richardg
Admonishtrator
David Freel died on my birthday this year, 12th April. I think it was a heart attack at 64. Swell were by far my favourite band of the 90s. And a band I still listen to a lot. I loved the lazy acoustic strum in many of their songs and the fact that he recorded his stuff himself with a Tascam 8 track, at a time when his peers seemed to be queueing up to record with Butch Vig. Being happy with just dropping one overhead mic to cover the whole kit is something that stayed with me forever after listening to his stuff.
When I was running a record label from Hull, I managed the UK distribution, vinyl pressing and PR for his last album, Greasy, under the new name Be My Weapon, released in 2014 (possibly still a couple of copies left with Tony now). I totally flunked it for him, got about 2 spins on 6music, some 2nd tier blog reviews and that was it. I ended up sending most of the records I had pressed over to him in Oregon, as I knew he was skint and I knew I was on my way out of promoting bands. He was such a gent, so calm, so humble and so nice. It was an honour to have worked with someone I had so much respect for since the early 90s.
I guess he is not that well known here and this thread will sink fast. But anyway, Swell:
When I was running a record label from Hull, I managed the UK distribution, vinyl pressing and PR for his last album, Greasy, under the new name Be My Weapon, released in 2014 (possibly still a couple of copies left with Tony now). I totally flunked it for him, got about 2 spins on 6music, some 2nd tier blog reviews and that was it. I ended up sending most of the records I had pressed over to him in Oregon, as I knew he was skint and I knew I was on my way out of promoting bands. He was such a gent, so calm, so humble and so nice. It was an honour to have worked with someone I had so much respect for since the early 90s.
I guess he is not that well known here and this thread will sink fast. But anyway, Swell:
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