Now you can find all the old Suede threads very easily I know

what's the dirt ? it's been described as a 'warts and more' tale.
i'm all baited breath over here. yeah david b is very nice chap
from what i remember. i recall him literally *shaking* after meeting them @ the sheffield octagon circa 94, just after richard joined.

there's a radio ad for the singles all over XFM in england with steve lamacq on it, which just has like, seconds-long clips of the 'trash' 'animal nitrate' 'she's in fashion' and 'stay together'. it sounds *remarkably* ace !

the old fan in me, despite being disappointed by glastonbury, can't help feeling thrilled to see them selling out brixton academy again.

they did actually ask bernard back for the ICA gigs according to brett
in an interview on bbc radio 6.

here's a link !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/artists/suede.shtml

the grimness in some of john harris' 'last party' britpop book was bad enough, i may not have the stomach for anymore smack-tales stuff. it's weird having the lid lifted to that extent. i spent most of the time reading it with my jaw in my lap.

While it's hardly a total snarkfest, there's plenty of humor and personal commentary from David, who puts himself into the story at points with good effect. He notes that one of his first jobs as a general Suede 'dogsbody' was to deliver some jeans to Brett's place back in, I think, 1995 or so. So he goes round, rings the doorbell, leaves voice messages, notes that somebody is in the house flicking back an upstairs curtain every so often, never gets any answer, so he stuffs the jeans through the mail slot and leaves. He finds out later that Brett and his good friend/flatmate Andy (I hope I have the name right) were convinced he was Bernard coming around to berate or beat them! I will say there's a touch of the resemblance if you squint and all, but I would have thought David's Scottish accent would have given it away...

odd to think that the 'drug hell' bits occurred years *after* brett was on the front of the NME looking fcked, while inside the interviewer was asking 'are you a heroin addict' in response to damon albarn 's accusations.

Yes, that's specifically talked about -- Justine, who happily participated in interviews for the book, explained that at the time of those rumors, its source was one D. Albarn. Brett was not in fact taking smack at the time, but not so oddly enough, sez Justine, Mr. Albarn was. Figures.

David's way of describing how the whole love triangle got started is pretty damn funny. He looks at it with the right outsider's perspective and pretty much concludes, "Look, how WASN'T this going to happen?"

David's certainly done his research to back up all the snarky stuff, I'll say. Snippets from direct interviews everywhere, as thorough a going over of the Bernard interview material as I've seen (he was contacted and the two talked but Bernard didn't want to participate directly -- David includes one brief new quote and that's it), all sorts of stories about more stories, like the 'bring me a nine-year-old' shaggy dog story Suzy talked about in one of the older threads...

And that reminds me! Suzy herself is quoted via a Guardian story she did. Aw.

A New Morning I just haven't listened to enough to say which tracks are the ones that stand out, but Head Music itself has some sleeper goodness on it -- "He's Gone" and "Down" are both very good in their melancholic mode and "Elephant Man" is just ridiculously goony and all the better for it.

New Morning is generally shit, but "Lost in TV" and "Astrogirl" have choruses the equal of anything they've done before (the latter seems to be a rip-off of DMS-era b-side "Asda Town"). Also "...untitled" is exactly as good as the meloncholy songs from Head Music mentioned by Ned, if just as ploddingly competent.

mmm, yeah, that'd be good...

I thought Blur were significantly better than my (admitedly extremely low) expectations - in fact I almost feel inclined to give "Think Tank" another chance....

Attitude, however, was skinny and tight and slinky black trousers and yes, a little hint of Missy Elliott and Brett looking better than he has any right to do. The last Suede album - though I did like it - was very much Suede Trying To Make A Suede Album, glam descends and all. This sounded like Suede moving on and following a natural progression instead of going backwards, and I liked it. It was rock.

I thought I was through with reading rock bios, but I'll probably get this one. Bret Anderson can rattle me hormonally like few rocks stars can.

Just finished listening to A New Morning for the first time in months. It's better than I remember it! Kate's right in her assessment but it's the lighter approach which helps set it apart.

Toby, drop me a direct line and I'll see what I can do...