THE LA'ST WORD

Rip It Up, Issue 167, 1 June 1991, Page 31

THE LA'ST WORD

The sixties have never been out of fashion. Critic Dave Marsh has attributed that golden era to the fact that there was an extraordinary number of quality - and diversified songwriters around then. The popular music industry has continually plundered that goldmine for cover versions and more recently . the revived Manchester scene, with its selective copyists like the Stone Roses, Charlatans et al has reached back quite self-consciously to the days when melody and mop-tops were king.

Amongst all of this fairly harmless, entertaining but ultimately superficial retrospective stuff, Liverpool’s The La's shine like crazy diamonds, brusque mavericks who dare to be raw, authentic and honest. Singer, songwriter, guitarist and motormouth Lee Mavers wants to make music that will rule the world but first he's got o live down the La’s debut album released last year, a record loathed by the band but loved by the critics. -

“To the end of my living days | will hate that album. Its not something we just decided to take a stand on. The album is just unmusical. Go Disc wouldn't let us do it ourselves,” he continues in quick, clipped Liverpool-Irish, “so we were forced into the studio which didn't suit us - and when nothing came to fruition three years down the line the record company just mixed up the LP and threw it out against our will. The next time Go Disc get anything we're gonna love it or they're getfting nothin’.” :

Initially the La's criticism of their very fine album sounded like the whingings of spoilt perfectionists and their levelling the blame atthe - record company looked like

snapping at the very patient hands that fed them. Mavers disagrees: “We signed with them because they were a small company and we thought they'd do it our way — smaill label, small advance, so we'll bang a record out in two weeks very very basic. We didn't envisage this fuckin’ digital crap that changed the sound. Small advance, we'll pay this back in a minute. For three years we've been in the shit more than anyone — you think the Stone Roses have had problems with their label.” How would you have done the album?@ ;

“Very basically, very organically, a four or eight track desk, afape

machine, a few mikes and that's it full stop. Not all this outboard gear and insulating stuff. The business side of the record company should leave the artist to do what they do ‘cos everyone’s art is different and there's no way anyone should be telling you how to do it, especially if they can't

do it themselves. ' “When we signed up we were meant o be given one hundred per cent artistic control as+t stated in the contract but for some reason we haven't been given that. We can take it into our own hands but then we're cut off, nothing happens for us as the record company has clout and they've got money which we need since we can't sign on the dole fo live. :

“Over the last three years we've had three periods of three months where we've had no money

because we have walked out of the studio saying never again kind of thing but we get no help to do it our way so inthe end we havetogo back to their way. I'm not the only member of the band, but if it was my way | wouldn't have gone back to their way once.” -So Go Discs are in no way willing to accommodate your approach? “No, not at all. The head of the record coompany is the main instigator. He fell in love with us

when he first heard us and this is on the merits of a four track demo tape for $45 done back one day in 1986 and it would still wipe the floor with - anything we've done on record. So he signed us up thinking we're a rock band with big PAs but the closest

thing we come to a rock band live is early Stones or Who. ;

“Since all of this has come out the record company head has egg on his chin. He's starting fo realise that he can only work our way so at the - end of the day what ends up on his table is what we love.” As Mavers tells it most bands don't work organically because they haven't got the talent. “Since the twenties you can name all the talents on two hands with

Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Louis Jordan and into the fifties we've got Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and James Brown and into the sixties the Who, Captain Beefheart and then Bob Marley and that's where it runs out for me. Jimi Hendrix was great but he sounded as sloppy as fuck because Mitch

Mitchell was a pathetic drummer.” “And that's why | hate our album, la. It makes me down hearted. If's like spring evenings and you start pining with a heavy hearted feeling but you don't know what, la.” : ~ Steve Lillywhite produced the album, a man whose “trophies” as Mavers describes them include the Stones, U2 and Simple Minds — bands a million miles away from the grit the La's want to rock and roll in. “His best work is their work,”

concludes Mavers on Lillywhite’s contribution and value in life. But what of Bob Andrews who twiddles the knobs for ‘There She Goes', that great falsetto pop tribute to Roy Orbison, or so it sounds. “It just sounds like anything else today. If we don't like what we're hearing then you're not gonna like what we're giving out because anyone in a bad mood just creates a bad mood.” Are you happy at the success of the album commercially? “Not at all, that means nothing, especially if the likes of the Farm and everyone else can sell well. There's been a lot of shite sold over the last fifteen years hasn't there. If's just ‘down to the consumer.”

The La's work at a leisurely pace They were formed in the

mid-eighties and, accordingto Mavers, they “took Liverpool by storm” back in the days when there were a thousand bands and three venues.” : * “We just approached a pub and played for no money and when we . drew a crowd we got paid and so we built up our own residency. If you don't play you're not a band. After about six months we were the best in Liverpool. | don't like to blow my own trumpet but we were the most talked about band there.” From there it was a couple of live dates in Fulham and one in Wales and their first record, Way Out. “The best thing we've done,” Mavers reckons, “but nowhere near what we wanted, just the best of a bad bunch.” It might've taken the La’s four to five years to get long playing vinyl into the market place but they have been a cult focus for the likes of the Stone Roses and Charlatans. “Of those two the only thing | like is ‘Fools Gold' by the Stone Roses and what | like is the sample beat and the bass because if's really balanced, tough, rich, sweet and warm — but then that's down fo the sample of James Brown. That's why everyone samples James Brown — noone’s ever got a better sound of that feel on tape and it's so good

because ifs not affected in any way.”

With their total condemnation of their album the La’s have put | themselves unconsciously under a bit of pressure. If their second album isn'tin the brilliant bracket they're gonna look like this year’s definition of blowarses. But nothing phases Mavers: “We've two months of solid touring coming up and when we - come back we want to get stuck into the studio and turn something out around October. We've got about four albums’ worth of songs but we're not gonna give them out so easily as we've done in the past.” “In the future, la, we're gonna wipe the floor with everyone. That is blowing my own trumpet but | wouldn't do it if | didn't know how to play it."

GEORGE KAY