La
La Means...
Left to right - Paul Hemmings, Lee Mavers, John Timson, John Power. We can't really play but we're having a go. And we love music, that's why we're having a go...our songs are just dead catchy tunes that people can whistle and that... " With their first record out, The La's run right into a big problem they don't deserve. In the either /or marketplace of 1987 young men with guitars are dumped in there with the dirty hippies and the desperate fringe, the anorak scruffs and the psychedelic stupids. The La's, a Liverpool group without the lip and the Cope fetish, with GO! DISCS and a healthy disregard for talking too much, are on an escalator to the top floor. Their music, a weird soup of pre-1970 British rock music you can hear on 'Way Out', is too strange to get lost in Long/Peel bin. But until Smash Hits takes the piss out of them and The Wide Awake Club gives them the green light, they must deal with College secs in St Julian T-shirts and pre-performance discos which assume it's possible to dance to The Soup Dragons. For their sins, The La's are playing here tonight. We shake on it and look for a quiet space. We end up in the toilet. Lee Mavers claims a cubicle and John Timson settles for the floor. The mysterious Timmo, a drummer three times as big as his unfortunate kit, has gone home for his tea. Twanger and notorious ladies' man Paul Hemmings sticks his head in from time to time. The air is thick with Moroccan mist. The La's are a myth come to life, scally hippies who don't waste time thinking about trainees, dole survivors who've spent more hours listening to 'Clear Spot'(*1) and 'Live At Leeds'(*2) than they have worrying about season tickets and Tacchini trackies. *1 - Captain Beefheart
Lee and John are the backbone of the group . They met through a no-jobs-for-yobs music course. "The two of us just hit it off as in I like him and he likes me and all that shit..", says John. Because there are four of them, The La's have been compared to the other fabber four. Lee thinks it's because Paul lives in Penny Lane. "Although I live in Huyton so that f---s things up a bit ". Such minor details don't stop me asking Bigger-Than-God type questions like, what will you do with your first million? "Spend it". How would you describe your music?, "Shake, rattle and roll, la".What were you doing before? "Signin' on". When was the last time you took the ferry across the Mersey? "The last time I had to go to Birkenhead". The La's are ugly, awkard bastards who deserve more than a room full of tomorrow's teachers. I like them. And then they start playing. "I know it sounds crap, like, but I think we're really special". "You think we're shit now, wait until you get into us, la". JMcC.  |