My Verlaines story(ies)

[redterror]

Hey, first off, I am so glad to have found this website.

I was looking for the lyrics to Heavy 33, did a search and found this website. Is this a fan website, or official?

I wrote a feature story about Graeme for a fanzine several years ago, a blurb of mine sits at the top of the home page on this site. Nice! The interview/feature is still available online(home.golden.net/~tekapo/type/verlaines.html) and will remain online permanently (or at least as long as I pay my ISP bill).

BTW - the commentary Graeme provides for the records originated with me too (hey, where's the source credit!?! grrrrrrrrr).

I was a fan of the Verlanes since Bird-Dog -- as I say in my article, I bought that record because I fell in love with the record jacket. At that point I didn't really care what it sounded like, I just wanted that 12" painting repro! Glad to see it get some additional life on this website. Later I fell in love with the music, and I've been a commited fan ever since.

The first and only time I saw the Verlaines play live was at Lee's Palace in Toronto (April 2, 1992). I don't want to boast about the shows that I have seen in my lifetime, suffice to say I have seen some of the greatest names in the history of jazz, blues and rock music, and no word of a lie, the Verlaines was one of the best shows I have ever seen, a Top Fiver for sure. Sadly, there was hardly anyone at the show. And the people who were at the show stood about 20 feet back from the stage, introverts all, so there was an acre of empty space in front of Graeme. I felt sheepish walking right up to the stage and snapping photos, but for Graeme's benefit did not blind a flash in his grill. One of these days I will have to print those and add them online. Despite the small attendance, my god, that show was ferocious!!!

I did the interview with Graeme in spring 1999, got it published in July 1999. Graeme contacted me and invited me to a solo show he was doing in either NYC or Boston. From memory, Graeme was doing a short stopover on his way to Europe, perhaps for a vacation, I can't recall the precise facts. I quit my job and chose the Boston gig for the Brattle in Harvard Square dated Sept. 16, 1999, 'cos I didn't want to drive in downtown Manhattan and pay their parking fees.

Alas, despite my intentions, I never did catch the solo show, thanks to Hurricane Floyd that whacked the east coast. It was downgraded to a Tropical Storm Floyd by the time it hit Massachusetts, but that was the scariest white-knuckle drive I ever did in my life. Visibility on the Mass Turnpike was the worst I have ever seen, worse than snow blindness whiteouts, as the windshield wipers couldn't deal with the lashing storm and spray coming up off the road from transport trucks. Road trip to HELL, we called it.

My pal and I were shittin ourselves and didn't know Logan Airport in Boston was closed. We arrived near dark after a stressful and exhausting 17-hour drive. Boston was under water. We pulled into Harvard Square, it was still hosing, so took shelter in a small esoteric indie record store down some stairs. There was only one customer - Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth). Whoa, crazy. We exchanged storm stories -- he drove up from Connecticut that day and said airports were closed and was worried his gig might be cancelled. He was doing a solo gig at a Baptist Church. We told him we were there to see Graeme, but alas, the show never happened, he was grounded in NYC. Thurston, bless him, got me into his show for free and generally hung out, he was impressed that someone would drive a 2000 km roundtrip to see a Verlaine, rock & roll duty he called it, so all was cool. Moore did his gig -- we taped and photographed that -- and even had the surreal experience of watching an Arab protestor walk in front of Moore and start ranting at the audience with some bizarre polemic. Then we turned around and started the return trip.

Graeme was all apologies, but it wasn't his fault, it was An Act Of God. And bless him, he made sure Matador sent me an advance copy of Hammers and Anvils.

And... to be completely honest... I really don't know what Graeme's been doing the past few years, I lost touch. I suspect he's still teaching and doing some local shows in NZ, but I'd still like to see him perform up this way again. Hardly a month goes by that I'm not playing a Verlaines album.

In any event, that's a long-winded way of saying thanks for the website. Verlaines solidarity is a good thing!! Keep up the good work.

Cheers, Dave

[admin]

Hey Dave! Fantastic story. I had no idea you've been unaware of the site all this time. It's actually the third incarnation - it's been around in some form since 2002. I always meant to write to you because I absolutely LOVE your article, but I'm pretty bad at correspondence so... it never happened. For the record, the quotes in the discography section did list the origin in a previous version, and the link to your page in Articles contained a mention that it was the source of said quotes. Apologies for the current omission - it wasn't intentional. I'll update it ASAP. I've actually been working on a new version but it's on the backburner due to work commitments and other time consumers.

As for the site, it's not official, no - just a fan page. Mike Stoodley is a key supporter and contributor (I've got loads of photos I need to include in the next update), and I occasionally run ideas by Graeme for his opinion, but mostly it's just me - a girl in the tropics with a keyboard and a passion. There are loose ends in the current version because I had to change hosts and some of the content (mp3 clips, for instance) had to be temporarily jettisoned, but hopefully I'll be able to resolve this by the time I finish the new version.

Lastly, this message board isn't very active these days, so this was a pleasant surprise. Stick around - there's an off chance that it might pick up again.

[redterror]

Hi, no problems about the credit -- I was just reading and going whoa, that sounds familiar -- maybe Graeme is a Stepford Musician and you pull the cord in his back and he repeats the same things and -- hold on, that was mine! I may very well have checked this site out a while ago, but I'm not sure. Most of my net surfing is related to history, politics and sports -- as far as my music interest goes I'm always getting things shoved into my hand rather than seeking it out these days. But I still listen to a lot of Verlaines on long journeys. I had always hoped that someday I would get to NZ and try to catch up with Graeme down there -- but time is passing quickly. I haven't been there for 20 years, and in fact it was quite by accident I was listening to a small college radio station in Christchurch on my travels that I heard The Chills "Leather Jacket" and realized some really exciting music was being created down there. I'll bookmark the site and check back regularly. Thanks, Dave.

[mike]

Hi Dave, If I recall correctly we played 2 shows in Toronto. The first was in an underground/downstairs place, pretty low key, empty, and the other band was the Afghan Wigs (!). This was well before they were "big" and they were really funny. I have some photos of them that I only recently got printed from the negatives - they are all crazed because I left it so long. The other one was in a much more plush setting , proper stage, I guess the Lees palace you refer to. But also empty of people. My recollection is of a terrible performance, one of the real lows due to a disagreement about I-can't-remember-what. In fact the following gig was cancelled because of it. Assuming thats what you saw, well, on one hand I'll apologise, on the other I'm glad someone got something out of it
cheers, Mike S

[redterror]

mike said:

I guess the Lees palace you refer to. But also empty of people. My recollection is of a terrible performance, one of the real lows due to a disagreement about I-can't-remember-what. In fact the following gig was cancelled because of it.
cheers, Mike S

Hey Mike, your recollection is bringing back some memories. I seem to recall you guys were supposed to travel to Ottawa or Guelph or Buffalo or somewhere the next night and the gig got cancelled. I called a ticket office for a confirmation and was ready to make the drive, but was informed the show fell through.

Must be a Bad-Kiwi-Karma-at-Lee's-Palace Curse or something.

When the Chills came to Toronto on their Soft Bomb tour, me and a mate interviewed Martin Phillips at Lee's. About an hour earlier he was informed that the release of the album and tour in Europe was scrapped. I'll have to dig out the details of that, 'cos we ran a full front-page cover story and two insides pages about the travails of being The Chills in The Imprint (University of Waterloo newspaper). He was kind enough to grant us the interview, but man, he was bummed -- more resigned than distressed, but it was uncomfortable and we felt terrible for him. And yes, he played a fabulous show too. (Luckily there were fans in attendance, the place was mostly full -- from what I gathered Robert Smith ("Fat Bob") from The Cure had given some kind pops to the Chills in the NME or Melody Maker, and there were more than a few goths wearing eye-liner in attendance.)

Probably a year prior to that, the Straitjacket Fits played Lee's. They were on the same bill as headliners The La's ("There She Goes") from Liverpool. Those pricks refused to let the Straitjacket Fits do a sound check. And right before the show Andrew told Shane he was quitting. Carter was ferocious that night, my god he was awesome, angry, indignant, fired-up and giving the show of his life. There was some sound problems near the end of their set and frustrated Shane smashed his guitar into the stage a-la Pete Townsend. There were dismayed looks on peoples faces -- like, was that "worked" or was that a "shoot"? I asked Carter about this gig a year later in an interview and he told me the guitar smash was an enraged childish impulsive and not planned, but that he was thinking that this was The End. He said he was furious and it was a dreadful show that he'd rather forget, and said that if there was a defining moment for the band self-destructing that was it. (Of course, he got the band back together minus Andrew.) But hell, that gig was memorable and magnificent too. They returned a couple years later on a double-bill with The Bats, and that was aother great show by both bands.

I think Lee's was always the go-to venue for kiwi bands in Toronto. The 3Ds played there with Superchunk.

And as I say, the Verlaines show at Lee's was incredible. It probably seemed awful from your perspective -- band invective and dick-all fans, but believe me, from where I was watching I thought it was fantastic. Got snapshots of all those kiwi bands playing there too, I should scan and throw them online sometime.

From what I recall, a local Toronto band called The Lawn supported you guys, the Chills, and opened for The Straitjacket Fits and Bats too. People started mistakenly thinking they were on the Flying Nun roster too.

Shame I never got to see JPSE up here.

Best, Dave.

[russ]

Dave ,
I am also glad to find this site!

I live in the Catlins area of the south island of nz.
The internet is painfully slow, (no bb), but it is great to know that there are people out in the big wide world that can understand the music tha Graeme writes.
We all need this feed back to keep us going, so thanks.

Russ
907 Catlins Valley Road
Owaka
New Zealand

[russ]

Mike
How do I find the C.O.G of a biplane?
Russ.

[mike]

Hey russ, well the easy answer is you just average the cg for the two wings by drawing a line cetween the 2 cgs, taking the halfway point and mapping that onto the fuselage or top wing where you can hold it to balance. Usually you don't go too far wrong with 33% back from the leading edge of each wing. If you want to get trickier contact me offline (pm me here or graeme has my email) I have some spreadsheets that do it more accurately, taking into account sweep, tail size etc. Found a new hobby huh? You should get into rc slope soaring down there! Cheers.

[steven]

"From what I recall, a local Toronto band called The Lawn supported you guys, the Chills, and opened for The Straitjacket Fits and Bats too. People started mistakenly thinking they were on the Flying Nun roster too."

I love The Lawn. they were great. i was in the chills and we played with them that night in toronto. they were groovy.
whatever happened to those guys?
-steven

[redterror]

I love The Lawn. they were great. i was in the chills and we played with them that night in toronto. they were groovy.
whatever happened to those guys?

Okay, so it's been bloody ages since I last visited here... but I can kinda answer that question. I bumped into Gord Cumming a couple months ago. He was the leader of The Lawn. Cumming and his buddy Scott B are now a duo calling themselves Massey-Harris, and they were opening for Grant Hart (ex-Husker Du) at The Horseshoe in Toronto. (I was video-taping the Hart show for a producer, Trevor Grace, 'tho not sure if it'll be released or not.) The Lawn actually did a reunion show earlier this year, but I can't say whether it was a one-off por something bigger. Gord mentioned he had some sort of presence on Facebook.

I was hanging with Hart outside the club after the show, and Cumming joined us. He was pretty tipsy, and we started talking about the Flying Nun acts he supported, and he was really enthusiastic, he loves kiwi bands. Hart was going to do some shows in Australia and expressed interest in doing a short leg in NZ, and we were encouraging him to do so, but he was unsure whether his budget would permit. (Anyone know if he played there?)

Last year I was doing some preliminary script development on a proposed film in Nova Scotia, sort've a lo-budget L'Aventura-meets-Patti Rocks road movie. Never got finished, but still in the back of my mind. The soundtrack the entire time was "Over the Moon," and I couldn't get it outta my head, I kept thinking how terrific it'd be to have Downes score some film music.

Still haven't scored "Corporate Moronic" yet, but will do so shortly. Take care!!