BP Fallon

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Photography:
BP Fallon & The Bandits live ~ Barrie Cadogan & BP Fallon & Aaron Lee Tasjan by Christopher Durst
Bobby Gillespie & BP Fallon by Debbie Googe

UNCUT EDITOR’S DIARY by ALLAN JONES Uncut Magazine June 2013
‘Blame it on Jack White…’ Introducing BP Fallon & The Bandits

BP Fallon & The Bandits – Barrie Cadogan & BPF & Aaron Lee Tasjan by Christopher Durst

The last time I had occasion to write about my old friend BP Fallon in Uncut was in March, 2010, when he’d just released his debut single, produced by Jack White and released by Jack’s Third Man Records as the first in the label’s new Spoken Word-Instructional Record Series. “Fame #9” was backed with “BP Fallon Interview By Jack White” and “I Believe In Elvis Presley”, on which White played some viperish slide guitar, with The Raconteurs’ Patrick Keeler on drums. There was also a video, featuring some of BP’s many friends, including Kevin Shields, Bobby Gillespie and Gemma Hayes.

Readers whose memories are still more or less intact may recall me writing about Beep as someone who had loomed large in my life since my very early days on Melody Maker, which I had just joined as a ‘junior reporter’. I first met him in 1974, at a Roy Harper show I was reviewing at Kensington Polytechnic. I recognised him from a photo that had appeared in MM of him interviewing John Lennon and Yoko Ono at the Amsterdam Hilton, where they were holding what I think was their first Bed-In. Lennon was smitten enough with him for Beep to later turn up on Top Of the Pops as a member of The Plastic Ono Band, ‘playing’ bass on “Instant Karma”.

Beep was, famously, a self-styled ‘media consultant’, often also described as controversial, since he had an inclination towards the kind of colourfully outlandish behaviour that had made him as legendary as some of the people he has worked with over many years, including Marc Bolan at the height of his popularity, Led Zeppelin, Harper, Ian Dury, The Waterboys and U2. He was what I suppose you might call a ‘scenester’ and that night backstage with Harper I introduced myself and was very quickly regaled with many hilarious tales that he told in a hipster Esperanto of his own sublime invention that was nothing like anything I’d ever heard.

I was beguiled to the point of impressionable infatuation and many colourful adventures ensued as we became friends, a night out with Beep not something you would easily forget. Wherever we fetched up, there would be people he knew, and what they had in common was that they all clearly loved Beep, who was popular with everyone, including people his various antics had at times in their relationships with him caused them no end of exasperation. His company is a blessed thing to recall.

Anyway, I return to BP now, because when I recently got back from a quick trip to Los Angeles on urgent Uncut business, there was a package waiting for me at home, sent from Texas, that when I opened it to my amazement contained a CD called Still Legal, credited to BP Fallon & the Bandits. And there Beep was on the cover, unmistakably groovy in a picture where he was flanked by his band, The Bandits: former Blondie bassist Nigel Harrison, Aaron Lee Tasjan who has played guitar with The New York Dolls and Blondie drummer Clem Burke.

The CD turned out to be a gas and was followed not long after by an email from Beep, who had just played the South By Southwest festival in Austin, with The Bandits, augmented for the occasion by Stooges drummer Scott Asheton and Primal Scream guitarist Barrie Cadogan, pictured below with The Bandits.

BP Fallon & The Bandits – Nigel Harrison & Aaron Lee Tasjan & BPF & Barrie Cadogan & Scott Asheton & Clem Burke by Christopher Durst

Here’s what Beep wrote, inimitably, plus a clip of him and The Bandits roaring through a version of “Gloria” from one of their SXSW shows:

“Never thought I’d be sitting here in Texas emailing you re my rock’n'roll band. Never thought I’d be sitting anywhere telling anyone about my rock’n'roll band. Yesterday I played the test pressings of our LP ‘Still Legal’ from United Record Pressing in Nashville. Fuck, Allan. To hold this 12″ record with my music on it, to look at the grooves, to look at my little message in the matrix… to play the thing, round and round and now – nervously, excitedly – the very first hit of the needle going into the vinyl… and then – bam! – Clem’s drums kicking off this crazy mad rock’n'roll adventure.

“All this is ludicrous of course – the 109 year old rock singer and his lyrics and his bunch of… well, Bandits. We write the tunes together. Unhumbly, I believe we’re fucking great, what rock’n'roll is meant to be, an incredible band on fire with the guitar player Aaron Lee Tasjan a young legend-in-waiting. Catchy songs written in New York about lust and mutual infidelity, drugs and Jesus and models and – as one does – Bob Dylan and Columbus… and sometimes love and the passing of time, age and agelessness… Us Bandits, we have a laugh and we take it very seriously. I’m having the time of my life. Never thought that this would happen. Thank/blame Jack White for lighting the… whatever he lit/set free/unwittingly unleashed. I mean it (man).

“At SXSW the promo said “BP Fallon is the most interesting new singer in rock’n'roll”. It might even be almost true. If I could wave a wand, we’d do dates in Britain and Ireland with The Strypes and Jake Bugg – it’d be three new bands all loosely drawing on the same well, which is rock’n'roll unfettered and unhomegenised. Rock’n'roll should have a hard-on, not some limp-dicked weediness. Sensitive, yes, but not dribbling like a wimp. Get a grip! And it should be fun and uplifting and out there – and it’s time for less segregation between the band and the audience. We’re all in this together. Good morning.

BP Fallon & The Bandits – Van And Gloria

“Whatever… it’s a crazy story. I’ve discovered that being in a band is one of the best ways to hear music. If, say, I want to hear more drums, I simply have a choogle nearer to Clem… or to Scott Asheton. It’s a hard life. Seriously, I’m more than blessed to have guys of this calibre allowing me to have a band with them. Someone said ‘Put a sticker on your album – “Contains 3 Members Of The Rock’n'Roll Hall Of Fame!”’ Well… no. Sometimes I do go ‘Fuck! That’s Scott who played on “I Wanna Be Your Dog”’ or it flashes on me that my friends playing behind me are the chaps who powered all the Blondie hits like ‘Heart Of Glass’ or ‘Atomic’ or ‘One Way Or Another’ which Nigel wrote with Debbie Harry and has just been a huge hit again, for One Direction which is a hoot. Am I the new Debbie Harry? I feel more like Gene Vincent on acid.

“I wore his leather jacket once, the one with the medallion on his LP covers, at York Rialto when I was a schoolboy and he was doing a sound check. I asked him ‘May I put on your leather jacket, please?’ and he took it off over his head and the greasy grapes of quiff falling into his eyes unfurled even more and I put it on and it was quiet tacky close up and The Outlaws who were backing Gene coaxed him into singing the Bill Monroe hepped-up country viber ‘Rocky Road Blues’ and Gene clung onto the the mic stand and his eyes gazed up forlornly to God knows where and then a gleam came into them and this miraculous voice of wounded freedom soared out, ‘Weeeell, the road is rocky but it won’t be rocky long…’ Ah yes. Magnificent. And then suddenly these little old ladies, these little blue haired old dears, are swarming into the auditorium like enthusiastic ants, all cardigans and handbags and excited chatter. It’s – God help us – afternoon bingo time. Gene and the band grind to a halt and Gene haltingly asks me for his leather jacket back, saying ‘I’d better put it back on before the faces see me.’ The faces. Wow. Cool American slang. But bingo? What the fuck. What about ‘Be Bop A Lula’, mister?”

There was more, as there always has been with Beep, including a recent picture of him with Willie Nelson (see below). “Did we have a joint or two?” Beep asked. “A gentleman doesn’t tell.”

BP Fallon & Willie Nelson by Christopher Durst

BP Fallon & The Bandits new debut album Still Legal
- Vibrosonic Records VBR 001
Listen/buy here on CD Baby

Uncut is now available as a digital edition. Download here on your iPad/iPhone and here on your Kindle Fire or Nook

Still Legal – the film by ulovei

Still Legal – the debut album by BP Fallon & The Bandits – is released!
Buy digitally here

We’re getting the goodies out to our PledgeMusic supporters.

To mark the release of Still Legal, The Bandits play three shows in Austin during SXSW 2013

Friday March 15
2.30pm Full Irish Breakfast at BD Rielys, 204 E 6th Street, TX 78701
4.00pm The Future Of Music Showcase at Shiner’s Saloon, 422 Congress Avenue, TX 78701

Sat Mar 16th
Bandits SXSW Official Showcase
12:00am midnight Dirty Dog Bar 505 E 6th Street TX 78701

BP Fallon & The Bandits – Aaron Lee Tasjan & Nigel Harrison & BPF & Clem Burke. Photography by Christopher Durst

BP Fallon & The Bandits live in Austin!
BP Fallon – vocals
Aaron Lee Tasjan – guitar
Nigel Harrison – bass guitar
Clem Burke – drums
with
Scott Asheton from The Stooges – additional drums
Barrie Cadogan from Primal Scream – additional guitar

BP Fallon & The Bandits – Still Legal by name & Still Legal by nature

The Robert Plant & Twang Wang Dang Doodle

Working with Led Zeppelin was very hard work #3
BP Fallon & Sable Starr swap clothes (as one does)…
Photography by & © Roy Harper

00:00 Robert Plant & BP Fallon do the intro rabbit
00:15 BP Fallon’s Wang Dang Doodle – The Blind Boys Of Alabama
00:28 Robert Plant & BP Fallon on nubiles & other silly stories
02:29 Nobody’s Fault But Mine – Blind Willie Johnson
05:38 Getchya Hip Thrust – The Ghost Wolves
08:58 Black Crow – The Ghost Wolves & BP Fallon
12:41 Cause And Effect (Fucking Idiot) – BP Fallon & The Ghost Wolves
16:10 BP here & there & now & zen
18:11 Intro – Led Zeppelin, Southampton, England 1973
19:11 Does Anyone Care What Anyone Says In Rock’n’Roll – BP Fallon & The Bandits
21:51 If I Had My Way – Blind Willie Johnson
24:58 Now We’re Nowhere – Little Barrie
29:01 Tip It Over – Little Barrie
34:21 Eagle Flies On Friday – Headcat
37:39 Pure White Cadillac – Big Rig Jackknife Rock w/ Danny B Harvey & Jimmy Quill
41:49 Taking Out The Trash – Endless Boogie
48:19 Will There Be Enough Water – The Dead Weather
54:30 Onwards To The Wall – A Place to Bury Strangers
58:16 BP over the rainbow
61:02 Peace In The Valley – The Rev Lonnie Farris
63:31 The jingle jangles go auld trianguling with Ronnie Drew
63:59 That’s All 4 Now, Folks!

Hear here!
Robert Plant & Twang Wang Dang Doodle, on BTR

Working with Led Zeppelin was very hard work #3

BP Fallon & Robert Plant, Houston, Texas
Photography by & © Nicola Powell

BP Fallon & The Bandits – Still Legal
Produced at Red Horse Ranch Studio in Austin Texas
by Fallon/Tasjan/Harrison/Burke

Working with Led Zeppelin was very hard work #1

The Twenty Fight Rockers – Michael Des Barres & BP Fallon
& Danny B Harvey & James Inveld from John Fogarty’s band
& Nigel Harrison from BP Fallon & The Bandits
Photography by & © Christopher Durst

A bunch of wild men running around Red Horse Ranch Studio,
Austin, Texas – Jesse Dayton & BP Fallon & Michael Des Barres
& Danny B Harvey & Jimmy Quill
Photography by & © Little Deb

Primal Scene with Barrie Cadogan front centre &
Soibhan Shields & Bobby Gillespie & Mani & Kevin Shields & Anna
Photography by & © BP Fallon

Primal Scream – Barrie Cadogan’s back & Bobby Gillespie out front
& Debbie Googe from My Bloody Valentine on bass guitar
Photography by & © BP Fallon

BP Fallon & Carley & Jonny of The Ghost Wolves
Photography by & © Aaron Lee Tasjan

The Ghost Wolves & BP Fallon 45

Blind Willie Johnson

Just another afternoon in New York
Jaime Coon photographed by & © BP Fallon

The first album by BP Fallon & The Bandits is released in January.

Still Legal is the title of the album and it will be released on The Bandits own label Vibrosonic Records (VBR 001).

It will be available on digital download, CD with 16-page booklet and the limited-edition LP – hand-numbered two-colours-split 12″ vinyl made with random colours (no two the same) at United Pressing in Nashville.

The Bandits have launched the album with a campaign on PledgeMusic.com

BP Fallon & The Bandits – Still Legal PledgeMusic.com campaign

BP Fallon – vocals
Aaron Lee Tasjan – electric & acoustic guitars/piano/birorhythms
Nigel Harrison – bass guitar/synth on ‘Sins’/additional guitar on ‘Face’
Clem Burke – drums/percussion
with
Ian McLagan – Hammond organ on ‘Crawl’ & ‘War’
Brendon Anthony – violin on ‘Jesus’ & mandolin on ‘Often’
Tanya Mellotte & Soibhan Fahey – recorded in LA by David Holmes, backing vocals on ‘War’

Produced by BP Fallon/Aaron Lee Tasjan/Nigel Harrison/Clem Burke
at Red Horse Ranch Studio, Austin, Texas

Mixed by Fallon/Tasjan/Harrison/Burke
with JC Cornal at Red Horse Ranch Studio TX
and Paul Kostabi at Thunderdome Studios NYC

Still Legal – BP Fallon & The Bandits – BPF & & Aaron Lee Tasjan & Clem Burke & Nigel Harrison. Photography by Jennifer Brandon

1 Does Anyone Care What Anyone Says In Rock’n’Roll
2 I Saw Her Face
3 Cold Chills
4 Fond Of Cocaine
5 Kill Me Till I Crawl
6 The War To Fight For Love
7 Don’t Tell Me Your Sins
8 Jesus Saves
9 You Used To Touch Me
10 Increasingly Often

Lyrics – BP Fallon
Music – BP Fallon/Aaron Lee Tasjan/Nigel Harrison/Clem Burke
(ASCAP/IMRO)

Cover photograph & booklet photography by Christopher Durst
with additional photos by Radek

Video magic – Kate Jurkiewicz/Hunter Richards/Miguel Angel

A bow to Kim Galusha in Austin & Bob Gruen in NYC & lib-lab globally

Art Direction BPF/Album design Steve Rapid in Dublin/Splash by Conor Friel/Hat logo by Maser

Extra Special Thanks – Jimmy Quill & Harper Quill at Red Horse, Texas

Vibrosonic Records (VBR 001)

BP Fallon & The Bandits on Facebook

BP Fallon & Aaron Lee Tasjan – interview by RTÉ 2fm’s Dan Hegarty – Electric Picnic 2012

BP Fallon & Aaron Lee Tasjan – I Believe in Elvis Presley – Electric Picnic 2012

On their first-ever visit to Ireland together, BP Fallon and Aaron Lee Tasjan – the esteemed guitarist in BP Fallon & The Bandits – were interviewed by RTÉ 2fm at Ireland’s Electric Picnic Festival and filmed performing the Fallon/Tasjan song I Believe In Elvis Presley.

BP does warble

Aaron does verbal

BP Fallon & Aaron Lee Tasjan & Dan Hegarty
All photography courtesy RTÉ

With much thanks to RTÉ 2fm producer Ian Wilson and his vibey team

BP Fallon & Aaron Lee Tasjan by Radek

BP Fallon & The Bandits’ very own Shimmer Twins BP Fallon (vox/twitches) & Aaron Lee Tasjan (guitar/cosmicness) play their very first gig in Ireland this Saturday.

The double dynamite duo – fresh from their triumph at the Escape 2 Montauk Festival north of New York – play Ireland’s Electric Picnic Festival in the Body & Soul area on the Earthship stage this Saturday at 6.30pm.

“I’m more than vibed to be playing in Ireland with Aaron” says BP, who with Aaron will be over from New York for Electric Picnic. “The man is my soul brother so no better place for us than Body & Soul, one of my fave places at the Picnic – and this’ll be a brilliant welcome for him”.

Meanwhile back in America – at Escape 2 Montauk, BP and Aaron were billed to play acoustically and following the DJ set by Albert Hammond Jr of The Strokes, Aaron put his guitar through all kinds of out-there effects so the duo’s impassioned set sounded more like a space-age Billy Lee Riley on amphetamines than some Simon And Garfunkel outing, as the two men in hats rocked’n'rolled through their BP Fallon & The Bandits songbook. The punters of this high-end environment loved it, shaking their drinks very loudly and rattling their jewelry.

“BP Fallon’s performance got me out of the pool. We had seen him perform before and he is always a trip to see. His history is very interesting and intriguing to me as I was very into the bands that he has worked with in the past. We are talking Johnny Thunders, Iggy Pop, U2, to name a few. He reminds me of a male Patti Smith and not just because he does an awesome version of Gloria!”

Read the full Escape 2 Montauk report on Rockin’ Robin’s Red Nest

BP Fallon & Aaron Lee Tasjan – Earthship stage in the Body & Soul area at Electric Picnic Festival this Saturday at 6.30pm

BP Fallon & Aaron Lee Tasjan – Does Anyone Care What Anyone Says In Rock’n'Roll (acoustic) – filmed by Radek

BP Fallon & Aaron Lee Tasjan – I Believe In Elvis Presley (acoustic) – filmed in New York’s East Village by Sarabeth

The Shimmer Twins watched by The Glimmer Twins rehearsing in Aaron’s New York rehearsal studio, by Nigel Harrison

Electric Picnic Music Festival, Stradbally Hall, Stradbally, Co. Laois, Ireland this weekend Fri Aug 31/Sat Sept 1/Sun Sept 2

Tickets here

Aaron Lee Tasjan & BP Fallon taking a bow at Escape 2 Montauk
by Kaia Marie Balcos

BP Fallon and Aaron Lee Tasjan played at Escape 2 Montauk on Saturday.

Billed to play acoustically and following the DJ set by Albert Hammond Jr of The Strokes, Aaron put his guitar through all kinds of out-there effects so the duo’s impassioned set sounded more like a space-age Billy Lee Riley on amphetamines than some Simon And Garfunkel outing, as the two men in hats rocked’n'rolled through their BP Fallon & The Bandits songbook. The punters of this high-end environment loved it, shaking their drinks very loudly and rattling their jewelry.

“BP Fallon’s performance got me out of the pool. We had seen him perform before and he is always a trip to see. His history is very interesting and intriguing to me as I was very into the bands that he has worked with in the past. We are talking Johnny Thunders, Iggy Pop, U2, to name a few. He reminds me of a male Patti Smith and not just because he does an awesome version of Gloria!”

Read the full Escape 2 Montauk report on Rockin’ Robin’s Red Nest

“I’m not against a little darkness/I’m not against a little sin…”
BP Fallon at Escape 2 Montauk by Kaia Marie Balcos

Aaron Lee Tasjan giving it loads at Escape 2 Montauk by Rockin’ Robin’s Red Nest

Chinwag – Gitte Lill & BP Fallon at Escape 2 Montauk by Rockin’ Robin’s Red Nest

With much thanks to Rocco Gardner, Bob, Lase Salgado & Tere Fox

The Milk Made Interview – Sitting On A Curb With BP Fallon, by Mike Abu

BP Fallon by Mike Bogart/Milk

A few BP quotes from this sizzling interview:

“Most of rock’n'roll isn’t rock’n'roll, its wimpy shit. It’s not hard-on music, it’s dribble”.

“It’s time for everyone to have a mental breakdown and fall in love again”.

“I don’t want someone to grow old with — I want someone to stay young with. Please. PO Box 9173, all applications treated with confidentiality, respect and lust” [Laughter]

“It’s a miracle to be alive, because not everyone is. And if we don’t celebrate it to the max, if we don’t get as much juice out of the lemon as possible, then we’re not really using our time here”.

[BP got up and went back inside the Writer’s Room, leaving Jon and I on the curb]
Milk Made: “Seemed like a nice guy, yeah?”
[Jon took a long drag]
JL: “BP Fallon is the most inspiring person I’ve ever met”.
Milk Made: “You said that about Alice Cooper”.
JL: “But I mean it this time”.

Read the complete interview with the rock’n'roll sage on MilkMade.com

BP Fallon & Bandits guitar ace Aaron Lee Tasjan by Steven Stone/Milk

Texas Radio And The Big Beat!

Ray Wylie Hubbard – Roots & Branches Of Americana on KNBT 92.1FM

BP Fallon will be interviewed by Texas legend Ray Wylie Hubbard this evening on KNBT.

The show is a live remote broadcast from Tavern In The Gruene in New Braunfels, Texas and can be heard in Texas on 92.1FM in the San Antonio, San Marcos, New Braunfels, Gruene and Wimberley areas.

It is also broadcast globally live on the internet
Hear KNBT live here
Ray Wylie Hubbard will interview the mighty Joe King Carrasco & The Crowns at 7pm Texas time followed by BP Fallon at 7.40pm ie 8.40pm in New York, 5.40pm in LA and 1.40am tomorrow (Wednesday) morning in Dublin and London etc.

Says BP “BP Fallon & The Bandits, we’re not an Americana band, we’re a rock’n'roll band, which is why it’s even more of an honour to have a chinwag with Ray Wylie Hubbard on his show because he’s a man with a rock’n'roll heart”. BP’s record I Believe In Elvis Presley is played regularly in the show Outlaw Country on Sirius.XM

BP Fallon & Ray Wylie Hubbard earlier this year on Red Horse Ranch near Austin by & © Brian McDermott

Hear here! Ray Wylie Hubbard Wang Dang Doodle