Sonic Cathedral – Influences

The best song of all time. When I heard them do this at soundcheck before they played at the Sonic Cathedral 10th anniversary show earlier this year, I just welled up. It wasn’t just the sound of Slowdive that was inspiring – this performance (at the Yamaha Band Explosion in September 1991) was exactly what I wanted Sonic Cathedral to look like: silver streamers, dry ice, strobes…

In a similar vein, I always used to waste all the money that Sonic Cathedral made by filling our original home of The Legion full of balloons, inspired by Warhol’s ‘60s installations. It looked amazing, but we often used to have problems during soundcheck when the balloons would start bursting; bet that never happened when The Velvet Underground were warming up. Speaking of which…

Probably not the most fashionable Velvets choice, but I’ll listen to this record over ‘White Light/White Heat’ any day. This version is amazing – rough, raw but also incredibly funky with it. It’s nine minutes, but it still doesn’t feel long enough. You can hear the genesis of so many bands in there; indeed I first heard ‘What Goes On’ courtesy of Paris Angels’ cover, or was it Lovekittens’?

This is just incredible. Anyone with any interest in over-amplified guitars can’t fail to be excited by watching this. The peanut butter is just an added bonus. As a slightly related aside, I very nearly promoted a show for John Cale in the early days of Sonic Cathedral and among the demands on his very lengthy rider was “peanut butter – CRUNCHY NOT SMOOTH”. Always made me laugh.

I love The Byrds so much. Not only the coolest looking band ever (yes, even including Crosby’s ‘tache and poncho) but also one of the best. They covered so much ground, musically, but ‘The Notorious Byrd Brothers’ is the perfect album for me. This song is just amazing – just listen to that incredible one-note guitar solo. Roger McGuinn as a proto shoegazer, who would’ve thought it?

Probably the finest cover version of all time (although I love Sonic Youth’s ‘Within You Without You’ and Mudhoney’s ‘Revolution’ too). This came up because I was thinking of The Byrds and also that new BBC Music ‘God Only Knows’ cover. THIS is how you do covers; both massively disrespectful to the original but actually just as groundbreaking in its own way.

Creation was my favourite label, certainly in the pre-Oasis days. It seemed like they could do no wrong when I was a teenager and this little piece on Rapido was was where I first heard MBV. Creation, Heavenly, Factory, 4AD and going further back the likes of Elektra are all big influences on Sonic Cathedral, inspiring everything from artwork to catalogue numbers to run-out groove messages.

Speaking of artwork, Bridget Riley’s op art has informed lots of our covers over the years. When I put out The Tamborines’ single in 2006 (SCR001), I wanted something cheap and effective – hence the black sleeves and op art labels, the first one being the same as the label on Spacemen 3’s ‘Big City’. Even now releases such as The Vacant Lots’ album have got that feel to them. It never grows tired.

The Radio Dept – ‘Against The Tide’

When I heard The Radio Dept’s debut album ‘Lesser Matters’ and Ulrich Schnauss’ ‘A Strangely Isolated Place’ at some point in 2004 I heard all the sounds of my teenage years coalescing and I just knew I had to put on a night to celebrate this new era of shoegaze. A few months later, on October 23, 2004, The Radio Dept played the first Sonic Cathedral night at The Legion in Shoreditch. Ulrich, meanwhile, went on to become a good friend and has DJed and played lice at countless Sonic Cathedral shows over the last decade as well as remixing releases for the likes of Mark Gardener.

By chance Andrew Weatherall was also at that first Sonic Cathedral night and I managed to persuade him to give me his number. I’ve pestered him sporadically ever since to DJ, and he obliged again at last month’s 10th anniversary show at the 100 Club. I’m a huge fan of his work from ‘Screamadelica’ to The Asphodells, but this remix is everything I like about music rolled into one.