Lush "Lit Up" (Live) Tokyo, Dec. 2, 1994

It's Miki's Birthday!

It's that time again...
Happy Birthday to Miki
You're gonna have a Good Time
Happy Birthday to You!

The First Gig - Camden Falcon - March 6, 1988

Steve Rippon is hastely added to the Lush line-up just in time for the band's first gig at the Camden Falcon on 6th March 1988, supporting the Rosehips. The night passed as smoothly as could be expected.

With that first show under their belt, the band branches out to play other venues on the London toilet circuit.

Be a Miki Fan on Facebook!

Miki Berenyi Fans
a new fan page created by Andy Von Pip of the Von Pip Musical Express
Now live on Facebook you can show your support of the best band in the universe, become a fan of Miki's on the growing social network site.

This new page is a wonderful example that 10 years later, the Lush fans are still around, they are still excited and eager to follow the band they love, and that they are here to stay!

Lush's First Nine : As a Five Piece

Sometimes it's easy to overlook the career Lush had as a Five Piece, after all, it was short-lived. But they did put on quite a few shows, learning how to play and laying down the framework to build upon.

So, without further to-do, here's the complete list of Lush's first nine gigs, all as a 5-piece band (or rather learning to be a band) with Meriel at lead vocals, Emma and Miki on guitars (w/ Miki doing backing vocals), Steve on bass and Chris at drums.

1. Mar 06, 88 Camden, Falcon - first ever gig
2. Mar 19, 88 Camden, Falcon
3. Jun 04, 88 Fullham, Greyhound
4. Jun 12, 88 Brixton, Canterbury Ams (Arms?)
5. Jun 19, 88 Ealing, Collage of Higher Education
6. Jun 22, 88 Finsbury Park, The George Robey
7. Jun 25, 88 Hammersmith, The Clarendon
8. ??? ??, 88 unknown gig
9. Jul 22, 88 Camden, Falcon

Following this gig the band didn't perform again until October 9. It's most likely that at this time Meriel left for Pale Saints and Miki moved over to fill the position, and performing from now on as a four piece. Think of it as a system upgrade from from Lush 1.0 to Lush 2.0. The old Lush was done, a new one begun.

We do have their first demo recordings from that period, but how I wish one photo existed from those first nine!

Fan Club Obscura

Been up to no good again, digging through the ancient historys and recordings of the legend of Lush. I've really been hoping to turn up with enough for a decent post, I guess. So what is my topic this time? It would be concerning the fan club. Yes, there was a Lush fan club back in the day, unbeknownst to me in my isolated little world on the other side of the world (why are such things kept so hush-hush?). I would have dearly loved to have gotten wind of it back then, let me tell you... I did count myself lucky just to live in a town which had several thriving indie label/import shops.

Anyhoos, Bill's Light from a Dead Star site – the Holy Grail of all Lush websites – has as much dirt on this secret society as one can hope to dig... here's a link: We Love Lush was a fan mailing from November 1993, created by the band while they were holed up in Norway while working on the mixing of the yet to be released Split album. Everybody's seen the cartoon of the band from the cover, but the contents are equally intriguing: a lengthy hand written note and lyrics of ALL the current songs. I Especially like Phil's carefully detailed Lush Family Tree – truley fabtabulous stuff!

This mailing also contained the now famous flexi-disk with the tracks "Rupert the Bear" and the "Lit Up" demo, plus a holiday postcard (All links take you directly to Bill's site).

Now, a real prize find of some Lush obscura would be an old copy of "Alphabet Soup," pre-Lush Emma's music fanzine :D