Left to right - Paul Hemmings, Lee Mavers,
John Timson, John Power.
PUBLICATION - 'NME' or New Musical Express
ORIGIN - UK
DATE OF PUBLICATION - 24th October, 1987
SUBJECT - The La's
TITLE - LA LA MEANS...
AUTHOR - JMcC.
CONTENT - Musical influences. Band's origins.
We can't really
play but we're having a go. And we love music, that's why we're having
a go...our songs are just dead catchy tunes that people can whistle and
that... "
With their first record out, The La's run right
into a big problem they don't deserve. In the either /or marketplace of
1987 young men with guitars are dumped in there with the dirty hippies
and the desperate fringe, the anorak scruffs and the psychedelic stupids.
The La's, a Liverpool group without the lip and the Cope fetish, with GO!
DISCS and a healthy disregard for talking too much, are on an escalator
to the top floor.
Their music, a weird soup of pre-1970 British
rock music you can hear on 'Way Out', is too strange to get lost in Long/Peel
bin. But until Smash Hits takes the piss out of them and The Wide Awake
Club gives them the green light, they must deal with College secs in St
Julian T-shirts and pre-performance discos which assume it's possible to
dance to The Soup Dragons.
For their sins, The La's are playing here tonight.
We shake on it and look for a quiet space. We end up in the toilet. Lee
Mavers claims a cubicle and John Timson settles for the floor. The mysterious
Timmo, a drummer three times as big as his unfortunate kit, has gone home
for his tea. Twanger and notorious ladies' man Paul Hemmings sticks his
head in from time to time. The air is thick with Moroccan mist. The La's
are a myth come to life, scally hippies who don't waste time thinking about
trainees, dole survivors who've spent more hours listening to 'Clear Spot'(*1)
and 'Live At Leeds'(*2) than they have worrying about season tickets and
Tacchini trackies.
*1 - Captain Beefheart
*2 - The Who
Lee and John are the backbone of the group
. They met through a no-jobs-for-yobs music course. "The two of us just
hit it off as in I like him and he likes me and all that shit..", says
John.
Because there are four of them, The La's have
been compared to the other fabber four. Lee thinks it's because Paul lives
in Penny Lane. "Although I live in Huyton so that f---s things up a bit
". Such minor details don't stop me asking Bigger-Than-God type questions
like, what will you do with your first million? "Spend it". How would you
describe your music?, "Shake, rattle and roll, la".What were you doing
before? "Signin' on". When was the last time you took the ferry across
the Mersey? "The last time I had to go to Birkenhead".
The La's are ugly, awkard bastards who deserve
more than a room full of tomorrow's teachers. I like them. And then they
start playing.
"I know it sounds crap, like, but I think we're
really special".
"You think we're shit now, wait until you get
into us, la".
JMcC.
|