Meltingpod was 7 years old this year in fact since last March and I will play songs from 7 new albums released these past 7 months of 2012 to celebrate it !!

Above Conger! Conger!’s new album released in vinyl (click to enlarge the pic), the new CDs from Ian Rilen and The Love Addicts, Ed Kuepper live and studio (on the left) and The Spectrum Family (on the right)

I chose to play one song from each album so join the party and listen to that great musical stream around the world ! If you wish more you can buy the albums clicking on the links below !
1 and 2 Australia :  ”The way I made you feel” from Ed Kuepper’s live album recorded in Sydney with his drummer Mark Dawson as a bonus disc accompagning Ed Kuepper’s new studio album “Second Winter” with the song “Palace of Sin” (release party and show November 9th at the Old Museum in Brisbane)
3 England : “Carboard Cutouts” from 3 Foot Ninja’s debut album !
4 Sweden and France : The Movements’ (Göteborg) song “Being” played by The Angry Dead Pirates (Toulouse) released by the French Label from Marseille “Pariah ! Records”

The vinyl released by Pariah ! Records for The Movements and The Angry Dead Pirates; on the left the 3 Foot Ninja’s CD.

5 France Marseille : “Beistaguen” from The Spectrum Family’s new album “Transylvania”
6 France Marseille : “Pray” from Conger! Conger!’s new album “At the corner of the world”
7 Australia : “Wishing Well” from Ian Rilen and The Love Addicts’ new album “Family from Cuba”

Ian Rilen and The Love Addicts’ CD includes a beautiful book with a lot of musicians’ contributions to Ian’s work and life.
Byt the way tomorrow in France or today in Australia, it was exactly 6 years Ian passed away : a nice celebration day to play his posthumous album thank to Greg Sawers his manager who did a great labor of love for that release during these past 6 years !

In this podcast N°110 I propose to you the second part of the Live interview I recorded with Chris Bailey from The Saints when he came to Marseille last year in October with his drummer Peter Wilkinson to perform the new album “Stranger” they co-wrote with two members of the French band H-Burns : Renaud Brustlein and Antoine Pinnet.

Chris Bailey and Peter Wilkinson during the soundcheck in Marseille at Cabaret Aleatoire Oct 2011

Chris Bailey and Antoine Pinnet, Peter and Chris in Marseille Oct 2011

A video I filmed during the show in Marseille Oct 2011 where Chris played in solo “Photograph” then “In the Mirror” with the Bailey Burns Gang !

In that part I talked with Chris about more personal things as his new solo album’s recording in Australia (release expected very soon, maybe this year, can’t wait!!), his projects with The Saints and his last duo tour with Ed Kuepper in May/June 2010.
As I can’t play songs from Chris’ new album yet, I illustrate the interview with some excerpts of that Australian tour with Ed, thank to a hard fan who sent me his audio recording in the audience at Troubadour in Brisbane.

Chris Bailey and Ed Kuepper in the recording studio to test some songs after the tour in 2010 : never says never !! (pic : Jude Dransfield Kuepper)

I chose three songs from Chris where Ed is playing guitar and doing the backing vocals : “In the mirror, Photograph and Gone with the wind”.
I finished with one of my favorite songs from Ed “The way I made you feel” where Chris is playing bass and doing the backing vocals ! Enjoy !!! Hoping they will record something together one day again or at the minimum wishing they will tour Europe with that duo !!

Chris Bailey and Ed Kuepper during their duo tour in Melbourne Australia (pics from Carbie Warbie)

By the way Happy New Year 2012 Everybody !!

Here the Part 2 of the interview with Ed Kuepper about his projects 2010 and a spontaneous chat I recorded with Chris Bailey just a week before his flight to Australia to join Ed for a duo tour where they will peform together some old songs from their solo albums and hopefully after 30 years they will co-write some new material !!

 
Chris Bailey Live in 2008 (pic Karena Hoyer); Ed Kuepper Live in Melbourne in 2009 (pic : Carbie Warbie)

I started the podcast with “Closer (but disguised)” a song from Ed’s new released Live DVD recorded during the Honey Steel’s Gold’s Australian tour with his solo band The Kowalski Collective in 2008; for info his new Live DVD with Laughing Clowns recorded at Tivoli in Brisbane in 2009 is available now too, both are wonderful !! You can directly order them at www.princemelonrecords.com !!
Then I played 2 songs from Ed’s and Chris’ respective solos albums.
From Ed : “How Would you Plead” (Frontierland in 96) and “Sleepy Head” (Sirene Machine in 93), both on the compilation “The Magic Mile”.
From Chris : “Edgar Allan Poe” (Demons in 91) and “Queen of The Hour” (Encore in 96).
I finished with a song co-written by Chris and Ed during The Saints’ first era : “Messin’ with The Kid” but performed differently solo by Ed “Messin’ Part 2″ Live in Mebourne in 2001 (Prince Melon Bootlegs Series Volume 2).
Happy May 1st to everybody, hoping that day will bring luck to Ed’s and Chris new duo !!

In this new interview with Ed Kuepper recorded in April 2010 he announces us some great news I was expecting for years : first of all he will start again a new artistic collaboration with his friend and long time partner in music (both formed The Saints) : Chris Bailey !! They are touring Australia in duo in May with performing 9 shows in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne (precise dates below) to develop their experience as a residency style ! Maybe they will record a new album together with some incredible great new songs and will tour Europe after that ? it’s my best wish !!

 
Ed Kuepper with Laughing Clowns in Melbourne in 2009 (Pic Mende Joveski); the poster for the duo tour in May made by Judi Kuepper!!).

The second thing is that Ed at last decided to open a new website at www.princemelonrecords.com for his own label Prince Melon Records and sell the boodlegs he produced himself for a very attractive cheap prices (2 big beers in Australia, 4 small ones in France!!!) just to avoid you to waste your time with releasing in bad conditons your own bootlegs…:)
Check it and you will find 3 new live recordings N°4, 5 and 8 with Honey Steel’s Gold live in Melbourne at The Forum in 2009, some duos, solos and trios recorded in Australia between 2000 and 2008 and Laughing Clowns Live in Sydney at The Basement in 2009 !
Two DVD are expecting in the next days with Ed Kuepper and his solo band The Kowalski Collective performing Honey Steel’s Gold in Brisbane at Tivoli in 2008 and Laughing Clowns performing their first reunion show in 2009 in Brisbane at GoMa !! All in limited edition so hurry up !

 
Prince Melon Records bootlegs N°4 and 5 (covers made by Judi Kuepper).

You will find as well a few Jean-Lee and The Yellow Dog, Ed Kuepper’s last solo album and Cruel but Fair with all songs from Laughing Clowns ! You can subscribe to his blog to be informed for more !! Welcome to Ed among the bloggers’ wonderful world !!

I illustrated this interview Part 1 with playing “Too Many Clues” Live in Brisbane, unreleased but offered by Ed when he launched his label on myspace, then all the songs are coming from The Prince Melon Bootleg Series N°4 and 5 “Baby Well I, Electrical Storm, The Way I Made You Feel, Friday’s Blue Cheer and King of Vice”.

Here the dates of the duo tour in May with Chris and Ed (don’t miss them if you’re lucky enough to live in Aystralia !!) :
12 mai 2010 20:00 The Vanguard Sydney, New South Wales
13 mai 2010 20:00 The Troubadour Brisbane, Queensland
16 mai 2010 20:00 Bennetts Lane Melbourne, Victoria
19 mai 2010 20:00 The Vanguard Sydney, New South Wales
20 mai 2010 20:00 The Troubadour Brisbane, Queensland
23 mai 2010 20:00 Bennetts Lane Melbourne, Victoria
26 mai 2010 20:00 The Vanguard Sydney, New South Wales
27 mai 2010 20:00 The Troubadour Brisbane, Queensland
30 mai 2010 20:00 Bennetts Lane Melbourne, Victoria

I never could imagine March 1st 2005 with launching this blog for publishing my podcasts I will keep it alive during 5 years long…so many moments of true happiness meeting more and more interesting and passionating musicians but so many moments of despair and frustration working hard for free and doing a lot of sacrifices in my private life…many times I thought it will be my last interview or I will find a way to record and edit it faster but until now I never couldn’t change anything to my way of work…so what to say except Happy Birthday to Meltingpod !!! like if it would refer to another entity independant from me but stuck to me…:)

done from the background of a 30 years old poster announcing a show with Laughing Clowns, Birthday Party and Go-Beetweens (thanks to Laughing Clowns site).

By the way a new Live album from Laughing Clowns recorded at The Basement in Sydney last year is available on the PRINCE MELON RECORDS NEW WEBSITE !!! (launched like me March 1st !! Congratulations !!) : you can order it with closed eyes, it’s simply wonderful and the quality is perfect…believe me !! The N°4, 5, and 6 should be released this month…stay connected !

Laughing Clowns are performing the next days of January 2010 in Australia (21/22th Melbourne, 25th Brisbane, 26th Sydney) with Dirty Three but in the waiting to get some live pics I would like to share with you today a friendly message I got a few weeks ago from an Australian journalist : Adrian Cunningham, who was at a show at The Paris Theatre in Sydney in November 1980 with Laughing Clowns sharing the bill with The Birthday Party (later Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds) and Go-Betweens !!!
Adrian sent me a few live pics he took during that show as well as a very interesting report about that creative family of Australian musicians : an obvious interesting report when you will read such a sentence in his text : “the Clowns were my favourites – and before them the Saints, so Ed is number one living national treasure”…!!!
I invited you (with his agreement) to read now his whole message to me :

“Hi Annie, Your enthusiasm is truly infectious. Yes, the photos (while pretty bad from a technical quality point of view) are pretty interesting historically. The Paris Theatre concert in Sydney is now legendary and I am pretty sure that there was no one else there with a camera that night. Sadly, these four photos are the only ones I took.

 
 
Ed Kuepper - Laughing Clowns; Nick Cave and Tracey Pew (now deceased) – Birthday Party; Ben Wallace-Crabbe (bass – now deceased) and Jeffrey (drums – sporting a very fetching pencil moustache!) – Laughing Clowns; Rowland S Howard (deceased December 30th 2009) and Nick Cave – Birthday Party - Paris Theater November 1980

That concert at The Paris Theatre was the best gig I ever saw and was the Clowns’ last gig as a ‘big band’ with Bob, Dan, Ben and Peter Doyle on trumpet. They were playing with the Birthday Party (their first gig back in Sydney after moving to England) and the Go-Betweens (their first gig in Sydney after moving down from Brisbane). The Go-Betweens were nervous as all get out - I recall Lindy Morrison looking like she wanted to hide behind the curtains at the back of the stage. The Theatre was only half full - unbelievable for such a lineup - I had got there hours early to ensure my ticket and had crept in through the stage door to listen to the soundchecks without anyone noticing. The Birthday Party and the Clowns really respected each other and wanted to impress each other, so both bands soared into the stratoshpere that night… (more…)

In this first podcast of 2010, the interview with Chris Bailey from The Saints Part 2 with still more rock and roll and some lovely noises. We keep talking about Chris’ music, life and projects for the new year with a few recordings ready to be released eventually under his own new label who knows ?

The Saints with Chris Bailey, Peter Wilkinson and Caspar Wijnberg in 2005 in France near Lyon at the festival Oulala

I started with a surprising and nice version from Nights in Venice proposed in one of Chris’ last albums “Bone Box”, then I played two melancholic songs “Bridges” (written in Berlin in 89 after the fall of the wall) and “Photograph” (from one of his solo albums “Encore” in 1995) which were in harmony with my current sadness after having learnt my friend Mick Cocks’ (Rose Tattoo) death the last days of December; the day of Mick’s funerals December 30th, another great and talentuous Australian musician passed away due to the same sickness (a bad liver cancer) : Rowland S Howard (The Young Charlatans with Jeffrey Wegener) The Boys Next Door, The Birthday Party, (with Nick Cave and Mick Harvey), These Immortal Souls (with Genevieve McGuckin, his partner in the life too) and a lot of other bands : it was pretty hard to want and sound happy, I’m sorry, I stayed true…and I will try to do something special for them later; now it’s too hard for me.
But don’t worry, I used some energetic Saints’ songs like “Je Fuckin’ T’aime” (Imperious Delirium 2006) “Erotic Neurotic” (Live at Paddingtown Hall in 77), and our mutual Swedish friend Lars Wallin’s performance on the didgeridoo to keep the spirits high; I finished with “Just Like Fire Would” : a beautiful melody with dark lyrics though…
A luck Chris’ talk was as funny as usual and I’m sure you will appreciate his Irish humor one more time !! : I wish you an Happy New Year with still more Love, Friendship and good Rock and Roll !

Chris’ Godess cat on his computer : Try to send her some e-mails…:)

By The Way : if you live in Australia, don’t forget Ed Kuepper’s next tour with The Laughing Clowns from Januray 21th to 26th in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney, sharing the bill with Warren Ellis and his Dirty Three!!

For my podcast N°100 I chose to call my very first guest on Meltingod Chris Bailey from The Saints !!
He played for me his favorite song on the phone and shared with us his ideas and projects for 2010, alone or with different people, with The Saints and who knows : maybe with his first music partner Ed Kuepper ?

 
Chris Bailey and Ed Kuepper with The Saints at ATP in Australia in January 2009 (pics : Richard Sharman and Carbie Warbie)

I illustrated the interview with some nice songs from The Saints at different periods : two fabulous Live versions of Nights in Venice and The Chameleon recorded with the original line up (Ed, Ivor with Caspar and a horn section) at Pig City in 2007 (a live album is released !!), Simple Love (in 81 with Barrington Francis at the guitar, Janine Hall at the bass, Mark Birmingham on the drums) Demolition girl (Live at Paddingtown Hall in 77) I’m misunderstood (The International Robot sessions in 77).
Stay in touch for more in the part 2 on line soon !

The Laughing Clowns part 2 and a 50 mn long show with Jeffrey Wegener the drummer at last on Meltingpod !! We started when Jeffrey met Chris Bailey and Ed Kuepper at school in the 70’s, his first show with Kid Galahad and the Eternals aka The Saints, the first meeting with Ed back from London to found the Laughing Clowns in 78/79 and then we entered more in the details of the music and his work with Ed.

Ed in Dresden June 2009, Jeffrey at Mt Buller January 2009 (thanks to Justin for this nice pic !)

I played a lot of songs’ excerpts from their 3 albums compilation Cruel But Fair (Lucky Days, Ghost of an Ideal Wife, Holy Joe, Song Of Joy, Time No Hit But Missed) and The Laughing Clowns’ last album recorded Live at GoMa in Brisbane last January and produced by Ed’s own label Prince Melon Records (Bully in the Town, Come One Come All and Eternally yours) !!
The current line-up is : Ed Kuepper (guitar vocals) Jeffrey Wegener (drums) Louise Elliott (sax flute)) Leslie Millar (upright bass) and Alister Spencer (keyboards).

Ed and Jeffrey in Australia 2008 (pic from the greensea); Ed in Dresden with the Bad Seeds 2009

We closed the show with some of Jeffrey’s memories when he played with Nick Cave and his band the Birthday Party in 84 and the last performance at ATP in January 2009 in Australia which reunited the Laughing Clowns, The Saints and Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds the same days in Sydney !

Meltingpod Connections :
Happy to be blogged by the famous Australian “Barman” !!

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds with Ed Kuepper at the guitar : I couldn’t miss that event for nothing even if I had to travel to Dresden in Germany (close to the Czech Republic !) June 21th (the Music Day in France !) to see them for the unique show which was not played in a festival during their current European tour 2009.

A nice intimate atmosphere in Junge Garde, an amphitheater with 3500 people (ref.the press) among the beautiful trees in the town’s central park, which allowed me to be in front of the stage without any big troubles : I can’t appreciate a show at another place, so close to the energy !

 
Nick Cave the charismatic poet and Ed Kuepper the guitar’s devil !!

Nick Cave taking the guitar to add still more electricity in the air…the threatened dark clouds disappeared subitely from the sky for our luck (it was raining almost all the time I was in Dresden !!).

 

Nick happy to have put the rose he got from a fan in Warren Ellis ‘ shirt : the poor had the both hands busy on his violin and couldn’t protest; Nick outside the stage, fascinating the audience with his voice and hands…

“Midnight Man”’s excerpt just to give you an idea of the ambiance Live on stage and surely one of my favorite songs !

 

Ed Kuepper very focused in the music, Thomas Wyller who did a fantastic job using every tools which make sounds to beat his drums; Nick always involved 100% in his lyrics. The words I can remember which chronologically came through my head during the show : Magnifique, Excellent, Intensity, a dramatic intensity which gives you thrills on the skin.

“Papa Won’t Leave You Henry”’s excerpt : a magic moment with Ed Kuepper at the acoustic guitar accompagning Nick Cave who told us a new story always as close as possible to the audience…

All the 7 Bad Seeds on the same pic (from right to left) : Ed Kuepper (guitar), Thomas Wyller (drums), Conway Savage (keyboards), Martyn Casey (bass), Jim Sclavunos (drums), Nick Cave (vocals, guitar and keyboards), Warren Ellis (very small guitar and violin).

 

Ed Kuepper and Nick Cave constantly moving from a place to another one; another word coming to my head later was : Elegance in their attitudes, subtleties in the light shows (which unfortunately were not really captured by my slow camera) and sometime the feeling to penetrate in their musical laboratory where they are re-creating Live a new performance every night. By the way, even if front of the stage the sound quality was simply perfect ! Congratulations to Matt Crosby the sound engineer !

 

Ed, Nick and Thomas; Nick often pointing the sky; everybody singing the backing vocals. The show started precisely at 8:30 pm with the twilight and fortunately finished at 10:30 in the night allowing us to appreciate at least the colorfull light show with the music climbing in crescendo until the last song “Get Ready For Love” and the red and white lights effects at their maximum : Nice sentence for a goodbye !

PS : I was allowed by the security to enter in the audience with my small compact camera (no extra lens; the clips are just filmed with the basic video option) thanks to the management teams who are admitting right now that everybody who has a mobile phone in his pocket has in the same time a camera and a video recorder too. Nice they accepted now my little camera without phone. In fact at the AC/DC’s show in Marseille it was allowed too but I didn’t know it ! I dedicated all these pics and clips to Nick Cave’s and Ed Kuepper’s fans in Australia hoping you could see them Live too one day ! Thanks to Martyn and Gudrun who were my fantastic hosts in Dresden ! Thanks to Ed for everything : terrific to see him again in person and on the stage ! Long Life to the Bad Seeds !! For the European fans, check their tour’s next dates on their myspace pages and don’t miss them !

Meltingpod Connections : Update June 29th
I found Dresden gig’s set list in Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds Forum : Tupelo, Dig Lazarus Dig !!!, Red Right Hand, Deanna, Midnight Man, The Ship Song, Henry Lee, Moonland, The Mercy Seat, Love Letter, There She Goes My Beautiful World, The Weeping Song, Papa Won’t Leave You Henry, Stagger Lee, (encore) Breathless, Straight To You, We Call Upon The Author, Jesus Of The Moon, Get Ready For Love and Lucy !! btw : I’m sure “Get Ready For Love” was the last song though…:)
PS : Thanks to the Queensland Music Festival, Ed’s next act after this tour, who chose my very first video at l’Olympia 2008 to present Ed’s work !!

The Laughing Clowns, Ed Kuepper’s second band after The Saints, reformed last January at All Tomorrow’s parties festival, after a 25 years long break !! In that interview Ed speaks about this exciting experience to play again with Louise Elliott (saxophone) Jeffrey Wegener (drums) Leslie Millar (upright bass); Alister Spencer joined them at the keyboards.

Ed Kuepper and Jeffrey Wegener at GoMA 2009 (Thanks Justin for the pics)

Ed formed that band in Sydney in 1979 and after producing many albums and performing with different line-ups the band spit up in 1984. We spoke about the writing song process and their projects for the future.
I illustrate Ed’s talk with many songs from the compilation “Cruel but Fair” : Diabolic creature, Ghost beat, That’s the way it goes, Stinking to High Heaven, Winter’s way + some surprises like Jeffrey’s and the King of disco’s short appearances !

  
Ed Kuepper, Louise Elliott and Leslie “Biff” Millar (Justin’s great pics)

I close the show with Eternally yours recorded Live at GoMa (Gallery of Modern Art) in Brisbane after the ATP tour last January in Australia : Ed sent me that special file to play it on Meltingpod, Enjoy !! A Live album and a DVD recorded during that whole performance should be released by Prince Melon Records very soon.
If you’re Australian, don’t miss their next shows : in Melbourne May 1st, in Sydney May 2sd and 3rd !!!

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)