Everett True
Encyclopedia
For the cartoon character, see The Outbursts of Everett True
.
Everett True (born Jerry Thackray in 1961) is a British
music journalist, who grew up in Chelmsford
, Essex
. He became interested in rock music
after hearing The Residents
, and formed a band with school friends.
. According to McGee: "there used to be this guy who'd stand at the front of all the gigs and dance disjointedly". They became friends and when McGee started the Communication Blur club, he offered Thackray the role of compėre, stating that Thackray "was the most un-enigmatic, boring, kindest, shyest person you could ever meet - and it just appealed to my sense of humour to make him compère." He was originally billed as "the legendary Jerry Thackray", eventually shortened to simply "The Legend". McGee also offered him a column in his new fanzine
, also called Communication Blur, but Thackray left after two issues, because he objected to McGee's proposal to put a flexidisc of The Smiths
on the front cover. He instead started his own zine
, The Legend!, under which name he recorded the single
"73 in 83", the first to be released by McGee's Creation Records
. In 1984, he released a second single, "Legend Destroys the Blues", but his performing career did not take off. He puts this down to the fact that he "didn't like to perform a song more than once", although he has continued to make occasional appearances.
In 1983, Thackray began working at the New Musical Express. In 1988, he was sacked from the paper, and instead took a job at its rival, Melody Maker
. He was told to adopt a new pseudonym
, as the "Legend!" name was too closely associated with the NME. He chose "Everett True", from the early twentieth century cartoon The Outbursts of Everett True
.
Within months, he was sent to Seattle to cover the emerging grunge
scene. He helped to publicise the music and befriended many of the bands. In 1989, he performed guest vocals on a single with Calvin Johnson and Tobi Vail
's band The Go Team
as "The Legend!". In 1991, he introduced Kurt Cobain
to Courtney Love
at a Butthole Surfers
and L7
gig. The three became close friends, and, for example, in 1992, True wheeled Cobain on stage at the Reading Festivalhttp://www.nirvanaguide.com/images/1992/083092.91.jpg.
During his time on the weeklies, True became one of the UK's most controversial music journalists - some appreciated his enthusiastic tone, while others were bored and irritated by the supposedly narcissistic, self-serving nature of his work.
In the early 1990s, True lived in Brighton
, UK with members of the band Huggy Bear, introduced them to the nascent Riot Grrrl
movement in the United States and became one of the foremost proselytisers of riot grrrl in both countries.
Leaving MM in the late 1990s, he became editor of Vox
, reverting on this occasion to his real name. It has been claimed that the band theaudience
were formed after founder member Billy Reeves
bet True £100 that he could form a band and get it signed.
In 1998, True returned to Seattle, where he worked for a year as music editor for The Stranger
before heading for Australia, where he freelanced at Melbourne broadsheet, The Age
, writing about public transport and having Roger Daltrey
furiously smash a guitar thinking about him, live in concert. He also recorded an album under the name The Legend featuring well-known Hobart guitarist and personality Julian Teakle. Back again in the UK, he set up the magazine Careless Talk Costs Lives in 2002. Issues of this publication began at #12 and counted down, claiming that "we have set out to replace the decaying music press in Britain, so by issue zero we will either have achieved our objectives or given up trying". By the twelfth issue (#1), it was clear that it would not achieve its ambitions, and True instead founded Plan B
.
Between 2004 and 2009, True helped oversee Plan B
alongside others, notably Frances Morgan, Chris Houghton and designer Andrew Clare. He has also contributed to many magazines and newspapers, including The Times
. He has written many books, including ones on The Ramones, The White Stripes
and his latest, an account of his time with Nirvana
. In 2008, he relocated with his family to Brisbane in Australia (where he now lives), apparently on a whim: "It was a nice day when we stepped off the plane," he told several interviewers. Up until the start of 2009, he wrote a weekly column for VillageVoice.com and The Guardian - with the latter, entering into conflict with Australia's music street press. There was also a fair amount of controversy over some unguarded remarks True made on Twitter with regard to the usage of Kurt Cobain's image in the new edition of Guitar Hero. These led to immediate furious denials from Grohl and Novoselic. Later Courtney Love denied she had that they had anything to do with the matter, but it was then revealed that Love had worked with Activision on crafting Cobain's look for the game.
True currently contributes columns to Sweden's Go Magazine, NYC's Bust magazine, the Something Awful website and writes for various Australian online publications including Mess And Noise and The Vine. A more up-to-date biography has been posted at the website for Brisbane's 2010 Unconvention seminar. True also fronts two Brisbane bands The Deadnotes and The Thin Kids
, the latter of which caused some controversy when they picked up a plum support to Kate Nash
midway through 2010. He is currently the main editor and writer for the Brisbane-based online magazine, Collapse Board.
The Outbursts of Everett True
The Outbursts of Everett True was a two-panel newspaper comic strip created by A.D. Condo and J.W. Raper that ran from 1905 until 1927, when Condo was obliged to abandon it for health reasons.Two contemporary collections appeared in 1907 and 1921, and the strip languished forgotten until 1983...
.
Everett True (born Jerry Thackray in 1961) is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
music journalist, who grew up in Chelmsford
Chelmsford
Chelmsford is the county town of Essex, England and the principal settlement of the borough of Chelmsford. It is located in the London commuter belt, approximately northeast of Charing Cross, London, and approximately the same distance from the once provincial Roman capital at Colchester...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
. He became interested in rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
after hearing The Residents
The Residents
The Residents is an American art collective best known for avant-garde music and multimedia works. The first official release under the name of The Residents was in 1972, and the group has since released over sixty albums, numerous music videos and short films, three CD-ROM projects and ten DVDs....
, and formed a band with school friends.
Personal life
In 1982, he went to a gig by The Laughing Apple and met the group's lead singer Alan McGeeAlan McGee
Alan McGee has been a record label owner, musician, manager, and music blogger for The Guardian.McGee is best-known for co-forming and running the independent Creation Records label from 1983–1999, and then Poptones from 1999-2007...
. According to McGee: "there used to be this guy who'd stand at the front of all the gigs and dance disjointedly". They became friends and when McGee started the Communication Blur club, he offered Thackray the role of compėre, stating that Thackray "was the most un-enigmatic, boring, kindest, shyest person you could ever meet - and it just appealed to my sense of humour to make him compère." He was originally billed as "the legendary Jerry Thackray", eventually shortened to simply "The Legend". McGee also offered him a column in his new fanzine
Fanzine
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...
, also called Communication Blur, but Thackray left after two issues, because he objected to McGee's proposal to put a flexidisc of The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...
on the front cover. He instead started his own zine
Zine
A zine is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images. More broadly, the term encompasses any self-published work of minority interest usually reproduced via photocopier....
, The Legend!, under which name he recorded the single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
"73 in 83", the first to be released by McGee's Creation Records
Creation Records
Creation Records was a British independent record label headed by Alan McGee. Along with Dick Green and Joe Foster, McGee founded Creation in 1983. The label lasted until its demise in 1999. The name came from the 1960s band The Creation , whom McGee greatly admired. McGee, Green and Foster were...
. In 1984, he released a second single, "Legend Destroys the Blues", but his performing career did not take off. He puts this down to the fact that he "didn't like to perform a song more than once", although he has continued to make occasional appearances.
In 1983, Thackray began working at the New Musical Express. In 1988, he was sacked from the paper, and instead took a job at its rival, Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
. He was told to adopt a new pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
, as the "Legend!" name was too closely associated with the NME. He chose "Everett True", from the early twentieth century cartoon The Outbursts of Everett True
The Outbursts of Everett True
The Outbursts of Everett True was a two-panel newspaper comic strip created by A.D. Condo and J.W. Raper that ran from 1905 until 1927, when Condo was obliged to abandon it for health reasons.Two contemporary collections appeared in 1907 and 1921, and the strip languished forgotten until 1983...
.
Within months, he was sent to Seattle to cover the emerging grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
scene. He helped to publicise the music and befriended many of the bands. In 1989, he performed guest vocals on a single with Calvin Johnson and Tobi Vail
Tobi Vail
Tobi Vail is an independent musician, DIY zinester, and feminist activist from Olympia, Washington, noted primarily as the drummer of the defunct punk band Bikini Kill. She formed one of her first bands as the drummer for The Go Team when she was 15, later collaborating in several other groups...
's band The Go Team
The Go Team
The Go Team was a 1980s band from Olympia, Washington, consisting of Tobi Vail and Calvin Johnson of Beat Happening.-Career:The Go Team was founded in 1985. As Vail described:...
as "The Legend!". In 1991, he introduced Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
to Courtney Love
Courtney Love
Courtney Michelle Love is an American rock musician. Love is the lead vocalist, lyricist, and rhythm guitarist for alternative rock band Hole, which she formed in 1989, and is an actress who has moved from bit parts in Alex Cox films to significant and acclaimed roles in The People vs...
at a Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers
Butthole Surfers is an American alternative rock band formed by Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary in San Antonio, Texas in 1981. The band has had numerous personnel changes, but its core lineup of Haynes, Leary, and drummer King Coffey has been consistent since 1983. Teresa Nervosa served as second...
and L7
L7 (band)
L7 was an American rock band from Los Angeles, that was active from 1985 to 2000. Due to their sound and image, they are often associated with the grunge movement of the late 1980s and early 1990s.-History:...
gig. The three became close friends, and, for example, in 1992, True wheeled Cobain on stage at the Reading Festivalhttp://www.nirvanaguide.com/images/1992/083092.91.jpg.
During his time on the weeklies, True became one of the UK's most controversial music journalists - some appreciated his enthusiastic tone, while others were bored and irritated by the supposedly narcissistic, self-serving nature of his work.
In the early 1990s, True lived in Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, UK with members of the band Huggy Bear, introduced them to the nascent Riot Grrrl
Riot grrrl
Riot grrrl was an underground feminist punk movement based in Washington, DC, Olympia, Washington, Portland, Oregon, and the greater Pacific Northwest which existed in the early to mid-1990s, and it is often associated with third-wave feminism...
movement in the United States and became one of the foremost proselytisers of riot grrrl in both countries.
Leaving MM in the late 1990s, he became editor of Vox
Vox (magazine)
Vox was a British music magazine, first issued in October 1990. It was published by IPC Media, and was later billed as a monthly sister-magazine to IPC's music weekly, the NME....
, reverting on this occasion to his real name. It has been claimed that the band theaudience
Theaudience
Theaudience were a Britpop group active in the 1990s. They released one album and saw three singles enter the UK Singles Chart. The band's singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor became a successful solo artist after the band's disbandment....
were formed after founder member Billy Reeves
Billy Reeves
Billy Reeves is a British songwriter, musician, record producer and broadcaster.In the early 1990s he formed the band Congregation , releasing one album, Egham, on the Fire Records label for whom Reeves has previously worked as a public relations manager. The group never achieved much success...
bet True £100 that he could form a band and get it signed.
In 1998, True returned to Seattle, where he worked for a year as music editor for The Stranger
The Stranger (newspaper)
The Stranger is an alternative weekly newspaper in Seattle, Washington, USA. It runs a blog known as Slog.-History:The Stranger was founded by Tim Keck, who had previously co-founded the satirical newspaper The Onion, and cartoonist James Sturm. Its first issue came out on September 23, 1991...
before heading for Australia, where he freelanced at Melbourne broadsheet, The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
, writing about public transport and having Roger Daltrey
Roger Daltrey
Roger Harry Daltrey, CBE , is an English singer and actor, best known as the founder and lead singer of English rock band The Who. He has maintained a musical career as a solo artist and has also worked in the film industry, acting in a large number of films, theatre and television roles and also...
furiously smash a guitar thinking about him, live in concert. He also recorded an album under the name The Legend featuring well-known Hobart guitarist and personality Julian Teakle. Back again in the UK, he set up the magazine Careless Talk Costs Lives in 2002. Issues of this publication began at #12 and counted down, claiming that "we have set out to replace the decaying music press in Britain, so by issue zero we will either have achieved our objectives or given up trying". By the twelfth issue (#1), it was clear that it would not achieve its ambitions, and True instead founded Plan B
Plan B (magazine)
Plan B was a monthly music magazine based in London, England. It catered mainly towards independent music but did not discriminate between the relative popularity of the bands it features. Plan B also documented alternative culture such as film, comics, video games, visual art and books. The...
.
Between 2004 and 2009, True helped oversee Plan B
Plan B (magazine)
Plan B was a monthly music magazine based in London, England. It catered mainly towards independent music but did not discriminate between the relative popularity of the bands it features. Plan B also documented alternative culture such as film, comics, video games, visual art and books. The...
alongside others, notably Frances Morgan, Chris Houghton and designer Andrew Clare. He has also contributed to many magazines and newspapers, including The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
. He has written many books, including ones on The Ramones, The White Stripes
The White Stripes
The White Stripes was an American rock band, formed in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan. The group consisted of the songwriter Jack White and drummer Meg White . Jack and Meg White were previously married to each other, but are now divorced...
and his latest, an account of his time with Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
. In 2008, he relocated with his family to Brisbane in Australia (where he now lives), apparently on a whim: "It was a nice day when we stepped off the plane," he told several interviewers. Up until the start of 2009, he wrote a weekly column for VillageVoice.com and The Guardian - with the latter, entering into conflict with Australia's music street press. There was also a fair amount of controversy over some unguarded remarks True made on Twitter with regard to the usage of Kurt Cobain's image in the new edition of Guitar Hero. These led to immediate furious denials from Grohl and Novoselic. Later Courtney Love denied she had that they had anything to do with the matter, but it was then revealed that Love had worked with Activision on crafting Cobain's look for the game.
True currently contributes columns to Sweden's Go Magazine, NYC's Bust magazine, the Something Awful website and writes for various Australian online publications including Mess And Noise and The Vine. A more up-to-date biography has been posted at the website for Brisbane's 2010 Unconvention seminar. True also fronts two Brisbane bands The Deadnotes and The Thin Kids
The Thin Kids
The Thin Kids are a band from Brisbane. Featuring British music critic Everett True Triple J personality Maggie Collins, musician Edward Guglielmino and drummer from The Gin Club Scottie Regan...
, the latter of which caused some controversy when they picked up a plum support to Kate Nash
Kate Nash
Kate Marie Nash is an English singer, songwriter, and musician. She had a UK no. 2 hit "Foundations" in 2007, followed by the platinum selling UK number 1 album Made of Bricks. She was named Best Female Artist at the 2008 BRIT Awards....
midway through 2010. He is currently the main editor and writer for the Brisbane-based online magazine, Collapse Board.
Singles
- "'73 in '83" (1983), CreationCreation RecordsCreation Records was a British independent record label headed by Alan McGee. Along with Dick Green and Joe Foster, McGee founded Creation in 1983. The label lasted until its demise in 1999. The name came from the 1960s band The Creation , whom McGee greatly admired. McGee, Green and Foster were...
- "Destroys the Blues" (1984), Creation
- "Talk Open (live)" (1984), Legend! (free flexi-disc given away with Legend! fanzine)
- Everything's Coming Up Roses EP (1986), Vinyl Drip
- "The Ballad" (1987), Constrictor
- "Step Aside" (1988), Constrictor
- "Breakfast In Bed" (1990), K Records (as guest vocalist with The Go Team)
- "Do Nuts" (1991), Sub Pop
- The Legend! Sings The Songs Of Daniel Treacy (2005), Unpopular
Albums
- Some of us Still Burn (mini-LP) (1985), Vinyl Drip
- Everett True Connection (2001), 3 Acre Floor