There are 5 people currently active in Lazarus Clamp. Michael, Andrew, Tom, John and Huw. We offer secure employment, but low (no) pay. Our most stable position is guitar player (no changes). Our most volatile position is bass player (three changes). Our ex-members are George, Kim, Guy, and Mark. We have been lucky to have very few problems with recruitment.
We live here: www.lazarusclamp.co.uk.
Our hero is Lewis.
Two of us are picky eaters. Can you guess which ones?
Influences
Yeah so like I was saying there are 5 of us and we all like different stuff and we are just like other bands we can list em and list em and list em until you hate us even more than you think you do already, but me I grew up in the North-East of England where I was raised by punks (hence the fondness for Dead Kennedys, Nomeansno) and by women (hence the fondness for women) and it was there that I learned to love folk music, drinking and coarse, violent dancing, mostly from hanging out at North Country folk festivals (which is where the Mekons hit the sweet spot for me, I think, plus because they can read - I like that in a band - and that set us up for the country stuff that came later, too) and then there was a golden period of noisy, chaotic, creative, serious music for me (and probably some of the others too), between about 1985 and 1994, which coincided with that part of my life when 'noisy, chaotic, creative, serious' was what I most wanted to be (Fugazi, Big Black, Dinosaur, firehose, Throwing Muses, Codeine ...), and I guess since we learned to play our instruments halfway 'properly' (stop laughing at me you fuckers - I know its upside down, I know) we probably also started to enjoy playing more musically-demanding things (as opposed to, say, physically-demanding) and there are some mutual obsessions that we share (or maybe just one: Will Oldham) which are not remotely 'influences' (i.e. I don't think you can hear a squeak of Billy in what we actually do) and John and George I do like wit in music (e.g. Mountain Goats, Magnetic Fields) and some things are just great full stop (Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Waterson Carthy, Billy Bragg), and I have a soft-spot for melodrama which the others can do without (Nick Cave, Tindersticks, Tarnation) and Andrew tolerates instrumental music to a degree which I cannot understand (Tortoise, Rachels - hang on I think the kettle's boiling - oh no that's just my frustration boiling over again) and damn them, Tom and Huw and John are too broad-minded for my tastes anyway, and no one else has ever said that about John have they? And of the bands we've played with, The New Year and Richard Buckner, have been the most exciting for us. How many of those are influences? Not many. What influenced me? Having a broken guitar in my house when I was growing up, and learning to 'play' it with one string on it; having a friend - Mr R. L. Clamp - who was just more punk-rock than me, and who believed that we could be in a band even if we couldn't play; hearing Big Black's Lungs EP, and believing him; having a garage (if I hadn't had a garage, I wouldn't have been able to stack up lots of metal oil drums in there and hit them til my wrists hurt ...); meeting someone who taught me how to tune a guitar; meeting someone else - Andrew - who shared a similar relationship to the same kind of music; meeting Huw's mom, Jill, who introduced me to Huw ... Influences, my arse. This section should be headed, 'Relationships.' That's how it happens. People make music. John's embarrassing obsession with Marillion is proof that it doesn't matter WHAT you listen to. As long as its not THAT.
Sounds Like
1 thing; sometimes repeating.
2 things, but at once.
The 3 footsteps you might hear, just before a kind person places a comfortingly cool palm on the back of your neck.
4 short-tempered people fumbling around on the floor, trying to find the keys lost by an indignant 5th person, on a cold, dark night.
6 degrees, with scant regard for Actual Maths.
7 is a lucky number, apparently. We await Its Arrival.
This years festival is headlined by Billy Bragg (Friday), Seth Lakeman (Sunday) and Peatbog Faeries (Saturday) with many more top artists also performing incl the award winning The Demon Barbers.
and if you ever need any ( free ) artwork give me a shout,I'd be happy to oblige!( that is if you like it of course; not everybody can stomach it for some reason :D )
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