The video to Ava Adore

didnt Jonas Akerlund direct that? would explain it

1 Like

Yup exactly

always enjoy reading Dave Pajo talk about his experiences with Corgan :smiley:

When I was in Zwan, Billy got so mad at me when he found out I didnā€™t know any Smashing Pumpkins songs. He would say, ā€œYou havenā€™t heard ā€˜1979ā€™?ā€ But I didnā€™t listen to any of that shit when it was breaking. Delta blues was way more exciting to me than the Pumpkins and that whiny voice. [Laughs.] I knew that one ā€œrat in a cageā€ lyric, but that was the only Pumpkins I could recognize for the longest time. But, yeah, Billy would get really mad about that: ā€œHow can you not know ā€˜Tonight, Tonightā€™?ā€ [Laughs.]

AVC: But Zwan didnā€™t even play Smashing Pumpkins songs, right?

DP: No! But thatā€™s one of the reasons I initially liked the guyā€”he was so arrogant, it cracked me up. He would constantly bring up the fact that he sold 25 million records, or that his hit song was played at the Super Bowl or something. It just made me laugh. You know that character Alan Partridge, the one Steve Coogan played? Billy reminds me of Alan Partridge if heā€™d made a hit record. But after a while, the joke wears off.

21 Likes

When Smashing Pumpkinsā€™ last one or two records didnā€™t sell that well, Billy went on this rant about how he was disappointed in his fans for not understanding the record and not buying it. Thatā€™s such a weird thing to me [laughs]. To scold your fans for not buying your record. But that is the way he thinks.

1 Like

love the idea of Corgan always mentioning his song was on Super Bowl

2 Likes

Indeed, Iā€™ve been to SP gigs where heā€™s walked off after an hour because the fans arenā€™t responding well (Nottingham Arena 2008)

I saw them on the Manchester leg of that tour (Oceansize supported!) and it was mostly very, very good.

The opening run of songs was unbelievable:

Porcelina
Behold the Nightmare
Bring the Light
Tonight Tonight
Mayonnaise

But he closed the main set with a VERY long and VERY sludgy United States, which of course alienated most of the crowd. After that they walked off, and the house lights stayed down for a while before sheepishly being switched back on.

It later emerged (donā€™t ask me how) that they had planned to play an encore, and that it was going to include Cherub Rock, but that Billy didnā€™t think we were worthy.

Who thinks like that?!

REALLY cannot complain about the monster 29 song set we did get, though: The Smashing Pumpkins Concert Setlist at Manchester Evening News Arena, Manchester on February 15, 2008 | setlist.fm

I was at that Nottingham gig too, he was moaning because no one was singing along to the new album songs when it had only been out for a few weeks, then they stormed off just before 10pm.

Seeing Oceansize play Catalyst earlier on was pretty cool though

2 Likes

i was at that show! whilst the fans were a little unresponsive, you need to give them something to respond to. not an especially good SP memory. luckily i saw them at reading a year before and loved it :slight_smile:

Fucking hell indeed.

He seems to have a firm idea of just whatā€™s required from a fan to properly appreciate a band, but heā€™s never made it clear. Nothingā€™s ever good enough. What the hell does he want from people?

I was at that gig too - Worst. Encore. Ever.

The Everlasting Gaze into Cash Car Star was pretty phenomenal though.

They were pretty much untouchable at this point. Although thereā€™s a great bootleg of them at Reading in 95 I think(?), they do half Siamese Dream and half Mellon Collie which was just about to be released and they sound deadly!

Never found a video of it but the audio is superb!

1 Like

Has anyone got a photo of Corgan in a Man Utd kit ?
The Pumpkins played Manchester on Halloween 2000 and for the encore, a voice over came on saying ā€œLadies and Gentleman please welcome Mr David Beckhamā€ and then Corgan walked on. Auf der maur was posh spice, Mike Garson and Jimmy were the Gallagher bros and Iha was George Best.

P.S. Iā€™m not on drugs.

Not a massive fan of that video but the song sounds a lot better than I recall it did at the time when it was all over the radio.

Never got on with the Pumpkins on record but saw them play Glastonbury headlining either 97 or 98 I think and they were really excellent. Somewhere Iā€™d imagine thereā€™s a DiS thread about bands you loved live and never got on with on record. Both the Pumpkins and REM would be on there for me.

Yeah, the shows from that time period were so amazing, I wish I had gotten to see them back then. Someone gave me a tape of The Berlin Bullet bootleg from around that time on the bus and that was that, I was obsessed for life. I wish I could have heard in person that live version of Thru the Eyes of Ruby where instead of fading out into the MCIS night theme, they build back up into Corgan screaming over a guitar solo and going back to a variation of the main distorted riff.

1 Like

Yeah, seriously. And ā€œDelta blues was way more exciting to me,ā€ give me a break, he sounds like a try-hard high schooler. Makes me think the actual conversation was as simple as, ā€œOh, you havenā€™t heard 1979?ā€

1 Like

fuck, this is so good!

i didnā€™t know about Corgon going on that far-right show, that sucks

ffs

Yeah, itā€™s really bizarre, because as recently as 2008 heā€™s on record saying the US got it right by electing Obama. I canā€™t bring myself to listen to it, but Iā€™m hoping he doesnā€™t actually subscribe to any of the garbage Jones peddles and just used it as a platform to complain about his fans.