Village Green Machine Fri, 11 May 2012 06:48:38 +0000 GMT Fri, 11 May 2012 06:48:38 +0000 GMT Village Green Machine magazine http://villagegreenmachine.com/article/rss/latest.html http://villagegreenmachine.com/images/m_lemon.jpg Mark Lemon http://villagegreenmachine.com/article/rss/latest.html en-gb vgmmlblglatest-rss http://villagegreenmachine.com/article/rss/latest-rss.html Fri, 11 May 2012 06:48:38 +0000 GMT Climb aboard VILLAGE GREEN MACHINE Ok, the band is a phenomenon, in the rehearsal studio. Really difficult to get gigs though. Really bad!! So we have decided finally to set up a local residency, and we'll play a load of 60s pop 45s and have a party. And of course Village Green Machine will play. I produce the music, always aiming for a 1960s sound. Sorry if this feels a bit uptight, I am trying to put it to you in a way I think will be instructive but since this isn't a PT class I'll just chat. Yeah the music business breaks your heart sometimes, it really kicks the shit out of your soul. Dreams get kicked up the gutter. But, what I like is that the music we make is in a sealed compartment, removed from all the bollocks of the music business. All the let downs, which can be incredibly upsetting and distressing if you want to be a rock & roll star (and know you could be) can't touch the music, which I find in this band is incredibly pure, aggressive, subtle, full of emotion and spirit. So all the people in the business who have let us down can't hurt the music, much as they have hurt me. The music is immune to them, hooray. And it is a celebratory thing. I am in this incredible band. We learnt how to get a great sound, how to set the guitar sound to make it work. And the boys had a great sound already. I know how to write a good song, I won't go into analysing it all but we are experienced musicians and somehow, out comes this amazing music, now, this is true...we ALL in the band excuse caps know the band is good. It really is a special thing in life, a very valuable thing to be in a good band. Life's a bastard frequently and to be in a great band is a great thing. (Website with sounds, address at the bottom of this message.) Also you can get some good free downloads... So yeah it (the band) sounds a little bit like The Who in 1966, or The Creation with Chuck Berry. Or The Byrds, or Arthur Lee...and I will come clean on this and say, the boys in the group dig Black Flag and Hawkwind. So they have power, a great backdrop to what I put in the pot. Jason Holgate on bass likes Jefferson Airplane and early Floyd and Syd in a big way, which I do. He wears flares, plays through a huge valve amp. So, we are empathetic and also Jason is a sophisticated musician, subtle and skilled. Paul Collins on drums always played the best 4/4 in town. They're good. Very, very good. And I bring my songs, singing and guitar playing in, and it gels. The way forward now is, we'll do a local residency and play a load of pop 45s on the decks, all 60s. Build a night up. Is exciting, should be really good. We have had a problem getting promoters to book us, they are looking to make money. That's ok. But it is immensely frustrating to me not to be given gigs even by promoters who put on retro nights, really tough on me/us because we know the band is that bloody good and we are stuck in a f****** rehearsal room being really good in the privacy of our rehearsal room. Can you imagine how that feels? It feels like we are monks, dignified monks. So anyway we are doing a local Birmingham residency which we will promote ourselves, soon, details in my blog soon which I intend to do regularly again now. Do you know, Village Green Machine are always on the radio. Were on radio 2 and 6, on the radio in Texas regularly, in Italy, on John Cavanagh's show a while back which went out in various countries. The radio people are absolutely amazing, in their support and it means a lot to me, because ... it means a lot lets leave it at that. It really does. So much airplay, some in Ireland and get this, New York on Andy Rourke from The Smiths show. I'm his friend he says, well peace be to him and love from me because that group he was in...have inspired my latest acoustic recordings.I like Andy. I just want to communicate with VGM fans, and say hi and stuff and talk to you? about what we're up to. Please do climb aboard the Village Green Machine. The band is so good and so intense and sorted, I will conclude by saying the whole point of this as far as I am concerned is to make good music which is part of the remedy, yuk I hate that word but I'm not editing this, .....ok I'm a bit pissed here, what I am trying to say is pop music has evidently gone down the pan and the point of me/VGM making music is to help redress the balance towards good pop music. I set out to make great music, I try every time to do that. To be straight, I hate manufactured modern music, urban music generally and it's aesthetics, and also Indie music and a lot of adult serious music, except Fleet Foxes and PW. And I see the wellspring of pop as having run dry.(PS I partly blame IRONY in music, always hiding incase someone thinks being literal is uncool) I like the flashes of great music in the past, the 60s I think was full of lightning flashes of sheer brilliance and it will always be my favourite decade. But then there are things from other decades, we all know this. If I say Eddie Cochrane, The Stone Roses, Pulp, ok maybe just Common People, The White Stripes and The Strokes, Tom Petty and Patti Smith, David Bowie, maybe I am linking disparate things together with the common thread that they were all brilliant, I think. I just want to be part of that, and for the band to be part of that and, we can do it, we're doing it already, and if you dig this then please spread the word because that's the way to make Village Green Machine popular, to get us out of obscurity cos actually we don't have anything other than word of mouth at the moment and I know how powerful that can be. Thankyou for any support you will give us, take care and do sign up for this blog on your RSS feed. Love, Mark Lemon, Village Green Machine. You can hear me/us here http://villagegreenmachine.com/ and get a download. ]]> vgmmlblglatest-rss http://villagegreenmachine.com/article/rss/latest-rss.html Wed, 05 Oct 2011 00:23:47 +0100 GMT Like The Roses VILLAGE GREEN MACHINE The band at rehearsal, like The Roses or early Who. I felt engulfed by sound. A step forward is instantaneous, as the expression implies. I can hear a great band emerging, yet still I do not know from where. Where does music come from? Johnny Marr and Mozart said they didn't know. There is something about being in a truly great band. I was in one, maybe 2, with Dave Kusworth. But I had no reason to suspect greatness would happen again in a band for me, despite being able to play, and working with very good people. Greatness, in music, is elusive, in terms of really identifying the essence of that greatness. It is exciting to be in a great band. Infact, it is one of the most thrilling experiences one can have. I didn't expect it to happen to me again, and I don't take it for granted. But I know what I heard the other afternoon, and I'm not going to let that go.

We will play live, of course. In fact we are organising a scene in Birmingham. Brum, is not a pretty city. It is architecturally mundane, generally. I live in a place which borders on desolation. So, rock & roll grows, because of this. Something bursts through the concrete. I don't think rock & roll came from, ease, from the moneyed classes. It bursts to life as an art form full of spirit, from the barren roots of, poverty. My f****** life was shafted when I was a kid, now I am not going to talk about that, but, you may get the picture. Music doesn't come from idyllic spirits, although one may feel ecstatic in the moment of creation. Music comes from, the pain of life. It's a nice thing though, isn't it.:)) Well I like it, anyway.

Come and see the band, we will be playing soon it will be a GAS. Or, get a CD or download, or if you're poor just have a listen.

http://villagegreenmachine.com/

x

Mark Lemon

Village Green Machine

]]> vgmmlrrlatest_rss http://villagegreenmachine.com/article/rss/divine.html Fri, 20 May 2011 00:10:33 +0100 GMT Divine Divine

Hi we're deciding on a new look/aesthetic for Village Green Machine, website will reflect this, artwork for next LP, and photos will reflect this. I decided to move upmarket  :-)   If you're one of the thousands who keep coming back to this website, don't worry, we will bring you some good new stuff.

It really is good, the next LP is finished apart from a few tweaks to the mixing. One serious music fan who heard the album told me it was divine and that it is genius. I am working with really good musicians towards a new live situation, the organ player brings early Pink Floyd, The Doors and Booker T to mind. Paul Collins is a stalwart, solid drummer back onboard. Come back here for updates on the album release date and live dates. There will be a new video.

Also VGM is now managed by intrepid achiever Grant Holby. The second album is produced like a mid 60s record, is experimental, is generally more of a rock & roll record, a bit more bluesy, more r&b than the first. So you will get early Rolling Stones influences, a splash of 60s garage, a little Sweet Jane era Velvets influence. There's a stark acoustic ballad. Look, its really, really good. We've got to get away from manufactured stuff, (pumped at us 24/7 by an ever more insistent marketing machine) I will always do my best to be part of a credible alternative. See you later and see you soon x

ps if you like the samples please buy an album, the samples are only half the song, support independent music, go on its only a few pounds.

]]> vgmmlrrentertaining_mr_sloane http://villagegreenmachine.com/article/rss/entertaining-mr-sloane.html Sat, 22 Jan 2011 21:22:18 +0000 GMT Entertaining Mr Sloane Entertaining Mr Sloane

 

Entertaining Mr Sloane

 

here I am waiting in the wings/like rope around mist my dreams I have kissed/like promises told to children I wait with preying eyes upon life's elusive glittering prize/and you know damn it deserve it now/damn it I deserve it now.

Purple Haze Odyssey and Oracle Odessa Revolver Forever Changes too I want the scent of the crowd the hum the glory of cheers and the records I make should spin not download I am looking back down music's illustrious back roads and I ain't finished yet. 

So anyway hello and a cheery smile I've been reading Orton watching Mr Sloane sitting in bed transfixed and drawn into his world of rising personal power fame long arriving/ the mischievous defacement of library books adventures unmentionable and Halliwell, whose malignant diseased mind exploded/ Orton battered to death by hammer blows yet the legacy shows a talent irreverent idiosyncratic and mischievous... Orton's I mean... look on Youtube see the black eyes dart around entrapped on a conservative panel game/ set to misbehave he did so to comic roguish effect... while all the time Haliwell imploded Joe did not see psychological disintegration personality dissipation this man unable somehow to liberate himself from his own sorry drama except by murder and suicide... and then there are the darker aspects...

 

Give mercury a channel it can run down and it will:-)

 

And the work lives on. Orton's work lives on.

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