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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Abingdon : a small town near Oxford. That's where Unbelievable Truth are from. "Quite a horrible [small town]. You know how small towns break down into two categories: the ones that have a local paper with the headline 'Cat Not Lost', and the ones that have 'Man Stabbed Outside Kwik Save'. Abingdon's the latter, except the 'Cat Not Lost' story would be really big on pages two to six. Abingdon swims around in this sea of cultural emptiness." (Andy)
Building : this is the very first UT single , it was released on Shifty Disco, an Oxford-based label. It contains two tracks : Building (not the same version as on Almost Here) and Too Many Things To learn. 1000 copies only were released and it's obviously sold out. Its average price is now between £30 and £60.
Canada : even though Almost Here has been released there in october 1998 there is a big UT fanbase in Canada. And most of all, the first UT website ever is Canadian ( it's cathy's site ).
Coronation Street : a TV series in which Higher Than Reason is very often played. "It's a complete mystery to us. Friends keep ringing us and say "You've been on Corrie, again!" It's always the same song as well. So... I don't know why that is..."(Nigel-CFNY interview, Toronto, 27/7/1998)
Cry me a liver: a single released on Fierce Panda that contains "Forget About You" which is exactly the song "Forget About Me" (in the same version) that we all know.
Dad (Nigel's) : "My dad grew up in almost a farming community in the West country of England. And he's very very brainy. So he kind of worked himself out of it and ended up as a professor at Oxford. And I think I've got both of these influences : that kind of down-to-earth-ness but also thinking that intelligence is a good thing, not something to be sneared at or to be ashamed of." (Nigel, Shift Radio, 7/1998)
Enormous interview : an interview of the whole band (including Jim) made by Anelyse after the gig in Brussels in january, 1999. According to the band, their longest interview ever. You can read it on From this Height (go to the exclusive interview section)
Fanclub : the (unofficial) Unbelievable Truth fanclub is runned by Anelyse, Mélanie and Sandrine. The subscription is free, you only have to pay for the postage of the fanzine. To learn more about the fanclub, visit From This Height. The same people also manage This Charming Man, Jim's fanclub.
Fanzines : 4 fanzines are already dedicated to UT : Stone(d) by Emily, Angelic Experiment by Emma, Plinkety-Plonk by Miki (in japanese) and the fanzine of the fanclub, Trapped in a Building. For further information about these fanzine, please visit Cathy's site.
Freak!: "Nightshade became Freak! and played a lot of gigs with On A Friday (later to become Radiohead), culminating in Jonny Greenwood playing keyboards in Freak! for a year. " (Adrian Powell)
Groove: "[Jim] also joined me and Jason later on as backing band for a London singer songwriter called Groove" (Nigel)
Hal Hartley: : "I'm the real kind of big Hal Hartley fan. His second film, Trust, is just beautiful.I don't know, really, what attracted me. I mean, that film is very very romantic which I like. But it never falls into the Hollywood-romanticism sentimentality trap. And also, while it's being a beautiful movie, romantic film, he also manages to do it in a way that's artful and so hard-balanced to make that I think he does it really well." (Nigel-Shift Radio, 7/1998)
Hugo Largo : :"I discovered Hugo Largo when I was going through my obsessive REM fandom phase. I was buying everything that Michael stipe got involved with. And he coproduced one of their albums." (Andy). "Fantastic band. Trying to get something from the atmosphere that they create which was a real inspiration for us. Something to try and chase." (Nigel-GLR, London, february 1998)
Illiterate Hands : A band that featured Andy, Nigel and Jonny Greenwood, alledgedly.
Interseed
:
a band that features Adrian Powell, Nigel's ...brother (stop me if you think
you've heard this one before...). Adrian has also done some UT remixes. Interseed
released a single celled The Game. Adie
has been in (at least) 2 bands with Nigel : Nightshade and Freak.
And Nigel started playing drums thanks to his brother : "My brother
convinced my Mom to get me a drum kit because he needed a drummer"
(Nigel - UWO gazette)
Nightshift about Interseed : "Time for a techno overhaul of synth-pop
and a Gary Numan revival? Before lunch? Well why not?" (2/1998),
"Techno-rock crossover types trancey club vibes with Depeche Mode tendencies."
(3/1998),
"Synthesizers, they're the new guitars you know. Or is that the other
way round? It's difficult to tell tonight with both bands attempting to blur
the boundaries between what we think of as rock and techno. [...] Interseed
are more pop inclined but there's still a fair amount of stool-straddling going
on. Adie Powell's rigid drum loops and coruscating electronica clashes head-on
with Jason Sherwood's fragile, quavering vocals and at times it's like some
mad scientist's idea of fusing Sinead O'Connor onto Jean Michel Jarre by way
of Finitribe's soundlab. But then they go and get all spooky on our asses, sampling
Laurie Anderson and coming on like a hybrid of Depeche Mode and Air. What both
bands tonight might yet profit from is their ability to mix indulgence with
some genuine zeal: prog rock goes clubbing - not as weird as it might sound,
it's all about choice of drugs in the end. What we really need is a techno/bagpipe
crossover. Oh look, and here come Orbital.... " (4/1999)
Jim : additional guitar/keyboard player on stage. He's so lovely that he already has his fanclub, This charming man.
Kevin Keegan :
LP (2nd) : recorded, mixed, mastered and everything. But... nobody knows when it's going to be released...
Mark Mulcahy : former singer of Miracle Legion now on his own. His solo album, Fathering was first released in 1997 in the USA and finally got a European release in May 1999. And now you're wondering why I tell you about this bloke. 2 reasons : he makes incredibly good music (but this is not a good reason to put him on an Unbelievable Truth website) AND Unbelievable Truth have covered 3 of his songs. They also invited him to join them on stage during a gig in New York and Nigel and Jason have played with him during a session for radio 1, and a few gigs in England.
Mundaka: "With Andy´s departure to Moscow on the eve of signing their first potential deal, Nigel joined up with Jason Sherwood in Mundaka, a two-piece featuring Jason´s vocals and Nigel on acoustic guitar to a sequenced backing track. They enjoyed a lot of interest, and probably would have signed a deal with Gut Records, if it hadn´t been for Andy´s return from Russia and the reformation of UT." (Adrian Powell)
Nightshade : "Nigel and I started off playing together in London in a band called Nightshade. When we moved up to Oxford, Nigel got together with, among other people, Andy Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, in a band called the Illiterate Hands. A short time after this Andy guested on vocals with Nightshade at a gig in the University." (Adrian Powell)
Nightshift : a free fanzine from Oxford that speaks quite a lot about UT. The online version is at http://www.oxlink.co.uk/nightshift/
Obscurity : "I don't like being to straight forward with songs. I like the idea of people being able to interpret the songs in their own way. Maybe it's cowardice but I think I like to hide behind that obscurity a little bit." (Andy-fast forward, canal plus belgium, 17/1/1999)
P
Purple Rhinos : a band that featured Jim, Jason, Nigel and Anita Wilson. for further information, visit Nightshift, once again : http://www.oxlink.co.uk/nightshift/mar98/secrets.html
Quote : "Most of the stuff that honestly makes this world a good place to be is done by people who will never be known for what they do except by those they do it for." (Nigel)
Radiohead : "this is not a dirty word" (Nigel's words) but you'd better avoid it.
Second Skin : if you're wondering what song is always played when they arrive on stage, here is the answer : Second Skin by Hugo Largo.
Shifty Disco: anl Oxford-based label. They released the very first single of Unbelievable Truth, Building, in february of 1997. 800 copies for the subscribers of the label's single club. 200 copies in the shops. And that's all.
The (Unbelievable Truth) : no there is no more "the" before "unbelievable truth" but there used to be one. For further information about this important matter, please go to http://www.oxlink.co.uk/nightshift/feb98/news.html
Unbelievable Truth (the) : a movie by Hal Hartley. A band member (probably nigel) in les inrockuptibles, may 1998 :" We like the fact that his films describe the reality but with distorting it slightly. We hate obscure people, they're very pretentious. but on the other hand, I'd hate us to be transparent, in the mainstream."
Virgin: the record company that released Almost Here and, later on, "released" Unbelievable Truth too...
Warren (Jim) : co-producer of the second album that we're all waiting for...
Xylophone: No, there is no Xylophone in UT (AFAIK) but I couldn't think of any other word, sorry...
Your Song: "It's called "Your Song" (Oxford people will recognise this), wherein Mac, local hero promoter and lead singer of Arthur Turner's Lovechild gets a bunch of bands together all playing on the same equipment, gets them all drunk, and convinces them to play fifteen minutes of cover versions each. It happens twice a year, once at Christmas and once on Mac's birthday, and is always a huge laff. Or so it looked from a punter point of view - this is the first time we've done it."(Nigel). Unbelievable Truth did it in december of 1998. They played : Ciao my shining star by Mark Mulcahy, A life less ordinary by Ash, I wanna be adored by the Stone Roses and Wave of Mutilation by the Pixies.
Zomba : those unlucky people who offered a publishing deal to Unbelievable Truth in 1995, just before Andy left the band...