Thanks so much to Micky for the interview and his wife Victoria for getting me in touch with him after I had written about them on the blog. The Beaujolais Brothers were Rodney and Micky, sadly Rodney passed away in October 2008, so Micky is now the only surviving “Brother”. The two of them were in many bands together and even though they didn’t release many records, The Beaujolais Brothers 7″ is a classic in my book. There was not much information about them on the web so I always wanted to learn more about them. I was lucky that Micky answered my questions with lots of details. Felt like I was transported to the Beaujolais Brothers time. Hope you enjoy this interview!

++ Let’s start from the beginning, from your first music memories. Like when growing up what sort of music did you listen to at home? Were your parents into music? What was your first instrument?

I shared a small flat with my mum, nan and uncles in South London.  My mum was a teddy-girl and my uncles were teddy-boys, we all listened to rock-n-roll, especially Little Richard, a lot of American black artists, but not so much to Elvis.  We used to listen to Forces Family Favourites, on the BBC which was for people based in Germany.  They played lots of different songs from different places.

I would listen to Radio Caroline and Radio Luxembourg underneath the bed-covers.  They were independent radio stations and the DJs on them went on to BBC Radio 1 in the 60’s.

My first instrument was at school – a bass drum in the junior orchestra and I still have the melody in my head.

I got into guitar later on, in my late-teens.  When I was 18 or 19, I learnt 3 chords and started playing gigs; I never learned the guitar properly until later on.

++ Were you involved in any other bands before The Beaujolais Brothers? If so, care telling me a bit about each of them?

In the late 70s I was playing with a band called ‘KP and the Peanuts’ and Rod had joined ‘the Heroes’, a local Croydon band (Dave Berk’s manor).  Rod and I were both born in South London; Rod was born above a radio repair shop and he was one of seven.  We lived round the corner from each other, but we didn’t play in a band until much later.  We didn’t go to the same school for example and he was a year younger than me.  We both played in different bands.  When we started playing together he was in a band called ‘Red Socks’.  Tony Bulldock was in that band and he later did the artwork for the Beaujolais Brother single – he created Cedric the Seagull.  Gerry Shephard (who was guitarist with Gary Glitter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Glitter_Band) and Tony Day were also in that band.

There was a lot in between which I can’t now remember.  I was in a middle of the road rock band called ‘Shade To Far’ and we wrote our own songs.  That band was Ricky Hammond, Terry Kavanagh, Tony Bulldock and me.  Our bands used to rehearse in the same studio in Streatham called ‘the Pit’; and I was jealous of Rod’s band and he was jealous of mine.

Then Gerry left Red Socks to join the circus (he and Gary Glitter went off to join the circus and they thought they could put rock into the circus…https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xmT0CQAAQBAJ&pg=PT115&lpg=PT115&dq=gary+glitter+join+the+circus&source=bl&ots=ZaNtk_vbY4&sig=VLt8PVwlstGjPrkXKQHzte2iHGc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj26LW_lOTZAhUmD8AKHWULAMUQ6AEIRzAI#v=onepage&q=gary%20glitter%20join%20the%20circus&f=false) and I was asked to join the Red Socks.  The Red Socks went onto become ‘the Dolephins’, which was a mad covers band (e.g. from 1950s to 80s stuff but in our own whacky style).  We’d have certain themes for the gigs, ‘Dolephins of Sherwood Forest’ or ‘Dolephins go to Tahiti’ (there are some pictures on Rod’s Facebook page).

How it started I was in the ‘White Lion’ pub in Streatham, South London.  On a Sunday afternoon, they had a band, the governor of the pub asked me to do a couple of songs with the band.  I did ‘Johnny be Good’ and ‘Aint that a Shame’.  I got free beer and £20, the governor offered me a regular gig on a Friday night; so I had to form a band, a proper band.  So ‘The Dolephins’ was formed.  We had various singers one of whom later became a singer with the Sexed Up Lambeth Boys – Paddy.  I played lead guitar and Rod played rhythm.  ‘The Dolephins’ played various pubs in South London, including ‘The Crown and Spectre’ which was made famous by Mick Jones of ‘The Clash’.  We had a weekly spot, that was the beginning and we later became The Sexed Up Lambeth Boys.  We played things like ‘Sorrow’, ‘Stepping Stones’ and ‘Walking the Dog’.

++ How did you and Rodney meet? Did you start the band immediately?

My first gig was in the Corn Exchange in Ashford; supporting a band called ‘Dirt’.  We were called ‘Danny Diarrhoea and the Wet Farts’, circa 1977.  Rodney was guitar player in Dirt at that time.  We knew each other as we live close-by when we grew up, but we didn’t socialise together.

++ Why the name The Beaujolais Brothers? Would Beaujolais be your favourite wine?

You are correct about how we got the name the Beaujolais Brothers.  We had gone to France for the vendanges (grape picking) it was about wine, lots of wine, drinking it, and grape picking.

++ So you were a busking band. So wondering whereabouts did you busk, what were your favourite spots?

Rod and I played constantly – we busked every day.  We had a regular busking spot outside the toilets by a shopping centre in West Croydon.  We used to hear a harmonica player coming from the toilets; it was the toilet cleaner who wanted to be our manager.  He would make us cups of tea if we weren’t making any money.  If we made money, we would have a beer – usually Fullers ESB.  We would play anywhere, parties, gigs, we once supported ‘Postman Pat’ (a children’s TV character) in Preston Park in Brighton; walking behind him singing the theme tune to the TV show https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postman_Pat.

++ What would you say were influences to The Beaujolais Brothers sound?

I was a huge fan of 60s bands like, the Kinks, Small Faces, The Who, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Staxs and Tamla Motown.  I was never a huge Beatles or Rolling Stones fan and I wasn’t really into mainstream.  Rod loved the Beatles though.

++ How was the creative process for The Beaujolais Brothers?

We thought about doing a Beaujolais Brother’s single.  I’d started writing the song ‘Here Comes Summer’ as I used to bunk off work in London and jump on a train to Brighton on the south coast.  I’d write down silly words and they became Here Comes Summer; written through numerous visits to Brighton.

Rod had a tape-recorder and we would write silly songs, like ‘Ping Pong’.  Which went – ‘love is like a game of ping pong…’ and the harmony went ‘ping pong, ping pong…’

++ You released just one single, “Here Comes the Summer” with “Day After Day”. Wondering if it is not much to ask, if you could tell me in a couple of sentences what is the story behind each song?

When we did ‘Day After Day’, Dave wanted to be Frank Sinatra.  Also, he didn’t get on particularly well with Andy Dalby the engineer and producer of the recording sessions.  Andy Dalby was quite adverse to people drinking in the studio, so we’d wind him up by coming in at 8am with a bottle of Jack Daniels.  By the time we’d recorded the drums, it was 11am and the pubs were open.  We recorded it on tape so if you made a mistake, you’d have to start again and go right back to the beginning and do it all again.  So for Andy it was not a pleasant experience, especially recording the vocals with Dave as it nearly ended in a big fight every time he got it wrong; which was most takes.

The sound effects (the fun-fair and seagulls) were taken from a BBC sound effects library record.  That cost us more money as we had to buy two different records – they are probably still available today.

To make it stereo, we had to record it twice to make it go out of each speaker, which was very boring.  So the pub round the corner from Cherry Studios got a lot of our money.  Both middle-eights and solos were made up in the studio.  We also used a little Casio keyboard in the studio.

‘Day After Day’ was our version of ‘The Girl From Ipanema’ (I wish it was) and yet again we made up the solo in the studio.  When we finished recording we had to wait for a date to put the single onto acetates.  We had to go to the Edgeware Road on a freezing cold day, to meet a man from ‘Triple A Records’, who were pressing the single.  We met a guy called George who was mixing the single and he was one of the greatest blokes ever.  While he pressed the single, his workshop was right next door to a pub and he had an archway between the workshop and the pub which he could use to go to the pub anytime he wanted while he was working.  He had mastered on ‘Let It Be’ for the Beatles which really impressed Rod.

++ This record was self-released on your own Seagull Records. How was the experience of selling the records, distributing them? And why is the catalog number CORK 001. Why Cork? Because the cork of the wine perhaps?

Everything to do with the single had to be based on drink, so when we went through George’s archway to the pub and chatted, he was the one who came up with the ‘cork 1’ on our single.  If you look at the single, you’ll see his own private message, which was very special to us.  It says ‘A PORKY PRIME HIC-CUT’.  ‘Porky’ was his pressing place and he said it was a ‘HIC-CUT’ from him.  Rod loved the Beatles and we both loved it that he came up with ‘cork 1’ and he was on the same wavelength as us.

++ And tell me a bit about the recording session for this record. Where was it recorded? Who produced it? How long did it take? How many copies were pressed?

One day in the pub we decided we’d record ‘Here Comes Summer’ and ‘Day After Day’; another song which I had written which was lying around in numerous different versions.  Neither of us was earning much money, so we thought we’d record the single, which we did in 1988.  At the time it cost us about £1,000 for the recording and pressing.  We recorded it at Cherry Studios, Cherry Road, Croydon.  We have an idea of how the songs should sound, but both songs were very rough – and still are.

We didn’t have a drummer, so we used a drum machine – a Roland 505, which was the hardest thing to program.  Dave Crawley was a computer programmer and a singer with ‘The Heroes’.  So we got Dave to program Roland with Rod and he then sang on ‘Day After Day’.  The drum machine was a nightmare as I never knew when to come in.

Around that time Michael Jackson had taken over all four of the pressing places in the UK with ‘Man in the Mirror’, so we had a delay in getting the single pressed.  Maybe if not we’d have been more famous than Michael Jackson?  We had a letter to say what day the singles would be delivered to Rod’s house in Croydon.  Rod was worried that the singles wouldn’t fit through the letter-box on his front door.  So he made the letter-box about four times bigger than it already was.  Of course the postman left the singles outside, by the front door; so Rod had a dirty great hole in his front-door for no reason at all.

++ What’s the story behind the artwork for the single, that seagull which I believe was called Cedric the Seagull?

When we got the singles we were really, really excited.  We designed the cover so that it was made in the cheapest way possible and we could easily photocopy it.  We used Tony Bulldock’s artwork as he had been the drummer in lots of bands we’d been in.  We asked him to do a quick drawing of what he thought the song would look like and he came up with Cedric the Seagull (I have no idea where the name came from).  We took some photos of Rod, Dave and me on Streatham Common (long before digital cameras), including one I took of Rod having a pee (urinating) behind a tree.  We have no money and we thought it was a clever way to do it.

++ Did you appear in any compilations?

The Beaujolais Brothers are not on a compilation album, but we were in a mod band called Eleanor Rigby http://themodgeneration.com/profiles/blog/eleanor-rigby-mod-icon-or-the-girl-you-love-to-hate (Rod, me, Tony Day and Nicky Simonon on drums (brother of Paul Simonon of the Clash), Nicky now teaches drums).  We did a Dr Martens CD https://www.discogs.com/Various-Generation-To-Generation/release/3871251.  We were on two of the singles and one nearly got into the English charts – ‘Over and Over’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZmK8Ojq–E and ‘1995’. We were said to be one of the worse bands by Sounds, which made me really happy.  On ‘Over and Over’ the drummer was Vince Price.

In traditional rock and roll style we are still waiting to be paid for the session.  When Live Aid was playing, we were playing some dodgy club in Manchester Bullring, we were there for nine hours and after a return trip from London to Manchester, we ended up to £10 each.

++ Are there more songs by The Beaujolais Brothers?

There is also a BBC tape of us singing the Postman Pat theme song as the Beaujolais Brothers.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? What were the best ones that you remember?

Separately, as the Beaujolais Brothers we’d play weekly in Jonguleurs, Battersea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jongleurs and in the ‘Wine Cellar’ in Croydon.  We played a wine bar in Kingston called MadCats and it was just nuts.  We’d play for an hour and then have an hour off.  We had free beer and got paid at the end of the night.  The problem was we had a break and so we’d head off to the pub called the Druid’s Head.  By the end of the night it was messy, but we always got paid.  We’d play ‘Tequila’ and the whole bar would buy tequila.

The owners at MadCats wanted to do a Beaujolais day and open at 8am to get the first bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau wine over from France in the wine bar.  They said we could have as much wine as we liked, which wasn’t the wisest move they’ve ever made.  We played an hour on and an hour off, the same as we did in the evening, but this was 14-hours in the day, starting at 8am.  By about noon, the wine had kicked in so in a break, we went to have a quiet beer in another pub by the river Thames.  We were attacked by some dogs in the pub and then arrested by the police and taken back to MadCats to get our guitars.  The manager said we had another set to play and as he was paying us £100, he was a bit concerned where we were.  He said he could vouch for us until the end of the night.  So many people had turned up to see the Beaujolais Brothers play, so the police let us play.   We hadn’t done anything wrong, just drunk too much wine too early in the morning, that was all.  We carried on, mainly playing the ‘Time Warp’ and we did get paid.

We played there a few more times, but MadCats fizzled out and it closed down.

++ Any gig anecdotes you could share?

We did a gig in Croydon in September 2008, which although not known to us at the time, was out last gig as the Beaujolais Brothers.  We did our usual repertoire, such as ‘Dirty Ol’ Town’, ‘Pick a Bail of Cotton’, ‘The One After Nine O Nine’.  Then suddenly one night in October 2008 Rod passed away.  He was only 49.  I was absolutely devastated.  He was my brother and I did and do miss him so much.  Besides all of the music, we were best friends.  Rod would go along with more or less everything I ever suggested, and then just every now and then, he’d put his foot down and say ‘no’.  He was usually right.

Funnily enough he would have loved his wake, which was held in his local pub, as every muso in the world turned up.  The sign on the door said the pub was closed for a private funeral, but the jamming session was so good, people were hammering on the door trying to get in.  It was probably the best live music that has been played in that pub for a long time.

Prior to that, I had got married, did some traveling and I still write songs, poems and short stories.  I also have a young son, whom Rod would have adored.  I have a fishing boat (called Shameless, hence the song I wrote) in Brighton Marina.

++ So what happened then, when and why did The Beaujolais Brothers called it a day?

Tony followed a wilder path, sold his drums and sadly he’s no longer with us; be we had played in lots of different bands and had lots of fun together.

By this time, Rod and I had burnt each other out, living in each other’s pocket 24/7.  So we started doing different stuff with different bands.

++ What did you do afterwards? Did you continue making music?

We formed the ‘Sexed Up Lambeth Boys’ from playing in a pub in Streatham and we did loads of gigs.  Rod and I would play with a different band in the day and then play with the Lambeth Boys at night.

Then I moved to France and Rod started to play with Slimy Toad from Johnny Moped on the Croydon scene and moved into Toad Hall with Toad.  Rod joined ‘Ol’ Dirty Bar Stars’ with Martin, Robbo, and Jacko from ‘Johnny Moped’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Moped.

When I came back from France I moved to Brighton.  Rod decided he wanted to move to live by the sea and he came and moved in with me.  We recorded the Beaujolais Brother’s Christmas tape.  I changed my garage into a gaff (apartment) for Rod and we started writing songs together again.  We did open mic nights in Brighton.  Then the Tour de France came to Brighton in 1994.  The BBC were featuring a busking festival and the Beaujolais Brothers were invited to be interviewed.  We said yes straight away and Rod was very, very funny on the recording (on the CD).

We had 15 minutes in the green room with the organizer of the busking festival – I can’t remember his name and he’s on the recording.  We said we’d go for a quick half [of a pint of beer] in the pub round the corner.  He panicked as we ran off to the King and Queen pub.  We got back two minutes before the recording started; perfect.

I can send you a copy of the recording, but it was a fun interview.  Our engineer said afterwards the interviewer thought we were funny.  We asked the promoter afterwards if he wanted to come and have a beer and he looked like he was going to have a nervous breakdown.

Rod then became involved with his girlfriend Sue and we still did various gigs and open mic nights around Brighton.  We knew Dave Berk, but at that time weren’t in the same band as him https://www.repeatfanzine.co.uk/interviews/DAVE%20BERK%20of%20Johnny%20Moped.htm.

Sue knew Rod and Dave Berk from the Croydon scene and she had bought Dave’s old house in Brighton and Rod moved in with her.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press? Perhaps from fanzines t0o?

We took the single over to France and it was played on Radio Neuf in Bordeaux, it was a big surprise to us hearing ourselves on French radio.  If we had had another £300 the record promoters reckoned we could have had a hit in Europe; but we didn’t have £3, never mind £300.  We were also popular in Germany and since then, the Japanese quite like us.

The most money we got from the single was £16 from a pub in Streatham.  The single was on a juke box and we earned the same money from it as George Michael – it’s the only time I earned the same as George…

++ Today, what other hobbies do you have?

We formed a band to play at my wife’s 40th birthday party, which included Slimy Toad, Pete the Meat (from the Sexed Up Lambeth Boys – he was called Pete the Meat as he was a vegetarian butcher) on drums and Dave Berk was on bass.  We called ourselves the “Dave Berk Five’.  I did vocals, although I was always a reluctant vocalist and had always left that to Rod, but we had no one else who would do it.  We also did a couple of gigs as the ‘Crooning Punks’ with me, Dave Berk, Pete the Meat and Paddy (from the Sexed Up Lambeth Boys) on vocals.  Paddy is a far better singer than me and is a great front man. Pete the Meat lost interest and got married, Paddy went to rehab and fell out with Dave and we carried on as the Dave Berk Five, with just me and Dave.

Dave does bass and drums and I do everything else.  We write our own songs and we both do vocals.  We spend a lot of time in the studio and we have two albums’ worth of material.

++ Thanks again, anything else you’d like to add?

I hope you like what you hear, there are so many stories and so much that I can’t remember (Rod could always remember things, he used to keep records, so I left it to him and can’t remember a great deal).  I hope this shows you how much fun we had.  Thank you for your interest in the Beaujolais Brothers.  We had a million ideas and we just didn’t stop, we didn’t stop.  We are still recording as the Dave Berk Five and I’m just tidying up the cover to the Beaujolais Brothers single to send you a copy.  I’ll also send you the album when it’s finished, or in the meantime a rough copy.  I still have a few Beaujolais Brothers singles left if there’s any interest.

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Listen
The Beaujolais Brothers – Here Comes Summer

Thanks so much to Maurice Kelly for the interview! Imelda’s Boyfriend was an 80s guitar pop band from Dublin, Ireland, who sadly didn’t get to release any records, but they did record a bunch of demos. Demos that sound great! I was lucky to be introduced to them by D from the Fanning Sessions blog, he had posted one of their songs and told me I was going to like it. He was not wrong! “Smile” was a top track! So I knew I wanted to find out more, and so I got in touch with Maurice so he could tell me the story of this obscure but brilliant band!

++ Hi Maurice! Thanks so much for getting in touch! How are you? Where are you based now? Still making music? 

I still live in Dublin as do all the original members of the band.   I’m still writing songs and really need to record them at some stage.  Myself and Terry still do some home recording together.  I saw Sean sold his kit on Adverts a few months ago so bang goes the reunion LOL.

++ Are you still in touch to this day with the rest of Imelda’s Boyfriend? What are you up to? Are you still involved with music?

Sean and Terry are two of my best mates and we see each other regularly.  I’m still friendly with John and was out with him a few years ago.  We all have day jobs of course now – but Terry is as bohemian as ever so does his own thing and always has. Sean and Terry would still be mad into the music.  After John left, I played guitar and sang and Paul Flanagan came in on bass.  He was only young at the time and was the little brother of a guy I knew.  He was an amazing player and I remember we did a demo out with John Scott in Maynooth and he was blown away with Paul’s playing.  Paul left after a bit and we ‘borrowed’ Morgan Hughes from the Drinkwaters.  He was another brilliant player and became a great mate.  Morgan was football mad so fitted in nicely with us at the time.  I still hear from him from time to time.  We had fantastic fun back then it was a great time to be playing music in Dublin.

++ Let’s start from the beginning. Where are you from in Ireland? Like what are your first musical memories? What was the first instrument did you get and how? 

We were all from Dublin.  Nice and symmetrical two from the northside and two from the southside.  Even when John left we replaced him with another northsider –Paul Flanagan – to maintain the balance.  LOL.    Myself and Terry were the southsiders.  I was always mad into music and always wanted to be in a band.  My first bass was a Squier Precision which I bought in a local guitar shop in Dublin.  About a year after I got it I began to fancy myself a bit as a bass player and went to Belfast to buy a Fender Jazz because they were cheaper in Northern Ireland.  I sold the Precision to a guy called Peter from a band called The Skips.

++ Had any of you been involved with other bands prior to Imelda’s Boyfriend?

John was in a band I can’t remember the name it.  Terry was is a band called the ‘White Spirits’. Imelda’s was my first band and I think Sean’s first proper band too.

++ When and how did the band start? How did you and all meet? How was the recruiting process

I used to work with John in the old Irish Press and we were mates.  He was in a band and I was playing a bit of guitar badly at the time.  John had a friend called Dave Gunning who played drums and so I ended up on bass to form a new band.  Dave left after only a few weeks and we never gigged with him.  We stuck an ad in the Hot Press (Irish music magazine) looking for a drummer and Sean replied.  We met him for a pint in the old Foggy Dew before he even auditioned to see how we would get on.  We all hit it off and that was it really.  Thankfully he was a good drummer as well LOL.

We gigged a bit as a three piece and figured we could expand our sound a bit with another guitar player.  Again, we stuck an ad in Hot Press and that’s where Terry came in.  We did hold auditions this time.  I always remember I wanted to go with a different guitar player at the time but John was keen on Terry.  John followed Terry out of our audition room and more or less offered him the job on the spot.  I wasn’t impressed LOL.  Of course John was right and Terry is a brilliant guitarist as well as an amazing bloke.  I remember Dave Kennedy who went on to play with Crossbreed and Holemasters  and who set up Road Records here in Dublin auditioned.  Dave was a great player but we were totally unsuitable for him and him for us.  Another lovely fella who we used to drink with in town for years afterwards before we all grew old and settled and moved to the suburbs.

++ How was around your town back then? Were there any bands that you liked? What were the good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

Dublin was brilliant back then and still is.  We played in any venue that would have us, though mostly in the Underground.  Jeff Brennan who ran the place was a phenomenal. It was an amazing tight little venue where nearly every band in Dublin at the time cut their teeth.  Jeff did more for music in Dublin at that time than nearly anyone else.  I still see him from time to time as we are both big fans of St Patrick’s Athletic so we do bump into each other.

We also played in the Baggot, Whelans, the New Inn, the Attic and the International, but the Underground was the best.   I was music mad back then.  We all were.  I spent my Saturdays buying records in Base X on Batchelor’s Walk, Freebird Records on Grafton Street and Macs Records in the George’s Street Arcade.  There was also a little shop in a mall on Grafton Street up near where Champions Sports is now.  I think the guy who ran it was called George Murray.  He used to have some cool stuff.

++ What’s the story behind the name of the band, Imelda’s Boyfriend?

Ha ha ha, I couldn’t possibly tell you that.  All bands need a little mystery LOL

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

My self and John wrote the songs – separately not together.  We would just bring them in to the rehearsal room and see what happened.    I don’t think we ever wrote a song together.  When John left I wrote pretty much all the songs but I do remember we had a song called ‘Running out of time’ which Sean wrote.   We practiced in Temple Lane Studios.  Temple Bar was very different back then and we used to have a few pints after rehearsal in the local pubs, mostly the old Foggy Dew and the old Norseman.

++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?

We all had different influences.  John was in to melodic stuff like the Beatles, Terry was and still is a great blues guitarist, Sean was mad into Aztec Camera and I was always into guitar based stuff  and liked a bit of country as well.   Very little of this actually came out in the music.  Later on myself and Terry did some heavier, nosier stuff but not as Imelda’s Boyfriend.  I think Morgan would have played on some of this as well.  We never really did anything with it.

++ And in general, what would you say are your all-time favourite Irish bands?

I can’t answer for the other lads but for me ‘Stars of Heaven’ were the best from our time.  Their Sacred Heart Hotel album is amazing and still sounds great today.  I got to know them later on and me and Terry played with the stars drummer Bernard Walsh in $1000 Wedding.  Bernard is another lovely fella.

++ And what would you say was your favourite song and why?

My favourite song was always the Velvet Underground’s ‘Sweet Jane’.  It’s just the perfect song.  No ifs or buts.  Musically and lyrically clever and just so cool.  Neil Young’s ‘Powder Finger’ runs it close and almost anything off of ‘Marquee Moon.’

++ The only recording I know is the “Smile” song that was uploaded to the Fanning Sessions blog. It is mentioned that Dave Fanning played the song in 1990 from a demo he was sent. Where there more recordings in this demo tape? 

There were three songs on that tape.  Smile, The Misogynist and It Could Be Better.

++ Where was this demo recorded? Was there anyone producing it perhaps?

I don’t remember for certain where we recorded it.  It was either Sun Studios in Temple Bar or Ashtown Gate Studios out on the Navan Road.  We produced it ourselves.  As mentioned earlier we recorded another demo out with John Scott in Maynooth after John left.  There was a song on it called ‘Down the Stairs (and around the corner)’ which was played a few times by Dave Fanning.  I have it on cassette and have just gotten around to digitising it.

++ If it is not much to ask, would you tell me the story behind this great song, Smile?

I can’t help you with that one because John wrote it.

++ Was there any interest from labels at all?

Like everyone else at the time we bombarded record companies with our tapes but never really go any interested.  I have an attic full of tapes addressed to myself in sealed envelopes because someone told us that was the best way to copyright your music back then.  LOL.  All you had to do was produce the unopened envelope in court when you had taken a case against U2 for ripping off your song.  Everyone thought U2 were ripping off their songs back then LOL LOL

+++ Are there more recorded songs by the band other than the demo tape? 

Yeah, as I say we did a tape with John Scott later and there was an earlier demo too.  Our first proper recording.  I have tapes of live gigs in the Rock Garden, Underground, the Attic, the Baggot etc but they are of dubious quality.  Whether that was down to the sound in the venue or the quality of the playing is anyone’s guess LOL

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? Any in particular that you remember?

We played loads of gigs back then in any venue that would have us.  I had forgotten some of the places until I had a look back when trying to remember things before talking to you.  We played Whelan’s with the Revenants, which was a real treat at the time because I was such a fan of Stephen Ryan’s from when he was in the Stars of Heaven.    We also played the same venue with The Harvest Ministers, they were another great band.  When we were starting out bands like Rex and Dino and Hey Paulette were really supportive by letting us play with them.

The maddest night was probably the night we went on last in the Underground as part of a ‘festival’ – a bit like ‘Woodstock on Dame Street’ LOL.  The event went on for three days and we got to play as the last act on the Saturday night after numerous bands had been playing since 12 noon.  The place was packed and everyone was in wild form given they had been drinking all day.  Thankfully the audience were drunk enough to enjoy our performance even if we had to keep throwing them off stage.   We also had some amazing nights in the Attic as well. 

++ And were there any bad gigs at all? Any anecdotes you could share?

I’m sure there were lots of bad nights but thankfully the passing of time has managed to blot them all out.  I do remember being devastated about losing out in various ‘battle of the bands’ competitions LOL.  A bit like X Factor in 1990s Dublin…

++ When and why did Imelda’s Boyfriend split?

I’m not sure we are split at all.  I’d say if we had the time we could get the original band back together again and certainly myself Terry and Sean could rehearse tomorrow if the mood took us.   John left around 1992 over what with hindsight was a ridiculous argument started by me I’m sad to say.  Seems crazy now.    The band didn’t really split as such but stopped using the name and then fizzled out.  Myself and Terry did some stuff with another drummer, Paul Vickers and that was very different from Imelda’s so it would not have made sense to keep the name.  That band never really had a name and I can’t remember ever gigging in it.

++ Did you continue being involved with music? I read you were in Northlight Razor Blade and $1000 Wedding. How did these bands sound like? Any similarities to Imelda’s Boyfriend?

Northlight Razorblade were a million miles from Imelda’s Boyfriend.  It was really Dermot McNevin and his then girlfriend Yvonne Cullen’s band.  They were brilliant, really gifted the two of them.  Dermot wrote wonderful intelligent songs and Yvonne was a multi instrumentalist playing cello, piano and saxophone.  Dermot was an old friend of mine and he asked me to play a bit of bass with him.  Yvonne’s brother, john Cullen, was playing drums at the time. I roped Terry in to play guitar.  John left and I remember we recorded a wonderful demo with Shane Rafferty from Revelino.  He was a seriously good drummer.  I knew him and asked him as a favour.  Yvonne returned the favour and played cello on some of the Revelino stuff. Sean from Imelda’s Boyfriend then joined on drums and left amicably after a while.  I can’t remember why.  I suggested Paul Vickers who was playing with me and Terry at the time and he became the drummer.  We did a Fanning Session, produced by Pete Holidai.  They were great times in a great band.  Like all bands issues crop up and I was given my marching orders from Northlight Razorblade.  Terry and Paul then left as well.  Dermot and Yvonne kept it all going and got some other guys in and made some wonderful music.

$1000 wedding was Sean A McDermott’s band.  As everyone in Dublin knows Sean is a genius, a one off.   The band has had a cast of thousands over the years and knowing Sean is probably still going under some guise or other. It was a country band, pure and simple. The songs were absolutely wonderful.  I was lucky enough to be in the band when the ‘Exile on Dame Street’ album was recorded.  It is a wonderfully off centre lo fi country romp.    Sean shared vocals with Mary Whelan, I played bass, Bernard Walsh from the Stars of Heaven was on drums, my mate Terry Rainey played lead guitar and the late Derrick Dalton played guitar and produced the album.  Eveyone in Dublin knew Derrick.  He probably played in more bands simultaneously than anyone else and probably produced and gave guidance to half the bands in Dublin.    When I first met him he was in Hey Paulette who became good friends of ours.  He also played bass in the Mexican Pets and the Skips, who would have been well known in Dublin at the time.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press?

We didn’t get much attention at all.  Dave Fanning kindly played our demos a few times and we got some gig reviews and promos but not a huge amount.  We did get asked to headline a Hot Press (Irish music magazine) gig at one stage and got a full page promo out of it but that was about as good as it got.

++ What about from fanzines?

We were lucky to get people to go to our gigs, never mind write about us!.

++ And today, aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

I was always big into football so that’s still part of what I do.  I’m a fan of St Patrick’s Athletic in the League of Ireland and I mange my son’s team, Terenure Rangers in the Dublin and District Schoolboys League.  I’ve looked after them for years and they are currently Under 14.    I also have a much better guitar collection now than I had back then.  I’m a sucker of old Fenders and Martins.

++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

Best highlight had nothing to do with music.  It’s about the lasting friendships that I have with the lads from my own band and with guys from other bands that I know back then.  The memories are also great.  They really were wonderful times.

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Listen
Imelda’s Boyfriend – Smile

Thanks so much to Dermot Lambert for the interview! I wrote about Empty Shell on the blog a long time ago and Dermot was kind enough to get in touch and to answer my questions! Empty Shell released one 7″ back in the 80s. Afterwards Dermot formed Rex & Dino and later Blink who are well known in Ireland! But the story starts here! Time to discover Empty Shell.

++ Hi Dermot! Thanks so much for getting in touch and being up for answering questions about your music and your bands. As I know you’ve been in a few bands, wanted to ask if Empty Shell was your first one ever? Or had you been involved with other bands before?

My first ever band was a band called Point Blank, which was myself and a few friends, most of us couldn’t really play, and there’s probably a whole book in that band, I built a shed for rehearsing in the drummers back garden – really, made it myself out of bricks and concrete and the whole lot, it took a fucking year of my life when I could have been out chasing girls, although I was terrified of girls anyway, so that might explain why I spent a year building a shed. Anyway, just as I had finished building the thing, the drummer told me he was not really into the ‘music thing’ and that I should consider going off and getting a bird (our word for girl). Somewhere in between all that building, we played two shows, one in a school hall, and one in a local pub. I remember both equally well, and both had unfortunate outcomes – I managed to alienate myself from the local community of nuns at the school show, by sticking my two fingers up through the curtains at the assembled gathering of a few hundred local families, before going onstage to play our two songs. Apart from my poor display of manners – for which I must say, I have never been proud, one of those things that seemed hilarious but in actual fact was just not – our two song set also managed to squeeze in another unforgettable lifetime memory. Halfway through our second song, I noticed the audience (for ‘audience’ read, confused, bemused onlookers) begin to laugh and point behind me. Not knowing what was going on, I turned to see the drummer Colm had stopped playing altogether, and indeed had gotten up from behind the kit and was casually strolling across the stage in pursuit of his snare drum, which had evidently decided the best thing to do was get off the stage. I have a feeling that I made some feeble comment about the band sounding better without drums anyway, but I’m sure my mind has done everything it can to erase that moment, although Colm was such a funny guy that in retrospect it was worth doing the gig just so that this could have happened, he just strolled after the rolling snare, as cool as a breeze, you can’t become that cool in life, you either are or you aren’t – Here’s to you Gonno Kane!
On the second show I managed to insult a family friend who went to a lot of trouble to get me a lend of his brand new H&H amp, as my Wimbledon valve amp had died on gig day…..come to think of it, this was the school gig again! Oh dear, I would love to go back to that day and give myself a well earned slap on the head! I couldn’t use this amazing piece of equipment, and decided instead that it was ‘a piece of shit’, which of course it wasn’t, but in actual fact I was. I did later apologise to all involved, and I made many efforts to absolve myself over the following years, although it’s still embarrassing to revisit that day / month /
year! If it’s still possible to apologise, the Ronan I apologise, and Tom I apologise to you also – although Tom you did label me Two-Pricks in later life, so I think you got me back already!
We recorded two songs in four hours with two hippy guys who clearly didn’t like us and who smoked grass all the way through the sessions. The songs were called Faraway Illusions and Almost Sure You Know, and someday when I die, I look forward to hearing those recordings in the room where all the odd socks go. That was Point Blank.

++ What are your first music memories?

My brothers and sisters all had records, I’m from a large family of 11 kids, and I’m in the middle. So I grew up with music ranging from The Beatles and T Rex to Val Doonican and Jim Reeves – I didn’t really like any of it in any real sense (I’ve only recently listened to The Beatles White Album for the first time in my life properly ) – my first actual moment that I
realised the power of music was when I saw The Sex Pistols on Top Of The Pops in 1977, that changed everything for me.

++ What kind of music was heard at home?

What was your first instrument? Guitar. I bought my first guitar for 50 pounds off a guy in 1979. It was a Gibson SG but I hadn’t a clue about the value of guitars, I just wanted to be able to own one of my own, nobody I knew had one. I don’t remember how I met the guy, must have been an ad in the papers, that’s how everything was done then. That guitar must have either been worth a fortune, or else I was robbed, I suspect the latter, anyway I lost it and bought a brand new Westbury thing, which I loved because it was purple. I’ve never had a ‘nice’ guitar, but I have had guitars I’ve loved, especially a red Aria Pro 11 copy of a Gibson 323 semi – amazing feedback, and really light. Oh, sorry, my main guitar is my acoustic, a Yamaha that everybody tells me is shit, but which I love, and which I’ve written almost my entire life’s work on – I bought it in 1983 when it was new, and recently somebody told me it was a vintage, I laughed. I’m a f**king vintage.
My friends in Blink bought me two nice guitars for my 50 th a few years ago. Whereabouts in Dublin were you based? Nutgrove,Southside – harder than anywhere on the North Side ha ha ha

++ How was it back then?

Very exciting, tons of bands, I was young, life is exciting when you’re young – it stays pretty exciting too later.

++ Were there any venues or places you liked to hang out?

The Baggot Inn and The Underground were the best known ones – but my starting out venue was really The Ivy Rooms – all the big bands in 1983 played there – someday I’ll get to relay just how exciting a time that was. Don’t let anybody tell you how grim the 80’s were, we might have struggled, but the world was new, and even though there was always the threat of nuclear war, and we were buried underneath a catholic veil with no real job prospects, people like me thought they could escape through music, and there was enough of us to support each other, just by competing with each other even maybe – it took everything we had to be ourselves – even being in a band was considered ridiculous then, but my family were a great support, and that’s all that ever really mattered in the end. I had my 21 st birthday party in the Ivy Rooms, and my 50th in Whelans – that says it all really I suppose.

++ Any bands that you followed?

Aslan, The Blades, Auto Da Fe, Toy With Rhythym, and of course U2.

++ So how did Empty Shell start?

Started in a scout hall in Raheny, me, Neil and a drummer called Redser, his real name was Dave.

++ What year was it?

1982

++ How did you know the rest of the band members?

We met through Hot Press magazine musicians wanted section – it was a pretty terrifying ordeal for me meeting these lads for yet another audition – I was brutal at auditions – so trhis time round I convinced the lads they were auditioning for me, and that’s how it got started. I remember the feeling of playing with the band, the power of the noise we made, holy shit that was a highlight right there! I still have rehearsal room cassettes from those rehearsals – the scout hall got burnt down at one point, and we had to start rehearsing in Dublin City centre, Alan Furlong’s place, and that was where we entered into a ‘scene’ of sorts, where you’d see other ‘real’ bands rehearsing, and you’d realise you had a lot of work to do!

++ Why the name Empty Shell? 

Nuclear Shell

++ Your only release came out in 1986. At the time in the British isles there was an explosion of guitar pop. Did you feel at any point part of a scene?

We don’t say British Isles in my house, but the culture is still very much there, bands like The Cure, Sex Pistols, Stranglers, Souixsy all started around end 70’s and affected me greatly Who would you say were your influences in Empty Shell?

++ What do you remember for the recording session for this 7″?

The recording was after the band had actually split up and I was sick waiting for other musicians to get my life started, so I booked myself and Ellen in to record that song, I ended up playing bass, and we used the other guys images etc on the sleeve, but in truth that band had dissolved into a holding pattern while I worked on Rex & Dino.

++ Where was it? Did it take long?

We recorded it in Paul Thomas’s house, he had engineered U2’s first 2 albums, and in fairness to him he was a good guy in the end.

++ I’ve always been curious about the photo on the 7″ sleeve. Where did that come from?

That guy on the sleeve is a legendary figure in Irish culture, his name is Arthur Fields and you should google him – in 1986 he was locally known, but nobody realised how important he was to so many lives – he agreed to be in the shot if we agreed to let hoim shoot us, unfortunately I’ve no idea where that photo might be.

++ At that time did you have a big repertoire? Perhaps you had already put out some demo tapes?

Not a big repertoire, although the band was in it’s second life-cycle with half new members – the earlier cycle to be fair was a better band I think – that version of Empty Shell had a different singer Declan, who was a great vocalist, and we recorded a few demos, good ones like – I’m tryinmg to get my hands on these – we also did a Fanning Sesssion in Jan 1985 which was very exciting, and RTE say it’s in ‘Deep Archive’.

++ Tell me about gigs, I found that you played at the Roundstown Town Hall in Galway only, but I’m sure you played many more! Did you remember any in particular? Any fun anecdotes you could share?

Yep, three hours beyond Galway in the summer of 1986 we played that date you mentioned, about a six hour drive, no roads in Ireland in the 80’s – when we tried selling 7’ singles after the show, well actually my two younger brothers Terree and Ken were the sales division that day – we were greeted by much laughter, as the locals said they didn’t have record players, the funny thing is though, that nobody has record players now either!
What would you say was your best and your worst gig?

++ What about press or radio in general? Did Empty Shell get much attention? TV? 

We got bits and bobs, we did a few TV things and I don’t know if they exist in ‘Deep Arcxhive’ anywhere, but every paragraph was hard earned, and that single actually got slated on it’s first Hot Press review, I was heart broken!

++ Are you still in touch with the rest of Empty Shell?

Alas not. If so, what are you guys up to these days?

++ If you had to look back in time, what would you say would be the biggest highlight for Empty Shell?

Empty Shell had some highlights that none of my other bands had, we were in the first wave of dreaming, and the dream seemed always close – I will always remember my brother Aiden, and Ellen, Kevin Power, Declan, Neil, Ricky, a flat in Booterstown, The Trinity Ball of 1985, a mad night in Mason’s Laboratory on Crane lane where we rehearsed after the scientist had gone home (true story), trying to decide how we’d look by looking through Face Magazine in Aiden’s house, hand-painting posters that we would then paste up all over Dublin on a midnight poster run (ask any band about this, these were truly fun times) and it always seemed possible, everything was possible.

++ And you are still in Dublin, right? I’ve never been, so wondering if you’d recommend any guitar pop tourists some cool places to check out? What would be the traditional food not to miss? Or up and coming bands that you like?

Well if you want recommendations on new music, I’m probably the
bestr person to talk to, I run Garageland, a National project for emerging Irish Artists,
and it endlessly excites me how some new musicians have exactly the lust for life that
music always gave me. Check it all out on www.garageland.ie

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Listen
Emtpy Shell – If Heavens Waiting

Thanks so much to Yvette Haynes for the interview! I wrote about A Strange Desire some time ago and just a week or so ago Yvette’s sister, Julie, got in touch with me. Happily she helped me get in touch with Yvette, who was up for answering my questions, and in the end we got to make this great interview! A Strange Desire only released one flexi back in the 80s, and it is a classic for any C86 fans!  If you haven’t heard about them before, today’s a good opportunity! Also Yvette was kind enough to share three photos from back in the day which I’m sharing with everyone here: 1, 2, 3. Enjoy!

++ Hi Yvette! Thanks so much for getting in touch! How are you? Where are you at now? I hear in Cornwall?

I moved to Cornwall about 15 years ago as I was fed up of the aggression in London. Too many people, too much hassle. It’s great being near the coast, and there’s so much beautiful wildlife here.

++ Are you all from A Strange Desire still in touch to this day? What are you all up to? Are you still involved with music?

Me and Tony Simmons have been in touch for the last few years, thanks to being able to track him down on the net! Nick has lived in Australia for some time, but I don’t really know where – with that and Tony moving to Sweden, we’re dotted all over the globe! I believe Nick is successfully writing soundtracks now, which doesn’t surprise me as he was always a phenomenal guitarist. Tony is still producing music on a personal level, as I am with my drumming. I did give up playing for about 20 years as I was so disillusioned with music, but fell back in love with the drums a couple of years ago.

++ Let’s start from the beginning. Like what are your first musical memories? What was the first instrument did you get and how? 

It was always the drums for me, I wanted to play them from the age of about 7. My family couldn’t afford lessons, and school was of no help whatsoever (I took music with a view to being taught, but they never bothered. Ordinary secondary schools in England are like that!) So I just did what a lot of people do, bashed around teaching myself. Luckily, my sister was learning bass and my brother the guitar, so we all made a racket together – I was about 11 at this point! Our parents were fantastic, always supportive and putting up with the noise. I didn’t have a proper kit for years, just made do with odd drums I picked up secondhand.

++ Had any of you been involved with other bands prior to A Strange Desire?

Yeah, we all had come from other bands. Tony and Nick both grew up in Camden and went to school together in Kings Cross, which is why they had such a good understanding of each other and a great songwriting partnership. Their band Seven Colours split around the same time as the band I was in with my sister Julie, The Joy of Living, who’d had a collaborative EP with the Apostles released by Mortarhate.

++ So you all were from London, from the Camden area. How was around there back then? Were there any bands that you liked? What were the good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

Tony and Nick were from Camden, I was from Harrow (a town in the suburbs), but I spent a lot of time in the Camden area as there was a lot more going on. It wasn’t the gentrified area it is now, it was pretty rough and ready. We really liked My Bloody Valentine, top people and such an exciting band. We rehearsed in the same studios as them, so used to chat to them quite a bit. It was great to see them get successful. We also really liked A Riot of Colour, I thought they never got  the acclaim they deserved. The best venues in the area from what I remember was The Timebox and The Enterprise.

++ When and how did the band start? What was the recruiting process like?

put an ad in the NME in the summer of 1985, Tony was one of the responders. We got on really well and I loved the demo of Seven Colours he played me and that was that. Working with nice people was always at least as important to me as the music!

++ Why the name A Strange Desire?

We wanted to get away from being called ‘The’ …… as it was used so much at the time. I believe we looked through a book of film titles and just chose a few things that seemed to go nicely together.

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

Tony and Nick lived in the same block of flats, so would go through ideas together, then we’d rehearse at Salem Studios in Euston. I’d get a basic understanding of the songs, record them and go and get my drum patterns worked out before the next rehearsal. We really needed more studio time, but had zero money, so had to make do with just a couple of hours a week. It was rather frustrating!

++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?

We all loved The Smiths, Nick and Tony were into The Soft Boys too. I adored The Close Lobsters (still do), and we were all into punk – the music and the ideals. REM were another favourite.

++ Your one and only release was the “Promise To Lie/Until Tomorrow” flexi. I suppose it was self-released and the ASD in the catalog means A Strange Desire. Is that right? 

Yes, we just kept it nice and simple. A flexi was much cheaper than a ‘proper’ vinyl release!

++ And how was the experience of self-releasing? Did you enjoy doing the distribution and promotion part?

It was a slog, to be honest. We really had no idea what to do, no one to advise us, we were clueless! We took some to the Rough Trade shop on a sale or return basis, that was very helpful being able to do that. The best promotion we could have was when John Peel played it several times. A friend of Tony’s lived not far from Peelie and hand delivered it for us.

++ These two songs are terribly good, wondering if you could tell me in a sentence or two what they are about?

Tony wrote the lyrics, but I always understood them generally to be about being let down in love. Tales of heartbreak!

++ Both were recorded at BB Studios in Kingston, Surrey. How was that experience? What do you remember about the place? How long did it take to record them? Did you only record these two songs that time?

We did the 2 tracks over 2 days, which included all the mixing etc. In retrospect, it would’ve been better to record several more tracks live, then just do overdubs as necessary. I think it would’ve suited our style more. I personally never liked the traditional way of recording, it just never seemed natural to me.

++ There were different paper sleeves for the flexi, different colors. Why was that? And how many different color sleeves did you use?

I think there were 3 or 4 different colours we used for the sleeves, basically just to add some variations to it. There are only a few of the red and gold ones, we gave them to people that had helped us out on the record as a thank you.

++ And who is the girl that appears on the sleeve of the flexi?

It’s Faye Dunaway, in a shot from Bonnie and Clyde. It’s a striking image, and just felt right.

++ Another song, “On Another Day”, appeared on the compilation “The Timebox”. I read that this compilation was put together by the people that ran The Timebox club at the Bull and Gate pub in Kentish Town. Did you play this club? How did you end up in the compilation? How was your relationship with them?

We played the Timebox many times, it was a fantastic venue. There is a shot of us playing there in Mick Mercer’s book on the place, that was a lovely surprise to see it. We supported the likes of Brilliant Corners, Blue Aeroplanes and My Bloody Valentine (we played lots of gigs with them). It was very sad that the promoter there, John Beast, passed away a few years ago, he did a lot for the indie scene of the time. It’s because we were regularly playing there that we got on the album, which was a real thrill.

++ Aside from that compilation and then much later on the Sound of Leamington Spa, where there any other compilation appearances that you remember of?

Yeah, Especially Yellow fanzine, run by the legendary Johnny Dee did a cassette compilation in 86 called Goodnight Miffy, he included a couple of tracks from the first demo.

++ And what about unreleased songs? From your Myspace I see a few like “Insanely Jealous (live 1986)”, “Sometimes”, “Wait Until Tomorrow (1986)” and “It Has to End (1986)”. Where do these come from? And are there more?

Insanely Jealous was a Soft Boys cover we used to do, it’s from a Timebox gig which was recorded from the mixing desk. It’s nice to have a decent quality recording! The rest of that gig is on a compilation CD I had made, there are only 3 in existence. It was just to ensure we have some copies before various cassettes disintegrated with age! Until Tomorrow is from the Flexi, and the other tracks were from our second demo.

++ Why do you think there were no more releases by the band? Was there any interest from other labels perhaps?

Playroom Discs from Brighton were going to release a single, but we split just as talks had started. I wasn’t working, and Tony and Nick only had part time jobs, so we just couldn’t have afforded to self finance another record.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? Any in particular that you remember?

We played heaps of gigs, pretty much all in London. Basically, they had to be somewhere near public transport, as we had no van or anything, none of us could drive! Most bands lended each other equipment at gigs, there was generally a cooperative attitude. One of my favourite gigs was at the Enterprise supporting A Riot of Colour – we went down really well, it was the first time we’d been asked back for an encore. And a review of the gig appeared in NME, which was really nice. Another memorable one was at the Timebox one Christmas Eve – the band who’d agreed to lend their drum kit didn’t show up, so we miked up some dustbins and I used them instead. It turned out surprisingly well! We also played a few squatted venues alongside some anarcho bands; these gigs were really good, it would’ve been great to have been involved with more of these events.

++ You also crossed the channel and played Paris. Did you play any other cities in France? Or any other countries other than France? Any anecdotes about that trip?

We just played the one gig, at a university in Paris. We were lucky in that one of the organisers happened to be at one of our Timebox gigs and liked us, so invited us over. He even let us stay at his flat, which was kind (thank you, Maxime!) It was the biggest gig we played, hundreds of students there, and quite a big stage, so it was a bit daunting when you’re used to tiny venues. We started really badly because of this, but got better and ended up going down very well, which was a relief! It was an odd experience seeing posters around the place with our picture on! We were very naïve, and were always surprised whenever anyone showed much of an interest!

++ I read that a bunch of flexis were in a safe during that gig in Paris and you couldn’t find the key. In the end could you salvage them?

I don’t think we did! I certainly remember the frustration of quite a lot of the crowd wanting them, and we just couldn’t get to them (I think it was a locked room rather than a safe). Hopefully they ended up being distributed at a later date, I’ve seen a few being sold on auction sites from various European countries, so you never know!

++ And were there any bad gigs at all? Any anecdotes you could share?

Oh, there were lots of bad gigs! I think our debut was at an outdoor festival in Camden one afternoon – we played to all of 3 people for a while, then it started raining and we had to leg it with our gear! Equipment would break down quite regularly, I think most bands on that level have to deal with that happening! One pub in Dalston (east London) we played had what looked like a bullet hole in the window, that was a bit scary!

++ When and why did you split? Did you all continue making music afterwards?

We split around the summer of 87 as we felt we were just getting nowhere. Lack of funds for basics, and the effects of that, killed us. Tony and Nick couldn’t even afford landlines at the time, so even getting in touch with promoters, venues etc was a struggle. We had no contacts, and were totally unprepared for the stuff outside actually playing. This isn’t a whine, it’s just saying how things were. I have a lot of respect for bands that are in a similar situation and keep from being demoralised by it, there are plenty that go on regardless. I joined A Riot of Colour very briefly afterwards, they were very sweet people, but my heart wasn’t in it anymore. It’s fair to say I was devastated by ASD breaking up, it was everything to me at the time.

++ Something that caught my attention was that in the bio that appears in the Leamington Spa compilation you say that you never fitted in the indie scene of the time because of your unwillingness to crawl to the “important” people. May I ask now who these important people were, or is it still better not to name them? 

I think it was journalists from certain papers and record label people in general. Tony wrote that piece, and I can guess a few of the people he’s talking about, but I’m keeping schtum!! 😂

++ Was there ever a reunion gig or talks of a reunion gig?

No, it was never on the cards. We all went our separate ways and that was that.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press?

John Peel playing the flexi those times was just awesome, he generated a lot of interest (I’ve still got the letters we got off the back of it asking for copies). The only mainstream press we received were live reviews in the NME and Melody Maker, which were great to see! We never took any of that for granted.

++ What about from fanzines?

Fanzines were very supportive, I’ve always thought of them as integral to any music scene. I used to write one with my sister Julie when we were teenagers, so I know how much hard work and passion goes into them. They the same ideals as bands like us, the whole DIY, rough and ready thing. We sent demos to quite a few, and got some really nice reviews. Time’s Up did an interview with us, I believe, I think I’ve still got it somewhere.

++ And today, aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

West Cornwall has a great artistic community, and lots of great galleries. I love a lot of modern art and being able to see works by the likes of Tim Shaw or Barbara Hepworth locally is a real privilege. Wildlife watching is another love of mine, we get some astonishing rare birds down here.

++ How do you feel about the C86 genre, do you feel like you fit there or you’d say you were something else?

I’d say we fitted in fairly well to that, although our sound was a bit rockier, especially live. I loved the C86 thing, it was such an exciting time for music, so many great bands about. It was a breath of fresh air, the best thing since punk to my mind.

++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

It’d have to be being played by Peelie. I’d listened to him since I was 13, notebook and pen at the ready to scribble down new bands and records he played. Back then, he was the only national DJ that would give unknown and unpolished bands a chance. To be played on his show was exhilarating and gave us an audience in other parts of the country, and, indeed, Europe. We’ll always be grateful for that.

++ Never visited Cornwall, but would love to go one day, maybe I can ask for some suggestions? Like what are the sights I shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks I should try?

Dolphin watching is an absolute joy here, there’s always a lot of sightings during the summer. There’s heaps of beautiful beaches and headlands. Virginia Woolf was inspired to write To The Lighthouse by the lighthouse near me at Godrevy. It’s a quiet county, a great place to chill with some phenomenal scenery. St Ives is well known for its art galleries, and Falmouth has a great music scene. Penzance has some great pagan festivals, paganism features heavily in Cornwall’s past – and present. As for food, pasties are the thing here. They were traditionally the meal for miners, but are constantly evolving!

++ Thanks again Yvette! Is there anything else you’d like to add?

I would like to say a huge thank you to you, Roque, for your interest in the band and wanting to do this interview. It’s been an absolute pleasure to be involved in your blog. Big thanks must go to my sister Julie for getting in touch with you and organising this interview – and her support back in the day (she wrote the sleeve notes for the flexi). Thank you also to anyone that has put any of our tracks up on YouTube or written stuff about us – I’m delighted people are enjoying our music after all this time. Cheers!!

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Listen
A Strange Desire – Promise to Lie

Thanks so much to Chris Hughes for the interview!! I wrote about Red Hour on the blog some time ago looking for information as I loved their songs. Happily he got in touch and was up to answer all my questions. He was also very kind and has shared memorabilia of the band! Check out Sounds Review (Jan. 1991) and Melody Maker Review (Nov 1991).

++ Hi Chris! Thanks so much for getting in touch! How are you? Where are you at now? Still in Barrow-in-Furness?

Where am I. Where am I. Inside. I am fine. Itching eye brows. On a chair. In a studio attached to a farm. Outside it is vertical sleet and wind. Pervades every pore. Nearly as bad as Oymyakon. Barrow in Furness is very west UK. I swapped it years ago for very east UK. East from west. Westerly went easterly. So now I east. Not west. Sun looks different.

++ Are you all from Red Hour still in touch to this day? And when was the last time you picked up your bass? Still in a band perhaps?

Spin out slides onto the record turntable sometimes. Still like the starkness of the white label on the black vinyl test pressing. Simplicity. I listen to that sometimes as I said. So I figure I still in touch musically. We all connect up as individuals one way or another I think. A bit like a circuit in series. We not all connected together adjacent but there is a threaded connection. Like a circuit in series.

Think I picked up my bass about 6570 days ago roughly. I have a habit of leaving basses with other folk and band folk. Think I picked it up when I passed through a while back visiting one of them folks a while back. About 6570 days approximately.

Still in a band? No. Not really. No. An ongoing musical artistic distant collaboration with son palace is about close as I get.

++ Let’s start from the beginning. Like what are your first musical memories? What was the first instrument did you get and how? And how did you learn to play bass?

I cut my dance moves and learnt the tune and words to ‘The Banana Split Show’ in my early youth and if you segue that with some of Sidney Bechet’s ‘Summertime’ and a bit of ‘Black Beauty’ soundtrack well that be the start of my musical education as a youngster. Although I did quite like the quietness of the moon landings on the black and white television we had. And I mean The Clangers were pretty musical too. And I quite liked Bagpuss in a calming quiet way.

I used to hawk around junk shops and second hand stalls in my home town as a teenager. I remember seeing a cheap nasty bass with flat wound strings on it. I bought it. It was cheap. It was a bit nasty. Flat wound strings and the feel of the bass got me hooked.

I tried to sell it 6 months later at a shop near where I bought it from. I told the stall holder I wanted to sell my bass and I handed it to him. He said ‘I don’t want to buy a cricket bat’.

++ Had any of you been involved with other bands prior to Red Hour?

No. This band was the first expedition out into band territory. Prior bands. No. None. No.

++ How was Barrow-in-Furness back then? Were there any bands that you liked? What were the good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?

There was ‘The White Lion’. And then there was ‘The White Lion’ and I guess if you were stuck . . there was ‘The White Lion’. The White Lion pub was the place to be. The musicians hang out. About the size of a small small, small terrace house. Barrow lies on a western peninsula of the U.K. It has a few satellite islands connected to it. Piel island. Sheep island. Tiny islands with stretching dunes of sand hills and natural reservoirs. You could sleep in the dunes and see shooting stars. Lakes and meres filled with char and pike and also mountains lay just outside Barrow.

Record emporiums. Well there was one. Earthquake Records. Genius place. An education. An education and two thirds. And in size much smaller than a small, small terrace hose. Tiny. Almost dog kennel sized shop. Diminutive. But smelt amazing.

++ When and how did the band start? What was the recruiting process like?

Guy turns up at my parents.

With a cassette.

Plays. See no evil.

Plays. Do it clean.

Plays. Read it in books.

Best job interview ever.

No words said.

Didn’t pay too well.

But best job ever. That was the recruiting process.

++ Why the name Red Hour?

The term is used by some employers to describe a one hour slot that is relatively less productive than the other more productive hours in a productive working day. That is where the name came from. Seriously.

++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?

Creative process. We did more takes and repeats than Stanley Kubrick.

School halls. Basements. Cellars. Church halls. Factory outhouses. Working men’s clubs. Scout huts. Tin sheds. Bowling green huts. Living rooms. Flats. Occasional stairwells. Sometimes outside.

++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?

Throw together Tom Verlaine, The Mighty Lemon Drops, the Bunnymen, the Fall, the Wedding Present, REM, Captain Beefheart, the Family Cat, Cocteau Twins, Gary Cook, the Pixies, Stravinsky, the Smiths, John Peel, Husker Du. These were pretty much the vinyls and music that were getting spun around that time at the flats and parties that were going on in the Furness Peninsula.

++ I discovered your music through the compilation “I Might Walk Home Alone” that was released by Wilde Club Records. On it, you appear with the song “Treat”. Wondering then two things, if you can tell me the story behind this song and how did you end up appearing on this compilation? I suppose you played the Wilde Club?

‘Treat’ on this compilation was Barry’s (Wilde club) choice as I remember. I seem to recollect we wish a different track had been used but it was pressed and complete. And so it remained.

Story behind Treat. One of the few songs to collapse on stage due to too many cold ales before a gig. No excuse your Honour.

++ Your first release was a 7″ on a label called Cogent Records who mostly released stuff by The Tier Garden. Who were behind this label and what was your relationship with them?

Cogent was ran by ‘The Tier Garden’. They were close to ‘Grown Up Strange’ who I know you have mentioned previously. When we put out ‘5Qs’ as it seemed to make sense to use and grow that label. They kindly let us jump onto it ( a thanking you and salut Cogent). Cogent also put out records by ‘Perfect Circle’. Cogent and The Tier Garden were basically the same team. They were also responsible for getting bands like ‘The Weather Prophets’, ‘The Stone Roses’ and ‘James’ to play the legendary ‘Bluebird club’ in Barrow in the 80s. And yes, Cogent bunch – they frequented The White Lion.

++ The two songs on this record are “Five Questions” and “Films About Me”. Both were recorded at Out of the Blue Studios in Manchester. How was that experience?

I remember the engineer having underpants hanging from his sock. I remember 50 takes at trying to get drum sounds and speeds right (with a hangover). I remember having to travel back weeks later because the master tapes screwed up. I remember folk from the Inspiral Carpets turning up during recording. I remember the cramped travelling down to Manchester in a Hyundai. Recording one day. Mixing the next. Partying and not sleeping.

++ Both being fantastic songs, can I ask, in a sentence or two, what are they about?

‘Films about me’. Well you did ask. I remember Dave telling me this was a about a young man who took his own life by jumping in front of a train – I think because of bullying. And 5Qs is simply about 5 questions – I would be vaguer if I could. I always try to think what this track is about but always get side tracked by the pretty nice bass line.

++ What inspired you for the artwork, for the design, of the sleeve for this record?

A big thanks to graphics and sleeve designer Jonah F who helped with this. Jonah sorted all the Cogent label decals out and pretty much ran the whole cover himself. The ear shapes used to be a way of telling if you had criminal traits. Black, white and 1 colour due to cost. Also Jonah was not involved in the ‘spin out’ cover and does it show. Yes. My ear is not on the cover.

++ After this release Barry Newman from Wilde Club was to release your 12″ on his label. On it there were four songs and I notice one of them was “Five Questions”. Was it the same version or a re-recorded version of the one that appears on the 7″? And why did you decide to include it again?

I think we all thought 5 Qs might be the song that would get airplay and create a wide wider audience. The recording is exactly the same mix. So including it with ‘Spin Out’ made sense. The wider wider audience never quite happened.

++ I’ve actually worked and been in touch with a few bands that released on the Wilde Club like The Suncharms or Shine! How was your relationship with Barry and with the bands he released? Did you like any?

We gigged at least twice with ‘The Suncharms’. I was at a gig several years ago and I starting talking to the guy next to me. Turned out he was from The Suncharms. We talked about travelling the length and length of the country in a cramped Hyundai to play a gig to one person who was normally the person behind the bar.

I only communicated with Barry via letter as I remember. Records got released. Press releases got sent. I think Barry was waiting for the wider audience to occur also. I know Barry initially wondered if our singer was from ‘The Wolfhounds’. David Canavan compared to David Cavanagh. Our singer was ‘Canavan’.

++ Were there more compilation appearances by the band other than the one on Wilde Club?

No more compilations that I am aware of.

++ Was there any interest from other labels? Perhaps big labels?

The hazy memories of sending out press releases, boxing records, phoning radio stations and phoning record companies and the waiting for the phone to ring and letter box to squeak. Why we never got an agent I don’t know. Proper old school diy approach – the perfect way to make sure you always keep a nice, small, very small niche audience. The Cogent team were much better prepared and business like. Red Hour were not not not business minded.

++ You recorded a Peel Session in 1992. That must have been amazing. How was that? Did you meet Peel or not? How long did it take to record it? Who worked with you? And why did you choose the four songs (“All I Need”, “William Jailor”, “Free Fall”, “Almost There”) for this session?

The Peel session. Got aired twice. Down to Maida Vale studio 3 to record the songs in a day. All sardined into the old Hyundai and straight to London. Was a bit like a kids day out at the Wonka factory. I remember being told to go and have some food at the canteen and there was the whole of the London Philharmonic striking up in the adjacent studio and there was us wondering if we had to pay for our beans on toast as we held our trays looking like something from a Dickens film. We took no photos of that day. Our lack of visual documentation is commendable in general. The songs sound so fast because the situation was so surreal. I think our bodies and coordination were just lost in the strangeness and madness of where we found ourselves.

The 4 songs were pretty much the latest tracks we had done. Rather than rely on 2 or 3 tried and tested older tracks that we knew were solid – we opted for 4 new ones. Another case of not really maximising your search for a wider audience. I don’t think these tracks had what ‘Spin Out’ and ‘5Qs’ had. Would have been nice to hear them recorded at Maida Vale.

I talked to John Peel the night the session went out. I listened to the show live at home and had to dash out to the red phone box one hundred yards from my flat to give him some gig details. Got back in time to hear him announce them. Nice use of technology. Nice surreal phone call.

++ And by the way who is “William Jailor”?

I believe ‘William J Leptimane’ is mentioned in the first line. An oblique nod to Mel Brooks in Blazing Saddles.

++ There are no more releases by the band, that’s kind of a bummer. But I did find on YouTube a bunch of unreleased songs by the band. Where do these come from?

Including the singles released there was probably about an album worth of material that would cut it. In my opinion ‘5Qs’, ‘Spin Out’ and ‘Films about me’ were probably the most accomplished of them. They had a certain spark to them. Some of the unreleased tracks would be from live tapes from the many gigs we played around this time and would not have made it too a next recording. There was a beautiful close knit crowd so many gigs were recorded and passed around.

++ Are there any more unreleased songs aside from the ones I found on Richard Attwood’s YouTube account?

I seem to remember after ‘Spin Out’ we kept looking to put out a new release as quick as we could but ‘Wilde Club’ were booked up with releases and time just seemed to run away. I think those singles and the Peel session were a natural end. Considering when some of us started in the band we could not even string two notes together – I think we did alright. When I say us. I mean mostly me.

We had a few songs that were recorded after Spin Out that definitely started to list towards PJ Harvey and Steve Albini loud and quiet sound dynamics. They be on someone’s dusty tape somewhere.

++ And if you were to choose your favourite Red Hour song, which would it be and why?

Spin out. Films about me. They just have a bit of something. Simple raw pop charm punk.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? Any in particular that you remember?

Many? Yes. Many. No diary of where we played but we did cover some ground. I did not drive at the time. I got to sleep and slumber whilst others drove. I remember the gigs with ‘The Wedding Present’ vaguely. I remember sitting backstage at the Edinburgh gig. It was incredibly quiet – you could hear a pin drop (don’t call me cliché man). I went from backstage to front stage to check turnings of all the equipment. The place was lifting. Rammed. Electric. Full. Walked back stage again in shock. That was a fun time. I think we sold one t shirt.

Another legendary trip in the Hyundai with guitars on our laps was to play ‘The Arts and Anarchy Festival’ in Lille. (Thanks to being aired on Peel). Great bunch over there looked after us over there. I miss the old Hyundai.

++ And were there any bad gigs at all? Any anecdotes you could share?

Bad gigs. Just the ones where you travelled back in the early hours after playing only to the bar tender for £25 in a pub the size of a dog kennel, where the A&E folk never turned up and the record company folk could not be bothered to turn up either and that was after travelling 300 miles each way. Yes. And breaking down in the snow on the way home. With no food. No drink. In the wilds. With no phones. No money. Yes. That happened loads.

++ When and why did you split? Did you continue making music afterwards?

Right time. Peel session. 2 decent records from a bunch of no hopers. (Well, mainly me). Gigs across Europe. 3 or 4 T shirts sold. That big enough for me. And I think we got tired of being stuck in snow in the Hyundai together.

++ Was there ever a reunion gig or talks of a reunion gig?

No. And. No. No. And. No.

++ How do you feel about the C86 genre, do you feel like you fit there or you’d say you were something else?

I loved the feel of the C86 era. Sarah records. Pastels. Orange Juice. Postcard records. These groups certainly padded out my record collection. I do not think we were part of that particular genre but it did feature a lot within the scene in Furness. The Peach Thieves were very much a perfect fit for that. Another rather cute Furness outfit.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press?

I remember the interview with Mark Radcliffe for BBC Radio that Geoff and I did in Carlisle. We turned up feeling a touch anxious or maybe a massively amount anxious. We were not exactly outgoing Shakespearean types. It was about as comfortable as Theresa May meeting Mark E Smith. Another long, long, very, very quiet 150 mile journey home. But at least we got home that time.

I think after that we gave up on radio.

++ What about from fanzines?

We were too busy sending out press releases and phoning record companies and partying and organising gigs and rehearsing and working and waiting for the letter box to open and packaging records and mailing them out to think about involving fanzines. (Now that would have given us a wider audience wouldn’t it. Why did we not get an agent again?)

++ I hear Geoff Cook continues making music to this day. Anywhere you could point us where to listen or check out his music?

Son Palace. Fine recordings by this reclusive outfit. Never play live. Very C86 in the recording philosophy. Think there will be a new album later this year. Was well received by BBC Radio 6 and Gideon Coe. Son Palace – Accumulations is available now through bandcamp.

Also Castles in Space records released Gary Cook recordings a couple years back. Stunning stuff from the C86 era. Also available on bandcamp also and pressed on some pretty good vinyl. To avoid confusion. Gary Cook and Geoff Cooke are not related other than they have the same surname but spelt differently. Both from the Furness Peninsula and both with fine fine recordings to their respective names.

++ And today, aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

I have a studio I sit in. It is incredibly quiet. There is a chair. Some paper. A few other things. There is rain outside. Cold. I have a chair to sit on. On which I am sitting.

++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

That bit were the drumsticks go ‘click’ ‘click’ ‘click’ ‘click’ and you hit the strings and the amps are turned on.

++ How is Barrow-in-Furness today? Has it changed much? If I was to visit one day, what would you say are the sights I shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks I should try?

The sights you should not miss in Barrow.

Well. The White Lion has gone.

So.

Well I would say go to either Piel Island or Sheep Island.

Yes. Sheep Island or Piel Island.

If I were you though…. I would opt for Piel Island. It has a pub and a castle and 3 houses.

Sheep Island has no houses, no pub and used to be used as a smallpox isolation quarantine.

++ Thanks again Chris! Is there anything else you’d like to add?

As far as I know. This is true. Salut.

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Listen
Red Hour – Five Questions

Thanks so much to Erik Illes for this great interview! The Watermelon Men might be one of the most important guitar pop bands to ever come from Sweden. They were around the late 80s and released a bunch of singles and 3 albums. They toured many countries in Europe and even graced the cover of Sounds magazine in the UK. On the web there is not much written about it, so took the chance and asked Erik many many questions, and was even surprised that there is actually a 4th album that remains unreleased!

++ Hi Erik! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! Very honoured to do an interview with you. I know you are still making music now with the band Distant Days. Care telling me a bit about the band? Who are part of it? How does it sound like? Maybe there are some links to share? And how different or similar would you say Distant Days is to Watermelon Men?

I lived and worked overseas for many years, in Vientiane, Phnom Penh, Sarajevo and Brussels. I returned to Uppsala in late 2013. Over the years I had written many songs that I wanted to try them out with a band and record. Michael Funke, who plays guitar is an old friend of mine. He found Anders Vretenäs and Ulf Eklund on bass and drums – and it has really worked out with the chemistry. The music, in a spiritual and emotional sense, comes from the same place as with Watermelon Men. It is a bit darker and even more dramatic. Someone described it as a meeting between Simon & Garfunkel and Joy Division. Our first album, Dying of the Light, was released on vinyl last year and has been well received. It’s also available on Spotify and SoundCloud.

++ Now that I’m looking at info on the web about the band something struck, for a band that had quite a following and that released more than a handful of records, the information on the web is little. That is quite strange. Do you know why that may be?

In 1994 I moved to Laos and that was de facto the end of the Watermelon Men. So, it was really before the era of on-line communication. We never ourselves published anything related to the band on internet. It’s nice to see though that people upload and make available songs on Youtube and elsewhere.

++ This might be a long interview! You released 3 albums and around 10 singles/EPs. I have so much to ask you. But  let’s go back to the very beginning. What are your first music memories? Like what music was played at home while growing up? And what was your first instrument and how did you get it?

I have two older brothers who very much was part of intruding me to the world of music. It really started during the era of glitter rock – I heard the intro riff of 20th Century Boy by T. Rex and it had such a transformative effect on me that it lasts until today. Then came punk and new wave, and through that we started to listen to bands from the 60´s that were a source of inspiration for new wave bands like The Jam and XTC.

I started with flute and trumpet but it was the guitar that I was drawn to. I learned to play it on my father’s nylon string guitar. Then I had my first electric, a Gibson Les Paul copy, that I swapped for a Gretsch Chet Atkins when I met Imre von Polgar to complement his Rickenbacker. Then we were in the early 80’s and the quest was to chime louder and clearer the The Byrds. We found out that when certain frequencies met, other and unexpected sounds could appear, it was magic.

We were not very skilled musicians. At the time we started, we very much associated skilled musicians with playing fusion or Toto. Bands looking bad and playing dull music. After a while we realized that being able to play had its merits to develop the arrangement and sound that the song required.

++ How was Uppsala back then? Where do you usually hang out? What were the venues to check out up and coming bands? Or what were the good record stores there?

Uppsala is a university town. Usually we would hang out at cafés. There was a really good record store that had a good collection of punk, new wave and prog. We were fortunate to have two good venues in town where many international bands, The Saints, The Fleshtones, The Triffids, Alex Chilton to name a few, came to play and where we were given the chance to perform.

++ I’m assuming you were in Uppsala studying as it is a university town, am I on the right path? If so, what were you all studying?

Everyone in WM grew up in Uppsala with the exception of our bass player Hans Sacklén who came from the south coast. I studied political science and languages. Imre IT and Hans macro-economics.

++ Were there any like-minded bands in town that you liked?

Not many I would say. The Preachers, a garage-rock outfit, were close allies. I quite liked Webstrarna and The Pretty Triggers as well.

++ And in general, what would you say are your all-time favourite Swedish guitar pop bands ever?

What comes into mind are band like Tages, The Wannadies, Eggstone, Simian Ghost

++ How and when did the band start? How was the recruiting process or how did you all know each other?

It started around 1983. Imre had been in a defunct band with Johan Lundberg. I didn’t know Imre but one day I read an article he wrote that was published in one of the major evening papers comprising a list of the best songs using Rickenbacker guitars. He was only 17 and I was 16 at the time. It made me get in contact with him to propose that we started a band. I think I played the bass guitar for the first rehearsals and we had someone trying out as singer. Then we picked up Hans on bass and I became the singer. Then we recruited Erik Westin as a drummer. He had his own band, called Start, where he played guitar. Erik turned out to be a great drummer and song writer but he never felt as comfortable with the drums as with the guitar.

++ Had any of you had other band experiences before being on Watermelon Men?

Yes, there was a number of short-lived constellations. I was in a band called Allan Ball and then my first band with Imre (The Rave-ups), Hans played with a band in Southern Sweden called RH-negative. Johan played together with Imre in Martin Bendix and the Taxi Drivers and had a band called The Original Rummies.

++ Why the name Watermelon Name? What’s the story?

My grandfather cultivated watermelons in Hungary, then there was the song by Gun Club.

++ How was the creative process for the band? Whereabouts did you practice?

Imre was the mentor of the band. He had this enormous extended network from which he managed to harvest al this fantastic music of all different eras and genres. Soul, psych, pop, French film music, surf, hard core – he had the ability to find quality in all strands of music. We rehearsed in a shelter in the center of town. Usually me and Imre would work on the songs before we introduced them to the band. Erik Westin brought his own material and sometimes recorded home demos he shared.

++ And what would you say were your influences?

So much music of different genres, soul, folk, psych, garage, punk, new wave, pop. You need to mention The Byrds, Love, Velvet Underground and the Kinks. Among our contemporaries our peers were REM, The Barracudas, Robyn Hitchcock, The Triffids, The Go-betweens, The Church among others.

++ Your first releases date from 1985, where the “New Hope for The Lonely” 7″ and the “Past, Present and Future” albums are released. Something that caught my attention was that the album was released in three countries straight away, in Sweden, Germany and UK. I suppose your main label was MNW in Sweden and they licensed the record? And just out of curiosity how did you end up signing to MNW?

As far as I remember, we came in contact with MNW through Jörgen Johansson. It was Jörgen through his Tracks on Wax label who financed the recording of the two first albums. Jörgen was a fan and a very important mentor to us. He has this incredible ability to find and share quality music. A very generous man. Maybe you are acquainted with his Facing Yellow compilations with timeless and forgotten pop music?

++ Was there any chance to release the album in any other countries perhaps?

Yes, the album was licensed in Europe through a German Company, EFA, and in the US and UK through What Goes On Records.

++ Even from this first release I notice something about the art for your records. There’s generally always an evocative photograph on the cover. Who was usually in charge of that?

We were looking for covers that captured the landscape of the music. The artwork was done by Hank, the drummer of the band Wayward Souls, who worked in visual design. All that changed when we were signed by WEA for our third album. How I hate that cover! They brought in an American producer who was instructed to give us a more contemporary slick 80’s sound. The whole project was a trauma and a battle. He hated guitars. Finally, when everything had been recorded and mixed, we persuaded the label to give us two more days to put back the guitars that were erased and to remix the whole thing. It improved things but we were still highly unsatisfied with the way it sounded. It wasn’t us. I was like listening to the record of someone else.

++ This first album has the song “Hungarian Heart”, which speaks of yours and Imre’s background. I wonder though aside from this song, if Hungarian music was much of an influence to your sound?

It was. Me and Imre used to travel to Budapest every year and hang out in restaurants and cafés looking for the best gypsy musicians. We came across this band with the lead violin being replaced by cello. They wore black tuxedos and were incredible. The saddest and most uplifting music you can imagine.

++ The first record I ever bought by Watermelon Men was the “Four Stories by the…” 7″ that was released in 1985. I noticed that that record and many others were recorded at Studio 55 in Uppsala. What can you tell me about this studio. Does it still exist? Who ran it? Was it convenient? Was there a liquor store close by or a cheap restaurant for the breaks?

It was located in an old villa in Uppsala. A quite area, not much else around. The state has liquor monopoly in Sweden, so no off-license liquor stores in the neighborhood. The studio is closed since many years ago.

++ In 1987 there is a split single with the American artist Peter Case. This is quite a one-off release, there are no other split releases by you. And also because it came out on the label Bucketful of Brains and it was the first and only time you collaborated with them. How did this happen? Were you aware of Peter Case beforehand? Did you like his music? Did you ever meet?

I think it was organized by the What Goes On label. We liked the music of Peter Case but we never met. We did a cover of Flaming Groovies’ “I Can’t Hide”. The same year we played it live at The Dingwalls in London together with Chris Wilson from the Flaming Groovies/Barracudas and Robert Wills

++ Your second album dates from 1987 and this time you expand to Austria and Switzerland thanks to the German label Yellow Ltd. On this album I notice that you expanded your sound by having session musicians. How did that come about? Did you know them? Was it easy to work with them?

We loved strings and had already worked with string musicians on our first album. We also expanded with horns, maybe not as successful. The steel guitar player was a friend’s boss from an insurance company. We were influenced by the way the Triffids used steel guitar, but this guy was more old school country in his playing.

++ This album have many of my favourite songs by the band. But I will choose one hoping you can tell me the story behind it: “Postcard View”. Any chance for that?

It was written by Erik Westin. His songs were usually quite light and melodic.

++ Your last album, “Moving Targets” from 1988, was released by a big label, WEA. How was that change? Did it influence in any way your music or the big label is not as terrible as everyone thinks?

It was a horrible experience. They signed us but were not really into what we were doing. They wanted to change it into something contemporary and that could appeal to a larger audience. The main problem was the choice of producer. The album flopped and we were dropped.

++ Your last release dates from 1993 and was an EP on Fat Lady Records and Amigo. I wonder why that gap in between releases? Like 4 years since the “Nobody’s Fool” 7″! In the 80s you were releasing stuff more often. What happened in between the album and this CDEP?

It took a long time to recover after the WEA debacle. Erik Westin left the band. We recruited a new drummer, Ola Jameson, and a keyboard player, Jonas Rehn. We recorded a full album in KHM studios in1993. But it was never released as I moved to Laos in the spring of 1994. There are some really good songs there.

++ I see that on Discogs there’s an unofficial album titled “Fifteen Stories by The Watermelon Men” which is an LP with the whole gig in Stuttgart on February 23rd of 1986. Do you have a copy of that? Did you ever got in touch with the unofficial label Lounge Records?

I think I have copy somewhere, we were never in touch. I like the way they have misspelled the title of some of the songs.

++ Also I did find some Youtube videos from that gig. It looks and sounds great! I like the style of yours, kind of Postcard Records a bit. Were you into vintage clothing? Thrifting? Or where does that look come from?

We certainly did not like the mainstream fashion of the 80’s. We were more into classic and stylish outfits of the 40s-late 60s era. But we were quite eclectic.

++ Your music appeared on a few compilations during the eighties mostly, like on “A Real Cool Time Distorted Sounds from the North”, “Efa’s Tönende Musikschau”, “Bada I Hitz” and “Yellow Unlimited”, but I’m quite curious by you appearing on two compilations dating from the 2000s, “Children of Nuggets” and “A Real Cool Time Revisited”. Was there a renewed interest in the band at the time you think?

Since Nuggets was such a source of inspiration when we started the band, we felt honored to be on the “Children”-compilation.

++ Is there any unreleased material by the band? Or everything was released?

Yes, the whole album we never released in 1994. It is named Stories from the Blue House.

++ From all your repertoire, which is not little by any means, do you have any favourite songs? and why?

From our first album, “Seven years”, “Back in My Dreams”, “New Hope for the Lonely”. They capture the true spirit of the band. “Heading for the Woods” and “In Another World” from “Wild Flowers”. “Tonight” from the “Moving Targets”, there are some other decent songs on that album but I have problems with the overall sound. “Four Heartbeats”, our last single, I also like a lot.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? What about abroad? Which countries did you visit as a band?

We played many gigs in Europe in 86-87. Lots in Germany, The Netherlands, France, Greece, Switzerland, Austria and the UK.

++ And what would you say were your best gigs and why? Any good anecdotes to share?

The gigs we did by the end of our first tour in Germany. We had become a really tight unit and Johan had developed into a first class show man. The gigs we did in Athens at the Kytaro Club were fantastic. We played two nights. The first night ended in complete mayhem. The following night we were a bit fragile and decided to start with only slower number to keep things under control. Then suddenly we only had fast number left in our repertoire . I remember thinking “Here we go, I hope we will survive the onslaught” as we started the first chords of You should be mine and people started to storm the stage.

++ Were there any bad gigs at all?

No disasters, but the gigs just before Erik left the band were not as exciting as they had been.

++ I read you appeared on the cover of British magazine Sounds. How did that happen?

We had a five star review of Past, Present and Future in Sounds. They followed up the review with the interview and gave us the cover. The article was written by Ralph Traitor, who was an alias for Jeremy Gluck, the singer in Barracudas. Me and Imre were traveling in South America for three months at the time when the article was published. Probably a bad career move.

++ I feel though that your biggest following was in Germany. I even bought some of your records there while visiting. How did this come to be? Was it just because of being released by a German label and having that support? Or perhaps there was another connection? I’m sure you also toured Germany extensively?

We had a good label in Germany. We were well received. Germany was full with great venues where people came for the music. We were not used to that in Sweden.

++ Were there any TV appearances of the band perhaps?

We did some TV appearances in Germany. One live show (could have been Rockpalast) and a few silly play backs.

++ And what about fanzines? Were you part of the fanzine culture of the 80s? Maybe involved in some?

There was one particular Swedish fanzine called Larm that was an essential guide to music. It was a fanzine started by Lennart Persson, a legendary Swedish music journalist, who sadly passed away a few years ago.

++ You released songs on tape, CD and vinyl, this is a simple question, what is your favourite format and why?

I am not too picky, but I have a soft spot for vinyl given that its size and format gives more room for the artwork and that it’s more tangible. I always listen to music while commuting to Stockholm, then vinyl is not that handy.

++ When and why did you split? What did you all do afterwards?

We split because I moved to Laos for work. When I returned after three years everyone had moved on. I am the only one in the band who is still active.

++ Were you involved with any other bands after the demise of Watermelon Men?

No, not until we formed Distant Days.

++ Are you all still in touch to this day? I know that Imre is sadly no longer with us, and that you did a reunion gig after he passed away. That must have been a difficult time to do the reunion? How was that experience?

We are still in touch every now and then. Losing Imre was such a chock and I don’t think we will ever reconcile with the fact that he is gone. I lived in Phnom Penh at the time of the Tsunami in 2004. We had met to spend some time with families in Bangkok before he left for Khao Lak and I went back Phnom Penh. Then came the Tsunami and both Imre and his two daughters died. The reunion gig was a way to gather friends and relatives around something positive and it was an important event to us.

++ Are you still based in Uppsala? Has it changed much since the Watermelon Men days? I visited once and really liked it, but wondering if you could recommend pop fans what to see, what to do, or what to eat in your hometown?

Uppsala has grown in size considerably. We are now over 200 000 habitants. The music scene is not doing well and many of the places hosting live music have closed down in recent years. Restaurants are mushrooming though. You should pay a visit to the vinyl store Open Mind Records, that released the Distant Days album. Dan Olsson, the owner will get you a cup of coffee for free.

++ Today, aside of music, what other hobbies do you have?

I love outdoors stuff like fishing, skating and picking mushrooms.

++ Looking back in time, what would you say was the biggest highlight of the Watermelon Men?

When we received the master of Past, Present and Future and we listened to it in Imre’s flat. We thought it was unbelievable. The tours in Europe, playing venues like the Dingwall’s in London and the Loft in Berlin. But the greatest highlight is always the sense of wonder and achievement when a new song is starting to take form.

++ One last question, taking the cue from “In Another World”, have you ever been to Argentina? 🙂

Yes, Argentina was the last country we visited in South America during our trip there following the release of Past, Present and Future. We started in Quito, Ecuador, and travelled through Peru and Bolivia down to Buenos Aires.

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Listen
Watermelon Men – Postcard View

Thanks so much to Pete for the great interview! I wrote about The Sometimes some years ago on the blog, hoping to find out more about this very little known Melbourne band. At that time I was looking like crazy for their 7″ single, but little did I know that there was another release by the band that doesn’t get listed anywhere on the blog, a CD EP. Happily not too long ago Pete got in touch with me and was keen to answer my questions and tell the story of the band!

++ Hi Pete! Thanks a lot of being up for this interview! How are you? When was the last time you picked up your guitar?

All good thanks.

Pretty strange but really great to revisit an obscure release by an unknown band from 30 years ago. I only came across your blog because I was clearing out a whole lot of junk and came across a bunch of copies of the 7″ single. I did a google search on it out of curiosity and up came the one reference.

Picked up the guitar yesterday when I discovered an artist I really liked in the eighties named Tommy Keene had passed away. Tried to play a riff from one of his songs with moderate success. I have been trying to renovate a house for the last ten years so unfortunately the guitar only gets picked up after I’m done with the power saw, battery drill and spirit level.

++ What are your earliest music memories? What sort of music did you listen at home growing up? What was your first instrument and how did you get it?

Firstly The Beatles. They were like our Wiggles. Next watching a television show called “Uptight / The Happening Seventies” that featured early Australian bands performing in black and white.

My brother Andy, who was also in The Sometimes and I hassled my mother to buy singles like “Turn up your radio” by The Masters Apprentices and “Eagle Rock” by Daddy Cool. We’d dance in the lounge room with our cousin to these records while our extended family watched on. We’d crack them up with our antics. Not sure what they thought of this new culture in which they’d chosen to bring up a family.

First rock band I saw was AC/DC when I was about 8 years old at The Catania Ballroom in Thornbury. That blew my mind and I was hooked on guitar based rock music from then on. A track that made a huge impression and tempered the rock side of things was “Arkansas Grass” by Axiom. Perfect pop song, if you overlook the ironic country feel. From that point I became intrigued by the songwriting side of things. Around the ten year old mark we got into Gary Glitter, Bowie and Slade. Early teens onward was the Led Zeppelin phase and to a lesser degree Black Sabbath.

My brother was more into the guitar side of things and was a huge Jimmy page fan. He bought a Gibson Les Paul copy and I ended up with a Gibson SG bass copy. Can’t remember how I got it. Annoying my parents most likely. We had a good balance between us, he could play the cool riffs and I’d try to get bits and pieces together to resemble a song.

Led Zeppelin led to Jethro Tull and then the punk/new wave movement focused things up a bit. Initially bands like The Stranglers, The Clash and later post punk stuff like The Church, Birthday Party, Killing Joke, Echo and the Bunnymen.

++ I noticed you have Greek background, same as your manager too! I was wondering if anyhow there was a Greek music influence in your music? Or if you were aware or fan of the great guitar pop bands from the 80s in Greece?

I was unaware of Greek guitar pop at the time but anything in the rock field that had a 12 string jangling away or visited an exotic scale would get our immediate attention as we were exposed to Greek music as kids. My brother played a bit of bouzouki and that definitely comes out in his playing. Little tricky fiddly bits. You can kind of hear a hint of it on the lead run on “Let your guard down”.

++ Were you all originally from Melbourne? How was the city back then? What were your favourite places to hang out? What were the good record stores? What about the venues to go check out up and coming bands?

Yes all from Melbourne.

In the early eighties in my band watching days Melbourne, as far as street life went was pretty dead after hours. Very un-European and kind of culture-less but if you were a music fan and you knew where to look it was a dream. Rock music was the culture in a way. There were a heap of venues, mainly pubs with original bands playing seven nights a week. Punters back then were happy to see bands playing their own songs and testing the musical boundaries. There were two inner city areas to see up and coming bands. St Kilda was more of a Punk / New Wave scene. The Crystal Ballroom and The Prince of Wales were the best in St Kilda. You could see Australian bands like The Birthday Party, Go Betweens and many up and coming punk/new wave bands. Carlton had smaller venues like Martinis and Hearts. I remember that scene being a bit straighter with more rock/pop type bands with an alternative tinge such as Paul Kelly and the Dots, The Sports, The Cheks etc. More of a university crowd.

There was also a strong suburban circuit where the rockier, more commercial bands would venture out to. I remember seeing The Church, Sunnyboys, Matt Finish, Midnight Oil, INXS, The Models etc. at these venues. That was when I was into seeing bands but not in a band.

Lots of great record stores. Missing Link and Greville Records were the main two. Au go go started up a little later.

++ Talking about bands, did you feel there was a good scene in Melbourne? What were your favourite bands? And were there any like-minded bands that you were friendly with?

By the time I tried getting a band together the poker/slot machines had arrived and many venues stopped having bands and the scene for smaller indie bands had really quietened down. Carlton died off and St Kilda became more for mainstream bands on tour.

The Fitzroy area became the indie centre. Some new venues popped up such as The Punters Club in Fitzroy and that was a great place to hang out to see up and coming bands. We had a residency there for a while which was great.

Can’t say we were really friendly with any like minded bands. We weren’t really part of the Melbourne indie social scene. We were a couple of guys from a working class area with a really hard hitting drummer playing a cross of indie rock/pop that would at times break out into a Led Zeppelin inspired 70’s rock-out.

We were a bit scattered stylistically, Too heavy for the indie pop scene and too light for the heavier grungy scene. This made it difficult to get gigs. This was compounded by not having that indie social networking thing going. Having said that I remember “The Odolites” being quite generous with some support spots although I never knew what they made of us.

I thought the Melbourne scene while I was only watching bands was more creative. Bands like the early version of The Models around the time of “Alpha Bravo Charlie Delta …..”, early Hunters and Collectors, The Birthday Party, The Chemicals and The Moodists were really cool and inventive. Really loved the way they used the rhythm section as the driving force and layered guitars around it. Later on I think bands got a bit too cliched in the guitar department. Strumming away on C G D and F for a whole gig.

++ Had you been involved in any bands before The Sometimes?

Before The Sometimes pretty much the same garage band with school friends and my brother. We eventually got out of the garage and started playing live under many different names – about six from memory. “96 Tears” was one. We were learning how to play live so we’d go out and learn in public. Every time we burnt too many bridges we’d fall apart. Get pissed off with each other. Go away. Come back, change our name and go round again.

++ How did the band start? Who were The Sometimes and which instruments did each of you play? And how was the recruiting process?

I’d gone to college and started meeting new people. I’d met Phil Lawrence at college. He had played a few times with the last band I had going. I think it was called Ten Thousand Miles. I was playing bass in the previous bands. I got Phil Lawrence to play bass so I could be freed up to try to concentrate on vocals which I was struggling with while playing bass. I needed a guitar player and drummer. I only knew one guitar player and one drummer so my brother ended up playing guitar and Russell played drums. That lineup lasted a while and we put the 7″ single out.

++ Why the name The Sometimes?

A bit of a gag really. Couldn’t get many gigs, we only played Sometimes…

++ What would you say were influences music-wise for The Sometimes?

Myself and my brother Andy pretty much as mentioned above. The drummer Russell didn’t really like any of the more alternative bands. He liked bands with great drummers like Matt Finish from Sydney and kept going on about Billy Cobham ad nauseum. Phil liked 80’s guitar bands such as U2, Echo and the Bunnymen etc. but was also a closet Kiss fan. I suppose we were a combination of a guitar band and a kinda post punk bass/drums driven band.

++ And what would you say are your all-time favourite Australian bands?

Early on Masters Apprentices, Axiom. During the punk/post punk days The Saints, very early Models, The Moodists and The Birthday Party were great. From the more mainstream side of things The Church, Midnight Oil, Matt Finish, very early Go Betweens, The Swingers, very early Hunters and Collectors. The Chemicals were a real quirky unknown techno band that had some great tunes. Later in the 90’s I really liked Died Pretty and Samurai Trash put out a great single called “Come out and play”.

++ Where did you usually practice? How was the creative process for the band?

Would have been a rehearsal studio although I can’t remember which one.

Creative process varied. Some songs would start with one of Andy’s riffs. I’d then overlay a vocal line and it would grow from there. Russell was a pretty inventive drummer and he’d often bring a song to life. Other songs I’d pretty much work out on a four track and then the band would add their bits and some would come out of jamming as a band.

++ Your first release was the 7″ with “People Go Home” and “Let your Guard Down”. This is a great single! So was wondering if in a couple of sentences tell me the story behind each song?

Let your guard down is pretty self explanatory. It was about a real person. Basically pleading to make the most of opportunities. Throw caution to the wind type stuff.

People Go Home was about the frustration of living in Melbourne at a time where there was little street life and just watching the rush of people scrambling to get back to their homes after a days work. Sort of explains the repetitive riff that goes round and round.

++ I also always wondered about the picture on the sleeve, who is she? And what about the picture on the insert?

The bass player Phil did all of the artwork. They were just images of a couple of friends of his that he had in his photo album. We thought they were better looking than us so we put them on the cover. I always hated doing band photos and that side of things.

++ And this record was a self-release is that right? How come? Was there no interest from any labels?

We hadn’t really developed enough to approach labels. We thought putting a single out could help us get some more live work and maybe some support spots. We didn’t expect it to do too much. We were happy to get some airplay on independent radio such as 3RRR, 3PBS, 2SER, get a couple of reviews and then move on to an E.P and try to grow from there.

++ The two songs were recorded at Platinum Studios by Paul Kosky. How was that experience? How many days did they take to record? What was your diet while making these songs? Pizza and beer?

I think it took two sessions over two days. Platinum was a great studio. We thought it was better to spend less time in a good studio rather than more time in a lesser one.

I remember it going really quickly. Paul was very supportive and very very positive. He got sounds very quickly. We had done some recording in the past but of course we were too green to control the process and kind of got guided through it. In hindsight of course a musician would have done everything differently. We sounded a lot lighter on the recording than we were live at the time.

There was a little beer and most likely a souvlaki or two from up the road.

++ I saw that you appeared too on a compilation tape called “Screaming at the Mirror” that was released by Ticklish Tapes. How did this come to be? And who were Ticklish Tapes? And did you appear in any other compilations?

We played some gigs with a band called Clowns Smiling Backwards who were a really heavy experimental band. Their singer Bo ran a studio and was putting a compilation out. He was kind enough to include a track on it. That was the only compilation tape. I really liked the compilation tape idea as you have a bunch of bands with a common cause and you felt part of something bigger.

++ Only now that I’m in touch with you I got to know there was another release, a CD EP with four songs titled “I Never Had Anything”. Was this self-released as well even though it says RP Records? How many copies did you press? It seems so rare!

That was self released but distributed by Siren Records. RP Records was a joke, as in Rupert Pupkin Records, as in the guy in that Scorsese film The King of Comedy. I was starting to feel like him after pushing music for so long to little avail. 500 were pressed. It did get a bit of airplay on Triple J – a national broadcaster here which was great. It was a bit light for the more independant stations like 3RRR and 3PBS.

++ I notice that for this CD the band is just you and Russell with the help of friends. What happened?

In summary, post single we split up. Reformed with a female singer, then my brother left, I went back to bass, Phil played guitar. Split up again…… Female vocalist left. Then a friend Lucky from the pre- Sometimes bands joined. We did some more recording with Lucky as lead vocalist. The recordings turned out really well. Of course the band split again before we could do anything with them which was a shame. I was left holding the master tapes of seven songs. So I re-recorded my vocals as lead and put out the 4 track EP. I thought just put it out and see what happens. I chose the more acoustic songs as I figured they could be played solo or with a smaller acoustic lineup.

++ These four songs were recorded at Elva Foods by John Archer. That’s an odd name for a studio. Care telling me a bit about it?

John Archer was the bass player of a big band here in Melbourne called Hunters and Collectors. John owned the P.A that H&C used for touring. He housed that in his factory/residence that used to be used for food manufacturing. It was called Elva Foods.

For the E.P John set up a mobile recording in the factory. We tracked the drums at another studio called Big Beat because they were running with a similar tape machine.

++ So after this EP, why no more releases? Why no album?

Well, no more band. I’d had enough by then. Went off to play in cover bands for a a couple of years.

++ Are there any more songs? Any unreleased recordings by the band?

Post cover band I started recording again and started just sending tapes out to the U.S as a solo performer.

Actually had a little interest from some producers and a major label however the stumbling block was always that they were in the U.S and I was on the other side of the world.

So yes, quite a few more songs that have never been released. Although one called “Today is like any other day” I sent out as a CD single type thing and it got played a bit on internet radio and some small college stations in the US. It also received some favourable reviews.

++ And from all your songs, which one would you pick as your favourite, and why?

The song just mentioned, “Today is like any other day”. It was 3 minute 30 seconds had a good verse, a good chorus, a good bridge and told a good story with enough irony. One other track was “Forty Second Move” which was basically a just good pop song.

++ What about gigs? Did you gig lots? What were the best gigs that you remember and why?

By today’s standards we did a lot but at the time we always felt like we were struggling to get them. I really enjoyed doing an early weeknight residency at the Punters Club. It was a new small venue and it was good to be able to turn up each week and begin to hone the act. It lasted around 6 weeks. It Would have been great if that could have lasted longer and we could have built on it before starting to try to get support spots with other bands.

Another gig was a support spot for a band called The Pony at a large venue called The Corner. I remember finally playing through a large P.A, with great fold back, it was an agency gig and the bands’s sound came together. Unfortunately there were 5 people watching but it didn’t matter, I found out what it meant to experience job satisfaction.

++ Were there any bad gigs? Any anecdotes that you could share?

I just remember many gigs being a struggle. I think we were trying to play music that was over complicated through small P.A’s in small rooms that we were too loud for.

No rock’n’roll anecdotes really. Just remember doing a gig at a small pub and my brother had developed arthritis. He often used to wear those beige Scholl sandals with the bubbled souls around the house.I’d used a bath robe to pack a guitar in a case so it would not get damaged while transporting.

We were half way though the set. All dressed in dark jackets, black jeans and looking dour, probably singing about something depressing. I turn around and there’s my brother wearing a light blue terry towelling bathrobe complete with Scholl sandals, white socks and a huge grin.

++ And where was the farthest you played from home?

Not too far. We never ventured more than 10km from home. Most venues we could get booked at were in the inner city.

++ Did you get much attention from the music press or radio?

As mentioned before public radio stations 3RRR, 3PBS and 2SER were all very supportive. Commercial radio would not play independent releases.

We did get some good reviews in the music press and an article or two.

++ Today, are you all still in touch? Has there ever been talks of or a reunion gig?

Yes we are all still in touch and still friends. Phil passed away recently which was really sad. A reunion rehearsal would be great but I can’t see us ever playing live again as a band. I don’t think anyone would come anyway. A jam could happen though.

++ In retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for The Sometimes?

The bathrobe….

++ And one last question, tell me a bit about Melbourne today. I’ve never been, I hope to one day, so many great bands from your city. But was wondering what would you say one shouldn’t miss when visiting. Like the sights, the traditional food or drinks? What would you recommend?

It’s a more vibrant and varied city than it was in the eighties. Outdoor dining, many bars and cafes now rather than pubs alone. Unfortunately many older pubs are being gutted and turned into apartments which is a bit sad.

The multicultural angle is its biggest asset I think. From food to music to art there’s always lots to experience on that front.

Live music has suffered a little bit but it’s more varied these days. It’s not all rock music. You can see an African band, Greek Rembetika, Latin etc. I’m a bit out of touch with the indie scene but there are always lots of bands playing. If you check out the Beat Magazine Gig Guide or the 3PBS Global Village Gig Guide you’ll see that there is a lot of live entertainment. Lots of good food spots.

Malabar Hut for southern Indian, GRK Kitchen for Greek, Claypots/Barbarossa for seafood, Moroccan Soup Kitchen or Moroccan Delicacy for Moroccan, Thalia Thai for Thai….

Sights? Usual tourist spots are the Great Ocean Road, Penguins at Philip Island, Wilson’s Promontory, The Grampians. Victoria Night Market.

There are usually some good music festivals over summer.

Cool suburbs to check out would be Fitzroy, Carlton, Brunswick, Northcote and St Kilda.

++ Thanks again Pete! Anything else you’d like to add?

Just thanks for showing interest and I’m glad you enjoyed our humble release from 1988….

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Listen
The Sometimes – Let Your Guard Down

Thanks so much to the 5 Marteen sisters and brothers: Babs Marteen, Lola Marteen, Malcolm Marteen, Hernandez Marteen, and Cholmondeley Marteen for the interview! Their brand new retrospective compilation came out on February 26th on Firestation Records. The first time I heard them was on the Sound of Leamington Spa, with the song “First Kiss”. It was fantastic, and since then I always wanted to hear to more songs by them. This will finally happen, and I’m very excited about that. If you have never heard about the Nottingham band before, or if you are like me, curious about them after hearing a few of their songs, here’s their story!

++ So let’s start from the beginning, like when did you know or what inspired you, to be in a band?

Hernandez: That moment when I saw Johnny Rotten singing Pretty Vacant on Top of the Pops on TV. Snarling, telling the truth.

Lola: Singing along to Blondie on the radio since 1978.

Malcolm: listening to our dad’s Jim Reeves albums – He’ll Have to Go is a cracking song. But what really inspired me to be in a band was the theme song to Fireball XL5, pure indiepop pathos in a perfect pop parcel. Here’s a great enhanced version of the song.

Babs: Always singing as a child with my hairbrush in my hand , loved the sounds of groups like The Supremes,The Ronettes, The Shangri-Las, ect . I used to daydream about being in a group.

Cholmondeley: when they showed all The Beatles films on the BBC: Christmas 1978. 

++ And what would be your first music memories? What was your first instrument and how did you get it?

Lola: A plastic recorder which I wasn’t allowed to play at home as my mum hated the sound. Then a beautiful left-handed Tanglewood acoustic guitar bought by an ex-boyfriend which I left in Australia as I couldn’t fit it in my baggage allowance.

Hernandez: Acoustic guitar. I worked as a newspaper delivery boy, and a cream (!?!) delivery boy to save up the money to get it.

Malcolm: a violin. I saved up my pocket money and asked relatives for money instead of Easter eggs. Then it was a choice between a new Action Man or a violin. Babs and Lola used to wet the bow without me knowing so it wouldn’t grip the strings – it sounded terrible.

Babs: A plastic recorder for me too, followed by an electric keyboard . It was massive like a church organ .

Cholmondeley: a kazoo. I had a kazoo band called The Brix. We had a great song called ‘’Dusseldorf Fart’.

Malcolm: what key was that in?

Cholmondeley: Dunno, but it was a real seam splitter

++ Had you all been involved with bands prior to The Marteens?

Lola: No. Although I did have a solo in a sixth form production of “Godspell”.

Malcolm: I played a five string electric guitar in a bedroom band called Citizens Band. It should have had six strings but the top E broke and I didn’t have enough money for a new set.

Babs: No never had the confidence.

Hernandez: A ghost-writer on our facebook page is suggesting that there are facial similarities between some members of Me and Dean Martin and The Marteens. We should have worn moustaches.

Cholmondeley: I’d been a terrible guitarist: so decided to become a terrible bass-player. Fewer strings!

++ When was the band formed? Who were the band members, what did each of you play and how did you all know each other?

Lola: Spring of 1991. I answered an advert for a female singer, left on a table or possibly in the toilets of Jacey’s Bar on Lower Parliament St. I didn’t know anyone else in the band could play! But I remember us all getting on. Much rehearsal fun. ‘Till they told us we had a gig. Then it was “Oh sh*t!”

Malcolm: I played guitar – I had six strings by this stage. I think it was Cholmondeley who left the note in the ladies toilets. We had no idea it would be one of our sisters who answered it. When Lola says she didn’t know anyone in the band could play, I’m sure she really means she didn’t want to know us, you know, big brothers are embarrassing and we used to show her up in front of her mates.

Babs: I was in The old Angel one night ,when one of my friends told me my brother Cholmondeley had just been kicked out by the bouncers . He was in the girls toilets again handing out his phone no . It turned out he wasn’t on the pull but trying to find a female singer for a band the boys were putting together. I was livid that they had not asked me so threatened to tell our parents about his toilet capers and the rest is history.

Cholmondeley: actually I was on the pull: the music was a sinister cover story. I’m not like that now.

Malcolm: so it was more than one female toilet block Cholmondeley was found loitering in.

Hernandez: I remember getting drunk enough to hand out leaflets, but can’t remember anything beyond that.   I do remember that I helped write the songs, and played occasional guitar.

Cholmondeley: I very much looked forward to Babs and Lola’s mates turning up for the auditions. It was very wholesome. I helped out with diaphragm exercises and stuff. We never recruited anyone else in the end, as we realised we’d have to pay ‘em.

++ What is the story behind the band’s name?

Malcolm: it’s the family surname.

++ What sort of music were you into at the time? What would you say were your influences?

Lola: Indie. Blondie. Humorous dance, e.g. Dee Lite.

Hernandez: The Paris Sisters, The Ronettes, The Shirelles, The Crystals, The Chiffons. These were the pure pop girls groups for me. They were absolutely the template for the songs we were aiming for, added to the indiepop feel. The Paris Sisters’ ‘I Love How You Love Me’ is almost unbearably beautiful. The Marteens’ version of it is on the forthcoming album release. I am so proud of it.

Malcolm: The Love Affair – great arrangements and melodies, The Beach Boys with their fantastic harmonies, Edison Lighthouse and Tony Burrows with their great tunes.

Babs: I was really into the indie scene at the time and The Wonder Stuff were top on my list , but I was a secret Madonna fan behind closed doors . ( would never have admitted to it at the time )

Malcolm: the Madonna thing explains that strange outfit you turned-up to one gig wearing, Babs.

Cholmondeley: ‘I only have eyes for you’ by The Flamingos. It’s from another planet!

Lola: That is truly beautiful, Cholmondeley.

++ How was Nottingham at that time? Were there any like minded bands that you liked?

Malcolm: The Legendary Dolphins, Hurt, Slaughterhouse Five, Hepburn, Idi Eisenstein, Dr Egg, Huge Big Massive, Po!, The Waiting List plus there was a very active thrash metal scene thanks to Ear Ache Records and bands such as Lawnmower Deth.

Cholmondeley: my cousin was in The Legendary Dolphins for two weeks but he got chucked out over a Hobnob incident.

Hernandez: That takes the biscuit.

++ And where would you usually hang out in Nottingham? Like what were the venues to check out bands or the good record stores?

Lola: I loved Nottingham’s social scene at that time. Playing pool at The Newcastle and Navigation. Sat nights at the Garage (indie club night) or upstairs at the Hearty Goodfellow and gigs at Rock City, where I also worked behind the bar.

Malcolm: Aldo’s coffee shop with the fantastic donuts, Jacey’s Bar, The Old Angel, Russell’s, The Hippo, The Garage, Eden and Rock City which is still the best live venue in the country and where Lola wouldn’t sell us drinks if she thought we’d already had too much.

Babs: Rock City and The Garage were my favourite hang outs, and I loved going into Selecter Disc rummaging through all that vinyl.

Malcolm: that was a great record shop. Do you remember Rob’s Record Mart? If you didn’t know the name of a song he’d ask you to sing it. He had everything. I bought an original copy of If Paradise is Half as Nice in there.

++ How was the creative process for the band?

Malcolm: on the earlier songs we wanted to contrast the lovely melodies with the harsh distorted guitars and driving bass – we tried to imagine what the Ronettes singing over the Buzzcocks as a backing band might sound like. On the later songs we tried to take this further by keeping the verses and choruses jangly and light and contrasting this with lots of noise in the instrumental sections.

++ The first song I heard by The Marteens was “A First Kiss” which appeared on the 4th volume of The Leamington Spa series. It is a fantastic song, I love it. You already told the story behind the song on the liner notes, but wondering how come it took so many years for the retrospective to come out?

Malcolm: First Kiss is a great song and it sits very comfortably on the Leamington Spa compilation. We all got jobs and went our own ways and the original tapes were lost. Then one day at a family reunion Babs turned up with a CD of all the songs. Apparently the tapes had been gathering dust in Cholmondeley’s previous flat from 20 years ago, and when he returned to ask if his banjo signed by Marlene Dietrich might be in the basement, he found it, plus the tapes. Babs copied them and kept them as a surprise for the three of us at the reunion.

++ I’ve heard a few other songs on Youtube. I think my favourite would be “Boys Talk“, it is such a great tune! What’s the story behind this song?

Hernandez: Babs and Lola spat that one out, when we three brothers were in the third hour of trying to work out which ice cream we prefer, and what colour of smarties is the best. I still don’t fully get what they are trying to say in the song.

Lola: It unabashedly glorifies a stereotype that I somewhat bought into in my youth. However it does raise a worthy topic for debate.

Hernandez: Again, I’m not really getting this.

++ You’ve uploaded some songs to Youtube like “I Hope It Rains in your Wedding Day” or “What’s a Girl To Do?”. Was wondering then how many more songs were recorded by the band? And will all of them appear on the Firestation retrospective?

Malcolm: The album is called ‘We’re the Marteens’. There are 15 songs on the album including different versions of a few of them plus a tremendous cover version of one of our favourite songs.

++ And how come none of these songs were released back in the day? Was there any interest by labels?

Malcolm: we never did get round to releasing anything although we always felt the songs were strong.

++ There weren’t any compilation appearances either, right?

Malcolm: Leamington Spa was the only one and then Boys Talk showed up on the internet.

++ Do tell me where were these songs recorded? And how was the recording process for the band?

Malcolm: All the songs were recorded in Nottingham. There were two main phases of recording. Some of the tracks were recorded at home on four-track and I’m surprised how much we squeezed onto those four tracks. The second phase was recorded at a small local rehearsal studio with an 8-track machine.

Cholmondeley: engineered by the great Dave Chang – who was named after his favourite guitar sound.

++ For you, what is your favourite Marteens song and why?

Lola: My Hopeless Friend. Classic teenage heartbroken angst. And May All Your Tears Beguile (‘cos I wrote the lyrics).

Hernandez: What’s A Girl To Do? ‘Sunset in a lonely sky, standing on a beach at night, I hear a voice say ‘oh, what a feeling’; Wind sweeping through my hair, walking like I don’t care, but, of course, I do’, and then Lola comes in with ‘La..la…la’. It gets me every time. Massive pop.

Malcolm: First Kiss, it’s got a good beat. I love the melody and the story plus it’s a little strange because it doesn’t really have a chorus.

Cholmondeley: love the ‘’Too much, too young”- esque guitar fills on that one. Sorry, talking with my mouth full of kiwi crumble….

Hernandez: Remember what mum used to say – ‘don’t mumble when you crumble’.

Babs: It has to be What’s A Girl To Do?. Only because I moved away from Nottingham to the seaside some years ago, and when life throws a turd at you I find myself singing that in my head when I’m walking my dog up the beach.

Cholmondeley: Cherry Trees – cos I’m sensitive as shit.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? Any particular good ones that you remember and why?

Lola: I remember how nervous Babs and I were at our first gig upstairs at the Old Angel and every gig afterwards, come to think of it. Maybe our outfits didn’t help. Hot pants over black tights and a leotard.

Babs: OMG I remember those outfits lol. I think we may have even had our hair in bunches.

Malcolm: we played a great gig at The Navigation with Idi Eisenstein but their guitarist kept eyeing up my semi-acoustic so I had to keep an eye on him all night. I seem to recall we used to play a cover of The Bay City Rollers’ Bye Bye Baby – there were loads of key changes.

Cholmondeley: I don’t remember much about them. This was the early 90s if you get me. This treacle sponge is fantastic, but I fancy something a bit savoury now …

Hernandez: I think Cholmondeley has hit his sweet spot.

++ And where there any bad ones that you remember?

Malcolm: we thought it would be cool to play live with a drum machine instead of live drums once but we couldn’t hear the drum machine in the monitors. It turned out like some kind of a-rhythmic counter-culture fusion with the instruments half a bar ahead of the drums. The style didn’t catch on.

Lola: A stand out moment was when an audience member fell on the floor laughing during my spoken bit of “Boys Talk”. He said he thought I was trying to rap. He was an acquaintance of Cholmondeley’s who I was dating at the time. The relationship didn’t last much longer.

Malcolm: he was never right for you.

++ I saw some photos by the band and I notice you had a very colourful style! Was wondering about those shirts and dresses you wore. Was it your normal outfits or was it just for the band?

Lola: That dress was pretty much standard daywear for me back then. Vintage dresses from Backlash or charity shops. Black DM boots were my most expensive item.

Hernandez: That red paisley shirt I’m wearing is the one Me and Dean Martin sang about on ‘Me and My Paisley Shirt’.

Malcolm: I think I’m wearing a green polo shirt – that was racy enough for me

Babs: I was boring baggy jeans and black tops most of the time.

Cholmondeley: I was reviving the haircuts of Welsh rugby players circa 1973. Known as a short Bach and sides.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press? What about fanzines?

Cholmondeley: fab local fanzine ‘’Mutate” edited by Idi Blod was very supportive. We later featured in their top strip: ‘Ron Pemberton: Super Predator’

++ And then when and why did you split? What happened after? Did you all continue making music?

Lola: Sadly no. I travelled about a bit. Spent 3 years in Australia. Then a career change to nursing.

Babs: Can’t really remember what happened (it was along time ago).

Malcolm: it wasn’t really a split more a growing apart as careers and families became priorities. There was no big bust up over artistic differences or anything like that although I seem to recall that Hernandez still owes me a fiver.

Hernandez: We may have had a Banana Split, but actually I think I always preferred a Knickerbocker Glory special. It was never easy when mum and dad took us out to the ice cream parlour.

Cholmondeley: … thank heavens we stopped when we did… My gallbladder was the size of Manhattan by the end.

++ What about today? What do you do? Still making music or not? What other hobbies do you have?

Lola: I’m a part-time nurse and part-time post grad student, studying Person-Centred Experiential Psychotherapy. I like to sing in the shower and am trying to learn to play the banjo when I have time. I can make a good sound on my didgeridoo. I also knit scarves.

Hernandez: Banjo it up, Lola! I play acoustic guitar and sing in a music hall and folk band called Bendigo’s Bazaar. We’ve just started gigging and recording. Check out our youtube channel and facebook page!

Malcolm: I’ve got a banjo. Didgeridoo Lola?….please….didgeridon’t.

Babs: Hay i’ve got a banjo too, cant play it though. Still love singing in the shower, but keep me away from the Karaoke when I’m drunk!!!. I also take part in a village Panto once a year. We are known as The Old Farts. They are always really bad but very funny and all the money we raise goes to local charities.

Malcolm: three banjos and an acoustic guitar – I really hope Cholmondeley has a tuba, what a career we could have.

Hernandez: He’s got a tuba-smarties. I like the orange ones. But why do you want to know about our confectionery habits? Sometimes, I find interviews hard to follow.

Cholmondeley: I think it’s obvious what happened to my bloody banjo! This cherry pop’s nice.

Hernandez: Oh, somebody’s tightly strung.

++ Tell me a bit about Nottingham today, I’ve been there just for a couple of hours on the way to Indietracks many times but never had the chance to explore. If one was to go as a tourist, what would you say one shouldn’t miss seeing, and what would be a traditional Nottingham meal?

Lola: The old pubs like the Trip to Jerusalem, the Bell and the Malt Cross.

Hernandez: Lola’s tips are good. Also have a pint of beer in one of the little snugs in The Peacock, also a classic old school pub. The Alley Cafe for good, hearty veggie food. Edin’s for a cake and coffee. Go to a day’s cricket at Trent Bridge. Visit the mystically beautiful Sherwood Forest, especially around The Major Oak.

Malcolm: they’ve got two turntables in the Peacock and a nice open fire. Newstead Abbey is a must, as is a walk around Attenborough Nature Reserve where I’m told they have Sand Martins. Does Lola only ever hang out in pubs these days?

Cholmondeley: Sand Martins is my favourite beer actually.

Lola: I only ever hung around in pubs. But stayed within the government’s recommended weekly maximum alcohol limit (14 units).

Babs: Dont forget The Salutation and The Royle Children. Lola . LOL

Malcolm: why?..what happened in there then, anything we should know about?

Lola: Unfortunately I can’t remember.

Cholmondeley: Nottingham is officially the gaming capital of the UK; which is fat use to me, frankly.

++ One last question. Looking back, what would you say was the biggest highlight for The Marteens?

Lola: Meeting up with everyone again after 25 years over some fine food and drink. They hadn’t changed. And having our songs released in 2018. Stupendous!

Babs: I agree with Lola .

Malcolm: fantastic reunion and working together on the album.

Hernandez: The pure Knickerbocker Glory of it all.

Cholmondeley: something precious plucked out of the aether. We could have let it be, y’know ..?

++ Thanks so much! Anything else you’d like to add?

Lola: If we gig again, we’d love fans old and new to join us. And if anyone does collapse to the floor, well I’m a nurse now, so I can help. Take care x

Hernandez: Respect to Lola for that brilliant arc! ‘M. A. R. T. Double E. N. S. What does that mean?… ‘

Malcolm: it’s just great to think that after 25 years there are still people out there, like those at Firestation, who want to keep the music alive and people running blogs and fanzines, like Cloudberry, who want to keep the memories alive through their writing.

Cholmondeley: pass the lime pickle please Malc …

Malcolm: you know I hate being called Malc.

Hernandez: Hey, Malc, why’s Cholmondeley having lime pickle with that Knickerbocker Glory? Sometimes, I find interviews hard to follow. Thank goodness, we have Babs and Lola to keep us right…. Oh, they’ve gone off into a huddle in the corner, and are muttering darkly. I think I heard them say something about ‘Boys Talk part 2’….

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Listen
The Marteens – First Kiss

Thanks so much to Niklas Barwe for the interview! Wrote about the Cod Lovers some time ago on the blog and luckily Niklas got in touch and was up for answering all my questions! The Cod Lovers were part of that first wave of Swedish indiepop that released records in the late 80s and early 90s on labels such as Ceilidh Productions or A West Side Fabrication. They were part of legendary festivals as Hultsfred or Emmaboda and left wonderful albums and singles to prove it!

++ Hi Niklas! Thanks so much for the interview! How are you? What have you been up to? Have you been making music as of late?

Hi Roque! Everything is fine here. I still play music, it’s in my veins, I can’t quit you know. Nowadays I play with a group called Northern UpBeat and we play soul songs like ”Higher and Higher” and ”Tainted Love”, but also some tunes from Dexys Midnight Runners.

++ What are those first music memories of yours, what sort of music did you listen at home while growing up? And what do you think inspired you, made you want to be in a band?

For me it all started quite late in life (I was 11-12 years old) with the Beatles. The red album & the blue album and then some Elvis records and ELO. I remember I started to like melodies and songs.

Then the punk-scene came along. Bands like Blondie, Ramones, Sex Pistols, the Clash, The Jam, Stiff Little Fingers and the Swedish punk band Ebba Grön and that sorts of groups, plus the Ska-scene with the Specials, Madness and so on, inspired me to start to play myself and be in a band.

++ What was your first guitar? And how did you get it? Did it take you long to learn how to play it?

The first guitar was an acoustic Spanish guitar that I bought from local music store. I sat in my room and tried to learn how to play, while listening to records. But the first electric instrument I learnt was bass, and I learnt it from a guy who was a musician.

++ Had any of you been involved with any bands before being in Cod Lovers?

I started my first group at the age of 15 with Johan Wallin from Cod Lovers. He was my friend and already a great guitarist and the one who I learnt to play the guitar from. We played all sorts of new wave and punk inspired music in the beginning of the 80´s, and then we evolved to a post punk band called Sista Vintern with lyrics in Swedish. We released a 7” ”Min vän” on Ceilidh Productions in june 1988.

++ Tell me how did the band start? Is it true that it started as a joke, that you were only planning to play the one show on Christmas 1988? Who were the members and how did you all know each other?

It was sort of a musical movement in Norrköping that emerged around -86. A creative environment where musicians got together around the label Ceilidh Productions and the founder Ola Hermanson. Ola is a friend and a very talented songwriter and nowadays he plays with his band Sonic Surf City and travels the world around in his work as associate professor. It was groups like the Persuaders, Sister James, 23 Till, The Great Gypsy Rockers, Sonic Surf City, Saturday Kids – all from Norrköping. And also Sound Affects the music magazine was very important in this movement.

The Cod Lovers formed in 1987, during the time me and Johan Wallin also were playing in Sista Vintern. It´s not true it started as a joke. It was more good songwriting and that we were already friends and common musical influences that got us started. But its true the plan was to play just one show.

The singer Johan Hallgren played in one of the first punk bands in Norrköping called Aggressiva Kostymer (Aggressive Suits) and I remembered I had seen him on stage, and he made a great impact on me back in the beginning of the 80´s. Later on we were in the same crowd around the label Ceilidh and became friends. Johan gave me a casette with a bunch of demo songs, and I was impressed of how awesome songs he´d written. We started to rehearse with various musicians. Then a party was planned in Christmas 87-88 at the local rock club Rockslottet, and we were offered a gig. Now with the gig the band took form with the original members. Me on electric guitar, Johan Hallgren on vocals and acoustic guitar. We also recruited my friend the multi talented Johan Wallin from Sista Vintern on drums, and my high school mate, the jazzy Beatles fan Johan Skaneby on bass.

After the gig we felt like WOW, this was fun! And we all decided to continue to play together.

++ What sort of music were you into at that time?

I remember we all got blown away when we saw the Hoodoo Gurus at the Roskilde festival in Denmark summer -87. We were into the contemporary Australian scene with bands like Hoodoo, The Go-Betweens, The Church (Under the milky way). More influences was Loyd Cole and of course Lou Reed and the V U. Maybe the Velvets was the group that we all were into the most. We also liked The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Cure, The Godfathers and the bands from Manchester; the Smiths, Joy Division/New Order, Stone Roses, Happy Mondays. We took up the old saying from the city’s industrial days; Norrköping – Sweden’s Manchester

++ And what would you say are your favourite all-time Swedish pop bands?

Well from the Swedish indiepop scene my favorites are

Eggstone, Popsicle, Wannadies, Dolkows

++ Why the name of the band? Big cod lovers I suppose? If that’s the case, what would be your favourite cod dish?

We quickly needed a name of the band when we got the first gig.

Singer Johan liked very much The Modern Lovers. So we made it a bit silly and the word Cod emerged. We meant it like ”Cash On Delivery Lovers”, but among friends and so it became Cod the fish.
The favortite cod dish is of course Fish & Chips with danish Remoulade sauce, made in a proper way by a real chef 🙂

++ Cod Lovers were based in Norrköping is that right? Are you there still today? Has it changed much since those days?

Yeah that’s right we were based in Norrköping. Johan Skaneby and myself did move to Stockholm in the beginning of the 90s, but now since a few years I’m back in Norrköping. The other “Johans” still live in Norrköping too. The town has changed very much since those days. As I said we called the city Norrköping – Sweden’s Manchester. And that was not only because we saw it as a homage to allt the bands from Manchester. It was also because the similarity between the citys as working class citys in change. The factories had shut down and something new had to grow. And Norrköping has changed very much since the end of the -80s. To the better luckily. It was much more unemployment back then. And the bars & clubs and restaurants are nicer now, and there are a lot of them nowadays. 🙂

++ What were the cool places in town? Like what was the record stores you frequented or the venues to check out up and coming bands? Were there any like-minded bands you were friendly with?

Perhaps not so cool but a place called Olympia had live conserts. Another place was Ritzo. But it was more a ”do it yourself” thing back then. A friend of mine started the rock club ”Rockslottet” in -86, where you could check out up & coming bands. The record store was ”Pet Sounds” at Nygatan where you bought the records, also run by a (another) friend of mine, they also did live concerts like Stone Roses at Olympia in Norrköping 1985. And as said Ola Hermanson started Ceilidh Productions so there’s was a record company that released high quality records with The Persuaders, Sister James, Sonic Surf City and Happy Dead Men from Stockholm and of course Cod Lovers. And the bands members were all friends.

++ And being so close to Stockholm, I suppose you used to go there a lot to quench your music thirst as well? Was there a good music scene in either town you’d say back then?

Yes its close to Stockholm and often we travelled there to go to concerts, I remember I saw the Clash and bands like U2 in the beginng of the 80´s. The music scene were alright in both towns, but nothing compare to nowadays when you can go to several concerts a week in Stockholm. In Norrköping its more like several concerts a month.

++ Why did Stefan Hubner join to play drums and Johan Wallin moved to keyboards and guitar instead of drums?

When we put Sista Vintern at halt, Staffan Hubner the drummer came along to do the drumming in Cod Lovers. Then Johan Wallin could focus on song writning and as he were a guitarist from the start, we thought it was better for the band.

++ And what about Stefan Andersson leaving the band? What happened? And how did you recruit Johan Skaneby?

Johan Skaneby is the original member of the band, but we parted ways just before the second album Pretty Things was released. Stefan Andersson from Sonic Surf City came in, but quitted after a year when SSC took all his time.

Johan Skaneby came back to the band the last year we existed.

++ Whereabouts did you use to practice? And how was the creative process for the band?

We use to practice in the industrial area in the town. This area was almost shut down during the -80s but we had a former industry local on the outskirts of that area where we hung

++ I can’t say which release came first, the flexi or the “Best Friend” 7″ in 1989. Maybe you can tell me that. And was wondering how did you end up contributing the song “Autumn” to the Sound Affects flexi?

The release of “Best Friend” 7” in 1989 was first. And then the Sound Affects flexi came out. Well the guys at Sound Affects liked us, and special the great John L Byström insisted we should do the flexi.

++ Sound Affects was a very important magazine at the time for the Swedish scene. How important was it for you? Did you had many appearances on it? Did you buy it regularly perhaps?

Yes Sound Affects was important for Cod Lovers, they liked us and gave the 7” “Best Friend” and ”French Plums” great reviews. We bought the magazine regularly and both John L Byström and Terry Ericsson were our friends. We were so close that when we released our last single on Ceilidh Productions John L Byström gave us a call with a correction about a detail on the single sleeve

++ The “Best Friend” 7″ is such a great record and it was released by the legendary Ceilidh Productions. Was wondering a couple of things, first, how did you end up signing with them and how was your relationship with the label? And second if you could tell me the story behind this classic song?

Ceilidh Productions had already released a vinyl single with Sista Vintern so the the relation with them was good. The boss Ola really liked the 7” “Best Friend” and we sent him a cassette with the the song right away after the mixing session. The relationship with Ceilidh Productions was friendly. I remember we were very pleased with the production and the mix that was made by Micke Herrström, the great indiepop producer att the time. He worked with Happy Dead Men, Sonic Surf City and later on Popsicle and many more. The story behind the song: The idea was to mix acoustic and electric fuzzed guitars to get the sound that we wanted. I think we managed quite good and the lyrics is about friendship – witch I think is a little fun in the context.

++ In 1990 you released your debut album “French Plums” which had 10 songs and was released on both CD and vinyl. I thought the CD is harder now to find than the vinyl? Maybe there was less CDs pressed? Also this album has probably my favourite Cod Lovers song, “French Plums” which also gives title to the album. What’s the story of “French Plums”?

Yes there were less CDs pressed, thats why its harder to find. French Plums is also one of my favorite songs on the album. We were inspired by the Manchester Scene and tried to get a bit a dancebeat into the song. The lyrics is about Johan Hallgrens girlfriend at the time and his longing for her as she was on a trip to New Zealand far away from him

++ The album was recorded by Daniel Gese at KM Studio in Nörrköping. How was that experience?

Actually most of the songs was recorded by Micke Herrström at the Decibel studio in Stockholm. He also did the mixing of the songs at the Atlantis studio in Stockholm. Micke Herrström is as said one of Swedens best producers. I’ve worked with him several times and we´we been in bands together to, one of them was called The Bukks and released an album 2004. Daniel recorded three of the songs at KM studio in Norrköping and he’s also av very good producer and engineer and runs his own studio there.

++ The next 7″, “Kill the Time”, was to be your last work on Ceilidh. Then you would move to A West Side Fabrication. Why did you change labels?

Yes we changed label. I think it depended on that we in the band was so impatience. We wanted everything ”now”. A West Side Fabrication told us if we choose them we could get out a second record quite fast, and for some reason we were in a hurry wich I think is reflected on the album Pretty Things. Though the first 7 songs is in good Cod Lovers level in my opinion

++ There was yet another magazine release, a 7″, were you appeared. There was a 7″ released by New Kind of Kick that had your song “Shatter the Harmony”. I have never heard of this magazine, so maybe you could tell me a bit about it?

It was more like a fanzine magazine. They lasted for about 2 years I think, and were situated in Linköping.

++ Are there still any unreleased songs by the band?

Yes we have a few unreleased songs. They would have been on the planned third album.

++ And from all your repertoire, what would be your favourite song and why?

Nowadays I think Bye Bye Pain from our first single is the song I like most. The song capture much of what The Cod Lvers was about.

++ You played the legendary Hultsfred festival. How was that?

That gig was awesome. And something we in the band appreciated very much

++ I read you also played in Spain and Latvia, is that right? Which cities? Who supported you? Do you remember?

The truth is that we had a planned tour in Spain with about 3-4 dates.

I think it was was the summer of -89´ after the 7” “Best Friend”.
We received great reviews in a Spanish music magazine for the single.

But we didn´t go on tour to Spain cause it was so uncertain with the payment for the gigs.

Instead Johan the singer and I went with train through Europe and played the streets in Portugal and Spain. We ended up in San Sebastian playing our songs there in a local bar. The gig was awesome, one of the best gigs in my life, and the guests at the bar gave us standing ovations, and a huge amount of beer too!

Later on, I think it was in 1993, we went to Riga in Latvia for two gigs. It was a lot of fun and the MTV of Latvia was there, and we drank cheap russian sparkling wine and had a good time.

++ Did you play any other countries?

No, it was plans for Berlin and more gigs in Germany but they never happened

++ And in general, did you gig a lot? Which are the best gigs you remember? And bad ones? Any anecdotes you could share?

We gigged quite much, and as said we did Hultsfred festival and Emmaboda festival, the biggest indiepop-festival at the time. The gig at the festivals was the best ones I think. A gig early 1994 at the University of Linköping was great I remember. But the early gigs at some Speakeasys (Clubs with no permission) in Norrköping I also remembers with a good feeling.

++ Then what happened? When and why did you split? Did you all continue making music afterwards? If so, in which bands?

I think it was April 1994 and the band had existed for about 5 years and we decided to call it a quits. Me and Johan lived in Stockholm and the rest in Norrköping and the members just had to much to do with our everyday jobs, it was no fun anymore. We all continued to do music afterwards, Johan Skaneby in a group called Honeycave.

++ And today, are you all still in touch? Have there ever been talks of or a reunion gig? I read that there was one in 2003 where you even put out a limited edition CD? Is there a way to get hold of it these days?

Today we’re still in touch. Johan Skaneby plays keyboards with me in Northern Upbeat and Johan Hallgren and I also have a little project. No records though. Yeah it was the last reunion in 2003 where we released a limited edition CD and that will be the last gig from The Cod Lovers. I think it will be hard to get hold on the limited CD.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press?

Yeah, some attention from the Swedish and Danish national radio.

3 songs from our gig at the Hultsfreds festival was aired by the swedish radio P3. Unfortunatly it sounded crap becasue of my guitar was out of tune 🙂

And an acoustic gig in swedish P3 that I remembered was quite good

++ Looking back in time, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

The gig at the Hultsfred festival and when we released the 1st album French Plums and we had an awesome release party in Norrköping and gig nr two later in the night at a Speakeasy club.

And the audience danced all night

++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

I am into film, and then I do a summer music festival in Norrköping called Knickedick

++ And lastly tell me a bit about Norrköping. I’ve never been there, so wondering what are the sights one shouldn’t miss or the traditional food or drinks?

It´s a quite nice city and the old industrial area is very nice with the Museum of Work and a great Italian restaurant called Enoteket.

The best cocktail bar is Pig´n´Hen and nice bar with quite much live music is Munken. And the we have Arbis, an old theatre thats nowadays is a great live venue and bar.

++ Thanks again for the interview, anything else you’d like to add?

Many thanks to you Roque and hope you enjoy!

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Listen
Cod Lovers – French Plums

Thanks so much to Ciarán for the interview! Also thanks to Javi from Pretty Olivia Records for helping me get in touch with Ciarán for this interview after I had written a piece about them some years ago!! As many of you know Cypress, Mine! released on that label a fantastic reissue of their LP “Exit Trashtown” that included much more than the original album. A beautiful packaged release that all indiepop lovers can’t miss. But after listening to it many times now I needed more background information about the band, I wanted to have a better picture of Cork, Ireland, the band, the lineup. So happily Ciarán was up to answering all my questions! And if that’s not enough he has shared with me 3 cool photos, check them out here:

1. Cypress, Mine! at the Lee Baths, Cork City in 1988. Photoshoot just before launching their 3rd single ‘Sugar Beet God’.
   Left to right: Ciarán (vocals), Ian (Guitar) Mark (drums) and Skoda (bass) Photo by Jim McCarthy.
2. 1987 Cork docklands… Justine single video shoot
3. 1986 Second demo tape photo

Hope you enjoy it!

++ Hi Ciarán! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! What are you up to these days? Are you still making music?

Working as a graphic designer in Dublin since I left Cork in the early 90s shortly after the band broke up. No, I don’t make music really but have dabbled a bit from time to time.

++ I wrote about your band on my blog some time ago and then almost immediately I learnt from Javi (Pretty Olivia Records) that you were preparing a re-release of “Exit Trashtown”. It was quite a surprise. But it also took some time. How did this release came to be?

Javi contacted us a few years ago and suggested the idea of re-releasing our album. So we discussed it and since I live in Dublin and Ian, the guitarist lives in London and the remaining members still in Cork it took a while for us to make up our minds. After that, we spent nine months approximately trying to source the analogue tapes which was a big ordeal since some of them could have been thrown out or lost. Luckily, Joe O’Herlihy who is U2’s Audio Director had kept the original master tapes for Exit Trashtown but we spent a lot of time looking for other tapes including our last demo tape which we were eager to get out there. Then, a lot of time was spent on the artwork as we had to reproduce the original artwork plus a whole new idea for the second LP In Pieces.
Also Javi introduced us to OMG in Brooklyn, New York and we were going to co-release the album with OMG and Pretty Olivia Records. Unfortunately, OMG were not in a position to release it in 2017 so we went back to the original idea of releasing it with Pretty Olivia Records only. So we lost a lot of time during the talks with OMG.

++ And for those who are unfamiliar with your band, what can one expect and what is in this record, which I think is unmissable!?

Thanks for that. The main LP Exit Trashtown was recorded in 1987 and was recorded in a small 8-track studio in Cork. It was the first rock LP recorded in the city and was all self-financed but an Irish label called Solid Records pressed it and distributed it for us. As a band we were always interested in trying new things and this is probably due to some of our punk influences or roots. The original band (without me) included Sean Lenihan who was in a punk band called Urban Blitz in 1980. We formed in 1984 and it took us a while to get our own sound which originally was a little bit punky with the guitar sounds of the Go Betweens and the Smiths. When we released the album, we released three singles to accompany it and the last one, Sugar Beat God was not on the original album but it gave a clue to the type of sound that we recorded in our later demo tapes in 1988/89. This sound was still jingly jangly but was influenced by the grunge and harmonies of the likes of Husker Du. So the second album has these demo tapes and a collection of our singles as well.

++ So, let’s go back in time to get the full picture of the band! Was wondering first of all, what are your first music memories, like what sort of music did you play home or what was your first instrument?

Thats an easy question cause I tried and failed badly at piano and guitar and haven’t managed since to conquer them. Luckily in Ian, Mark and Denis I had excellent musicians to get me out of that hole.
The type of music that I used to hear as I was growing up was mainly Irish tradional music and classical music. But by the time I was 16 and started going to gigs, I was lucky enough to see a really healthy Cork and Irish music scene happen. I used to go to these gigs to take photographs and I watched bands like Microdisney, Five go down to the Sea, U2, Virgin Prunes all start off. Also bands from the UK such as The Fall, the Specials, Wah, Heat! played locally in Cork.

++ And then what inspired you to have a band?

Good question. A lot of my friends were in bands and they seemed to be having great fun and were getting fairly successful. Obviously I liked music and had it in my mind that I would like to give it a try and one day I met Mark Healy by chance outside our local record shop and he was asking me if I knew anyone who wanted to be a singer in his band. I said I didn’t but I would be happy to give it a try myself. The following week I went to their practice room which was above a chip shop in the Grand Parade, Cork and I listened and made some noises and it just carried on from there. The band at that stage were called the Playroom and were really only finding their feet. I’d say it took another year before we put a few proper songs together because I certainly had no background in it.

++ Had you all been involved in bands prior to Cypress, Mine!? If so, which bands and how did they sound?

No, just taking their photos!

++ How did the band start? How did you all know each other? How was the recruiting process? Originally there was a different singer, right?

There was a different guitarist, Sean and I believe a different singer for a little while but that was well before Cypress, Mine! were formed. As I mentioned by the time I met up with Ian and Skoda for the first time in the practice room over the chipper they were called the Playroom and Ian suggested at that stage that we should change our name to The Classical. Cypress, Mine! were only formed around that stage.

++ And just out of curiosity why was Denis O’Mullane called Skoda?

Denis when I first met him used to drive a little Fiat Panda car. We loved playing around with words in the band especially Mark so since Fiat was made in Italy we decided to call him Denis O Milan which then changed to Fiat O Milan but then he changed cars to a van and we had to change his name to Skoda because he no longer had the Fiat. These days, he cycles a lot so maybe the name should change!

++ Before being in the band I read you had been a photographer of the early punk scene in Cork. How was that experience?

It was fantastic. I met a lot of people from all over the world as they came to play in the Arcadia in Cork. I also learnt how to take photos the old fashioned way with film which helped me get work when I left school. It was a real eye opener as I was very young going to these gigs and very naive.

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name? I’ve seen it written sometimes as Cypress Mine too, what was the correct form to write it?

The right way is Cypress, Mine! and as I mentioned we loved playing with words. We thought it might get attention with the extra punctuation and also annoy some people as well. It was always a talking point which was a good idea to get people’s attention.
Regarding the actual name, as you know we toyed with the idea of being called The Classical for about two weeks while throwing other words and ideas into the mix as well. Eventually during one practice Mark shouted one word and I added another word and that’s where Cypress, Mine! came from.

++ What sort of music were you all into at the time? Who would you say were your influences?

Because I saw all the bands in the Arcadia, I started to like the Liverpool bands, Echo and the Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes, Pete Wiley and then later the Smiths, Go Betweens, the Cure, Let’s Active, Prefab Sprout. I remember Ian liking the Byrds, Glen Campbell and Crass. Skoda was a big Julian Cope fan. Later on, I started to become aware of Husker Du, Jane’s Addiction but I always loved the Cork bands who wrote about their own place in their own voice.

++ How was Cork back then? Were there any like-minded bands? Where did you usually hang out? What were the good record stores, or venues to go and check out up and coming bands?

eat and healthy scence with a fair few small gigs. We started in a place called the Underground, and played in parks, played on the back of trucks and later graduated to Sir Henry’s which was the best and the biggest gig around at the time. Other bands like Porcelyn Tears, Real Mayonaisse, Burning Embers, Belsonic Sounds were formed around the same time but we all had our own individual sounds. Having said that there were many average bands around as well!
Our favourite band at the time was a band called Without The who were rocky, punky, melodic and funny all the same time. Later on, other good bands sprouted up like The 3355409’s, Sultans of Ping and Frank & Walters. At that stage, we had moved on, concentrating on Dublin and London so we did not keep up to date with all that was going on. In 1989, we broke up of course and interestingly enough since there was not that many great record shops in Cork at that stage, a guy called Brian O’Kelly asked me to help set up a branch of Comet Records in Cork in 1990. Comet were the company that put out our first two songs on vinyl (Swallow and Sounds Like Rain) and had a very successful record shop in Dublin. Fairly soon after that I moved to Dublin to work in design.

++ How was the creative process for Cypress, Mine!?

We basically met in our practice room for a couple of hours two or three nights a week where I recorded the melodic noise that the others created on a sony walkman tape recorder. I listened back and tried to find vocal ideas from that and then the lyrics came at a later stage. As the guys were very talented and sometimes practiced on their own and came up with song structures, my job was the easy part.

++ I read that you were managed by Tony O’Donoghue who is now a sports commentator. What did he bring to the table? How was your relationship with him? I suppose lots of sports talk?

No, there was very little sports talk as he was only starting out in his career on radio at that stage. He started out reviewing music and then later moved to sport. Tony was very persuasive and was a good talker which was very handy when we were organising gigs and talking to record companies. He had a wider view on things which was helpful too.

++ Where did you usually practice?

We had two practice rooms. We started off above a chipper sharing with the Belsonic Sounds who were a reggae band. Then we moved to a building close to the City Hall in Cork which was above a paint shop.

++ Was your first ever “release” the 2 song demo tape wth “Swallow” and “Talk to the Wall”? This tape was mostly sold at gigs alongside other demo tapes of yours like “The Bible – Part 2”. How many copies were made? And were were these recorded? What other sort of merch did you use to sell at gigs?

Have no idea how many copies we sold or made. We didn’t sell any other merch. I think we recorded these in Sulan Studios in Ballyvourney which is in West Cork.

++ In 1986 and 1987 you appeared on two compilations by Comet Records. This was a small retail chain in Ireland. Was wondering how important were they? Or what can you tell me about this store and label, and how did it help you make a name in town?

Yeh this was very important to us because it gave us our first radio plays and videos and also got our name out there especially in Dublin. The record store in Dublin were looking for local Irish bands to put on their two releases and they liked us so put us on twice. The shop itself in Dublin was very important. It was one of the few places in Dublin at the time that you could get our type of music and was very busy. It had a great scene around it. You’d see a lot of people hanging around outside the shop and always seemed to be very busy inside.

++ Your first proper record was the fantastic “Justine” 7″! I hope to find a copy one day, it might as well be my favourite Cypress, Mine! song. But I wonder if there’s any chance if you could tell me the story behind this song?

I suppose its just a very simple love song written from a fairly naive perspective…. a kind of first love breakup type of a song…… just talking about the games that people play in those situations. In fact, the girl the song was written about (her name was not Justine!) made a brief appearance in the equally rare video of the song.

++ This record and your next record “In the Big House” 7″ came out on Solid Records. Who were Solid Records and how did you end up signing with them?

Solid Records were also Dublin based but run by a Cork man – Denis Desmond of MCD promotions. He signed a lot of Irish bands around that time and released a lot of vinyl on the label, most of it now is fairly rare. Again this was very helpful as we got bigger gigs like playing with Echo and the Bunnymen in Belfast and more TV and Radio plays from it as they were “a recognised label”.

++ In 1988 your LP “Exit Trashtown” is released. It says that the name of the album refers to a place in County Cork called Trashertown. What’s that about?

As I mentioned earlier, often in practice we used to play around with words. A lot of my song titles changed because we wanted a better title or we were bored or just for the fun of it. The same thing happened when we were looking for a title for the album. Someone came up with the word trashtown first and then Exit seemed to be a good word to put before it….. it kinda reflected where we were at the time. We had recorded an album, the first rock album in Cork that we self-financed, we started to play shows all over Ireland and the UK. We just wanted to say that it was possible to do things with a bit of work. Yeh it was mentioned that there was a place in north Cork called Trasherstown, but it had nothing to do with that.

++ This record was produced by Dennis Herlihy, how was that experience?

Dennis was our live sound engineer and it was great working with him in the studio. He was very inventive especially since it was only an 8-track studio. He managed to bounce a lot of tracks to make it faux 16-track, splice- up tape and played it backwards and invented a lot of solutions and sounds to help us along. Of course, we also had Peter West engineering who recorded our last demo with us which we were very happy with. A few tracks were also produced by Joe O’Herlihy during that time as well and Joe did our live sound occasionally when he wasn’t working for U2.

++ In 1988 there was yet another 7″, “Sugar Beat God”. At this time, I want to ask about the artwork of all your releases. There is something very 80s about them but at the same time timeless. Was wondering who made them, and what was your expectations for them?

The artwork (old style- cut & paste with very little computers involved) was done by our friends Mick and Conor and the photograph on the album was taken by another photographer friend of mine called Jim McCarthy. We, of course, had a lot of input into the artwork, again you’ll notice the wordplay on Sugar Beat God sleeve. The new double album was a challenge for me because I had to re-design the original album again and finding all the old material was an ordeal. Also, I had to tie in the two albums together.

++ “Sugar Beat God” has a video filmed in London by Roy Fairweather. Whereabouts was it recorded? What memories from that day? Did you spend much time in London?

Super Channel which were tied in to MTV in some way met us down in the Bull and Gate in Kentish Town in London. This venue was run by Jon Fatbeast who later became famous with his involvement with Carter USM. We used to gig there a lot. They recorded us playing on stage there and then took me out on the streets of Kentish where we filmed on the high street in front of a church. That was during the time that we spent about a month in London playing lots of gigs and squatting all over the place.

++ There is also another video on Youtube for the song “Last Night I Met the Man”? I’ve only seen this a few days ago, where does this footage come from? Is that you dressed as a girl?

Yea that’s me in the dress alright. It was filmed for an Irish language programme in 1988/1989 and I shot some new video around Dublin that I mixed in with it. Also there are some clips from our last ever live show in it which was in a school in Cork.

++ The last time we hear from you is with the song “Sugar Beat God” on a tape compilation on Solid Records called “Solid Citizens”. Wondering, aside from this compilation and the two Comet ones, were there any other compilation appearances by the band?

No I don’t think so.

++ Are there any unreleased material by Cypress, Mine! or has everything been released?

There is some but not much. Most of the best stuff has been released.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? What were the best ones that you remember?

I have no idea of how many gigs but there was many. Some of the best gigs for us were in places like Kilkenny, Waterford, Sir Henry’s Cork and the Bull and Gate in London. Some of the gigs were we supported bigger bands were great as well. Meeting Rory Gallagher after he came to see us in the Mean Fiddler was something that I’ll always treasure.

++ Where there any bad ones? Any anecdotes you could share?

One of the worst ones for me personaly was we were due to play with some other bands in Christchurch Cathedral in Dublin. I think it was due on TV as well. As the day wore on I began feeling worse and worse and started to lose my voice and came down with the flu. I knew I wouldn’t be able to do anything later that night but all the guys including some friends in Dublin were all urging me saying that it will be alright. We were holed up in a pub across the road and just as we were about to go to the venue I heard the news that the PA blew up so luckily for me I got away with that one but felt absolutely crap about it. Another time in Tralee we played the Abbey Inn. There were very few people in the pub and I think we were run out of the pub by the owner. I just don’t think we were his taste and rumour has it that we weren’t the first ones it happened to!

++ Where was the farthest from home that you played? And which bands did you like sharing the bill with?

I suppose the London gigs were the furthest away from Cork. We played with Microdisney in the Mean Fiddler in London which was fantastic, as I mentioned the Echo and the Bunnymen gig in Belfast, U2 in Cork, the Bluebells in Kerry, and Aztec Camera in the Olympic Ballroom in Dublin. They were all great gigs.

++ On the Irish Rock website it mentions you appeared on the TV show “TV Ga Ga” in 1986. How did that happen? Were there any other TV shows where you were invited?

Not sure how it happened but it was probably Tony asking and harassing people! I think we were also on a show called Borderline, at around the same time. We were also on Irish Language Programmes as well as some local Cork television.

++ Then what happened? When and why did you split?

One of our best gigs was in Ian’s old school. We had been invited along to play to the students in Spring of 89 and we played some new material mixed with the old. The students loved it and we were performing really well as a band. We had recently finished recording our last demo which we were really happy with and had sent that out to various people. So we had recorded something that we were very happy with and played an awful lot of gigs at that stage but we didn’t seem to be progressing the way we wanted to in the music business. So I guess we just grew frustrated and impatient at the lack of progress.

++ What did you all do after? Were you involved with music still?

I did a bit of DJing, helped to get Comet Records started in Cork and began to do graphic design. I did a lot of posters for bands and a bit of photography to do with the music scene in Cork at that stage. After that I moved to Dublin.

++ Did you get much attention from the radio or press? What about fanzines?

Yea we got a lot of local press in Cork and some in Dublin. There was a few guys in Dublin like George Byrne who really helped us out but the Dublin journalists concentrated a lot on the Dublin bands at the time. Strangely enough even though I was involved in fanzines personally a few years before the band, there didn’t seem to be many around in the mid – 80s.

++ Today, aside from music, what do you all do? What other hobbies do you have?

Mainly graphic design and photography.

++ Have you ever thought or have played any reunion gigs?

Yes we have talked about it but we have nothing planned.

++ And today, are you still based in Cork? How has the town changed? If one was to visit, what would you say are the sights not to miss, or the traditional food one has to try?

I don’t live in Cork now and I rarely get back there.

++ Looking back in time, in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight about being in Cypress, Mine!?

Making some decent records, recording our last demo, playing some decent gigs and having fun along the way with three or four others while doing it….. and of course meeting Rory Gallagher!

++ Thanks again, anything else you’d like to add?

Thanks very much for the interview, Roque. Some great questions and hopefully some of my answers might help to clear up a few of the rumours that I have occasionally seen! Keep an eye out on our Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as we will be occassionally updating it. Cheers.

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Listen
Cypress, Mine! – Justine