Glom of Nit #21: Lots of live shows and some media cake death
Three Edinburgh shows, a bunch of articles and a book about Nirvana
Friends. Gnomens and countrymen,
Hello from a grey spring day in London. I’m writing this on April Fools day, though it’s long after midday meaning the contents of this newsletter are exactly as reliable as they usually are. Read into that what you will.
I’m trying not to do that thing that all comedians do when they suddenly have an Edinburgh show to think about. The Edinburgh Fringe is a massive, all-consuming thing … for participants. I’m trying to remember that a lot of the world doesn’t really care. Still – it’s happening for me. I’m taking THREE shows. Or two and a half. Sort of. Which I’ll be performing daily (almost) for just over three weeks, at the risk of my sanity, self-esteem and shape. More on that later, anyway.
Meanwhile, the Before Victoria show we played a few weeks ago went really well, and i’m hoping to have some video to share on that soon. Thanks to everyone that came, bought t-shirts and records, sang along and generally made me feel like I know what I’m doing fronting a band. Even though I don’t. Elsewhere, I’ve written tons more articles and not nearly as much book as I would have liked, and I’ve had a horrible chest infection.
I think that’s about all the general news. Now for the nitty gritty. As ever there’s an except from my upcoming book at the end!
Please do drop me a line, leave a comment, reply in an email or Tweet me – I’d love these newsletters to be a conversation. A very, very long conversation. (Although please don’t do so just to point out typos. Friends don’t do that.)
Read on.
Marc
Quick links
Click here for tickets and tour dates for my live stand-up show, The Magic of Terry Pratchett, including the Edinburgh Fringe.
Click here for Before Victoria music. You can also look us up in all the usual streaming places.
CLICK THE KITTEN BELOW👇to get signed books, including The Magic of Terry Pratchett, The London Boys: David Bowie, Marc Bolan and the 60s Teenage Dream, Complete Music Writing 1999-2022 and Manic Street Preachers: Album by Album, and a few other bits and bobs.
Right. ADMIN DONE.
Monthly Musings
I think the media might be dead. I think it’s over. We’ve crossed the gravitational radius. The event horizon is behind. It’s happened. We are being pulled, inexorably, into the crushing, brutal heart of the singularity. I know this because of what happened with the cake.
I was in Leicester last weekend, we were shooting a video for that Before Victoria EP I keep harping on about (you’ll see it soon!). It was an exhausting day of jumping around under hot stage lights, and then I nearly missed my train home to London and didn’t get the chance to eat. At St Pancras station, hungry and a bit grumpy, I spotted what looked like a delicious slice of moist, spongy, indulgent cake in a shop window and decided to treat myself.
Now, I know I play the “penniless author” thing up, and I am truthfully terrible with money, but I’m not down to brass farthings yet, and how much can a slice of cake be? So without looking, I ordered the cake.
The cake cost £9.20. Per slice.
I was so stunned I … actually paid for it. The server registered the shock on my face, but it was too late. I’d beeped my phone against the card machine. It was done. I ate the cake.
This is where the death of the media comes in.
On my way home, I tweeted about the cake, which, if you know me at all, you’ll know is not unusual. I tweet about almost everything that happens to me. Twitter, for all its faults, is still the interface of choice between my brain and the world. I think, therefore, I tweet. And I thought it was mildly amusing. Obviously, it hit a chord with people because the tweet went low-key viral. It created a conversation about how good a slice of cake it was (delicious), how good it would have to be to be worth that price (not possible, I suspect), London prices in general and the embarrassment of ordering something without looking at the price and paying it anyway. Usual Twitter stuff.
The next day I got a google alert about an article mentioning my name. A website called MyLondon had run an article about my tweet with the headline, “St Pancras station bakery sells a slice of cake for £9.20 leaving Londoners flabbergasted”.
Which I thought was funny and a bit tragic. It was clickbait, it wasn’t really worth anyone reading, it was done on the back of a tweet that hadn’t even gone all that viral. It was, if I’m honest, also a bit depressing and a little surreal.
Later that day, I got another google alert. A blog called DeliciousFood.com also ran the story.
The next day it happened again, only this time it was the Daily Mail. Who I won’t link to. Here’s the story, though:
I don’t need to tell you that a largely unknown author-comedian-musician accidentally ordering a £10 slice of cake is not news. But then how much of MailOnline is news anyway?
This is the depressing thing. This tells us a story. It’s a not a story about London prices, it’s not a relatable and wryling amusing “and finally” about the idiot that doesn’t check the prices. It’s certainly not a story about anyone famous. It was a story designed to make people tut and share it with other people. That’s it. The very definition of clickbait. It’s a story designed to prove a small, irritated reaction that brings some eyeballs onto to some online ads and is then forgotten about, contributing a small amount to the general sense of exasperation and cynicism in the world. A tiny droplet in the ocean of awfulness.
Someone at three different publications, one of them among the most visited websites in the world, spent a part of their day doing a small amount of research and churning this stuff out. This is what it’s come to. This is what we are now.
Isn’t it depressing?
Good cake, though.
Stuff I’ve written this month
‘I spent a year in a refugee camp’: Immigrant stories take centre stage at the Oscars 2023
The Gary Lineker row shows television is still powerful
Enid Blyton’s racism doesn’t deserve to be in libraries. Read Terry Pratchett instead
Rise and Fall is a microcosm for our whole class-obsessed country
Twitter is removing blue ticks – so who are the real ‘lords and peasants’ now?
Elon Musk’s Twitter, where ‘free’ speech will cost you £11 a month
Rentaghost: Which 90s indie band ripped off a kids TV classic for their one big hit?
Ed Sheeran vs the music critics: Why he’s so desperately wrong
Frankie Boyle’s “shock” comedy was vile – no wonder he’s given himself a makeover*
Lily Savage: British drag pays tribute to a queen
*A short note on this one. As is fairly standard in this industry I didn’t write the headline for this piece, my editor at the New Statesman did. In this case I don’t think it represents the article as well as it might. I’m a big Frankie Boyle fan, and the piece I wanted to write was more about him losing his way and then finding his way back.
The Magic of Terry Pratchett live – where you can see it!
I’m turning my book, The Magic of Terry Pratchett into a stand up show … well, more of a comic lecture really. It’s a tribute to the life of Sir Terry Pratchett, a fully-endorsed multimedia presentation. Officially it’s premiering at the Edinburgh Fringe this year, beginning on August 2, at the Gilden Balloon Teviot, daily at 17.30. You can buy tickets already (gulp) and the show will run until the August 28, with a day off on the 14.
Each show will be followed half an hour later by a second show I’m calling The Magic of Terry Pratchett: THE FOOTNOTES. This came out of the idea that every time I’ve done a reading for the book there’s been at least half an hour of Q&A which I just don’t have time to fit into this show – condensing Terry’s life into 50 minutes is going to be a struggle as it is. So we’re putting on a bonus show, which costs an extra £5, taking place in the same building in a snugger space. I’ll try and answer any questions, sign books and – just to make sure it’s good value – we’ll have special Discworld fan guests from across the Fringe and beyond talking about their favourite books, and have readings from rare Pratchett work. Some of the guests I’m lining up are brilliant!
But before that I have to get the main show right. The only way to do that is to do work-in-progress gigs, and I have booked a TON of them, with more to come. Here’s where you can catch me in the next few months. The prices are being kept low as these are work-in-progress previews as I tweak and try and get it right.
23 APRIL- Hen & Chickens LONDON TICKETS*
29 APRIL - Discworld Convention - Witzenhausen, GERMANY TICKETS
19 MAY - Hunter Club - BURY ST EDMUNDS TICKETS**
25 MAY - Hen & Chickens LONDON TICKETS *
3 JUNE - The Chapel ORMSKIRK (not yet on sale – venue website)
7 JUNE - Library CLEVEDON (not yet on sale – venue website)
10 JUNE - Nexus Arts Hub SHEFFIELD TICKETS
2 JUL - Old Road Tavern CHIPPENHAM (Comedy festival - not yet on sale)
8 JULY - Junction CAMBRIDGE TICKETS*
27 JULY - Gateway Theatre SEATON (not yet on sale – venue website)
30 JULY - Quarry Theatre - BEDFORD TICKETS*
I’ll also be taking a second show to the Fringe (or third if you count the footnotes one), which is pure stand up and entirely me. There’ll be previews for that too.
Recommendations
My brilliant friend Catherine AKA The Anchoress has started a Patreon for fans to follow the progress of her third album. Since her second, The Art of Losing, is one of my favourite of recent years (here’s the rave I did about it for The Quietus), I’m sure this is going to be worth your time.
She’s also off on tour next month.
I’ve been completely obsessed with Amazon Prime’s Daisy Jones & The Six, a Fleetwood Mac-inspired tale of a drama-fuelled 70s rock band. Rather brilliantly the fictional album the band release, Aurora, has been made for real … it’s genuinely like discovering a lost Fleetwood Mac album – probably the one the record label would have preferred them to release instead of Tusk. I absolutely adore it.
The wonderful Melanie Clegg recently contributed to this piece about the historical innacuaracies of the recent Marie Antoinette TV series, which is absolutely fascinating. Check out her books here.
PRAISE BE! There’s a new series of Yellowjackets! I’ve been waiting for this for so long … and that means I can remind you what an utter banger the theme is. Like someone made the Daria theme for grown ups.
Work in Progress Excerpt
Please remember this is a work in progress. Don’t share it! It’s also very subject to change.
Note: The books is a detailed timeline of the career of Nirvana, with annotations as footnotes which fill in interesting details and asides. It’s basically 50% footnote.
The Annotated Nirvana
1988
January 23
Kurt and Krist, along with temp drummer Dale Crover, spend six hours working with producer Jack Endino at Reciprocal studios, recording versions of ‘If You Must’, ‘Downer’, ‘Floyd The Barber’, ‘Paper Cuts’, ‘Spank Thru’, ‘Hairspray Queen’, ‘Aero Zeppelin’, ‘Beeswax’, ‘Mexican Seafood’ and ‘Pen Cap Chew’, though the tape reel runs out during the latter and Endino fades it mid-song since the band couldn’t afford more. A rough, desk mix is created on the fly by Endino and mixed down to cassette for the band. The producer is impressed by the trio’s professionalism, rattling through solid takes of ten tunes in less than a day’s work, as well as by Kurt’s unique and emotive voice. Most of the songs are recorded in a single take and the session is over by 6pm. Endino charges the group $152.44 (charging for only five hours as the band don’t have $30 for a new reel of tape to continue the session1). He is impressed enough by the recording to stay in the studio after the band departs to finesse the mixes and create a tape for himself. Kurt funds the session himself with money he makes from a part-time janitor job in Olympia.2
Happy with the results of their day’s work, the band head to Tacoma to play a show at the Community Theatre, this time billed as Ted Ed Fred, supporting local agit-punks Moral Crux. The trio play all ten songs they had recorded earlier, plus the two they hadn’t had the time or money to get down on tape. Also on the bill that night is Happy Dead Juans Showtime, another local act whose drummer, Dave Foster, is impressed by the band and especially Dale’s powerhouse playing. After the show Kurt refuses to take money for the performance but is talked into it by a perplexed Dale Crover, who warns his friend not to let promoters take advantage of him.3
January 24
The band shoots a video at a Radio Shack store in Aberdeen, miming to the previous days recordings of ‘If You Must’ and ‘Paper Cuts’. Krist plays a child’s three-quarter size bass, making him appear even more comically oversized compared to his bandmates. ‘If You Must’ begins with a tight close up on Dale, before the shot widens to show Krist playing his bass part. When the guitar kicks in, Kurt jumps comically into the frame, launching himself from something high just out of the shot. The results are deemed too amateurish and cheesy and are never used.
Early 1988
Dale Crover moves to San Francisco to put the Melvins back together with Buzz Osborne, leaving proto-Nirvana once again drummer-less. 4
Kurt begins making copies of the Reciprocal recordings, which come to be known as ‘The Dale Demo’ 5 and passes them around to his friends, aso sending copies to local indie labels in Seattle, Olympia and further afield, including Touch ‘N’ Go, SST, Homestead, Dischord and K, with a covering letter talking up the ethos of his band6. A note in Kurt’s journal reads ‘we are willing to pay for the majority of pressing of 1,000 copies of our LP, and all of the recording costs, we basically just want to be on your label. Do you think you could PLEASE! send a reply of F*ck off, or not interested so we don’t have to waste more money sending more tapes?’ Friends like Slim Moon are impressed by the quality of his songwriting. Having Dale Crover on the demo attracts more interest.7
© 2023 Marc Burrows and Pen & Sword Books.
At $20 an hour, Reciprocal might have been one of the cheapest studios available in Seattle, but there was more to the choice than that. Endino, a member of the Seattle band Skin Yard, had recorded both Green River’s Dry As a Bone EP and Soundgarden’s Screaming Life, both released in 1987 on Sub Pop, a local label, started by fanzine-writer and underground music critic Bruce Pavitt and his business partner, Jonathan Poneman, who were trying to forge a tangible identity for the city’s sound. The two records were seminal in the perception of Seattle’s rock scene, and the emerging sludgey punk/metal hybrid genre becoming known as ‘grunge’. Kurt had loved Screaming Life in particular and hoped Endino would be able to capture some of the primitive thump and excitement of the record. It’s worth noting here that some reports list the tape cost as $40 per reel. It doesn’t sound like a huge difference, but especially for a DIY punk band in 1988, ten dollars is ten dollars.
This was arguably the most important, and certainly the most profitable session Nirvana would ever do. Of the ten tracks they put down that day, three were included on their debut Bleach the following year, and a further four would feature on the 1992 rarities collection Incesticide. Since Bleach has sold over 2.3 million copies, and Incesticide a further 2 million, not to mention various box sets and compilations that feature these songs; that’s a hell of a return on $152 plus taxes and $30 for the tape. In retrospect, it would probably have been worth Endino springing them the cash for another roll so they could finish the session – they’d planned to record another two songs, ‘Anorexorcist’ and ‘Raunchola’. When the band came to compile Incesticide nearly five years later, they used the rough mixes from their own cassette copy, rather than the more finessed mixes done after they had departed the studio. This has bugged Jack Endino ever since.
Up to this point Kurt had felt that the band would get more shows if they played for free, which was more or less true. Tacoma Community Theatre promoter Jim May remembers Skid Row/Bliss/Ted Ed Fred being available at the drop of a hat and always refusing payment. It was Crover that convinced Kurt that punk principles didn’t have to be at odds with being paid fairly for your work. It’s a lesson he took to heart.
The most recent line up of The Melvins had fallen apart the previous year, though there are few different versions of why. According to Everett True’s Nirvana: The Truth, Buzz Osborne had decided to give up drinking and wanted his bandmates to do the same, aligning them with the notoriously ‘straight edge’ punk bands like Minor Threat; hellraising bass player (and former Kurt Cobain roommate) Matt Lukin was having absolutely none of it and the band disintegrated, with Osborne decamping to California. Eventually Crover joined him and they kick-started Melvins all over again with Osborne’s girlfriend, Lori Black (incidentally the daughter of 30s child star Shirley Temple) on bass. However, according to interviews conducted for Mark Yarm’s oral history of grunge, Everybody Loves Our Town, and published on his website, Osborne had already met Black in California and simply wanted to get out of the area for a fresh start, telling Lukin he was leaving town and the band was breaking up. Lukin believed it was a ruse to ditch him and bring Black in on bass, which in fairness is exactly what happened. The new Melvins lineup would survive into the 90s. Meanwhile, Matt Lukin remained in the North West and joined the newly formed Mudhoney, along with Green River’s Mark Arm and Steve Turner (the other members of Green River reformed themselves as Mother Lover Bone, then Temple of the Dog with Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell and, eventually, Pearl Jam). Mudhoney had been at Reciprocal just days before Nirvana, recording their debut Sub Pop single, ‘Touch Me I’m Sick’; probably the first genuinely brilliant record to come out of the emerging grunge scene. It was a tangled web in the Pacific NorthWest in those days.
Kurt’s title for it was apparently Safer Than Heaven, though this appears to have never been formerly used.
His clear target was Chicago's Touch ‘N’ Go Records, the home of Steve Albini’s utterly uncompromising Big Black and weirdo, acid-drenched noise pop slingers Butthole Surfers. The label was one of the touchstones of the 1980s underground. Kurt even refers to the ‘Dale Demo’ as the ‘Touch ‘N’ Go Demo’ in his journals. He was also eyeing SST records, the home of Black Flag, whose founding (and only consistent) member Greg Ginn was also one of the label’s owners. Ginn remembers receiving a demo but being unimpressed by it, feeling they were ‘by-the-numbers-alternative’. Fortunately this feedback from a man who was practically the pope of the punk rock underground doesn’t seem to have made it back to Pear Street, Olympia.
It’s noteworthy that Kurt was so keen to get a label to put his band’s album out – a lot of his peers were content to go down the true DIY route and self-release their music, or create their own indie labels. Suffused as he was in Olympia’s college pop community, Kurt would have seen this in action. According to Krists’ Of Grunge and Government the band simply didn’t feel they had the business skills to pull off a DIY release. Other friends, like Slim Moon, have said that Kurt had ambitions to get an album released by someone who knew what they were doing from the very start. Later he would make compromises with his records to ensure they could be stocked in Kmart and Wal-Mart, because he knew that kids in small towns often had nowhere else to buy music. Kurt’s main ambition for his songs, above punk credibility, critical praise and even being paid, was for people to hear them. His whole career is defined by the moments he chose a path that would put his songs in front of as many people as possible, rather than the times he chose the purist option.
Got our tickets to see your Pratchett show at the Junction (Cambridge ) in July a couple of days ago - really looking forward to it!