Lille, France :: October 18, 1991

Twenty short years ago...

After a brief break, LUSH launch across the English Channel to play Les Inrockuptibles at Lilles for a double-nighter in France in support of their Black Spring tour. The bands Blur and Pulp are the two opening acts.

Thanks to Bill's site, we know that video exists of this performance, as well as the night's setlist:

LUSH : 10.18.91
SETLIST

• Stray
• Bitter
• Breeze
• Laura
• Etheriel
• Scarlet
• Nothing Natural
• For Love
• Covert
• De-Luxe
• Downer
• Sweetness And Light
• Baby Talk
• Monochrome
• Leaves Me Cold

New Cross, London :: October 12, 1991

Twenty short years ago...

LUSH takes to the stage at the New Cross Venue in London, the last stop of the four-nighter London gig during their Black Spring tour. The accompanying acts are Shelleyann Orphan an Heide Berry.

And now, for a limited time only (I always wanted to say that), I'm offering my personal commemorative tour poster for the Lush Over London blitz as a free download to you, the reader. I hope you'll enjoy it as you listen to your favorite band! Incidentally the background of photo used is by Joe Dilworth of Time Out magazine, and shows Lush outside Emma's old home, Trellick Tower.

Now, back to show in New Cross...

Thanks to some reader-submitted material at Light From A Dead Star we know that a bootleg tape recording of the show was issued. We have the set list (below) and we also know that various indie heads of state (Boris Williams - drummer for The Cure, Debbie Smith - guitarist for Curve) were in the audience.

LUSH - 12.10.91
SETLIST

• Stray
• Bitter
• Breeze
• Laura
• God's Gift
• Scarlet
• Ocean
• Nothing Natural
• For Love
• Covert
• De-Luxe
• Second Sight
• Downer
• Baby Talk
• Monochrome
• Sweetness & Light

Mile End, London :: October 11, 1991

Twenty short years ago...

Lush at QMC, October 11, 1991, photos by Alastair Indge of Select

LUSH plays Mile End, London at Queens Mary College, the third and eastern leg in their North-South-East-West four-nighter tour of London, part of the Black Spring tour. They are joined by bands Spirea X and Rockinbirds.

A review in Select magazine declares that "Right from the first song the harmonies were dead centre and the guitars were in your bedroom making tracks for your pillow. Hey! They can play!" in reference to how far they had improved and tightened up as a live band.

On the new "exciting" songs (just released on the Black Spring ep and their up-coming first full-length album) the reviewer adds "...the excellence of those songs proves that The Year of Living Drunkenly was not entirely wasted." No explanation needed for that reference ;)

According to Neil of Neil's Lush Video Page, a video recording was made of the show. He has listed the night's set list as follows:


LUSH - 11.10.1991
SETLIST

• Stray
• Bitter
• Breeze
• Laura
• God's Gift
• Scarlet
• Ocean
• Nothing Natural
• For Love
• Covert
• De-Luxe
• Downer
• Sweetness And Light
• Monochrome
• Leaves Me Cold

DURATION - 55 MINUTES


PS. I always especially love pics of Miki with her Gibson ES-335 Sunburst, like the shot above. Besides the obvious influence it imparted 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.

North London Polytechnic :: October 10, 1991

Twenty short years ago...

Lush Rocks London!! Its the second of four nights for the Black Spring tour to hit London, North London Polytechnic to be more precise. Once again they are joined by fellow bands (is "fellow" the correct term?), this time its Soul Family and Sensation.

And, as promised, here's more live performance photography by the gifted Mr. Tom Poston...

Lush - London, October 1991, originally uploaded by Tom Poston.

Miki Berenyi - North London Polytechnic, October 10, 1991

Emma Anderson, originally uploaded by Tom Poston.

Emma Anderson - North London Polytechnic, October 10, 1991

Powys Square, London :: October 9, 1991

Twenty years ago...

Lush takes on Powys Square Tabernacle in London along with Gallon Drunk and Stereo Lab. Originally the band were to play Kensington Imperial College before changing venues due to the fact that Imperial insisted that the show be open to students only... boooo!

Fortunately for us photographer Tom Poston is there to capture the moment! Tom has long shared many shots from his career through his own personal site on Flickr.com. But I've been holding back on this wonderful treasure trove of images especially for marking the Black Spring tour's anniversary, appropriately enough. I'm kind of sneaky that way :P

So what are you going to do? You'll be checking back here again tomorrow because there just might be the slightest possibility of some more of Tom's stunningly vivid Lush photos celebrated here, that's what.

Doesn't Miki and Emma look amazing, drenched in the colorful light beams swirling all around? ...just like their music that night must have been.

Emma Anderson, originally uploaded by Tom Poston.
Emma Anderson - Powis Square Tabernacle, October 9, 1991, by photographer Tom Poston

Lush - London, October 1991, originally uploaded by Tom Poston.
Miki Berenyi - The Tabernacle, Powis Square, London, October 9, 1991, by photographer Tom Poston

Northhampton :: October 8, 1991

Twenty short years ago...

Tonight Lush play their second "warm up" performance of their Black Spring tour at Irish Centre in Northhampton, once again with the accompanying act Gallon Drunk.

Black Spring :: October 7, 1991

Twenty years ago today...

If you've read the previous post (as I know you should have) you already know that todays the anniversary of the release of the Black Spring EP in the UK. By this time Lush was established as a "shoegaze" icon but more importantly they were established in the hearts and minds of their growing fan base.

Where were you when Black Spring came out? I was a music geek, constantly on the look out for new music, new bands and developing my tastes beyond punk, finding treasure troves in the offerings from the indie labels, especially 4AD. The Throwing Muses, the Shop Assistants and the Primitives were among my personal faves at the time I first heard the music of Lush. And I was eagerly looking for, no, scratch that... more like extemely intent without resting until finally laying my hands on a copy of the new Black Spring at my local import records shop as soon as the EP became available in my neck of the US.

LUSH : Black Spring

Label: 4AD – BAD 1016 CD
Format: CD, Single
Country: UK
Released: 07 October 1991

Tracklist
1 Nothing Natural 5:58 >Listen @ Amazon.com
2 Fallin' In Love written by: Dennis Wilson (2) 2:43 >Listen @ Amazon.com
3 God's Gift written by: Berenyi 4:12 >Listen @ Amazon.com
4 Monochrome 5:08 >Listen @ Amazon.com

Credits
Bass: Steve Rippon
Drums: Chris Acland
Guitar, Vocals: Emma Anderson, Miki Berenyi
Written By: Anderson (tracks: 1, 3, 4)
Producer, Engineer: Robin Guthrie
Engineer [Assistant]: Mitsuo Tate
Photography: Jim Friedman
Design: Vaughan Oliver

Notes
Recorded at September Sound, London, August 1991.

Purchase Black Spring (CD or Digital) at Amazon.com

Dawn of the Black Spring Tour :: Lancashire :: October 7, 1991

Twenty years ago today something Wonderful happens...

Lush launch their Black Spring Tour! Why do they launch a tour, you may ask? Because, also twenty years ago on today's date, Lush release a new EP produced by Robin Guthrie, titled "Black Spring" with the tracks Nothing Natural and God's Gift and a cover of the Beach Boy's Dennis Wilson's "Fallin' in Love", and Monochrome. Until now none of the band's new original songs have been played live.

To get things rolling Lush warm up with their first show of the tour at Lancashire's Colne Municiple Hall, joined by bands Gallon Drunk (remember the line Miki used on the signed copy of a Black Spring ep, from my last post?) and Nature Things.


View the Black Spring tour dates poster from Light From A Dead Star.org

In addition to the warm up gigs: Colne (October 7), and Northhampton's Irish Centre (8) there will be four upcoming London shows: Powys Square (9), Holloway Rd. (10), Mike End (11), New Cross (12).

Next up, two French shows: Lille, France (18), Paris, France (19)

Following this there will be gigs in: Bradford University (October 21), Glasgow Mayfair (22), Manchester UMIST (23), Sheffield University (24), Colchester Essex University (25), Cambridge Junction (26), Bristol Bierkeller (27), Woverhampton Fox's (28) and Portsmouth Polytechnic (29).

Thank You...

Thank you Miki, Emma and Phil - you are genuinely decent people and I'm honored to have each of you check out Lushapalooza and for sending some very nice words about the blog back my way. Many thanks goes out to Bill of Light From a Dead Star for your very generous support as well.

Once again, thank you Phil, thank you Emma, and thank you Miki. You are always going to rock-on in the hearts of your followers!

Cheers!

"The Changing Face of Gallon Drunk" >:P

I enjoying reading all the various material that the band signed over the years (and wondering what references the gem may have been personalized after)!

Just a note - I have no connection to this auction at all and make no claims that you or any one else should rush to ebay.com and buy it... just sharing it here for the obvious reasons.


LUSH NOTHING NATURAL FULLY HAND SIGNED UK 7" INDIE 4AD
Vinyl 7-inch single, Fully hand signed by the entire band back in 1991 in Cardiff.

Offered as:
Buy It Now for GBP 55.00/US $85.51

Tea Time :: November 1990

It's Tea Time back in November of 1990, a very limited French publication featuring our fave band Lush in super-saturated tones on the cover!

This particular issue was being offered up for auction on ebay.com recently.

Summer of Lush

Another summer has wound down. With timely topics being a bit dry recently, now is a good time to share some excellent photography... which just so happens to tie-in with Lush's final American tour 15 years ago this summer.

The first example is a solo shot of a black-rooted, flamy red-haired Miki onstage! This nice catch was taken at Toad's Place, New Haven, Connecticut in August of 1996. Photographer John Anthony Wilcox, a Lush fan, witnessed the band live a number of times... lucky guy!

Miki Berenyi Of Lush - Wilcox660 on deviantART



Next in line is a fifteen photo set taken by Steve Latham during a June 6th 1996 performance. The shots feature the entire band, jamming it out at Waterplace Park, Providence, Rhode Island!

And after enjoying the rich imagery of Phil, Emma, Miki and Chris, do what I did and let Mr. Latham know what you think...

Steve Latham Photography:
Lush - Waterplace Park - 6-6-96

Tokyo, Japan :: September 18, 1996

15 Years Ago Today...

September 18, 1996, Lush performs at the Shinjuku Liquid Room, Tokyo, Japan. This was to be the final live performance... yet for fifteen years onward now the band still lives on in the hearts and minds of a strong following!

Up on YouTube, you can view the videotaped performance of Single Girl (Live) from this very gig (which so happened to be shared here in a earlier post).




Be sure to pour over ALL the Tokyo show's vivid imagery by photographer Takamori Fukuda/Brownhat over on Bill's paramount Lush site lightfromadeadstar.org.

And as if that's not enough (because it isn't really, now, is it?!) there's this gem just in from lushlive.com's Lush and Miki Berenyi Facebook page:

Now available - The LAST Lush show, performed 15 years ago today in Tokyo is available for free download! Don't forget to also get the artwork at the site www.lushlive.com in the audio section. Enjoy!! http://www.lushlive.com/audio/tokyo/09_18_96.zip

Chris Would Be 45 Today

If Chris were still with us, today would be his 45th birthday...

We miss your care-free attitude, your sense of humour, the fun times you shared with us, and your decency to your fellow human beings... Peace Chris.