Thanks so much to Joe Allen for the interview! I had chatted with Joe previously about The Jade, a superb band from Bristol, which was his first foray as an indie musician. After The Jade split he formed The Coltraines, another jingle jangly brilliant band. Sadly The Coltraines didn’t get to release records in their time, but their demos are a treasure. If you’ve never heard them before I urge you to check them out!
++ Hi Joe! Thanks so much for being up for another interview. I was quite surprised about the similarities sound-wise between The Jade and The Coltraines. Was the band started immediately after The Jade? Same band members?
No problem, it’s been nice trying to remember stuff about both bands. Yeah The Coltraines started pretty soon after The Jade and carried on from where we were heading with the later stuff, but I think we were trying to be a bit lighter prehaps. Me, Alex and Dave basically carried on with a new singer and a trumpet player.
++ What year did The Coltraines start as a band?
I think it was 1987.
++ I know Dave and you were previously together in The Jade. So what about the new members of The Coltraines, had they been involved in any other bands previously and afterwards? What instruments did each of you play?
And Alex as well. The line up was: Mark Owen vocals and rhythm guitar Alex Lee guitar Steve Denton trumpet Joe Allen bass Dave Francolini drums Mark had been playing bass in a band called The Bloody Marys, who had kind of taken us under they’re wing when we were staring The Jade. He was a great bass player and they had made a couple of singles. He also did backing vocals. Again we’d tried a few other singers and were getting nowhere fast, Mark was our mate and i think we just decided in the pub one night to give it a go. Steve lived near to Alex and was friends with him, we went to see him play in a funk band one night and asked him to join.
++ Had Bristol changed much from the time you were in The Jade to the time The Coltraines were active? Were there new places to play gigs?
I don’t think Bristol had changed that much, but I think we had. When we started The Jade we weren’t old enough to drink in the pubs that we were playing in! But by The Coltraines we were older and into hanging out with a vengeance. I think also most Jade gigs were supports and in The Coltraines we decided to do more our own gigs and tried to avoid a lot of the pub circuit that we’d played before.
++ When I interviewed Rorschach many years ago, they mentioned The Coltraines as a band they really liked. Were you good friends with them? What other bands during that time did you like?
I remember going to see them as The Harpoons. I think at one point there was talk of asking Scott to sing but he had his own thing going on. I got to know them all when Michelle joined on drums after Chris Warren left. We kind of knew each other at the time but not well, The Brilliant Corners were awesome at that time, Davey at his scathing best, The Chesterfields were great too and Rodney Allen who I loved… The Blue Aeroplanes were great… terrifyingly cool and arty!
++ Last time I asked you about Bristol and you told me you are no longer living there. Whereabouts in the UK are you these days? Do you miss Bristol
I’ve been living in Penzance in Cornwall for about 5 years now. I do miss Bristol sometimes, mostly going to gigs, and the record shops but I do like living by the sea!
++ So how was the band put together? How did you decide it was time to start this project?
Me, Alex and Dave always intended to carry on after The Jade finished. We were fairly desperate to keep on gigging. After a few false starts trying other singers everything just kind of fell into place, one of the first things we did was go into the studio and record “Devilish Fiend”, once we realised that that had worked we got enough songs together for a set and went out live again which we knew would be fun with Mark.
++ Were there any lineup changes?
No but we did quite often get a mate called Sav, full name Savio Rico Puccini in to play trombone. He was Dan’s, the trumpet player in The Brilliant Corners brother, and played in a band called The Sex Chimps.
++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?
Alex wrote all the chord sequences and we used to rehearse once a week in a place called PIJ. We rehearsed a lot, mostly as an excuse to go to the pub afterwards!
++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?
Names, like singers were pretty elusive. We all agreed we liked the name The Brilliant Corners, named after a Theolonius Monk album so we thought hmm something to do with jazz would be cool. None of us knew anything about jazz at all apart from Stevebeing a trumpet player, who mentioned John Coltrane. Alex liked the idea because of a character in the Dukes of Hazzard called Rosco P. Coltrane. Add an s an there you have it.
++ And what influences did the band have at the time?
We were all into The Smiths and Lloyd Cole, and mark especially liked The Housemartins. We’d oddly only just discovered the whole Postcard Records thing, which in 1987 seemed liked music from a different age. I remember Alex playing me the Aztec Camera single “Oblivious” and the world changing. Then hearing “Orchid Girl” on the B side and I was forever sold. Early orange juice was a big influence too. All those major 7th and diminished chords, the first Railway Children album was another big influence.
++ On Soundcloud there are now seven tracks that sound so good! Are they from demo tapes? Where are these recordings from?
Thank you. They were all demos recorded over the span of the bands existence, we did a lot of recording in The Coltraines these are just my favorites in chronological order.
++ Could we do a demo-graphy? Like how many demos you released, what tracks where in them, when were they released, did the demos have a name?
I’m not sure how many demos we did, we never released them or really named them other than what the lead track was. We did record some songs quite a few times as well, we just tried to go into the studio as often as possible.
++ Where were the demos recorded? How was your experience at the recording studio? Did you have a producer?
“Devilish Fiend” and “As or When” were recorded in E Plus where we recorded the last Jade demo. I think we still rehearsed there too in the very begining, “Burning Desire” and “Scorn” were recorded in Sam Studio, “Kettle” by The Chesterfields and “Whats a Word” by The Brilliant Corners were recorded there and “Happysad” by Rodney Allen and a lot of early Blue Aeroplanes records were made there. It had a great sound. “Oceans Apart” and “A Case of Allegiance” were produced by John Parish, who had produced kettle i can’t remember where we recorded that but it was a studio owned by someone who had been in a metal band and there were a lot of very funny pictures on the walls. “My Finest Hour” was recorded in a studio in London called “The Point”. We were managed by someone in London at that time who also managed a bunch of snooker players. I think that song “Snooker Loopy” was recorded there. The engineer had a lot of very funny stories of how badly behaved they were.
++ I am in love with the trumpets in “Devilish Friend”, “My Finest Hour” and “A Case of Allegence”. I like indiepop songs with trumpets, wondering what made you add this great instrument to your songs?
We liked indie songs with trumpets too!! i think we must of supported The Brilliant Corners in The Jade and seen how well it worked for them. I think we would of had a brass section if we could have got it together, “You Can’t Hide Your Love Forever” by Orange Juice was a big influence too.
++ There is a photo of the five band members on Soundcloud. Looks like it was taken at a park. Do you remember where it was taken? Was it perhaps a photo session?
That was taken at Redland train station in Bristol. It was erm… a train theme. It was a photo session, I think we all wanted to get it over as quickly as possible none of us were big on that sort of thing really, but I’m glad it was taken. It’s the only photo from that time which was the heyday of the band.
++ Are there more songs recorded by the band? Maybe they will show up on Soundcloud?
There are quite a few more recordings, maybe I’ll put some up at some point…
++ You know, the quality of The Coltraines and The Jade is fantastic, I dream of a compilation of these tracks, have you thought about that possibility?
Thank you. Not really, I think it would be quite difficult to persuade everyone involved.
++ And speaking of that quality, how come there were no releases by the band? Was there no interest from labels?
There was talk for a while of putting out something on The Chesterfields label after they left Subway. They were kindred spirits in they’re love of Postcard Records bands but sadly it never came off. I regret that to this day.
++ No compilation appearances either, right?
Sadly no.
++ My favourite song of yours is “Devilish Friend”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?
When The Jade split up we carried on writing and rehearsing new bits of music. I think that was the first song Mark wrote lyrics to and we recorded it straight away. I don’t have a clue what the lyrics are about, but it fit nicely into the vision we had for the new band. It was a funny time. The Jade had been very intense and and serious, with The Coltraines we set about trying to have fun in a very intense serious way haha.
++ If you were to choose your favorite The Coltraines song, which one would that be and why?
My favorite is “Burning Desire”. Not so much musically, it just represents what was a very happy time.
++ What about gigs? Did you play many?
Quite a few. Gigs were always good fun we got up to a lot of mischief.
++ And what were the best gigs that you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?
One of the really early ones at Bishopston Community Center was my favorite. It was on my birthday and I agreed to do it but accept no responsibility for my playing! The first gig at the Bierkeller was good too, Dave had made a poster with Mark’s face on it and fly posted it all round Bristol before telling him. Mark was a very reserved person when it came to attention and was mortified. We did a gig in Sherbourne for Simon from The Chesterfields supporting The Flatmates. At that stage we opened with just the drums to “Oceans Apart” and all joined in one by one. I’d just gone to the bar to get a pint for on stage but Dave had decided to start anyway. There was a really big cue and the drum intro just went on and on. Dave couldn’t stop and I wasn’t going to lose my place in the cue. Once served I stood in the crowd and watched for a while laughing my head off. But a stern look from Dave got me moving.
++ And were there any bad ones?
Not really that I remember. The last couple were a bit ropey. I think the heart had gone out of it all by then.
++ When and why did The Coltraines stop making music? Were any of you involved in any other projects afterwards?
I think we had all just moved on by the end. Alex had been asked to join The Blue Aeroplanes who had just got signed. Rodney Allen had just joined them too and it was too good an offer to refuse.
++ Was there any interest from the radio? TV?
None at all that i remember
++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?
Other than a few gig reviews no, I don’t think we ever even tried to get any press attention.
++ What about fanzines?
Not that i know of. Mark might have done some interviews but I wasn’t interested in any of that back then so wouldn’t know.
++ Looking back in retrospect, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?
Just being part of that whole scene in Bristol really. It was a great vibe lots of Bristol bands went to the Bell Pub to drink at that time and just being part of all that was pretty cool.
++ Anything else you’d like to add?
Thank you for showing an interest. It’s been a real pleasure thinking back, it was all a long time ago that’s why some answers are a bit vague. All the best, Joe.
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