[…continued from last post]
So yesterday, we were discussing all of the loose appearances of Lene Lovich from the point of her own fame moving forward. We left off at 1989 and things were actually going to heat up during the wilderness period in her own career, which had a long break from her “March” album in 1988 until “Shadows + Dust” happened in 2006.
1991
Pete Hammill: The Fall Of The House Of Usher • Some Bizzarre | UK | CD | 1991 | SBZ-CD 007
Holy mackerel! Van Der Graaf Generator Pete Hammill made a solo album that adapted Poe’s poem musically with Lene singing the role of Lady Usher. You might think “Prog!” But check out the label for this one! Her fellow vocalists were Andy Bell and Sarah Jane Morris!
1994
Taxi Val Mentek: I Sleep On Your Tongue • Pointy Bird Music | UK | CD | 1994 | Pointy 001
Taxi Val Mentek? “I Sleep On Your Tongue??!” Has anyone heard this…fundamentally odd release? Lene sings lead vocals on “We Fly high” and is the only vocalist listed in the credits.
2000
Latz: The Wicked Witch • Angry Fish Music |Germany | 10″ | 2000 | AFM 010
This is a song that would show up on her 2006 “Shadows + Dust” album in perhaps an earlier guise, under the name…Latz. The B-side is “Home [album version] which is the old Lovich chestnut.
2005
Hawkwind: Take Me To Your Leader • Hawkwind Records | UK | CD + DVD | 2005 | HAWKVP35CDSE
She’s sang in the 80s with Lemmy and years later Lene joined Hawkwind to sing “Angela Android” on their 2005 opus. Lemmy also showed up to sing on a liver version of “Silver Machine” on the accompanying DVD.
2005
Thorne: Sprawl • Stereo Society | US | CD | 2005 | SS003
Thorne is better known as producer Mike Thorne, whom you all surely have some albums he was responsible for in your own collections. At the time he was producing the [supa-fine] last Lene Lovich album, “Shadows + Dust,” and en ran the Stereo Society label. Putting out his own project where Lene sang on most of the tracks in some capacity, with her own “Natural Beauty” getting covered.
2005
Thorne Presents: The Contessa’s Party • Stereo Society | US | CD | 2005 | SS009
Mike Thorne also produced this sprawling effort with the band Betty and once again Lene sings vocalese on several of the tracks. When I look at the credits, I’m surprised that I’m not on there too! What was in the water in 2005? Lene was releasing her own album yet found plenty of time for other projects.
2011
Judge Smith: Orfeas • Masters Of Art | UK | CD | 2011 | MASTER106
Chris Judge-Smith [a.k.a. Judge Smith] is a songwriter who founded Van Der Graaf Generator and had provided a couple of early classic for Lene Lovich to sing on her first two albums; “What Will I Do Without You” and “You Can’t Kill Me.” Lene sings the role of Eyrudice here in this musical retelling of the Greek tale.
2013
Judge Smith: Zoot Suit • Masters Of Art | UK | CD | 2013 | MASTER107
Lene popped up on Judge Smith’s next album, singing a duet with Smith on “Weird Beard.” I do love that cover.
2013
Mr. Averell: Gridlock • Equally Tuned « UK | CD | 2013 | ET20130101
Never heard of this guy, but Judge Smith plays euphonium and roped in Lene to sing “vocals and vocal effects.” Whatever that means. The titular Mr. Averell played almost everything else… save for the grand piano by… Mike Garson!
2019
Lene Lovich Band: Savages II • self release | DL | 2019
Lene Lovich came out of hiding about a decade ago with a new live band [but no evidence of longtime partner Les Chappell] and they released a DL of their version of “Savages” that your guess is as good as mine to figure out how to buy!
2019
Morgan King: Old Skin • Accidental Music « UK | CD | 2019 | ACC58-CD
I don’t know this Morgan King, but he sings the song “Retrospective” as a duet with Lene.
2020
Judge Smith: The Solar Heresies And The Lunar Sequence Masters of Art | UK | DL | 2020 | MASTER114
More Judge Smith? More Lene Lovich! This time Lene sings on the second half of the album; its “lunar sequence.”
So that’s all there is that’s out there, according to the oracle that is Discogs. Plenty to chew on while we realize that it’s been 16 years since the last Lene Lovich album! But if “Shadows + Dust” proves to be her last opus, then at least it was a high point to go out on! Did I ever review “Shadows + Dust?” No! That’s right! I was waiting to one day do a Lene Lovich Rock G.P.A.!! Once I make a REVO CD the first version of “Stateless” I think that will be possible.
-30-
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Post-Punk Monk 
Ach Mein Gott! This was epic. And I learned A LOT
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steveforthedeaf – The web of intrigue between Van Der Graaf Generator and LL was pretty profound. Not to mention the Hawkwind links! And who or what is Latz?
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A little more re ‘Latz’. A project by German artists Michael Bulgrin and Achim Mennicken (who passed away in 2014). Last year I had a chat with Michael over a facebook post about the Wicked Witch release, and he explained briefly how it came about:
“When Achim and I started the project back in 1993, I wanted to produce a song with Lene right from the start. As Achim was very good friends with Zeus B. Held, who in turn knew Lene very well, it was easy to get the private number of Lene and Les.
I simply called them and asked if they would like to work on a song with us. The rest is history.
In the course of the collaboration, I also came up with the idea of covering my favorite song Home with newly recorded vocals.”
You can still buy this one brand new direct from Michael via Bandcamp: https://latz.bandcamp.com/album/the-wicked-witch?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3Po3gNswDIorT8EqldXZ04le0SxMbmpf6ueCV4xh0J-vaDqaf2-JLUZ6E_aem_AdBuvkyCZZXIcVEGv2-jD5MJXTxZ0phNphfwaUj1cqWPT3YbWiIK-Pd80MwjnSsm_loa47kJpw59mVMCxGPKz0MC
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Great list. A few things – Morgan King is the drummer in Lene’s band (aka the Lene Lovich Band since 2013). There is a DVD featuring her as well for Retrospective. Lene also appears on Kirsten Morrison’s ‘Double, Double, Toil and Trouble’ single (2015) (Kirsten used to play keys for the band and still occasional plays violin with them, Lene has also guested at her gigs). Another one.. is her appearance on MAB’s album ‘Decay’ (2007) writing and performing credit on the track ‘Astrophel’. She also guest’s in a ‘posthumous’ duet with Giunni Russo on ‘Moro Perché Non Moro’ available on the albun ‘Unusual’ (2006). More recently she appears on Nina Hagen’s latest album Unity (2023), on the track ‘United Women of the World’ with vocals apparently recorded about a decade before. Re Fall of the House of Usher, there was a revised version ‘Deconstructed & Rebuilt’ which came out a few years later in 1999, stripping the music back to a more guitar based sound and bringing the vocals out more – Peter wasn’t happy with the original. It isn’t the only time she worked with Andy Bell – on the ‘Tame Yourself’ PETA album, made in the same time period, Erasure re-worked her song ‘Rage’ (from March) as a duet, and the album also featured a new dance version of the ‘Don’t Kill the Animals’ track with Nina Hagen. Both of these tracks also appear in different versions/mixes on a promo 12″. Re the band ‘Latz’ – both their original version of Wicked Witch and HOME are also on their album ‘Twinnings’.
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Stephen – Welcome to the comments! That’s some superb Lene Love with you filling in the nooks and crannies I missed during my lunch hour! I did link to the PETA promos and the 12″ of “Don’t Kill the Animals” in the text, but why did I not insert the releases into the timeline? Haste makes waste, I suppose. Ms. Lovich is royalty around here, but since you seem to be a fan tell ms. Do you know what’s up with the missing Les Chappel? He’s been missing since Lene became active again and often wonder what happened to him.
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Hi, sorry for very delayed response! Very much a LL fan, at the beginning of August I am seeing her play live again 3 times within 4 days, in Cardiff, Bristol and Somerset (UK) which is my region (hoorah!). I’m not 100% re Les, but I had a sense that around 2010 ish maybe they were no longer together romantically, but I have no definitive on this (and she’s not one to put out personal stuff). If it’s not that, I’m aware he has been drumming/tech for another band and maybe he just has his own projects and didn’t want to go back. I know when the LL Band started up around 2013 she gave some interviews where she felt she needed to find her sense of self again, as an artist but maybe in general. I have a personal feeling that if they were still ‘together’ they would likely to have continued to write and record together.
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More odds and ends, which I couldn’t find mentioned in the posts:
– The “Animal Liberation” from 1987 LP also contains her solo version of Cerrone’s “Supernature”
– Speaking of Cerrone, Lene is providing the lead vocal of Cerrone’s “The Collector” (1985), a 17 minute long disco song that does not bore a single second.
– “The Dunes” by Obiman, released in 2016, features Lene on lead vocals and this is an atypical track of hers. Her vocals sound calm, the track itself is an ambient track. There are two versions – “Sonic Seduction” and “Classic Treatment”, both superb
– “Wild Is Our World” – a very short song sang by Lene, featured on the 2017 children’s audio book “Wild Animals to the Rescue”, at the end of track 8. The exact recording date is unknown, however, streaming services list the artist as “Robert Howes · Lene Lovitch · Les Chappell · Rachel Aston”. Considering she hasn’t been working with Les for a while, I assume these recordings are somewhere from the 90s.
– Also worth mentioning, even though they were not released officially afaik, are the songs “My Success” and “Dare Not Let Me Down” from Mata Hari, a demo of Soda Stereo’s “Game Of Seduction”, featuring Lene on vocals and lyrics, and her collaboration with United Improvisers Orchestra – “By The River”. Now if we add “Alpha Girls” from the 2013 CDr box set, I suppose the Lene collection is quite complete. But who knows, there is always more to explore.
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Hishten Hein – Thanks for the comment as it’s a hotbed of vital LL info! I smite myself for neglecting “Supernature” from the “Animal Liberation” album. Which after all of this time I still don’t have…and I also collect Shriekback! It’s shameful. And I should have “Alpha Girls,” because goodness knows I sent the money for that 2nd pressing of the 2013 box set! I probably repressed the memory of that bitter episode. I didn’t know about the Cerrone album because none of the 6 copies on Discogs have the slightest bit of info on the production credits beyond the bare minimum. Your description sounds compelling, though!
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Thanks for this, I’d forgotten a couple of these like the Obiman track which I bought on digital download and must have somewhere! Re Supernature she is only ‘thanked’ on the Cerrone album rather than credited but in some subsequent releases it does state lyrics by her. It’s often misquoted that she translated the lyrics, but this is incorrect as were only ever the English lyrics she wrote for it. I lover her own version on the Animal Liberation LP and it’s great she’s been performing it live again recently. I understand Cerrone wanted to get away form the kind of ‘heavy breathing’ songs he was known for! She’s credited writer on quite a few other french disco tracks inc. more by Cerrone, Bob Sinclar etc. I recently picked up a vinyl copy of the Tom Verlaine LP and love the track she plays sax on. I also just got a copy of the Taxi Val Mentek CD and it’s a really fun track – very much in her style so I can see why they might have got together. There’s a couple in your post above I need to hunt down still.
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