Thanks so much to Paul, Ian and Rob for the interview! I wrote about The Almanacs a couple of weeks ago and was lucky to get in touch with the band members who were very kind to answer all my questions! The band released just one 7″ but recorded many songs, appearing on lots of compilations. Now it is a good time to rediscover them!
++ Hi all! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? What’s going on with you all? Are you still making music?
Paul: All good here. Rob is still making music, Ian lives in the country and I’m growing my hair.
++ I’d like to start with the very beginning. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what was your first instrument? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen at home while growing up?
Paul: As a child I liked Abba and then Duran Duran! At secondary school I became more aware of other kinds of music, especially New Order, Prefab Sprout, Scritti Politti, the Blow Monkeys, the Smiths, and Lloyd Cole. It wasn’t until doing A Levels that I met more like minded people like Rob and Ian !
Ian: I used to like to record the pop charts from the radio each week on an audio tape (I only had one) and bought the odd 7” record during my childhood. I learnt the violin at this time too, but only stuck it for a couple of years. I got more bands at secondary school such as the Human League, Depeche Mode and the Smiths, then getting more into the indie scene from there. Paul got me into some of his favourite bands just around the time we became friends, then formed the first version of the band.
Rob: My Grandmother played piano and knew every hymn in the Methodist Hymn Book (this is how boring life was before the internet) and my mum sings opera, so I suppose I had a musical family. I was forced to learn piano and trumpet but I soon gave up on both and taught myself the guitar instead. My sister suddenly stopped listening to Duran Duran and played me Hatful Of Hollow when I was 14. After that I started listening to John Peel and a whole new world opened up.
++ Was The Almanacs your first band or had you been in other bands before that? If so, how did these bands sound like? Are there any recordings?
Paul: I was in another Derby band called The Deskimoes before The Almanacs. I learnt to play the guitar (sort of) in order to join them. Apart from Nick who sang and wrote the songs, we all learned to play our instruments from scratch. There was a track released on a Flexi and of course a cassette compilation
https://www.discogs.com/artist/4220635-The-Deskimoes
Ian: I (very) briefly played bass for Iris before deciding I’d rather do my own thing with The Almanacs.
Rob: My first band was called The Ego Balloons with Nick (Deskimoes) and Gary (The Beekeepers) Despite some promising songs and some devastatingly floppy haircuts, we never gigged or recorded, Jyoti poached Nick and Gary for White Town and we split up. I was then briefly in a band in Leeds while at University, but again nothing was released.
++ Where were you from originally, Derby?
Paul: Yep, we’re all from Derby although Ian was actually born in Burnley.
++ How was your city at the time? 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?
Paul: Derby was all I really knew at that point, though you had to go to Nottingham or Leicester for the best record shops and music venues. In retrospect it felt like a very insular period but it was all good fun. Every so often though, Derby would pull something out of the hat, so at Derby’s best venue – the Dial – we saw the Sea Urchins, the Field Mice, Heavenly, Primal Scream, Teenage Fanclub and loads of other great bands. The Wherehouse was good too – saw the BMX Bandits, Stereolab, Captain America (Eugenius) and Shonen Knife there. That said, there was always something lacking on the Derby scene and I think it is a shame that Derby has never produced a really great or popular band.
We only ever played in Derby! We’d send and receive letters and tapes from all over the world but never left our own town as far as gigs went… Like I said – insular, though we had some great times playing with other Derby bands like Peru and the Fantastics (our first live drummer Justin was in them too, with a lovely chap called Declan). Our big moment was when we were booked to support 14 Iced Bears, but a few hours before the gig the promoter told us they weren’t going to turn up… We were gutted.
Ian: Yes, it was fairly provincial compared to the nearby cities Paul mentions. I guess we all felt a bit different to other people who weren’t into the same things as us, which bonded us together. But it could also feel pretty suffocating too and looking back must have contributed to why we formed a band.
Rob: There were actually loads of record shops in Derby back in the late 80s/early 90s. RE Cords/BPM, Siren/Oasis, , Collectors Records, Richard’s Records/Spot-On Sounds, Way Ahead – and then the chain stores – HMV, Our Price, Virgin, Woolworths. Most Saturdays were spent doing the circuit, deciding where to spend the money you didn’t have!
++ When and how did the band start? How did you all meet?
Paul: Ian and I formed a largely imaginary band called the Hairgods and took it from there. We played a few gigs as the Almanacs with various line-ups but when Rob joined he added some extra musicality to the group and rescued us !
++ What’s the story behind the name The Almanacs?
Paul: The Hairgods had booked our first gig but we thought we needed a new name… We had a few days to think of one and we were listening to a lot of Kinks songs in 1992, so the name came from the song Autumn Almanac. Funnily enough I now live round the corner from the house where Ray and Dave Davies grew up, so whenever I pass by their house on the bus I not only think of the Kinks but also of the Almanacs…
++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?
Paul: I think we tended to write alone, though there were a few songs where one of us would write the music and the other would write the melody and lyrics. As far as I can remember we practiced at each others’ houses when our parents were out !
Rob: Paul and Ian wrote the music and the words – my creative input was limited to just a bit of arrangement and extra guitar/bass parts where it sounded good. I loved the simplicity of the songs, so I tried my best not to ruin them! As Paul and Ian both wrote and sang it would be easy to say they were like Lennon & McCartney but in actual fact I think Paul was more prolific and almost Lennon AND McCartney. Ian was George Harrison – fewer songs but those he contributed were amazing.
++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?
Paul: I can only speak for myself but I tended to be influenced by what I was listening to at the time, Orange Juice, Small Faces, Kinks, T-Rex and of course loads of other bands around at the time or from the late eighties – Weather Prophets, St Etienne, Pastels and Teenage Fanclub were favourites of mine at that time… and Britpop was just around the corner. Ian and I liked Suede but Rob hated them ! We all liked Pulp as far as I can recall. Even then we all thought Oasis were total shite.
Ian: We used to go out several nights a week so yes, we all got a bit sick of Oasis which seemed to be on constant rotation, but you would also get to hear some good stuff too. It was a time for constantly discovering new and old music, which was definitely an influence especially in the early days
++ Your first release as far as I know was “The Derby Tape” that was released by the Greek fanzine The World of Suzie Wong. How did this connection with Greece happen? And how come this was your first release and not one in the UK?
Paul: I think they contacted us out of the blue. No idea how they got our address – especially before the internet existed ! I think though that perhaps that was our second fanzine tape.
++ That was 1992 and that same year you would appear in the “C92” which I’ve always been curious about as it is a great one even though it seems it doesn’t get the recognition it deserves and there is not much info about it anywhere. Do you know anything else about it? Like who put it together for example?
Paul: I have no idea about that one !
Ian: Nor me
Rob: Me and Ian were only looking at the Discogs page a few weeks back and laughing at how many fanzine tapes were ended up on that we had never heard of. We assumed that Paul had sorted them all out – but it seems not.
++ Then you appeared on comps on Elefant Records from Spain and Anorak from France. It seems at this point you were more of an international band. Did it feel that way? That you had more recognition abroad that in the UK?
Paul: It definitely felt that way – I used to get letters from all over Europe, Canada, USA, and strangely from Thailand too. The international interest definitely outweighed the UK interest.
++ Another French label would have you on a compilation called “From the Derwent to the Garonne, a Derbian compilation”. It feels that there was quite some interest in the Derby scene no? And I wonder too how close you were to the other bands that are featured here like Antiseptic Beauty, White Town and Iris?
Paul: We all knew each other really well, and saw each other all the time (except maybe Iris, who were a little aloof). The three of us went for a drink with John from Antiseptic Beauty last summer, and are still in touch with Nick from The Deskimoes and Gary from the Beekeepers.
Rob: There definitely seemed to be a “Derby Scene” at that point, although it didn’t last long. That said, the four bands on that Alienor compilation all sounded very different – which may have been the problem!
++ In 1994 you finally release your first 7″, “Another World EP”, on Anorak Records. How did this release come to be? Did you ever meet with the guys behind the label? Did you play France?
Paul: Again they contacted us after we had been on one of their tapes. It was great to be picked as their first release and was really exciting at the time, though I think we had to wait a year or two for the single to come out, as we agreed to do the record with Anorak in 1992. All done by letter again., we never met them and never went to France either…
Rob: I ended up Facebook friends with Fabien (via Brian from the band Peru) when he was celebrating his 20 years of Anorak Records. I think there was some hope we might be able to go over there and play but it wasn’t to be. He seems a lovely chap
++ The songs were recorded by Jyoti Mishra from White Town, how was that experience?
Paul: Exhausting, for us and for him. We tried to get it all done quickly so we could save money and so he didn’t have to deal with us for too long.
Ian: Although we were friends with Jyoti, it’s fair to say he wasn’t really an Almanacs fan! It was quite interesting to learn how to record though as it was all new to me, but the novelty soon wore off.
Rob: All of the sessions with Jyoti were done several years before he had his hit single. He was the only person in Derby with an 8 track recorder in his bedroom, so back then recording bands was his only source of income. He probably put up with a few bands worse than us!
++ The title song had a promo video which is really cool. Was wondering where was it filmed? Did it take long? Was it aired on TV? How was the experience and any anecdotes you can share?
Rob: This was all my work I’m afraid. I was the only person who owned a video camera so I used to record as much as I could (my Andy Warhol phase maybe). Most of the footage is from a band rehearsal in Paul’s parent’s back room. I didn’t have any editing equipment, so to piece together the video I had to record the various sections to a VHS tape using the pause button. Then to dub the music on top I played the VHS tape on the TV and recorded that back onto the video camera whilst playing the song. That’s why it’s so fuzzy and has scan lines all over it. You can probably get a retro digital filter to achieve much the same thing these days! It was never aired anywhere other than to friends and family.
++ Something that I was wondering, as you appeared on many compilations and I counted in total 15 to 16 released songs, how come there was no album by the band?
Paul: Looking back we never had a plan, and just went from one tape or record to the next which was largely determined by whatever was offered to us from the people we sent tapes to. I wish we had released another 7″ single.
++ And why not any more releases?
Paul: With us scattered around the UK it became harder to organise recording sessions or play gigs.
++ Aside from all these releases are there any other songs that remain unreleased? Or songs that only appeared on demo tapes?
Paul: Here is the full recording list:
Session 1: No Difference, When Things Get Too Much, Sunburnt Skin, Time to Develop
Session 2: Got to Wait, Beautiful Bore, I’m Not Violent, Yours Hopefully, Peeg Sex, Accurate and Cool
Session 3: I Might Miss It, Taken Too Long, I Can Live With That, I Sure Do, Confession Time, Living On Another World
Session 4: I Like The Water, Morbid Interest, I’d Think I Was Dreaming, A Job Worth Doing
Session 5: Plymouth Almanac, Out of This Room, That Was the Day, Bitter and Twisted, Clinical, Louise, My Last Day
The first four sessions were recorded with Jyoti. The last session was recorded by Rob and I on his four track. We have two albums on Spotify – On Vinyl and On Tape. In terms of physical releases I think you have listed them all, the Alienor compilation did come with a free 7″ single which we had one side of.
Rob: We did demos of the Session 4 tracks at my house first before recording them “properly” at Jyoti’s. The demos probably sounded better to be honest. We also did a few cover versions at gigs. Rod Stewart’s “I Don’t Want To Talk About It” and “Maggie May”, Wings “Band On The Run” and KC & The Sunshine Band’s “Please Don’t Go” – there are some bad bootlegs of these.
Paul unearthed the DAT master of the first 3 sessions not long back so most of the songs have survived (although a couple seem lost). Sessions 4 & 5 are the ones on Spotify.
Paul: Ah yes – the live covers!! I’d forgotten about those. We tended to pick songs that we could cover in an irreverent way. ‘I Don’t Want to Talk About It’ was done in a Bandwagonesque style, for ‘Band On The Run’ we chopped out two thirds of the song and only did the final jangle section (in the style of ‘Never Seen Before’ by the Close Lobsters) and ‘Please Don’t Go’ was just weird. At the time there was a terrible cover of that song by KWS who were a mainstream dance act from Nottingham. It got to No.1 in the UK charts – our version was Derby’s answer back!
++ I think my favourite song by The Almanacs is “Living in Another World” , was wondering if I could ask what’s the story behind this song, what inspired it?
Paul: The song is the usual relationship stuff about missed chances, lack of confidence and other stuff getting in the way. It was Rob’s idea to add the Planet of the Apes recording.
Rob: Ha – yes I was obsessed with the film at the time, and particularly Taylor’s soliloquy at the start. It seemed to fit the mood of the song, and probably our lives at that point.
++ If you were to choose your favourite The Almanacs song, which one would that be and why?
Paul: To quote Lawrence from Felt ‘you know I love them all’. Not quite true, but I can’t pick a favourite.
Ian: Louise!
Rob: So many favourites but of the Paul songs, probably “A Job Worth Doing” and of Ian’s – definitely “When Things Get Too Much”
++ What about gigs? Did you play many? All over the UK?
Paul: We only ever played in Derby! We’d send and receive letters and tapes from all over the world but never left our own town as far as gigs went… Like I said – insular. Our big moment was when we were booked to support 14 Iced Bears, but a few hours before the gig the promoter told us they weren’t going to turn up… We were gutted.
++ And what were the best gigs you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?
Paul: Our best gig was the last one in 1994 – Nick from The Deskimoes played drums for us and Marc from Bulldozer Crash played bass. That meant that Ian and Rob played guitar and I could just sing – and look ahead instead of down. And we never played together again !
Ian & Rob: Definitely agree. Just that small change in line-up made it sound so much better. Typical Almanacs perversity that we promptly stopped after that one great gig.
++ And were there any bad ones?
Paul: Our first gig in 1991 was dreadful. We played with the drum track on a tape player and for some reason missed out a verse of some song or other so finished playing whilst the tape just carried on drumming for about another minute. I particularly remember another gig where Antiseptic Beauty switched on a strobe light and smoke machine at the same time whilst we were playing, which caused a power cut and shut off the power in the venue. To top it off their banner fell down and covered Justin our drummer (a real person this time) in canvas. He carried on playing of course.
Ian: The worst one for me was the second one when I broke a string and my guitar went out of tune! Paul was a bit cross and I sulked afterwards. Ha ha!
Rob: I enjoyed all The Almanacs gigs – as I wasn’t singing and they weren’t songs I’d written I could relax a bit more than Paul & Ian. Even the disasters mentioned above were funny from my side of the stage!
++ When and why did The Almanacs stop making music?
Paul: In 1994 it just fizzled out really, as so many small bands do.. I do recall a ‘moment’ when for some reason I was back in Jyoti’s studio laying down the rhythm guitar and drum tracks for what would have been our sixth session, before Rob and Ian added their bits. I can’t remember why we didn’t just use Rob’s four track as that was perfectly good for our sound. Anyway, it was a difficult session in many ways and the process was so painful I just decided there and then that that was probably it and abandoned the session half way through. They were good songs too!
Rob: As I remember it, Paul & Ian both moved to London and logistically there didn’t really seem any point in trying to carry on. I don’t think we even formally split up. We just never mentioned it…
++ What about the rest of the band, had they been in other bands afterwards?
Paul: The other two did. It was Almanacs or nothing for me.
Ian: I recorded some songs with Rob under the name of Motorcade One and we did one gig, but I lost interest. I’ve dabbled on and off since, but it’s been about 10 years since I’ve written or recorded.
Rob: After The Almanacs stopped, myself, Nick and Marc (along with Brian from the band Peru) started a new band called Boy Scout. We didn’t do any Almanacs songs (it wasn’t a Doug Yule’s Velvet Underground situation) – it was all Nick’s stuff. Grunge had happened and he was obsessed with Smashing Pumpkins so the sound was a lot more aggressive than The Almanacs. We came perilously close to being signed but it fell through as these things tend to do. I then became a father and didn’t do much music for a couple of years until I joined MJ Hibbett & The Validators in 1999. We’re still gigging and recording 20 years later. Along the way I did a few guest sessions on trumpet for Airport Girl and The Chemistry Experiment. Oh and I played guitar in White Town for a while (a rite of passage for Derby musicians)
++ Has there ever been a reunion? Or talks of playing again together?
Paul: We talk about it from time to time. And Rob and I recorded a Northern Soul cover version in the early 2000’s which qualified as an official Almanacs track !
Rob: Haha – that version of “Love Slips Through My Fingers” is brilliant. I must dig it out!
We went to Cologne PopFest together last year and I’m pretty sure we drunkenly reformed at about 4am after a night of dancing, but then forgot about it again by morning.
++ Did you get much attention from the radio?
Paul: We were interviewed by Radio Derby! I thought we were famous by that point!
++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?
Paul: Nope.
++ What about from fanzines?
Paul: Yes definitely! That was one of the best things about it all – the fanzines are now great historical documents of all the enthusiasm around that particular scene at that time. There should be a museum of indiepop that keeps them all.
++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?
Paul: The Anorak Single, the Alienor Compilation, the last gig.
++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?
Paul: Morris Dancing and photography.
Ian: Buying and selling records, walking the dogs, going to the pub, going to the football.
Rob: Ian and I have season tickets for Derby County so we share that frequently disappointing hobby!
++ Never been to Derby, well, I was at the train station once on the way back to London from Indietracks, but I do know you have a beautiful cathedral, right? and I would love from a local for recommendations! What are the sights one shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?
Paul: Rob and Ian will know about that. I live in north London now and only visit Derby to see my parents or people who used to be in the Almanacs.
Ian: About once a year they allow the public to take the steps up the cathedral. The view from the top is quite impressive, especially on a clear day. There are a few old buildings and couple of pleasant streets, but it’s quite run down in other parts. I don’t go into the city much these days. There are no food specialities, but there is a grotty takeaway called Sarry’s that does a weird mix of kebab meat, baked beans and other random stuff that seems to have a cult following with some people I know. Derby has also got some good pubs where you can get a decent pint if beer is your thing.
++ Anything else you’d like to add?
All: Thanks for getting in touch and bringing back fond memories of being young and excitable in the early nineties.
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Listen
The Almanacs – Living on Another World
