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Lost in Music
By urging the nation to get 'Loaded', PRIMAL SCREAM came up with the
first gefluine rockidance crossover of the '90s and inspired a whole
league of bands to try and emulate them. BOBBY GILLESPIE talks to ANN
SCANLON about the year that the Primals finally broke out of their
archetypal indie mould and became proper pop stars. Prime manoeuvres by
STEVE DOUBLE.
THE SADDEST thing in the world, someone once remarked, is a pop
group without a hit. Bobby Gillespie can tell you this now and laugh,
since 1990 was the year that Primal Scream finally smashed their
archetypal indie caste and made it onto Top Of The Pops.
The record that took them there was 'Loaded', an Andy Weatherall remix
of the Primals 'I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have' which began with
sampled out-takes from The Wild Angels and was immediately hailed as the
first real rock/dance crossover of the '90s. while the peoplewho boughtthe
record settled on having a good time, Primal Scream were subject to a
series of increasingly petty accusations from some of their more
dance-orientated contemporaries.
As 'Loaded' hit the Top 20, they were charged with everything from betraying their past to being rem ixed off the record completely. Their Top Of The Pops appearance did little to dispel the latter allegation for, having made full use of the BBC's hospitality. Primal Scream looked what they were - five very wasted figures standing (or in Gillespie's case, about to keel over) in a huge swathe of sound.
"We've always wanted to be on Top Of The Pops and be totally massive,"
claims Bobby. "That's why we always used to get upset when people called
us an indie band, cos all the other bands who were round at the same
time as us always looked really dour and drab and kinda ugly as well,
and proud to be on an independent label. But if you look at any of our
old interviews, we always said that we wanted to be a massive pop band."
BOBBY GILLESPIE looks and speaks like a boy who was destined to be
massive. But, unlike many kids who got turned onto pop music by T Rex,
Gillespie didn't grow up wanting to look like Marc Bolan and front his
own band.
It's just as well, then, that, in March 1984, the young Gillespie
decided to take his frustrations out on an old ventilator, a couple of
dustbin lids and a guitar that he couldn't play. He called the noise
Primal Scream.
"We were completely dissonant," he recalls. "It wasn't music, it was
justf**kin' smashing stuff up and screaming with guitars We just used to
make tapes of noises, then we found a few chords on the guitar and
learnt songs like 'Mr Tambourine Man', 'Waiting For The Man' and
'Heroin'. Then I thought I could do some songs myself, so I started
writing my own tunes and suddenly we had a pop group!"
The rest of the Primal Scream story has been well documented: after
releasing two singles ('All Fall Down' and 'Velocity Girl') on Creation,
they moved to Elevation where they cut two more singles and their debut
LP, 'Sonic Flower Groove'. After reverting back to Creation, the Primals
re-emerged from a year-long absence with longer hair, licorice legs and
a fully fledged rock 'n' roll band. They spread their word with the
'Primal Scream' LP and plenty of on-the-road excess.
Now, the band are preparing to take to the road again. There'll be a new
single ('Don't Fight It, Feel It') in late February and the live shows
that follow it will probably reveal an expaned Primal line-up, including
Hypotone's Tony Martin who works the sampling machine and accompanied
them on their Japanese tour earlier this year.
"Our group's always been a group that's stopped playing for a year until
we've got a whole new set," explains Bobby. "It's gonna be a different
sound - more electro, but at the same time with heavy guitars. Now we
can do stuff like having backward strings. congas and percussion. 'I'm
Losing' and 'Kill The King' (both from 'Primal Scream') are probably the
only two old songs that we'll still play live."
But there'll still be room for a few straight cover versions.
"We used to cover (Thin Lizzy's) 'Don't Believe A Word'," enthuses
Bobby, "and we'd still do stuff like that - play all these weird songs
and then come out for an encore and do 'Don't Believe A Word'. McGee
(Creation supremo) would have a heart attack, but we might have to give
him one. I love that song." As a prelude to their British dates, Primal
Scream are playing three West Coast dates in America in February.
"We're doing 'Frisco, LA and San Diego-basically its just ten days of
getting wasted," he laughs. "McGee's coming and other sundry nuteases
are gonna make their way over too. So I want us to get a whole floor at
the Hyatt, where Led Zeppelin used to stay.
"I used to say things like that all the time and people would go, Ah,
they wanna be like Led Zeppelin, they wanna be like The Beatles - it's
not like that at all, it's just a laugh. Other people take it far too
seriously."
After 'Loaded' and 'Come Together', people are expecting great things
from Primal Scream, but the band have few worries as to how their new
material will be received.
"Last year most people hated our group, apart from Andy Weatherall -
which was great cos we eventually hooked up with him - but the group
believed in itself so much that we just kept going and going and going.
That's the kind of people we are. So, this year, if nobody likes us and
we think what we're doing is great it would be kinda hurtful, but so
what?
"I don't think it's gonna be like that, though, cos people loved
'Loaded' and 'Come Together' and there's gonna be a whole new audience
there. People are delving back to our first albums and a lot of kids who
are into The Stone Roses and The Charlatans are listening to our first
album and loving it.
"That album is like a precursor to a sound that's quite popular these
days. We made that three years ago and, in a way, it's all kind of come
back to us cos three years ago nobody liked us either. If we'd been a
new band and released that album last year, we'd have been huge. But
that's the way pop music goes - you've got to be in the right place at
the right time and r appreciate that cos I love pop music."
IT'S TAKEN Primal Scream six years to manoeuvre themselves into the
right place at the right time, as Bobby only too acutely aware.
We've always written great songs," he reckons, "but we've never known
how to turn them into hit singles. You just get better at what you do as
you go along.
"And I think what's bad about the modern music scene is groups get
reviewed before they've even made a record. People like Sonic Youth
weren't heard of until they'd made their third album, so they were
allowed to grow and get themselves together, whereas if they'd been an
English group they would have been destroyed before they made their
first record.
"The Stone Roses formed in '84 and it took them five years to get it
together, but that's good. Same with My Bloody Valentine-something like
'You Made Me Realise' is good but the obvious precursors to that sound
are Sonic Youth and The Byrds, whereas if you listen to their last
single it's completely unique. I've never heard a sound like that in my
life before. It's taken Kevin six years to sharpen his vision and I
think that's great - 'Sin' is a complete classic."
While 'Don't Fight It, Just Feel It' shows a further advancement in the
Primals' musical vision, Bobby's probably got some way to go before his
lyrics reach the standard that he's aiming for.
"I wish I could write songs like Ray Davies," he smiles. "His lyrics are
like, tragic, but also funny and really observant. What I really love
about him is that he can write a beautiful song like 'Days' - 'Thank
you for the daysil bless the light that shines on you' - whatever,
and then he can write a song like 'Dead End Street', which is like
really sad words about people living in an awful place that they've got
no chance of ever getting out of, but at the same time he makes it quite
funny. I think he's a genius, Ray Davies.
"Hopefully, I can just make the lyrics more focussed. There's this Lou Reed quote - where he's talking about the Velvets - where he said that it was important that, when somebody was
listening to a record, they never felt alone. I thought that was brilliant and I want to get that across in our music. I don't wanna sound like The Velvet Underground, but I want that same warmth so that when somebody's listening to your record they feel that you're speaking directly to them."
Most of Primal Scream's songs seem to centre around the usual themes of
love, desire, hurt, rejection and hatred, but Bobby sees it more
succinctly.
"I think a lot of the songs are about things that you love that you
can't have -it's unresolved. You kihda know bow the world should be but
it isn't and it never will be that way cos of the way that the world's
set up, and all these things come into my mind when I write lyrics.
"But there is a recurring thread which runs through everything we do
which is gorgeous melodies and - at the risk of sounding pretentious - a
certain tragic element." Although the mood of both 'Loaded' and 'Come
Together' was celebratory, there was a definite element of tragedy in
the "I'm losing more" chorus on 'Loaded' and in the 'Suspicious
Minds' steal on 'Come Together'.
"Andrew (Innes, Primal guitarist) was trying to work out why a lot of
our songs are sad," says Bobby, " and he reckons it's cos we're
Scottish. Celtic music is quite forlorn, it sounds defeated.
"There's a real melancholy feel to old blues music and Van Morrison
reckons that the blues partly originated in Scotland. So many songs are
ripped off from Scottish and Irish folk songs - 'Lay down your weary
tune, laydown' (he sings from Dylan's song), I forget the tune, but
apparently it's stolen from some Scottish tune."
In Scotland and Ireland, enforced separation was a fact of life and many
Celts, who had been parted from their loved ones, were either singing
about going away or trying to come back.
"Aye, that's right. And if you listen to someone like Robert Johnson you
get the feeling that he's never gonna be loved or cared for and he's
always gonna be an outsider and a drifter. Something really attracts me
about that.
"I've got a lot of theories about music," he concludes, "but ultimately
as long as it moves me - either makes me dance or want to cry or feel
happy, I love it. Edgar Allen Poe wrote this thing about music where he
said, People think that when they cry to music it's because they're
being sentimental about the memories of a time gone past, but it's not
true. The reason they cry is because they get a glimpse of the banquet
the gods are feasting upon. And I completely agree with that."
AS ONE of the many young people whose attitude to life underwent a
dramatic change when he heard his first Sex Pistols record, Bobby
Gillespie understands exactly how powerful music can be.
"When I was 15," he beings, "I used to hang out with these guys, but
when I started listening to punk music they couldn't handle it. So I
just decided not to have any friends until I met people that I could
totally relate to.
"Punk music gave me the courage to be myself and I met Alan (McGee)
through that. I'd always thought that there must be people who think
like me and when I heard 'God Save The Queen' I thought, great, there's
somebody else who hates the queen as much asI do. It's simple, but
that's the power of rock 'n' roll!
"And I think that's the great thing about youth culture - it allows kids
who are outsiders to express themselves within youth movements. Take
someone like Bowie, who said he was bisexual and dressed like a chick.
That legitimised homosexuality for a lot of people and Boy George, he
legitimised homosexuality, or at least their outlandishness. I think Boy
George is great and I think that's where pop stars are useful to
society.
"Music can articulate the way someone feels and also it brings people
together. Do you know 'When The Music's Over' by The Doors? That bit
when Morrison sings, 'Music is a special friend, dance an fire as it
intends, music is your only friend, until the end'. It's f**kin' amazing
and that's how~ feel about music. Sometimes you feel that anything's
possible."
By merging the gap between the rock circuit and the dancefloor, 'Loaded'
proved that anything is possible. But, if Bobby is to be believed,
Primal Scream have only hinted at their future potential.
"The best thing about 'Loaded' was that it proved we were right, the
Primal Scream sound can be successful. That's why it's good that The
Stone Roses did well. I don't think they ripped us off or anything, but
I think we influenced them and when they went really big I felt good
about it cos I knew that what we were doing three years ago could
be commercial.
"Basically I just want to prove how great music can be - how it can
affect people spiritually, how it can heal people. I want to show how
beautiful it can be, how tragic it can be. Everything music does for me,
I want to do for other people. I mean, I think there's a lot of great
records about -I'm not one of these people who thinks all the great pop
music was done in 1967 - but a lot of records are only good up to a
point, they don't completely seduce me.
"I want to completely seduce people with our music - I want their hearts
to break when they hear it."
Originally appeared in Sounds, 22/29 December 1990.
Copyright © Sounds.
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