Thursday, May 18, 2006

She kicked off her stilettos and we fell into the haystack


Haystack has a wee niche in New Order lore. After Ian Curtis hung himself, the band assembled to be the backing band for singer Kevin Hewick. Hewick had sent a tape into Factory Records, and Tony Wilson got the remaining members of Joy Division together to act as his backing band in a session produced by Martin Hannett. The track, Haystack, was ultimately released on From Brussels With Love, a cassette compilation, with the legend, "Kevin plays with a few musicians. Recorded by Martin Hannet."

Hewick appeared on a couple of Factory Records. Never really a full length, mostly compilations. You can read the whole story of the recording of Haystack here. At one point, he tells Bernard Sumner that the (two-note) guitar solo Sumner's playing is lifted from a Buzzcocks' song, and Sumner gets pissy at storms out of the studio.

Note that the version of Haystack linked from the page I linked up top is not the New Order version. That version's nice, but my only copy of it is on an audiocassette buried in my parents' basement somewhere. The linked version, though, is certainly worth listening to. This guy might've been the Ian Curtis replacement. He's got a nice voice, and his lyrics aren't bad, either. This song in particular has knocked around my head for many years now. One day I should check out the rest of his stuff, see if it's worthwhile.

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