somesongsconsidered: “In the Meantime” –...

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

248 plays

“In the Meantime” – Spacehog
(Words/music: Royston Langdon, available on Resident Alien, Elektra 1995)

[…SNIP…]

More on Spacehog: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

Funny story…

…I love Spacehog. I really do. It’s great songs (especially on Resident Alien) with some talented blokes playing them.

But that Royston Langdon… oh that Royston Langdon.

The date was November 12, 2002. Royston was touring the states in support of a soon to be released solo record. He was madly in love with Liv Tyler, the daughter of rock n’ roll royalty, and he had booked a show right here in Rochester.

A few weeks before that date, the club (Milestones) called me and asked if my band, FMGreen, would be interested in opening the show. Being a huge fan of Spacehog, I didn’t hesitate for a second to accept the offer, ignoring the fact that Milestones was notorious for not paying bands at the end of the night, regardless of contract.

So, we rehearsed for a few weeks and through together a powerhouse hit-em-hard-and-get-the-fuck-off-stage set of 9 of our best songs and 1 cover (Radiohead’s Lucky). I through together some worthless flyers (I’ve wasted literally hundreds of hours of my life on flyers and show promotion) and we were ready to blow the roof off the joint.

November 12th rolls around and, as far as I can remember, it was absolutely typical weather for November in Rochester: constant downpour. But, November downpours in Rochester aren’t your typical downpours, they feel more like millions of tiny icicles descending at a rapid pace from the hell in the sky. Regardless, the weather sucked.

We took the stage to an audience of… wait for it… eight people, and that includes the bartender, the soundguy, and the doorman. Fuck. But whatever, we stood on that stage and we played our hearts out and gave Scott & Rick’s mom and dad, our biggest fan Erica, Rick’s girlfriend, my girlfriend, the bartender, the soundguy, and the doorman everything we had. This was supposed to be our highest profile show, and we played a set that reflected the time and energy we put into getting ready for it, regardless of what the audience actually ended up being.

Royston’s band took the stage a few minutes later to an audience of eleven people, those being the same eight as before… plus the members of FMGreen. They played a lackluster set of entirely new music that no one had ever heard before as well as Royston playing one Spacehog song solo on piano - I can’t even remember which song it was… that’s how lackluster was the whole performance. They finished the set and headed backstage to the “green room” and FMGreen strolled back there to say hello and to thank them for coming to town and to apologize for the low (um… no) turnout. They seemed like nice enough guys, sharing a few beers with Scott and Rick and telling us the enjoyed our set, yada yada yada, the usual bullshit. We helped them load their equipment back into their van, checked in with the bar to confirm that we, indeed, would not be earning a single penny for our efforts, and we went on home.

Low and behold, a few days later word came back from a friend of ours in Cleveland that Royston spent a good amount of time during their set in that town complaining about Rochester, the weather, the venue, and FMGreen.

So. Royston. You’re talented, I won’t deny that. You’ve got an amazing voice and you’ve written some good songs (…your brother writes better songs…). You were an idol to millions of men because you were boning Steve Tyler’s little girl (but you went and fucked that all up and she separated from you and took your daughter with her). But… fuck you. Rochester was a wake up call. People liked your band and people liked your wife, but no one gave an ounce of shit about you.

The news that Spacehog is reuniting to make new music as entirely unsurprising (because you couldn’t make it as a solo musician and you failed your audition to replace Scott Weiland in Velvet Revolver) as it is exciting (because… fuckyeahnewspacehog).

(some pictures of FMGreen from that night)
(you may also recognize this as the night we performed our Pearl Jam cover)