It’s been two years to the day since the beginning of Smelling Salts and Spoiled Milk in May 2006. What initially began as a something to do during a dull summer through posting brief comments about music and life (and increasingly movie trailer mash-ups) has recently become something that seems increasingly more difficult to carry on with. Although, I still enjoy sharing blog posts with the world, it has become increasingly apparent to me that the unstructured nature of this blog is not maintainable. The changes in my life (work, responsibility, and the general blur of everyday life) have made it difficult to post on regular basis. As such, I feel it is the appropriate time to cease writing Smelling Salts and Spoiled Milk. I would personally like to thank those that read what has been written here. It has been a continuing motivation for me. I would also like to add that I am not ruling out starting another blog in the future. However, if/when that blog is written, it will have a more structured and defined purpose. Stay tuned for that! I will certainly post that link here, if/when that happens.
Its taken me some time to think about what I would in my final post here. I considered a variety of topics, but, considering the nature of the blog, I wanted to go back where the blog started and talk about Lush.
Lush were a band formed on Halloween 1988 by Miki Berenyi, Emma Anderson, Chris Acland, Steve Rippon, and Meriel Barham. Miki and Emma had been friends during high school and Miki had met the other band members while studying English at London’s Polytechnic University. One of Anderson’s friends Kevin Pickering told her he thought Lush would be a perfect name for a band. Anderson agreed, and suggested the name to the band, and they started writing and rehearsing. After that conversation, it is said that Anderson never saw Pickering again.
Before Lush had played any shows, Barham had left to how her own band, The Pale Saints. The remaining members began performing gigs and by 1989, had released their debut EP, Scar. The EP was critically acclaimed and set the stage for the Mad Love and Sweetness & Light EPs. All of these EPs were combined on the album, Gala in 1990.
At this point Robin Guthrie (ex-Cocteau Twins) entered the picture. He had heard Gala and been impressed with the release. He decided to take it upon himself to become the band’s producer, and using his clout in the British music scene, helped them land a record deal with 4AD.
In April of 1991, Lush travelled to the United States to co-headline a tour with Ride. At the end of the year, bassist Steve Rippon left the band to concentrate on writing novels full time. To replace him, Lush approached Philip King, a former NME journalist, who had played bass for various UK bands.
By 1992, the band had released Spooky. While the album sold well, reaching the Top Ten and and topping the U.K. indie charts, it was criticized in the press for Guthrie’s heavy-handed production. While the album sold well, reaching the British Top Ten and topping the U.K. indie charts, it was criticized in the press for Guthrie’s heavy-handed production. However, Lush ignored the critics. They toured Great Britain, the USA, and continental Europe, and eventually Japan and Australia.
During 1993, Lush returned to the UK and began working on material for their third album, which ended up as Split, released in 1994. Berenyi wrote four of the album’s songs, and Anderson wrote the other eight. Chris Gill in Guitar Player noted, „Split shares moments of hypnotic, resplendent pleasure-punk and hard, lardy angst-pop“ and further added that the album was „easily the British dream-pop band’s most varied, cocksure, and commercial effort.“
„Everything was great,“ said Anderson about the build-up and reaction to Split. „We got everything we wanted. Our own tour? We got it. Europe? We got it. America? Yes. In fact, everything was going well until Split, when the momentum dropped. We were immensely pleased with it, even though it had taken so much out of us. We thought it was the best work we’d done. So we were disappointed with the reaction – it sold half as much as Spooky. But, having got through that bad time, when the carpet really felt like it was being pulled out from under us, we really did get stronger. Strangely, it really boosted our confidence.“
Despite the critical acclaim and lyrical honesty, Split was seen as a failure and was a harbinger of things to come.
Following their Split tour, Lush returned to the studio to record what would be their final album, Lovelife. The shoegazer sound had died a violent death at the hands of the British music press, so Lovelife found its sound more in the Britpop, as evidenced by singles „Ladykillers“ and „500 (Shake Baby Shake).
„I remember the first track I wrote for the LP was „Ladykillers“,“ said Berenyi „and it took me nearly three weeks to write it because I’d had such a bruising to my self-confidence as a songwriter with Split. I decided to fill the song full of every bloody corny gimmick I could think of – simpler harmonies, handclaps, sudden stops, etc, a kind of ‘give ‘em what they want’ thing. Of course, my idea of commercialism is still a long, long way from other people’s. „Ciao!“ may be a lilting duet with Jarvis Cocker but it’s still basically two people telling each other to fuck off.“
As Lush was making tour preparations following the release of Lovelife in May 1996, the band’s drummer, Chris Acland, hanged himself at his parent’s house on October 17, 1996.
As the band’s 4AD biography notes:
It should have come as no surprise that Acland’s death finished Lush. Privately and professionally, in their joyful celebrations and their painful (and far more frequent) self-examinations, they were in the business of living life, really living it. Such a tragedy, the loss of their life and soul, could only serve to drain the fun from their adventures. The fun, of course, is vital to the Lush story. It was a raison d’etre and, incredibly, held them back as the UK was gripped first by grunge melancholia and then by po-faced, swaggering Britpop.
Lush officially announced their breakup on February 23, 1998.
Thanks to Light From A Dead Star for the Lush information.
Lush – Ciao! (mp3)
Bye!
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