what's all this for?why? not sure if i know. in fact, don't think i'll ever know.
love? love is often the reason for things, when we can't find any other.
i guess for love, then.
or, something secret, heartfelt, bittersweet, insistent ...
it's just the music.
music that seems to play back to my soul a sound so familiar, so immediate.
a sound that joins and envelopes and holds me in ...
that's what all this is for.
- bobsy
Liner notes from Drop Out
"Precious diamond tears come falling down again." East Village as in Greenwich. As in a village east of Buckingham. As in six buzzing amplifiers, matching black polo necks, boots polished just so, hunched over chest high guitars, feverish concentration, chiming melancholia, in love with minor chords, in search of Highway 61. "She still believes in what he sings." Still believes in natural niggling beat poetry. Still remembers how, even on a half good night, they could blow you all to pieces. Heartaches by the number. Pop music, so sweet, so neurotic, all dark ponies and Kensington pipe dreams, always autumnal.
"Falling rain, sinking ships." Hallways and staircases. Deep and dark, hurting and loving. Phantom engineers and pleasures of the harbour. Green and green, sweetness and strangeness. Peardrops and teardrops.
Drop out.
-Bob Stanley
Sleeve Notes from Excellent vinyl LP re-issue of "Drop Out"
The East Village Sound – beat-up old guitars, vintage amps that hardly worked and out of tune drums. The music scene in Britain like when the band was around is no idea for me. The all night petrol station scene was rockin' though. -Spencer Smith
Paul and I had grown up listening to a lot of music around the house. Then Punk rock happened when I was about 11. This had a massive affect on Paul and I and was the thing that really got us in to playing guitars and the idea of forming a band. I guess we were fooling around writing songs as early as 1979-80. I wrote "Circles" shortly after moving to London. I was really poor with no money at all, living in a horrible flat. It just sort of came out one day. When I played it to Paul and Spence they got the ideas for drum and guitar parts really quickly. It clicked. I still like it. I don't think we tried to copy anyone, we wanted our own sound. -Martin Kelly
At that time, the underground became mainstream, but we had kind of missed the boat, or were in the wrong one. We were trying to create our own sound, other people always seemed to want to be just like some other band or whatever but we wanted to be unique. Why anyone would want to hear this stuff again is beyond me! -Paul Kelly
Liner notes from Drop Out (Deluxe edition)
That's the main difference between life and music, perfect life doesn't exist as such. You may disagree but you know I'm right. Meanwhile, if you are lucky enough, you may discover a perfect pop record, one day, without especially looking for it. Yes, you may disagree but you know I'm so right...
A perfect pop record is not just good songs, that would be too easy, far too easy. You've got the sleeve and inner sleeve, the pictures, the looks and the hooks, the name and the titles. East Village though, Big Apple and great choruses, silver beats and gold guitars, cool haircuts and great clothes.
It all began with a black and white picture and a gorgeous girl. An ad for supremo fashion designer Katherine Hamnett I first saw in an issue of i-D magazine the year before, 1992 it was. The band decided to use it as a sleeve, as THE sleeve, with gold letters, shine and bright, as the future looked like when I first listened to "Silver Train". Timeless verses, friendly voices, great melodies.
They recorded these songs in 1990, they released them three years later. Today, you can tell it wasn't important 'cos it's timeless music. Yes, as simple as that.
It was the east coast and the west coast, the British beat and the old european flair all mixed together. A Godard movie with a fantastic soundtrack. A dream come true. So true that they decided there wouldn't be another LP 'cos East Village vanished. Well, nearly. The last song was titled "Everybody Knows", and everybody should have known indeed...
So you've got a second chance now. Don't miss it. Maybe this record will change your life, as it changed mine, more than ten years ago. I only decided to become a music journalist and not a bass player 'cos my hairdresser didn't want to cut my hair like the Kelly brothers... Fuck! It's too late for nostalgia, but remember, forever now, they were four, they were fab, they were East Village.
From Paris, with love
Christophe Basterra 2005
Review...
It must have been supporting the House Of Love that killed off their chances... Even if not it's a tenuous link to EAST VILLAGE – say it loud in big letters. How can a band be so fragile yet strong, they admit at times they're beaten – "There are no painters or poets anymore..." is how they put in "Cubans in the Bluefields" (SUB AQUA AQUA 2). Play this record children, raise your eyes to heaven and shout WHY? This song should have been massive. The B-side is "Strawberry Window", work of equal beauty. Also check out "Freeze Out" on CAFF 1 with Honey Hunt 'zine – I've not heard a song that hits dead on like that for a very long time. The relentlessness of the drums vs that baby blue bass with the guitars floating over the top of it all reflecting the anguish of wanting to get away from her (or his) shadow but finding yourself unable to stand it, and it climaxes with the guitar shimmering (or is it stammering?) and washing over you, managing to leave a hole in your heart you could put your fist through...
AND NOW IT'S UP TO YOU TO DO WHAT ONLY YOU CAN DO...
(Taken from "Precious" fanzine issue 3, circa 1989/90)
Interview...
East Village: last year’s next big thing from London. This year’s “Whatever happened to…” Still kicking around, still the same people with the same determination and spirit. The last single, “Back Between Places” came out almost 18 months ago. Since then, the gaze of the fickle public desperate for the new fad moved on to the, no doubt, quick-to- burn-out new English adolescent Dinosaur types (who all end up sounding like “Psycho Candy” with wah wah’s) while the likes of me have yet to move from their chair.
A new East Village single is released shortly. Some may, in a derogatory manner, use the term “serious” to describe East Village. Well they are, but not in an evil way. To take their music carefully and with honesty doesn’t say it’s necessarily so.
Q: Do you think this honesty will stay in tact?
A: We do what we want, take it or leave it. I’d rather be poor than bend over in the record companies office. We are part of a record business that does not encourage honesty but we didn’t start to be part of it. We started from being fans. That’s the only reason we exist, therefore our music will only change in a way we feel it should change.
Q: Fame and fortune appeal?
A: Not fame and fortune but success. To be recognised for what we do. We spend so much time on this because it is what we want and what we believe in and we want others to believe in it too. We certainly don’t want the cliché rock star trappings. Basically I feel what we do is good and I want others to feel that way too. People who do come and speak to us at gigs appear to like our music with a passion, so I am glad we encourage that.
Q: East Village have supported on two national tours. Do you feel audiences generally listen to support groups?
A: We really enjoyed the McCarthy tour but it was on a smaller scale than the House of Love one. They’re not our normal type of audience and normally would not get a chance to hear our music. So it’s good that we can be appreciated by those people. We’re not always preaching to the converted. I think a lot of success of the last single was due to the tour. It sold on the strength of people coming to see us and then buying the single since there was no press coverage and unfortunately no follow-up release. So yes, people do listen to support groups.
Q: And then there’s the Hurrah similarity that is always leveled at you?
A: We are probably of their ilk but we were totally oblivious of Hurrah when we started. We may be just influenced by the same sort of things.
(Replies by Martin Kelly. Questions by Karen. Interview in late 1989 and appeared in “Do It For Fun” fanzine Number Two (1990). Courtesy of Jim Kavanagh.)