I was a latecomer to Spacemen 3. They passed me by completely while they were together. Actually, I remember seeing the video for Revolution and thinking it was quite interesting, but that was it. I was too busy being obsessed by The Smiths, The Jesus And Mary Chain, that sort of mainstream indie.
I remember going to the first reinvented Reading festival in 1989, mainly to see The Wedding Present, The House Of Love and New Order. On the first day, it was quite overcast as I queued with my friends for our wristbands. After over an hour of waiting, we finally got into the site, by which time it was raining. The stage seemed miles away. I couldn’t really make out the band, and didn’t recognise the music, save to say that it sounded like a dreary monotonous affair with no particular finesse. Great, I thought. My first festival, and I’ve paid to stand at the back of a field, cold and wet, to listen to some gits playing one bloody chord for ages.
It was, of course, Spacemen 3, and this incident has become one of the biggest regrets of my life.
In December 1992, my wife and I were checking out the end of year polls in the music press. I mentioned that Lazer Guided Melodies was the only album we didn’t have that looked interesting. Shortly afterwards, it arrived as a birthday present – and things were never the same.
It doesn’t happen too often in your life that you discover something that seems so obviously right. This was the music that tapped into something fundamental within me. And I needed more.
So when I reached backwards and discovered the Spacemen 3 back catalogue, it was a revelation. I mean, the Spiritualized album was good, but… this was sublime. This was the music of my soul. And that feeling has never left me.
My wife and I used to run a fan club for The Boo Radleys, whose driving force, Martin Carr, was obsessed by The Beatles. When asked what it was in particular about them that he loved, he became practically incoherent, eventually saying he was so consumed by passion for them that simply seeing the words “The Beatles” written down excited him. I know what he means. But my obsession hails from Rugby, not Liverpool.
Thus this website. Now, I still love Spiritualized. And I love Spectrum / E.A.R. It’s amazing the different directions the component Spacemen have gone in. But it is Spacemen 3 that still fascinates me above all other incarnations. So for now, I’m going to try to make this site a repository of Spacemen information, a celebration of Sonic and Jason, and of all of the others who played their part along the way. I hope you’ll find something to interest you.
Until later… Thanks for coming… Good night.