Yeah, I saw the NME too, so I know what you mean.  It does seem as though they’ve made a mountain out of a molehill.  I was reading it, and thinking: “Are you sure you’re writing about the same event?”  I mean, come on.  I’ve seen more aggravation in a school dinner queue.  There was just a whole group of ageing cavemen intent on causing trouble.  It was inevitable.  They just couldn’t cope with the seeing the future.  One of them kept pushing me, and I’m like: “Grow up mate.  The Birthday Party’s over.  Better move on!”  Hate was certainly in the air, but it hardly merited all this overkill.  It doesn’t help.

And blaming it all on Meat Whiplash is just daft.  You were there, and saw what happened.  We were standing talking to Bobby.  There was a bit of heckling going on.  And the singer threw the empty wine bottle into the crowd.  Pretty stupid, but hardly dangerous.  There was hardly anybody there, and it didn’t go near anyone.  They were just stupid boys, a bit the worse for wear.  Forget them.  They’re hardly going to set the world alight.  But the singer’s a nice guy.  You remember he was at the Mary Chain show at the Living Room?  They clearly thought they’d grab a bit of the action for themselves.  First of many copying the Mary Chain I bet.

There’s been so much hype now, that people were turning up looking for trouble.  I don’t know about you, but I didn’t like the vibe.  I felt something had got out of control.  Even when I got to the Poly early on, I could feel the hate as I walked in.  People were jeering at the way I was dressed, calling me a poser, and I’m like this is me.  The leather coat.  The polo neck.  You’ve seen me done up like that many a time.  People used to dress up for a special occasion.  We’re not all students slumming it on daddy’s grant, thinking it fun to dress like a tramp.

What gets me is that there is hardly a mention of the Jasmine Minks in this write up though.  That can’t be right.  They completely stole the show too.  There wasn’t even a murmur out of the crowd when they were on.  It was an amazing performance.  I was so proud.  They’d been working so so hard.  And there’s not many groups brave enough to come on and do their biggest ever show with a set of completely new songs.  Fantastic!

And they looked amazing didn’t they?  Jim with his hair cropped with shades and a Ramones t-shirt, topped with a Crombie.  Adam with shades and an overcoat he must have borrowed from an old Sweeney villain.  They stalked the stage.  Totally menacing.  Treating the audience with complete contempt.  Just tearing through thirty minutes of pure passion.  I’ve been watching this new set take shape over the past few months, and it’s been a revelation.  They have discovered a new purpose and depth that seems to stem from total disgust at everything else around. 

I loved watching the looks on the faces of people as the Jasmines were playing.  Even people who knew them were totally taken aback.  It was really raw.  Like an old film of The Clash.  It would have been so easy to give in and finish with Where The Traffic Goes or something, but no way.  This was no compromise.  And the audience was confused, which I suppose didn’t help the Mary Chain.  I have this theory about how a lot of the old Birthday Party fans hate the Mary Chain because they look like they might have come from their own ranks, and it’s like being spat on by one of your own wayward sons.  But it’s like the old song, you know the difference between those who have it and those who ain’t is really very clear.  You’ve either got it honey or you ain’t. 

I can’t even remember how, but after the Jasmines had finished I made my way backstage with Simon, and we were baiting Geoff Travis from the record company, which was a bit dumb but nothing’s sacred now.  Anyway Bobby roped us into helping moving gear around.  And suddenly I look up and out and just freeze seeing so many faces looking up at us, and I know I was thinking if I was in the group I’d want to be winding them up, knowing they will feel threatened, not understanding how to really react.  And I guess that’s what happened.  I hated being back out in the audience being surrounded by all that hair and hate.  Something was bound to blow, but it wasn’t the riot of its own the NME was so desperate for.  It was just tediously inevitable.  A load of old punks reacting like a gang of cro-magnon teddy boys when suddenly confronted with the mischief making Mary Chain. 

But it was what everyone was talking about the following day when I went down to Alaska where the Jasmines were recording their new EP.  I think it helped in a funny kind of way because everybody was really buzzing after the gig.  And the energy was something they could feed off.  Perfect really.  Because the idea had been to do something incredibly close to the punk spirit that was caught by the early Buzzcocks on Spiral Scratch.  Four songs.  Perversely rough.  Stripped down but beautifully crafted.  Like the old mods stripping all the ornaments off of their scooters.  And the songs were just right for that.

It was my first time in a recording studio, and I really don’t like it because it’s so artificial compared to live performances, especially for a group like the Jasmines that feeds off the physical nature of live shows.  But they were completely professional, and I think the EP is going to be brilliant.  They did most of it over the weekend.  I went along on Sunday too.  Mother’s Day.  So that went down well.  But this was history in the making. 

There’s till some bits to do, but what I’ve heard is amazing.  Forces Network will be the lead track.  Adam was practically bursting with intensity every time he did a vocal take.  And on The World’s No Place, the last song they played at the North London Poly, he was like a possessed Pete Shelley, which is just so appropriate as they’d been listening to all these Buzzcocks bootlegs of late.  I hope Adam’s moment’s come at last because people just do not realise the meaning nowadays of starving just so you can have that rare Rickenbacker.  Because nothing else matters.  You know, you’ve got nothing at home, but that guitar, and it’s your outlet.  Like that quote from the guy who used to manage The Who early on I used to keep repeating to you about mod being about clean living under difficult circumstances.  So when public schoolboys on the music press sneer at mods, it’s like you do not understand the sacrifices involved here.  You’ve never not had money.  You’ve not educated yourself.  You’ve had it all on a plate.  That’s why you get it all so wrong.  And people will get this song of Adam’s wrong because he’s the biggest romantic going, and it hurts to be singing that the world’s no place for a romantic today.

And Jim’s What’s Happening sounds so much like one of the three minute bursts of energy made by the lower league punk groups when it seemed like their lives depended upon it, and they’d never get their chance again so they HAD to say everything they needed to say in those few minutes.  Which is what it’s all about.  Jim might be singing about being in love, but you aren’t going to mess with him.  Hoodlum poets that’s what I’ve taken to calling them.  Not that I’ve said it to them, but you know.  Just hope I’m not alone in feeling like this.  I’m sure Creation will be talking up this EP in their own special way at least.

© 2007 John Carney