It's 2015 - These Animal Men, S*M*A*S*H and Flawed Is Beautiful
These Animal Men and S*M*A*S*H – a reunion made in heaven.
On Friday 11th September 2015 These Animal Men will appear live together for the first time in twenty years supported by S*M*A*S*H – a night of newer wave collision pop decibels in Central London.
Movie-power made it happen. There's a new documentary, 'Flawed Is Beautiful' named after a These Animal Men song that was given 21st century love and recognition from the British hit TV series, 'Skins'. #TheZineUK story has multi media woven in and in Chapter 3's Music On Screen catch up, there were some stills while the Flawed movie was being made as director, Adam Foley, called in to our base, and made some of it there. (I make a brief, slightly unintelligable cameo – luckily everybody else makes articulate points.)
Flawed Is Beautiful gets advance public screenings (with an artists Q&A session from both bands and the director, Adam, plus a stripped down live set by These Animal Men) in Brighton, Cambridge and kicking off at Amersham Arms in London. This is relevant to anybody on that wavelength. These will be low key, affordable, intimate and personal experiences. Whether you were there in the 90s, or are flying the flag for DIY independence right now. Proper.
Like all the best music documentaries, Flawed Is Beautiful is about heroic failure. These Animal Men and S*M*A*S*H didn’t have the right accents or connections. But they had the belief and they looked fantastic. They took their moment and made the most of it. They changed people’s lives in small towns out in the provinces, where the big bands didn’t ever come to town and where their songs of aspiration and indulgence (TAM) and smalltown rage (S*M*A*S*H) inspired a whole generation of kids.
People always say about the Velvet Underground that everyone who saw them went on to start a band. In the case of These Animal Men and S*M*A*S*H that might actually be true (Supergrass, 60 Foot Dolls and Shed 7 included).
Movie trailer:
The documentary also includes insights from music journalists of the 90s, now moving and shaking in even wider circles these days: John Robb, Ben Myers, Simon Price, Mark Sutherland, Paul Moody and Simon Williams. Additionally, Ric Blaxill who was the producer of TOTP and Matt Everitt of the band, Menswe@r (now at BBC 6Music Radio). The Zine's. Our Music On Screen catch up included Manic Streeet Preachers album doc, The Holy Bible My Testament. Simon Price interviewed John Robb (also at our Number3London base) as part of that. It feels like the upside down 60s of the 90s is influencing the near future.
Which is what Adam Foley has done.
#TheZineUK ; How did you track the bands down?
Adam: “it all came about because a few years' back, I wrote a book called 'Straight Outta Cullompton' about getting into music in the mid 90s in a small town in Devon. As part of that I interviewed Ed from S*M*A*S*H and Julian from These Animal Men. The thing about the Britpop era was that not many of the big bands came to town, so we spent more time in the local small venue, the Cavern.
Bands like S*M*A*S*H and TAM, that came to play there , meant more to us. We used to talk to them before and after the gigs and so on, so we were a lot more influenced by them. I'd go as far as to say that we built our identities around them, certainly when it came to the clothes we wore They had a transformational impact on us. So, it was important for the book that I talked to them about it. I got in touch with Julian through The Orphans Myspace page and I hung round outside a S*M*A*S*H gig in Bedford to meet Ed.
After the book, I started wondering what to do next and toyed with the idea of writing a biography of them both or something. But I kept going back to how visually striking they were and it seemed like a documentary would be a better route - I remember going to bed thinking 'someone should definitely make that film'. I woke up thinking 'I should make that film'. I had absolutely no experience or equipment - I didn't even have a camera. But I sent a text to Julian and Ed - they said 'yes' and suddenly we were making a film."
And that is how I (Caffy) came to meet Adam last summer, and add some chat. I feel that both bands still have impact. Their stories were short sharp shocks but their influences still flavour some of the under radar sounds and attitude. I always say that some of my favourite new musicians were in playgrounds, prams and packets of faulty condoms in the 90s. That decade, itself was inspred by the whole of the 20th century, especially the 60s, 70s and 80s then MTV. No wonder on millenium eve we partied like it was 1999!
Fast forward to the 21st century nearly being old enough to have sex legallyin the UK, a bunch of cruel arse wipes pretending they're not inflicting poverty by stealing all the money as "government". We don't need flaccid cock-suck karaoke celebrities. We need bangin' n screamin' still. We need poetic souls, romantic hearts, inquisitive minds and articulation for dancing, punking or even just reminiscing. Even settled down, hearts can still be stirred up. I personally am keeping an eye on Grace Jones and Keith Richards for what age officially needs a suit and grown up hair cut n attitude. Degentrification for emancipation!
On the underground, in small gathering places (where new artists excite me on a regular basis, still), escapism from the inflicted austerity is raving and rocking hard for escapism with centuries of inspiration fused into what still sounds like beautifully flawed, but eternally heroic, rebellion. As you were.