MERCURY REV UP FOR SELL-OUT GIG by John Dingwall
They were an unknown group this time 12 months ago. Now tickets for American band Mercury Rev are selling like hot cakes. And when they play Glasgow’s Garage next Thursday, it will cap a remarkable comeback by the band who broke up after a bruising fight at the city’s King Tut’s three years ago. The onstage battle between the group’s then members resulted in a split and signer Jonathan Donahue suffered a nervous breakdown.
He said: "It’s very difficult to sing, play guitar and throw punches at the same time. No one told us you were supposed to practice. But what was on stage was nothing compared to what went on backstage. I can't remember that much about it, but I’m sure it did happen because people keep telling me about it. We hated each other and eventually our anger spilled out. We just fell apart."
Depressed
The singer lost touch with the rest of the band and battled to regain his sanity. Jonathan, who lives in the Catskill mountains in upstate New York, recalled: "I was deeply depressed and became an alcoholic. I was a total mess and couldn’t cope. I realised that I was having a nervous breakdown and admitted myself to hospital. Slowly, I managed to get back to doing basic things such as eating and going out."
Things took a turn for the better following the release of Mercury Rev’s fourth album, Deserter’s Songs. It’s been hailed as one of the best albums of 1998. NME readers even voted it the No 1 album of the year.
Jonathan said:" The album reflects some of the pain I was going through. It’s very personal and it can be painful to listen to. Bit it means that, even with the album’s popularity, I can’t be optimistic. I’m always waiting for something to go wrong again."
Mercury Rev spent a fraction of the budget required by today’s mainstream acts such as Madonna, Simply Red and Pulp for album recordings. And the obscure band would have had trouble filling some of Scotland’s smallest venues before the album’s release.
Plaudits
Their show at Glasgow’s Garage on January 14, originally scheduled to take place at the city’s smaller G2 venue, is this month’s most eagerly awaited rock concert.
Despite the plaudits Jonathan is taking nothing for granted. He and fellow band members Sean Mackiowack, Dave Fridmann and Jimy Chambers have been together for 10 years - give or take their split. They took three years to record their debut album Yerself Is Steam, which was finally released in 1991. The second album Boces was released two years later. Then, in 1995, their third album, See You On The Other Side, was issued.
Now their growing number of fans will be hoping the band don’t leave it quite so long before their next album. Meanwhile, they can make do with a new single. Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp has been remixed by The Chemical Brothers and is out this month.
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Reproduced from The Daily Record dated Friday 8th January 1999.
(Footnote - The Daily Record is Scotland’s biggest selling tabloid paper and the veracity of all details in the above article is not guaranteed by MMMM!)