My record collection
#110: Luna on Later

When this series got to about #075 it occurred to me that I really ought to have included DVDs in the series and so… I brought them into the backlog, and along with them came some VHSs including this one, of Luna performing on Later with Cynthia Garrett. The tape was sent to me by someone on the mailing list (possibly Andrew, but… it might have been you!).

Luna on Later (VHS)

The VHS player hasn’t been plugged in for ages (possibly since we moved North two years ago) and since bits of the show are on YouTube I guess I don’t have to dig it out for this. There was an interview, some clips from videos, and a couple of live songs - Dear Diary, and Hello Little One - with a kazoo solo. You can also see the interview - part 1 and part 2.

There was lots of discussion on the mailing list around the time of the broadcast (4th April 2000) all in a thread with the subject Dean brushed his hair! - I mentioned this in a comment on Dean & Britta’s Patreon and Dean responded “it does look tidy but I’m quite sure there was no brush involved”. The presenter/interviewer Cynthia Garrett came into quite a bit of criticism on the list… but fans can never be satisfied and in retrospect I’m not sure that we could or should have expected any more.

We played two songs and did an awkward interview. It’s hard being interviewed on TV. You don’t want to be boring. You want to be charming and funny, but it’s hard being charming when you’re nervous. I thought that they might give us some preparatory notes, maybe tell us what kind of questions Cynthia was going to ask. They did not.

“How do you guys keep going?” she asked.

I didn’t have an answer for that. It sounded like an insult. Why does Bo Diddley keep going? Why does Jonathan Richman keep going? Wasn’t she really asking, “Why don’t you just throw in the towel, you pathetic losers? You’ve never had a gold record - why don’t you get a real job?”

I wanted to ask her how a VH1 VJ gets to host her own late-night network TV show.

Dean Wareham - Black Postcards (Penguin, 2008)

• Catalogue Number: AHFOW 13/013
• Artist: Luna
• Title: Luna on Later
• Format: VHS