Skip to main content

The End Of The Long Ryders by Sid Griffin

Sid Griffin was a long time friend of the magazine – his band the Long Ryders even supplied a track "Baby We All Gotta Go Down", under the alias of The Spinning Wig Hats, to the album that accompanied issue 6. Besides being a great frontman with his band, he was and remains to this day a mighty fine writer. I have a signed and annotated copy of his “Gram Parsons - A Music Biography” (1985) that remains a most treasured possession, and his two Dylan books, “Million Dollar Bash” (2007) and “Shelter From The Storm” (2010) are two mighty worthy additions to the canon of Dylan biographies.

I'd spent a few hours in a London studio with the Long Ryders during the recording of their final Ed Stasium produced album “Two Fisted Tales”. Yes, that's The Ramones “Leave Home” and “Road To Ruin” Ed Stasium. Anyway, Sid had said he'd write something for issue 7, little knowing, when he agreed, that the band were on the verge of splitting up. But that's what he ended up writing about:

A Brief Description Of The Sad Break-Up Of My Life's Work These Last 5½ Years

Don't worry my friends, it aint the end of the world. It is merely the end of an era or perhaps the end of an error. The Long Ryders have broken up, and you good people/kind readers will be the first to know why. It's even kinda funny in a bitter-sweet, quixotic way.

Okay, do you know who I am/ we are? “Looking For Lewis And Clark”, the Whistle Test appearance, three UK tours, American music played by ex-punks who re-located on the west coast to be in the California sunshine, yeah, that's us. I'm the guy with the map-of-Africa styled sideboards and a bowl haircut. I stood in the middle and said funny things between songs, at least I did when we took breaks between songs (told ya we were ex-punkers). Remember? Good.

Last August 2nd (1987), in a Toronto hotel room, on a day kinda like England but gloomy enough to be Death, Stephen McCarthy, lead guitar and a close personal friend of Sid Griffin's, announced to a stunned audience of fellow band members, that he was quitting the group at the end of the tour. I was so shaken up I could not stand. Stephen quit because of personal reasons and we need not get into that here. I mean, you think we got problems, fuckin' True West had bassist Kevin Staydohar DIE of a BRAIN TUMOUR! There's a sad tale, my friends. He was a great guy too.

But anyway, Tom Stevens had already quit last May, and it was obvious that continually being told “you guys are the next big Yank success story, the next REM, the next Los Lobos, the next Georgia Satellites....” was taking it's toll, and more than just the rats were leaving the sinking ship. For three years plus, victory was right round the corner but it never came and so what....?....The Blasters and X are still out there and they've been around far longer than we have and are AMAZING bands in their own right, as are NRBQ who formed in Goddamn 1967, and are Elvis Costello's fave band period right now, and no-one who isn't a friend of his or mine in the entire UK even knows who they are! So you think I got problems, no way! Ask Neil Kinnock about problems, not me. (I tried to vote Labour when I was in Sheffield last June but they heard my accent and threw me out. I did try though.)

So drummer Greg Sowders and I sat down with Stephen and had a little chat, and we agreed it would be silly to go on stage without Stephen and say we were the Long Ryders, so Greg and I said we would retire the name, which is, I think, the honest thing to do. Even though we have a nice name for ourselves with that particular moniker in certain parts. So Greg and I will have a new band in 1988 with a new name, and a slightly newer or at leat different sound, although it may well be an old sound merely sped up. Which is what ex-punks like me like to do, 'cause it fools people under twenty into thinking you are doing something new when in reality you are just doing something older less well, but as you're doing it faster no one notices. Ask the Pogues. Hey, no lie, I'm going to be on TV with Joe Strummer in two days, no kiddin'!

Anyway, here's the next part. Our label long ago decided we were cunts for some reason, which is weird as up till near the end, I thought they were fine people and honest and all that....which goes to show you how much I've learned about the record industry during my 5½ years in the fucking thing! So dig, we knew since bloody (I use that word 'cause I LIKE you Brits) August we were going to split, so you know what we did? WE DIDN'T TELL ANYBODY SO WE COULD FOOL THE LABEL INTO PAYING A LOT OF BILLS WHICH THEY SAID THEY WOULD BUT WERE TAKING FOREVEER INTO PAYING UP BECAUSE THEY WERE JERKS AND WE KNEW IF THEY KNEW THE BAND WAS NO MORE THEY WOULDN'T HAVE PAID THE BILLS AT ALL!! BUT WE FOOLED 'EM FOR SIX MONTHS AND THEY PAID SOME BILLS SO FUCK THOSE PRICKS!!

And that's where we stand now. Greg and I will have a new band, Stephen doesn't tell me what he's up to but maybe he'll have a baby with his girl as they are in love and THAT'S LIFE. I also lost my girl-friend in late 1987, but so what, I'm back to being friends with my Dad after about 12 years and he and Mum are reconciled to my being a bum/musician for ever and a day AND they bought me this new typewriter, so you know things are on the up and up. GOD BLESS all of you like Chris 17 who were so nice to us, too....you made life worth living. You will be hearing from me again soon. Stay tuned.

Sid Griffin

PS What about the Spinning Wig Hats though?


Sadly, the tale remained untold until this day. Sid of course now fronts The Coal Porters http://www.sidgriffin.com/, Greg Sowders is a bigwig at Warner/Chappell Music, Tom Stevens you'll find at http://tom-stevens.blogspot.com/, Stephen McCarthy was playing with Steve Wynn and was responsible for the title of the latter's 2010 album "Northern Aggression".

Now for that Spinning Wig Hats track, "Baby We All Gotta Go Down" from the album that accompanied issue 6 of What A Nice Way To Turn Seventeen.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Music That Moves Me by Epic Soundtracks

Late 1995 and through the post comes a package from Epic including a photocopy of his contribution to Rolling Stone magazine's "Alt-Rock-A-Rama" which was eventually published in 1996, and a note.... "Hey Chris Here's my piece Dig it Man! Epic" And here is that piece, together with "videos" of the tracks he selects....all bar one. If anybody has a copy of  Harold Smith's Majestic Choir - “We Can All Walk A Little Bit Prouder” single from 1968, it would be pretty cool if you could rustle me up an MP3 of it. Thank-you. And with that, we're back.... Music That Moves Me by Epic Soundtracks Epic Soundtracks (aka Paul Godley) began playing music in 1972 and made his first record in 1977 as drummer with the influential Swell Maps, which also included his brother Nikki Sudden. More recently Epic has re-emerged as a singer, songwriter, and piano player, recording solo albums that reflect many of the influences discussed below. The

Part Two: Alex Chilton by Epic Soundtracks

Mr Epic Soundtracks As described, the second part of the exhaustive Alex Chilton interview by Epic Soundtracks as included in issue six of What A Nice Way To Turn Seventeen. Let's get straight into it. The cover of What A Nice Way To Turn Seventeen Issue Six's magazine The next record to come out would've been “The Singer Not The Song” EP. There was an album that came out after that from all those sessions, “Bach's Bottom”. Did you have anything to do with the release of that? No, Jon Tiven had the rights to those tracks. How about the Chris Stamey single (“Summer Sun”)? Was there anything cut at the same time as that? Well we did four tracks of mine, but Ork Records could never pay for the tapes. Did the whole punk thing going on in the UK in '76/'77 mean much to you? Well, I think it's difficult to understand the English mentality that bred the Sex Pistols, because the social conditions must not exist in America. I always thought that Americans wh

Albion Sunrise by Nikki Sudden - Chapter 12: Johnny Thunders

Nikki Sudden at the 100 Club, Oxford Street, London - 17th May 1983 - Photo by Nik Coleman Following the recently posted introduction to Nikki Sudden's unpublished novel "Albion Sunrise" we've dipped into the tale itself and extracted Chapter 12, "Johnny Thunders". Enjoy. Albion Sunrise: Chapter 12 - Johnny Thunders "In the dark-lit surroundings of The Establishment tea-rooms, general bric-a-brac and curio shop, The Bagman has once more taken up the reins and is keenly talking on the same generally much misunderstood subject of pure rock’n’roll. But, we find that he’s veered from the purity, albeit it seldom seen, or indeed rarely, if ever, understood by the general populace, of Jerry Lee Lewis and Memphis rockabilly, to fields further from home. Unfortunately by doing so he loses Mr. Dickens. For Mr. Dickens’ heart, it must be said, mainly resides in rock and roll’s first few timeless years. “ If there’s anything to be said on the general feelin