Gavin Rossdale of Bush attends Ozwald Boateng's Jubilee party in Saville Row.

Bush Replaces Departed Guitarist Pulsford

Gavin Rossdale and his band Bush have decided that Chris Traynor will replace founding member and guitarist Nigel Pulsford. Traynor was formerly the guitarist for Helmet and had been filling in for Pulsford since the birth of his child.
In his website journal, bush-music.com, Rossdale wrote about the change. “It was everything to have Nigel in the band. He brought me so much. He brought us all so much. What a superb guitar player. I will always be deeply connected and grateful to him…We have had no arguments, no falling out[s], no loss of respect--just perhaps a common goal.”
As for Traynor, Rossdale wrote, “He has done so much for us out here [touring the U.S.]. Nigel could not tour--imagine if we had to wait for ages to find the right guy? Chris actually slipped in real easy, and he’s so easy-going. It’s always been no problem. It’s crazy really.”
Rossdale also said that he wants to at least make one more album with Bush and that he won’t let the band die so easily.
Before joining Bush to complete its mega-hit album Sixteen Stone, Pulsford was in King Blank and the Ian Lowery Group.
-- Darren Davis, New York

Bush Tour Dates 2002

Thu~05/09/02
Hampton Beach, NH Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
Fri~05/10/02
Poughkeepsie, NY Mid-Hudson Civic Center

Sat~05/11/02
Toronto, ON Molson Amphitheatre

Fri~05/17/02
Nurburgring, GER Rock Am Ring

Sat~05/18/02
Landgraaf, NET Pinkpop Festival

Sun~05/19/02
Nuremberg, GER Rock Im Park

Wed~05/22/02
Hamburg, GER Stadtpark

Fri~05/24/02
Dusseldorf, GER Philipshalle

Mon~07/01/02
Hardenberg, NET Podium

Tue~07/02/02
Groningen, NET Oosterpoort

Sun~07/07/02
Montreux, SWI Stravinski Auditorium

Sat~07/13/02
Weert, NET Bospop Festival

Gavin Rossdale

Interview by Will Hodgkinson
Friday May 3, 2002The Guardian

Lead singer of Bush, sometime boyfriend of Gwen Stefani and international resident of LA and London NW1, Gavin Rossdale has the kind of professional sheen that goes down well in the States, where his band play stadiums. He is polite, handsome, friendly to all, and has a rug-like dog that snarls at you if you approach it with too much caution. He also knows how to chat openly without actually giving too much away.

"There are two records that are particularly important to me," he says, holding his six-foot frame with the kind of confidence rarely seen outside of stadium-rock circles. "The first would be Handsworth Revolution by Steel Pulse, who were the first reggae band I heard. It's a consummate, brilliant, amazing record. The second is by two guys called David and David, who had an album called Boomtown. This is, like, dub country. They're American, and they did this one record before they broke up." Rossdale grew up listening to Germ Free Adolescence by teen punks X-Ray Spex, who were led by the colourful Poly Styrene, later a devotee of Hare Krishna.
"With X-Ray Spex it was all about the lyrics and the melody," he says. "They were singing about genetic engineering 30 years before Total Recall and The Terminator. She sang on the last record we did and she was brilliant - I rudely called her Poly but I know it's really Sag Gita or something."

Other records that informed Rossdale's adolescent mind included the first album by the Clash and Imitation of Christ by Psychedelic Furs. "That was the first stuff I liked - punk stuff and reggae - so that was my introduction to music and it had a deep impact on me. Punk now is seen as idiots on Carnaby Street from Milan shouting, 'Vive le punk,' which is a shame." The logical progression from those two styles, therefore, was PiL. "Metal Box was the first record I heard that sounded truly subversive," he says. "Jah Wobble was my king."

Then came the late-1980s indie period which provided a soundtrack to the life of many a white boy's life, as well as the initial inspiration for Bush. "Surfer Rosa by the Pixies was the American side of that time, and Isn't Anything by My Bloody Valentine was the English side. I really liked the Throwing Muses as well - I thought that 4AD [the record label] was this really wacky, strange world filled with interesting people, and out of that scene the Pixies were the most melodic. They had a great sense of humour. There was that line, 'Uriah hit the crapper' - I think he was talking about the death of certain elements of rock, but I'm probably wrong. But they were playful - they had a Dick Dale surfer sound, and there was an element of tongue-in-cheek. I loved the Pixies."

Two American segments of Rossdale's musical orange are Captain Beefheart and Tom Waits. "Beefheart is much funkier that you'd imagine - you have the difficult records like Trout Mask Replica, but on albums like Spotlight Kid you can hear the beginnings of all those bands like Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. He spawned Tom Waits, who he was always really angry with, but Tom Waits' Rain Dogs was the album that I listened to when lyrics were dominant for me - he still blows me away with these songs that are like miniature movies or Raymond Carver stories."

The best bands always come along and destroy what came before them, and in the early 1990s, the Stone Roses managed to change everything. "I remember watching that first video of I Wanna Be Adored, thinking, 'What is this?' That's almost the best praise you can give a band - to be fascinated and disorientated by them."

Both Nick Cave and Polly Harvey are also favourites. "Nick Cave had that smack-soaked, debauched history with The Birthday Party, but then he went on to make beautiful solo records like Your Funeral, My Trial and The Boatman's Call. I find them much more listenable than the Birthday Party, who I missed out on at the time. As for Polly Harvey, I like all her records, but Rid of Me is my favourite." Does he know her? "No. I've been in the same room as her, and heard about her through our producer Steve Albini. She probably thinks I'm scum."

Among the more recent releases Rossdale has been enjoying is Druqks by the Aphex Twin, and Agaetis Byrjun by Icelandic four-piece Sigur Ros. "I like Aphex because he's the laziest man in music. He DJs from a sofa. He sampled his mum and dad leaving a message on his answerphone. As for Sigur Ros, me and Gwen went to see them in the States. We sat there for two and a half hours in this theatre and this guy came on and played guitar with a bow. Two and a half hours in, it's less good. But they are amazing."

Special mention goes to Jeff Buckley's album Grace. "I discovered him at Reading one year. I was wandering around and heard his singing coming out of one of the tents. It was one of those biblical, ethereal moments of knowing that you have made a great discovery. Then he drowned drunk. What a waste."

Gavin Rossdale-Music Midtown 2002 - Atlanta

Burning Bush

Rossdale & co. plan plenty of head-banging at CPR Fest
Beautiful Music
by MIKE LACY
THE SUN HERALD
May 02, 2002

Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale believes Friday's CPR Fest 2002 will be a "Plan J" venue.

"There are some places where we might want to start with mellow songs" and build from there, he said last week by telephone. "Or, there might be other places when we want to come right out and smack everyone."

Rossdale's "Plan J" should delight South Mississippi head-bangers at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum grounds. You can look to be smacked. (Side note: Rossdale was happy to know it would be dark when the band takes the stage.).

That's the beauty of a Bush concert. No two are the same.

"They have to change," Rossdale said from his hotel room "on an island somewhere off the Coast of Florida where the sea is beckoning me." Different places "make for different ways of playing. We change the sets all the time. It makes everyone scared."

He and his Bush band buddies have just come off a 10-day break from their Golden State tour, named after their latest CD released in October 2001. Rossdale needed the break to make a video in England and to check on his dog. "He's cool."

The group has been touring in the United States since February, giving performances with a consistently high energy level, thanks in part to a slight change in style reflected in the new release. No more internal angst; it's all on the outside.

"It's another chapter, really," Rossdale said of the album. "I don't have any reflective concept about it. All it means to me is changing how I approach the next record. It's an expression of where we are now.

"Writing songs is easy, but not to write songs that displace the songs that had been favorites."

Those favorites include "Machinehead" and "Glycerine," among others that propelled the 1994 debut album "Sixteen Stone" into platinum-plus status.

He's satisfied with the CD and the fan reaction, but it's been an uphill climb commercially. With the release just a month after Sept. 11, the band felt some changes were necessary to make it more acceptable.

The CD cover image was changed as was one song title. "The People That We Love" had been titled "Speed Kills," itself including a song title and the cover.

"I never imagined we would have to change artwork because of a terrorist attack," Rossdale said. "It was unfortunate timing. . . . but I've never complained. We got off lightly." Rossdale wasn't sure when the next Bush CD would be released by Atlantic Records.

"I think we're going to take some time," he said. "You know, the World Cup is coming up." And one can bet the former semi-pro soccer player will be glued to the TV watching the English national team.

But the question still begs for some hint of what kind of music is to come. Even with fiance Gwen Stefani's influence, the "No Doubt" ska sound won't likely work its way into the Bush scene.

"Never say never," he said. "She's very receptive to the stuff I play. But she's not really into rock music. You won't find her reaching for a Tool CD."

So, what can fans expect to hear? Rossdale relented to the secret, but he was difficult to understand with his tongue in his cheek: "Deep, deep space rock."

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