1987 april – JUNE

them as little more than a joke, an overdeveloped sense of pop’s past children of municipal , they aren’t prone to misty-eyed illusions grafted onto the body of a musical jellyfish. about anything. This week sees the issue, on Warners’ Elevation outcrop, of their third They choose their romantic vision of the rock’n’roll world and of their single, “Gentle Tuesday”, which will be followed by another, “Imperial”, place in it; they choose to jettison the seen-it-all cynicism others use to and a late-summer, as yet unnamed, LP. For , the moment justify ambitionless money-magnet pop; they choose to view their music of truth is just “round the corner, the moment when we’ll see whether the – for which, don’t forget, Gillespie gave up a secure and lucrative spot as last laugh will rest with the believers or the belittlers”. the Mary Chain’s drummer – as part of a crusade, and themselves as Whether or not they can fulfil them remains to be seen, but if any band inheritors of a gift. were ever equipped to understand the expectations of fans, then it is “We want to affect people wi’ our music the same way that other Primal Scream. They are pop fanatics. Their early interviews were people’s has affected us…,” begins Bobby, “…to sweep them away with characterised by a Stalinist credo that excluded all but a sainted few it… And, sure, it would be good fun to be a pop star as well, but the (The Beatles, a handful of American garage punks, Cope, you know the important thing would be to be a good pop star. We wouldn’t be like names). They’ve widened their net since then, but the passion remains. George Michael or Mel & Kim – that’s tasteless, without class, faceless, The band’s key word is “master”… emotionless, corporate pop. People deserve better than that. “It’s difficult to define,” ’s soft Glasgow tones maintain, “And you want your pop star to look good, don’t you? Put it this way – “but for us it’s all about having a certain spirit. All the best things I’ve seen if Johnny Rotten had looked like Rick Wakeman, it would never have this year had it. The Weather Prophets in Edinburgh… Neil Young the happened, would it? But he looked like a total master God-star, and I think other night at Wembley. He was a total genius… and Chuck Brown on The we look good enough to be on people’s walls. Tube – what a man! Those snakeskin boots! It doesn’t matter about age… “That’s part of the reason we stood out last year from all those bands. you’ve either got it or you haven’t…” Not only were we good songwriters, we were also much more tasteful, This stuff is no convenient, glamour-by-association exercise in name- better dressed, cooler. I know it’s sheer narrow-minded arrogance, but drop; it runs deep. Primal Scream take their vision of rock/pop – a dodgy it’s true – we’re just far superior to most groups around, probably a great cocktail of myth, exaggeration, wishful thinking, more myth and group. And like other great groups, we give people – how can I put this? – isolated moments of incandescent music – and gleefully gulp it down. we give people that glimpse, that glimpse of beauty. That, in 1987, is what “There’s a fairly sane, self-depreciating vein in the group” agrees Bobby, makes us important…” “but we do love all those rock’n’roll outrage If you need any further evidence of Primal stories, y’know, about the Stones, or the one Scream’s perfectionism and “sheer narrow- about whipping a groupie with minded arrogance” (or, if you prefer, of the a dead shark! That level of complete debauchery “Like other spoiled brattishness that’s indulged when is really funny. And there was a story about Love your label boss just happens to be your singer’s taking some music journalist prisoner and great groups, lifelong bosom buddy), look no further than the keeping her as some sort of sex slave for a week…” recording of their new material. The original That level of complete debauchery isn’t funny sessions, at Dave Edmunds’ Rockfield Studio in at all. we give people Wales, involved six weeks’ hard labour, the loss of “Oh, don’t get me wrong – I think she was quite one drummer and a small matter of £40,000. willing. Myself, I’d love to have been fucked that glimpse Then they were unceremoniously scrapped, just stupid by all the members of Love in the ’60’s! like that, and their producer, highly rated Smiths Even now! If I saw Bryan McLean in the street engineer , elbowed to make way I’d tell him, ‘Take me, Bryan, I’m yours…’” of beauty” for Mayo Thompson. Some weeks afterwards, This is hardly what we expect from the back with the relative sanity of , Street frontman (now collapsed in fits of helpless was still shaking his head in amused disbelief. laughter) of a group constantly associated with all manner of sexless “It was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before,” he told me. “They’re nice wimpery, but like I said, this stuff goes deep… enough lads, but you can’t work with them. It all came to a head when I And it’s their obsessive devotion to their icons – especially the ’60s found myself arguing with Bobby about a solitary cymbal crash in the guitar giants – that’s fuelled the disdain of Primal Scream’s fiercest rhythm track of one song, arguing fiercely for two solid hours…” detractors. They focus on the band’s line in relentlessly authentic beat This is a man, don’t forget, used to dealing with the far-from- hairdos, black clobber and pointy footwear and see a slavish following of understanding likes of Messrs Morrissey and Marr, and I swear that the fashion, a pathetic caricature of one of pop’s classic shapes. memory of those weeks in Rockfield brought tears to his eyes. Confronted with this, Bobby Gillespie casts aside his customary calm Nine times out of 10, a band like Primal Scream would have me reaching and snarls defiance. “I don’t wear Chelsea boots because Love wore them; for the triple-strength vitriol and my sneer-glands working overtime. The that’s shit. I wear them for the same reason that Love wore them… excesses, the unquestioned heroes and the attention to quite ridiculous because they look cool…” detail (they refused to turn side-on for our photographer, in case their But the criticism isn’t confined to the sartorial. It widens out to dismiss “thighs looked fat”) are habitually the stuff of nightmares… Primal Scream’s music as being no more than a hollow echo of bygone But nightmares are never host to the angelically spiralling guitar of glories, as being “retro” and “revivalist”. Gillespie reacts with a “Velocity Girl”. First time round, it gave me that hit – indefinable but combination of disgust, impatience and resignation born of familiarity. unmistakable – of which only very few pieces of music are each year “Answer me this…,” he hisses, “every time you fuck, is that ‘revivalist’? capable. It was proof that in all their care and craft and calculation, No! It’s different each time, and the first time isn’t the only one that is Primal Scream left room for that chemical thrill-rush sought, but brilliant… Same with music. seldom attained, in 30 years of pop. And since then I’ve nursed a hunch “Anyway, we don’t have to apologise for the way we sound and we won’t. – somewhere between a wish and a hope, well short of a belief – that they We don’t want to sound like anybody except Primal Scream, and we don’t. will do it again. Forget all that 1967 stuff, we’re living human beings, doing what we do To be honest, “Gentle Tuesday” failed, for me at least, to deliver, but an now, 1987…” advance earful of an unfinished “Imperial” (resplendent with backwards But what of 1987 is discernible in your music? guitars and lyrical hints of hatred) suggests that my “If you’re looking for electronic drums or stuff like wait will not be in vain… that, then nothing, but that’s not how it works. If Primal Scream – by refusing to accept the self- someone hears ‘Gentle Tuesday’ and loves it and imposed limitations and all-bin-done defeatism – finds it comes to mean something special to them, swim against the tide of 99 per cent of modern pop… they won’t look back in years to come and say, ‘Oh Primal Scream – as self-appointed carriers of

yeah, that record reminds me of 1987.’” idwia a torch many think long extinguished – still believe Having shared their teenage years with the rise in magic. and fall of punk, Primal Scream aren’t under any Primal Scream – until it’s been proven impossible illusions about music changing the world. Indeed, as beyond doubt – are expecting to fly… Danny Kelly •

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