Our second home...
This is a special joint podcast hosted by myself and me old mucker SatanKidneyPie.
Flung together by fate on our very first day of higher education by virtue of being designated the same shared house in a Bristol suburb by the university accommodation department.
We eyed each other warily at first. SKP with his Ministry of Sound compilations and Crystal Palace obsession. Myself with a skinny-fit Shed 7 t-shirt and a complete lack of football knowledge. But we shared a common belief in humanity and social justice and as Britpop ballooned and evolved (this was 1995) we united together as an inseparable force to root out new music and see as many gigs as our student budgets would allow. We lived together for 2 years and only parted ways because SKP had a year of work experience in a power plant as part of his degree course.
All tracks on this podcast are from bands whose gigs we attended together mostly from 1995/96/97 but going through to 2002 just before I left for Japan. Which pretty much makes it a one-stop Britpop bop shop!
The podcast itself was recorded over many time zones using the incredible technology of Skype and the easy to use functions of my Macbook. SKP is a wee bit quiet and unclear for most of part one, sorry about that, but luckily I had an expert technological assistant on hand to help out (erm.....Mrs Japanther suggested turning up the volume!) which seemed to work and he is much more audible for part two. So, apologies for the all-round poor sound quality (we hope you do persevere), but we like to think of it as the lo-fi DIY approach, and we'd much rather be the Magoo of podcasting than the U2!
What's the 5904 miles you ask? Well, it's the distance between Birmingham and Tokyo innit!
Bends For 5904 Miles - Part 1
Bends For 5904 Miles - Part 2
NB: Can listen here or in Dropbox with individual tracks attached.
27 comments:
What he said. Enjoy!
Yes!!
That's my fave RFTC song, love it! I saw their UK debut gig at the Garage in Highbury way back when, twas super awesome!
No way, I went to Uni with a Welsh Steve too!!
Nice! Dilemma: Save it for the trip, or listen to it today as I get ready for it?
@Blimpy - spooky! did he have the ability to grow a full beard in two days and an unhealthy U2 obsession?
@Ejay - listen now! It's all good getting-ready music!
Just started listening back for the first time... I sound like I'm speaking from a diving bell at the bottom of the ocean.
@Blimpy - Young Livers is my favourite RFTC song, too. Was that debut gig on the Scream, Dracula, Scream tour which Japanther and I saw them on, or was it earlier?
SDS had just come out, musta been the same tour
Ah, Kenickie: Marie Du Santiago was my favourite, and they were responsible for me spending most of the mid 90s with glittery, um, everything, and covered in PVC or fake fur. Cheers girls!
When we visited Bristol at half-term I was almost as excited at seeing the legendary thekla as hubby was at seeing SS Great Britain. Tragic, I know.
Urusei Yatsura (the manga anyway) is about an alien princess who wears a bikini, usually, falling in love with a stupid earth boy. It's very silly. Kewpies like watermelon is surely a reference to the superhuge chests manga characters exhibit?
I've always found that blokes I know rate SFA but women don't. It may have something to do with the fact that I know/knew a lot of Welsh stoners. Those special mushrooms grow everywhere in Wales! I've seen SFA four times and every time has felt like a chore. I like the singles but full on rocking out SFA, no ta.
I was seeing Hefner when you were at Reading! It was 1998.
Really enjoyed the banter, especially rembering old venues like upstairs at the Garage, and also-rans like Magoo. Nice work boys! By the way, what were you tinkling against a glass or cup Japanther?
I don't know when I'm going to find time to listen to this, but I think it's great you two have managed to get this together. Am now feeling guilty about friendships I have allowed to wane over the years (wipes tear from eye)...
laid back, passionate, enjoyable - just how things should be - loved it ... I've just failed to do any work while listening (that might be straining to hear SKP in the first half) but cool.
How were the e-mails deciding tracks?
(and the Welsh Steve I knew was really called Jon ... now that's a long story)
aw...thanks for the nice comments everyone and cheers for persevering through the dodgy sound.
@TracyK
- Marie DE SANTIAGO, that's it! couldn't remember her last name, wondering what the other Kenickies are doing now...
- was it as late as 1998 for Reading? I think you may well be right, and were you really in the same tent?!
- I was a regular down the Thekla for a Saturday night and had to endure the "Mis-Shapes"-esque catcalls from the Ritzy crowd as I stumbled home through the town centre each week....
- an ice cold glass of home-made (non-alcoholic!) ume juice mixed with elderflower syrup. Mmm...sappari ("refreshing"!) as we say in Japan.
....shit, gotta go to work or i'll be late.......
This is really good - I don't know any of the music, being old, but I love the way you've put it together between you, and the stories make it all fit brilliantly.
Thanks!
Still listening to Part 2 as I type, gents (Hefner playing currently), but I have to say having the comfort-zone of SKP to reminisce with has really betrayed Japanther's "Indier-than-youw" leanings!
Anyway, congrats on the technological achievement; you've put me to shame about my previous promise for me and Gordon to get together to do one. We'll have to call ours "59.04cm in a straight line" if we do ever get sat in front of my desk here.
@debbym - give 'em a call! Come on, right now, just ring them up and say Hi!....or at least see if they've got a Facebook page. For me and SKP, despite fairly regular e-mails it had been quite a while since we had spoken to each other directly before making this.
@treefrogdemon - thanks for listening!
@Shane - thanks, we're waiting for yours!
@DSD - waiting for you and Gordons too. Come on! it only takes a couple of hours to put together. Although as SKP mentioned in the podcast, there was a lot of e-mailing beforehand, mainly 'cos we couldn't whittle the gigs down or decide on individual songs.
And, guilty as charged on the indie kid front, although in my defence, your honour, my tastes have expanded and diversified a lot since those heady days, but I suppose deep down i'll always be an indie nerd!
@all - Bring on the Podcasts! If we can make it work (kind of) across continents, anyone can do it!
Yeah, thanks for the kind comments everyone. It really wasn't that tricky, and even though it took a little while to settle on the setlist, that came fairly naturally once we'd decided on the theme.
@TracyK - funny to think we were all in the same place at one time watching Hefner... I did wonder if we'd uncover any other 'Spillers who'd been at any of the the gigs we mentioned.
Just received an email from sister who we mentioned came to Knebworth with us. I'd forwarded a copy of the podcast to her and she points out that she was 14, not 13, and that we got the support acts wrong. Apparently, the Bootleg Beatles were there too, and she doesn't remember the Seahorses, but apparently John Squire appeared on stage with Oasis. I'm not even get to check, I'm sure she's probably right.
As for being in the same crowds etc, in a weird twist of fate, I smiled at Jon, my now husband back in 1990 or 1991, at the Hummingbird in Brum at a Carter USM gig. He has a broken leg and was propping up the bar and I smiled at him because I felt sorry that he'd come to a Carter gig and couldn't mosh. We didn't know each other, though when we met we realised we'd been criss-crossing each other at Wonder Stuff, PWEI, James etc gigs all over the midlands for years.
Even more weirdly, I met Jon and Lydia on the same day (at a forum social, hem hem), and we found out we'd all been at the Great Xpectations gig in Finsbury Park (Cure, Belly, Carter, Sugar, Catherine Wheel, Frank and Walters: aceness!). When I bragged of being "the only girl in the Sugar mosh-pit" Lydia squeaked and rummaged amongst her stuff, dragging out a poem a friend had written about her 9 years previously about HER being "the only girl in the Sugar moshpit"! Now that's weird.
I loved the comment about OCS's drummer being naff for wearing an OCS scene t shirt. I've always thought you should NEVER wear a band t shirt of the band you are currently seeing at a gig. Unless you are wearing your original Carter/James shirt 10 years after you first bought it.
The Fleece! Where I saw the genius that was the late lamented Kenickie, with stepdaughter and three of her friends!
Okay, UoB or UWE?
@abahachi - Ah....the decidedly inferior UWE for us (although the now legendary Welsh Steve was at UoB and I think did some faculty work there as part of his maths PhD)
Could we all have been at the same Kenickie gig? It sounds like it was the same one!
Not sure if Satan was broadcasting from the very bowels of hell or just from inside his oven, but fine selections & enjoyable bantering & recollecting.
I was actually having visions of SKP shouting up his contributions through a small grille in the floor covering a shaft leading down to an underground dungeon. Or alternatively that this is a double-act with a small and extremely shy robot clam.
Anyway, the Kenickie gig was on the 'Get In' tour, shortly before they broke up - summer '98? Can't remember the support act either. Me in loco parentis with four 15-year old girls, a couple of whom were somewhat mature for their age, spending a lot of time glaring in a warning manner at dubious-looking indie youths who were showing a bit too much of an interest... Could that have been you?
I think we saw them on the At The Club tour in 1997 (although I could very well be wrong) so I don't think it was the same gig. And Japanther and I never looked dubious... Odd, perhaps, but never dubious.
hey, is that the Fleece and Firkin? next to the Seven Stars? I used to work almost next door ...
Aw, little miss satan.
I love this!! The music is excellent (and better with your intros), but my favorite part is just listening to you two talk. Makes me want to pull up a seat (and a glass). Thanks.
@ Japanther - I feel really bad about not having listened to this yet. It may not be until the weekend but I will - I promise.
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