If you had ever have held out any doubts as to the depths of my music geekdom, you should know that I have been reading a lot about The House of Love lately. Not the sexy novel mind you – but the pasty-faced, long-limbed British pretenders to the stadium rock throne. The second full length (but huge leap to a major label) for the band is a perplexing view into what can befall a collection of such substantial promise. The group had gone from being deriding from everyone at their home base (the iconic Creation) with the exception of the label head (the bombastic Alan McGee, who would become their manager) to press darlings and the last great hope for guitar-based songwriting in the face of an impending dance revolution. The pressure was palatable.
The results would be a slithery frontman who would cozy up to everyone involved in the project – unless they were actually in the band. Guy Chadwick would also suffer a few panic attacks and a slew of meltdowns while continuing his horrific habit of shedding his clothes at every possible opportunity. The rhythm section would see the recording process shake their belief in their abilities, and their viability as participants, in the process. The most tragic component would be guitar hero Terry Bickers battle with mental illness going into full throttle. Manic behavior giving way to deep darkness and back again would show up in fluctuating weight and erratic interactions culminating in a dramatic wrist slashing. Tellingly, all four would soldier on until finally Bickers was tossed from the band following a showdown on tour, after weeks of wearing out his relationship with every single member of the entourage.
One of the open secrets about The House of Love is that Guy Chadwick wrote every single note of music and would turn over the lead guitar parts to Bickers with no deviation possible. The other open secret was that the melodies would sound flat in Chadwick’s hands - yet come vibrantly to life once Bickers grabbed them by the throat. He was just magical as a player and for better or worse everyone knew it.
The entire process would be a disappointment on many fronts as Fontana, McGee and Chadwick all saw the group competing with U2 on a global scale. When they failed to crack America and even had their thunder stolen at home by an opening act (the fresh-faced lads from Oxford, Ride) they would never recover. The pressure was so great that it was permeating every aspect and caused such consternation that the album was recorded with numerous producers and studios and had to be salvaged by a herculean mixing effort. (The credits have a cheeky thanks to Tim Friese Green of Talk Talk fame, the first choice as producer put forward by the band, who had turned Chadwick down, telling him to return when he had finished the songs.) This fumbling would continue in marketing the record.
It’s a true shame as you can hear why everyone was so excited in the first place. Chadwick had a substantial cache of killer songs on hand, from the old favorite, the chiming “Shine On,” to the blazing “I Don’t Know Why I Love You” and the echoey shuffle of the “Beatles and the Stones.” The entire disc is solid end to end and history has allowed the songs to be what they were always intended to be - free of the pressures of ruling the charts and feeding two record companies - a great British rock record. Fey in its own way, but always tuneful, the record is filled with electrifying guitar work that no studio could dampen and makes for a wonderful listen.
(The part that really burns is that you can hear that a possible classic would have been on hand had Friese-Green been manning the controls.)
But what’s it look like? Credited to Trevor Key, the photograph of the butterfly mosaic would have to carry the entire weight of the album as the only visual. So overpowering is it that the self-titled disc is often referred to as “the butterfly album.” Had this been an iconic image perfectly in tune with the music than this would certainly be considered a real strength. However, the reality is that it is a weak cover that lacks any hint of danger or sexiness that the band desperately needed. It is far from U2’s “Boy” or any that would follow, which was what all involved had in their sights.
Paired with a bland script typeface, the design even managed to make the packaging more wishy-washy and feminine than their first record, which was coated in pink. It wasn’t the only reason things didn’t happen for the band as planned, but I have long held that it certainly didn’t help. The fact that the group had released a second disc as self-titled and no one seemed to bat an eye on management’s end, only makes my head spin further.
Key’s work, like the minimal contribution of producer Stephen Hague, was another example of massive underperformance by a talented contributor. Key brought a deep portfolio of work and it’s hard to look at all of his stellar collaborations with Peter Saville and think that this was his best effort (maybe not as bad as his Mike Oldfield and Phil Collins oldies but still…) Using said butterfly in various color combinations inside and centered script all about, no other aspect of the package picks up the slack.
You might look at this innocuous cover and think my opinion too harsh but that would be missing the point altogether. So much was on the line for all involved that it makes this wrapping far more damning than innocent.
Should The House of Love have gotten the effort Hague and Key put into New Order (their Technique album being a band favorite at the time and how both men got involved) one can only wonder where their true place in music history would be.
Keeping score at home: Music 7.0 Design 3.5
John Foster owns his very own design firm, Bad People Good Things and is the author of For Sale: Over 200 Innovative Solutions in Packaging Design (HOW), New Masters of Poster Design (Rockport), Maximum Page Design (HOW) as well as an upcoming collection of handmade graphics entitled Dirty Fingernails for Rockport and a monograph on Jeff Kleinsmith for Sub Pop Records.
God loves a cheerful giver.
The House of Love (like the Teardrop Explodes) are one of those amazing bands that are, for whatever reason, so obscure that you very rarely meet people who are into them.
I once dated a girl who told me that when she was growing up in London, one of her favorite songs on the radio was "Shine On" (the newer version that was recorded for this album).
To date, you and her are the only people I've met who really really really like this band.
What? Not a single mention of the Cult??... Well, then you are a charlatan, whatever you own.
Not a single soul could care less about another Cult in 1988. Not. a single. fucking. soul. Comprendes?
They are definitely an underappreciated band. For years, the "Butterfly" record was my favorite of theirs. So many great album cuts on this one! "In A Room" is simply classic. Their b-sides are worth checking out as well---many of those were just as good as--if not better than---their album cuts. Thanks for the great write-up John!
The House of Love was always a funny band in that they were huge for a bit in the UK but never "cool" to like. As I hinted at - everyone at Creation hated the group with the exception of McGee. The Jesus and Mary Chain called them "Flock of Seagulls" all the time and Primal Scream took pleasure in bullying them at parties. Yet they would have been considered very successful had so much not been riding on them. The sessions for this record were such an expensive mess and the huge pile of b-sides (all quality tunes) is a byproduct of Fontana's desperation for them to chart - one single was released in 12 formats!!! to boost first week sales (die-hards having to buy it multiple times.)
Ernest - I assume you jest. Nothing cause me to run from the room screaming quite as quickly as a Duffy/Astbury tune.
Excellent piece. I must say i was a youthful, NME-reading indie rocker when the HOL were around, and I didn't know that Chadders wrote all Bickers' solos. Good factoids.
I take issue with your commenters - HOL WAS cool for the first album, singles and subsequent tour or two. Then they rereleased a remixed Shine On and, in the context of the day, 'sold out' to a bad major.
Anyway, your article has inspired me to listen back to the first album, which is a minor classic, and maybe buy the Butterfly, which i don't rememeber ever buying. I probably bought The Bluetones instead.
Let me re-phrase. House of Love was cool with anglophiles in the U.S. (myself included) but in the UK they were much derided by the scenesters who thought the entire music industry were about to be changed by The Jesus and Mary Chain. Only McGee's wife Yvonne and the man himself ever admitted to liking the band within the office at Creation. It's important to note that Chadwick was older than everyone else (and lied about his age) and both he and Pete Evans had already had unsuccessful major label projects prior to HoL.
When Babe Rainbow came out Chadwick begged NME for a cover story. he said he would brazenly do anything in the photo - whatever it took as the band were desperate at this point (in the hole for nearly a million on the books to Fontana by this point) and they said he could have it if he shared it with Levitation and appeared with Bickers back to back with pistols as if about to duel. He said anything but that. The cover didn't happen and he was never on the cover of NME again.
The Chadwick solo album in 98 is fabulous as well and should be tracked down.
Man, that's cracking writing. Well done.
Did you read "My Magpie Eyes Hunger for the Prize"? That was my introduction for the wild, weird world of the private life of Chadwick, et al. Amazing, weird stuff - didn't they literally leave Terry Bickers behind at a rest stop during a tour?
Also, who did the art work for their Creation releases? Wasn't the font choice on the butterfly record a carry-over from that, and, as a follow-up, what do you think of the cover designs for their earlier stuff (Christine, Destroy the Heart, Real Animal, etc.)?
Other weird HOL-related facts:
1. Guy was in a band called Reverb and Barbed and put out "Real Animal" on a cassette compilation in 1984.
http://www.hackney.co.uk/sites/redtape/
2. Guy was in a band called Kingdoms which put out a single (Heartland/Stability) in 1984. I think, if memory serves, the bside has a hilariously bad picture of Guy. I'll have to dig that out when I get home.
3. Levitation put out a string of moderately interesting singles before going totally crap. Not essential for the HOL fan.
4. I gave a copy of the 12" of Christine to a certain female bartender at the Cat because of her love for Bickers. It's a pretty iconic cover.
Wow. I didn't know about that juicy NME cover story ancedote. John, are you getting all this stuff from David Cavanagh's "The Creation Story" book? I have yet to pick that up.
The band did indeed use that script as a logo of sorts (until things went south and they didn't have any bargaining power any longer.) There isn't a credit on the debut but I suspect Chadwick or his wife Suzi - the photographer on most of their discs - loved it. Area actually did a pretty brilliant ad campaign for Babe Rainbow's singles but the basic art for it is buried in the center of the main disc's booklet behind a slew of mediocre Gibbon's photos. I remember waiting for the NME each week to see what the next ad would look like.
Total waste.
I suspect a lot of people think the butterfly is a Gibbons as well and Key likely cared little before his death.
I have a multitude of HoL reading - haha - BUT the Cavanaugh book is where I think I read about the NME cover. It is the finest book written on rock and roll ever. Seriously. I am too interested in the subject matter to properly distance myself perhaps but I truly believe anyone would love the book regardless of your musical tastes. It is a MUST READ for Rick! Track it down at all costs.
The band did indeed leave Bickers at a highway rest stop type of place. If I remember correctly the only person still talking with him was Evans and then he launched into him and Evans finally had enough and left the band then and there. They started negotiating him back into the van by promising to put Bickers in the one trailing them but by the time it was all done Bickers was left behind and Evans stayed. Sounds like a fun tour.
McGee (still their manager at the time) famously told them, upon hearing Bickers had been fired, that they were "nothing without him." It did little to instill confidence moving forward.
I hope you guys and gals have a change of underpants ready. If you haven't heard the news I'm about to drop, you will probably cream yr pants:
"I got this note from a UK film company and wanted to pass this along to music fans out there about a Creation Records bio-pic that's been worked on, not just to whet your appetite for this project but to also see if you can help out and be involved in this.
There's contact info below and a list of bands involved. Sounds like it'll be a corker, eh?
"We are working on a documentary feature film - it's called 'Upside Down: The Story of Creation Records' and is being made with the full authorisation of Alan McGee who ran it, & other people from the label, both artists and behind the scenes. The label housed an influential roster of bands which epitomized British independent music for almost twenty years from 1983 - 1999."
"We're trying to find as much (preferably previously unseen) archive material as possible: footage, photographs, fliers, cuttings, scrapbook excerpts and drawings and I wondered if you have any material? Or perhaps you know someone who is a collector or fan who I might be able to get in touch with? If so I'd be very keen to hear back from you. I've attached a list of the Creation bands at the bottom of this email if you have a moment to look through it - not many of the bands were enormous in the States but some of them had a significant following. Thanks very much!"
Best regards
Sam Dwyer
Document Films
Oasis
My Bloody Valentine
The Jesus & Mary Chain
Primal Scream
Super Furry Animals
Teenage Fanclub
The House of Love
Saint Etienne
The Boo Radleys
Ride
Swervedriver
The Weather Prophets
Felt
BMX Bandits
The Membranes
Adorable
Biff Bang Pow!
Fluke
Hypnotone
Slowdive
18 Wheeler
The Jazz Butcher
Loop
Momus
Silverfish
Ultra Living
3 Colours Red
Slaughter Joe
Moonshake
The Telescopes
(Courtesy of Ye Wei Blog aka Wild Taste)
Speaking of which, the Cavanaugh, "My Magpie Eyes are Hungry for the Prize." is going $50 used on Amazon, anyone got a dog eared copy they wanna lend me for a weekend or two?
(Also on the hunt for affordable used copies of Julian Cople's EPIC Krautrock Sampler).
I forgot to ask - did anyone listen to the reformed band's 05 record? I haven't really heard much of it. Time (and lack of fame) heals all wounds apparently.
Patrick - I owe you money for the show. You should spend it on the book as you will want to read it more than once. Seriously. It's nice and thick as well - haha.
House of Love in a nutshell:
In 1988, they released a well received debut 4-track which was admittedly not bad indeed, for the time. Musically, it was essentially Cult, but an indie-version, as opposed to the stadium one. So they received some acclaim. Apparently, at that point Chadwick began having ideas above his station. Namely, he decided to go stadium, that is to be a stadium version of Cult. Just listen to their live sets - nothing but bombastic bullshit. In fairness, the band may have succumbed to the pressure from the major label as well. The point is that was the beginning of the end. Nobody cared for another bunch of Cult wannabees since by 1988 everyone was already sick of the original. You, gentlemen, do not see the forest for the trees. It’s the music that matters. La musique.
Patrick - Thanks for letting us know about the Creation bio-pic! Definitely some potential there for awesomeness. Let's cross our fingers and hope that Oasis gets the least amount of screen time possible!
Oh and re: Cope's Krautrock sampler. Dude, fuhgetaboutit. Seriously. I've been searching for years. That thing is ridiculously impossible to find and when it does show up, it's like $200 or $300 or something. It's kind of a moot point anyway. Cope is pretty whacked and everyone that I've spoken with that has claimed to have read it tells me that many of his rankings and reviews are pretty questionable (but I suppose one could say that about any critic!). I saw a website a while back that provided an overview of his favorite krautrock albums as they appear in the book. Some good info but I got the sense his book is hardly comprehensive. Not sure how thorough it is on German experimental music that came out before the 70s. I wouldn't be surprised if he completely omitted Stockhausen.
John--I do have the '05 record. It's not an embarassment (read: Audience with the Mind) but it hardly is the sound of the original HOL, even with Bickers in tow. All the edge, tension and danger is gone. Some songs are decent enough but it's all rather toothless.
Hey Ernest - I see your point but I don't think The Cult is the correct reference point. Chadwick was older and was not shy in stating that he wanted to buy a house for his family (unheard of in the Creation office!) He was always trying to grab the brass ring - just being in The Kingdoms was evidence of that. The stated goal was to be U2 or Simple Minds and those might be more on target. Dave Bates at Fontana was the man behind signing Tears for Fears so maybe that isn't that far removed either (of course he did have a number one with Def Leppard too - haha.)
The shows were only erratic and bombastic when Bickers decided that would be the case and played a little guitar hero. Most were pretty workmanlike sans his glistening lines.
Hey Rick - I suppose they had to get Bickers meds right eventually and that would be the end of that. I love the Chadwick solo record but it is a pretty sedate affair and I suspect the same from the 05. Have to check it out anyway.
The Chadwick solo record and the '05 HOL album ("Days Run Away") are two different (real) animals. I really like the former a lot more than the latter. The solo record isn't attempting to rock at all but at least it's convincing. The '05 album just doesn't sound like the same band that recorded the first four albums to me. It's decent, but it's just not them. Having said all this, I encourage you to check it out when you get the chance. You might like it more than me.
Okay, HOL may have not sounded exactly like the Cult but the differences were minor compared to the similarities. Simple Minds were shit in the first place and long retired by then, so this is way off. U2? Perhaps. But this is like, too easy. The bottom line, HOL were a band of some talent who fucked it up by going generic. Bands don’t necessarily fuck up by deciding to go generic but HOL, unfortunately, did. A little behind their time they were, too.
And you can’t very well blame Fontana for this. Fontana was pushing them really hard. The ads were everywhere. But it was no use.
While no one could argue that Fontana didn't put their full financial support behind the group, they also played a huge role in the generic sound of the final product. From the clinical days on end spent just recording drums (and eventually bringing in session drummers - which was a huge fear of Pete Evans as he had been in a previous band where his only interaction with Dave Bates - by now the head of Fontana - was to suggest replacing him with a session player or electronic drums) to jumping to multiple studios and producers. Stephen Hague in particular was detrimental to the process.
Listening to the records Friese-Green has made you can sense how brilliant the final product could have been if Chadwick had convinced him to come on board.
Everything was such a cluster and blah sounding (even by Fontana's admissions) that the final product had to be saved at the last minute by engineer Dave Meegan coming back in and blending together songs and sessions from so many sources. The sleeves were printed in advance of the final mixing and the producer credit would have been doled out differently had it not.
They just didn't have the record to justify Fontana's push but there was no turning back on anyone's part by then.
It's still a batch of fine songs - just doesn't grab you in the full manner that it could.
@ Ernest
Are you smoking Crack? Simple Minds may've been on the decline in the late 1980s/early 1990s, but they certainly weren't "shit to begin with." Haven't you read my review/analysis of "Empires of Dance." If not, I strongly suggest that you go NOW - www.colonelkspeaks.blogspot.com.*
As per HOL, I don't know why it's worth discussing their 3 records with Fontana. Their best work was with Creation. End of discussion. All you need is the 86-88 Creation Compilation and their BBC sessions.......ok ok ok. Throw in those Fontana B-Sides from "A Spy In the House of Love" - just because Safe is one of the most beautiful songs ever written.
*I'll be posting an article on "New Gold Dream" next week.
Live "Destroy the Heart"; Interview; "Man to Child"
SNUB TV 1989
PS Listening to Guy Chadwick speak is so funny. He's such a typical English popstar. Spouting a bunch of nonsensical shit just to hear himself talk.
Patrique’s post is so simple-minded, it’s even comical. To “strongly suggest” I read some bullshit to determine whether an act is shit or not?.. Please.
I first (and last) agreed to hear out Simple Minds back in 1981. The first album, yes. Their best effort to date. enough said.
Now, HOL. The recording was an entirely different matter. In hindsight, Chadwick should have held the monkeys and focused on the songs. Instead he allowed the band to bog down in (and be distracted by) the unnecessary bullshit which obviously drained them out of the energy, and ultimately killed them. Hard to say what they were thinking. That was a straightforward case pf fairly straightforward-better-under-than-over-produce-rock. Too bad. The initial EP was pretty decent.
*yawn*
This was about HOL, right?
Patrick - totally agree. Those first few Creation EPs were perfect.
As to the Cult references: ernest, WTF? Seriously, you're gonna drop a "Horse Nation" or "Fatman" reference on HOL? That's...unspeakably stupid. HOL were...well, the opposite of that. Maybe live, they did the whole "fire woman, baby momma," thing, and I've just never heard it. But, until someone comes up with a youtube that proves me wrong, I will say that it would be difficult - not impossible - to come up with two less similar bands than HOL and The Cult. Ian Astbury kissed Nick Cave's boot. I can't see Bickers or Chadwick doing the same. Seriously, WTF?
As to dismissing Simple Minds - now it all makes sense. You've clearly got cloth for ears. Empires and Dance, Sister Feelings Call, Sons and Fascination, Reel to Real, and New Gold Dream - if you include the first album (which, title track aside, I find annoyingly early-Cars-ish), that's six full albums and a handful of terrific singles in the space of four years. Four years. Who does that?
Include in there two and a half complete whip-saw changes in sound, from their debut to the kraut-rock Reel to the awesome but depressing Empires to the perfectly balanced post-punk/krautrock/electropop genius of Sons/Sister, to the utter pop perfection of NGD. I'll grant that Sparkle in the Rain was the first step down a depressingly bombastic and shitty sound from which they never recovered (though "Waterfront" is deliriously silly, their cover of "Don't You" still does me, and the bside, something about brass Africans or something, is genius).
Still.
Do yourself (you, anyone - clearly ernest is lost) a favor. Listen to "Theme for Great Cities." Holy. Shit. The bass-line alone is built of solid happiness, while the whole song seems hewn from a giant slab of happiness and modeled after a portrait of happiness glimpsed on the cusp of some universe of pure happiness stretching to eternity. Goes nicely with A Certain Ratio's "Winter Hill" among those instrumentals that are miles stronger than most vocal tracks.
PS. Patrick, John, Rick - have you heard "New Warm Skin"? Best piece of lost Simple Minds in their formidable discography.