Jan
Thanks so much to Marcos Dinsdale for the interview!! I wrote about the obscure late 80s, early 90s band Full Cry on the blog some time ago. I had no clue about this band, I knew some of their releases and few other details. Happily Marcos got in touch and was up for answering all my questions! Hope you all enjoy this great conversation and discover thee music of Full Cry!
++ Hi Marcos! Thanks so much for being up for this interview! How are you? Are you still involved with music?
Yes. I’ve been recording an album with ‘Barrel Fever’ for the last 8 years ! – songs – Elmer Thud – & Fifteen Pounds . We spent 20 yrs talking about doing it, and the past 8 yrs on and off, more off than on to be honest, actually doing it. We have 9 out of 10 songs finished and recorded, we also wrote 5 new songs this summer. There’s some absolutely cracking songs, but we have a strange on / off working relationship, we’ve had breaks of 2 years at a time before re-grouping. It’s far from conventional way of making music, but the results are really good.
++ Let’s go back in time. What are your first music memories? Do you remember what your first instrument was? How did you learn to play it? What sort of music did you listen to at home while growing up?
I got a bass when I was 15. Was a huge fan of the Jam, their music was what really motivated me to learn and want to play, I took some basic lessons with a guitar teacher for a few months about basic bass theory, 18 months later was playing in a covers band playing a lot of Jam songs playing in pubs from the age of 16-ish.
++ Had you been in other bands before Full Cry? What about the other band members Are there any recordings?
As mentioned earlier, I joined a Mod type band in 1987 when I was 16 called the Persuaders. We did a lot of covers with a few of our own songs. We weren’t great but you have to start somewhere, I got some valuable – sometimes tough, gigging experience from it, we certainly played in a few wrong places. The band ended a couple of years later when 2 of us came to blows after a gig.
++ Where were you from originally?
Jason, Pik , Marcos, Howard – we were all from born, raised and lived in East Hull. Andrew Doyle (2nd Guitarist 1991 / 92) originally from Reading and had been living in Hull for many years.
++ How was Hull at the time of Full Cry? Were there any bands that you liked? Were there any good record stores? Or what about the pubs or venues to go check out up and coming bands?
I think it was a very good local scene that really just seemed to blossom over the next several years, seeing more and more local venues putting bands on other than just the Adelphi. ‘Where ?’ magazine – purely based around the local music scene arrived around 1991, local band compilation tapes, battle of the bands competition were all yearly things. There were some good secondhand record stores – Offbeat, Normans place, East Coast Music, – which I worked at for 5 years – I wrote a lot of the music from ‘Howards End’ in the back of the shop on a guitar that was in there.
++ During those late 80s there were many great indiepop bands from the UK. Would you recommend some obscure bands I might have missed?
On the Hull Scene there were lots of really good bands, too many to mention – favourites of mine – Giantkind particularly whom we gigged with a lot, had great songs, Secret of Life – a very unique sounding band, I enjoyed a lot. Indigo Trashcan were one of Hulls biggest local bands, and were a great live band. Milkfloat (aka Death by Milkfloat) were a very good 3 piece band with their own sound, they were around a number of years and had a few records out, all worth having a look for.
++ How was the band put together? How was the recruiting process?
Jason & Pik were best pals during senior school years. I met both Jason and Pik on a 2 yr graphic design course, we were all straight out of school. Howard had been an old school acquaintance of Jason’s. Howard had been playing guitar for a number of years, Jason had been learning drums for a couple of years. By 1989 I was looking for a new band, Jason was keen and told me Pik was interested in having a go at singing, it seemed to come together pretty effortlessly, had a first rehearsal doing some covers and it went well enough, and I remember the original material started happening very quickly.
++ What instruments did each of you play in the band?
Pik – Vocals, Howard – Guitar, Marcos – Bass, Jason – Drums. We thought we needed 2 guitarists for a while, and auditioned quite a few people for the 2nd guitar role. We ended up getting stuck for a few rehearsals with a Clapton type blues rock player who seemed to think he was part of the band, each week it got harder to try and tell him he wasn’t. We eventually found Andrew who was really into our songs, he was a good fit on all levels and joined to play lead guitar. It worked really well on some songs but on others we couldn’t get it working quite right with the 2 guitars.
++ How was the creative process for you? Where did you usually practice?
We’d rehearse once a week, at one point it was about 3 times a fortnight – dependent on funds – we were mostly all unemployed. We’d all be working on song ideas at home during the week and bring any to rehearsal , Pik always had his notepad with him so would always be writing lyrics on the go. We would spend a lot of time jamming at the rehearsal, whenever Pik heard something he liked, he would reach for his notepad and start singing lyrics he had written. There’s always a magic in these moments when everyone’s creative input collides and creates something completely new.
++ What’s the story behind the band’s name?
We had a guy – Adrian, who used to come hang around at rehearsals – take photos, help with equipment, stop and start the tape recorder etc. He was really quiet, but also a real character who lived his life by his own rules, very into watching and photographing local bands. Full Cry was his suggestion from a list of names, we all liked it and none of us had thought of anything better, it was a pretty strong name.
++ You didn’t put out any proper releases, just demo tapes. Why was that? Was there any interest from labels at any point?
Yeah, again due to funds, like most bands at the time, it was just cassette based releases with handmade photocopied covers, lol. Very few local bands made vinyl or CD’s. We weren’t making any great efforts to get record company interest, I would send the occasional tapes out, but again all this cost money we didn’t have. I did get Andy Ross (head of Food Records) call me at home on 2 separate occasions after sending a tape to them, he liked the songs and our sound, and wanted to be kept up to date on anything else we recorded. As a lot of these record label people were at the time, they wanted to come see you play as long as it was London, which was never going to happen. He’d not long since signed some band called Blur at this point.
++ And did you ever consider self-releasing?
No, anything beyond cassette release just wasn’t financially viable to 3 unemployed lads from Hull.
++ The first song I know from you is “Seashell Michelle”. This song appeared on a tape called “Tales from the Riverbank”. Do you remember anything about this compilation tape? How did you end up there?
I got to know the guy – Chris Warkup through the local music scene and playing some gigs with his then band at the time, he became quite a bit of a gig organiser on the local scene and used to put these local compilation tapes together every couple of years, we missed out being on the first one but I think were on each one after that.
++ Your songs ended also on a few more compilation tapes like “Nice 1” and “Now That’s What We Call Hull”. Were these tapes compiled by the same people? And what about the bands in all of these compilation tapes? Were you familiar, or friends, with them? Was there a tight-knit scene?
Yes, Chris Warkup was behind all these compilations, they seemed to get more popular with each release. They were a really good idea, it got bands familiar with each other’s music, got them talking to and supporting each other. We had people coming to see us because they liked our songs(s) from these tapes and we also sold quite a few of our own tapes on the back of appearing on these compilations, as I imagine many other local bands did. They were very healthy for the local scene and proceeds went to charity from them.
++ In 1992 you released a self-titled tape with 5 songs, “High with You”, “Melted”, “Seashell Michelle”, “None the Wiser” and “Brutal Children”. Was this your first demo tape? Do you remember how many copies you made? And were your demo tapes mainly for promotion purposes or you also used to sell them at gigs?
Yeah, I’m amazed you know the detail of this !. This was our first ‘release’ , I’m pretty sure that our first release ‘Full Cry’ was run off on a double tape deck on TDK C46 cassettes, as and when required, so not that many of these were really ever put out there. It was all quite a poppy, jangly guitar bunch of tunes, recorded in various studios – hence the varying sound across the songs. A couple of those songs had been previously recorded a couple of times before we got something we were happy with. As with all our Cassette releases there was always a couple of songs from each that never made it onto the finished tape, and were not released, as we weren’t 100% happy with either the song or the mix. This first release was us finding our feet, we were young and new to recording studios. This was our only release were we had 2 guitarists in the band (Andy Doyle & Howard Smith). All our tapes released after this were professionally duplicated, cut to size and with printed labels at a local studio. We moved on from playing these songs live fairly quickly, only ‘Brutal Children’ from that cassette survived in the set list over the years, it was such a great song to end a gig with and popular with the audiences. We were always being told by people how they loved ‘Seashell Michelle’ and ‘High with You’ – as they’d discovered us on the local compilation tapes, and they were often very disappointed we didn’t play them anymore live after a while. ‘Seashell’ particularly always felt like a difficult song to play live for some reason. We recorded that one twice, the second one is an extended much more polished version than the one from the ‘Tales from the Riverbank’ tape. ‘High with you’ we recorded 3 times !, the first one was our first time in a studio so was extremely basic and never released, come to think of it, I don’t think the 2nd version was either
++ In 1993 you released another tape with 5 original songs, “My Angel Died a Radio Death”. Then in 1995 you had “Confidence with Asthma” and in 1995 “Howard’s End”. Have I mentioned all the tapes you put out or am I missing any?
‘My Angel Died a Radio Death’ – We were back to being a 1 guitarist band – Andy had left, maybe with the exception of Brutal Children and a couple of other songs where the 2nd guitar really gave it some extra edge, we just never totally got full potential of having the 2 guitars in the band. Howard was starting to use distortion and really starting to take on the lead guitar role more, we were starting to write rockier songs at this point whilst still remaining tuneful. Also starting to utilise studio ideas more.
‘Confidence with Asthma’ – was a real kitchen sink collection of songs. Definitely our most interesting, creative and slightly off the wall period. It was all over the place stylistically ie : – an Acoustic track with a Mandolin (Razorwire) , a 9 and half minute spaced out rock tune (Headhum) , a 2 minute comedy-esque Jazz type number (Jealous), to name some of the songs. A lot of songs were ‘winged’ in the studio from half formed ideas, the playing is sloppy at times – we never played to click track, but I think it has a charm for it, there;s a lot of humour in this batch of songs and certainly dare I say, a ‘Confidence’ to what we were doing now.
‘Howards End’ 1995 – Howard (Guitar) had come to the ‘End’ with Full Cry, he wasn’t feeling it anymore and left amicably, it seemed like such an obvious choice to call the tape !. Pik, Jason and myself continued rehearsing, I was playing guitar for the time being and we wrote some new songs pretty quickly and effortlessly. We recorded them with just the 3 of us. We had some help from Stu (Rich Rags / Sugarkill) on Guitar duties for ‘Plastic Girl’.
++ You have some fun song titles and I was wondering where that humour came from? Also speaking of songs, I take you were fans of Star Wars as you wrote “Born in Time for Star Wars”?
Ha, yes were a right set of star wars nerds, I will actually take credit for that title. I think it was something I said and Pik liked it. All other titles, and all lyrics were always Pik’s. There was a lot of humour in many his lyrics and song titles, they could be quite serious and heavy – Brutal Children , Doubt, with some real depth to them and then equally also humorous and sarcastic too – Plastic Girl, Hand, Jealous.
++ And also other than the 3 compilations I mentioned, are there any other compilations you were featured on?
Yeah, we appeared on possibly the first CD based Hull band compilation – ‘Hull Visual’ I think it was called, we had ‘Plastic Girl’ on there. This was the very beginnings of Rewritable CD’s, circa 1996.
++ Oh! And where did you usually record your songs? Did you work with a producer or did the band produce the songs?
Early on we recorded at a studio outside of Hull, in Gilberdyke. From ‘My Angel Died a Radio Death’ 1992 onwards we always recorded at local Hull community studio – The Warren, were would do most of our recording with different engineers over the next 5 years, often with very mixed results – the final mixes weren’t always quite up to what we wanted. On a few occasions we went and re-recorded songs again because we just weren’t happy with what we’d got, on some occasions some recordings were never included on our tapes because we just weren’t happy with them. After a while we ended up eventually sussing out the good studio engineers at the Warren and always tried to get them to do our sessions.
++ My favourite song of yours is “High with You”, wondering if you could tell me what inspired this song? What’s the story behind it?
Oh you’d have to ask Pik about that, all the lyrics were all his, and very open to interpretation, He could always explain them all, often quite deep, and often not what you thought they were about. ‘High with You’ was possibly the 2nd or 3rd song we ever wrote as a band. We recorded that song 3 times, each one an improvement on the last. The only version we put out was the one you will know.
++ If you were to choose your favorite Full Cry song, which one would that be and why?
Very tough question to choose a favourite from 8 years of songs. I particularly love the last few songs we recorded in 1998 (M07S Stream MO7S (SLOW) – Full Cry by Marcos Dinsdale | Listen online for free on SoundCloud , Street Stories Stream Street Stories – Full Cry by Marcos Dinsdale | Listen online for free on SoundCloud , Bluesmoke) which most people won’t have heard, as we never properly released them in any way, I think we were still evolving even after 8 years and it was good to end on a strong note, although we didn’t know it was the end at the time.
From the earlier stuff – ‘Headhum’ Full Cry – Headhum – YouTube – 9.5 minutes of epic sounding laid back floaty bass and guitar. We went in the studio with 4 minutes of song and jammed the final 5 minutes there. We were not very good at knowing how to finish songs, and had to make up endings on a few occasions in the studio, but not ever to this extreme. If we’d even tried to re-record this song, we would never have captured it better than we did here, it was totally different every time we played it live too, the second half of the song just became on onstage jam. ‘ All be the same’, ‘Doubt’, from the early days – great songs and always good songs to play live.
Overall I’m probably most particularly proud of ‘Plastic Girl’ (29) Full Cry – Plastic Girl (promo) – YouTube – it’s a pretty timeless tune, the recording and mix came out spot on. Pik’s lyrics are more relevant now than ever. It’s got melody, hooks, structure, a great vocal and killer guitar riffs played by Stu from local Glam Punk giants ‘Rich Rags’. We were without a guitar player in the band (Howard had left) , I’d been playing bass and guitars on our new songs we were recording but couldn’t quite get what I had in my head for ‘Plastic Girl’, it was a power pop / punk tune and the guitar really needed to deliver, it occurred to me Stu would be the ideal guy for the job, he got to grips with the song after us playing it through once for him at a rehearsal and he knocked it out the park like the total pro he is. It was extremely satisfying for a song we’d been wrestling with on and off for nearly 2 years.
++ What about gigs? Did you play many?
Gigs were occasional, could be a couple a month, but then a couple of months without one. There were a few years during the mid-90s when the Hull scene was extremely healthy and there were several places putting on local bands most nights – Adelphi, Blue Lamp, the Room being the main ones, as well as a handful of pubs that put bands on often, you could be watching Travis playing to 50 people one week, Catatonia the next week, the Cranberries supporting some local band without any inkling how huge some of these would go on to be within a year or two. By the very late 90s it was pretty much again back to being the Adelphi as the only place to play.
++ And what were the best gigs in general that you remember? Any anecdotes you can share?
I remember our last gig pretty well. We didn’t know it was our last gig at the time. It was boiling hot July, or possibly August Saturday night at the Adelphi. I remember I was on antibiotics for Tonsillitis, obviously I shouldn’t have been drinking alcohol at all, but gigs to me were always about having fun, so too many beers, as often were drank before going onstage. It was our first and last gig with our New (Howard replacement) Guitarist – Steve No.1. It was just a really good, fun gig – very sweaty looking at photos of it, Pik ended up on the floor at some point. We even bizarrely finished the set of a jam of Rebel MC ‘Street Tuff’ !. It was a great way to finish our live career.
++ And were there any bad ones?
If you look up ‘Bad Gig’ on Google, I’m pretty sure ‘Full Cry at the Stage Door – Scarborough’ would come up top of that search. Well, it ought to if it doesn’t. It was a trip to the Seaside on a coach with friends, fans, and our pals – local band – Ultra Violet Circus. We’d done this type of jaunt previously a couple of times – hired a coach, sold our own tickets for it making it a day out at the seaside and playing the gig on the night. On this occasion, weed, and far too much beer was involved in the performance. The venue was upstairs and like a greenhouse. Both guitars were totally out of tune for the whole gig, we were all at least a bit wasted or very wasted. There was a recording of it, there’s a song where I forget how to play it halfway thru and stop playing for some of it, the onstage sound was terrible, couldn’t hear anything we needed to, it was just a sweaty, out of tune, out of time horrendous mess. To top it all, the local music magazine editor from ‘Where’ magazine was there specifically to review it, I had to do some serious begging that he didn’t print a review of it.
++ There’s of course a legendary venue in Hull, The Adelphi. I was wondering how important it was for you as a music fan and for the band?
The Adelphi is one of the few most legendary and important venues in the UK, you can’t understate the importance of it. Starting in the early 80s, there’s not many venues, still going that can claim to have had the likes of Radiohead, Pulp, The La’s, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, Oasis, Green Day to name a handful of bands grace their stage, many of those names would play on a regular basis over the years before making it big.
++ When and why did Full Cry stop making music? Were you involved in any other bands afterwards?
No dramatic ending, just life quietly taking over I suppose. By 1998, we were getting older and finally starting to be more responsible I guess – Full time Jobs / University courses / Uni degrees and we were just not getting together very often. Though we’d got another new guitarist, another Steve, to replace the previous Steve!. He was from across the river, so again co-ordinating rehearsals with him wasn’t always very easy. He was much younger and very keen and played some great guitar on our last few recordings (M07S, Street Stories and Bluesmoke) (29) Full Cry – Street Stories – YouTube
++ Has there been any Full Cry reunions?
No. Well, sort of a half reunion, for just one song in the USA !. Andrew (2nd guitarist) has lived in South Carolina USA since the mid-90s. We reconnected about 15 years ago and I went out to see him a couple of times, we put a covers band together on one occasion, rehearsed twice and played a gig in a dive bar in Charleston USA in 2009. In the middle of the set of covers we played Full Cry’s – ‘Plastic Girl’ – Andrew really liked the song and wanted to do it, even though he had long left the band by the time we had written that. The yanks are a very lively and enthusiastic crowd, it was definitely one of the most fun gig’s I’ve played, it was a very crazy night in many ways, the bits that I can remember. Other than that occasion, no, never discussed any kind of reunion. Would be fun though definitely. Weird thing is I can still remember how to play the bass parts to nearly all of the songs, from 25 – 30 years ago , but yet honestly can’t remember how to play a lot of the songs I’ve written and recorded in the last few years !.
++ Was there any interest from the radio? TV?
No, back then local Radio didn’t really do any kind of local bands feature and certainly wouldn’t play anything from a cassette. Unlike today where it is extremely easy to get played, play live on air and get onto local radio with your music.
++ What about the press? Did they give you any attention?
We had local gig reviews several times and some reviews of our cassettes. We just weren’t that motivated to go out of our way to get ‘featured’ in stuff. There was a bit of an ‘in crowd’ and ‘favourites’ circle to much of the local scene, we knew we were outsiders from it and were ok with that. We formed an alliance with a couple of other bands who were similarly on the outside – Giantkind, Ultra Violet Circus, and would gig with these bands often. We were content within ourselves, weren’t trying to please anyone and certainly not competing with anyone trying to be “Hull’s next big thing” like so many bands were.
++ What about fanzines?
There was a local Hull magazine – ‘Where?’ magazine that ran for a few years. Like a few things during those times , It sort of came along at the right time and lasted for the right amount of time, I’m pretty sure most people who were in band bought it and supported it, Tim Joseph did a great job pretty much singlehandedly putting it together every couple of months.
++ Looking back in retrospect, what would you say was the biggest highlight for the band?
For me personally, simply just lasting as long as it did – 8 years of writing some great songs, always evolving musically and the friendships that came with it are the highlights for me.
++ Never been to Hull, would love to visit some day. So I’d love to ask you what would you suggest checking out in your town, like what are the sights one shouldn’t miss? Or the traditional food or drinks that you love that I should try?
The old town in Hull is great for very old pubs and general history – Transport and streetlife museums, William Wilberforce’ home are all located there. The old town is used regularly now for Victorian based TV and movie shoots nowadays – Enola Holmes, Victoria etc, due to it’s relatively still original and unmodernised period buildings. Hitchcocks restaurant in the old town must be tried – (you need to book) is unlike anything anywhere, and has been going since the early 90s, maybe even late 80s. There’s a nice (modern-ish) Marina nearby , with Humber street – which in recent years has become a major arts area and has a large music festival each summer there. You have to have a ‘Patty’ from a fish and chip shop, fairly unique to Hull. Fifteen minutes’ walk just out the town centre to the DeGrey st for an Adelphi visit – explore Newland avenue just off DeGrey st – which has established itself as one of the main areas for eating and drinking in Hull in recent years.
++ Anything else you’d like to add?
Thanks for discovering Full Cry and showing a detailed knowledge and genuine interest in our obscure 90s music. It’s mind boggling how stuff we put out on cassettes nearly 25 – 30 years ago has gotten into your hands and has also found it’s way onto the internet. It’s been a lot of fun revisiting the music, the memories and the times doing this, thank you.
Photos shared by Marcos:
- Marcos, Pik, Andrew, Howard
- Adelphi – Howard, Pik, Jason, Andrew
- Drums
- Tapes
- Blue Lamp 1993
- Warren studio – 1993 Confidence with Asthma
- Warren studio – Marcos, Pik, Jason 1995
- Outside the Warren Studio 1995 – Marcos, Steve No.1, Jason, Stu
- Last Full Cry gig – Marcos, Jason, Pik, Steve no.1
- Murdering our own songs – the infamous Scarborough gig !
- Pik, Steve no.1, Marcos, Jason 1995
- Centre & right – Andrew, Marcos USA 2009
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Listen
Full Cry – High with You
