|
| Exclusive Andy Ellison interview |
This interview was conducted with Andy Ellison, John's Children lead singer and living legend, in September 2000 via e-mail. Drummer Chris Townson also butts in on the odd occasion. The answers are as they sent them to me, with no modification on my part.
Interview by Mikko Kapanen.
© 2000 The John's Children website.
Did you have any musical interests before joining the band since your singing sounds very confident on The Silence's demos from 1965 (which were recorded quite shortly after you became the lead singer)?
Apparently I used to sing very loudly from my pram, aged two, in Finchley High road. Until a canopy mysteriously fell on my head outside the local butchers shop. When I was a little older I would practice to Sam Cooke and Billy Fury records, on my Dansette record player, well not actually on top of it, but bouncing on the sofa. My parents sent me off to a boarding school in Devon. Here I would frighten the horse's, cows and chickens but not the pigs with my Eddie Cochran and Elvis impersinations. When I persuaded most of the school to run away, one morning at break time (taking a good supply of live chickens in sacks for food), and live on Exmoor for two days, before finally being caught by police helicoptors. I was expelled and sent to Box Hill Outward Bound School in Surrey. Yes it was here on this very spot that I met...Chris Townson, who had recently been expelled from some other boarding school. We bounded outward together. And it was also here on this spot that we wrote our first song, Chris playing an old ukelele and me annoying the rest of the dormatory with our first masterpiece "Hey little Anaconda". (Going to try and put it on the new album, bet ya'll can't wait?)
I believe a lot of people would like to know who were some of the band's initial influences or inspirations, apart from the obvious comparisons like The Who... And what did you guys think about your contemporaries (like The Creation, The Game, The Action...) at the time? Was there any affinity between you and other groups that are now thought to represent a similar style? Did you perhaps know some of the bands personally (I know The Action played at your club)...?
No.
The manic drum solos, guitar feedback and the occasional mad chanting that was recorded on songs like "You're A Nothing", "Perfumed Garden Of Gulliver Smith", "Why Do You Lie", "Daddy Rolling Stone" and now "Train In My Head" have become sort of a trademark John's Children sound. Obviously those parts are the closest you ever came to the sound of your chaotic live shows in the recording studio? How did you come up with the idea of all that?
ANDY: Fuck knows, it just happened.
CHRIS: What Andy is trying to communicate is that intrinsically, those parts which represent that which is devient, deconstructed and yet a psychodynamicly inherant dogma (or is it dog muck) we will never know.
JANINE TOWNSON of violin fame also butts in but only the once: No, no, no this is an unfinished sentance, however I have no more to add.
Ok stop this!!... the interview has already gone silly and it's only question 3.
A lot has been written and said about some of your legendary tours (mostly the one with The Who, obviously)... For a change, are there any interesting or funny stories that might not have been publicly told yet about your early tour supporting the Small Faces? Or any other tours for that matter?
Possibly...Ok, alright, here's one of many. The Welsh mountain story ... We were on our way to Rhyl Pier, North Wales, to play with the Small Faces, and got lost in the Snowdownia National Park. We stopped on a mountain road in the middle of nowhere, sorrounded only by goats and sheep, and thought we might wake them up a bit. Chris got his entire kit out, and finally his drums, and set them up just as if he was playing on stage. You've never heard anything like it, the side of the mountain and the valley below echoed to the sound of a thunderous CT drum solo. Panic stricken goats and sheep scattered everywhere, one jumped in the back of the Transit van by mistake. We took it took to see the Small Faces.
Sheep was not impressed, and later took us into the back of the van to see the Small Feaces. NOTE: Animal lovers everywhere, have no fears, we took the sheep back safely ... to Leatherhead and it lived happily with John for some time (ooops!)
Do you have any theory about why bands such as yourselves and most notably The Creation seemed to meet with a lot more success in mainland Europe (particularly Germany) than in the UK?
I sink viz uss... it voss za sielk heils vot done it... geezer.... As far as the the Creation are concerned, well it must have been the trousers.
Who are some of your favourite bands and artists these days? Do you still listen to stuff from the '60s? What about newer bands, how do you feel about the music scene of the last ten years or so?
Don't listen much to 60's stuff these days, although I have been playing Abbey Road recently. The music scene is pretty healthy at the moment, bands like Fun loving criminals, The Wannadies, Foo Fighters, Manson, Coldcut, Coldplay, Fat boy slim, Moby, Robbie Williams, Babybird, Prodigy, Leftfield, Embrace, Chicane, Steps. Herd of Herring.
What are your recollections from the "14 Hour Technicolor Dream" show in 1967? You guys also played a set at the "Recurring Technicolor Dream" in 1998, how was that?
They very unwisely decided not to put us on one of the many stages, and told us to play in the middle of the arena under one of the giant pillars, amidst the audience... Right... so no songs, just horrendous feedback.
Marc walked around with the guitar on his head, Chris hit everything in sight including the bemused punters, and I ripped open ten or so feather pillows and started a fight with John. Apparently we were having "A Happening!?" according to one of the reports. Whatever the fuck that is, did we invent it? As we watched the news on television about the show at Alexandra Palace the next day, it wasn't hard to notice that all the bands being interveiwed were covered in feathers, even the reporter was trying to blow one off the end of his nose. And so to the the ICA 30 years later... I think we only managed to do about five or six songs before they unplugged us. Only because they put us on too late, apparently it was a great set, although just as I had done at Alexandra Palace, I threw feathers over everybody , which didn't go down very well with the management. Boz was on tour with Morrisey, so I played guitar, it was just the three of us. Martin, bass, (his first initiation into the wonderful world that is JC). Chris, drums and meeself.
How did you feel about the Orgasm album coming out in 1970 when the band had already broken up and public interest in the band was probably (temporarily) pretty low...?
Can't remember thinking about it
The best way to hear John's Children music now is obviously the NMC label CD's (or Get Back vinyls) Smashed Blocked! and Jagged Time Lapse. There is still some material that wasn't included on these two volumes, like The Silence demos, even more alternative versions of John's Children tunes and some of your solo stuff. Any chance of a third CD coming out at some point?
Dunno mate, but most probably yes.
How did the '90s reunion of the band come about; whose initial idea was it? Did you approach either of the original members about it? Boz Boorer has apparently become a rather important part of the "new" band, is he possibly more in tune with the "John's Children spirit" than Geoff for example ever was?
Boz is more in tune with the spirit of JC than even Marc was. I was in my local newspaper shop one day...(lets go back ...go back.... go back.) when I was approached by this cool looking rockabilly type guy, who said 'You used to be in my favourite band!'. 'Oh yes' I said, 'which one was that?', having been in three. 'John's Children' he replied, shaking me by the hand, 'I'm Boz, fancy doing some gigs? I'll play guitar, I know all the songs'. It was at one point after a few years that we thought we should maybe give John a chance on bass. Up until then he had been dead against the band reforming, as he now had a problem with the lirics, being a born again Christian, and wanted to change the words. Anyway we had this gig at the Borderline coming up so we phoned him, and surprisingly he came along to rehearse. It wasn't long before we realised the error of our ways, his bass playing got steadilly worse, and at one point Boz went over and placed John's finger on the correct fret, then walked back in silence. By the end we were having to change the song to fit his bass pattern. It was getting too silly. Boz held his head in his hands and walked out of the studio. Later in the pub, after prayers, John said to Boz 'So ... are you in the band?' Boz fell on the floor and crawled under the pool table. We had a gig in two days, so we got Johnny Bridgewood from Morrissey's band back to help us out. Chris did once do a rehearsal with John and Geoff Mclleland, at John's request . I declined this fabulous offer. Apparently...and this is how bad it can get...John, who can't play guitar let alone bass, took over from Geoff on guitar at one point, and... it sounded better!?!? Chris told me later that he was praying that no one had recognised him on the way in, or see him from any of the ajoining studios, as it was the most embarrassing sound he had ever heard.
You recorded a fantastic new CD in 1999. How did it feel to be working in the studio again with Chris as John's Children after all this time? Any plans to re-record more of the old stuff (you did a brilliant job with "Sara Crazy Child")...?
Obviously it was a real pain in the arse, having to put up with Chris in the studio again, but I managed it. No more plans to re-record old stuff, sorry! we are getting a little fed up with doing that, infact we are about to form a new band. (shit... just what the world needs now....more about that later, but not in this interview)
What about new songs then? The two new tracks on the new CD were surprisingly good! There has been talk of an album entitled Bonfire At Baxters (note: this was a working title at the time, the album is still imminent as is now going to be called Black & White), is it true that you're working on an album?
Who told you that?.... Don't be stupid we all died years ago.
Given the chance, what would you change about the band's history?
ANDY: 4.17 pm, tuesday november the 3rd 1979 , oh no....or was it a thursday...oh fuck it seems such a long time ago....yes....YES IT WAS TUESDAY! Actually come to think of it I would have called it Andy's Children.
CHRIS: Nay , t'would be Chris's Brethren.
MOOD... oh sorry she comes later: I would have.
PAGE 5.. things are not going as well as expected.
There must have been a time following the group's demise that you thought John's Children would be forgotten forever...? When did you start noticing a renewed interest in the "legacy" of the band and how did you feel about it? These days using the term "cult following" wouldn't be very out of place...
Listen matey, I was a complete cult from the moment the canopy fell on my head.
The people who are interested in the band's history and music could be roughly divided into three groups; the '60s fans, the Marc Bolan fans, and the Jet/Radio Stars fans. Is there any preference in what you'd like the band to be remembered for or do you feel comfortable with all variations?
Withall, you'll always find me withalling when I'm comfortable. Sorry could you repeat that question... due to a large chemical intake...
What are your most and least favourite John's Children tunes to play and to hear?
Desdemona and Desdemona
Do there exist any live recordings or film material of John's Children's shows from the '60s? If so, are there any plans to release any of it?
Apparently we were filmed at the Alexandra Palace 14 Hour... Oh Thingy...sorry I got bored with typing then, ... By Pete Townshend, who has the film locked up in a disused church somewhere in Fulham, good luck to him, if he finds it, poor sod. No live recordings have yet surfaced, which is possibly a blessing to mankind.
Some of your songs had rather tricky time signatures, I for one didn't quite understand how you keep "Not The Sort Of Girl" from falling apart until I read it somewhere that it's in 5/4 time... Was it ever difficult for you to keep in time on that type of songs?
Believe it or not, behind the chaotic, crazy facade that is JC, lurks a quite accomplished set of musicians, it's just that we have this overpowering urge to break everything down and deconstruct it all.... fuck it up basically, on stage and in the studio. As for the 5/4 time... Actually no it wasn't hard, and I dont think any body has attempted it since... and why on earth should they??
While being interviewed for the BBC broadcast that can be heard on the Smashed Blocked! album, John Hewlett talked about an album that the band had been recording "for the past month or so". Why did this planned second attempt at an album never materialise? Which songs were lined up for inclusion?
The second Album following 'Orgasm', was going to be titled 'JC, The Second Coming' (Geddit). Some years later to be used by the Stone Roses...Bastards!! Midsummer Night was ready for inclusion, other songs, only rehearsed were Jasper C Debussey, Cat Black, The Lilac Hand Of Menthol Dan, Third Degree, Its Been A Long Time and Hot Rod Mama.
How come there are so many different versions and takes of many John's Children songs? You recorded mostly at Advision studios, what were your sessions usually like - describe a typical John's Children recording session?
Nice... No actually, Simon (Napier- Bell, 60's musical guru and our manager) would book us in at Advision or in this typical case, Spot Studios in south Molton St, where Cream were also recording. Then after Chris had lent around the door and shouted obscenities at Ginger Baker, we would all go out to lunch in some expensive restaurant in Soho. Marc would carry on drinking bottles of red wine, and we would fall back in to the studio at about 4pm. Chris would then take handfulls of blues to get himself straight, and we were off. Experimentation was the name of the game. Marc with his home made feed back screens, breaking plates and bottles, banging the Jordon Amps against the wall and then fighting in the studio, especially Chris and Marc (not quite sure why. Chris was always punching Marc). After about an hour Simon would casually say over studio intercom, 'that's great, why don't you all go over to the pub across the road for a drink'. While we were there, Simon would chop it up, snort it, then chop up the recording and reassemble it in a completely new order. Later after taking me out to the Lotus House in Edgware Road, (where we would drink copious amounts of champagne and brandy and throw things at the Chinese waitors who just smiled politely). I would return with Simon to the studio, to put down the lead vocals on verses and chorus's that had mysteriously changed position. We would then fall about laughing and go off to the Speakeasy to join the others and re-do the whole thing the next day. Infact I don't remember that much about recording, just eating and drinking and clubbing and fucking. Fuck knows how we ever recorded anyhthing.
Judging from Chris' guitar playing on "Arthur Green" he was probably in fact the best guitarist in the group - legend has it that Chris even had to tune Marc's guitar when he wasn't around. Even though you guys usually give the impression that the music was always secondary to you, it would seem that to some extent Chris was actually the driving force, or "musical director" of the band. What do you think of this theory?
Don't be stupid it was me!!...Ouch!! ... fuck off Chris!!
How did you feel about Marc re-recording some of his John's Children material with Tyrannosaurus Rex, i.e. "Mustang Ford" and "Hot Rod Mama"?
CHRIS: Did Marc write those songs!!... I thought it was me!!
ANDY: When JC split up eventually, having played the Star Club Hamburg, replacing the Bee Gees, who were ill... bless em...with Chris Covill our roadie on drums (never played them before) and Chris Townson on guitar, and well ...Say no more. I went off to the South of France for a while and had no idea what the fuck was going on back home. It came as a great surprise to me some time later, when I heard Marc singing a John's Children song on a radio in a bar in St Rapheal.
Can you tell us how on earth it was possible that you used to have rockers as your bodyguards, instead of a scooter escort for instance?! How did your mod following react to that?
ANDY: I spoke briefly with our Mood Follwing and she was fine about it.
CHRIS: Mikko!! I didn't know you knew Mood!! See also question 13. Mood is philosophical.
You finally got to play in America in 1999! How were you received, was the audience familiar with the band? What about other recent live shows - I would have imagined that you'd concentrate on the music a bit more these days as opposed to all the chaos of the '60s shows but from what I hear this hasn't exactly been the case?
CHRIS: We were received very well. However the audience at the San Diego gig were a little too familiar I thought, after all, we hadn't really been properly introduced!!
ANDY: Chaos reigns supreme.
In recent years there has also been a lot of renewed interest in your other bands Jet and Radio Stars whose music has also been reissued on CD's. If you had to decide, which band/era of your musical career do you like best yourself?
Oh God...ysgdgvcblsudywe90w2-2eoudhcxsjxkhdoiszzzzzzzzzzzz Sorry my mind went then. I'd have to say I had some really crazy experiances with Martin, Ian and Steve (Panty) in Radio Stars, too many stories to recount. But then again Jet was the funniest period. But then again, again JC, well... thats why it's a legend.
Since this interview will be exclusive to the John's Children website, let's bring up the subject of the Internet for one question... How much of an e-mailer and web surfer are you? Can you maybe tip us off to any of your favourite web sites?
www.mummywasatuppawaresetdaddywasanonstickfryingpan.com
www.abovetopsecret.com
www.dorothycomme.com
Thank you very much for your time, Andy! Any last comments you wish to say to the web site visitors?
Yes |
| Exclusive Martin Gordon interview |
This interview was conducted with Martin Gordon (Jet/Radio Stars/reunited John's Children bass player) in August 2000 via e-mail. The answers are as Martin sent them to me, with no modification on my part.
Interview by Mikko Kapanen.
© 2000 The John's Children website.
In John's Children biographies and articles your existence always starts at being the bass player with Sparks. Can you tell us a bit about what you were doing before you were in that band?
Before Sparks, or BS as we say in the trade, I was doing various odd things ranging from bluffing my way as a technical author, where I wrote instruction manuals about how to prevent your oil tanker blowing up at inoportune moments (my speciality was Inert Gas Systems, as I recall; the daughter of the owner of the company fancied me, so that rather explains that one). I also worked in a car repair garage, where I was sacked after two days for setting fire to a customer's car with a blowtorch, evidently not what they required. I had to face it - I just didn't have what it took to ascend the greasy pole of automotive maintenance. And so I decided to join a group, any old group would do, it was better than inert gas. Or so I thought at the time. I auditioned for Supertramp (in a dingy house in Earls Court), Roxy Music (in a dingy basement in Holland Park) and Sparks (bucking the trend with a rather swish cricket club in Barnet). The first offer I got was from Sparks. I had my own local band who played what we thought was pop music - saxophone, bass and drums, no vocalist, so I daresay that it wasn't pop music at all. But we thought it was, that was the point.
Were you aware of John's Children when they were originally together in 1966/'67? If not, when did you first hear about them?
I have a vague idea that when I was at school in those times, I remember hearing the name, when the 'big boys' (ooh err missus) would bring records in to show off their mature status. Although leading such a sheltered early life as mine (no TV, no music radio, no pop records, due to parental sanction), I existed in a kind of pop-cultural wasteland. And then Bolan threw some retrospective light on JC due to his later success. When the Sparks thing happened in the 70s, I discovered more about JC through Hewlett and Chris, who I also met at that time and got along well with. Chris played on a couple of the Sparks drum auditions - why he wasn't asked to join I'm not sure. Probably Hewlett knew that he wouldn't put up with much bullshit - he was rather direct in those days, and there was quite a lot of bullshit to put up with...
Were you ever into the music of that period, such as The Who, The Creation, etc.? Who were some of your personal influences or inspirations?
I used to go and see the Who regularly and once managed to catch a piece of Townshend's smashed SG guitar as it flew off the stage (at Dunstable Civic Hall). Chris wasn't playing drums though. My friends who were a bit older were into the post-mod thing - I think I liked weird pop, Todd Rundgren et al. And still do, of course. I do remember hearing the Nice at school, with a completely outrageous guitar solo from Davey (as I later discovered). I was at Chris's house later (many years later, actually) and Davey showed me a royalty cheque he'd got for Nice recordings. I was dead impressed to be in such exalted company. Then he fell over.
The "JC story" gets a bit confusing around the time the band originally split up. Can you tell us a bit about how you hooked up with Chris and Andy in the first place?
I enter the picture in 1973. Hewlett managed Jook as well as Sparks. When he decided to move a couple of players from division 2 (Jook) up to division 1 (Sparks), I found myself out of a job (1974). Chris called me up one day shortly after the beginning of the PS phase and we met for a chat. Hewlett's idea was to keep Jook going with me as bassist, but it never was seriously considered by anyone, least of all by me. Chris said he had this friend who could sing a bit... one Andy Elephant. We met in a pub (nothing's changed there, then). Andy turned up with a green builder's anorak and a long trunk... But we booked a rehearsal session and obviously everything seemed to work out. Then Chris's drums were stolen from the rehearsal room, which didn't put us off, and we rehearsed for a while as a trio, added a guitar, added another guitar, narrowly failed to avoid having keyboards.
As soon as Jet got together, you became the main songwriter. How did you assume that role?
That's what I did, you see, play bass and write songs. Nobody else was going to play bass, were they, if I was the bass player. Course not, wouldn't make sense at all, one of us would have been completely redundant. Similarly, nobody else seemed to have any material and I did. Except for Davey O'List, who had a few rather bonkers psychedelic things - a couple of them are on the Nothing To Do With Us/Jet compilation. He was a great, not to say fantastic, guitar player, but his skills as a songwriter were not so remarkable. Well, it's a common thing... So I presented my tunes and we recorded them. Actually I'm not a big fan of democracy in this area, having listened to too many musical camels which began life as horses. Much better to have one vision right or wrong than a round-the-table compromise that doesn't offend anybody but which satisfies no one. Most of my favourite records are by artists who, in this way, do what they're good at; you know, the good guitarist plays guitar, the good singer sings and the good writer writes. Let's face it, the Beatles got rid of the Harrisongs, didn't they... Chris and Andy came up with the words to Whangdepootenawah, and I sorted out a jolly little tune for it. We played it on the recent tour and I think I'm not overstating the case if I say that it could well give flash-in-the-pan ballads like Stairway To Heaven and My Way a good run for their money.
Jet did a version of "Desdemona" as well... How did that come about? Did you ever play that one live?
We played it often - fast, slow, loud, er... not so loud. It was an excuse to get Davey to do what he could do best, to wig out a bit. I can't remember exactly who suggested it - something from the collective unconcious, maybe. We used to rehearse in Chelsea - whenever we came back pissed from the Roebuck pub at lunchtime, first we would do 'tuning up', a great game which lasted for hours sometimes, then we'd do Desdemona, then we'd practise smashing the equipment up, then it would be time for the pub again. Ian was always better at tuning than Davey. He could do it, I mean. Davey would assault the tremelo arm, in the name of art, and of course it would sound great for the first song but then the whole guitar would be about a fourth flat to everybody else. Well, actually it would be a minor third flat to the keyboards, they had their own tuning issue going on. Davey would then peer in baffled astonishment at the guitar neck, as though there was some dreadful mechanical problem that had suddenly developed which he could actually see. I looked at the back of his guitar one day to see that he had taken off three of the five springs that were supposed to help the thing stay in tune, but it didn't help. 'They're for the tremelo arm', he said plaintively, 'to make it work'. It was time for another Special Brew.
In hindsight, Jet seems a bit like a transitional period between John's Children and Radio Stars because the group didn't last very long. What are your best memories from the Jet days?
Chris once said that his best memory of Jet was the free sandwiches in the studio. Indeed..... My best memory is falling into the River Thames while Chris and the others were trying to help me back on board my boat after a long night out. Well, the boat where I lived, I should say. So, I can say that my best memory of Jet is falling face first into a pile of stinking shit. Everything else was much less fun.
Actually Chris and I were arrested by Her Majesty's Polite Farce for uprooting a flower bed and attempting to carry it off in a couple of plastic carrier bags. They were not amused and locked us up for the evening. Chris's (broken) leg was in plaster, and he kept them very amused with his drunken shouts of 'Assault a cripple, would you, you bastards? Police brutality!' and such like. We had a warm friendly evening with the fuzz, sitting around with hot tea exchanging funny stories and life philosophy, and we came up before the beak on the morrow. We told him that he'd got us bang to rights, no worries, we put our hands up to this one squire but that we felt society was to blame. He didn't agree and sentenced us to life imprisonment followed by deportation to Barnet. (OK, it cost us a fiver. Each, though).
Although Jet "transformed" into Radio Stars quite naturally (without a decision to quit and put together a new group), the style of music changed a bit. Why's that?
Well, actually we did stop playing together. I joined a group called Neo, yet another Hewlett-masterminded project for Island Records. Andy came down one day to see how it would be for him as a singer, but the resident songwriter also had designs in this area and was a bit nervous about it (see answer to question 5, if you ask me). Also his trunk was a bit on the small side, and you now how touchy our American cousins can be..... Andy was quite keen to be involved, he told me at the time. Andy and I kept in touch anyway, and when I got a small budget to record some demos, I invited him along, and also Jet's last guitarist Ian Macleod. Chris had told us emphatically that he was out of the picture by this time. That line-up became the first Radio Stars, later. In terms of changed musical approach, it was just the effect of listening to what was going on around me, getting better at writing and at achieving what I wanted, and my own tastes changing a bit, as they do when you grow up (it happens to some people, anyway).
Andy has always been quite a wild performer, and not least so during the Radio Stars days. Didn't you ever think he was going to seriously hurt himself on stage some day?!
Frequently. And he did - he ended up in hospital a few times, with broken appendages. Once he was injected by a member of the audience and once, thanks to him, the roof fell down on top of us as we were playing. Another time he fell off a nun, and that was nearly fatal, not least for the nun. And then there was that time with the schoolteacher in Paris...... but I digress.
Jet and Radio Stars material has been reissued on CD during the last couple of years. Are you still happy with those records?
The first Radio Stars album I like a lot, the second has nice parts to it although the plot had been lost slightly, the Somewhere... compilation (www.acerecords.co.uk) is most enjoyable, and Jet is certainly of historical interest. Although saying that, it's curious that the few Jet tunes we recorded for this new Herring CD sound fabulous, even though I say so myself.
The Jet reissue in particular was a pretty cool package. What was it like going through all those old demos and things again...?
A strange exercise - I stopped being judgemental and just worked on the stuff as best I could from an objective point of view. Some of the stuff is very funny, especially the second CD. And the live stuff is hysterical, although unintentionally so. When my girlfriend heard some of my backing vocals on the live stuff, and noticed me cringing, she said 'It's OK, people will understand it's meant to be a joke'. It wasn't meant to be a joke, I shouted as I smashed her to the floor. That was one difference between Jet and Radio Stars, actually - Jet was a bit serious. Not that you can tell by listening to the record but it was supposed to be.
When you're working with artefacts that comes from another time, it's a strange feeling to look back and see how you worked or reacted; it's like climbing into a time machine. One thing that I absolutely could not listen too was a live cassette that was running in the studio while we were working with Roy Thomas Baker. It's just recordings of chat - intergroup banter, directions from RTB, arguments, me behaving like a twit, normal stuff but for me quite unbearable to hear generally awful I was. So I didn't. The original idea was to use pieces of it on the CD, for the Nothing.... release, but it was too appalling to even listen to - when I made a DAT copy of the cassette, I had to turn the monitors off.
As you were the main songwriter in both Jet and Radio Stars, which songs do you hold dearest?
Beast Of Barnsley, Dirty Pictures, Accountancy Blues, It's All Over (edited), Sex In Chains, No Russians, Cover Girl, Don't Cry Joe, Nervous Wreck. Some of them play with the song format, others just have nice tunes and the odd funny lyric.
You have also worked as a record producer. I understand you've been involved with world music quite a bit?
Yup, that's one of the things that keeps me occupied. Latest and best productions are Smart Boys by Mustapha Tettey Addy (www.weltwunder.com), Bad Blood & Blasphemy by the Tiger Lillies (www.tigerlillies.com) and Surela by Metin & Kemal Kahrman (www.sesplak.com but it's Turkish). I drag my equipment to wherever the band is, we record and I bring it home and finish it off here in Berlin. In the above cases it was Accra, my bedroom and Istanbul. I now have a G4 Mac-equipped studio here and a collection of ADATs that travel with me.
The thing that attracts me to 'world music' - silly term - is that there are performances in there, it's not only about how well someone can programme his (or her, I should say) sequencer or how many CD-ROM sound libraries he (or she - the thing about being even-handed is it takes up so much bloody time and plays havoc with yer syntax) can afford. So the best thing for me, and some of my favourite production are like this, is where you have a combination of humanity (people, I mean) and technology - one brings out the best in the other, for me.
In the '90s you got together with Andy and Chris again to play some John's Children reunion gigs. How did that come about and how did it feel to play with them after a long time...?
Actually it was tried once before, in the mid seventies I suppose, when Hewlett proposed a reformed JC with me instead of him (he didn't get where he is today without proposing etc. etc.), Adrian Fisher and Trevor White, both being guitarists from Sparks, and Andy and Chris. We rehearsed a few times but it didn't seem to be a serious proposition. So then many years after Radio Stars, or my Radio Stars anyway, I saw in Time Out, the London listings magazine, that there was some kind of Bolan convention gig going on. Bugger me if I didn't find Andy and Chris, and a stash of other people that I knew, performing John's Adults Unplugged. We kept in touch, met in various pubs and then Andy asked if I'd like to do a couple of gigs with them. Which I did (Notre Dame and the ICA), the Notre Dame gig being my last night as a UK resident, so that was a nice way to go out. Andy kindly drove me and my 25 cases of stuff to the airport the following day, and it all fell down the stairs and broke. Nice thought, anyway. Then later the Grand San Diego Fiasco Festival wanted to book us for threepence and a kiss, so I went to the UK to rehearse and then we all starved to death in San Diego for ten days. It was great, it must be said, not least because we all had known each other for twenty five years by this point. Chris's false teeth (alright, tooth) fell out on stage, as we all know, and entered the JC Mythology (in this household anyway). (Yep, same here! Anyone who hasn't yet purchased the Jet CD, there's more about this essential chapter of the JC mythology in the liner notes - worth the price of the CD alone! -Mikko)
Why were you not on the "new" John's Children CD from 1999? How do you like the record?
Interesting, especially the flower arranging and wigs. I was probably in Pakistan or Guatemala or Turkey or Ghana, if it was 99. I don't think there is a bass player on it, actually.
What are your most and least favourite John's Children tunes to play and to hear?
My least favourite to play used to be Perfumed Garden, but it's now my favourite to listen to because it's (the new version, anyway) so great. Can't work it out, meself. Any list of other old unfavourites must give an honourable mention to This Is Your Wife. It's great fun playing It's Been A Long Time and Jagged Time Lapse (new version). Hippy Gumbo is a bit baffling sometimes, especially the bit where it goes from A minor to, er...., A minor. My thoughts tend to wander a bit at this time. Did I feed the cat, did I turn the gas off, is there life after death, when does the bar close, this sort of existential grappling.
There's a live CD coming out from the John's Children/Jet/Radio Stars mini tour called Music For The Herd Of Herring. Why is it called that?
Pardon?
Have you written any new material together with Andy and/or Chris, to be used on a possible John's Children project in the future? There has been talk of an album called Bonfire At Baxters, what's the deal with that? Any other projects in the works?
Well - we threw in a new tune for the Nothing... tour but then we threw it out again, cos life's too short sometimes. I'd love to do a proper studio recording of the band as it is today - I now have the recording and production skills that I hadn't mastered in the early days and we could do something quite special, even though Chris hates studio recordings. But his drums on Herring sound 'just as they should have before', he says, so maybe there will be some opportunity... Bonfire At Baxters is an old album by Jefferson Airplane, is it not, which came out in 1967 if my memory serves. Not quite sure how this fits into the general scheme of things...
What type of music do you listen to these days? What do you think of the rock music scene of the past decade or so?
Last few CDs I bought: ConstruKction Of Light by King Crimson (released 2000), Turn It Over by Tony Williams Lifetime (rel. 1971), Monkjack by Jack Bruce (1995), It's A Curious Life by Anthony Hindson (1999), The Shape Of Jazz To Come by Ornette Coleman (1959), Music For Hangovers by Cheap Trick (1999) and With a Twist by Todd Rundgren (1997). (Plus a lot of 'world music', of course, but I get all that free). I just love neurosis these days, especially quality neurosis with great singing, and these CDs all deal with aspects of the condition. OK, Ornette Coleman wasn't such a great singer, but I daresay you take the point.
I don't find there is an enormous quantity of groovy music being created at present - I spent a long time working with vocalists and machines (Boy George, George Michael, Sonique, Primal Scream remixes, S'Express) and I've had enough of that thank you - I like stuff that's decently composed and structured (lyrically as well as musically) and that has some humanity about it. And possibly a bit of wit, if it's not too much to ask. Well, that narrows the field down by about 95%.
Since this interview will be exclusive to the John's Children website, let's bring up the subject of the Internet for one question... How much of an e-mailer and web surfer are you? Can you maybe tip us off to any of your favourite web sites?
I spend a lot of time time hunched over a tiny screen swearing at the slowness of the download and calculating my phone bills, so yes, I do it, it's essential to my work these days. I tend not to surf around so much but I check into these two sites to see what's happening:
Tiger Lillies at tigerlillies.com
Fan Mael at fanmael.net
Plus there's a very well written magazine at www.furious.com/perfect called something like Perfect Sound Forever, which has some great JC stuff as well as other ramblings.
Thank you very much for your time, Martin! Any last comments you wish to say to the web site visitors?
Ah yes, the and-finally-any-funny-stories question so beloved of journalists . Actually I think it's great that anybody is interested in anything at all today, given that so much is just dumped on yer plate pre-digested, interaction-free, no thought neccessary. It's great that there are people who are discerning and who express preferences, like the geezers who look at your site. Keep it up, as the actress said to the bishop. |
|
