Shirley Lee » Diary

Brighton, Solo Gigs, My Album

Shirley Lee — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:30:02 +0000

(Soundtrack John Coltrane “Lush Life”)
Top notch Le Tigre event here in Brighton on Saturday night, very refreshing and inspiring. In fact, I might get in touch with Riots Not Diets and offer my services as a support act. I am sure they will be delighted!
Yes, we have been in Brighton for six months now, which has flown by. It has been a difficult time in some ways, but the town remains as brilliant as ever, and the perfect place for vegan/veggie lefties to settle. The music, theatre and film scenes are great and the pubs are (rather too) excellent. I have been working in London, but am looking for something locally.
I have done four solo gigs so far. The first in Leeds was hard going, but I was happy just to get through playing solo and survive it (thanks Mark). The second in Brixton with A Little Orchestra was better, and had some moments I was genuinely proud of (thanks Ian). The third in Lille was fantastic, my first living room gig, and the perfect way to play solo, because people are obliged to sit and listen! (thanks Nicolas) The fourth, in London, had some good moments (thanks Simon), but I can’t really expect folk to listen attentively to very quiet stuff in a pub on a Saturday night – all learning for me… I will continue to play the odd solo show, as I do feel it is leading somewhere. There is something about being totally exposed, with just the songs to work with that appeals to me. Nothing to hide behind.
Meanwhile, we have been writing for the next Spearmint album. Jim and I have written quite a few songs together, and Ronan has created a set up whereby he can add drums at home and then mix the tracks. So far he has just worked on a couple to establish the process. I am hoping to go over there next week and sit with him to nail one of these tunes. Would really like to get the album out next year, but I feel it is only half written so far, so work needs to be done. We need to love it, or there is no point.
Bridie and I are watching a lot of films at the moment, ramping up our top 100 of the year. Saw Miranda July’s “The Future” last week, with a nice Q&A, and it is great, darker and more akin to her writing than the last film. Other favourites so far include “Blue Valentine”, “My Dog Tulip”, “The Inside Job”, “Attack The Block”, “Tyranassaur”, “La Quattro Volte”, and “Midnight In Paris”. Have read some great books this year too: “The Laughing Policeman” by Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo, “Tony & Susan” by Austen Wright, “The Little Stranger” by Sarah Waters (who did another good Q&A recently), “Under The Net” by Iris Murdoch and “The Lover” by Marguerite Duras amongst the Lee Child/Peter James/ Ian Rankins and the Bret, Murakami and Donna Tartt re-reads. Also read “The Count Of Monte Christo”, and the first volume of Sherlock Holmes, which are both superb.
I hate the way I write favourites and a squiggly red line appears under it, telling me I am spelling it wrongly. Why did America take our language and then willfully get 1% of it wrong? Can I change this on the laptop so it works in English? I worry that people who use spell-check are learning to spell certain words wrongly.
As I say, it is very easy to be Vegetarian or Vegan in Brighton, which is a treat. I have been vegetarian for thirty years now, and hover somewhere between it and veganism. I have got rid of milk now. After all, drinking the birth milk from another beast is a disgusting idea, yes? And the way they keep the cows pregnant and giving birth all the time, just so they constantly produce milk, but then they kill the male offspring is obscene. The thing is, you grow up being told that you need this stuff to be healthy, and then when you look into it, you don’t, it is all just a marketing campaign by the companies who make money out of selling milk.
I am reeling from the success of my album – I didn’t think an album could sell so little, or be so poorly received. I guess I set out to make an album that takes at least four or five listens to get into. All the albums I have really loved over the years are like that: they sound bad on the first listen and then gradually open up until you love them and get years of pleasure from them. So my double-album will never get good reviews, after all what reviewer would listen to it four times (or even once?). Oh well, I am proud of it, it’s got some of my best stuff on it. I hereby award it a 5-star review, simply because it is the album it was intended to be. I can’t ask for more than that. I remember we got a similar reaction to “A Different Lifetime”. It’s tough, and you have to bounce back, and move on. Which is exactly what I will do.

Leeds

Shirley Lee — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 08:15:03 +0000

(Soundtrack: Gene Ammons “Bad Bossa Nova”, The Arcade Fire “The Suburbs”)
One year ago we moved to Leeds, with the intention of getting away from London and being closer to my mother. It was great to be back here – I grew up near here, and I felt transported back to my days of coming into town as a teenager to go to gigs or record shops. Back then it had an addictive Red Riding grimness to it that is largely gone, but I still feel echoes of today. It was a perfectly bleak place to lose my teenage self in and to watch Joy Division, A Certain Ratio, The Bunnymen and the like as a kid.
Last time I lived outside London, it was also under a Conservative government. This can feel akin to at best “being ignored”, more often “talked down to” and at worst “insulted”. It reminds me how easy it is to hate London and its seemingly self-serving inhabitants once you are elsewhere in the country. Turn on the radio and hear token “regional” accents raving about the weather *in London,* or open a magazing and read national bar and restaurant reviews of places that are almost all *in London *. We used to love to listen to the Arts show on Radio 2, but there is no point at the moment. They should rename it “The London Arts Show”, or better still broadcast it on Radio London. Most of the culture in this country happens outside London, so why not reflect that?
Perhaps all the northern towns and cities and spaces in-between should bound ourselves together and call ourselves a city. A city called “The North”. After all, that is all London is – a random collection of disparate towns and villages separated by green spaces and bundled together under the name “London”. “The North” would be a much bigger and more impressive city than “London”. Eventually, the power would shift up here and folk in the old capital would learn how that feels.
I love this city, but it just hasn’t worked out for us here. Work is thin on the ground for a start and is getting worse with the government cuts. Additionally, “local jobs for local people” is followed as a mantra to an almost bigotted extreme that Tubbs and Edward would feel uncomfortable with. Some cities welcome talent from outside and that helps them move forward and ultimately create more jobs for locals, but not here. It seems folk are happy if the ship just sinks, as long as the ship is full of “locals”. So the town excels at staying pretty much the same while Newcastle, Manchester, Glasgow and Liverpool charge forward.
I love this city, but who knows its identity, its famous landmarks? Most other cities have a building or bridge that you can immediately associate with them. I would say that Leeds Town Hall is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world (see photo), so why not shout about it?
I love this city – it has an incredible array of other beautiful buildings, like The Corn Exchange, Kirkgate Market, The City Varieties, The Parkinson Building, The Grand Theatre, The City Museum, Kirkstal Abbey. Unfortunately they are masked by the most random selection of ugly modern structures you will find anywhere, as though nobody has had the strength or pride to keep the beauty of Leeds intact. The town sometimes seems like a boxer on the ropes, head down, taking punch after punch, preferring to carry on like this as long it is left alone as much as possible.
I love this city and its wonderful parks like Roundhay, Bramham, Temple Newsam, Meanwood and Golden Acre. The River Aire and the Leeds Liverpoool Canal provide some excellent walks. The Yorkshire Dales are easily accessible and are some of the most gorgeous places on earth: surely Ilkley Moor is *the *most wonderful place on the planet?
I love this city and it is a great place to come for a weekend: excellent bars, restaurants, and shopping. Perfect for a Hen party or ten – in fact you can seeing them lying on the pavements in the wee hours of Sunday morning; every Saturday night is like New Year’s Eve in Reykjavik.
I love this city and its marvellous film festival (the second largest in the country) and it is lucky to have a cinema like The Hyde Park Picture House. The National Film Museun in Bradford is a bus-ride away too, and is a genuinely great day out, as well as having fabulous programming.
I love this city and its thriving band scene that prefers to keep its lights under bushels. How many bands can you name from here compared to, say, Manchester? The town does not shout about the bands that do come from here – there is a whole area in the City Museum devoted to them, but the names you would probably associate with Leeds are not even mentioned. There are some great venues here: The Brudenell, The Hi-Fi, The New Roscoe, The Well, The Wardrobe, The Uni and a really good smallish O2 in a church.
I love this city and the way on each bit of spare grass you will find a horse or two tethered, keeping it trim. And yet, too many Gentlemen’s clubs, too many white meatheads stuffing substandard Greggs pasties into their mouths and being “harmlessly” abusive.
I love this city. That is why I worry for it and its contradictions. I happily made the new album here and, to me at least, it has a strong sense of this city about it. I will always come back to Leeds, but for now, we need to get out.

A Year, Films Of 2010

Shirley Lee — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 10:10:03 +0000

(Soundtrack: Nina Simone “Forbidden Fruit”, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti “Before Today”)
So a year skips past. Quite a challenging, ultimately productive year, which we spent in Leeds, but more of that later. I didn’t update the diary page because I felt that if I was going to spend time writing it would be better to spend it writing the album. So I binged on that and then set about recording it and have now finished it. But more of that later too. Jim just sent me the finished artwork and Steve has the master so I believe we are on for an April release.
Anyway, to continue where I left off, here are our top 100 movies of 2010. I continue to hold the view that we are living in a golden age of film, when brilliant bold ambitious cinema like Inception, Buried, 127 Hours and The Social Network gets made by the major studios and are huge hits, and we also have easy access to great independent films from all over the world. It reminds me of the days in world of music when records like “Ghost Town” would get to number 1… but that is all gone now, at least for the moment. Any minute now a New Riot Grrrl band will appear and make great records and blow the cobwebs away and snuff Cowell and co out and a nation will rise and be grateful.
2011 was a year of a wide spread of great films, rather than being led by a handful of classics. We have yet to see Winter’s Bone, Rare Exports or Uncle Boon Mee, but here is our joint Top 100 as it stands:
1= Another Year – maybe Mike Leigh’s best yet; keeps making you think and change your mind long after you have seen it.
1= Mother – dazzling, twisty-turny, frightening, funny Korean thriller worthy of Tarantino
3 The Kids Are Alright – Bridie would have this at number 1, but I intervened
4 The Illusionist – I didn’t expect a new Jacques Tati movie in 2010; this is so beautiful and sad and Edinbugh looks gorgeous; and the last twenty minutes are astonishing; our favourite animation of the year
5 The Maid – really cool black comedy
6 The Social Network – appears to confirm that the people who created Facebook are every bit as loathsome as the people who use it… Fincher is one of the greats
7 The King’s Speech – top quality fodder and we have a soft spot for Colin
8 Heartbreaker – Romantic comedies do not come much better than this, plus you get Romain Duris and Vanessa doing Dirty Dancing
9 American – The Bill Hicks Story – truly inspiring!
10 A Single Man – the good egg had a good year
11 The Yes Men Save The World – Oh boy I would love to be brave enough to take on the corporate world the way these chaps do
12 Exit Through The Gift Shop – another film that gives you more the more you think about it: a great history of street art, but an even better idea for a movie
13 Please Give – lovely Woody-style latest from Nicole Holofcener
14 Inception – just great fun, not sure why the critics talked about it as though it is full of riddles, it is quite straight-forward; loved this and want to see it again
15 127 Hours – reliably brilliant Danny Boyle
16 Whip It! – Bridie adores this and I like it too!
17 Humpday – deceptively slight, but stays with you, oddly quite tender about male friendship
18 A Town Called Panic – absolute mayhem, second favourite animation of the year
19 Greenberg – Ben Stiller is so delightfully cynical; fab turn from Rhys Ifans too
20 Catfish – another that keeps you thinking long after you’ve seen it… I guess mockumentaries about the internet will remain a recurrent theme of today’s film-making
21 Scott Pilgrim Versus The World
22 Good Hair
23 Toy Story 3
24 Skeletons
25 Shutter Island
26 Buried
27 The Last Exorcism
28 Kick Ass
29 Zombieland
30 The Father Of My Children
31 Made In Dagenham
32 Hachi – A Dog’s Tale
33 The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life
34 Sherlock Holmes
35 SALT
36 Alice In Wonderland
37 Four Lions
38 Life During Wartime
39 Black Dynamite
40 Bad Lieutenant
41 The Ghost
42 The Box
43 Monsters
44 Up In The Air
45 Crazy Heart
46 Topp Twins
47 The Town
48 The Secret In Their Eyes
49 I’m Still Here
50 Splice
51 Food Inc
52 Sin Nombre
53 Unstoppable
54 Lourdes
55 Edge Of Darkness
56 Vengeance
57 Predators
58 Sly Stone – Coming Back For More
59 The Killer Inside Me
60 The Other Guys
61 The Headless Woman
62 Dogtooth
63 Cyrus
64 My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?
65 The End Of The Line
66 Burke And Hare
67 Get Him To The Greek
68 No Impact Man
69 It’s Complicated
70 Sex & Drugs & Rock’n'Roll
71 How To Train Your Dragon
72 We Live In Public
73 Bunny And The Bull
74 Un Prophet
75 Twilight Eclipse
76 Jail Guitar Doors
77 I Love You Philip Morris
78 Big River Man
79 The Joneses
80 Leaving
81 Cemetary Junction
82 Law Abiding Citizen
83 Furry Vengeance
84 White Material
85 Double Take
86 Frozen
87 Hot Tub Time Machine
88 Daybreakers
89 Crazy Love
90 2012
91 The Girl In The Park
92 Crazies
93 The Girl On The Train
94 Green Zone
95 Youth In Revolt
96 The Princess And The Frog
97 Brooklyn’s Finest
98 Afterschool
99 Talk To Me
100 Defendor

Discarded Trees, Police Chase, Big Black Sea, Films Of 2009

Shirley Lee — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 17:25:02 +0000

Our street is strewn with discarded Christmas trees. They look like they have been thrown out the door, without the residents even making it onto the pavement. Is it OK to just throw trees onto the pavement? Do they just get collected or have they arranged collection? And why are there always TVs abandoned on certain corners? I chopped up and bagged our lovely tree in a manly fashion to the sound of “Remain In Light” by Talking Heads. Maybe I didn’t need to bother.
I have just been writing and heard a police car’s siren speeding past outside. They were chasing a kid on a pushbike,. He crashed into a parked car outside our flat, went flying over the handle-bars and across the bonnet of the car, then ran off. A policewoman raced after him on foot, and the car followed. There are now two helicopters circling low overhead; it is LOUD. I presume the kid has done more than just steal the bike, which is now crumpled and leaning against our railings. More of this and I will end up writing that inner city Clash album, which I am sure Jim would love us to make…
The writing is going fairly well. As Martin Stephenson said “My subconscious and I are back on speaking terms”. When you first start on a new project it takes a while to get back into the swing of things. I find that it is once I have written a song that I think is pretty good that I relax, start to enjoy it and pick up speed. Writing is akin to hopping alone into a small boat each night and heading off exploring across a big black sea. You are keen to travel and discover somewhere new, but there are powerful currents that can mean you end up in a place you gave been to many times before. Conversely, sometimes you set off for a familiar destination and land somewhere completely new. It is a solitary, exasperating, fulfilling, calming, cathartic process.
Of course, most of the real writing does not happen at a table, in front of a book, or a laptop. It happens walking to and from work, in the bath, or most annoyingly, awake in the night. This is where ideas take shape and problems get solved. I remember Woody Allen saying something similar, how he really worked things out while walking round New York, or taking a shower. He said that in the early days he could walk round Manahttan happily thinking things through, but now he gets stopped all the time, so is forced to either walk up and down his balcony, or take a shower. Hence he regularly takes three showers a day, staying in there for forty-five minutes or so, just working things out. No wonder he is small.
As I am enjoying the writing, I occasionally think I should just carry on until I get bored, maybe write all year. But then the album would not be out for ages. But maybe it would be a better record… or maybe not. You have to make a call on quantity versus quality. Two heroes of mine have gone in opposite directions. Scott Walker declared years ago that he would rather make one album each decade that he is truly happy with than put out stuff which he does not love. That is just what he has done, producing three albums proper in the last three decades. Whilst I love Scott taking this approach, as a fan, I can’t help wish he was putting out more albums. Bill Nelson has taken the opposite route. For the last twenty years or so he has created a piece of music almost every day, and has then released most of it, as it is, without further adornment or edit. Whilst I love Bill’s approach, spontanaeity and work ethic, as a fan, I am overwhelmed, and can’t help but feel that he could produce a truly great album if he cherry-picked and edited his output. So I think that the typical artist output of an album each couple of years is probably about right. I still intend to write until March then see what I have got.
After much alcohol accompanied debate, Bridie and I have finalised our list of favourite films of 2009. Bear in mind that we err on the side of arty (while always willing the mainstream to be great), and that this is a joint list. I raved about the movies of 2008, and 2009 was even better. It was a year of genre excellence, with amazing War, Horror, Musicals, Sci-Fi and Documentaries. The great directors revelled in the sheer joy of making films and it showed. Even mainstream studio movies fizzed with energy and invention. So here we go: 1 Inglourious Basterds (just SO entertaining) 2 Antichrist (could also have been 1; very beautiful and manages to capture Man’s ultimate inability to understand Woman) 3 Michael Jackson This Is It (left to my own devices I would probably have had this at 1: real pure genius captured on celluloid) 4 Synecdoche New York (not cheery, but a great allegory of a life) 5 Funny People (don’t get why people don’t love this, surely a classic?) 6 Beaches Of Agnes (another beautiful, bold tableau of life) 7 Let The Right One In (super-cool vampire flick) 8 Moon (super-cool sci-fi flick) 9 Two Lovers (really under-rated movie take on Ronnie Corbett’s “Sorry” or Dostoyesky, depending on your viewpoint) 10 The Cove (preaching to the converted to Bridie and I, but this is a fascinating, tense, thriller of a documentary) 11 Where The Wild Things Are 12 The Hurt Locker 13 Gran Torino 14 Frost/Nixon 15 A Serious Man 16 Bruno 17 Up 18 Drag Me To Hell 19 Coraline 20 Last Chance Harvey 21 Curious Case Of Benjamin Button 22 Orphan 23 Whatever Works 24 Adventureland 25 Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist 26 Fantastic Mr Fox 27 The Class 28 Creation 29 In The Loop 30 The Damned United 31 Mesrine 32 Mid August Lunch 33 Marley and Me 34 Le Donk & Scorzayzee 35 Paranormal Activity 36 District 9 37 Surveillance 38 The White Ribbon 39 Sunshine Cleaning 40 Frozen River 41 Encounters At The Edge of the World 42 The Informant! 43 A Few Days in September 44 Me & Orson Welles 45 Newtown Killers 46 Hush 47 Looking for Eric 48 State and Play 49 I Love You Man 50 Star Trek 51 Vicky Cristina Barcelona 52 The Reader 53 Revolutionary Road 54 (500) Days of Summer 55 Nowhere Boy 56 Trick r Treat 57 The Children 58 He’s Just Not That Into You 59 Bolt 60 Slumdog Millionaire 61 35 Shots of Rum 62 The Girl cut in Two 63 Choke 64 Wendy and Lucy 65 Cold Souls 66 Quiet Chaos 67 The Grocers Son 68 Kamikazes Girls 69 Telstar 70 Not Quite Hollywood 71 Taking Woodstock 72 Paris Is Burning 73 Doubt 74 Management 75 Julie & Julia 76 The September Issue 77 The Gray Man 78 Dead Snow 79 North Face 80 Gonzo the Life of Hunter S Thompson 81 Anvil 82 Public Enemies 83 Dorian Gray 84 Lakeview Terrace 85 Is Anybody There? 86 Helen 87 Defiance 88 Genova 89 Coco Before Chanel 90 Cadillac Records 91 Private Lives of Pippa Lee 92 The Day The Earth Stood Still 93 Bottleshock 94 Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 95 Outlander 96 Monsters vs. Aliens 97 Observe & Report 98 Il Divo 99 The Baader Meinhof Complex 100 Religious Here’s to 2010…

Rock Is Dead, Pop Wishes

Shirley Lee — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:55:02 +0000

(Soundtrack: A lot of mumbling and coughing as I am in the Library)
It is dark and pouring down out there. Bridie and I just spent a really nice, quiet Christmas in London having cancelled plans to head North at the last minute due to illness. Probably our last Christmas in London I would guess, but we shall see. It is New Year’s Eve tomorrow and we are pulling together our Top 100 movies of the year, which I will share with you, as I am sure you are interested. Or are you? Si said I may as well text him these entries, as so few people probably read them. But Bridie does, and her folks do (thanks for the t-shirts!). I am not sure whether we should finalise the list straight away as there are some films we still haven’t seen, such as The Informant, Bright Star, The White Ribbon, that are sure to make a dent in it. On the other hand we already have over a hundred great films as it has been such an amazing year for movies.
A few years ago I would also have been compiling my Top 100 albums of the year, but not any more. I am sure the great albums are out there, but there are probably only ten or twenty from this year that I have discovered and really rate. I have found this to be the case the last couple of years and assumed this is because I am at an age where I start to listen to more older music and keep up less. I saw the NME’s Top 50 albums of the Noughties listing, and I read it with enthuiasm, thinking that it would lead me to the great albums I have missed recently. It is the first time in those ten years that the NME has held my attention for longer than a minute. I expected to not know most of the records on their list, but in fact I knew them all. A lot of good albums on there, but as a showing for an entire decade it is pretty uninspiring. It got me thinking about “Rock” and its lifespan.
I came to the conclusion that Rock is in fact dead. Not just pining for the fjords, but deceased. Think about Classical music. That had its day. I am sure there are still great pieces of Classical music being composed now, but nobody would dispute that it is music of the past. Jazz was alive and kicking and a real movement from the twenties to the sixities. After that, great Jazz albums continued to be made, but they were either meldings with Rock or Funk, or retro takes on previous glories. In other words Jazz had five decades as a real movement, and then it was over.
I contend that the same thing happened to Rock. Its five decades were from the fifties to the nineties and it is now over. Don’t get me wrong: people will still make fantastic Rock albums for years to come, but as a vibrant, innovative, living movement, it is over. And Rock was a *movement. *As I grew up, it was how you would express yourself. It could change people’s feelings, set their moral code, it could actually change the world and it was what you did if you had something to say or something to protest about. Different phases inspired new fashions and slang and gave personality to each decade. Of course, The Beatles, Bowie and Punk all happened in a world in which there was no Beatles, Bowie or Punk. After 50 years of this music, artists either have to replicate the past or purposefully steer clear of it – it is hard to just ignore it. We are now making music in a world that has five decades of Rock n Roll. Elvis wasn’t.
The albums on the NMEs Top 50 list are a collection of magpie-like refreshes of previous styles. None of them changed the world, or even said anything about the world. This decade, kids with anger, energy and something to say went onto Facebook. Rather than queue up for new release seven inches they queued for Games, which now sell even more than the singles used to. The Noughties has been about technology, reality TV, the internet, social networking and gaming. It was not about music. I am not grumpy about this. Social networking is not my cup of tea, and there is more than enough wonderful music to delve into from those five decades to ever need any more anyway. And there will be more great records. There will be enough of us out there making albums, like those soldiers in the forest who don’t realise the war is over, to guarantee a few corkers.
I have always been a passionate defender of what has been happening each year in music. I don’t like it when people say things are not as good as they used to be. They have been saying that all my life and they have always been wrong. If I am now talking like that, the likely explanation is that I have been watching too many movies and not listening to enough albums this year to realise the exciting things that are actually happening. If that is the case, then I look forward to hearing that music. But I stand by my theory – I am not saying things aren’t as good as they used to be, I am just stating that Rock is dead.
Speaking of which, we finally met up for our Pop Wishes evening after a couple of postponments. The boys were on good form and there was much toasting – 2009 has been a good year for Spearmint. We are dead proud of the Shirley Lee and Telley abums, our tours of UK and Germany, the “A Week Away” re-issue, the “LIfe In Reverse” EP, the book of graphic interpretations of our songs, and the ICA show. We opened up our Pop Wishes from a couple of years ago and we had achieved seven and a half out of thirteen of them. Not too bad. We then came up with some new ones, only five actually. Along the lines of doing the next Shirley Lee and Andy Lewis albums and getting going on the next Spearmint one. They have been ritually sealed and slipped inside a Burt Bacharach album, to be opened in two years time. This time they are inside “Make It Easy On Yourself” rather than “Hitmaker” to see if Burt can rustle up any extra magic.
So here’s to 2010. I hope it is the year you wish for…

The Dentist, Writing, The Shadows, Reviews

Shirley Lee — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:00:07 +0000

(Soundtrack: Traffic and sirens as I am in an Internet Cafe on the Uxbridge Road)
I just went to the dentist, well the dental hygenist, for a clean. She asked when I last had one and I said five years, but it is actually at least fifteen. Her objective seemed to be to cause as much pain as possible, and to punish me for not coming for so long. She said I have caused irreparable damage to my gums, and then she really went to town. I started yelping and kicking my feet in the air, with the blood spurting down my chin, and she asked in a matter of fact way, “Are you OK?”, as though she had picked up that I might have a mild headache or something. She says I have to go back in six months. I am not good with pain.
Since the last diary entry I have been working pretty hard on writing the next album. I would estimate that I am now about halfway through, but then it is hard to say you are halfway to somewhere when you don’t know where that place is. Or hard to estimate the half when you can’t see the whole. There comes a point when you are writing a big project that you are suddenly “in it”, suddenly inside looking out, rather than outside looking in. I am now at the point, which is good, but not necessarily pleasurable, as it is the point when you start to obsess on ideas for songs, and get frustrated about the things that you know are not working, or are not good enough. I am impatient. I want the songs to just fall into place and for me to love them, but it is actually going to take some effort to get there. And there is no kidding yourself – you know you are being lazy, or untrue, or faking, or stealing. I am a more fulfilled person when I am writing, but not necessarily happier, except when I get the odd big break-through or get close to the end.
I set myself a plan for the writing which involves keeping going until Easter. I find that having a plan works for me; deadlines and a schedule encourage me to get on with it. I allow myself to change the plan at any point, and I am sure I will, but I find it a productive way to work. The album still seems to be shaping up to be a solo album, and I feel it would be good to attempt to do the whole thing myself, so that it comes out completely differently to our previous albums. I mean playing everything and producing it myself. Good for me, but not necessarily for you! It occurred to me over the last couple of weeks that this means I am beholden to nobody. Not that we normally get much interference in our music, but I can literally do whatever I want with this one… If I want to try a comedy reggae song or a jazz instrumental there will be no-one around to stop me! Only joking… (at least about the jazz)…So I may take this opportunity to push things a little, and make this one as Shirley Lee as it can possible be. After that I am sure you and I will both be gagging for me to do some stuff with the band again.
We didn’t do our Pop Wishes night, hopefully we will get this in before Christmas. Bridie and I did go to see Cliff and The Shadows though and it was fabulous: Hank Marvin confirmed his place as the coolest man in rock and that guitar sounded perfect. They didn’t play any solo Cliff tracks, just the early Cliff and Shadows stuff, but Cliff has great, still for my money the best voice for ballads in Rock’n'Roll. It is hard to communicate how great they are if you don’t get it, but in terms of British music they are right up there with The Beatles, The Clash, The Stone Roses and all.
We have also caught some great movies: In The Loop, The Cove, Up and Le Donk spring to mind (“Come on Deirdre Barlow!”). Paddy Considine has become a bit of a hero – everyone knows Dead Man’s Shows is a classic, but try watching him in In America and then Le Donk. Best movie though, and I suspect this will end up being my favourite of the year, is the Michael Jackson film. I was absolutely blown away by it. I think that is the best film about dance ever, beating Shall We Dance, Top Hat, Carefree, An American In Paris, all of them! Also the best film about Soul Music that I can think of. I highly recommend it.
After we did the ICA gig, I was feeling “pretty good” about the band and myself and came across a review of the Shirley Lee album on the internet. I usually try not to read reviews as it is pointless, but I thought I would boost my ego a bit more by having a read. Unfortunately it was a rotten review. Clearly if you put records out you are going to get some good reviews and some bad reviews. This was one of those where they put the album on, listen to it for the first time, and make some notes as they go. It really laid into us, saying it was track after track of boring indie and quoted a fragment of a lyric and then said “Wow, that’s deep”. I am quoting from memory – I won’t bother to check the details, as it was also full of inaccuracies about the record. Now clearly this is my own fault for reading the bloody thing (and for making track after track of boring indie obviously). It is always a bad idea, not because good press is likely to go your head, but because they always hurt you and make you angry. People in bands tend to be sensitive types to say the least; the good things that are said go straight past us, we zoom in on the slightest criticism, and see red. I have seen band members read reasonable reviews and act as though their family has been physically attacked. After all these years I am pretty good at dealing with negative stuff, but this hit home. It not only brought me down to earth (probably a good thing), but made me boil with anger. I went to the bottom of the piece to find out who wrote it and there was no name. Definitely a good thing as if I had been able to get hold of them at that moment, I would have physically attacked them. I mean it. I calmed down after a couple of hours, and can now see it in context. I can’t complain – we have always been lucky and got really good reviews, and the Shirley Lee album got more glowing press than anything I have been involved with. Not that I really get the point: did anybody buy the album because they read the review? Though I suppose it at least tells you it’s out if you see a review. Anyway, the same thing happened to Ronan yesterday – he found a long, badly written, luke-warm review of the ICA show that was littered with mistakes about the band and the night, and it made him really really angry. I suppose at our level, the people who write this stuff would like to get into journalism and are practising their craft, including being negative. The person who wrote that got in on the guestlist as “press” too. I’ve had it with that – they can pay next time, in fact they can fuck off! I don’t feel too good about paying to see a band when some wanker has got in for free just to frown all the way through, then write down negative prose and get it circulated! Rant over… but I am serious: no more guest list places for journalists.

Germany, ICA, Cornwall

Shirley Lee — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 19:15:03 +0000

(Soundtrack: Public Image Ltd “Public Image”, Ramones “Ramones”)
September was a relatively busy month for the band. We did a tour of Germany and then our “A Week Away” show at the ICA. Germany went well, with all but one of the gigs being very good. The one that was less good was our fault for attempting something inappropriate in a town we hadn’t played in before. We started out in Freiburg which is always very welcoming thanks to the continuing support of our friend Papa Chico who promotes the shows there and is a top gent. This was Neil’s 100th Spearmint gig. I find that very hard to believe. I find it surprising that we have even played 100 gigs, let alone that anyone would go to them. Neil now comes along and drives the van for us. This seems more sensible than him making his own way behind in his car.
So we wanted to get Neil something to celebrate the occasion. But what do you get someone who literally has everything to do with the band already? We toyed with the idea of a gold disc, but the answer eventually seemed obvious: more Spearmint songs. So we gave Neil three songs which are exclusive to him: “A Large Grey Cat” which is about being solely indoors, “Bachelor Gardens”, about I flat I shared with my friend Graham while we were on the dole in Newcastle, and “Cocker” which concerns being bothered, hounded, tormented, well, stalked by a celebrity.
We also gave him a 100 Gigs Of Neil t-shirt and some rare promos. He seemed chuffed and it was our pleasure, as he has been wonderfully encouraging. If you come to 100 gigs then we will give you some songs too. I don’t think I have seen anyone live more than ten times, so a hundred is devotion indeed.
There were some issues with the German shows that ultimately were my fault. The gigs was originally booked earlier in the year by our German promoter, as a Shirley Lee tour. I am not sure I made it clear then that it would be the whole band playing. So some of the fees were low, and we were booked into some inappropriate places for a full band to play. Also by the time the tour came round, it was more of a Speamint show than Shirley Lee. It was still good, it just meant that the money wasn’t great, and in the extreme case of Hamburg, we were booked into a bar with no PA or monitors. This was compounded by the fact that the venue we were originally booked into closed down so this bar was confirmed late, but not really advertised. So we had no PA and virtually no crowd. And of course, this turned out to be the best show – there is something about being up against it that always makes you pull out your best, and this one was really special. Thanks to Margaret and Ali, who got married the day we DJd in Brixton and came along to that, then were really supportive at the Hamburg gig and the ICA too.
The hotels and hostels we were booked into in Germany seemed to be exercises in how many people you can get into one room at one time. I have had enough of bunk beds and Ronan parading around nude at 5am to last me for a while. In one hostel you don’t get towels, you sleep in your sheets, then use them as towels. This seemed daft to me, but actually worked well, and is pretty sound if you think about it. The drives were slightly less punishing than usual, and we did a pretty good job of eating well and not drinking too much, and not getting ill.
I loved the ICA gig, it went pretty much exactly as had hoped. The crowd were lovely and it was great to see some people we hadn’t seen for yonks, including JB, who produced the “A Week Away” album – he was on fine form. It all went by very quickly, and before we knew it we were loading the gear back into the lock-up in Shepherds Bush.
We are not planning any shows to do “A Week Away” live again, but it does seem a shame to only play it the once. I really like playing the whole album as one piece. Most of our albums were designed that way anyway, so it feels right to play them live like that.
After the gig, Bridie and I slipped away to Cornwall for a week’s holiday, which was fabulous. We stayed in Carbis Bay and spent the week walking the coastal path and beautiful beaches, watching movies, cooking, eating out and drinking plenty. That is said Bridie in the photo an said beach. It was so nice that I am now feeling depressed at the prospect of work tomorrow. London was a bit of a shock to the system too. While we were away we watched one of those crime shows where they follow two policemen round a borough, in this instance our borough. There were all kinds of awful things going on, and we kept recognizing them as being on our street. It solved the puzzle of exactly what happens in the cafe down the road. Made the area look really dangerous. Of course we just cruise through it all, oblivious, as you do in London. We went to the local pub last night and there must have been ten police cars and vans all speeding up and down the street for ages in pursuit of somebody. We wouldn’t normally comment on it, but it was just such a contrast after the peace of Carbis Bay.
I am listening to the first Public Image album. I was reminded of it as they are doing thirty year anniversary live shows of the Metal Box, which is an amazing album. I have always been a big admirer of those first three albums, they are so bold and fearless, and Lydon’s lyrics are dazzling.
No more band activity for a while. I am looking forward to getting on with writing the next album, which is always the most exciting thing for me. Am trying to get the guys together this week to have a beer and do our regular Pop Wishes thing, where we see how we have measured up to our last set of wishes (about two years ago), and set out some new ones for the year ahead. I need to do some rounding up to get those boys in the same place at the same time. Rounding up; that’s what you do if you form a band, spend your days rounding up.
Best of all, Bridie and I are off to see Cliff and the Shadows next week – how good is that?

Conkers, Dead Bees, Tall Dog, Lost Ducks, (500) Days Of Summer, Getting It Together

Shirley Lee — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 19:35:03 +0000

(Soundtrack: Elvis Costello “King Of America”, Elvis Costello “Blood And Chocolate”)
It is now bordering on autumn. I just wandered up to Acton to get some vegetables and as it is quite windy there are conkers all over the pavements. Quite good large ones actually. I am not complaining; I love autumn, it’s just that the seasons seem to come round faster and faster as time goes on. Those seemingly endless summers of childhood are long gone, and were pretty boring at times anyway… Just part of getting older I guess. There are probably paintings cavemen did bemoaning how quickly the seasons pass now. There are still random hot days at the moment and I keep seeing dead bumble bees on the ground, which has been a feature this year.
When I walk through to work in the morning I cut through a little park where there is normally a group of dogs being exercised. One of them I call “tall dog”. I don’t know what make he is, but he is whippet-like, except a lot taller. No matter what commotion all the rest of the dogs are creating, this guy just stands there, tangential to the group, staring into the distance. He is completely oblivious and imperious. The others have given up trying to get him to join in and play; he is impervious to everything. His attitude strikes a chord with me – he is my favourite and it cheers me up to see him.
Bridie and I were trying to figure out where all the male ducks have gone. They are the ones with the bright green / blue necks. I came up with the theory that the males stay here for spring in order to mate and have kids, then in the late summer fly off to a country where it is spring again. Bridie got to the truth of it though – they are still there, they just shed their bright plumage so that they look very much like the females. The green / blue will gradually re-appear over coming months.
As I write this Bridie is talking to Nic Roeg – how cool is that?
We went to see “(500) Days Of Summer” the other night with Jim and Andy. Neil and Cheryl came along too, but Si and Arn couldn’t make it: moving house and lack of childcare being the reasons. So we sat there eagerly awaiting the Spearmint dialogue to appear. I had pretty much decided that it had been edited out as it doesn’t come until three quarters of the way through. Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character says “It pains me to live in a world where no-one has ever heard of Spearmint”. Zooey Deschanel’s character says she hasn’t heard of them… Gordon explains that he put them on the mix CD he gave her, in fact they (us) were the first track. It was a bit surreal seeing this on the big screen at Odeon Marble Arch. I thought maybe we would give a rousing cheer, but we just shifted about a bit. Jim raised his arms slightly, in celebration.
I got a mail from a chap called Michael Leibowitz in the States explaining that the writer of the movie is a friend of his and a big fan of the band, his favourite song being “The Beautiful Things” (cool choice).The best thing is that it is a really good film and some aspects (the dance routine, the split screen, the animation, the numbered days) make it a bit of a classic romantic comedy.
Which brings me back to how many great movies are being released at the moment. In fact they are coming too thick and fast to keep up with. We went to “Inglourious Basterds” and absolutely adored it. Same goes for “Funny People”. Again these are films that have attracted bad reviews – further proof to disregard critics.
How on earth did Costello make these two albums in the same year? I am awed…
Jim really poured heart and soul into getting the artwork finished for the special edition of “A Week Away”. The booklet is lovely, but I think it took a toll on him, with trying to keep things going at home, the day job, our rehearsals and a gig for his own band Telley all falling in the same week. He hasn’t been the same since in fact. So I am trying to divert band work to other people and keep it away from him for the moment. We are heading over to Germany next week to do some shows. These things are always booked way in advance, then suddenly they are upon you and there is no time to get ready or rehearsed, all a bit stressful.
We have been learning to play “A Week Away” live, and have even figured out what most of the chords are. These days when I finish a song I write out the lyrics in my book, and include the chords too. But ten years ago, I used to just write the lyrics, thinking “”of course I will remember these chords”. Then coming to the songs ten years later I really struggled on a couple. It’s not just knowing that it is an “A”, it is more exactly how you played that “A”. So I recommend you always make a note of such things. We are pretty much there now on understanding what it is we should be playing; we just need to find a way of actually playing it. We had a good rehearsal on Saturday, then an awful one on Tuesday. Par for the course.
After watching “(500) Days Of Summer”, we went and DJd at Ian Watson’s lovely, enduring clubnight “How Does It Feel To Be Loved”. We had a top time, I even enjoyed the DJing, which I sometimes don’t. Got very drunk. Jim sensibly left early as he has so much going on, but then spent hours getting home on the night buses. Andy was on good form and it would be nice to do it again sometime.
I have been a good boy and putting aside time for writing over the last few weeks to work on what looks at this early stage to become a big sprawling Shirley Lee album. Which probably means it wil be a concise Spearmint album. We shall see.
The photo is of a pavement in San Francisco. Some chap was telling us who the artist is, but we were drunk so I can’t remember the name.

Oslo, Strange Doubles, Books & Films

Shirley Lee — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 18:45:04 +0000

(Soundtrack: Television “Marquee Moon”, Gladys Knight “Anthology”)
We had a few days in Oslo last week. I bought Bridie tickets to Madonna there for her birthday, which was back in February. I bought the tickets from a site called Smart Hospitality, not thinking too much of it as it was for an overseas gig. I got an email and postal confirmation from them stating that they would not dispatch tickets until a week before the gig. So I didn’t start chasing them until then. First of all I emailed, but the mails bounced back. Then I tried to ring, and realised the company no longer existed, if it ever had. I found a website where lots of people were saying that they had been conned out of money by this company for tickets to Blur, Springsteen, the Grand Prix etc.
I never thought I would get conned like that – I always thought that was something that happened to other people.
So we did our best to get tickets via other sites, ebay, but to no avail. Tried contacts in the industry but no joy there either. We then had a few days of deciding whether to go to Oslo or not, whether to just treat it as a sign, and spend the money here instead. Eventually we decided to go as we both wanted to see Oslo anyway. Then when we got there we were in two minds whether or not to go along and try and get into the gig or to not risk the disappointment. We decided to give it a go and were delighted to get tickets at face value at the tube station. First and hopefully the last time I have ever bought tickets from a tout.
As we walked up towards the stadium the heavens opened and we were treated to the biggest storm I have been outside in for years: thunder, lightning and driving rain. Pretty soon there were rivers of water running down the pavements as we got shoved along by the crowd. By the time we got near the gates we were standing in a mud bath. We were not dressed for this at all. There was a lot of confusion as the gate numbers were not visible. We found ourselves standing in deep mud in a crowd who insisted on shoving forward even though nobody was moving inside – it was horrible. After twenty minutes of that we had had enough and headed back to the tube just to get away from the crowds and mud.
Can you believe that we were then back at the tube trying to sell the tickets after all the palaver to get them? Shirley Lee, ticket tout.
Mercifully we did not sell them and after fifteen minutes we made our way back to the stadium. People were now going in through the gates so we went in and watched the show. It was a concrete floor inside and it was still pouring down .We watched the gig standing in about six inches of standing water. We were completely wet through. It felt like a northern premier league football match, everyone around us looking miserable.
Thankfully the show was great, a proper show that only Madonna can really do. Jackson used to, I suppose Kylie can do it too. I don’t just mean great lights, I mean a full-on show, and we managed to dance, splashing around So it all worked well in the end. It was fabulous to get out of the wet clothes back at the apartment, and luckily the bar on the corner opens until 3am so we had a few drinks after too.
Oslo is lovely, but those drinks are expensive! And the food too. I have always taken the stance that after living in London no other city can seem expensive, and that held true in Tokyo and Reykjavik etc, but Oslo is shocking. All food, drink, clothes and records are two to three times as expensive as London. So ironically we spent less than usual as we had to be so careful.
There is an excellent Film museum there and we spent time in there watching a festival of short film, which was fab. The photo is from the museum, it is a recreation of one of a huge number of sculptures by Vigeland in Vigeland Park. There is loads to see, with really interesting Resistance and Modern Art Museums as well as the obvious attractions along the fjord.
Gladys Knight is under-rated isn’t she… I am listening to a double-album anthology, which is a bit of a strange selection actually, but she sounds great. She has a truly distinctive voice, nobody else like her. The double album is funny: side 3 is on the reverse on side 1 and side 4 is on the flip of side 2, which always confuses me. I have a few soul double albums like that. I think the idea was that you could have twin decks set up and go straight from side 1 to side 2 without having to turn any record over.
I have been doing a bit of reading: “Conversations With Woody Allen” which is the best book about film-making I have read, and “Renegade” by Mark E Smith, which I couldn’t put down. It really does capture how relentlessly hard and lonely it is to have a vision and stick to it. I don’t have a fingernail of his brilliance, but I really identified with the book. He has such sound views on a lot of things too. I also tried a science fiction novel: “Snowcrash” by Neal Stephenson, which I quite enjoyed, but was not exactly what I was looking for. I used to read Sci-Fi as a boy and stopped in my teens. Recently I have had a hankering for it again. It is strange to read Sci-Fi written in the 90s which still manages to completely under-estimate the present day reality of the internet. I am currently on “Greenmantle” by John Buchan which is a sequel to “The Thirty-Nine Steps” and a rip-roaring read, all travelling under-cover across Europe in the snow during World War One.
We caught another killer film last week: “Orphan”, which is a mainstream Horror, that is just done brilliantly and is exceptionally entertaining. “Mesrine” is also fab, classic gangster movie-making. Great films just keep coming, from all quarters. I know from work that the market experts were predicting a bad year for cinema as in recession people would want to save money and watch DVDs or play games instead. In fact the opposite has happened this year: cinema is well up on 2008, which was huge anyway, and home entertainment is having a tough time. I suppose a night at the cinema is relatively cheap escapism… but maybe the main reason is just that there are so many great movies around.
I moved down to three days a week at work at the start of this month, but after a couple of very stressful weeks, I have moved back to four days, as there is too much work on at the moment. Even one day a week will give me impetus to move forward with writing though. Am in the mood to get on with the next album now…

Anxiety Dreams, Kraftwerk, Moon, Missing Apostrophe

Shirley Lee — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:00:06 +0000

I veer between “Wayne’s World” levels of confidence and extreme terror about the gig at the ICA. Ronan asked me why anyone would come along, and I said “What? You’re joking – it’s Spearmint! at the ICA! Playing “A Week Away” live! of course they’ll come!” He also asked me why anyone in London would bother coming to see a band from Leicester (The Junipers) and I confidently explained “Listen, when a band is that good, they are going to pull a crowd wherever they go!”

At other times I am worried about it though… suppose nobody comes, suppose we are rubbish… I had one of my recurring anxiety dreams last night: the one where I am being tormented by a large bee or wasp. Bridie woke me up because I was crying out and jerking about. My other two regular dreams are being naked in a public place and either having an exam or a gig that I suddenly realised I am totally unprepared for. I suppose the worst that could happen is a handful of people at the ICA watching me sitting an exam naked and unprepared onstage while being tormented by a large bee or wasp.

We have been very busy getting the album ready. I have just signed off the master and it sounds great. We decided to lose one of the extra tracks in the end (poor old “A Mild Mannered Man”) as it was getting too long to fit onto one CD. Jim is pulling the artwork together and had designed a very nice postcard which we will use to promote the gig. Still a lot to do for the artwork – we need to compile all the lyrics and images then lay out the booklet. Jim’s friends Jean and James are going to interview each of us for a short film which will show before we play the album live.

We went to see The Pretenders the other night at the Shepherds Bush Empire. They were great and I have come to really like that venue. Last week we took my mum to see a 50s show called “Dreamboats And Petticoats” at The Grand Theatre in Leeds. The show was good fun, but the main pleasure for me was going back to the Grand where I used to go to watch bands as a kid. It is a brilliant theatre and I always dreamed of playing there when I grew up. I still do. One of the things about being in a band is that whenever I go to see other bands I find myself wondering whether or not I would want us to play in the venue. Bridie and I went to see Kraftwerk at The Town Hall in Auckland last year. What a great venue! Just the shape of it is enough to dream of playing there. I don’t own any Kraftwerk albums. I have always quite liked them, but avoided seeing them live originally, thinking “it will just be four blokes stood there behind keyboards”. So we went along to give it a try, and when the curtain rose, there they were – four blokes stood there behind laptops. They were great though, and the robots did the encore. I must get the albums.
Also went to see “Moon” last week, which is a really great sci-fi movie, an instant classic, on a par with the best from the 70s. And there has already been a classic vampire movie this year: “Let The Right One In”. We also saw “Bruno” last week which was very funny, though I notice people are getting snooty about it, constantly comparing it to his other stuff, and saying it is disappointing. The fact is it is great and the first film this year I have immediately wanted to watch again. I remember when “Fawlty Towers” was first aired, on BBC 2 I think, it got a really bad response, with critics saying what a shame it was that Cleese had gone so mainstream after Monty Python. It was later re-run on BBC1 and suddenly it was a huge success. After a gap, they made series 2, and that got really bad reviews as apparently it was nowhere near as good as the first season. Critics – what is the point of them? “Anti Christ” is a cool film too. Thanks to the fuss about it being a genuinely graphic 18 cert, we were able to watch it on a big screen in town. It is great – proper film-making. Thank you Lars Von Trier.
Bridie has a flash new phone. My phone hasn’t even got an apostrophe in it. I get funny about other people adding apostrophes where they are not needed, but I have to leave them out where they are needed. It is the first phone Bridie has had with a built-in camera. So she is taking lots of photos, including those ones that look great but you don’t take, like of your foot or chin or the pavement… She is building up a great collection, but isn’t able to get them onto the computer yet, so I resort to including this shot I took of a laundremat in Innsbruck.