| “While
we’ve been over here I think what
we’ve been doing is trying too gain
entry to the dinosaur club. Like last
night we just thought 'what the fuck's
this’ it’s sickening but you
just look from a distance and observe,
like you're looking at specimens in a zoo
or something and I'm just totally happy
that we're going home soon. “All the
backstage nonsense, the falseness
especially in Hollywood where even the
guy sweeping the street is really an
actor and whoever you speak to on the
phone says 'thank you very much for
calling'. But if you break these people
down you find they're not fake, they
actually mean it... but it's still
phoney.
“And
all the record companies are very keen
for us to become part of this elite club
which is the dinosaur club. Even if they
do mean what they say, it still comes
across as being totally plastic and
android.”
Ian from
The Icicle Works reflecting on the
Hollywood way of things. His group are in
California to support the Pretenders on a
few of that band’s West Coast dates.
An arrangement stemming from Chrissie
Hynde’s appreciation of The Icicle
Works when they shared a billing on
TV’s The Tube.
We’d
been idly talking of ‘back
home’, the sterility of the current
music scene and generally agreeing on a
preference for finding musical pleasure
in smaller venues.
All a
far yodel from the building that stands
behind us: The Universal Amphitheater, a
6,000 seat venue and both a physical and
symbolic monument to the size of ROCK
events US style when the mega
dollar-earning league is reached.
For us,
there’s a dwarfing feeling
to the place. When The Icicle Works are
on stage there’s a marginal ripple
from the massed ranks – a reaction
as much to the Liverpool accents (long
rock and roll memories here!) as to the
material itself. This shifts to almost
choreographed hysteria when the
Pretenders open their set.
To continue reading
this article and to discover many more (over 140,000 words-worth!),
purchase Mick
Sinclair’s Adjusting
the Stars: Music journalism from post-punk London.
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