shaun belcher BLOG

Myspace have finally taken note and upped their game so now the complete Suit of Nettles disc from Lincoln Collection show 2008 available to listen to there. This replaces the NING players which have been ended by the new pricing policy.

go to

http://www.myspace.com/trailerstarorchestra

Hi Shaun Belcher!

skloas just sent you a message on Vimeo:

“hey shaun,

the little spot I used your video for is finally finished. I uploaded it already on vimeo and youtube. because it was urgent. I hope you don’t mind. I mentioned your name in the final credits. it doesn’t last very long, but it’s there. I hope that’s ok for you. if you want to I can also tag it with your name.
the video is in german, so I better clarify what it’s all about.
there is an event in berlin called MUSIKCAMP 2.0. It’s a workshop series for young musicians. It lasts one week and gives the attendees the chance to do their own musical experiments with the help of some prominent musicians. professional musicians.
the event is non profitable, there is just a little contribution the attendees need to make, but it’s just to cover the cost of the event. so we get nothing out of it. but for that kind of project it’s very nessecary to do a lot of PR, otherwise it’s very hard to get noticed. so that video is one part of a very small internet and print campaign.
we hope it get’s the right attention and becomes viral, because right now it’s still hard for us to get people enthusiastic about it. and that’s a shame because it’s such a good project and a great chance for musicians or people who want to make music for almost no cost.

well, to cut a long story short,
here you go:

so that’s it for now,
again, thank you very much for providing your video! it was just perfect for the subject. I hope I treated it right and you are fine with it

nevertheless if there are any complaints please feel free to contact me

with best regards,
sascha”

skloas’s profile on Vimeo:

http://vimeo.com/user3228202

It only taken 17 years but finally the sessions at toerag are available again. A strange but true story of concept over content.
The English Pixies….not quite

Here everything that listenable (yes there worse on tape). We finally gave up at first rehearsal on 21st January 1994. My then partner thought at best we sounded like a washing machine. So one seven inch single all there was and this….enjoy or whatever you do when in pain….here ladies and gentlemen at long last the legendary High Priests and Auto-Graveyard.

Final session at Toerag Mayday 1993 added to player

Sleeve art of cassette titled ‘Goodbye Double-Decker’

Now here’s the REAL High priests sound before things went badly wrong..first session at Liam Watson’s original Toerag Studio and I’m channelling recession blues and Nick Cave in equal measure and an unhealthy preoccupation with Crows, Cars and the colour black…..

We recorded all in a hour or so to keep costs down and I remember Liam swigging throughout and a bunch of others messing around…

Liam one finger hammond organ on ‘Your Girlfriend’s Quit’…our drummer adored Moe Tucker and even got a Xmas card one year from her.

The player below now has the E.P.added.

Find more music like this on trailer star lounge

The cassette tape this the cover of found its way to Too Pure head guy who came to see us and left disappointed..seems our version of Tav Falco not qute good enough…

After a casual conversation which involved Joe Meek and Beat Happening I decided to excavate some of the original High Priests material which had been scattered to the wind. It was Grunge time and I and a mad drummer from Oxford and even madder guitarist formed the greatest racket makers this side of the Thames Valley.

The Single:

The Story….

Formed in 1990 and hitting the shambling but right track soon after ‘The High Priests’ took their name from a Alex Chilton record.

Looking for the missing link between Garage Punk, Power Pop and Sun-era Rock n, Roll they avoided rehearsing and playing live until 1993 when the above live first-take recordings were laid down at London’s infamous Toerag Studios under the genius care of one Liam Watson ( more famous recently for his work with The White Stripes amongst others).

Thinking they’d made the greatest wigout garage classic ever the bass-less trio span wildly out of control at a succession of dingy north london pub venues before exploding in a bewildering cacophany of feedback mid song at a Piao Festival in Hammersmith London where the head honcho of Rough Trade was seen to physically grimace and walk away in despair…

All in all a thoroughly glorious failure as befits a drunken blues bunch…

A 7″ was released through Southern Distribution in 1993 featuring ‘Ice Cream Town’ b/w ‘Black Swans Sink’.

It was a bloody racket according to noted noise merchant Billy Childish and graced a sleeve by the designer of Stereolab Sleeves. As only 1000 were pressed and most disappeared along with guitarist Tim Featherstone who has never been heard of since*…

It could be a collector’s item or it could be crap…who knows…. the band members are still searching for that rare single and the master tape of the High Priests session recorded at Toe-Rag Studios London with Liam… a mix of punk and blues with heavy Moe Tucker like drumming and no bass player….hmmm…a full ten years before the White Stripes and the Black Keys…maybe if we’d had a colour in our name?…… the High Priests ‘complete’ works are to be released on Tstar Records sometime soon……you have been warned…

* we found him recently but still no date for the repackaging of the HP’s greatest hit..and please do not confuse with the London band of same name ( we had the idea first:-)

Today I finished adding my entire catalogue to this website.

Through an industrious mix and mash of elements from wordpress, ning and twitter I have a fully functional always on player driven catalogue that I can never charge for.. so what’s the point?

Well I believe and research by others backs it up that the old product driven recording industry is dead.

This is what I think the future will look like. All recordings available all the time and no spotify/last fm/mog whatever badging and branding and advertising. If I can do it anybody can. How will artists survive well not by selling CD’s , books or any other ‘hard’ copy but by creating online ‘presence’ and basically building up a global, personally driven online environment which includes (next step folks..not there yet) online streaming…..the tools are there just a matter of time before available for all…..and as for recording..that’s another blog post:-)

This wonderful set of renditions of my lyrics came out in 2003 and pretty quickly sank in the quicksands of the music ‘bizness’. All the artists volunteered their tracks by MP3 and Kris and Joe of Cicero Buck tied it all together on Super Tiny Records and that was it basically….various artists records, let alone a charity record don’t get shelf space on the market so that was that until now and the beauties of NING which mean I can represent it complete with no fear of downloads…..so if you want a hard copy you gotta pay some dues to Super Tiny and Cancer Research UK. It was dedicated to my father who sadly died of Pancreatic Cancer in 2004. My mother has now been diagnosed with a separate form of cancer so time to highlight this gem and pray yet again….

I cannot thank enough the artists who contributed to it and hope this post helps shine a light on them in return as a form of thanks……keep on shining…..

Like The Moon over the Downs…

LISTEN HERE

to listen to Trailer’s original tapes go to

MOON OVER THE BARNS

Shaun Belcher on behalf of the late great Trailer Star

THE TRAILER STAR TRIBUTE – SUPER TINY RECORDS – STR002
the tribute to the star that never was – 15 groovy tracks by the likes of Jim Roll, Deanna Varagona, Bob Cheevers, Ronny Elliott..