Soundboard Magazine • Issue 9 • February/March 2020 Inside
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2020 ISSUE#9 THE JESUS FAIRIES RARE INTERVIEW INSIDE COMEDY IN SWANSEA WHAT’S THE PROBLEM? LARRY LIVERMORE THE BIGGER PICTURE JOE GIBB BEEN THERE, DONE THAT SWANSEA’S PSYCHEDELIC HEART Hobos Swansea A4 Advert.qxp_Layout 1 21/09/2018 13:37 Page 1 also official band Merchandise Socialable opening hourS: Mon - Fri: 11am - 5.30pm Saturday: 10am - 5.30pm hobo's Swansea hobos_swansea SOUNDBOARD MAGAZINE • ISSUE 9 • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2020 INSIDE... THE LOAD-IN . 4 QUICK INTERVIEW – THE JESUS FAIRIES . 5 RISING STARS – GG FEARN . 5 THE BIG READ – JOE GIBB . 7 CLASSIC WELSH ALBUM – BADFINGER . 10 ARTIST IN RESIDENCE – JANE SIMPSON . 11 COMEDY . 12 SOUNDWIRE COVER STORY – SOUNDWIRE . 14 PAGE 14 JACK SOUNDS . 16 RECORD REVIEWS . 18 Here are some of the places where you can pick up your copy: LIVE REVIEWS . 21 Derrick’s Music Square Peg Copper Bar NIGE . 22 Psicon Music Viva La Frida Noah’s Sin City Hen Dderwen Swansea Print Shop OH PEDRO . 22 Cinema & Co. Cadno Music Hoogah’s STUDENT LIFE . 23 Nat.Waterfront Museum Elysium bar The Bunkhouse Hobo’s The Garage Swansea Bay Records GIG GUIDE – FEBRUARY & MARCH . 24 Cover To Cover Uplands Tavern The Brunswick PSSSSTT!!! . 25 If you would like to consider supporting us by advertising, and stocking the magazine (you’ll get lots of people come to your place looking for it), CLOSE TO HOME – SWANSEA ON TOUR . 26 please contact [email protected]. THE BIGGER PICTURE – LARRY LIVERMORE . 27 ISSUE #10 ADVERTISING DEADLINE: ADVERTISING ROBOSCOPES . 30 13TH MARCH 2020 @SOUNDBOARDMAGAZINE THE LOAD-OUT . 31 FOR PUBLICATION: APRIL 1ST .CO.UK FEBRUARY/MARCH 2020 ISSUE#9 PUBLISHED BY EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTORS If you would like to stock SOUNDBOARD MAGAZINE LTD & REVIEWERS SOUNDBOARD MAGAZINE 28 Rosehill Terrace, Swansea SA1 6JN Flipsy McCaw / Sarah Birch, Joel Morgan, please get in touch . Graham Morse, Jack Sounds, Tansy Rees, CO-EDITORS Rosie Scribblah, Keith Williams, No part of this magazine may be repro- Damian Harris, Paul Dennis, duced in any form without the written PAUL GRACE PAUL FLIPSY MCCAW, : Zachary Aaron, Rob Nelmes, permission of the Editorial Team . Personal JOEL MORGAN, Natalie O’Shea, Mike Kennedy . views expressed in SOUNDBOARD are not nec- GRAHAM MORSE essarily those of the publisher . Whilst every PHOTOGRAPHY care is taken, we cannot take responsibility editor@soundboardmagazine .co .uk for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs, THE JESUS FAIRIES Paul Grace, RARE INTERVIEW INSIDE or the late appearance of any bass player . COMEDY IN SWANSEA Helen Louise Banham, WHAT’S THE PROBLEM? LARRY LIVERMORE THE BIGGER PICTURE DESIGN & SUB EDITING Graham Morse, Shutterstock JOE GIBB © 2020 SOUNDBOARD MAGAZINE LTD BEEN THERE, DONE THAT GRAHAM MORSE design@soundboardmagazine .co .uk ADVERTISING advertising@ soundboardmagazine .co .uk SWANSEA’S PSYCHEDELIC HEART CHIEF CULTURAL CORRESPONDENT JACK SOUNDS ORIGINAL COVER PHOTOGRAPHY WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND? THINK YOU CAN DO BETTER? SoundBoardMagazineUK We want to hear from you. Send us your submissions. Email us. Please and thank you. [email protected] THE LOAD-IN SOUNDBOARD • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2020 AS WE PLUNGE HEADLONG INTO THE INKY DEPTHS OF A NEW DECADE, OUR HEADS HELD UP HIGH AND OUR SPIRITS SINGING SLICES OF UNHOLY HYMNALS: THE CHRISTMAS HANGOVER IS LONG FORGOTTEN, THE DECADE IS FRESH (WE’RE IN THE ‘20S FOLKS), HUMANITY IS STILL HERE AND IT APPEARS THAT YOU ARE COMING ALONG FOR THE RIDE. WELCOME TO SOUNDBOARD MAGAZINE ISSUE #9 GREETINGS AND SALUTATIONS, DEAR FRIENDS AND So here we are, twenty-odd years on from the last sav- NEIGHBOURS! FIRSTLY, LET ME TAKE THIS OPPORTU- age incursion of Welsh art and culture into the howling NITY TO WISH A HAPPY, PEACEFUL AND PROSPEROUS morass of the mainstream, we’re still here (yma o hyd) NEW YEAR TO EVERY SINGLE ONE OF OUR READERS, still banging the drum (er gwaetha pawb a phopeth) for a ADVERTISERS, DOUBTERS, CRITICS, DEFENDERS AND truth that we still hold to be self-evident: that there really CHEERLEADERS; without your continued motivating ac- is a whole lot of marvellous stuff going on round here, tions and support, we’d very probably just disappear in a mind. You should wade in with an open mind and both puff of smoke (“Poof! Et voila!” – SBM French Interjections feet facing forward. Dept.) leaving behind only confusing memories, a nagging This issue we’ve an extensive (and, probably, quite dis- sense of loss and the faint aroma of burnt toast. So, you cursive) interview with sonic magician, studio-whisperer know, keep it up. and all-round production guru, Joe Gibb; a cheerful and We’d also like to say a great, big Soundboard hello to our approachable man whose many and varied production growing, rabid and relentlessly expansionist internation- credits include gigs working with Catatonia, Funeral For al following: without your positive energy, bags of loose A Friend, Leftfield and some chancer called ‘David Bowie’, change and gifts of preserved fruits, some of us might nev- conducted with gentle insistence by our very own Sarah er have had a Christmas at all. Gods bless you, Henrik, you Birch. Happily, to compliment this journalistic and cul- fine and noble man; we only hope that you and Claudia tural coup (that probably cost us no less than three, whole find your way back to the hidden forest soon; little Klaus beers) another of our writers and righteous outliers, Da- must be missing you, and the kingdom won’t survive for mian Harris, came out of nowhere with an interview he’d much longer without the Crystals of Power. grabbed with another musician/producer/journalist of in- Yes, folks, after that brief foray into the usual absurdities ternational renown, Larry Livermore, who is perhaps one (this time fuelled by waking up from a feverish cheese- of the most qualified people in the world to talk to about dream and swallowing down with a whole pot of coffee in music scenes, having signed Green Day and been right one bitter, jittery swoop before 7am) let’s get this ship back there in the eye of the hurricane when the Berkeley/Gil- on course, because we really haven’t any time to waste. It’s man Street punk scene went supernova in the early 90’s. that time again, you see, when they’ve asked me if I want Yes, so we sorted all that business out, and then we add- to write the editorial, and I’ve lied and said: “Why yes, of ed all the usual pieces of the SoundBoard smorgasboard to course; I’d love to.”, and then time passes, and they ask me the table, mixed in a few secret herbs and illicit spices, lit how it’s going, and I lie again and say: “Swimmingly! All on the fuse and stood well back. And, yes, the next few min- time and all in line.” utes were a very crowded time, folks. When the echoes And then even more time passes, and the voices grow had faded away, and we could see clearly again through clamorous and become a multitude, and eventually even the clouds of billowing smoke, I stood up, shielded my my missus gets in on the act, and then one of the team eyes and caught a fleeting glimpse of what appeared to be (amicably) quits (for pastures new) about two weeks before the tail of a sonic boom, rippling across the rolling waters the deadline, and I SHALL OF COURSE PREVAIL. What do of Swansea bay, heading straight for the Devon coast and you think you’re reading now? A damned shopping list? making a sound like a swarm of angry pterodactyls. No, ‘seurs et ‘dames, this is quality (impressionistic) jour- For that reason I’d like to dedicate this issue to the mem- nalism. Accept no substitute, and disregard the latecomers ory of our collective eyebrows, and to end this editorial and the bandwagon-jumpers; after all, it’s easy to criticise with a heartfelt apology to the people of Ilfracombe, both the blazers of a trail from the comfort of your own home, for the sonic boom and also for that time on The Waverley but as soon as you get on that ol’ road you’re going to be in 2006. Swansea loves you. JM swallowing dust. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SCENE, AND HELP US TO KEEP PRODUCING SOUNDBOARD MAGAZINE. ADVERTISE YOUR music / gig / shop / venue HERE [email protected] 4 QUICK INTERVIEW SOUNDBOARD • FEBRUARY/MARCH 2020 RISING THE STARS JESUS IIIII FAIRIES MIKE KENNEDY CAUGHT UP WITH STARMAN FROM THE JESUS FAIRIES AHEAD OF THEIR FIRST RELEASE OF STUDIO MATERIAL IN 15 YEARS. IN THIS RARE INTERVIEW THERE ARE HINTS OF MORE MUSIC TO COME AND MAYBE A TOUR FROM THE JESUS FAIRIES’ ONLY WELSH MEMBER. MK So where have you been recently? involved in the Mahatma Cort cult GG S Well, after the last German tour, thing. It went a bit weird for a while. some of us decided to stay near Ber- But we recovered. lin, it’s an amazingly creative place, MK Tell me about your new music. FEARN and hang out with some arty types S It’s really pushing things, but then and musicians, and experiment and wouldn’t you expect that from us? WHILST SEARCHING THE INTER- record. We do a few small gigs, but Pushing boundaries. That’s what we NET AND TRYING TO KEEP MY don’t want to advertise them particu- like to do. People never know what to EAR TO THE GROUND (TRICKY larly. They are intimate, experimental expect. We might be doing Singing in WHEN YOU’RE TALL) I CAME happening’s.