It's a good year so far for fans of former Creation Records acts. On the road right now: Primal Scream, Jesus & Mary Chain, Ride, Swervedriver, and even the Loft (later the Weather Prophets). Pretty impressive.
Check out the trailer for Love Is The Message below - filmed during a typical night at the Gallery disco in 1977. Along with David Mancuso's Loft parties, Nicky Siano's Gallery is a storied and influential institution in the history of disco & dance music. Nicky just celebrated his 60th birthday with a party out on Coney Island, and it looks like they had a fantastic time!
The old flames always seem to resurface, and hopefully they still sound good, or at least interesting. Here are a couple of related releases that may interest those of you who, like me, have a very fond place in your heart for Creation Records...and yes, they still sound good.
Mr. Peter Astor (The Loft, The Weather Prophets) released his latest solo album sometime within the last year, and I just found out about it. Songbox is available on the Second Language label. Here's the video for "Dead Trumpets," directed by none other than Gina Birch of the Raincoats! Keep up with Pete on Facebook. And check out Pete's all time top 10 over at Louder Than War.
The second of these brings together two artists from two different Creation bands, Pete Fij from Adorable (whose catalog seems to be completely out of print - not even available digitally), and Terry Bickers from the House of Love. They're giving away their new track, "I Don't Give A Shit About You," via their Soundcloud page. Check it out below...that Bickers guitar sound is unmistakeable. You can also get some more info here, and like them on Facebook. Its great to see these guys back in action!
And once the Loft broke up, and the Weather Prophets formed, it became all polka-dotted shirts/leather trousers in the mid-80's at Creation. Watch the video below & you'll see what I mean.
Five or six years ago, while tour managing Hem, we opened for Patti Smith in Pittsburgh. Meeting Lenny Kaye for the first time, I racked my brain for some sort of intelligent conversation to make. Luckily I remembered that he had produced the Weather Prophets debut Mayflower album which included the single "Naked As the Day You Were Born." When I mentioned how much I liked them, he smiled & went on to tell me that "Naked..." was his favorite personal production job in a long & storied career. And what do you know? Over at his website he says it again:
"Whenever I'm asked my favorite production (though all are one's children, as they day they are born), I have a special fondness for "Naked As The Day," from this London band's album. It was a see-how-you-get-along single that moved toward the epic, and lent itself so well to my personal expression that I still play it in my solo set. The album, with Pete Astor's color-coded lyrics and singsong melodics, never was released in the US, or on CD for that matter."
I'm sorry I couldn't find a copy of "Naked..." to post, but here's a live version of the WP's classic "Almost Prayed," a tune that always works for me.
