Spacemen 3 lineups

[BessieBoporBach]

I've been trying to sort out which version of Spacemen 3 appeared on each of the various records of theirs I have, not all of which provide a personnel listing. For example, the original Mental Groove LP of the New Morning Geneva album does not credit the musicians. This is what I've come up with. Is it accurate?

1. Sonic, Jason, Natty
For all the Fucked Up Children

2. Sonic, Jason, Natty, Pete Bain
Taking Drugs to Make Music...
Sound of Confusion
Walkin' with Jesus EP

3. Sonic, Jason, Sterling Roswell, Pete Bain
Transparent Radiation EP
Perfect Prescription & Forged Prescriptions
Performance & Threebie 3

4. Sonic, Jason, Will Carruthers
Playing with Fire (no drums that I can detect in this LP and Will says there are none)

5. Sonic, Jason, Will Carruthers, Steve Evans:
Dreamweapon (apparently "Spacemen Jam" is Sonic and somebody else, not Jason and not Steve Evans? And famously Will is not audible on Dreamweapon because he didn't turn on his amp.)

6. Sonic, Jason, Will Carruthers, Jonny Mattock:
Live in Europe & Live at New Morning (I know there is some overlap between these records)

On Recurring I understand that Richard Formby plays only on Sonic's half and Refoy only on Jason's, is this correct?

[runcible]

5. Sonic, Jason, Will Carruthers, Steve Evans:
Dreamweapon (apparently "Spacemen Jam" is Sonic and somebody else, not Jason and not Steve Evans? And famously Will is not audible on Dreamweapon because he didn't turn on his amp.)

Ian and I interviewed Steve for Ian's Spacemenpod podcast and he confirmed it is indeed him on Spacemen Jam. I had a right load of fisticuffs with the Discogs police when I corrected their credit.

I think the rest of what you have is correct but I might double check on whether Mark Refoy played on side 1 of Recurring.

[BessieBoporBach]

5. Sonic, Jason, Will Carruthers, Steve Evans:
Dreamweapon (apparently "Spacemen Jam" is Sonic and somebody else, not Jason and not Steve Evans? And famously Will is not audible on Dreamweapon because he didn't turn on his amp.)

Ian and I interviewed Steve for Ian's Spacemenpod podcast and he confirmed it is indeed him on Spacemen Jam. I had a right load of fisticuffs with the Discogs police when I corrected their credit.

I think the rest of what you have is correct but I might double check on whether Mark Refoy played on side 1 of Recurring.

Thanks Runcible! I've gotten behind on Spacemen Pod and hadn't made it to the Steve Evans episode. So, on Spacemen Jam, is Steve playing the lead part while Sonic drones? Or is it the opposite?

I always wondered why "Spacemen Jam" sounded so different from everything else they did and when I finally read that it wasn't Jason, everything clicked into place. Is the 1987 date given in the sleeve notes for it correct?

[natty]

Did Tim Morris play drums on any of the really, really early stuff on How The Blues Should've Turned Out?

[BessieBoporBach]

Did Tim Morris play drums on any of the really, really early stuff on How The Blues Should've Turned Out?

Correct, the first four tracks (TV Eye, Blow My Top, Fun House, and By the River) on disc 1 feature Tim Morris. I had forgotten about those.

I seem to recall the liner notes also included the interesting statement from Sonic that if he sings lead on a Spacemen 3 song from Sound of Confusion on, it's because he wrote it entirely himself without Jason, and that if Jason was involved in the writing at all he would get the lead vocal. This isn't exactly an earth-shattering revelation but it was interesting to find out that it was a conscious strategy. It wasn't like Lennon/McCartney pre-'66, for example, where the lead vocalist wasn't necessarily the composer. Specifically, this implies that Sonic wrote "Call the Doctor" and of course "Ode to Street Hassle" solo without input from Jason.

[runcible]

Jason performs all the lead vocals on SOC but Pete takes over lead on his songs on PP. During the compilation process for HTB he told me that he started singing his songs because he didn't always like the way Jason sang them, it really was as simple as that.

[natty]

5. Sonic, Jason, Will Carruthers, Steve Evans:
Dreamweapon (apparently "Spacemen Jam" is Sonic and somebody else, not Jason and not Steve Evans? And famously Will is not audible on Dreamweapon because he didn't turn on his amp.)

Ian and I interviewed Steve for Ian's Spacemenpod podcast and he confirmed it is indeed him on Spacemen Jam. I had a right load of fisticuffs with the Discogs police when I corrected their credit.

I think the rest of what you have is correct but I might double check on whether Mark Refoy played on side 1 of Recurring.

I have a vague recollection of Mark once telling me he played lead on "Set Me Free/I've Got the Key", and showing me the riff, when he invited me round his to see if I wanted to fill in on bass for Slipstream for a bit. My recollection might be out though, it was a long time ago.