MSP's Indie Icons
Richey & Sean Love Bobby
Here's an entry from my online journal which you may find interesting...
February 15th, 2005: I'm looking at richeyedwards.net When asked who he fancied when younger Richey said Bobby on the drums in Nottingham. I wasn't sure who he was talking about but could it be the person Sean said he wanted to look like on BBC 6 Music. I think Sean loved him too, but whereas Richey said he fancied him, Sean says he just wanted to look like him. The quote:
Sean on Jesus & Mary Chain - Some Candy Talking
We used to play a cover of Just Like Honey when we first started out and I only had 2 drums and wanted to look like Bobby Gillespie of all people, not that I want to look like him now (he finds this amusing) I just thought this was a great track and we enjoyed the fact that they made quite a bit of noise in those days.
Here's a page of photos, look for the one with the drumsticks, obviously.
group shots - mid 80s
Here's some more info, to keep the Richey & Sean fans happy.
Google found this: However, The Jesus And Mary Chain on record and The Jesus And Mary Chain live were two very different things. Apart from the "classic" Psychocandy line-up of Jim Reid (vocals), William Reid (guitars), Douglas Hart (bass) and Bobby Gillespie (drums), the band never really had a proper stable line-up, with musicians coming and going to back the Reids up live without ever becoming official members of the band.
Bobby was a friend of Jim, William and Douglas and it was actually him who got the band the deal with Creation Records - he was also a good friend of Alan McGee's who just "happened" to hear the band's demos on the B-side of a cassette Bobby had of a Syd Barrett bootleg. Alan contacted the Reids, put them on at his London club The Living Room and the rest is history... At the time Bobby sang in a relatively unknown group called Primal Scream before he joined The Jesus And Mary Chain but once his mates' group was out of a drummer he accepted their invitation to join (although his drumming abilities were very limited) and thus had to share his time between the two bands. Bobby played on all the band's records between "Upside Down" and "Some Candy Talking" but finally in October 1985 he announced he wanted to devote himself to his own band and that he was leaving the Mary Chain. However, he stayed on until early 1986 playing live gigs with the band.
So Richey & Sean were both looking at the drummer! You learn something new every day. Bet you didn't know that. I think sometimes they're too alike. And suddenly I don't feel so strange (for admiring drummers that is) There may of course be another drummer called Bobby but I'd like to think both Richey & Sean were both gazing adoringly at the same man, pushing eachother out of the way for autographs, that kind of thing...
James Dean Bradfield and Ian Broudie on Echo & The Bunnymen
James: I think strangely they're one of the perfect festival bands; they always brought lots of dry ice with em, they were always cloaked in darkness with twitching lights and I just think it's one of those bands that always worked at a festival if they brought all those things with them - the darkness and the dry ice. I think Echo & The Bunnymen was the one group between us all except for the Clash that we all absolutely loved. So there you go.
A lot of people seem to forget that Ian Broudie produced some absolute genius records in the 80's; Echo & the Bunnymen...
Rescue was the first track Ian Broudie produced for Echo & The Bunnymen.
Ian Broudie: "I was at a bus stop and it was raining, they�d just bought a van and Pete (DeFreitas) had just started drumming with the band. They stopped and asked if I wanted a lift up to Penny Lane. I got in and they were playing stuff and I said this is brilliant".
Thus Broudie went on to produce the Crocodiles and Porcupine albums. Asked about his early production style he�s modest as ever: "I never really had any plan. The Bunnymen were mates so there wasn�t much division between us a producer and band. It was like we were all learning together".
Over the following years Broudie produced albums by artists as diverse as Terry Hall, The Bodines - Therese by the Bodines became one of the first songs on Alan McGee�s nascent Creation label to get to no. 1 in the indie charts - The Fall, Dodgy, The Pale Fountains (the Across The Kitchen Table album featuring the classic Jean�s Not Happening)
Then came The Lightning Seeds, something that began as one of the coolest indie bands in the country signed to the Ghetto label (same label as Shack and funded by Rough Trade). The album Cloudcuckooland was what started it all, recorded late at night in the middle of Kirkby. The Lightning Seeds continued to grow with 1994�s Jollification album lining up for Brit Awards alongside Supergrass, Blur and Oasis. And then came the Three Lions single, the Dizzy Heights album (both 1996) and Tilt (1999) chrysalismusic.co.uk
James on Therese by the Bodines: This was probably The Bodines most successful song I think. And originally it was produced by Ian Broudie. A lot of people seem to forget that Ian Broudie produced some absolute genius records in the 80's; Echo & the Bunnymen and The Bodines, to name but a few. I remember when their single came out, Therese, it was just regarded across the spectrum as being the genius indie pop moment of that year. And it's just a brilliant song. And again you kinda feel as if there's an injustice in the way that time pans out sometimes because I'm sure that a song like this released in the era of Britpop or even perhaps now would've been a sneaky hit. But of course we were still fighting the indie wars back then.
Ian Broudie on producing The Bunnymen and his own career
September 2004 from manchesteronline.co.uk
You moved from making music to producing music in the 1980s. Was it always something you were interested in?
No I wasn�t really to be quite honest. I think I kind of battled against it. I was very young when I produced Echo & The Bunnymen. It was probably before I�d done an album for myself. I�d just done stuff in the eight-track I think in Liverpool, but they asked me to work with them. I don�t think it is the most fun thing to do to be honest; I quite like doing a bit now and again if a band that I think are fantastic inspires me. Although I wouldn�t say I�ve felt like that for everything I�ve done, but something always pulls me back in.
Having produced a number of artists down the years. Is there an album or single you are most proud of being involved in?
There�s been a few to be honest. I mean I tend to not really like things I�ve worked on, as there always seems to be something not quite happening. Although I think for me The Back of Love by the Bunnymen, Dreaming of You by The Coral and Pure by me, as it was the first song that I ever did that got released. So I think they are my finest moments.
The Lightning Seeds brought you to real prominence as singer-songwriter. How do you look back on those days?
Well I�d been doing a lot of gloomy kind of stuff producing the Bunnymen and The Fall and wanted to do something different. I wanted to do something that was good, pop music not kind of crap, pop music that had the same quality as a Phil Spector record or a good Beach Boys record like Pure, which was the first thing that I did and that was where my head was at.
Me: The Lightning Seeds do seem a world apart from Echo & The Bunnymen from what I've heard, with the atmosphere and the feelings they create, but the intensity is the same.
I gather you are 46 now. Do you feel that age, or are these twenty something Liverpudlians keeping you young?
I�m always surprised when someone says that to me as I think that it can�t be right and shouldn�t I be a grown up now, do you know what I mean? I�m happy with it and it doesn�t really bother me. I still feel I�ve got a lot to do, hopefully the best times and songs are yet to come as I�m finally finding me feet!
I think to myself that a lot of artists do their best things as they get older and why shouldn�t it be the same with music. I think at the moment I�m doing the best stuff I�ve ever done really and when I stop feeling like that I guess it�s time to stop.
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