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A Brief History of Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead Before Slowdive and Mojave 3
by David E.S.V. 13 Feb '26

13 Feb '26

Para los que no la hayan leido. /////////////////////////////// A Brief History of Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead Before Slowdive and Mojave 3 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- written by John Kupchik This is my attempt at writing a brief timeline of what came before Slowdive and Mojave 3. Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead are two musicians/singers/songwriters whom I respect and admire immensely, and information about them prior to Slowdive is basically nonexistent on the web. I thought it was about time someone did something about that, and this is what I have tried to do here. It isn\'t much, but it is more than was available on the web before. I still don\'t know much about Neil\'s life prior to Slowdive, so most of it is little tidbits about Rachel I have gathered. I hope this will serve as a useful and interesting resource for Slowdive and Mojave 3 fans everywhere, and that they will be able to see the events that led to Rachel and Neil\'s great contributions to music. This page is dedicated to this brilliant musical duo whom we all (should) know and love. 1970 Neil Halstead is born on 7 October in Wokingham, England (near Reading). 1971 Rachel Goswell is born on 16 May in a small village outside Reading, England. 1976/77 Neil\'s family moves to Sonning Common in Oxfordshire, and that is where he first meets Rachel (at school when they were about six years old). 1978 Rachel begins to learn guitar from her father at the age of 7. Sometime in the early-mid 1980s Rachel and Neil begin to take classical guitar lessons from Rachel\'s best friend\'s mother. They continue to pass eachother often, as they attended the same schools. Their friendship develops further. Sometime in the early-mid 1980s Neil does a paper round, saves up some money, and buys his first electric guitar. 1984 Rachel gets obsessed with Grace Jones. 1985 Rachel gets obsessed with The Smiths. Sometime in the mid-1980s Rachel discovers the Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees from her older brother. 1988 Rachel and Neil get together and form the band the Pumpkin Fairies, along with future Slowdive bandmates Nick Chaplin on bass and Adrian Sell on drums (the latter was not in Slowdive very long). 1989 The Pumpkin Fairies record and release their 7 song cassette demo. It was recorded on 2 Jan 1989 at Reading Berks Rehearsal studios, when Neil was 18 and Rachel just 17. The tracklisting is as follows: 1)everything you breath 2)stephanie says*** 3)fifteen million smiles 4)you make me feel 5)whats the matter with me 6)dream on.. 7)(untitled ghost track) All tracks written by Neil except ***Velvet Underground. Approximately a few dozen cassettes were made, complete with B&W photocopied j- cards. The cover image is a picture of Rachel looking up, complete with poofed out goth hairdo, looking sorta like a cross between Robert Smith and Siouxsie. They were sold at the few gigs they played in Reading, and given to friends. It is uncertain how many copies have survived to this day. On these songs Rachel was the only vocalist, although Neil does sing backup on \"stephanie says\". This song (albeit a VU cover) was the first example of how perfect Rachel and Neil\'s voices harmonised. On the whole the songs sound highly derivative of My Bloody Valentine, sort of gothy in the English sense. But throughout there are definite signs of what Neil and Rachel would later write, definite hints. Rachel\'s vocals are up front and prominent, and sound surprisingly good for her young age. Neil\'s guitar work consists of mainly basic chords played through fuzzy effects (primarily distortion). The song \"whats the matter with me\" is probably the highlight of this demo, a wonderful whimsical little acoustic ditty with Rachel singing and Neil plucking away on the guitar. It sounds very quirky in a charming Syd Barrett sort of fashion. A really brilliant song that wouldn\'t sound all that out of place on a Mojave 3 record. The bonus track at the end is of unknown origin as it isn\'t listed in the credits. It is a recording presumably from 1988 in Rachel\'s parent\'s garage, where they practised. It sounds as if it was recorded on a boombox or a cheap portable cassette recorder. There\'s some talking at the end, and it\'s rather interesting to hear Rachel\'s high-pitched, youthful voice. Rather surprisingly, Neil\'s voice doesn\'t sound too different from what it is now. So a few months later the Pumpkin Fairies were no more, and Slowdive emerged in October of 1989. Destined to fade away into the annals of musical history totally unknown and forgotten, the Pumpkin Fairies are nevertheless important as they were the very beginnings of the musical partnership of Rachel and Neil, giving the world (or at least a few dozen people in Reading) a glimpse of the greatness to come. 1989 (Autumn) Neil has a place at University to read English Lit, but doesn\'t take it up because Slowdive are signed to Creation at the time... ...and it is here where the story ends and continues on into Slowdive, and further on to Mojave 3, and somewhere near on the horizon, into Rachel and Neil\'s individual solo careers... UPDATE: I was recently contacted by Neil\'s mum Pamela. She graciously gave me some more tidbits about Neil\'s early years, which I\'ve tried to fit into the above timeline, but the exact dates are unknown so it\'s sort of a general estimation. I\'ve decided to just post her words below, directly as she sent them to me, in order to reference what information I got from her, as well as to have perhaps a more cohesive summation of what might appear a bit vague on the timeline above: Neil was born in Wokingham which is near Reading. We moved to a place called Sonning Common in Oxfordshire when he was small and that is where he met Rachel at School when they were about six years old. They lived in the next road and her parents and I still live in the village. They progressed through School together and as you know they had the same guitar teacher and learned classical guitar. Neil did a paper round and bought his first electric guitar. He had a place at University to read English Lit which he did not take up as Slowdive were signed at the time. contributions, questions, comments, corrections, etc. kindly send to blueskied(a)hotmail.com this page was created on 18 April 2001. updated on 27 September 2003. many thanks to Pamela Halstead for the info. ___________________________________________________________________ Si desea recibir, semanalmente, el Boletín Electrónico de la PUCP, ingrese a: http://www.pucp.edu.pe/boletin/

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09 May '18

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Re: [Avalyn] avalyn Digest, Vol 7, Issue 1
by Ben Adrian 08 Feb '14

08 Feb '14

Hey folks! I remember listserves. Sometimes, I kind of miss them. Cheers friends! Ben On 2/6/2014 11:19 PM, avalyn-request(a)lists.lysator.liu.se wrote: > Send avalyn mailing list submissions to > avalyn(a)lists.lysator.liu.se > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://lists.lysator.liu.se/mailman/listinfo/avalyn > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > avalyn-request(a)lists.lysator.liu.se > > You can reach the person managing the list at > avalyn-owner(a)lists.lysator.liu.se > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of avalyn digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Is there anybody out there? (David S?nchez) > 2. Re: Is there anybody out there? (Erik S?derstr?m) > 3. Re: Is there anybody out there? (Jon Whitney) > 4. Re: Is there anybody out there? (Ricq Pattay) > 5. Re: Is there anybody out there? (espsummer(a)aol.com) > 6. Re: Is there anybody out there? (David S?nchez) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2014 22:02:39 +0100 > From: David S?nchez <davidsanchezvasquez(a)gmail.com> > To: avalyn(a)lists.lysator.liu.se > Subject: [Avalyn] Is there anybody out there? > Message-ID: > <CAJ08kFD+gXSZ4f+FaQKu3hVn7iuAosyan1nbsN3qwgUULJAT0A(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Slowdive are back! :) >

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Re: [Avalyn] avalyn Digest, Vol 7, Issue 1
by Vivek Srivastava 07 Feb '14

07 Feb '14

Hello! > On Feb 7, 2014, at 1:19 AM, avalyn-request(a)lists.lysator.liu.se wrote: > > Send avalyn mailing list submissions to > avalyn(a)lists.lysator.liu.se > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://lists.lysator.liu.se/mailman/listinfo/avalyn > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > avalyn-request(a)lists.lysator.liu.se > > You can reach the person managing the list at > avalyn-owner(a)lists.lysator.liu.se > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of avalyn digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Is there anybody out there? (David S?nchez) > 2. Re: Is there anybody out there? (Erik S?derstr?m) > 3. Re: Is there anybody out there? (Jon Whitney) > 4. Re: Is there anybody out there? (Ricq Pattay) > 5. Re: Is there anybody out there? (espsummer(a)aol.com) > 6. Re: Is there anybody out there? (David S?nchez) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2014 22:02:39 +0100 > From: David S?nchez <davidsanchezvasquez(a)gmail.com> > To: avalyn(a)lists.lysator.liu.se > Subject: [Avalyn] Is there anybody out there? > Message-ID: > <CAJ08kFD+gXSZ4f+FaQKu3hVn7iuAosyan1nbsN3qwgUULJAT0A(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Slowdive are back! :) >

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Is there anybody out there?
by David Sánchez 07 Feb '14

07 Feb '14

Slowdive are back! :)

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Slowdive concerts database
by David Sánchez 11 Nov '09

11 Nov '09

Hello guys! I would like to invite everyone to join a project I have in mind since some months ago: The Slowdive Database. It's a gigography including notes, setlists... from Slowdive, Mojave 3, Televise... The website is based in a Wiki application, meaning everyone can go and update any information very quickly. If someone is too lazy to do it, you can email me the info and I will do the update. The idea was inspired from the cure-concerts.de website and the Pulp Wiki. Here is an example of the list of concert dates for Slowdive http://slowdivedatabase.com/index.php/Slowdive/Concerts (the links with "?" means pages with no info at the moment) And here is the detail of what should be in every date http://slowdivedatabase.com/index.php/Slowdive/19940521Toronto Everyone is welcome to help with this project! http://slowdivedatabase.com/index.php Cheers, David

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...Since Few Post These Days...
by atwyst＠aol.com 03 Aug '08

03 Aug '08

so, i’ve been getting these reminder emails, once a month, for years now, and almost no one ever posts. i spent the night listening to Mojave 3, and while I know it’s not slowdive, I figured it was close enough, and it inspired me to write about the one life-experience I’ve had related to the band. i’d love to hear others… i don’t remember exactly what year it was, but maybe 1999 or 2000, and i was home from college for the summer. i heard neil halstead was playing at the beachland ballroom, and almost shit my pants. i instantly bought tickets, terrified that the show would sell out, and forced my friend (who’d never heard of neil or Mojave 3, but vaguely realized that slowdive was once a band), to buy a ticket as well. relieved that i’d gotten a ticket before they’d all been sold out (how could neil halstead not sell out a show at beachland?), i waited for weeks, and really looked forward to the show. jon (my friend who i was bringing along to the show) and i played Frisbee golf before we drove up from Medina to go to the show. the shins were playing at the grog shop that night, so he figured there wouldn’t be much of a turn out at beachland. “i don’t care. we’re going in early and getting a good spot.” we got there before the doors opened, and wandered around the area. just up=2 0the road was one of those overpasses that is entirely enclosed by aluminum fencing, and we sat above the cars drinking sports drinks, spitting it onto cars below, and talking shit about ex-girlfriends. we got back to the beachland tavern, and grabbed a table in the nearly empty bar. neil was talking to the sound guy, so i went and said hello, asked him to sign my “Excuses For Travelers” cd insert. i think he kind of laughed at me, but regardless, he signed it “Thanx for coming down – Neil”, and drew a smiley face on the featureless figure from the cover. that’s the only autograph i’ve ever gotten in my life. neil played for drinks. anyone who bought him a drink could make a request. i don’t know how he could play by the end of the night…even the drinker i am now, i couldn’t handle all the requests he took that night. they weren’t all perfectly played, but they were all great to listen to. between drinks and requests, he covered Damien Jurado’s “Ohio”, which was fitting, for a number of reasons. he told a few jokes about some dude in Arizona with a harmonica, i bought a shirt, and that was it. we pulled out of the parking lot, and i told jon to shut the fuck up as i put “ask me tomorrow” into my cd player. i’ve never enjoyed 71 south more. -jeff =0 A

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