Hugh Cornwell Adventures, Part 3

ahhh, the story continues. hugh cornwell told me that he would be playing at the ramones birthday bash in may and wanted me to accompany him! fantastic news! but...the date was may 19 and i had tickets to see elvis costello, and, sorry hugh, but elvis will always be my #1. perhaps if i didn't already have the tickets in my possession i would have gone, but alas. i will write about the elvis show in another update, because hoooly shit, it was fantastic. even though i missed out on this:

richard lloyd from television came onstage and played guitar on 'get a grip' at the end
which worked a treat, sounded very velvet underground

GOD DAMN IT. oh well. um.. so. yes. basically, i check his touring schedule religiously even though he'll tell me if he's going to be in the area. but i saw that he was touring the east coast in the fall before he told me about it so i picked one of the dates in jersey, since he wasn't coming to philly. it was the one at the brighton bar in long branch. in one of his emails, he told me

look forward to hanging with you again in n jersey
I think debbie from blondie will come to the show in long branch as she lives near there
she came the last time we played there

UM WHAT. DEBBIE HARRY? that sealed the deal. no way was i going to miss this. 

so, uh, long branch is really fucking far away from where i live! ha. but the drive was definitely worth it. i got there and i was on the list (i like saying that. "i was on the list." it makes me sound cooler than i am). i texted hugh again (hehe. i like saying that too. it never gets old.) and let him know i was there. of course he didn't see it in time. i was standing inside near the back when i saw him walk in, and as soon as he saw me he came right over and gave me a hug and said into my ear "oh, it's a shame, you just missed debbie. she left about five minutes ago."

how to deflate me in five seconds: that was it.

oh well. i still have the whole night ahead of me. a debbie-less night. but still! a night.

we go out to the van, since there are opening bands playing and it's really loud inside. kind of funny though, if i was one of those opening bands, i'd be sad that he didn't stick around to watch. anyway, i brought with me the newest bunch of songs my band had recorded. it was a rough mix, but still sounded really good (to us, anyway). i suggested listening to it, and he was all too happy to put it in the van's cd player. 

now, you know you're doing something right when hugh cornwell, of the stranglers, who had ten hit albums and twenty-one top forty singles, tells you your band's songs are "ambitious" and that he really likes them. he complimented my drumming and in that moment i was so proud of myself and my bandmates. then he regaled me with stories of getting his visa and such and how it's a longer process when you have a criminal record. that's no secret, by the way, he wrote a book about the time he spent in jail called inside information, which you can find in his autobiography, a multitude of sins. and so on. then fish popped in the van and said hey. when one of the roadies came in to try and get some sleep, we decided to go back inside. i left the cd with him.

now, i get to hang out with hugh and his band in the dressing room. it was the size of a closet. i'm not kidding.  it was cramped with about six of us in there. hilarious, and just a little bit sad. when clem burke came in and graced us with his presence (and i swear i'm not being facetious when i say that because i look up to him so much, you don't even know), hugh said "this is chloe, you remember her, from phoenix?" and then i started thinking shit, i've seen them in 3 different states now, they're going to think i'm insane... and then clem smiled at me and said "of course! how ya doin', doll?" which immediately quelled my fears. nothing can make you feel bad when clem burke calls you "doll." 

the next hour or so or however long was pretty fun. fish offered me a yodel. you know, those cake things? i didn't take it, but still. the offer was there. i held the guitar tuner for hugh while he tuned his guitar up. i heard them working out the sound effects for "toiler on the sea," off of black & white (there were seagull noises being thrown in). clem sat next to me and changed his shoes and drummed on the wall and said something about bruce springsteen writing "born to run" in this town. i guess my reaction was not what he was expecting, because he looked around and then said "she's not impressed." ha. 

anyway, so then i stood there and watched the show and saw clem drop a stick (which happens to me a lot and it was comforting in a weird way to watch a role model do something stupid, just like i do) and they did one long set, instead of the 2 they had been doing. i got to hear a ton of songs i hadn't heard them do before ("school mam" "toiler" "no more heroes" etc.) and i had an amazing time.

that's pretty much it; haven't seen them play since then. but expect this story to continue because no way am i missing a show if (or rather, when; in the spring, i've been told) they come back.

Hugh Cornwell Adventures, Part 2

OH HEY maybe i should start doing one post per year as a thing, since that seems to be what i'm doing anyway. or maybe i could step up my game and actually write about stuff as it happens to me. *smrt*

so, i last wrote about mr. cornwell and how he gave me his email address so i could send him some songs of mine. i protected that piece of paper - which hugh AND clem both signed, and had his email on the back - like it was my child. now it's framed and hanging up above my couch. i smile like a dork every time i look at it, and that is not hyperbole.

i emailed him a couple of songs that i thought he might like, along with a refresher on who i was, which was kind of embarrassing: "remember me? i sat on your lap for a bit?" well, he remembered and he liked the songs. HE LIKED THE SONGS. do you know what that means to me? oh, that made me so happy. so, following that, we become pen pals. what is the email equivalent of pen pals? keyboard pals? whatever. we email each other. it's pretty cool.

next part of the story: i have a friend who lives in arizona, just outside phoenix. he's one of my best friends and he bugs me to come out and visit him a lot. i had gone the previous year for a few days and was planning on going out again that year (2011), probably in march since that's when he says the weather is the best, even though the year before it rained every day. i just happened to be looking at hugh cornwell's tour dates for that year and he was going to be in phoenix in march. it was easy enough to plan my trip around that and tell my friend "so we can do whatever you want for the rest of the days i'm here but THIS NIGHT we are going to see hugh cornwell in phoenix and you can't say no." and that's what happened.

my friend has a job as a dueling pianist (i'll wait for you to stop laughing; i laughed for about ten minutes the first time he told me that). that night, he had to work and then we went straight to the george & dragon pub for the show. normally i'm completely entertained by the dueling pianist thing but this night it couldn't be over fast enough. finally we got there, i texted hugh, yes i did, i know, how cool is that? and he said "i'm out in the bus" so i went out and found him and he gave me a hug and was like "i can't believe you're here!" me neither, sir. me neither.

anyway, the set was basically the same as the last time i saw him. they open with "nice 'n' sleazy" and do a bunch of stranglers hits mixed with his solo stuff, then rattus all the way through. it was phenomenal, even when fish (bassist extraordinaire) went into "grip" instead of "peaches." i called my sister and kept her on the phone for those 2 songs. i think she liked it, once she figured out what the hell she was hearing. too soon it was over, but i still get to hang out with old punkers!

hugh shared a bottle of champagne with me while i sat sandwiched between him and fish in a booth. i couldn't even make this stuff up. the only thing that would have made it better was if clem was sitting with us but he was chatting with fans on his own. ah well. so i got to sit there, feeling like a little punk rock princess while fans came by to talk and shake hands and etc.

i proceeded to get really drunk and got in the tour bus with them (finally was acknowledged by clem, who gave me a weird smile as if to say "i remember you from philly, what the fuck are you doing here, you crazy girl?" but maybe it was just a friendly smile) and then i got to listen to the demos of the new album (totem and taboo) and he played me some other music and whatever, and that was basically it. got a cab back to my friend's place after.

the point of this story is mostly so i don't forget everything cool that happens to me, which happens more often than you would think, but also to share how neat these guys are. not one of them treated me like i was some stupid, young girl; they treated me like i was just another person hanging out with them. that might not sound like a big deal, but if you've ever been talked down to by someone, whether it's because you're younger than they are, or because they're a MAN and you're just a girl, you know why this is so important.

anyway blah blah blah this is me being a fan girl blah blah blah that's my story. i'll post part three soon. maybe right now, after i finish writing it, since i have nothing better to do.

Hugh Cornwell Adventures

HELLO. it's certainly been a while. also no one reads this so i'm sure no one missed me. but i missed writing in here. so i wanted to catch up on all the amazing shows i've been to and all the amazing music i've been listening to.

i'm going to start off with hugh cornwell (aka ex-lead singer of the stranglers).

i have always loved the stranglers, since i first listened to my punk compilation i bought in london when i was a little teenager. it had "(get a) grip (on yourself)" and "peaches" on it. i bought more of their stuff over the years but never really...understood them? maybe? they're more sophisticated than most punk bands, and their later stuff is much different than the first few albums. also i was painfully unaware of his solo catalogue. it's intense, people.

so, er...i can't believe how long it's actually been. september 2010, he did a show in philly. so that summer, i was sort of getting into the stranglers again and finally, i would like to think, understanding them. and i was online, checking out venues around philly to see if anything cool was coming up. i think i was even listening to black & white at the time, as that was basically all i was listening to those days. and there it was, at world cafe, hugh cornwell. i kind of leaped off the bed in excitement, and then went back and re-read it to make sure i wasn't hallucinating.

i went to the show, and not only did i get to see hugh cornwell play 2 sets - the first was stranglers hits and some of his solo work, and the second was the first stranglers album, rattus norvegicus, from start to finish - he had CLEM BURKE drumming for him. do you know who this is? do you know what that means to this nerdy drummer girl? the drummer from blondie. holy shit people. the man is a genius.

right, so yeah, the entire first album. huh. i nearly shat myself. it was seriously cool. the combination of stranglers songs that i was in love with for so many years, with hugh cornwell singing them right in front of me, with one of the most amazing drummers of all time, was enough to make my head spin.

as if that wasn't cool enough, hugh then sat at a table after the show to sign things and sell cds and chat with fans. i went over and my superpowers of being AMAZINGLY AWKWARD AND SHY came out. but when hugh saw me, he said, "oh hello, would you like to come sit on my lap?" all the fanboys glared at me, but i did it anyway. HOW DARE I INTERRUPT THEM TELLING HIM HOW MANY TIMES THEY SAW HIS BAND IN THE 80s??? the angry glares were worth it.

i ended up in some pictures, as people were asking to get their pictures taken with him, and he said "only if she's in them too." so, hi, people who took their picture with hugh and have to look at my dumb face also. sorry about that. but you don't just give up opportunities like that. you would have done the same thing if you were me, and you know it.

we talked for a bit, about normal things. like jazz, which is what he likes to listen to, especially when doing chores around the house. like ironing. i'm not sure if that's adorable or sad. imagining this punk rock icon humming along to jimmy smith and ironing his socks. i still don't know. and i said something about being in a band but of course i didn't bring a cd to give to him, so he gave me his email address (!!!!!) and said to email him some songs.

i have waaaaaay more to add to the whole story but i will leave you with this little anecdote from this night.

clem burke walked by at one point while i was sitting on hugh's lap still, and hugh says, "hey clem, this is chloe. she's a drummer, too."

clem: looks me up and down. "oh yeah? let me see your drumming calluses."

me: has a mild heart attack. holds hands out to clem.

clem: takes my hands, looks them over. "huh. nice." and walks away.

end scene of one of the top ten greatest moments of my life.