Photo: sitting on the gate from left to right are Michael Green, Tim Slater, Dave Wick, John Lindsell and the Dave Fletcher.

A couple of days ago Michael Green, The Nightjars guitarist, got in touch with me. I had written a blog piece about his band many months ago asking for some more information about it and somehow he stumbled upon it. How thrilling! And he has been so nice to tell me the whole story of the band with me, and of course, I want to share with you all. Also he scanned a promo photo of The Nightjars, plus an interview on a Cambridgeshire zine called “Scene and Heard” (part 1, part 2, part 3). Also he asked me to upload the B side “Hang Me Out Dry” which he said: “was only of my favourite things we did. I remember writing the original chugging (C F Am F I think….) riff, sat on my amp,playing it to the others and then Tim Slater improvising the slide guitar bit over the top straight off the top of his head, it was all pretty instant really which are usually the best ones.” And I can only agree, it’s fantastic tune!

And here is the whole story:

The Nightjars were formed from an amalgamation of twobands – The Giant Polar Bears and Red Over White. Original band members were Johnny Lindsell (vocals) Dave Wick (bass) Brendan Costello (guitar) and Dave “Fletch” Fletcher (drums). The name was Johnny’s idea – he is a bit of an ornithologist on the side and came across it in a bird book, thought the nocturnal animal / mesmerizing call bit was cool. Personally, I much preferred The Giant Polar Bears but wasn’t in the group then so didn’t have a say! The thinking at the time was it was too close to The Mighty Lemon Drops (well done on your referencing of influences in the article by the way – spot on)- turns out there’s another band now from Manchester callTheNightjars (part of me feels like contacting them to suggest calling themselves The Giant Polar Bears….much better name but there we are!) Brendan eventually emigrated to Australia to manage a mine somewhere and on-board came Tim Slater, who at the time worked in a guitar shop in Cambridge.

Somewhere around 1988 the band decided they wanted to fill the sound out by adding another guitarist. I lived in the same village as Johnny (Wistow, Cambs) and he’d heard I played guitar. The band at this point were in their mid to late 20’s, I was 15. So I get a knock on my door one day asking if I’d like to audition for the band – one of the most nerve-wracking decisions I’d had in my life! Half of me was “YEAH!”, the other half was “but I only know half a dozen chords and how to play a power chord…..” Anyway – I agreed and that afternoon had an audition in a pig barn (yep…) where the band practiced every Sunday afternoon. I passed the test, was thrown a bunch of tapes to learn the songs and told I’d be playing my first gig that Thursday Night in a snooker hall in Ramsey. Spent next 3 days furiously learning the songs and it went like clockwork – one of the best nights of my life, I was officially a rock star….!

Over the next 3 years we gigged extensively and made a handful of demos, culminating in putting Acid In Your Face to vinyl. We were by far and away the best followed band in the Cambridge area and supported the likes of Teenage Fanclub (to be eternal regret I broke my hand the night before and had to sit the gig out), Throwing Muses (remember being horrified that they got paid £1500 for the gig and had a rider that included white towels, whilewe did the whole thing for a case of Red Stripe)and many others. This was our forte – playing live – and we knew it, Johnny wasn’t the best vocalist of all time though he was an outstanding front man and we weren’t the best of musicians (bar Tim Slater) though we could certainly hold our own.Live we hadsome kind of X-Factor that seemed to draw the local youth to us more than any other band, I cant really explain it but it was like we were all part of the same club.Tim went on to be features editor for Guitarist magazine but I have no idea what he, or the others, are doing now – ironically it was by putting his name into google that I found you last night. I’ve also found another guy who I think replaced me in ‘92 and claims to have played on “Acid in your Face – NME Single of the week”. I’m very tempted to email him to say a) no you didnt and b) it was never NME Single of the Week! I see you have this in your article, I’m sure we didn’t but aforementioned band above have done, it may be that you are confusing the two? Would be very interested to know where you got info from though, would make my day if we had and I’d forgotten!From memory I think we may have made the John Peel show though…?

So – this was a big big part of my life from 15-18 but in ‘91 I finished school and passed exams to go to University in Manchester. At the time there was some interest from Rough Trade records, which turned my head a bit but in my heart of hearts I knew we’d never make it so left the band and went to University, where I met my now wife etc etc and the rest is history. I joined a band up there called Dream Baby Dream (now if you want to talk horrendous band names….) but it just wasn’t the same and have just plucked along on my own since, writing the odd thing here and there for my own amusement. Ironically, when I moved to Manchester – the other end of the country – I found the single in a record shop in the bargain bucket! Each week it went down 10p in price until the last time I saw it it was going for something like 5p and disappeared – whether someone bought it or it was chucked away who knows.

Out of interest, I nearly fell off my chair last night when I saw the single cover on your site, the cover is one of my mates (Paddy Hulson) holding Johnny’s baby daughter Poppy. Poppy must be 20/21 now – unbelievable.

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Listen
The Nightjars – Hold Me Out To Dry

Remember to support your local mailorder. Remember that physical records are prettier and more valuable than a mp3. Remember that indiepop is alive, it’s not a cold little digital file. Indiepop is not to be caged in your ipod. And if you forgot about how inspiring it is, here are two stories to keep believing!

Pebble Records

The United Kingdom has been blessed with a new indiepop mailorder and it’s called Pebble Records. It’s also a label and they have already signed Sarah legends The Orchids and the best new band according to Twee.net poll: The Cavalcade. What is good news also, is that both bands have albums and singles to be released this year!

Behind Pebble Records there is a nice chap called Michael who is a hardcore indiepop lover. How do I know that? Well, he owns the demo of the Ruth Ellis Swing Band. I mean, on my book, that’s WOW! Also I find it funny that years ago, in 2007, I bought some records from him on ebay, some Waltones and Wishing Stones 7″s. I bet he doesn’t remember, I only found about it today while going through old email. But something that is for sure, is that since that time he was doing a fine job sending well-packaged records. That I do remember.

The idea of Pebble Records is mostly to centralize indiepop in UK. To create a store that caters the indiepop hungry, same as what Fraction Discs does in Sweden or Vollwert in Germany. It’s surprising there wasn’t a store like this in UK, as it has the most bands and probably the most indiepop fans than any other country in the world. So Pebble Records is here to fill that gap and so far they are doing it in a brilliant way.

It has been not that long since they opened. It was on mid-November with a clear intention and idea:

Pebble Records is an indiepop and electronica label and mailorder based on the South Coast of the UK. As a mailorder we want to bring the UK a fantastic selection of worldwide labels at sensible prices and the best of UK music to an international audience. If your favourite band or labels not here let us know we love hearing new music! Everything on the website is in stock for fast delivery (usually posted within 1-2 days). As a label we will release records by bands we love and think you will to.

At the moment they have a fine selection of records by different labels including Matinée, Slumberland, Hugpatch, Susy, LTM, This Almighty Pop! and many more. Sweet!

Indiepages

Did you notice that Indiepages is back! It’s been many months since Chris decided to have a break. I missed his weekly reviews, his nice webshop and of course, the demo of the week. Things were very quiet at the indiepages site, only the message board was up and running. Don’t know if it was some sort of new year resolution but Chris is back. Back in top form, with more energy and more ideas for running his fantastic page, which won this years Twee.net poll award as best indiepop page. It’s true that he won’t be doing as many reviews as before, but that’s fine, we can all live with that, right? I see some doubtful faces now. Okay. What about if I say that he will be so busy running a REAL, a physical, store in his own Seattle. A RECORD store. Weren’t all record stores closing down? Well, maybe, but here’s one that is opening!

Here’s what Chris has to say about it: “Why the sudden (and seemingly crazy) decision? Well, there’s a high-end stereo shop in a great location here that has a subdivided second floor which they’re renting out to small businesses and artists for very un-Seattle prices (a little over a buck a square foot per month!). Besides myself, there’s a death metal-themed record shop, a clothing boutique, a second-hand record dealer and an artist that uses her space as a studio. The whole thing’s pretty cool, actually! It will be a record shop and mailorder that will be committed to:

• Selling records from bands/labels that we like & admire to the pop kids in Seattle and online.
• Putting an emphasis on helping smaller bands & labels from around the world that don’t otherwise have much distribution outside of their own area.
• Offering everything at a very low markup since we have barely any overhead; we find it much more important to introduce people to great music than turn a profit!
• Having fun doing all of this, of course!”

Chris has named the store Jigsaw Records. Does that name sound familiar? That was the name of his old label, one that released beautiful records by Rocketship, Cessna, Poconos, Leslies among others. Now it’s not a label anymore but a fine record store! One that will open quite soon, March 13!

So at last, the US will have a fine and fair mailorder. How much we’ve missed that. I know it wasn’t in the US exactly, but since Poppolar went down, there hasn’t been a good indiepop store on the web. This are the good news we’ve been waiting here for so long! Thanks again Chris!

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Listen
Nixon – Bedsitters of the World, Unite!

First of all let me say that I’m a BIG FAN of They Go Boom!! And it was such a pleasure and honour to be able to have this little questionnaire with Mike Innes. Thanks a thousand to Mike for being up for me bombarding him will all kind of questions. It’s time to get your They Go Boom!! 7″s and put them on your turntable! Celebrate one of the best bands of the 90s!

++ Hi Mike! How is 2010 so far? Any resolutions for this new year? Or any great project you have in the works for it?

Hi Roque. I’m not really a New Year’s resolutions kind of guy. Maybe that’s where I’ve been going wrong all this time..?

++ Let’s talk about the band, alright? First of all, I’ve always wondered where does the name They Go Boom!! comes from? It’s a fantastic band name by the way!

Thank you. We wanted the name to be something that reflected both of our interests and enthusiasms and we were both pretty keen on Laurel & Hardy, so we made a list of their movie titles that might work for a band name and They Go Boom was the best-sounding one. Bohemian Girl was another of their movies, incidentally, so that was why later on we used The Bohemian Girls as the name for our glam backing vocalists.

++ Okay, so you notice you are being interviewed by a big fan of yours… tell me why you stopped making music? It’s not really fair. You’ve never felt like reviving TGB? I bet you’d be called to some sort of festival like Indietracks if you’d do it!

Oh, the reason we stopped was nothing to do with music. I moved away from the town where we were living and by coincidence Daryl also moved to another part of the country at around a similar time. We didn’t fall out or anything. In fact, I thought we might do Indietracks and we did speak about it briefly, but in the end I couldn’t get it together, partly for technical reasons and partly because life ended up getting taken over by a house move – still, my fault entirely. Sorry!

++ So Mike, how did you and Daryl knew each other?

I was working at the same place as Daryl’s wife and it turned out that we’d both dabbled in music with keyboards, so then we started getting together and doing bits and pieces of writing and recording.

++ I know you were a big fan of jangly guitars, you did the Phew Wow fanzine, but how come you decided to do electronic indiepop instead of guitar pop?

Well, we both liked a lot of different types of stuff, not just guitar pop. It was me who was more into indiepop and the whole Sarah thing, but I did also like 80s synth stuff and I listened to both those sorts of things equally. Daryl was a big Smiths fan but also was into probably a bit more experimental electronics than I was, like Fad Gadget. In retrospect, I wish we’d pursued that side of things more than we did. As for why we ended up using electronic instrumentation, well, we both had bits and pieces of keyboards and drum machines and neither of us could play a guitar… so, kind of an obvious choice. Actually, to be fair, Daryl did play some bass and we ended up using it on the outro to He Didn’t Deserve You on the Atlantic album. We were never interested in the idea of properly involving anyone else in the band, so until much later on it was just whatever we could do between the pair of us.

++ Talking about zines, your first proper release was the flexi that came with the This Almighty Pop! zine! Have you ever met Stephen? He seems really ace, I look forward to meet him! How come did you both got in touch?

Yes, we did meet once or twice. If I remember correctly TGB thought that sending out demo cassettes to some of the fanzines which we liked would be a good way of getting some kind of attention, and Stephen liked what we’d done and kindly offered to release a flexi with TAP.

++ Care to tell me a bit of those early tape releases, “Myopia” and “We Touch the Lives of Ordinary Folk”? What songs were included?

Oh God! I’m not even sure I can remember. I don’t have copies of them. It was twenty years ago! But basically they were all four-track recordings that we did over a period of time in Daryl’s spare bedroom. We were just learning how to use the equipment and how to work round its limitations. The She’s Like A Dream flexi track was probably about the best of the recordings we did then – for some reason it all just fell into place and it sounded great very quickly.

++ I also know there was a tape on Elefant Records, what about that one?

Luis got in touch and asked if he could make a compilation of the two cassette demos. I don’t know if it did the label or the band much good, but in retrospect it’s nice to have an Elefant release to our name.

++ Two questions about the name of your releases. What was The Ruby Lounge? and what about Woody Allen, what’s your favourite movie by him?

The Ruby Lounge was the name of a pub on the seafront in the coastal town where we were living. I was an incomer to the town and it was one of those things that I saw and thought was striking, while Daryl as a long-term resident hadn’t really noticed it. A lot of those early songs were about life there. The cover of the Myopia cassette is a power station that is close by, too. As for Woody Allen, I don’t have a favourite movie – it just seemed like an appropriate title for that particular song.

++ What about gigging? You did quite a few ace ones! But you only started playing live in 1994! Why was that? What took you so long?

Haha. Well, I think in total we did a grand total of five gigs and probably one of them I would actively describe as having been ace. The thing is that playing live was never really what we were interested in. The band was something comfortably social, like going round to a friend’s house and having a coffee and, oh yeah, how about this melody line or this for a drum pattern? Playing live would have been far too much like hard work and we never liked the idea of trawling round the crappier indie venues of England. Plus, because we were 100% electronic the equipment that was cheaply available at that time really wasn’t up to it. In the end a few people kept asking us and kept asking us, so we did play a handful of shows. As I say, one of them was pretty good.

++ From your gigs, I wonder especially about that one that you played along La Buena Vida, one of my favourite bands! How was that? Any anecdotes to tell from that night?

That was the good one! We and I think also Moving Pictures supported them at a place in Madrid. This was a time when La Buena Vida were becoming a pretty popular band across Spain, so they sold out a venue with a capacity of maybe 500 or so. The audience seemed to like our stuff, we heard that some people had travelled a long distance to see us and then I remember standing on stage and being able to see people in the audience actually singing along with songs of ours that they knew.

That was astonishing for us. In our world, in practical terms we were the only people who had any familiarity with our songs at all. Our experience of being a band involved meeting up at Daryl’s place once a week to work on songs, while occasionally receiving a letter from a label saying that they’d sold x copies of a particular release; our experience of being a band definitely did NOT involve going to other countries and seeing face to face that some people really really liked what we were doing. But that’s what happened on that one occasion with La Buena Vida.

++ Also you played at the Stockholm International Pop Underground 3, how was that experience?

Mmm, I think you know more about the band than I do… we invited Denis Pasero from Caramel to play some guitar for that show, which he also did on the album that we were recording at around the same time. There were some technical sound problems at the gig which made it a little bit frustrating, but it was OK. Having Denis involved on stage was a good thing.

++ It’s a bit complicated for me to talk about the 3rd album, the unreleased one. As you know I wanted so badly to release it, but it’s a bit difficult. But I would love to hear your insights from it. Listening to it, it hasn’t aged at all, and sounds great as back in 1999 I bet. Most people haven’t listened to it, so I’m wondering if you could talk a bit about it.

With hindsight, oddly it feels as if we kind of subconsciously knew that things were coming to an end, so we just wanted to record as much as possible in order to get it “out there”. That’s why there’s quite a lot of variety to it, some long songs and some little sketches as well, a couple of instrumental tracks… It was pretty ambitious in terms of the recording and although inevitably it doesn’t all work, I do think there’s some really good stuff on that record – The King Of Excuses is one I like a lot, because it was a song that neither of us could have done alone. That’s an especially satisfying aspect of working with someone else, when the whole becomes better than the sum of its parts. Also I’m very proud of I’ve Dreamed Of This For Years, quite an emotional song for me personally and a brilliant vocal by Daryl.

++ Before that you released 2 albums, Atlantic and Grand Vitesse. Thinking of it, you were quite prolific! What is your favourite release of yours?

Yes, we were reasonably prolific – we kept at it for quite a long time, never trying to do too much but always getting on with making new material. I definitely like the Atlantic album a lot, I think it hangs together very well as a whole release. The songs are pretty consistently good and by that time we had a clear idea of what we were doing in the studio. Just a shame that people never got the chance to see it with its proper cover art. God knows what happened there. As it is, the only version of the real cover is hanging on my wall.

++ Now I want to ask you about some songs I love! In a sentence tell me what they are about, alright?

– Door Marked Summer

Honestly, I can barely remember that song. It was one of those ones that was written and recorded quite quickly, so it kind of came and went without sticking in my long-term memory. There was a mistake with the recording, too, which didn’t encourage me to want to remember it and that’s why it never got played live, either.

– Twentieth Century

That’s one of Daryl’s. Lots of people seem to have liked this one, which I don’t think we really realised at the time. Nice sequencer lines.

– I Wish You Were Somebody Else

That’s one of Daryl’s, too. Kind of a jokey song lyrically and an opportunity to namecheck some of his favourite film stars, but overall one of our best. I wish we’d done more in this kind of style, really.

– Take Me to the End of the World

I think a lot of songs ended up being about escape and that was one of them.

– Island Nation

Politics! Check the front-and-back cover art.

++ And why write a song about Galaxy Craze?!

Ha. Well, I thought that Galaxy Craze was the name of a character in a Hal Hartley film, but a quick internet search suggests that that is completely wrong and to my surprise I see that apparently she’s an actress. Hmmm. That’s a mystery. All I can say is that I was watching a lot of Hartley’s movies at that time and some of the lyrics on this album are kind of taken from stories or characters in those movies. I wanted Why I Love Galaxy Craze to be a single, it’s catchy and the arrangement is pretty good although in fact there’s a mistake with the tempo and it’s actually supposed to be slower. The title, by the way, is a steal of Lloyd Cole’s Why I Love Country Music.

++ Alright, now difficult question, what does indiepop mean to you? How do you feel about the community?

Oh, that’s a good question. I think that in the period between when the band started up and now, the internet has changed everything and that includes the nature of community. On the one hand you have the music itself and on the other a subcultural group of interested people. Like other genres – particularly ones that aren’t 100% electronic – the economics of indiepop is something that hasn’t been resolved, in that if people are investing sums in recording studio time, ultimately they need to make that money back. My impression is that CD sales / paid-for downloads are far smaller than used to be the case, say, at the end of the 80s.

Nobody really knows how to address that problem, although conversely it is now very easy to find out about bands and releases and the community aspect of involving people and enabling them to find out about releases and events is made massively more straightforward. To be honest I’m not all that active as a consumer, but I do follow a little of what’s going on. I like Burning Hearts a lot and it’s interesting to see people like Sally Shapiro take some of the aesthetics of indiepop and apply them to a different style. It doesn’t surprise me that a scene still exists that to a great extent takes its cues from Sarah, etc., because that has its roots in a homemade aesthetic that is rendered very easy by the internet. But at the same time it’s very exciting to see younger people finding that those older records still have some resonance or meaning today

++ What do you think was the biggest highlight of They Go Boom!!?

Artistically, I’m most pleased with the Atlantic album and the Woody Allen EP. The experience of playing that show in Madrid is obviously something that has stayed with me, so I guess that’s a highlight too. Other than that, I think we just handled the experience of being a band well, for a long period of time. That’s a really good memory for me.

++ How was Margate back then, was there some sort of scene? Do you still live there? If I was to visit, to which places should I go?

Oh God, no, there was no scene. It’s a very small town, 40,000 people. There are lots of places like it on the English coast – towns that up until the 1950s were holiday resorts, but which never found anything to replace that source of income when people started to go to Spain instead. Neither of us live there now.

++ Is it me, or is there some sort of connection between Mike Innes and Japan?

Well, I guess so – my wife is from there and I’m massively interested in J-League football.

++ Thanks again Mike! Hope this is a great year for you! Will you come to London Popfest?

As I’ve never heard of it before now, probably not!

++ Alright, let’s wrap it here. Anything else you’d like to add?

Just to say thank you for taking an interest in the activities of the band.

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Listen
They Go Boom – Twentieth Century

Wow! It is so great to talk with Krischan! After one great interview about his Frischluft label now we talked about the brilliant Die Honigritter! Prepare your coffee, tea, or grab a beer, and enjoy this interview!

++ Hi Krischan! Good to hear again from you. So how have you been doing the last months? Any great musical findings?

I was enjoying my Christmas holidays and I’m glad about the snow covered world and having had the possibility of skating on the ice in Friedberg’s castle (humming the Vic Godard tune “Nice on the Ice“ in my head).

It’s always risky to ask me about musical findings. You know I’m an ever hungry digger… Some of last months highlights for me were The Crystalairs’ “Fortune Cookie“, Yu’s “Fine“ (alluringly deconstructing The Strawberry Alarm Clock), The Cave Weddings’ “Bring your Love“, Soulboy Collective’s “Casino Action“, Princess Superstar vs. Shawn Lee “Life is but a Dream“ to name but a few.

++ So last time, we were talking about Frischluft and you told me you were in Honigritter! As I told you before it was maybe my favourite band on your label. But I want to hear the whole story about it! You said it started from the ashes of Die Fahrraddiebe. Care telling me a bit about them?

Thank you for the flowers!

In June 1986 guitar-boy Tobi, moony Greek boy Thanos, tall little drummer boy Bruder Burch and no-ability me joined a one week-course in school called into life by wanna-be-evil Ted Bodo. Bodo’s aim was to record a version of “Jailhouse Rock“ on the last day. But he never got further than screaming “The warden…“ at his most raunchiest due to a collapsing rhythm section, who couldn’t keep the beat. The musical teacher Kammel day after day was counting his endless 1-2-3-4s bordering desperation, the others were laughing or visiting the schoolyard to flirt with some girls from the younger classes. On Wednesday it was dawning to the most of us, that this project will not come to the desired end. Sirken Sikora, who was taking another course, proposed that we could steal the golden 50s-drum-kit on Thursday to record a full-band-version of Die Maikinders “Sommerlied“ in his cellar. A word and a blow – we invited some more scallywags as there were Hilde (don’t be mislead by the girl’s name – he was a boy) and Schaumburg for the backing choir and some hours later Die Fahrraddiebe were born. Some weeks later we recorded “Johnny, der Held“. „Matrosen“ never got over the bedroom-status and is deemed to be lost in tape-heaven.

++ Who were the Honigritter? Was it easy to get the band together? Were you all friends? Did you all have the same dreams, taste or expectations?

Die Fahrraddiebe expired during the pop summer of C86, but building on the junction with Thanos and Bruder Burch from Bodo’s failed course in autumn a new combo was put together by the former Fahrraddiebe Tobi and me. We also added Burch’s brother Matn with his golden trumpet, who joined classes with me since that schoolyear, and the brother’s home (to their parent’s sorrow) became our headquarter. I remember being heavily impressed, that Bruder Burch owned a single each by Stahlnetz and The Three Courgettes, when I had a first look over his 7“-collection. Our musical preferences were ranging between The Smiths, The Pale Fountains, Andreas Dorau, Fähnlein Fieselschweif, The Polecats, Detlef Engel, Aztec Camera, Bourgie Bourgie, Fantastic Something, Gus Backus, The Jazzateers (and so on) at the time and we met somewhere in between as a starting point.

On a Saturday in winter we wanted to record our first songs and hired a 4-track-machine. Musical wizard Sirken Sikora, was chosen as our knob-twiddler. He owned a copy of “Take the Subway to your Suburb“ qualifying him for that job. As suggested before Thanos always was a little bit dreamy, so we didn’t get worried, that he wasn’t there at the appointed time. But after an hour we tried to call him. His mother was on the phone telling us, he’s sitting on his bed, crying and not wanting to talk to anyone anymore forever. He was lovesick. So Sirken Sikora for his first time ever took a bass-guitar, fiddled about with it a little bit and soon afterwards played all the parts straight onto the 4-track. On from then he stayed with the Honigritter. I never heard of or saw Thanos again.

++ You were still in high school when you started the band, right? How proficient were you all with the instruments at such a young age?

I never played an instrument (assuming that a record player doesn’t count). Tobi learned some Beatles songs to play on the guitar from an old bearded, long haired hippie. The brothers Matn and Bruder Burch came from a well educated background. So they had to take musical lessons as children for status quo. Matn played the trumpet, Burch had only three fingers on one hand, so he hit the drums. They were hunting for new purposes to pervert their knowledge into pretty soon, that was C86. Sirken Sikora was our musical wunderkind. Besides the instruments in a classic Beat band he taught himself to play piano, flute, cello… The list is endless. Just give him a new instrument and half an hour of time and you will see him playing like he’s never having done anything else before in his entire life.

++ How come at that age you were already exposed to The Chesterfields for example? Was the jangly pop music from UK easy to find where you lived?

The only jangly music our little town Friedberg’s record shop had in stock were from The Smiths and The Housemartins. But we begged for more! As we stumbled across the first fanzines (The Legend! being our first journalistic hero) we were regulars at our local bank to exchange some D-Marks into 5-Pound-notes to send it to labels like Creation, 53rd & 3rd or Subway (l even got the “The Sun is in the Sky“-EP from Martin, which was claimed to be as unreleased in the UK). This was the time, when our liaisons with the mailbox started (for me personally this lasts until today). An anorak wearing friend of mine even blamed his mother for not opposing him a new 7“ for lunch, when he returned from school.

++ So, honestly, did you start Frischluft! mostly to release your own band? Or it was just one of the many reasons?

To put it simple: this was the main reason! I will always prefer a well produced record (this includes intentionally shambling productions as well) over the so-called pure and honest sound a band offers on stage. Besides this I am obsessed with the various obscure systems of catalogue numbers from small labels and how to decode them (Factory, 4AD, Cosmic English Music or Fierce later on or labels like Service or Sincerely Yours today). FRL was an abbreviation of both Frischluft! and Fräulein (= unmarried, young woman – a term that was mainly used until the sixties). Thus the picture of a young woman combined with the catalogue number…

++ Why the name Honigritter?

I always loved both bandnames, which evoke an imagination, and bandnames made of compound words. The Honig(= honey)-part represented me being a sweets-addict and a gentle-minded person (at least at first sight), the Ritter (=knight)-part stood for the obviously more sinister Tobi (who stressed more on the robber baron aspect), but led into the land of fairy tales as well.

++ I heard Matn usually wore a white sailor suit. What about the other members of Honigritter? What was your style?

Anoraks, anoraks, anoraks! Combined with black 501s, striped T-Shirts, rubber soled suede shoes or broques and turtlenecks in the winter. One of my anoraks had a milk van on it’s sleeve. Tobi tended to dress up as a 50s motorcycle boy. The regular hairstyle was shaved backs and quiffs. I was wearing hornrims as well as sometimes a bunch of flowers in my hip pocket in true Morrissey fashion.

++ What about the songs released by the label Two-By-Art? How did that happen? In which releases do they appear? I would love to track those down!

I got to know Two-By-Art through a fanzine. The first release I bought was „Der Elefantenmensch“ by the Merricks. After listening to it, I thought, maybe they would be interested in the Honigritter as well and send them a tape with the recordings, where Sirken Sikora was replacing the lovesick Thanos. They chose four songs for their „Die Welt ist blau wie eine Orangsche“ (=The world is blue like an orange). These songs can be heard on the „Durch’s Schlüsselloch in des Mondgärtners Sternenhain“ (=“Through the keyhole into the moongardeners stargrove“)-Frischluft!-retrospective.

++ What was the idea behind the Honigritter Fibel? Why did you make only 5 copies?!

A Fibel basically is a small children’s book for learning to read, which was used in former decades. The idea was to “educate“ the listener with some background info on the band in the style of the booklets, that came with the first London Pavilion on él or Adam Ant’s “Kings of the Wild Frontier“ or the pretty, pretty inserts with the Subway singles (my favourite being the one with the children reading in their bunk beds from “Ask Johnny Dee“). The reason for it’s limitation to 5 simply was the production costs, which rose proportionately with our excess of ideas.

++ What is your favourite Honigritter song and why?

It may be “Die Liebe des Cowboys“. It was designed to be our Monochrome Set’s „cast a long shadow“. A short uptempo song with male voice choir in the refrain and a twangy guitar solo.

++ What about gigging? Did you gig a lot? Which gigs do you remember the most?

No, we weren’t regulars on stage. Our first concert was at a summer-party at school, where we were backed up by three girls called Die Bienchen aus dem Sauberland (= The little bees from tidy land).

In 1988 we were playing a well known venue in Frankfurt. “Partymädchen“ was a weekly regular at the ballroom, so they invited us. We hired a small van to transport a complete 50s style living room to build up on stage. So Sirken or Matn could sit on the sofa during songs they had no part in and read Tin Tin-comic books or watch the Wirtschaftswunder-era films with Heinz Erhardt we put on the telly on stage (you can see them doing so in the slideshow presenting the bands on www.myspace.com/frischlufttontraeger). In the background there stood a two meter xeroxed and hand painted Lurchi Salamander-character in a knights armour glued on cardboard. The whole scene was illuminated by a Super 8-film Matn and me had put together (Hanna Barbera-strips from the fleamarket painted with felt tips combined with the screening of a self-built psychedelic liquid wheel with water, oil and food colouring, a filmed slide show with antique fairytale-illustrations and the likes as well as slow motion flowers in the wind). The stage was sticky. The knob-twiddler told us, it would be the blood from the dog Skinny Puppy had slaughtered on stage the night before. Matn’s and Burch’s sophisticated parents secretly came to the venue, but didn’t dare to get in…

Some months earlier we played in Gelnhausen, where Barbarossa had a palatinate (so this seemed the right place to play for us). The concert was organised by one of our first patrons of the arts Peik (the “Mit Sonnenschirmen…“-LP is dedicated to him for that very reason). When I talked to him on the phone prior to that evening he told us that he had found a new and unknown jangly band on the rise to share the gig with us. When we arrived we were opposed to some evil looking long haired Grebos. One of them mumbled “f***ing wimps“ upon seeing us, Peik standing behind them hiking his shoulders, embarrassingly smiling at us. So we decided to blow them away with “Greenhorn“ in a Psychocandy/Bachelor Pad-style, which worked out well.

Our last concert was in the cellar of a nearby castle, where we played only one song (following the riot tradition of the Reid Brothers). The audience was filled with some german pop celebrities from the Worms scene or Bernd from Blam-A-Bit wearing a baby soother tied at his anorak’s hood and smoking a pipe.

++ Why did the Honigritter call it a day? Are you still in touch with the other members? If so, what are they doing nowadays?

We all had to leave school after having passed our A levels. And everyone went into another direction. Sirken, Matn and me kept on running the Frischluft! label for some years. Nowadays I meet some of these old friends very sporadically or by accident. As everyone expected Matn studied design, Tobi became a photographer, Sirken started several things ending up as the chairman of his father’s firm. Bruder Burch and me studied to become a teacher. I am a teacher now, Burch went abroad. And Thanos? Who knows?

++ What was the biggest highlight for the Honigritter?

The days before Christmas 1987, when we sold our “Im Sommer“-single at the Christmas party at school! The whole place was paved with oversized xeroxes inviting the spectator to “Klingende Weihnachtsfreude schenken“ (= present tingling Christmas joy) with all Honigritter climbing out of Santa’s sack.

++ If I remember correctly, you are a fan of potatoes whatsoever? Why is that?! I’m a big fan as well, I was having the other day a conversation with my friends in Hamburg telling them potatoes are from Peru, my country, but you know, I really enjoy those stuffed potatoes you make in Germany. What’s your favourite potato dish?

May we hail Seignoret von Luserna San Giovanni for being the first having brought the potato on a large scale to Germany (don’t worry, I may be a nerd on pop music, but I had to consult the internet for that info). I talked to Andreas in the meantime trying to find out, what his girlfriend was cooking for you. Neither he nor I do have the slightest idea, what stuffed potatoes may be. Maybe you remember jacket potatoes with curd, that were offered to you? I like these as well very much as long as there’s some butter on the potatoes instead of herbs in the curd. I guess I’ll disappoint you with my favourite potato dish – it’s simply banal french fries…

++ And now what plans for this weekend?

Unfortunately the weekend’s over in a few hours. In the late afternoon I was in my snow covered apple orchard at a place called Hexenloch (= witches hole) judging if the ranking blackberry bushes have to be cut in the spring.

++ We’ll talk again soon Krischan! But for the meantime, anything else you’d like to add? You know while in Germany I got great feedback about our Frischluft interview?

It’s nice to hear, that you got positive feedback for digging out my half-forgotten tales. I hope I could give some more attention-fetching anecdotes from the cobweb of my memory harboring the Honigritter besides all other great things pop!

Und nicht vergessen: Freude bereiten, Musik schenken!

(= And don’t forget: bringing joy, donating music!)

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Honigritter – Liebe Des Cowboys

Back in Altona City. It was around 3p.m. when Kat and Laura joined us at the vegetarian Indian place. By at time: everyone had tasted the infamous Becks beer with lemonade flavour which was good and refreshing, we’ve had the best of laughs and we were almost done with our food. So after finishing our fake gyros, fake hamburgers and fake everything else, the London crowd wanted to get some rest before The Sunny Street gig that was happening later that night. Pretty understandable, but a bit sad because I would have liked to spend as much time with them as possible.

They parted their way to the rock-n’-roll hostel, and the rest of us went walking to Nana’s place. Well, not all of us, rebels as they are, Kat and Laura went there by car. But they had a good reason to do so: as soon as they parked on the shallow street they got out of the trunk a mountain of Jever beer. My eyes were sparkling. They said it was “for the whole weekend”. Of course…

Time for coffee for the girls, time for Jever for the boys. We have Grab Grab the Haddock on the background. We are all so in love with the CD cabinets our hosts have. Eating a slice of baguette, opening each cabinet, full of surprises, finding out the next CD to play. The windows facing the backyard are open and it’s getting a bit chilly on this autumnal evening. Perhaps that makes me pick “Stardust” by Sea Urchins. Wild Grass Pictures and the wind blowing in while we are having a bit of more bread, beer and chorizo. Quite glorious.

The evening goes on while playing more records, flicking through old zines and admiring the tape collection Andreas’ has. Sohfas demo, Sedgwicks demo, Turquoise Trees compilation, Corrupt Postman compilation, etc, etc, etc. Suddenly it’s time for us to head to the Hasenschaukel, the beautiful venue where The Sunny Street will be playing and I’ll be djing. Time to put shoes on. Then a sweater and then on top of that a jacket. Get the CDs I’ve prepared for the night and some Cloudberry 7″s to sell.

It’s nippy outside while we wait for the bus. Happily it doesn’t take that long to come and Nana buys a group pass. We are in the indiepop bus! Turning right, turning left, a couple more blocks up, then turning here and there and we arrive close to the Hasenschaukel. We have to be there early for the sound check and well, to get familiar with the DJ decks. I ask Nana how many people she think will come. She says around 50. I’m getting a bit overexcited as we get near to the place. As soon as I get in I realize this place is enchanting! The dolls hanging over the tables, the dim lighting, the beautiful wallpapers, everything so carefully adorned. It’s like a little dollhouse with a fairy tale decoration. On the far back there’s a huge blackboard where it’s written: Cloudberry Records. My heart skips a beat. Immediately I turn my eyes right, where there are some booths and people having dinner. My heart stops for a bit. It’s my dear friend Jennifer! She is there talking with Ian and Christos while they enjoy their pasta. It’s brilliant to see her again! It’s been many, many months! And of course, we start talking, and gossiping about my trip to Sweden, and about Berlin, and about whatnot. Happiest moments.

Matthew is already getting his stuff together around the decks, getting prepared to dj. He has brought, all the way from UK, his vinyl records on steel carrying cases. Quite courageous! I’m so afraid of spinning vinyl when djing! Anything can happen to them! Then I meet the owner (or was it the manager?) of the Hasenschaukel, who happens to be very attentive and sweet. He offers me some tickets to get some free beer. Immediately, because these things can’t wait, I ask for a huge hefeweizen. I look over the decks and see Rémi and Delphine setting up their instruments. The stage is small but at the same time very cozy. It looks like they will play at a living room as there’s a chimney on the wall. Inside the chimney there’s a tv that shows nonstop a small fire. Maybe preparing us all for the warmest and heartful-est indiepop gig this year; the one that The Sunny Street will be playing in just a matter of minutes!

Soon the place is packed. The chit-chat of people is no longer a shy murmur but a loud bedlam. The cigarette smoke hovers everyone’s heads and the bar tenders keep pouring beer. Perfect timing for Jörg Winzer to show up. Great to see you again my friend!

to be continued

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The Voltarenes – Altona City

“Why is it so few girls that play in bands and why is it so few girls that release their albums on their record labels? Wherever I turn in the music industry is it always a majority of men. The men is a strong majority in the record labels, the majority that book bands and are club owners are men, the dj:s at the clubs aremost often men and even when it comes to write a blog about music you rarely see nothing else than a competitive man.” – transcribed from the Don’t Tell Me That zine by Pierre Sparf

On December 19th there was a fantastic gig in Jönköping, Sweden. That day I was dwelling at home because I was so jealous of all the people who attended. From first-hand accounts, I know it was a great night. But you can already tell by the bands that played there, right? Bikeman, Leaving Mornington Crescent, Horowitz, G.O.O.F., Kronprinsen, Burning Hearts, Strawberry Fair, My Darling YOU! and The Margarets. What a lineup right?

All of this wouldn’t have been possible by the passionate Pierre Sparf who used to run the Don’t Tell Me That club. Yeah, I say used to run because this gig was the last of them all. Now the party has gone to a better life. This last show was called the Christmas Popfest and among the freebies you’d get when attending, was a compilation CD-R with the bands that played at the Don’t Tell Me That club during the 2 years it was championing indiepop. Also it was planned to give away a fanzine to all the attendees, but Pierre ran out of time and he couldn’t get them printed. BUT DON’T DESPAIR! Happily he has been very nice to share it with me, and letting me upload it for everyone to read it.

So here you are, enjoy:
View and Download at ISSUU.

As far as I know, the title for it was: “Don’t Tell Me That!: The End of a Love Story That Never Existed”, and there was a pink cover for it, which I guess was never finished. I know Pierre is a bit shy about his English, but I think his message gets across and that’s what matters; it’s a great read, mind you. He has put together a lovely and inspiring 28 page e-pamphlet that includes an interview to Horowitz and the decade’s best album choices from a couple of people. But the center pieces, the ones written by Pierre and Rebecka Ahlberg, are the ones that should not be skipped. Both of them are a call to arms, a fierce shout asking the female music geeks to stand out. They want to overthrow the “patriarchy” of the scene, reform it.

They raise some very valid points, and I’ll discuss them later on a future post, because both articles deserve to be commented and analyzed. Why? It’s not that often that indiepop people question and show their politics to the world. I wish it happened much more, but most people, not only in indiepop, just don’t care. These are topics that are “too much” to be thought and talked. “Why get into an agitated discussion if we can just talk nonsense about last night party?” That’s always the attitude, never confrontational. But I’m grateful that Pierre and Rebecka show their true colours. Grateful for their fight, for believing in our scene. Give it a read now, and think, wonder, enjoy, digest it, and make your own conclusions, or maybe hate it and disagree with it. But don’t feel cold about it, that would be unfair, I know you all are hopefuls and dreamers. And if you are up for it, comment it here. And all the best of lucks to Pierre on his future indiepop endeavors.

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Feverfew – Politics Down the Esophagus

We line the streets. Hamburg is ours. We walk down Wohlwillstraße. It’s a cold and chilly morning. Looks like the ashen sky wants to shower us. The cobbled streets are humid and slippery for the unwary pedestrian. After deepening into St. Pauli’s heart, after crossing the Reeperbahn district, the noise disappears. The traffic around this area is very light. It’s Saturday after all.

The city tour is headed by Nana and Andreas. Nana has planned and organized for us the whole weekend in detail. I’ve been around last year and walked in between these same buildings, breathed the same Elbe breeze. The grocery stores with their fine selection of beer, the Fritz Cola signs, the döner joints, they are all still there.

By breakfast time they have all arrived: Rémi, Delphine, Ian, Christos and Matthew. After some rolls, chorizo, juice and coffee, we are all ready to walk around the free and Hanseatic city. Click, click, click. The cameras start shooting photos as soon as we are out of Nana’s place. Rémi runs towards the swing that is 10 steps away. Back and forth he goes. Delphine joins giving him a push. Everyone laugh and laugh. The whole weekend will be the same. Nonstop laughs.

Matthew is awed by the city, by the architecture, by the statues. Christos and me talk gossip, indiepop gossip. Rémi talks to me in Spanish, I talk to him in French. Nana and Andreas walk over clouds in front of us. Ian, and his Newcastle accent, joins the gossip session. We do carnage.

We end up at a street market. Vintage clothes, antiques, old dusty records for a couple of euros. We walk around. It’s packed. The smell of currywurst in the air captivates us. We walk past many people, we walk as a pack. Kids are running around and everyone is carrying an umbrella, reminding us that we could get soaked anytime soon.

Wohlwillstraße has the artiest shops and boutiques around. On the right side of the street is Eldorado, where last year I had the chance to dj. On the left side there are lots of thrift stores that we start visiting in order. Many of these shops are not at street level, I wonder why. They are at the basement level. I get the best postcard picture in one these stores: Christos wearing a huge pink woven hat next to a mannequin. Best of memories. Rémi, Ian and Matthew start trying jackets and blazers. I’m not the shopping kind of person, I can’t stand being inside for too long. I go out to the sidewalk and join Nana who is smoking a cigarette. It’s almost 1pm and we are all hungry by now. More walking to do. Now to an Indian restaurant where we will all have to settle for vegetarian food. I get a vegetarian gyros and a Franziskaner. I should have ordered the same as Christos, that tomato soup looked great.

A phone call: “We are here!”. The Berlin crowd has now arrived. The indiepop contingent keeps growing in exponential numbers every hour and we secretly dream of taking over Hamburg tonight. What await us is brilliant. The Sunny Street will play. Matthew, Jörg and me will DJ. And everyone will dance till exhaustion on what will be an epic night. Never to be forgotten.

to be continued

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Hey Paulette – I Will Line the Streets

Continuing with the East Anglian bands, now a fantastic interview with David Miles from the underrated but fantastic The Potting Sheds! Thanks so much to David! To hear more songs by them you can always drop by on their myspace.

++ David! Thanks so much for being up for this interview. How are you enjoying this holiday season? Any big expectations for 2010?

My New Year’s Resolution is to visit the pub for a nostalgia fest with Grant Madden as he has recently moved to Lowestoft. Last time I saw him was over a year ago at a Woodentops gig.

++ Let’s talk about the band, you started as a two piece right? It was you and Will Taylor. How did you two know each other and what was it that drove you to start a band together?

I was at school with Will. I bought my first guitar from him for £10 (it wasn’t a particularly good guitar!).

++ But the line-up changed a bit during the whole run of The Potting Sheds, why was it difficult to keep a stable line-up? Which one you’d consider to be the ‘classic’ line-up?

The changes were intended to improve the standard of musicianship in the band. I always wanted everyone else to be at least as good (and preferably better) than me. The ‘classic’ line-up was early 1992 with Phil McClarnon (vocals/guitar), Will Taylor (guitar), David Miles (bass), David James (keyboards) and Steve Chapman (drums).

++ Was The Potting Sheds your first band? Oh! and why the name, The Potting Sheds?

Will and I played one gig as Nigel and the Budgieburgers. Will suggested The Potting Sheds in honour of our first song ‘Don’t Mess (With My Potting Shed)’.

++ How was the Lowestoft scene? Were there any other bands worth around?

It was exciting. Grand Designs supported us under the pseudonym D.S.S. Gardening (spot the anagram) at Oulton Broad Community Centre before they became A and sold a lot of records. We returned the favour at Lowestoft Sports Centre and that was a fantastic gig. Dan Hawkins of The Darkness made one of his earliest recordings with Will and I at the controls on a hired-in 8 track. I think he was 15 at the time and was already a remarkable guitarist.

++ Once a band called Catherine Wheel supported you. You even had a gig along the likes of The Cranberries. What are the memories of yours about these gigs with these bands that were to become big?

I nearly became the bassist for Catherine Wheel. I went for a chat about it with Brian and Rob but I don’t think they were particularly impressed when I said they would be my third choice band after The Potting Sheds and Kites! They played me some of their demos but I thought they were trying too hard to sound like Ride. Even though they were very good, they were a little cynical. Only a few months earlier, they were playing rock music as Ten Angry Men! I introduced them to Barry Newman at The Wilde Club in Norwich who gave them their earliest gigs and released their first two E.P.s. They supported us during a snowstorm at Carlton Colville Community Centre shortly after they released ‘She’s My Friend’ and it was a remarkable night.

I played with The Cranberries twice. The first occasion was as bassist in Kites at Norwich Arts Centre and they were really lovely and said they really enjoyed our set. However, on the second occasion with The Potting Sheds, I overheard Dolores backstage saying we were “shit” after Phil snapped the strings on two guitars due to his over-exuberant strumming. I decided I didn’t fancy her after all at that point.

++ Any other particular gigs you have fond memories of?

We headlined two gigs to celebrate the release of the ‘Burn It To A Crisp’ compilation album in Norwich and Lowestoft. I particularly enjoyed these gigs as Will and I were wearing three hats as performers, promoters and record label bosses.

++ Your first releases were actually two tapes that there is not much information about, the “Good Effort EP” and the “Meryl Streep EP”. What songs were included in these? How many copies were made? And why dedicate one of the tapes to Mrs. Streep?!

There were four tracks on each E.P. and they were all recorded by Richard Hammerton, the singer from Red Star Belgrade, War Party and Stare. I can’t remember how many were produced – probably a few hundred at most. Will and I shared the vocals. The eight songs were ‘Like Leonard Cohen’, ‘Wet Weekend’, ‘Sarah’s Car’, ‘(Don’t Mess) With My Potting Shed’, ‘Bait’, ‘Tumbledry Me’, ‘Down The Line’ and a Robyn Hitchcock cover ‘Tell Me About Your Drugs’. We changed one of the lyrics to mention Meryl Streep and the E.P. was named after this. I pressed a copy into Mike Mills of R.E.M.’s hand when he was playing a secret gig at the Borderline in London as Bingo Hand Job and asked him to pass it to Robyn. I imagine it is still on continuous rotation on the R.E.M. tour bus.

++ Care to tell me a bit about Mad Cat Records?

Mad Cat Records was our own label. Under the Mad Cat name, we recorded other local bands, promoted a few gigs and released a compilation album of Norfolk and North Suffolk indie bands.

++ Your first release on the label was the Unsaid flexi that came along the Eyesore You fanzine. How did you ended up releasing it along this zine?

Barry Newman of The Wilde Club suggested we should release a flexi. Fraser and Matt were putting together a new Norwich fanzine so we decided to get together.

++ You made so many wonderful songs, Same Old Story being my personal favourite, so I would love to know what inspired you to write this one? What is it about?

Phil wrote the words so I have no idea what it is about. I have a strong memory of sitting on the floor of my parents’ house with Will, Phil and Val (the singer from Beestings) to work out the backing vocals a couple of days before we recorded the song and suddenly thinking “This sounds really good”. It was our first track to receive daytime national airplay on BBC Radio One.

++ But what about you? What’s your favourite Potting Sheds song and why?

‘Dream On’ or ‘Showerhead’. We only got as far as recording the backing tracks for these songs before Phil quit but they sounded amazing.

++ Oh! and what does Goldfish Memory means?

It is a reference to the fact that goldfish are said to only have a 7 second memory. This is fortunate as it means they don’t get bored when swimming in circular bowls.

++ There were plans to release a second 12″, I think you even recorded demos for it, so what happened with it? Why was it never released? Will there be a chance to listen to these songs someday? Maybe there will be some sorts of retrospective?

The 8 track demo backing tracks exist but Phil never added his vocals to them. It was a shame as we had plans to release both 12”s together as a mini-album in Japan. Sadly, it wasn’t to be.

++ What was your biggest highlight as being part of The Potting Sheds? Maybe getting John Peel to play you?

We didn’t actually hear John Peel play ‘Second Best’ at the time. The first we knew about it was when I received a fan letter from Poland! I remember taping him playing ‘Matches’ and feeling quite proud. I saw him a few days later at a gig in Norwich and thanked him and asked if he was going to play it again. He replied “Errr….” Peel didn’t seem to enjoy being cornered like that but he really was a great man.

++ When and why did you call it a day?

Phil just didn’t turn up for a recording session in Summer 1992 and we took that to mean he had quit.

++ What did you all do after? Were you involved with bands?

Phil joined Fish Logic and then became a street busker with Roxy’s Toolbox. I formed Halftime Oranges with Grant Madden and Will Taylor and David James both recorded and performed with us.

++ Thanks again, anything else you’d like to add?

If you are out there Phil, get in touch. We should give these songs a 20th anniversary outgoing to celebrate the 2012 Olympics!

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The Potting Sheds – Same Old Story

Thanks so much to Grant Madden for this great and extensive interview. If you are looking forward to hearing more from the band, don’t doubt getting in touch with him, and I’m pretty sure he’ll sort it out for you. More information how to get in touch with him below of course, you have to do your reading homework Time to discover one of Rutland Records best kept secrets.

++ How did Halftime Oranges start? How did you all meet? Maybe at a football game?

We were all already in bands or had been in bands. I was tiring of the band I was in and David’s band was dormant and I chatted with him about the idea of a band with a football theme at some gig ( I can’t remember which, the venue was the Norwich Waterfront I remember that ) and so we had a go at writing some songs and the initial rush of enthusiasm got us going. I suspect I had some foolish ideas in my head that this was a wonderful idea that would make us very famous, sadly it didn’t.

++ Why the name Halftime Oranges?

We obviously wanted something football related so played around with a few ideas. This one comes from an old tradition in the UK in football (most outdoor team games really) to have a plate of orange segments to eat at half time. It’s an old fashioned idea though, it’s unlikely to happen much now. Isotonic drinks and the like have put paid to it.

++ Were any of you involved with other bands prior to Halftime Oranges?

Yes. David and Will were in The Potting Sheds (excellent band there is a myspace site if you look them up I’m sure you will all like them)
I was in a band called The Passing Clouds
David James was in Grand Designs and then A who went on to sign a major deal and become famous.
Flob was in other bands at the same time, one of which The Pitkins were very good we often played gigs with them.

++ So tell me, why this indiepop/football passion of yours? I love both as well, but.. how come you decided to mix them both together? Did you all support the same team?

I guess they were my 2 big interests at the time (and now) and I thought why not.
I think it worked well sometimes (and sometimes not so well) some of the songs are just silly or contrived but generally even though not many people outside of our part of England ever heard us I like what we did.
I’ve been in 4 bands but this is the one I remember the most fondly.

++ Has Norwich changed a lot? Any favourite bands from back then? What about Norwich football? any good?

I should say The Potting Sheds (who were primarily a Lowestoft band but as is the way with these things if you were from within 50 or more miles of Norwich you were a Norwich band) were a great band not just because David and Will were in them.
Also The Spinning Jennys were wonderful (they released 1 single on teatime records which is much loved in my house.)
There’s always been lots of bands around Norwich, probably more than ever now, and lots of places to play.

Norwich football has been on the slide in recent years, for instance their highest ever finish in England, 3rd in what is now the Premiership was achieved
in 1992-93 season, when the band started. Whereas last season they were relegated to the third tier of English football (the first time for 50 years) and started this season with a 7-1 home defeat, however
things have picked up since and there is hope they may get promotion back up a level this season, maybe via the play-offs which would mean a Wembley final which would be great.
The 2nd biggest team in Norfolk, Kings Lynn have folded this season for financial reasons even though on the pitch they were doing well.
And Lowestoft Town are having a fantastic year, having made it to the first round of the FA Cup and are top of their league.

++ How did you end up signing to Rutland records? Were you good friends with Ruth Miller?

We sent out some demo recordings we had done to a few labels that we thought would be sympathetic (and to some who were chosen badly at random in that they were hip hop labels – I blamed David) to see if there would be any interest and Rutland were happy to release it.
It was great that they liked it and wanted to have it us release records on their label.
We also got to play some gigs with them and Terry played guitar with us on a radio session once.

++ There’s a song by you called “What’s the fuss with Ryan Giggs”. I guess you dislike Man U? Please tell me more about this!

I don’t hate them, I know I am supposed to but I have mellowed with age.
So really its just a silly rhyme song, I quite liked the idea of its ludicrousness.
Giggs is and always has been a brilliant player.

++ This song was included on the Clive Baker Set Fire on Me album, the only one I’ve got the chance to listen so far. It has so many nice stories, vignettes, of famous players, stadiums and even coaches. How did this album shape up? What was the creative process behind it and what about the recording of it?

It was a hodge podge of stuff we’d done up to the point of releasing it.
We’d had several recording sessions with various line ups and they were the best songs and best recordings we had.
The songs were all written at about the same time though in the 2 years or so between us forming and getting the album together.
The second album was done at one recording session with the same 5 people and even if the songs aren’t any better or worse I think we did them more justice. We sound a little bit more competent on that album.

++ Why the name “Clive Baker Set Fire on Me”?

It’s from a song we never recorded ‘Clive Baker Set Fire to me, with an aerosol made from Brut33′
Clive Baker went to the same school as someone who played bass in the band for a while and the school bullies at their school apparently (I think its a bit far fetched myself)
threatened younger boys with home made flame throwers using aerosols of cheap male after shave (brut 33) sprayed through a flame.
Clive Baker went on to be a goalkeeper for both Norwich City and Ipswich Town, the 2 big sides in this area. And if you look him up on ‘Flown from the Nest’ (www.ex-canaries.co.uk) the brilliant website
about Norwich City players past and present, he now works in the Insurance Industry, which is what me and David were doing when we formed.

++ There’s not much information online about this Grant, so what’s the full discography of The Halftime Oranges? and if you can, include demo tapes and compilation tracks

I got the following from (http://www.last.fm/music/Halftime+Oranges/+wiki) where there is also a biography and some reviews.

DISCOGRAPHY

April 1995
Peel Park E.P.
Rutland Records RUTEP9 7 inch vinyl
The only Cockney Rebel / Billy’s Boots / Terry Butcher / No goals, no dolly birds, no Jensen Interceptor / Cats go for Go-Cat

October 1995
Cantona The Album
Exotica Records Pelé 10CD CD and cassette compilation album
track – Eric (Please don’t go)

February 1996
Clive Baker Set Fire To Me
Rutland Records RUTCD3 CD album
Terry Butcher / A million ways / The only Halifax supporter / Single leather football / What’s the fuss about Ryan Giggs / Blues for John Gidman / Wembley / Billy’s Boots / Saturday / Hair / Bob Stokoe says / Battison / The only Cockney Rebel / East Fife 4 Forfar 5 / He can watch the football

October 1997
Rotterdamnation
Rutland Records RUTCD5 CD album
Any team will do / Terrace girl / Vinny Jones / Six point Christmas / Panini / Zig zag to the onion bag / A gospel song / Second city blues / Billy Dane’s grown up / The girl from 4b / Theme from Orange / Yesterday’s hero / Occupations / Stars / Moving the goalposts

April 2000
Singing The Blues – The Songs Of Ipswich Town F.C.
Cherry Red Records CD GAFFER 32 CD compilation album
track – Terry Butcher

February 2001
Highbury Anthems – 18 Gooner Classics
Cherry Red Records CD GAFFER45 CD compilation album
track – The only Cockney Rebel

March 2001
Everything Went Pop!
Meller Welle Produkte MEL 32 CD compilation album
tracks – Pass, shoot & score and All my resolutions

As well as this there were tracks on Rutland Tapes and

1990s
Beyond the Valley of the Polar Bears
Red Roses For Me Fanzine Compilation Tape.
tracks – Give it to Shilton and We Only Sing When We Are Winning

++ Also what story is behind the name “Rotterdamnation”? Does it have to do with England 2-0 loss in 1993 that signified you not qualifying to the World Cup 1994?

Yes it does, I lifted the phrase from a headline in The Sun (a British newspaper).
A miserable game.
England games often can be.
I liked the word and noted it down in my memory for future use when I read it.
I like town and place names in songs.

++ Who would you say influenced the music of Halftime Oranges? Do you still listen to indiepop records?

I loved indie pop at the time and I still do.
The bands that influenced me were the C86 indiepops ones/Sarah label bands/Bands releasing tracks on tapes and fanzine flexis – also the local indie pop bands like The Spinning Jennys seeing them live inspired me to want to be in a band who tried to make you smile.
I moved house recently and it meant packing and unpacking lots of my music and the whole process was slowed up by me wanting to play old records I’d forgotten I have, lots of them indiepop.

++ What about gigs? Did you play many? Which were the best ones?

Whilst we were going we played fairly regularly in Norwich, mainly at the gigs put on by The Wilde Club and a few others around this area but we didn’t venture further afield much.
They were often shambolic due to our lack of rehearsal time.
For our first gig we supported Velocity Girl and I think that went well. We got them to sign a football which we gave out raffle tickets for to everyone who came to the gig and then we drew out the winner on stage during our gig. If nothing else it got people to watch us who’d come for the main band and I wonder if the person who won still has that ball.
We also used to like to support Prolapse when they played in Norwich, they were a great band.
We played with The Pastels when they played in Norwich and that was good.
Also we played a Rutland Records night in Leicester with Po and Super Eight which was excellent.
I remember a big loss making gig we put on in Lowestoft with The Beatnik Filmstars too.

++ So who was the best English player ever? what about who’s the best right now? How do you see England chances towards the South Africa world cup?

Hard to say if I haven’t seen players from the past, I suspect it is Bobby Charlton but I’d like it to be someone like William Fatty Foulkes. It wouldn’t
work now but 100 years ago they obviously just put the big fat lad in goal because he’ll cover more space and it obviously worked. He is attributed with saying
“Call me anything you want, but don’t call me late for dinner”

The best player we have in the England team right now is Rooney, he is the one who if he got injured now and had to miss the World Cup we would feel the most
deflated over losing.

The World Cup draw was kind to England.
I think we can progress out of the group stage, but whether we can go far I am unsure.
Recently when we have played the top sides (Brazil and Spain) we haven’t looked as good
There is always hope though and as we build towards the tournament starting I will be getting more and more excited.

++ On the last page of the debut album there’s and ad for “Philosophy Football”. What was this all about?

They are the self-styled “sporting outfitters of intellectual distinction”.
See http://www.philosophyfootball.com/ for more details. In summary (and I lifted this from their website)
It all began in October 1994. A bright spark by the name of Geoff Andrews who’d had to stomach a dull draw between Spurs and QPR at White Hart Lane, was round at Mark Perryman’s flat in Tottenham and suggested a t-shirt with the immortal words of Albert Camus “All that I know most surely about morality and obligations I owe to football” across the chest. For reasons he’s never been able to rationally explain Mark retorted “not a t-shirt, a goalie’s top”.
Soon enough Mark had rustled up enough orders to make the job worthwhile. But design is something Mark remains blissfully ignorant of. Help was at hand in the shape of artistic genius Hugh Tisdale, who was then designing a lefty newspaper Mark’s partner edited. Knowing Hugh was a Villa fan Mark reckoned he might be up for the idea. And up for it, Hugh certainly was. A beautifully crafted bottle green shirt, quote on the front, name and squad number on the back was produced. And in short they’ve never looked back.
Basically they make fantastic t-shirts (and more stuff) featuring quotes from famous people connected sometimes obliquely.
Mark Perryman who is involved in running the organisation is an all round top bloke who does wonderful work promoting England Football Supporters as
good people. I’ve met up with him on numerous trips abroad to watch England play where he will arrange for fans to visit local schools, play fans matches between the England and opponents supporters, visit historical sites, sites of remembrance.

++ Do you go often to the stadium? Which stadium has impressed you the most?! What about the classic question, Pele or Maradona?

All the time.
I love watching live football at all levels.
I like to follow England around the world which has taken me to some great stadiums but equally I watch local football in little stadiums which aren’t much
more than marked out pitches, with small crowds of a handful of people.
Maradona I think it is more because I have seen him play in real time, all I have seen of Pele was old film to me though he looked brilliant.
They are both geniuses so hard to say. One’s opinion can change everyday on this.

++ When and why did Halftime Oranges call it a day? What did the band members do after? Are you all still in touch?

It just drifted to an end.
I can’t remember us saying right that’s it, rather we just did less and less gigs and there was nothing to get together to rehearse for.
There was a gap before the German release when we’d virtually stopped but we got back together to record that.
Nobody fell out so yes I think we are all in touch with some or all of each other.
David is a teacher now.
Flob top photographer and in Cure tribute band and I think another band (one of his old bands reactivated)
Will works where I work and does still play in a band
I have done some stuff since.

++ So, this weekend, watching football. Will you have beer? snacks? How does it work for you?

I’ll either watch or play some football.
I hate it when I am doing neither.
It’s nice to drink beer at a game but it always depends upon how I am getting there, if I am driving I can’t.
I have a theory regarding food that the lower down the league system a club is, the better the food, maybe it is because it will be made there not a corporate mass produced thing.

++ Thanks again so much! Anything else you’d like to add?

I have some halftime oranges album cds at my house so if anyone would like one send me an email to oranges500{a}yahoo.co.uk with your details and I will pass one on. If you have a like minded trade all the better but a nice email requesting one will suffice.

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Listen
Halftime Oranges – Terry Butcher