The Primal Scream diet
No, not him; it's the other James Brown we're talking about. The second-most famous James Brown in the world is the hack who created the lad mag concept with Loaded, but before he went the way of the flesh, he was a music scribe, scribbling for NME, and it was there that he came under the spell of those rock 'n' roll heroes, Primal Scream. That was in the late Eighties.
Back in those days, a colleague of Brown's returned from New York with the following account of a heated debate among the group that he'd overheard on a Manhattan street.
"Let's get Vietnamese."
"No, Chinese."
"What about Indian?"
When Brown's colleague suggested settling for a burger instead, the band turned to him in a state of shock and said: "It's heroin we're discussing, not food!"
That was in the days of the band's dance rhythm phase, as Screamadelica fans will recall. Now, the group is getting ready to release Riot City Blues and word is that it's going to be a return to roots rock. Lean, no fat. Noise, basically. According to reports of recent warm-up gigs in London, we can expect a mix of Motorhead, the Cramps, the Stones and the Stooges.
James Brown, the journo, asked Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie, if that heroin story was true. "Probably," said the singer. "When we were touring Screamadelica, we had to meet some record company VIPs. Just as we were sitting down to dinner with them, the heroin arrived and we all went off to take it. When we got back, it was so strong people were just collapsing face down into their food." As Brown remarked, "Primal Scream have never considered stopping. This is what they're here for."
