Chris Catalyst : Sisters do it for themselves in a merciless music biz
Depending on which day of the week you call on Chris Catalyst you may encounter a silver-painted cyberman (aka one-man sampled 'band' Robochrist), a sharp-suited purveyor of prime power-pop (that'll be a day he's fronting Eureka Machines) or - on the lazy day SinZine speaks to him - a second generation Sister of Mercy sat at the PC in his pants. Yep, Catalyst wears a range of hats and other comedic costumery, but there's no mistaking the street smarts and gritted determination to get by of born 'n' bred Yorkshire lad, when he imparts to our Andy James a stark music industry survival guide, amid discussing Eldritch, bingo, the best places to play and boxer shorts to suit the dark soul.
The Sisters of Mercy are a band who I suspect need no introduction to Sinzine readers. Put it this way, if you consider yourself a goth and genuinely have no idea about this lot then you're probably not trying very hard at this whole doom merchant lark...
Anyway...the idea of putting a Sisters piece together was first mooted back in the summer here at Sinzine. The trouble is, as any journalist will tell you, Sisters mainman Andrew Eldritch is a notoriously press-shy person. However, luckily for me, I happen to be on speaking terms with one of the modern day Sisterhood, bassist Chris Catalyst. Chris has been with the Sisters since 2004 but has involved in a number of bands over the years including Hull-based Britrockers Catylyst, one-man techno-metal wrecking crew Robochrist and most recently, the sublime power-pop of the Eureka Machines. Along the way he's also had stints with everyone from Leeds northern soul punk 'n' rollers the Dead Pets to face-painted psycho-rockers AntiProduct. However, it's the Sisters we decided to ask him about for this interview, most specifically what life in the 21st century incarnation of this band is like. And luckily, he was more than happy to oblige us...
How did you first come to meet Andrew Eldritch and be involved with the Sisters?
I did some session singing in 2004 for a project led by former Sister Adam Pearson. I met Andrew briefly then, but he doesn't remember. A year later, he was looking for a new guitarist and our mutual friend Danny Mass (formerly of Salvation) recommended he came to see my old Robochrist thing. He came to see me play, and offered me the gig in the bingo room at the Woodhouse Liberal Club in leafy LS6. We accidentally got kicked out of the bingo for being too rowdy. The rest, as they say, is history.
Were you a Sisters fan growing up?
Nope. Being a music obsessive, I was aware of the hits, and had always enjoyed them when I heard them in clubs like Spiders in my home town of Hull, but didn't really know any more than three songs. I told Andrew this the first time I met him, and he seemed quite keen on having someone in the Sisters who didn't have preconceived ideas for what the band (or, for that matter, he) should or shouldn't be like.
Are there any plans to record new Sisters material in the near future? You've played a few new songs live in recent years but generally in interviews Andrew seems dismissive of the whole idea.
I've had around 0.1% of the experience of record labels that Andrew has had, and from that tiny aspect I can completely see why he doesn't want to sign another record deal. (See also: why Andrew isn't massively keen on the press.) I would love to make a Sisters album, but Andrew has been burned one too many times by useless labels making promises that they never keep. I get a lot of the e-mails that labels send to us when they are either wanting to release new stuff or licence old stuff, and the last one (from the former label, as it happens) was entitled: 'FAO: SISTERS OF MERCEY'. Doesn't exactly fill you with confidence about their ability to market and release your future babies, does it? I could tell you several billion stories of record label incompetence (from Sistersworld and otherwise) which would make you weep real tears. The music industry is a breeding ground for the mentally incapable and socially inept, unfortunately. I have lost count of the broken promises and let downs from promoters, labels, managers, agents, other bands... I occasionally wish I'd got into something less corrupt, like gun-running. Or cricket.
We also exist in a world where the power has been given BACK to the bands. It's really not difficult to make an album in a home studio - we did both Eureka Machines albums on a skeleton set up and scraped together the cash ourselves - or to market the album by yourselves and be your own label - again, with Eureka Machines we post out every album we sell, and the shirts and so on. However, I don't think Andrew wants to sell The Sisters short by doing this. That's his choice, and I absolutely respect it.
Eureka Machines
It's easy for me and our little Leedsy band to do this, because in the grand scale of things (despite having an always ardent, usually attentive and occasionally beautiful fanbase) Eureka Machines don't sell enough copies and generally aren't marketable enough to justify giving a percentage to some besuited shysters who will inevitably do nothing. (IMPORTANT TIP TO EVERY LITTLE BAND IN THE WORLD THAT'S READING THIS: NOBODY WILL EVER CARE ABOUT YOUR BAND MORE THAN YOU DO.) A well-oiled rock machine like the Sisters needs a well-oiled rock machine of a label to look after it all. Should that label come along, and offer enough time, money and help (and the right sort of help), then yes, I can see it happening. Unfortunately, the chances of such a label existing are roughly as remote as finding Shergar nuts deep in Lord Lucan on Atlantis.
We are always writing new songs. We are always playing new songs. Occasionally, we record bits. The fans get to hear it at the gigs; they get to trade the bootlegs on the 'net; we don't have to spend months in a studio (on a daily rate of whatever) for the album to then be torrented to death and for us to see nothing from it. We do alright out of just doing gigs, and there's no sign of that ending any time soon. The recent Glasgow date sold more tickets than the 2006 date at the same venue. As Andrew would probably say... 'Go figure'.
(I lost my point)
Which is your favourite Sisters album and why?
Personally I like Floodland the most, as I think it's got the best songs on it, and I like the production. I've said it before, but I think the Sisters are a very under-rated pop band, and I think Floodland is the best example of this. 'This Corrosion' goes on a bit though, eh?
The Sisters are a band who tour extensively but you hardly seem to play the UK much nowadays - why is this? What are the best places you've been to with the band?
We play the UK more than we play Canada, for instance. If you were in a band that was lucky enough to be able to tour (most of) the world, where would you rather go? New York? Rio de Janiero? Moscow? Or Mansfield? Don't get me wrong, I've had some excellent nights in Mansfield (that's not strictly true), but if we decide we're going to do, say, four weeks on the road, we're going to do our darndest to play the places that we WANT to play. Particularly with the XXX 30th Anniversary Tour, where Andrew and I decided that we would only go to places we thought were good venues with great sound (for the band and the punters). I think as a rule we're going to keep that up, as there are a lot of venues where the sound simply doesn't work for the Sisters (either by virtue of the shape of the room, or by reticence of the promoters to provide adequate PA). Just because you saw Motorhead there the other week and it blew your mind, doesn't mean that the same system and room will work for a band with drum machines and a self-admittedly very quiet singer.
The best places I've been with the Sisters are Sao Paulo (for sheer mentalness and devotion), Japan (for the amazing culture shock) and Brussels (for the cheese board).
What's Andrew Eldritch like to work with as a musician and as a person? Is he really as difficult as some of the stories make him out to be or is that all just a myth?
Andrew is very sure of what he wants, and generally even more sure of what he doesn't want. If what YOU want doesn't fit into that remit, then you might have a bit of a fight on your hands. It's up to you which road you choose. Ultimately it's his band and his vision (and of course he's holding the purse strings) but it's definitely a democracy and we choose setlists and what to play together. I think Andrew, Ben and I get on very well for two people who've basically lived together for three of the past seven years. There's people on the crew who've worked for the Sisters for twenty-odd years (emphasis on the 'odd' there). They all work for other bands, in some cases a lot bigger (Robbie Williams, Coldplay and Linkin Park, to name but three), but they always come back to the Sisters. It's a family. It's a beautiful dysmorphia of utopian family. Or something.
Andrew Eldritch
Does the size and loyalty of the Sisters following in 2011 (especially given how long it's been since the band last released an album) surprise you at all?
The Sisters are a legendary band, and legends are needed more than ever in such miserable, vacuous times. It's an honour to be part of something so big and part of so many people's lives, and it's a constant surprise that people in their droves turn up to see chubby little me, especially as I sit here right now in my pants with my computer in my lap. (Obviously those pants are leather, reflecting flickering candlelight, a couple of joss sticks and some red wine on the go, Ministry pumping through my subwoofers and a Siamese cat purring - just out of reach) I'm obviously under no illusions whatsoever that it's me personally they're coming to see - it's just nice to be able to help a top band along where I can.
Finally, what are your future plans with the Sisters at the moment?
We just got back from headlining the second stage at Fuji Rock in Japan, which was suitably fantastic, totally bonkers and a utter honour. It was the first time the band have ever been there, so it was doubly exciting for us. We hope to get back there sooner rather than later. We're off to Australia and New Zealand in September and October, again, virgin territory for the Sisters. Australia is a place I've wanted to go to since I was seven years old and thralled by the brilliance of rugby league, and, a couple of years later, the brilliance of Annalise off 'Neighbours'. In November and December we're going around a few choice spots in Europe that we missed earlier in the year, and next year we have a couple of things lined up which you'll get to hear about sooner or later. We've always got plans; sometimes they're a surprise even to us.
40 YEARS OF SHOCK ROCK - A GUIDE TO ALICE COOPER
Sinzine's Andy James takes a look back at 40 years of albums from the man who wrote the book on Shock Rock and assesses the good, the bad and the downright weird...
Alice Cooper is, of course, a man who needs no introduction. As well as being the man who invented shock rock and, arguably, goth as well, it's fair to say that he casts a shadow over nearly any alternative musical genre you'd care to mention. And, of course, he returned to England to promote his new release "Welcome 2 My Nightmare" at Halloween, supported by Club Antichrist's own Sophia Landi!
Which got us here at Sinzine thinking...what better way to honour the Grand Lord of all things Dark and Twisted than by doing a retrospective on his albums. No easy task - as the title suggests, it's now 42 years since the Alice Cooper band (as they then were) made their recording debut and when you've made close to thirty albums, not all of them are going to be stone cold classics. But from the classics to the good, the bad and the plain insane, this has been one mammoth but incredibly fun feature to compile. So here it is - a full guide to the musical history of the Coop complete with handy ratings. Enjoy...
The Alice Cooper band rose up out of San Francisco in the late '60s under the tutelage of Frank Zappa under whose guidance they released 1969's "Pretties For You" (4/10) and 1970's "Easy Action" (4). They're not without a curious trippy sort of charm in places but they really don't bear any relation to what came afterwards and there's an awful lot of filler on both. The story really starts with the group's 1971 album "Love It To Death" (9) and the spooked out single "I'm Eighteen" that brought the band into the public consciousness. Even forty years later the sheer darkness of songs like "Black Juju" and "The Ballad Of Dwight Fry" send shivers down the spine so Lord only knows what it must have sounded like to a world which had never really experienced anything like this before - the Doors had the darkness but were much less heavy while the Stooges had the chaos but not the sinister themes at its core. Mix in some killer rock anthems like "Caught In A Dream", "Hallowed Be My Name" and the deliciously sinister "Is It My Body?" (which still contains one of the best riffs to an Alice song ever) and you've got a stone cold classic.
And as if that wasn't enough, it only took them a matter of months to follow up "Love It To Death" with the equally awesome and aptly named "Killer" (9). Bursting into life with the sheer power of lead-off single "Under My Wheels" and the laid-back cool of "Be My Lover", this album really is all killer no filler. "Halo Of Flies" took the prog rock template and twisted it into all kinds of nasty new shapes while the haunting Wild West ghost town lament "Desperado" and the downright ominous closing duo of "Dead Babies" and "Killer" still sound thoroughly vicious today. Want to know where shock rock all started? This is the place.
1972's "School's Out" (7) was a concept album of sorts (the first of many that Alice has done over his career as we'll see through this article). The title track officially put the band in the big time, reaching the top of the charts both in Britain and the States and remains a classic of its time. Elsewhere, there's a bit of filler here and there but the skulking "Luney Tune" and the ferocious "Public Animal #9" show that this isn't a one-track album by any means and a worthy addition to your collection. It would be 1973's "Billion Dollar Babies" (10) though that would make up the final part of the Holy Trinity of early Alice albums. A chart-topper on both sides of the Atlantic, pretty much every track on this one could have been a single (as it turned out, it spawned four Top 10 hits in Britain in "Elected", "No More Mr Nice Guy", "Hello Hooray" and the title track, all with killer singalong choruses to match). Elsewhere, the sheer chaos of "Generation Landslide" and "Unfinished Sweet" shows that the unhingedness that made the band great was still running unchecked through the band and the ultra-sick but wonderfully camp "I Love The Dead" which closes the album are all highlights as well. If you only listen to one Alice album, it really should be this one.
Fair to say that any group would have problems following an album like that and by 1974's "Muscle Of Love" (5), the group were on the verge of imploding. The weirdest thing about this album is that it sounds like it should have been made about four years earlier (somewhere between "Easy Action" and "Love It To Death") as it contains a lot of the same style of garage rock that the group were specialising in around this time but lacks the spookiness that made the latter stand out so much. It's not entirely without its charm (lead-off single "Teenage Lament '74" is the best of an otherwise unremarkable bunch), it just sounds rather tame in comparison to what's gone before.
Following disappointing sales of "Muscle Of Love", the group would splinter with Alice keeping the name and the rest of the group going off to form the Billion Dollar Babies. It would be the singer who'd emerge with the gold though in the form of his first solo album, 1975's "Welcome To My Nightmare" (8). A return to the sinister showmanship of "Billion Dollar Babies", it saw Alice adding a much wider variety of sounds to his repertoire, ranging from the almost jazz-funk title track through the Broadway musical stylings of "Some Folks" (one of the album's high points) to the straight-down-the-line rock of "Cold Ethyl". It also gave Alice another monster hit with the AOR balladry of "Only Women Bleed" (ironically, probably one of the weaker songs on here). Sure, it doesn't always hold together as well as some of the earlier albums but, as the man himiself has often said about it, that's the thing about nightmares, they rarely make any sort of coherent sense...
1976's "Alice Cooper Goes To Hell" (6) is effectively "Welcome To My Nightmare" only minus the best bits. It's another themed album, this time revolving around Alice going to hell (funnily enough) and meeting the Devil. However, it's hobbled by lacking the twisted variety of its predecessor and by the presence of too many ballads for its own good, presumably trying to follow up the success of "Only Women Bleed" though lead-off single "I Never Cry", a reflective look at the Coop's growing alcoholism at the time, isn't too bad. Elsewhere, the content ranges from the spooked-out lounge rock of "I'm The Coolest" through to a couple of ill-advised attempts at disco in "You Gotta Dance" and "Wish You Were Here". Hit and miss basically.
Which is a good summary of 1977's "Lace And Whiskey" (6) as well (another concept album but this one doesn't really sit together as well as the previous two did). On the one hand, opening track "It's Hot Tonight" swaggers in on an absolute stormer of a riff and is a fine song while the vaudeville "King Of The Silver Screen" shows that Alice was still willing to try and branch out a bit as does his cover of the rockabilly classic "Ubangi Stomp" (which the Stray Cats would hit paydirt with a few years later). On the other hand, lead off single "You And Me" is a ballad-by-numbers and there's another abortive attempt at disco in "No More Love (At Your Convenience)". It's not quite the disaster that some people paint it as but it's really only average.
By now, Alice's alcoholism was running out of control and the early days of 1978 saw him thrown in a mental institution to get his head straight. The drying out process was actually fairly brief and he opted to stay around for a few more weeks writing about his observations about the place and its inmates. On his release, he teamed up with Elton John's co-songwriter Bernie Taupin to put these observations to music and came up with his best album since "...Nightmare" in "From The Inside" (7). Reclaiming a lot of the oddball charm that had been slightly absent from its two predecessors, it veers from the pure rock 'n' roll showmanship of the title track and the awesome "Wish I Were Born In Beverly Hills", an ode to broken-down Hollywood socialites that you can almost imagine Elton singing in one of his rockier moments (and which Alice savvily reintroduced into his set some 25 years later when the mental breakdowns of the likes of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton were hitting the headlines) to ballads such as "The Quiet Room" and the heart-stopping "How You Gonna See Me Now?" (written about Alice's nervousness at his wife seeing him sober for the first time) which had an added heart lacking in some of the slower songs on Alice's previous albums.
"From The Inside" would also be the last sighting for some years of the old mascara-clad monster that was '70s Alice. 1980's "Flush The Fashion" (5) saw him doing an almost full 180 degree turn and entering the world of synth-swamped new wave with a toned-down image to match. This really is an album of two halves as the first five songs are generally pretty dreadful - wishy-washy synth rock which just doesn't leave any lasting impression. However, side two sees a bit of attitude and guitars return to the mix and "Nuclear Infected", "Grim Facts" and the hilariously wry "Dance Yourself To Death" (poking fun at the same synth-heavy new wave music that Alice was now semi-embracing) are well worth a listen.
1981's "Special Forces" (7) sees Alice getting to grips with the formula a bit better as he mixes his new musical stylings with some of his old-school ferocity. It doesn't hit the target every time but the snarling likes of "Who Do You Think We Are?" and "You Look Good In Rags" are solid efforts and rock much harder than anything on "Flush The Fashion" as does the lead-off single, a high-powered electro-rock cover of Love's "Seven And Seven Is". Elsewhere, there's the typical twisted Alice sense of humour with the hilarious stiff upper lip English vocals of "You're A Movie" and the tale of a transvestite vice squad policeman that is "Prettiest Cop On The Block". It's far from typical Alice but it's well worth a listen all the same.
If there's one album in Alice's back catalogue that deserves the title of being something of a lost classic, it's 1982's "Zipper Catches Skin" (8). By this point, Alice was firmly back off the wagon to the extent that he claims to not even remember making it due to his booze intake, record sales were circling the bowl and yet somehow he managed to really hit the mark with this album. Marking a semi-return to his rock roots, it contains some of the most bizarre yet fun songs in the Coop's back catalogue with subjects as diverse as the death of Zorro (the storming "Zorro's Ascent"), tightwad millionaires (the ultra-camp "Make That Money (Scrooge's Song)") and directing slasher movies ("Tag, You're It") all getting the Alice treatment. There's also a real playful sense of humour at work on the likes of the pop-punk one-two of "I Like Girls" and "Remarkably Insincere" and the hilariously sarcastic "I Better Be Good" (probably the album's high point). And really, how can you honestly dislike an album which has both a semi-acoustic ditty about aliens ("No Baloney Homosapiens") and a song called "I'm Alive (That Was The Day My Dead Pet Returned To Save My Life)"?
1983's "Dada" (6) is another album that Alice claims to have been too far gone on alcohol to remember making. Much darker than its predecessor, it's unfortunately not quite of the same quality. It has its moments - "I Love America" sees the classic Alice sarcasm in full flow for the album's highlight while "No Man's Land" (a tale of a man working as Santa in an Atlanta department store who encounters a girl with a rather handy sexual fantasy while working on the job one day) is similarly entertaining. Elsewhere though, while the darker subject matter works in some places such as "Former Lee Warmer", other moments such as "Enough's Enough" and "Scarlet And Sheba" just sound dull. Alice would finally kick the booze in the wake of its release and take a three year break from recording. Unfortunately, his comeback, 1986's "Constrictor" (4) remains probably one of his weakest albums to date. It has one standout moment, the teenage angst rock of opener "Teenage Frankenstein" but elsewhere it's hobbled by a mix of dated '80s production and below-par songs. In retrospect, it's a bit of a bridge between the synth rock of early '80s Alice and the late '80s metal version but unfortunately it just combines the worst bits of both.
1987's "Raise Your Fist And Yell" (8) is a big improvement. Drawing heavily on the mid-'80s shock rock bands who'd claimed his band's early work as an influence such as WASP and Twisted Sister, it's the sound of the scumbag Alice of old confidently announcing his return. The ferocious anti-censorship ode "Freedom", the sneering "Lock Me Up" and the storming "Give The Radio Back" make for a fantastic opening one-two-three while elsewhere the sicko thrills of "Chop Chop Chop" and "Roses On White Lace" see him gleefully pushing the boat out to get a reaction from the Tipper Gore-led pro-censorship brigade. It could've been the start of a new dawn but unfortunately what followed it makes it more of a false dawn...
While 1989's "Trash" (4) gave Alice a massive radio hit in the form of rock club mainstay "Poison" (still a great track), it also contained some horribly over-produced mush-rock of the worst kind (then again, it was produced by Desmond Child so maybe not that much of a surprise). Follow up single "Bed Of Nails" and the Joan Jett co-penned "House Of Fire" both just about rock hard enough to earn a pass but elsewhere, the title track is dumbed-down hair metal of the worst kind which is only outdone in the bloatedness stakes by the corpulent balladry of "Hell Is Living Without You" which stinks like a graveyard during a heatwave. It may have been a commercial highpoint for Alice but it was definitely a creative low.
1991's "Hey Stoopid" (5) was a small step back in the right direction but still not great. On the one hand it produced two killer Alice singles in "Love's A Loaded Gun" and his cover of Zodiac Mindwarp's "Feed My Frankenstein" and the epic "Might As Well Be On Mars" but there's an awful lot of filler on there even if it does suffer a lot less from the over-production issues of its predecessors. Which makes what followed it all the more remarkable - 1994's "The Last Temptation Of Alice Cooper" (8) was arguably the best album he'd done for over a decade. A return to the concept albums of late '70s Alice but with a much darker mid-'90s twist to them (the man who helped him with the ideas for the central story was none other than Neil Gaiman). Bursting into life with the driving "Sideshow", it's the story of a boy growing up in '90s America trying to stay true to himself and avoid the temptations of self-destruction. Songs such as the punky lead-off single "Lost In America", the almost musical-style "Bad Place Alone" and the unsettling "Unholy War" combine to make it a solid, varied and above all, very good album. Hell, there's even that most rare of beasts a good quality Alice ballad in the form of "It's Me" for you to enjoy.
Unfortunately, while "Last Temptation" was a good album, it didn't save Alice from the grunge backlash and failed to sell. Losing his record deal, he took a sabbatical from the music business, returning in 1999 with "Brutal Planet" (5). A much heavier affair than anything Alice had previously done, it owed a debt in its sound to Alice's late '90s successors like Marilyn Manson. Lyrically, it was incredibly stark with songs about the genocide in Rwanda ("Pick Up The Bones"), spousal abuse ("Take It Like A Woman") and neo-Nazi thugs ("Wicked Young Man") although "It's The Little Things" does at least allow a bit of Alice's trademark humour to shine back through. It's an intriguing listen but a bit lacking on the killer tunes front. 2001's "Dragontown" (6), while stylistically similar to its predecessor, at least adds a bit more melody to the proceedings as evidenced by the driving opener "Triggerman" which keeps the ferocity of "Brutal Planet" but adds a bit more nous to it. It's not all plain sailing - the likes of "Deeper" and the ominous title track drift a bit too close to the best-forgotten nu-metal sounds of the time for comfort. However, you can at least see glimpses of the old Alice trying to break through the guitar swamp on this one such as on the sarcastic "Fantasy Man", the surprisingly poignant ballad "Every Woman Has A Name" and the hilarious Beatlesesque "It's Much Too Late" (about a righteous man who ends up in Hell through an administrative error). It was a sign of what was to come the following year when nu-metal collapsed and Alice was free to return to his roots...
The reinvention duly came with 2003's "The Eyes Of Alice Cooper" (8) which saw Alice returning to the garage roots which originally brought him to the public attention in the early '70s. Bursting with shit-kicking rock 'n' roll stormers like "Between High School And Old School" and Alice's ode to his hometown "Detroit City", it sees his trademark sense of humour and playfulness returning on the stormingly sarcastic "Man Of The Year" and the brilliant piss-take of manufactured pop that is "The Song That Didn't Rhyme". No question, this one definitely saw the Coop back on top form. Realising he was on to a good thing, the follow-up, 2005's "Dirty Diamonds" (7) was pretty much a straight continuation of its predecessor. Although this one's not quite as good, it's still a solid offering with the frenetic "Sunset Babies (All Got Rabies)" and "Your Own Worst Enemy" and the storming title track definite highlights while the countrified tale of a transvestite jailed for shooting up a redneck burger bar "The Saga Of Jesse Jane" is well worth a listen. It's only real problem is that it sounds a bit contrived in places especially when put against its predecessor.
2008's "Along Came A Spider" (6) saw Alice returning to the concept album theme that had served him so well in the mid-'70s, this time about a serial killer with an arachnid obsession. Unfortunately, this isn't in the same league as its other post-1980 equivalent "The Last Temptation". It's a bit like a bridge between the previous two garage Alice albums and what would come next but it just doesn't sit together as well as it could and also strays a bit too close to the humourless bludgeoning of "Brutal Planet" at times. That's not to say it doesn't have its charm though - the storming "Vengeance Is Mine" (complete with a guest spot by Slash on guitar), the lean mean "Wrapped In Silk" and the Stonesy "I'm Hungry" are all well worth a listen but this feels like a bit of an opportunity missed.
Which is not something you could say about the Coop's new album "Welcome 2 My Nightmare" (8). I have to be honest, when I first heard that Alice was doing a sequel album, my thought was that it could be a disaster. Not so - this is probably the most ambitious album he's done in quite some time and harks back to his '70s heyday. From the opening sinister slow-building ballad "I Am Made Of You", this takes in ferocious rockers like "Caffeine" and "Runaway Train" (which features the four surviving members of the original Alice Cooper Band reunited at long last), slinky garage rock ("I'll Bite Your Face Off"), music hall pizazz ("Last Man On Earth") and even a well-aimed piss-take at disco kids ("Disco Boogie Bloodbath Fever"). It basically does what you'd have put good money it'd fall short on and proves itself to be a worthy follow-up to the original "Welcome To My Nightmare". Well worth your time and money in other words.
The Sound of Sex & Horror - A Chat with Vince Ray
With Antichrist's Halloween 'Rock 'n' Roll Voodoo' party almost upon us, SinZine presents one final word from the folks haunting the stage at this spooky shindig. Lending his infamous illustrations to the event flyer, both opening and closing the 'Theatre de los Muertos' stage with his band The Boneshakers, and then treating clubbers to DJ set including 3D visuals with Alien Sex Fiend's Ratfink - the 'Vince Ripper and the Rodent Show', Vince Ray is firmly the star the night. Andy James quizzed him about what he has in store in Friday.
Whichever way you look at it, Vince Ray is one seriously cool cat. You may know him for his awesome '50s style cartoon artwork (as epitomised in his book "The Weird & Twisted Tale of Vince Ray") which can be seen everywhere from the albums of bands such as the Yo-Yo's and the Dead IDentities through decorating London rock hangouts such as the Intrepid Fox and the late lamented Gaff to T-shirts and even tea sets. Or you might know him for his work with his current psychorockabilly group the Boneshakers (and, prior to that, early noughties rock 'n' rollers the Razorbacks and '80s psychobillies Vern Vein & The Blue Veins) who've just released their third album "The Sound Of Sex & Horror", a cracking collection of revved up Revillos-style B-movie influenced rockabilly classics-to-be. But just in case you're not familiar with him, you hopefully soon will be as the Boneshakers are playing at Club Antichrist this coming weekend followed by their own special Halloween party at the 12 Bar on All Hallows' Eve itself. And that could only mean one thing - yours truly was dispatched to catch up with Vince via e-mail and see what was going on in his world at the moment...
"The Sound Of Sex & Horror" has been out for a few months now. Are you guys happy with the reception it's got?
Yes, it's an album that we've wanted to make for years with a big sound, mixing the old rockabilly stuff with all the other influences, kinda like Motorhead playing Eddie Cochran! It's good to be able to get some of this mixture of styles across to a wider audience who maybe missed the Stray Cats first time round! I remember thinking that rockabilly was going to be the new punk rock back in the early eighties when I first saw them.
This is the third album you've done with the Boneshakers - how does it compare to your previous work with The Razorbacks?
The main difference is the double bass. Songs have to have a certain beat or swing to the rhythm to make the stand up bass work so there's more rockabilly in the Boneshakers...but we still like the heavy stuff too!
How would you describe what to expect at a Boneshakers gig to the uninitiated?
Party music really, it's good time stuff, nothing serious, just a celebration or rock and roll music through the last fifty years.
Have you got any artwork projects on the go at the moment?
There's always band stuff happening, I really like working for bands and try and keep the costs low so they can afford it! I know myself that no one gets rich through playing rock n roll apart from the chosen few! Right now, I'm working on the flyers, posters and T shirts for Viva Las Vegas which is a huge event in the States, mainly for 50's rockabilly and the custom car scene. We're doing a custom Vince Ray bike this year so I'm looking forward to wobbling around to the shops on that when it comes out.
Are the things that influence your art similar to the things that influence your music?
Yep, exactly the same. If I'm stuck for a song idea, I take a title or theme from one of the pieces of artwork. There's a track on the last album called 'All Men Are From Earth, Women Are From Hell' which was originally a painting. That was a piss take of the book Men are from earth, women are from venus. It's my chance to have a pop at political correctness and sing a song about devil women of course!
You've been involved with psychobilly bands since the '80s heyday when the likes of the Meteors were around - how does the scene now compare with how it was back then?
It's down to young blood really. It was just kids when it started but now it's mainly guys in their forties who are still up for it. Less booze, less wrecking but it's still rockin' along and bringing in new people. It's a hard scene to define, the music is very varied and no one ever wrote the rukes of what it means to be a 'psychobilly' so folks just bring what they want to it, warp it and reinvent the style.
Are there any up and coming bands out there right now that you'd like to recommend to our readers?
Just been looking at Bo Ningen who are kinda cool. Only the Japanese can do that kind of thing! Dunno if they're new, but they're new to me. We played with Atomic Suplex recently, I liked them. Garage punk is great, I'm always amazed at the extreme places you can take it.
Finally, what are the future plans for Vince Ray & The Boneshakers?
JAPAN please! We're working on that and a tour of the States. There's some film soundtrack stuff coming up which should move things on for us, it's a big project.
Many thanks to Vince for taking the time out to answer these questions. In the meantime, you lot know what to do - get yerselves down to Antichrist this weekend, see them in the flesh and get your Halloween started with a bang! Over and out.
VINCE RAY OFFICIAL: www.thevincerayexperience.com
VINCE RAY & THE BONESHAKERS: vincerayandtheboneshakers.com
Grooving In Green - A Chat With The March Violets
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.