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The Paul Draper and Mansun appreciation thread

Started by Vodka Margarine, April 30, 2016, 09:07:10 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

purlieu

Finally got this as a birthday present today. Tremendous album, finally the follow-up to Six we've been overdue for almost 20 years. On first listen, 'Jealousy' and the closer were the only songs that didn't blow me away. Some fantastic unhinged vocals in places, wonderfully odd production touches here and there, and just a solid collection of songs. Repeat listens will tell more, but it's going to end up one of my favourite albums of the year I'm sure.


Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: purlieu on September 05, 2017, 09:10:22 PM
On first listen, 'Jealousy' and the closer were the only songs that didn't blow me away.
Conversely, Jealousy was the first track that instantly hooked me - not that I didn't enjoy the previous tunes. Cant Get Fairer Than That and Feel Like I Wanna Stay are my picks for the weaker songs. That's really just because the choruses are a bit repetitive, but having them next to each other gives the impression of the album tailing off towards the end, which is a wee bit of a shame. Spreading them out, or replacing one of them with one of the B-sides from the E.P.s might have worked better.

That minor complaint aside, I am as pleased as punch with this album. It actually reminds me most of Little Kix and Kleptomania - unsurprisingly perhaps, if most of it was written shortly after that - but more fully realised than them. Time will tell just where it stands next to Mansun's discography (once the initial shock of its very existence has worn off) but the first chunk, culminating with You Don't Really Know Someone... is stellar.

Fingers crossed for a follow up (in under thirteen years).

niat

Quote from: purlieu on September 05, 2017, 09:10:22 PM
Finally got this as a birthday present today. Tremendous album, finally the follow-up to Six we've been overdue for almost 20 years. On first listen, 'Jealousy' and the closer were the only songs that didn't blow me away. Some fantastic unhinged vocals in places, wonderfully odd production touches here and there, and just a solid collection of songs. Repeat listens will tell more, but it's going to end up one of my favourite albums of the year I'm sure.

Jealousy didn't grab me at first, but the closer "The Inner Wheel" certainly did and it's probably my favourite on the album.

I'm off to see him in Leeds tonight. His first gig in 14 years, so hopefully he won't be too ring-rusty. The tour must have sold well as he's announced a tour of bigger venues next year. They go on sale tomorrow so if tonight goes well I'll be first in the queue.

purlieu

Quote from: Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth on September 14, 2017, 01:34:05 PM
Conversely, Jealousy was the first track that instantly hooked me - not that I didn't enjoy the previous tunes. Cant Get Fairer Than That and Feel Like I Wanna Stay are my picks for the weaker songs.
'Jealousy' has really grown on me now, definitely as strong as the bulk of the album. 'The Inner Wheel' has grown too, although I still find it a touch underwhelming compared with the Mansun's three album-closers. Feels like that outro section should go on for longer or something. 'Feel Like I Wanna Stay' is the only one that's gotten weaker with repeat listens for me. 'Things People Want' and 'Friends Make the Worst Enemies' have been my two favourites since the first listen.
I've listened to it at least once a day since getting it on my birthday and it's almost certainly my album of the year so far. There are a few which might still topple it yet, but so far nothing this year has hooked me in quite the way this album has.

PaulTMA

Does anyone know what is supposed to have been posted from PD's Facebook/Twitter account which has cause the support band to pull out of the tour?  It's coming across like sexual harassment, or at least some kind of lascivious comment or two was made about the singer.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/Estrons/posts/

purlieu

Ughh please no Paul, don't have done something like this.

daf

fucked it up,
shot my load
Spewed onto the motorway shoulder
I could have been somebody special

PaulTMA

Going to the Glasgow gig tonight.  Should be a laugh!

Enzo

seemed like he might have tried to set up a roll in the hay at 3am while pissed.

that sort of thing is not on these days, probably would have got away with it back in the late 90's, can't blame the support band tbh.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Quote from: purlieu on September 16, 2017, 03:40:53 PM
Ughh please no Paul, don't have done something like this.
My thoughts exactly. I can separate art from artist - I still listen to the Kyuss and QOTSA records featuring confirmed scumbag Nick Oliveri, and it doesn't sound like Draper is accused of being as bad as him - but this has still pissed me right off.

PaulTMA

Just back from the Glasgow gig.  I already feel bad about posting anything negative (lol that's a Mansun song) especially as Draper strikes me as the google-alert-for-his-own-name type.   Musically it was great, I do really enjoy Spooky Action and it is easily the best and most accomplished thing he has done since Six, although I recognise that doesn't allow for a lot of releases.

Draper is awkward as hell.  The first thing I noticed was how much looked like Ricky Gervais, or the X Factor of ages-ago Gervais-lookalike 'dead wife guy'.  I remember the NME interviewing him circa 'Kleptomania' and taking the piss about how much he looked like him in the 'She Makes My Nose Bleed' video - they even ran with a photo from that era at the time - but fucking hell, he's gone full Gervais now.  Not only in appearance, but with continual Brent-esque cringey stage banter, frequently interrupting songs to make squeamishly embarrassing remarks about the audience knowing the song or whether they had just checked it out on Youtube / Spotify etc.  He reminded me of David Van Day at points.  I wasn't expecting him to be as slim as he was on the Six tour, but I was taken aback by his appearace - I've seen recent photos of him, but they don't prepare you for how he looks in person.  He really comes across like he hasn't really gotten out much in the last fifteen years and I found it rather sad.  Perhaps that's a massive overreaction, but as good as the music was, at times I squirmed.  I know it was only the third gig he has played in all that time and I would consider going to the Art School show in March, so perhaps I should cut him some slack, but it was a little distressing to see how awkward he came across.  He played my favourite Mansun song (don't know how to do Spoiler tags but it was a very good single they released near the end) during a sequence alongside Grey House and the very excellent Who's Wearing The Trousers, but the whole thing looked uncomfortable and weird, especially coming off the back of something misguided and dodgy he is alleged to have said on social media about the singer of the departed support act.  I hope I am not merely Mansun-splaining in hoping that whatever it was, it wasn't actually too offensive.

Paul, if you read this I am very sorry.  I would like to assume you are not reading it but I get the impression you know your Google skills.  The album is great.

I especially enjoyed the bit where he introduced Catherine as being member of Simple Minds, causing someone to boo and she gave him the finger.

purlieu

Quote from: PaulTMA on September 17, 2017, 01:03:40 AMI especially enjoyed the bit where he introduced Catherine as being member of Simple Minds, causing someone to boo and she gave him the finger.
Ha, tremendous.

Has Paul always been awkward? I never saw Mansun live so I dunno what they were like. Since reading that absurdly long blog he wrote about Six, I've sometimes wondered if he's on the spectrum somewhere. He's always come across like an incredibly odd bloke (which feeds completely into the music in a good way, of course).

PaulTMA

Again, I don't mean to be unkind, but he gives off a strong impression of Aspberger's.  That's not intended to be cruel, it's just how I saw it.  Even his social media persona has suggested as much.

Sorry if that sounds mean and is certainly not intended as derogatory.

Vodka Margarine

Oh christing fuck.

Mate.

I follow a handful of Drapery and Mansuny groups and by all (admittedly biased) accounts, he seems to be on top of his game a few gigs in, music and voice wise at least. I'm not about to rip up my (now two) tickets in the name of all that is good and holy because I don't believe he's gone full PWR BTTM here. Still, that post from Tali made for uncomfortable and depressing reading. Jeez, can't an ageing indie man in 2017 just enjoy his favourite faded 90s hero without any complications? This is the man who got me through my teens, the man my incredibly-obliging-in-hindsight parents drove me all the way to sodding Ross-on-Wye to see, the man whose lyrics me and my first ever girlfriend bonded over, the man I wanted to emulate in every possible way, from buying safety pins in Boots to put on my school uniform to wearing eyeliner in clubs so I could at least look good every time I tried and failed to cop off.

Without wanting to make any excuses (should this episode subsequently become a 'thing') - I do think he's a strange man, possibly quite a damaged man, with all things considered.

daf

Quote from: PaulTMA on September 17, 2017, 02:03:30 AM
he gives off a strong impression of Aspberger's.  That's not intended to be cruel, it's just how I saw it.

That's a compliment these days, isn't it - sort of puts you in the Van Gogh super-league of romantic geniuses.

purlieu

Quote from: PaulTMA on September 17, 2017, 02:03:30 AM
Again, I don't mean to be unkind, but he gives off a strong impression of Aspberger's.  That's not intended to be cruel, it's just how I saw it.  Even his social media persona has suggested as much.

Sorry if that sounds mean and is certainly not intended as derogatory.
Nothing derogatory about that. I think it's sometimes overdone, it can be easy to think anybody who's a little 'different' has Asperger's, but as somebody with it myself I'd say he definitely shows a lot of the signs - the lyrics throughout Six all seem incredibly familiar to me (particularly 'Television'). The lack of social cues might also go some way to explaining whatever he's said to Tali.

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

Has there been any further word about what happened? I'd really like to go back to just enjoying the music, as it's been one of the few bright spots in an otherwise shite year, but this controversy has really draped a pall over Paul Draper.

buzby

The only thing I saw was a 7am tweet from him asking whoever ran Estrons' twitter feed to PM him the morning after whatever happened on Facebook, followed by a load of people supporting Estrons's singer Tali after she tweeted her Facebook statement and one person asking what hey were supporting her for when it wasn't clear what happened (as whatever it was had been deleted by then). One person tweeted him before the Glasgow gig asking if he would be responding to the allegations (with no reply), and that has been it so far other than someone paraphrasing the section in  Louise Wener's autobiography about Mansun supporting Sleeper on tour saying that they were only in it for the coke and groupies.

Vodka Margarine

Not half bad, that. Opening with a B-side triptych worked better than it had any right to. Excellent to hear 'Disgusting' getting dusted off again. Could've done with something a little more rousing than 'Don't Poke The Bear' as a closer and there was absolutely nothing from Six but there you go. The 'banter' was actually quite funny in places too.

JohnnyCouncil

My guess, there'll be a tour in the next autumn and he'll play six in full.

Enzo

Quote from: JohnnyCouncil on September 23, 2017, 02:24:18 PM
My guess, there'll be a tour in the next autumn and he'll play six in full.

I'd love to see him pull off Shotgun live

buzby

Quote from: Vodka Margarine on September 22, 2017, 01:07:20 AM
Excellent to hear 'Disgusting' getting dusted off again.
I think he has a soft spot for that track. He wanted it to be a single but the label chose Taxloss instead.

JohnnyCouncil

Quote from: Enzo on September 24, 2017, 12:08:53 AM
I'd love to see him pull off Shotgun live

He said in an interview that as it's 'all pedals' there would be no issue with trying to recreate it.

However having seen the big lad pivoting on the tiny stage of the Brudenell I can't imagine Anchoress would get through the tour without steel toe capped boots.

purlieu

Email news alert!
QuoteThere's been loads going on over the past few months. Former Mansun frontman Paul Draper's new label Kscope announced that they've recently acquired the full Mansun catalogue. They're busy working on exciting plans for re-issues over the next few years including unreleased music, remasters and 5.1 mixes.

Paul & Mansun sound engineer Paul 'PDub' Walton have been in the EMI Archives to see what's there in preparation for the re-release of Mansun's ONE EP and the future curation of the Mansun catalogue.

purlieu

Interview with Paul in which he talks openly about his time in Mansun and still appears somewhat bitter about how it all ended. The bit about phoning up the engineer who called him a 'multi-talentless prick' was a simultaneous laugh/cringe moment.

PaulTMA

Can anyone tell me what the latest PD social media shitstrom is all about, before it gets deleted?  Its not altogether clear.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/SpookyAction/permalink/1995431284013309/

purlieu

That's a closed group, any chance of some screenshots?

He really strikes me as someone who's better off staying away from social media, it has to be said.

daf


PaulTMA

Not entirely sure, but apparently he's upset Andie Rathbone, the latter of whom made some very negative, now-deleted post on social media about PD, supposedly something connected to AR's dad dying recently.  I have no idea exactly what though, it does sound weird.  Those who saw the post are not defending PD, FUCKSSAKE innit.