Thanks so much to Gerard Wood for this interview! I had written about his band Happyhouse which was active in Nottingham in the early 90s. I had found a bunch of their recordings on Soundcloud and wrote a piece about them months ago. Luckily Gerard got in touch and was willing to share more details about his music adventure! Enjoy!

++ Hi Gerard! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are you still involved with music?

I’m good, not involved with making music at all these days.

++ Let’s go back in time. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what your first instrument was? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen to at home while growing up?

Much like any young kid growing up in 1970s Britain, “Top Of The Pops” on TV was the main way of actually seeing bands.  The first record my mum bought for me was “Gonna Make You A Star” by David Essex, which was 1974, so I obviously started young ☺

I had a go at violin and then cello at school (pre-teenage), but never persevered with them.  I bought a cheap sky blue Strat copy in about 1987, and learning consisted of a “Book 1” on How To Play Guitar and the Billy Bragg “Back To Basics” songbook + “Audio Aid” which was far more useful.  After that, everything was learnt by ear (and was often approximate at best…)

I listened to all sorts whilst growing up in the early 1980s.  Dexys & The Jam would mix with Queen, Springsteen & Dire Straits, along with pop fun like Haircut 100, OMD and (to start with) The Cure.  I didn’t really notice “indie” music until about 1986 – the Mary Chain and The Fall, then I started listening to John Peel earnestly and it all changed.

++ Had you been in other bands before Happyhouse? What about the other band members? Are there any songs recorded by these bands?

Yes, I was in a band whilst still at school in Northampton, with the horrendous name of Brilliant Failure. Gian Sammarco, who played Adrian Mole on UK TV at the time, was our singer.  Despite being fairly clueless, we did manage to write a few original songs (well, original-ish).  We played at The Old Black Lion in Northampton in early summer 1989 to a fairly large crowd (helps having a national TV star as your frontman), also the main band on had some connection to Spacemen 3 if I recall, who played/recorded in the town a bit in the second half of the 1980s.

At the same time, I was creating the demos for what would eventually become the first happyhouse songs, although I had no intention of actually doing anything with them.  I bought a cheap 4-track and drum machine in June ‘89 and off I went.  Fairly obvious I was obsessed with The Cure at the time ☺  Everything was fairly long and fairly grim!

++ Where were you from originally?

Northampton – see above!  Virtually no music scene to speak of, the main venue (The Roadmender) was shut far more than it was open.  The one moment of joy was in 1988 when Pixies and My Bloody Valentine came to town – that was probably a bit of a life-changer too, the first local gig I’d been to with my mates.

++ How was Nottingham at the time of Happyhouse? 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?

Nottingham was great, the total opposite of Northampton – venues, loads of touring bands, so I was at gigs every week from the moment I arrived in for university in October 1989 – Trent Polytechnic (now a university) was the best at the time. I met Chris, the band’s bassist, in the queue to see The Wedding Present (I think) a few weeks later and it turned out we lived in the same hall of residence at the university.

Nottingham had Selectadisc, a cracking independent record shop (or shops, it had three different ones on the same street – one for singles, one for LPs, one for 2nd hand).

++ Were there any other good bands in your area?

I’ve got to admit, I didn’t follow the local scene at all.  Apart from the bands that friends played in, I wouldn’t have a clue!

++ How did the band start? How was the recruiting process?

As mentioned above, I met Chris the bassist late in 1989 before there was any thought of a band.  Kris was a drummer on the same uni course as Chris, and was already playing in lots of bands by Feb 1990 when he joined us and we actually started practicing in a practice room.  Jon arrived later in the year – not sure how he came to join us!  We may have put an ad up in the Student Union?  Can’t remember.

++ What instruments did each of you play in the band?

Me (Gerard Wood) – guitar + vocals
Chris Griggs – bass
Jon Bridgett – guitar
Kris Daryanani – drums

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

The songs were pretty much written before we all came together and started practicing in 1990, so I think I just handed out tape copies of the demos.  We practised pretty regularly in the ‘BandSoc’ practice room at the university – which was basically a basement cellar with terrible acoustics. The songs got a bit of gradual rearrangement to add a bit more energy to them!

++ What’s the story behind the band’s name? You were saying it was after a Chinese takeaway?

Yes, in 1990 Chris & I moved to a house in Radford, Nottingham, and the Chinese around the corner was called “Happy House”.  I guess due to our sound and the Siouxsie song of the same name, it seemed like a good idea at the time!

++ And about Happyhouse Chinese restaurant around your corner, were you a fan of their food at all? Or was it mainly a joke?

I think it was just a takeaway, not sure there was any sitting down in there.  I probably never went in – it was just the name that struck me.

++ First things first, how come there were no releases by the band?

No-one asked us! I didn’t have the first clue about how to get gigs, let alone get anything recorded, and it was still pretty early days anyway.  We didn’t last long enough to get to the ‘proper recording’ stage.

++ On Soundcloud there is a collection of 14 demos. They seem to be from different periods of the band. The first four tracks are not from Happysad. They date from 1989. Can you tell me a bit about these 4 songs, where they were recorded? Was it just yourself? Did these songs eventually end up being part of Happyhouse repertoire?

That Soundcloud blurb is a bit misleading, it’s certainly inaccurate ☺

I wrote and recorded lots of stuff on my own in June-August 1989 in Northampton after buying a 4-track and a drum machine. I put together a 60 minute demo (10 songs) of the ‘best’ of these in September which I took with me when I started Nottingham Uni.  The first three songs on Soundcloud are on the tape, only the first two (‘Drifting In Your Heart’ and ‘Just Like This’) are from the original demo – happyhouse played these two at every gig. There is another song on this tape that isn’t on Soundcloud that the band regularly played – ‘Believe In You’.

++ Then in 1990 C. Griggs joined as a bassist. Was this already Happyhouse or not yet? The two of you record three tracks as far as I know influenced by The Wedding Present’s “Brassneck” EP. They were recorded in Northampton. Do you remember where? And how come you didn’t find a full band for these recordings?

Chris & I were uni mates, and he was a bass player.  There was no band to start with. New faster songs were written (along with a few more of my epics) and we recorded them over a week in March 1990 in Northampton.  Kris the drummer joined for some practises around this time, but we weren’t a band yet, hence just the two of us and the drum machine.

++ I also wonder about these demos. Were they released in some form? Maybe as demo tapes? And if so, did you use to sell them or to get gigs, or send to radio shows and fanzines? Or were they just recordings for yourselves?

The first tape from 1989 was a ‘this is what I do’ thing in the hope of interesting someone.  Later ones were mainly just for the rest of the band to learn the songs.  I never gave any away otherwise, they weren’t exactly great audio quality!

++ And are there more songs recorded by the band? Unreleased ones?

The band just had one go at recording as a whole, that was it.  We had no plans to send demos out at this point, really.

There were LOADS more songs that I recorded, though.  Chris would have appeared on a number of the later ones.

I lost ALL of my 4-track masters in a ‘heating accident’ in the late 1990s, so a lot of songs have been lost forever.   All that was left were 4 demo tapes I’d mixed.

++ My favourite song of yours is “You Know”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?

It was inspired by the need for shorter, faster songs ☺  It was one of the clutch of songs written early in 1990 that Chris and recorded.  Very quickly!

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

“Just Like This”.  I didn’t write that many bassline-driven songs, and this one seemed to work. Probably the first song I wrote that I was at least marginally happy with ☺

++ What about gigs? Did you play many?

Nope ☺ We had a few cancellations and postponements along the way.  My diary says we had something planned as early as June 1990, but we never actually made it onto the stage until Feb 1991. We played 3 gigs in 4 weeks, had a break for exams (possibly), and played an all-day festival in June.  That was about it, I think!

++ And what were the best gigs that you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?

They were all good fun, as I remember.   It snowed a fair bit on the day of our debut gig, so we quite surprised to get a good audience.  We played one gig where our drummer had to run off (literally, I think!) to another bar and play a second gig with another band straight away.  Another, we were the only band left on the bill, we were a guitarist short, and we had to fill about 2 hours.  A few songs got their only live airing that night!

++ And were there any bad ones?

No, they were all good fun.

++ When and why did Happyhouse stop making music? Were any of you involved in any other projects afterwards?

The university calendar probably didn’t help – straight after out last gig, it was the summer vacation and we went our separate ways for a bit.  When we returned, I decided we should try to get a female vocalist.  There was one audition, it didn’t work out, and things basically fizzled out after that. I don’t think I even recorded any solo demos after 1991.

As mentioned before, Kris played in loads of bands, I think he worked as a session drummer, he certainly filled in as a touring drummer for a few bands who DID make records (Ludicrous Lollipops I remember, Midway Still perhaps? All a fog now).

Late in 1995, Chris & I formed a very short-lived band, Roobarb with a drummer who lived next door to us (Stuart Saunderson), for the sole purpose of playing a pub gig for someone’s birthday in January 1996. Practices were held, and we ended up playing a second ‘proper’ gig a few days later at the Filly & Firkin in the city (probably supporting Stuart’s main band, Figgis, at a guess).  No original stuff here!  The band had a definite end-date as I moved to Abingdon (Oxford) the following week for a new job.

Stuart later played with David Cronenberg’s Wife, who released lots of records ☺

Chris has also played in a few bands in the Manchester area from the 2010s.

++ Also after the band split you were a music photographer for an Oxford magazine. What magazine was that? What did the job consist of? And did you photograph big bands? indie bands?

Yes, Oxford was a bit of a change, there seemed to be music everywhere. I spent a year or so going to the ‘bigger’ indie gigs, much like I’d have done in Nottingham, and then gradually to more local band gigs, where I got to know some of the people involved in the music paper (Nightshift, still going – nightshiftmag.co.uk), the promoters and the bands.  If I could have been in this position in 1990, maybe happyhouse would have had a different life ☺  I didn’t fancy starting up or playing in a band, so I started taking photos of the gigs, and by early 1998 they started appearing in the paper (and also my own website). As this got me into gigs for free, I started going more and more, so at times there was hardly a night when I wasn’t covering something.  Not great for the day job!  I also went to London quite a bit, and got the odd photo in other papers and magazines (NME, Time Out).   That put me in touch with more indie labels – I took quite a few for Fortuna Pop! – Sean ‘paid’ me in records ☺  Also managed to get a photography credit on the Marine Research CD – photos were taken at a Candyskins gig!

As for photographing the ‘big’ bands, I generally managed to avoid them, either by accident or design.  I was at a tiny Coldplay gig with my camera in early 2000 in Oxford, had a quick look, decided against, and returned to the bar.  Well done me, they’d have been worth a few quid now.  I did cover Snow Patrol at around the same time, I suppose they were the ‘biggest’, and also the earlier incarnations of Foals.  But I focussed on the smaller indie bands/ local bands.  Prolapse were definitely the best!

++ Was there any interest from the radio? TV?

Er, no ☺

++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?

The first gig was reviewed (with photo!) in the Nottingham Uni newspaper.  I was interviewed after our last gig by someone from the Sheffield Uni newspaper (at least think that’s what he said).

++ What about fanzines?

No.  We didn’t play enough, not at all in the city centre.  I don’t even remember any local fanzines – I’m sure they must have existed.  The Fat Tulips were around at the time in Nottingham, their Heaven Records label was running at the time, I bought quite a few of the singles they released.  I’ve still got FT tapes that I was given at the time, obviously not proper releases, so I must have known someone.

++ Looking back in retrospect, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?

The first gig, as it was a long time in the planning! (Here’s a clipping of a review of this first gig!)

++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?

At age 19, it was pretty much music, music, music and beer, although I was a very conscientious maths student too!

++ Never been to Musbury or Devon, but have been in Nottingham. So I want to ask you, as a local. What do you  suggest checking out in your town, like what are the sights one shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?

Moving to Devon was well after the band’s existence, and I left Nottingham nearly 30 years ago, so I don’t think I’d be the best person to ask!

++ Anything else you’d like to add?

The above is all making a very small band who only played live over a 4 month period and only really existed for a year or so sound far more important than we actually were ☺

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Listen
Happyhouse – You Know