That Psychobilly combo, The Meteors have a new album for release, an anniversary album no less, entitled Doing The Lord’s Work. It should be a good listen, being a very special time for them and all. Thirty years in the game should bear some ripe and juicy fruit and upon reading their press blurb, they still claim to be the undisputed ‘Kings Of Psychobilly’.
But hey, you say tomato, I say bullshit.
Now Momma always told me, “Jon junior, you know better than to argue with idiots, they’ll only bring you down to their level,” then Pappy would get home and give me a hiding to beat the stupid out of me, or try. Then my long-suffering wife (hey little Monkey) would say, “Lordy lordy big Jon, you know they ain’t nothing but children and should be spoken to as such, they don’t understand all the grown up talk”. Now I take what these gals say as if it were the good Lord’s gospel itself.
So, over the past year or one has been re immersed in a scene that was born and believed to have passed away way back in the 1980s. Albeit for a brief reprise in the 90’s and now in the 00’s, that did appear to be the case. The creature that we look upon today and call Psychobilly could possibly just be a sad and laughable parody of its once proud, hard hitting self, a zombie if you will.
A few of the original bands of the time remain, plugging away, seemingly cashing in on a niche group of fans and possibly it could be said the horse has been well and truly flogged to death (and should be left to decompose in peace with dignity and not constantly reanimated). As they say “Once you wake up the dead, you’ve got a real mess on your hands”, although I could be wrong.
[box] a sad and laughable parody[/box]
There are bizarre if not fond personal memories of the Klubfoot, Headstone Hotel and other venues in the 1980s that played host to and incubated the small hybrid foetus that was to be named Psychobilly. Being in Britain at the time and as a fan of pure raw Rockabilly, times were tough enough. Punk had slipped into a drug induced coma and choked on its own vomit, Elvis had left the building and Bolan decided to headbutt a tree, all were dead and gone and the kids were into the New Romantic scene. So being a young guy strutting around with a quiff, creepers and eyeliner made you an outcast from the start.
That and embarrassingly being associated with Matchbox’s ‘Rockabilly Rebel’ didn’t make life any easier (and it was embarrassing having that sung to you whilst walking down the high street), particularly when Perkins, Feathers and Presley et al were spinning on the turntable back at the ranch. So an introduction to The Cramps albums, Psychedelic Jungle and Songs The Lord Taught Us promptly put things in a totally new perspective (in a kaleidoscopic sort of way).
For better or worse, The Cramps were life changing, and over the course of one weekend a well-groomed bouffant Rockabilly would be turned into a mutant teenage werewolf, ripping his faded jeans and splattering them with Domestos, tearing the sleeves off his Jack Geach (R.I.P Jack) shirts, flat topping his greasy quiff and adorning himself with bone necklaces and earrings. This cause of action could naturally culminate into severe beatings, and back then often did. Friends were lost and black eyes were acquired. This was the beginning of Psycho Rockabilly and the purists just didn’t like it.
What was this Psychobilly thing? Well there are a vast number of people out there who haven’t a clue so to outline, Psychobilly was most notably a term used in the lyrics to the song ‘One Piece at a Time’, recorded by Johnny Cash in 1976, although the term had almost certainly been used before.
It was a term also used by the aforementioned Cramps on flyers to advertising their gigs and it was this use of the word that almost certainly led to it spreading like a deadly fungus on an over-ripe cheese. Later, The Cramps turned their backs on and rejected the idea of being a part of the Psychobilly creature saying:
‘The Cramps weren’t thinking of this weird subgenre when we coined the term ‘Psychobilly’ in 1976 to describe what we were doing. To us all the ’50s rockabillies were psycho to begin with; it just came with the turf as a given, like a crazed, sped-up hillbilly boogie version of country. We hadn’t meant playing everything super loud at super heavy hard-core punk tempos with a whole style and look, which is what ‘Psychobilly’ came to mean later in the ’80s. We also used the term ‘rockabilly voodoo’ on our early flyers’.
– Poison Ivy Rorschach.
Poison Ivy Rorschach
There were many people who took the same stance, not because they didn’t like ‘Psychobilly’ in general, but just weren’t happy with what much of it was developing into. A parody? Perhaps. A monster? Maybe?
Arguments to one side, The Cramps were important pioneers of the Psychobilly movement. The blend of Surf, Garage, Punk and Rockabilly was put in a pot with Horror and Sci-Fi B-Movie humour, sprinkled with a touch of pure madness and that is what made that Psycho Rockabilly sound. The US seemed to take a slightly different direction to the UK and this may well have contributed to a division in the ranks (personal musical taste if you will).
Great American bands from that time (amongst many others) were The Gun Club (who turned out the amazing ‘Fire Of Love’ album in ’81), Tav Falco’s Panther Burns, The Reverend Horton Heat, The Blasters, Shockabilly, The Fuzztones and later The Legendary Shack Shakers (most still rocking and some pushing boundaries).
Meanwhile, back in Britain, the Rockabilly and Psychobilly scene was indeed growing with notable bands like The Sting-rays, The Stray Cats, The Guana Batz, The Milkshakes, The Shakin’ Pyramids, The Meteors, Alien Sex Fiend and King Kurt. These bands would indeed move in different musical directions, some more experimental, some commercial and some thrashing out the same old, same old (again splitting the camp). For many, Psychobilly was felt to be something more progressive but for them it seemed to stagnate and in its original form was felt to be short lived.
In some eyes it pretty much died in the decade it was born. Bands with a distinctly more Rockabilly style such as The Stray Cats had more luck at that time, and their commercial success probably allowed a few Psychobilly bands to breathe for as long as they did. Anyone who was on that scene at the time will surely testify to the craziness of it all. Tribes were formed and the hatred of bleached jeans and bleached flat tops from the Ted and Rockabilly camps toward the Psychobilly fraternity was equalled by the repulsion of creepers, wallets on chains and long barrelled quiffs.
There was certainly a rebellion going on and I have beautiful memories of all out-wars between the tribes. Memories also of large numbers of the audience cutting themselves up at a Guana Batz gig and front man P. Paul Fenech trying to secretly put blood capsules in his mouth and pretend to get injured in the ‘Wreckin’ Pit’ (I wonder if he still does that) at a Meteors gig, and lest we forget, Lux Interior busting out of a coffin in high heels, downing two bottles of red wine and slashing his chest with broken glass.
So nostalgically, it’s an anniversary after all, The Meteors have their new album out, Doing The Lord’s Work. It could be said The Meteors best work was In Heaven and Wreckin’ Crew; this could be true and most probably is, as both those albums pretty much embodied what British Psycho Rockabilly was. Those albums stand up today against anything that is currently being put out, both are on my play list to this day. Back in ’83 I even named my motorcycle Zorch (I miss that green machine), but I digress.
A point of debate here could be, apart from being the last man standing, The Meteors haven’t significantly moved forward. There is the feeling of churning out endless rehashes of the same old stuff and hailing themselves as monarchs; this should be unacceptable. There’s only so much you can do with those old riffs before you start to feel you’ve heard it all before, right? That may also be true also for many of the other so-called Psychobilly bands around at the moment, although many people will disagree. Well, Psychobillys at least.
That being said there are bands on the circuit as it is today that are more than capable of blowing The Meteors off stage and taking their self proclaimed crown, all the more reason for pulling something out of the bag here.
Disappointedly, Doing The Lord’s Work certainly does have that mundane feel to it, especially when you hear tracks such as ‘It’s a Long Way Down’ (despite its hooks) or ‘Ain’t No Turning Back’.
‘My Life For Thee’ and ‘She Screams Out My Name’ just feel particularly weak and Fenech’s vocal, which admittedly did set him apart from the rest at one time, just isn’t there (I am sorry to say) and there is definitely “a bad wind blowing in the air” on ‘Strange Times Are Coming,” a bad wind indeed.
A point of redemption is ‘Girl Meat Fever’. Fenech uses the gravel for better effect and the beat chugs you along like a heavy goods locomotive, a definite foot tapper. ‘Drag You Down To Hell’ is also very well executed with some surprising little guitar licks although it could have benefitted from losing the samples. ‘Hell Must Be Empty’ was also very similarly pleasing.
[box] a letter of apology should immediately be sent to Ozzy[/box]
I nearly choked on my pipe however when ‘Paranoid’ started playing. Yes, it really is a cover of ‘Paranoid’. Not just a cover, a kind of surfy karaoke version that begged the question, ‘Why bother?’ and a feeling a letter of apology should immediately be sent to Ozzy. It will surely make you want to snatch the microphone from Fenech’s wizened hands and have a crack yourself. The Meteors really should leave those covers alone as they will never be able to improve on their rendition of ‘Johnny Remember Me’, which was a masterpiece.
Seriously, there was a yearning that more might be on offer here. That doubts would be dispelled and the magic from years on the circuit would shine through, but there really was nothing new or outstanding and the low expectations weren’t thwarted. I wanted to be violently smashed around the head (wait for it) and forcibly made to re-embrace The Meteors’ sound rather than have smoke blown limply up my arse.
Apart from Fenech’s voice having seen much better days and his failure to use those shredded chords to better effect, there is a real overkill of samples, and instrumentally it just isn’t firing on all cylinders. Bearing in mind what Mr. Fenech is capable of with a guitar, the vehicle seems to be coasting and there may be a build up of silt in the carburetor, an overhaul may well be in order.
At one point I slipped on my snakeskin boots and donned my Stetson for some boot scooting’, as one could argue the album is leaning back more toward Rockabilly than Psychobilly with its country edge. I don’t say that in a bad way, personally I’d like to hear The Meteors do a raw ballsy Rockabilly album, acoustic even. As someone once said, “One man’s Psychobilly is another man’s Rockabilly” or was it the other way around? Guess it all depends on your threshold.
The animal as a whole appears to be lost and needs to find a direction home. It is certainly disappointing as an anniversary album. The herd will obviously buy it, like zombies going to the mall, but Meteors fans will always be Meteors fans (sweet baby Jesus love them) no matter what’s churned out and that’s about as far as it goes.
All that being said, ‘Mr Psychobilly Syndrome’ positively has a dance feel about it and could be mixed in to a DJ House set. Perhaps the future of Psychobilly lies in that direction. Try dumping that Slap Bass and introduce a sitar and a drum machine. I hear Paul Hardcastle is back on the scene at the moment so perhaps Mr. Fenech could give him a call, either that or just get back to what it was supposed to be in the first place.
Something’s got to change, don’t it? I still say we should all hold hands this Halloween and conjure the spirit of Lux Interior back from the grave to save us.
Out on October 8th on People Like You records.
[This article has been edited from the original]
[button link=”http://www.peoplelikeyoushop.com/Search?q=lords+work” newwindow=”yes”] Pre-Order[/button]
Col. Jon Burrows. Conceived in the ghettos on the outskirts of Memphis. Hailed as the new face of the hood. Haikus to him can be found on underpasses, large rocks at public parks and the occasional idling limo.
Nearly all of the words he writes are spelled correctly, occasionally managing to format a page with a paragraph break. He once drove a tank and lives solely in hotel and hospital suites covering the windows in tin foil.
His epic autobiography, ‘Fuck You Buddy’, will hopefully one day be published, if someone in the literary world can decipher its sophisticated and convoluted message.
Very witty review, love it. The bit about the fake blood capsules was hilarious…
mate…..really….That is a bollox review, and to say psychobilly is near to death, you need to gey your head outta your arse and get out more…the old bands are still doin what they have always done done, some are even getting better, and there is some crakin new bands around…..who please just as much as the old boys…….there is still a great number of the old faces about and some new ones too…..so what the hell you on about….all you can say is lets resurect LUX, The CRAMPS never proclaimed to be psychobilly…..they were garage, seriously get out more and see whats goin on before you write about things you know nothing about………
DICK
‘Re reads article’…….. Nope, I am correct. The Cramps were certainly not ‘Garage’ and I can say that with the utmost authority.
And remember, you can never step into the same river twice. I love the smell of Napalm in the morning.
This review is complete & total nonsense. The Psychobilly scene is thriving, the Cramps weren’t a Psychobilly band, they were a garage band. Seriously do the research before you write about something. Seriously, I can’t believe I wasted my time reading this drivvle.
.
As a veteran of the same scene as the colonel and a regular wrecker in many pits still, I see where he’s coming from! And belive me HE does know what he’s talking about!! Mr fenech does have his head up his arse on stage!! Why the stage security? frightened of a few fans is he! And why the same qoutes every gig?? As for the cramps I like to think of them as a damn good time rock and roll band certainly not pyschobilly or garage(more the stingrays or milkshakes for that! Ps come see me in the pit with any questions im easy to spot!!!! (im the one with the judge dredd back piece)!
Have to say I agree with both Iain and Spud on this one … the psychobilly scene is very much alive and kickin’ thank you very much !!!! … all the top bands are still gigging and releasing new albums; there are also alot of fantastic new and exciting bands taking to the stage, as well as producing some of the best albums i’ve heard in a long time !!!! … I for one am extremely pleased to see the injection of young people (musicians and psychobilly’s) who keep our scene alive and give it the future it has so rightly earned within the music scene !!!!! …… As for Mr.Fenech’s work, well yes I agree, his early work with Mr.Lewis/Mr. White/Mr.Meadham etc was by far his finest hour and I very much doubt he will ever produce such work again !!!!!
What a crock of shit that review is……….. ooppss my mother always told me, if i cant say anything nice say fuck all.
The point here is not your thoughts on the new album, it’s your views on Psychobilly as it is now. The Meteors haven’t ‘exhumed the corpse of Psychobilly’, it dug itself out of the grave a good few years ago and is getting bigger and better all the time. As a mate said: Psychobilly’s not dead – we just smell that way!
Well , i read that with interest but i do have to say that Psychobilly is very much alive and kicking , worldwide . So in between the part truths and fantasy conjured up people can make up their own minds , as Iain said some people need to get out more . Stay sick and Psycho kiddies !!
I agree with my friends in the comments!! The meteors- meh I like listening to the songs on cd or when out but yeah live I can agree with the reviewer here a bit. But that’s just what I experienced. But, again to say the “scene” is dead is absolutely incorrect!!! We are all out at gigs most weekends sometimes more than once. Sometimes its tough to decide who to see as there’s more than 1 or 2 on at a time. I’ve seen some awesome sets played by both old and new psycho bands and I want to carry on doing so for as long as possible. If you actually went out there and researched properly you’d see this!! You haven’t reveiwed the band here. You’ve just tried to beat down psychobilly. Which to me is one of the most important things! Most of my friends came from it. I don’t want it to stop 🙂 psychobilly <3 hehe!
Being born 10 years too late, and not experiencing the “original” scene all I can say is that the current psychobilly scene is the strongest, closest and most rockin scene about! I’ve played in cock rock bands, ska bands and punk bands over the last 5 years and never seen a scene with so many quality bands, young and old along with such a cracking audience at 99% of shows! Meteors may not be at their best, not heard enough off the new album to judge but I think the current/future of psychobilly is bright!
You obviously haven’t been to a psycho gig in a looooong, looooong time. The scene is bursting with old and new. You have no idea. Also stop being hypocritical, when you say that you think it’s bollocks for Fenech to do “the same quotes” every show, and then diss him for doing something different on the new album?? Get over yourself.
I have listened to the whole Meteors album. Of course they have made some amazing records in the past but in all honesty, this is the worst thing that they have ever done, really not worthy to be a 30th anniversary album. I have to agree with the reviewer that there are far too many samples and I’ve never heard Fenech’s vocals sound so weak. Frankly I found it boring to listen to, gimmicky without being original and the cover of “Paranoid” is simply embarrassing. Do yourselves a favour, don’t waste money on this, listen to their old stuff instead. On the plus side, there are some good records coming out soon, the new Peacocks album isn’t bad at all (review coming soon) and the Viva Le Pink EP is fantastic.
Well this review is making for great debate, I look forward to reading the Peacocks and Mad Sin reviews.
As someone who is new to the psychobilly scene I read this review with great interest. People are not taking exception at your review of the meteors album but more at your insinuation that the scene is dead and that those who still follow it are a poor copy of what once was. The scene I have come into is a live vibrant scene with many young bands who put other scenes to shame. I am not a great meteors fan, I like their old stuff but having seen them twice this year, I think there are much better bands that fly the psychobilly banner. So although your review of the album may be quite truthful and accurate, I find your review of the psychobilly scene extremely inaccurate. I find it detrimental to the people who are in the psychobilly scene either playing, putting on gigs ot to those who attend them,
Hear , Hear !!
Well.. i’ve not yet listened to the latest Meteors album myself.. so can’t comment on it yet ! ~ but… and no disrespect to the original reviewer… it appears that they maybe one of those “original” fadsters that dissapeared along with the “klubfoot” on it’s closing day ! ~ so many people back in those days did this.. and fair play !… but to comment on those of us that have remained within the scene / way of life is insulting to say the least.. tho water off a ducks back really !… but is a very common view from those that “used to be a psychobilly” !! ~ drifted in & drifted out .. & make ill informed judgement on something they possibly didn’t get in the first place ?!. ~ if researched properly… they’d see that the whole thing has grown into it’s true form nowadays !… it’s a sub-culture that survives without all the bullshit of mainstream media help/hinderance … with people young & old into the same thing ! ~ not like “back in the day” when to be honest it was full of people that thought they “looked good”.. and the music was at the highest .. secondary in their list of “psychobilly priorities” !. ~ Yes.. people move on etc. & that’s fine !.. but to comment on something that was a fleeting part of your life… and label it as a dead scene ?!!… well.. we’re better off without the “historian” point of view… as you are obviously better off without “psychobilly” in your dance scene life !. I just wish i’d heard the Meteors album to have commented on it !.
I think what’s got so many people worked up is not your review of the album – music is always a personal thing – but your statements about the scene. “A few of the original bands of the time remain, plugging away and cashing in on a small niche group of fans, but it could be said the horse has been well and truly flogged to death” .This is so completely wide of the mark that I suspect it was thrown in just to create a bit of controversy. As Tobe says above Psychobilly has always been a subculture, we’re not talking about Coldplay for F**ks sake. As a subculture it’s health or otherwise is surely judged by the number of concerts that take place, the attendance at those shows, the records released and finally (and most importantly) the number of younger bands coming into the scene. On this last point from As Diabatz to the Zipheads there have NEVER been as many new young bands in the Psychobilly scene. Compare that with some of the other sub-cultures (punk, ska, rockabilly) and you’ll have to agree that Psychobilly wins hands down. There are now MORE festivals worldwide, better attended, more record releases and some damned good videos. These videos are attracting impressive numbers of views (1.5m + for Hillbilly Moon Explosion with Sparky) and all of this without major record label promotion. If you’d done your research I don’t see how in hell you could have come up with that conclusion. A lot of people (like Tobe) work damned hard to keep the scene healthy and vibrant and your throw away and ill founded remarks have clearly got their backs up.
As for my background, just let’s say that I was around at the very beginning and am happy to be still involved today.
I’m jolly annoyed at the derogatory remark about Matchbox, that song Rockabilly Rebel opened up a whole new world of music to me and introduced me to a genre that I totally love and am still discovering today. Mind you, the Colonel from Memphis has done a bloody good job of stoking up some interest with his first ever review for this website. Bravo!
Simon – are you joking? Rocakbilly Rebel sounds like Shawaddywaddy. Appalling tune.
Sarah – you think this Meteors album is a let down, yet the Peacocks (knd of Stray Cats clones) and Viva Le Pink (a failed mediocre Bubblegum pop singer being propped up by the “proper” musicians she has charmed into making guest appearances for her) are “fantastic”? How much did they pay you to say that?
Yes I agree about the song itself Dan,but I owe that tune a lifetime of enjoying rockabilly music, it started with Matchbox but my 14 year old ears soon got treated to the likes of Mac Curtis and Charlie Feathers and I was hooked. I have to take issue with your comments on The Peacocks though, the only thing they have in common with The Stray Cats is a double bass, are you thinking of the same band? I was wondering who the other lot were as I hadn’t heard of them. Best I get googling.
Dan – nobody pays me to say anything. I don’t get paid for any of my reviews (I do it for enjoyment) and I don’t work for any record companies so I have no ulterior motive. I didn’t say that The Peacocks album was fantastic, I said that it wasn’t bad at all. I don’t think that they’re anything like the Stray Cats. I have done a full review of the album (which should be out on Trebuchet next week) which is honest and sets out my opinions in full so I don’t want to be drawn into giving a one line soundbite here. Say what you like about Viva Le Pink, of course having Doyley on your record helps, but the sound writing (she wrote two of the three songs on the EP) and vocals are also really good and we need more female singers and musicians, I look forward to seeing her live.
The article was lazy and mainly pulled from various websites that have been knocking about for god knows how long…I mean the old Cramps/Meteors debate…..YAWN……..Psychobilly was first used by Cash…..YAWN……….And if you think the scene is dead then thats your opinion but from were im sitting its the best it has been in a long time……..As for the Meteors cd review, ill let you know in a week or two when i get a copy,if i agree with you or not…….Cheers
Is this album review or a psychobilly review ? As an album review you have your views, the scene review well not much extra I can say
Ssshhh kids, I’m trying to write a Mad Sin review.
I’m loving the dissent!
If anyone wants to pony up with another perspective on the Psycho-billy scene that sets the 7inch straight editors@trebuchet-magazine.com will give it a fair shake.
Eds
I had planned on doing that on the Mad Sin review (having thus far kept silent on that issue), but I’m happy for someone else to take the baton!
Col Jon and I are fighting about who gets to do the Mad Sin review…
I really don’t have have two sticks to rub together on it missy. My wife is getting crazy with the cacophony and I don’t intend to spend another night in the outhouse. It’s all yours. Pappy and the little woman say hi.
I think that’s for the best, hehehe
Can I please be an editor? Some of the grammatical errors in that were bloody awful! Anyway, well done for re-doing bits of it, that was very grown up of you.
It’s a child friendly version miss.
Why is it that people seem so insistent on ‘moving forward’ and are so intent on embracing ‘change’ with such gay abandon? If I like something I tend to fancy rather more of it – the profusion of psychobilly and rockabilly bands have always served that particular craving of mine rather nicely.
You can listen to most if not at all tracks of the album reviewed on here: http://soundcloud.com/paulfenech
To be fair, I don’t know if these are the final mixes as they appear on the album but it will definitely give you an idea.
We’re not demanding blood, just don’t like having our scene put down by some tight lace. What was meant to be a review of an album turned into a flurry of hate toward us for no real reason or cause? But of course, being the big scary grrr nasty psychobillies we are…. Hey! What do I know.
The point made here is an objective overview looking back to the beginning of something that shook up a rather sedentary scene during the early 1980’s. In all honesty, there are a lot of people reading this who don’t really have a clue what the music is or from where it came. A re edit was called for as people just seemed to miss the point and that the message is not a negative one. I have re read the thing until the cows came home and it surely doesn’t run anything down. On a personal level I like things to push forward a little and there are many people, active and non active on this scene, who feel that way also, it is merely a case of ‘one mans meat’. If you all agree on stuff then there is something seriously wrong at the ranch. As stated, I have had the good fortune to hear a lot of very good stuff over the past months and also a lot of (in my opinion) bad. I shall continue listening to the bands as I have done over the past thirty years or so and always hope to hear something a little bit special. Again, my ears require a little bit of excitement and occasionally a new edge.
As the Editor suggests, if you’re all bent out of shape then write up an objective piece on what the scene is now as that’s a whole other article. My book is closed on this but I would perhaps say have slow considered re read here and if you want talk about it at the bar, you’re very welcome. As the good lord said unto me, “Turn Blue”.
Being a part of the scene for decades and not being the purist most people in the audience are, i can say that psychobilly is one of the smallest underground scenes that exists with every standard dogma going with it. Gloryfing the past and the bands that were around at the time the sacred Klubfoot was still open. Forgetting that you may not expect bands who were shitty then, cannot be great today (as Kim Nekroman stated some years ago)Skitzo and The Griswals as main examples. Festivals are organised but the bigger ones are just recycling the bands and givng no space to new more innovating bands. These festivals are only organised for the benifit of the promoter and have the same line up every year with the same bands on and on. Speyers festival as main example. Bedlams breakout as positive exception A scene/subculture normally has a drive to evolve and needs new blood, new sounds and new icons. All that the psycho scene lacks for over years now. On the matter of “doing the lords work” Fenech can do much better then this one. At least i hope so. On the other hand the man is only securiing his income by acting out the “imago” he has and being crappy and grumpy is a part of it i guess.
Edit: “Forgetting that you may not expect bands who were shitty then, cannot be great today (as Kim Nekroman stated some years ago)Skitzo and The Griswals as main examples” must be read as: bands that were shitty back in the day, are still shitty!
Keep your eye out for Sarah Corbett’s review of Mad Sin’s upcoming record on Monday – she goes into quite a bit of detail about exactly those points you just raised.
Sean, editor
Mad Sin and Nekromantix being two bands that have bucked that trend, both would have been well down the bill at Big Rumbles. To say that Lonesome puts on the Satanic Stomp ‘for the benefit of the promoter’ is pretty unfair, it would be much easier for him to go to someone else’s festival. The work and effort that goes into organising that event in Speyer is massive and there is always the risk of a hefty loss. As for young bands on the scene in the UK, in my opinion there are more young bands than young fans. I have been saying for ages that they shouldn’t play psychobilly festivals but do their own thing gathering a young audience who can identify with it as their own along the way. A bit like the original psychobilly and neo bands did back in the 1980s in the first place.
You should know better Simon. The risk of a hefty loss is taken away by programming the same bands or reunion bands over and over again. It all started with good intentions years ago. Nowadays its nothing more or less a moneymachine and mr lonesomes rubbing shoulders. Making sure he can drive home with his 30k profit.
He’s giving people what they want at The Stomp, he’s obviously getting the balance right otherwise nobody would turn up. I’m with you about the lack of new blood, but that’s the way things are in the UK at least, it is a nostalgia thing, a bit like the Teddy Boy weekenders I went to as a nipper in the 80s. I’m hoping some of the great new bands get their own crowd and run with it leaving the nostalgia to the oldies.
I’ve been on the ‘scene’ for yonks. It’s nothing like it was but all that’s available for a bit of wreckin’. It’s a bit of a joke these days. I know most of the people and a lot are just idiots and backstabbers, it’s the way it’s gone and I see some are posting on here. Meteors def’ a sad shadow of what they set out as. Mickey D, well done mate, stick it to the dummy.
Im not sure how to take the last comment! Ive been there for years as well and iv’e met some idiots (there everywhere not just in the ‘scene’ but the vast majority are great people and many are good friends!! Ps looking forward to the mad sin review (think their playing the Boston arms new years eve, limited tickets so a move on might be needed if your going)