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In this podcast and interview ED KUEPPER explains how he is joining NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS for their next European tour this Summer !! He is playing guitar in the band for a lot of festivals after Mick Harvey one of the founding member and guitarist left at the end of the ATP 2009 in Australia.

The Saints and the Bad Seeds at ATP in Sydney January 2009 (thanks Judi !)

Invited by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (ATP’s curators) Ed Kuepper and Chris Bailey reformed with their drummer Ivor Hay The Saints‘ original line-up for 6 shows during that festival last January and they added Archie Larizza at the bass and a three pieces horn section. We spoke with Ed about the rehearsals and specially about two songs I heard through the internet and recorded Live by fans : One Way Street in Melbourne (a new/old version!!) and Nights in Venice in Mt Buller.

 
Chris Bailey and Ed Kuepper together on stage with the Saints at ATP (Mt Buller) January 9th 2009 (pics Black Shadow Photography)

But Nick Cave invited Ed to reform the Laughing Clowns for three shows at ATP too, two shows being scheduled in the same night than the Saints !! I played for the first time on Meltingpod some Laughing Clowns’ songs : “New Bully in the Town”,”As your bridges burn behind you” (studio versions) and a excerpt from “Come One Come All” (recorded Live at Mt Buller by a fan). In the second part of the podcast we will speak with Ed about the Laughing Clowns’ reunion after 25 years and their projects in the next future with more songs’ excerpts from that incredible band !!! (post punk ???..:)

Louise Elliott, Biff Millar and Ed Kuepper with the Laughing Clowns at ATP (Mt Buller) January 10th 2009 (pics James Edge)

 

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In this second part of the interview with Ed Kuepper we started when The Saints arrived in London in 77 in the punk mouvement’s explosion. Ed explains how their musical evolution was bad accepted in that context, by their fans, the medias and at the end by their record company EMI : the song “Know your product” signed the debut of the hostilities because they dared to add a horn section to the band. They released their second album Eternally yours in a progressive misunderstanding until they split the band in 78 after finishing the mix of their third album Prehistoric Sounds.

 
Ed Kuepper in 77 in London (pic from Ed’s myspace); The Saints in 77 : Chris, Ivor, Kym and Ed (pic from the vine.com.au) Who sang : nice boys don’t play rock and roll ?…:)

I play a lot of songs from these both albums to illustrate Ed’s talk, hoping you will appreciate at least the Saints for what they were at that time : a great and innovative band paying the high price for their freedom and independance in the music industry.

short memento about that period to fix some dates (thanks to Ed !!) :
1970 : Chris and Ed’s first meeting at school in Brisbane
1973 : Chris, Ed and Ivor’s first show at the school party; a few months later they formed the band “Kid Galahad and the Eternals”
1974 : Chris, Ed, Ivor and Kym formed The Saints
1976 : I’m Stranded (the single) recorded in june Brisbane released in sept 76 on Fatal records; (the LP) recorded in october 76 Brisbane and released in feb 77 by EMI/Harvest/Sire
1977 : The Saints’ arrival in London; This perfect day [single] recorded London may 77 [the 2 songs on the b-side were recorded in feb 77 Sydney) One, two, three, four (EP) recorded London june 77; Algy Ward replaced Kym Bradshaw at the bass in June; Eternally yours (LP) : recorded in oct 77 released feb 78 Harvest
1978 : Prehistoric Sounds (LP) : recorded in april 78; the Saints split after the mix !! the album was released in aug/sept 78 in the UK but only in 79 in Australia.

No wonder when Ed formed the Laughing Clowns in 79 he created in 1980 his own label Prince Melon Records. In 2008 he re-launched his label to produce his solo albums and this month he reformed the Clowns for the ATP festival with new shows announced next May in Sydney !!

Chris Bailey on his side re-activated The Saints alone with a new line-up changing many times with the years. For a while now he performed with Caspar Wijnberg at the bass and Peter Wilkinson on the drums, the line-up I met two times for two live interviews in 2005 and I can’t forget the first one with Chris which was my very first “interview” for Meltingpod in April 2005 in Marseille !!

Ed Kuepper and Chris Bailey having fun on stage together again with the Saints’ original line-up 30 years later in Melbourne 10 days ago (pics Carbie Warbie!!) : when I told you 2009 will be an erotic year…:)
 
Carbie sent me both pics more in exclusive (because he loves Meltingpod I guess) telling me it was a moment of the show where Chris said to the crowd a lot of kind words about Ed until helping him to play guitar noticing Ed was exhausted after the first encore…sweet !

 

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I recorded that interview with Ed Kuepper a long time ago, in fact in August 2007 just after Pig City but there always were new interviews to publish with Ed like about his last album’s release Jean-Lee and the Yellow dog then his European tour with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and I always put that interview off until later. So now after the All Tomorrow’s parties festival where The Saints reunited for a few shows with the original members Chris Bailey, Ed Kuepper and Ivor Hay, I thought it was the good time for a little history !! In this first part we started when Ed met Chris at school in the first years of 1970 until the Saints left Brisbane for London with their first album self-produced in 76 “I”m Stranded”.

The Saints in Brisbane in 1976 (pic Joe Borkowski) : In front on the left Ed Kuepper (guitar) above him Ivor Hay (drums) Kym Bradshaw (bass) on the right Chris Bailey (vocals).

This interview is pretty different from the ones I recorded Live at Berlin with Ed; we spoke more about their life as a band in Brisbane and the political background which sometimes crossed their music.
I played some songs to illustrate our talk : Nights in Venice, Wild about you (recorded in 74), Story of Love, Brisbane security city, Demolition girl and a song called “Untitled”.
In the second part Ed gave his feeling about his arrival in London in 77 in the context of the punk movement explosion, their second and third album’s recording with EMI until the band split in 1978…stay connected!

Meltingpod Connections : Update January 23th
If you want to spend one hour comfortably at home with Nick Cave speaking about his 25 years carreer from The Birthday Party to the Bad Seeds to Grinderman and how the Saints with “I’m Stranded” were a revelation for him, go to TripleJ abc.net and listen to that great broadcast recorded in 2007 by Richard Kingsmill : a pro job !! Hoping Nick will made up with the journalists ! (thanks Lars for the link!)

Nick Cave in Mt Buller ATP January 2009 : check more great pics on Carbie Warbie ’s website, a passion for the rock photography he shares with us at Flickr !! Fantastic pics from X and the Saints in Melbourne by the way !
Another news but pretty sad, Mick Harvey announced he quits the Bad Seeds : check his message yesterday at abc.net.au/news

I couldn’t be in person there but my Meltingpod’s correspondents in Australia sent me their spontaneous reviews and live pics about the All Tomorrow’s parties’ festival 2009 these last days at Mt Buller, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney with both of my favorite bands : the Saints and Laughing Clowns !!!
 

The Saints at Melbourne January 14th : Chris Bailey and Ed Kuepper having fun on stage together again with the horn section in the background

Ed and his Laughing Clowns (Louise, Leslie, Jeffrey) at Mt Buller January 10th : their first show since 1984 ! Alister Spence joined them at the keyboard.
Thanks to Richard Sharman for his agreement to publish here his fabulous pics; check his gallery at Black Shadow Photography for more.

 
 
Ivor Hay with the Saints at Melbourne (pic Froggie) Chris and Archie Larizza at Brisbane (pic Bob Nebe) Laughing Clowns at Sydney : Ed and Jeffrey Wegener then Louise Elliott with Leslie Millar and Jeffrey (pic Papageno)

To imagine the ambience at Sydney with THE SAINTS playing “Know your product”, thanks to the fans !!!!!

I will publish later more of their pics to illustrate I hope a podcast soon with interviews and live recordings about these performances: in the waiting I’m editing a still unpublished long interview recorded with Ed in August 2007 about his Saints’ period at Brisbane and at London : yes it’s a shame but I never found the good moment ! so from now stay in touch !
Here the live reports from :
Froggie who was at the Saints’ Melbourne’s show January 14th,
Bob who was at the Brisbane show January 15th where the Saints created a scandal because they didn’t play their famous song “I’m stranded”, a kind of ironic story !! check his blog That Striped Sunlight Sound for more,
Papageno who was at the Sydney show January 17th with Laughing Clowns and the Saints !!
Malcolm who was at Mt Buller completly seduced by the Laughing Clowns !! It’s very funny because at my request for a review he proposed to me to publish the spontaneous private message he sent to her friend in N.Y. !!
I hope you will appreciate their enthusiasm and sincerity.

Froggie after the Melbourne show :
“hey there!
it was a great performance… (more…)

 

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Dimi Dero Inc : A French band who loves Australia as much as me, you could hear it in the live interview I recorded with Dimi Dero (vocals and guitar) and Vinz (bass) after the show-case they did at Lollipop Store in Marseille just before their show at “la machine à coudre” in October 2008. We spoke about their connections with Australia, their friendly and musical complicities with a lot of Australian musicians : Penny Ikinger, Loene Carmen, Delphine and Warren Ellis, Mick Harvey, Rob Younger from Radio Birman and the New Christs, Steve Lucas and Cathy Green from X, the Drones…

 
Jean-Luc (guitar), Dimi (vocals and guitar), Pascal (drums)

 
Experimentation with an electric drill used as a mediator; Vinz at the bass.

Beside their musical project with Dimi Dero Inc or with Penny Ikinger when she is touring Europe, Dimi plays in many bands as a drummer (Tex Napalm, Mark Steiner, Youpi Youpi Yeah…) and Vinz with Holy Curse.
Their next album will be produced by Rob Younger but Dimi has his own label too Stagger Records created at the origin to release a tribute album to Rowland S. Howard (Birthday Party) and for other bands in a next future.

To illustrate the interview I played some excerpts from Dimi Dero’s solo album “Good Morning Monsieur Edvard” and from Dimi Dero Inc’s both first albums “Greetings from Trauma” and “Sisyphus, window cleaning” + some live recordings at la machine à coudre for the ambience !! Enjoy !!

the show-case at Lollipop Store; at the end of the show, Dimi wanted to play drums !!

My best wishes to you from a pic I took during “Yes, peut-être” written by Marguerite Duras performed by my friends Kinou and Pascale from “La Matière” at l’Embobineuse at Marseille…Thanks for all your Christmas/New Year’s wishes sent on myspace/meltingpod !!

“69…année érotique” (69…erotic year) wrote Gainsbourg for his sensual partner Jane Birkin…”2009…année érotique” could be sung as well this year (in French) and such a lovely thought could protect us with pink glasses against all the black news we are expecting in the next days and months : massacre in Palestine (NO ! there is not self-defence when soldiers kill the babies in their mothers’ arms !!), more wars, more unemployed and homeless people after the Stock Exchange’s world crisis, more and more often the observation of the non-respect of the human rights and the press’ freedom…difficult to stay outside the society and just to speak about rock and roll but…anyway you’re here for that, so…
GREAT ROCK NEWS for my Australian listeners and readers if you still didn’t check the ATP or All Tomorrow’s Parties’ festival’s site : in a few days, from January 9th exactly, inside an impressive musical programme…
two of ED KUEPPER‘ s old bands are reforming with the original members to play there at the invitation of curators NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS :

 

THE SAINTS with founding members Chris Bailey (vocals), Ed Kuepper (guitar) and Ivor Hay (drums) + Archie Larizza (bass) and a three piece horn section, they will bring you 5 times to their Paradise :
9th Jan at Mt Buller Victoria and 17th and 18th Jan at Sydney (Cockatoo Island) during the ATP festival
14th Jan at Melbourne and 15th Jan at Brisbane for two ATP besideshows where The Saints will perform their whole first album “I’m Stranded” !!!
BTW : X (founded by Ian Rilen) will open the Melbourne show with performing their whole album “At home with you”!!
and…
LAUGHING CLOWNS with Ed Kuepper (guitar and vocals) Jeffrey Wegener (drums) Louise Elliott (sax) and Leslie Millar (upright bass), they will do their first return on stage since 1984 with 4 shows :
10th Jan at at Mt Buller Victoria and 17th and 18th Jan at Sydney (Cockatoo Island) during the ATP festival (3 hours before the Saints’ show !! Go Ed !!)
and 23th Jan at Brisbane (outside the ATP festival)

PS : I will publish new podcasts as soon as the flu’s bad virus which catched me from Christmas will let my ears and voice free again…it’s Winter and cold here !

Meltingpod Connections : Update January 10th : THE SAINTS are giving another show with NICK CAVE AND THE BAD SEEDS at Mona Foma festival at Hobart in Tasmania Januray 12th !!
Update January 7th 2009…when I told you…

it’s Winter at Marseille city !! more pics on MELTINGTALKS !!

 

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Penny Ikinger from Melbourne Australia played in Marseille during her European tour 2008 with a special line-up called Penelope Inc including Dimi Dero on the drums and Vinz at the bass guitar, both played together in the band “Dimi Dero Inc“. It was a great musical and human pleasure to meet them three together : a true Australian-French Meltingpod as I love !!

 
Penny Ikinger playing at Marselle at la machine a coudre !!

Penny gave me a very spontaneous Live interview after the show and I illustrated our talk with some rough excerpts of the Live show at la machine a coudre : the best underground punk rock place in Marseille !! Thanks to the Relax and co’s team who organized that show !

 
Penny and Dimi Dero on the drums; Dimi very focused…

I started and closed the podcast with two songs from her first album “Electra” : “Poison Berries” and “Kathleen” to give you a better and proper idea of her music.

 
Dimi; Penelope Inc : Penny, Dimi and Vinz (Dimi Dero Inc and Holy Curse from Paris)

Penny explained how she chose Dimi and Vinz to make that European tour; I will introduce you later in details these both French musicians from Paris in a next podcast when they gave a show in Marseille with their band “Dimi Dero Inc” : they played in too much different line-up in the same time to write it here.

 

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Norbert Krief aka Nono, guitarist and founding member of the French band TRUST in 77, accepted to give me an interview when they played in Marseille on October 10th during their European tour 2008.

 
 
Trust in Marseille : Nono (guitar), Bernie (vocals), Farid (drums) and a wonderful lightshow but pretty hard to take good pics in three songs !

Nono was enough kind to answered to my questions in English for being understable by my listeners and all their fans around the world even if it was not easy for us both to really express ourselves in a foreign language. I hope you will appreciate the performance !! We spoke about their new album “13 à table”, the critique about our society and politics’ drifts or failures in their lyrics (even if Bernie is the master, he was not free for the interview), the evolution of their music (Nono writes the melodies),

 
 
Nono, Bernie, Deck (DJ), Vivi (guitar) and Iso (bass) in action !

…their world reputation in the hard rock scene (cf. the American band Anthrax covering “Antisocial” in English), even if they just considered themselves as a rock band, their friendship with the Australian bands Rose Tattoo and AC/DC and I illustrate the interview with some excerpts of their new album as well as some good old songs which crossed and touched all the generations during 30 years.

 
 
no break and the audience is crazy, sang all a long the show (at the fire front Nono 55 a big fan came from the East of France)

 

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This time I got a true live audience with Gary from Dublin (Ireland), David from Galicie (Spain) and David from Torino (Italy) and I interviewed them during the time I played the songs chosen for that podcast : 16’s Legal from 3 Foot Ninja (UK), “Ode à Sarko” from Miseres et Cordes (France), “Blood for Oil” from Mutant Press (USA), “Where did I go wrong” (+ “I love Rock and Roll” in intro) from the band “X” founded by Ian Rilen, “Skinny Jean” from Ed Kuepper and “Wild about you and Erotic Neurotic” from the Original Saints (all those bands from Australia if you didn’t know it before)…Gary (18 years old) and the both David (24 years old) were very serious to give their point of view, they played themselves in bands : punk, lo-fi garage, new metal…a true shared pleasure with them, i hope for you too !

 
Jordan (16 years old) from 3 Foot Ninja (UK) Gary (18) from Dublin (Ireland)

 
Mutant Press (USA), the band “X” (Australia) in 2003 with Steve Lucas, Cath Synnerdahl, Ian Rilen and Geof Holmes (a meeting of the original line-up who recorded the “I love Rock’n Roll” album)

BTW : Gary and the both David owned a group of 20 young people between 16 and 24 who were during a week at Marseille in September for a transnational training session where I taught them how to record an interview and put it on a blog (on Meltingtalks soon with the best moments!!).

 
 
David from Italy (his band : your personal Santa Claus), Gary from Ireland and his percing-tunnel (his band : “As it bleeds”!!) David from Spain (his band : SNC “Sistema Nervioso Centra”), Gary and me at the final party !

Big and unexpected news at the end : Ed Kuepper announced to me Yesterday they re-formed the Original Saints with Chris Bailey and Ivor Hay for three shows at All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in January 2009…in Australia !!! For the same event he will re-form as well Laughing Clowns with Jeffrey Weggener, Louise Elliott and Leslie Millar…more ? Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds will be there too !!!!!!!!

 

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In this podcast a live interview with ED KUEPPER recorded after his soundcheck at the Olympia at Paris June 9th for the last show of his European tour 2008 with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

 
Ed Kuepper just before the show; Ed at the show during Eternally yours

The interview is simultaneously translated in French by my friend Eric Tessier who hosts the rock show “Place aux fous musique” on the French Anarchist radio “Radio Libertaire” : a premiere on Meltingpod !! Eric couldn’t air the interview before the end of July, that’s why I waited.
I illustrated the interview with some excerpts of my live recordings at the soundcheck, specially when from the very first minutes both Bad Seeds Warren Ellis at the violin and Martyn Casey at the bass joined Ed Kuepper and Jeffrey Wegener to improvise together fot the first time on “Eternally yours” !!! A very nice surprise !

 
Jeffrey, Ed, Warren and Martyn at the soundcheck working on Eternally yours; Ed and Eric after the interview in the dressing room.

But the acoustic was very hard at the Olympia ( a new venue in fact, the old one has been destroyed a few years ago!!) and the sound engineer is working during my recording : not easy in that context to capture a correct sound but this recording was the unique memory of that interesting work; so I chose to keep some short moments like a very special noisy version from “Nights in Venice” at the end !! L’Olympia : a new punk venue ?

 
Ed’s sound engineer at the desk; The unique place to hear a sound which was not too much saturated in that prestigious venue !!

Ed announced in the interview his own label “Prince Melon records”‘ re-launching and his first live album’s release under this label. You could order on line his new production on the Prince Melon records page on myspace : Sir Alfonso will offer you for the visit a free downloading of a live bootleg recorded in November 2007 at Brisbane with the Kowalski Collective : don’t miss it and try to support his initiative if you believe in the independant music !!
You can as well support Meltingpod by clicking on my kangaroo logo on the right column of this blog and become an Happy Donator : even if it’s symbolic, it’s important to be present !

Prince Melon and Sir Alfonso’s three first bootlegs

Meltingpod Connections
Update August 11th : hey watch what I found on youtube today !!!! Ed Kuepper and Jeffrey Wegener joining Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds on stage to play the encore…at the Olympia !!!! what a crazy end !!

Darrel (Blue Tongue Management) I love your sense of taking a risk for promoting your new band Lawless Breed with just “Planet Marseille and Annie” as a name but you won !!! I GOT IT !! Thanks you for the smile which lit my face up seing that package above my mail box this morning…:) I understood your message : you seem to miss Marseille ! I will do my best to spread these albums at the good places.

On the second image, Ed Kuepper faithful to his “Do it yourself” way of life brought and gave me his new Live album himself…self recorded, self produced with his own label Prince Melon Records and self distributed for now !!! (cover photo by Judi Dransfield Kuepper).
For those of you who couldn’t have been present at one of his great shows during his last European tour with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds or couldn’t be present at one of his shows during his next Australian tour (from August 9th to 16th at Sydney, Adelaïde and Melbourne), it’s a good way to have an idea of his new trio Live with Jeffrey Wegener on the drums and Pete Oxley at the bass (called the Kowalski Collective)…all the versions of the old songs are new and there are songs you surely don’t know…order it to Ed himsef to show your support to such an independant and positive attitude !!!
BTW : the interview with Ed recorded at l’Olympia at Paris June 9th, simultaneously translated in French by Eric Tessier from the rock radio show “Place aux fous musique” will be aired on Radio Libertaire 89.4 MHz fm July 25th from 1:00 to 2 :30 pm : !! I will publish that interview on Meltingpod too in August…stay connected !

 

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 Rose Tattoo at Paris June 30th 2008: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Angry Anderson is my guest in this podcast as I was his guest at The Tatts’ show at Paris June 30th…he wrote to me he was happy to do an interview with me and I was happy to see Rose Tattoo Live again after one year…In fact we had a pretty strange conversation : Was Angry sharing with me a short moment of doubts or did he really announce a break in his musical carreer ? I tried other subjects like his last trip to China, his friendship with the French band Trust, the internet and the music but I was perturbed it’s clear. A few hours later, Angry was superbe of presence on stage like he really gave his last show in France ! The audience answered very enthusiastic, like a triumph at the first song what’s rare in our country.
The best for you is to listen to the podcast I illustrated with some excerpts from the Tatts’ last album Blood Brothers; I chose to finish with a symbolic song : “We can’t be beaten” !!

 
 
 
 
The Tatts Live at Paris June 30th.

BTW : In the categories of this blog you will find all the reviews and podcasts I published about Rose Tattoo for more than one year ! Enjoy !

Meltingpod Connections :
Thanks Andreas who linked this podcast to his German fans website’s homepage Andora-rocks.de devoted in part to Rose Tattoo but you could also find there news from Doomfoxx, Nashville Pussy and AC/DC (coverbands and fans).
Thanks you Herko for your link on The Rose Tattoo’s official website with fresh news from the band after Paris and more…