JOURNEY INTO MONTY'S BRAIN - PART 3
Noise! Noise! Noise!
One
evening late in 1976, I was listening to John Peel as I religiously did
and heard an incredible noise; raucous wild and raw; it challenged all
my self-programming as to what was great music. Where were the masses
of electronics, the allusions to classical music and jazz, the lengthy
pieces that went on and on…? It was, of course "Neat Neat Neat"
by the Damned. For a week or so I resisted, but I could not ignore the
fact that Punk was definitely "where it’s at", Prog-rock
was fast sinking like the great pompous commercial Titanic it had become.
I bought "Television Screen" by the Radiators from Space.
Rock’n’roll
on speed it sounded like. Then the floodgates opened: music was interesting
again! Most people at school didn’t like it, (which was a bonus ‘cos.
you could annoy them with it!) There was a school band that rehearsed
every week trying to play "Layla" over and over like a bad dream.
I picked up the guitar once and thrashed about on it only to be told off
(by a pupil!) for playing "that Punk rubbish". Meanwhile HJ
wrote a song called "Eric Clapton is a Sod!", which summed it
all up really. There was great variety in the music we heard: Johnny Moped,
the Shapes, the Cravats, Patrick Fitzgerald, John Cooper-Clarke, the Residents,
John Otway, the Normal, the Not-Sensibles, TV Personalities and Half Japanese:
mostly feedback which was great for playing in the 6th form common room
along with Smash it up/ Burglar. Well it made a change from 10cc! Another
obscure band we liked was the Valves, who where a kind of Punk Bonzo-dog
Band. They wrote a song about a robot girlfriend from space; whatever
happened to them? Maybe Watt Tyler and Sexton Ming are their successors!
Among
the most successful bands we liked the Pistols, the Stranglers (at last
a keyboard man!), the wonderful Ian Dury (peace be upon him), the Buzzcocks,
the Ruts, the Adverts and the Rezzillos. The Damned remained for us the
definitive Punk Band, I recall the local new wave record shop: Megawatts
proudly displaying a Stiff poster on which Captain wrote, "this shop
is a complete shit-hole!" I saw them at Brighton Top Rank during
the "Machine-gun Etiquette" tour: the most high-energy gig I
had ever seen. Little did I know then…! However, I never abandoned
interest in the good music that had come before. The music press and that
manager (you know who!), exploited the fiction that Punk had no connection
to earlier music and made it all boring and obsolete. Who the hell where
they to tell us what was and was not cool! Listen to whatever you want
I say! At the same time a number of the older bands where less than enthusiastic
about Punk.
Characteristically adventurous, Daevid Allen of Gong wrote: "Beatles generation knocks Punk: Why? Becoz they stuck in same groove still talking same talk smoking same dope listening to same music But we see Punk is the energy of change". In 1977, At Sussex Uni., Planet Gong where supported by local Brighton band the Molesters: a small band of punks jumped around in a sea of hippies sat on their arses. "Destroy Stereotypes!" was part of the message, who listened??
What
do you do as a frustrated teenager? Jumping around to fast music helped,
until you sprained an ankle anyway! Also drumming on cardboard boxes,
biscuit tins and rubbish bins; until you knackered your wrist (honest
that’s what happened!) Throwing a large granite block around the
garden was also good, as was screaming in the park, shouting "Boring!"
in the school corridors and opening doors with your head (not recommended!)
HJ developed a skill in photography and creating amusing and disturbing
images was also a fun pastime (most of these images are his, taken at
the time and now genetically modified by him for your consumption.) Meanwhile
I got into artwork, drawing comics "the adventures of Monty Oxy Moron"
with myself portrayed as a rather hapless character and recorded some
truly cacophonic music complete with screaming and smashing things to
bits, my poor parents!
By the 6th form things were improving slightly, (just before we were kicked out into the world!) Another friend Rick O’shea had a band: the Impasse who were into the Stranglers, Toyah and Killing Joke. (His brother Frank is doing well as a fretless jazz bass player these days) HJ and myself began recording some more musical stuff with DD’s help; HJ and DD became the ironically named "Concerned Christians" and produced some truly corrosive acidic satire. (www.veryconcerned.com) Meantime I was off to Art college: a true haven for creativity and self-expression in a wicked world, or so I thought!
Eastbourne Art College!
On my second day at college I was drawing some psychedelic doodles and a tall menacing tutor peered over my shoulder and said, "Oh, one of these, don’t you know Jimi Hendrix died years ago?" Oops! Obviously there was a lot I needed to learn about this place! In fact I never did find out what was "in" and the best information this guy gave me was that I didn’t want to be "an Artist" at all!
It was the beginning of the ‘80’s, everyone seemed obsessed with fashion, New Romantics, David Bowie and Adam Ant. None of this appealed to me much and so alienation continued big time. Every day, before getting the train (in the grey and rain) to Eastbourne, I played Machine-gun Etiquette on headphones while my parents slept in the next room. I sat on my own in the filthy dark train to the gloomy grey hell that awaited me (everyone else was in the thick choked fog in the smoking compartment; once I joined them…with a WW2 gas-mask!) I did meet one great friend there however, Alasdair (AKA Alice Plankton) who shared my musical interests and introduced me to weird freak-out jazz music (Sun-Ra, Chicago Art Ensemble, Cecil Taylor) as well as the Stone’s "Their Satanic Majesty’s Request". He was into drawing comics too, (similar in style to Bob Crumb) and I learnt lots from him. He also recorded songs, mostly about fish and was almost arrested for recording one in the local supermarket! He has moved on into painting, filmmaking, poetry and assembling the most incredible collection of unusual records I have ever seen! Together we transformed the college into a performance space for truly insane "music" and psychodramatics. Joined by whoever felt the urge we brought in toy instruments and used whatever we could find: paint pots, electric heaters, a large metal spring, a filing cabinet; anything that would make a horrendous din to express the true existential state of the Art College Experience as it was. We called it "The Futurist A-gogo Nouveau New Romantique Fashion Orientated Theatrical Poseur with mascara Plastix Graphix new wave Frilly Panties Art School Ensemble" which was the best thing we did there! HJ subsequently organised this amorphous chaos into a tape for release; I wonder if anyone bought it? The foundation year finished and I left to become unemployed.
Kate’s
Advice.
While
so unoccupied I continued to record with DD and had a small band called
"the Second Attic" (inspired by Mervyn Peak’s Gormenghast)
doing gigs in peoples front rooms. I also made friends in the local jazz
scene who were very encouraging especially Vic Richards, Adrian Kendon,
who gave me Jung to read and the late Trevor Kaye who had a theory of
the universe based on sound. I also sent a tape to Kate Bush; I had always
admired her imaginative creativity. She sent a great letter back suggesting
I try playing local clubs, (at that time there was nowhere suitable and
I was far too paranoid to perform in front of people I didn’t know,
yet this proved to be the best advice ever later on…)
Acid Tapes.
Soon after this I found an alternative cassette label to "release" my songs: Acid Tapes run by cool Mr Alan Duffy, (where is he?) This label specialised in neo-psychedelia and also featured the Cleaners from Venus, Martin the Alien’s band (another friend of Captain’s and great songwriter). At this time I had not yet met Captain himself, but continued to enjoy the Damned output; I thought the Black Album was fantastic! When the solo albums came out an obvious Syd Barrett influence and the inclusion of the masterful Robyn Hitchcock who was another favourite of mine excited me. I thought to myself, "I wonder if Captain would like my stuff?" but had no idea where to send it. In 1984, as a result of a young woman’s insistence that she had until a quarter to 10 to save the universe, I became a psychiatric nurse.
Dr. S. "And zis vas the beginning of ze long journey to learn how to live, relate to people and function in groups without which you would have been hopelessly lost, ja?"
Oh no! He’s back again!