The late Brian Jones, he of the Rolling Stones, visited Anton Newcombe in a dream and said: "You need to make music - form a group!". This is how cult American psychedelic rock band Brian Jonestown Massacre (BJM) got started, said a rather tipsy Adam from Essex.
 | | BJM at the Academy |
For years, BJM were touted as The Next Big Thing. It never quite happened. It took the release of Dig!, a documentary about the band, to give them a fame leg-up. Dig! was to be about BJM's road to stardom; but ended up recording Anton (the band's frontman) willfully sabotaging the future of his band. In an entertaining rock 'n' roll style, of course. Back to Birmingham. BJM have just played for nearly two hours at the sold-out Academy 2. Anton did the banter, but didn't try and punch any of his band-mates on the small stage. Instead they played and played. "They played a good set tonight. 'Whoever you are' was the opening song, and they played 'Servo'." said BJM fan Adam, now standing outside the Academy. Adam's been following the band around the UK. In between hiccups, he continued: "They played **** you for ** me - which is on the end of the Thank God For Mental Illness album - which if you've seen Dig! - that was their main album at the time of the film.
 | | Adam after the gig |
"Anton was talkative towards the end. But he didn't flip-out which is always a good thing. "I believe that there are a lot people at the gig tonight who have come along based on Dig! But I think that there were a lot of true fans inside there too - because there wasn't any heckling from the crowd. At the gig in King's College in London - as soon as Anton started playing up there was heckling "I like BJM so much because they are true musicians, basically. There's no inevitability to the gig - there's an unpredictability. "They've got so many tracks that they could play - you're always going to get something different - you can't expect anything. I'd recommend them to anyone who appreciated music. "You'd put them in that rock 'n' roll box because Anton's such an early Stones fan. The guy's got so much in his head - so many things that he wants to do. "Anton wants a certain type of music that's obvious to everyone, but never that successful. Do you know what i mean?"
 | | BJM at the Academy |
Another BJM fan, Jack from Northampton, knows what he means. As he left the venue Jack said: "I've loved Brian Jonestown Massacre for ages. They played 'When Jokers Attack'!听 Live they're better than I thought they were going to be. They're awesome!" ==== Jack wants you to know that he's in an unsigned band - Mutabilis. He attended the BJM gig with members of another Northampton band, DirtySweet - see the side of this page for links to the bands' websites. | 
