After his masterful double performance at Rickastonbury last weekend, it seems only fitting that we begin this edition of Six Degrees of Kevin Shields with 80s pop icon, Rick Astley.
The soulful Lancastrian crooner was not content with just doing his first ever solo show at the festival. He came back for more, appearing with Manchester's Blossoms, performing an entire set of songs by The Smiths.
Rick Astley started out, musically at least, as the drummer with soul band FBI, around 1984. But by 1987, it was his deep, soul filled voice that had got the attention of legendary / infamous pop producers Stock, Aitken and Waterman. His success was immediate, and it was huge. Debut album, Whenever You Need Somebody, sold a fairly impressive 15.2 million copies, while the enduring classic single Never Gonna Give You Up hit the number one spot in 25 countries. Together Forever was also a number one in the US. He was just 21 as all this happened.
Rick Astley: Never Gonna Give You Up https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ
By 1991 he was moving away from the more manufactured pop of SAW, to his soul roots, with Free (1991) and Body And Soul (1993). He then took a six year hiatus from the music business, between 1994 and 2000. His latter output has included a penchant for cover versions, and in 2020 he recorded four in one go, with Ain't No Sunshine (Bill Withers), Titanium (David Guetta), Better Now (Post Malone) and Everlong (Foo Fighters). His love of iconic 80s band, The Smiths, reached new levels, when in 2021, he played several sets of their songs with Blossoms - something he, of course, replicated last weekend in a tent in Glastonbury.
Everlong appears on the Foo Fighters second album, The Colour And The Shape. Dave Grohl found himself in Bear Creek Studios, in Woodinville, Washington, in 1996. He was playing around on his guitar in some downtime between takes, it was tuned to drop D, because he had been playing Monkey Wrench, which uses that tuning. He found himself playing a "rip-off" riff of Sonic Youth's Schizophrenia.
Sonic Youth: Schizophrenia https://youtu.be/rRLstSmWUno
During these sessions, he and the band, developed the riff into a verse, but it was still a draft tune. Back in Virginia, he was staying with a friend and did some more work on the song - and in just 45 minutes he had it. The lyrics were inspired by his current romantic interest, Louise Post from Verruca Salt, and she in fact, she added backing vocals (recorded over the phone from Chicago). The music video for the song is a classic - an Evil Dead parody - directed by Michel Gondry.
Foo Fighters: Everlong https://youtu.be/eBG7P-K-r1Y
Michel Gondry is a French filmmaker who made his mark with 2005 film, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, which starred Jim Carrey and Kate Winslett, winning he and Charlie Kaufman an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (which he also directed). He also directed The Green Hornet (2011) with Seth Rogen and Cameron Diaz, and Human Nature (2001) with Tim Robbins and Patricia Arquette.
He started out by doing a lot of music videos, frequently working with the likes of Beck and Bjork. Some notable examples include Around The World by Daft Punk, Human Behaviour by Bjork, Fell In Love With A Girl by White Stripes, Knives Out by Radiohead and How The West Was Won by Energy Orchard.
Energy Orchard: How The West Was Won https://youtu.be/W71IdKodwAE
Bap Kennedy formed Energy Orchard in 1980s Belfast, mixing the R&B of Van Morrison, with more traditional Irish folk elements. The band were championed early on by Steve Earle, who helped them get a deal with MCA. How The West Was Won appeared on their second album, 1992s Stop The Machine. The following record, 1993s Shinola (named after a shoe polish brand) included a cover of Van Morrison's Madame George, featuring Kate St. John on oboe.
Fresh out of City University, London, with a degree in music, Kate St. John joined the Ravishing Beauties. In the winter of 1981, they got themselves a slot supporting Teardrop Explodes in some gigs around Liverpool, before going out with them on a full UK tour in 1982. She moved from there to Dream Academy, formed by Nick Laird-Clownes and Gilbert Gabriel, with whom she had a worldwide hit in 1985, with Life In A Northern Town.
Dream Academy: Life In A Northern Town https://youtu.be/5UXnulANF8g
St. John went on to play oboe and saxophone live with Van Morrison throughout the 90s, also playing on five of his studio albums. She formed Channel Light Vessel with Roger Eno (brother of Brian), Bill Nelson (leader of legendary 70s outfit, Be-Bop Deluxe), Laraaji and Mayumi Tachibana.
Dream Academy was the eponymously titled debut album of 1985, including the aforementioned Northern Town, and produced by Pink Floyd legend, Dave Gilmour. One song from it, The Edge Of Forever (along with an instrumental version of their take on The Smiths' Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want), featured in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. That, and the success of Northern Town, propelled the album up the charts in the UK and US (where it reached a respectable #20). Guests musicians on the album included a young Peter Buck (REM) on The Party, Guy Pratt (Icehouse, Pink Floyd), Dave Mattacks (Fairport Convention) and Pino Palladino.
Pino Palladino is a prolific Italian-Welsh session musician, who had started out learning guitar aged 14, before switching to bass at 17. Early jobs included work on Gary Numan's 1982 album, I, Assassin. He also played on Paul Young's big hit, Wherever I Lay My Hat, before becoming part of his band. Another notable appearance was on three tracks on Don Henley's monster solo record, End Of The Innocence (1989). In 1991, he joined up with Paul Rodgers (Free, Bad Company) and Kenney Jones (Small Faces) in The Law. Then when, in 2002, John Entwistle died on the eve of the next major tour by The Who, Palladino was recruited as a replacement. His stint included appearing on Endless Wire (2006), their first studio album in 24 years, as well as their half time show at Super Bowl XLIV in 2010.
The Who: Won't Get Fooled Again (Super Bowl XLIV) https://youtu.be/_czqiDzZ7HU
I, Assassin was Gary Numan's fourth studio album, reaching a respectable number 8 on the charts, and including the single, Music For Chameleons. This record, and previous release Dance, had seen Numan add some jazz elements to his familiar electronic sound, but now he went further, adding some funk and heavier percussion. Numan says in his autobiography, Praying To The Aliens, of Palladino's playing:
"He was brilliant. I had never heard playing like it...He came up with stunning bass lines, song after song. I leaned on him heavily during the making of the album. I pushed his playing to the forefront of the tracks and, inadvertently, created a new style. It was one of the first times that the fretless bass had been used as the lead melody instrument, allowing the album to be atmospheric, dreamy and funky."
Gary Numan: Music For Chameleons https://youtu.be/9ICfktt7Ugc
Down In The Park had been a non-charting single from Gary Numan's second album, Replicas. A version of it appears on Curve's 2010 release, Rare & Unreleased, a Bandcamp only collection of 39 B-Sides, remixes, covers and one-offs.
Curve were a rock / electronic duo formed in 1990, lasting through to 2005, consisting of Hawaiian-Irish instrumentalist Dean Garcia and singer Toni Halliday. Garcia, co-incidentally, had spent several years playing with Eurythmics, including on Touch and Be Yourself Tonight. As well as the Numan cover, Rare & Unreleased includes production and mixes by the likes of Flood (Killing Joke), Alan Moulder (Halliday's husband) and Aphex Twin. A remix of Coming Up Roses, from third album Come Clean, was provided from none other than....
KEVIN SHIELDS
Curve: Coming Up Roses (original version) https://youtu.be/z3hyhYiU6IY