so that's a UK catalogue number. i think everything on it was still in print, but i bought a copy anyway
― koogs, Friday, 21 July 2023 18:20 (ten months ago) link
the boxset had Gala as a seperate cd.
― mark e, Friday, 21 July 2023 18:40 (ten months ago) link
cad0017cd
That's it. I remember how pleased I was to get Gala. I had a CD boombox in my room and now I didn't have to go downstairs to the family record player to listen to the Mad Love EP.
― Vast Halo, Friday, 21 July 2023 21:57 (ten months ago) link
limited to how many we can sell, I think. I was an absolutely rabid Lush fan from Scar onward, living in Tasmania it was impossible to get their releases except thru contortions, mail order etc. and then at the end of 1990, there on the shelf was a fckn ALBUM I had never heard about. Super disappointed to realise it was a comp, bought it anyway.
― assert (matttkkkk), Friday, 21 July 2023 22:41 (ten months ago) link
I had bought the Scar CD single before but couldn't find Mad Love or Sweetness & Light anywhere at the time. I grew up in Worcester and there was one indie shop there that was tiny and didn't have much in, in fact I think I bought Scar when my mum took us to Cheltenham one day. went to Reading Uni and a 2nd hand shop had Gala so I bought it immediately.
― Colonel Poo, Friday, 21 July 2023 23:46 (ten months ago) link
Will never forget waiting weeks for Mad Love and then cranking “De-Luxe” when it arrived, pure bliss. Still love it.
― assert (matttkkkk), Saturday, 22 July 2023 00:12 (ten months ago) link
I still have a vivid memory of hearing "Sweetness and Light" on KROQ in the early morning and waiting for what felt like an hour for someone to announce what it was they played. Bought Gala that afternoon - didn't know it was a comp.
― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 22 July 2023 17:47 (ten months ago) link
I knew Gala was a comp because, by 1997 when I bought it, there was a very active online community for 4AD fans (the 4AD-L mailing list). I had the bad luck, though, to become a fan of Lush and Cocteau Twins in that period between the release of their respective last albums and the announcement of their tragic ends.
― Melomane, Saturday, 22 July 2023 18:13 (ten months ago) link
I was pretty active on 4ad-l around then or slightly earlier. I think a few of us were (Ned of course).
― assert (matttkkkk), Saturday, 22 July 2023 19:35 (ten months ago) link
Thanks to set list.fm I figured out when I saw Lush live. April 3, 1992 in Tampa, Florida. I don’t remember who the opening act was. In those days it seemed to be Flesh For Lulu half the time.
― Josefa, Saturday, 22 July 2023 20:12 (ten months ago) link
I was really surprised to read from Miki Berenyi's autobiography that Lush toured with Lollapalooza after the Spooky album. I always misremembered the Lollapalooza thing as after Split, because the latter’s sound seemed to fit better in an American alternative rock context than the UK-specific shoegaze of Spooky.
― Melomane, Saturday, 22 July 2023 20:17 (ten months ago) link
xp Babes in Toyland opened for Lush when I saw them in March of 1992.
― henry s, Saturday, 22 July 2023 20:34 (ten months ago) link
Ooh I wish it was them. Possibly I came late and missed the opening act. I had to drive across the state of Florida to get there.
― Josefa, Saturday, 22 July 2023 20:36 (ten months ago) link
I just looked deeply into this and apparently Flaming Lips opened in April 1992. Definitely missed them, or they made no impression whatsoever.
― Josefa, Saturday, 22 July 2023 20:45 (ten months ago) link
“the UK-specific shoegaze of Spooky”.
I didn’t see them live around this time, but a lot of reviewers of Spooky were disappointed that it had been Cocteau-d to death by Robin Guthrie and did not reflect the energy of the live versions.
― Chewshabadoo, Sunday, 23 July 2023 07:57 (ten months ago) link
yes I interviewed Emma after Split and she described being treated like “lab rats” for the Spooky sessions, apparently Chis had to play a Simmons kit and was quantised to death.
― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 23 July 2023 08:38 (ten months ago) link
Only saw Lush once, that was in Manchester in 1989 around the time that Scar came out. Can't find any confirmation of this online but my memory says they were supporting Galaxie 500 who were touring off the back of On Fire
― NickB, Sunday, 23 July 2023 08:54 (ten months ago) link
I swear that I read back in the 1990s or early 2000s that Acland did not actually know how to play the drums that well, so Guthrie’s click-track interventions on Spooky were actually helpful. But Berenyi’s biography claims Acland already had years of drumming experience before joining Lush. Now I don’t know what to believe.
― Melomane, Sunday, 23 July 2023 11:53 (ten months ago) link
well, they sounded pretty great on the Sweetness and Light EP, Guthrie had nothing to do with that. Scar isn’t exactly virtuoso performances but they were all pretty undercooked when the hype hit.
― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 23 July 2023 12:29 (ten months ago) link
At a guess, they may have been playing to a click-track to get the effects/delays to sync up perfectly?
Did not realise this had been recorded this way though, will try some beatmatching next time I‘m on my decks to test it out.
― Chewshabadoo, Sunday, 23 July 2023 12:30 (ten months ago) link
Yep that’s exactly it, the timing/phase on the delays and modulations required regular time since Guthrie usually worked with drum machines.
― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 23 July 2023 12:41 (ten months ago) link
My sense of Lush of the four times I saw them first time through was: 1990 — tentative; 1991 — more settled; 1992 twice — much more of a solid live band. Sadly didn’t catch them again until the reunion which was nice but obviously its own vibe.
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 23 July 2023 14:10 (ten months ago) link
ha, I was on 4ad-l too. With time a lot of these criticisms seem absurd; Spooky is frankly as good as Gala and Split and the differences in production and approach are are fairly slight to me now. I'm still not really a fan of the last album though.
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Sunday, 23 July 2023 16:04 (ten months ago) link
Berenyi’s autobiography claims Rippon was the weak link in the band.
It used to be a bit of fan lore that when Rippon left the band, he hawked his fictionalized memoir about touring with Lush (under the title Cold Turkey Sandwich) to publishers, but none accepted it. Berenyi mentions nothing about this, and I wonder why. But if interest in Lush remains high enough that Berenyi got to publish a memoir, I’m surprised that Rippon hasn’t just put his old manuscript up on Amazon or another self-publishing channel.
― Melomane, Sunday, 23 July 2023 23:33 (ten months ago) link
I remember seeing a live performance of Covert on Paul King’s 120 Minutes, and being absolutely blown away, and really excited for Spooky. Then I came out, all slathered in worst Guthrie f/x — it frankly sounded like he didn’t have faith in the band and gilded them to death.There’s a superb remix of Superblast! by Gil Norton, and shows what Spooky could’ve been with more sympathetic mixing. That version is also on the video, peels the skin right off my face every time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uU5DU7P83E
― Xgau Murder Spa (nikola), Monday, 24 July 2023 00:08 (ten months ago) link
“Then it came out,” brb I got Dr Freud on the phone
― Xgau Murder Spa (nikola), Monday, 24 July 2023 00:11 (ten months ago) link
I think Guthrie's production is what makes the best bits of Spooky so good (and much prefer it to Sweetness And Light). One of my favourite bits is the swirling guitar sound in Ocean that jumps between your left and right ears when you listen with headphones.
― Nasty, Brutish & Short, Friday, 28 July 2023 22:48 (ten months ago) link
I am anti-Guthrie on this. much prefer everything else they did apart from the Lovelife album to Spooky
― Colonel Poo, Friday, 28 July 2023 23:28 (ten months ago) link
completely love the Guthrieness
― brimstead, Friday, 28 July 2023 23:31 (ten months ago) link
Her twitter follows are abysmal
― PaulTMA, Friday, 28 July 2023 23:36 (ten months ago) link
I think this has been noted itt
― Colonel Poo, Friday, 28 July 2023 23:38 (ten months ago) link
tbh Emma wasn't much better, wall-to-wall FBPE, but maybe less TERFs
cool. binning them asap nothing was lost really
― PaulTMA, Saturday, 29 July 2023 00:15 (ten months ago) link
what does "wall-to-wall FBPE" mean
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Saturday, 29 July 2023 00:17 (ten months ago) link
FBPE = follow back pro-europe. basically a Twitter siren for centrists for whom nothing matters but Brexit. NB I did not vote for Brexit just tbc. basically a load of "sensible" twats who "hate the Tories" but want to replace them with people who will enact policies that are almost exactly the same as the Tories but they might grimace a bit and say sorry before they do it.
― Colonel Poo, Saturday, 29 July 2023 00:20 (ten months ago) link
wonder if a 'Glasgow' label will reissue them next
― PaulTMA, Saturday, 29 July 2023 00:33 (ten months ago) link
ah see I keep seeing references to this but I don't know which label this refers to
― Colonel Poo, Saturday, 29 July 2023 00:34 (ten months ago) link
I appreciate Guthrie’s contributions. I’m not sure that Lush themselves were capable of making a great album 100% all on their lonesome. Guthrie’s production is no different than, say, the strings on Split that give that album the extra edge.
― Melomane, Saturday, 29 July 2023 00:40 (ten months ago) link
I dislike both Guthrie’s Christmas tree production and how weak 60% of Spooky’s songs are. Found Emma’s twitter tedious but hadn’t realised Miki was a reactionary as well.
― assert (matttkkkk), Saturday, 29 July 2023 12:08 (ten months ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc-qPHoqr74This film on the criterion streaming?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 2 April 2024 00:44 (two months ago) link
Yep, in the US anyway
― brimstead, Tuesday, 2 April 2024 00:56 (two months ago) link