Entrevista a Chris Cooper

Una de las entrevistas que mayor ilusión me hizo lograr fue la realizada, en ‎enero‎ de ‎2005, ‏‎a Chris Cooper, el autor del diseño de portada/contraportada de This Is The Event, que, posteriormente, se ha convertido en una "celebridad" en el campo del dibujo y la ilustración. Pocos, probablemente, hubieran imaginado que Coop, como se le conoce hoy, tiene pasado "garajero".

1) How and when did you meet up with The Event? Were you a music scenester back then? Were you into sixties music?

In 1988 I moved from Oklahoma to California, with the intention of starting a silkscreening business with my friend Mad Jon McKinney, who was in a garage band called The Royal Nonesuch, and later played in the second version of The Tell-Tale Hearts. I was involved in the 80's garage music scene, both as a fan and artist, and after I moved to California, I started doing artwork for Ugly Things magazine, The Tell-Tale Hearts, and a few other San Diego bands. I also started doing LP covers for Greg Shaw, at about $200 bucks a pop. (Not much, but it paid the rent!)

2) What was your personal relation with the members of The Event? Were they nice, friendly people? Who were you the closest with?

I knew the guys in the band only casually, as part of the San Diego garage/Mod scene. I mostly hung out with Mike Stax and the rest of The Tell-Tale Hearts.

3) Did you see The Event live? How was the band live?

I did see The Event play several times in San Diego, as I spent a lot of time there during the first year or so that I was living in California. They were good live, pretty similar in sound to what ended up on the record, actually.

4) Who entrusted you with the cover artwork for The Event's "This Is The Event" LP?

I can't remember if the Event cover came directly from the band or through Greg Shaw. I was doing LP covers pretty regularly for Greg at that time, but mostly comps of 60's stuff.

5) What was the concept behind the artwork for the cover?

Greg Shaw wanted the photo for the front, but didn't care what I did with the back. The front was a pretty basic retro-style layout, with hand-drawn logo. I wanted to do a Pop Art thing on the back, so I did all the panel illustrations, and hand-separated the 4 colors with plenty of Benday dots to get that comic book look. At the time, I was really obsessed with the U.S. cover art of "The Who Sell Out", so that's why I drew the can of HEINZ Baked Beans.

I just went and dug the LP outta my collection for the first time in years, and it doesn't look too bad, I guess!

6) Was the band happy with your work?

I seem to remember that they really liked the crazy back cover. I could be wrong!

7) Musically speaking, did you like the Event's album?

Yeah, but I have to admit that, at the time, I was a horrible snob about 60's garage music, and always preferred the old stuff to the "new guys!" I'm a little more open-minded now...

Sound Affects (1988)

Sound Affects (como el canónico álbum de The Jam) fue el fanzine que Bart Mendoza editó desde mediados de los 80 hasta, que nosotros sepamos, 1992. Repasando en Searchin' For Shakes los contenidos de sus entregas, uno llega a la conclusión de que sus páginas funcionaban como el mejor escaparate posible para la música generada por la escena 60s de San Diego a lo largo de aquella década (Manual Scan, The Tell-Tale Hearts, Ron Silva, Carl Rusk...), si bien no únicamente se ocuparon de ésta.

Su número 7, otoño de 1988, contaba con una entrevista a The Event, entonces la gran revelación del mundillo californiano. El propio Mendoza nos envió hace ya tiempo un scan de la misma. Con la entrega mencionada iba incluida una cinta de cassette que recopilaba cortes a cargo de 22 bandas, entre ellas The Event, representados por You're On My Mind, versión del tema de The Birds (de su maqueta Pop-Think-In, grabada aquel año).

Rowed Out! (1989)

Nuevos scans cortesía de Marc Argenter: artículo sobre The Event procedente del número inicial del fanzine "mod-punk-garajero-teen" Rowed Out!, que, desde Sant Boi de Llobregat (Barcelona), perpetraban los hermanos Kiko y Uri Amat. Como sucedía en el caso del texto de Oxford Street ya presentado, se trata de material pre-This Is The Event.

Entrevista a Mike Therieau

A dos miembros de The Event entrevisté por correo electrónico en agosto de 2003: Mike Therieau, su bajista, y Ben Wayne, el batería de la banda. Podéis leer a continuación las respuestas de Therieau a mis preguntas.

Nota: Gracias a Bart Mendoza por la fotografía de Mike en sus tiempos de The Event que me mandó el año 2005.

1) Where were you born in? What year were you born in?

I was born in San Diego, California, USA on October 19, 1970.

2) What was your childhood like? Did you grow up in a family that loved music? Do you remember what got you interested in music when you were a kid?

Growing up, my parents were not interested in music much at all. I think there was only a handful of records around the house, Chuck Mangione, various classical, and movie soundtracks (Star Wars and Grease, I think). As a young kid I always had a guitar to fool around with, but I never really learned much until me and my friends (who would eventually end up being The Event) got exited about music somewhere around age thirteen.

3) How did you get started playing the bass? Were your parents supportive of your musical ambitions?

After sitting around doing nothing, listening to records in each other's bedrooms after school for too many days in a row, we all decided to start a band. The standard roles were divvied up, both me and Tim Soete could, kinda, play guitar, but since Tim was better than me he got to play guitar and I got stuck with playing bass. I'm not really sure why Ken got to be the singer but it just turned out that way.

4) What was the Mod/sixties scene like in San Diego in the late '80s? What other sixties-styled bands did you like from around that time?

Growing up at that time in San Diego we were just old enough to catch the tail end of the peak of the sixties scene in Southern California. The Morlocks had moved to San Francisco, The Tell-Tale Hearts were almost through, but there was still plenty of great music in town like, The Nashville Ramblers and The Trebels. Jeff Conolly of The Lyres even moved to town for a while. Bart Mendoza was still putting on these huge annual events, called, New Sounds Of The Sixties, that would bring to town acts from all over. As time went on we became close with The Birminghams from Berkeley, they were our age and were playing a similar style of music.

5) Tell me about the first groups that you played with. What kind of music did you play?

The Event was the first band I ever played in.

6) How and when did you meet up with the other members of The Event? What do you recall about how the group was formed?

We all meet in elementary school, we were all friends first the band came later.

7) Did The Event have any leaders? Who were the group's main songwriters?

I don't think there were any leaders, but Ken managed to book a lot of the shows for a while and Tim had a bigger hand in writing the songs although we all tried to on the music together. There was a time when we rehearsed every day.

8) Please tell me about the members of The Event. Were they nice people? How did you get along with them? As a band, were you all friendly?

These are guys that I've known now for most of my life, we know each other real well. We don't see each other that often any more, but when we do these guys feel like brothers to me.

9) What did The Event sound like? What were the biggest musical influences of the group?

We were very interested in sounding like English bands from the sixties, The Who, The Creation, The Move. At the time, Bam Caruso was releasing compilations of obscure psychedelic 45's that were we also really excited about.

10) Where did you rehearse? Were you good musicians?

We always ended up practicing in our parents' garage over the years we moved from one house to the other. But I think we spent the most time rehearsing in Tim's bedroom. As a result I think he ended up being the best musician of the bunch because he always had access to all the instruments.

11) Where and when did you play your first live show? Where did you use to play? What bands did you play live dates with? Tell me about your live shows. What did your set list look like? What cover versions of '60s tracks did you do?

I don't really remember where our first gig was but we played at a lot of our friends backyards for quite a while. As we got to know more people we were able to play slightly larger shows. At the time a lot of these shows took place in rented halls downtown, we were all still underage. A.J. Croce (Jim Croce's son) more or less ran an unlicenced niteclub in the basement of his mother's restaurant. Another great place that we played a lot was a place called 2581 (it was also the address). It was ran by some older woman an we played there almost every other week, this also was an underage club, which meant no booze, but the greatest thing about this place was that she always made some alcoholic punch that she'd sell to you if you knew the right codeword.

12) What kind of following did you have? Were most of your fans Mods?

We always had our friends that turned up to see us, but at the time I think most of the people in the sixties/Mod scene first thought we were too young, then they thought we were maybe a little too weird. If I remember right the best audience for us was in the Berkeley/San Francisco area, most of the kids in that scene were a little more our age and were listening to the same type records.

13) Tell me about the Event's demo. Where and when did you record it?

We recorded a little demo with Ben's older brother in their garage. I know some friends of mine think that they like that better than the record that eventually came out.

14) Please tell me about the Event's LP. What do you remember about the recording sessions? How do you feel about it now?

Though a guy named Domenic Priore we ended up doing a record for Voxx records out of Los Angeles, Ca. It was recorded thirty miles east of San Diego in a town called El Cajon, where Mark Neill and Dave Doyle have a studio that at the time was called, the Three Track Shack. Mark And Dave are fanatics about vintage audio gears so I think it was a good place for us to go, and I think they were able to get the best out of these young kids. But I know Tim for one has his complaints.

15) When and why did The Event break up?

The main reason the band broke up was that we were all going away to college, Ben and Tim went to Santa Cruz, I moved to San Francisco, and Ken stayed in town for a while.

16) Where did you go after The Event?

I went to San Francisco and went to school for a while then started playing with a new band, some of the guys I had known from a band called The Birminghams, that were doing a sixties British blues thing in Berkeley. The band was called, The Loved Ones, the band lasted for about five years we put out an EP on Get Hip Records and two CDs on Hightone Records. We also were able to tour the Netherlands, France, and Spain, as well as the US. After The Loved Ones broke up I played with a band called Mover, who played more of a classic FM radio rock. We put out two records, Original Recipe (Man's Ruin Records) and The Only One (Mod Lang Records). Since then me and my partner have started our own record company called Well Worn Records, our first release is a band I play in called Dave Gleason's Wasted Days, who have a California country rock sound, think Flying Burrito Brothers.

17) Finally, how do you see The Event from 15 years down the pike?

The funny thing is that we're still friends, Tim and Ben live in San Francisco while I live across the bay in Oakland. Both me and Tim are still actively playing music, Tim with an instrumental power rock trio called The Fuckin' Champs and I'm playing with Dave Gleason's Wasted Days. Ben is now a schoolteacher and married living just south of San Francisco. Ken is still living in the San Diego area with a lovely wife and lots of kids. I think that I really loved the experience of playing music, it seems that for better or worse I'm hooked.

San Diego CityBEAT (2001)

No será necesario, me parece, presentar a Bart Mendoza, personaje decisivo en todo lo que ha dado de sí la escena Mod/pop de San Diego durante 30 años, bien como músico (Manual Scan, The Shambles), bien como editor de fanzines y periodista.

En 2001 firmó lo siguiente sobre The Event para la serie "The History of San Diego Music" del periódico San Diego CityBEAT:

The Event

San Diego circa 1988 may seem to be an odd place to find an authentic sounding and looking Sixties styled Carnaby Street teen group, but the Event's enthusiastic take on pop art rock, ala the mid sixties Who, was well received by their high school peers and California rock fans alike. And they were still attending High School in University City.

They rehearsed in their parents' garage, soon hitting the local teen clubs. Ken Naylor (vocals), Tim Soete (guitar, vocals), Mike Therieau (bass), and Ben Wayne (drums), delivered a driving intensely exciting performance, a mixture of thrashing power pop, English psychedelia, and a dash of r&b. They made their name on the live stage with a series of increasingly volatile shows. Taking their inspiration from groups of the sixties, their concerts were an experience. The music was aggressive and consisted mostly of impeccably played originals, such as "Pop-Think-In" or "Tom The Imagemaker" and the odd obscure cover. Local music fans, from the Che Café to 2581, were quickly won over.

One remarkable performance at San Diego State's Montezuma Hall had the band playing in front of a row of televisions all showing different public personalities. As the set reached its climax, the already frantic crowd exploded as Ken calmly walked over to the side of the flower strewn stage, and casually returned with a sledge hammer. The ensuing mayhem and on stage destruction, as the band played on, created an almost impossible act to follow for the headlining acts that were to follow them.

They recorded a series of demos, with their first release, the otherwise unavailable "You're On My Mind" on a sampler with local fanzine "Sound Affects". And anyone that remembers the local TV production "It's Happening" will recall the group appearing twice as well.

It was only a matter of time before labels would take an interest. That same year the band signed to Bomp records subsidiary Voxx, releasing their only album in 1990. "This Is The Event", produced by Mark Neill and Dave Doyle -both of The Unknowns-, was an instant genre classic. With its pop art sleeve designed by famed graphics designer Coop, it wouldn't have looked out of place in a stack of vintage records by their heroes The Move, or The Creation.

Sadly except for a couple of other compilation appearances, that was to be it for the group. Once school ended, the quartet drifted apart, but except for Ken, not out of music. After the band split Mike, Tim and Ben all relocated to the Bay Area, obstensively for school. Naturally they kept playing. Drummer Ben joined up with r&b outfit The Driving Wheels, and later played with The Kinetics, who released a single album in 1998. He was last spotted gigging with The Salem Lights, though now on keyboards. Mike joined blues favorites The Loved Ones, signing with Hightone and releasing 2 singles and 2 albums. Currently he plays with roots rock quintet Mover and has released 2 albums there as well.

Tim also switched instruments, becoming a highly respected drummer. In 1993 he teamed with ex-Nation Of Ulysses guitarist Tim Green, to form heavy instrumental rock trio The (Fucking) Champs, with 2 singles and 3 albums, including a joint effort with Trans Am to their credit.

Though they only lasted a few summers The Event continue to have an impact, particularly in Japan and Europe, where their youthful exuberant take on a classic musical style, continues to win them fans long after the band's demise.

Nota: Gracias a Marc Argenter por el scan que acompaña al texto de Bart. Este flyer de una actuación del grupo en San Francisco, diciembre de 1988, fue reproducido, en 1992, en el número 6 del fanzine francés Boss, que confeccionaba Alex Hussenet.

Oxford Street (1989)

Una buena acogida dispensó a The Event determinada prensa española, incluso antes del lanzamiento de su long play. Fue, por ejemplo, el caso del fanzine sixties Oxford Street, publicado en Vitoria - Gasteiz. En su número 9, primavera de 1989, sus responsables incluyeron un artículo sobre los californianos.

Nota: Gracias a Pruño, gran seguidor valenciano de toda la saga The Event-The Loved Ones, por el scan.

LP This Is The Event

Una chica asturiana del mundillo años 60, Sara Álvarez, a la que no llegué a conocer en persona, pero con la que me relacioné vía MSN, me redactó una reseña del único elepé de The Event. Me generaba muy buen rollo ella, y alguna vez, de madrugada, mantuvimos charlas "bonitas". Lo último que supe de Sara es que estaba en Londres, trabajando en lo suyo, ser enfermera, pero ya hace tiempo de esto. Igual acabó regresando a España.

The Event
This Is The Event
Voxx, LP, 1990
Autora: Sara Álvarez

Un tiempo atrás recibí un regalo de un buen amigo de Barcelona. Él y yo habíamos hablado en alguna ocasión del LP de los Event, ¡pero nunca pensé que fuera a regalarme este álbum!

Recuerdo perfectamente la primera vez que lo escuché, hará 9 años. Un amigo acababa de comprárselo en la tienda de discos de nuestra ciudad y no podía dejar de escucharlo. A mí me tocó tenerlo grabado en una cinta de ésas de toda la vida (¿piratería?). En cuanto cayó en mis manos, no paró de dar vueltas y vueltas en mi habitación. Acababa de descubrir qué era eso que Pete Townshend llamó "Pop-Art" en 1965, cuando los Who publicaron temas como "I Can't Explain" y "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere".

Todo en "This Is The Event" nos hace pensar en los 60. La portada del elepé, por ejemplo, imita el clásico diseño de Decca, con una foto de los cuatro miembros del grupo, impecablemente vestidos, como si fueran estudiantes de una art school londinense de 1966. Su vocalista, Ken Naylor, aparece como un perfecto doble del Brian Jones de la época. El bajista, Mike Therieau (mas tarde en los fabulosos Loved Ones), recuerda vagamente a Ronnie Lane y... ¡Oh! ¿Ese de ahí no es Eddie Phillips? Una imagen sobresaliente. ¡Cuánto me hubiera gustado haberles visto en directo! Y esa contraportada en honor a Andy Warhol, con notas de Mike Stax... ¡Wow!

Figuran en el disco 10 canciones y el corte extra que nos conduce a la cara dos del álbum. Y las apuestas están echadas: pop en la estética y pop en el sonido. Al fin y al cabo, ellos eran Mods. Retroalimentación, redobles inclasificables, riffs obsesivos, melodías, dobles voces, distorsión... La más pura herencia de los primeros Who y de los Creation de los singles para Planet de 1966 ("Making Time/Try And Stop Me" y "Painter Man/Biff Bang Pow"). Podemos disfrutar así de "Pop-Think-In", el tema que abre "This Is The Event" como una auténtica declaración de intenciones, de "She's Our Girl" y de la maravillosa "Tom The Imagemaker", con claras referencias a la banda que lideró Kenny Pickett. Y todo ello bajo un sonido mono tamizado por la factoría Voxx, inconfundible.

Las canciones van sucediéndose, y suena más tarde "Nine Lives", en la misma onda de los temas anteriores. En "The Game" los chicos se convierten en unos melenudos y americanos John's Children, con las voces como reclamo principal y un batería fuera de sí, altos, bajos, paradas... Un absoluto caos... Controlado. Pero no sólo de Pop-Art vive el hombre. Los Event se atreven también con el R&B salvaje en "Better Run", con una harmónica endiablada que lleva la canción al ritmo que sólo ella quiere, como si unos paisanos suyos californianos salieran de la portada de un "Pebbles" y volvieran a la carga 25 años después. Cierra el LP "Window Sill", la canción más power pop del disco. Un acercamiento a lo que se estaba cociendo por la escena de Californiana en ese momento. Una joya.

Pero una banda como The Event no podía hacer un álbum sin incluir versiones de temas ajenos junto a sus composiciones propias. Tres canciones de los 60 magistralmente escogidas completan el disco. En primer lugar, el clásico "Things She Says", de los ingleses The In Crowd. Luego la fabulosa "Jagged Time Lapse", de John's Children, que nos transporta a ese jardín imaginario en el que el grupo toca cubierto de flores de colores. Y, finalmente, cómo no, el corte que por sí solo hace que este "This Is The Event" sea un LP imprescindible para cualquier amante de los sonidos británicos de mediados de los 60.

En 1966, los Birds aparecieron en una película de miedo titulada "The Deadly Bees", para la cual grabaron tres canciones (que, por supuesto, nunca vieron la luz y que ahora estarán en algún almacén esperando ser descubiertas). Como suele ocurrir en estos casos, la supuesta aparición estelar del grupo se redujo a 30 segundos de paripé ante las cámaras, mientras unas señoras planean un crimen... ¡En alemán! Con estos pocos datos, los Event recrean "That's All That I Need You For" tal cual sonaría entera si pudiésemos escuchar la versión original del grupo de Ron Wood. Pura magia.

Presentación

Hará como 5-6 años trabajé bastante intensivamente en un artículo sobre The Event para el fanzine barcelonés de línea sixties Ansia de Color, informe que nunca fue finalizado/publicado. Fui acumulando material diverso (entrevistas realizadas por mí vía e-mail, viejas fotografías que conservaban amigos californianos, flyers de bolos, recortes de prensa de la época...), extremadamente interesante, creo, para quienes han disfrutado con el álbum que Voxx/Bomp editó al cuarteto en 1990, y sería una pena que todo aquello no llegara a otras personas. Es por este motivo que, de manera progresiva, iré colocando aquí lo que elaboré y recopilé en su momento. En bastantes casos, se tratará de textos en inglés, ya que no tengo tiempo ahora mismo para ponerme a traducir al castellano páginas y más páginas.

A ver si esto gusta...

Nota: La caricatura del grupo que he subido hoy me la dibujó un chico de Valencia con el que tuve trato por medio de Messenger. Lamentablemente, he olvidado su nombre y apellidos (muy mal, Àngel). Si, por lo que sea, acaba viendo mi blog, le pido disculpas y le agradezco de nuevo su trabajo.