Hanging on the other side of the Z-Phone this week, is the inimitable Mr Phil Lewis. To most, he is the frontman of L.A. Guns but to me, he will always be the face of one of my favourite bands: Girl.
Across this fine, fine hour we spent together, we discuss both of these bands and do our best to mention all of those that came between as well - side projects and mis-steps included. (Worth noting here if Girl passed you by, the ‘guitarist’ called Phil who joins the band is Phil Collen of Def Leppard).
Anyway: Tormé, New Torpedos, London Cowboys, Filthy Lucre, the music business, the highs and lows of having a record deal, touring, London vs L.A. - it’s all here along with a truckload of extras - or as much as either of us could remember anyway.
As luck and good timing would have it, L.A. Guns also have a new album out in a few weeks (12 November). It’s called Checkered Past and it sounds fantastic - I’d say out loud if it didn’t but it truly does. The single Cannonball is up on YouTube already and it will give you a good idea of what’s coming down the line:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17yeOHG4TZ4
For those of you interested in a deeper dive, here’s some added glitter:
That first Girl promo video for My Number:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR8lvRqCatM
If you were into Girl back then (or are interested now) and failed to notice, apparently there was a third album in the can (though it may be simply a collection of demos) which was never released (which I forgot to ask about - maybe I’ll fix that one day) but subsequent re-releases of the Girl catalogue now have it included. It’s apparently called Killing Time and features as the second disc of the six (six!) CD set re-release of Wasted Youth. You can find it on amazon, but if you want to do an ex-member curator a favour - Gerry Laffy - he’d probably appreciate it more if you picked it up direct from Cherry Red Records here:
https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/girl-wasted-youth-6cd-expanded-box-set/
Sheer Greed is currently unavailable on streaming services but there is an anthology out there called My Number which covers all the bases and has a whole bunch of other goodies on board too - or again, you can pick it up at Cherry Red.
You can find the mentioned broadcast of Tormé performing on ECT here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDgXhZJMg1w
I also found this great clip of Bernie Tormé joining L.A. Guns to perform Rip and Tear at the Camden Underworld back in 2017:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNWaZqhGpUw
Finally - just a repeat mention of that Filthy Lucre album, PopSmear. In my opinion, it’s absolutely worth the effort to track it down.
That’s all folks. Huge tip of the hat to Phil for giving up his time for me - I hope we did the past (and the future) justice. I can’t help any of you relive All Those Wasted Years but I hope you get as much of a kick out of all this as I did.
You can find my review of Checkered Past right here:
https://spark.adobe.com/page/6FqbHNWMRmllq/
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Be Cool To Each Other. S.
