Lou's Links
Sam Howard and The Joke at a festival in Beziers Sam is my brother Mike's son. Spot some Hal influences!
Lou's Quotes...
Good Technology
We lost a few good lines in search of the 3-minute pop song. I missed "we got chemicals make you believe in God, we got politics that are very odd".
Fact
The band ran a rehearsal place by the fruit market. I went down one day and someone had written "take the profit out of the rehearsal rooms" in great big black writing on the door. Ho, ho, very funny.
Steeltown
We played this on The Old Grey Whistle Test. The band was supposed to be picking me up at Woodall services, but something went wrong and I had to hitch a lift. A hippy in a Morris Minor used the sun instead of an A-Z to get me to the BBC. We drove all round London. I got there just in the nick of time.
Heartbeat Go!
Hal and I played this in The Planet Wilson too, so it feels like we've played it a million times. The Smiths even played it at their soundcheck once.
Paris France
The first song I learned to play. Sean O'Brien was still playing timbales in the band at the time. I don't think anyone knew what an "autonome" was.
Within Four Walls
Before computerised desks, mixing a song was real big event. We all had jobs to do, you know, riding the guitar or backing vocals. I was in charge of a "clink" sound made by someone hitting a piece of railway track. It took all night, somebody always missed something. We all knew when we got this one right though.
Cloak and Dagger
This was always fun to play live. Me and Matt used to really ham it up.
Crocodile Tears
Someone left the studio door open while Hal was recording the acoustic guitar part and you could hear the telly on the track. We liked it and kept it in.
Shaken Not Stirred
We must've played the songs a hundred times at gigs and rehearsals before we recorded them. I remember going in the studio and actually hearing the words Jerry was singing for the first time. We never really knew what they were before that. This one knocked me out.
Slow to Fade
It was a nightmare recording the bass line. I must've tried every bass in Hull, just couldn't get the sound. Then I couldn't play it right. Roy was waving a conductors baton at me, going "No, no, you can do it better than that Lou".
