Here’s an interview with Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth about the early days of Talking Heads.
I always thought were such nice people. I mean, pleasant, human, real, honest etc.
That’s apparent in this article.
Who else in “rock” or “pop” fits this category of human?
Not many I reckon.
http://www.vulture.com/2014/03/talking-heads-chris-grantz-tina-weymouth-cbgb.html#
Ry Cooder?
Bonnie Raitt?
(Sorry no English folks so far)
(I’d also add Don McGlashan cos I do actually know him)
Ry Cooder??
Mr Grumpy with knobs on.
Agree about Bonnie though.
Richard Thompson seems like a decent bloke (well, these days anyway).
Yes, much as I’d take a bullet for Ry Cooder, he’s well known for being Mr. Grumpy Drawers
I’ve never had any interest whatsoever in The Beautiful South’s music, but I’ve always enjoyed interviews with Paul Heaton. I read a lovely one recently, which I can’t find now, where he talked about his latest project. Humble, witty, totally unpretentious – he reminds me a lot of a dear mate of mine.
I had a brief brush with the BS on a book-related matter once, and I found Mr Heaton surly, uncommunicative and totally uncooperative. Must have been me.
Mani from The Stone Roses and Primal Scream. Always comes across as a bit of a fan who can’t believe his luck and genuinely doesn’t seem to think he’s “all that” despite his deep bass-playing being a considerable contribution to the way his bands roll.
A mate of mine knows Mani (theres a family connection somewhere!) and can confirm he is a top bloke. He bought a place in France a few years back in a small village. Word got round the locals that “someone from the Stones” had bought a property and Mani was most amused when he turned up…
Another up for Mani. Met him a few times & he is a very nice guy.
Pete Turner (the bassist with Elbow) is very nice too. I let on to him at a Damian Marley gig & he stood & chatted with me & my mates for the whole night. Met him at Glastonbury a few years later & same thing.
I was at some party a few years back, Mani was there. I was with a friend who plucked up the courage to go over to him and stammer out just how much the Stone Roses meant to him and thank him for his music etc. Mani’s response “Don’t know wharryoumean mate. That wasn’t me mate. No idea what you’re on about” My pal was crushed.
Maybe Mani was having an off-night.
Is this your mate on the left?
I have been looking for this clip online FOREVER.
Thank you.
I never took Tim Lovejoy as a shallow headed desperate fame junkie hipster fuck…..no sorry, that’s exactly what I thought he was.
Yes I know these logos and album images of Motorhead, Maiden, GNR, Stones have now become classic designs and there is more than a whiff of a rock snob about it but the line about Hitler made me laugh as didn’t David Beckham once wear a designer T shirt with Adolf Eichmann on it ?
Is this the appropriate place to put the devastatingly brilliant and destructive WSC review of his autobiography?
yes
OK then
http://www.wsc.co.uk/the-archive/42-Media/145-no-love-no-joy
“one of the few averagely blokey TV presenters to make me clack my tongue in irritation, rather than buff my Gurkha knife”
“one of the few averagely blokey TV presenters to make me clack my tongue in irritation, rather than buff my Gurkha knife”
And the bit that made me suggest he’d been blanked by Mani:
“And, surprise: Lovejoy is as wretched a starf**ker as could be inferred from his television shows. Everyone in football is Tim’s mate (and here we have pictures to prove it, stars looking confused in his grinning, over-familiar presence, frozen by an arm around the shoulders).”
Who the flip is Tim Lovejoy? FACT: I bought a Ramones t-shirt from C&A in Barcelona 2 years ago. Having worked on one of their gigs in 1977 I can testify they were top fellows, as were their support band Talking Heads.
I saw them at Strathclyde Union on that ’77 tour. One of the very greatest gigs I’ve ever been to. Met Linda Stein and got on so well with her, she became a friend who I met regularly in London over the next few years. Joey and Dee Dee were sweethearts, telling me how they’d been influenced by the Beatles and the Stones, but also by Herman’s Hermits and the Bay City Rollers. They weren’t taking the piss either.
Talking Heads then had a much more muscular sound live than that exhibited in their (for that reason, disappointing) first album.
Seconded. There’s not many people who can tell in an engaging way what it was like to find 1.8 million quid had been popped into your bank account as an advance without realising. And without you wanting to punch them for telling you the story.
Nick Lowe always comes across as the nicest man this side of Michael Palin.
I’ve met Nick Lowe (not to namedrop but he was introduced to me by Ron Sexsmith). He was very nice,
Don’t believe the spin. Nick Lowe trashed my washbasin.
In the late ’70s I worked for a newspaper in a college town and was sent out to ‘review’ a Talking Heads concert. Afterward I found myself at the same part as Chris and Tina – he and I talked at length about music. i can tell you with certainty that ‘James Brown Live at the Apollo’ topped his list of live albums, and that he was indeed a mensch.
Another thumb aloft for Paul Heaton, and Suggs is a decent cove, too.
That Lou Reed was a fucker, mind.
There’s a great story of a music journo (Mark Ellen?) being sent to Mark King’s pile on the Isle of Wight to interview the thumbtastic Level 42 slapper, at a time when his band were selling loads but had the street cred of loonpants. With his pencil shrpened, he buzzed in at the gates to be rejoined by Mr King yelling ‘great! You’re here! I’ll get the pizzas on!’ Mark King had made home made, rather nice, pizzas to celebrate the interview. He turned out to be a gregarious and generous host, and his appearance on the SodaJerker songwriting postcast bears this out.
Whadda guy, etc. Still hate their music.
That was Stuart Maconie I believe. He talks about it in ‘Cider With Roadies’ which is a great read
Peter Buck was very nice.
Aimee Mann… saw her a number of years ago here in Singapore and there was a signing CD session shortly after the concert. My wife and I had disappeared off for some food straight after the concert and but but on returning to the venue and hour later, she was still there happily chatting with folks and having her picture taken….
Graham Coxon
and maybe not rock n roll but The Unthanks & Kathryn Williams
I saw The Unthanks in Guildford last night. What a lovely bunch of people. They were completely charming on and off stage
They say don’t meet your heroes but the time I met Bernard Butler he was a very decent sort. Spent a few minutes yakking at the tour bus.
Oh sorry I forgot real sweetheart David McAlmont who dedicated a song to a good friend of mine last week
Shall we be stage door johnnies again this weekend?
Met and interviewed Rolf Harris a couple times in the early 90s – he really was a top fellow…makes the events of the last couple of years all the more disappointing.
In a similar vein, I was backstage at the Hyde Park ‘Quadrophenia’ show in the mid-90s when I got chatting to one of the stars. He couldn’t have been more friendly. Warm, funny, completely engaging. I had a Quadrophenia tee-shirt that I’d already had signed by Daltrey and Townshend and my new best friend gladly scrawled his autograph and a personal message on it. For years, I told everyone what a great bloke he was.
Paul Gadd, I believe he’s best known as.
I spent a diverting 10 minutes talking to Jimmy Savile in a Scarborough hotel.
That’s top trumps!
I was quite pleased to find the book of Tom Hibberts “Who The Hell…” interviews in my local charity store.
I was slightly bemused to find the chapters on Messrs Gadd, Saville and Harris had been ripped out however.
And no, I don’t think I can take it back…
*frantically racks brain, trying to recall any other meaningful encounters with celebrity paedophiles
I appeared with him in a series of ads when I was a kid and he was a lovely man.
Not the “learn to swim” ones?
When I met Shane Macgowan he was very nice despite me being a n obvious fanboy & telling him how much I love him!
They say never meet your heroes but he was an exception to that rule.
Teddy Thompson. Any man that puts up with the ranting of my friend as graciously as he did post gig…
David Gedge was very nice to a star-struck teenager (he bought me a drink). Replied to a fan letter of mine! A proper letter and all. Wish I had kept it although I’m sure my original letter was toe-curling, to say the least. 🙂
Saw him a lot round Leeds in clubs and at gigs. I lived near him (stalker alert). Always seemed unfailingly nice and polite to rabid Weddoes fans.
Mike Mills wrote a long and wholly unlooked-for response to my mate Heather’s fan letter once. She’s still got it, of course. Bless him.
I think an actual letter goes above and beyond. Kudos.
When I wrote to Dave (although to me he will forever be ‘David’) The Wedding Present were already pretty big (in indie terms) so he really didn’t need to reply at all, other than it was a nice thing to do. Also the drink- he was with his girlfriend, I was pissed and giggly, he could have been an arse and chose not to be. Nearly 30 years ago and I still remember it. 🙂
I’ve met Jarvis Cocker a few times at parties and he’s always been a really nice fella, very down to earth.
I’ve met Billy Bragg and he was extremely nice. As was Edwyn Collins, genuinely a lovely guy.
Someone up there mentioned Suggs. I have separately met both him and Chas Smash and can exclusively report that both were extremely pleasant individuals.
Someone up there also mentioned Paul Heaton? Met him once. Very open and likeable but I suspect he was going through a periodic dark phase, which I hear he gets. He was in no way a dick head, he was just, over sharing? Bit too honest? About himself by the way, not a dick to anyone around him.
Rob Halford comes across as a decent bloke in those metal documentaries.
I also like the fact that the members of Rush seem to genuinely love each other.
I was really surprised at an interview with John Foxx recently. I had grown up thinking his speaking voice would be all distant, arty, American and David Byrne-ish…but he’s got a chirpy Lancashire accent! And he seems a like quite a laff! You could have knocked me down with a whippet.
Rich Hall was really nice to chat to.
Mark Hart and Matt Sherrod were also great fun to meet after the last Crowded House show I was at, for some reason Matt was wearing a blonde wig IIRC.
Sinead O’Connor was very friendly, funny and totally down-to-earth. She’s had her problems obv but she was in grand form when I met her.
Amongst many performers I met through previous work, separately Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook were both splendid company.
L. Gallagher and R. Williams were, unsurprisingly, not.
A few years ago the local MP made a really rather witty and amusing speech at my local rugby club before a game, much funnier than the average Edinburgh stand-up – Iain Duncan-Smith.
Ralph McTell. A really lovely bloke. Talks to anyone after his shows.