Spacemen 3: История Английской Психоделической Рок-Группы

English alternative rock band

Spacemen 3 were an English rock band, formed in 1982 in Rugby, Warwickshire, by Peter Kember and Jason Pierce, known respectively under their pseudonyms Sonic Boom and J Spaceman. Their music is known for its brand of "trance like neo psychedelia" consisting of heavily distorted guitar, synthesizers, and minimal chord or tempo changes. The band drew inspiration from acts like the Stooges, the Velvet Underground, and Suicide. Following their debut album Sound of Confusion (1986), Spacemen 3 had their first independent chart hits in 1987, gaining a cult following, and through albums The Perfect Prescription (1987) and Playing with Fire (1989), went on to have greater success towards the end of the decade. However, they disbanded shortly afterwards, releasing their final studio album Recurring post split in 1991 after an acrimonious parting of ways. They gained a reputation as a 'drug band' due to the members' drug taking habits and Kember's candid interviews and outspoken opinions on recreational drug use. Kember and Pierce were the only members common to all line ups of the band. Pierce has enjoyed considerable success with his subsequent project—Spiritualized. Kember has since found acclaim for his production work with indie artists, most often under the stage name Sonic Boom.

The creative and song writing force throughout Spacemen 3's history were Peter Kember and Jason Pierce. They met at the (now defunct) Rugby Art College on Clifton Road, Rugby, Warwickshire in autumn 1982, both aged 16, and became close friends. Pierce was in a band called Indian Scalp, but he left them near the end of 1982 to collaborate with Kember. The two guitarists recruited drummer Tim Morris, who played with a couple of other bands and had a rehearsal space at his parental home, which they used. Shortly afterwards Pete Bain joined on bass. Morris and Bain had previously played together in a band called Noise on Independent Street. Pierce handled lead vocal duties. Now a 4 piece, the band originally adopted the name The Spacemen. Their first live performances occurred around winter 1982/83, playing at a party and then at a couple of gigs they managed to get at a local bar; at the latter their set included a 20 minute version of the one chord song "O. D. Catastrophe". In autumn 1983, Pierce, having finished his course at Rugby Art College, started attending an art school in Maidstone, Kent. This prompted Bain and Morris to leave and join a new local band, The Push, being formed by Gavin Wissen. Kember and Pierce recruited a replacement drummer, Nicholas "Natty" Brooker. They continued without a bassist and Pierce would regularly return to Rugby for rehearsals. In early 1984, they only performed at a few local, low key venues. Still a trio, they changed their name to Spacemen 3. At one of their gigs at The Black Lion in 1985, they came to the attention of Pat Fish, the leader of the recording band The Jazz Butcher; he felt Spacemen 3 were "extraordinary" and "like nothing else". with studio manager Dave Howard dealing with the technicalities. These "fine set of performances"

Spacemen 3 were sent to record their first album, Sound of Confusion, at the studios of Bob Lamb in the King's Heath area of Birmingham. With a recording budget of less than £1,000, they completed the album in five days, with the last two days dedicated to mixing. Attempts at recording the title song "Walkin' with Jesus (Sound of Confusion)" were unsuccessful and abandoned. Pat Fish was slated to produce the album, but he had commitments with his band, and Bob Lamb produced it. Kember and Pierce were unhappy with the results, and they preferred the Northampton demos instead. Sound of Confusion was released in July 1986. The cover artwork included shots of the band illuminated by their light show equipment. The album was not received well, making little impression at the time, although it went on to reach no. 2 on the UK Independent Chart in 1989. To follow up their album, Spacemen 3 made their first single, "Walkin' with Jesus" in 1986; the received decent reviews from NME and Sounds, and peaked at no. 29 on the UK Independent Chart, and no. 46 in the indie chart published by Sounds. The B side included "Ecstasy Symphony", an experimental piece using an organ drone. The Perfect Prescription received little critical attention in the UK, being better received in the United States. However, it represented Kember and Pierce's "collaborative zenith" (Erik Morse), and the album "is practically a best of in all but name". The Perfect Prescription "marked a serious artistic development, drawing deeper from gospel, ambient, and spiritual music, granting a serenity and depth to their spaced out garage psychedelia".

In January–February 1988, Spacemen 3 undertook a six week tour of continental Europe, encompassing Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium. Comprising nearly thirty gigs, the tour saw tensions and discontent arise between band members. After they returned to England, drummer Stewart Roswell quit. It was at this juncture that Kember and Pierce chose to enter into a contractual relationship with Gerald Palmer, a Northamptonshire businessman and concert promoter who had already been functioning recently as Spacemen 3's de facto manager. This tripartite business partnership had the following terms: Palmer would own the master tapes of all future recordings, the rights of which would be licensed to record labels for release; touring and recording costs etc. would be financed by Palmer, who would give Kember and Pierce an advance of £1,000 each; and, in return, all profits would be split 50:50: 50% for Palmer, and 50% for Kember and Pierce and other band members. Significantly, this contract was only with Kember and Pierce, meaning Spacemen 3 as a legal and financial entity would, in essence, constitute only the two of them together with Palmer. In addition, Palmer became Spacemen 3's manager.

During 1989, Gerald Palmer had been courting interest and offers from US major record labels. Palmer had been postponing a decision hoping the US tour would lever improved offers. Negotiations with Dedicated Records, a satellite label of BMG, had been ongoing for several months. The poor intra band relations had remained secret for the sake of outward appearance. By October 1989, the latest offer from Dedicated was a five album, multimillion dollar deal, with a £60,000 advance. Palmer had expended £15,000 on legal fees, and because he had managed to negotiate out the standard Leaving Member Clause, Kember and Pierce were in a 'win win situation'. In December, the three met to arrange signing the Dedicated record deal. Pierce insisted that Kember sign an agreement stating that the two of them had equal rights to Spacemen 3, to mutually protect them by preventing either party potentially claiming ownership of the Spacemen 3 name should the other quit. Coerced by the attraction of his portion of the Dedicated advance, Kember signed it. Mattock claims Kember attacked Pierce in the street the next morning. At the beginning of 1990, Kember and Pierce attended the London offices of Dedicated separately to sign the record contract. A few days later, at a dinner (at the Paper Tiger Chinese restaurant in Lutterworth, Leicestershire) with Dedicated executives, Kember and Pierce were cordial with the other guests but didn't talk with one another. The pretence was kept up until the end; Palmer did not inform Dedicated about the band breaking up until March.

In late 1989, Jason Pierce, dissatisfied with his mixes at VHF Studios, took his recordings for the Recurring album to Battery Studios, London. Assisted by engineer/producer Anjali Dutt, Pierce completed final remixes of his songs in January 1990. However, Peter Kember's side of the album was far from ready, and he resorted to calling on the help of Richard Formby, a producer. According to Formby, when he arrived, Kember's recording was only half done; some songs were incomplete, and two had to be re recorded from scratch. In January 1990, Kember's side project and debut solo album, Spectrum (Sonic Boom), was released. Recorded nearly a year previously, Kember had used the project as a vehicle for a group of melancholic themed songs, having decided to save his more upbeat work for Spacemen 3 and Recurring. The Spectrum album was advertised as being by the "founder member/leader of Spacemen 3". Also in January, Pierce was developing ideas for forming a new band or side project of his own. He invited Spacemen 3 compatriots, Refoy, Carruthers and Mattock, to jam and rehearse with him at a small church hall and his flat. Initially it was informal, but this was the origin of Pierce's Spacemen 3 'splinter' band, Spiritualized, comprising all the same members as Spacemen 3 except for Kember. In February 1990, this new grouping recorded "Anyway That You Want Me". This was recorded at VHF Studios; the purpose of these sessions was kept secret from Kember who was still working there. Speaking in 1991, Pierce explained the purpose of starting Spiritualized:

Kember continued on completing his Recurring material. His indecision and constant remixing was prolonging the recording of the album. Gerald Palmer was still funding the studio time, and warned Kember to finish. Eventually, intolerant of any more delays, Palmer attended VHF Studios. He seized Kember's tapes, carrying out a previous threat, and chose the final mixes for release. There were reportedly dozens of different mixes for each song. In June 1990, Spiritualized released their debut single, "Anyway That You Want Me". This was a cover of a song by The Troggs which Spacemen 3 had demoed in 1988 during their Playing with Fire sessions. The single's cover sleeve, which had no text on it, controversially bore a sticker saying "Spacemen 3". Furthermore, adverts for the single featured the Spacemen 3 logo. Recurring is a fine album. Laid back to the point of bed sores, its hushed vocals, pulsing backbeats and warm walls of sound infuse an introverted beauty with a keen r'n'r understanding. The two sides run on a similar vibe, although Jason's is a tad more conventional, riding on vocal atmospherics and a dreamtime feel, while Sonic's is sparser, pulling on a more disparate source of influences as shown on "Big City", the LP's killer cut as well as the current fab single.| John Robb, Sounds. In 1991 Kember and Pierce were pursuing their musical careers with their own bands, Spectrum and Spiritualized respectively. The release of Recurring prompted renewed press speculation about the future of Spacemen 3. No official statement explained why, or confirmed whether, Spacemen 3 had broken up. blockquote|I don't really see any problem anyway, if you buy Pete's album and you buy mine, you've got a Spacemen 3 album anyhow, by combining the two| Jason Pierce – Sounds, 09/02/1991. and has also done production work for MGMT, Panda Bear, Dean & Britta and The Flowers of Hell. Jason Pierce (alias 'J. Spaceman') remains the leader and creative force, and only constant member, of the alternative band Spiritualized who have achieved significant critical acclaim and commercial success. Refoy played guitar for the Pet Shop Boys on their live tour in 2007. Will Carruthers took a hiatus from the music industry after leaving Spiritualized; but subsequently has worked with Kember, recorded two solo albums as Freelovebabies,

After leaving Spacemen 3 in 1988, both Pete Bain and Sterling Roswell (aka Rosco) joined the neo psychedelic band the Darkside who released several albums. As of 2010 he provides vocals and guitar in The Urgz. Stewart Roswell (alias Sterling Roswell) released a solo album, The Psychedelic Ubik, in 2004. Brooker provided cover artwork for Spacemen 3's Recurring album and early Spiritualized releases. Brooker died of cancer on Friday 18 April 2014. A partial and unofficial 'reunion' of Spacemen 3 occurred on 15 July 2010 at a benefit gig dubbed 'A Reunion of Friends', organised for former Spacemen 3 drummer Natty Brooker (diagnosed with terminal cancer) at the Hoxton Bar and Grill in London where there was a retrospective exhibition of his artwork. Will Carruthers said of the event, "This is as close as you'll get to a Spacemen 3 reunion, trust me." The participants were: Peter Kember (keyboard/guitar/vocals); Will Carruthers (bass); Jonny Mattock (drums); Mark Refoy (guitar); Jason Holt (guitarist from Kember's touring Spectrum band); and guest appearances from Pat Fish (vocals), and Kevin Shields (guitar) of My Bloody Valentine. They played a 45 minute set comprising the songs 'Walkin' with Jesus', 'Revolution' and 'Suicide'.

Sonically, Spacemen 3's music was characterised by fuzzy and distorted electric guitars, stuttering tremolo effects and wah wah, the employment of 'power chords' and simple riffs, harmonic overtones and drones, softly sung/spoken vocals, and sparse or monolithic drumming. Spacemen 3 were adherents to the "minimal is maximal" philosophy of Alan Vega, singer for the American duo Suicide who were known for their ominously repetitive music. Kember has articulated the maxim: "One chord best, two chords cool, three chords okay, four chords average". Spacemen 3 had the dictum "taking drugs to make music to take drugs to". Kember candidly admitted to his frequent drug taking—including cannabis, LSD, magic mushrooms, MDMA, amphetamine and cocaine—and being a former heroin addict. Much of Spacemen 3's music concerned documenting the drug experience and conveying the related feelings. In NME 2011 list, the '50 Druggiest Albums' of all time, Spacemen 3's Northampton Demos release, Taking Drugs to Make Music to Take Drugs To, was ranked No. 23. The group took influence from The Stooges, The Velvet Underground, and The Rolling Stones. Kember was also interested in drone music and everyday ambient sounds such as those created by electric razors, washing machines, lawnmowers, planes, motor engines and passing cars. space rock, psychedelic rock, alternative rock, garage rock

Violin – Owen John. † §
Cello – Josephine Wiggs (of The Perfect Disaster). ‡ Writing in spring 1991, just after the band had split, Vox Stephen Dalton referred to Spacemen 3 as "one of the most influential underground bands of the last decade". In 2004, US journalist Erik Morse's biography of the band's life and work, Spacemen 3 & The Birth of Spiritualized, was published.

Record Collector magazine, Issue 285, May 2003 – Spacemen 3 feature. Outer Limits (Spacemen 3 fan magazine), Issues 1 & 2, 1991 (Two part article re: early history of Spacemen 3).