Consequently I am moving over to bagrec.blogspot.com.
Please join me there.
Thank you to all the people who have read this blog over the last seven years and 2890 (!) posts.
Pretty much from 1980 onwards I've regretted leaving Drop, just at a point when everything seemed to be going right. We had a growing listenership, celebrity endorsement, were being played on the radio and even had a vague promise of a release on "Pipeline Product", Larry Ottoway's label that had previously released the Basczax single.
So what went wrong? Well, in a word, me. I went wrong. In the summer of 1979, when I was 18, I had a kind of breakdown - everything got to be too much, and I ended up in hospital. It wasn't pretty. I know this sounds like I'm over-egging this tale, but I do remember lying in a bed in Hemlington Hospital listening to a track ("Burning The Evidence" I think) being played on Radio Cleveland on a Saturday morning and realising that I couldn't do Drop anymore.
After I got out, I went to the Rock Garden the night The Piranhas played and got drunk for the first time and I joined Tick Tick on bass (an instrument I've never been a natural player of) enjoying for the first time playing a truly collaborative role in songwriting.
At the time I'd become a bit frustrated with writing all the Drop material - in the blindness of self-obsession I was unaware of what sympathetic and wonderful musicians I had in Drop, and the fact that I was able to...er..bend them to my will with no complaints, is something that few composers experience. I was in fact very lucky.**
So for a year or so I was with Tick Tick, which was a bit of gang - and very democratic, everybody wrote lyrics and had a hand in composing. It was great fun... and the five piece version with Paul Fowler on drums really rocked.
After that I decided I wanted my own vehicle again, and I formed "Halcyon Days" with Paul D Brazill and Ronnie Burke (later mutating into "Oceans 11") . But somewhere along the line I'd lost my mojo. Times had moved on from the initial excitement of post-punk, we'd had the New Romantics, and Goth (still unnamed at the time) was in the ascendent. I unwisely started wearing make-up, whilst I wanted the band to be somewhere between The Fall and the kind of classic songwriting that Vic Godard was espousing at the time, oh yeah, and Orange Juice. Trouble is, to do that kind of thing you actually need to be quite good - and I just wasn't. Whatever had driven me in Drop had gone, the songs were weak, the melodies cliched. I was lost, disorientated and slowly sinking. Even drafting in the extraordinarily gifted Peter Ord on second guitar and keyboards and composing and arranging duties didn't help- I was clearly not going to be the post-punk Cole Porter. I can't say I can blame Julian for hating what I was doing by then, I was floundering badly, and my songs were largely rubbish.
So that band drifted away (although we remained friends) and I didn't do anything at all for a year or so, until I finally found the answer - Suicide. The New York minimalist duo, Suicide, that is. I got together a minimalist backing tape made using a cheap casio, started writing some new, unsentimental songs, and started doing solo gigs under the name of The Euphoria Case. Eventually I got some musicians to help me - my then girlfriend Helen Walker on keyboard, a girl called Dionne (formerly of Darlo band Bendy Sticks) on bass, and Ronnie Burke on drums. We managed to get one lousy review in Sounds (of this gig) before we suddenly upped the game by dragging in Ste Weatherall, Martyn Simpson (both bass at different times), Gary Phillips (keys) and Mark Spybey (second drums and voice) and erm..losing the girls, to become a mighty double drummer post-punk multi-headed psychedelic neo-funk monster. Elektra were interested, we had radio play, we even made a video on Super 8 (Warren Smith? - where are you?) and a classy demo tape. I split up the band in the summer of '85. It's a shame, I think Julian might have liked The Euphoria Case.
Why I split up the band I can't quite remember, although me being a bit of a prick was probably one reason. Another was that I'd been accepted on a 4 year Teacher Training course in London, and I was clearly not going to take the band with me. So that was that. There was a brief epilogue where the Euphoria Case continued as a guitar, keyboard duo of me and Gary Phillips - we recorded an amazing four track demo nicknamed "State Gruff" on the Middlesbrough Music Collective portastudio and then I was off, never to play in Teesside again until a couple of weeks ago.
In London I was to repeat these musical kamikaze missions more than once, but I'll save that for a future post...Once again I'd like to thank all the musicians that worked with me, especially those who are still talking to me. You know who you are....
Notes
* The end of Julian's story evidently confused a few people, some on Edwyn Collins' message board took it literally - that Edwyn's real name was Richard Sanderson and he was actually from Middlesbrough not Glasgow! Edwyn replied "I have no idea what he's on about. I think it's not complimentary!". No it wasn't Edwyn.
** After I left Drop, they all blossomed as composers, Chris Oberon writing a whole new set's worth, and Neil and Andy writing lyrics and new tunes. I was holding them back! We intend to re-incorporate some of these songs into future Drop sets.
He writes about the season of Friday nights at the Teessider pub that Basczax played at the time, which were amazingly exciting times. I was a regular, and Drop played a couple of times (I remember the first word Sav said to me was "snap" as he spotted my cheap Kay Strat Copy). I even got together with my first girlfriend at a Basczax Teessider gig...so good times, yes.
Who are you?
Well, on my birth certificate it says Robert William Barry, however most people have called me Bobby for as long as I can remember. But then, Bobby Barry is obviously far too ridiculous a name to do anything vaguely professional under, so about ten years ago, I started adopting the even more ridiculous moniker of Monster Bobby for most of my musical projects.
Where are you based?
Paris, these days, however I grew up in Brighton and lived in London for the best part of ten years before moving here.
What instruments do you play?
Guitar, mostly, although I also have a small collection of old Casio keyboards. I've been both a percussionist and an electronics/weird noises type person in bands before.
What is your current musical project?
Well, there's a few... First and foremost, there's The Pipettes, the pop group I started about seven and a half years ago that has now released two albums and many singles. In The Pipettes, I play guitar and a sort of electronic harp/guitar thing called a Q-Chord, and occasional I trigger samples. Everyone in the band writes the songs.
Then there's the solo thing I do, Monster Bobby, which is generally me with an acoustic guitar and a sampler, singing songs with occasionally quite obstreperous electronic noises behind them.
Last year, I started a project in London called A Little Orchestra, which is a sort of loose collective of instrumentalists, generally orchestral instrumentalists, performing a mixture of 20th century minimalist/avant-garde works, film scores, pop songs, and our own compositions.
Finally, I just invented this game called Wav Tennis, whereby any two musicians or non-musicians volley sound files back and forth over the internet, gradually building up tracks through the semi-random accumulation of exchanged noises. You can find more details of the rules to Wav Tennis on my Little Other blog. I am currently engaged in a couple of games of that, and always up for starting new sets. Hopefully, one day, everyone will be playing Wav Tennis!
Name a record that had a big impact on you in your youth
The first album that I remember really loving and being a bit obsessed by: Bad by Michael Jackson
The first album that I bought with my own money and that really felt like 'my music' : Killers by Iron Maiden
What was the last music you bought?
A thing on RER called Baku: Symphony of Sirens, which is a double cd compilation of recordings and reconstructions of music/poetry/sound art from Russia in the immediate post-revolutionary period.
List three records by artists we all should hear:
Ahem.. Earth vs The PIpettes by The Pipettes, Gaps by Monster Bobby and We Are The Pipettes by The Pipettes... No, but seriously... Something by Os Mutantes, something by Art Bears or Henry Cow, and something by Disco Inferno, although right now I'm not sure which particular records. Just get everything they ever did.
Describe a live performance that had a big effect on you:
Two things towards the beginning of last year - Cosi Fan Tutte at the Royal Opera House, and Billy Budd at Opera Bastille - have left me obsessed with the possibilities of sung drama.
Your favourite live venue:
I think pretty well all the live music venues I have ever loved are now either closed down or refurbished beyond recognition.
What’s the strangest place you have performed live?
The Pipettes once played a gig in a hair salon in Berlin that was sort of like something out of an Armistead Maupin book. That was quite strange.
Tell me about a great experience as a performer.
You know that thing that happens sometimes when everyone in the band plays the wrong thing - but you all play the wrong thing together, and it ends up sounding/feeling much better than the right thing ever could've done.
Is improvisation important to you?
I get very jealous of musicians who are very comfortable improvisers because I have a sort of crippling fear of being on a stage and not knowing what I'm supposed to be doing. And I find small stages in front of small amounts of people much scarier than big stages in front of large amounts of people, and therefore no stage at all in front of four or five people can be absolutely terrifying. Having said that, over the years, I've always found ways and means of bringing forms of group improvisation into my life, although rarely in public. The Pipettes have always spent a lot of time improvising in rehearsals, often in styles that one would not expect from a band like The Pipettes; and A Little Orchestra play quite a lot of stuff that is improvisatory but structured in some (possibly quite meagre) way, such as by a piece of text. I briefly had a project with a guy who makes sort of noise music and super 8 films who calls himself Eaten By Children, and that was all based around improvisation, largely with no-input mixing boards and fx. We made some pretty nice recordings which sadly still haven't been released, but I hope they will be one day. All these things were definitely, as you say, important to me, and some of my favourite live gigs by other people have been improvised or at least contained improvised elements, but right now, at least, it isn't really something I do in public.
Name three heroes/heroines:
I'd like to split this question into two halves because I can't think of three people that I'm willing to unambiguously call "Heroes" with a big capital H. So, on the one hand, there are people who might better be called "Anti-Heroes": people where the absolute amazingness of certain aspects of their work/life has sort of been overshadowed by the utter wretched sordidness of certain other aspects of their work/life, in which category I might put, Richard Wagner, Michael Jackson and Phil Spector. On the other hand, there are people who are perhaps less reprehensible, but also somehow less heroic with a big capital H, and yet somehow they've maybe done a bunch of stuff that I really think, gee, I wish I could say that I'd done that. I'd like to call this category, less "Heroes" than "Pretty Cool Guys" and I would include there people like, Laurie Anderson, Bill Drummond, Delia Derbyshire, Raymond Scott, and Glenn Gould.
Favourite city?
That's sort of a tricky one, in a way. Probably six months ago I would have said London without really thinking about it, but now I'm living in Paris and I'm really much happier here than I ever was in London. Then, at the same time, I have a certain resistance to naming Paris as my, like, "favourite city in the world" much as I find it a very pleasant place to spend my time. There are also a number of cities that I haven't spent that much time in but I've been enormously impressed with while there, and have always felt like I'd like to spend much more time there: Copenhagen, Bologna, Osaka, Hamburg, and Berlin, in particular. Probably my favourite city would have to be some imaginary city, like Ledom in Theodore Sturgeon's novel Venus Plus X, or something like that.
A couple of favourite books?
At the moment, probably Dr Faustus by Thomas Mann, and The Stars, My Destination by Alfred Bester.
A couple of favourite films
?
Recently I decided that the five best films ever made are Modern Times, City Lights, The Kid, The Gold Rush, and Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr, and that anyone who says otherwise is just wrong.
A favourite website?
ubu.com or thestomachroom.com
What makes you laugh?
Marx Brothers films, Steve Martin stand-up records, any sitcom starring Leonard Rossiter, people walking into lamp posts, dogs that can say 'sausages', root vegetables shaped like genitalia, that sort of thing.
Is there a pop song you feel sentimental about, and can you name it?
Far too many to mention.
Thanks Bobby
The Music Questionnaires are an ongoing series
I think I'm starting to like the wah-wah/fuzz combination on my guitar a little too much.
Thanks to Davey B for drawing my attention to this ongoing discussion. You might want to mention that Drop is an operating combo again, with original 1979 line-up.
Message to Gareth and Dave - yes, I'm reading it, and I'm very well thank you! Be nice to see you again some time.
I shall be joining the RUR band on amplified melodeon.
At The Old Kings Head, Borough High St. Admission £2.50/£1.50
Saturday 23rd April - Dancing and playing with Blackheath Morris Men for St George's Day, at The Summerfield Tavern, from 7ish. Admission free.
Monday 25th April (Easter Monday Bank Holiday) - Dancing with Blackheath Morris Men, as part of our annual "Easter Chair Lifting" ritual. Around Greenwich, various locations from Noon. See Blackheath Morris website for more details.
Sunday 1st May - Accompanying the Deptford Jack In The Green around Greenwich in Fowlers Troop, as part of May Day celebrations. Details to be announced. Playing melodeon.
Saturday 7th Barn Dance with Mixed Porter English Country Dance Band. "Barn Dance with live music from "Mixed Porter". Admission by ticket only. Tickets £8 (£4 for "young 'uns") available from Denise Pritchard on 020 8852 8463. Ticket includes ploughman's supper. Tea & Coffee will also be available." Parish Chrurch of St Andrew the Apostle, Catford.
Sunday 15th May Dancing with Blackheath Morris as part of the Brighton Day of Dance.
19th to 21st August Dancing and playing with Blackheath Morris Men at the Saddleworth Rushcart Festival
Wednesday 21st September Improvising duo of Paul May (percussion) and Richard Sanderson (melodeon and amplification) perform at FlimFlam, Ryan's Bar, Stoke Newington.
I should also credit Geoff for the video of "Burning The Evidence" on an earlier post...
Who are you?
Jude Cowan
Where are you based?
London
What instruments do you play?
Voice, keyboard, uke / guitar, many others naively
What is your current musical project?
Reuters Improvisations - improvised works on Reuters Television News stories (I'm an archivist for RTV)
Foulkestone, a duo with Richard Sanderson
The Boilermakers, a duo with Matt Armstrong
Name a record that had a big impact on you in your youth
Exodus by Bob Marley
Vltava by Smetana
The Wombles by Mark Batt
What was the last music you bought?
The Big I Am's new CD, 'Collecting Skies' on Folkwit
The Big I Am are friends of mine and I like to buy music to support friends and fellow musicians. The last CD I bought not by a friend or at a launch but just because I wanted it was 'Spoils' by Alasdair Roberts on Drag City. That was a while ago now.
List three records by artists we all should hear:
The Ethiopiques records (Swinging Addis - Number 8)
The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion (Incredible String Band)
The Instant Monty Python CD Collection
Describe a live performance that had a big effect on you:
Baaba Maal when he came over first and played the Hackney Empire in the very late 1980s.
Your favourite live venue:
I like performing at odd events rather than set up clubs. But a good sound is nice.
For smaller, intimate venues I have enjoyed playing at The Gallery Cafe recently as it has a nice stage backdrop and I like the split stage at the 12 Bar, with the audience above and below you - and I like singing with the choir in rather lovely churches - I enjoyed doing the Monteverde Vespers in the Holy Redeemer church in Exmouth Market as it has such an immersive reverb.
What’s the strangest place you have performed live?
I used to sing saluang music in Sumatra Barat. The audience would pay 500 rupiah a song. The local musicians would take me and we would tour the villages around Bukittinggi. Best time was after Ramadan as there were lots of celebrations, bad month for gigs, Ramadan, not the culturally done thing. Anyway it wasn't really strange I guess, but it was to me, not being from there.
Tell me about a great experience as a performer.
I enjoyed singing and writing on Ray Davies's songwriting course in Sheepwash, Devon - we did a nice performance of a musical we wrote in a couple of days based on Thelma and Louise. I like the immediacy of writing then performing straight away.
Is improvisation important to you?
Yes, my current project 'Reuters Improvisations' is very improv based. As is my other duo, The Boilermakers, with Matt Armstrong which is based more on Eastern European traditions and other world musics, all brought in to a folk and funk mix
Name three heroes/heroines:
Rumer Godden
V S Naipaul
D H Lawrence
Favourite city?
London - absolutely my favourite city of all time
A couple of favourite books?
A House for Mr Biswas - V S Naipaul
Kingfishers catch Fire - Rumer Godden
Women in Love - D H Lawrence
A couple of favourite films?
The General - Buster Keaton
Way Out West - Laurel and Hardy
Watership Down (1978)
Pathfinder (1987)
A favourite website?
An illustration blog I like -
theanimalarium.blogspot.co which has brilliant illustrations/design using animals from all around the world
What makes you laugh?
Performing live
Is there a pop song you feel sentimental about, and can you name it?
Exodus - I remember standing on the lawn in front of my house in Bolton, the front lawn, a strange piece of ground with its raised camber and hearing the music drift over the air while I thought about Ladybridge and the big world out there
Thanks Jude
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