The first time SinZine writer Andy met with SinZine columnist and March Violets mainman Si Denbigh, in their mutual hometown of Leeds, plenty of Violets ground past, present and future was covered in conversation. However, a dodgy Dictaphone and consumption of Si's signature "psychedelic cider" conspired to ensure that chat never made it to the web. Not to be defeated though, the two Yorkshire men gave it another go, and so at long last SinZine can give you this in-depth interview, which takes in the March Violets musical innovation, their roots and, rather fittingly, the second chance to tie up some unfinished business that a new-millennium resurrection has now provided.
When a band who originally formed in 1980 describe their upcoming new LP as "our difficult first album", it does kind of make you wonder what they've been doing all this time? But then the March Violets' story is arguably one of potential which never got quite unfulfilled which might explain why in 2011 the Leeds band are back to carry out some unfinished business. Originally formed in the city at the same time as the Sisters of Mercy, they made a series of great singles to considerable critical acclaim but disintegrated before they got the chance to put a proper album out.
"This is a bit of a continuation of the Homecoming gig in Leeds in 2007" explains head Violet and co-vocalist Si Denbigh, "Although it was only meant to be a one-off reunion, it sparked a bit of a flurry of festival offers and interest. And we had planned to take some of them up, having realised that we were still kind of relevant, and actually pretty good at what we do. That was the weird thing, we sounded exactly like we did back in the beginning, in fact better. But as ever...life got in the way..."
Indeed, the Violets have had some pretty difficult obstacles to overcome in recent years and we'll come back to that in a moment. But for now, let's go back to the beginning - West Yorkshire, the early '80s and the start of what would eventually be christened goth music by the English music press. But if you ask Si, it's a term that still puzzles him.
"We didn't really grow out of any Leeds goth scene." he explains, "When the band formed there wasn't such a thing, so I definitely wouldn't identify the Leeds 'scene' in the early 80's as goth. That was a tag applied much later, and has rather sadly been sort of twisted into something a bit less than the sum of it's parts. I'd class the Violets as a Post Punk Leeds Drum Machine band. There certainly were a few bands doing the drum machine thing in Leeds over those years, The Sisters, The Violets, The 3 Johns, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry... As to Leeds in those days, it was exciting, politicized, dark, punk, fast and eventually entirely clad in black. Rock against Racism in Black Leather, pumped up on poppers and Newly Romantic, everything smelt of hairspray. We were all Mad Max, and the Atari ST kept you up all night as did the speed."
It must have been an exciting time to be part of an area which spawned so many seminal bands around this time though?
"Seminal?" he muses, "Possibly. I do see our relevance to how music without a live drummer became an accepted thing. There had been others before, Suicide and Kraftwerk in particular but nothing like us. And the drum-machine sounds and beats and the actual machines we used became something accepted, used by hip hop, acid, trance, and now pretty much everyone who makes electronic/dance music. I also make hip hop and electronic music and it feels totally natural to me, it's the same as it ever was. I started making beats on the first really programmable drum machine and have used them ever since."
"I don't think there was any deliberate attempt to create a scene as such, though any city will have it's circles of bands and their friends." he adds, "I was very conscious of not thinking local, I wanted to play all over the world, and in my head didn't see much difference between playing Leeds or Liverpool or Las Vegas. I look back on it all with a kind of wry smile and slight disbelief at having survived."
Photo by Holly Fairclough
The Violets formed among this primordial soup in 1981 with the original line-up featuring Si and Rosie Garland sharing vocal duties along with guitarist Tom Ashton and bassist Loz Elliott. The idea of having joint male/female vocalists at the time was certainly something that made them stand out from the crowd but, according to Si, it was more a case of the pieces of the puzzle falling into place than any sort of grand plan.
"I think we just worked it out." he explains, "I wanted a male/female vocal pairing, partly because it hadn't been done in a dark and twisted way before, it was all Carpenters and Peters and Lee, very soft. I also saw it as a real challenge, writing for male and female voices and trying to make them of equal relevance... Strong female vocalists of character were rare enough in the music scene of the time. I think the Drum-machine allowed space without the standard foggy testosterone of a bloke sweating over a kit, and yet gave us very aggressive beats. And the spikey shimmering guitars allowed us to try vocal stuff that probably wouldn't have fitted elsewhere, and held big melody lines together. There is a lot of Funk and Soul going on underneath the surface of Violets tracks, I know that sounds weird but have a careful listen."
The group's first major breakthrough came when they were invited down to London to do a session for John Peel, a man who Si still speaks about with hushed respect today claiming that, like so many of us growing up from the mid-'70s onwards, that Peel was a man who helped him discover music he'd almost certainly never have heard otherwise (though he's keen to stress that " I never thought, wow, I want to do that, to copy that, to sound exactly like that band. I guess it's more about wanting to get up there and show that you have something unique to bring, that is as good as any other, that is your own.". The Violets sent Peel a copy of their demo along with a tray of potted African violets which sufficiently impressed him to call them down for a session. Initially, the group started out on the Sisters of Mercy's Merciful Release label putting a brace of singles out (1982's "Religious As Hell" and the following year's "Grooving In Green") before moving across to Rebirth, their own label.
Listening to the early Violets' EP's (handily collated on the "Botanic Verses" compilation on Jungle records - according to Si, the fact that they constantly turn up on goth compilations has been very useful in keeping the band's reputation alive), the main thing that grabs you is how you can almost hear the sound evolving with each release as the band gain the confidence to try new things. It was their second single for Rebirth, "Snake Dance" though, that would really bring them to the nation's attention. Much more melodic than its predecessors, sadly it would turn out to be the beginning of the end for the band as Rosie left before it was released. Cleo Murray replaced her as singer.
"Rosie leaving after recording Snake Dance really changed things." remembers Si, "Cleo was a totally different character and a totally different voice. Rosie's voice was more like mine, though with a bigger range. Cleo's was more traditional, more girly I suppose. But I had to write for Cleo's voice and character, and integrate it into our sound. We also started to get a bit more complex, and got better equipment and production. So inevitably things changed, became a bit poppier, a bit more flowery, though I still tried to retain the dark side. We also started getting courted by record labels, with all the attendant pressures that brings."
The group would release one single with Si and Cleo sharing vocals, "Walk Into The Sun" which saw them head into even poppier waters. Behind the scenes things were falling apart...
"The rest of them wanted to become a more commercial operation, we had management pushing in that direction and there was internal conflict within the band, manipulations and power struggles." Si remembers, "I was seen as the obstacle to progressing... a big bearded bloke wasn't much of a pop icon, I was hardly Simon Le Bon, so I was told they didn't want to work with me. By then I'd had enough of the whole rigmarole of chasing record deals, it was obvious that the majors didn't want anything different, they wanted the same stuff they were already successfully peddling. I was fed up with being told what to look like, and particularly fed up with certain band members. So I buggered off and left them to it. I should maybe have asked for some financial pay-off but I couldn't be bothered even talking to them or the wankers managing them."
The remaining Violets would go on to make a minor splash in the States by having a song, "Turn To The Sky", included on the soundtrack for the John Hughes film "Some Kind Of Wonderful" but it was a far cry from the sound the group had made its name with, closer to Blondie or the Pretenders than anything. A major label deal was still not forthcoming though and the group split up for good in 1988.
Si, meanwhile, had headed off to form a new group, the Batfish Boys, who were far closer to the unhinged brilliance that the Violets had originally sounding like a swamp rock Alien Sex Fiend breaking out the alligator wine. They made three albums between 1985 and 1990, all of which are well worth a listen if you can find them.
"Forming the Batfish Boys was like getting on a motorbike and riding off into the sunset with a big scream of release." he smiles, "I descended into the swamp, and had a load of fun getting muddy. Damn straight it was a reaction to the frustration I felt with the Violets - I got the Mad Max Leathers back on and nailed the Cuban flag to my jacket like a cape. I was superman, and on a bottle of whiskey a day. So a lot of my memories of the Batfish years are even hazier than the first half of the eighties. But I made some fucking dirty blues and had some rocking times. It's quite interesting how many people have asked me to reform the Batfish Boys, they obviously had some impact, more than I ever imagined. I was oblivious at the time, probably the rock and roll lifestyle but looking back I think we were ahead of our time and pre-empted Grunge/Grebo. I recently bumped into Bob Diablo, one of the Batfish bassplayers. Incidentally, if you are reading this Bob, get in touch, I lost your contact details. Par for the Batfish course."
After the Batfish Boys broke up in the early '90s, Si kept himself busy with a number of projects including overseeing a band for Games Workshop, D-Rok, and even ended up becoming part of the Sisters of Mercy's touring entourage - "I was asked to look after the Doktor at a couple of festivals about 16 years ago, and have done it since then. I get to play in a lot more countries than back in the day, and have bigger smoke machines.... that's the main difference." he explains. Then in 2007, the Violets reformed with Si, Rosie and Tom plus new bass player Jo completing the 21st century line-up. But, as always with this band, nothing turned out to be straightforward...
"Rosie developed cancer." explains Si, "And not just any old variation, she discovered she had throat cancer, especially not good if you are a vocalist. So everything was put on hold while Rosie had a monumental battle with her own body parts. And being, well, Rosie, she managed to survive the noxious chemicals and radiation and kick the cancer's arse. But it did involve her actually learning to speak again, and then get back into singing... quite a journey."
So, how has life back in the Violets been since the group got back on the road again this year I ask Si?
"It has been good doing some gigs, from the punky sweaty little warm-ups where the audience were a few feet away, to headlining Wave Gotik Treffen in Leipzig. And then there was Shadowplay, another big festival in Belgium. We also played the DV8 Festival in York which was mighty fine, I think the whole festival was pretty good judging by the reactions, and we were particularly groovy. It has also been great playing some new material, and even better seeing it go down well. We are still writing and recording new stuff and looking forward to finishing the new album. It's going to be called 'Made Glorious' and if you want to help us make it/pre-order you should go to: http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/themarchviolets. If you want to get a taste of our new stuff you can buy a ltd edition EP here: http://www.musicnonstop.co.uk/product-view.php?productid=24635"
I should point out that this interview wasn't the easiest of things to complete for either Si or myself and I owe him big time for being so patient with me. We originally conducted it in a cafe bar back in Leeds around Easter but the sound file got corrupted on my dictaphone leading to us redoing it via e-mail. However, when we first met up he was nice enough to pass me on a couple of bottles of Psydwr, the "psychedelic cider" he produces as a sideline which is made with wormwood and which a few of us on the Sinzine staff had a good sample of at a recent meet-up. In closing, I ask him a bit more about it.
"I was approached by a friend who asked me if I'd like my own drink. I naturally said yes, who wouldn't want their own brand of drink?" he smiles, "The idea was to do it like a record, a limited edition with a label. The first pressing was called 'Grooving In Green' in 300ml bottles, natural 100% apple, no nasty chemical additives, 7.5% alcohol content, fermented in Whiskey Barrels which gives it a smokey flavour, and we added some Wormwood, the active ingredient in Absynthe. It's made in the Badlands of Wales, hence the name: Psy for mental, and Dwr is Welsh for water. And this year's pressing is amazing, Flanders Cox apples, a bit more 'appley' and just over 6%, delicious! So if you are in a band, run a night club, having a wedding or an event and want a bunch of bottles, or 20 liter boxes of ridiculously delicious strong natural cider with your own label on let me know. By the way, the drunk you get off it is like a natural high. Cheers."
So there you have it - the Violets are back and looking more than ready to give things a proper go this time. If the new EP is any indication, that long-awaited debut album should be well worth waiting for.
