Whole Wide World 4 England !!!
29 May 2006

I’ve been a bit shy to say anything about it, a bit backward about coming forward, not sure how people would react, unsure about the timing… I’ve made a World Cup record.
I was approached ages ago with the suggestion that I should write new lyrics to Whole Wide World to make it about winning the World Cup. I thought it was a daft idea but it somehow appealed to me – the football anthem, it’s a classic form, it holds a special place in pop culture.
So I got together with my friends Peter Hall and Karen Hibberd, and Peter, with his vast knowledge of football, helped to re-work the lyrics while Karen laughed a lot, and enthused, and got the hand claps in the wrong places (as we all did later on). I made a demo of it, passed it on and tried to forget about it, thinking that I’d really held myself up to ridicule this time.
The idea was that someone else was going to record it, it was going to be Wagnarian with a gospel chorus and a Yorkshire brass band here and there. I couldn’t quite see it myself – it’s difficult to get Wagnarian on two chords, and the chorus doesn’t really lend itself to a gospel treatment. The word came back that everyone loved it but I had to sing it and it should stay trashy, just like my demo and the original single. So that’s what happened. It’s coming out on the Fierce Panda label on June 12th.
I hope everyone likes it. And I hope we win. Of course I hope we win – the record will sell more if we do!
 

www.fiercepanda.co.uk
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Some time in April

I should talk about playing in New York last February. I should be writing about my surprise (even to me) Nashville debut last March. I should talk about Atlanta, Pittsburg, Brighton, Bristol, Buckingham Seattle, San Francisco, Walthamstow, Portland and Vancouver. I could even give Stratford Upon Avon a mention, but it seems so long ago now.
I just didn’t have time to write about it all while it was happening, and I didn’t have my failing laptop with me – I had enough to carry as it was – a suitcase full of books, CDs guitar leads, effects pedals and such like, two guitars and the usual bag of grubby clothes. You get used to the grubby clothes after a while in this line of work. If you sweat enough on stage it almost purifies them, and once the shirts and T-shirts are dried out you can convince yourself that they’re clean. Or clean enough to stomach putting them back on. Especially in a plush hotel room like the one I had for a few days in Vancouver, complete with an iron and ironing board. I made such an effort and I still look like a scruff in the photos.
Like I said, I didn’t take my laptop with me, not to the North West anyway. Just as well because the Amtrak train to Seattle turned out to be a bus when I got there and it was hard work as it was, getting everything on to the bus and off the bus at the other end, not to mention heaving it all through the customs hall half way through.
It made a change from the aeroplanes though – ten flights in fourteen days – London to New York, New York to Cleveland, Pittsburgh to Houston, an overnight stop in Houston due, apparently, to a hurricane which made the flight very bumpy and caused it to land an hour late so that I missed the connecting flight to Vancouver. There’s only one flight a day from Houston to Vancouver so I had to stay in a hotel which the airline, Continental, (or Cunt Nennel as they call it in America) refused to pay for, even though the real reason for the late arrival is that the plane sat in a queue for the runway at Newark airport. So I had to fly to Seattle and then get on a propeller plane that dropped me off in Vancouver on its way to Alaska. It’s another fucking world.
I had a nice rest from flying in Vancouver. I saw a lot of films. Well, I would do - it was a film festival after all. I saw a fabulous film of Nina Simone performing in Paris in 1976. It’s one of my enduring regrets that I was unable to see Nina Simone when she played at the Salle Des Fetes in the nearby town of Dreux during the time that I lived in France. I was off playing somewhere or other (can’t even remember where). Dreux was controlled by the Front National at the time. It was the first town in France to return a far-right candidate to parliament. That was Marie Stirbois. She didn’t even dare to live in the place. It was a sad town in those days. The main shopping street was patrolled by policemen with machine guns. It made for a special atmosphere, especially at Christmas when the antique merry-go-round was in full swing, flanked by armed militia. Parents wouldn’t take their children near it.
Sometimes I wish I could stick to the point, but what is the point, and what would the point of that be anyway. (I’m sure I should have stuck some question marks in there somewhere). I was thinking that I’d have to learn to prioritise if I’m going to write about all the stuff that’s been going on and announce the World Cup Record. It was worrying me because the word prioritise goes with this thing called blue-sky thinking, and thinking outside the box, and all those other ghastly things that wankers have meetings for. I think they call it brain-storming, and sometimes they call it a think-tank. I didn’t want to get involved with any of that so of course I was anxious. Then I hit on the idea of columns. Like in a newspaper. So you can read it all at once, or in the wrong order, or whatever you like. And it becomes your problem, not mine.
Hurrah for columns!
Anyway, the Big Smash Film Festival was most enjoyable, but unfortunately not a great success as far as attendance went because it coincided with some unseasonably good weather so not many people wanted to spend their afternoons in a cinema.
I was almost hurt by the lack of attendance for my presentation of Jean Luc Goddard's One Plus One (Sympathy For The Devil). As I explained, I wanted to show it so that I could see it on a big screen rather than the dodgy arthouse cinema I first saw it in back in Brighton in the early seventies. The screen there was the size of a postcard and it had a rip in it.
I was never sure that it was that good, but I enjoyed the footage in the scrapyard - the cars stop at a certain date. It was interesting to see the Stones wrestle with Sympathy For The Devil - during the first few run throughs I was wishing someone would tell them it was a dud and they should move on. But they came out of it triumphant in the end. The big question for me is, to be a genius does it help to be a twat as well?
 



Maggie on the pedal steel, Jim on bass, me, Johnny on guitar at All Tomorrow's Parties.

Some other time in April

So there I was in Seattle. I got there a day early so we could rehearse, me and various members of The Minus 5 and The Tripwires - John Ramberg on guitar, Johnny Sangster on Farfisa organ, Jim Sangster on bass, Mark Pickeral on the drums, Scott McCaughey floating between guitar, bass, tambourine, and just about everyone on backing vocals.
The idea was that I’d do half the set on my own and then they’d join in. I let them choose what they wanted to play so we did Haunted House, Take The Cash, Let’s Go To The Pictures, Walking On the Surface Of The Moon, Whole Wide World, Someone Must’ve Nailed Us Together, and 33s & 45s. Peter Buck joined us on acoustic rhythm guitar on Take The Cash and Whole Wide World. It was a great, great night.


That's me on the left, our guru Scott McCaughey at the top, John Ramberg at the bottom and film maker Flick Harrison on the right.

The next night I played in Portland with Scott and John. They did an opening set of Minus 5 songs and joined in with me on quite a lot of my set. Scott played the organ and Lureland, John played Wishing My Life Away together with me, we did I’m Not Going To Cry complete with a silent organ from Scott because it had come unplugged, and we also did Tell Me I’m The Only One which was fantastic because it needs two good backing singers to get it right so I never get to play it. It was great to play so many songs from Le Beat Group Electrique - I'm planning to re-release it very soon now. And apart from that we played Haunted House, Walking On The Surface Of The Moon, an Minus 5 number called Twilight Distillery with me and John on backing vocals, Whole Wide World, Someone Must’ve Nailed Us Together, 33s & 45s and Take The Cash. It was a nicely ramshackle set with lots of weird and funny bits in it. I’m looking forward to a long and rewarding association with the Seattle gang.
A film maker, Flick Harrison, filmed both events. We're hoping to make something available soon.

This column business is fundementally flawed - if the pieces aren't all the same length it comes out ragged at the bottom. Perhaps I should have done it all as a poem instead.

Keir-La Janisse did a great job and I hope the next time she puts a film festival on in Vancouver she gets more support. I hope it rains! My show at the Railway was good except that there were two support bands cluttering up the evening so I got to go on for an hour at the end. Nobody came to see the support bands so it was pretty pointless really. Club owners are always doing that sort of thing though. And if you accuse them of only caring about putting bums on seats, or in this case, feet on a sticky carpet, they get uppity. So I didn't bother. I just over-ran. I don't think I want to play in that place again anyway, though I liked the model railway whizzing round the ceiling.


All Tomorrow's Parties

Mark Pickeral and his Praying Hands came over from Seattle for All Tomorrow's Parties. That's Mark on vocals and acoustic guitar, Jim Sangster on bass and Johnny Sangster on guitar, Maggie Bjorklund on pedal steel with Bruce Brand on the drums.
They called me when they got in and invited me to play with them at the Barfly in London's hideous Camden Town (where it's Glastonbury every day) and again during their set at All Tomorrow's Parties. I was really happy about that. We played Take The Cash, Someone Must've Nailed Us Together and Whole Wide World at the Barfly in front of a small audience that included an ex-member of the Spacemen 3 who was overheard telling someone that their songs were all based on Whole Wide World, only sometimes they didn't get to the second chord. If that's true I'm very pleased. It was good to play with Bruce again - seems like years since we last did. Probably because it is.


At All Tomorrow's Parties they got me on to play Whole Wide World at the end of the set. Mark got behind the kit because Bruce had to rush off to play with Holly Golightly on the other stage.
It was a good day out. Mudhoney were the highlight for me.
I really like Mark Pickeral's new album, Snake In The Radio. You can find Mark at www.markpickeral.com
Apart from that every home should have a Minus 5 CD in it. I think you can find them at www.minus5.com - anyone who likes my stuff should love the Minus 5.

 



Around about March (and/or February possibly)
My Nashville Debut

After the Chapel Hill gig with Marti Jones, Amy and I took off to Atlanta to visit my dear friend Clay Harper and his brother, Mark. While we were there we recorded a strange version of You Can’t Be A Man (Without A Beer In Your Hand). I don’t know if that particular recording will ever come out but I was thrilled that we’d done it – it was our first recording session together.
Then we drove to Nashville where Amy used to live. I’d never been there before. I think Nashville and being English is a hilarious combination. I felt like Clive Gregson. I stumbled around saying ‘Who’dda thourt it – me, yours truly, here in Nashville’ in a Rochdale accent. We stayed in a cheap motel and I felt like someone trying to break into the business.
Amy had a gig in the evening, a songwriters in the round sort of event with Peter Case, Susan Cowsill, Will Kimbrough and Kim Ritchie. It was a charity do in aid of I don’t know what, and the audience paid a fairly heavy admission fee to sit surrounding the songwriters who sat on chairs facing into what looked like a microphone tree (or shrub). Peter Case was in charge because they were celebrating a three CD collection of tributes to Peter Case. I was quite surprised he was actually there – I thought you had to die before you got a three CD set.
They went round in a clockwise fashion, taking turns to play a song each. Sitting quietly at the back I found it a humbling experience – they could all play and sing so well and they all had such great songs. When it came round to Amy for the third time she asked if it would be all right to bring up a special guest. I wondered who it could possibly be – then suddenly she was introducing me. I felt myself turning to jelly as I climb over and around the people to get to the – I can’t call it a stage because it wasn’t, and I’m certainly not going to call it the performing area, so I think I’ll settle for shade of the microphone bush. Everyone seemed very pleased to see me, Peter Case nearly fell off his chair, and Will Kimbrough stared at me in an odd sort of way and Susan Cowsill gave me a seat in front of a microphone. I felt a bit silly because the first thing I said was ‘what a lot of microphones,’ but Peter said what a treat it was and said he was a fan and soon we were talking about a gig we did together in Nijmegen in Holland, back in 1986 when I was in The Len Bright Combo. We didn’t meet back then but we watched each other play. Then Amy gave me a guitar and asked me to play Whole Wide World. So I did, and everyone joined in and it all went really well. Then I went and hid at the back again. And that was my Nashville debut. Who’dda thourt it – me, yours truly, here in Nashville…
There’s a sequel to the story – Amy got an email from Will Kimbrough He said how pleased he was that she brought me along and explained that he was confused because everyone except him seemed to know exactly who this Rick Looserek was and he wondered firstly why he was out of the loop, and secondly, why this Rick Looserek was playing a Wreckless Eric song. Then he realised it was me. He played with the guitar resting flat on his lap and his playing was terrifying, it was that good.
It's a shame I haven't got a photo.


I think that's it for the moment.