Thanks so much to Zack, Dan and John for the interview! I wrote about Rebecca Fishpond in early November and immediately got in touch with the band. That was super cool! This very obscure but wonderful SE London band was around the late 80s and even though didn’t release any records left a bunch of great songs! If you’ve never heard them before, you must do so before the year ends! Sit back and enjoy!
++ Hi Zack, Dan and John! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Still making music?
Zack: Hi Roque, all is grand! Yes, I’m still busy making music with my band Mystery Tapes and also as a solo performer. I’m also planning to write some new stuff with my long-time pals from my old bands The Kildares and Rebecca Fishpond again which is something I’m very excited about. Music is in my blood and I try to make a point of doing something musical every day in my home studio. Some folks play music for a period and then quit to do something else but that’s not me. I have no inclination to stop anytime soon as I feel that I’m still improving. Plus I still get a real buzz from recording and performing.
Dan: I still doodle about with music. Acoustic guitar mainly, but haven’t performed live since 2010.
++ 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 at home while growing up?
Zack: My first music memory is sitting on the stairs at my Uncle Hendrick’s house in Singapore watching him jam out some cheesy, seventies easy-listening hits with his covers band – Freddie Fender’s Before The Next Teardrop Falls, some Jose Feliciano stuff, that sort of thing. My first instrument was a flute. I had a few lessons at school but the flute got the better of me. I was hopeless at it and ended up losing the damn thing at school, much to my parent’s annoyance. At home growing up in the seventies, it was mainly the hits of the day that was being played – Leo Sayer, Elton John, Linda Ronstadt, Bad Company and a fair bit of disco.
Dan: I was brought up around Welsh choir music but was also in love with pop music from an early age. Probably started off listening to Buddy Holly’s Greatest Hits and Johnny Cash’s Greatest Hits courtesy of my parents. Then top 40 pop music.Went through a stage of listening to heavy rock from about aged 10 to early teens, then rock music, chart music, and ‘indie chart’ music by my late teens. Learned piano for a couple of years around the age of 9. Also learned cornet for a bit at primary school. Started learning guitar aged 17.
John: I remember my parents having Irish records, the Dubliners, Val Doonican- compilations of 60’s hits with Lilly the Pink on. My mum would sing hits from when she was younger and my dad would whistle a lot but not tunes I recognised. The first record I bought was the first Fun Boy 3 album. I didn’t get pocket money so wasn’t an early consumer. I remember stuff like Yazoo, Bronski Beat, Culture Club- gender ambivalence- making an impression on me on Top of the Pops. I remember Ghost Town and Cure songs but also Angel in the Centrefold and Kim Wilde singing Kids in America. In the Scouts, my leaders were big Queen fans and I remember doing a review where I was in platforms as the bass player miming to some song. For me though they weren’t earthy, Queen weren’t and I remember being influenced by criticism of them for playing Sun City under apartheid.. I remember being impressed when what looked like super cool kids in the local park, wearing bondage trousers, asked me the time and I remember kids coming to school dressed as rude boys. I had piano lessons with Mr Ham, maybe while I was still in primary school, but I lacked inspiration, which Mr Ham didn’t provide, and I just pretended to practise until he told my mum I wasn’t learning anything. Once I sent a ‘jingle’ into a Saturday Superstore competition- just me singing onto a cassette- ‘Saturday morning and I’m feeling bored, I turn on Saturday Superstore, maybe if I’m lucky one day I’ll see, a message in the tellygrams just for me’; nothing came of it.
++ Had you been in other bands before Rebecca Fishpond? What about the rest of the members? I read that some of you were in The Kildares, right?
Zack: Before the Fishponds, I formed The Kildares with a few pals whilst studying in the UK – in Oswestry, Shropshire, out in the sticks. We were a school band that played all originals, mainly written by me with my repertoire of bad poetry and five or six open guitar chords, really basic stuff. I was inspired to form a band by The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Psychocandy and the C-86 scene that was happening at the time. I was also heavily into David Bowie, The Smiths and Postcard bands like Aztec Camera and Orange Juice but they seemed like musical gods to me, virtuosos that were way out of reach for mere mortals like myself. I had missed out on punk and was slightly too young to get into the post-punk scene so when the C-86 thing came along, it was as if a light turned on in my head. I felt that it was something that I could get myself involved in and I wanted a piece of the action so bad. To travel around making cheap records, playing gigs, drinking beer and meeting girls, that seemed infinitely more preferable than going to college, university or worst, full-time employment. None of us could play our instruments worth a damn but technical expertise didn’t seem to matter that much with bands like The Pastels and The Shop Assistants, or so we thought back then. They sounded as raw and untutored as we did which gave us a real boost, like, if they can make records with stand-up drums and gnarly, out of tune sounding guitars and get on John Peel, so can we. The folly of youth eh?
Dan: Yeah I was in the Kildares from aged 17. Zack Yusof and Andrew Richardson were also in the Kildares.
John: I wasn’t in any bands before or after. Always had a frustrated itch to write songs and then maybe have them heard. Had a guitar for decades but never left the launch pad but have written a couple of dozen blinders that languish in my head.
++ Where were you from originally?
Zack: I was born in Singapore. My family relocated to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia when I was five or six and then when I was 11, we packed up and moved over to the UK, settling in Orpington, Kent. Currently, I live in Perth, Western Australia with my wife, son, cat and dog.
Dan: I was born in Walsall, West Midlands, then brought up in North Wales, near Oswestry, where the Kildares formed.
John: I grew up in Bristol.
++ Whereabouts in SE London was Rebecca Fishpond based? Were there any bands in the area that you liked? Were there any good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?
Zack: The Fishponds were based in South East London; Lewisham first, which wasn’t nearly as gentrified back then as it is now, and then Blackheath which was much posher and prettier. There was nothing really appealing about Lewisham back then, apart from the cheap rent and quaint, quiet pubs, which attracted some interesting arty types, our type of people. I can’t remember any decent local record stores though. Buying cool records back then meant having to go into the city to the Rough Trade shop or Sister Ray in Soho. But even though Lewisham was a bit of a dump, we were only a short bus ride away from Goldsmiths College in New Cross – that wonderful English art institution where the likes of Blur and Damien Hirst attended and first cut their teeth as artists – which was very handy when it came to meeting pretty female students and buying cheap drinks at student prices during uni disco nights. In New Cross, there were places like The Goldsmiths Tavern, The Dewdrop pub and The Venue, cool, slightly ramshackle hangouts where we could get glammed up in our indie finery, drink cheap booze and meet like-minded souls. Through hanging out at those places, we became tight with some of the best local bands in the area like Laverne and Shirley (who are still going strong now as Spearmint), The Desirables and A Colourful Mess. With those bands, it felt like we had our own little cool South East London scene happening. Our friend Mike Meniro and his pal Alison ran a great regular indie night at Goldsmiths Tavern and they gave us some of our first gigs there. That place was like our CBGB’s. Mike was our first supporter with any sort of clout (he ran his own club night and booked some of our favourite bands to play there) and he used to blast our demo through the club’s PA after gigs which was a fabulous ego boost. I have a hazy memory of us supporting The James Dean Driving Experience there at one of our earliest shows. Great times.
Dan: We were based in Lewisham, S.E. London.
John: Az was living in Blackheath with his brother when I met him, before Dan and Richie moved to London- I was living on the Old Kent Road. Mostly our stomping ground was New Cross where there was Goldmsiths University and the Goldsmiths Tavern where the promoter took a liking to use and put us on supporting the Inspiral Carpets amongst others. He also started running gigs at the Venue in New Cross, a bigger venue, and put us on there and he put a word in with the guys at the Falcon in Camden so we got gigs there. I remember mates’ bands, Laverne and Shirley- we were signed by guys who managed the Beloved who were relatively big news but we never met them.
++ When and how did the band start? How did you all meet? How was the recruiting process?
Zack: The Kildares broke up when I left school up in Oswestry and headed down to London to embark on a new musical adventure. My plan was to get a serious band together and really go for it or end up in rehab trying. To that end, I began studying the musician wanted ads in the Melody Maker every week until I eventually met John Sheehy, who looked drop dead cool in a sixties, Velvet Underground kind of way and who had a really nice, gentle way about him. The fact that he could sing, write great lyrics and was thoroughly committed to the cause was a bonus. To make up the rest of the band, I drafted in my old Kildares brothers Dan Rowlands and Andrew Richardson who, to my utter amazement and delight, were just as keen to put higher education on hold indefinitely in order to chase that rock dream of ours. Every band needs a drummer, especially one with a big red van, and when John brought his pal Lar to beat the skins aggressively and drive us around, the Fishponds line up was complete.
Dan: As mentioned three members of Rebecca Fishpond had been in the Kildares. Zack had hooked up with vocalist John in London, and drummer Lar was a friend of John’s
John: I met Az through an ad in Melody Maker or one of the music papers. We made a demo. Dan and Rich, who’d done stuff with Az/ Zack at school in Oswestry, came to London to be in the band. I knew Lar, he was a neighbour, he played drums.
++ Were there any lineup changes?
Zack: After about a year, maybe more, Richy left the band for reasons I can’t quite remember now and was replaced by our good pal Mr Toby Carter on bass, a naturally gifted musician, witty raconteur and sporter of the finest mane of hair this side of Lee Green. Tobe was so talented and so funny, it made us all collectively up our game.
Dan: Yeah Toby Carter became the bass player when Andrew left.
John: My memory is Rich left and Toby Carter took over on bass.
++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?
Zack: One of the things I loved about us was the way everyone would chip in with ideas for songs. People in the band either wrote songs on their own or with others. Personally, I loved writing with John as much as I did writing on my own and I really loved the songs Richy wrote with John too. John was really great in the way that he wouldn’t never object to singing our lyrics even though he was hands down the best lyricist in the band. Dan contributed some great finished songs too, as did Richy. We were a real band in the sense that everyone had a go at writing and weighed in with ideas, either musically or lyrically. There were no egos in the way of getting the songs done. After months of schlepping around dodgy rented practice rooms in Deptford or New Cross, our managers Angie and Robert eventually sorted us out a practice room in Camberwell which we shared with a band called Spin who went on to become Gene. Remember them?
Dan: Mainly jamming I would say. My recollection is that lyrically and musically it was pretty collaborative. I guess I’m talking about once the group was up and running on the live circuit. We used to rehearse in rented rehearsal rooms in various S.E. London locations.
John: Initially, Az had a bunch of songs ready and I had a few lyrics and melodies that he and I bashed into the songs on the first demo. I couldn’t play anything- just had lyrics and melodies. When the others got involved, the vibe changed a bit. Dan wrote stuff and worked on it with Az I think. Maybe it started to pull in different directions from early on.
++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?
Dan: I think John and Zack came up with the name or maybe just John. Fishponds is an area of Bristol where John had previously lived as I recall.
John: My memory is it was my idea- Fishponds is an area of Bristol where I grew up as a child. Rebecca was just a girl’s name- at the time, to me, it sounded like a posh name.
++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?
Zack: Our influences were quite diverse. I was heavily into early Primal Scream and that My Bloody Valentine record Isn’t Anything and was trying to push the band into that direction with the material i was bringing into the band, a heavier, more shoegazey type of sound. I still really love that record. John was into sixties stuff like Love and The Velvet Underground as I recall and Dan was very partial to the rockier side of indie, things like House of Love’s Destroy The Heart. We loved the sound of guitars in the Fishponds and most things with a good melody. We weren’t too snobby about our tastes. We started out jangly and then got heavier as time progressed.
Dan: Influences wise I guess there were loads…Anything from the Marine Girls to Dinosaur Jr I guess would be one way of putting it. I guess we loved guitars. Acoustic guitars, electric guitars, amplified guitars. Distorted amplified guitars. Me, Zack and Andrew used to mess around covering U2 tracks and stuff sometimes, but live performance-wise it was original material only.
John: I guess we started sounding jangly then, influenced by stuff around, moved to sound a bit heavier.
++ I know you recorded a 5-track demo tape. Where was it recorded? How many days were you in the recording studio? Was it your first time in one? Any anecdotes that you can share?
Zack: That first five track demo, the one that really kicked everything off for us, was recorded over the course of a single day in Enfield, Middlesex at a studio called In The Pink Recordings. Five songs in a single day seems incredible now but that’s how we did it back in those days. It wasn’t my first time in a professional studio as a couple weeks previously, I had booked a half day in another studio somewhere to lay down some songs that John, whom I’d just met a couple of weeks previously, supplied lyrics to, just to show John that I wasn’t bullshitting when I said that I could make songs out of his poems. So Enfield was actually my second time in a professional studio and John’s first. I can’t recall why we chose that studio in Enfield as we had never been to that part of the world prior to the session or anytime since. That session, I remember being quite nervous and tense to begin with but also very prepared. I knew what I wanted to do in the studio and worked hard to prepare accordingly. I played all the instruments, John sang and I worked out the drum machine programming with the engineer. The engineer was cold and unfriendly to begin with as he had us pegged as a couple of clueless kids. As the session progressed, he warmed up to John and I and ended up laying down an amazing Roddy Frame-esque acoustic guitar solo in one take on the last song of the session, a tune called All I Ever Wanted. That demo has stood the test of time to my ears which is quite incredible considering how little time we spent making it.
Dan: Zack and John got together the initial 5 track demo but it had a track on it that I had written called “Tell me when it’s twelve”.
John: Az and I recorded it in a day in a small studio in someone’s house in Enfield- a place we’d found in the music press small ads. I think Az and the Oswestry boys might’ve been in the studio before- they had some recordings from before London & Rebecca Fishpond. For me it was the first time in a studio but it was relaxed, just three people in someone’s spare room. I remember being on a train platform with AZ on a cold, bright day. Felt quite different from the Elephant and Castle and Old Kent Road, areas of London I knew that were more inner city- Enfield was more open and green- I think we could see either the Alexandra Palace or Crystal Palace transmitter aerial from the station. Az seemed to have in his head what he wanted. He played guitar and bass and guided the engineer guy how to set the drum machine. The engineer I think put on some guitar and keyboards. I sang two or three songs and backing vocals. Did I contribute some tambourine too?
++ Aside from these 5 songs I know there are two more songs, “Revolved” and “Bought and Sold” that were properly recorded. Was there a second demo tape? Or what’s the story behind these songs?
Zack: Revolved and Bought and Sold, we recorded at Meantime Studios in Deptford. Those two songs were the sound of the band moving away from our old jangly thing into harder territory. Bought and Sold was Dan’s tune. Revolved, I wrote with John. I can’t remember much about how that song came about but I do remember buying a cheap, secondhand fuzzbox to use on the track. That pedal was so noisy, it practically played itself. The session was paid for by our managers Angie and Robert who ran a company called Orange. Orange also paid for another session in a posh 24 track studio where we re-recorded two tracks – Laugh and Always In A Dream – for a possible seven inch single release. We also did another studio session where we recorded another two tracks – Dream On and Two Ways To Die – but those tapes seem to have vanished.
Dan: Yeah that was the second demo tape I think. John’s lyric to “Revolved” still sounds a winner…”Bought and Sold” was my lyric. The music was probably a collaboration. I’m on vocals in “Bought and Sold” too – Smiths / Morrissey falsetto influence at the end and all…
Vocal craft is tricky. I guess you gotta tell the story your own way, not Morrissey (or Sinatra’s) way. Ha ha. I guess lyrically Bought and Sold is not a bad music industry analogy.
John: The former was a song I wrote with Az, the latter was Dan’s song. I think we did a couple of versions before the managers spent for a proper studio. The sound was getting rockier. The former is about being unsure in the world and aged about 20 years old, about it being like that everyday, about a feeling of life? Dan’s song, I remember was more about heartbreak.
++ And then I found yet another song but played live, “Two Ways to Die”. Was this track recorded in a studio too?
Dan: Yeah it was. Not sure whether any one’s got a copy of that demo though.
John: My memory is that this was written and sung by Dan. I don’t remember if we recorded it.
++ In total, how many songs did you have in your repertoire? Did you play any covers?
Zack: We had about 20, 25 songs in total and several others which never made it beyond the demo stage. We played all originals.
Dan: Hard to put a figure on the number of songs. I guess between 10 and 20. Original material only.
John: We didn’t do any covers. Did we maybe have 15 or 20 songs?
++ Is it true that there was a chance to end up releasing in Sarah Records?
Zack: Not too sure about that but I wholly support the rumour being perpetuated decades down the line! I did get a lovely rejection letter from Matt from Sarah one time though, when the Kildares were still going. How I wish I still had that letter!
Dan: Not that I know of personally but I think the Kildares sent a demo tape to Sarah Records.
John: Not that I’m aware of. My sense is we were on the tail end of that but Az was big into that stuff at the beginning?
++ Was there any interest from other labels?
Zack: There was talk of a seven inch single being put out through a new label that our friend Mike was going to set up but i have no idea if that came to fruition or not. Martin from The Flatmates who ran The Subway Organisation label really liked Always In A Dream from our Enfield demo but not the other tracks on the tape. He wrote to me and said that if we had three of four other songs just like Always In A Dream, then we had a deal. We didn’t so nothing happened.
Dan: We had professional management and at one point there was talk of a single deal with Creation Records.
John: The people who took us on to manage, they would’ve been aiming for that. I don’t think there was anything concrete before the fabric started to come asunder.
++ Why do you think your songs never ended up on a record? Not even on a compilation, right?
Zack: I really have no idea why we didn’t end up on a record or a compilation. The songs were certainly good enough to be put out for mass consumption I felt.
Dan: The group did do a 24 track studio demo, which hopefully one day might surface, but no record deals were sealed back in the day.
John: I don’t think we achieved that level of profile or traction before we went our separate ways.
++ I think my favourite song of yours might as well be “All I Ever Wanted”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?
Zack: All I Ever Wanted, if I recall correctly, was a bit of a throwaway tune that John and I bashed out just before heading into the studio in Enfield. We never played it live to my knowledge. Musically, I was going for a summery, Orange Juice kind of thing and wrote the bulk of it on the bass. I thought John mentioning Cocteau and Rousseau on the track was a nice touch.
Dan: That track is a Zack and John collaboration as far as I am aware.
John: This was a song I did with Az in his bedroom early on and it’s on that 5 track initial demo. I remember the line, maybe, ‘all I ever wanted was someone to hold’. I think in my mind it was like one of those Velvet Underground songs sung by Moe Tucker, like ‘I’m sticking with you’- just a simple song with simple lyrics, almost like a list song. My memory was that it was pretty vapid but funny now listening to it after literally decades, the thing about wishing I had something profound to say is still here so maybe it was true. This is the song that the engineer put guitar on top of I think, what Az called Echo and the Bunnymen guitar. Did it feel like a filler? I don’t think we played it live.
++ If you were to choose your favorite Rebecca Fishpond song, which one would that be and why?
Zack: I still have a soft spot for Laugh. I like the way the song has no chorus, just a bunch of verses, and I really love John’s vocals on the track. It was the first song I wrote that made me think that maybe I could make a go of being a proper full-time musician.
Dan: I would probably say “Always in a Dream”. It kind of feels like a signature tune of sorts, to the group as a whole.
John: It’s difficult for me to stand back from but the favourite for me is ‘beauty’.
++ What about gigs? Did you play many?
Zack: We played a fair few shows, mainly around London and a couple out of town. I remember moaning to the guys a lot at the time about how we should gig more. I always wanted to play.
Dan: Can’t recall exactly how many gigs but a fair few round the S.E.London gig circuit.
John: Did we gig for about 2 years? Did we play 20 gigs? I don’t know. I know we played our first gig in Oswestry or Shewsbury, because the Oswestry lads knew people there. We played once in a university to the north of London- then we played in London, New Cross, the Elephant, Camden. I remember we played in a pub around Old Street once. I guess we were building a circuit of London venues that would put us on, trying to up our profile.
++ And what were the best gigs you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?
Zack: Apparently we supported Jesse Garon and The Desperados at The Camden Falcon but I can’t remember anything about that at all, which is a shame because I was a huge fan of that band. The gig did happen though because I saw the flyer for it! I once stupidly left my bag of guitar pedals at a show in Stoke Newington which almost ruined the band for me. My guitar sound completely changed after that show to a more stripped down thing. Not by design I have to add although that was the vibe that I told people I was going for!
Dan: There was a pub in New Cross called the Amersham Arms where we played more than one show which went down well with the punters. I saw an old flyer recently for a gig we did with Jesse Garon and the Desperadoes at the Falcon pub in Camden but I can’t remember it! Zack said he couldn’t either… Ha Ha. Some of the gigs were at venues I can’t recall the names of. I remember some good nights playing at Goldsmiths Tavern in New Cross, and also the Union Tavern in Camberwell.
John: I remember playing the Venue in New Cross- that was the biggest place we played and we used to go out there regularly as punters, so it was super cool to play there and I remember seeing Radiohead there about the same time (although they already had ‘creep’ on the radio). One thing that sticks in my memory is we got a rider for the 1st time and I got very drunk. The Falcon in Camden was always a cool place to play and the Goldsmiths Tavern felt a bit like our home ground.
++ And were there any bad ones?
Dan: I don’t recall any that were too bad. Occasional sound issues I guess which could be frustrating.
John: I don’t recall any bad ones. I remember being freaked out before the first gig in Shropshire and probably having my back to the audience the whole gig.
++ When and why did Rebecca Fishpond stop making music? Were you involved in any other bands afterwards?
Zack: The band just naturally ran its course in 1990 or 1991. We were very young and everyone ended up wanting to do different things. When a band loses sight of its common goal, that’s when the fun stops. After The Fishponds, I set up a band called Release. I also played in a band called Fast Boyfriends who are still going strong now. I moved back to Asia at the tail end of the nineties and formed a band called Free Deserters which lasted for a decade. We put out several records and did a fair bit of touring around the region. After Deserters, I started Mystery Tapes which is still my main gig today. I also perform solo and deejay a bit.
Dan: I don’t really recall specifically why the band split. We were all pretty young. I was the singer in a band called Open Up with Toby Carter after Rebecca Fishpond, then between ‘97 and ‘03 I was in a band called Emergency Exit in Manchester.
John: I went to Norwich to do an English degree in 1993 and did a year access course before that so we must have stopped by 1992. I think we weren’t that tightknit and there were pulls in different directions. I did a few songs with Richie, in the kitchen, with Az putting some guitar on. I wrote things over the years and always had an unscratched itch but not enough momentum to go beyond that.
++ What about the rest of the band, had they been in other bands afterwards?
Dan: Zack has been in a few bands that I know of. The Fast Boyfriends, Free Deserters, and Mystery Tapes. Mystery Tapes is his current band as far as I know. Toby Carter went on to be in the London band UK States, and is still involved with music.
John: Sounds like Az always has and I hear Dan has been doing stuff.
++ Did you get much attention from the radio?
Zack: No radio play that I know of. John Peel, he really missed a trick there.
John: I don’t’ think we had anything the radio could play really- no single.
++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?
Zack: We got a lovely review from the now defunct Sounds music paper once which was very exciting as we all devoured the music press back then. This was during the heyday of the British music press, when the UK had three music papers coming out weekly. Incredible stuff.
Dan: At one of the gigs at the Union Tavern in Camberwell which I mentioned, we got reviewed by Sounds. The review said we had “blistering potential”.
John: We got a live review in the Melody Maker, in a pub between Camberwell and the Oval. I think Angie, one of our managers, pulled a string with some press buddies. That was exciting though. Still got the cutting bookmarking somewhere.
++ What about from fanzines?
John: Don’t’ think so.
++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?
Zack: For me, the best part of being in the Fishponds was making music and living the band life with my musical brothers. We were a tight-knit band and the fact that we are all still friends today proves that. There were many things that, in retrospect, we should have done differently for the sake of our career but life is too short to have regrets.
Dan: I’d say one highlight would be some of the quality tracks in the catalogue. That, and the great friendship and camaraderie in and around the group.
John: I remember weird ego rub of having our photos taken around Camberwell one time. The MM review was a buzz.
++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?
Zack: Music is a full-time hobby for me. I barely have time for anything else. Apart from playing music, I also host a radio show called 33rpm which broadcasts out of Kuala Lumpur on the station BFM 89.9. The show is in its tenth year now which is amazing. I’m also starting up a new blog called Analog Vs Digital which will be focussing on guitar pedals, music gear, that kind of geeky stuff.
Dan: I like movies a lot, and am trying to increase the amount I read and write. Writing wise I’m currently just journaling / diary keeping for my own amusement. I still dabble with lyrics / poetry sometimes.
John: I’m 52 years old now, I think. I have recently started piano classes which is a delight so far. I have two school aged kids (who I’m getting to listen to the Everly Brothers), a wife and a full-time social worker job. I try to swim once a week and I commute on my bike. I like telly, an occasional beer in the pub and if I get to see a thoughtful grown-up film (I don’t mean XXX) that’s good. I have learnt to make a reasonable pizza this last year
++ Anything else you’d like to add?
Zack: I think it’s fantastic that our music has managed to endure after all these years. The fact that people are still aware of our little band in places like Asia, the US, Japan and continental Europe is a source of great pleasure and pride to me. Not bad for a bunch of lads from Lewisham! Thanks for keeping the flame alive. Salut!
Dan: Just thanks for the interview. It’s been a pleasure.
John: Gosh. It was all a long time ago and only a brief thing, and I’ve done lots of other things which were also influential but Rebecca Fishpond was a fun, memorable time. Who knows, with some different breaks, who knows how it might’ve gone.
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