GORDON Graham, lead singer and songwriter with The Lost Soul Band is a
bit of a hippie. He's a man whose personality and lifestyle is at
complete odds with his musical product. His work is brilliant, his
lyrics clever, he uses pretty, pretty words which slip smoothly into a
clear pool of beautifully structured noise, but in conversation he
struggles. Gordon, like another million songwriters and musicians is an
active participant in rock'n'roll your own herbals. And it shows.
In person, Gordon Graham, an unemployed 26-year-old struggles for the
right adjectives to describe how he sees the rest of the world. He
believes that the mind is a muscle (Gordon has an encylopaedia of
analogies for all occasions) and therefore it needs constant exercise.
But his own needs a gentle nudge when he forgets words like discipline
and philosophy. They may be bigger words than dog or chair but given
Gordon' remit in life they should be just as ready to hand.
He tells me he likes, ''heavy reading'' and devours Henry Miller,
Faust and William Burroughs solely for the purpose of entertaining their
ideas. Gordon Graham has the practically anal compulsion to gauge where
his own work breaks with the past and connects with the future in terms
of originality. He believes he has more in common with literary giants
than contemporary musicians.
But Gordon writes popular music, not books, lyrics, not prose fiction.
As Alice Made Ice and Scream is a simple melody with humble beginnings.
He tells me of one night in the kitchen with his girlfiend when he
caught sight of the album Screamadelica by Primal Scream. In a frenzy of
ambition he challenged himself to write a song around an anagram of a
title. The result of this manoeuvring is a work of blatant genius.
The music industry however, Gordon goes on, is a twisted Salieri to
his Mozart. He despises its pundits, dismissing them as, ''philistine
and ignoramuses'' but in an attempt to make a living he is still
optimistic enough to check out agencies who can offer him a tour. Gordon
Graham wants commercial success but, having been let down in the past,
feels that time is running out on him.
However, he is secure in the knowledge that The Lost Soul Band have
a big and loyal public following.
The criticism most often levelled at Gordon's work by the music press
it that it's not malleable enough to market in any current trend. Gordon
concludes in response that his songs are way ahead of their time. This
may be true. It's not Diana Ross or Barry Manilow, there's no packaging,
no gloss, no superfluous posturing. It's talent in the raw. The man's
still right in there. He believes every word he sings.
* The Lost Soul Band play at Stones, Frederick Street, Edinburgh on
June 1 and at Lucifers Mill, Dundee, on June 2.
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