In the Beginning...

In the summer of 1970, at the age of 15, Colin Newman (later of WIRE and Githead), and I formed our first band, Tyres: it was appalling, we had a piano, a drum kit and one acoustic guitar, the sheet music to Big Yellow Taxi and Up Around the Bend and no idea what to do next.


Amorphons

In the summer of 1979 I formed Amorphons and recorded some demos with Nick Garvey who had previously performed a similar duty for Wire. Although Amorphons as a unit did not achieve the success that perhaps we could have, the recordings were used as the basis for what would become Alone on Penguin Island.


Recording A-Z and Wire 154 with Colin Newman

In early 1980 Colin Newman, Robert Gotobed and I began to rehearse the material that would become Colin's first album A to Z. The subsequent demos produced two songs that were included on the 7inch EP that was part of Wires final album for Harvest, 154. In late summer 1980 we recorded A to Z at Scorpio Sound in London.

After support slots for Amorphons and the Flatbackers, the A to Z band, now renamed Soft Option, flew to North America for a short promotional tour of New York and Toronto, returning for a headling date at the Venue in Victoria.


The Recording of Alone on Penguin Island

On the back of having completed live dates as part of Colin's band Soft Option, and in the midst of a period of change within the Wire camp, I recorded Alone on Penguin Island. Living in Brixton at the time, the atmosphere was growing increasingly tense and it was perhaps not an auspicious time to be trying to make a statement in vinyl. Funded by Geoff Travis at Rough Trade, produced by DOME (formed by Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis of WIRE) and studio time at Blackwing, the recording of Alone on Penguin Island was not a harmonious experience. Eric Radcliffe and John Fryer (engineer and assistant engineer respectively) found themselves acting as brokers between my intention for the album to build on the music and demos I had already created and DOME's desire to strip the material down to its essential building blocks. Many arguments, sulks and silences later we had seven tracks recorded. Not enough for an album and I admit at this point I had become so disenfranchised with the production process I seriously contemplated walking away from the whole thing. However, I worked on with the producers and an increasingly enthusiastic John Fryer for a further two days to wrap up the recording.

Finally finished, the LP was cut at Portland Studios and sent to Deutsche Gramiphonique for pressing. Slim Smith did the artwork, which was interesting but lacked any visual clues as to who I was. Unfortunately the LP was released, during an industrial dispute between the music journalists and the publishers, which meant that there was little or no exposure and sadly it was never played on radio.


Escape from Penguin Island

The first Brixton riots convinced me to leave London for a while, but I returned in late 1981 to re-join Colin Newman for the recording of Not To, but on this occasion I decided not to join the subsequent promotion tour.

In late 1982 I again returned to London and re-joined Colin Newman in a start up band including Simon Gilham and Tom Morley (ex. Scritti Politti), with the objective of playing material by all four members. This folded on Colin Newman's departure to India, and Simon Gilham's formation of Inteferon.

Early in 1983 I recorded a few songs with assistance from Nick Garvey, and impressed Muff Winwood at CBS enough to want to hear more. I assembled a band to record that included Terry Chimes (ex. The Clash), Paul James (ex. Blowzabella) and a handful of old Newbury cohorts, along with the recording expertise of Steve Parker who had engineered Colin Newman's recordings. However with the emergence of the keyboard based New Romantic movement, CBS decided to pass on another guitar band.

...so the moral of this rock 'n' roll tale, is that as with many on the edge of the music industry at the time I decided to get a life, have children and try an earn a steady(ish) income that such circumstances demand...


Return to Penguin Island

Despite everything, the affinity I had with the core material that went into the album remains strong, even if the final rendition in vinyl did not necessarily live up to my original aspirations. Although very much of its time, there has been an increasing interest on the web and with support from Colin Newman the time seems right to revisit the original songs and also introduce new material. Joining with a younger group of musicians the aim is to retain the essential essence of the songs, but to reproduce them in a more contemporary context.

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