James Williamson

Great.

yeah, a VERY cool interview...


*** sorta off-topic but related ***
There is a link to another on the James Williamson wiki entry that doesn't work... it links to a page on a blog by Paul Trynka (who I believe is sorta active on this forum). Anybody know if Mr. Trynka's website is purposefully down or if I just tried the link during a maintenance or something?

For what it's worth, I just ordered your book this afternoon from Amazon, Mr. Trynka. I didn't even know the book existed till readiing and following links from this forum!

Hi Brujo
Site will be back up soon! I exceeded my data transfer limit and just had to pay a few more $$$ to my hosting company. I would think it will be up wihtin the next 12 hours or so.

I met James, with Glen Matlock, for lunch a few weeks ago and will update new pix of them together soon. Hope you enjoy the book!

Edit: here's the interview w James....

http://www.trynka.net/Site/Open_Up_Blog/9C5B86C1-42AB-4471-92E6-68CBEC2B1BA2.html

Hi Paul,
Wow, what a cool bit of namedropping... Love the casual mention - just had lunch with James Williamson and Glen Matlock... !! That's great though. Really. Nice one. I hope they were both fit and well.
Looking forward to seeing the pics - and will we get a report of what they had to say??
Cheers,
Richard

Sorry, but if I don't namedrop here, where CAN i namedrop?

There's a brief report on there already, I just have to download the photos (they're being processed, I'm old skool with photography). I've just paid some $$$ to my host company, but I suspect I'm going to have to reload the whole site. SO it might not be up till Monday.

James was matter of fact as he always is... I always end up nearly shouting at him LOOK JAMES YOU MADE A DIFFERENCE THAT MUSIC WAS REALLY IMPORTANT!!!! and he ends up not quite believing me. And Glen tells really good yarns, but as he admits, tells them the way he likes to remember them... which is not always exactly how it happened. it was a wonderful lunch, as you'd expect, they haven't seen each other for 20 years, they all have kids etc etc.

It saddened me that, being maybe the first person to reveal glen's story of Steve New punching out David Bowie during the making of Soldier, when it came to the book I had to reveal it almost certainly didn't happen (Glen was back in London at the time, and Barry Andrews, who was there, said no such fight took place).

They are both very fit and well though. And we had a bloody good meal at Veeraswami, top curry joint .

Hey Richard Adams, I just ordered your book too! Discovering this site has made me a bit poorer but looking forward to the UPS man bringing my Stooge merchandise!

All this James Williamson news is awesome to hear! It's probably in one of you fella's books, but does Williamson play guitar at all any more? Is he over? Would it just be cute and heartless if there was a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame reunion? They'd probably play "Search and Destroy" and I'd eat it up... but probably pretty slim chance of ever seeing any "Open Up and Bleed" performance again, aye?

I guess that's the way it goes when your favorite rock song of all time was never "properly" recorded or released

I've got an interview PT did with JW in the August 2006 (Issue 280) issue of the 'Guitarist' magazine. Gets a bit techie about the gear he used though. Still a good read. You must be able to find it on e-bay.

I enjoyed both your books by the way, so much better than that pile of crap by Ambrose. Hey Richard if you get to update your book will we get discount for having to by it again?.

Nigel

James Williamson is like the "coolest" guitarist ever! That´s what I thought in 1987, when I saw pics of the Stooges. And I still think the same. Somehow I just can´t get enought of the Stooges; fun house was the first record I ever played all day, all night! Funny that I could listen to that record so much, like 30 hours straight! Won´t try it now!

Funny how James gets mentioned along Keith Richards.
If anything, he LOOKED like Keef more than he played like him.
Great guitarist though. I'm more of a Ron fan, but James should get his due as well.

You're right that he looked more like Keef than sounded like him.
Altho just around the time of Kill City, there was quite a bit of stonesiness going on - particularly the chord sequences of stuff like Consolation Prizes, they're very keef (altho there's always a chance that part could be Scott Thurston!)

Paul T wrote:

You're right that he looked more like Keef than sounded like him.
Altho just around the time of Kill City, there was quite a bit of stonesiness going on - particularly the chord sequences of stuff like Consolation Prizes, they're very keef (altho there's always a chance that part could be Scott Thurston!)

My wife saw a pic of Iggy and James onstage and asked "What the fuck is Keith doing onstage with Iggy?" I had to educate her a bit.

Still trying to convert her to Stoogedom as well.

There's one at the my space page...done by yours truly!

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.listAll&friendID=28857666&startID=155014168&StartPostedDate=2006-09-03%2013:35:00&next=1&page=3&Mytoken=028610DF-724F-43D2-AD24BF897D541DA241152197

Scroll down a bit to see it...

Been listening to Raw Power and the alternate outtake/demo version as well (Not Rough Power but the one actually called Raw Power.). James actually DID sound a little like Keith on a few tracks, perhaps a bit more fluid.

The man had the talent! Pity none of it is really all that well recorded. Shit.

That, in a way, is the beauty of them: young, dumb, full of come - and genius. Bursting with ideas, which came in such a blizzard they couldn't get them down on tape - and they were too arrogant to ask anyone else.

Truly, that is what I love them for. Better that than dull ideas, perfectly recorded.

Ok,this James´girlfriends story was quite interesting!

Yes it is. Thanks for reading.

i already read this interview. fucking great [/img]

great.
thanks

StoogesMySpaceAdmin wrote:

Yes it is. Thanks for reading.

I read the Williamson interview and also have been wondering whether he was asked to do the tour. For me there are two Stooges, with and without Williamson. Ashton is a much better bassplayer than he is a guitar player and Williamson brought those guys to a whole other planet which I'm sure Iggy must have known. Don't get me wrong, I like all their stuff but the Williamson stuff is miles ahead of the rest of it and is why they have become so famous throughout the years. So I guess what I'm saying is a Raw Power tour would be killer and live up to their rep finally.
Finally I am a bass player and I'm tired of reading that Ron was DEMOTED to bass, bass is a damn cool instrument, I am a bass player and chose it over guitar which I also play, and Ron was very good on Raw Power and ever demo I've heard, had a great sound and locked right in with Scotty.

Agreed. But Ron wants to play guitar, so a 'Raw Power' thing doesn't look like it's gonna happen.

Yeah I know it, too bad. I'd love to see those guys rip through Cock in my Pocket or Search and Destroy. They're leaving their best stuff on the floor.

Does anybody out there have a copy of the Williamson interview in Guitarist? I emailed the magazine a couple of weeks ago to try and order a copy but they didn't bother to reply.

Funhouse wrote:

Does anybody out there have a copy of the Williamson interview in Guitarist? I emailed the magazine a couple of weeks ago to try and order a copy but they didn't bother to reply.

Here ya go!

http://www.trynka.net/Site/Open_Up_Blog/9C5B86C1-42AB-4471-92E6-68CBEC2B1BA2.html

Thanks for that Paul T, v. kind of you.

Loved your book. I was particularly impressed that you managed to get hold of so many of Iggy's old school mates who gave a very interesting insight into his formative years, particularly his "preppy" high school period.

From your conversations with James Williamson, do you think there's any prospect of him getting together with the Stooges again? I'd love to hear him play guitar again - it's about time he dusted off that Les Paul Custom and let rip... then again, he's probably got more than enough on his plate as an executive with Sony.