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Spacemen 3 & The Birth of Spiritualized
This is the warts-and-all story of Spacemen 3 - the backwater band forged from the collaborations of Pete Sonic Boom Kember and Jason Spaceman Pierce. Erik MOrse s book recounts the highs and lows of a fringe outfit whose brief history was characterized by excess, overdose, ambition and the hypnotic trance of tremolo drones. Spacemen 3 had more than its share of psychedelic experimentation and heroin addiction before it finally burned out...but before it did Kember and Pierce s group gave the world a bracing antidote to early 80s synthesizer pop. Spacemen 3 were a shot in the arm - in every sense - and the book goes on to give an incisive history of the mid 80s British indie-rock scene they energized and influenced. Contains discography for Spacemen 3 plus details of early releases from spinoff bands Spectrum and Spiritualized.
- GenresMusic
304 pages, Paperback
First published June 14, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 11, 2018
As a big Spacemen 3 (and early Spiritualized) fan I was really looking forward to this book. Sadly I found myself skim-reading whole passages, that I felt really didn't have to do anything with the band. I'm not really keen on biographers quoting Deleuze unless absolutely necessary either. Erik Morse just came across as extremely pretentious, I'm sorry to say.
The enjoyed the explanations of the record sessions and whenever the band or people around them got to talk and I felt I was actually understanding a bit more about the band. However it becomes clear that Jason Pierce didn't want to talk to the author and it shows. What's weird is, is that Sonic Boom clearly DID talk to the author a lot and I still only felt I got to understand his side of the story when the author was literally quoting him... The personal turmoil and deterioration of the friendship was the best part of the book because it provided a well-needed narrative structure but even here it was just bits and pieces.
Oh well, such a great band and such great albums, shame about the book. I'd only recommend it to very big fans (but then you've probably already read this), I don't see why this would interest anyone else.
The enjoyed the explanations of the record sessions and whenever the band or people around them got to talk and I felt I was actually understanding a bit more about the band. However it becomes clear that Jason Pierce didn't want to talk to the author and it shows. What's weird is, is that Sonic Boom clearly DID talk to the author a lot and I still only felt I got to understand his side of the story when the author was literally quoting him... The personal turmoil and deterioration of the friendship was the best part of the book because it provided a well-needed narrative structure but even here it was just bits and pieces.
Oh well, such a great band and such great albums, shame about the book. I'd only recommend it to very big fans (but then you've probably already read this), I don't see why this would interest anyone else.
July 28, 2008
I’m addicted to reading pop biographies like Amy Winehouse is addicted to rocks of crack cocaine. I have similar feelings of regret, shame and guilt after I’ve finished yet another one as well. They’re the book equivalent of Hollywood action films – every one has comfortingly familiar stereotypes, themes and pretty much the same story arc in each one, with the guaranteed thrill of the big explosion replaced by the amusing tour anecdote. Once you’ve read one you’ve read them all, but I’m still drawn moth-like to them though through a combination of how easy they are to digest (my brain is usually too tired before/after work to concentrate on ‘proper literature’, or I’m too stupid, or both) and my inner music nerd which simply HAS to know every detail about every band I’ve ever had a passing interest in (and even some I don’t).
Unfortunately this isn’t a very good example of the genre. The classic story – young musicians meet in drab small town, form band, slog their way to fame and recognition, take lots of drugs, fall out along the way, end up hating each other, band breaks up, post-humous re-apprassial blah blah – is trotted out in flat and insipid style by Spacemen 3 super-fan Morse, occasionally interrupted by some truly embarrassing attempts at experimental beat generation-style riffing about what their music means to him. I was interested in some of the peripheral details, like what make of fuzz pedal Sonic Boom used on ‘The Perfect Prescription’, but that’s because I’m a deeply sad and socially retarded person, and I can’t imagine anyone normal would want to know this. I’m being a bit harsh – this is worth reading if you’re really into Spacemen 3 or 80s indie-rock, but be prepared for some tough going.
Unfortunately this isn’t a very good example of the genre. The classic story – young musicians meet in drab small town, form band, slog their way to fame and recognition, take lots of drugs, fall out along the way, end up hating each other, band breaks up, post-humous re-apprassial blah blah – is trotted out in flat and insipid style by Spacemen 3 super-fan Morse, occasionally interrupted by some truly embarrassing attempts at experimental beat generation-style riffing about what their music means to him. I was interested in some of the peripheral details, like what make of fuzz pedal Sonic Boom used on ‘The Perfect Prescription’, but that’s because I’m a deeply sad and socially retarded person, and I can’t imagine anyone normal would want to know this. I’m being a bit harsh – this is worth reading if you’re really into Spacemen 3 or 80s indie-rock, but be prepared for some tough going.
July 21, 2013
The benefit of a band whose recording career lasted only four short years is that any biography written about them can spend a fair amount of time examining the details at length. This book does just that, starting with the formation of the band when its two primary contributors were just teenagers in Rugby, brought together by a shared curiosity in drugs and 60's psychedelic garage rock.
The book presents the pairing of Pete "Sonic Boom" Kember and Jason "J. Spaceman" Pierce as one destined for greatness and doomed for disintegration. Their early years are typical of most fringe bands, struggling to get gigs, to get label distribution, find an audience, and ultimately survive thanks to the dole. Eventually, after years of hard work, Spacemen 3 achieved those things and over the course of three short years, rose from obscurity to become the hottest indie band around. But as is so often the case, right when they were on the verge of super stardom, behind the scenes everything was falling apart.
This books is the culmination of extensive interviews and research, piecing together the torn fabric of these pioneering songwriters. However, it becomes increasingly obvious as one reads that Jason Pierce made himself significantly less available than Sonic. Rather than try to fill in the missing links, the author does a good job of focusing the book on Sonic and his controlling nature that contributed to the breakup of the band. Oddly, for the one who was open about everything, he seems to get afforded much of the blame while Jason strolls off the pages and into Spiritualized, a band whose success would soon eclipse Spaceman 3. A very fascinating read, not just for fans, but for anyone interested in the struggle of trying to create something new in a climate where industry consistantly wants the same, and eventually succeeding, because for all the turmoil and lost potential, it is important to remember that in many ways the Spaceman 3 story is one of victory, not failure.
The book presents the pairing of Pete "Sonic Boom" Kember and Jason "J. Spaceman" Pierce as one destined for greatness and doomed for disintegration. Their early years are typical of most fringe bands, struggling to get gigs, to get label distribution, find an audience, and ultimately survive thanks to the dole. Eventually, after years of hard work, Spacemen 3 achieved those things and over the course of three short years, rose from obscurity to become the hottest indie band around. But as is so often the case, right when they were on the verge of super stardom, behind the scenes everything was falling apart.
This books is the culmination of extensive interviews and research, piecing together the torn fabric of these pioneering songwriters. However, it becomes increasingly obvious as one reads that Jason Pierce made himself significantly less available than Sonic. Rather than try to fill in the missing links, the author does a good job of focusing the book on Sonic and his controlling nature that contributed to the breakup of the band. Oddly, for the one who was open about everything, he seems to get afforded much of the blame while Jason strolls off the pages and into Spiritualized, a band whose success would soon eclipse Spaceman 3. A very fascinating read, not just for fans, but for anyone interested in the struggle of trying to create something new in a climate where industry consistantly wants the same, and eventually succeeding, because for all the turmoil and lost potential, it is important to remember that in many ways the Spaceman 3 story is one of victory, not failure.
April 3, 2023
i finally got to see spiritualized last year (and meet jason!) and that kind of put me on track to seek out this hard to find relic. sp3 is one of my favorite bands so i approached this with caution and hey, it didn't totally eat! i've listened to those albums so many times i have my own ideas about what "they mean" so its always worrisome to get into the details of actual human decay. a few things.
- i like the authors between-chapter DREAMWEAPON logarrhea as it provides a solid chew where the story of our two heroes remains mostly told straight.
- for those saying its all sonic and not enough jason, you're kind of right but it makes sonic look like a jerk for 90% of it, so lets not tread into hagiography treatment, its not that
- glazomania: love the log of equipment and drugs used in the beginning of the book. not enough detail about kit throughout the actual book though. as a gear head myself i hoped for a peak behind the curtain about certain pedals/amps, and its brought up a few times in context but not as much as i'd like. still love that list.
i've always wondered about lineups for each album (i had bootlegs for awhile) so while reading i jotted down the changes for my own sake, sharing it here as best as i can:
VERSIONS OF SPACEMEN 3
1) jason, sonic
2) jason, sonic, bain, tim(drums)
3) jason, sonic, natty ('84)
4) jason, sonic, bain, natty ('86, p112)
5) jason, sonic, bain, rosco (86-87, p158)
~~buncha bs where one or two shows were played before switching/back/forth~~~
6) jason, sonic, will ('88)
7) jason, sonic, will, thierry(drums) (summer '88)
8) jason, sonic, will (dreamweapon performance)
9) jason, sonic, will, johnny (late aug'88 to '89)
10) jason, sonic, will, johnny, mark (summer 89 until...)
love all the guys who made that music happen i will always listen to it, especially playing with fire and the northhampton demos!
- i like the authors between-chapter DREAMWEAPON logarrhea as it provides a solid chew where the story of our two heroes remains mostly told straight.
- for those saying its all sonic and not enough jason, you're kind of right but it makes sonic look like a jerk for 90% of it, so lets not tread into hagiography treatment, its not that
- glazomania: love the log of equipment and drugs used in the beginning of the book. not enough detail about kit throughout the actual book though. as a gear head myself i hoped for a peak behind the curtain about certain pedals/amps, and its brought up a few times in context but not as much as i'd like. still love that list.
i've always wondered about lineups for each album (i had bootlegs for awhile) so while reading i jotted down the changes for my own sake, sharing it here as best as i can:
VERSIONS OF SPACEMEN 3
1) jason, sonic
2) jason, sonic, bain, tim(drums)
3) jason, sonic, natty ('84)
4) jason, sonic, bain, natty ('86, p112)
5) jason, sonic, bain, rosco (86-87, p158)
~~buncha bs where one or two shows were played before switching/back/forth~~~
6) jason, sonic, will ('88)
7) jason, sonic, will, thierry(drums) (summer '88)
8) jason, sonic, will (dreamweapon performance)
9) jason, sonic, will, johnny (late aug'88 to '89)
10) jason, sonic, will, johnny, mark (summer 89 until...)
love all the guys who made that music happen i will always listen to it, especially playing with fire and the northhampton demos!
April 27, 2017
Extremely in depth...took forever to slog through the first half (full of juvenile drug-use penis measurement and woebegone tales of critical neglect typical of bands of this ilk) and plowed through the rest once it got to Playing With Fire. Despite being the creative force that actually cooperated with the author, Sonic Boom generates literally no goodwill from anyone quoted within. The narrative, in fact, makes it seem as if the famously fractious band could probably have lasted longer had he not been a tremendously childish, resentful asshole to Pierce's girlfriend (and, you know, maybe laid off the heroin a little and not been an abusive prick to all his bandmates 100% of the time).
Yeah, I found out more about the music and some influences, but honestly kind of wish I'd let them maintain the mystique that drew me to them in the first place rather than had them be reduced to basically the cliche band saga. Oh well...I'll always have this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx-9q...
(Oh, and it's been covered in other reviews...but the author's semi-coherent attempt at "taking drugs to write to take drugs to," largely concentrated in the preamble, has intriguing elements but comes off as pretentious to a fault and stopped me dead in my tracks the first couple times I tried to start the book. It took me deciding it wasn't worth the effort to fully decode it to finally move forward. Impressively obtuse.)
Yeah, I found out more about the music and some influences, but honestly kind of wish I'd let them maintain the mystique that drew me to them in the first place rather than had them be reduced to basically the cliche band saga. Oh well...I'll always have this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sx-9q...
(Oh, and it's been covered in other reviews...but the author's semi-coherent attempt at "taking drugs to write to take drugs to," largely concentrated in the preamble, has intriguing elements but comes off as pretentious to a fault and stopped me dead in my tracks the first couple times I tried to start the book. It took me deciding it wasn't worth the effort to fully decode it to finally move forward. Impressively obtuse.)
March 19, 2012
Spacemen 3 &The Birth Of Spiritualized by Erik Morse
Well this followed on nicely from the Suicide
book as this biography of one of the bands
heavily influenced by Suicide and who I first
discovered when they supported Suicide at the
Town and Country club back in 1987.
This book is a very detailed account of all the
drugs and drugs and a little bit of sex and a
whole lot of music that is Spacemen 3 a band who
seem from the book to have spent a lot of time
fighting and bickering in a drug fuelled haze
that helped create some great music.
A band that managed to sign a major record deal
after they had broken up! Just so the advance
could be pocketed and the bills get paid!
Very funny in parts and quite sad in others as
Sonic Boom was suspected of some involvement in
the OD Catastrophe of one if his friends who was
found with his needle hanging out of his arm
after turning blue.
The book brought back a lot of memories of gigs
that I was at, and reinforced the obvious now
that Jason was the more talented of the two main
Spacemen. Even if at the time I always thought
that Sonic Boom was more likely to have the
bigger solo career.
Another pretty much rivetting read.
Well this followed on nicely from the Suicide
book as this biography of one of the bands
heavily influenced by Suicide and who I first
discovered when they supported Suicide at the
Town and Country club back in 1987.
This book is a very detailed account of all the
drugs and drugs and a little bit of sex and a
whole lot of music that is Spacemen 3 a band who
seem from the book to have spent a lot of time
fighting and bickering in a drug fuelled haze
that helped create some great music.
A band that managed to sign a major record deal
after they had broken up! Just so the advance
could be pocketed and the bills get paid!
Very funny in parts and quite sad in others as
Sonic Boom was suspected of some involvement in
the OD Catastrophe of one if his friends who was
found with his needle hanging out of his arm
after turning blue.
The book brought back a lot of memories of gigs
that I was at, and reinforced the obvious now
that Jason was the more talented of the two main
Spacemen. Even if at the time I always thought
that Sonic Boom was more likely to have the
bigger solo career.
Another pretty much rivetting read.
May 18, 2021
Things'll never be the same.. first read when I was 15 and it shaped my mind and perceptions forever. This is actually a sacred book, offering granular levels of insight into their world. Everyone who bitched about the mass Sonic Boom content vs. J, maybe just didn't absorb the nuances and would do well to read again. I find Erik Morse to be genuine & engaging, like the Terence McKenna of psychedelic music.
July 5, 2007
I was hoping to learn more about Jason Pierce in this book but the guy who wrote it had his nose firmly jammed up Sonic Booms ass. Still, very interesting anyway.
August 17, 2007
great pictures
April 27, 2009
Spacemen 3 are my favorite band and this is the only thorough document of their history.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews