Friends Of The ‘Spray: Best Thing Of 2005

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A bit earlier, the hecklerspray writers chose their best things of 2005. But what of the exciting people in bands? They must have seen and experienced things in the last year that would blow your nine-to-five civilian mind, right?

There’s only one way to find out, isn’t there. Let’s see the year out by asking Ladyfuzz, Jennifer Gentle, The Spinto Band, The Like, Devin Davis, Mother And The Addicts, Oppenheimer, Aluminum Babe and Doveman what were their personal highlights of 2005 have been…

Liz, Ladyfuzz
Ladyfuzz making an album of course… what a question?!?!

Jennifer Gentle:
Alessio: My wedding. And Benedictus XVI: like it or not, I think he will be a healthy cultural shock (also Liverpool bashing Milan in the Champions League final!)
Marco: Our US tour: a fantastic experience, it was the chance to test us as a band and see if we were able to go out and play in front of a very different kind of audience. we played 40 concerts in 45 days, it’s not something that happens often to an Italian band.

Marco, Sillyboy Entertainment 
I agree with Alessio about Benedictus - I’m not really a Catholic, still I think that from a cultural point of view this Pope will be hard to beat, and it’s always good to have an interesting, strong debate about things that matter. And (again!) our baby…

Nick Krill, The Spinto Band
Perhaps the Best Thing Of The Year is the centenary of Albert Einstein’s papers on Brownian motion - the photoelectric effect and special relativity. It is amazing to think that in 1905 the then 26-year-old Einstein would set the stage for modern physics. The most renowned paper is undoubtedly his publication on special relativity.

The theory, based on the ideas that the laws of physics are the same regardless of where you are and that the speed of light is always the same, showed how space and time are not discrete but actually related. Out of this paper came the famous equation E=MC2  that illustrated the equivalence of Energy (E) and mass (M) and the ability to change from one to another. Some of the most fascinating aspects of special relativity are the observations that as the speed of light is approached time slows down, a body gains mass and an object becomes shorter. Yet possibly even more exciting was his study on the photoelectric effect that described light behaving like particles and played a pivotal role in developing quantum theory.

Einstein’s explanation would lead to further discoveries that became the foundation of quantum theory and the recognition that light can behave like either a particle or a wave depending on how it is observed. His work on the photoelectric effect eventually won Einstein the Nobel Prize in 1921.

Z Berg, The Like
Mixing a record with Alan Moulder.

Devin Davis
My trip to a waterfall outside of Portland, Oregon. My friend who we stayed with while we were on tour took us there.  Can’t remember what it was called. We went first to a very touristy waterfall that is visible from the road.. we walked up this trail to the top of it, and there were hundreds of people everywhere. That was pretty incredible, but then she took us to this very secluded waterfall that you have to walk a mile back from the highway to even see. It was like something out of the Lord of the Rings; when I describe it to people - I often say that if you saw it in a movie, your initial reaction would be that it was a matte painting or special effect or something. NOTHING even remotely like it anywhere near Chicago, let alone 40 minutes from my house (as was in this case in Portland). There was nobody around… cliffs going up ten stories in this cathedral gourge… green everywhere… ice cold mountain water… giant mossy boulders… truly a magical place. Excluding some shows that we got to play, that was my highlight of the year.

Sam Smith, Mother And The Addicts
Book – Rum Bum And Concertina by George Melly. Not a clue about new books so here’s one I enjoyed while on tour. It follows the jazz singer-come-columnist-come-general good egg’s early adult life. The book covers the time he spent in the Navy towards the end of the war. Having managed to miss the bad bit with all the fighting he spent most of the remainder perusing his passions: jazz, surrealism, drinking, homosexuality and anarchism. A bit like me.

Oppenheimer:
Shaun: Rocky’s air horn - nobody knows when they’re going to get it… generally it’s when the last thing they want is 150 dB of noise in their direction (but the looks on their faces always makes up for it).
Rocky: Bar/None Records - Mosquitos, Architecture In Helsinki, Spinto Band, Burnside Project and so many more amazing albums have appeared this year. And they like us too.

George, Aluminum Babe
Sometime in October, while working @ The Bowery Balllroom in NYC - the famed nightclub where The Strokes, Interpol,The Rapture, Radio 4 and every other NYC band that you hear of got their start - I was told… "Hey Depeche Mode is playing here next week". I always liked the band, but I can’t say that I was the biggest fan. As the day got closer I learned that I was to design and light the show. Depeche Mode were amazing, all the processing was done off the stage. They sounded incredible! Very little sequencing, amazing songs put together with the highest production quality I can imagine. The  band performed like 19-year-old kids. Aluminum Babe recorded a BBC Radio 1 session this year - it aired on Oct 4th on the Huw Stephens show. When asked what was the best thing about 2005, I thought Depeche Mode.

Thomas Bartlett, Doveman
Mariah Carey’s We Belong Together by a landslide. Isn’t it so nice when the best thing is also the most popular? Runner up: Émotion Mahogany from the Pierre Herme 2005 Autumn collection (Litchi compote, mango compote, caramel mascarpone cream and dacquoise coconut cookies).

OK kids, that’s it from hecklerspray in 2005. If you feel the need, leave your own best things of 2005 as comments below. And we’ll see you back here on Monday…