Column: Gordon Raphael #6, April 2002
By: Gordon Raphael
It's been an amazing journey thus far in your United Kingdom.
As some of you may know, I was meant to record a band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire at a prestigious studio in Wales, but, alas, it was not meant to be - before we even got to the Monmouth Valley. The band couldn't feel secure in my spontaneous approach to record production, and thought I didn't care about their project, not being a good team member - all charges I feel were false! Upon their questions about me and my work-methods, I split right away with the name "London" calling from the forefront of my mind. Now, some magnificent serendipity was occurring, but I had no idea if to interpret my being fired as a sad and disappointing thing, or a liberation towards happier trails. So here goes...
I only knew one person, a certain Julien from the band Hoodlum UK; after three panicky calls to his mobile, I was unable to locate him, thinking for sure I'd now be rather adrift in London, unsure of where to stay or what I might be able to accomplish. Then I remembered a person I'd only met once before at a party: a music-lawyer/manager named Banny. She had sent me a CD this summer, while I was swimming and recording in Mallorca, of a band called The Libertines.
I distinctly recalled Banny as quite aware and vivacious, so I called her in a bit of a fix, informing her of my newfound dilemma. Probably perceiving the stress in my voice, she invited me to crash at her place, among her roommates, which seemed like a perfect solution. I formed a plan to try and visit any members of the music-scene who might be interested to speak with me about recording things, or open to hearing demos from the eight new bands I've worked with so far in 2002 back in New York City. Along the way, I noticed that train-journeys were bizarrely filled with very nice looking young ladies - some even bearing smiles. After the false start, with signs such as these, I couldn't help but think that perhaps England did have the potential to turn out quite interesting and rewarding...
Within two days of my London experiment, I had offers of three flats to stay in (I chose the Covent Garden location belonging to one Su Perior, being that it was empty, and centrally located). Simultaneous to that was the arrival from Tokyo of rock group, The Strokes to this very town where I had unexpectedly landed. So, the first wave of sheer excitement arrived in the form of hanging out with Julian and Albert in the Hotel bar at Trafalgar, talking slow and friendly-like about our recent adventures. It's actually been rare, in the year and a half since I've known them, that we have the chance to share casual conversations, cuz either they are super-busy doing band-related work, or it's been the case where we're all in a bar party scene, with grotesquely loud noises and urgent chaos around. I found out that they had some challenges to overcome on the West Coast US tour, due to the sudden leap up in venue-size and the new level of assistance and organization required to operate smoothly. There was also a noticeable emotion within them, understandably, of wanting to go home soon. Even though they are definitely looking forward to performing in the European cities they've missed or haven't gigged in yet, Julian expressed a desire to stop travelling, anxious to focus on songwriting. The cumulative dates of touring over the last year is a gigantic number, and The Strokes have hardly had the time to absorb all the changes and successes they have experienced - let alone write the music for an entire new album.
Elsewhere, Banny took me to meet The Libertines immediately. Everything I had heard on demo-CDs of the band did not prepare me for how great their music is, and what an amazing group of people they are as well. I instantly noticed that both Carl and Peter are excellent guitarists, and have fantastic voices to match, their drummer Gary bringing a very original style to The Libertines rock and roll, accentuating every phrase with a small touch or flair, and then unleashing the thundering tom-tom patterns that feel amazing, sound super-flashy and resonate powerfulness. Meanwhile, bassist John Hassall is a master of the Rickenbacker, with its brash tone and knee-trembling low end, completing the great talent roster in this energetic band. (He too has a wonderful singing voice...) Their songs sound really messed-up, fast and flipped out - with undeniable melodies and classic songwriting, like some punk-rock Beatles thing. Soon, I volunteered to be their live sound engineer, so that I could work together with them, in hopes of producing some music in the studio one day.
Then, after my third day in London, events rocket-accelerated in speed and a myriad of bands, managers, live gigs and mind-threatening parties ensued. My first wild hoopla was at the Cherry Jam concert by The Libertines. They played frenetically and fried, bouncing around like out of control rocker-robots, nearly punching each other and tearing their shirts up in a fight for stage-space. After the show, the crowd partied all night, and I met up with some great people that I feel I should name-check: Ritu, (manager of NPB from Dublin) Francesca, Lina, Vicki Churchill, Ebe, Murray, Carole, Camilla, Johnny Borell, Alex, Ozandu, Allen and John Paul from the band The Left Hand, Toby L from this site, and several others I couldn't keep track of. This feeling of meeting so many new people who were all so very nice and cool and good (did I mention good-looking?) was rather overwhelming in a positive way, and became the little community that I became part of during the next five weeks - even though I never knew I'd stay that long! As a result, my recently-purchased Brit mobile phone started to fill up with exciting new names and numbers.