Humanitarian man of letters? But I had to come back after five days because everything just went mad on the lockdown. Its an oxymoron. It was a club, everyone was super hip, it wasnt my patch. If youve got 50,000 followers, then youve basically got a little TV channel. Michael Jackson - 'Black Or White'. We (Fat White Family) were planning on starting tracking stuff this month. ", "In a way Im grateful to the band IDLES," Saoudi continued. But this was just spellbinding, it was such a dense experience. "It was sort of like rehab," says Saoudi. Why am I standing in front of a stage looking at some questionable hero? Lias Saoudi sits down in the pub, takes a sip of Guinness and immediately starts sucking on a vape. It was Quinns idea to start booking some early live shows, the most pivotal of which was at 2019s Glastonbury Festival. I ask him for his opinion on the current political class. We recorded in one long take, straight on the record, no edits necessary, says Luke. Thats almost like having a chip implanted in you. Its not a power that can actually be taken away from somebody. But the process of writing Ten Thousand Apologies forced Saoudi, whom Stripe describes as a mix of Harold Steptoe, Oscar Wilde and Adrian Mole, to confront many of the conflicts and resentments he and his bandmates had avoided for years. Were not good at talking about our emotions, says Saoudi. All rights reserved. Its basically his reading history: he picks 52 books Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Svetlana Alexievichs The Unwomanly Face of War and goes through his personal relationship with each of them. Lias Saudi, performing here with Fat White Family at End of the Road Festival in Farnham in 2018, made a solo appearance at the Windwmill in Brixton as the second lockdown looms BURAK CINGI . This is a compendium thats the worlds first comprehensive book-length study of the scatological in art. If you love what we do, you can help tQ to continue bringing you the best in cultural criticism and new music by joining one of our subscription tiers. I dont think that things are going pan out as drastically kind of awfully as it feels like they will right now. Lias Saoudi is the co-author of Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure, which is published by White Rabbit. Did you go? Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. The river split at that point because youre just on completely different psychic wavelengths. PKM: Technology, having to go through that channel, it sucks the joy and the spontaneity out of stuff so quickly. Lias Saoudi, lead singer with Fat White Family, performs on the Big Top stage on day one of the Parklife 2016 Festival on June 11, 2016 in. After a period away from electronic production, they were just recently returning via a casual project with Quinn Whalley of the sleazy acid house duo Paranoid London, mainly as an excuse to socialise and have a drink. Cabin fever set in long ago, and hes considering going down to Margate to search for a new home base. Theyre just transient and it either resonates or it doesnt and the best you can do is completely ignore that hullabaloo. Lias Saoudi: Basically, yeah! This is the definitive account of Fat White Family's disgraceful and . And it doesnt matter which part of the media spectrum you go to, theyre all trying to crank it up to the max, so they can raise their heads above the parapet, above the din. During the first UK lockdown, Lias began contributing a series of unflinching autobiographical pieces entitledLife Beyond the Neutral Zoneto the online cultural hub, The Social Gathering. In 2011 he . Raina Lampkins-Fielder introduced me to the work of the Gees Bend quilt-makers. What are you supposed to do? Lias Saoudi: I think its better if youve got some kind of fire in the belly. Ive been reading loads of stuff like that recently. Communication was always a problem for Fat White Family. [6] Pledgers were given the self-released EP Crippled B-Sides and Inconsequential Rarities. I decided to devote my guest-edit of theObserversNew Reviewto investigating this question. Lias Saoudi performing with Fat White Family performs at South Facing festival, London, in August last year. Open a drawer. FWF frontman revisits his 16-year-old self for our latest Sweet 16 column. To the four winds was scattered my collection. The magic mushrooms Lias was using to calm pre-show anxiety at the time had not arrived as hed planned, so he broke his own code to never take cocaine before a gig. PKM: He gets good lyrics out of that. I mean, with me and my brother it waswe were just sort of skint, and pissing around, and sort of felt like rejects. Im a musician for Christs sake! "Fat White Family frontman Lias looking forward to Irish 'homecoming' gigs". PKM: It seems like another way for the government to track you. But I think being half Algerian, raised in Northern Ireland and Scotlandtheres some sort of connection there, between the Berber people and the Celtic people, you know? It must have been hard to pick at all those scabs again. Read previous Sweet 16 columns with the likes of Beirut, Riz Ahmed, Johnny Marr, Shirley Manson, Matt Helders and many more. Hes at liberty to capitulate if he likes, says Saoudi, who uses the word in Fat White Family song Feet. Sarah Davachi at Lglise Saint-Eustache, Paris. To find out more, click here. You dont want to be in the middle of the countryside with just a dog, do you? But when the four of us get together, its like weve got to that point where we realise that any conflict is just not necessary. Im in some sort of musical cul-de-sac at the moment Im either listening to ambient or Bob Dylan. Sitting watching TV, I remember the video came up. In choosing to attack two groups at once I believed I was demonstrating a supreme . Shirtless, his dark hair tousled after a brisk walk across town, he rolled cigarettes and sipped coffee whilst answering questions with a right good grace. 22/09/2020. Even Anish Kapoor makes an appearance. ", Saoudi continued, "The group claim that vulnerability is their armour, where exactly is all of this vulnerability? The Grass Arena by John Healy https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/aug/05/biography, 5. [3], They released their debut album, Champagne Holocaust, in 2013, on UK label Trashmouth Records. Youre just, like, excavating your own life, he says. Debaucherous UK band Fat White Family were in NYC over the weekend, playing Bowery Ballroom on Saturday night (10/18). Their grudges, not my grudges. Everything was all mixed up. Like, always siding with the IRA. Im very proud of that background. Thank you all for your help. Photo courtesy of Lias Saoudi. "We've got a little four-piecejust a . I went to a Protestant school as a result. By Gregg L. Friedman MD, I really miss the great musical groups of the 1960's. Javi Aznarez drew a wonderful cartoon. Saoudi later tells me that, during the second or third lockdown, he cant remember which, he found himself in Ireland with another writer. The site covers music, art, culture, fashion, poetry and movies from the 60s through today. Its an ethos they intend to keep sticking to. Saoudi, the frontman who has masturbated on stage, written a song about Harold Shipman and once smeared himself with his own excrement during a gig (The rest of the tour sold like hot cakes after that), is still as provocative as ever. Lias Saoudi: Its one of those things that just doesnt work. They met up sporadically, about once every month or two. Seeing your friends after months, the hangovers just end up blaring into each other. I was so terrified I was gonna get crushed, I was this little dude getting thrown around, it was horrible. Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure. FWF frontman revisits his 16-year-old self for our latest Sweet 16 column. I dont know. Lias Saoudi said that being anti-establishment "will always be our politics" but "Serfs Up!" marks a shift in tone away from nihilism: It is "upbeat and melodic," said Saoudi, rather . DiS: What are your plans for Christmas and the New Year? But no, its just that I havent been able to see my brethren in arms much lately, Ive spent the pandemic writing about them instead of playing with them. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. It was a bit heavy, that. Hes a historical figure that time is about to extinguish, reflecting back on all of that musical history. To find out more, click here. Theres a scene at the end when Jeremy Irons cuts his own throat in prison, and its just a continuation of that sentiment, he argues. [4], On 10 March 2014, Fat White Family issued their first single, "Touch the Leather", on Hate Hate Hate Records. Within six months I think well have a very different landscape. Anybody, regardless of who you are, if you are addicted to heroin and crack, and you are living in a crack house, you are not going to behave in a way that is palatable. Saoudi, on the other hand, tells me that, generally speaking, Saul was kind of like, nah, it should be worse. He had an incredible array of records in his living room that me and his daughter would help ourselves to. Her father was a quiet man who had served in the British Army working bomb disposal. Dance music can be quite conservative, Liam continues. What does the collecting impulse say about us humans? We did a few demos earlier on in the year. Fuck all you lot. It was just the most fulfilling thing. You cant really have a bunch of tunes on while youre busy concocting alternative truths and softcore character assassinations. The kids in Cookstown, Northern Ireland, had few pastimes outside of football, setting things on fire and throwing stones at the Portuguese* on their way home from work in the evening. I think Saul is back on Friday to London. Their second album, Songs for Our Mothers, was released in 2016 by the Without Consent label. I doubt that he knows exactly whats going on in that song, but the more I listen to it the more I think about it., Its a sexy number. Bang to rights, The book is not always kind to Saoudis bandmates, however. Lias Saoudi is the frontman of rock bands Fat White Family and the Moonlandingz. Keep a lid on it till somebody finds a vaccine? Hed never had that much interest in electronic music before, but a couple of my mates who dressed like characters from The Matrix were real techno heads, so I thought Ill give it a go. It ended up being completely transformational. The black pill is what I subscribe to at this point. Lias Saoudi: If youre a band at our level or above, and youve already got a following, maybe theres some potential in it. Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure by Adelle Stripe and Lias Saoudi. And it really was more sporadic. Even for somebody like meeven for a hardcore cynic, it was difficult not to feel invigorated by that. But then, my mums from the north of England, a working class coal mining family. Sign up with your email address to get news and updates from the Social and The Social Gathering . Lias Saoudi, Richard Dawson and Sea Power at the latter's . Life Beyond The Neutral Zone #8 - Lias Saoudi. Ultimately, it all comes back to the central philosophy that emerged when they first started messing around after Lias Berghain trip the casting off of outside pressures, an emphasis on release. They were both obsessed with Bob Dylan, whose nasal whine I was completely adverse to. Co-edited by Gillian McCain and Legs McNeil, the authors of, The Knack had an amazing sound. [17] Writing in the Observer, Miranda Sawyer described it as 'the story of a band thats always on the brink: of stardom, of madness, of brilliance, of disgrace.' But how will COVID-19 effect gigs? That posture is kind of infinite., John Denver Take Me Home, Country Roads, It goes down well if you can hit what I call the leap of faith moment. It was the only thing I used to whinge about; the constant Dylan. Retrieved 7 May 2021. Its as if the lyrics have been generated by a Guardian designed algorithm, every red button issue of the day systematically addressed in the most predictable way imaginable. The book, which will be published early next year, tells, a press release says, "the sordid and thrilling story" of the band, from their formation in 2011 up to now. For me, the reins were off. For the others, too, the project was a release. I had never been a words man really but in that moment I was changed forever. Theres an article called The collectors, which explores different aspects of collecting through interviews with Peter Blake, artist Andy Holden, quilt-maker Loretta Pettway Bennett, digital archivist (& activist) Stephen Ellcock & others. Lias Saoudi, frontman of Fat White Family, has said he's working on a book about sex therapy.. READ MORE: Fat White Family live in London - long-awaited return of gigs finds the band on . Lias Kaci Saoudi from Fat White Family performs at We Love Green Festival Day 02 on June 5, 2016 in Paris, France. [5], In early 2014, the band launched a PledgeMusic campaign to fund their show at the South by Southwest festival, with a subsequent US tour. I went with my brother and I remember him taking me to the front before they went on. Lias Saoudi: It was really good. Address: The Social 5 Little Portland St London W1W 7JD. Albums became predictably much less relevant. THE SHOCKING LIVE TELEVISION SUICIDE OF A NEWS ANCHOR! I was kind of like, almost angry and bitter at it when it first kicked off, in a way. That's a pretty great show and tickets are still available. Guideline Price: 20. ", The Fat White Family vocalist also wrote that the band "represent everything that is wrong with contemporary cultural politics, with a left to whom the future used to belong, in defeat now collapsing into whimsical utopianism. Any hardcore fans of the Fat White Family will be greatly relieved to know that the famously tempestuous band were not locked down together, an occurrence which would surely have resulted in injury, death, or nervous breakdowns. You have to give up on that yourself., 'Ten Thousand Apologies: Fat White Family and the Miracle of Failure by Lias Saoudi and Adelle Stripe is out on Thursday 24 February, published by White Rabbit (20), Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Fat White Familys Lias Saoudi, Paranoid Londons Quinn Whalley, and Trashmouth Records Luke and Liam May discuss their sleazy, seedy new project Decius, In 2013 Lias Saoudi, who was then laying low in Berlin after the recording of his band Fat White Familys debut album Champagne Holocaust, went out to Berghain. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. Just go down to New Malden and howl some falsetto over a beat for a few hours. Mon 20th Sep 2021 14.45 BST. Life doesnt work like that. Last time I saw him it was complete shithouse, he has a rep for shithouse live gigs which hes carefully cultivated for about 30 years. 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