The new shacknet faceblurt page is here :

https://www.facebook.com/www.shacknet.co.uk

Click the “Like” button on there and get the download of The Pale Fountains performing “Comedy”.

The session and interview is scheduled to be broadcast on Sunday 11th March 2012 on Dave Monks’ “BBC Introducing In Merseyside” show on BBC Radio Merseyside (95.8 FM/1485 AM / DAB /online).

What he found was an insular, rebellious and unique city, hardened by a government which tried its best to break it. But at its heart were people who hadn’t lost hope and held a deep-rooted belief in themselves, the city they had inherited and their love of music.

The result was Jérôme de Missolz’s film “You’ll Never Walk Alone”, a portrayal of the people and those times.

With Michael Head, Ian McCulloch, Edgar Summertime, Paul Fitzgerald, Adrian Henri, It’s Immaterial, The Real People, The Stairs, Allan Williams, John Head, Jayne Casey, Dr. Phibes, The Christians, Connie Lush, Terry Harris, Bantu, Andrew Lym, Sheldon Rice, Jah Tomas Wilcox, Edward Prescot, Alan Peters, The Bootle Concertina Band, Leslie Evans, Charlie Williams, Pete Wylie, Chris Bernard, Hilda Haddad, Robert Cieka, Andy Mitchell, Keith York, George Hexmen, Kevin McManus, Steve Robert, Andy Carrol, John Kelly, Michael Hurst and the families Blackman, Head and McCulloch.

1992 (Jérôme de Missolz/ Evelyne Ragot) – 90 mins

On Saturday 18th February a 20th anniversary screening of the “You’ll Never Walk Alone” film will be shown at :

The Brink
15-21 Parr Street
Liverpool
L1 4JN

Telephone 0151 703 0582
Email info@thebrinkliverpool.com

Time: 6pm – 8pm

Admission by ticket only
£10 each – includes a two course set meal
Tickets available from The Brink from Wednesday 8th February

Please note : tickets are very limited and will be sold on a first come first served basis.

Please note that The Brink does not serve alcohol or admit anyone who is clearly inebriated so it would be appreciated if you could refrain from getting bevvied until after the screening.

“…I am a huge believer in true love and I try to see the beauty and magic in everything. I have a passion for writing and I hope you find my blog inspiring in some way. Love, dream and believe that anything is possible..because it is.”

Mark Baker was the in-house photographer for Operation Twilight, The Pale Fountains first record label. He and his brother Dave, a graphic designer, effectively defined the distinctive look of the label and the band. If you ever saw an early photograph of The Pale Fountains and marveled at the sheer beauty of that band, chances are it was a shot by Mark.

When the band moved to Virgin, they took Mark with them and he has remained a close associate ever since.  When he exclusively shot the photographs to accompany the release of Pacific Street, with hindsight, he unwisely sent all the negatives to Virgin to enable them to prepare the artwork.  Virgin’s notoriously shambolic approach to archiving meant that they were never returned to him.  All that remains in Mark’s possesion from those sessions are a few contact sheets like the one above.

Mark plans to release signed, limited edition sets of the remaining contact sheets in the New Year. More details to follow on his facebook page here.

You’ll never walk aloneRéalisé par Jérôme de Missolz et Eveline Ragot

France, 1992, 90’

Avec Ian McCulloch, Michael et John Head, Edgar Summertime, Pete Wylie, Adrian henri, Dr Phibes, The Christians… et la participation de Jean-Daniel Beauvallet (journaliste aux Inrockuptibles).

A Liverpool, ville au bord du gouffre, en 1992, on rêve ou on crève. Trente ans après les premiers pas des Beatles, les jeunes vivent encore la musique comme le seul moyen de déjouer la crise et de s’en sortir. “Ici tu deviens criminel, ou footballeur, ou musicien, moi j’ai essayé les trois” nous confiera l’un d’entre eux. “Nous avons pris l’option de nous en tenir à la musique comme révélateur”, expliquent les réalisateurs, “sans s’attarder sur les clichés de la crise, grâce à la diversité des personnages, la richesse des lieux et des situations du quotidien, grâce aussi à une structure polyphonique combinant les différentes strates de musique populaire, nous avons tenté de suivre des trajectoires et des sensibilités différentes, d’approcher les réalités et les vibrations d’une ville magique : Liverpool”.

“J’ai connu un tournant dans ma vie, au début des années 90, en quittant le cinéma institutionnel et pour quelques temps le cinéma expérimental pour le documentaire “pur et dur”.

Il y a eu d’abord le film sur le photographe tchèque Jan Saudek qui récolta de nombreux prix dans les festivals internationaux, puis “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. En lisant les Inrocks, mensuels à l’époque, les papiers de Jean-Daniel Beauvallet ou d’autres m’ont donné envie d’aller voir de plus près à quoi ressemblait la nouvelle scène de Liverpool.

La ville elle-même était attirante, insensée, vampirisante, une vraie île dans l’île. Pendant les années Thatcher, c’était vraiment “Liverpool la Rouge”, une ville en rébellion…et puis il y avait Les Reds, l’équipe de foot aux nombreux trophées. J’ai alors proposé à mon amie Evelyne Ragot de faire le film avec moi, car j’aime bien, parfois, faire des films en binôme, surtout pour des tournages comme ça, un peu à l’arrache, compliqués sur le plan humain. Après des repérages assez longs, nous avons trouvé opportun de raconter la vie de ces “Petits enfants des Beatles”, dans cette ville où une génération de musiciens succédait toujours à la précédente. Un film assez viscéral, organique, qui tenterait de révéler la particularité génétique de Liverpool, sa beauté en même temps que sa dureté, berceau de la musique pop, mélange d’aspects destroy et d’une poésie magnifique qui semble pouvoir sublimer le réel terrifiant. On a très vite vendu le projet à La Sept (l’ancêtre d’Arte), aux programmes Jeunesse !

J’ai également rencontré une productrice qui avait beaucoup aimé “Jan Saudek – Prague printemps 1990″, qui a impliqué Polygram dans le projet: une petite structure à l’intérieur de cette grosse major a pu apporter le complément de financement. Faire un film en Super 16, à l’époque, ça coûtait tout de suite assez cher, si l’on y ajoute les droits d’utilisation de la musique, etc…

Les personnalités de Michael Head et Ian McCulloch nous ont très vite incités à en faire les personnages principaux du film, mais nous tenions aussi à nous attacher à des musiciens moins connus (comme les Stairs ou les Christians) et aussi aux pratiques musicales populaires de cette ville, comme les fanfares et les chorales. Cet aspect polyphonique du récit est sans doute ce qui fait la vraie originalité du film aujourd’hui, l’élevant quasiment à un niveau de culte.

J’avoue que c’est, parmi toute ma filmographie, le film auquel je suis le plus attaché, tant et si bien que j’envisage aujourd’hui d’aller retourner à Liverpool, non pas pour montrer la génération de musiciens qui a succédé aux Pale Fountains, Echo and the Bunnymen, Julian Cope etc… mais plutôt pour tenter de faire un film entier avec Michael Head, que j’ai refilmé plusieurs fois depuis 92, que ce soit avec Arthur Lee, le leader des Love, ou lors de la reformation des Pale Fountains en février 2008. Je pense que le niveau de songwriting de Mick égale celui d’un John Lennon, et pourtant, il restera à jamais méconnu, sombrant peu à peu dans une marginalité inéluctable. Aujourd’hui, Liverpool a beaucoup changé, beaucoup d’argent a été injecté dans la ville. les docks paraissent flambants neufs, et toute cette culture populaire (le fameux “Scouse phenomenon”) a presque totalement disparu, muséographié de manière assez triviale. C’est super triste, mais heureusement, quelques incorruptibles comme Michael Head continuent à en traduire l’esprit et l’âme véritable.” Jérôme de Missolz, 12 juillet 2011

Invités : Jérôme de Missolz (réalisateur) et Jean-Daniel Beauvallet (journaliste aux Inrockuptibles)

Plus information

Move Back, Bite Harder

Isolation Ward (opener) 7:30 pm
The Pale Fountains (opener)
23 Skidoo (headliner)
Cabaret Voltaire (headliner)
Tuxedomoon (other)

Organised by Les Disques du Crépuscule & J.J. Record Shop.

Setlist : Intro, Lavinia’s Dream, (There’s Always) Something on My Mind, Shelter, Longshot For Your Love, Just A Girl, We Have All the Time In The World, The Norfolk Broads, Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark And Hilldale, Thank You, Walk On By
download recording

“…the band and I flew to Brussels to play a Crepuscule mini- tour suitably entitled Move Back, Bite Harder. We stayed in a hotel in the city centre and drank a lot and had nightly pillow fights. Isabel from Antena joined the band on backing vocals for a version of Scarborough Fair, a song so sweet it provoked violence from a group of hardcore punks who’d come along to see Cabaret Voltaire. On 4 October the band recorded We Have All The Time In The World for a Crepuscule movie soundtrack album, then we drove into the country to Benoit Hennebert’s farmhouse. Hennebert, the gentle genius of Crepuscule design, showed us his beautiful artwork and huge record collection, and the band cycled off down country lanes, looking rural and happy and free from the cares of London”
- Patrick Moore (Manager Pale Fountains/Operation Twilight)

Photograph by Phillipe Carly
Recording sourced by Mike Mullins

If you want to know why I think Shack are the greatest enigma in UK music history then the evidence is on this tape. A lucky thirteen of the finest songs Mick and John ever wrote. All on a 1991 style ‘indie/homemade/ramshackle’ handwritten photocopy sleeve cassette tape probably bought ten-for-two-quid at Richer Sounds on Hardman Street – the little one on the corner spot. Somehow only five of these tracks, after more re-recordings of them all, finally made it onto Waterpistol: “London Town”, “Time Machine”, “Mr Appointment”, “Sgt. Major” and “Mood of the Morning”. The rest of that LP was recorded after this tape had been played to several movers and shakers in the industry. I recall playing it to East West and Warners but despite both loving it, they excused themselves largely on the ‘bad reputation’ of the band. I have always thought that the worst thing Shack did in my company was steal a whole smoked salmon and twelve pots of caviar from Rusty Egans nightclub kitchen one night in Nightingale Square (although we did also throw a signboard through the window of a peep show behind the Marquee one morning before zooming our transit up Tottenham Court Road). But just normal rock n’ roll stuff. It wasn’t like we were Evertonians.

I was managing this whilst we went through a succession of drummers – it made the old Spinal Tap gag true to life in all except explosions. Alan Wills certainly plays on several of these and on reflection if he had hung around the LP would have been done and out much quicker (and possibly forgotten and maybe there would be no shacknet)  Alan thought his destiny lay with Top though and that was that. Like a five-a-side team losing its goalie the ship must have listed even though at the time I never thought it was a problem as the songs, Mick, John and Pete were enough no matter who was drumming. Naturally that isn’t right but a good few tried out and some held the chair for longer than others until Iain turned up and that was twenty years ago – so we got the right one in the end. He must have wondered what he’d walked into on some of these occasions though, and no doubt he’d tell it better than I.

“I Know You Well”, “Feel No Way”, “UP”, “Irish”, “Al’s Vacation” – what a five-a-side team that is. These didn’t make the LP and, to me, are the very essence of Shack. All of their influences are displayed here and if you only ever heard these five then you would know Shack were important. Most surfaced in some form as b-sides so are not lost forever, but “UP” in particular always caused a bloomin’ argument – Mick and John coming to blows in Break For The Border off Oxford Street after a heated debate about the track. It has caused trouble ever since and is a proper marmite moment for Shack fans.

“DJ Ace” and “Elizabethan Radio Star” were the oldest of the recordings and most dispensable, to me anyway. They felt like leftovers from an earlier time and had not been played live during my time with the band except maybe once or twice early on. The people at Ghetto Records had fondness for them, probably born out of familiarity as the band had finished them for some time and played them all the while. There was good support from Ghetto though and they made a good effort with “I Know You Well” as a single, but if they were hoping for the LP to come soon after then they were sadly disappointed and I suppose they must have run out of patience. After Rough Trade Distribution collapsed Ghetto tried to find someone to take it on, much like they had successfully done to Chrysalis with Lightning Seeds after the success of “Pure” – but Shack found little joy. I recall that there were some seriously interested labels but the money Ghetto were asking was colossal for a band with a ‘reputation’ and even Jeff Barrett wasn’t willing to do it (and he was more off his nugget than them!). It was 1991 and the whole country was pilled up and even these idiots thought Shack were too much of a risk. Maybe I am underplaying some of the madness here and maybe you don’t notice it when you are in the middle of it the whole while but I loved every day going to work with Shack.  The best job in the world for me and then there’s that evidence I mentioned.

The last track on this tatty looking tape, track thirteen, was stuck away at the end and is perhaps THE greatest Shack recording there is. Yes. That good. “I Want You”. This version recorded at Air Studios back in 1991 has everything you could want from music in five glorious minutes. It has intrigue, insanity, humour, subtlety, melody and power all at the same time. It is fantastic and it is stuck away here not to be heard again until HMS Fable – and then nothing like this. So that’s what makes Shack special to me – the kind of band who had perfection in even the most hidden locations and could leave it all behind seemingly untroubled by any mislaid greatness.

- Andrew Erskine, 2nd March, 2011

How do I get a copy?

At midnight on Saturday 5th March 2011, in true Willy Wonka style, an invitation to download a free mp3 version of the cassette was sent by email to 100 lucky shacknet forum members.

The download link was active for 24 hours until midnight on Sunday 6th March.

An exclusive preview of “The Queen of All Saints” from Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band’s forthcoming album was broadcast this evening, Sunday 13th February 2011, on The Pool with Dave Monks on BBC Merseyside from 8-10pm on 95.8FM, 1485AM and DAB.

The full radio show is available for replay for seven days after broadcast on BBC iPlayer.

To listen to the track click here (Shacknet members only, Join here)

The album is rumoured for release around May 2011.

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