Making Music/The Scenic Route to Success :: November 1991

Lush are the cover story on the November 1991 issue of Making Music, "The Scenic Route to Success" by Jon Lewin. The subhead teaser reads:

"[Lush have] been the big noise in the press for about a year now, though their particular bubbles beginning to show signs of deflating."

There goes another faction of the music press, building-up then writing off the band once again.

"They're widely acclaimed as both precursors to and leading lights of The Scene That Celebrates Itself, though their particular combination of intricate vocal harmonies, angry guitars, mobile bass, and adaptable time signatures transcends such a limiting categorisation."

The four Lushes settling down to eat their lunchtime bagels in their Camberwell rehearsal room while preparing for their early October London mini-tour.

Following are some very abbreviated excerpts from the Making Music story concerning the writing and recording for the upcoming LP.

The band currently (early October) are promoting their new Black Spring EP with a mini-tour of London and working on a forthcoming LP, which they've been recording and mixing this Autumn for release in the New year... all that's left now is for producer Robin Guthrie to come back from holiday to finish the mixing.

Although occasional parts may be added in the studio, Lush never write as a foursome, or simply work out new material by jamming. "We can't," says Miki.
"Because were such crap musicians," laughs Emma.

While working with Robin Guthrie on the new LP, Chris wasn't allowed to touch his new Yamaha drum kit. "I hated it, but I'm really pleased with the end results." says Chris. Instead of his own, Chris basically played on a Simmons kit wired up to change the fills, then re-done on Octopads. He says it divides his play into five different processes which for him doesn't seem natural, but the end result sounds like a really good drum kit.

With the new LP, Lush's repetoire is up to 21 songs, 17 of which are played for live shows. Admits Chris "That's the weird thing now, we've got so many songs." Chris also lays claim to be the boss on stage, since he controls the tempos of the songs... and he's prone to speeding up those tempos. "And there's us lot giving him dirty looks, telling him to slow down." Miki says.
"That's because," adds Emma, "we can't bloody play the songs any faster..."

NME "Tubular Belles" :: October 26, 1991

The noteworthy musical mag NME devotes yet another article (Oct. 26, '91) to the very lurvely LUSH for the second time in as many weeks. This time its an in-depth, behind-the-scenes, one-on-four think-piece searching for what makes the band tick, titled "Tubular Belles."

And it goes something like this:

NME: ". . .Why do you like yourselves?"(as in Lush's music)
Chris : ". . .Personally I like it because I'm involved in it but if I wasn't in Lush I wonder if I'd be into it!"
NME: "If you weren't in Lush, would you play your records to do the washing up to?"
Chris: "Uh. . ."
Emma: "Yeah!"
Chris: "Well you get up in the morning and you play records that lift you up and on an evening you play something that is. . . moody. . ."
Emma: "SHAT AP, CHRIS! JUST SHAT AP!"
Chris: "Well, you do. . ."

July '91 BNM On the Street

Lush are interviewed by Karl the korrespondent at BNM and reveal their answer for the following pertinent question:

Q: If you were each on a desert island, and had only one album to bring with you,
which one would it be?

Emma: An inflatable one.

AND, have their music compared with a Tommy-era, Who influence...

Emma: What?!?
Chris: Hmmmmmm...

See it Here, Live, Now! - July 1991 BNM @ Lush Remembered

A Lush and a Push and the Land is Our's

Twenty years ago, this two-page center spread feature was published in New Musical Express (4th May, 1991).

I neglected to add closeups of the article photos in my post last month, so today probably would be an appropriate time to do that, eh?

Incidentally, for those of you who missed out the first time around (tsk-tsk), the title of the article is a takeoff from a popular release of the Smiths at the time. Actually, every word and breath uttered by Morrissey and Marr of the Smiths was popular.

But back to Lush, and the publicity photos shot while on tour in Los Angeles...

Lush's hard-core alter-ego: the band named 'Thrush'

Hello Hollywood!

Around the time Lush were enjoying the sunny California leg of their American tour back in 1991, the NME sent a journalist and photographer (Martyn Goodacre) to meet up with the band at their dressing room located at Sunset Boulevard. They're in the midst of meeting record execs and charming the local press. What follows is the article prepared from that occasion, published in the May 4th issue of NME.

The article is a large file, a 1-mb download. Inside you'll meet Lush's alter-ego - Thrush. They meet Sky Saxon of the Seeds (Miki shared a personal pic from this on Andy Von Pip's excellent interview). Miki reveals she used to visit California as a teen to see her mum. Also, of special noteworthiness (to me!), Miki recounts that their tour bus broke down somewhere in the deserted wilderness of Nebraska, only a couple 100 miles from my hometown. After repairs and the Lush caravan eventually leaves, its 3 hours later before its learned that someone was missing... what tour would be complete if your roadie doesn't get left behind?