Thanks to Stewart Tudor-Jackman for the interview!
++ Who were The Kensingtons? How did it start? Why did you choose that name?
It started with me at university in the late 80s, just sat in the bedroom writing and recording stuff onto a 4 track in the corner of the room. I was in another band at the time, which I loved, but which wasn’t really suited to some of the songs I was writing. The name came from a great pop song called ‘the kid from Kensington’ by Dogs D’Amour. When I left university and went back home to Somerset I got together with Andy Howlett, who I’d recently met, and then we were off. For a while we also had Adam Discombe (who I went to school with) on guitar. All 3 of us are on the hope Corner lane ep, and pretty much everything else was recorded with just me at home.
++ What inspired The Kensingtons to make music? Were you a Sarah fan? What about trains? Did you travel a lot on them?
The main inspiration for me was simply the fact that I enjoyed my life so much – that’s what made me write songs. Despite the fact that I had no money whatsoever, I was having an absolute ball with my chums. My memory is that the sun was out all the time, I had time to play music, I sold music for a living, and I had a fabulous haircut. Perfect.
I was a Sarah fan until number 60 something, when I thought they got a bit bland to be honest. My favourites were the Sea Urchins, the Hit Parade, and Action Painting.
Trains were just a functional part of my life, getting me from home to either Bristol (for gigs) or back to Leicester (for uni) or to London (to see my now wife). Londoners tend to get more emotional about trains than the rest of us in England. Must be an Underground thing.
++ Were you in any bands before or after The Kensingtons?
Prior to the Kensingtons I was in a few bands that did nothing much. During and after the Kensingtons I was also in Satchel and Cellophane. Satchel (which was me and Andrew Anorak) appeared on a fair few compilation tapes in the early 90s, despite the fact that we only ever recorded 4 songs in one afternoon. And Cellophane appeared on a pillar Box Red single along with southville and a few others. It was called ‘Tales from the pillarbox’.
++ How did the PillarBox Red flexi ‘Searching for the blake hall’ happen?
I’d already been on the Cellophane joint single, and Andrew at Pillar Box had also heard some of my own Kensingtons material. I remember that he phoned me and said ‘’We need a song about trains, and we need it in a couple of weeks…’’. So that original version of ‘intercity Baby’ then got written and recorded in my bedroom within 2 hours. Amazing what you can do under pressure, and with a bottle of cider.
++ Why did it take 3 years for the next record? What were you doing during this time?
The songs for ‘hope corner lane’ were actually recorded in 1993, but the record didn’t come out till early 1995. So the delay was more to do with the record company rather than us. By the time it came out, Andy and I had already parted ways. Basically between 1991 and early 1994 we were writing and playing pretty much most of the time.
++ Hope Corner Lane was released on a German label in 1995. How did Jorg from Meller Welle come to you? How come you ended up on a non British label?
I think Jorg heard us on a compilation tape, and then he ended up putting some of our songs on one of his compilations. I think they went down fairly well, which resulted in the record. I’d have loved to have released more stuff on British labels, but most of our fans seemed to be overseas for some reason.
++ What do you remember of these recording sessions? How did you decide which 4 to put on the vinyl?
We actually recorded them in 1993 at a friend’s studio in Somerset. Because we pre-programmed most of it on a sequencer, we were able to record 7 songs in one day, which is unheard of. To be honest, the 4 that got chosen were the only 4 that came out ok as we did it so quickly. We had a manager by that time too, who was already trying to rip us off, and we weren’t in a great mood on the day because of him being an arse. So at the end of the recording session we fired him.
++ The songs are upbeat, but the lyrics are quite sad, mostly about missing a girl. Were Surbiton girl and Intercity Baby real?
Surbiton girl was real. She used to write to me twice a week once she’d bought one of our tapes, which was of course extremely flattering, but a bit weird. And me being an idiot, I wrote ‘Surbiton Girl’ and sent it to her. That just made her even more of a nutter, rather predictably, so I stopped keeping in touch. I love the song, but I really didn’t handle the attention very well.
Intercity Baby is about the trip from Taunton, where I grew up, to Leicester, where I went to uni. It’s the train journey I knew best. Although a lot of the songs are quite sad, I really don’t think of myself a sad person. Quite the opposite in fact. I just think sad lyrics are a bit easier to write than happy ones.
++ Why didn’t the Pillar Box split LP with Southville happen?
I don’t know. I remember getting really excited when it was talked about, but I think money was the issue with the label.
++ Why didn’t you release more records? What about demo tapes? Did you record some?
We were happy just doing our thing locally, and really got quite surprised by the attention we had for a while. We never chased anything, the opportunities just ended up at our feet every now and again. We had a number of labels tell us ‘’you’ll be on the next record’’ but they all seemed to run out of money at the wrong time…
I ended recording around 50 songs (mostly at home), and still do so now.
++ Did the Kensingtons gig a lot? Any particular ones you remember? What was your favourite venue?
We probably played once a month or so in the early 90s. My favourite place was a pub in Taunton where we played regularly – we were well known in the pub, it got packed, and we got looked after from the fancy restaurant upstairs. Like all gigs we did, it was very small, but I always used to really enjoy it there. Once I’d decided to move away from Somerset, we held our ‘farewell’ gig there, and that was the one I have the fondest memories of. A great night.
I also remember our first home-town gig, which was in a very dodgy boozer with a couple of other bands. By that stage Andy and I only had 5 songs, and we hadn’t had time to pre-program any of the drums. So we got a friend of ours who knew nothing about music, and who knew none of our songs, to stand at the back of the stage next to the drum machine. It only had one drum pattern on it, which therefore became the backing to all 5 songs…and it was started and stopped by me nodding to our mate at the back, who then pressed ‘start’ and ‘stop’. I bet Coldplay don’t do that.
++ How was the relationship between the Kensingtons and fanzine culture? Do you remember being written about in any of them at the time?
We were in them a fair bit. I’ve still got the Waaah! one we were in, plus another few like Cherry Fizz Pop and Scholarship is the enemy of Romance. I loved them, because they are the perfect DIY music tool. I love the fact that noone cared if you sounded shit – as long as you had some great songs.
I used to love the excitement of sending off for a fanzine, and then it arriving with 20 flyers in the envelope for other fanzines and tapes. A great way of getting to hear new stuff and meet lots of fabulous people.
++ Indiepop being underground at the time – did that affect the band?
I liked the fact that indiiepop was a counter culture, and had that perfect bedroom pop ethic. I don’t think if affected us directly though, as we were into a lot of other stuff at the time too like the Wedding Present, Weather Prophets, Mary Chain, MBV and so on.
++ Do you still listen to indiepop?
I still listen to the stuff from the 80s and 90s a lot, but not so much the newer stuff. I found that a lot of the spark had gone from a lot of it, and it became style over substance. Sarah went horribly downhill, the Fat Tulips split up – it was the end of an era.
++ When and why did you call it a day?
I never have called it a day really. I’ve just been a little slow for 13 years. I moved away from Taunton in 1994, thinking that I should probably go and earn a proper living, which I’m still trying to do. These days I’m in Australia, and still looking for someone else to make music with. The reason it worked with Andy was that we were chums first, and then started playing music together. Over the last few years I’ve started getting stuff together with people, but I’ve just not really clicked with anyone else. I’ve still being recording stuff over the years, but when I do it on my own I’m really slow, and probably need someone like Andy to kick me up the arse.
One thing I have been doing over the last couple of years is trying to record some decent versions of the old Kensington’s material that was only ever recorded onto 4-track tape. Eventually I’ll end up with all the old songs recorded, plus a number of newer ones from the last 10 years.
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