Good timing

This sunday, June 6th, will see the relaunch of Rui's Felt site. If we can get internet at the Hangover Lounge zine launch, we will be clicking 'refresh' with baited breath!

And in case it was starting to seem completely mythical, more on the zine itself tomorrow...

Two flyers to look at

From the collection of Jeff Pitcher

Fanzine launch at The Hangover Lounge, Sunday June 6th!

I know we said May. We may have said May. But we meant June - and this time it's definite.

The launch for Foxtrot Echo Lima Tango will take place on Sunday June 6th from 2pm with our friends at The Hangover Lounge, London's weekly musical hair of the dog held at The Lexington on Pentonville Road. The afternoon will feature writer, record mogul and former Felt bassist Phil King DJing and live tributes from some very special guests to be unveiled shortly. Oh, and it's free entry!

The 'zine will be available for the first time on the day. After that, we will be selling copies through the blog and selected retailers.

More details to follow...

Felts are everywhere

Last week one of our eagle-eyed contributors spotted not one, but two Felt references in one Thursday copy of The Grauniad.

First, here they were being named checked by Ben Goldwasser as MGMT's alpha (their omega being Deep Freeze Mice). And then, separated by only a few pages, there was Laura Barton reminiscing about swapping tapes of "the Pastels and Felt and Mr Scruff" with one Joe, her "musical partner in crime."

We are left to ask ourselves: are these straws in the wind? Are we on the crest of some sort of Zeitgeist? Should we peg our print run to the Guardian's...?

"Moz & Loz"

A little bit of tumbleweed has been blowing through the blog, as we have focussed our energies on finishing the ’zine proper. There has been a fairly steep learning curve, as we have finally come to terms with the fact that ‘editing’ in this case really means publishing – i.e. designing, proofing, transcribing etc… Fortunately we have a London launch date pencilled in for early May (more details soon) and, with that deadline breathing down our neck, have been hell-for-leather towards completion.

Temporarily distracted, we had somehow missed the extraordinary events over at Rui’s Felt Forum page. On 19 March,  one Nigel Silver responded to an old Times article on Felt by Bob Stanley which had been posted the previous week. His post began:

Once again it is demonstrated just how the world is plunged into an delusory abyss by heavily distorted historical manipulations that are generated either for dramatic effect, or even more nefarious reasons.

I do not know if certain details concerning Mr. Deebank are the invention of L. Heyward, or the textual histrionics of B. Stanley. Either way it is a very sorry state of affairs. For those who treasure the truth rather than sensationalism, the following true account is offered…

In the rest of the post, and a dozen or so which have followed since, Mr Silver took up the task of correcting what he sees as the Lawrence-heavy bias to history’s record of Felt. Claiming “a certain amount of limited contact with M.D.,” his posts (apparently short in length due to his limited internet access) are full of extraordinary little details, particularly from the early Water Orton days (“They used to play two electric guitars through a single 5 watt practice amp”).

At this point we would offer no comment, but I would strongly recommend you to stroll over to the Forum to take a look – there have been three new posts today alone…

And more from us on the thing itself very soon.

The great Guthrie controversy

As we inch closer to a finished fanzine (just this week we got splendid contributions from John Mohan, Sybille Lacroix, Anh Do and Matt Fishbeck), we have been receiving support from some kindred spirits - Simon Goddard, for example, just wrote a lovely post mentioning the zine and recounting his own encounter with Lawrence at, incongruously, the Groucho Club.

In the meantime, however, I have been digressing slightly and delving into a long-dead controversy: Robin Guthrie's production of Ignite The Seven Cannons. While everyone from Alan McGee to Pitchfork seems to agree that Forever Breathes The Lonely Word is the best Felt LP, Ignite often gets cast as the runt of the litter. The reason, as Alistair Fitchett succinctly summarises it, is that the record "made too many concessions to 4AD style for comfort. Guthrie's production seemed to compress the sound, and made on the whole for a muddy, messy Felt." "Muddy" is a word that seems to come up a lot. Other commentators, such as a poster on Adrian Denning's page, are even less sanguine: "Robin Guthrie has caused a complete disaster! A catastrophe!"

I am a fully paid-up partisan for mid-period, just pre-Creation Felt. Let's set aside Primitive Painters, which is a shibboleth even for the devotees; I would still pin my colours to the mast of the Black Ship in the Harbour, I Don't Know Which Way To Turn, Southern State Tapestry et al. I am too much of a dilettante though and so I have been searching for a true Guthrie/Cocteau Twins devotee to make a more spirited, production-minded defence of the album. I've asked around on the Cocteau Twins Forum, but if anyone fancies writing a guest blog entry please get in touch...

Very good minus