Monday 30 October 2017

ARTIST RESEARCH - Media Coverage/Appearances

Brett Anderson's own website.




There is some­thing won­der­fully spe­cial about see­ing a white hot young band in the first flush of suc­cess. When Suede made their Ir­ish con­cert de­but on March 27, 1993, they were the most talked about new Bri­tish band since the Stone Roses, and those who at­tended the Tivoli, on Dublin’s Fran­cis Street, that night are un­likely to have for­got­ten the manic in­ten­sity of the then quar­tet’s per­for­mance.
It’s worth re­mem­ber­ing just how hyped Suede were in 1992 and 1993. On the strength of just three sin­gles, they were dubbed “the best band in Bri­tain” by Melody Maker, and they had ap­peared on the cover of 20 mag­a­zines be­fore they had re­leased their de­but al­bum. That self-ti­tled ef­fort, in­ci­den­tally, was re­leased the day be­fore the Tivoli gig and it was justly praised as a mile­stone re­lease.
In fact, Suede would prove to be the fastest sell­ing al­bum in the UK charts since Frankie Goes to Hol­ly­wood’s Wel­come to the Plea­sure­dome al­most a decade be­fore. The strength of those early sin­gles helped whip up a me­dia frenzy, but credit must also go to their pub­li­cist, John Best, who pulled ev­ery string in the PR book to en­sure that Suede were the band on ev­ery­one’s lips. Best also worked with The Cran­ber­ries, then en­joy­ing con­sid­er­able pop­u­lar­ity and what would prove to be short-lived ac­claim for their de­but Ev­ery­body Else Is Do­ing It, So Why Can’t We?
Much of the bril­liance of Suede lay in the ten­sion be­tween the hy­per-lit­er­ate front­man Brett An­der­son and the mar­vel­lous gui­tarist, Bernard But­ler. Com­par­isons with Mor­ris­sey and Marr were lazy, per­haps, but not com­pletely with­out merit. There was a real sense at the time that both young men were push­ing each other to be as good as they could be.And while grunge was in the as­cen­dancy glob­ally, there was some­thing unashamedly English — and Lon­don-cen­tric — about An­der­son’s pre­oc­cu­pa­tions. On the month their de­but al­bum was re­leased, the snake-hipped front­man was on a cover of Se­lect mag­a­zine with a union flag pro­vid­ing the back­drop and a sub-head­line scream­ing “Yanks go home!”It’s some­times cited as the mo­ment Brit­pop was born and al­though Suede didn’t em­body the move­ment in the pub­lic mind in quite the same way Blur and Oa­sis would, they played a fun­da­men­tal part. That was made clear in John Har­ris’s ab­sorb­ing book on Brit­pop, The Last Party — an ac­count that doc­u­mented in fan­tas­tic de­tail the break­down be­tween An­der­son and But­ler.Even in the course of mak­ing Suede, the pair had been at log­ger­heads, with An­der­son said to be an­noyed that pro­ducer Ed Buller ap­peared to see But­ler as the key mem­ber of the group. And there was ac­ri­mony dur­ing the mak­ing of se­cond al­bum Dog Man Star — a work that was cere­bral, overblown, thrilling and mad­den­ing, of­ten in the course of the same song. But­ler de­parted be­fore the al­bum had been com­pleted, for­ever rob­bing the band of the ex­u­ber­ant fris­son that had marked them out from the pack.Even in the course of mak­ing Suede, the pair had been at log­ger­heads, with An­der­son said to be an­noyed that pro­ducer Ed Buller ap­peared to see But­ler as the key mem­ber of the group. And there was ac­ri­mony dur­ing the mak­ing of se­cond al­bum Dog Man Star — a work that was cere­bral, overblown, thrilling and mad­den­ing, of­ten in the course of the same song. But­ler de­parted be­fore the al­bum had been com­pleted, for­ever rob­bing the band of the ex­u­ber­ant fris­son that had marked them out from the pack.And yet, in the then 17-year-old Richard Oakes, An­der­son found a gifted re­place­ment for But­ler, but the young ax­e­man just didn’t have But­ler’s on-stage pres­ence. Still, Oakes was an im­por­tant cog on Com­ing Up, the band’s third, and most com­mer­cial, al­bum to date — and he plays a big part in the suc­cess of the lat­est al­bum, Night Thoughts, which was re­leased last month.And yet, in the then 17-year-old Richard Oakes, An­der­son found a gifted re­place­ment for But­ler, but the young ax­e­man just didn’t have But­ler’s on-stage pres­ence. Still, Oakes was an im­por­tant cog on Com­ing Up, the band’s third, and most com­mer­cial, al­bum to date — and he plays a big part in the suc­cess of the lat­est al­bum, Night Thoughts, which was re­leased last month.The Suede of 2016 is a much more ex­cit­ing prospect than the band who limped from the late 1990s into the early 2000s. Af­ter Com­ing Up, An­der­son et al found them­selves in a cre­ative pickle, seem­ingly con­tent to re­lease by-num­bers mu­sic that sounded like a poor fac­sim­ile of what they had done so well just a few years be­fore. So hack­neyed was the fare on al­bums like 2002’s A New Morn­ing, that the band were in dan­ger of sul­ly­ing the mem­ory of their golden years.Few mourned their de­ci­sion in 2003 to go their sep­a­rate ways. There was fleet­ing ex­cite­ment when An­der­son and But­ler re­con­vened as The Tears, al­though the re­sult­ing al­bum, Here Come the Tears, failed to live up to the sum of their parts. A new gen­er­a­tion had lit­tle in­ter­est in them ei­ther, judg­ing by the ris­i­bly poor turn out for their late night show in Ox­e­gen in 2005. Twelve years on from be­ing rock’s hottest prop­erty and they were fac­ing a few hun­dred peo­ple in a vast tent in Kil­dare. It’s a cau­tion­ary tale for those feted bands who might think the adu­la­tion will last for­ever.Few mourned their de­ci­sion in 2003 to go their sep­a­rate ways. There was fleet­ing ex­cite­ment when An­der­son and But­ler re­con­vened as The Tears, al­though the re­sult­ing al­bum, Here Come the Tears, failed to live up to the sum of their parts. A new gen­er­a­tion had lit­tle in­ter­est in them ei­ther, judg­ing by the ris­i­bly poor turn out for their late night show in Ox­e­gen in 2005. Twelve years on from be­ing rock’s hottest prop­erty and they were fac­ing a few hun­dred peo­ple in a vast tent in Kil­dare. It’s a cau­tion­ary tale for those feted bands who might think the adu­la­tion will last for­ever.There was lit­tle en­thu­si­asm for Suede’s come­back al­bum, Blood­sports, in 2013 — es­pe­cially as it ar­rived just days af­ter An­der­son’s idol, David Bowie, had re­turned with a new al­bum af­ter a near decade-long hia­tus. But Suede’s al­bum was the real deal — packed as it was with blis­ter­ing tunes. The sound of a band re­vi­talised.(Three years later, by grim co­in­cide, the lat­est Suede al­bum, Night Thoughts, ar­rived in the wake of Bowie’s death and, con­se­quently, per­haps didn’t get the at­ten­tion it de­served.)
On Wed­nes­day, An­der­son and friends will show­case the al­bum at Dublin’s Olympia, the venue where they played out of their skins in sup­port of Blood­sports three years ago. Older and wiser, they seem to be liv­ing for the mo­ment if re­cent in­ter­views with An­der­son is any­thing to go by. And good luck to them.
It’s hard to know if Twit­ter is a fair barom­e­ter, but if it is the mak­ers of Re­bel­lion might want to go into hid­ing. Eipic, TG4’s 1916-themed mu­si­cal drama aimed at teens (it be­gan broad­cast­ing this week), seeks to tell the story in a con­tem­po­rary set­ting and em­ploy­ing mu­sic from the likes of LCD Soundsys­tem, Fu­ture Is­lands and FKA Twigs — but per­formed as Gaeilge by the cast. It’s a novel idea and an op­por­tu­nity to hear some great songs very dif­fer­ently. “With Eipic,” says pro­ducer Paddy Hayes, “the mu­sic is al­most like a Tro­jan horse. You get them in through that and they’ll stay.”

PRESS

THE GUARDIAN

Music Video being released
https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/jan/13/suede-see-their-new-video-for-pale-snow

 with Brett Anderson:
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/feb/24/soundtrack-of-life-brett-anderson
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/14/suedes-brett-anderson-theres-a-balance-between-sounding-like-yourself-and-not-being-a-self-parody

 You can find all of Brett Anderson's contributions to The Guardian here.

 REVIEWS OF ALBUMS:
https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2002/sep/15/featuresreview.review3

THE TIMES

Articles by Stephen Dalton (Alexandra Palace, Albert Hall)





THE TELEGRAPH

Positive reception to their comeback 

THE DAILY MAIL

Positive rating, 4 out of 5 stars:
Suede’s youthful provocations, Animal Nitrate, Metal Mickey, So Young, crackle with frenzied energy and still sound remarkably cool and contemporary. Following singalong acoustic renditions of This Time and Everything Will Flow, a closing New Generation, from 1994’s brooding Dog Man Star, captures the blend of nostalgia and futurism that always defined Suede – and which, remarkably, appears to be more effective than ever.

THE SUN

MAGAZINES

NME

Brett talks about a long relationship with NME.

PITCHFORK

Review on their 2010 comeback compilation album:
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/14853-the-best-of-suede/

BOOKS 

Soon to publish memoir: 
http://www.nme.com/news/music/suede-brett-anderson-memoir-2018293

 To be published in March 2018, already available for pre-ordering:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Coal-Black-Mornings-Brett-Anderson/dp/1408710501

SOCIAL MEDIA

Fake twitter account:
Of all the fake celebrity Twitter accounts that have sprung up in recent years, fewer have been more amusing than the mock ramblings of Suede singer Brett Anderson. Referring to himself in the third person, @reallybanderson is the archetypal bitchy, rich rock star who is as dismissive of his band mates as he is sure of his own brilliance. A typical tweet reads: “It’s not every day you ride a stallion around Notting Hill, smoking fags and wearing Gucci shoes. Not unless you’re Brett Anderson.” As with all good parodies, it sails close to the wind. It is therefore of some relief when the real Brett Anderson arrives at our Notting Hill rendezvous neither on a horse, nor reeking of cigarettes, nor sporting Italian loafers. The 46-year-old says he “loves” the fake account. “The only thing that bothers me is when people think it’s actually me,” he laughs. While he says that the person he really is couldn’t be further from the man portrayed, he concedes that the bogus account has taken his public persona and “extremified” it.
...
Posted by at
Labels: , , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)