Thanks so much to Nick and Matthew for the interview! I had interviewed Nick in the past about his previous band, Almost Charlotte, and I thought as they are re-releasing the CD compilation “I Think of the Sea” that compiled most of the recordings by Almost Charlotte and the band that came next, Bluff, that it was just perfect timing to talk about Bluff! Based in Brighton, the band didn’t get to release any proper records but left us some terrific songs. If you haven’t heard about them, now it is a good time!

++ 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?

Matthew: T Rex and Slade got me into music and punk got me into bass (quickest to learn and everyone needs a bass guitarist) then guitar followed. Limited talent (and lack of patience to properly learn instruments) got me into writing my own songs.

Nick: 10cc and Be-Bop Deluxe were the first two bands that made my very young self musically obsessive.  Things really then kicked off post punk for me – I’m very lucky to have lived through that period when indie bands were restlessly creative and shooting off in so many different directions (think Magazine, Skids, Associates, early Simple Minds etc.)  I only ever wanted to play drums and so bought a cheap kit as soon as I was earning money to pay for it then I taught myself (badly) from there.

++ Last time we talked about Almost Charlotte, so I wonder how would you compare both bands, what was similar and what was different between Bluff and Almost Charlotte?

Matthew: Bluff felt closer to my ‘ideal’ of 3–4-minute songs with a story behind them.

Nick: as Matthew says I think that we all agreed that the new band would be more single minded.  I loved Almost Charlotte at the beginning and in the middle but by the end we had sort of fractured and lost focus; with Bluff we wanted that focus right from the start.

++ How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?

Nick: We formed Bluff because another Brighton band – The Whirlybirds – split at the same time as Almost Charlotte so two people from each got together.  Matthew and I knew Trevor Warman (guitar) and Trevor Thorne (bass) and it sort of felt natural to do something together that was different to our previous bands.

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

Matthew: We continued to practice at the same Brighton studios that we’d used in Almost Charlotte.  In terms of writing, I took the lead more than had been the case in Almost Charlotte where Ian Philipson and I shared.  Everyone threw stuff in though and we began to find our own sound.

Nick: I think that some of Matthew’s lyrics at the time were amongst his best (and I say that having been writing and playing with him for a long time now!)  Britain was still in the grip of a right-wing Government (Thatcher had gone but she was replaced by an administration that continued in her vein) and we wanted to represent that without preaching – to be a live band that would grab people and make them dance as much as make them think.  That’s a tough balance but I think that Matthew’s writing often achieved it.

++ There were some lineup changes too, right?

Nick: Just the one actually: Colin Clifford replaced Trevor Thorne after our first EP came out (‘The Frank Muir EP’) and before we did the second (‘Hospitals Houses Playgrounds.’)   I think that relative consistency was a really good thing and both the bass players bought something a bit different – it’s no coincidence to me that we were a tougher edged proposition with Colin and that’s why the songs from ‘Hospitals Houses Playgrounds’ hit hard. I think that we were more cohesive and focused with Colin.  We all had pretty broad musical interests so I think we all opened each other’s eyes to stuff that was around at the time.

++ You say Bluff had a harder edged sound compared to Almost Charlotte, and that might be true, but also within Bluff I feel some of the songs, especially those at the end of the “I Think of the Sea” comp are harder edged than the previous recordings. What was the direction the band was following? Had your influences changed at the time?

Matthew: I think Bluff was more of a collective creative process. Everyone contributed. It seemed to gel and I believe the songs show that.

Nick: to be honest it’s hard to remember influences other than a few bands that all four of us seemed to be into such as Sugar and Billy Bragg although there were certainly many others. I’m not sure that we consciously had a direction – we were focused on what we were doing at the time and had little in the way of a plan.  The whole thing only lasted a couple of years.

++ Speaking of “I Think of the Sea”, the compilation that compiles Almost Charlotte and Bluff, which is now available from Moments of Pleasure. Are these all the songs recorded by the band? Or are there more unreleased tracks?

Nick: they’re pretty much all of them.  There are a few others but they’re not good enough to release either in terms of sound quality or just, er, quality!

++ Moments of Pleasure is your own label, how do you enjoy doing label stuff, promoting, distribution? I suppose you prefer making the music? or not?

Nick: MOP is really a home for the things that any of us who were in Almost Charlotte have done since.  As such, it’s an on/off thing.  When we’re doing nothing it lays dormant and when we have something we want to share we crank it up!  The process of distribution and promotion can mostly be done online and there are intermediaries who take some of the legwork out of it but it’s still time consuming and we’re realistic enough to know that the people who are interested in what we do are very very few in number.  We put out the limited-edition CD of ‘I Think Of The Sea’ because we’d had a few people ask if there would be a physical version rather than the download/stream.  The response has been great – especially the geographic spread which has really surprised us.

++ As far as I know there were no records released by Bluff. How come? Was there no labels interested? Did you consider self-releasing?

Matthew: we self-released the two EPs on cassette (now there’s a term/format from the past!) and sold them at gigs.  Really, the whole process of searching out labels was never an option.

++ I think my favourite song of yours might as well be “Go Home Now”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

Matthew: It’s about the inevitable ending of a long- distance relationship.

Nick: that was always a good one to play and – being selfish for a moment – I always liked the rhythm section part!  It’s also a nice example of some of Matthew’s lyrics (standing on platforms and awaiting connections) which played with different ways of describing fading links between people.  It also had one of Trevor Warman’s meatiest buzzsaw guitar parts that always threatened to swamp us – in a good way!

++ If you were to choose your favorite Bluff song, which one would that be and why?

Matthew: ‘Losing Sleep’ and ‘Attitude.’ I love the energy on both and they were great to play live.

Nick: ‘Losing Sleep’ for me too – similar reasons.  It was also the last song in the set at our last gig so it was sort of our sign off.

++ And suppose you had a chance to put a 7″ single, with A and B side. What songs would you put on it?

Matthew: ‘Losing Sleep’ and ‘Wish You Were Here’

Nick: ‘Losing Sleep’ and ‘Switch Off’ for me.  ‘Switch Off’ was personally very important because it was the first lyric that I’d done and so it was really the first song that Matthew and I had written together; it was the end of Bluff but the beginning of a lot of things that we’ve done since.

++ When and why did Bluff stop making music? Were you involved in any other bands afterwards?

Nick: we were definitely swimming against the tide.  On the one hand, at the time indie in Brighton (and maybe actually in Britain) was in the grip of grunge fever via Nirvana etc so nobody was interested in anything else.  That wasn’t us and we were never going to pretend it was.  On the other hand there was a growing interest in a sort of theatricality and over the topness which was also not us – our last gig was a Battle-of-the-Bands in which the winners used dry ice and had songs that ended in massively dramatic crescendos. We came last.  We didn’t mind at all because it was sort of a race that we didn’t want to enter.

Matthew: afterwards we were away from music for a very long time as life intervened.  It was 7 years or so before Nick and I did anything else and that was intended to be a one off but it has sort of carried on for over 20 years now under the name of Rogue Beauty.  The two of us are the nucleus but we have worked with a lot of other people and it’s been a really nice alternative to those band days – it’s sort of eclectic and freer than a band could ever be.  The ‘Seems Like Yesterday’ album is a compilation of stuff we’ve done so far and it’s nice to have it available via MOP.

Nick: I’ve also been working with Paul Midcalf on a couple of one- off projects (A Long Valley and Colourbeat – both of which have releases on MOP) as well as a much longer collaboration as Senses Reeling which has produced several EPs and an album on MOP.  There was a really nice top and tail to the story when Matthew sang several songs on the album (‘Time’s Still Now’) over 30 years after we first made music together.

Matthew: Trevor Warman now lives in France and Colin’s in Australia (last we heard Trevor Thorne was too) so we are now all sort of scattered but we stay in touch through social at least. Trevor Warman and Colin in particular are such good guys and their playing was always so distinctive to Bluff.

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Listen
Bluff – Go Home Now