Lydia Brownfield is an Anomaly - by Pete Vogel

You can catch Lydia and her band this Saturday, October 3rd, at King Avenue 5.  They will debut her new tune and video: “All Of Us Here.”  The event starts at 9pm and costs $5.  Ghost Town Railroad will be sharing the bill. Click here for details and her website.


Lydia Brownfield is an Anomaly.

With piercing brown eyes, high cheekbones and a quiet self-confidence that’s often obscured by self-deprecating whimsy, Lydia Brownfield might strike you as a woman who’d be more comfortable on a runway in Paris, London or New York than onstage with a Les Paul slung across her neck.  

Until you hear her.

You’d think she’d be more comfortable in a glamorous photo shoot with world-famous photographers, traveling the world to exotic places like Barbados and Bermuda, rather than schlepping her guitar around town from one Open Mic to the next in search of her next fix.

Until you hear her.

Following in the footsteps of her artsy, avant garde father, Lydia traversed the country looking for the right place and/or opportunity to hone her craft.  This journey took her to the backwoods of Virginia, deeper south (Atlanta), East Coast (New York) and back to the Midwest (Columbus).  Back home she’s taken on a triple role: mother, corporate employee and rock star.  At times, you’d think she’d be better off if she simply ditched her music career and focused on work and family.  

Until you hear her.

Iconic Columbus musician/producer Billy Zenn says of Lydia: “She’s got the best voice in town.”  Personally, I’d have to agree with him.  I’d go one step further: She’s one of the best songwriters in town as well.  Her voice and songwriting skills are top notch; one could easily tell she’s suffered long and hard to perfect her craft.  Her songwriting is complicated and complex; she paints pictures with words and harmonies in the same way her father paints pictures with colors and brushes.  Lydia comes across as insecure and unsure of her talent until she straps on a guitar and steps in front of a microphone.  Then you see a transformation take place: She goes from a shy, almost frightened person to a rock diva that feels totally at home onstage.  Her talent is frighteningly good.  

A dropout of CCAD after 3 years, Lydia followed her muse by following her artist father, a man who eked out a meager living creating paintings and sculptures.  She followed him to Virginia - where she worked as a waitress in tiny Winchester, VA - and then moved to Atlanta when pop decided to relocate there.  She came back to Columbus for a spell (her father’s Atlanta move kept getting delayed) and she actually lived at the YMCA in downtown Columbus for 6 months.  She finally moved back to Atlanta when things got settled with her father and remained there for 10 years.  

It was in Midtown Atlanta where she devoted more time and effort to her craft of songwriting.  She started a band called Long Flat Red, who was courted by several record labels including Ardent Records, based out of Memphis.  The band played esteemed venues like The Roxy, The Cotton Club, Smiths Old Bar and The Point, and at the same time Lydia played solo shows at The Variety Playhouse and Eddie’s Attic, opening up for acts like Shawn Mullins, Peter Case, Indigo Girls and Loudon Wainwright III.  The band broke up after six years so Lydia decided to take her talents to New York City since she had some musician contacts who’d already settled there.

She took a flat in Queens for a while, but kept moving from place to place while trying to find temp work to assist with expenses.  “Everybody took pity on me: It’s how I got jobs, gigs, boyfriends, places to live, food to eat—everything!” she sighs.  But there was one event that changed things dramatically for her—and the rest of the world.  She was on a subway the morning of September 11th, 2001, heading towards her office a few blocks from the World Trade Center.

“I was on the subway going to work that morning.  I was running late, so it was a little after 9am.  An announcement came over the intercom that the train was stopping—it was going no further.  We didn’t know why—” she muses.  When Lydia ascended to street level, she saw thousands of people running and screaming and she followed the crowd, not sure what was going on.  

“Everybody was running in a certain direction and I followed them.  It was surreal.  I had no idea what was going on.  I just kept running uptown.  I finally looked back from around midtown and saw the World Trade Center falling down.  I thought to myself: That’s not right.”  

Of course, this had a profound affect on her soul, which affected her songwriting in a deep way.  Had she been on time for work that morning, Lord knows what would’ve happened?  She could’ve easily been one of the 3000 souls that perished that morning.  She wrote her seminal piece “Fiery Crash,” a song inspired by the events of 9/11.  To some, this is her best work to date.  

She left NYC immediately after the attacks and moved back to Columbus.  On Monday, September 16th – less than a week after the attacks – she was at home, enrolled in school at Columbus State.  

“It was weird.  One week I’m in NYC watching buildings crash to the ground—the next week I’m a college student again.”  

Lydia took a break from music while she devoted time to school and love.  She married the following September, had a child the summer after that, and tried to live a “normal life” and put music on the backburner.

“I sold my guitars and quit music altogether,” she says.  “I left because it was taking up all my time.  The music was getting me nowhere.  There was nothing but heartbreak.”

Unfortunately, the pipe dream of being the consummate wife, mother and corporate employee came to its own fiery crash when she divorced her husband in 2006.  That disillusionment brought the muse back into her world, and she began writing again.  “This is what I wanted to do; this is what I am here to do,” she says, reflecting upon this troubled time.  

Lydia recorded “Fiery Crash” and started penning other songs, including “Prentiss Song,” “Wanting’s for Sinners” and “Trouble.”  These songs eventually became featured tracks off her debut EP “Wanting’s for Sinners.”  The years of disillusionment – first in the music industry and second with “normal” life – brought a new frontier to her songwriting.  “Buddhism is a philosophy of not wanting…not desiring…and it occurred to me that desire and want is for the sinful life.  So wanting is for sinners…I strive to not want, but to be content with what I already have.”  

She laughs at the irony of her good fortune.  All her journeys have taken her back to a place of yearning for calm simplicity.  “I’m still learning how to deal with myself.  I need to follow my universe.”  

Lydia released “Wanting’s for Sinners” in 2011 and has been playing with her current band, The Jagged Hearts, for the past couple of years.  The band features Lydia on guitar/vocals, Jeff Dalrymple on guitar/backing vocals, Joy Hall on vocals, Billy Zenn on bass/vocals and Frank Lapinski on drums/vocals.  That’s right: a band with five vocalists.  Almost hard to imagine.  

Until you hear them.  

“All of Us Here,” the full album is slated to be released before the year’s end.  In the meantime she’s gigging, writing, recording, working the day job, raising her son and trying to find that perfect balance that we’re all desperately in search of.  


                                                                  Pete Vogel
                                                    September 24, 2015


You can catch Lydia and her band this Saturday night, October 3rd, at King Avenue 5.  They will debut her new tune and video: “All Of Us Here.”  The event starts at 9pm and costs $5.  Ghost Town Railroad will be sharing the bill.  We hope you stop out!

www.lydiabrownfield.com

Heard it From Ryan, Who, Heard It From Taylor, Who, Heard it from Gary You've Been Messin' Around - by Colin G.

My first thought at hearing that Ryan Adams had covered Taylor Swift's album 1989 was, "Well hell, Ryan is trying to bang Taylor." Come on, you know it's true. Why does any forty-something dude suddenly pander to a hot woman half his age? I know it seems extreme but that's just how those types roll. Ryan staying up for three days covering every Taylor song and hiring a publicist is like you or me winking at somebody on Match. Besides, Ryan loves him some famous women, and it doesn't hurt his profile to attach himself to the most popular "songwriter" on the planet.  Or, put another way, when Michael Jordan bets $200,000 on an 8-foot putt it seems shocking to folks like you and me,  but that's just how the other 1% lives. 

If you want Taylor's cell #, you better cover 1989 and get it reviewed on NPR. 

Well done, Ryan. I bet he and Taylor are texting each other right now.

Speaking of NPR, suddenly all the smart people are referring to Taylor Swift as a brilliant songwriter. So much in fact that I had to go revisit the credits on 1989. This is not a commentary  on the quality of Taylor Swift or the record 1989, but Taylor Swift is NOT a great songwriter. Not in the traditional sense anyway.  For starters, the record 1989 has, and I am not bullshitting or exaggerating, TWELVE CREDITED PRODUCERS. Is that a record for a record?

And more importantly, every single song has multiple songwriters except one. Once again, I'm not arguing this Taylor isn't a talented performer worthy of her fame, but when we start tossing around the term "great songwriters" on NPR, it's not typically songs with 3 other writers. Like say: Bob Dylan, Jeff Tweedy, Bruce Springsteen, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Pete Townshend, Ray Davies, Elvis Costello or every other great songwriter in the history of pop music. (And I'm not talking established songwriting partners Lieber/Stroller, Lennon/McCartney, Jagger/Richards; Taylor employs random hired guns ala Bon Jovi hiring Desmond Child.)

Or, put another way, how would credits to "Like a Rolling Stone" look if it said: Written by Bob Dylan, Larry Schmultz, Dewey Johnson and Frank Cass. Produced by Dylan, J-Swizz, Funky Free and Alan Horowitz.  Doesn't quite make Bob look like such a great songwriter, now does it? 

Or another way: When Taylor puts out a hit record written by herself, she can get credit for being a great songwriter. Until then she will just have to settle for just being the most popular entertainer on the planet. No shame in that.  (editor's note: On her earlier, ostensibly "country" records - before her current pop-tart phase - Swift often did write alone, or with one collaborator. Now that she has chosen the Nicki Minaj route to fame, however, somebody's gotta program those beats, and they want label credit.)

Do you know who wrote a bigger hit all by himself than either Ryan Adams or Taylor Swift? Yup, you guessed it, the recently deceased Gary Richrath from REO Speedwagon. 

Could you imagine if Ryan or Taylor wrote the song "Take It on the Run?" It would rule the world for months. Say what you want about REO, but this is one of the great opening lines in pop-rock history: "Heard it from a friend, who, heard it from a friend, who, heard it from another you've been messin' around." I remember being a kid and turning the FM dial and hearing it on three stations at once: 92.3, 96.3 and 97.9. Mind blowing!

RIP Gary Richrath, who wrote this massive hit all by his lonesome.

Music video by REO Speedwagon performing Take It On The Run. (C) 1980 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.



Vet's Memorial, part six, Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, September 5th, 1978 - by Ricki C.

(I should have mentioned at the end of Vet’s Memorial part 5 back in May that there would be no entries in the series for June, July or August because every year Vet’s was taken over by The Kenley Players – a kind of early traveling Broadway Series – for the summer months.  Yes, Spotify boys & girls, show tunes did indeed take precedence over the rock & roll back in the 1960’s & 70’s and now people flock to see Green Day concept albums presented on Broadway.  I cannot wholly condemn that fact, but I certainly don’t go along with it, either.)

 

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN & THE E STREET BAND / SEPTEMBER 5TH, 1978


The first time I heard Bruce Springsteen was in the old Pearl Alley Discs record store on 13th Avenue, just off High Street, WAY back in the day, when you could still turn off High onto 13th.  From perusing my Springsteen reference materials I see that Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. was released on January 5th, 1973.  That seems about right because I was at Pearl Alley that day with my first – and best – rock & roll friend of all time, Dave Blackburn, and he moved to Boston sometime later that year (where, by the way, he got to see the original configuration of The Modern Lovers AT A HIGH SCHOOL, WEARING MATCHING CASHMERE SWEATERS, with some youngsters called Aerosmith OPENING the show).  But I digress……

“Blinded By The Light” must have just been ending when we walked into the store, because I remember looking up at the speakers as Bruce started singing, “Well, I stood stone-like at midnight / Suspended in my masquerade / I combed my hair ‘til it was just right / And commanded the night brigade.”  Then the band kicked in at “I was open to pain and crossed by the rain and I walked on a crooked crutch / I strolled all alone through a fallout zone and came out with my soul untouched” and I was SOLD, son!  

I said – out loud, without meaning to – “WHO IS THIS?” and Dave glanced over at the Now Playing station of the store, then said, “Oh, that’s Bruce Springsteen, he’s one of those New Dylan guys everybody’s writing about.”  (Dave ALWAYS knew more about rock & roll than I did, back then.)  Thus began the Bruce Springsteen chapter of my life of rock & roll.    

I covered the first time I saw Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band live pretty extensively in a Pencilstorm blog called The Perfect Age For Rock & Roll, part two, back in January 2014, you might wanna check that out.  

This 1978 show, however, was a completely different animal from that ’76 outing: gone was any lingering trace of hippie-ism in the E Street Band presentation; gone were the beards, bell-bottoms, wooly Bob Marley hats and multi-hued 3-piece suits on band members.  Everybody – including, most crucially, Springsteen himself – was clean-shaven and dressed in some combination of vests, suit jackets and straight-leg black or blue jeans (except Clarence Clemons, of course, ultra-sharp in a sparkling white suit, befitting of his Big Man status).  Also  gone were any lengthy, meandering jams of the old days.  Even when songs got expanded (“Prove It All Night,” Bruce’s take-back of “Because The Night” from fellow Jersey-ite Patti Smith) those expansions were pounding, driving fever-beat extensions of the tunes, Springsteen’s WAILING lead guitar blowing the songs open, rather than the multi-section The-Band-meets-prog-rock stylings of earlier years.  As much as I loved (and still love, to this day) "Incident On 57th Street" from The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle, watching Bruce & the band sear through "Candy's Room" on that warm September evening in 1978 was just a whole other level of rock & roll genius entirely.

The band opened with an insane, joyful take on Eddie Cochran’s “Summertime Blues,” blasted straight into “Badlands” and “Adam Raised A Cane,” didn’t really take a breath until easing into a perfect, swinging version of “Spirit In The Night,” that  served notice that this was a band who could do ANYTHING.  You want rockers?  We’ve got rockers.  You want angry rants between fathers, sons & brothers goin’ all the way back to Cain & Abel?  Yeah, we’ve got those.  You want richly overly-romanticized depictions of a boozy Saturday night excursion to some New Jersey lakeside back in the early 70’s?  Done and DONE, Jack.

Really, in my now 50th year of seeing live rock & roll shows (1965-2015), I have never witnessed a better-paced, better-sequenced set of rock & roll than that night in 1978.  I have never seen a show with the emotional & musical length and BREADTH of that show.  I have never seen a show of that INTENSITY.  I’ve often told anybody who would listen that this was the SECOND greatest rock show I ever saw.  (For a list of the Top Ten, check out The Best of Everything, part one on my old blog.)  The Who in November of 1969 was the only show that topped this Springsteen outing, but The Who accomplished that task by COMING OUT ROCKING, AND THEN ROCKING SOME MORE, AND THEN ROCKING EVEN MORE AFTER THAT, until the Vet’s Memorial crowd I was a member of was basically pummeled into submission by their Sheer Rock & Roll Command.  (Seriously, I went to high school for THREE DAYS after that show not hearing one word clearly.  I thought I was gonna have to learn to lip-read.  I don’t know how Daltrey, Townshend, Entwistle & Moon had any hearing left after 1970.)  

Bruce & the guys did essentially ALL of the Darkness On The Edge Town album in the first set that night, with detours over to the first record for “It’s Hard To Be A Saint In The City” (capped by a killer twin-guitar duet call & response coda with Miami Steve Van Zandt), the aforementioned “Spirit In The Night” and ending with truly heartbreaking performances  of “Racing In The Street,” straight into “Thunder Road,” and concluding with “Jungleland,” all from Born To Run.  Really, just that first set would have been enough to be better than 95% of all other rock concerts I’ve attended, and there was another whole set to come, announced simply by Bruce as, “We’re gonna take a 20 minute break and be back to play some more for ya.”

(For those of you scoring at home, there are ample bootlegs available of the Cleveland Agora show from August 9th, 1978 – broadcast live over Cleveland's WMMS – that is essentially the same set-list as the Columbus show I witnessed.  I have a double-CD set of that show made from cassettes I recorded when it was simulcast over Q-FM-96.  I sat mesmerized at the kitchen table of my apartment in the old Lincoln Park West complex off Georgesville Road that hot August night, staring at the radio, barely registering the sky and the room growing dark, scarcely able to believe what I was hearing coming out of that beat-up boombox.  If I could take only one CD-set to a proverbial desert island, THAT would be the one.  The Cleveland Agora show is now also available over live.brucespringsteen.net.  Send away for it, it’s a triple-disc set now and CHEAP at 20 bucks.)

Okay, fuck it, that’s already 1000 words and I’ve barely gotten to the point.  Here’s the point: I could write ANOTHER 2000 words about this show and not do it justice; I could tell you how sometime during this show the mantle of My All-Time Rock & Roll Saviour got passed from Pete Townshend to Bruce Springsteen, where it remains to this day (Keith Moon died two days later, September 7th, 1978, sealing that deal, The Who would NEVER be the same after that); I could tell you how that night Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band were the Greatest Bar Band EVER in the Universe, right before they became An Arena Band; I could tell you how Bruce has never sold a song to a commercial, has never cheapened himself to make a buck, has never lost his faith in the Power of Rock & Roll to get through hard times.  (Though, I fully admit, I have at times.)

Let me say this quite simply: I have seen at least one show of every major Bruce Springsteen tour since Born To Run - including the Human Touch/Better Days non-E Street shows and the Seeger Sessions band - right up to last year's High Hopes outings.  Many of those shows have been great, some were magnificent, most have been better than just about anybody else I've witnessed in any bar, club, theater, arena or stadium, but none of them have been as all-consuming, or as life-changing as the 1978 Darkness On The Edge Of Town tour.  

Here’s all I can ask you to do: There is a series of videos on YouTube from a show at the Passaic Theater in New Jersey on September 19th, 1978 - exactly two weeks after my beloved Columbus show - that will say more to you than any 50,000 words I could write here on Pencilstorm.  Just watch and enjoy………      

my receipt for the 1978 show (note spelling of Springsteen, nobody knew who Bruce was)

Yeah, you're readin' that right, cats & kittens, in 1978 you could purchase EIGHT Bruce Springsteen tickets for $62.20, including the service charges (a whopping $2.20).  Today the Ticketmaster fees alone for eight tickets would probably set you back more than sixty bucks.

 

Today's blog entry is dedicated to Jodie Weaver and Chris Clinton, my two best Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band friends.  I've known Jodie since high school, and we met Chris in 1984, when he wound up next to us in an overnight line for tickets to the Born In The U.S.A. tour, at the old Buzzard's Nest Records on Morse Road, where Jim Johnson worked at the time.  I think I still owe Chris upwards of $150 for tickets to Springsteen shows last year in Cincinnati and Columbus, but I do not expect this dedication to go towards repayment of that debt.

Jodie & Chris, I love ya, and thank you for always helping me to remember that it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive.  (Someday, Chris and I are gonna put our heads together and come up with our list of the Top Five Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band shows we've ever seen.)

 

Oh hell, let's go for one more stand-alone video from Passaic, 1978 (If I had to explain rock & roll to a being from outer space, I would show them 2:39 to 2:59 of this clip, Bruce & Steven moving up & back from the mics in total bad-ass harmony for verse two of "She's The One.")




I'd Pay Anything to See This Show by McCartney - by Wal Ozello

Sir Paul McCartney is embarking on one of his last tours around the world and he’s picked Columbus, Ohio as one of his few stops in North America.  Tickets go on sale to the general public Monday, August 31.

My immediate reaction was to pay whatever to see this show.  This is my last chance to see a Beatle.

But after a few minutes, my mood changed. Why would I pay good money to see him play songs I have heard over and over again on my record player, tape, CD, or iPod?  I recently watched Paul crash & burn during the SNL 40th anniversary show and this made me wonder if his Columbus show would be everything I would want it to be.

I know Sir Paul is a Beatle and has a vast amount of experience, wisdom, and gut instinct when it comes to live performance, but he’s getting up there in age.  Comparing him to his peers, he’s really like 150 in rock star years. This may be the last time any of us will get to see him. And I’d like it to be more spectacular than anyone’s ever imagined.

So what would it take for me to put down my hard-earned money to see Sir Paul at Nationwide Arena?  The perfect set list (clear and free of anything post-Wings) and the perfect band to back him up.

Here’s a dream set list of all the Beatles and Wings songs I’d love to hear… in the perfect order… and even a few covers.  

Open:
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
A Hard Day's Night
Back In The U.S.S.R.
Day Tripper
Satisfaction (The Rolling Stones)

(Break)

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Live And Let Die (Wings)
Eleanor Rigby
Penny Lane
We Can Work It Out

(Break)

Blackbird
I'll Follow The Sun
When I'm Sixty-Four
Here, There And Everywhere / My Love (Wings)

(Break)

One (Three Dog Night)
Helter Skelter
Good Day Sunshine
Jet
She Loves You
Paperback Writer

(Break)

Michelle
Oh! Darling
All My Loving
Silly Love Songs (Wings)
Can't Buy Me Love
I Saw Her Standing There
Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Queen)

(Break)

Got To Get You Into My Life
With A Little Luck (Wings)
Get Back
I Will
Lady Madonna

(Break - Close)

Yellow Submarine – (Ringo)
The Long And Winding Road
Yesterday
Band On The Run
Hey Jude

Encore:
Imagine (Tribute to John)
While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Tribute to George)
Why Don't We Do It In The Road
Carry That Weight
Let It Be

I know I threw in a few weird covers. A cover of "Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones makes perfect sense.  But "One" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love?"  After listening to those songs many times in my life, Paul’s voice would sound amazing on a McCartneyesque version of Three Dog Night’s "One." And his casual baritone phrasing would make "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" ten times better than the Freddie Mercury version. 

And think about how Paul could totally blow everyone’s mind when he comes back to the encore with a piano riff of "Imagine" and simply saying, “This is for John.” And then following it up with George’s "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." It would be one of the most poignant moments ever in rock n roll history.

THE BAND
This spectacular set list needs a band that can step up to the task.  Paul needs more than just session players, he needs the best.  Any one of these guys are stars in their own right and have filled stadiums across the world, but each would leap at the chance to play with Sir Paul McCartney

Lead Guitar – Eric Clapton
There’s only one person in the world who could fill George Harrison’s shoes and that’s Clapton.  First, it’s well known that he played on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." But Eric could also shine on songs like "Blackbird," "Back in The U.S.S.R," "Day Tripper," "Oh! Darling," and all the older Beatles songs.  Everyone knows Eric’s connection to Columbus (his wife is from here), which is why Paul may have picked it as one of his stops.

Rhythm Guitar – Izzy Stradlin
You need a guy who knows how to play rhythm and not another lead guitarist. The rhythm guitarist from Guns 'n' Roses should fill Lennon’s shoes. John was a tremendous player to George’s lead which is what Izzy was to Slash.  Izzy is widely respected in the guitar world for being one of the best rock rhythm guitarists alive with amazing feel and groove. He can nail songs like "Paperback Writer," "Eleanor Rigby," "Band on The Run," and add hardness to songs like "Live and Let Die," and "I Saw Her Standing There." And seriously, imagine him on "Helter Skelter."

Piano and Keyboards - Paul Shaffer
There is no keyboardist alive with the diverse range of Paul Schaffer. This set list calls for someone that can groove out the clean, classical sound of "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," then go right into the power synths of "Live and Let Die."; someone who can add deep emotion to "Hey Jude," "The Long And Winding Road" and "Let It Be,"; someone who can then rock out "Lady Madonna" and "Good Day Sunshine."  Plus, Paul can lead the band.  That’s what he did for The Blues Brothers, Saturday Night Live, and The Letterman Show.  There’s no short list here – there’s only one name and that’s Paul Shaffer’s. Paul doesn’t have much going on now since his Letterman gig is over and I’m sure he’ll do it for just the chance to get stoned with McCartney.

Drums – Dave Grohl
Dave says his entry into music was the Beatles and his reference to everything musical. His respect for Ringo runs deep. (His words, not mine. Take a listen here.) He can lay down the backbeats of "Penny Lane," "Get Back," "Can’t Buy Me Love," "Got To Get You Into My Life," and just kill it on "Day Tripper," "Live And Let Die," "Eleanor Rigby," "Hard Day's Night," and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

That's my wish and I doubt it will ever come true.  But I'll still be going to the show in Columbus in the event any of it actually happens. If I can get a ticket before it sells out.

 

Wal Ozello is Music and Lifestyle contributor at pencilstorm.com. When he's not blogging about rock n roll or supporting others, he's writing science fiction novels. His suspense filled time-travel books, Assignment 1989, Revolution 1990, and Sacrifice 2086 can be found at Amazon.com.

 

 

 

Director Wes Orshoski Talks to Brian Phillips about The Damned and Lemmy

Tomorrow night - Wednesday, August 19th - for the Reelin' and Rockin' film series at the Gateway Film Center we're screening Wes Orshoski's new work "The Damned: Don't You Wish We Were Dead." The "Lemmy" director shot me a call recently to chat about the film. In making the movie Wes unearthed some cool stuff I did not know, most notably how close The Damned came to being produced by noted recluse Syd Barrett. 

The reviews have been across the board excellent. Listen to the interview over on CD1025.com (or just click below) and then join us for the screening! Happy hour at 7pm in the Torpedo Room. Movie begins at 8. $5 admission, proceeds to CD1025 for The Kids.

Colin here, full disclosure: Wes is a longtime friend of Watershed, going back to the almost underage beer-drinking days at Frankie's in Toledo. He was hanging around rock clubs with a camera back when you had to use this thing called "film." I can personally vouch for his rock n roll bona fides. Nobody is more legit and it's no surprise critics the world over now rave about his movies. I'm a fan. Brian is a fan. Bono is a fan. Lemmy is a fan. And if you aren't already, you are going to be a fan of Wes Orshoski. Dig it.

Official trailer for the film THE DAMNED: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead, the authorized documentary of the punk pioneers.