Cover Cop: Les Jaguars vs. Roberto Seto vs. Gallon Drunk

The image from Roberto Seto's 1961 "Brigitte Bardot" EP was repurposed by Montreal's Les Jaguars in '65 & Gallon Drunk in '91.

Before They Were Famous: Max Décharné

Years before Gallon Drunk and Flaming Stars, Max Décharné was drumming with Ironfish who predicted the 2021 sea shanty craze with "Shipwrecked" in 1988.

Writes Max...

In 1988 I was in a band with Gary Jones and Jonathan Hodgson from the Cult Figures. We were called The Silverfish, but the soon-to-be famous London band called Silverfish started around that time, so we changed to the Ironfish (because The New Originals was already taken). Here’s before & after shots of me the day we shot the video for our song Shipwrecked, directed by Mike Jay, who brought along effects people who’d worked on the Evil Dead films. Can you tell which is before and after?
 

Max Décharné discusses King's Road with Miriam Linna on Waterloo Underground

Musician/author Max Décharné gives Miriam Linna the lowdown on London's King's Road during the swingin' 60s. 

Here's the scoop on King's Road...

The King's Road in Chelsea was at the epicentre of not one, but two worldwide cultural shifts. In the mid-sixties, it became a focal point and shop window for the new ‘swinging’ London, encompassing music, theatre, the visual arts, fashion and much more. It remained at the forefront of developing trends throughout the following decade until it became the breeding-ground for UK punk rock, helping inspire youthful rebellion the world over.

In short, it was the place to be. In the time between the formation of the Rolling Stones and the demise of the Sex Pistols, the King’s Road had the attention of the world. Just how this came to be is a classic rise-and-fall story of satisfaction and sedition, featuring some of the most famous people of the late twentieth century and many of the pivotal moments of the fifties, sixties and seventies.

This revised and expanded edition of King’s Road covers the cultural history of the King’s Road, tracking many key figures who lived or spent time there, from Henry VIII to David Bowie, Margaret Thatcher to Vivienne Westwood, Karl Marx to The Beatles, and Mozart to Mary Quant.

Max Décharné is a writer and musician from London. His other books include Vulgar Tongues, Hardboiled Hollywood, Straight From The Fridge, Dad and A Rocket In My Pocket. He has written about music for MOJO magazine since 1998, and his work has also appeared in the Spectator, the Sunday Times Colour Magazine, the Observer, the Guardian and the TLS, among others. 

Max was the drummer in Ironfish and more famously, Gallon Drunk, then the singer and principal songwriter with The Flaming Stars. In a long and varied career in the music business, he has recorded many albums and singles, nine John Peel Sessions and played shows all across the USA, Canada, virtually every country in Europe and in Japan.

What the critics are saying about King's Road:

'Razor-sharp history of London's coolest rock route. A towering feat... the threads linking the cultural hotspots and characters are so skilfully woven. Essential for swingers and squares alike.' 8* Classic Rock

‘A gloriously forensic expansion… happily the vanishing art of investigative writing survives in this magnificent tribute now destined to sit with the UK’s great socio-cultural chronicles’ 4**** Kris Needs, Record Collector

'In Max Décharné's thoroughly researched and entertaining book, the ghosts of London’s past collide almost on every page.' Louder Than War

'Comprehensive and incredibly entertaining' Loupe Magazine

Get a copy Max Décharné's King's Road via Omnibus Press right here. Listen to his chat with Miriam Linna on Waterloo Underground. 

 

90s Nostalgia: Gallon Drunk's "From The Heart Of Town"

Cheers To James Johnston, Max Décharné and Mike Delanian on 30 years of "From The Heart Of Town" – have a listen. 

Gallon Drunk's James Johnston shares moody score for imaginary film

James Johnston continues his musical collaboration with photographer Steve Gullick, getting even darker with Everybody's Sunset.

Here's the scoop from James F. Johnston...

"Our new album released today on God Unknown Records. Steve and I are beyond pleased with how this album turned out. Oh, and it looks beautiful too.

Here’s some of the PR info that might help describe it:

Recorded at their homes throughout 2021 and 2022, the ten songs on this new album take the fragile intimacy and agenda-free approach of its predecessor and go out even further into the fringes.

“We were pushing away from songs,” says Johnston. “We wanted it to sound beautiful and loose, like something cast adrift.”

The album’s centre piece, the epic near ten-minute title track closes the album. 

“This track, that’s the centre of the record, was cut together, cut apart, ending up almost unrecognizable from where it started and then goes off on a complete tangent.”

“Even though we record fast, to keep a live feel, we really spent time on this album reassembling and disassembling a lot of the tracks. The song has a kind of damaged psychedelic yearning we both love on Big Star 3rd, or at least that’s what we were going for, which goes into a totally spacey and almost Wagnerian synth and string freak out, or a Popol Vuh Herzog soundtrack. 

“We were definitely both listening to side two of Low and Heroes at the time too and wanted to give the music a chance to stretch out, go somewhere unexpected.” 

Check it out below. 

You can get a copy of James F. Johnston & Steve Gullick's Everybody's Sunset via God's Unknown Records right here. 

Watch Gallon Drunk live in Hamburg

Here's 40 minutes of James Johnston and his Gallon Drunk crew in action at Clouds Hill Studio followed by an interview. 

90s Nostalgia: Gallon Drunk

Here's Nick Emery's video for Bedlam shot in the studio while Gallon Drunk was recording From The Heart of Town.

Gallon Drunk comes roaring back

Older and wiser perhaps, but Gallon Drunk are no less menacing. Following the tragic illness and death of their bassist Simon Wring, the bruising Brit thug rockers have resurfaced as a three-piece with the intense new single A Thousand Years (available via iTunes) and suitably unsettling video (see below). Taken together with the previous single You Made Me – issued in the UK a few months back – it certainly bodes well for Gallon Drunk's forthcoming album The Road Gets Darker From Here now set for release on September 11 after initially being slated for August 14th. 

Have a look at the press release:

Recorded at Clouds Hills Recordings in Hamburg during the summer of 2011, produced by Johann Scheerer (Faust/Robots In Disguise), Gallon Drunk bring the considerable power of their renowned live performances to the new album The Road Gets Darker From Here which will be available on heavyweight vinyl, CD and download.

Featuring founding frontman and former member of Nick Cave's Bad Seeds wrecking crew James Johnston (vocals, organ, guitar, harmonica, piano, and bass), Terry Edwards (bass, saxophone and percussion) and Ian White (drums, percussion), the trio have refocused their utterly distinctive musical vision with a collection of impassioned songs, imbued with pure mania, despair and abandonment.

At the state of the art analogue recording studio, Scheerer recorded the band playing the songs live, direct to two-inch tape. This gave a warmth, richness and depth of sound to the recording. Coupled with the band members’ own recent experiences, playing and recording with the likes of Lydia Lunch’s Big Sexy Noise, Faust, Nick Cave, Tom Waits and The Tindersticks, this brought an open minded freshness to the sessions.

From the insistent, slide guitar driven ‘A Thousand Years’, through the exhilaratingly sleazy, deranged rock ‘n’ roll of ‘You Made Me’ (the first single to be released from the album, in the UK and Europe only), the menacing melancholia of ‘Stuck In My Head’ (featuring French singer Marion Andrau of Underground Railroad), to the desperate eruption of guitar fury of ‘Hanging On’, this is classic, unfettered Gallon Drunk. Also including the fever dream boogie of ‘The Big Breakdown’, before the final haunting, enigmatic psychodrama ‘The Perfect Dancer’ - a miasma of hallucinatory guitars, Hammond organs and slinky voodoo drums - the album is an utterly captivating experience.


A Thousand Years



You Made Me



LINK
site http://www.gallondrunk.com/