HELP!
I lost my Haystack mp3 file. Could someone send it to me by e-mail? Thanxxxxxxxxxxx.......
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Haystack
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Well, I've uploaded it to http://sti.br.inter.net/rafernandes/haystack.mp3 so anyone can get it too.
Please let me know if you find any problems.
Well, I still have my original vinyl copy of "From Brussels With Love" (Crepuscule TWI 008), AND I have a very clean rip of the track on a CD-R. I could convert the song into a high quality mp3, or even a shn-file (lossless format), and post it to one of the binaries newsgroups if you like.
Whats the story behind Haystack. Who sings it? When was it made? Who wrote it? Anything else of interest.
Thanks
Originally posted by Jim "The Him" Whats the story behind Haystack. Who sings it? When was it made? Who wrote it? Anything else of interest.Thanks
I'm just doing a cut and paste job from a Martin Hannett website (http://freespace.virgin.net/anna.b/hannett/hannett.htm) but there are loads of interesting stuff there, it's worth a visit.
a bit of a biog
kevin hewick (cheers, mate) is a troubadour from leicester who was swept up into the factory maelstrom more by accident than by design - as he put it, someone who managed to get onto the right bus, only to fall off it.
hewick had sent demos to a number of labels (stiff, radar, a&m) with no luck. after hearing the "factory sample", he sent one in to factory, and was stunned to be picked up by the label. after releasing one live album side on a compilation ("a factory quartet"), one single ("ophelia's drinking song" - produced by donald johnson - drummer, a certain ratio - and peter hook - bassist, new order) and one other tune on a compilation (the martin hannett-produced - barely - "haystack"), he left factory for cherry red. he stayed there a year before leaving the label.
hewick is currently signed to sorted records and released his latest album in 1999. he often plays in the leicester area, and still gets requests for "haystack"! stop in and say hi if there's a gig near you.
a brush with factory
hewick was a fan of early factory, and stunned when a demo sent in to the burgeoning record label in 1979 resulted in an october letter from tony wilson himself! wilson (primus inter partes among factory's five directors) wrote that hewick's was the best demo of that year but that it would take a few months to get him into the studio.
in the meantime, wilson and factory co-director (along with peter saville and rob gretton) alan erasmus got hewick on the bill for several high-profile factory gigs, including support for joy division at the famous "factory by moonlight" gig at the moonlight club, from which the "still" version of the velvet underground's "sister ray" is culled. hewick's part of the evening is immortalized on 1/4 of the "factory quartet" (fac 24 for you trainspotters) compilation published in december 1980, wherein lies an early version of "haystack". more on that song later.
other support dates included a certain ratio, durutti column, ludus (linder - of the factory egg timer and morrissey's girlfriend fame), section 25, and six dates on roy harper's may 1980 uk tour. although he eventually opened for joy division on one other occasion, he was too awestruck ever to get to meet them ("they were joy division!", 'nuff said).
one day many months later, hewick was standing in a chip shop with peter hook and started telling him how unknown pleasures had changed his life - how he'd locked himself away to listen to it for 2 weeks when it first came out. typically, hookie ignored the comment and asked what he wanted with his chips.
hewick departed from factory soon after the "ophelia's drinking song" 7" came out. as so many others have recalled, one of factory's worst shortcomings was their opposition to promotion - hewick was given six copies of his single with which to start a buzz and get some sales. unsuprisingly, therefore, it didn't sell. he shamefacedly confesses that before his departure he deliberately kept hannett's girlfriend, who was working in the reception of the palatine road office, talking so that two of his friends could rifle the shelves for discs.
the hannett session and almost a new order
around june 1980 (just over a month after ian curtis' suicide), hewick was booked to go into graveyard studios (famous for a certain ratio's marvellous "graveyard and the ballroom" cassette) to record 5 tracks for the planned double 10" (which later became the aforementioned "factory quartet"). the night before, tony wilson phoned hewick and suggested that "the jds" go into the studio to back him. wilson told hewick that the jds wanted to carry on as a band and playing someone else's material would ease their transition back into recording.
no one ever told hewick that this might have been a try-out session for a lead singer of the soon-to-be new order. much later, when terry christian suggested the idea on a bbc radio derby interview in 1983, hewick was hurt enough to be unable to go to a new order gig for quite some time afterwards. "well you're a better singer than any of them aren't you?" said christian. the rumour would appear to be substantiated in the liner notes to "from brussels with love", although hewick maintains it was not the case.
to quote kevin: "i was picked up at piccadilly station by bernard and stephen in a really old car. they were really friendly, good humoured and i soon felt at ease - for a while--- forgive my memory but i seem to recall it was only on arriving at graveyard that i was told that martin hannett was going to produce the session! at last i met peter hook who privately i held in most fanlike awe - he soon came over as the one who took the lead with things, who pulled things together into shape. we worked on two songs "haystack" and "a piece of fate". it was decided to do "haystack" first."
the resulting song, "haystack," a stalwart of hewick's live set, appears on the "from brussels with love" compilation on les disques du crepuscule (cd, cassette, and lp formats). the recording suffers from a complete and utter lack of production. kevin indicates that this was the result of hannett showing up halfway through the session, pronouncing that the assembled group of musicians (hewick, bernard, peter, and steven) sounded like "fairport convention" [ouch!] and curling up under the mixing desk for a bit of a sleep. hewick was told hannett was exhausted from working through the night on a john cooper clarke recording session. he remembers hannett leaving before the end and doubts whether hannett actually twiddled and knobs on this recording at all!
the assembled "backing" band told the engineer at the beginning of the session that they'd decided to call themselves "new order". when hewick pointed out that rob asheton (former member of the stooges) had formed a band called the new order, a clearly annoyed bernard shot back "only you would know that."
the song
the song is inspired by a scene with jack lemmon and lee remick in "the days of wine and roses", with loads of heroin addiction imagery (which i can't even believe i missed in favour of a sexual interpretation!). hook's bass rumbles along, bernard knocks away at the polyphonic synths, stevie bangs the drums, and hewick delivers a langorously lounge-y vocal performance and plays guitar. he doesn't sound nearly as nervous as he must've been, although the beauty of his voice fails to show through.
the "other" song
the assembled band worked on a second song that has never seen the light of day. "a piece of fate" was the track - later reworked by hewick into a song called "no miracle" in 1993. hewick, who was utterly in awe of the backing band assembled for his humble session, pointed out to bernard that the two note guitar solo he was playing was from buzzcock's "boredom" and was stunned when bernard, threw his gibson sg down on the floor and stormed out. this so unnerved hewick that he was unable to complete any other songs for the session. wilson, still wanting to feature the young kevin on a factory record, replaced the session with the live tracks on the factory quartet. all in all, not an auspicious recording for the young lad's first "professional" recording session, but a story for the grandkids!
other meetings with hannett
in late 1981/early 1982, hewick went to the birmingham odeon (seating about 2000) and was on the guest list to see john cooper clarke and pauline murray (both playing with the invisible girls). hewick was at the side of the stage while pauline murray was playing, thoroughly enjoying himself and watching hannett play guitar. when hannett caught sight of him (half way through the number), martin walked off the stage and into the wing to shake hands with hewick, while a bewildered pauline and her group continued the number. after the gig, hewick remembers sharing a smoke with clarke and martin.
hewick had seen hannett around some other times, at the palatine road flat, but no other memorable meetings occurred between the two. interestingly, hewick mentioned that despite gigging together a number of times, vini reilly cut him off after he left factory - vini's a loyalist through and through.
with thanks to kevin hewick for contacting us and spending so much time sharing memories.
Kevin Hewick contributed an article to Eleanor Whitney's fanzine which she advertised on these pages a few months back.
When Eleanor started the Fanzine she tried to generate articles by plugging her idea on the 24hourpp site & invited those interested to send in their contributions. KH saw this, got in touch & that's how it came about. Seems strangley unaffected by his Factory days or still excited by the whole thing. Not sure which.
To Johnny:Very affected and still very excited about it actually - in a bittersweet kind of way..!
To Ricardo and Al Jarvis:Thanks for giving people for more info.Can I just point out re:the New Order name story..Bernard wasnt "clearly annoyed",thats a misquote - these things happen! - it was Peter and he wasnt annoyed - more dismissive of my being a smart Alec!
William of the Hannett websites original piece on "Haystack" was quite dismissive but when I got in touch with him via Anna he was a true gent and rewrote the piece you see in Ricardos message.Any slight inaccuracies there arent anybodys fault,the info was conveyed to him by Anna from a letter to her -my pre e-mail days! I have written about it again in Eleanor Whitneys U.S "Twenty years too late" fanzine - lots of great stuff in there,well worth checking out.. To Marco:Ok,so I had a "bad singing day" nearly 23 years ago at the "Haystack" session..Ive had plenty of good ones since,especially in the last 15 years.So..the word "singer" isnt misplaced at all.Check out my live dates on www.kevinhewick.com and Ill proove it to any NO onliners who care to come and see!
Originally posted by Tout est devenu vert HELP!
I lost my Haystack mp3 file. Could someone send it to me by e-mail? Thanxxxxxxxxxxx.......
have you tried looking for it with a needle?
Originally posted by kevin hewick To Johnny:Very affected and still very excited about it actually - in a bittersweet kind of way..!To Ricardo and Al Jarvis:Thanks for giving people for more info.Can I just point out re:the New Order name story..Bernard wasn
t "clearly annoyed",thats a misquote - these things happen! - it was Peter and he wasnt annoyed - more dismissive of my being a smart Alec!William of the Hannett websites original piece on "Haystack" was quite dismissive but when I got in touch with him via Anna he was a true gent and rewrote the piece you see in Ricardos message.Any slight inaccuracies there arent anybodys fault,the info was conveyed to him by Anna from a letter to her -my pre e-mail days! I have written about it again in Eleanor Whitneys U.S "Twenty years too late" fanzine - lots of great stuff in there,well worth checking out..To Marco:Ok,so I had a "bad singing day" nearly 23 years ago at the "Haystack" session..Ive had plenty of good ones since,especially in the last 15 years.So..the word "singer" isnt misplaced at all.Check out my live dates on www.kevinhewick.com and Ill proove it to any NO onliners who care to come and see!
So Kevin, does any of the recording of "A Piece Of Fate" still exist? Maybe you have a Hooky-esque collection of old C90's in your attic. That is definitely something I'd mud-wrestle my own grandmother to hear!
Old Blue:I wasnt ever given a rough mix copy from the desk of Haystack/A piece of fate.However I did have a cassette tape recorder running through most of the session,recording about 3 hours of it all I think..Needless to say a lot of it is stuff like setting the drums up - ectascy for Steves fans I suppose!
On one bit he and Peter and I run through some JD things like "Transmission" - Im on guitar and play lots of bum notes!(..it just wasnt my day was it?!)
As to where these tapes are..well,probably in one of the boxes/bags of old tapes up in the loft at my parents house!I need a MAJOR sort out of my rather chaotic archieve..Ill do it sometime soon and if anything turns up Ill let you know..but I cannot stress enough that its a typical stop/start studio sesssionstuff ,very fragmentry..if you find "Haystack" dissapointing then this will REALLY dissapoint!
So granny is safe for a little while longer, eh? The "quality" be damned, I'm sure I'm not the only one who has a genuine interest in that session. And for the record, in no way do I find Haystack disappointing...
Originally posted by kevin hewick ...Check out my live dates on www.kevinhewick.com and I`ll proove it to any NO onliners who care to come and see!
Your live section seems to have distinct Leicester feel to it Kevin!
How 'bout a gig in the capital for us lazy London-centric chin-strokers? We had ex Factory outfits Biting Tongues & Crispy Ambulance down here last week at the ICA. They pulled a decent crowd. You'd get a fair few Factory heads turning out to see you. Well me & Al Jarvis at least ;)
Then in true Factory style - don't put Haystack in your set!
Yes Johnny,I agree,far too Leicester-centric gigswise..though I am in Coventry on June 18th so things are looking up!I havent played in London since November 2000 though I often go to see things there - I was even at Durutti Columns superb Ronnie Scotts show on May 18th and reviewed it for Channel 4 teletexts excellent Planet Sound pages.
As for New Order..Ive never seen them since 1982,those heady days in tiny venues like Derby Blue Note club..I did support Revenge in 1981 at New Cross venue and saw Monaco support The Charlatans at Leicesters DeMontfort Halls,in 1997 I think,though I couldn`t get backstage to see Peter after..true confirmation of my has been that never was status!!!
Ok..a London gig..find the tapes for Old Blue..ok!!!K.x.
P.s:Glad someone likes "Haystack",thank you..
Hey Kevin, I just hope you don't sue me because I have uploaded a MP3 file of "Haystack". ;)
Originally posted by kevin hewick I did support Revenge in 1981 at New Cross venue and saw Monaco support The Charlatans at Leicester
s DeMontfort Halls,in 1997 I think,though I couldnt get backstage to see Peter after..true confirmation of my has been that never was status!!!Ok..a London gig..find the tapes for Old Blue..ok!!!K.x.P.s:Glad someone likes "Haystack",thank you..
Kevin
Sorry but you supported Revenge in 1991. :)
I love it!
It reminds me a bit of Robyn Hitchcock...I hope that's not an insult.
No kidding...it made me smile. And dig those crazy synths, back when synthesizers were wild, undomesticated beasts that would bite your goddamned arm off if you touched them the wrong way.
Originally posted by Johnny Giles > Originally posted by kevin hewick> > > ...Check out my live dates on www.kevinhewick.com and I`ll proove it to any NO onliners who care to come and see!
Your live section seems to have distinct Leicester feel to it Kevin!
How 'bout a gig in the capital for us lazy London-centric chin-strokers? We had ex Factory outfits Biting Tongues & Crispy Ambulance down here last week at the ICA. They pulled a decent crowd. You'd get a fair few Factory heads turning out to see you. Well me & Al Jarvis at least ;)
Then in true Factory style - don't put Haystack in your set!
... and certainly two takers if you can pop over to Amsterdam...!!
ps - also a fan of Haystack - stands up in it's own right & not simply a piece of no histoire.
Ricardo:My legal team fancied a six month legal battle with you in Brazil..Seriously it is just fantastic to me here in the middle of England that you have got a song I did 23 years ago in Brazil..ok,its because of NO,I know that,but its still great..
Love will tear us apart:Yes,correct,I supported Revenge in 1991!I am a really bad typist and often hit the wrong key..also my spelling is a bit iffy too!
I had Rob Vom on drums who played with Crazyhead and Zodiac Mindwarp and Dominic Benthasm on bass that night at New Cross venue in London.Theres a good desk recording of our set,not of Revenges Im afraid..I love "One true passion",to me the best out-of-(New)Order album to date..After the New Cross show Peter said wed have to do it again sometime..Im still waiting for the call!
Gnu :Robyn Hitchcock! Ive been compared to him before so thats rather spot on mate!Synths were a thrill then,like old guitars,old synths are best!
Mnh:So sorry this didnt happen sooner -I was wandering around Amsterdam station with a guitar and a bag April 21st!I played the night before in Haarlem at a "Live in the living room" event organised by Rick Treffers one of your best Dutch singer-songwriters..you actually play in someones house to an intimate audience of 30 or so people,its a real big thing in American roots music right now.We were in the house of my good friend the writer Willemien Spook.I know her from when she did edited a book on the late Adrian Borland of The Sound I contributed a chapter to.I also played at the Patronaat in 2001 at Adrians memorial concert .If any of you have ever wondered if anyone else could ever match the intensity of Joy Divisions most powerful work try The Sounds re-issues on CD or track down Adrians solo albums - "Harmony and Destruction" is as moving a final statement by a troubled soul as "Closer" was for Ian Curtis.
Hi Kevin! Never in my life I dreamed one day I'd be chatting with you in the 'Net! I never downloaded any of your songs, but I had a tape with "Haystack" back in the ol' eighties. Does that count?
...and by the way I'm so, so glad you're a fan of Adrian's work! His death was such a loss, wasn't it?
Originally posted by Monsieur Round&Round ...and by the way I'm so, so glad you're a fan of Adrian's work!His death was such a loss, wasn't it?
Can you talk a bit more about this Adrian, please? I don´t know him.
Originally posted by Love Will Tear Us Apart > Originally posted by Monsieur Round&Round ...and by the way I'm so, so glad you're a fan of Adrian's work!His death was such a loss, wasn't it?
Can you talk a bit more about this Adrian, please? I don´t know him.
It's Adrian Borland, the driving force behind The Sound, one of the best bands ever... and certainly the most underrated. He commited suicide in 1999 and is sadly missed. Check out his body of work at
Well done Monsieur Round&Round, Brittle Heaven is THE source to go to for information on Adrian and The Sound.Love will tear us apart: youll find much of interest ,Rients Bootsma has created a wonderful site there..I think many JD/NO fans who havent heard of him/them will relate to what is a remarkable legacy.
One of my best memories of gig going in the 80s was seeing The Sound tear through an overwelmingly moving set with enough passion to fill Wembley Stadium to an audience of..6 people at the then Scraptoft Polytechnic in Leicester. Bono was a fan of their classic "From the lions mouth" album and they certainly influenced him..Of course there was a time when U2 SUPPORTED my old friends Doll by Doll..such is the way the wind blows,D by D were yet another seminal band who are remembered and dearly loved by the all too few they touched,again,their hard to find albums Remember/Gypsy blood/Doll by Doll especially - sadly deleted,not out on CD - are well worth seeking out ,as is the recent work of their mainman Jackie Leven.. Such intensity went "out of fashion" in the 80s..New Order`s brilliance was to adapt and define the mood of that decade without compromise..- Sorry to drone on - - but nice to share my biased opinions with you all!
Thank you, Kevin! You know, one of the biggest regrets of my life (and believe me, I have some!) was not being able to see The Sound when they played in Lisbon in 1984/85. I was a teenager then and didn't had the money for the trip...
