The La's Mentioned in Shayne Carter's Autobiography

[flamethrower]

Greetings from New Zealand!

Some of you may be interested to know that NZ musician Shayne Carter (Straitjacket Fits) recently published his memoirs, an excellent book called Dead People I Have Known. I'm sure as some of you know The La's toured America with Straitjacket Fits around June/July 1991 and there is a passage in the book about that tour:

"We got to tour America again, but we had to go with the Las. The La's were Scousers who’d had a hit with 'There She Goes', which was a good song, but I knew plenty of people with one of them. The rest of the La’s set was skiffle, which the singer sung authentically. Their three minute sixties songs already sounded reheated. While the British media was writing the singer up as a genius, I don’t think he cared, because he wanted to record everything on one microphone and he hated all his records. We didn’t speak to the Las because they were on pot, or - it was rumored - heroin, so we’d just mutter at them when we passed them in the hallway. Neither us, nor The La's, could be bothered. In Salt Lake City we were riding an open goods lift, and the Lee Mavers was on the floor above us, looking over into our cage and pushing a button that kept stopping and starting the lift. I looked up and told him to stop doing that, and that was the only thing I ever said to the singer of the Las. We usually blew the Las off the stage - because we could, and they were annoying."

[Tony]

Thanks for this. He sounds a bit mean and he has no taste

[gaetano]

Thanks for this. He sounds a bit mean and he has no taste

Besides, what sort of rock'n'roll band does not speak to another just because they're on pot?
Only joking, and thanks for sharing.

[Tony]

Skiffle though

Mike Badger venerated

[Khris]

New Zealand have had some cracking bands through the years (The Clean, Nocturnal Projections, The Pin Group, Tall Dwarfs, The Verlaines and loads more). Flying Nun Records is an iconic label for me. However, Straightjacket Fits don't really register.

Sounds to me like Lee and the rest of the band had Carter sussed, gave him the big swerve and Carter's ego didn't enjoy it. That said, he has had the good sense to work with Peter Jefferies, so he has some good musical sense at least!

[flamethrower]

Curiously enough, this isn’t the first time I have heard someone from a Flying Nun band speak poorly about The La’s. Circa 2003 I heard an interview with Martin Phillipps from The Chills where he discussed playing a gig with The La’s in Paris in 1990. He said that whist The Chills were performing, someone from The La’s (or their road crew, perhaps?) went through their belongings and ransacked their wallets, taking all of their money. He concluded the interview by saying words to the effect of that whilst he loves The La’s musically, as people they were a “bunch of dicks” to deal with on that particular night in 1990.

[hottscolland]

someone from The La’s road crew, went through their belongings and ransacked their wallets, taking all of their money

horrible colin

[Tony]

Yeah, that's surely "C" from Macey's book... didn't sound a nice character there either.

[Gav]

On the note of dismissing the La's as skiffle (perhaps not an unfair tag to be honest but with the derogatory inference) can you think of any other bands of a similar skiffle style with a sound not rooted in upbeat 1950 pop melodies as most other skiffle is?