My Top 6…Dean Wareham moments…

(OK reading this back it sounds like the smug ramblings of a backstage ligger - but having written them out I may as well publish!)



Over the 12 years of the Galaxie 500 Mailing List I have trotted out the same old memories time and time again so I thought I'd use my last.fm journal to trot them out one more time...so here are my top 6 Dean Wareham (of Galaxie 500, Luna and Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham fame) moments...

1. The arse print incident...
   
   Hazel and I went to NYC in February 2001 for a weekend that just happened to coincide with a couple of Luna shows at the Knitting Factory (what luck!). An attempt to get a signed copy of the vinyl Luna Live album, turned into an invite to Dean's home the next day. Hazel and I arrived wrapped up warm from the bitter weather and walked into the sweltering apartment. The room contained Dean, his (then) wife, his son, a large dog and a friend who had probably been asked over just in case the nutty Internet stalkers went homicidal. We sat on the vinyl sofa...and I started to sweat - a combination of the heat and the stress and the fact that I sweat at the drop of a hat turned me into a sodden mess. After a nice cup of tea and some awkward stilted conversation Hazel and I left - I didn't dare turn round to see but I suspect the sweaty arse-print on the sofa was a sight to behold.
2. 28 seconds from Brussels
   
   In October 1997 after a show at the LA2 I finally got up the nerve to talk to Dean - he was really cool - signed the back of my ticket, was complimentary about my website and took my phone number so that he could let me know the other tour dates coming up. A week or so later I got home from work to find a message from Dean on the answerphone - he had phoned in from Brussels while I was out. Of course being out was so much better than being in. Being in would have been an uncomfortable series of umms and errrs that would be nothing but a fading memory in my head - instead I had (and still have!) a 28 second recording of Dean Wareham leaving me a message!
3. Chocolate and coke
   
   September 1999 was the first time I was on the guestlist for a Luna show - I went to the gig on my own (something I do too often) and I remember the guy on the door calling me "Billy no mates". I was surprised at the backstage pass that I was handed and therefore felt obliged to go backstage afterwards. Backstage at The Embassy Rooms was little more than a narrow corridor. Dean was chatty, handing out chocolate bars, that seemed to be an important part of the rider, and showing me a photo of his recently arrived son Jack. I got lost trying to find my way out and interrupted some smooth besuited individual setting himself up a line of coke.
4. Dear Paulina
   
   After the mailing list and web page had been kicking along for a couple of years I decided it’d be great to release a fan club single - my ideal was to have Dean/Luna on one side and Damon & Naomi on the other but a very sweet rejection letter from Naomi put paid to that. So the proposal turned into a Luna single - Dean was very good - he suggested that he might be able to send a demo but when the DAT arrived I was stunned and delighted to have the lovely (and unavailable anywhere else) track dear paulina to release (and a cool instrumental for the flip). I took the opportunity to put a picture of Hazel on the sleeve and mention Adam on the insert - how sweet!
5. Squash court
   
   Luna's last show in London was at ULU and "backstage" at ULU is actually downstairs in a squash court. Matthew Buzzell was filming the excellent Tell Me Do You Miss Me on this tour and asked me to do an interview - which was an embarrassing babble that thankfully never made the final cut (sadly nothing from the London show made it into the film). Sonic Boom handed us a beer when we walked onto the court and I posed awkwardly for my only (so far) fan photo with Dean (and one with Britta).
6. Unofficial photographer
   
   After last months Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham show at the Metro Dean beckoned me into a quieter corner of the bar near the door for our now traditional awkward silences - being by the door meant being interrupted by folk wanting their picture taken with Dean and being the nobody standing next to Dean (and later next to Britta) made me the person they asked to take those photos. Most bizarre moment was someone asking Dean if he knew who Andy Aldridge was!

OK the last one’s a bit of a stretch but it seemed I only had five stories of any interest!