A Head Full of Wishes is a site for Galaxie 500, Luna, Damon & Naomi, Dean & Britta and Dean Wareham. With news, articles and lists of releases and past and future shows.
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The end of Galaxie 500
Antescript
As well as the writings of Damon, Naomi, and Dean one of the primary source (actually the most primary of sources) for this piece was the reminiscences of Dan Pearson who booked Galaxie 500 to play their final show at Bowdoin College. In late 2003 Dan wrote to me a lovely long letter containing his memories of the show and the pictures of the show included in this post, as well as the poster/flyer (plus a stack of photocopies of other Galaxie 500 press). I last had contact with Dan when I was compiling the 30th anniversary fanzine mentioned and linked below.
I learned this week that Dan sadly died earlier this year after a prolonged illness, and far too young. This post is dedicated to him without whom it would have been so much less.
GALAXIE 500 have split after guitarist/vocalist Dean Wareham quit unexpectedly. All band commitments, including a June tour of Japan, have been cancelled.
The break-up occurred when the band returned from a successful tour of the States with Cocteau Twins.
Drummer Damon Krukowski told the Maker, “One day we were planning for a tour of Japan, and the next day he just quit. It was a big surprise for me and Naomi”. Galaxie 500 Split - Melody Maker (4th May 1991)
Galaxie 500 Split - Melody Maker (4th May 1991)
Thirty five years ago this week Galaxie 500 played their last show, three days later the band was no more.
It’s hard to write this because three people I love who were once friends aren’t friends any more - that’s sad. Of course a band splitting up is bad, but a friendship disolving is so much sadder. Maybe I should have just let this anniversary go by unmentioned, after all the stories around the split have been out there a while now and kicking up the dust again won’t change anything, but… A Head Full of Wishes is a Galaxie 500 driven project and it’s hard to let this week pass without thinking back to 35 years ago.
This is just a collection of snippets related to those last few days of Galaxie 500, taken from various publications and interviews - it’s not comprehensive and it’s here just as a record - without any comment or editorialising. Nothing I say can change the fact that 35 years ago a band and a friendship died.
5th April 1991
The band played in a building called Moulton Union, in the main lounge. A band called The Wishniaks, from Philadelphia […] opened up. Galaxie 500 played for about an hour and really didn't seem to want to be there beforehand, although they put on a phenomenal and truly hypnotic show.
Dean drove a Dodge Dart to Maine. Damon & Naomi drove up in a blue Saab 900. Damon had a drum kit that said Galaxie 500 in silver on the bass drum. Naomi wore orange leggings. About forty or fifty people came to the show.
Dan Pearson (personal letter, 2003)
It was a truly awesome show, the acoustics were awful, but it was the coolest place to have a show.
Dan Pearson (The Bowdoin Orient, 2014)
The Cocteau Twins' tour ended in Boston, with a show at the Boston University hockey arena. We had one additional show booked for the following night, at Bowdoin College in Maine. April 5, 1991. We were scheduled to go on at nine that night, but the opening band played for an hour and a half while we waited in the green room that the students had set up for us. Being a college band, they didn't know that the opener is supposed to play a short set and then get off the stage. We sat in that green room getting more and more irritated. And that was our final show-an annoying evening at Bowdoin College
Dean Wareham (Black Postcards, 2008)
[Dean] finished, he packed up and went out the door and drove away. I don’t even think he said thank you. We wanted to have some beer and talk with them, but they just wanted to get back to Boston.
Dan Pearson (The Bowdoin Orient, 2014)
I made it through the set, loaded my amplifier and guitar into the back of my blue 75 Dodge Dart, and drove all the way home to New York City.
Dean Wareham (Black Postcards, 2008)
8th April 1991
What happened was simply that Dean quit, more or less out of the blue, on the telephone one day. We have not seen him since, nor spoken since that week. In fact, he didn't even place the call! It was just after the weekend we had finished what turned out to be our last tour, which was an opening slot for the Cocteau Twins in the States; we had an upcoming tour to Japan (this was something Naomi and I were very much looking forward to, as you can imagine, as was Kramer, we were going to take him with us), and when I opened the paper on Monday I discovered there was a sale on for tickets to Tokyo that was ending at midnight. So I called Dean to say “let's buy our tickets”, and he said, no, I quit. No explanation, just "there's nothing more to talk about", and that was it. A lot of years of friendship, not to mention the band, down the drain in a minute flat.
Damon Krukowski - Ptolemaic Terrascope (1997)
Damon did call me early on a Monday morning to see about booking flights to Japan. I had been up for about an hour, and was starting to get that sick, nervous feeling that you get when you have to fire someone or break up with them because today was the day.
Damon called first. My heart skipped a beat. The moment was upon me. I said don't buy the tickets to Japan because I was leaving the band, and this time it was real.
They weren't so nice and understanding this time. They were furious. There were three days of angry phone calls.
Dean Wareham (Black Postcards, 2008)
Damon called Dean to say he was going to buy our plane tickets to Japan for the tour we had booked there, and Dean said he quit. Damon asked why and Dean said he had nothing more to say to us. I couldn't believe Dean could just throw everything away so carelessly and not even want to discuss it. I got on the phone and did something I had never done before: I yelled at him and told him he was lazy and a selfish coward. Then I hung up.
Naomi Yang (Temperature's Rising, 2012)
I regret that it ended badly - but that's how things often end.
Dean Wareham (Black Postcards, 2008)
I felt completely stripped of my musical identity, it took a long time to recover.
Naomi Yang (Temperature's Rising, 2012)
How did I feel when Dean quit? Are you kidding? Listen to More Sad Hits
Damon Krukowski (Temperature's Rising, 2012)
There is no recording of that last show - the last live recording I have is from the previous week in Denver supporting The Cocteau Twins.
Five years ago, for the 30th aniversary I published the second Everything’s Swirling fanzine commemorating the end of the band, here are a couple of extracts.
I opened the Melody Maker in the first week of May 1991 to the news that Galaxie 500 had split after “guitarist/vocalist Dean Wareham quit unexpectedly” - to be honest I don’t really remember noticing what was written, I don’t think I picked up on the undercurrent of bitterness in that news item. I maybe just noticed that headline, and that first sentence.
I think I was just sad that a band that I loved could do this to me. My past had seen me drifting away from my music loves - this was the first time one had been torn away from me. This was them breaking up with me, not me breaking up with them. Perhaps selfishly all I felt was my hurt. How could they do this to ME!
Over the years it’s become clear that the pain of that split (and the months before the split) were hard on others too - ok, harder - and my pain was eased by all three band members providing a soothing musical balm with their subsequent work. But that meant nothing as I gazed into a future without Galaxie 500.
Other bands came along, but 27 years of A Head Full of Wishes suggests I haven’t completely got over it, and possibly never will.
Everything's Swirling #3 intro March 2021
You can download the whole of Everything’s Swirling #2 as a PDF.
You can see the earlier versions of this post from 2016 and 2021 which may be slightly different!
Back in 2014 John from the Bowdoin Orient got in touch with me about the last show and I pointed him towards Dan, and out of that came this article that includes some of the memories that Dan included in his letter to me.