One tale from London Bohemia! My night with the Dandy Warhols
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by Sarah Matlock
June 15, 2000

What can you say? I've just spent the night with the Dandy Warhols!

Let's set the scene...The Astoria, 15th of June, 2000. Having just endured the painful rantings of JJ72, I'm well up for some Dandy action, the chiselled Courtney, the X-rated Zia, the cool, moody Pete and the nostalgia inducing Brent. Finally they arrive and it's well worth the wait...There's a good mix of songs picked from the first and wonderful "Dandy warhols" album to the latest "Thirteen tales from urban bohemia". The pull with the dandy's is not just there incredible coolness, but the impression that they love their music and don't really care if you do or not. They don't conform and they are not scared to startle us with their Mexican tinged melodies that positively leave you reeling! The greatest music is always about being brave and these guys (plus girl) are! "Get off", "Not if you were the last junkie on earth" and "Boys better" are speed fuelled stompers! The brilliant "Godless" is a pure unadulterated delight and "White gold", (the cowboy anthem), is a special treat! Courtney is enigmatic and full on, Zia has a bra on (no chance of legendary breast exposure), Pete is implausibly stooped and sexy and Brent is brilliant at being Brent, "brady bunch" style! I'm impressed.

Armed with backstage passes gained from newly formed friends in the toilet, were now official "dandies"...There's something dead weird about being stood next to your favourite popster...(for me this is the enigmatic Pete Holmstrom, shy retiring guitarist from the Portland, Oregon posse.) With sobriety still in tact (not for long) I am quite happy just to stand with my back to him! This is cool stuff...if I ever enter a USA basement "den" this is what it will be like..friendly and unassuming. I casually chat with my friends because to appear like a stalker is just so "passé".

However, the invite to a bash at EMI cannot be declined (sobriety slipping). Zia sorts the cabs in a true schoolmarm manner.Soon we find ourselves racing down Tottenham Court Road with the dandy warhols trailing our cab, how cool is that? The poor cockney cabbie fails to understand the positive groupiedom and hysteria that ensues!

The party is positively over at EMI and the "courtyard" at the bands hotel/ "never resting" haven, seems like a good idea?! Man, (60's style dandy influence) the hotel is beautiful, the band must be on their way up! Free champers anyone! Courtney struts around with his cowboy neckerchief, brent and zia mingle and Pete looks like a shy sixth former (with indie army bag) permanently slung round his neck. Courtney's conversational skills are spot on but this man is so perfectly angelic you almost don't believe he is real..Surely he should be a conceited mirror lover? But he isn't! He chats about life, love, insecurity(really) and the dullness of Leicester. I ask him if he is scared of becoming a caricature of himself, all surface no feeling, and he admits, "very much so".

Zia is buoyant and a brazen man magnet. She looks like she loves life and is intending to make the most of it! Brent is surrounded by a cool gang, and as we retire to the penthouse I take a moment to sit with pete (alcohol having taken affect). This guy is so cool, he's talented, unassuming, and gorgeous in a richey manic kind of way..I apologise for being a fan but he doesn't mind because he admits to being one himself! He sips his water and explains that he's trying to quit the drink/drugs and general hell raising lifestyle, yes he's definitely human!

I guess you can say...The dandy Warhols have won me over. They do a fantastic gig, they hold cool non RnR parties and they are a genuinely nice gang of individuals! The downside is now all I wanna do is "get off", not go home! Never mind, sweet dreams?