Close Encounters of the Liz Kind

[simon alexander]

To diminish (or perhaps deepen) the spirit of lamentation and longing surrounding the continued disappearance of the Artist formerly known as Liz Cocteau from all current terrestrial and musical landscapes, I was thinking members of the Board may care to gather to reminisce over their actual experiences of meeting the lady herself (taking care to remove hats and conclude with a solemn prayer for Liz's safe return to us from Hades/Asda/Bristol Parkway, or wherever her spirit may currently wuther).

As a further suggestion, you may wish to classify your encounter with Liz using the following Spielbergian taxonomy:

Close encounter of the 1st Kind.
Visual sightings.
Seeing Liz at a distance, either on land, sea or floating in the sky engulfed by the Aurora Borealis. NB Seeing her on a concert stage does not count.

Close encounter of the 2nd Kind.
Physical evidence.
Concrete traces of Liz's actual presence. A misted-over bus window from the breath of God pouring from her mouth; a half-empty glass of rum and coke in the back bar of her local; her abandoned supermarket trolley glinting in the reddening Bristolian sunlight.

Close encounter of the 3rd Kind.
Actual contact.
Real conversation (including speaking in tongues); mutual configuration of new poetic languages; hand-holding; impassioned French kissing. (I realise the last one is unlikely, but wanted to cover all bases.)

PS No weirdos!

[Lucibelle]

I actually had a chance to meet her after a show at the Roxy in Atlanta, Georgia. I turned it down however, since the last 'first impression' I wanted to make upon her of me was a blithering, babbling idiot! I just could not bring myself to meeting her knowing the state that I was in! I was younger then and maybe part of me did not want my image of her to be soiled by the reality. Of course, looking back on this missed opportunity.......:headbutt:

[Colin]

"Met" her twice. Most memorable was in London after M&K tour date at Royal Albert Hall. I managed to get backstage & chat her up a bit. I told her "The show was so astounding -- please tell me you record these gigs?? It would be sad to know the georgeous sounds have come and gone."

"No," she replied, "we never record the gigs. That would be too anal." (Gee, weren't R&S once soliciting bootleg live recordings for a possible release a few years back? Who's sorry now??)

She also signed a CD (the silver-ink pen leaked a huge dot and she commmented on 'hating those pens.' She was generally pretty relaxed & statisfied, I thought. I just couldn't believe that other 'fans' back stage were just kind of 'oh, there's liz over there.' I tried to be cool, but am sure I was fumbling.

I also mentioned I would see their Washington DC performance, as that was on my birthday. She was so sweet -- insisting on putting me on the guest list. She made a note of it, but must have forgot though. . .crying Yeah, forgot; I'm sure she didn't mean anything by it. . .:rolleyes:

Also, people were asking her about 'did she like this group or that group', & I remember her lighting up on mention of (of all things) The Pet Shop Boys! "Their fucking Brilliant," she cried. I like 'em too, but surprising. . .

[NPrinciple]

http://www.cocteautwins.org/~leesa/cocteautwins/cgraphix/liz/lizP/liz_P46.jpg

I think I'd have been a blithering wreck if Id met Liz like this !

[simon alexander]

I see what you mean - its uncanny! I mean you look amazingly like her.;)

[mmmender]

Originally posted by simon alexander
impassioned French kissing. (I realise the last one is unlikely, but wanted to cover all bases.)

she used a bit too much tongue but i still liked it.

[E-Lo]

Originally posted by NPrinciple
http://www.cocteautwins.org/~leesa/cocteautwins/cgraphix/liz/lizP/liz_P46.jpg

I think I'd have been a blithering wreck if Id met Liz like this !

[/FAINT with her beauty]

[someotherian]

Originally posted by simon alexander
Close encounter of the 1st Kind.
...NB Seeing her on a concert stage does not count.
until i saw this last bit i was gonna claim encounter no.1, but now i'll have to say Close Encounter of the 0th Kind. which isn't really a close encounter at all, or any other kind of encounter for that matter!

i think even i'd have remembered if she'd stuck her tongue in my mouth.
mind you it's been a while since anyone's done that... :(

[simon alexander]

Me too! In fact, I might just settle for mouth to mouth at the moment from any half-decent girlie.

What's the matter with every one on tbis thread - have none of you really ever met her or are you are all just keeping it under your hat for your own reasons?

(Bangs drums, cymbals etc. in attempt to rouse sleeping community.)


As thread founder, I didn't really want to divulge too much of my own Elizabethan encounters until a few more posts were on the board.

[Lucibelle]

I'd wait until Monday. These boards get a little drowsy on weekends. I think a lot of people use them at work to 'look busy'. ;)

[REPLICESS]

Well, of course seen her in the flesh (3 gigs)
and as I've said before (sorry to bore ! ) , we used to write to each other (just after 'Garlands' was released).
Only have the postcard left (that I'm sure you don't wanna see again !!!! :eek: )

[lake]

I have only seen her at attended gigs. Sorry what am i saying, ONLY at gigs!!!
I mean to say,i have never met her personally, alas:(
I was at
Nov 8th '86 - Liverpool Royal Court
Oct 26th '90 - "
Feb 14th '94- Manchester Academy
May 28th'94- Warrington Parr Hall
May 7th'96- Manchester Ritz

It seems so little written down, but meens so much in my mindballerina

[floatboat]

'just' of the 1st kind and only the once

live near the old september sound studio and passed her in the street with daughter - a heart stopping moment to say the least... fortunately I was alone so no-one had to witness my 'oh my GOD!' look and inability to speak for a good half hour...

i confess to having a dream that LB would enroll at my school..... but, imagine parents evening.... and all a tad unproffesional perhaps

[simon alexander]

Originally posted by REPLICESS
and as I've said before (sorry to bore ! ) , we used to write to each other (just after 'Garlands' was released).
Only have the postcard left (that I'm sure you don't wanna see again !!!! :eek: ) [/B]

What!!??? -you mean you didn't keep her letters!!??:eek:

[Lucibelle]

Everyone came out to prove me wrong on that 'look busy' comment, huh? ;)

[simon alexander]

The cosmos propelled me straight into a 3rd Kind Encounter sometime in 1985 when I was at an Echo and the Bunnymen gig in London with my then girlfriend, Isabel. Turned round on the balcony from which I was gazing down onto Ian McCulloch's trenchcoated and smoke-shrouded silhouette and ALL THREE COCTEAU TWINS were standing right behind me. I gave Liz a scrap of paper and pen and gasped an autograph request in time-honoured fashion. Her question to me was pithy, pregnant and a small masterpiece of poetic concision: 'what shall I write?' In the end she wrote 'Hello Simon', her name, and (perhaps somewhat gratuitously) 'C. Twins'. I remember Isabel told me it looked like an old woman's handwriting, all spindly and shaky. (It was interesting to me, years later, how different those tantalising images of Liz's script looked around the time of Rilkean Dreams/Heart at the end - much more purposeful and controlled.)

After that, I really seemed to be bumping into them everywhere! A brief First Kind Encounter with Liz and Robin in some dismal dark street looking for a Wolfgang Press gig - I remember thinking how sweet and funny she looked peering up at him in the shadows as they stopped in the road. Then an amazing 4AD evening at the Town and Country Club in the late 80s with Dead Can Dance and the Wolfgang Press again - Throwing Muses may have been on the bill too. I asked her about work on the current album and whether they were happy about it, and she said they were. One detail I remember feeling particularly struck by was how close she stood when she was talking to you (or me anyway), very innocent and almost pressing herself against you, like a child - an interesting contrast with the Twins' self-proclaimed paranoia. I also recall a young woman walking up to her as she stood on her own at the back of the club and saying 'Are you Liz Fraser'? - to which Liz amusingly replied, 'No'.

Our only meeting since has been only in my dreams, alas - a particularly intriguing '24 hour date' we went on together! What was interesting about it, though, was the way she came across as quite self-centred in it (an anticipation, perhaps, of a later interview where, to Robin's nervous laughter, she called herself 'self-obsessed') -almost as if the dream was trying to humanise the ideal. In the dream, though, this meant she was 'a real artist'. So maybe the two things do go together - evenif artists are workers too, they're a special (? more narcissistic) kind of worker.

Funnily enough, my subsequent Cocteaus dream involved Simon strumming, Bob Dylan-like, one of his own songs years before his solo album was released, and Liz giving up on the song she was singing. Could it be that the best (though also saddest) explnation for her 'silence' now is that she's no longer inspired?

The moral of all of this may be very Hollywood - if you wish for something hard enough, then you get it. That's what I'm hoping anyway . . .

[aprilskies]

never met her
doubtful i ever will
and don't particularly want to either

probably wouldn't recognise her anyway

but good for you, simon

[zed]

..."close encounters" indeed. if she didn't have her glasses on, maybe she was just trying to get close enough to actually see you?.........i believe she's quite nearsighted, or, she just may be a "close" kinda person.:dunno:

interesting story though.:)

Z.ballerina

[simon alexander]

Originally posted by floatboat


i confess to having a dream that LB would enroll at my school..... but, imagine parents evening.... and all a tad unproffesional perhaps [/B]

I guess Freud would have called that a classic example of wish fulfillment! ;)

Imagines . . .

LIZ: So, Ms Floatboat, how is my daughter progressing in class? I trust her English is satisfactory . . .
FLOATBOAT: (looking down at LB's exercise book) How can I put this Mrs Reece . . . she seems to have a penchant for writing her class essays in a style somewhere between the angelic language of Enochian and a polyphonic fashion reminiscent of the later James Joyce. I'm afraid nobody has a clue what she's talking about and when we ask her, she goes all shy and whispers something about how her grail overfloweth or somesuch. In fact, she called poor Mrs Meadows a blood bitch the other day . . . it was most . . .
LIZ: Yes, yes, Floatboat, spare me the tedious details. And theology? Does my little one love the Lord?
FLOATBOAT: It's difficult to say, Mrs Reece, as she seems so determined to 'die in her rosary', as she pleases to put it. However the headmistress has noticed in R.E. that she does speak of the breath of God in her mouth in the manner of the medieval mystic Julian of Norwich. I must say it's all quite exotic.
LIZ: Excellent news, Ms Floatboat! And finally, what of her music?
Does she, may I ask, take after her own dear mother?
FLOATBOAT (big smile): Very pleasing, Mrs Reece! I can tell you she produced a quite lovely project on Britney Spears this week and told assembly today she wants to marry Robbie Williams if you please! (Claps her hands together.) She's a credit to you, Mrs Reece, a little angel! Mrs Reece? Mrs Ree . . .?
LIZ (grabbing daughter by the hand and disappearing down corridor, desperately hissing into mobile): Robin? Robin? Is that you? I don't care if you're in the middle of boeuf bourgignon - get the next Eurostar over! I think there's still time to get Lucy onto the waiting list for Wycombe Abbey for Young Girls.

[REPLICESS]

Originally posted by simon alexander


What!!??? -you mean you didn't keep her letters!!??:eek:

you not know my sad story ? :(

Had a row with my older sister, and she destroyed them .....
*BITCH* !!!

She knew they were my most treasured things then. I found them in tiny pieces under my mattress *sigh*

[someotherian]

Originally posted by zed
..."close encounters" indeed. if she didn't have her glasses on, maybe she was just trying to get close enough to actually see you?.........
maybe she thought you had some frozen peas in your pocket

[zed]

you know ian, if, in my dreams, i ever had the occasion to have dinner with liz, if any one ordered peas, i'd lose it entierly.
loooong sleeve time.roflmao


Z.ballerina:

[grnfaerie]

1st time meeting her was in 94 after the show in SF. waited like a fangirl outside the back of the theater...when she came out i had her sign my journal which had various CT pix pasted in it. she looked at the one of her and said "i look like i am on drugs in that picture!" to which someone (i think robin??) said "you probably were!" heh.
next day my boyfriend and i were wandering haight st and coming up to a corner and standing there waiting for the green light was simon and liz. so i was just standing there like a dumb ass, too scared to speak but my boyfriend had on a CT beanie hat that he had got the night before and simon noticed and said hi to us. so i got brave and asked if we could snap a photo and liz said OK. (photo still framed and on my mantle). that same night, another show in SF. my friend had backstage passes that she could not use so she gave them to me. went back after the show and stood around for a while til robin noticed my tattoo (lily dancer on back of neck) and told liz to take a look. then i simply told her that i loved the show and asked for a hug. she asked "didnt we see you earlier today?" and yeah, i felt like a big ass stalker.
roflmao

then there was M&K tour, 1996. the famous BBQ in SF. didnt say anything other than hello. funny...it seemed like most people were too shy to talk to her. i talked to her backstage a few days later in LA. i gave her a little faerie figurine and she was very sweet and talked to me for a minute...she said she thought it looked like lucy and that lucy would probably try to abscond with it.

thats it for my liz close encounters.

to be honest...i loved meeting her but felt much more comfortable and had a better time the occasions i met/hung out with robin and simon.

melanie

[Lucibelle]

What a great story, melanie!! :) Can you scan your pic? I'd love to see it!

[willy]

Originally posted by mmmender


she used a bit too much tongue but i still liked it.

There's no such thing as too much tongue.

[Lucibelle]

I agree, except when the tongue strays away from the mouth onto the face. THEN it's too much. ;)

[zed]

.the tongue is a very sensitive and delicate instrument.
it must be used with great care and ingenuity.
respect your tongue and it will give you years of wonderful service.

and don't forget to floss.

Z.

[iceblink555]

Originally posted by willy


There's no such thing as too much tongue.

I'm with ya on this one, willy!

--Alan
np: MonsterImperial (Sibian mix) - R. Guthrie & Henry Rollins

[Lucibelle]

Who wants to give me a demonstation? :D

[iceblink555]

Originally posted by Lucibelle
Who wants to give me a demonstation? :D

Steph, shall we make this part of the cast-iron jock game at CTfest? ;-)

--Alan

[Lucibelle]

You mean....take off your cast-iron jock with my TONGUE??? :eek: Sure! I'll try that! :D

[iceblink555]

Oh boy! Anybody know where I can find some strawberry- flavored WD-40? Or would you prefer chocolate, Steph?

--Alan

[iceblink555]

Manged to find these three convenient sizes... but still no flavored ones :-(

[Lucibelle]

Chocolate! Definitely chocolate! :D

[iceblink555]

Even came across this, which is a close-up pic of a yeast molecule (yikes!), and apparently has *something* to do with "wd40":

[iceblink555]

Originally posted by Lucibelle
Chocolate! Definitely chocolate! :D

Oh damnit! I just ordered a case of strawberry from a vendor in Amsterdam :-/

[Lucibelle]

Hey, if if comes from Amsterdam, maybe it's better to have the strawberry! :eek:
;)

[iceblink555]

Ya gotta point there! But I already cancelled the order... and now the site seems to be under a denial-of-service attack... all I get is a blinking red light :-/

BTW, does the shape of that yeast molecule remind you of anything, or is it just me?!

--Alan

[Lucibelle]

Originally posted by iceblink555

BTW, does the shape of that yeast molecule remind you of anything, or is it just me?!

--Alan
All I have to say is.....that's a mighty big left nut!!! :eek:

[iceblink555]

Originally posted by Lucibelle

All I have to say is.....that's a mighty big left nut!!! :eek:

LOL! That's funny, cuz I was thinking of the other gender...

Have you been drinking tonight too? ;-)

--Alan

[Lucibelle]

No, but I generally have a dirty mind, and 50% of the time it's thinking about men, the other 50%...women. Must've been a 'man' moment! :D

[iceblink555]

Aha! Caughtya on a "good" day ;-)

[iceblink555]

BTW, lookie what I found!

[Lucibelle]

roflmao roflmao roflmao