It was June 1992, I was at my first gig and was preparing to bang my head
into oblivion to Nirvana. I remember getting squashed against the barriers
at the front of the King's Hall stage because I didn't want to lose my spot
and before Kurt and co came on I had to endure a geeky looking girl band
called The Breeders.
Needless to say, they ended up blowing me away. At the time, Nirvana were OK
(though legendary now of course) but The Breeders were something different.
Their music didn't feature shouty boys with loud guitars. Instead, it was
strange, interesting and beautiful. Happiness Is A Warm Gun was in their set
that night, but I didn't appreciate it fully until I bought their album Pod.
The song had everything — oddball lyrics, sweet harmonies, a rocked-out
mid-section and a guitar solo from heaven. In the album notes
Lennon/McCartney was written in brackets beside the song. Surely not, I
thought. The Beatles wrote sing-along pop songs my mum liked, not obscure
innuendo.
From there, I eventually got round to buying The White Album and was pleased
to hear the original version was equally astounding. The guitar solo was
even better though because it was small but perfectly formed.
Happiness is a Warm Gun opened me up to the interesting side of The Beatles
I'd never heard before. It also introduced me — via The Breeders — to great
bands like The Pixies, Belly and Throwing Muses. Last month I picked up the
latest Breeders' album Mountain Battles and I'm happy to say they still rock
and were worth getting crushed at that concert 15 years ago.
Kieran Hughes plays guitar in Boathouse. They launch their new EP What I
Remember at the Empire on May 29. www.myspace.com/boathouseband
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