2022 was a difficult year in general.
A lot of important people left us. I lost someone very close at the tail-end of the year.
It was difficult to me to pay attention what was going on. I remember seeing news of indiepop legends passing. But it is still a blur. Even now that we have changed our calendars. Now that we are in 2023.
Going backwards I recall writing about some of the legends that passed by. But I missed some others that deserved a tribute from my part. I don’t have an answer why I didn’t write about them at the time of the news, or at least when I learned the news.
I will do it now. Maybe it is a strange way to start the year but at the same time, I feel it is good. It is good in the way that I won’t have to look back and feel I didn’t do something I should have.
Tommy Cherry passing away in the first half of 2022 was a surprise. And I meant to write some lines before 2022 was over. But my life has been a bit upside down, with lots of adjustments since I became a father, that days passed and didn’t manage to do what I wanted to do.
I interviewed Tommy many years ago. I am a big fan of his band The Bachelor Pad. That was back in 2008. The year I started the blog. His interview was fun, and I was happy to meet such a talented person.
I remember asking if his songs would be released at some point in a retrospective CD. He said if I was interested. I was. I remember then dropping him a line again asking if we should do it. But I didn’t happen.
We emailed a bit in early 2009. He sent me some flyer scans that could be part of the release. He liked the overall look of the Cloudberry Cake Kitchen and was keen for The Bachelor Pad to be released in the series.
He mentions to me that he has found the video for “Meet the Lovely Jenny Brown” and “Country Pancake“. At that point I hadn’t seen it. It wasn’t on Youtube. Only “Coroner’s Wife” video was on there.
He tells me that he went to see Magazine play the other night. He had seen him previously in 1978. He mentions they were fabulous.
Then he offers to send me loads of fanzines from the time. I say I couldn’t abuse. I say if he has two copies of the same fanzine I’d be happy to take one… he says he has found LOADSA stuff he hasn’t seen for donkey’s years and asks me if they use that expression in America. That he most prized possession among his fanzines is not a ’77 Sniffing Glue zine but The 10 Commandments zine with Orange Juice in the cover.
In 2010 I hear back from Tommy. He tells me he has tracked down the guys from Toadhall Studios and was heading to Manchester to get the master tapes.
And that was the last time I heard from him.
I would have loved to release this record. But this story is nothing special, lots of times you make this progress towards a release and then it never happens. It’s part of doing a label. Life get in between. Sometimes for the artist, and sometimes for the label. This is a hobby in the end and sometimes there are other priorities.
Many years later, in 2014, I hear from someone wanting me to help getting in touch with The Bachelor Pad legend. Lucy from the Sarah Records Doc asked me for his contact info. Not sure if she contacted him, not sure why she wanted his info. Maybe she wanted to interview him? That’d been super cool. I wonder what came out from that.
In 2020 at last there’s sort of a retrospective release. The label Emotional Response releases “All Hash and Cock”. This compilation includes many of The Bachelor Pad’s hits. But not all. On vinyl you can only fit as much. Maybe on CD it would have impossible to fit all the band’s songs on one CD. I don’t know. I never knew if there were unreleased songs. I didn’t ask about that. I don’t know why. It is odd. I usually ask about these things.
A 10″ vinyl titled “Meet the Lovely Jenny Brown” was also released by Emotional Response in 2020. It included a rare piano vocal mix of the title song.
We lost touch. We became Facebook friends eventually, but didn’t really retake the project.
On Facebook too The Bachelor Pad appeared with their own page where lots of great memorabilia was shared.
I never met Tommy in person, even though I visited Scotland a few times. Never coincided at a concert. I would have been giddy to meet him.
The last music project he was involved with was with The Whores (of Perception) I believe. That was around the year 2000. The played a few gigs at the 13th Note in Glasgow and released a record. Then they imploded.
For Tommy the highlights of The Bachelor Pad was playing with The Telescopes and also appearing on the plot of a John Constantine Hellblazer comic book that was written by fellow Scottish indiepop-legend Grant Morrison (ex-The Fauves) and published by DC comics.
I wonder if one day there will be a proper acknowledgement of the quality of The Bachelor Pad and the talent of Tommy Cherry. I would love to have met. It seems he was lots of fun, original, and with a brain packed with a huge amount of cool ideas.
Rest in peace Tommy.
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