interview. Best I've heard in ages renewed my faith in the guy which had been a bit shaken of late.
Agreed
I enjoyed the interview much more than I expected to. And I heard a song of the new album on the radio the other day and I thought it to be bloody excellent.
Luke Haines
- most misanthropic? Even hated half his band.
Luke Haines
It's more an act than anything. Saw him live last week and he was a delight.
You can't slag Luke off,
not today of all days.
Very special
You have to love someone who picked this as the first dance at his wedding :
The Glitter Band - Goodbye My Love
Lou Reed
Reminds me of a teenager whose blood sugar level has spiked.
Ah yes, "Chuckles" Reed...
he was the first to spring to mind when I read this thread.
Oh yes
a bottomless pit of mirth-making and no mistake.
John Cale judging by his current 'haircut' has some semblance of a sense of humour but I once saw him berate an audience member for smoking (there was a sign up to be fair)..needless to say cig was quickly extinguished. You don't want to mess with JC.
think JC may be "serious"
at times but get the feeling he's good natured seen him interviewed and he didn't seem grumpy and seemed aware of various ironies of his chosen career etc. that being said not my first choice of stand up either.
Thom Yorke
I think the poor lamb is just very shy and not good with people, but he does seem to bite everyone's head off. It's a shame, because I think his heart's probably in the right place.
And Bobby Gillespie. Good GOD. I wouldn't piss down his throat if his heart was on fire.
Living in Oxford as I do...
I know several people who have met him and they all tend to say the same thing - treat him like a normal person and he's as nice as pie, treat him like he's a rock star and he can be very standoffish.
*drops name*
I've known Bobby since we were twelve (he lived in the same street as my Granny) and any time I've bumped into him down the years at gigs or Record Fairs he's been good company. We're by no means buddy-buddy friends, but I think it's a similar case to Thom Yorke - if you treat him as a bloke, he'll be fine.
Get
Bent!
Working in Brighton bars
I've only ever seen him do the Rock star bit and he's a total twunt.
Doll By Doll
... were always pretty surly. A great band, but surly.
Yet Jackie Leven
Is hilarious now when you see him. Got a lot of funny stories.
Also, Billy "Laughing Boy" Corgan...
...is the very epitome of the old Bill Bailey song:
Isn't it "Whenever God Shines His Light" Hitmaker
Mr Van Morrison?
He is not a group but he is very grumpy
The Caledonian Mr Magoo can be included...
for the reason that his grumpiness outgrumps most bands.
re. caledonian mr magoo
Nice one! I-ll remember that description of Mr Morrison
Van Caledonian?
Surely you mean Hibernian?
Van Morrison and the Hibernian Soul Orchestra?
Naaa, doesn't work :-)
Van Morrissey
A marriage made in grumpy Heaven!
All that rap-metal lot
Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Korn and their ilk - they always seem very angry... probably because they've been told they have to tidy their room else they're grounded
They fuck you up, your mum and dad...
and they mean to! It's soooo unfair! I'm going off to get a really big tattoo and a pair of shorts... that'll teach them!
Shut up!
You don't understand me - none of you do!
*stomps upstairs unnecessarily loudly*
Girl All The Bad Guys Want
There's a great line in that about the pouty object of his affections - "her cd changer's full of singers that are mad at their Dads". Skewered, right there.
What about the Manics?
Self-opinionated bastards.
(Pot/kettle alert)
Just Nicky, really.
He's a professional twatty motormouth, but not necessarily that cross. James and Sean are lovely, if a little shy and odd.
Self-opinionated bastards?
Not much different to most of us here, then, in one respect at least.
Einstürzende Neubauten
Bit noisy and shouty. Calm down and have a nice cup of tea.
They can't
as they are using the stove and kettle to making muzik of der klankenfest. Nicht wahr?
It's a much over-used expression
But I really did laff out loud at that. Thanks.
Echo
and the Bunnymen?
Has Ian McCulloch EVER smiled? Ever? Some great tunes but they are professional grumps.
The Ramones
Jonny always seemed to be in a bad mood; DeeDee was angry; Joey seemed troubled; and the other one must have had a permanent ache in his right forearm.
Once had dinner with the Ramones....
....in a Chinese restaurant in Cambridge. They were staggeringly miserable.
I was introduced to Joey once
and he seemed like a child, even though he was about twenty years older than me. Nice though. Must have been hard for him in that band. Don't think he quite fit.
The Stranglers
Hugh Cornwell always looks p-ed off, in fact they all did. The others must definitely be p-ed off these days cos if Hugh returned they'd have a Specials-like reunion tour dividend. As it is they seem to play ever-shrinking venues to people who only want them to 'do some old'.
Amuses me that 20-odd years after leaving the band
Hugh Cornwell still uses a Stranglesque typeface for his name.
What about...
... The xx.
They didn't seem all that cross
when I saw them in Edinburgh. Quite pleasant (and very polite) when on stage - thanking everyone for coming to see them when we could have been at Grizzly Bear...
If my maths is correct
they must be twice as mad as X.
Isn't xx...
...equivalent to x², rather than twice x?
So I think the xx are x times crosser than x.
So they're actually x times x
that's xxx?
If this keeps multiplying,
we'll be onto this soon...
Name
I tend to call these either:
The Twenty
The Ten Ten
or The Kiss Kiss.
depending on mood.
Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror
never appeared particularly cheery when I saw them in the 80s. Neither did Steve Albini. Haven't seen his bands Shellac or Big Black but did see Rapeman and they were very, very cross. But then with a name like Rapeman it was never going to be overly jaunty.
Shellac (pronounced 'shullack')
are hilarious live. They take questions from the audience and do impromptu piss-takes of other bands.
The impression I have, never having
actually met the man, is that Roger Waters seems to fit most of the bill: tetchy, cynical, bitchy, grumpy. He can probably have an award for Rock Star With The Most Pronounced Father Issues.
Would that be...
...because he never met him? I think Waters senior was killed in WW2.
Probably..
But why should the record buying public pay for his therapy.
I believe he's alluded to the death of his father once or twice
en passant.
EDIT: This one just sprung to mind. Seems to explain his point of view fairly well :-)
It was just before dawn
One miserable morning in black 'forty four.
When the forward commander
Was told to sit tight
When he asked that his men be withdrawn.
And the Generals gave thanks
As the other ranks held back
The enemy tanks for a while.
And the Anzio bridgehead
Was held for the price
Of a few hundred ordinary lives.
And kind old King George
Sent Mother a note
When he heard that father was gone.
It was, I recall,
In the form of a scroll,
With gold leaf and all.
And I found it one day
In a drawer of old photographs, hidden away.
And my eyes still grow damp to remember
His Majesty signed
With his own rubber stamp.
It was dark all around.
There was frost in the ground
When the tigers broke free.
And no one survived
From the Royal Fusiliers Company C.
They were all left behind,
Most of them dead,
The rest of them dying.
And that's how the High Command
Took my daddy from me.
Slap me down if you must...
...But I think that's a great lyric, especially the second verse. I'm quite partial to the tune as well, baffled that it wasn't included on the LP, along with the extended version of "Empty Spaces"...
'When The Tigers...' was planned to be included on
the 'Spare Bricks' follow-up album to The Wall which, in the end, became The Final Cut.
It's only official release was on a 7" EP released to coincide (if memory serves) with the opening of the Wall movie.
It was included on Echoes.....
Think it was the EMI USP to get the wallets open.
What Shall We Do Now
Very nearly got on the Wall album, it was only cut very last minute because side two was becoming overlong. The lyrics to it were still printed on the album bag.
I was just...
thinking the very same thing about that lyric.As I was reading it,to my mind,was quite poetic.
I'm trying to remember all the Right-On 80's bands.
Who all got terribly angry about Mrs Thatch and wanted to smash the system, etc. The Exploited. They were part of it.
Billy Bragg was pretty angry as well. John Lydon is an angry man.
The Redskins
I seem to remember them being particularly intense. They were really very cross about Mrs. Thatch.
That's them!
I was struggling all afternoon to remember them. Terribly, terribly angry and worthy. I'm sure they spent all their spare time trying to sell copies of Socialist Worker. All I could come up with was a song called Pull Over The Statues. Now you've come upwith the group, I remember it was Kick Over The Statues. Which was why Google was no help earlier.
Shit, isn't it?
It wasn't terribly kind of
It wasn't terribly kind of someone to paint 'BO' on the screen at 1:45 either. Personal hygiene is a very sensitive matter and that sort of thing would make me angry too.
The Gang of Four never struck me as terribly happy-go-lucky sorts.
I think I'd be most afraid to meet Walter and Donald though.
I kind of like it
....sorry
The Exploited
I think glue may have been part of the source of their rage.
Yaaaagghh!!!!!!
They don't make 'em like that any more! That made me want to jump up and down and have a fight!
Quality.
Mind you, one track's probably enough for now.
Billy is more indignant than angry
and very very funny to boot - always has been.
new
The Eagles always come across as a nasty bunch of people.In particular the drummer
It's that Glenn Frey you want to watch out for.
He was (allegedly) a nasty piece of work in his day.
Joni Mitchell
became a terrible grouch at some point in the mid-1980's and has never really found a way back. It's very unbecoming, especially in the woman with whom I had one day hoped to share two cats in the yard. Nowadays I imagine it would be an endless round of bickering about who's turn it was to dispose of the cat litter in an environmentally friendly way.
Think
she gets a bad press and regularly dismissed in her latter period as a haridan and a harpie. Unlike fellow Canuck Neil Young - who makes the same points about the war and the environment and the business but is acclaimed as some sort of grizzled poet-warrior.
Which reminds me - look up miserable, whiny and self-obsessed in a phrase book and there's a picture of ol' Neil scowling right backatcha!
Cigarettes and Coffee
Joni Mitchell visited Auckland 21 years ago on a promo trip. She promptly got the flu and spent nearly a week in her hospital bed; all press was cancelled. On the day she emerged, an interview was set up with Peter Thomson, the very enthusiastic freelancer (and Joni scholar) who contributed to the music magazine I edited. I drove him there and waited to take him home. They hit it off and conversational sparks flew for an intense hour. After that, a press conference. No one else showed up except for a pompous ex hippy allegedly working for a community paper,and the grizzled photographer of the big city daily. The record company asked, would I sit in, to make up the numbers?
Around a small table we gathered and Joni and Peter continued their rave. Copious amounts of cigarettes and coffee were consumed by Joni. I was embarrassed by how little I knew about her work. She was charming, funny, saucy and articulate to the max. (I do remember her commenting about the rampant male egotism backstage at The Last Waltz, a "celebration", not an ego fest). The other three of us just sat there, stunned. After another engrossing hour listening to the two new, fast friends, the old newspaper photographer stood up and said, "Miss Mitchell, I've got to go now and photograph a race meeting. I hadn't heard of you when I was told to come here. But this has been the most fascinating encounter of my career."
Then Joni pulled out a guitar and serenaded us with three or four songs.
Would she mind, I asked, if I took her photograph with Peter? She grabbed him and gave him a big hug and the camera a magnificent grin.
Grump wasn't in her repertoire that day.
Great tale.
That's what I come here for. Have an up arrow on me.
Great story
Any film footage I've seen of her she comes across exactly as you describe.
She is strong, resilient and brave and as true to her muse as a Dylan or a Cohen. But they're men - so they're allowed to be.
Wayne Shorter
When Wayne Shorter played with Joni, he was struggling with the chords and harmonies she had written. He asked "what kind of music is this? It's not like anything I've ever played". She said "it's Joni Mitchell music". She is Sui generis.
Great story
Lovely story
You're making me wish I hadn't drowned the cats.
Just going from lyrics/music/songs
I think the Arctic Monkey man sounds like a right whingebag. There's something sneery about their general output that I'm not too keen on.
And let's not forget the Fannies are the band what wrote:
True....
...happy positive jingle jangle on record and live (3 times I've seen 'em) faces that would turn the milk sour. Cheer up lads, it might not happen!
I've seen The Fannies twice
and both times it was like a really good party with an ace band, admittedly both gigs were hometown shows
I've been to loads of Fannies gigs
and only one or two have been anything less than very cheery events, and they were when TFC were either the support or on a festival bill. Headlining to their own audience, they've been nothing less than fun fun fun...
Two were festivals...Fleadh and Reading
...one was the Brixton Academy, and I also went to a signing for Sparky's Dream at HMV Oxford Street, London. I said a cheery hello to the lads and, well, nothing. Look, I know it's a chore but but the A&R bloke was trying to get their record into the top 40 with the resultant sales for the album. And these people have come in their lunch hour to see you. That would suggest to me at least, a cheery hello back is the least you can do.
New Model Army...
..unless I missed a joke?
Once saw Teddy Thompson
and he was a right miserable fucker. Moaning about the lights, the sound, the audience. Doesn't have the grace or the talent of his old man.
Howsabout
Angry..... Miserable....
Why take both into the shower when you could have Ms. Patti Smith, oh and a rubdown from her sunny brother Mark?
"Allen Klein - best lawyer in the world?
He's not even the best lawyer in The Beatles"
The jolly old Fab Four were not above a touch of pettiness, cynicism, back-stabbing, deviousness and general unpleasantness were they?
now
that is a v.funny comment!
Angry? Here's a man who believes in homicide...
...but if he ever came up for parole they'd find he'd already let himself go (ahem)... I have a great clip of the chaps doing this on the OGWT in 1979 - the most ridiculous gurning and pouting and sneering you've ever seen - except, alas, it isn't on youtube... Also not on youtube is the clip from animated BBC NI satire show The Folks On The Hill featuring a cartoon Peter Robinson MP (but not for much longer!) in punk gear singing a song entitled 'I'm An Angry Man'...
Rose Tattoo.
Lead singer: Angry Anderson.
By all reports,
actually a lovely bloke. Manned the chocolate wheel at my wife's school fete when she was a kid. True.
And he sang
the soppy song on Scott'n'Charlene's wedding. Pussy. :-)
"Manning the chocolate wheel"
Isn't that one of Frank Skinner's favourite bedtime pursuits?
these chaps are a wee ray of sunshine too at times
In Song yes.
Worked with Slayer about 2 years ago. seriously nice guys and totally professional and brilliant towards the fans.
The difference between Mark E Smith
and a ray of sunshine is not hard to discern.
(Applies to most Fall fans too)
Mark E Smith
Once tore up a book I had contributed to, on stage. Bastard.
Still love him, though.
Not exactly rock, but..
didn't Miles Davis have a world-beating reputation for waspishness?
And tetchy? I think you'll find Charles Mingus fits the bill.
And Ginger Baker has always struck me as a right grumpy old git. Mick Jagger too, actually.
You should read Ginger's book
It's all in there, apparently.
Robert Fripp
Can be exceptionally surly to us "Basement Dwellers"/ non musicians who are normal fans.
Mind you, judging by what Bill Bruford's said, even his bandmates can find him hard work.
Don't EVER take a photograph of him whilst he's working.
He really doesn't like that :-)
Bruford
on the other hand was very droll and funny on that Prog Britannia thing on BBC4. I notice he has a book out, anyone recommend it?
Very good book
definitely worth a read, it's also quite a big book. Not just about him but also the nature of being a musician, music today etc, and his ruminations on being an aging jazzer in a Young Turk's world.
Seconded...
Apart from being written in that dry, eyebrow-raised style that he has, it's one of the best books I've ever read about what motivates musicians to be musicians.
A litany of groupie shagging and drugs it isn't :-)
El Frippo
We hung around outside the Oxford Town Hall before a King Crimson gig once just after "Islands" had been released. Frippy and the band walked past and a mate of mine said to him something "Hello, Mr Fripp, haven't quite got into the new album yet". "Well, fack orf then" came the jolly reply.
Another 'Chuckles' Fripp anecdote
As many of you will be aware, Fripp plays sitting on a stool, often in the shadows well over toward the wings.
Apparently someone wrote to him complaining that, at the gig they'd recently attended, they could only see Fripp for 30% of the time.
He sent them a refund of 70% of the ticket price and asked them not to attend any more of his shows.
(note: The above is merely unverified backstage gossip)
I've heard that one too
and my own anecdote involves him dismissing me form his his presence with the word "Go away, boy" as I'd dare ask (as a naive 19yr old, and this was before the internet) for an autograph after a gig. His missus, was sweetness and light to her fans (it was a Sunday All Over The World gig) whilst he was cross and surly.
I love the music but really think the man could do with a lesson in decent behaviour despite all the shite aphorisms he spouts.
Frippery
s'ok, I saw him make a complete ersepiece of himself on primetime BBC when his missus (Toyah) had her "Is this Your Life" moment. I only watched it because as a KC Heid I hoped he might pop up. Fact is he blubbed like a "proper gurly", it made me cringe and watch t'telly 'atween fingers. It doesn't appear to be on YT.
It'll show up eventually, then you shall have that day in the sun! :D
Try not to cough
or take photos around Keith Jarrett. His tetchiness earned him a ban from at least one international jazz festival.
Patti Smith has a similar view of gig photographers - the amateur ones, anyway.
Ry Cooder
strikes me as a little grumpy. Seems not to like the British, either.
Toys and Pram part company.
Gets funnier with age that one
"Amateurs...!!!" cried the consummate professionals, The Stone Roses.
Can't help thinking the BBC engineer was just gave up waiting for Ian Brown to hold the tune in the particularly large bucket he had just been handed and decided to pull the fuse out.
It's only with hindsight..
..that one realises the vast racks of primitive computers being used at the time to run Autotune placed enormous demands on the power supplies even when conventional vocalists were in the studio. Technicians, forgetting that it was Ian Brown's turn that night, left the system turned on and.. well. there was only one way of protecting the National Grid..
this lot were very angry
and pretty crap when I saw them in 1985
not quite the effect intended.
1978. The "Old Grey Whistle Test" is trying to move beyond 20 minute specials on Jesse Collin Young and Felix the Cat clips to new cuts by Greenslade. I've just finished my homework and watching it mildly embarassedly with my mother who was, by then in her late 50s and more a fan of light tenors, and continues my lately departed father's line in abject incomprehension of youth culture after Frank Ifield. Sham 69 come on with film of them at Roundhouse, giving it loads. My mother's coment: "Darling, why's that barrowboy so cross?".
In hindsight I rather understand her view.
The Kinks
The Kinks really are very cross, in a way that families get cross at Christmas.
At one of their last concerts (about 20 years ago) I really did think that I was intruding on a argument about who was going to do the washing up or something.
And didn't Mick Avory once almost decapitate Dave Davies on stage with a cymbal?
It's what made the George Lamb interview with Ray so purile.
Of course he's a bit grumpy....it's Ray bloody Davies!!!
Might never happen, etc
Ironically they never 'Felt Good' about anything
That photograph captures them...
in one of their more jovial moments.
Looks like the extras in Life on Mars
Have an up arrow for the caption on your post, Mr. Pants.
Funnily enough
If I was casting an imaginary biopic of them I thought John Simm would make a good Lee? Anyone else see it? No?
I agree
I also think, given his love of music, that he would do it.
So who are the Seven Dwarfs of rock?
Grumpy - Van Morrison
Doc - Hank Wangford
Dopey - Pete Docherty
Sleepy - Thom Yorke
Happy - Stuart Cable
Bashful - Agnetha Faltskog
Sneezy - Martha Reeves*
*purely on the strength of her song, "Bless You".
Sneezy
Bob Geldof - Someone's Looking Atchoo
Discharge
went to school with this lot and they were seriously angry. Loved the Crass (Band) comments above.
Minor Threat and Fugazi are pretty angry but Ian Mackaye is seriously mellow in The Evens.
Chrissie Hynde
Always comes across as the most humourless woman alive
It's probably because she got sore feet...
from walking around all day in shoes made from straw or lettuce or whatever the hell she uses.
Oh my!
I nearly spat tea at the screen!
Yup, my vote would go to Chrissie Hynde.
Christmas must have been especially fun during her liaison with Ray Davies.
This man put the comedy
back into having a aneurysm.
Killer Mike
It ain't rock, per se, but he is PISSED.
Keith Jarrett
For his extended (and often breathtaking) piano improvisations Keith Jarrett enters a state of super-intense communion with certain higher powers, and God help anyone in the audience who should in any way interfere with this process. At the Free Trade Hall in Manchester 1982, one reckless individual thought it would be nice to take a couple of snaps of Jarrett in mid-flow. But he reckoned without Jarrett's spidey-sense. Suddenly, there was silence, followed by a lengthy and elaborate tirade that must have reduced the unfortunate snapper to a quivering jelly.
I'm an Artist - and you'll know all about it
As a spotty social secretary in the late 70's I hosted an act from Canterbury - I'll call them Winnebago.
Their contract rider expressed a requirement for amongst other things, white wine.
What did we know ? I'm from the Medway Towns !
Bottles of fluid were provided and fell some distance short of the lads' expectations and I was the recipient of a doubtless much-needed, but not massively well-received, lecture on the merits and de-merits of the available vine-based options.
I can still hear bits of it now.
Listen to wreckless eric's radio show via his website.
It's fab !
Lucinda Williams gets my
Lucinda Williams gets my vote.
You DONT want to be her ex !
A lot of her brilliant lyrics dont hold back !
heres another two
Lydia Lunch
Jello Biafra
digging deep
Over at the Joni v Bob thread...
The answer seems to be Joni Mitchell at the moment. She comes across as a musical Ayn Rand these days. Only more left wing, obviously.
God help you
if Christy Moore catches you singing clapping or speaking while he plays. Apart from that he-s good fun though.
rose tattoo
featuring angry anderson on vocals?
Already had him (see above)
apparently he's good at stroking the chocolate donkey or something.
attention to detail
not my strong suit
as a back up I suggest the birthday party though menacing may be more fitting than crossest
Stroking the *what*?
Blimey.
I once met Sonic Youth
in the centre of Glasgow on a Sunday afternoon back in 1986. They seemed quite cheerful until I explained that due to the then current licensing laws no bars or resturants were open at that time. After that they got very grumpy.
EBTG
The most angry band I've ever come across was, by quite some distance, Everything But The Girl.
I’d been commissioned to photograph them for the cover of NME and it was in the early years of NME having full colour covers. And in those days, they always insisted on having very strong colours on the cover because it was still a bit of a novelty.
I went over to Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn’s flat in Hampstead and found it to be very monochromatic with very little colour anywhere. I said to them “We’re going to have to go outside to to this.” At which suggestion, they both flew into a real hissy fit and refused point blank.
I then said “Well, fine but it probably won’t go on the cover then.”
On hearing this Ben Watt went into the longest sustained four letter word rant that I’ve ever had to endure.
I’m not exactly sure why, even to this day. It wasn’t particularly warm outside but it wasn’t cold or raining. And it was a long time before his well known health problems. At the end of their road was a massive park called Hampstead Heath. But they refused, absolutely, to even step an inch outside their front door. Who knows, maybe they’d spent all morning cleaning up their flat up and they didn’t want all that effort to go to waste.
What is more likely is that they were rather proud of their lovely flat, with it’s Louise Brooks prints and black and white check tiles and all and they were desperate for the world to see it.
Anyway, I took the photos inside their flat as they wished, they weren't too bad but, as I expected, they were completely monochromatic. So it didn’t go on the cover.
And I got paid about half of what I would have got, if it had.
I just think that EBTG must have been going through a bit of a bad time and they just took it out on me. I mentioned the above to a guitar tech I met, that had been on an American tour with EBTG. He told me that Ben Watt hadn’t managed to say “please” or “thank you” to him once, the entire tour.
So it wasn't just me.
Really?!
I've heard Tracey Thorn can be a little elusive and publicity-shy, but I interviewed her last week (via email, admittedly) and she was extremely responsive and helpful. I do get the feeling she'd rather she didn't have to do promo, but I'm sure she's hardly alone there
I suppose everyone can have
I suppose everyone can have a bad day can't they. I'd met EBTG before and they seemed fine. But to subject someone to such a sustain barrage of invective in the privacy of ones own home struck me a being extraordinary.
On the other hand, I've photographed people with difficult reputations, like the above name Lydia Lunch and Billy Corgan, and found them to be real sweethearts.
we want
a book Derek
Thanks.
I'm certainly working on it.
and people sometimes mellow a little over 25 years :-)