|
11/9/96 - REHEARSING
WITH NEW DRUMMER
Over the past week we have been rehearsing with a new drummer.
Things have gone very well and we are looking forward to the UK
shows later this month. We are not saying much about who the drummer
is at the moment, as he is already in a band and needs to sort things
out with them first. We have played with him before though and all
got on very well, so we're sure that everything is going to work
out fine.
11/9/96 - RECORDING
NEW SONGS
If all goes to plan we will be recording two new songs at the beginning
of next month. Because of now being on Atlantic Records, they would
like us to have some new, fresh songs on "Love Your Self Abuse",
when it is released there early next year. We intent to work with
Al Scott again, who helped produce "Hello" and "Ignoramus"
at the beginning of this year.
11/9/96 - EXCLUSIVE
FANCLUB T-SHIRT
Within the next two weeks it is our intention to have mailed out
(by post) an information sheet to the over 4,000 fans that we have
on our mailing list in the U.K. Along with general information as
to what we've been doing and the forthcoming live dates, it will
also contain information about an exclusive Baby Chaos T-Shirt offer.
They should sell for around £10.00 (inc. P&P). As I said it
is exclusivley for the fanclub members, however I think we will
extend it to include everyone on our email mailing list. Therefore,
if you would like to find out more and see the design, then join
up with the mailing list now. We now have an exclusive area on this
site that only members of the email mailing list can access. It's
dead easy to join and great fun.
28/7/96 - BABY
CHAOS MOVE TO ATLANTIC
Since the end of May this year, Atlantic Records in the USA have
shown an interest in releasing "Love Your Self Abuse"
in the States. When our A&R man, Nathan McGough, left East West
Records at the end of May and our last single release failing to
make an impact on the UK charts, E.W. made the decision to release
us from our contract.
 On
the one hand we were gutted to no longer have a record deal, but
on the other, we were very relieved to have broken ties with E.W.
When we told Atlantic of what had happened, it would have been very
easy for them to loose interest in releasing "LYSA". Fortunately,
they instead expressed a great interest in signing the band directly.
As we had not officially been dropped, this transfer was made a
lot easier and is precisely what is going to happen.
Our biggest fan at Atlantic is the lovely Janice Fike (pictured
above), who is a relatively new addition to the A&R department
at Atlantic. There is a fantastic story as to how she discovered
Baby Chaos. At the beginning of this year she ordered a back catalogue
double album from The Fall. When it arrived she put on the first
CD and was surprised by the music that it contained as it was clearly
not The Fall. After some time of not listening to it, she found
herself playing it more and more often. Even taking it with her
when she went home. It became her favorite CD and she said "If
I could only find a band that sounded like that, I'd love to sign
them."
Fast forward to around May and as we were looking for a US release
for "LYSA", our International Department at E.W. sent
over a package to Atlantic. When Janice read some of the enclosed
reviews and read references to "Go To Hell" and "healthy
white boy", she realised that her dreams had come true. By
some cosmic coincidence or fantastic fate, the CD she had fallen
in love with had been our first album "Safe Sex, Designer Drugs..."
This led her to having a huge interest in releasing "LYSA"
in the States. Which she was more than happy to expand into signing
us directly to Atlantic, after E.W. showing a complete lack of commitment
and vision.
28/7/96 - DAVY
LEAVING BABY CHAOS
We are very sad to announce that our long time friend and drummer
Davy Greenwood is leaving the band. He has made this hard decision
after suffering a recurrence of a heart problem, while on our UK
tour in April of this year. With doctors strongly recommended complete
rest until he was fully fit again, the tour had to be canceled.
The condition had been a lot more serious when it first happened
in America last year. Davy was flown home after only one week of
a seven week tour. He got a big scare when this happened and had
said that he never felt quite the same about drumming afterwards.
When he was back to full health again he enjoyed a three week tour
of France, some recording and many rehearsal without incident. Although
Davy has coped with a heart problem since he was a child, the doctors
were unfortunately unable to tell him what was causing these more
serious conditions. They had suggested several times that drumming
was not the best profession for him, as they are unable to predict
if it will happen again and if it did, the severity of it.
The good news is that Davy has since been offered two very good
jobs and is now focused on having a very successful career.
28/7/96 - PHOENIX
FESTIVAL
 Chris,
Grant, Bobby and other friends traveled down to the Festival on
the Thursday to watch all the bands. Yeh, right. They set up camp
and started drinking and do other recreational things. Very hot
days trying to get a cold beer without taking out a second mortgage
and cool late nights around a camp fire, under the stars. Myself,
Davy and Del went down on Saturday, so we could get into the festival
spirit before the gig on Sunday.
This was to be Davy's last gig with Baby Chaos. It was a very hot
and sweaty gig and one that we won't forget. The last song they
played in the set was "Sperm". Chris introduced it as
where it all started (being our first single release) and said that
we would all miss him greatly. When Chris announced that it was
Davy's last gig our sound man suddenly turned round to me with a
surprised and shocked expression, as he hadn't known it would be
Davy's last gig. After the gig we all just hung out around the festival,
soaking up the suns rays and the atmosphere. Occasionally remembering
the significance of the day.
Leaving the Festival site on Monday was a nightmare. We joined the
queue to get out at 12 noon. Two and a half hours
later we reached the main road. Sitting in a van and moving a few
yards at a time with the sun beating down on you is not a lot of
fun. Finally the open road and only about 330 miles to Glasgow.
Oh if only it had been that simple. Our van has done over 150,000
miles and has been on the whole very reliable. It is getting old
however. It started loosing power, but sporadically was running
fine. Unfortunately at about 190 miles from home it could go no
further. I called the AA and waited. When they eventually turned
up, it was decided that a lorry would be called to take us to Glasgow.
After a 4 hour wait we were on the road again. The driver that had
picked us up was not from the AA and had been driving since 6am
that morning. He also said "If I had known it was a fucking
van I'd never have taken this job." What a nice man. I eventually
got in around 4am. I guess the good news is that the van seems to
be running fine. It must just be motorway driving that it doesn't
like. Oh I forgot to mention, someone reversed into the van while
it was parked on the festival site and tore a chunk out of one of
the wheel arches.
27/5/96 - SAD TO BE BACK
HOME
Well the DTH tour was great fun. It took us to 6 towns in Germany,
one in Switzerland and one in Austria. As is usual on tour, we didn't
get to do much site seeing. However because we had mini bus for
the first week and a half we traveled during the day. This meant
that we did see slightly more of the countryside that we would have
normally. After the gig in Saarbrucken on the 14th, we
traded in our mini bus for a big shiny sleeper bus and Del and Scot
loaded up our backline equipment. Next stop France. It was really
good to get back on a proper bus again. The mini bus was a real
pain in the ass sometimes. We had  to
drive and navigate, you couldn't go to bed if you were tiered, you
couldn't watch videos, there was no fridge or toilet, etc., etc.
So after settling in, we put on a film, while our driver Michael
took the strain.
It was a long way to Cannes, so when we woke we were still driving.
It was very hot, so most of us got up to look at the sites. We passed
through Switzerland, Italy and looked down on Monaco, where the
Formula One Grand Prix was going to be held a couple of days later.
When we got to the main shore side street, everyone was up the front
looking out the windows. Moving from one side of the bus to the
other, depending on what side of the bus yet another gorgeous girl
was on. The whole place was buzzing. Glamorous people everywhere.
You had to keep your eyes open al the time. Just encase someone
famous was passing by.
 We
arrived at the Canal + stage and unloaded our equipment. It was
a lovely day and with the stage being all white, it was very bright.
It was strange, but great, being able to see all around you. It
was a fantastic setting. In the bay there were two large ships.
One of which had "PRIVATE" in very large letters on it's
side. We soon learned that it was host to an alternative to the
Cannes Film Festival........The Porn Festival. Apparently, they
were actually filming a blue movie onboard. It was no surprise then,
that the TV camera men had their long lenses trained on the ship.
We did the soundcheck, which resulted in a bit of a crowd forming,
and then went for a wander along the sea front. No sooner had we
stepped off stage, than we were approached by an excited mother
asking if here daughter could have here picture taken with us. Once
on the street we were surrounded by people wanting autographs. I'm
sure that at least some of 
these people didn't really know who we were, but in Cannes during
the film festival, when a crowd gathers, you get the autograph just
in case.
At a hotel further along the road we spotted a young lady standing
up on a balcony getting her picture taken. A common site in Cannes.
However, slightly less common was when she took off her blouse.
Of course, we all walked away in disgust. "Nuille Part Ailleurs"
is about a two hour program and has several sections. When we were
there they were using a power boat to pull along one of the presenters
in a parachute. The parachute then descended and he got on to the
back of a following jet-ski. This then came speeding out of the
water and half way up the beach, to deliver he to the stage.
 Our
performance went very well and everyone in the audience and on the
street seemed to love it. As I mentioned the stage was actually
built on the beach. There was only one thing to do. Straight after
our performance and while still on air, we discarded our guitars
and jumped off the back of the stage, straight onto the sand. We
sprinted and rolled down the small but steep dune and straight into
the Mediterranean Sea. Cold, but great fun.
Switzerland and Austria report coming soon.
11/5/96 - DIE TOTEN HOSEN
TOUR
 We
have just finished the third gig on our support tour with Die Toten
Hosen (DTH). It was in Dortmund in the 14,000 capacity Westfalenhalle.
The crew and band had been warning us all week that tonight was
going to be tough, as DTH's fans are notorious for chanting "Hosen,
 Hosen,
Hosen…" at the support band. We were all reasonably nervous
before the gig. Some more than others.
However, once on stage, it was great fun. The reaction for the crowd
was also very good. They jumped up and down and at the beginning
of "Hello" hundreds of people near the front put their
hands in the air and started clapping along. The only bad thing
was that our sound engineer, Shirt, was told to turn it down. One
can only presume that it was sounding too good and the DTH people
didn't want that.
11/5/96 - LIVE TV IN CANNES
We only found out today and the travel arrangements have not even
been made, but next Wednesday (15/5) we will perform one song at
an open air concert at the Cannes Film Festival. It will be broadcast
live as part of a "Nuille Part Ailleurs" (Canal +) Cannes
special. Sadly this means only those of you in France will be able
to see it. This will be the second time that we will have performed
on this show. The first time was back at the beginning of '94 in
Paris.
29/4/96 - LONDON GIG
/ NEW VIDEO
We will be traveling down to London on Wednesday night to play
the gig at the Garage. Steve McCalmont is in rehearsals with us
at the moment, learning all Davy's drum parts. Davy is feeling OK,
but is still not back to full fitness. He may have to stay in the
UK for some tests, so may miss some if not all of the Die Toten
Hosen Tour. At the end of last week we drove over 1,500 miles around
the UK doing radio interviews and sessions. On one of the nights
we found ourselves in Nottingham at Rock City. One thing led to
another and Chris and Grant ended up in a pond in the city center.
The next day Chris went shopping and bought two new pairs of trainers
for £6.99. Bargain!
This Friday we will stay in London to shoot a video for our next
single "Ignoramus". It's going to be great fun, with us
dressing up and doing karate style kicks. We'll let you know how
it goes.
23/4/96 - UK TOUR CANCELLED
We have unfortunately had to cancel the remaining dates on our
current UK tour due to Davy, our drummer, becoming ill. After the
gig in Hamilton Davy said that he had suffered similar symptoms
to that which he had after the incident during our tour
of America last year. The following day his doctor told him
that he would have to take things easy for a while, so he could
get back to full fitness.
We are still going to try and do the London show on the 2nd
May as well as the Die Toten Hosen tour. If Davy doesn't get the
all clear from his doctor to play the gigs, we will use a stand-in
drummer until such time as he is.
23/4/96 - HOT AND
SWEATY
One of the gigs we did get to play was at The Railway Club in Inverness.
It was the top floor of a smallish shoe box shaped bar, unsurprisingly
near the railway. It was a lovely sunny day, so we went for a walk
round the shops and had a pub lunch. While in the pub, some of the
guys read the papers and put a bet down on the football.
Chris went to do an interview at the local station and by the time
he came back all the equipment had been taken upstairs, via the
fire exit stairs, made of Dexion, at the back of the club. The soundcheck
(pictures taken
at the soundcheck) went without a hitch, even though the mixing
desk had several channels not working. Before we went to get something
to eat we found out that we had smashed the venues record for advance
ticket sales about 8 times over. This was especially good news as
the gig the night before had been quite quiet.
The gig was rammed. Very hot and sweaty, just how we like it. Unfortunately,
the heat was too much for the PA amplifiers to take and some of
them shut themselves down. This meant that the sound went all topy
for a couple of songs, but the local PA guy had a great but unorthodox
solution. He went into the kitchen and came back with a fire extinguisher.
He then went to the side of the stage and fire extinguished the
offending amp. This sounds very silly, however the extinguisher
was a Carbon Dioxide one and cooled the amps sufficiently for the
internal thermostats to let the amps function again.
Back to News
|
