Interview with Boaz Goldberg,
Journalist, musician and director of "Tomorrow's Gone"
 

I discovered Gabriel Abudraham's - alias Charlie Megira - music randomly on the internet during the summer of 2019. It was breathtaking. I've listened to tons of obscure music projects, but nothing hits me more than Charlie's interpretation of late 50's Rock'n'Roll or howling Garage Punk.

 

The thing is, after listening a billion times to his entire discography and everything I could find on the internet, there's not so much information about the man out there. But then, I found out that a documentary was on its way. After seeing the movie during the "Tokyo Lift Off Online Festival", I manage to get in contact with the director, Mr. Boaz Goldberg, who was Charlie's friend since the mid-90's (they wrote their first songs together).

​

This was for me an opportunity to learn more about the legend of Charlie Megira and the movie, Boaz himself, the Israeli youth in the 2000's and its musical context.

​

Just to be clear, this is a written conversation I had with Mr.Goldberg that I put out in an interview format. Since I'm not a professional journalist, some of my questions can be naive, but the answers are always interesting.

​

​

"I felt like we were speaking

a rare language"

​

​

​

Val : Technically, how was your approach with cameras when you started filming Tomorrow's Gone ?

Boaz : Knowing about cameras and how to operate them helped me very much. Of course, there is the visual side of controlling the light with the shutter/speed system. At the end of the day, you're playing with light, so it's very important.
Charlie-wise, it was important that Charlie would feel that I know what I'm doing. Generally, knowing about cameras really helped to make Charlie's main interview happen. Now imagine my film without that main interview. It would feel very different.

That interview, I think, happened successfully for two reason:

  1. You can see the intimacy between us. We actually had our own private outlook on things. For example, me and Charlie always agreed and always talked about our theory, that Syd Barrett didn't go crazy at all. He just turned his back on everybody, broke his fans hearts, and said "no more" to the media. We thought that the media decided, maybe even unconsciously, to never forgive him on this. A lot of them are very childish, taking everything too personal haha. (Btw, The Brian Jonestown Massacre's drummer (the 2012 tour drummer), the youngest of the band, wanted to kill me on that theory !).

  2. Charlie looked at me as a pro. You have to remember, that when we met in 1995, I was already doing (with partners Dan Shadur & Dana Kessler) that big thing known as The Glory Nights, which Charlie appreciated very much, and he also really liked Cnaque/Pop. Meanwhile, back then, Charlie was Gabi from a very small band called The Shnek. Sure, he was hell charming, but also a very shy guitarist that stood in the corner of the stage and played like a shoegazer is playing (physically). So yes, that's another reason, along with the mutual understanding of things, why that main interview turned out so successful, and so important for my film - and that's why knowing about equipment can always help you.

Also, the editing process was done by me too. I find it totally crucial to the outcome. I just can't picture in my mind a scenario where someone else is editing Tomorrow's Gone. It was such an adventure, with so many different minor and major changes that I made in about 18 months of sitting for hours and hours and editing. Knowing how to edit helped me in a very major way.
 

V : How was your relationship with Gabriel back then in the 90's, when you started filming and documenting him? It seems you were both very respectful and humble to each other, there was something like admiration in both ways, right?

B : Yes, it was a friendship of admiration in both ways. We were both very respectful and humble to each other in the early days. I felt like we're speaking a rare language, and we had our own mutual understanding about the music world and the arts world, and also about society in general.

​

​

​

​

 "Cool people will always find a way

to express themselves"

 

​

​

V : Why was it so hard to find Rock'n'Roll in Israel back then ? Was it somehow denied ?

B : I think Rock'n'Roll wasn't denied in Israel more than anywhere else. Any place has got cool, visionary people. The thing is, if nowadays the scene is small, back then it was tiny.
Yes, there's this famous story about an Israeli minister preventing the possibility of the Beatles coming to play Tel Aviv. It actually happened. This was in the mid-sixties, when the mainstream of Israel politics and culture was much more socialistic oriented. Well, not anything like the U.S.S.R, but culture-wise, there were some anti-western-capitalistic ideas that crossed over. Every movement has an upside and downside. The downside of the socialistic thinking defined in people who really thought that the Beatles can corrupt Israeli youth. Ridiculous.

Anyways, don't forget that the conservatives and some religious christians in the U.S.A also denied Rock'n'roll. "The devil's music", they called it back in the late 50's. So, to say there was no Rock'n'Roll in Israel at all in the 50's and 60's is uncorrect. You had a few beatniks, greasers etc... Cool people will always find a way to express themselves - even in a chaingang, like Charlie Megira said. You can't kill an idea. I'm sure you have underground Rock'n'Roll in North Korea too !

V : How was your childhood, and what introduced you to music (and rock'n'roll) ?
Also, was 60's Israeli rock a big thing in the sub culture at the time ?

B : I was born in 1974. My childhood was full of soccer and Europop. I played soccer for hours and hours in the neighborhood. As a child, I loved romantic songs like Prince's Purple Rain, and was a big fan of Eurotrash like Modern Talking, etc...

Then in 1987, my older sister introduced me to the film The Wall. I was 13 years old and amazed. It was so deep for me, the fact that you can stretch a clip for 90 minutes and fill it with text. A long, emotional, musical sequence with a lot of heart in it. I was fascinated.
Then came Syd Barrett, Jethro Tull, Genesis, Hammill's Van Der Graaf. I was a strange Prog-Rocker. Morrison came at about 17, and when the Fuzztones played in Tel Aviv, in 1992, I was 18 and it really shook me up. From then on I was deep into Garage, Mod, Punk, Hardcore, Noise, Glam, Indie, New Wave etc...

Was 60's Israeli Rock a big thing in the subculture at that time ? I don't think so. Of course you had the legendary names like The High Window and The Churchills, but anyhow I think 80's Israeli rock like Rami Fortis and The Clique was more influential at that time.

V : What pushed you into film-making ? Did you want to be a movie director, or has it always been about documentaries from the beginning ?

B : Around 1996 I had a friend who was crazy about 60's easy listening aesthetics, space-age and all that. Together, we experienced with an 8mm film camera and Video Camera. I studied film and cinema at the end of the 90's. There, I felt it's too early for me to direct. I was about 25, and couldn't deal with all the stress of making a film with actors and all that. The documentary world is much more for my character. To be a fly on the wall, I like it. For me, in documentary, the major thing is to make a piece of art at the editing process, in solitude. I like it very much. Will I ever make a non-documentary feature ? I hope so, but only after more documentary films.

V : So what would be your future projects about ? Do you have any idea ?

B : I can easily create another local music documentary project, but I feel that I've already made my own private perfect homage to Charlie Megira and to the local scene as well. Musically, I have a little dream of creating a documentary about Dan Tracy of the Television Personalities. Treacy, along with Nikki Sudden, Johnny Thunders, Dave Vanian, Lou Reed, Daevid Allen and more, is one of my personal cult heroes. About eight years ago he had a major stroke after a bad brain operation. Sadly, he had to retire. He is still alive, but nobody really knows how he is. That's my idea music wise.

Other than that, I have some more ideas. For example, I really want to make a documentary about one of my best friends who has a twin brother living in Berlin. No one has ever seen his brother, Dan. Ran (the name of my friend) and Dan haven't talked with each other since 1997.
Will they ever talk again ? And if so, how will it be ?

I also have an idea to make a documentary about an amazing indoor soccer league that was shining across America in the 1980's - the M.I.S.L. I lived in San Diego, California, for a full year, in 1985-1986, when I was 12. There was no outdoor soccer at the time in America, but indoor league was a unique thing, and I became a die-hard fan of the San Diego Sockers. The league collapsed in 1992. I actually wrote a story about the whole thing, which was published in HAARETZ newspaper in 2011. This idea can also be great for a narrative feature.

Another soccer idea that I already started working on, is to make a film about the local team that I was a big fan of during the 80's - Beitar Tel Aviv, and to mix it with some political and cultural views that my dad has on the team and why the team actually vanished. He is a political science professor, has an interesting take on society, and he made me a fan of Beitar Tel Aviv (which nowadays are an even smaller team, united with two other teams haha). I began the research for possible home-videos existing from the 80's-90's, asking dozens of retired players from the days. So far, no luck with that.

V : While being part of the Glory Nights, were you still studying or had jobs ?

It looks like a huge thing to manage, how does it feel to have a little revolution in your hands ?

B : The Glory Nights parties experience was from November 1995 to July 1997. It was really a dream coming alive. It was before the internet, so people really hooked on my DJ sets, and I was only 22. The whole thing was very total - that was my only job at that time. Although the money was splitting between the club owner, me and my two partners, I still had enough money to live in central Tel Aviv, buy records and MDMA haha. The rent was so cheap, also the vinyls. How do you feel to have a revolution in your hands ? Frankly, after the Glory Nights died, I was in a big personality crisis. It took me about 3 or 4 years to find myself again.

V : During these two years, what was the kind of records you'd play ?

​

B : Back in the Glory Nights days, I played a blend of Mod hits (The Small Faces, The Kinks, The Who and more obscure stuff), 60's garage (The Seeds, Question Mark and the Mysterians, etc...) a lot of funky easy listening and Soul (Keb Darge's Rare Grooves style, Exotic Soundtracks; the KPM library series; the "In-Flight entertainment" records, etc...); and some some British indie and Post-Punk (The Fall), Madchester (Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets), some Britpop and Neo-Mod (Menswear, The Weekenders, Pulp, Supergrass), and some New-Wave and Second Wave (The Jam), Neo-Romantic (Adam Ant), New-York punk (Blondie, Ramones) and Glam (T.Rex, Bowie). I think that the whole soup I created had its own unique vibe.

That was more eclectic than the mod parties in London happening back then ("Blow Up", for example). They were basically leaning on Northern-Soul, and we were much more eclectic and Rock'n'Roll.

 

V : Did you have a playlist-type of one of these nights ?

​

B : I never worked with a playlist - never ever. The idea was to feel the crowd. The best set was when you made your choice of your next song even about 30 seconds before what's playing is ending. Yeah, instinct, again. I never recorded my GN sets, but in November 1996, at the "1st Anniversary" birthday of the Glory Nights, we gave out a cassette with about 16 songs we played. It isn't anything like a DJ set, but you would get the Idea if you listened to it. It was called "Glory Nights thrilling hits Volume 1".

​

V : How did you proceed for the Glory Night tape, was it homemade ?

 

B : Haha, It was 1996, and we had to go to a certain sound engineer that made a master-CD out of the records that we gave him. That's why I told you it's not a DJ set at all. Then, out of that CD master, we went to a cassette factory, and made about 500 copies I think. The first 500 party-comers got it. That night was extremely glorious and we set out a crowd record - about 700 people bought a ticket and stepped in. Also, the now-legendary Israeli Psych band, Rockfour, played live that night. The sleeve was designed by a friend, Karny Ben-Yehuda, and me. And then we felt like in a sweat-shop in China, while we had to fold that sleeve 500 times !
 

V : Have you ever tried to create something similar in Tel Aviv or even somewhere else ?

B : Yes, I did create something similar when I was back from London. It was 1998-1999, and next thing I did was the "FLAME" parties. This time I brought back all the influences from living in London, so it was more eclectic, with a lot of Glam-Rock mixed in. I've been DJing for almost 20 years. After FLAME, it was mainly in pubs or galleries, less nightclubs. I retired from DJing in 2014, after I left my Corduroy pub.

V : That must have been two intense years. What killed the Glory Nights exactly ?

B : What killed the Glory Nights ? You can get an answer if you look at BLUR's 1995 album next to their 1997 album. "The Great Escape" is pre-new media, pre-Napster, pre-internet, very Mod, clean-cut, Poppy, euphoric, shiny. The self titled "Blur" album from 1997 is more on the American grungy side, something else -  It's post britpop. The spirit of time moved on. The Mod revival was out of fashion, and we lost a bit of crowd as well. The same thing happened ten years later or so, when dubstep arrived and killed the strong indie wave of the 2000's.

If that's not enough, me and my two partners were like a band, you know, with all the implications of a band. So along the way one of them left, his heart was no longer there. And the club owner had his own problems and debts. You know, that's the idea of a scene - It's not forever, It always has an ending.

V : While the country was changing and you watched a lot of people move out of Israel, you never thought to move with the flow, somewhere else ?

B : I lived in London from July 1997 until May 1998. Another dream coming true. I saw Billy Childish (Headcoats) many times. Also Suicide, Gary Valentine, Fred Sonic Smith, the Flaming Stars, Sexton Ming and so many more... The future looked bright for a while : I married my English girlfriend. I started studying video-editing. I could get a British nationality, but then I became homesick. I felt I must live in Tel Aviv again and study Cinema in Hebrew, so I moved back. And I'm still here haha !

V : How were these times in England ? Were you still a journalist during your "english life" or did you have to find other jobs ? I can imagine you have no regret at all, you fulfilled your dream and then listened to where your heart really is. "Home sweet home" right... So did you buy two tickets back home ?

B : During my time in England, I worked from time to time as a Cloakroom boy in a nightclub called "The Cobden Club". I became a journalist only 3 years later. The times in England can be split in two : before and after winter. Also, my wife worked more than me, so I was spending endless amounts of time in the basement of record shops. Buying cheap and rare things. I had some friends from Tel Aviv living in London (Shy Nobleman, the Power Pop singer-songwriter, still a good friend). I also had one really cool english friend - Leigh Wildman of The Seers, who had a beautiful shop in Euston Square called Delta of Venus. I also had a wife, but I felt lonely.

In May 1998, I bought 2 tickets for Tel Aviv. We divorced in 2001, and she flew back to London. Nowadays, she's a successful London-based artist - Her name is Tai Shani. In my film, you can see her in an 8mm shot filmed in 1997, she's with bangs, in the Glory Nights sequence, on my VO part. So no, I have no regrets at all. About ten years ago I had some, but not anymore. Nowadays I got Dorin, she's the one. It's the same Dorin you hear on my "Charlie's Farewell" track.

V : How did you start doing journalism, was it part of your studies, or simply opportunities ?

Is it a "Right place at the right time" situation ?

B : My journalistic career was a late-bloomer career. It was Nitzan Horesh of Cnaque/Pop, Electra and The Cut Out Club who was editing a Sports magazine back in 2001. I had all this 1980' soccer knowledge, so he gave me a chance and I became a writer. Only at 30, in 2004, I became a full-time Rock journalist, this time it was via a fellow musician who chatted with me a lot in pubs about music. So yeah, it was the"right place at the right time" thing. Also, it was a way of putting all my huge passion for music and Rock'n'Roll into something, after that Glory Night crisis which led to stage fright and panic attacks.

V : Well, 3 or 4 years, that was a serious post Glory Night crisis... So that opportunity to write about music kind of saved your life ? Were you experiencing all the stress and panic attacks anywhere else you tried to DJ-ing ?

B : Yes, it's fair to say that the opportunity to write about music kind of gave me a center again, and probably saved me. I actually DJ'd in London too, once, in a really cool squat party in Finsbury Park, with all the "Kitch Bitch" scene of those times (The Kitch Bitch was a really wild party line at Highbury and Islington, 1997-999 I think). The panic attacks were outside the parties, mainly. It started in 1997 from an unsuccessful mixture of Acid and bad ecstasy (don't do it haha!). Then I went to live in London, and you also know that when the winter comes, London can be very hard. Too hard maybe, for a fragile, young and foreign music-lover.

 

So it was like a double challenge, and I really missed my friends in Tel Aviv, and my family too, and I had a plan to immediately enroll for Cinema studies, right when I arrived back to Tel Aviv. And I did it. Before I left London, I even had a ticket for a Cramps gig in that venue, Astoria ! (the Big Beat from Badsville tour). And I had to buy a ticket and fly back home. Couldn't wait for two more weeks ! It can happen, you know. And it went on till about 2001, even after I was back in Tel Aviv. That's also a reason why Les Lost Boys, Charlie and me, didn't play live. It was Charlie solo, cause I had a stage fright at that point.

V : I guess, as you said, writing about music and going back home with family and friends helped you a lot through all that stuff. But how did you recover from that acid/ecstasy bad trip, what helped you to fight those frights ?

B : I guess that like my hero Peter Hammill wrote, "Time Heals". After 3 or 4 years, while meeting new people and "turning pages" of the soul, I was back on my element again, although I never had Acid again haha. I vowed to myself that if I wanna live, I can't afford myself another experience like that. So March 1997 was my last acid trip. Yeah, I know that it's the most wonderful drug there is, but also can be too dangerous. Ecstasy ? I think that once in a while it can be very healthy for your soul. My last time was like 6 years ago, and I'm still up for it - at the right time, right place.

V : Is being a music journalist the same nowadays as when you started, or was it heavily impacted by all the changes ?

B : Totally different nowadays, I guess. But what can you do ? Things are changing with time, that's the way it is. The major difference is that frankly, the world doesn't really need full time music journalists like before facebook and new media. Now, when you have trillions and trillions of vlogs and blogs, Rock journalism is not a profession anymore. It's a bit sad, but that's the truth, and we have to deal with it !

V : You had to document some Gabi's performances (Early 2000's with Hefker Girl for instance), would you plan to put these out someday ?

B : Could be out, yes. Nice Idea. Right now, I'm thinking more of a world distribution for my feature musical documentary about Charlie.

V : Are there any records of Cnaque/Pop, Nails and Flashlights or Les Lost Boys somewhere ?

B : Cnaque/Pop has a full album out on Bandcamp and spotify !
We released it in 2014, with 3 comeback gigs. We played full sets, it was amazing.

Les lost Boys had about 3 songs : "yesterday, today and tomorrow", which I co-produced with Charlie and made all the guitar arrangements; "Pink World", which was lost. You can hear it in my solo LP I will put out. Actually, I planned to put it on the ending roller, but in the end I decided to put the film's title, Charlie's master piece - the song Tomorrow's Gone; the third song we had was called "kiss me again, even the rats are doing it".

Charlie played it in his first solo gigs. The recordings were lost. Then we practiced on some other songs from what became Charlie's first album (Songs like "Rasco"), but like you see in the film, I left the stage for Charlie. I thought it was HIS special momentum.

Nail and Flashlights was an experimental duo of me and artist Len Boukhman. We had a track called "PR" out on myspace haha. I promise to put it on youtube soon.

 

 

 

 

"Rock'n'roll is all about

getting your own rhythm"

 

 

V : As a musician, how did you conceived the Tomorrow's Gone score ?

Did you sit down and write something or was it more like instinct ?

B : Instinct, yes. If I had to pinpoint myself in one word, I think I would say "Artist", not "Musician". It doesn't mean I didn't work hard. The job is more on the mental and psychological side - the ability to get yourself together in full focus and faith in order to do it, to make it happen. I am not a guitarist, I play the guitar. There's a difference. Charlie was a phenomenal guitar player. Guitar-wise, I didn't feel we were even close. But if I practice a lot and I convince myself I can do it, I'm there. Like, I think, you can hear my cover version of that lost Les Lost Boys song, "Pink World". More than that, some of the tracks on my Headless Elvis album are totally instinct : I am not a keyboard player, and not exactly a full-on drummer.

 

And yet, I recorded a lot of tracks on the Korg Synth, and here and there I beat on that old tom-toms and cymbals, Neo-Folk (Death in june) style. When I grabbed that Korg Synth, I felt all those Tangerine Dream records that I like, and Spectrum etc... And then it flowed.

V : Are you planning to record more music after recording the score for Tomorrow's Gone ?

Did it bring back the desire to compose and write new material, new songs ?

B : No concrete plans, but it did bring back the desire to compose and write new material, new songs ! I am sure it will happen again. Not sure about the timing haha. Probably my next documentary will come before that. Anyhow, I am going to release all the stuff I recorded for Tomorrow's Gone, including all the out-takes. It will be under the name ZICO.

The name  of the album is HEADLESS ELVIS.

V : Mister Goldberg, you asked Gabriel, now I'm asking you :

What is the purpose of Rock'n'Roll ?

B : It's all about getting your own rhythm, you know. The fact is, Rock'n'roll is like time traveling. You listen to Charlie Megira, and you are 25 again haha. I think that your heroes are always the ones that you want to make friends with. For example, I'm sure Nikki Sudden would make a great friend for me, in another reality (btw we met in 2002). But with Charlie Megira I have a special POV, unique story : He actually, initially, was a friend, and now he is totally standing there along with my personal heroes like Johnny Thunders, Lou Reed, Dan Treacy etc. The purpose of Rock'n'Roll is to live inside a never ending story, where you always think about the purpose of Rock'n'Roll.

For me, it's God. I don't think I have something else that is so important for me, except family of course. I think my film shows that. It's a journey of a soul kind of film, not just Charlie's soul, but my soul too, and the way Charlie affected my soul - which, of course, makes it, as I understand it, the ultimate Charlie Megira film. Charlie always talked about getting your own individual rhythm. I'm happy it took me so many years, because eventually, all that time stretched helped me find my own special  rhythm as a Rocker, as a musician, as a storyteller, and as a friend of Charlie.


 

Thanks to Mr.Goldberg

Written by Valentin P. Monnereau

​​​