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bravecaptain
Joined: 08 Feb 2003 Posts: 859
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2003 10:25 Post subject: Enough Already.. |
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I think you may have a distorted view about the position that I am in at the moment. I would love nothing more than to come over to Ireland and play and get slatted with you lot and stay for a few days. bravecaptain has no money to tour, I can't afford to hire people to play with me. When I do tour I play to maybe twenty people a night (if I'm lucky)
which means promoters aren't keen, my agent isn't interested and the support just isn't there. I'm working on a way to play on my own, something that wouldn't be just me and an acoustic. A way of doing it that means I can play in Ireland and America and Finland etc. I miss touring, I hate to stay in one place, I yearn for the open road andunknown skies, I get miserable if I'm nailed down and I'm a nightmare to be with. I used to worry about not being able to write songs anymore but that was years and years ago around the time of the first records when I had to squeeze them out and I only knew a couple of chords. As long as I keep learning something new, a new tuning or a bit more piano, then I'm ok. I can't drive, no. I had lessons when I was 16 but I was hopeless, I just can't concentrate for that long. I will never learn, one less lunatic on the streets is my contribution towards road safety. I haven't been able to afford any new records for a while now, most of the music I hear I don't really like, or I should say it doesn't affect me in the way that it used to, when I would steal records or spend all my dole money on them, so empty was my life without them. Indie music especially is relentlessly dull, when I read about the White Stripes refusing to use gear made after 1873 or something I despair, as if that makes music more real somehow, it's elitist, precious bullshit and then the record just sounds like the cramps! (nowt wrong with the cramps like but fucking hell, that was 1983). I dunno, maybe I gave too much of myself to records like 'I want you back' by the Hoodoo Guru's or 'You made me realise' or 'My favourite dress' that I don't have anything left. I still like the odd pop record, I still think Missy Elliot is the cat's shit and there is a lot of great hip hop and electronica out there (usually the noisy stuff). Is that an answer? I would love to be able to sing, I mean, really sing. Sometimes I would give up writing to be able to sing like Chet Baker or Curtis Mayfield, y'know, just open my mouth and break yr heart. Singing live is not something I've really had the courage to face, I'm so scared I get completely hammered before I go on and make a real prick out of myself. If I do any more gigs I will do them and not just get them over with. What makes a good song is the thing that makes you like it, Coldplay have great songs, nice tunes, chords, emotive words etc yet they bore the shit out of me. There is no formula, it's what makes you happy. I haven't heard from Ian and Mary since the baby was born but that is my fault, I have not done very well keeping up with my old friends since I left London, I should try harder. I used to write through the night but nowadays, I'm usually in bed before midnight, I have been ill one with one thing or another since january and it's really taken the wind out of my sails. I'm starting to pay for my twenties now. I haven't had the chance to write anything this year. I shouldn't release anything else until I feel i have given the last album every chance, until I have worked out another tour so I would rather not write until then. I don't seem to have the long hours and days on my own that I used to have, when i would write every day. I did write a song 'We are the Bombs' for the warchild album which I was asked to do and was given the impression that it was an anti-war album. I now find out that it is some kind of mumsy peace album and I am obviously not on it although nobody from Warchild has had the good grace to call and tell us and they won't respond to our calls. I can't blame them really, they want to sell records a lot more than they want to say anything worth saying, they are a charity after all. Good luck to 'em. Are you serious about me visiting yr wife? If it would help then of course. I am not allowed to take my guitar into hospitals tho', it's the musical equivalent of looting. We played a gig at Planet X in Liverpool once, 1989 I think. The Senseless Things were headlining and we were bottom of a five band bill. We were drunk and fucking awful and kicked our drummer out straight after. One of the bands on the bill were The Dandelion Adventure from Preston who were a great band. They thought we were ace and offered us a ride on their tour. We crammed into the bus and showed up at the gigs they were due to play and most nights we were allowed to do a set. It was our first tour and I will love them forever for the chance they gave us. Anyway, one of those gigs was Harlow Square. The promoter was a very young Anthony Chapman who later became Collapsed Lung and is now DJ Scissorkicks. I think we may have played there again, I certainly remember being there a second time. I remember the downstairs bar but not the gig which says an awful lot about me. My favourite fairy tale is 'The Selfish Giant' by Oscar Wilde. I remember vividly the cartoon that used to be on all the time when I was a kid, long before I knew who Oscar Wilde was. On that first Dandelion Adventure tour I bought a complete Oscar Wilde book from a service station for about two quid (that being merely the price, the value is immeasurable) and read it again. It's so simple, there is a total absence of any preachiness or condescension. I just read it again now and it has the same affect it always did. The future is uncertain at this time, I have a gig in May supporting the brilliant Gold Chainz in Cardiff and everything after depends on how that goes I reckon. There are no records on the horizon at the minute. I have a few songs finished but nobody seems to know what to do with them. I am doing an S.F.A remix, or rather I was doing one until my computer blew up yesterday, It's supposed to be in tomorrow so the rest of the day will be spent on trying to fix my computer so I can finish, It's called 'Bleed Forever'. I am in no position to cheer anyone up at the moment, I rely on you lot to cheer me up. If I had a cigarette, Che old friend, you would be welcome. I have coughed up most of my insides this year and can't handle ciggies at the
moment, I would love one tho', they are a beautiful terror. Your head is all over the place, as far as I can make out. Which picture do you mean? I can't remember what it looks like. There is an old Chinese Communist propaganda poster and I think there is a photo of Betsi, my goddaughter. 'Dead men's clothes ..' was a dig at Oasis I think, even though we were friends I didn't understand how you wanted to live your life as someone else. It wasn't just them, nobody seemed to want to do anything new, it was " well we should have our photo taken here because so and so did it in the sixties" or "we want to record here using this gear because doo daa did it in the sixties". It was embarrassing. I don't think I'm healthy enough for a date, Gill is probably best off wthout my germs. She won't want to hear about the great indie wars of 85-89 either. James'll be up for it tho'. Labia is, slit most definitely isn't. I haven't heard the hidden camera's. Enlighten me. 'Do I ask questions?' is a question so the answer is contained therein and if you have to confirm such things that are manifestly self evident then you do, when all the facts are added up, talk shit. I have always been embarrassed by 'It's Lulu', can't think of any specific lines but there will be a few. Not looking forward to any records that I know of. I do love 'Giant Steps' although I do prefer 'A love Supreme'. a trumpet is a trumpet, a flugel is a horn. The flugel is softer sounding. You weigh 11 stone. Sice and I were being driven through a college campus in, I think, Philadelphia one time. They had a statue of Jesus on the lawn in front of the main building. He had his arms outstretched and someone had written (or we were told someone had once written, I can't remember) 'Touchdown!' on the base. Naturally we thought this was hilarious. Back home we were recording Giant Steps in London and Sice and I were obsessed with some Ice hockey computer game. I had a sweatshirt with a basketball player on it (probably nike *spit* I was young and naive) and I got a marker and wrote 'touchdown jesus' on it and whoever won the game got to wear it. I only wore it about twice after that. Sice and I were so competitive with each other. We eventually gave it to Wendy who probably wears it still. The lyrics are probably nothing to do with any of this. I have no idea what they are so I can't really say. I have a video somewhere of me making the song up as I go along while waiting to record a guitar part on Giant Steps. I have though of writing a book and have even started a couple, no time. It still remains an ambition of mine. If people are still listening in thirty years it would mean a lot to me. Would it matter? No. I think Gore Vidal is an exemplary hairdresser . I love cheshire cheese but I don't buy it because I just sit in front of the telly cramming it into my mouth. I remember the Frank and Walters from when they had their smash hit which I didn't like one bit. Sice is fine, bringing up his kids. I haven't spoken to Tim for a while, I will call him later. Bobby Boo is a mystery to us all. If you read this Bobby, call me please. I miss you. None of my songs are fiction, they are all true (I think), there are a couple I wish I'd left alone. The beads that I wore for Betsi were black and grey, I smashed them in the bar of Manchester Uni when I was deejaying for the furries. Artists don't need to suffer to create. Some people suffer, some of those people create. I am not playing Glastonbury for all the reasons I have stated elsewhere. I think singing Barney in a c+w bar in Chicago is one of the coolest things I ever heard, thank you. To play in the States again would be a dream. Wake Up! is preoccupied with my relationships with people and places. I can't believe after all that fucking trauma I have allowed myself to slip away once more, with little hope of return. The cycle you so vividly portray sounds good but certainly wasn't intentional. We had no idea that Wake Up! would be successful, certainly not at the writing stage. There was a gathering of momentum, sure, but nothing and nobody prepared us for what happened. The lines concerned getting out of the town I lived in and moving down to the city. Corporation man was a dig at rampant capitalism, monkey beer was an attempt at ironic satire, everything is logo'd. I was going to do a lot with monkey beer inc. on Advertisements but in the end I just couldn't be fucking arsed. So, er, yes. I live real close to the Corporation pub in Canton and I've still never had a drink in there. A couple of us were going to paint 'fuck the corporation man' in huge letters around the
name but I changed my mind. They are not to blame, someone would have to wash it off. I've never been one for vandalism, I can't get past the poor bastard who has to clean up after. Not all graffitti is vandalism mind. You ever hear of Banksy? Art, mate. Social art. banksy.co.uk. I miss that clock at Archway, that song had nothing to do with that though, or maybe it did, art is an interpretation of the things we see or feel everyday. I know very little about Joe Meek, I used to live pretty close to his flat which is now a cycle shop. I had friends who were obsessed but I was never that interested. I have never heard of either of those two songs but will try to. Burt sued me for the tune I think, three notes or something that sounded like 'I'll never fall in LoveAgain'. The greedy bastard wanted half the royalties to the Wake Up album!! I think he got half the song in the end. I never denied it but I certainly wasn't aware of it when I wrote it otherwise it would never have come out. The sample is in there somewhere, I can't recall which song, Tim did it. I think it's a scream. Was it 'Hell below'? No, I can't remember. Clo Clo is Claude Francois, a french singer. He wrote 'My Way' different lyrics (Comme D'habitude, I think). Phillip Morris is the tobacco baron satanist. I haven't heard Giant Steps for quite a while although I did recently buy a copy. It's just another album for me. I don't have memories of listening to it with my friends or in my bedroom or reading about it or buying it or it being the soundtrack to a part of my life because it was none of those things for me. It's something I did. I like some stuff on it and think we did much better stuff elsewhere but I can't really stand outside of it because all the things that make an album special to you besides the music was denied to me because I made it. Does that make any sense? I have no idea whether or not it is neglected, it certainly gets a lot of mentions on the site . I feel that I could have done a lot more with my life, there was a point where I seemed to heading in the right direction but I always seem to derail myself at some point. Being in a band and releasing a few records is not even the start of a life. How many places have I seen? How many people have I helped? What have I done to make the world a better place? I feel I am lacking in all of these objectives. I haven't deejayed for a while now as all my records are in storage, hopefully do some more soon if anybody asks me. The CD was a mix tape I did for XFM, I will get together with Sparky, see what we can do. Can't afford posters, sorry. I can't see there being any more Boo Radleys releases, ever. I though there were a couple of b-side cd's available on the web? Get me some gigs and I'll do 'em. Cornershop would be cool. We used various things for Sice's voice. I prefer the old overloading the desk method myself. We didn't have software in my day young man. Any distortion or overdrive should help. I was coming home to Preston after a long, long tour in that song. I actually wrote it on that journey. I won't be recording any of those songs again, sorry. No, hang on, I lie. 'Death of A Band' is on the next Boobytrap compilation. I wish I'd written 'The Thrill Is Gone' and 'Hey Jude'. I hardly did anything on the Eggman album. The day I was due in the studio I was asked to wait around until he was ready and spent the day in the pub with Rhys Ifans where we got fucking trolleyed and by the time I turned up I was useless. I don't think he was very happy about that. The single I just did for the website was a thank you and also a goodbye, I won't be making records like that any more. It will mainly be electronic from now. That doesn't mean no songs. I still think Lazarus is the best thing I ever did, the song that went beyond whatever limits I had at that time. That was eleven years ago. Shit. It's a young goat, a kid. the record is called 'C'mon Kids' and no, I didn't think it was funny either. Ichabod will never be re-released. Believe me, you're not missing much.
A couple of things I noticed on the board recently. Somebody said that Adam Ant was never cool. You obviously weren't twelve when 'Dirk Wears White Sox' came out. In fact for a couple of years at the beginning of the eighties he was the coolest. Ok, maybe Weller was cooler but he wasn't as pure pop as Adamant. Someone else was embarrassed by Donny Osmond, these people were pop personified. Ok maybe his records were mainly shite, but I haven't heard anything from these lame rock clones around now that rocks harder that 'Crazy Horses'. Jesus, I sound like my dad now.
Fuck The Pope.
Fuck The Bush Administration.
Fuck New Labour.
Fuck anyone who tells you that being against this war is not supporting the troops. This govt refuses to recognise the damage caused by depleted uranium in the last gulf 'war'. Ex servicemen and women make up the majority of our homeless. They are only supported when we want them to go kill brown people for us. We support the troops by wanting to keep them alive.
Freedom for Palestine.
You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.
--Albert Camus (1913-1960) [/img] |
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Tommy BOO
Joined: 21 Aug 2002 Posts: 3066 Location: here, there, and everywhere
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2003 14:43 Post subject: |
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Woah... now that was a long post!
Probably one of the saddest AND the funniest post I've seen here.
Anyway Martin, thanks for all the great music!
The new single is ace. I guess that your electronic stuff will be great as well.
Take it easy, enjoy your life.
Best Wishes,
Tommy BOO Tomatoe
- the president of BC Fanclub Finland ![Very Happy](images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif) |
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Setareh Juventina
Joined: 01 Dec 2002 Posts: 1415 Location: Norrköping, Sweden
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2003 15:56 Post subject: |
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Thank you very much for answering our questions Mr Carrrrrrr. Not many people could write something that long without paragraphs and still have me reading the entire bit.
I do have slight info on Mary, Kyle, Milo and Ian, life is good for them but very hectic, Mary says she basically doesn't own her life anymore but loves it and wouldn't want it any other way.
May you be truly truly happy in whatever you do.
Eternal Love and Peace
Setareh
P.S. THat's Vidal Sassoon...DOH!
P.S. I LOVE "The Gentle Giant" _________________ Man is the only animal clever enough to build The Empire State Building and stupid enough to jump from it.
Last edited by Setareh Juventina on Sun Apr 13, 2003 18:14; edited 1 time in total |
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Bev
Joined: 25 Aug 2002 Posts: 843 Location: Nottingham
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2003 17:18 Post subject: |
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TB, you are right, that was a sad post... But i don't know why i find that surprising, Martin still has to piss up the same wall as the rest of us...
If he is still keeping making music, electronic or otherwise (and whether we ever hear it or not!) then things will probabaly be ok.
... and Martin, if you really think you've wasted 1/2 your life then don't worry, most of us waste the whole damn thing! You've bought beauty into many people's lives, seriously... (& i weigh 9 stone)...
Like the Touchdown Jesus story.
You see what a difference PARAGRAPH BREAKS make?!
Take care y'all _________________ Scattershot Writing: www.jameseverington.blogspot.com |
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che
Joined: 19 Aug 2002 Posts: 988 Location: in the gutter, staring at the stars.
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2003 17:34 Post subject: nerds say 'lol'. i just laugh properly. |
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beautiful. sad. funny. but above all, stimulating.
http://www.bravecaptain.co.uk/images/releases04a.jpg
that's the image i was referring to.
we fucking love you man.
i'll send you some cameras. somehow.
that's it.
thanks for it all so far. never a bad moment. x |
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Tommy BOO
Joined: 21 Aug 2002 Posts: 3066 Location: here, there, and everywhere
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Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2003 18:01 Post subject: |
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man what are you talking about? you haven't wasted half of your life, nope. i (and many others) will be listening to the boo radleys and bravecaptain music in 30 years, in fact i think that i'll listen to your music the day i die. hopefully that's a long time. martin, you're a fucking genius when it comes to writing songs and making music!
"Time you enjoy wasting, was not wasted" - John Lennon |
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Kris
Joined: 16 Sep 2002 Posts: 2550 Location: Sheffield
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Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2003 08:37 Post subject: |
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Well after I read the post i wanted to say a few things, but when i read the replies I realised everyone had said it for me, so I'll just repeat:
Whatever happens in the future Martin, I fucking love you man, you've touched me and changed my life in a way you'll never know.
Kinkster _________________ "fashioned by the blade of a world that doesn't care,
feeling so removed, drifting thru stealing air then...
pause and think about it, try to move and shift the pain, but it's there you feel it kicking and you scream and feel alive." |
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bravecaptain
Joined: 08 Feb 2003 Posts: 859
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Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2003 08:58 Post subject: |
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Hey now, come on. There's nothing sad in that post. I just got one of them fonts that makes everything look worse than it is. I fixed my computer and the SFA remix sounds ace. Soon as I get my records and books back (two and a half years now!) everything will be peachy keen.
"Hippies, hippies...they want to save the world but all they do is smoke pot and play frisbee".
Eric Cartman |
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che
Joined: 19 Aug 2002 Posts: 988 Location: in the gutter, staring at the stars.
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gillworm
Joined: 14 Nov 2002 Posts: 529 Location: London
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Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2003 10:35 Post subject: embarrassed by donny... |
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can i (in my defence!) differentiate between donny osmond and the osmonds band... i couln't agree more, 'crazy horses' really is a great song, as is 'love me for a reason', no debate there
the donny osmond album i once owned was about 50% (if not more) covers of mainly 50s hits, syrupy and trite (unlike most of the original recordings)...and i'm embarrassed because it reminds me of being 12 and having a huge crush on him, in fact all my crushes embarrass me, i feel at the mercy of my hormones!
and thanks for reminding me that i'm also embarrassed by my pirate/dandy highwayman-era adam ant records!! |
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ciaran Guest
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Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2003 11:41 Post subject: |
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That offered us something that you wouldn't find in a million interviews. martin what honest and thorough replies to all our questions.
ciaran |
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Darraghmc Guest
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Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2003 11:58 Post subject: |
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Hey thanks for the insightful response martin. Good luck in your future endeavours and remember that a warm welcome awaits you in dublin whenver the time may come.
Darragh |
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Hew
Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 529 Location: Chicago
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Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 07:12 Post subject: |
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Cheers mate, "I hope that makes you feel a little better, i hope that makes you feel alright" |
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Tommy BOO
Joined: 21 Aug 2002 Posts: 3066 Location: here, there, and everywhere
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Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 16:48 Post subject: |
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oh yeah, martin, if you ever come to finland, i will gladly be the keyboard player in your band. for free of course. i am pretty crap though but if you ever need a crap keyboardist just drop me a message ![Rolling Eyes](images/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif) |
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Setareh Juventina
Joined: 01 Dec 2002 Posts: 1415 Location: Norrköping, Sweden
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Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2003 20:06 Post subject: |
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WHOA...I just realized, he's THAT Claude Francois...man, I've had that song for years. L&P _________________ Man is the only animal clever enough to build The Empire State Building and stupid enough to jump from it. |
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