The second part of our Liam Gallagher and John Squire tour came to a conclusion this week, it’ll be nice to see the old gang again but this has been an effortlessly joyous lineup to play with. The added bonus for me personally has been arrangements with the kind of space and dynamics that it’s easy to play around with or even let loose in. I look forward to seeing the other band again but I’ll definitely miss this one too. Both things can be true you know.
We were on Fallon on Tuesday night, the video above that was released is of take two, on take one my organ switched off and I spent about a minute crawling around on my hands and knees checking leads before remembering “this is the Jimmy Fallon show, not a gig at the Talbot”. Anyway, you’re allowed to do two takes so two is the one that was broadcast. Everybody else thought it was better too, I don’t think my personal calamity would’ve had enough weight if everybody else had waded through a four minute dystopia on the second pass.
Every time I play on Fallon I get to do a small pilgrimage to see the Muppet pipes, a small corner that the Muppet performers decorated whilst waiting to appear back in 1964. I’ve tried to photograph them several times but the results have been underwhelming so here’s Kermit introducing the camera crew to them on his 2012 Fallon appearance.
Looking at the Muppet pipes led to me and Joey talking about the Muppets for a while leading to Joey, in the last dying days of the tour, dropping his biggest session credit on the table and blowing everybody’s minds. Especially mine. That’s right, he did Animal’s drumming for the 2011 Muppets film, as well as the drumming on all the songs that Bret McKenzie wrote for that film. I’m not sure if you remember that one but I do and all the music in it was brilliant, I could pick anything from that film but if you need any proof of its musical brilliance please enjoy Life’s A Happy Song on this fine morning, and let’s thank and congratulate Joey Waronker for his part in making us all smile back then after we’d waited nervously to see whether the Muppets still had it. They totally still had it.
I’ll never stop loving the Muppets, forgive me if I mention them too often on here. In my next paragraphs I’ll be talking about the Earlies. I won’t mention it down there but we did a Muppets cover at those gigs. It was beautiful.
When The Earlies Appeared
Tomorrow (the 14th April 2024 if you’re reading this billions of years into the future and not this Saturday morning) will mark twenty years since the Earlies first took to the stage. And what a small stage it was too, the Arts Cafe in East London somewhere. We’d rehearsed for three days in an abandoned space above ISO Bar in Burnley centre, putting in 12 hour days taking the material from absolutely nothing to a point where, from what I could ascertain, it was working. I invited my Mum down on the third night to listen to what we were doing and she seemed to smile just enough whilst we were playing through the set for me to feel like we were on the right path.
Supported by Micah P Hinson and Half Cousin with all three bands using huge lineups and van loads of ancient and uncompromising musical apparatus it was chaotic, congested and sweltering hot. I remember that I was the only person who knew how to set up any of the ten keyboards we’d brought, or the small PA and mixer we’d decided to use to sub-mix them all before sending out to the PA. I had two hours sweating and rolling around on the floor plugging all this stuff in. People kept coming in and telling me I needed to finish so I could go outside and have a photo taken for Uncut magazine. I eventually got round to doing that and predictably looked like a ruffled, ruddy faced clodpole, I can’t imagine the image helped our cause.
The gig was a good-ish one I think. I remember playing accordian through an incredibly loud Micah set and realising how utterly knackering it is trying to heave your bellows to keep up with amplified musicians. I sweated some more, added on to the afternoon’s sweat I must’ve been building up to quite the hum. The gig was so tiny that when the Earlies played Nicky, Tom and Brandon had to stand on the floor in the audience. All the photos of the gig just looked like a house party. Afterwards genuinely was a house party. Everybody came back to my student house on Duckett Road in Harringay, everybody from the Earlies and Micah’s Band slept there plus our manager and our sound engineer. Not in beds or with blankets you understand, just on the floor. All over the kitchen, the stairways, my housemate’s floors. I don’t think I’d asked any of my university friends if it was all right to bring a crowd in during the final crucial moments of their degrees, they all just accepted it. They all loved the Earlies just as much as I did. They were fully behind the whole lost cause and all made their own little sacrifices for it.
I think we played fairly well. We looked at each other all the way through. We listened to each other intensely. No huge mistakes. No equipment catastrophes. We got through it and made a fairly commendable debut outing.
But the day after at Band On the Wall was when we really soared.
Beatles Covers
I found out that two good friends and readers of this humble newsletter have compiled Spotify playlists of Beatles covers. The one above is by Chicago’s own Joe Collier now living in Milan. The one below by Rob Shaw, formerly living quite close to me over the Yorkshire border but now somewhere in Catalonia.
Rob’s playlist is shorter but as far as I can tell that’s because Joe absorbed Rob’s playlist into his. Anyway, calm down lads, it’s not a fucking competition. This is all about exchanging ideas and there are some belters in there that I’d never heard of. If you’re paying attention this week let me direct you to my two favourite dedicated Beatles covers albums.
Firstly we have Mother Nature’s Son by the legendary soul jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis.
Giles introduced this one to me when he made me a compilation cassette in 1997 which included the Wurlitzer led version of Back In the USSR. If any of you came to the Liam Gallagher John Squire shows you might just have heard that tune in the pre gig mix. Or you might have just been swilling seven quid lager and shouting into your mates’ earhole, who knows? Anyway, it’s a magical album. There are some strangely innovative and futuristic sounding percussion breaks and some richly smooth orchestrations. He didn’t manage to cover the whole White album but it’s a big album and Ramsey Lewis released this one a mere three weeks after the Beatles popped theirs out. That really is beyond the scope of modern music industry comprehension so I’ll just leave it there for you to think about.
And secondly of course, Booker T and the MGs McLemore Avenue.
Booker T and the MGs covered the entire Abbey Road album (give or take a tune or two) and then did a quick snap walking across the street outside their own illustrious Memphis studio. Presumably they’re actually jay walking on the cover photo, there’s no crossing markings on the photo and the Americans are pretty strict on that stuff. Anyway, it’s absolutely gorgeous from start to finish and it must’ve been mind-blowing for the Beatles who were huge Booker T and the MGs fans. It would be the equivalent of me making an album and then it being covered by, I don’t know, Booker T and the MGs. I still listen to this album a lot, I think they sound as good as they ever did. It’s beautifully recorded and played with impeccable feel and taste throughout.
Anyway enjoy, and feel free to tell me about your favourite Beatles covers if there are any burning in your mind right now.
Looking forward to checking the playlists. I love Brad Mehldau’s cover of I Am the Walrus!
Both Ramsey Lewis and Booker T albums are new ones on me. Ramsey's Sexy Sadie is fantastic! Amazing bassline.