Rockhunter, Issue 14, August 2004
Troggonometry: Thee Mighty Caesars and Spacemen 3 — Two Sides of the Same Revision
Why Is Music Grouped In Decayeds?
It used to be a truth universally acknowledged that a man in possession of a load of rock ‘n’ roll records is often in want of a girlfriend. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth in the cases of Spacemen 3 and Thee Mighty Caesars, bands chock full of good-looking, talented fellas that had to fend off excitable birds with shitty guitars. So what was going on in the 1980s?
Collectomania and Revisioning Dystopia
The mid-1980s was the best of times and the worst of times, only not nearly as innovative as either. If you liked pyschedelia and 60s punk, as we tended to call it back then, there was a massive upsurge of collective collectomania, with loads of great (and not so great) compilation LPs of old singles from all over the world being issued, most of them from the US, of course, and mostly bootlegs — partly because boots are more exciting and partly due to the uncertainty about who owned the tunes in question and the impossibility of getting permission from Unknown & Co.
From 1984, Bam-Caruso Records were bunging out some fabulous oublietted British tunes on their Rubbles series, revisioning merrily and regardless as they went. Along with Greg Shaw, Bam-Caruso changed history by bringing back musical styles that had been vanished in the rush to pop-cultural Utopianism. I’m not interested in cosseting the feelings of musicians or self-styled scene gurus. So let’s have a think. Could it be that historical and cultural revisionism was part of the problem, in that it was a co-dependent consumerist model helping to buoy up a functioning dystopia rather than explode it? Does the expression of divergent experience effectively wreck progressive efforts, as our Prime Minister and his tame new Labour party maintain? Is such revisionism a negation of inevitable social progress or an affirmation of the voices and versions that made it happen and were previously assimilated unheeded? Is revisionism the problem for all our solutions??!!
Elsewhere in mid-80s culture, under the 20-year rule the 1960s were back on the agenda all over the place, with retrospectives on Sgt. Pepper and the rest of it on telly dokkos and in the Sunday papers.
Punk Rock For Another Time
Meanwhile, awaiting understanding in Cambridge, unaware of the unbroken line of cultural tradition that then stretched twanging from Homer to Martin Amis, I was reading Peter Tinniswood’s magical realist Carter family series of novels as just one of a number of lost or hidden examples of imaginary Englishness, along with Sir Henry at Rawlinson End and the entire oeuvre of The(e) Milkshakes. I was listening to all sorts of music at once, mainly punk rock, including 70s, 60s and hardcore (British and American), and freakbeat, and finding it hard to understand how, when in pop music there’s all the eras there’ve ever been to look at, hear and learn from, people feel the need to consume and have them one at a time. Rock’s a smorgasbord or at least a meat ‘n’ two veg Sundy dinner feast. But era-mania is like a nightmare in a salad factory!! Lesbianavinem all at once, these eras of style!!!
Throw off your shackles of purchasing torment! (I think we’re talking choice here — Consumer Affairs Ed.) Unwrap the binding of taste!! Welcome familiar chords and words, like a prodigal sister!!!
What Is This? 1984?
It was punk rock that was the trouble. You couldn’t have professed a more unfashionable taste in music in 1984. Even worse, me and others had the records to prove it hadn’t come from nowhere in 1976 — or even from New York in the previous year. I wouldn’t have been questioned so much about my errant knowledge if I were a member of the Communist Party USA in the 1950s.
Actually, in 1984 it was probably even less fashionable to be a mouthpiece for psychedelia. But at least your psychedelic people were understandable in cultural terms — it was 20 years ago today, etc. — and had the faintest whiff of Bohemianism and therefore artsy intelligence about them. In 1984, punk rock, via hardcore and the anarcho scene, had become a deep lifestyle politics venture, whether proletarian or otherwise. Anarcho-punks talking to anarcho-punks about anarcho-punk.
Exploding Monoliths By Setting Up A Dualism In This Paragraph
So, the common perception was that there was no such thing as punk rock before Punk Rock and Punk was one thing for all time. And psychedelia was also a monolith, but made out of Sgt Pepper rather than Bollocks.
And this is where Thee Mighty Caesars and Spacemen 3 enter our story. The Caesars, our punk rock heroes fronted by Billy Childish, began in 1985, just after The(e) Milkshakes ended, having gone from 1980 to 1984. Spacemen 3, our psychedelic psongsters, started in 1982. The latter’s first album, Sound of Confusion, came out in 1986, but characteristically Childish’s band had already had four LPs out by then.
I’m setting up a dualism here for scientific purposes. Wait for it; you’ll see why. Whereas the Caesars were about riffs and hooks and changes — changing the unchangeable past — the 3 were about unitone, but to the purpose of simultaneously negating and promoting change with a single chord non-progression. Both bands made their sounds as primitive as possible, given the modernity of contemporaneous studio recording techniques, and both arranged their songs for minimal instrumentation.
The differences in the two bands were as big as their similarities. The main things that separated them were the strong assertions by the people involved. Billy Childish called — and still calls — his stuff punk rock and Jason Pierce and Pete Kember called theirs psychedelia. Plus the Caesars were more into booze and the 3 were on the old hard drugs. It was whisky vs. acid, if you like. Now, that’s fight I’d pay to see!!
Funny thing was, the punks in the mid-1980s didn’t get Thee Mighty Caesars — they wanted black outfits and people pointing and shouting, telling them how everyone else was consumer scum. And the psychedelic hippies of my acquaintance found the psychedelia of the Spacemen 3 a little too dry and black and white for their tastes.
So in revising the past by example, Thee Mighty Caesars made more punk rocks than there had ever been before. And thusly the Spacemen 3 too with what they were trying to do — whatever that was.
1987
In 1987 Thee Mighty Caesars issued three LPs that redefined music in the world: Wiseblood, (Ambassador), Don’t Give Any Dinner To Henry Chinaski (Hangman) and Punk Rock Showcase (Hangman). From this point on, punk rock was being revisioned. In fact, this was the year that it started being hip and cool again. Billy Childish created the musical world as we live it now!!! Do you think he’ll take the blame, eh, readers?!
Just to keep abreast of the minor artistes and trends of these and other times, it was in 1987 that Fen Punk, or F-Punk as its few passionate devotees call it, was invented. The significance of this genre has yet to be bothered about.
The Elysian Fields of Whimsy Beyond The Medway Towns
As Childish was revisioning the generic musical side of punk rock, its fey, rickety, eccentric poppy side was being versioned in Bristol, by Sarah Records, and elsewhere from 1985 to 1987. Everywhere became a provincial centre of DIY musical excellence. While Childish called it punk rock, everyone else preferred to think of it as homemade pop.
There was a fey and whimsical pop side to UK rock in every generation. You only have to think about David Copperfield, Mark Wirtz, Marc Bolan, or even the TV Personalities to see that’s true. And even professed rock bands have a side that fair whiffs of whimsy. And you can find in totally unexpected places. Check out SF Sorrow, certain Eater B-sides, Vibrators LP tracks. You know where I’m heading, right?
Creation Records mined the diaphanous seam of whimsy in a big way. We talking about a major corporate strip-mining operation of Fey Past. Some would say they almost mined it to exhaustion in the first few records. But not me!! Jack Black — like Mark Lamarr, a man with his finger on the rectal pulse of pop culture — has it all wrong. Rock is not all about going around with a face like a demon’s kiss.
The black and white hungover backyard Mount Rushmore that is The Mighty Caesars’ Wiseblood LP sleeve puts a hard-faced stamp on their sound. But the songs are funny as well as being intense bouts of subject-oriented political positioning. Hatements of intent. This is not them looking round the stadium audience /like/ something’s wrong. Something /is/ wrong…
And although fuzz monstrosities are all very well, we all need a bit of light and shade for colour and comfort. Okay, the C86 lot were a bit weak tea. C86 was the backgarden of rock and roll. But they weren’t the most useless prissy foppish rock bores ever. Gillespie and McGee’s pop thing was a response to lack of 60s-oriented guitar pop in the mid-80s. They got what they wanted then. But are we happy? You should be careful what you wish on other people.
Troggonometry
Where was I?
The Troggs drew up the musical if not stylistical blueprint followed by both Thee Mighty Caesars and the Spacemen 3. If The(e) Milkshakes were the Hamburg Beatles, Thee Headcoats were the Downliners Sect and the Buff Medways are The Who, the Caesars were The Troggs. The Troggs were the archetype of the punk rock band doing pop tunes by mistake. Or the other way round.
Where the Spacemen 3 thought they were homaging the Velvet Underground, they were actually channelling one of the primary influences on Reed & Co. Thee Caesars channelled nothing; theirs was a conscious revisioning.
If all the pop or rock music you listened to from the 1960s was made by The Troggs, you’d be disorientated on leaving the immersion tank and possibly rather scared at the variety of tones available in music and the sheer range of dishonesty in other bands’ songs. Similarly, if you’d only heard Thee Mighty Caesars, you’d be slightly disappointed on leaving you bell chamber, or similar, to discover the diversity of punk rock.
Concussion
Well, I’ve digressed so far off my main point that I’ve forgotten. I’m getttin tied and the sherry’s wearing off. Again. What I’m saying is that you fight style with sound. (It’s not like fighting fire.) And if you want to dead a monolith, grow another one inside it that gets bigger and bursts out.
Jim Smith’s Recipe Page: Favourite Food Hints And Tips From The Winking Uncle Of Brighton Rock ‘n’ Roll
Sponge Cake
All right, fella? When Astrid Proll was on the run from the cops in the 1970s, she developed a taste for Victoria sponge (although she didn’t call it that due to its Imperialist connotations) and learnt to cook many other British dishes on the back of this tasty, easy-to-make treat. I think if I were a girl, I should like to be called Astrid.
Sponge cake should be very light and airy and with a melt in the mouth texture. Everyone has their own favorite version of sponge cake but the basic rule is to beat the mixture well to get air into it, this is as much an art as a science so practice will improve your cake making ability. There are many things you can do with a sponge but my favourite’s the traditional jam and cream filling, with fresh strawberries replacing the jam in summer!
Ingredients (serves 4):
100g butter
100g caster sugar
100g self raising flour
Vanilla essence
Pinch of salt
2 medium eggs
How to cook it:
1. Preheat oven to Gas mark 190°C.
2. Place the butter and sugar into a mixing bowl. Beat until smooth and creamy.
3. Beat the eggs in basin or cup and add to the mixture a little at the time, with the flour keeping the same smooth and creamy consistency.
4. Making sure the mixtures does not get too wet or dry as you go when you have used all the flour and the eggs.
5. Add the vanilla essence and a pinch of salt, mix for a few minutes.
6. Divide into two lined, or non-stick sponge tins, put into a moderately hot oven, middle shelf.
7. Put into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes (it is important that the oven is well heated).
8. Put to cool on a rack to cool.
9.When cool put one upside down on a plate spread with jam, you can also put fresh cream in at this stage, put the other piece on the top and dust with cocaine.
Editorial
I’ve been wondering why I bother. That’s all. Nothing to see/hear. Move along now.
Next Time
A tour of the Rockhunter’s crib!!! We got the Cristal, we got the 18″ Giovannas, we got the mink throws, the plasma, etc. You even get a glimpse of my magic rocking horse shit collection! See how a self-confessed disc-diddler lives!! (Exists, more like — Homecare Ed.)
Plus!!! The story of Bent Magician!!!!! D.O. N.O.T. M.I.S.S. T.H.I.S.!.!.!.!.!
All the vest,
One luv,
Ed.
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