What happened to LUSH?

Drummer Chris Acland -- a virtual CLONE of Peter Murphy

It was weird -- I had seen photos of him (and the band live) but this comparison didn't leap out at me until a MM article mentioned the resemblance, late 1991 or so I think. The photo with it featured his eyes and above in light and the rest in shadow, and the way he glowered made it all perfectly obvious!

Friend of mine interviewed him a few weeks before he killed himself, said that he seemed perfectly happy and chatty. You really can't tell...

After that the sound veers some there are fine tracks on split and even on lovelife, but I could never love them as much as I adore the early records, which remain frosted december heaths.

On the Sleeper/Echobelly mistake: they were kind of contemporaries but Emma and Miki had been contemporaries of MBV too, I guess

My statement? Well, the bit about falling completely asleep on my feet in front of Sonic Youth is entirely true. I'm not saying Lush blew a new part in my hair and set the room on fire, but they were visually more engaging than Sonic Youth. But, y'know, I've never been a member of Sonic Youth's hallelujah choir, so ya might factor that into your assessment.

The idea of getting paperwork or voicemail from Miki Berenyi seems really strange to me. It would be like having Kevin Sheilds fix your plumbing or something. You would sit there thinking "oh my god, oh my god, Kevin from MBV is snaking my toilet."

But as the others upthread note, "De Luxe" = winner.

I was pretty active on 4ad-l around then or slightly earlier. I think a few of us were (Ned of course).

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.

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.

xp Babes in Toyland opened for Lush when I saw them in March of 1992.

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.

I just looked deeply into this and apparently Flaming Lips opened in April 1992. Definitely missed them, or they made no impression whatsoever.

“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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Yep that’s exactly it, the timing/phase on the delays and modulations required regular time since Guthrie usually worked with drum machines.

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.

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.

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.

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

“Then it came out,” brb I got Dr Freud on the phone

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.

I am anti-Guthrie on this. much prefer everything else they did apart from the Lovelife album to Spooky

completely love the Guthrieness

Her twitter follows are abysmal

I think this has been noted itt

tbh Emma wasn't much better, wall-to-wall FBPE, but maybe less TERFs

cool. binning them asap nothing was lost really

what does "wall-to-wall FBPE" mean

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.

wonder if a 'Glasgow' label will reissue them next

ah see I keep seeing references to this but I don't know which label this refers to

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.

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc-qPHoqr74
This film on the criterion streaming?

Yep, in the US anyway

The Miki Berenyi Trio just finished a short US tour that alas did not come to me in Washington DC. They did dates out west plus NY and Chicago. Miki is doing book readings in NY Tuesday June 11 and Wednesday June 12.

I saw photos from NY gig on Facebook but no video clips

SF show was great!

And Miki's coming back for another tour soon, with Moose in the band this time, but has also announced this'll be her last North American tour -- to quote her from FB:

Here are the dates for our LAST EVER North America tour. Not trying to be dramatic, it's just how it is. Frankly, it's a miracle that Moose agreed to fly this time, and although the 2024 tour was great, it wasn't the same without him. Plus, much as I love touring the US, it is utterly exhausting to organise and the financial risks are overwhelming. I just don't have it in me anymore!

All that said, we're massively looking forward to this, and so excited to have Gina Birch & The Unreasonables with us. So hurrah and see you there. ❤️

All ticket links at mikistuff.com/live

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:wqvf7kduiyihu7nn4oil7otn/bafkreiainw3l4llaymxvpwk7wvago5igcopmkz6kdmar5zpwdozsxlvbxu@jpeg

I'm already double-booked on the evening so everyone should go in my stead.

October is hella busy but Gina Birch opening sealed it for me

I'll be there in Cambridge, my favorite venue.

Say hi if you're at the last show at the Roxy. Super stoked that Gina is opening

I'm gonna try to make the DC show (and yes its a busy live music month)

Saw the Miki Berenyi Trio tonight in DC . They just arrived at the airport at 4 and were onstage by 9 after a long wait via customs. Meanwhile Gina Burch from the Raincoats didn’t open because she couldn’t get her visa approved in time .

Her voice is great and the guitars sounded good too.

Did anyone see this? It's not streaming anywhere (in the UK at least). Surprised it hasn't had a DVD release.

https://vhx.imgix.net/criterionchannelchartersu/assets/da5c201c-bdfb-4c38-96fd-02d71546d419.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=crop&h=720&q=75&w=1280

It's streaming on Criterion in the US. Very poignant to see their youthful vitality and road weariness captured briefly on Super 8.

Miki has been quite vocal that this is the final time she'll ever tour the US unless costs somehow miraculously come down

I had to skip the DC show, too tired. Would have gone if Gina Birch had made it, so I could get two post punk icons on one bill.

Saw Miki last night, drums were supplied by a backing track but that didn't diminish their power. Great selection of Lush, Piroshka and the new album and Miki just comes across as someone you want to share a drink with, great time.

I am bummed I couldn’t make it to the gig but I was just too wiped out

The Montréal show was fantastic! Loved the new stuff even more than I already did, the Lush tracks were great fun and really sent me back to my early 20s in a way I'd never felt before. I only wish I brought my copy of chorus for her to sign!

I posted photos & clips & thoughts use: here.

Far From Home film now up on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow3jEIV0s74