4.52am Issue: 060 The Penny Rimbaud Issue 23rd November 2017
This week in 4.52am we have an interview with the legend that is Penny Rimbaud. Learn to play looks at Richie Blackmore and Nile Rodgers Music from: The Spitfires Anna Burch, and Joe Dolman Before La Contessa brings us, The Spencer Davies Group Judy Tzuke U2 K.D Lang Super Furry Animals, and the Arctic Monkeys Enjoy!
This week in 4.52am we have an interview with the legend that is Penny Rimbaud.
Learn to play looks at Richie Blackmore and Nile Rodgers
Music from:
The Spitfires
Anna Burch, and
Joe Dolman
Before La Contessa brings us,
The Spencer Davies Group
Judy Tzuke
U2
K.D Lang
Super Furry Animals, and
the Arctic Monkeys
Enjoy!
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T<br />
his week in <strong>4.52am</strong> we have an interview<br />
with the legend that is <strong>Penny</strong> <strong>Rimbaud</strong><br />
whilst Learn to Play sees us enjoying<br />
ourselves with Nile Rodger and Richie<br />
Blackmore.<br />
From there it is all music with the Spitfires<br />
leading the line and everything getting super<br />
cool with Anna Burch and Joe Dolman.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n of course La Contessa treats us to a tip-toe<br />
through the decades with the Spencer Davies<br />
Group, Judy Tzuke, U2, K.D Lang, the Super Furry<br />
Animals and the Artic Monkeys.<br />
Can’t be bad.<br />
Hope you enjoy it<br />
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Contents<br />
<strong>Penny</strong> <strong>Rimbaud</strong> ....................................................................... 9<br />
Learn to Play: Nile Rodgers ................................................... 21<br />
Learn to Play: Richie Blackmore ............................................ 25<br />
<strong>The</strong> Spitfires .......................................................................... 29<br />
Anna Burch ........................................................................... 33<br />
Joe Dolman ........................................................................... 35<br />
La Contessa Presents… .......................................................... 37<br />
1960s: Spencer Davies Group ................................................ 39<br />
1970s: Judy Tzuke ................................................................. 41<br />
1980s: U2 .............................................................................. 43<br />
1990s: K.D Lang ..................................................................... 45<br />
2000s: Super Furry Animals ................................................... 47<br />
2010s: Artic Monkeys ............................................................ 49
<strong>Penny</strong> <strong>Rimbaud</strong><br />
W<br />
e mentioned a few weeks ago that <strong>Penny</strong> <strong>Rimbaud</strong> of<br />
Crass fame was about to release an album of Wilfred<br />
Owen’s poetry, set to music, recording this with two<br />
fantastic musicians in Liam Noble, (Piano) and Kate Shortt,<br />
(Cello). Whether you are into poetry or not, Wilfrid Owen’s<br />
poems, written in World War One prior to his death shortly<br />
before the end of the war, are something that are hard to ignore<br />
and which resonate loudly every year at Remembrance Services.<br />
But Owen’s words are relevant all of the time, not just to be<br />
rolled out for an anniversary, and in recording this album, and<br />
performing this work, <strong>Rimbaud</strong> brings what is something very<br />
important back to the centre of the stage, ensuring that it can’t<br />
be ignored or forgotten, along with all the people who died<br />
alongside or on the other side from Owen.<br />
I was delighted to be able to talk to <strong>Penny</strong> about the album and<br />
many other topics, and we’re really pleased to be able to<br />
reproduce a portion of the interview here. <strong>The</strong> full interview will<br />
appear elsewhere.
Can I ask what inspired you to record a selection of William<br />
Owen’s Poetry?<br />
“In many ways it goes back to the very start. I was born during<br />
the war and it wasn’t until I was three or four that I met my<br />
Father. Like many children, I didn’t know who he was when he<br />
came back after the war and I didn’t like him very much. I didn’t<br />
really know what war was and he didn’t want to talk about it. In<br />
fact all that I remember him talking about was what he called<br />
the ‘Real World’ which to me sounded a horrible place. This was<br />
reinforced later when I discovered a book about Auschwitz<br />
among my Mother and Father’s books, with all these horrendous<br />
images. I got more and more convinced that I didn’t fancy this<br />
‘Real World’ and that I would do anything I could to avoid it. In<br />
fact at home all I was able to do was listen to Brahms, it was the<br />
only music my Father had. I grew to love Brahms, but not as<br />
much as I liked Benjamin Britten.<br />
As I got older, I was a chorister and sang in most of the<br />
cathedrals in Southern England. I love choral music, although<br />
Christianity made no sense to me. Why would you worship...how<br />
is a corpse on a cross meant to make you happy?<br />
But it was as a chorister that I very luckily found myself singing<br />
as part of the first performance of Britten’s ‘Spring Symphony.’<br />
Britten conducted it himself. He was a lovely man, very involved,<br />
compassionate, and this gave me an interest in music that<br />
Brahms hadn’t. I started to listen to his work, although my<br />
Father didn’t approve - far too modern for his tastes.”
Was this when you discovered the ‘War Requiem?’<br />
“Very much so, it was the ‘War Requiem’ that was my<br />
introduction to Wilfred Owen. I’d still got this hatred of the idea<br />
of my Father’s ‘Real World’ and reading a line from Owen,<br />
‘I am the enemy you killed, my friend’ for the first time made<br />
sense to me. “<br />
I am the enemy you killed, my friend.<br />
I knew you in this dark: for so you frowned<br />
Yesterday through me as you jabbed and killed.<br />
I parried; but my hands were loath and cold.<br />
Let us sleep now. . . .”<br />
(‘Strange Meeting’, Wilfred Owen)<br />
“It resonated far beyond Owen’s and mine own self-interest. I<br />
didn’t immediately understand what it was that made it<br />
important, but it gave me a clue and I was at that stage in life<br />
when you are searching for clues, trying to make sense of it all.<br />
At this point I was very sure what it was I didn’t want to be in<br />
life, but I was still searching around to find out what it was that I<br />
wanted to become. It was all clues I was following and as I<br />
reached my 20s it all started to come together. Owen, Britten, I<br />
had discovered Zen and was becoming very interested in that,<br />
and then there was CND and Aldermaston.”<br />
Did the music and your lyrics for Crass grow out of all of this?<br />
“Yes, I had a brief flirtation with Rock ‘n’ Roll but that was only<br />
very short and until I discovered Jazz, and then Jazz was<br />
everything, coupled with proper blues - people like Leadbelly<br />
rather than the pale, white version that was becoming popular.“
“Once I started playing with bands, I think I always wanted my<br />
own version of Owen, but I was never sure how to. In fact the<br />
final Crass album contained what I can only describe as this<br />
elongated, freeform rant, that was the closest I came to Owen. I<br />
remember sending a copy to Peter Pears, Benjamin Britten’s<br />
musical and personal partner who had sang on the ‘War<br />
Requiem’, along with a note explaining that I was inspired by his<br />
and Britten’s work. I never heard back, but I hope he liked it.”<br />
How did you come to record ‘What Passing Bells?’<br />
“It started about 10 years ago. I was playing with Liam (Noble,<br />
Piano) and Kate (Shortt, Cello) and really wanted Liam to help<br />
me set Owen’s poems to music, but it never quite happened,<br />
although it was always in the back of my mind as something I<br />
should do ‘sometime.’<br />
By 2014, I’d become aware that the centenary celebrations were<br />
starting to happen, and it was very much a ‘now or never’<br />
moment. I was really concerned that we would see a lot of<br />
jingoism, and hoped that Owen could prove to be an antidote to<br />
that. In truth that hasn’t happened so far, but regardless I feel as<br />
though we have done our bit in putting this out.<br />
But yes, it was in 2014 and myself and Liam were to play the<br />
Owen poems at the Vortex Jazz Club in London and by chance I<br />
met Kate the day before and invited her along, and she joined us<br />
for the second half of what turned out to be the first<br />
performance of ‘What Passing Bells.’
“Since then we have played it perhaps half a dozen times. It is an<br />
incredibly complex and powerful experience, to play and<br />
perform and is immensely draining, but there is a vital, raw<br />
energy and power to it. It is of course never the same twice and<br />
Kate and Liam create the whole piece anew every time which<br />
makes it difficult for me as obviously Owen’s words have to be<br />
the same, but I need to reinterpret them for the music.<br />
As for how it came to be recorded, I didn’t know how it would<br />
happen and I was expecting to be trying to find the money to do<br />
it, and probably paying for the recording myself, but I was<br />
speaking to Derek Birkett at One Little Indian records, who years<br />
ago, back in the Punk days I had given a copy of the ‘War<br />
Requiem’ to and he had loved it, and he just volunteered to<br />
record the album. As simple as that. This was fantastic as it<br />
meant that suddenly we could record it in the very best studios<br />
with all the best equipment. It turned out to be a fabulous<br />
recording - we even got to use Freddy Mercury’s piano, which<br />
was particularly special.”<br />
“What Passing Bells” by <strong>Penny</strong> <strong>Rimbaud</strong> is now available from<br />
One Little Indian Records, Here, and is quite simply one of the<br />
most important, and potent albums we have heard in years. It is<br />
something rare and special and you really need to check it out.<br />
As we write this, there is one more performance of the show<br />
planned for <strong>2017</strong>, at <strong>The</strong> Vortex Jazz Club on the 8 th of December<br />
<strong>2017</strong>. You can Book Here, but tickets are extremely limited in<br />
numbers, so be quick.
Learn to Play:<br />
Nile Rodgers<br />
B<br />
Y the time you get to the bottom of the page, Nile<br />
Rodgers will probably have played on another hit record,<br />
and his famous ‘Money Maker’ will have earned him a<br />
few more bob too. Not that money is the measure of the man,<br />
when you look at just how many classic songs he has been<br />
involved in, and stylistically there is quite literally nobody else<br />
that sounds or fills a gap like Nile does.<br />
But that doesn’t stop us trying and this week we thought a guitar<br />
lesson would be a fine idea, so enjoy.
Learn to Play:<br />
Richie Blackmore<br />
G<br />
rowing up and desperate to learn how to play the<br />
electric guitar, between Angus Young playing ‘Whole<br />
Lotta Rosie’ and just about anything Richie Blackmore<br />
played, my horizons were definitely widened. If I could have<br />
played the start to ‘Tarot Woman’ on the tambourine I would<br />
have died happy, never mind on a guitar.<br />
So Mr Blackmore, it is long overdue…
<strong>The</strong> Spitfires<br />
W<br />
e featured <strong>The</strong> Spitfires way-back-when in <strong>4.52am</strong>,<br />
and it is great news to hear that they have signed for<br />
one of the coolest labels around in Hatch Records<br />
and will be releasing a brand new single ‘Over And Over Again’<br />
on 15th December <strong>2017</strong>.<br />
<strong>The</strong> single will be available on 7” vinyl and via all good digital<br />
retailers and comes with another new track ‘Take Action!’ as the<br />
B-side, with a special 14+ single release show in London on 16th<br />
December at <strong>The</strong> Borderline, with an extensive run of UK/EU<br />
tour dates lined up heading into 2018 (dates below).<br />
Commenting on the track, singer and songwriter Billy Sullivan<br />
said,<br />
“We recently had George [Moorhouse, keys] join the band and<br />
his ability and playing style has added something different. For<br />
me personally it's the most 'complete' song I've written and<br />
we've released to date.”
“<strong>The</strong> lyrics are about being on a night out in some shitty club and<br />
the more you drink the more miserable you become. That thing<br />
of watching your mates have a good time when all you can think<br />
about is how bored you are with your own situation. Whether it<br />
be your job, where you live or your relationship. And how you<br />
can predict in 6 months down the line you'll be back in the same<br />
club, same time, feeling the same thing.”<br />
Find out more,<br />
Website Facebook<br />
Anna Burch<br />
I<br />
t must be the week for new signings as the rather wonderful<br />
Anna Burch has signed for the equally cool Heavenly Records,<br />
and is about to release a single, ‘Asking 4 A Friend’ to<br />
celebrate.<br />
Talking about the track, Anna says,<br />
"I was playing 'Asking 4 a Friend' for my mom and after the first<br />
verse she very concernedly asked 'Is this about drugs?' I told her<br />
it was a metaphor for going back to a bad, undefined<br />
relationship and she seemed satisfied with that."<br />
We’ll no doubt be hearing plenty more, but for now if you want<br />
to find out more, here is where you should go next,<br />
Facebook Twitter
Joe Dolman<br />
T<br />
his week La Contessa has spread her wings and demanded<br />
that we have Joe Dolman in the magazine, not that it was<br />
ever a problem, I just think she is claiming the kudos, but<br />
regardless of all of that Joe is a young man with a serious talent<br />
and in ‘Something Beautiful’ has recorded a song that could take<br />
him places. So we are honoured and hopefully we’ll hear more<br />
from him in the nearest of futures.<br />
You can catch him live,<br />
15/11 - <strong>The</strong> Fox and Newt, Leeds<br />
16/11 - <strong>The</strong> Glad Cafe, Glasgow<br />
7.3.18 - Birmingham O2 Academy 2<br />
8.3.18 - Bristol Cafe Kino<br />
10.3.18 - Glasgow Glad Cafe<br />
11.3.18 - Manchester Fallow Cafe<br />
12.3.18 - London O2 Academy 2 Islington<br />
Find out more,<br />
Facebook<br />
La Contessa Presents…<br />
A<br />
s you would expect this week, La Contessa has really got<br />
Autumnal, and there is no better song for this time of<br />
year than U2’s ‘Unforgettable Fire’, although it is Judy<br />
Tzuke that is in there for Bev and that matters far more.<br />
Alongside that we have the Spencer Davies Group, the Super<br />
Furry Animals, K.D Lang and the Artic Monkeys.<br />
Now that would make for a party and a half.<br />
Enjoy!
1960s: Spencer Davies<br />
Group
1970s: Judy Tzuke
1980s: U2
1990s: K.D Lang
2000s: Super Furry<br />
Animals
2010s: Artic Monkeys