In the Club Magazine Issue 40 - June 2019

‘IN THE CLUB’, IS THE OFFICIAL TUESDAY CLUB

INTERACTIVE MAGAZINE - BROUGHT TO YOU IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE PERFECT POP CO-OP

Back To The Future 3?

Dear Tuesday Clubbers and Pop Pickers!

Welcome to the Summer 2019 issue of In the Club Mag as we reach the milestone of 40 issues!

WOW it’s almost July already, where did that time go!?? Evidently time is flying so we’d better crack on into another action packed mag. As ever we’ve got lots of news, pics and gig dates and are very lucky to have another great interview by Andrew from Rogue Sector this time with Cabret Voltaire legend Stephen Mallinder no less.

As per usual we’ll kick off with TCs news… Since we last saw you there have been two noteable shows not least our return to Harpenden Halls on Easter Sunday to a packed and enthusiastic crowd which saw us support the mighty Dreadzone. It was our first gig back as a 6 piece with the long awaited and highly successful of the yoof element in the band, J-Rod (Jordan Thomas). A top night with a top vibe, one we hope to repeat at some point in the near future (hint hint Glenn ;-) … We’re taking the summer off to work on new material have 4 cracking dates lined up for the autumn/winter season, more of which we will post in the next mag in September.

In other news and despite the continued disappearance of front man Dermot Illogical, Reverse Family continue to progress the weekly re-issue on Bandcamp and Youtube of the #RF365. I won’t say it hasn’t been a challenge coming up with 15 to 20 minutes of interesting enough background footage for the video montages, but such discipline is very much in the spirit of the project. However any feelings of fatigue have been thoroughly dissipated by the news we are to reveal on pages 20 of this here magazine!

Finally on a PPCO bent, the latest Andreas and The Wolf radio show is out and in our opinion one of the best so far as we delve into the veritable goldmine of the Sheffield music scene. As with all of our projects we are mighty grateful for your support and encouragement, so please

keep spreading the word and helping us gain those valuable new subscribers who help us push things to a wider audience.

I said finally didn’t I, but there is one more PPCO bit of business to mention and that is the latest Sampler (number 3) which this month not only features more rare and obscure PPCO artifacts, it also features great new tunes from Hello Dearies (all the way from Nashville and New Zealand!), Classic 50ft Woman (featuring The Minx’s estranged twin Minki!), plus more magic from Jordan Thomas, Dislocated Flowers and Venus Overload.

In the Club this month we welcome back the crazy world of The Minx! Also and as usual, don’t forget to catch all of the latest local news from The Parsons Knows, North Herts FM, Harpenden Halls and Eat Life Productions, plus a tour review and feature on She Made Me Do It, and their design guru Pushing Normal, not mention Manilla PR’s latest tips, Atom Collector Records latest discoveries and loads more local and international goodies!

Please don’t forget ‘like’ and ‘share’ all of the other things we do, we rely on sharing, liking, reposting and general spreadage! So don’t be shy, help us to get new subscribers and don’t forgot you don’t just read In the Club, you listen to it and watch it too, as all the links are clickable, this is a 21st Century publication for all you digitised rock’n’rollers and our future generations so get social!

Hopefully see you all soon at a gig or in the pub! Mine’s 6 pints of European fighting lager… (though I’m right into Pale Ale now too!)

DATE NIGHTS 2019

Thanks to: Design @andy8ecreative Content: Brad Wigglesworth, Andrew Trussler, Denise Parsons, Will Crewdson, David Newbold, Mandy McNeil, Graham O’Brien, Steve Honest, Manilla PR, Stephen Manuel, John Viney, Glenn Povey, Pete Ringmaster, Karen Lui, Roger Millington, The Minx, Atom Collector Records, Empire Records.

TC’s LIVEAND IN FULLAFFECT!!!HARPENDEN HALLS

at the hallowed halls BACK

A great big thanks to everyone who made it down to Harpenden Public Halls to see us and Dreadzone on Easter Sunday. Our first show back as a 6 peice couldn’t have gone down better. Big thanks also to Glenn for putting us on and Brad Wigglesworth for capturing the moment with these top pics!

SILVERBURY

And another great big thanks to everyone who made it down to Silverbury Festival 2019 to see us where despite blowing the power midday way through will still mananged to get the crowd going! Big thanks for the invite and to Stephen Manuel once more for his fantastic pics!

On Tour with

SHE MADE ME DO IT

We’ve never been to the Cave tbh in all the years of coming to Bournemouth apart from the Anvil and the Bic (Where we’ve seen Motorhead, The Damned and The Mighty Boosh, over the years!), we didn’t think there was that much live music going on... clubbing yes... guitars... not so much... but thanks to Will, Shaneena and gang we found this new must see hang out...

Tonights bill was already a winner by the 66.6% we already new, but as with most nights involving Mr Crewdson in our previous experience, there was more than a little extra to be witnessed...

As you know we’ve been fans of She Made Me Do it since their conception around 2013 but the new EP (Drenched) has in our humble view taken the band to a new level. It was time to check this great new release on a live footing!

Thursday 16th saw us taking the short(ish) and pleasurable (ish) (after the M25 bit that is) down hill route to sunny but not known for it’s Rock venuesBournemouth in hot pursuit of one of our fave and evolving trio’s She Made Me Do It. Having said it’s not known for it’s rock venues Bournemouth is the home of one new and up and coming one (The Cave) that breaks with that traditional misconception and some.

Between the acts the bar was a 50’s rock’n’roll, canapé and brothel creeper heaven (like the rest of the evening an inspiring clash of markedly different styles, that worked in perfect/opposite unison!) The main event was intro’d by the psycho spaghetti entangled, electronic sci-fi of Mr C, resplendent in his best ‘Bryan Ferry circa 1972’ catwalk coture, with a solo slot under the guise of Scant Regard.

Adam Ant gigs have an attendant glitterati, so it’s not really surprising that anything involving Adam’s now longest serving guitarist Will Crewdson does too. Throughout the whole evening, the general ‘speakeasy vibe’ was laced with heavy doses of paparazzi clamour not least when the headline act took to the stage. The cave was the perfect venue for such.

So now you’ve soaked your brain in 50s sci-fi splendour what better way to quench that retro urge than a sharp veer left field for a set of authentic North London Country cool? Respelendent in stetsons and cowboy boots with the twanging guitar and lap steal of the Sarah Vista band who treat us to tracks from their new album Killing Fever.

Then finally the main event 2/3s Ant charisma lead from the front by bewitching and newly converted Bass icon Shaheena. As the paps snapped the band blasted the night clean off it’s feet with a faultless set of Garbagesque power pop glamour... rounding off a resounding success of a night from an eccletic and inspiring bill.

If you want the inside of the outside... you got it here! Bournemouth rock anyone? Look no further, SMMDI have it written throughout their rockin’ core!

It’s Thursday night and we’re on the Sarf Coast... at the CAVE in Bournemouth... for a Scant Regard and She Made Me Do it double Whammy... Look out... the cool kids are in town and we’re gonna find out why and hopefully a big more besides...!

Will & Shaheena of She Made Me Do It

First off, we’d like to say a big thanks to Shaheena and Will for taking the time during their busy schedule to give us a bit of an insight into their world...

We’ve featured She Made Me Do it a few times in the mag, but never done an official interview so for those readers who are just discovering the band, give us a bit of back ground, when did you start She Made Me Do It?

Shaheena : Will and I played together in the Rock Band Rachel Stamp and about 5 years ago we started writing music just the two of us together and SheMMDI was born.

Where did you get the big break? Was that with Rachel Stamp?

Shaheena : Rachel Stamp was definitely a turning point as we headlined the Astoria twice as an unsigned band - you could spot Rachel Stamp fans a mile away wherever we travelled - they were always super glam.

Will: Yes Rachel Stamp was the first time I felt I was making any kind of mark. It’s lead to so many other things.

Growing up, did you always want to make music?

Shaheena : I grew up Ice Skating and playing piano - I’ve always loved music and performing in front of an audience.

Will:

Yes always played music and always never wanted to stop.

Who were your biggest influences?

Will:

Probably Depeche Mode as an example of supreme songwriting coupled with carving their own niche and becoming so massive without pandering to commerciality.

We’re Loving the NEW Ep Drenched as heard on the Andreas and the Wolf Radio show over the last few months, it sounds like a bigger production than previous SheMadeMeDoIt releases, is this a conscious decision or maybe due to expanding the line-up? It’s great having Shaheena on bass when did you guys decide to make that change? It makes for a great full sound and works brilliantly visually...

“I’ve started writing music mostly with the bass instead of just with keyboards or vocals. Will on guitar and myself on bass are coming up with tons of new ideas.”

Shaheena : Thanks Andy - I’m glad you like the New EP!

I found my bass a year ago - I bought it the day Sudan the last male Northern White Rhino passed away. A very sad day.

It all happened quite naturally and I just taught myself how to play.

I love this bass - it’s a 1978 Precision Bass, it weights 11 pounds and sounds fantastic.

Our latest EP Drenched is what we sound like now. I’ve started writing music mostly with the bass instead of just with keyboards or vocals. Will on guitar and myself on bass are coming up with tons of new ideas.

Joe Holweger is our live drummer - he has a cool groove and adds lots of energy to our live set up - it felt right straight away the first time he came down to rehearse with us. It feels like we’re back to our rock n’ roll roots with a good dash of electro in the mix.

We’ve also worked with a fantastic mixer - Nat at Kangaroo - he totally understood our vibe and made it sound just as we’d imagined - he did a great job.

Would you say your projects have different influences or are they based around the different sounds/styles you play?

Will:

Definitely a lot of different influences as we both listen to and enjoy a lot of diverse styles of music.

How does it work with songwriting in She Made Me Do It, is it shared amongst the band or do you demo separately before taking the songs into rehearsal rooms and work them up there?

Will:

It’s definitely a collaborative effort every time we come up with a song. The basis of that song could come about in many different ways though and that can be instigated by either of us.

The addition of Joe has added a great new dimension to the band, was it always the plan to expand from a duo?

Shaheena : I always love live drums especially after having had Robin Guy as a drummer in Rachel Stamp. I’m glad to feel that driving rhythmic force on stage again and I enjoy the chemistry between the three of us when we play live. It’s powerful stuff.

We first met, when I interviewed Scant Regard on the Dial M TV show, you were a duo then with Dave Barbe, I just wondered with your connections if there Any More plans to expand on your Adam And The Ants personal?

Will: Not really. I never plan on expanding any lineups really - it just happens naturally. I guess because I’m involved with Adam and his personnel it’s obvious it crosses over with certain musicians but it really is just a natural progression.

We saw a recent support to Altered Images, even with established artists like yourselves do you still see support slots as the way to grow the bands following?

Shaheena : Absolutely - I love playing in front of new audiences - it’s always a fantastic opportunity and a great challenge. We’ve just been offered to support The Chameleons Vox this Tuesday at Dingwalls and I’m thrilled because I’ve loved their music for such a long time. Bring on the supports - I love it!

“I love playing in front of new audiences - it’s always a fantastic opportunity and a great challenge”

Also any news on the horizon on anything more from Rachel Stamp? We were all gutted last year when you had to cancel due to ill health in the band.

And of course not forgetting Sigue Sigue Sputnik!… it’s not hard to see why you needed to cut down on your commitments!

Will: Yes looking forward greatly to the Friend or Foe tour but before that as many Scant Regard and She Made Me Do It gigs as human(e)ly possible!

It look s like Robin from Rachel Stamp is on the mend as he’s started gigging again so we’re looking at rescheduling that errant Stamp gig too.

And yes, I’m always up for Sputnik action! Nothing quite like playing those riffs.

So your currently in the middle of a tour, where next?

Will:

We’ll be up North at the end of the month with gigs in Nottingham, Glasgow and Manchester and then we’re off to Belgium in June for 3 gigs. After that we’re planning some way out west shows down in Penzance and Exeter etc. but not before our first headline London show at The Albany on the 14th July.

F ull gig details at SheMMDI.com !

What next for SMMDI? Are there plans for an album?

Shaheena : Lots of gigs coming up, a video shoot, a new EP to record and more, more, more!

From the 2019 E.P. ‘Drenched’ available now on CD/ download/10” vinyl from SheMMDI.com/store

“Rachel Stamp was the first time I felt I was making any kind of mark. It’s lead to so many other things.”

LATEST RADIO SHOW OUT NOW!!!

Perfect Pop Co Op Radio is back: mixcloud.com/perfectpopcoop now hosted by Andreas and the Wolf, just click, follow and enjoy! Lots of exclusives, oldies and rarities and that’s the music not the band!

Andreas and the Wolf have been making radio shows for almost 7 years now, but this year is the first one that they’ve been let loose on unsupervised!

Presented in their own inimitable and bungled style,

if you love Indie, indie dance, new wave, post punk, old school punk, vinyl and discovering new music, this has to be the show for you! This is not just an excuse to plunder their own musical heritage though, oh no, this eclectic show comes interspersed with both tracks that have influenced them over the years by established artists and also tracks by fellow ‘DIYers’, underground mavericks and tomorrows indie superstars. You gotta click this link and get yourself subscribed. The show comes out once a month and can be found on the: perfectpopco-op.co.uk and mixcloud.com/perfectpopcoop

Follow us!

@andreasandtwolf

instagram.com/andreasandthewolf

Reverse Family take a journey into sound... and are allowed to stay there for posterity!

You mean forever, forever ever?!

So a couple of weeks ago, reverse family were just minding their own business reissuing the #rf365 on bandcamp and youtube when what should ping into our inbox but an email!... yeah ok what else was it going to be, but the point is these days the RF inbox is relatively quiet being that Dermot is still AWOL and apart from some wonderful die hard completists, the young bucks and the musos are out searching for... young bucks and musos... so an email, the type of which we received was not at expected! but I digress and must stop, cos we’re excited by this news... read on dear friend and find out why...

“Hello from the British Library Sound Archive”

“I’ve been checking out your Bandcamp pages (& website) and see you are making some really great & interesting music. Sadly we don’t have anything of yours in the national collection, it would be very good to change that if possible. I wonder if you would be interested in donating any of your releases to the Archive?

Hopefully if you agree to get involved with us, with world class facilities at hand we can provide the safest possible home for your releases, both for preservation and access, for many generations to come. It would be great to hear your thoughts if this interests you... Kind regards James James Tugwell Record Label Liaison British Library Sound Archive The British Library 96 Euston Road London NW1 2DB

and it would then be available (in a limited way via a restricted access server) to anyone holding a British Library readers pass (writers, researchers, etc.) if they come in person either here or our other site in Boston Spa, Yorkshire. We do not allow any material to go out on loan or be downloaded and we comply with current copyright legislation regarding sound recordings. When catalogued the releases would be part of the Sound & Moving Image collection.. http://sami.bl.uk and a catalogue record created.

“FLippin’ ‘ECK!?!? & Nice one SquirReL!!”

Said the excutor of the Reverse Family estate

So there you go folks, it just goes to show good things come to those who do the ridiculous! Huge thanks to James for spotting our little project and basically imortalising it for the nation... well that’s the way we’re playing it anyway! We’re almost halfway through the re-issues now, so you’ve still got time even if you still never heard of Reverse Family and you never know, you may just end up in one of the videos!!!!

...”To clarify what happens if you to donate to us....we will catalogue, archive & preserve the music as part of the nation’s audio & cultural heritage”

"We will catalogue, archive & preserve the music as part of the nation's audio & cultural heritage..."

It started on 1st January 2015, caused by tragedy in December 2014 and finally ended with a 'closing party' on October 6th 2018. If this is your introduction to the #rf365 you have a lot of catching up to do! In case you missed it first time round, as of 1st January 2019, The Perfect Pop Co-Op have been re-issuing the collection on Bandcamp for the first time in conjunction with the posting of 'compilation' videos on youtube to accompany each release, for more go to...

DR.RHYTHM STEPHEN MALLINDER INTERVIEW

The pioneering musician and master of the ‘treated’ vocal discusses Cabaret Voltaire, Wrangler, Creep Show and his forthcoming solo album. Rogue Sector’s Andrew Trussler asks the questions.

Born and raised in Sheffield, Dr. Stephen Mallinder, aka ‘Mal’, has been making music for five decades. In 1973, he was a founding member of Cabaret Voltaire with Chris Watson and Richard H. Kirk, one of the most original and influential electronic bands to emerge from the UK.

Taking their name from the Dadaist nightclub (founded in Zurich, 1917), Cabaret Voltaire began as sonic pranksters, “jumped up kids with tape recorders,” as Mal once put it. But they were soon recording twice a week in Watson’s attic, with ideas and attitudes inspired by Sci-Fi, B-movies, William Burroughs and Dada.

Mal became the group’s main vocalist, bass player and drum machine programmer. After moving into their Western Works studio, the band signed to Rough Trade in 1978, releasing four studio albums and many singles for the label over a four year period.

Watson left the band in November 1981, but Kirk and Mallinder continued as a duo, signing to Virgin via Stevo’s Some Bizzare label and skewing their dystopian vision closer to the dance floor. By the late 1980s, they were signed to EMI, mutating Electro, Techno and House in the process, and working with producers such as Afrika Bambaataa, Adrian Sherwood and Marshall Jefferson.

When Cabaret Voltaire disbanded in 1994, Mal moved to Perth, Western Australia, where he set up the Off World Sounds label, worked as a journalist, produced and presented radio programmes for RTRFM, and organised numerous music festivals. He also co-produced Shaun Ryder’s Amateur Night in the Big Top album (Off World Sounds 2003), while making and releasing his own music as Sassi & Loco and Ku-Ling Bros.

After completing a PhD in music and popular culture, he returned to the UK in 2009, teaching and researching at the University of Brighton.

However, Mal’s prime focus is still recording and performing music, mainly as part of Wrangler, with Phil Winter and Ben ‘Benge’ Edwards. They’ve released three studio albums on the MemeTune label, LA Spark, Sparked and White Glue, as well as playing live dates in the UK, Europe and Japan. They’ve also collaborated with John Grant under the name Creep Show, releasing an album, Mr. Dynamite, in 2017.

With a Creep Show UK tour and another Wrangler album slated for later in the year, Mal also plans to release a new solo album in November – his first since Pow-Wow in 1982.

As a child growing up in the 1960s, what was the first music that caught your attention? What was the first dance music you liked?

My earliest memories of music I personally liked were very ‘produced’ – I loved Telstar by the Tornadoes,

and the very dramatic Johnny Remember Me by John Leyton. The first record I bought was Sweet Talking Guy by the Chiffons – but I’d no idea who Joe Meek and Phil Spector (the respective producers) were at the time, because I was so young. I grew up on ska and soul music, everything from Sam Cooke to Anthea & Donna.

The Chiffons – Sweet Talking Guy: youtube.com/ watch?v=KP0Nbp1cbOM

The first gig I ever went to was Booker T and the MGs. So my first experience of live music was breaking into Sheffield City Hall, at the age of 14, to see Steve Cropper on stage. When I was 15 I walked up to the stage of the same City Hall and shook hands with Martha Reeves while she was performing. She was a bit shocked, but gracious, as I recall.

I gather you had an older sister who liked the Beatles. What did you make of them at the time and what do you think of them now, specifically the song, Tomorrow Never Knows? Both Brian Eno and John Foxx cite it as a seminal track, with Foxx saying the stripped down rhythm, the use of chance, tape loops and treated vocals, contained many elements that would re-emerge in the underground electronic scene of the late 70s and early 80s. It also features traces of Eastern music, which were often there in Cabaret Voltaire’s output and some of the bands you produced, such as 23 Skidoo, Hula and Eric Random.

I was only little so my younger sister’s obsession with the Beatles (she saw them play a couple of times, at the City Hall, ironically) was something that was just ‘in house.’ I was surrounded by their music, plus the Stones and the Beach Boys. Later I got the more experimental stuff they were doing.

But before that, my other sister had a boyfriend who was into Thelonious Monk and really ‘out there’ stuff, so when I was 12-13 I had access to a diverse range of music. I really got into the old Bo Diddley records and I still love Bo’s sound.

I had a tape recorder from the age of about 13 and used to record and mess with it, progressing to looping and playing backwards, but it wasn’t informed by other music as I had no idea of that kind of process. It was just

me fucking around.

Bo Diddley – Let Me Pass: youtube.com/ watch?v=YIL6uXnE748

You and Richard Kirk met in your teens at football matches and soul clubs around Sheffield. How did Chris Watson come into the picture and where did the initial interest in Dada come from?

Richard and I were friends from the age of about 14, hanging about town, and being a bit feral. We went to clubs, often illegally, as we were very young. We drifted apart for about three years and then reconnected through various friends, and we’d both gotten into Bowie, the early Roxy album, the Velvets, Faust.

We were exploring things.

Chris was connected through mutual friends and he was at technical college with mates of Richard’s. Both Richard and I wanted to go to Art College (I was a year above Richard) but the school I was attending were adamant I went to university, as you could only get diplomas at Art College. Richard went for about six months but kind of floated away from it.

We’d started making music by then so it took over for both of us. Chris had a similar fascination with art. I think

"My earliest memories of music I personally liked were very 'produced' - I loved Telstar by the Tornadoes, and the very dramatic Johnny Remember Me by John Leyton."

the Dada ideas appealed to our sense of rebellion and iconoclasm – it was a big factor for a number of early punk bands which also emerged a few years later. The idea of a collapsing high culture, attacked from below.

Dada for now? Cabaret Voltaire – Data Processing Instructions (from Methodology, ‘74/’78: The Attic Tapes - Mute 2003): youtube.com/ watch?v=3POcpqVzL_Q

Were you also interested in the BBC Radiophonic Workshop’s output at that time? You were working in similar areas, with very limited budgets, manipulating tape loops and processing conventional instruments to create something strange. Is the comparison valid?

Yes, the Radiophonic Workshop was a fascination but it was mainly the Dr Who work, and odd bits that filtered through – history suggests that everyone knew about them at the time but that wasn’t the case. It’s more on reflection people appreciate everything they’ve done, we now see that body of work.

We were discovering musique concrete etc., but we were into live music, bands, and the defiance of (some) popular culture that existed on the edges. The Radiophonic Workshop, whose processes were unknown at the time, seemed a bit ‘lab coat’, a bit BBC and grown up, if you know what I mean.

Initially, you only had tape recorders and an oscillator, until you began to introduce more conventional instruments, albeit heavily processed, into the mix. But a key instrument for Cabaret Voltaire was the drum machine. The ‘treated’ rhythms were to become your signature, and it also provided/imposed a structure on your tracks and made them more accessible. Would you agree with that? Is it true that you bought your first drum machine (a Farfisa) from a man with a wooden leg?

Yes, the first one we bought was from the back of a van from a bloke with a wooden leg. The second one we bought, the guy in the music shop insulted us, thinking we were kids off the street. He said, “Are you going to

swap it for a kazoo?” We’d actually just been paid by Rough Trade for the first EP, so we turned up the next day with a massive wad of cash just to watch his face as we peeled off a few notes and slapped them on the counter.

Repetition, trance-like loops, volume, stretching time, the dynamic and physicality of sound that comes with all this has been central to what we did, and still do in my case. We didn’t want the limitation of a drum kit, or feel the need for another member to get rhythm, so drum machines were an obvious answer. Low maintenance, affordable, flexible and didn’t have an opinion.

Cabaret Voltaire – Silent Command (Rough Trade 1979): youtube.com/watch?v=mw8u0cIZOqM

How did you end up moving out of Chris Watson’s loft and into the infamous Western Works studio? It provided you with a solid base from which to operate, a focal point where you could hang out and develop your sound, which must have been exciting. It also lent a kind of aura to the band: journalists would travel up to Sheffield to interview you in the studio. Was the model for Western Works a mixture of Kraftwerk’s Kling Klang and Andy Warhol’s Factory?

I think Chris’s parents might have felt we’d outstayed our welcome, and the house was quite a journey for Richard and myself. It was a natural evolution. The loft wasn’t very big, we had more gear, we were getting into the idea of performances so needed to actually rehearse. And Western Works came up as an opportunity – we sub-let from Paul Bower and his political punk band 2.3 – Haydn [Boyes-Weston], their drummer, was on our first two albums.

The number of people who came through the doors (the street door downstairs was always open), its vibe and central location would suggest much more Warhol’s Factory than Kraftwerk’s Kling Klang.

Cabaret Voltaire – Nag Nag Nag (Rough Trade 1979), video by Joe Shearsby: vimeo.com/293448505

With your earlier work, because of the limitations of recording on four-track, did you use similar methods to Can/Conny Plank: recording as live in the studio, then overdubbing before cutting the tape to edit the performance and impose a structure? I’m thinking of the singles Nag Nag Nag, Silent Command and, in particular, Seconds Too Late.

Some stuff was jammed and captured that way but it was more constructed and thought through. We weren’t musicians in that sense so the studio as a tool became more fundamental to the process – building parts up, multi-tracking, layering and bouncing tracks

"I had a tape recorder from the age of about 13 and used to record and mess with it, progressing to looping and playing backwards, but it wasn't informed by other music as I had no idea of that kind of process. It was just me fucking around."

down. We did Nag Nag Nag in Berry St Studios in London, so it was written beforehand and performed in a classic sense, where the studio captures that performance.

Cabaret Voltaire – Seconds Too Late (Rough Trade 1980): youtube.com/watch?v=i9KoOiwo5pw

Silent Command and Seconds Too Late had rhythm and bass parts, they were planned and then recorded. The structures were loose but they had a framework, that’s what the vocal enabled us to do – we were playing live a bit now so we thought in terms of actual performance for tracks like that.

Cabaret Voltaire – Western Mantra (Rough Trade 1980): youtube.com/watch?v=_81jWt58zDo

Something I always liked about the early period of Cabaret Voltaire was the way your releases often confounded expectations. The Three Mantras 12”, for example, with its two 20-minute tracks. Did you delight in messing with people’s heads in that way?

We had lots of influences and were into a wide range of music and styles so it was just a case of playing with those influences and not feeling any pressure to be a particular thing. If you’re not a musician in a traditional sense you feel no need to style your work. You play what you feel like. We didn’t fit so we made music that didn’t fit.

Cabaret Voltaire – Jazz The Glass (Rough Trade 1981): youtube.com/watch?v=cpwoBeFu3yY

Then there’s the Jazz The Glass/Eddies Out singles, a 7-inch and a 12-inch released together in one package: the catchy three-minute Jazz The Glass, contrasting with the 10-minute sound collage, Eddies Out, with its mash up of brass, operatic voices and one of your angriest and most committed vocal performances. Where did the idea come from to release these two singles together?

The emergence of the 12-inch as a format in the 80s gave us something to play with, we could extend and mess with time – we were no longer restricted to albums, or shorter 7-inch formats. So we could indulge in what that might mean, play with the different formats, packaging included. The Jazz the Glass/Eddies Out package was just that – we had some tracks ready but it didn’t seem like an album so we did it as a new form of release. 2x45 was the same.

Cabaret Voltaire – Eddies Out (Rough Trade 1981): youtube.com/watch?v=kAevXyo-4dw

Chris Watson left the band at the end of 1981. At the time were you concerned his departure could be the end of Cabaret Voltaire? Was there a sense of trepidation when you left Rough Trade, signed to Virgin and made The Crackdown, your first album as a duo?

It was weird when Chris left, I don’t think we realised at the time but we were quite thrown by it, and had

We didn't want the limitation of a drum kit, or feel the need for another member to get rhythm, so drum machines were an obvious answer. Low maintenance, affordable, flexible and didn't have an opinion.

"Richard and I were close socially, personally,and and had similar ideas and interests, so there was consensus on where we could go"

trouble figuring out what it meant. It was sad but we knew Chris needed a different life at that time, and running around, gigging, the whole peripatetic lifestyle, wasn’t for him.

But having said that, Richard and I were close socially, and personally, and had similar ideas and interests, so there was consensus on where we could go. There was a paradigm shift at the time – Stevo and Some Bizzare had appeared and Paul Smith, who we started [Cabaret Voltaire’s video label] Doublevision with, popped up at the same time - so with just two people, myself and Rich, focussing on the direction it made those things easier perhaps.

Cabaret Voltaire – Sensoria (video directed by Pete Care 1984): youtube.com/ watch?v=c2vCpT1H7u0

You were all interested in the work of William Burroughs and Brion Gysin. The Sensoria single [from your second album on Some Bizzare/Virgin, Micro-Phonies], produced by John ‘Tokes’ Potoker, is actually a cut-up of two tracks from the album, Sensoria and Do Right. Whose idea was it to merge the two tracks and was it difficult to achieve?

Although it’s credited as Tokes, Sensoria was actually mixed by Robin Scott - who was M and did the Pop Musik track, which we loved as a pure pop single.

Sensoria and Do Right were produced by us and Flood as part of the Micro-Phonies album, but Robin had the idea of cutting the two tracks together for a single, as they were loosely in the same key and tempo. We literally copied the multi-tracks and spliced them together so we could mix a single coherent track - true sound montage. It took fucking ages and was quite a faff – today it would take five minutes to put two tracks together digitally.

I’m not quite sure what Robin was thinking – mainly an extension of our past tape cutting work – but it was different and he was quite eccentric and fun to work with. He wanted the African vocalists, I think influenced by Malcolm McLaren, which then translated to the video and became a signature motif in the track. It was truly hybrid. Plus, Ian Wright’s brilliant sleeve illustration.

By 1990, you were signed to EMI when you released Keep On [from the house-influenced album, Groovy, Laidback & Nasty], probably the most commercial and conventionally catchy track the Cabs ever did. It was produced by Phil Harding, part of the Stock Aitken Waterman production team. I have to say, I loved it, and thought it should have been a summer hit! How did you feel about it? Not long after this, you left EMI and set up your own label, Plastex. Had you both had enough of a major label breathing down your necks?

Well, it was a kind of trade off. EMI wanted us to have

a hit so sent the track to the SAW hit factory. We were very cautious but said okay, if we could get Derrick May to do a mix, which he did. So we felt we had credibility in the decision rather than it being forced upon us.

Cabaret Voltaire – Keep On (EMI 1990): youtube.com/ watch?v=i93YU5H812Q

We got booted off EMI after that, so as well as doing stuff for Crepuscule, we set up our own label [Plastex] out of necessity. It was liberating, if frustrating, as the label was just me and Richard with no help at all really. We got ignored by the press, and agents, and struggled for a while. Nice to be our own bosses, but we were poison to the outside world even though it was, we believed, great music.

Cabaret Voltaire – Low Cool (from Plasticity, 1992): youtube.com/watch?v=Kz5zhHY2BQw

You made three albums on the Plastex label; Plasticity, International Language and The Conversation, then Cabaret Voltaire disbanded around 1994. Did you feel you’d gone as far as you could with the Cabs and that 90s culture was going elsewhere, with the return of guitar-driven rock music etc?

It was just the end of a cycle. For me personally it was difficult as we had zero money, no support and I had two young daughters. It just felt time to take a break. I didn’t want to just be banging out a couple of CDs a year and not reaching new ground, I needed a challenge. It was easier for one mouth to be fed so Richard kept the studio while I went to Australia, intentionally for a couple of years, but I stayed longer.

We’d been making music together for a long time. I think we were under a strain as we were trying to figure out where we fitted in. It just seemed sensible to take a break.

Regarding your time in Australia, could you talk about Off World Sounds, the label you set up over there?

"I think the Dada ideas appealed to our sense of rebellion and iconoclasmit was a big factor for a number of early punk bands which also emerged a few years later. The idea of a collapsing high culture, attacked from below."

The label Off World Sounds and promo company Off World Productions linked the UK/European music world with Australia. I set up the label with Pete Carroll and we had about 30 releases with material from all over the world, and did gigs that had everyone on the bill – we did big festivals. It just made connections, and it also came from both Pete and I working together, including on an arts radio station. It’s a very mad and rich story that I could go into.

During this period you produced Shaun Ryder’s album, Amateur Night in the Big Top. How was it working with a larger-than-life character like him?

Shaun is Pete’s cousin. Matt and Pat [Central Station], his brothers, were our in-house designers – so it was a family thing. There was always someone from Manchester, and beyond, with us at any point in time.

Shaun was kind of on a break, trying to recover, so to speak. So we got him to record stories and we put them to music - which became the album. It was testament to Shane [Norton] - who I started Ku-Ling Bros with - that it actually came together. Shaun is a character, and I have a lot affection for him and Paul [Ryder] and Gaz [Whelan].

Shaun Ryder – Scooter Girl (from Amateur Night In The Big Top, co-produced by Stephen Mallinder): youtube. com/watch?v=4TQuTSvFbYc

While in Australia, you also worked on a PhD in music and popular culture, writing a thesis, Movement: Journey of The Beat. What drew you to academia?

Academia was drawn to me. I’d planned to write a book and was invited to change that into a thesis. As well as doing music I was producing and presenting radio shows that covered politics, art, technology etc., so had begun to be drawn into a more academic world.

Movement, as a thesis, pulled all those elements together through the context of rhythm. I won’t go on about it as I’ll disappear down a rabbit hole. I decided in the end not to publish as a book but it is available online for everyone to read.

Stephen Mallinder’s thesis, Movement: Journey of the Beat: https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/ eprint/4866/

You moved back to the UK in around 2009 and have since been a researcher and teacher at the University of Brighton. What do you teach?

I teach in Sound Art – the practice and theory of

contemporary music and sound design – but I also have the opportunity to work with fine art critical practice and graphics. Sound is a fascinating medium that is increasingly being explored to help understand our world, so I get to do that with students and in research.

Since returning to the UK, you’ve been involved in a number of musical projects, but mainly as Wrangler, with Phil Winter and Benge. How often do you work together? Is it tricky juggling your recording and performing commitments with teaching?

I only work at university part time and keeping my own stuff going is important for me and gives value to research and teaching (and vice versa). I work constantly as most people do, you just make it fit.

We are always doing things – whether Wrangler, Creep Show [Wrangler’s collaboration with John Grant], our own stuff – it’s the same for Benge and Phil. We have full diaries. I’ve just got back from doing my stuff in the studio, I’m back in a couple weeks doing Wrangler, then we prepare for new Creep Show tracks and a tour, and all of us are working on things in between. It’s what we do.

Wrangler’s debut album, LA Spark [released in 2014], is as dystopian as anything you produced with the Cabs. What inspired the track Lava Land, for instance?

I wouldn’t ever want to tell people how to read the words and music, it’s what you wish to take from it. But as the writer, it has to have meaning and direction. Pretty much all of LA Spark was filtered through themes of destruction and collapse as a result of human stupidity and arrogance. White Glue [released in 2016] was about power, and entitlement, but I don’t give a fuck if people don’t see or hear that.

Wrangler – Lava Land (from LA Spark): youtube.com/ watch?v=htnfPcndK24

This was followed by Sparked [2016] – where tracks from LA Spark were reworked by Robin Rimbaud, Dean Honer, Daniel Miller and others. I particularly liked Chris Carter’s radical remix of Lava Land. He didn’t just dismember the track, he atomised it (in the best sense)! Did you like it? You’ve been interested in remixes since 1982, when John Robie reworked Yashar [from Cabaret Voltaire’s 2x45] for the dance floor. What is it about remix culture that continues to intrigue you?

Everything is a remix, that’s contemporary culture. It’s about recontextualisation, about understanding through

"If you're not a musician in a traditional sense you feel no need to style your work. You play what you feel like. We didn't fit so we made music that didn't fit."

new perspectives. Everything is linked and connected, I just like to see how each of us reconnects the dots.

And yes, I loved Chris’s interpretation. I felt thrilled that we got such brilliant artists on board to be part of that project. Every track is a total winner.

Wrangler – Lava Land (Chris Carter remix, from Sparked): youtube.com/watch?v=_U2DbOy7edQ

You still seem interested in finding new ways of delivering vocals. Not just in the sense of manipulating the voice, but different vocal styles, like the falsetto singing on Stupid [from White Glue]. Can you talk a bit about that and how you approach tracks in terms of vocals?

Well, I’ve always considered the voice simply a tool, a piece of human, visceral, technology that can be manipulated for both communication and effect. Much as I love a wonderful voice – I think it’s something that we all respond to on a personal level – I also respond to the texture and grain of all voices; from the ideas of Chomsky, to Samuel Beckett, Roger Troutman, and Scott Walker, the voice is so important, complex, and fundamental to our world – both its emotion and its message.

Wrangler – Stupid (video by Chris Turner and Tash Tung): youtube.com/watch?v=aaQTOiNyM68

The video for Stupid is interesting as well – it appears to have been shot in one continuous take (or are there some hidden cuts in there)? Were there many

takes before you got the version that ended up in the video? It looks like you’re wearing a bit of eye makeup too, for the first time since the 80s!

No, that was one take. It took about eight hours to set up and, because we were working with a particular angle of the sun, we had just two takes we could achieve in that window of light. So, about eight minutes of shooting.

Hats off to Chris Turner, who we did the film with, and Phil - who gamely lay in a ditch for about four hours (with a supply of fags and tins) - I thought the over-thetop eye makeup was a suitable reference to my past.

Last year, Wrangler teamed up with John Grant to make the Creep Show album, Mr Dynamite. It was recorded fast, a track a day. Was this down to necessity (since Benge’s studio is now in Cornwall) or do you always like to get things done quickly? Do you like deadlines, in the sense they stop you getting too precious about the details?

Well, to be fair, there were a number of stages and processes because we couldn’t all be in one place at the same time very often. But the basis of the album was done in about four days, prior to us playing an entirely new set at the Barbican, and then we came back to it a little later to make proper recordings. But that was literally five days in the studio.

Benge, Phil and I did the final mixes cos John Grant was on tour. But he was receiving mixes at the end of every

Wrangler at work in the MemeTune studio. L-R: Phil Winter, Benge, Mal

day to feed back on. Deadlines can be useful in focusing the mind, and in this case we embraced the mad, rollercoaster ride of doing it that way.

Creep Show – Mr Dynamite (video directed by Luke Pendrell): youtube.com/watch?v=nVM-MGDx9vQ

Did you all enjoy working with John Grant and do you think there’ll be another Creep Show album?

Well, we’re getting ready to do live shows later in the year. I think the plan is to write a couple more tracks so we can refresh the album and have an additional twist to it, but we’ll see how that all goes. But yes, we will do more because we didn’t want to see this as a one-off, or vanity project. We genuinely enjoy working together so it’s something we want to keep going back to when time allows.

I understand you’re working on a new solo album, your first since Pow-Wow, recorded 37 years ago. Why now? Where are you recording it? How would you describe the vibe of the album?

I think perhaps it seems novel, or interesting, that I’m using my actual name rather than under a pseudonym. I guess I just wanted to do something which I could give my own direction. We have tended to go into the studio and build consensus, but I had a clear idea of a collection of tracks I wanted to put together.

I wanted to work with Benge because he understood what I was after. Plus, I always want to work with him, and he was able to help build it. With Wrangler and Creep Show there has always been a wide palette of

sounds, an almost endless range of technology we could draw on. But I wanted to strip it down to a much smaller range to reflect how I used to work – with limited resources and finding techniques to maximise those restrictions. It was in some way to complement PowWow (which is about to be reissued, and repackaged) and that more primitive approach.

I wanted to work within a tempo range (115-128bpm) and have drum machines, organs (cos we didn’t have many synths back then) and simple parts and loops. It intends to acknowledge the early Chicago and Detroit period which was also reflected in Sheffield, Leeds and Nottingham. It was about grooves rather than tech tricks and clever arrangements.

I wrote all the frameworks – beats, basslines etc – at home, then went and worked with Benge in the studio to bring them up to scratch, get Benge’s thoughts and choose the palette of sounds. It was loads of fun - we did all the percussion live and kept a very minimal, live feel.

Stephen Mallinder – In Smoke (from Pow-Wow ,1982): youtube.com/watch?v=i6k_rsKFS6M

When do you think the solo album will be released?

I’ve just done a deal with Dais in the States and the album will be out later this year – November we think. The reissue of Pow-Wow (with Jason Amm) is planned for early next year.

One final question: Martyn Ware has said that the Sheffield bands in the 1970s weren’t interested in the ‘no future’ of punk. On the contrary, the scene was very much ‘future-facing’, mainly because

the present was so grim. What’s your idea of the future now?

Probably the same. I agree with the wonderful and sadly missed Mark Fisher, who thought that we constructed our culture out of our past ideas of the future; a slightly wonky, utopian/dystopian vision that is built from dreams of imagined destinies. It means it is broken, dysfunctional, but hopeful.

And yes, we thought we were building a future with little reference to our immediate past. We’d grown

up around steelworks and pits and, although it was built into our DNA, it wasn’t something we romanticised about. We were definitely looking to a brave new world rather than the busted one that we inhabited back in those days.

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PSYCHO DRILL: @jabberjab @roguesector remix is OUT NOW (available on all digital platforms). See below for more on Pete Jones and his new single and album joylessjones.co.uk/new-single-release

In the club

Hey The Minx, welcome BACK into ‘The Club’? A great big PPCO thanks for re-joining us...

We’re sitting in the cyber pub doing this interview and it’s our round. What would you like to drink? Of course bottle Wodka, no ice - whole bottle and none of namby pamb new trend flavours.

What was the last thing you heard/watched that was so good you had to tell someone about it?

Clicking of new heels on tiled floor.

If football is the current ‘rock &’roll (in terms of Superstar status), what do you think could or should be next big thing?

The Minx

Think Gardening very new rock n roll. Kim Wilde, she go from rock ‘n’ roll to garden. And Alan Titchmarsh, he like Keith Richards of soil. I would like him to take me round stately home garden and point out all Latin name of flower to me. That perfect Sunday stroll.

What does Punk Rock mean to you? Is American tramp on side walk?

If there had only ever been one, which and why. The Clash or The Sex Pistols? Minx do not like Clash as sound very noisy and headache, unless they use lot of cowbell? Sex Pistol on other hand sound like very interesting Saturday night. Perfect for Minx and newest (head) Minion.

What four things would you put in a time capsule?

Builder Minion, as he must be punished for all time; all Crocs as they should disappear for all time (plus any flip flop if spare room) – am counting as one item, do not argue; picture of Minx so Builder Minion do not pine too much; packet of hula hoops (crisp not fitness gadget) as is Minx’ favourite snack and if Minx ever learn to time

travel, must make sure that snack is never forgotten. PS Only Salty Vinegar flavour – other flavours much disgust. a good idea.

If you had a time machine and could go back to any year in music, what would it be and why?

Is this connect to time capsule? Would go back with brain scrubbing machine and wipe mind of man/ woman who think of Croc and Flips.

Oh, music? извиняюсь Would take recording of Tuesday Club (and player with big battery, clever clog) to court of Henry VIII and educate musicians play chamber music. Hearing ‘All You Do Is Wow’ on harpsichord very special. Ah .. and would give Mark Smeaton big slap on way out.

If you could be any character in a film, what film and who would it be?

Minx is in secret talk for new James Bond film, but cannot say as have been threatened that if mention

even one word, will not happen and adoring fans will be stolen from chance to dream of Minx in Bond.

You are now In The Club, but what club do you actually wish it was?

Have always been in Club, never really left Club, how dare say I never was in Club…. Which club is this again?

Who’d be in your 4 piece fantasy band. Guitar, Bass, Drums and Vocals? (Although you don’t have to restrict it to a 4 piece) Cowbell, Drum with Cowbell, Bass (big) Cowbell, Digital Cowbell (for sample and everything else)

What question haven’t we asked you that you wish we had?

Who do we make cheque payable to?

Where’s the best place to find your musical endeavours on the internet?

www.TheMinxBoudoir … ah no, черт, www.thisisthetuesdayclub.co.uk and on Twitter @TCTheMinx but do not argue, as will not win.

Thanks Minxy!

The Minx - @TCTheMinx thisisthetuesdayclub.co.uk

This month sees the next issue of the ever irresistible In The Club Magazine, the online celebration of all things DIY by Herts based Indie label Perfect Pop Co Op. This copy also includes the second volume of Impulsive Compulsions, a free album presenting more sounds and members of the Perfect Pop Co Op family in their enterprising glory.

As its predecessor, the album is a tantalising and intriguing not forgetting rousing proposition and reminder that the real heart and organic pleasures within music still breed and reside in the DIY

fuelled underground. In no particular order allow us to tease you with what is on offer within another real treat from Perfect Pop Co Op, well a second treat as the magazine itself is a rather fine and fun thing too.

Earlier this year, ears and imagination were over excited by the new EP from She Made Me Do It. The band is the duo of Shaheena Dax (Rachel Stamp) and Will Crewdson (Rachel Stamp, Adam Ant, Scant Regard and many more) and the Drenched EP four tracks of their uniquely seductive and multi-flavoured ever blossoming sound. Impulsive Compulsions 02 features one of the EP’s tracks in Broken Morning; a song from its first strum of tantalising guitar which had ears attentive and then swiftly enslaved as it opened its magnetic arms to a richer sound and the mesmeric tones of Dax. Instinctive catchiness and creative eagerness roam the song,

sharing a contagious indie rock swing around one compellingly persuasive chorus. Irresistible moments with She Made Me Do It are certainly not a rare thing but few times have been as delicious as this.

Alongside and around it, the goodness is just as potent as epitomised by tracks like I’ve Had Enough and Superslider from Tagas and Venus Overload respectively. The first is a lively simmer of electro pop rock, a bubbling slice of melodic radiance echoed in similarly warm vocals, a track which just nags at the senses with its teasing harmonics. Tagas is a solo project, an intimate exploration and reflection of its creator and the track here an embrace of melancholy and warmth with a great early Depeche Mode hue to its temptation. The second of the two is a band which released a self-titled album back in 2012 from which their contribution to the sampler comes. Their sound is a collusion of experimental and noise rock, a challenging and rewarding mix which had us mesmerised. It is raw, abrasive and persistently compelling with a great whiff of Buñuel to it.

No compilation from PPCO would be complete without a track from Reverse Family, and Sampler 02 offers up Friction from the solo project of Dermot Illogical. Melancholy also soaks the heart of this song, it a riveting piece of the individual post punk meets noise pop which escapes the imagination of its creator. The track haunts ears and imagination from start to finish but with an infectious momentum which infests hips and spirit.

Another electronically bred enticement is offered by The Scratch, the Logical PV Remix itself almost itch like in its temptation; repeat listens the only relief to its electro/indie pop antics while Andreas And The Wolf course the instincts to rock with their own wonk punk sound. Public Domain is a sizzling lure of unapologetically untamed rock ‘n’ roll but crafted with a mischief and imagination which hones it into one devilish tempting.

Even more feral in its own way is Valerie Leon (Queen of Neon) from The Bleeed, a band arising from the offshoot creativity of members of The Tuesday Club a couple years back and a song which is punk rock in its honest purity but unafraid to embrace other bold essences including a Swell Maps-esque irreverence.

Talking of The Tuesday Club, they stamp their inimitable presence on proceedings with an extended mix of their song Beat Oven. First appearing on the Boo Hoo EP, the now fully grown track is a boisterously swinging slip of the band’s eclectic rock ‘n’ roll, a sound which dips into the spices of a host of decades to create its own unique virulent recipe.

The D.O.D.O tell us it is Just a Game to stand just as tall as its sampler comrades, the song one also unafraid to lean on

flavours past and present to create its provocative incitement and ear grabbing catchiness; an infectiousness just as ripe within the electronic resounding of Interesting Times from Dislocated Flowers. A dark, haunting verging on apocalyptic throb behind an evocative sample, the track simply resonates from first to last breath.

Completing the line-up of pleasure on the album is Jordan Thomas (though tagged as In The Evening on the promo sent over to us) from Jordan Thomas maybe better known as J-Rod to fans as a former member of The Tuesday Club. This too is an infective piece of sound, Thomas easily getting under the skin with his melodic amble of enterprise and craft.

And that is Impulsive Compulsions PPCO SAMPLER02, another very tasty and highly pleasurable parade of bands and projects past and present so go check out the new In The Club Magazine now @ https://perfectpopco-op.co.uk/magazine/ after all that is a damn fine read too.

https://ringmasterreviewintroduces. wordpress.com/2019/04/05/impulsivecompulsions-ppco-sampler02/

The Perfect Pop Co Op Sampler –Impulsive Compulsions 03 is out Tuesday June 25th free with the new issue of the Perfect Pop Co Op magazine. theperfectpopco-op.bandcamp.com perfectpopco-op.co.uk facebook.com/perfectpopcoop/ perfectpopco-op.co.uk/magazine

FORTAKINGTHETIMETOREVIEWSAMPLER2. UNFORTUNATELYWEMISSEDTHEDEADLINEFORTHELASTMAG,SOASWERELEASESAMPLER3,WHYNOTREADTHISTO WHETYOURAPPETITE!

"As its predecessor, the album is a tantalising and intriguing not forgetting rousing proposition and reminder that the real heart and organic pleasures within music still breed and reside in the DIY fuelled underground."

"A riveting piece of the individual post punk meets noise pop which escapes the imagination of its creator. The track haunts ears and imagination from start to finish but with an infectious momentum which infests hips and spirit..."

Friction, Reverse Family

Saladin - Dislocated Flowers

War - Scant Regard

Make the most of your headache - Reverse Family

Wow Jazz - The Tuesday Club

Flying Face - The Venus Overload

Creature of Desire - Andreas And The Wolf

Time to say (80’s electro mix) - The Scratch

We’re Here - Jordan Thomas

Stictly only Swinging - 50ft Woman

Song for Disillusioned Man - Hello Dearies

To Celebreate Now Over 50 issues of the Perfect Pop Co-Op Magazinbe in it’s 2 guises from ‘Sound of the Suburbs’ to ‘In The Club’ but also The 2nd year of Andreas & The Wolf Radio Shows... We’ve put togehter

A 3rd free sampler of 5 of our favourite acts played over the last years shows & 5 PPCO projects Old and New!

Dislocated Flowers Songwriter, musician, producer and obsessive - mostly about the importance of music and the good it can do as well as the pleasure it can bring. twitter.com/DislocatedFlow3

Dislocated/Soundcloud

The Venus Overload Sometimes only a sledgehammer will do to make people listen. Unless of course a person wants to be part of the problem and not the solution. Gawd Bless Yer MC5.

50ft Woman 50ft Woman; a cabaret rockpoppunk band, described as quintessentially English, and yet a cross between AC/DC, The New York Dolls, Blondie and The Bangles. Fronted by 6ft Minki, they’re a blockbuster comic book movie of a band: energetic and eclectic, singing songs about goldfish and cats to swinging and Soho. They set out to create a big sound with an even bigger presence. 50ftwoman.com

Reverse Family Made ‘famous’ by 2017/18’s 365 project (incase you missed it!) 365 songs released over 365 days, the now defunct band once headed by missing in action front man Dermot Illogical, treat us to an unreleased track ‘Fiction’ from the days when a Mid Life Crisis was something old people had! reversefamily.co.uk

The Scratch - Played XFM & BBC introducing sessions, around 200 gigs, played Versus cancer 07 at the M.E.N. Manchester, released 4 albums and numerous singles and then went on hiatus in 2012... GirlsWorld

The Tuesday Club - Formed as a break from the ‘day job’ in 2011 by 8 members of different local bands including The Scratch, We are White Worm, The Daves and 50ft Woman. The Tuesday Club started rehearsing on a Tuesday with tracks deemed ‘back burner’ material and from there grew into something unique. Today 8 years on and despite tragedy and the shedding and regrouping of some of the original members, the band is now back to a 6 piece. The TC’s have metamorphosised into a three album institution. thisisthetuesdayclub.co.uk

Hello Dearies Hello Dearies is a mystic rock living room collaboration between Nashville based musician Dominic de

Lugosi (Dragon Park Kids, Lovercraft, Blacklight Velvets) and then Nashville based songwriter Mandy McNeil (Cunning Vixen). facebook.com/Hello-Dearies

Andreas & The Wolf Before the Radio show there was the TCs now there’s a psycho pop duo. The basic concept came from the Bwolf reimagining his twenty year old self & trying to keep true to his original bedroom DIY cassette culture ideals - throw an Andreas into the mix and see what mutates... influenced by early 80s electronica, dub and wonkiness. The debut album is due out in 2019. @andreasandtwolf mixcloud.com/perfectpopcoop instagram.com/andreasandthewolf

Jordan Thomas Better know to us in the PPCO and the wider world as J-Rod the former and now new guitarist with the Tuesdsay Club, treats us to his unique slice of solo surf pop from the wilds of deepest Norfolk!

Scant Regard Aka Will Crewdson a London-based guitarist/writer/producer best known for his work with the UK band Rachel Stamp, US singer Johnette Napolitano, Flesh for Lulu, Adam Ant, The Selecter and Bow Wow Wow. Will spent 10 years touring and recording with the rock band Rachel Stamp. After this period, Will concentrated on writing and recording with Johnette Napolitano, the former singer with LA legends Concrete Blonde. The critically acclaimed Napolitano solo album Scarred was released on Hybrid Recordings in 2007.

In 2010 Will played live, recorded and musically directed for Adam Ant’s solo band. Gigs included a sell out show at London’s Scala. He also helped organise a tribute to the late Adam and the Ants guitarist, Matthew Ashman again at the London Scala on Nov 21st 2010.

As well as these projects, Will has also played guitar for the following: Malcolm McLaren, Tom Jones, Bryan Ferry, Peter Murphy, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Westworld, Celine Dion, Appleton, Pigface, Tyler James, Livan, T-Rexstasy, Billy Bragg and Dragons. scantregard.com

Big thanks to all for their great creative contributions. As with all we do, our aim is to spread the word of great underground DIY exponents and with all your help to ultimately bring PERFECT POP back to the Saccarin Sodden Masses collective consciousness...or at the very least create for ourselves an alternate world where PERFECT POP is the weird/ obscure/creative/diy cult/ that can exist and get the airing it deserves!!!

PUSHING NORMAL

The Frantic Legion Album and Frantic Video

I first met Shaheena and Will from She Made Me Do It when I was selling prints of my illustrations and artwork at an event. I’d recently finished another promo and had a sign on my display basically saying ‘ask me about my music videos’ and as they were recording The Frantic Legion at the time, they did.

They wanted to do something quite ambitious and different for the track Frantic and they liked the look of my animated videos. We bounced a few ideas back and forth and came up with an epic dystopian tale of a nanotech apocalypse. Production started in early 2016 and was completed by the summer. I’d interspersed the action with hand rotoscoped footage of Shaheena and as this was essentially a three minute movie that was pretty quick for this sort of promo. As it turned out it timed with the release perfectly.

From there I went straight into making the artwork for The Frantic Legion album. The idea was to make it like

a movie poster for the video. We wanted it to make it a really special item and there’s loads of

detail in there, including illustrations for each song that make a sort of comic in the lyric book.

Rachel Stamp and Zombie Lance

The lyric book is where the ‘zombie cat’ T-Shirt came from. Lance, their cat, keeps popping up in

their material so when I needed an extra frame for the comic he was an obvious choice. I modified it a bit from the booklet for the T-shirt and it’s proved really popular.

Shaheena and Will are formerly of Rachel Stamp of course and around that time they were playing with them again at the Underworld. I was asked to design a new Rachel Stamp T-shirt and I leapt at the chance. Whenever possible I design t-shirts to be an old-school screen print and both of the designs came out great.

After that focus moved other artists’ music video and album art; The Creeping Terrors, MOREL?, Graves amongst others and Will’s solo projectScant Regard. I did the artwork for the Skipping Over Damaged Area album, which was a lovely limited CD in the style of red vinyl record.

Drenched

It’s always great when a band comes back to you for the next phase so I was really pleased that She Made Me Do it got in contact about the Drenched EP, especially as it was clear from the first tracks I heard that it was something really special.

Will and I discussed a few ideas around something much more abstract and graphics orientated and after a few post-punk and new wave references were mentioned a sort of op-art direction started to come together. We also took the step of updating the bands logo to something sharper and dynamic to go with their new sound. It’s a bold but flexible look and we decided to make a design specifically for the a new T-Shirt - different to the EP but still clearly part of the band’s overall new style.

In fact, for their recent Bournemouth gig I as was

asked to put together some back projections and I made twelve separate 4 minute videos, more abstract than a music video, they needed to compliment the performance without distracting from it. I based them on the new logo and the stark black and white style with a nod or two to The Frantic Legion artwork, which I have to say looked great behind them on stage.

Formats

A first for me was the 10” EP for Drenched. I’ve designed for vinyl releases before, in fact I always design to a 12” size regardless of the final format because artwork is often needed larger at some point, but that was a really nice thing to work on.

The resurgence in interest in vinyl has been great. It’s what I grew up with and it makes for a much more satisfying thing to design for and own than a download, even CDs. When you get to work on videos as well it gives the whole project a sense of momentum and with the content hungry monster of social media a strong brand is as important than ever.

I see myself very much as a problem solver when it comes to designing for music. While I love alternative music I try not to limit myself to any particular genre and focus on coming up with the right

design for that particular release. It keeps it fresh. Sometimes that can put bands off as they would rather be able to see from previous work what they will get so it’s important for them to trust you to help them make that leap, however the results are always more satisfying. She Made Me Do It have been really open to ideas while still being clear on the direction they want to go in.

From plectrums to tote bags, videos and online of course, there’s a whole range of stuff out there now with my artwork on now and I never get tired of seeing it. I often bother people for photos if I see them in a T-Shirt with one of my designs - so apologies in advance if I see you out in a She Made Me Do it top!

pushingnormal

Jeff Conway AKA pushingnormal is an Illustrator, designer and animator with a taste for the gothic, the fantastic and the grotesque and has provided music video promos and album artwork to a wide range of music artists.

See pushingnormal.com for more details.

Links: pushingnormal.com

youtube.com/user/pushingnormal facebook.com/pushingnormal instagram.com/pushingnormal twitter.com/pushingnormal

Frantic Video: youtube.com/watch?v=HZtFRe59Qls

Eat Life Productions is a collective of specialists in branding, media and promotions.

"We work for small independent businesses, not for profits and community groups, who want a branding and social media campaign that is definitely not 'corporate' but reflects who they are and what they are about."

We are about showcasing the people, their story & their heart; sparking the connection. We are about #communityovercompetition

"Grass Roots, Old Skool Super Cool, Affordable, Visual Appeal, Indie" “We are also Independent producers of radio, podcasts and video content for various social and media channels, including Eat Life TV and Eat Life Radio”... This Issue we focus on Music... Introducing Hello Dearies all the way from Nashville!

Hello Dearies is a mystic rock living room collaboration between Nashville based musician Dominic de Lugosi (Dragon Park Kids, Lovercraft, Blacklight Velvets) and then Nashville based songwriter Mandy McNeil (Cunning Vixen).

Mandy had never considered herself musical, but after 10 years of living in the heart of music city something must have rubbed off. She discovered writing songs and picking out the melodies stuck in her head, using 4 chords and a mandolin, while sitting on the front porch watching the world go by at midnight was a way to work through the angst of a shitty divorce. Contrast with Dominic (aka Dom Belladona) a well loved musician in the underground punk rock/alt rock music scene in Nashville (and the only person Mandy knows who’s modelled with Carmen Electra), who has written songs for some major alt bands. A mutual friend, Nashville based artist Danielle Duer put them together.

Dominic listened to the abysmal mandolin picking, picked up his guitar, said, you need to turn up the speed and add distortion. Together with Chris Holt (a sound engineer who ran the sound for some major bands and also a drummer) they all made some noise. As seems to be par for the course, they drank a bit, made more music, started to record,

played on the radio and then Mandy moved to England, before they could finish making their album and get discovered.

Song for the Disillusioned Man is Mandy’s complete rewrite of Jack White’s Love Interruption.

Mandy says, “In Nashville, everyone

who is famous lives a life trying to be normal (think Robert Plant eating lunch at Whole Foods supermarket and Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman down at Martins BBQ picking up takeout).”

Jack White lived right around the corner from me, I’d see him down at the local coffee shop, usually with

“I grew up on punk rock, I fell in love with Americana and Blue Grass. One of my favourite concerts was Yonder Mountain String Band, all ex punk rockers. The song Angel played loud in a small warehouse.”

an entourage. Third Man Records was right around the corner from a workshop/art studio I was involved with and he was doing cool stuff in terms of setting up indie businesses and alt music at a time when Nashville was starting to change gear. When I first moved there in 2003 (from New York), there were no hipsters and one burgeoning local indie ‘chef’ restaurants, plus Spaghetti Junction. It was no problem to get into the Bluebird on a Friday night to hear singer songwriter Don Schlitz play his song The Gambler. Nashville in 2003 was like taking a step back in time. Jack White was part of a movement which reinvented Nashville as the new alt cool. I think it was through his love/fascination with the iconic renegade country music legends and the way they wrote their music - I didn’t know who Jack White was until Loretta Lynn’s new album came out youtube.com/watch?v=VuC_l3ymXhM then I started listening.

Anyway, in 2011/12 his personal life was then front page painful news and he looked pretty sad a lot of the time. I was going through a painful divorce at the time and it felt like hell so I could relate. His new album was out and I would play Love Interruption it in the car, one day my then 5 year old started singing the lyrics about killing his own mother. It seemed so wrong and full of bitterness. So I decided then and there that I did not want my son to think that the loss of love meant no hope for the future, rewrote the words and melody so it wasn’t so bloody miserable.

Dom put this Bauhaus inspired rhythm behind it. The first time we played it live, it had this almost hypnotic feel. When recording, Chris got inspired by Laurie Anderson and Led Zeppelin, he made me make lots of different sounds and then put some of them backwards, to give it a tribal feel.

We loved it, it was such an awesome once in a lifetime experience for me, having a collaborator who just gets you and vice versa doesn’t happen often, I miss that about Nashville.

But we are and will always be the Hello Dearies and Dom taught me the art of taking a heart wrenching sad song and making it fast.

Funny thing is, we watched the Jack White video a few days after recording and Dom said, that’s my cousin, the back up singer youtube.com/watch?v=xno5ImF2CQM and sent her our song.

That’s they way it is in Nashville, everyone has some connection with or love of music. It’s full of songwriters too who make their living writing for other people. Dom is also a songwriter but I can’t tell you who he writes for because then I’d have to kill you.

I grew up on punk rock, I fell in love with Americana and

Blue Grass. One of my favourite concerts was Yonder Mountain String Band, all ex punk rockers. The song Angel played loud in a small warehouse. youtu.be/ERjlLEHlltQ

I got to see the Cult live in the same warehouse (smaller audience, Nashville just didn’t go out as much for alt music, vs those country songs). Nick Cave at the Ryman. Henry Rollins doing his get out and vote Capitalism 2012 tourdown at our local movie theatre. Here he’s down at cult record store, Grimeys

youtu.be/JMnl_W-wH8M

One super cool memory for me is the 2010 Americana awards. John Cougar Mellancamp

youtu.be/-vYJSJ-bBAA

Rosanne Cash

youtu.be/EBRRlM-FbP8 the Avett Brothers and Wanda Jackson (the original Queen of Rockabilly) sang off her Jack White produced album

youtu.be/3DTKrjplzp8

Robert Plant and his... Band of Joy played youtu.be/rW0AcqDUvuE but the most inspirational moment was when the then undiscovered Carolina Chocolate Drops sat on the stage, played Hit Em Up Style with nothing but a fiddle, banjo and powerful voices so good that we all rushed down to Grimeys records the next day only to be told that Robert Plant had been in that morning and bought the stock of their CD out. youtu.be/Xby3b47r_hU

“It’s really hard not to get inspired living in Nashville however, all the musicians in Nashville dream about coming over to the UK to play their music - Britain is the ultimate gig.”

If you want alternative Nashville... Springwater And Dave Cloud.

“In Nashville, everyone who is famous lives a life trying to be normal (think Robert Plant eating lunch at Whole Foods supermarket and Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman down at Martins BBQ picking up takeout).”

Mandy McNeil

Parsons Knows

championing local music

MY LATEST TOP BANDS, ARTISTS & EVENTS!

Summer is here!

What summer you say? Well as always in this country the conversation is about the weather! But that also means festival season is here with some fantastic local ones big & small from big fields to pub gardens live music moves outside and I love it.

Since I last wrote I am sad to say that my local The Hare & Hounds has closed and I have had to find new homes for all my gigs. Huge thanks to Elaine & Paul for all their support of local music over the last few years. It was my local music home & I will miss it.

As you can imagine I was keen to move all my gigs to other venues but with so much music on in St Albans and with pubs struggling with the hype in business rates I was a tad

concerned but very happy to say that my services were in demand! I was delighted to see how much support there is for local music & me personally for what I do. So here’s the new rosta… facebook.com/roseyopenmic

Rosey Open Mic ( previously Harey Open Mic - see what we did there?!) is running the same 2nd/4th Wednesdays at the lovely old Rose & Crown in St Michaels Village. Richard & staff have made us very welcome. Great to have more live music back in this pub where I have seen many bands over the years. Also RoseFest coming on 26/8 to the garden with live music & BBQ etc.. great family day out.

Live @5 - replaces Harey acoustic lounge now at 5pm at The Lower Red. Many thanks to Dave who is a great live music supporter & a Tuesday Club fan ( always the best people!) This event now runs from 5-7pm & is child free!

I was so in demand that I’ve ended up with an extra night of music ( as if I wasn’t busy enough!) so introducing -

Dandy Lion Open Mic - Brand new & sparkly at The White Lion in Sopwell Lane. Andrew & Alicia are such fantastic landlords & already we are working on extra events. This runs on the 1st Tuesday of the month & is proving very popular. When they heard I was available for live music events they were very excited & I really appreciate their support. Great pub doing fab work in the community too. Look out for our Dandy Lion Festival coming on 1/9 & a

NEW Nights out!!!

Look out for more information on Balstock Festival coming 15th September in the next issue. I will again be hosting the stage at The White Lion with The Tuesday Club confirmed headliners. This is a fab event with so much going on… one of my favourite festivals of the year.

See you on the other side & don’t fret about the weather, keep calm & support local music. So, all in all, local music is safe in St Albans…

In other news I have programmed live music for Larks in The Parks across 3 stages in Fleetville, Victoria Playing Fields & Sopwell for 30/6 – all family friendly events in local parks!

I’ve been asked to be one of the judges for M festival line up. Great local festival on 6th July at Marlborough School with upcoming young acts being featured.

My new website launched a couple of months ago so please go and take a look!

theparsonsknow.com great design by 8ecreative Radio shows going from strength to strength with guests galore.. 5 years old this October!

Kick Off @3 fundraiser on 8/9 facebook.com/

dandylionopenmic/?modal=admin_todo_tour

So I am ridiculously busy over the summer with all my regular events and some extras too like programming the music for Larkus in The Parkus & brand new is a collaboration between myself & Laura Dannan from ‘Flying Squirrels Open Mic’ at The Goat for M Festival on 6/7/19 - we will be hosting this together 3-6pm. One of my favourite local festivals so very excited about this! themfestival.co.uk/

Thanks for reading – please come check out some live music with me when you can & don’t forget to tune in every Monday night on 92.6Fm radioverulam.com for my radio show!

Thank you & goodnight!

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