Happy LUSH-oween!

Happy LUSH-oween!

Lush was reborn in October 1988, with Miki taking the vacated lead vocal spot. And according to at least one source, Lush was originally formed on Halloween night of 1988, in London, England (*please see note below!). For today I'm referencing this alternate view to give full play to the whole Lush 'mythology' and for adding a bit fun for the holiday occasion ;)

 Later on the band would eventually play a gig on an October 31st date. In 1990 they performed at Birmingham'sInstitute of Art and Design. Never again would Lush do another Halloween gig after this performance - coincidence? We may never know!

On several occasions the band members dressed up in costume (even at one time raiding a Hollywood costume shop in 1991)... which just so happens to be a very popular custom typically observed only for Halloween!

In 1992 Lush's first full length "proper" album was titled "Spooky".... though the whole wasn't entirely spooky in nature!

While staying in Normandy for the mixing of the albumSplit in 1994, some band members reported strange goings-on while holed-up at their secluded - and haunted - chateau. Chris felt his bed abruptly moved back one night. Phil too had a strange experience here. "[I dreamt that] I was in a red cathedral, and there was this red room in this huge church..." It wasn't until after relating the dream to their producer that Phil learned that "there used to be a church on the grounds where the chateau was, and one day there was a massacre in a big red room there." The band's mysterious connection to the nether realms deepens!

So what more is there to add but Lush's own music itself, last but not least. Hauntingly beautiful, for the Halloween holiday I offer you:

Lush's Most Haunted Mix!
- I Have the Moon - Amazon Preview
- When I Die - Amazon Preview
- Invisible Man - Amazon Preview
- Ocean - Amazon Preview
- Undertow [Spooky remix] - Amazon Preview (Spooky remix version n/a)

MP3 versions of these tracks may be purchased for download at Lush - Amazon.com


* There is no record of a Halloween gig in '88 on Miki's own exhaustive show listing, though she admits she may have missed one or few. It's near certain that the band had their very first gig in March 1988, having just filled the bass spot with Steve in the nick of time. Chris was on drums, Emma and Miki both backing vocals/guitar and Merial Barham on lead vocals. Personally I think a bit of confusion is responsible for the Halloween '88 date, even an '87 date when the very beginnings of the band were forming in the Fall of that year would make more sense. Also see one of my older post, Lush v.2.0.

- Originally posted October 31, 2012

LUSH Photo of the Day

Photo session for 'Split'

LUSH @ Heathrow Airport

The photo booth series appeared in the May 1992 issue of Select Magazine. Can you guess each letter?

Scroll down for the answers...

Answers: A, B, C - D, E, F - G, H, I - J, K, L

The Making of 'Hypocrite'

I love sharing all these fresh new posts that keep coming straight from the band! Today they're talking about the making of the 'Hypocrite' video (one of my personal faves).

. . .

Miki: 'Chris LOVED making this video! So sweet to see him laughing and being his lovely happy self. I remember going on the Octopus ride with Phil and they ran it backwards and forwards and it went on and on and what started with riotous hilarity ended with both of us having one hand clamped over our mouths and the other frantically waving in the air desperately trying to get the bloke to STOP!!! '

Phil: 'I remember that before we decided on getting Matthew Amos to direct this we met up for lunch in Notting Hill with a now famous French film director who was making pop promos at the time. Chris nicknamed him 'consumptive child' as he looked very pale and sat throughout the meal in silence while his manager did all the talking. The concept was us floating around a haunted house. It would need to filmed in a pool on a Hollywood soundstage. “100,000” his manager told us. “Pounds or dollars” asked our manager. “Pounds” he replied. Meal over. Think PJ Harvey ended up doing it in the end. We instead decided to hire a funfair near Heathrow Airport for the day and shot the video there for half the price. A bargain...um.'

Emma: 'I don’t remember a massive amount about it except them trying to create that effect where the camera and the subject is moving unnervingly toward/away at the same time..they do it using the camera on a track and the subject (us individually) on the same track with both moving at the same time. It wasn’t a massive success.
Wasn’t there also an extra who was also in Eastenders?'

Phil: ' I do remember seeing one extra (old bloke looking miserable) all the time afterwards in Marylebone library’.

Miki on BBC4 Tonight!

Just a quick reminder from Emma today:

"Don't forget.. tonight on BBC4 at 10pm Miki  (along with a fantastic array of other of female musicians) is appearing in a documentary called 'Girl in a Band: Tales from the Rock 'n' Roll Frontline'. I haven't seen it but the previews have been great: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06l17fn. Can't wait."

For those in the UK the program will be streamed on the BBC site an hour after airing. But outside the UK? We can only hope that the program will be found on YouTube soon.

Update-
Lush Appreciation Society has added that:

Lush will also feature on a programme following the BBC Four documentary 'Girl In A Band' (which airs at 10pm tonight). Titled, 'Girls In Bands At The BBC', the programme will feature performances from Lush, Elastica and Garbage, amongst many others.
It airs on BBC Four tonight at 11pm.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06mxpjc

LUSH - Control Freaks

Well what's all this then?? It's a bit of a filler piece that was shown on Channel 4 around 1996-ish during the holidays. But what makes this unique is that the 4-minute show features the one, the only Phil, Miki, Emma and Chris - aka LUSH. Aren't they all a wonderful lot? So there's  no music from the band, no interviews either, however as the uploader keenly points out: "...but it's rather charming in a lo-fi kinda way." And that's something that every true Lushhead can appreciate. Cheers and Long Live Rock!

(follow the link, web-sharing disabled) https://youtu.be/fKMah99Z8ro

'Nothing Natural' & Pyramids Centre 24th Anniversaries

It was 24 short years ago today...

October 29th, 1991 'Nothing Natural' was released as a maxi-single disc. It had peaked at number 43 on the UK Singles Chart. The EP was followed by a national British tour, during which time bassist Steve Rippon left the band and was replaced by Phil King. 

Incidentally, on the same day, 100's of screaming kids - the 29th of October - The Pyramids Centre, Portsmouth - LUSH is there to play. With the opening acts of Passing Clouds and Gallon Drunk on a two-leg UK tour debuting the songs from the just released Black Spring EP.

Reflecting on the music video, Miki said it was "an effing nightmare" and that the video's director had "some ludicrous idea of what he wanted [Lush] to look/act like in the video and it was nothing to do with how [the band was]." Miki further explained that the band went along with the director's suggestion as Lush "had no ideas of [their] own at all, and back in the [19]90s the solution was to offer directors a shitload of money to come up with something fabulous that MTV would play." According to Berenyi, Nirvana vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain became a Lush fan after seeing the music video.

'Nothing Natural' - 'official' promo video

'Nothing Natural'- live at Toad's Place, New Haven, CT - March 23, 1992

Limited Vinyl 'Ciao!' LP Details & Preorder Now Available

The 'Ciao! Best Of' limited pressing on two red vinyl is now up at RecordStoreDay.com. So far it is now available for preorder in the UK at www.amazon.co.uk!

This title will be released on November 27, 2015.
Details:
Format: 2 x LP
Label: 4AD
Release type: 'RSD First' Release
More Info:

Ciao! Best Of Lush - the career spanning compilation from Lush comprises most of the band’s singles as well as choice album cuts and b-sides. Originally released back in 2001, it’s only now getting the vinyl pressing it deserves, with the initial run coming on red vinyl (2LP) on Black Friday.

Track List
A1. Ladykillers A2. Single Girl A3. Ciao! A4. 500 (Shake Baby Shake) A5. Light From A Dead Star
B1. Love At First Sight B2. Hypocrite B3. Desire Lines B4. Lovelife
C1. When I Die C2. Nothing Natural C3. Untogether C4. For Love
D1. Monochrome D2. De-Luxe D3. Sweetness And Light D4. Thoughforms D5. Etheriel

Are They Justin's?

And then there were drums.

Photo of the Day - Rehearsal VII

Phil, Miki and Emma.... Together again!

Meet Drummer Justin Welch

Meet the new face in Lush, drummer Justin Welch.

Born 4 December 1972 (age 42) from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England, Justin Welch moved to London in his late teens and studied at London's Drumtech drum school. He played drums in a number of bands in the early 1990s including an early line-up of Suede, where he would first meet Justine Frischmann and Spitfire.

Justin and Elastica, 1990's

In 1996, Welch also formed the Britpop supergroup Me Me Me with Blur bassist Alex James and The Lilac Time frontman Stephen Duffy, who released one single 'Hanging Around'.

Elastica split in 2001 and Welch moved to Devon where he taught drums in secondary and primary schools.

James Atkin and Justin, 2012

In 2012, he was in a duo with former EMF frontman James Atkin called The Asbo Kid. He also played drums for Das Fenster and Oscillator.

In 2013, Welch briefly re-united with Suede for several gigs to replace drummer Simon Gilbert who was unable to play due to contracting tuberculosis.

It was announced, in September 2015, that Welch would play drums in the newly reformed Lush.


A Bit of Trivia:
Justin's talents include making the noises on Elastica's 'Brighton Rock', 'Spastica', and of course the puking sounds in 'Line Up'.

 

Rehearsal VI

Another unveiling - Miki's 12-string Rickenbacker Model 370/12 with Fireglo finish. 

Rehearsal IV & V

Emma's Thinline Telecaster!

Miki's Gibson Firebird non-reverse!

Rehearsal Part III

Rehearsal Part II

Oh dear, we have parts of people now. Dare we say Miki and Emma? From https://twitter.com/lushbandtweets

Miki on BBC4 Friday Night, 10pm

Yes, there will be a delayed stream online an hour after the program airs for those of us who live outside the UK.

http://bbc.in/1PIUb5o

Remembering John Peel

It was 11 years ago today, October 25, 2004, that we lost John Peel.

As stated in Wikipedia: He was one of the first broadcasters to play progressive rock records on British radio, and he is widely acknowledged for promoting artists working in various genres. Fellow DJ Paul Gambaccini described him as "the most important man in music for about a dozen years".

Mr. John devoted one of his legendary Peel Sessions featuring Lush:

Lush - Peel Session, 23 January 1990

Recordings: 'Hey Hey Helen', 'Leaves Me Cold' and 'Breeze'

'Hey Hey Helen' 

'Breeze'

All three recordings together: 'Breeze', 'Hey Hey Helen' and 'Leaves Me Cold' 

For my past post on John Peel and Lush: Lush on John Peel Sessions

Photo resources: http://johnpeelarchive.com/john-peel-desert-island-discs/

Rehearsal - And It Begins...

And now... A more recent photo from Lush. Looks like someone's been rehearsing.

We haven't seen Miki's 12-string Gibson ES-335 Sunburst for awhile. It's a beauty. Besides the obvious influence it imparts to Lush's sound, the instrument has a sweet, acoustic tone, and is one of the most versatile guitars you can find. It's perhaps the prettiest axe of the 12-string arsenal. You can find more about her here and here.

LUSH Live by James Lance

Lush performing at the SUNY Purchase Performing Arts Center, March 1991 by photographer James Lance. I've long loved this set, 94 photos in all. The images have a very retro 1960's Fab Four vibe to them. Enjoy!

LUSH's Photo of the Day

From the band's stream today, and if I'm not mistaken this is a wonderful outtake photo of Phil apparently from the same shoot done for the album art on the 'Split' LP and it's EP's.

So Many Songs

Phil's share today, with his comment 'So many songs, what to do?'

LUSH's Photo of the Day

Another gem that the band shared on their streams today. 

LUSH Masters Archived at 4AD

LUSH master tapes in the 4AD archive. (from https://twitter.com/lushbandtweets)

Phil's Vapour Trail Interview

New interview with Phil on Vapour Trail Blog-"Lush, the final piece in the shoegazing jigsaw are back and would 'like to get back in the studio'".

'"We've wanted to reform for a few years", Phil said. "It was more that we've all got families and jobs", denying that the Lush reformation was the band's way of riding the crest of the zeitgeit. "And also its 20 years, next year, since we split up, so it's a nice round number". At the moment, Lush have only got June's roundhouse dates chalked up, but King insists that they're just sorting out some more dates for a wider tour, as well as festival appearances.'

'The biggest revelation of our small conversation was that Lush certainly have a desire to get back in the studio, and put out new material, which is something that MBV did extremely successfully a couple of years back, although you'd maybe like to hope it'll take a bit less than five years of being back together to produce some songs. "If we can find time, we'd certainly like to" says King, which is something which is pretty exciting, especially seeing as the band's members have all stayed in music just a little bit since the band's break up, King especially keeping his noise-cred high being a full time touring member of the Jesus and Mary Chain...'

And there you have it, there will be more touring to come and the desire to record new songs... after the details get worked out. 2016 will be the Year of Lush!

Chris Acland Remembered

Remember Chris, it was 19 years ago today... Never forget.

LUSH Working on New Songs?

UPDATE: Apologies to all, we passed along some incorrect information - LUSH is NOT currently working on new material. The story turned out to be false news. 

Insert sad frowny face here :( for now. However it has been confirmed that the band does have a desire to eventually record new material. First things first though!

LUSH's Photo of the Day

Another previously unreleased publicity shot just shared by the band through their Twitter and Instagram feeds. Hmmm... What other goodies might Emma, Phil and Miki have yet in store for us?

'Sweetness And Light', 25th Anniversary

It was twenty-five years ago today that saw the release of 'Sweetness And Light' which introduced many not only to Lush, but to the shoegaze genre itself. It was in my case, hearing this way back when. I already had some exposure to the Cocteau Twins, owned a couple of their EP's and a few others by lesser known bands. This song though wasn't comparable to anything else I'd heard and I quickly sought out an imported copy, unwrapped the plastic packaging, threw the CD on my player and cranked the volume, playing it repeatedly on that distant afternoon. I didn't know thing one about who or what this new band was, but it didn't matter. I loved them. A new fan was born.

Where were you 25 years ago?

LUSH live at the Dome perform 'Sweetness And Light' 1991

Another live performance, mid 1990's during the 'Split' album tour

'Sweetness And Light' lyrics

De-luxe Guitar Cover by Isabella M

I ran across this on Tumblr today. This is really quite fantastic. Bella is a 23 year old shoegazer from Stockholm, Sweden. Lush fans ought to give this a listen and give her video a like!

LUSH's Photo of the Day

Photo shared by the band today on Facebook. I don't believe this one has been made public before.

Phil on Shooting 'For Love'

From Facebook - Phil shares his first experience shooting a video as the newest band mate:

"The first video I did with Lush. Don't think I even knew the bass line at this point. The bass - a white Squier Precision - belonged to Emma, guitar nerds - and the leather jacket I wore had previously belonged to Douglas Hart from The Jesus And Mary Chain. The big selling point for the video was that the director was Winona Ryder's cousin. It cost £30,000. My memory was of him constantly disappearing off with our manager. Can't think what they were doing. Our manager's thinking was that somehow this video would help us get MTV Buzz Binned - or something. It did get us on MTV 120 Minutes. The video was shot up on York Way in Kings Cross in the Christmas break of 1992 in a warehouse. I remember it being a long cold walk from Kings Cross station. I still cycle by the location occasionally. Much pouting ensued on the video shoot - mostly by me it seems by the look of it. After having done my close ups Miki said rather witheringly, "you're not as good looking as you think, you know". Oof!"

'Scar' - 26 Years Ago

Lush's debut mini-album 'Scar' came out exactly 26 years ago today, on October 9, 1989

The sleeve design has some interesting backstory. Vaughan Oliver and Christopher Bigg designed the 'Scar' mini-LP sleeve and label and featured photography by Jim Friedman. The inside of the sleeve contains several drawings and singular words that are deliberately obscured. According to Miki Berenyi, "one says tongue, the other says elder sister, and they sort of meet in the middle." Miki has described the interior design as "a bit perverse."

New LUSH Website is Active

The new website that has had the band logo up as a place marker is now beginning to show activity. Sign up for the mailing list while you're there.

Scroll down the page to read the note from Emma, Miki and Phil.

"It's not easy but try to picture this;
Do you remember that we were once together?"

Well, we are again. Almost.

"When you're gone out of sight not out of mind.
But you know, this feeling took me years to find"

If you missed us the first time round, or just lost your copy of Spooky, 4AD are reissuing a coloured vinyl issue of our 'best of' album Ciao!and a box set reissue of all our albums.

"Do you still need me? Do you still hear me?

And we'll be playing the Roundhouse in London May 2016.

"Left it unsung I shall leave but I'll return"

Keep in touch, there's more coming…
Love, Emma, Miki and Phil"

http://lushofficial.com

Very good to read these words after 19 years.

'Black Spring' - 24th Anniversary

It was 24 years ago today that 'Black Spring' was released on 7th October 1991.

'Black Spring' includes four tracks; 'Nothing Natural', a cover of Dennis Wilson's 'Lady (Falling In Love)' which Lush released with the alternative title, 'Fallin' In Love', 'God's Gift', and 'Monochrome'.

Incredible EP album and incredible that it's been that long... it seems like yesterday.

LUSH by Kevin Cummins

This off of Kevin Cummins' Twitter feed via Phil's Facebook status. The internet is a wonderful thing...

https://mobile.twitter.com/KCMANC/status/651739864724062208

LUSH: the Influence

With the band's reforming there has been a tidal wave of related articles published the past week. This one has a new take on Lush, discussing their influence on today's modern music, twenty odd years later... Bands such as:

• Drowner 
• Sexores
• HerVanishedGrace 
• Mahogany in the City
• Ummagma
• The Stargazer Lilies
• Panda Riot
• Shanafalana
• Star Horse
• Jane Woodman

I particularly liked Star Horse's Slower Now.for its dreamy ethereal sound so reminiscent of early Lush, "...they typify the traditional ‘Lush’ sound with their swirling maelstrom of beautifully layered guitars intertwined with melodic vocals.'

Read the whole article and give them a listen here:

Primal Musicblog / Lush - Influence Is Everything/

New LUSH Store is Open

The Lush Merch Store is open!

"Feel free to have a browse.  We'll be widening the range over the months ahead, so please check back to see what's new."

Currently the Official Merch Store offers two tees, the classic Lush repeat logo tee and the reunion logo, tote bags and coffee mugs. Remember, its only the beginning!

Follow the link: 

Official Lush Merch Store 

And shop 'til you drop.

Miki on Guitar

Miki performing at an outdoor venue where? When? We don't know!

Emma & Miki dressed as The Liver Birds, Just Because

Emma and Miki... looking adorable as always... dressed as The Liver Birds

for an NME Christmas photoshoot.

LUSH – A Video Retrospective With Miki Berenyi

Andy over at the Von Pip Express has posted a new interview with Miki discussing all the juicy behind the scenes lore of Lush's music videos.

Miki also has something to say about Lush's reformation (I never get tired of seeing those two words together):

"‘Hey, ‘ if financial constraints and time were not an issue I’d be on my 10th LP and recording a Greatest Hits compilation with the Royal Philharmonic by now. I would love to make music again, but it’s precisely those things that are stopping me!"  – Miki Berenyi (Lush) -2008 

Thanks Andy and Miki!

http://www.thevpme.com/2015/09/29/lush-videosmikib/

LUSH Store Opens Monday

The official word is out. Be prepared to empty your bank accounts. A new merchandise store will be opening for business next Monday...

I for one will be more than happy to do a little retail therapy next week. Lush reunites, new gigs planned and now an online store... We live in amazing times friends!

Follow Lush on Facebook.