Thanks so much to Brian Neavyn for the interview! I wrote about the Irish band The Slowest Clock some months ago and was lucky to get in touch with him. He was also very kind to share music with me and also being up to answer all my questions! And answer my questions in a thorough way! Hope you all enjoy!
++ Hi Brian! Where were you from originally, Dublin?
Hi Roque, I was born in Dublin and spent my childhood in a large midlands town.
++ I know very very little about the band, so I want to start from the very beginning. What are your first music memories?
There was very little modern or popular music on Irish Radio (Radio Eireann) which had one national station in the early 60’s but my older brother was a fan of the Beatles from ’63 so their singles and LP’s were being played at home all the time. There was no record store as such in town but a small hardware store had a box or two of singles and a rack of LP’s. The owner had petrol pumps and was also an undertaker ! When my Dad would be filling up the tank I would be looking at the records. I bought my first single there at 6 years of age.
++ What sort of music did you listen at home while growing up?
There was increasing tolerance for popular music on the radio although still very little time devoted to it, I remember 1966, in particular as a year when ‘Paperback Writer’ , ‘Paint it Black’ , ‘Sunny Afternoon’, ‘Good Vibrations’, ‘Summer in the City’ were played often enough to characterise that summer. The Monkees TV series was launched and we were glued to that show, “Steppin Stone” and Mickey Dolenz’s vocals in general stood out.
BBC Radio 1 was launched soon after but reception at my home was poor however by ‘69 with much improved reception I used to listen to Alan Freeman’s Chart show on Sunday. ’69 was a great year for singles.
I was buying a monthly music magazine from ’68 and began reading Melody Maker or NME in the early 70’s and was particularly intrigued by regular ads for Virgin mailorder with all these weird band names from Germany and France but they were import albums and expensive. I was by now a regular listener to John Peel on BBC Radio 1 and also Kid Jensen on Radio Luxembourg. I heard a track from Amon Duul 2 on John Peel and just had to get the album. So my first LP was Wolf City on United Artists and shortly afterwards Virgin became a record label and released 2 LPs each at the price of a single (I think it was 49p) . I found them (Faust ‘The Faust Tapes’ and Gong’s ‘Camembert Electrique’) to be fantastic and so out there which led me to a long term interest in the alternative scene. There was adventure in their musicianship stitched with a self-deprecating sense of humour in the lyrics. I soon discovered Robert Wyatt and he has continued to this day to make intriguing music and write extraordinary songs.
++ Do you remember what was your first instrument? How did you learn to play it?
We formed a band in the garage in ’67 and I bashed the drums(the kit was rudimentary)-did songs by the Beatles and the Monkees. The older guys wanted to specialise on harmony acoustic stuff and left –to this day I hate “Sloop John B”!!
Anyway, some years later I started to mess around playing bass lines on a 6 string usually trying to learn some of McCartney’s or Motown and I was definitely hooked on the bass.
++ Was The Slowest Clock your first band or had you been in other bands before that?
I joined some school mates in their band in 1975 ‘cause they had a bass but no one to play it. It was all covers, good stuff by Thin Lizzy, the Rolling Stones, Free, Steve Millar Band and the like. They were good musicians. Outside of the avant garde I felt the music scene had become predictable with some exceptions. It was fairly obvious that music as dominated by the prog bands had to change. The drummer and I got into Dr Feelgood and I moved to college in Dublin in autumn 1976, just as punk was about to move from the 100 Club onto vinyl. John Peel played the Damned’s “New Rose” and that was it. I began taping John Peel’s shows from FM, really high quality and passing them on to my mates back home. I rejoined the band in Easter 1977 and we did a lot of Dr Feelgood’s and also a couple of Pistols numbers, but the guys did not want to write any original stuff.
In the early 80’s I moved permanently to Dublin and put together a couple of bands with a friend from home. A couple of times after we had written and rehearsed a set of originals we would go into a studio to record and ended up sounding lame and not at all like ourselves. Invariably that would set us back, particularly the guitarists. We had no idea how to use a studio of course and the engineers were only interested in making a band sound nice and clean with lots of reverb. Later I discovered that this approach had haunted many Irish bands since the 60’s. There were very few recording studios and engineers /producers seemed to have little or no interest in capturing the character or identity of a band.
++ What about the rest of the members? If so, how did all of these bands sound like? Are there any recordings?
Gerry Fahy, had rehearsed briefly in Dublin with a couple of outfits and from what I can recall had played live with one group supporting a lyricist/poet. Frank Price had been singing with a successful covers band called The Nobodys up in Cavan. Pete Kinsella our drummer had been playing with a group of musicians who recently did allsorts for dinner dances and functions. I do not recall any recordings except Frank may have done a demo with his band.
++ How was your city at the time? Were there any bands that you liked? What were the good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?
I was so lucky getting to Dublin at that time. I had visited regularly during the years buying LP’s at the Sound Cellar. There were a few really good record stores. The Sound Cellar had been there through the 70’s, one branch of Golden Discs was particularly tuned in, Murray’s, Advance Records, some stalls in the Dandelion Market were all good and Freebird and Base X opened up around this time.
The students unions in UCD and Trinity were also lucky to have good ENTS officers in ‘76/’77 who booked in bands like the Buzzcocks, the Clash, Little Bob Story, the Count Bishops, Eddie & The Hot Rods…and that is just a small sample… these were all the hottest bands and a must see due to the great press they were receiving from the UK. Other promoters were bringing in names like Dr Feelgood, the Ramones, Ian Dury & The Blockheads, the Jam and so many others. Rory Gallagher and Thin Lizzy were regular visitors and Dublin had its own emerging top bands like the Radiators from Space, the Boomtown Rats and later the Blades, Chant, Chant, Chant and U2. But I don’t think there was a specific venue that catered for the new young bands except occasionally the Magnet and the Ivy Rooms in the early-mid 80’s.
For me the most out there band in Ireland was Nun Attax from Cork which has often been a nurturing cradle for unique and original bands.
After all the excitement in the late 70’s with the punk and post punk movements, Dublin was still an attractive place for bands in the mid 80’s like Echo &The Bunnymen, REM , The Smiths, Green on Red, and The Prisoners to visit but at a local level the lack of small venues was still a big problem. Of course U2’s success led to a number of sound alike bands on the Irish scene.
The Ivy Rooms became a regular enough spot for the new bands in ‘83/’84 like The Stars of Heaven and Something Happens who showed some US influences. On the other hand The Gorehounds and The Golden Horde emerged from the psychobilly, thrash and 60’s punk influences. When these bands and others transplanted to the newly opened Underground Bar in 1985 they created a very distinctive scene. They had already developed their own followings and it really ignited, focused around that club. These were just some of the many bands that emerged in Dublin and as word spread bands from other parts of the country at last had a good and accessible Dublin venue to play in.
++ When and how did the band start? How did you all meet? Is it true that it was through the Musicians Contact section of Hot Press? How was the recruiting process?
I gave up on starting a band and in summer ’85, I answered an ad for a bass player. The main guitarist/songwriter had some good songs and Gerry Fahy was in that band. We only had a couple of rehearsals when the main guy headed off for the UK. Gerry and I realised we lived quite close to each other and over a few drinks decided to work together. I had a bunch of songs and Gerry had an original guitar style. He stamped his own mark on them and then we began to work new material together. We both decided that we wanted to develop our own character and not be enslaved to a particular genre. By Christmas that year Gerry put an ad in Hot Press for a drummer and singer and he met up with and chose Pete and Frank. We all hit it off well and started rehearsing in Feb 1986.
++ What’s the story behind the name The Slowest Clock?
We had reached a stage after a couple of months whereby it was time to come up with a name. It had to have the definitive article like the 60’s and punk bands, but also something mysterious or untold. One night an animated version of Poe’s Tell Tale Hearts was on the TV when the narrator mentioned ‘the slowest clock’ -it flashed from the speaker and we just looked at each other and knew that it was perfect for us.
++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?
To our detriment I suppose, we were not into doing covers, we wanted to try out our own material. Gerry and I would work up a song, put it on cassette and give it to Frank and Pete and then work together in rehearsals. Gerry’s father hired out an office to work in with a large spare room which he generously allowed us use –it was perfect for us at nightimes and weekends. Frank had not moved to Dublin yet so three of us would rehearse during the week and then have the weekend as a full band.
++ And who would you say were influences in the sound of the band?
We were all very big fans of music. Frank was a total Rolling Stones guy and also loved the Only Ones. Big Star were certainly a common love of us all and we were all fans of early punk and bands like Gang of Four, Pere Ubu and Television. Gerry was also into Joy Division and Jesus and Mary Chain. Pete was knowledgeable and open to a range of music going back a while. So we hit it off with a many a good drinking session just talking about our favourite records.
The early 80’s had seen a surge in interest in the 60’s bands with great compilations being released. Personally I soon realised that the music I had heard back in the 60’s barely scratched the surface. For melody, the Left Banke were unique and what can one say about the Byrds or Love ? Psychedelic and garage were the real deal and there was something in particular about the Pretty Things, the Misunderstood and Wimple Winch which seemed to confirm the direction we were heading in with respect to dynamics and energy. It was a melting pot really as opposed to any one band or genre but the common elements were guitar driven and song based. We described our sound as garagey and we wanted to record that sound – underproduced and tense but as an updated version not to be enslaved by the 60’s. It was not as easy to achieve and it took us a while. We were not impressed that the term garage had become tribal to define mid- 60’s US bands with a specific style only. That was a journalistic convenience to pigeon hole another genre. But had the Clash not announced themselves as a garage band on their 77’ debut LP and that album was hugely influential on changing the sound of punk ? Likewise the sound of the early Subway Sect singles was garagey and we loved that raw but very specific sound.
Gerry changed to a Vox AC 30 amp in the summer of ‘86 and I soon followed by adding a valve bass amp and speakers slaved with a transistor amp combo and a fuzz pedal so both of us were moving to a grittier sound which suited the newer songs.
++ You recorded a RTE Radio 2 Session for Dave Fanning Show in 1985. How did that come to be? Did you meet Dave? Any anecdotes you can share?
That was 1986. When we felt we were ready to do some support slots opening for the established bands we headed to the pub to list out our contacts. Before the drinks even reached the table we realised we had a blank page -not a single friend or contact between us. We doubled up laughing and doubled the drinks order cause that really was a situation. By the end of the night it was decided that I was to approach 2 musicians who worked in the record shops – firstly to ask Richie ‘Milkboy’ Taylor who worked Saturdays in Freebird Records if he would consider helping us record/produce a demo tape. Richie had been on the scene in a couple of name bands for about a decade. He would have known my face hopefully as a regular customer. He was receptive to the idea when I asked him the next day and he wanted to hear us the following day. So we arranged to meet him at our rehearsal room, played through our bunch of songs and he was up for it.
The second guy was Joe Rooney the lead singer in one of Dublin’s leading bands, Guernica. Joe worked at Macs Second Hand Arcade stall off Wicklow Street and we would have been on good talking terms but he had no idea I was in a band- just that I bought lots of 60’s albums. So I asked him about a support slot and again it was all positive.
So we booked into a recently set up studio called the Recording Studio aimed at newer bands and priced reasonably. We recorded 3 songs, Richie did a really good job and was not intrusive but very much a guiding light which was a much needed confidence boost for us. The demo tape went out to the Dave Fanning Show’s producer Ian Wilson.
We played our first gig supporting Guernica at the Underground on July 19th 1986. It was a Saturday night and they had a good following. We survived. Within a couple of weeks the radio show had played all 3 demo songs which neatly helped us build up to our next gig and now that we were gigging we were asked a couple of months later to record a session for the show. Ian Wilson produced and he was so easy to work with and very definite about how the band set up in this huge studio with a fabulous old Neve analog desk. The session of 3 new songs was recorded in a day and mixed a few days later in late October. We never met Dave Fanning but the experience of working with Ian was very influential. He was hugely supportive of new Irish bands.
++ What about gigs? Did you play many? All over Ireland?
We were lucky. We got an afternoon gig at the Underground in August and then a multiband megabash in the CIE Marlboro Hall which was recorded. A few days later we opened for A House at the Underground and the Stars of Heaven in the larger venue the Baggot Inn in September. Both those bands were so strong live with big support and were attracting interest from UK record companies. We supported the Gorehounds in October a few days before we recorded the RTE Session. We then did alternate joint headlines for 2 gigs with Cliff Edge Panic at the Underground and our first headlines with the Blue Four supporting us at the Earl Grattan and The Ivy Rooms in November. We also gigged with Pananoid Visions in TCD and did other gigs at various 3rd level colleges, Bolton St, Glasnevin and National College of Art and Design as well as Carlow IT. We did our first gig outside Dublin at the Bridge in Waterford in March ’87 and a very young promoter Donal Scannell trusted us with a gig in Galway.
++ And what were the best gigs you remember? Any anecdotes you can share? And were there any bad ones?
Oh yeah, there were gigs with only a handful of people there. One such was our second headline on a horrible Tuesday night, we got soaked just getting the gear out of cars into the venue and played to a small group of friends who thankfully turned up. A few days later we headlined a free Saturday night gig at the Underground. There were a couple of bands who had travelled from Cork booked for the afternoon gig and something had gone wrong for one of the bands so we invited them to play on our evening gig. They were the 3355409’s and we thought they were fabulous. We then supported Something Happens at the Baggot Inn in December and twice in January and I think they had just signed a record deal. They had a huge local following that was growing all the time and they were really supportive of us over the next while. They actually played supporting act to us in the Underground as their alter ego doing cover versions which was very entertaining and on one occasion in April we joined forces together for a few songs as a cover band supporting Cypress Mine.
++ Did you get much attention from fanzines?
The great VOX fanzine had stopped before this local scene took off but 2 others in particular were quite active- Moonstruck and Whose Life is it Anyway. Conzo and Niall the respective editors, as you would expect, were very knowledgeable music fans. Niall ran an interview /article on our band in late ’86 . Conzo was planning a cassette tape for release with a track each by The Gorehounds, Stars Of Heaven, Something Happens and The Golden Horde. He asked us in November if we would contribute a song and he did not need to ask us twice. We were overawed to be considered in that company. We had only played a handful of gigs and he had been to see us a couple of times. We gave him a track “Say What’s on your Mind” which was recorded live at the Megabash. The 5 song cassette was then sold by him at various gigs in January 1987. We also did out first series of weekend Sunday night headlines at the Underground in January and replaced the Gorehounds for a Sat Night.
++ Your first release was the “Clarke & Jones” 7″ on the Comet Records label. How was your relationship with them and how did you end up signing to them?
Well long before that, back in Sep 86’, Brian O Kelly the drummer with the Gorehounds who ran the Comet Record Store asked us to be on his 6 band 12” vinyl EP which he was planning for imminent release. There was no signing to the label as such, in fact each band had to guarantee they would buy a certain number of copies of the EP and pay upfront the cost price ….I think it was 50 copies. There were only a couple of independent record labels operating at the time that I can recall- Eamonn Carr’s label Hotwire and Solid Records. So Comet’s idea was a brave effort to get something going. The Comet EP was released in January 1987. We contributed the recording of “Little Boy Lost” from our first demo. The lyrics had a good friend and former neighbour in mind. The song was slow and simple but that made the song nervy and highly effective which was important for us. We did not like midpaced songs. “Little Boy Lost” got a very positive reaction.
We had experienced a really good few months and felt it was time to record a single. So we booked into the same studio in mid-March, self funded and with Richie producing again we did 2 songs. It went very well and sounded good. But those few days were extraordinary really. We had full house on the Saturday night at the Underground with the first of a number of supports from Niall McGuirks great band Hope who later changed their name to Not Our World. That month we also did a support for Microdisney at the large Top Hat venue in Dun Laoghaire, got in a van and dashed back to the Underground to headline our Saturday slot with From the Needle opening. That was fun but it meant we did not get to spend anytime with Microdisney afterwards.
++ There was also a split 7″ with The Music Bizz from 1987 that was released to benefit the Irish Youth Foundation. You appeared on it with “Looking Up”, a track from one of your Dave Fanning Sessions. How did you end up contributing this benefit record? And who were The Music Bizz?
The day after we had recorded the 2 songs, Richie got a call about this project and suggested we should consider it. Given that it was a charity release supporting an environmental theme we were fully into it but we did not want to release another song from out first demo. We felt RTE might allow a track from the October session. Ian Wilson agreed. The single was released in April but only a small number of copies were pressed as far as I know. A free open air concert connected to the event was organised in St Stephens Green at which we played. The Music Bizz was a concoction of other more mainstream established bands brought together just to record the a-side.
++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?
Yeah, we were getting occasional mentions in the music columns by the end of ’86 and then full interview articles in Hot Press and Music Week. Dave Clifford, the former editor of VOX asked us to open for The Celibate Rifles for 2 nights in June. The Rifles were from Australia and had been touring the States and were due to finish their European tour with these gigs. They were great guys and pretty awesome on stage.
There was a sense around that the Irish music scene was getting its due recognition with A House, My Bloody Valentine(based in London) and The Gorehounds all in the NME Indie charts around May ’87. The Stars of Heaven were fast becoming one of John Peel’s favourite bands. We knew that those bands were very well established and even though we had had a remarkable first year we knew we were really only starting out.
We wanted to get playing outside of Dublin and arranged gigs in Mojo’s in Cork and Kytelers in Kilkenny bringing a support act who were friends with us. Major 2 gig tour of Ireland !! We booked overnight accommodation in a small cheap hotel in Kilkenny. After the gig we packed up the gear and had a few drinks. Our mates had been drinking since they came off stage and they left for the hotel. Eventually we headed off to the lodgings and met our support act at the front door….being thrown out for disorderly carry on. So we spent the night in the van and cars.
At Mojos, the following night the owner Mick was particularly impressed with our sound. One of the resident soundmen at the Underground, Garett Lee had become our regular and he joined us for those gigs. He was a remarkable talent who already had done a Dave Fanning session with his previous band. He was now in Thee Amazing Colossal Men with Dave Clifford and they were quite amazing live doing 60’s US Psych and garage. Garrett designed our new poster and much later became a very in-demand producer for bands like REM, U2, Snow Patrol and many others. By this stage he had taken on the name Jacknife Lee as a successful solo artist and he was really decent about his poster design being used for the Smile Futurismo album.
Two young students, Declan Morrell and Mark Power, who were doing a sound engineering course in Temple Lane approached us about making a recording. They needed to do a recording project. So we were happy to go into a small studio and record and mix 2 songs with them. The guys were really decent. Gerry effectively took over the mix of “Clarke & Jones” and got a great sound, the version was raw and rough but captured something and we were given the master tapes. We now had 2 potential singles and probably should have released a 4 song EP but all four songs would need to be remixed to ensure some equalisation of sound. By the time we had discussed, the multitrack at Temple Lane had been wiped as no one realised the possibility. So we decided to release these 2 songs as our debut single. Many many years later I heard that Declan had become quite a significant figure within EMI.
++ I was curious too who are the “Clarke & Jones” you sing about? Also you used a still of one of Truffaut’s movies… were you big fans of the French director? What would be your favourite of his movies if you had to pick one?
As a lyric writer I was not a fan of the passionate singer or the heart on the sleeve poor me style of lyric. Shit falls on all of us but at different times in our lives. I had tried to write lyrics that were visual in creating images and not narrative to allow the listeners make their own interpretation. When people would refer me to a particular line or couplet after a gig asking its meaning I was more interested in what it meant to them.
“Clarke & Jones” was about a couple with one party wanting to get engaged to marry and the other resisting. It was written from the perspective of the former questioning the reluctance of their partner. Possibly one or both had already been through a broken engagement which was covered beautifully by the poet Seamus Heaney in “Twice Shy” many years previously. Why is it that some very strong relationships become dysfunctional during the engagement ? It was a recent personal experience that mystified me and a theme I approached from different perspectives in other songs like “Fear in Me” and “You’re so Strange”.
When Frank had started with the band he would push his voice. He had no need to and we realised when he relaxed he got just the perfect control of passion in his voice. He did a remarkable job in all the songs with his phrasing and avoided the trap of being over emotional. In every studio without fail the sound engineers would comment on his voice-he was blessed with a distinctive tone. I have yet to hear a voice like his- no one sounded like Frank.
Mick Cunningham was the guitarist with the Blue Four and along with their singer Donal Broughan, who also worked in Freebird Record Shop, became great friends and really helpful. Mick came up with the idea for the sleeve. I enjoyed cinema and there was a couple of good alternative cinema houses in Dublin. But Mick was the movie encyclopedia.
++ You appeared on TV on the show “Visual Eyes”? How did that happen? And how was that experience?
The invitation to do “Clarke & Jones” on TV came as a complete surprise. We went into the TV studio and there was a large projector screen at the back of the stage. They asked us to perform the song as they worked out the camera angles for projection. We must have done the song live about 20 times until they were happy. The Happens were also at the televison centre and they were great fun- they gave us a horrible nagging over the charity single some months previously which had us weak with laughter. The commercial sponsors had got their way over the promotion of the event which was supposed to be about environmental clean-up. But in the end the organisers succumbed to a tacky title of national washday. We knew nothing about this until the single was released. Well you can just imagine how that gave the guys the upper hand in slagging us especially the longhairs in our group, Frank and I. We were a static target and fair game for their wit.
The single got good local press but the comments were made that we had pushed the garagey thing too much.
Unfortunately behind all the positive things happening for us there was an internal clash that we were trying to sort out for quite a while. We had booked another studio session to record a 4 track EP but the recording session ran into problems and the musical differences overshadowed the event. It was very difficult to resolve and Pete offered to leave. It was a very sad day cause he was hugely supportive and hard working.
So 1987 finished up with a bitter sweet taste despite all the positive progress. Dave Burke from Cliff Edge Panic joined us and we began rehearsing again in January 1988.
++ And then there was yet another Fanning Session in 1988 and a Liz Kershaw one also the same year, how different were these to the first one?
Our songwriting was changing dramatically, musically and lyrically. Chernobyl had been a recent catastrophic event and proven the long held fear that nuclear power stations could never be guaranteed as safe. Although there was no nuclear power station in Ireland we had the proximity of one across the narrow Irish Sea in Sellafield in Wales. Its safety record was not reassuring. I remember discussions about the possibility of a terrorist group targeting a power plant. There had been a number of high profile plane hijackings in the middle east back in the 70’s but the idea that a terrorist group would actually be able to crash a jumbo plane into a building or nuclear complex was dismissed by authorities as fantasy. Security had that covered ?
But even at a more local level we had been taught in school about the industrial pollution of the Great Lakes. Irish rivers were now being regularly polluted by farming and each year the news would carry stories of yet more major fish kills from the release of toxic farm waste. The increasing damage to the ozone layer was also internationally topical. But the challenge to write about environmental issues was not to repeat the temptation of the anarchic sloganeering in every song. “Turning Green” was written from the perspective of a child, “Little Fishy” had an almost nursery rhyme orientation. Likewise the chorus of “Rejoice” which was about the cosmetic industries’ pollution of air and ozone and also the indiscriminate pesticide attack on insects and their habitats.
“Acid Lake” used the poisoning of the lake over a few short years to contrast the deterioration of the countryside generally with the movement of youth to the city which further accelerated abandonment of the countryside. “Mothers of America” was about the cover up of the bombing and sinking of the Greenpeace ship the Rainbow Warrior. “Turning Green” and “Mothers of America” were two of the four songs we recorded for that second Dave Fanning session in March 1988.
Musically the band was also transforming. Dave Burke was one of the best drummers around and freed us to really let loose. There was now a greater tension between the guitar and bass which we had long sought.
As we prepared for our first gigs with the new line up we became aware that John Peel and Janice Long the two nightime dj’s on BBC Radio 1 were giving the single some attention.
We introduced Dave Burke with a couple of gigs headlining the Baggot Inn in March. The music press gave us some great reviews. This led to the second RTE session which Ian Wilson produced again brilliantly – he understood our need to nail the songs fresh and not over work them so getting us set up in the studio with the proper miking was key. Gerry was now using 2 x Vox AC 30 Amps and playing like a man possessed. The session led to an invite from the Borderline TV production team, we did “Turning Green”.
At one of our gigs our friend Debbie Schow arrived out of sorts with the news that her band with Richard Evans, the Kid Sisters had lost 2 members. We were due to record for the “Action Station Saturday” TV show the following morning and we asked her to join us for some fun. We did “Where’s Andi”. Later that summer Dave and I provided the rhythm section for a Kid Sisters recording session which ultimately was released as the b-side of their great single “Desert”.
Then Ian Wilson invited us as one of the bands to play the Cork Rocks gig in June. This was an initiative from RTE to feature new Irish bands on an evening concert. You asked earlier about memorable gigs and this was certainly one highlight for me. With Ian involved we knew the sound would be good and we also knew the Cork audience in particular would give us a good sense of where our new material stood. We were writing a lot of new songs that were more edgey and less predictable. Dave Burke had given us that freedom because he held the whole thing together as the guitar and bass were becoming less unified and more fragmented. The dynamics in the songs were also becoming more stop/start. Anyway the gig went very well and the audience reaction confirmed all was ok….in short they looked stunned !! But appreciative. The only downside was that we went on early, possibly second band and some of the Cork crowd told us their mates had not yet arrived and would be disappointed to have missed us because we were so different. That was good enough recommendation for us.
However a real disaster struck when Dave fell badly outside the gig. He ended up in Emergency Department at Hospital with a broken arm and in a lot of pain. On our return to Dublin Dave went to an orthopedic surgeon only to be told that the break was particularly awkward and they could not reassure him that he would be able to play again. That was really upsetting for him.
Three days after Cork Rocks, I got a phone call from BBC Radio 1 producer Phil Ross inviting us to do a radio session for the Janice Long show now being presented for a period by Liz Kershaw. Bloody hell, you could not make it up. For an unsigned band like us this was a dream come true. I did not tell them our predicament. After a couple of weeks the BBC were pressing us to confirm a date. Another phone call followed from them telling us that the show was going to be reformatted with a different music profile so we had to confirm a date. Big band meeting followed, there was no question of us replacing Dave temporarily, he was now the core of everything we did. Surprising us all he announced that he would play the drums with his broken arm in a sling if necessary. Unbelievably he started rehearsals and it was really tough on him but he was so determined. We had our own Moulty of the Barbarians.
We were invited by Dave Clifford to joint headline with The Celibate Rifles returning in August. Dave Burke was up for it and so we did 2 gigs with them, one in Waterford and the other at the Underground. He was just fantastic keeping the rest of us together on all the new songs. He had his cast removed a couple of days later and was back to normal for the BBC session in early September. We recorded a new arrangement of “Turning Green” and also recorded “Rejoice” and “Desert Mouth” for the first time as well as “‘Where’s Andi”.
++ Then you switched labels, to Bewildered Records. I’m not too familiar with this label, was it your own perhaps?
That BBC session went well but we had no way of capitalising. With no record company support we could not even plan a series of UK gigs. We had been asked to contribute a song to a proposed compilation with Irish and UK bands so we recorded a track at Cathedral studios which went very well. We wanted to release another record and considered this studio for more sessions but it was due to shut down for some period and a new location to be found. In the meantime we also lost our rehearsal room and moved to another good one.
Yes Bewildered was set up by us the following year in ‘89.
++ On this label you released two 12″, the “2-Car Garage” EP and “No Hand Signals” EP. From each of these releases you made promo videos for “Millenium Train” and “Mothers of America”. Who made them and where were they recorded? Did you like doing promo videos? Did you make any others?
Back in June ’88 my friend David Wallis had returned to Ireland having worked abroad for a few years. The guys had met David on a previous vacation home and the idea was hatched that he would become our manager. He had some experience at recording and he understood our need to either get a record contract or fund our own recordings.
Some session songs were sent to UK labels but no positive response. Another recording of 6/7 songs was organised and paid for by a New York engineer as he was confident of interest in the US. So a lot of time was spent over the winter ’88 and into ’89 taking stock of our situation but we were continuing to write and rehearse. The band decided to plan a series of recordings and releases. David discovered a suitable location for recording in Roundwood and we decamped there for a couple of days in Spring ’89 to record 8 songs planned for two 12” EP’s on our own label Bewildered. So David engineered using a 4 track machine. We did not bounce tracks so the songs were live takes as were all our recordings with guide vocal track. Frank recorded vocals then on return to our house where we had set up a studio. Any overdubs like backing vocals or additional guitar had to be recorded at the same time as the vocals on the vocal track. We got that garagey sound we wanted. We selected the songs for both EP’s in advance. Since Dave had joined on drums there was a clear series of developments in the bands material. Our older songs were being reworked as new songs were created and we could see the evolution. Gerry suggested 2 Car Garage, released in Sep ’89, as the title to indicate our progression from the single. These 4 songs were more rooted in a certain style. In particular the arrangements were looser and we were experimenting with breaks being led out by the bass as opposed to the guitar. He also suggested No Hand Signals as the title for the second EP to indicate the band had pushed out of the garage and taken off on their own trajectory not aligned to any genre as such. Here it was true that the guitar and bass were challenging each other in a far more aggressive manner.
David shot some of the video material in Dublin and down the country. Another close friend Jason Doyle also shot material in a rehearsal room and between them they delivered the 2 videos. Some years after the band had broken up Jason shot and directed a beautiful video for one of our songs “Memories” which was recorded in 1990 which got some play on a new national television music show called No Disco.
“Millennium Train” was the first track on No Hand Signals released two months later. There was concern that future wars could be due less to territorial but more to environmental issues like access to unpolluted water supplies in one country being denied by upstream pollution in the neighbouring region. This song was more apocalyptic than the others with the expectation of war breaking out in the view of an elderly man who had witnessed territorial war and hyperinflation in his youth but was now frail and facing his own possible senility.
In mid ’89 we took out a bank loan to buy an 8 track analog recorder and mixing desk. So before we released the 2 EP’s we had returned to Roundwood, recorded two alternative back up songs for the EP’s on the 8 Track and laid down a bunch of selected songs for the anticipated album to follow. This also freed the 4 track for some experimentation with basic backward sounds on guitar, cymbals, voices etc.
++ On Youtube I saw you playing on TV the songs “Turning Green” and “You’re Wrong”… on what shows did you perform them? Do you remember? Did you have any other appearances on TV?
Yes with the Johnny Cash t-shirts. He had played a stunning gig in Dublin’s Olympia some months previously. That was recorded for the Jo-Maxi show in Nov 89. The video for “Mothers of America” was on a TV show a couple of times but I can’t recall any other TV appearances.
++ Then after 5 years, in 1995, you released your debut album “Life Still”. These songs were produced at Sonic Studios by David Wallis. Was it different recording the album compared to the single and EPs?
This is where things get confusing. Having recorded 9 songs for the debut album in Roundwood we realised that we would not be free of our gigging commitments to support the release of the EP’s until late November and that it would be impossible to record there at that time of year. David Wallis had engineered all the recordings in Roundwood. So we scheduled a week in December to continue recording in either an empty small warehouse or vacated office space in Dublin that was to be finalised.
The decision for the band was whether to plan for a vinyl LP or to move to cd because the cd demand was in the ascendency and the cost of production was much cheaper since Ireland’s last vinyl pressing plant had closed at this stage. The EP’s had been pressed in the UK with additional transport costs. If we were going to do a cd then the idea was to record enough material for bonus tracks. Some of us were certainly in love with the 40 minute LP as being the perfect vehicle. So the question was whether the additional songs would be part of a free EP to accompany the LP if we decided to release on vinyl and cd in due course. Either way we were in serious debt so any prospect of a release was dependent on reaction to the 2 EP’s already just released.
We were doing some gigs to promote them. One such gig was in Kilkenny. We had played there in ’87 to an audience of 5 punters and now we were in front of a packed house at the Newpark Inn. There was a vibrant music scene coming out of Kilkenny and local band the Jerusalem Taxis supported us. They were a really good band.
The EP’s were doing very well in the press but not selling enough to cover costs despite being distributed in the UK. In addition there were other issues and disappointments affecting the band. Unexpectedly the arrangement to record before Christmas was cancelled at the last moment as the intended venue did not materialise and the mood in the band changed.
We had a meeting in the New Year and decided to bring the band to an end. We had some bookings to honour in March and so we continued to rehearse for those.
The guys behind Cathedral Studios had moved to a new location and set up as Sonic Studios. I explained our situation and they offered a really good deal to record the remaining songs for the album. So in March 1990 after our last booked gigs we entered Sonic Studios and laid down tracks. It should have included 3 new songs which were complete and one had already been gigged. We had to move rehearsal rooms for a second time which was a real downer and so we ended up re-recording some songs we had already done in Roundwood. Anyway the songs were laid down with the studio’s Joe Wearen and Albert Cowen as sound engineers aided by David and a rough mix was done. The tapes were transferred to another studio for mixing at a later date.
Even though the session had gone well and attempts were made to keep the band together there was something kind of final about that period and we never got into rehearsal again. Ironically major fanzines in the UK and Europe were picking up on the EP’s over these months.
There was no urgency to mix the album while debts had to be paid so after a couple of years when it came to finally mixing the album of material from both the Roundwood and Sonic Studio Sessions there was no sign of the Roundwood multitrack. The box marked with the songs had an unused tape. Those close to the band were contacted but no one could understand how it was mislaid. But it could not be found. Could it have been wiped in error ? Very unlikely.
So with only the Sonic Studio recordings existing I undertook the task of seeing them mixed. I was still not familiar with cds and had to buy my first cd player and some cd’s just to become familiar with the cold digital sound back then compared to the warmth of vinyl.
Those recordings were released in late 1994 as the CD album Life Still. Even posthumously the release got good reviews. Whilst I was happy to see out the project as a final release my heart was not satisfied. We had a cassette of the early monitor mixes from the Roundwood tapes and I knew that some of our best songs and performances were lost. And the intended theme in choosing those particular songs for our debut album was undone.
++ Then in 2014 you would release a CD compilation called “Smile Futurismo!” showcasing many of your best songs. From what I understand many of these recordings were thought lost… what had happened to them? How did you find them?
I moved from Dublin to live in the north-west in 1997. Being a hoarder I had crates and boxes of stuff. Some years later while opening some remaining storage boxes of music magazines, cassettes and paraphernalia I stumbled on a box with cushions. It was marked for dumping but I just checked to see what else was there and to my astonishment a reel to reel tape in an unmarked box was covered up in the middle. However the tape itself had clearly been used with leader tape obvious. I will never forget my fumbling as the reality dawned on me. The tape had been boxed incorrectly back in 1989/90 away from the rest and it had got separated from all the others.
I managed to track down an 8 track machine and yes here was the Roundwood multi-tracks. I knew what I had to do. There was a theme to the planned album and now the original album as intended could be mixed at last. But I had a young family and no studio equipment. So I went about setting up a mixing studio at home. I did not need a load of outboard gear because our straight recordings defined our sound as opposed to studio gadgets. And so all the original Roundwood and some Sonic Studio recordings were mixed and released as the cd Smile Futurismo.
So Smile Futurismo, All I heard is Purple is our debut album on cd as originally intended.
The original choice of songs was based on the fact that there was a recurring theme in lyrics on the different tensions within urban and rural life and the consequences to the environment. Cities offer the opportunities of cinema, art galleries, gatherings and access to many other ideas and underground activities- to explore in relative anonymity and possibly find some personal truth. Rural life has its own advantages in nature, community and a gentler pace of life but privacy is not so easy to maintain.
Of importance were the clear signs of environmental damage. Obviously the two are not exclusive and are bound together with overlapping interdependence. The opportunities and pleasures afforded by a modern city is often inversely matched by abandonment or destruction of the countryside. So the city is represented by “Warhola”, “In the Cinema”, “Eastern Flowers” and “Le Bordel Philosophique”. The damage to the environment is covered in “Little Fishy”, “Turning Green”, “Acid Lake” and “Rejoice”. The shifting scene between rural and urban appears in “Going Home”, “You Never See Me” (influenced by poet Seamus Heaney), “Wasted” and again “Acid Lake”. The effects of displacement appears in “Desert Mouth” .
In either setting one can experience personal or artistic isolation and the subplot here is that such feelings can be mitigated by one’s own sense of surreal humour. At times you just have to laugh at how absurd life and/or oneself can be but of course that may not always be enough for many to avoid sinking into darkness.
++ Aside from all these releases are there any other songs that remain unreleased? Or songs that only appeared on demo tapes?
Yes there is a number of recorded songs including demo and radio sessions from ’86-’89 that were not released.
++ I think my favourite song by The Slowest Clock is “Going Home”, was wondering if I could ask what’s the story behind this song, what inspired it?
Hmm, well the reality is that I did not want to move to Dublin full time and leave the country permanently. But circumstances changed. For my first few years in Dublin I had a perfect blend. I was there for the week days and l stayed up if there was a gig I wanted to see. Otherwise my weekends and all holidays were spent with my family at home, rehearsing with my mates and going to football matches and the pub with another group of friends. But in a short period my parents passed away at a young age and the man who sold me my first single was called upon in his other occupation. A cruel irony. Shortly afterwards the family home had to be sold. This was the backdrop to the song “Memories”. I moved permanently to Dublin in 1982.
“Going Home” is an indicative conversation/row between the parent figure and the youth when the youth returns home only to get a grilling about their behaviour chasing fun in the city. The parent is showing frustration and the youth is appealing that s/he hasn’t changed as a person but is just exploring the new found independence they have.
++ If you were to choose your favourite The Slowest Clock song, which one would that be and why?
Genuinely I don’t have a favourite but I will share with you what will probably sound a bit unusual in the way that I visualised music. I had been reading music magazines passionately since I was nine years old but by the mid 80’s I was so bored with negative music journalism. Bands would only be described in the context of other bands and who they sounded like or what genre they were slotted into. With the exception of some, mainly, fanzine writers I noticed over a prolonged period that the desire to explore the sound and essence of bands was just not evident in the main weeklies.
On another front I had dismissed modern art all my life. I could relate surrealism to psychedelia and had began reading about those artists. In so doing I realised that art had changed in movements in a somewhat similar way to the developments in music. Rock’n’Roll, R& B, Beat, Mod, Psychedelia, Rock, Punk- there was a clear chronological spine- same with blues, gospel, soul, funk or in Jamaica with calypso, ska, rocksteady and reggae etc. So too modern art had moved from one school of painting onwards from say Impressionism, Pointillism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Surrealism and so on. I had never appreciated until then that these painters had only a canvas, paint and a brush. Imagine- just those tools. Yet they represented the world in their paintings from such different approaches. Munch’s painting ‘The Scream’ can be understood I suspect by all cultures. No language needed. In reading about these changes I was struck by the efforts of art writers to describe art. It was not limited to describing the colours or subject matter but also how the painting was structured, how the paint was applied and so on.
We had been trying out different structures on songs for example bringing the singing in from the start, not using repeat chorus to fade, abrupt endings and so on. All very uncommercial but we were trying to coil up the energy and tension of a song. We were using the simple line up of guitar, bass, drums and voice to be creative. Punk would hit you with a 1-2-3-4 bang but Wimple Winch the great 60’s band would deliver their punch at different points in the song.
Then a strange thing began to happen. You know how if you are a fan of Television and you hear Marquee Moon or someone mentions Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band then your brain will conjure up those iconic album sleeves. I suspect many music fans will associate their favourite songs or album title with the album sleeve. Well I began to experience a similar type of parallel effect but when I would listen to early Wire I could see Expressionist paintings, when I would hear certain My Bloody Valentine tracks I could see some of Mark Rothko’s work, when I would hear Captain Beefheart my brain would immediately connect to a Jackson Pollock painting, the Rain Parade conjured up surrealism. The converse happened if I looked at a colour plate of these artists in a book, I would hear the music of the corresponding band.
This only happened in a limited number of bands but the connection was very strong and helped me to interpret these bands and how they structured their music in a different sense. Cubo-Futurism became associated in my head with many of the songs by The Slowest Clock from ‘88/’89. That dense sound of fast movement and tension, jagged angular guitar and bass and stop/start dynamics, I could clearly see in the work of the Cubo-Futurist painters. It was actually really helpful for me to visualise our song structures in this way. I must add that the wider Italian Futurist movement had a political manifesto with which I did not agree. But the paintings were a different matter and I related strongly with their introduction of movement into cubist art which in the hands of the French school focused on still life stationary objects essentially.
So to answer your question I do not have a favourite song but “Le Bordel Philosophique” attempts to relate the sense of challenge/failure to create in any medium and the fear of rejection. It is a ‘city’ song as such with lyrical references to art movements of the early 20thcentury. It is also a musical arrangement whereby the guitar is not supported by the rhythm section, in fact the bass /drums cuts in, out and across the guitar lines creating the tension. So the guitar has to be strong to stand alone. Likewise the singing.
The first of the songs to represent this change was our re-arrangement of “You’re Wrong”. In the original version on our first demo the bass just plodded along supporting the guitar. In the second version on No Hand Signals the guitar and voice remain the same but the bass and drums have been completely re-written and from the start are challenging the guitar lines, shifting the rhythm, agitating the guitar like there are two utterly different factions in competition creating the tension. To a greater or lesser extent this became a feature in most of our songs during this period, even the slower numbers. Commercial madness of course but we believed we would find our own sustainable fanbase over time.
++ When and why did The Slowest Clock stop making music? Were you involved in any other bands afterwards?
The last thing I expected as we released the EP’s in late ’89 was that the band would collapse. within months. There were a number of factors but we all got on so well (I think) that it still should not have crashed the way it did but yeah it just crashed. Our last gig was a Close Sellafield (Nuclear) event in the New Inn in March 1990.
After a few years I did some writing with two good friends but we never moved it to a band phase. About 10 years ago I started contributing articles/interviews for Ugly Things fanzine which has been cool as I have interviewed some of the 60’s bands that influenced me and I do the occasional review for UT and Shindig.
++ What about the rest of the band, had they been in other bands afterwards?
Gerry formed another 4 piece group, Candy Apple Red, with Dave Dorgan ex The Candyshop, and they caught a lot of attention but again never had the opportunities/support offered in a record deal.
Neither Frank nor Dave formed new bands which I think is very regrettable.
++ Has there ever been a reunion? Or talks of playing again together?
No sadly it has never materialised.
++ Looking back in retrospective, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?
I think the fact that we released so many songs as an independent band with no financial support from a record company. David Wallis was an important factor in that achievement.
++ Aside from music, what other hobbies do you have?
Aside from Music, well that’s not possible, but I am interested in football, art, politics and current affairs.
++ Anything else you’d like to add?
I have really only mentioned bands that we shared a stage with. There were many good bands during this period (‘86-‘90) and into the 90’s who deserved a chance at getting records released. But the lack of a dynamic indie record scene prevented this. However one guy singlehandedly has been running a website that features radio sessions and demo tapes from many of the era’s bands. The Fanning Sessions site is a singular and fabulous resource. Talk about a labour of love. In tandem with the excellent and very well researched irishrock.org site which covers the decades from the 60’s these guys are the real historians for Irish contemporary rock music. They deserve a lot of credit. If any of your readers are interested there are also some excellent blogs. The author of the Blackpool Sentinel writes beautifully crafted observation pieces on his favourite bands of that era. Between the Bars is also excellent with a focus on the present scene.
Thanks for your interest Roque.
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Listen
The Slowest Clock – Going Home
