Joel Gion in conversation with Richard Millward
Special guests:
Richard Norris
Simone Butler (Primal Scream) DJ set
Avalanche Party
Joel Gion has been the tambourine-playing frontman of The Brian Jonestown Massacre for the last thirty years. He’s that good at it. The band was formed in 1990 by singer-songwriter Anton Newcombe, and immediately established itself as not only the torch-bearers of the classic 60s San Francisco sound, but also as the most prominent US chapter of Shoegaze and Britpop.
The prestigious Sundance Film Festival’s ‘Grand-Jury Prize’ of 2004 was unanimously awarded to Dig!, a documentary based on The Brian Jonestown Massacre and their interchangeable friends/foes The Dandy Warhols. It quickly became a global cinematic sensation and catapulted BJM onto the world stage, where they have remained ever since. While the film’s main focus was on the two bands’ lead singers, Joel is considered by many to be the scene-stealing star of the show.
Joel describes himself as “less a musician, more a writer who happens to be a musician”. His first book, In the Jingle Jangle Jungle: Keeping Time with The Brian Jonestown Massacre, will be published by White Rabbit Books in February 2024.