Thanks so much to Nick, Linda and Maria for the interview!! I wrote about the Manchester 80s band Magic Roundabout on the blog a month ago. I was surprised that there was a 7″ out and an album announced for later this year of a rather obscure band! I didn’t know any details about the band and was surprised by the quality of their songs. They were so good! How come they are obscure? I didn’t undertand. Anyhow, I was lucky that Nick got in touch and organized this interview. It feels great to know more about them now and can’t wait for their album!
++ Hi Nick! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are you still involved with music?
Nick- I’m fine thanks. Yes, I’m still involved in music though at the moment interest in Magic Roundabout is taking up most of my time.
Linda- Yes.
++ Let’s go back in time. 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 to at home while growing up?
Nick- Gosh, first musical memories? I guess listening to BBC children’s radio at weekends in the 1970s, songs like Puff the Magic Dragon and My Old Man’s a Dustbin Man by Lonnie Donnigan, similar to most people my age in the UK probably. I consider myself a non-musician but my first instrument was the tuba. I heard a lot of my mum’s 60s pop growing up, Rubber Soul/ Sgt Pepper, Terry by Twinkle, Jenny Artichoke by Kaleidoscope that sort of thing.
Linda- I used to get up at 6am aged 3 and play records. Doris Day children’s album and whatever my family had. The Carpenters, Burt Bacharach. When I was 6 I got into watching a Beatles cartoon. I got a guitar when I was10 years old. When I started big school at 11 I got classical guitar lessons. I joined a choir aged 13 and learned to sing harmonies. I played and sang with my best friend Joanne in her bedroom mainly The Beatles songs and sometimes songs from musicals I was learning at school.
++ Had you been in other bands before the Magic Roundabout? If so, how did all of these bands sound? Are there any recordings?
Nick- no Magic Roundabout was my first band. Me & Paul imagined that we were in a band from probably about 1984/5.
Linda- Yes I was singing in a punk band called Xon Mombasa we did mainly covers of Sex Pistols, The Stranglers and a few original songs. I sang and played regularly at folk clubs from age 15.
++ Where were you from originally?
Nick- I’m from Salford.
Linda- I am originally from Horwich near Bolton.
++ How was Manchester at the time of Magic Roundabout? Were there any bands that you liked? Were there any good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?
Nick- Manchester in 1986 & 1987 was as pretty grim. There were loads of bands that we liked back then like J&MC, Shop Assistants, My Bloody Valentine with Dave Conway singing, The Pastels. We were massive VU fans. It was a bit of an in-between time in Manchester then, Joy Division were from a different generation & rave hadn’t really happened yet.
We loved The Fall. We liked King Of The Slums & Dub Sex both great under rated Manchester bands.
I remember buying singles from Picadilly Records & LPs from Affleck’s Palace. The main venues we saw bands at were the Hacienda, The Boardwalk, The International and the University but there were lots of little gigs in odd places back then as well.
Linda- Manchester was great I bought from Piccadilly Records but also a local record shop in Horwich. I’d buy a 45″ most weeks. Usually goth music, punk stuff. I loved the International and The Boardwalk live bands were high on my agenda.
Maria- The Fall, The Chameleons, Inspiral Carpets. Piccadilly records, Eastern Block records. The Boardwalk was a great place to check out new bands.
++ How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?
Nick- I’ve been friends with Paul since school. Paul met Linda on the bus told her he had an imaginary band & that’s how the band started off. I think I first met Nicola & Maria when we all went to see The Shop Assistants supporting J&MC in Blackburn, a year later we played our first gig. Karrie joined the band in summer 87.
Linda- I was on the bus going to Art College in Bolton and met Paul. Paul said he and Nick wanted to form a band. I offered to be in the band as Paul and Nick were new to playing. It took a while for us to get our sound. But we got recording a few months later.
Maria- For me I think it was something to do with Bolton Art college? all a blur I’m afraid.
++ What instruments did each of you play in your songs?
Nick- We were supposed to be, Linda- vocals & guitar, Paul- bass, Nick- drums, Nicola & Maria- tambourines, when Karrie joined, she played violin & guitar. We swapped instruments around live & in the studio on some stuff, so on side two of the LP it’s actually me & Maria playing guitars and Linda & Paul playing bass & drums.
Linda- I sang, played guitar but we did swap around on live gigs.
++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?
Nick- It was pretty quick, I’d write the lyric, Linda & Paul would work out some music and we’d play & practice it. We probably had about 20 or so songs but we must have got bored with playing them pretty quick. Up, one of our best songs I think we only played live once or twice because we were busy moving on to something else, which seems a bit daft looking back.
We rehearsed at The Boardwalk from late 86 & because of that we got in there to see loads of great gigs for free. I think we stopped rehearsing by summer of 87 pretty much.
Linda- Nick usually had written lyrics so I would write the chord progressions and melodies. Paul would write the basslines then we’d thrash it out and arrange it a bit more.
++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?
Linda- I remember watching the children’s TV show but I don’t remember why we stuck with it?
++ Who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?
Nick- We were all massive Velvet Underground fans, I still think White Light/ White Heat is maybe the best LP in the world. But Shop Assistants, early J&MC, a lot of C86 as well. We’d been big Bauhaus fan & Cocteau Twins fans.
Linda- I liked a wide variety of bands at the time. The Velvet Underground was high on the list as was Jesus and Mary chain.
++ I was really surprised to see you being released after all these years, out of the blue. From what I understand Ian Masters from Pale Saints shared your demo to Third Man Records. Were you friends with Ian? Or was it just a surprise all around?
Nick- I think Ian approached us after a gig we played in Leeds supporting Loop, I’m not sure we swapped any tapes then but we’ll have swapped addresses and I’ve been friends with Ian ever since. I suppose Ian has always from time to time suggested we should do something about releasing the recordings. Ian did a great version of Carol in Your Eyes around 2019 which I think maybe got us thinking, but the impetus behind putting the LP together probably came after I retired as a nurse about a year ago and had more time to try and put things together. The LP was originally going to be released on Ian’s Onkonomiyaki label but we were having some problems with the mastering stage. Ian’s friend Warren DeFever is a mastering engineer at Third Man which is how Third Man got involved. Ian very graciously encouraged us to go with Third Man to get a wider exposure for the music. It was Dave Buick at Third Man who had the idea of the single which we wouldn’t have had the money to do ourselves.
Linda- Nick was mainly friends with Ian and had kept in touch. I have worked with Nick so knew about their friendship.
++ You released a 7″ earlier this year with two songs. And the plans now is to release an album worth of songs. I’m wondering if between both releases all your recordings will see the light of day?
Nick- There are some recordings that aren’t on the single or LP. But their quality is too poor to do anything with, stuff recorded onto a 1980s boombox, live gigs & practice recordings, a couple of rubbish demos, some 4 track home recordings from 1988 before we split up.
Linda- We have some poor recordings of other songs which I’m not sure will be put out.
++ A video was released to promote “Sneaky Feelin'”. Where was that footage taken from?
Nick- We made the video in April 1987 in Stockport. The details of how we ended up doing the video are a bit vague but it was essentially a scam. A film crew would film a pretty rubbish video of an aspiring band & would expect that band to pay £800 for a copy of the video & some promotion that wouldn’t happen. £800 was an amazing sum of money then. A couple of years later I met one of the film crew and he said we were the only band that got out of there with a copy of a video and didn’t pay for it. We were pretty fast talkers then & asking £800 from us was a laugh. We thought we’d lost the video cassette long ago, but Paul found it in his attic about a week before the single was due out.
Linda- Nick mentioned Stockport but I seem to recall we were out towards Glossop way in some out of the way place.
++ Do tell me where did you record the 7″? Who produced the songs?
Nick- Sneaky Feelin & the tracks on side one of the LP were all recorded at the Kitchen, which was a studio in a converted flat in Charles Bury Cresent in Hulme in Manchester. The guy that ran the Kitchen & engineered was called Jamie, a lovely, friendly guy. I guess we produced it ourselves. The second side of the LP was recorded at the Mill in Aston, Manchester which was Clint Boon’s studio, we’d become friendly with Clint (Inspiral Carpets) & his studio was a bit cheaper & had more amps & organs in it.
Linda- we recorded at The Kitchen in Hulme with Jamie.
++ Was it the same place and producer for the album?
Linda- Yeah apart from Alice’s Paper plane.
++ The 7″ has a fun photo of you all. Wondering where was it taken? Looks like a playground?
Nick- A park in Bolton, I think. We were lucky that Linda & Karrie were into photography.
Linda- Queens Park Bolton. Karrie took the picture. Nick was on some springy seat in a children’s playground.
++ The B side of the 7″ is “Song for Gerard Langley”. I suppose it is Gerard Langley of The Blue Aeroplanes. Why did you dedicate the song ton him?
Nick- We played our first gig supporting the Blue Aeroplanes & they were really nice & encouraging to us, we’d never heard their music before that gig & they were brilliant. Spitting Out Miracles is a great LP. Gerald was one of the characters in Alice’s Paperplane who’s poetry Alice admires, and of course he is also Gerald Langley in real life.
Linda- We did one of first gigs at The Boardwalk supporting The Blue Aeroplanes.
++ So when is the album coming out? Are there any details you can share? Name? How many songs?
Linda- Summer 2021
++ Where do the songs of the 7″ and album come from? Various demo tapes? Is there a chance that we could do a demography?
Nick- Maybe, at a later date, we’re still having some lost songs reappear.
++ How come there were no releases of yours back then? Were there any interest from labels? Did you consider self-releasing?
Nick- I’m not sure we sent many demos to labels, we used the early demos to get gigs mainly, initially we were recording tracks for flexi-discs that ended up not happening. A think we recorded Carol In Your Eyes for a proposed single. We had no money or know how to self-release then.
Linda- We didn’t seem to chase any record companies. It was a rollercoaster at the time.
++ Back in the day one song did get released, “She’s a Waterfall Part 1” and “She’s a Waterfall Part 2” I’ve never heard these songs. Are they the same? Similar? Why the name with two parts?
Nick- Two different versions of the same song. I’m not sure why they’re called parts 1 & 2 on the tape.
Linda- We had a slow version and a faster one.
++ And how did you end up on this compilation put together by Mark Webber from Pulp?
Nick- We became friendly with Mark Webber, he promoted gigs in Sheffield & possibly ran the Pulp fanclub at that point. He may even still been at school then. He put us on a lot at his Take Two/ Cosmic Joy nights. We were all pretty young then, I’d just turned 19 when the band split up.
++ I believe another song was released too, “Talk About You” on “Piranhas in the Canal”. This was a compilation put together by the St. Helens Musicians Collective. Were you part of that collective? Or how did you end up there?
Nick- Not us.
++ I think my favourite song of yours might as well be “Sneaky Feelin’”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?
Nick- Oh, I can’t remember! It had been pointed out to us that all our songs till then were verse/ chorus, verse/chorus, so that was the first song we tried to stretch ourselves a bit.
++ If you were to choose your favourite Magic Roundabout song, which one would that be and why?
Nick- I like them all really. But Carol In My Eyes & Up are the best songs for me. I love Alice’s Paperplane, I don’t think many bands had a song like that up their sleeves back then.
Linda- Up I suppose. It’s about the death of Andy Warhol I feel the sadness in the recording. I loved Warhol’s art and ideas.
Maria– I like them all really Song for Gerard Langley in particular, love the flow and story to it, takes you somewhere else for sure.
++ What about gigs? Did you play many?
Nick- A handful really, we played mainly Manchester, Birmingham & Bristol. There are flyers I’ve seen for gigs I don’t remember.
Linda- We played Manchester, Sheffield, Chesterfield, Leeds, Stockport, Bristol and Birmingham. Maybe more?
++ And what were the best gigs you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?
Nick- I think my favourite gig was at the Asylum in Manchester, I’d helped put together the bill with Spacemen 3 headlining & it was the first time we played Alice’s Paperplane. Pete Kember was always nice to us. When we asked him what he thought of our set, he said it was great but that we should change our name. We were “oh no Pete, no!”
Linda- The first gig seemed to stick with me lots of claps and cheers.
Maria- Playing a long side Spacemen 3
++ And were there any bad ones?
Nick- Plenty.
Linda- A few haha.
++ When and why did Magic Roundabout stop making music?
Nick- I guess the old creative differences, it didn’t help that we decided to live in a band house together, we were all still teenagers and not very skilled at living with each other.
Linda- We lived in a band house for a while and that drove us apart really. I played in many bands and am still doing music full time when not in Lockdown. I’ve played most types of music I also play electric bass.
++ Were you involved in any other bands afterwards?
Nick- I’ve spent the last few years in a half imaginary psych-noise band called Te Hee Objects.
Linda- No not really. Nick and I have written and worked together. Paul and Karrie have written and recorded electronically. Nicola and Maria don’t play now.
++ Has there been any Magic Roundabout reunions?
Nick- We recently reconnected with Nicola & Maria.
Linda- Not really but we are all in touch.
++ Was there any interest from radio? TV?
Nick- haha, none.
++ What about from fanzines?
Nick- Just stuff in fanzines. I know of stuff in Candyfloss, So Naive & Step Inside My Pepperpot, but there’s probably more, Nicola & Maria send a lot of tapes & letters to fanzines then as did I.
Linda- We were interviewed by Uncut magazine recently.
++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?
Nick- I think for me if you’re in a band you have to feel your band is the best in the world. Otherwise, why would you bother? Clearly, we were not the best band in the world, but at the time it felt like it to me.
Linda- Just being in the band was a huge deal.
++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?
Linda- I like painting, Keeping fit and attending the gym. Learning German. Doing Reiki healing and crystal healing.
++ I have visited Manchester once, but it was too short and didn’t get to see much. I hope to return. Would like to ask a local, what would you suggest them doing here, like what are the sights one shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?
Nick- This is such a wonderful question! Coming from Manchester it’s impossible to imagine why anybody would want to visit Manchester if they didn’t have to. Albert Square is nice I suppose. Food would have to be chips or something potato, and beer, just lots of it is the Manchester way:)
Linda- Afflecks Palace is great, loads of funky retro clothes and other things to look at and buy. Just an interesting place to visit. Mr Thomas’s Chop House authentic British food made without packets or jars. Real food
Maria- Walk up the little hill that leads to the Bell Tower in Heaton Park for it’s far-reaching views. Maybe go to a gig at The Ruby Lounge…great sound there. Cafe Pop is wonderful for it’s thick white buttered toast with marmite or peanut butter, they do the best cup of tea to.
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