Electro-Shock Blues: Eels with Colin Jackson-Brown

absolutely i can remember it vividly um so the first time i heard them was february 1997 when nova came for the soul their debut single okay was on top of the pops yeah and it is one of the absolute classic top of the pops performances because they they agreed to do it it was an unexpected hit single um so they got flown over by the record label turned up and i think it was the day before they what they were told that um at that point top of the pops didn't allow people to play live I think you can sing live, but it's got to be a recorded backing track.

Yeah, yeah.

So they decided to do something interesting with that and all played toy instruments.

So you've got E playing a little toy, tiny little piano looking like Schrodinger, not Schrodinger, Schroder out of Peanuts cartoons.

I'll get on to why I said Schrodinger, why that was in my head later on, or I won't.

But yeah, the...

He then is playing a little tiny guitar.

The bass player is playing a little miniature guitar.

And the drummer, Butch, at the back, he's a big guy.

He's playing this little tiny kid's drum kit.

And then towards the end, they smash all the instruments up.

And then, perfectly timed, just turn around and do a Beatles bow, with them all bowing to the audience together right at the end.

And it's brilliant.

I loved it at the time.

But the next single, Susan's House, was a hit single as well.

So I heard that on the radio loads.

And I got a Q Magazine CD that had got a track called Guest List on it that I absolutely loved.

Um, so I then, uh, bought the debut album, beautiful freak.

Um, so I was already into them by the time this came out.

There's a track on beautiful freak called your lucky day in hell, which sonically is kind of like a dry run for this album.

Cause it's, it's got the same sort of spooky, like unnerving kind of sound to it.

Yeah.

Um, But yeah, it's a bit cleaner.

It's a bit less grimy.

Whereas this album is very grimy.

absolutely i can remember it vividly um so the first time i heard them was february 1997 when nova came for the soul their debut single okay was on top of the pops yeah and it is one of the absolute classic top of the pops performances because they they agreed to do it it was an unexpected hit single um so they got flown over by the record label turned up and i think it was the day before they what they were told that um at that point top of the pops didn't allow people to play live I think you can sing live, but it's got to be a recorded backing track.

Yeah, yeah.

So they decided to do something interesting with that and all played toy instruments.

So you've got E playing a little toy, tiny little piano looking like Schrodinger, not Schrodinger, Schroder out of Peanuts cartoons.

I'll get on to why I said Schrodinger, why that was in my head later on, or I won't.

But yeah, the...

He then is playing a little tiny guitar.

The bass player is playing a little miniature guitar.

And the drummer, Butch, at the back, he's a big guy.

He's playing this little tiny kid's drum kit.

And then towards the end, they smash all the instruments up.

And then, perfectly timed, just turn around and do a Beatles bow, with them all bowing to the audience together right at the end.

And it's brilliant.

I loved it at the time.

But the next single, Susan's House, was a hit single as well.

So I heard that on the radio loads.

And I got a Q Magazine CD that had got a track called Guest List on it that I absolutely loved.

Um, so I then, uh, bought the debut album, beautiful freak.

Um, so I was already into them by the time this came out.

There's a track on beautiful freak called your lucky day in hell, which sonically is kind of like a dry run for this album.

Cause it's, it's got the same sort of spooky, like unnerving kind of sound to it.

Yeah.

Um, But yeah, it's a bit cleaner.

It's a bit less grimy.

Whereas this album is very grimy.