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Kevin: The Chagall Guevara Newsletter Autumn 1991, Issue 1

Busted.

[Photo and caption: Chagall Guevara rocks London.]

LONDON (Reprinted from U.K. press release) - On September 3rd at 1:00 pm, police were summoned to stop American rock group Chagall Guevara from playing an impromptu gig on the pavement of Brewer Street, opposite the offices of MCA Records, to whom invites had been issued one hour earlier. Attracting many passers-by and the odd paparazzi, a number of notable MCA faces were seen peering from the windows. Some even threw coins.

Signed to MCA Records in America, the band have received outstanding reviews from the American press on their debut album, released earlier this year, and even went Top 30 on CMJ's New Music Report of college and alternative radio. However, the band were given the "thumbs down" by MCA Records U.K. in releasing any product here.

Not phased, Chagall Guevara performed their U.K. live debut at the Greenbelt Festival in late August. Their album was available on import at the site and quickly became the weekend's bestseller. The sole importer so far, Dual Edge Records, have quickly sold their 1,000 copies and intend to re-stock.

The band's final U.K. gig was at London's Marquee club. A now-curious MCA was out in force to witness a club packed with rabid fans whose hobbies that night included stagediving and building human pyramids. The following week, MCA U.K. scheduled a full release for the band's debut single and LP, no doubt spurred-on by Monday's surprising BBC Radio One playlisting of Chagall Guevara's import-only album.

Editor's note: Chagall Guevara's debut single, "Escher's World," is set for a January 13th U.K. release (7", 12", CD).

Squeeze Tour

This news just in! Chagall Guevara are pleased to announce that they'll be opening for SQUEEZE on their December U.K. Tour. For a complete list of dates and venues, see the back page. (Cheers.)

Hello...

Hello, and welcome to the premier issue of Kevin: The Chagall Guevara Newsletter. In grateful response to numerous letters, we now offer you direct information on the lives and general goings-on of Chagall Guevara. There may even be some truth to what you read (you find it), so all those burning questions, like "What does Chagall Guevara mean?" or "Did 'The Wrong George' really happen?" will be answered in the band's own grand style.

Consistent with the band's timelessness, there's no telling when issue #2 will hit the press. But we promise to do our best in keeping the known world informed about the band and the myth called Chagall Guevara.

Most importantly, KEVIN is for the people, so please continue to let us hear from you. And if you know someone who wants their own copy and isn't on our mailing list, drop us their address and we'll gladly send them their own personal KEVIN.

Fan Profile

Name:: Terry Ballard
Pet Name:: Tater
Pet's Name:: Herman
Hometown:: Grundy, Virginia
Favorite Movie:: "Where the Boys Are '84"
Favorite Album:: Chagall Guevara
Last Book Read:: The Vitamin Bible
Most Famous Person I've Ever Met:: 1. Clint Black's Bus Driver
2. Saw Elvis at Airport once
3. -------------

It's My Life

by Butch Menace

dreamscape #HJ3167

Salaam unloaded his arm's full of assorted athletic gear in the center of the already-cluttered room. "Listen man, I'm telling you," he said, "Rebel is a very powerful juggler... he's connected...he could be dangerous".

Band Photo: Ben Pearson
Art & Layout: Biz Wiz, Nashville, TN
Copyright 1991 by Chagall Guevara

Just Ask Kevin...

Friends,

About that phone conversation in "The Wrong George" - is that for real?

Sincerely,
Paul Craven
Boone, North Carolina

The conversation you hear in "The Wrong George" actually took place in the winter of 1989. Dave was playing guitar at unnatural volumes in his basement when he sensed his phone ringing. He picked up the downstairs extension just as the upstairs answering machine began recording, and what you hear is the complete, unedited conversation that ensued, transferred directly from the answering machine tape in all its sonic splendor.

Dear Sir,

Hello. I want to know Chagall Guevara. Please give me some information. I am sorry if you are busy.

Take care,
Nobuko Baba
Nagoya, Japan

We have reprinted this letter so you will all think that Chagall Guevara is really big in Japan.

Chagall Guevara,

What can you tell me?

A. Fordham
Surrey, England

In the words of Oscar Wilde, "Bad artists always admire each other's work."

[Photo and caption: Levitating at London's Marquee Club, September 6th, 1991.]

Briefs

A SELLOUT CROWD of over 1,000 turned out for Chagall Guevara's most recent hometown show on November 15th at Nashville's 328 Performance Hall. Parked in the alley was The Tube (the band's own 24 track remote recording studio inside a 1948 Flexible bus), there to record a few live tracks for an upcoming CD-5 to be released in early 1992 on MCA Records. A few choice studio cuts may also appear on the CD-5, including a particularly rousing rendition of the band's psycho-country favorite, "I Still Know Your Number By Heart."

A U.S. TOUR is being planned for February/March to support the CD-5 release, and is sure to take the band to every fashionable club, college and truckstop across America. Wanna see Chagall Guevara in your town? Write your congressman, or better yet write The President of MCA Records, Universal City, California, 91608.

WHAT! YOU MISSED US ON MTV? We've had reports of numerous sightings of Chagall Guevara's "Violent Blue" video on MTV between the hours of 2-6 a.m. But for those of you with day jobs who want to see the band on TV, prepare yourself for Chagall Guevara's soon-to-be-completed LONGFORM VIDEO. Combining live concert and conceptual footage shot by real professionals with underground behind-the-scenes footage shot by the rankest of amateurs, this is a visual tour-de-force TOO HOT for theatrical release! More details in the next issue of KEVIN.

A Slice Of Mike

(As a service to you, our reader, we present here the first in a series of portraits that reveal the inner selves behind the Chagall Guevara mystique. This issue, let's look into the soul of drummer MIKE MEAD.)

Mike Mead's Desert Island Discs

Soundtrack from the Motion Picture "Yentl"
Candida - Tony Orlando and Dawn
Christmas In The Congo - Les Troubadours Du Roi Baudouin
It Ain't Just for Breakfast - K.C. and the Sunshine Band
A Different Drummer - Pete Best
Let There Be Drums...and Poems - Sandy Nelson (featuring the poetry of Jerry Lewis)
The Little Drummer Boy - Liberace
Where There's a Will, There's an A, Vol. I - John Ritter
Where There's a Will, There's an A, Vol. II - John Ritter
Where There's a Will, There's an A, Vol. III - John Ritter

Magical Musical Memory

"At the age of seventeen, I got front row seats to see my all-time favorite band, The Who. Keith Moon got violently ill after the second song, and Townsend stepped up to the microphone and asked, 'Are there any drummers out there that know our songs?' Somehow, I found myself behind Keith Moon's drums, gazing out at an audience of 18,000 fans. Even through Keith had already broken all his sticks but one, I managed to play the entire show plus encores before waking up."

[Photo and caption: Steve Taylor, Dave Perkins, L. Arthur Nichols and Wade Jaynes learning to jaywalk in Birmingham (Alabama).]

9 Out Of 10 Critics Agree

Not since the Clash has a group so effectively turned militant discontent into passionate rock & roll... Chagall Guevara is a cathartic scream. Parke Puterbaugh - Rolling Stone

Insightful, creative, reckless, furious, and inspiring rock 'n' roll is rarely found in such great depth as this album. As Christgau would say, "A+". Karen Glauber - HITS

A collision of chiming guitars and boisterous beats...the intensity of "Escher's World" and "Violent Blue" leave you breathless...fascinating to watch. Zane - Melody Maker

Weaving across the broken yellow line between the eccentric and the anthemic, but urgent and agressive at every turn, this Nashville-based guitar band recalls the salad days of a decade ago when men were men and new wave was panicky. Chris Willman - Los Angeles Times

Their eponymously titled debut on MCA has more hooks than a PTL sermon, and the playing is as punchy as a hoarse street prophet. Robert Gordon - Creem

Every once in a while, a new band comes along who's sound is so instantly fresh, innovative and distinctive, it defies easy pigeonholing or labeling... Using the guitar like a light pen, they etch out lines of melody or shade in large jagged regions of guitar explorations, reminiscent of classic guitar-based sounds like the Byrds or Television, while remaining equally current as a challenge to latter-day 16-string ensembles like Ride or even Teenage Fanclub. CMJ New Music Report

Really smart, happening, hard, alternative stuff. Fabulous! Katherine Turman - BAM

All in all, Chagall Guevara is one of the best debut efforts I've heard so far this year. Rick Clark - Rock & Roll Disc

Chagall's wrenching pop hints at an attic's worth of influences: the Clash, '60's cerebral rockers Spirit, gospel music and even Glenn Miller. Ken Micallef - Musician

I have nothing good to say about Chagall Guevara. Philip Seiler - Vermont Cynic (University of Vermont)

Our Close, Personal Friends...

So you haven't seen Chagall Guevara live? Where have you been? The following is a list of bands we've shared the stage with. (Ok, usually we went on first.) We'd like to thank each of these bands for their support, with the possible exception of Gene Loves Jezebel, who gave us an extremely small portion of their stage to share.

An Emotional Fish
The Blessing
The Call
Don Dixon & Marti Jones
Drivin' N' Cryin'
Robert Farrell and Ringing World
The Forms
Gene Loves Jezebel

Goverment Cheese
The Gunbunnies
Tommy Keene
King Bub
Maggie's Dream
Material Issue
New Potato Caboose
Rockfish

Shaking Family
The Smithereens
The Soup Dragons
3 Mustaphas 3
24-7 Spyz
Under the Big Top
Violent Femmes
Walk The West

Wear It Out!

Your very own Chagall Guevara 100% cotton t-shirt. Available in BLACK with album cover art on front and song titles on back, on WHITE with band photo on front (in strikingly vivid colours) and song titles on black. BUY BOTH and make us really happy. Stunningly conceived colour poster features ancient, mossy bandmembers standing in front of a ruggedly handsome tree. BUY ALL THREE and we ask YOU for your autograph. Not available in finer department stores, so order here and now. (Christmas delivery guaranteed if you act fast and the postal system cooperates.)

On Tour With... Squeeze

Norwich
Univ. Of E. Anglia
Saturday 30th November

Manchester Apollo
Sunday 1st December

Glasgow Barrowlands
Monday 2nd December

Edinburgh Playhouse
Tuesday 3rd December

Liverpool
Royal Court Theatre
Thusday 5th December

Newcastle City Hall
Saturday 7th December

Middlesborough
Town Hall
Sunday 8th December

Bradford
St. Georges Hall
Monday 9th December

Sheffield City Hall
Wednesday 11th December

Ipswich Regent
Thursday 12th December

Cambridge
Corn Exchange
Friday 13th December

Wolverhampton
City Hall
Saturday 14th December

Newport Centre
Monday 16th December

Plymouth Pavilions
Tuesday 17th December

Nottingham
Royal Concert Hall
Wednesday 18th December

London New Cross
Friday 20th December

London New Cross
Saturday 21st December

London
Town & Country Club
Sunday 22nd December

London
Town & Country Club
Monday 23rd December

Sock Heaven

A salute to the solo artist Steve Taylor and the bands Chagall Guevara and Steve Taylor & The Perfect Foil