NME
20th October 1984
By David Quantick

SECOND COMING?

Well not really. But while David Quantick screams about the Blue Messiahs, they relate a re-discovery of Captain Beefheart, Hank Williams and... America. Pics: Lawrence Watson

"Well he came out of nowhere, just like lightnin' hittin' a plane
Just to say, 'I'm back again'..."
(Someone To Talk To)

I know that every second week in the pop music press, someone like me is offering someone like you some unknown group, and telling you that this unknown group is unbelievably splendid. I know that someone like me is capable of offering a version of what's good that need not necessarily tally with yours. I also know that, very occasionally, someone like me sees something so good that someone like you ought to have their brains recycled for Hush Puppies, should you not agree.

The Screaming Blue Messiahs are a three-piece. I went to see them, vaguely hopeful of a pleasant night out, and was overwhelmed. While Tony (sic) the bassist and Kenny the drummer maintained a solid yet crazed backbeat, a shaven-headed man called Bill Carter ran and stuttered about the stage, playing a rhythm 'n' blues guitar that punched a line from Memphis to Canvey Island, and singing like a crazy man. For half the set The Screaming Blue Messiahs played the second Sex Pistols' single, and made me feel I was at something exceptional.

The Screaming Blue Messiahs, luckily for those who believe a word of the above, have a mini-album, 'Good And Gone', on Big Beat. Produced by Vic Maile, 'Good And Gone' is necessarily muted compared to the live Messiahs, bit it still stuns, still showcases that wild fire.

Regarding their history, Bill Carter and the Messiahs come from a variety of bands whose names and styles are irrelevant. Carter says in an accent mixing his native Teeside with acquired Cocklney "Each band you're in's got it's own kind of reason. This is a different ball-game".

As for influences, Bill Carter's list of favourite records spans Talking Heads' 'Once In A LIfetime', The Who's 'Can't Explain', PiL's 'PiL', Tom Waits' '16 Shells', Howling Wolf's 'Forty-Four', and Captain Beefheart's 'Big-Eyed Beans From Venus'. Beefheart proved a useful talking point, for this pop world is crammed with bands using either the Captain's sound, or a derivation.

Bill: "I think Beefheart's got a lot of things about him, and the things they pick out and use aren't necessarily the things I would. I can see the influences, but it's not what I like about him. I like things a bit more excitin' than that... it's the spirit. Beefheart is really an attitude.

"He's right on the edge. I like the idea that he lives in a caravan in the desert and all that shit. It's quite anarchic in a way. He's his own man."

Another figure Bill Carter has time for is Hank Williams. 'You're Gonna Change', on Good And Gone, is a (Beefheart-influenced) cover of a Williams song. The Messiahs' version attempts to recreate the spirit of the song rather than the letter of it. Only the yodels remain. Of Hank Williams Bill Carter says, as he did of Captain Beefheart, "I think he's right on the edge really. I don't think he's down-home."

The imagery of Bill Carter's world, wherein he mixes Williams with Beefheart, Vietnam soldiers with Appalachian Mountain preachers, is nightmarish. 'Good And Gone' (the song) is based on a note Viet Cong troops left pinned to dead GIs: "Your X-Rays have just come through. And we think we know what the problem is". It's set to a deranged Gun Club crash, and other lyrics in the song could be about almost anything.

"What interests me lyrically is the surreal approach," says Bill. "I like the idea of creatin' your own world in a song. That's why a record works; it's got its own reality. You can pick any classic single, and asking what it's about don't mean fuck, y'know? It's got its own presence".

Asking what Carter's songs are about also doesn't mean a lot. He admits to an interest in America – "There's something about that kind of American Dream thing, like the freedom thing, the fact that anything can happen. And also it's very photogenic, it's real glamorous. I mean, I don't want to be an American, But I just like the off-the-wallness of it. It's a big country, and you get all these way-out things going on..."

What appeals to Bill Carter, and what he finds in his version of the US is "people into testin' limits of endurance, how people react to off-the-wall situations".

And just as he admires people he sees as being close to the edge, so he can say, "How I see the band is I want it to be vulnerable, really vulnerable... I like the idea of it fallin' to bits at any moment".

Maybe it's just the end product of too many American films, but whatever the input and the ideas behind The Screaming Blue Messiahs' songs, the result is an astounding mix of unreality and powerful images.

"The whole idea of talkin' to me about things like that is to pin 'em down, and my whole idea about doin' 'em is to open it up".

Go and see The Screaming Blue Messiahs. Buy 'Good And Gone'. You'll feel like a plane struck by lightning.

B