Hi
Brian! Thanks so much for getting in touch and being up for this interview! How
are you? Are you still based in Bridgwater? Still making music?
Ey up.
No problem, thanks for the interest. I’m in Bridgwater. In fact I’m in bloody
cold freezing wintry Bridgwater today which is very unusual here in the
Tropical south west of England. How am I? I’ve got a cold. Still making music
-not so much -spend more time touring other bands round -check out NYC band
Gangstagrass -I drove them round UK & Europe last year. Played my last gig
in April this year with a Jamaican guitarist a Czech bassist and an Italian
drummer – that’s International Socialism for you. I sang ‘Car Park Attendant’ a
song I debuted in the Sedgemorons.
So
let's start from the very beginning, like what was your first instrument and
how did you get it? Was it easy for you to learn how to play it?
Instrument? Probably a piano accordion that laid around the house as a kid. My
grandad was a captain of sailing ships and brought it back from Nazi Germany in
the 30s. Having been liberated from Fascism it featured on and off in bands
through the years. I did some session work with John Parish’s band ‘Automatic
Dlamini’ (featured PJ Harvey) in the 90s and played it on that. Song called ‘Roland
Barthes didn’t do country’ (1992) and again later with a US band called ‘Ensenada
Joyride’. You can also hear it on the Red Smed track ‘Partisan Song’ (currently
on 374,000 views- that’s more than Uncle Freds Lucky Tandem!!). Anyway
- learning that led me to piano and then one day I moved to guitar at about 16 and
taught myself that. Never had no lessons nor nothing. Hence shit technique.
And
what sort of music was listened at home while growing up? When did you know you
wanted to be in a band?
My dad
was never at home as he worked away at powerplants but when he came home he’d
sometimes bring comedy records with him – Jake Thackray, 5 Penny Piece, Spike
Jones, Blaster Bates, My mum would sing old movie songs around the house. So no
help there then! I was a kid in the mid 60s and so the Beatles were the first
thing I listened to - also the Monkees. And it was their TV series that made me want to be
in bands. So I formed a garage band aged about 10 when I lived in North Wales
(called ‘The Thundermakers’) I sang (and wrote) and we played in the garages on
our council estate and invited the neighbourhood kids in to watch us. They paid
a penny each then we’d take the cash and spend it on Batman bubblegum cards.
Rock n Roll or what!!
Had
any of you have experience in being in bands before being in The Sedgemorons?
If so, which bands were you in?
Just me
and Nervo the drummer really. We’d been in punk bands together since the late 70’s
(mainly ‘The Dangerous Brothers’).Stuart the bass player had been singer in a
punk band called The Market Gardeners, but he was also in the Royal Navy and so
didn’t gig too often (apart from Falklands War and the Cod War) (that was a
real war about fish against Iceland)(Aggressive little sods) (the fish I mean)
Anne, Lianne and Gareth -SMs was their first band and Bazza the sax man had
only just learnt his instrument (I think)
How
did you all know each other to form The Sedgemorons? Was there some sort of
recruiting process?
Well,
the Dangerous Brothers were the heart of the Bridgwater music scene and we
formed an organisation around us called Sheep Worrying -which was not just a record label
it was also a fanzine, a theatre company, we put on gigs and so on and it was
very DIY indie punk stuff. So all the people in the SMs were an integral part
of Sheep Worrying. It was a bit like recruiting the Magnificent Seven. First
there was me and Nervo, then Stuart, then Anne, then Lianne, then Gareth then
Bazza and then we shot up a Mexican village. There was nothing like ‘auditions’
except maybe me teaching Stuart to play the bass.
Where
did you usually practice? And how was the creative process for the band?
Sheep
Worrying had an ‘office’ on the top floor of the Labour Party headquarters
Unity House. We did everything there -wrote the fanzine, rehearsed the plays,
etc and so we rehearsed the band there too. The creative process was mainly me
writing stuff and bringing it to the band and them adding to it with ideas.
Later Anne or Gareth wrote whole lyrics. ‘Girlfriend’ lyric was mainly by
Gareth with me putting music to it. Then I’d teach Stu the bass line, then Anne and
Lianne would work out some harmonies and then Gareth would fall off a chair or out
of a window.
The
sound of The Sedgemorons is quite unique I think, so I wonder, what would you
say were your influences?
In
truth we decided to break away from the quirky punky feel that came from the
previous bands I'd been in and aimed for more indie pop and more accessible music. We
formed the band to raise money (not for ourselves) so we wanted mainstream
gigs and to be a bit cabaret to earn
cash-but we very quickly weren’t satisfied with that and kept pushing the
boundaries, sending ourselves up and the audiences and so influences were quite
eclectic. Personally my guitar influences were always Eddie Cochran, Hank
Marvin and Wilko Johnson so that mix is where you get the fast jangly rhythm
and the twangy lead sounds. But the underlying influence was punk attitude I’d say.
What
is the story behind the band's name?
well,
the district we live in is called Sedgemoor. You can checkout that it’s also
the scene of the last battle in England (1685) so it didn’t take much to add ‘morons’
in there.
How
was Bridgwater back then? Where did you usually hang out? What were the places
where you would go out and check bands? Where there any like-minded
bands?
Bridgwater
was and is a small provincial town but with a radical history. 75% working
class but by the 80s that was in decline due to Margaret bloody Thatcher. Unemployment
was high and money was scarce. So we were a mix of the fightback against her
and trying to create a scene ourselves that was original and local and encouraged
all bands to work together and put on stuff together, share gigs, share gear
etc. However, we basically took over the local Art Centre (which incidentally
was the first art centre in Britain-1946) and put on it’s music programme and
our original theatre and mainly hung out
there. So it was us that put on the local gigs 4 bands at a time -and brought
down big alternative bands of the day such as Crass, Toy Dolls, Chumbawamba
that sort of thing. Bands rarely came to Bridgwater that we didn’t put on so
you’d have to go to the nearest city-Bristol to see big gigs. However, Glastonbury is only 10
miles from Bridgwater and there’s that massive music festival there every year
which we all went to. We used to help them with the traffic control -these days
I supply workers for the bars there.
Your
first release was a cassette album titled "We're Bonkers". I haven't
found much information about it aside that it was recorded live. Is there a
tracklist? When was it released? How many copies were made?
'We’re Bonkers’
was the first thing we did yes. It was a mix of a live gig at the Antelope Inn
Sherborne where we played with The Chesterfields. Simon Barber recorded us from
the PA and in fact his voice is on the album wishing me a happy birthday (it
was my birthday) -but we also went into a studio to add maybe 6 more tracks.
The album was basically a mix of the ‘cabaret’songs we’d been doing to raise
money (‘Sorrow’-The Merseys,’Don’t Get Around much anymore’-Duke Ellington plus
our on stage opener ‘Y Viva Espana’-played Shadows Style) then some of the
newer originals we were writing including an early version of Drop Dead Darling
and some of the ‘poems’ (which I wrote for a stage play and Stuart read).
Recorded 22 Sept 1984. Don’t think we made more than 100 copies Track list -1 Y Viva Espana (Trad)
2 Sorrow (trad) 3 Don't Get around much anymore(trad) 4 Greed (Smedley) 5.
Window Box of life (Smedley) 6 Drop Dead Darling (Smedley/Kane) 7 Ethiopia
Utopia (Smedley) 8. I walk the line (trad) 9.Twist n shout (trad)10 20 Flight Rock (Cochran)
Your
second 7" came out in 1985 on the label Sheep Worrying Records. This was
your own label, how was the experience running it?
Sheep
Worryings first release was ‘False Nose’ by the Dangerous Brothers in 1980 and
then we did a few others and as it was our umbrella organisation it was natural
the SMs would be part of it too. In fact it was our 3rd 7” release
-the second was ‘the Sheep Worrying EP’ (1982) which featured me and Nervo +
others in a band called Club Whoopee doing a song called ‘You’re sort of ok’
(written by me and horror writer Kim Newman). Running a DIY indie label with no
money was a nightmare but so was the 1980s. We were in a massive political
struggle and no one involved had any money, few had jobs and gigs were a
political statement more than building a career. We also went on demos, actions,
protests all that stuff. The establishment hated us. One local newspaper labelled
me ‘the most dangerous man in somerset’ at this same time.
I read
that because the label needed funding to keep going you formed The Sedgemorons
to get out of the debt. Is that true? Did it work out in the end?
Yes that’s
true. We built up our fanzine to a 'Listings' magazine with 1,500 circulation but it had
to be paid for so we used advertising. Sometimes we didn’t get enough to cover
it so we just kept letting the debt build up then one day we were staring at a
£1,000 debt..so we said ‘let’s form a cabaret band just to pay this off’ -hence
the Sedgemorons. After a year we paid it off and by the second year we were gigging
for fun and actually gaining a reputation and enjoying it so stuck with it
.
This
7" had two songs, "Drop Dead Darling" and "I Need a
Girlfriend". I found a video for the second song, all of you playing it at
the Bridgwater Arts Centre when the BBC2 was filming a documentary about it.
How was that experience? Was it the only time the band was on TV?
The
clip is from I think 1985 and upstairs at the art centre. We’re playing
acoustically but I dubbed the single version over the youtube clip.I'm in the
white car park attendant coat,Lianne in the bobby socks, Anne with a broken arm,
Gareth singing ‘Girlfriend’ Stuart on tea chest bass playing with his motorbike
gloves and Nervo and Bazza sat on a window sill, I don’t recall the SMs doing
any other TV. We got a fair bit of radio play.
I must
say that I love the song "Drop Dead Darling", was wondering if you
could tell me in a few sentences what is the story behind it?
Ha!
When the SMs formed in 1984 I lived with Debbie (Kane) and we jokingly wrote
the song together. Mainly her lyric and directed at me. And then she left me.
Reality imitating Art. She also did the design work on the cover which is meant
to represent a lipstick message on a mirror! I wrote the music. Actually the
original idea came from writer Kim Newman (who I wrote musicals with) and who was trying to write a pastiche of
‘Move Over Darling’ (Doris Day) but when I was trying to put music to that
basically me and Debbie just totally re-wrote it and we changed all the words
except his title so he asked not to have a credit. I played the new song to the
band and it became our most popular song and sort of set the scene for the next
2 years
.
How
was the recording process for these songs?
We
recorded them at the Milborne Port studios near Sherborne early 1985. It was an
8 track studio and the producer was Chris Hardcastle. It took us an afternoon
and evening I think. We brought in Bazza to do some sax on ‘Girlfriend’ and he
also did the ‘whistling’-which he ad-libbed in a jazz style. Bazza was basically
Gareths mate who we’d barely met. Gareth wrote the words to ‘Girlfriend’ and
sang it and also spontaneously did the scat singing bit (without asking us).
Anne sang lead on ‘Drop Dead’ with Lianne doing backing. I over dubbed the lead
guitar and then at the end I put in some piano. There’s only one ‘mistake’...
during the almost last line of 'Girlfriend' Stuart is slightly late on a bass
note – and now I’ve told you that you’ll hear it all the time!!
Did
you appear in any compilations that you remember?
The SMs
didn’t. We did ‘we’re bonkers’ then ‘the single’ and then we went into a studio
in Weston Super Mare to record 4 more tracks which we never released. Although
the photo that we use on most of our promo stuff was taken that night on the
stormy seafront in the town of John Cleeses birth. We only lasted 2 years
And
so, why weren't there more releases by the band? Was there any interest by
other labels?
When we
did ‘we’re bonkers’ we tested the water with record labels and in fact Cherry
Red were really keen and sent us a hilarious fan letter back. This really
boosted us and made us take the cabaret band into the more original direction
hence the single -which was distributed by Rough Trade and led to good coverage
in the music press and some good gigs.
Are
there more recordings other than the ones mentioned, any unreleased songs by
The Sedgemorons?
Just
the 4 songs from Weston – 2 Anne lyrics (my music) ‘Small town’ and ‘women only’
and 2 of mine ‘Rock n roll is pretty exciting’ and ‘Trotsky’. Both these songs
are on you tube done by my later bands but I might put these original
recordings up as now I think of it theres some comical bits there plus me
playing a banjo and some backward vocals from Nervo to sound Russian and backward cymbals to sound Pink Floyd. We also
played one gig at the Thekla (a boat owned by Bonzo Dog Doodah Band frontman
Viv Stanshall) which we recorded and I think there’s an unreleased tape of that
somewhere..I’ll have a look!
What
about gigs? Did you play many? Any particular great ones that you remember and
why?
We
played lots of gigs mainly in the south and west of England. Best gig was the
Moles Club Bath after which we had a review in Sounds (music paper) and then
Peel played our single and the next days gig at the Exeter Art Centre was
packed with people who’d heard it. The Bristol Thekla gigs were good, lots of
obscure pub gigs and of course a lot in Bridgwater and surrounds. Our last gig
ever was in St Pauls Bristol at the Tropic Club, but Nervo couldn’t find it so
we had to borrow a drummer from the audience
I read
that you toured a stage musical named "Rock N' Roll is Pretty
Exciting", how were this musical? What was special about it?
Yes
this was a send up of teen rock musicals like ‘Summer Holiday’or more likely 'the Young Ones'-or maybe check out 'What a Crazy World' or 'Gonks go Beat'. We all wrote
lots of sketches based around our songs and then glued them together to make a
show. It was about a car park attendant (Rockin Brian) whose car park was going
to be closed and turned into a discotheque. So -like Yul Brynner did, but with
more hair – I had to get ‘the kids’ to help me save the car park. (oh, that’s ‘parking
lot’ in American). We did all the songs and we all acted in it. Then we toured
it to a few other places. We considered reviving it recently with my daughter –
but then she grew up. For this show we all gained our stage names -I was Rockin
Brian-a particularly tedious man with a flat midlands accent (ref Noddy Holder from Slade, Ozzy Osborne or anyone in the cast of 'Peaky Blinders'), Lianne was Bobby Bland-a rather starry-eyed teeny bopper, Anne was ‘Betty
Bonkers’-a hard bitten feminist, Gareth was ‘Bing Beasley’-a twat who fell over a lot , Stuart was the abstract poet ‘Ghenghiz
2-Stroke’ Bazza and Nervo were just themselves really
And
where there any bad gigs at all? Any anecdotes you could share?
We didn’t
do bad gigs because we made out we were bad and argued with each other on stage so
no-one could tell the difference. We played one gig at Cheltenham College where
the rugby team tried to disrupt it but couldn’t work out if they had or not so
gave up. The ‘legs’ photo on the sleeve is from there. By our last gig at the
Tropic club we’d actually fallen out with each other for real so the atmosphere
wasn’t good. Our last song played together was an acapella version of ‘Silent
Night’. It was excruciating, we just sang the words 'silent night,silent night' over and over.
Did
you get much attention from the press or radio? I see John Peel used to play
you. What about fanzines?
Yes
Peel liked us and played us a few times as did other radio and we got a fair
few reviews here and there. Fanzines -well, we reviewed ourselves and so did a
few other ones.
When
did the band call it a day? And why? What did you all do afterwards? I see you
were involved in many bands even covering some Sedgemorons songs!
I’m
pretty sure it was late 1985 which now I think of it meant we were only going
for a year and a half. We started off as great mates with an aim – to raise
money – we did the album then the single -got good reviews-looked like we were
on the up and up and then I reckon egos came into it a bit. We sort of split
into 2 ‘partner’ factions , me and Lianne against Anne and Gareth with Stuart
in the middle. Nervo was always in demand with other bands and was a very good
ska-reggae drummer playing with the Alkaloids and another good indie band ‘India’
then I think this reflected in what we all wanted to do next. So when we got to
the Christmas 85 gig we in fact formed 2 bands -me and Lianne formed ‘Red Smed
and the hot trot smash the system boogie band’(which did the comedy political
stuff) while Anne and Gareth formed the ‘Inflatable Ducks’ which were more
maybe ‘Smiths meet the Cure’ type of sound. Then people moved on and the band
wound up. Anne left music and went into journalism (she was actually the main
reporter for the Bridgwater Mercury at the time anyway) but moved to another
part of UK and in fact to NYC at one point. She went on to make a name for
herself as a producer of current affairs programmes for the BBC radio 4. I met
her a coupe of years back in London for the first time in 20 years. She has 2
daughters. Lianne, who I dated at the time, went off to RADA and then
became a successful stage manager of largescale childrens theatre productions around the world. I haven’t seen much of her
since she left-but I always get a xmas card. She lives in Coventry. Or possibly
Belgrade. Gareth went to Manchester and studied acting-which is what he does
now with his one man shows. He’s very good. I met up with him again mid
90s and we produced a Czech-English musical together called ‘Czechomania’.
Stuart left the area to study drama and became a teacher. He moved back to
Bridgwater mid 90s and I got him playing for the Red Smed band on and off. I hadn’t
seen him for 10 years by the way – until today!! Weird or what? He wants to get
another band together. Bazza went off to London and did his own thing as an electronic music session player
and recently moved back to Bridgwater and I bump into him rarely. Nervo (real
name Kevin) played in every band I was subsequently in (Red Smed, the Visitors,
the Spanners) but about 10 years ago his doctor told him he couldn’t drum anymore.
So he just stopped.(Nervo i mean, not the doctor)
Are
you all still in touch? What do The Sedgemorons do today? Has there been any
band reunions?
We’re
not really in touch. I had a go recently to see if I could get a reunion, but
it didn’t seem likely. That said Stuart seemed keen today, so you never know..
..
Aside
from music, what other hobbies do you have?
Well,
in 1990 I got elected to the council as a Labour councillor and have done that
for 27 years. Today I’m the Leader of Bridgwater Town Council-which is a strong
socialist council and so I’m trying to instil some of that original punk ethos
into the local political scene and I think It’s working. I also became very
involved with the Czech and Slovak Republics after the collapse of Communism
and so spend a lot of my time taking people backwards and forward there – every
year organising a rock tour for instance -and lots of other stuff too. Not sure
that gives me time for a hobby – football maybe. I’ve organised international
football teams and tournaments and only stopped playing myself a couple of
years back (with a sensational hat-trick in Hungary against a fat team of Czech factory workers). I like encouraging young
bands -especially original ones – and I like driving and touring musicians. One
of the last gigs that Clash Frontman Joe Strummer played was here in Bridgwater
in 2002-a month before he died (he lived round here and called Bridgwater 'a Clash Town') – me and Nervo supported
him on stage and from that gig we keep an annual link up with KEXP radio
Seattle who do a live link up for their ‘International Clash Day’ (c. Feb 8th).
We twinned Bridgwater with Seattle – check out the youtube click of me reading
the proclamation.
Today
how is Bridgwater, Somerset? Has it changed much since The Sedgemorons days? If
I, or any reader of this interview, was to visit as a tourist someday, what
would you suggest checking out in your area?
If you
or anyone who wasn't a total fkwt wanted to come to Bridgwater you would be
welcomed with open arms. Today it’s a bit of a boom town…yes, we now have 3
nuclear power plants…..and 6 new hotels. A lot of music and a lot of history
and all in the beautiful surroundings of the cream and cider drenched West
Country. The Bridgwater Art Centre is still going, the Engine Room film and
media centre was set up following the Strummer benefit gig and is a great
progressive place, and the river has the 2nd highest tide in the world
(after somewhere in Canada). Check out the Green Olive meze restaurant, the
Blake fish and chip bar, the Cobblestones indie music pub, the Fountain Inn (an
old sailors pub..if you like old sailors), Wetherspoons-for the cheapest drinks
in town (and Nervo) and my flat in the elegant 18th century Georgian Castle street (a bit like Boston) home of the Swedish Womens Netball Team – well,
it would be if they were looking for a home.
Looking back, what would you say was the biggest highlight for The
Sedgemorons?
1.
Getting the fan letter from Cherry Red 2. Getting played on John Peel 3. The
early days when we were one big happy family
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