My Bloody Valentine’s shows were so loud they feared destroying venues: “Chunks were falling out of the ceiling”
Kevin Shields opens up about the problems caused by the shoegaze pioneers’ irrepressible desire for decibels
With their dense layers of Jazzmaster tremolo glides and reverse reverb, My Bloody Valentine changed the sound of guitar playing forever. But their insistence on notoriously loud volume levels meant the shoegaze trailblazers were also afraid of changing venues forever.
In a new interview with the Guardian, MBV mastermind Kevin Shields detailed the problems the band faced as a result of running a wall of amps at full blast – among them, the risk of the venue not existing at the end of their set.
“Chunks were falling out of the ceiling. It sounds like an exaggeration, but I’m serious – we were really concerned that eventually some roof was going to fall down,” he says. “It was a matter of time before a serious accident happened.”
It’s just one of a number of incredible stories Shields shares throughout the interview, several of which occurred during the band’s infamous closing track, You Made Me Realise, an earth-shattering blast of noise and feedback that could last anywhere up to 45 minutes.
“At one gig, a butcher was literally chasing my sister with a cleaver – he wanted to chop the cable because it was shaking his shop so much when we were doing You Made Me Realise,” Shields recalls.
“The police turned up and arrested our tour manager during You Made Me Realise. They arrested him, put him in the car, questioned him and let him go and when he got back we were still playing it. Countless, countless situations.”
The sonic revolutionary cites the band’s obsession with volume as part of a desire to give their audience “an amazing physical experience, a real transcendent experience”, rather than gigs that are “laughably quiet… something you’re consuming, not being consumed by”.
Get The Pick Newsletter
All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!
Of course, such experiences can come at the cost of hearing, leading the band to give away thousands of free earplugs at shows following their reunion in 2007.
After releasing their entire catalog of music on streaming services for the first time back in March, My Bloody Valentine are gearing up to release two new albums “by the end of the year”.
- Protect your hearing with the best earplugs for musicians
Thank you for reading 5 articles this month**
Join now for unlimited access
US pricing $3.99 per month or $39.00 per year
UK pricing £2.99 per month or £29.00 per year
Europe pricing €3.49 per month or €34.00 per year
*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription
Mike is Editor-in-Chief of GuitarWorld.com, in addition to being an offset fiend and recovering pedal addict. He has a master's degree in journalism from Cardiff University, and over a decade's experience writing and editing for guitar publications including MusicRadar, Total Guitar and Guitarist, as well as 20 years of recording and live experience in original and function bands. During his career, he has interviewed the likes of John Frusciante, Chris Cornell, Tom Morello, Matt Bellamy, Kirk Hammett, Jerry Cantrell, Joe Satriani, Tom DeLonge, Ed O'Brien, Polyphia, Tosin Abasi, Yvette Young and many more. In his free time, you'll find him making progressive instrumental rock under the nom de plume Maebe.
“I remember my dad saying, ‘There’s no ambience, Brian. I don’t feel like I’m in the room with you playing next to me’”: Why Brian May and Queen were unhappy with their debut album – and how the newly revamped version fixes the “very dry” guitar parts
“He wasn’t very nice to anybody. I could hear my mom saying, ‘Are you really going to spend the next 15 years of your life with this man?’” Stevie Nicks pinpoints the moment she knew Lindsey Buckingham had to be axed from Fleetwood Mac