Rebels Without Applause

1986
Early 1986 saw The Long Ryders playing the odd LA gig showcasing one or two new songs, including a rare appearance by Danny & Dusty, whilst preparing for a full US tour in March and April. They also spent a week in January filming around LA for what would become an advert for Miller beer. This, along with the new album and major label move brought a similar backlash in the States to that seen by the band in the UK a few months earlier. The advert in particular was seen as the band selling out to corporate America whilst State Of Our Union brought questions about how a Hollywood band on a major label could sing about farm closures and economic depression. The band were open enough to admit that they had done the ad for the money, claiming that otherwise they could not have afforded to carry on as a band without a break to earn extra cash. Griffin in particular responded to one critical piece by having his reply to 'Spin' magazine printed, in which he pointed out that only one of the band actually came from LA and that farm closures were a fact of life in the native states of the rest of the band.

During a break in their Spring tour The Long Ryders spent three days putting down demos for their next album. Then having no sooner finished their own US tour, they were promptly asked to go back on the road as support to The Alarm during their April/May tour of the States. The band accepted and the tour was a great success, getting good reviews with the two bands apparently getting on very well with each other.

Following almost three months on the road the band spent June recuperating, before spending a further four days in July putting down demos for their new album (including tracks which have yet to see an official release). Whilst not touring officially The Long Ryders kept their hands in and performed some of these new songs live by playing the odd gig in California and further afield such as Las Vegas during July and August. One such gig at Raji's, Hollywood (a Jello Biafra anti-censorship benefit) included an acoustic set from Sid Griffin featuring Stealing Horses and You Can See Them There - songs which would not see an official release for several years, and then not by The Long Ryders. Whilst The Long Ryders concentrated their efforts on the home market in 1986, the UK was neglected. Plans to release Lights Of Downtown as a single were cancelled by the label, despite the huge success of Looking For Lewis And Clark and the State Of Our Union album. However, problems with the record company were not confined to the UK. Whilst Island released promotional records to plug the band with the radio stations, plans to officially release Looking For Lewis And Clark as a US single were cancelled only weeks before it was due to be issued. Significantly, despite only joining Island Records officially in September 1985 there were no official releases by The Long Ryders in the US or the UK throughout the whole of 1986.

In spite of these problems, September 1986 saw what was quite possibly the highpoint of The Long Ryders' career. After rehearsing in London for a few days the band flew to Spain for a series of gigs during which they performed many of the songs that would appear on their next album. These included a gig in a bull ring in Oviedo in front of 8,000 people and culminated in Barcelona before a crowd of 100,000.

The band returned to the States at the end of September to concentrate on recording their third full-length album. Before going into the studio with ex-Ramones producer Ed Stasium, the band played another benefit gig, this time at The Roxy, Hollywood for LA promoter Michele Myer. Although being low down o n the bill, this was another high point for The Long Ryders on a personal level as they were joined by former Byrd/Burrito Brother Chris Hillman for a short set of Long Ryders' and Byrds' classics.

The rest of the year was spent recording the tracks that wo uld become Two Fisted Tales, The Long Ryders' second album for Island Records. Having recorded the basic tracks and done further recording to add overdubs, guitars and vocals to the songs, the band flew to Island's studio in the Bahamas in January 1987 to mix the album.

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