“Never trust a happy band,” is the sage advice that a teenage Charlie Steen took from Larry Love of Alabama 3 and ran with it. Following episodes with Johnny Marr, Neneh Cherry, and GAIKA, the latest installment of Open House sees the lead singer of Shame sit down with Dazed Digital editor Thomas Gorton to go down memory lane.
In the soul-baring episode, Steen recalls the people in his life who have impacted him, his many musical influences, and the eclectic characters of the life-defining Queens Head pub. When Shame started they had no equipment let alone a name, so the Queens Head pub owner renamed them Shame as a temporary name – but it stuck. The pub locals, drag queens, crackheads, actors, and musicians created a dysfunctional community that formed who Shame are.
He also reveals how inheriting his mum’s records including “every Velvet Underground, every Lou Reed, and every Bowie” were the building blocks of his musical DNA.
Listen to Open House below, along with a Spotify playlist of all the tracks mentioned.