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Read More Luke Haines… I met and interview him during The Auteurs' "Now I'm a Cowboy" tour and have been following his career ever since. .....
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For some reason, The Auteurs were never really associated with Britpop, at least not in the same ways when you mention Blur or Oasis or Elastica. The Auteurs seemed to not want anything to do with that short-lived movement, maybe it's because singer/songwriter Luke Haines wanted the band to have a serious tone.
I first heard the Auteurs when MTV's 120 Minutes played "Show Girl" in 1993. I loved it, who could forget that opening line, "I took a show girl for a bride/Thought my life would be right/Took her bowling, got her high." At this time, I was working at the KFSR radio station and would play songs from their debut album, New Wave.
Luke Haines would progressively get darker and darker by the third album, After Murder Park. It was such a dark direction, that he even re-formed into a different "terrorist" band called Baader Meinhof. I eventually tracked down their final album, How I Learned to Love the Bootboys, which was harder to come by because it was never officially released in the U.S.
Anyway, Mel and I got to meet & interview Luke Haines on July 15, 1994, at Slim's in San Francisco. It was during soundcheck and we recorded an interview for KFSR. I got Luke and his then-girlfriend, Alice Readman, to sign my New Wave and Now I'm a Cowboy CDs, but I couldn't find the other guys in the band. I probably didn't try too hard because, let's be honest, I didn't know who they were. Haines noted that New Wave on the Caroline Record (this was the domestic release), was quite rare. He reckoned under a 1,000 were pressed for the U.S. market because the label didn't believe the Auteurs had a presence in the States.
The Slim's show was part of the Auteurs' Now I'm a Cowboy U.S. tour (which I'm pretty certain was one of their very few live appearance - apparently Haines hated the stress of touring that he crippled himself to avoid touring for After Murder Park). As far as I know, this was The Auteurs' only U.S. tour.
As for the Slim's show, I barely remember it, in fact, I didn't even know that The Rosemarys and Slide opened up (this is according to the flyer that I've saved all this time). Perhaps we only showed up when The Auteurs came on to the very small stage. I know they did "Show Girl" (of course), and "Lenny Valentino." I remembered that the turn out wasn't so good (according to the San Francisco Chronicle, "the band played to half a house"), but it didn't matter because it was such a nice, intimate setting to see The Auteurs.
I first heard the Auteurs when MTV's 120 Minutes played "Show Girl" in 1993. I loved it, who could forget that opening line, "I took a show girl for a bride/Thought my life would be right/Took her bowling, got her high." At this time, I was working at the KFSR radio station and would play songs from their debut album, New Wave.
Luke Haines would progressively get darker and darker by the third album, After Murder Park. It was such a dark direction, that he even re-formed into a different "terrorist" band called Baader Meinhof. I eventually tracked down their final album, How I Learned to Love the Bootboys, which was harder to come by because it was never officially released in the U.S.
Anyway, Mel and I got to meet & interview Luke Haines on July 15, 1994, at Slim's in San Francisco. It was during soundcheck and we recorded an interview for KFSR. I got Luke and his then-girlfriend, Alice Readman, to sign my New Wave and Now I'm a Cowboy CDs, but I couldn't find the other guys in the band. I probably didn't try too hard because, let's be honest, I didn't know who they were. Haines noted that New Wave on the Caroline Record (this was the domestic release), was quite rare. He reckoned under a 1,000 were pressed for the U.S. market because the label didn't believe the Auteurs had a presence in the States.
The Slim's show was part of the Auteurs' Now I'm a Cowboy U.S. tour (which I'm pretty certain was one of their very few live appearance - apparently Haines hated the stress of touring that he crippled himself to avoid touring for After Murder Park). As far as I know, this was The Auteurs' only U.S. tour.
As for the Slim's show, I barely remember it, in fact, I didn't even know that The Rosemarys and Slide opened up (this is according to the flyer that I've saved all this time). Perhaps we only showed up when The Auteurs came on to the very small stage. I know they did "Show Girl" (of course), and "Lenny Valentino." I remembered that the turn out wasn't so good (according to the San Francisco Chronicle, "the band played to half a house"), but it didn't matter because it was such a nice, intimate setting to see The Auteurs.
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Now I'm a Cowboy album autographed by Luke Haines and Alice Readman at Slim's, San Francisco (07/15/94) |
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