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oftripps · 5 years ago

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“ –– wow. ” it’s not so much a critique as it is a g-rated expletive. tripp forces a smile mid-chew and blinks. “ my tastebuds are screaming. gah–– uh, singing. singing. ” he avoids swallowing and as ring-decorated fingers snag a napkin, wide eyes drifting to the tabletop as a small jingle breezes past tensed lips. “ ~ allergic to mushrooms ~ ”

or, alternatively: this is somethin’ new! the caspar slide pt. 2 !! & this time, it’s ‘bout to get funky !! so i’m linc and this is tripp and he’s........ a trip, honestly, so let’s just... yeet on into this ––

( joe keery + 22 + muse 12 ) isn’t that phillip joel “tripp” goodman over there? i heard he joined faction: one after they got back to west ham. it’s funny, ‘cause they were only on the service trip because HIS BANDMATES DUPED HIM INTO THINKING THE SIGN-UP WAS FOR A WOODS-THEMED OPEN MIC GIG. hopefully they fit in there – they’re JAUNTY but also OUTRÉ. oh, i’m sure they’ll be fine.

out the door ! ( tripp goodman: a roadmap )

look up townie family in the dictionary and you’ll find a portrait of the goodmans directly beside. these folks have a looooong flippin’ legacy here in lil’ ole west ham, kansas. it all started with montgomery goodman, a good man, who helped west ham’s founders break ground on this midwestern charmer several centuries ago. and now, the goodmans still live on the same property –– a refurbished farmhouse ( now closer to mcmansion ) surrounded by five acres of roooooollin’ hills. once upon a time, they were farming folk. now, theresa and joel goodman run the town’s one and only veterinary clinic.

honestly, growing up? tripp was a problematic kid. he’d take in frogs from the woods and start his own frog hotels. he’d sneak pets from the clinic to school who “ needed help learning their numbers ”. in class, he’d flick sunflower seeds at the backs of his peers’ heads and, when threatened with discipline, claim he simply “ wanted to see if they’d grow ” . so no, to answer your question–– tripp never really saw the real wrath warranted by his rulebreaking.

in fourth grade, he chose the saxophone as his required instrument. he caused such a commotion in his house, that his parents asked his teachers to suggest something quieter. the viola. the flute. the clarinet. the piano. instruments came and went,;instruments were quickly mastered and abandoned. because dear lord, how many times could they listen to the spongebob theme song played on woodwind ?! on strings ?! once middle school rolled around, little phillip joel knew his way around a whopping total of six instruments, a tally that would only grow in the coming years. eventually, his parents caved and allowed him to keep playing, so long as he respected instrument curfews. they gave song requests to avoid hearing the same pieces on repeat: the goodman household was probably the only one blessed with an oboe-and-beatbox rendition of under the sea. young phillip joel’s take on the issue was simple: not all heroes wore capes.

( tw: domestic unrest, mentions of violence ) theresa and joel split when tripp was 9. just seven months later, tripp’s mother moved in with her girlfriend: tripp’s guitar teacher, ms. lillith. tripp didn’t mind ms. lillith. she was chill. he came to find out she could knock back a chocolate milk almost as fast as he could, and she liked her grilled cheeses with swiss only. his best friend became a thirty-six year old woman who happened to be his mother’s girlfriend. and that was fine. he could dig it. but joel goodman? oh no. his family name was tarnished. the scandal was too much to bear. joel sued for full custody and nearly made it, thanks to hometown politics and loyalties. but then he made one fatal mistake: he crossed his own son.

at 10 years old, fifth grade phillip joel returned home to his father’s after school with three fingernails painted effervescent blue. sidney frasier made me so cool, he gushed as he put his colored nails on proud display. dad, aren’t i so cool? the next day, his dad enrolled him in the town’s peewee football program. he returned home from his first practice with a black eye and a split lip. from a ball, the coach insisted. hit the poor fella square in the face, real strong. phillip joel put up a fight against football; it wasn’t for him. it conflicted with music practice. couldn’t he just play music with ms. lillith instead?

the custody battle persisted. they settled on a parenting schedule. joel contested, consistently, months later. and so the cycle persisted up until phillip joel’s 12th year, when he was knocked out cold on the football field. the broken ribs came from hefty tackles. bruises from the fall. concussion from the impact. but theresa spun it to her advantage: joel had since started coaching the middle school team. this was an instance of parental neglect. and, when the courts didn’t comply, she instructed her son to jump down the stairs. one broken ankle later, and joel goodman was accused of child abuse. his word against his injured son’s. the maneuver won theresa full custody. phillip joel has yet to forgive himself.

after the custody battle’s conclusion, joel stayed in town: but phillip joel didn’t want a thing to do with sharing his name. his mother still scolds him as phillip joel, but to everyone else, he became tripp –– inspired by his knack for, you guessed it!, tumbling over his own two feet.

in high school, tripp was the class clown. always smirking, always grinning, always ready to catch someone off guard. he became a pivotal part of west ham high’s jazz band, and even formed a small group with a few buds: face. they played some school events: homecoming, pep rallies, prom. garage-baked young rock, their songs often preached meetings under bleachers and high school never ending.

in senior year, the band saw a reboot: and after assuming a more indie, spacey sound and a nifty new name –– 1757. –– they saw a rise in local celebrity. coffee shops commissioned them for jam nights. they played on the local radio. so they collectively decided to stick around and see how far they could ride this west ham fame train. with tripp as their frontman, they always leave a memorable impression: he’s not exactly the most run-of-the-mill performer.

1757.’s sound is reminiscent of LANY: i’ve reblogged a few tunes onto tripp’s blog for reference. he’s v much a paul klein / matty healy vibe. big into music. big into losing himself in it.

so what was he up to before the service trip? playin’ tunes. working part-time as a waiter. and brainstorming ways to get out of going on this trip, as soon as he realized his stupid bandmates lied about the form he signed. an open mic in the woods ! pah ! he should have known. but the concept sounded pretty flippin’ cool.

wear our shades on our nose, 'cause we're cool like that ( tripp goodman: the man, the myth, the ledge )

oh god, he’s w e i r d . he believes in goblins and ghosts and aliens ( oh my )!

still VERY VERY close with his mother. v broken up about not being able to get through to her, because it was about to be his parents’ wedding anniversary and they were going to anti-celebrate it with big slices of oreo cheesecake and setting things on fire.

how he feels about coming home to west ham: post apocalyptic version.

uhhhh... can he please get a waffle? specifically a cinnamon raisin waffle with extra cinnamon and a shit ton of syrup? actually. syrup with a side of waffles?

why he was banned from his personal twitter.

“ do you even lift, bruv? ” * proceeds to pick up a teacup & lift his pinkie like a true knock-off british monarch, shitty accent included *

listens to wham! and glam rock. unironically.bluetooth speaker mounted on his bike. no helmet! like an absolute boss. he knows!! wild!! shades on. it’s 2am. it’s dark. but true swag obeys no clock.

catch him biking everywhere stranger things style, actually. his bike’s name is milo because he can roll on for miles. mess with milo and he’ll fuck u up. aka find out if you’re lactose intolerant and slip heavy cream into your meal.

has a strong vendetta against blue doritos. which might take root in some horrific experiences involving cheez wiz, cool ranch, weed, and the new york subway system at 4am on a tuesday. spring break freshman year of college. oof.

he has a lil drawwwwl. tease him about it. he’ll probably blush.

stress-hums chili’s babyback ribs without realizing. catch him singin’ that about to be murdered.

weapon of choice: kindness.

actual weapon of choice: baseball bat.

he will write little jingles to keep morale up. “ so we’re trapped / cash us inside / how bou’ dat ? ”

has a passion for introspective literary quotes. but... has somehow managed to learn each and every one wrong.

friggin’ loves superheroes even though he can’t be bothered to watch the films? he just… always used to get made fun of for liking comic books even though he never read them? “ arachnid man is uh... heh. he’s pretty dope, huh? ” he embraces the falsehood. someone call him on it.

9/10 times if he’s in the gym, it’s just to eat his donut and watch pay-per-view movies on the bike for free.

apple pie can absolutely be breakfast if you try hard enough. jeez. get with the times, man!

he had a legitimate pet rock before going on this service trip. but has no idea where that bugger’s gone. probably got fed up with tripp serenading him with “ we will rock you ” at all hours of the night.

lawful good. will wave other drivers on forever.

got into an accident on his bike once. bitch broke his arm and he just kept on smiling. “ no you have a nice day! and uh.... hey. mind if we like... call an ambulance? ”

low key feels like he’s the reason his parents’ marriage crumbled. low key guilty about it. low key wonders if maybe he lived up to his father’s expectations, he might have saved them a lot of grief.

give benny goodman by saint motel a listen and tell me that’s not his soul in audio form.

known for slightly hyperbolic storytelling.

pansexual as heck. falls in love. hard. it’s a mess. he can’t hide it. hence the shades.

he has brilliant hair. and it’s immortalized in his high school yearbook.

is hellbent on being a source of positivity in this terrible situation. can he interest you in a meme in these trying times? how ‘bout a granola bar? maybe a good ole game of mash?

he’s convinced this is an elaborate prank. or a social experiment. maybe aliens. but let’s not question it too much, let’s just.... have a good time? hakuna matata? no worries? lol where the twizzlers at?!

leaves a voicemail for his mother every morning and every night. maybe he cries. maybe.

he has one ear pierced because like.......... senior year of high school, he wanted to feel more cool.

allergic to mushrooms, shellfish, eggs, and harbingers of doom.

he truly boggles minds. just.... v out there? v spacey. he closes his eyes and drifts about on stage, fingers dancing on the keys, body moving in eclectic ways. he says “groovy” and fuckin’ means it. he dresses in prints inspired by grandma’s carpet. lots of half-buttoned flowy shirts, boots, tailored statement pants, dangly necklaces. he’s got his hands full of rings –– they symbolize milestones. and some are just, like... pretty. and one’s his mother’s old wedding band.

where the hell are my friends ! ( wanted connectz. )

i was gonna do a whole section on this and got lazy but like.... anything. all the things. good, bad, ugly, beautiful. hurt him. make him suffer. but also support him a bit.

i imagine he’s got a solid squad goin’. he’s in faction one too, so... hmu for those.

i feel like he’d be pretty chill with the greeks? yeah bro, he parties. he’ll chill. he’ll crack open a cold one and pretend to understand what those letters on your jacket mean! pie-apple-fate-uh? cool stuff !

ride or dies. pls.

he needs someone to like....... melt his heart. maybe someone unexpected.

thisssss got long & disorganized but yes! let’s plot! let’s do this thang! #hype!!

#apogeeintro #✰ mother trucker dude; that hurt like a buttcheek on a stick ! isms.#if u cannot tell...... he is a gay ass MEME

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daggerzine · 7 years ago

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Back down to earth...Photon Band’s head time traveler Art DiFuria opens up.

Art DiFuria first came in to my radar in the mid-80’s when I saw him in a band called Tons of Nuns on stage at the Kennel Club in Philly. He seemed kinda like me, a “normal” punk (no mohawk, leather jacket, etc.) but I noticed his choice of footwear was cool. He had slippers on which I thought was about the most punk rock thing you could do (I wore mine in public a few times after that and got some odd looks/comments). A few years later I saw him in Uptown Bones and remember him being the same guy in Tons of Nuns and made a mental note. Fast forward a few years (early-mid 90’s by now) and I had left the east coast for the west coast and began hearing rumblings of a band called Photon Band who began releasing singles in 1995-ish (yes the Lilys, who Art played with for a time, have a record called Eccsame the Photon Band and as far as who inspired who well……read below).

The stuff I’d heard by Photon Band seemed to be a real inspired stew of whatever was/is in Art’s head at the time. A wiggy blend of psychedelic rawk with illegal u-turns all over the place. The stuff is good. On paper it could seem like the workings of a shot-out guy whose brain was addled by Clorox and Pop Rocks who lives in his mother’s basement and jams for jams sake, but no. These are honest to goodness songs by a truly talented songwriter and regarding Photon Band there’s more to come (again see below).

I shot Art some questions and he was more than happy to spill the beans on his childhood as well as what Philly band should’ve made it (also what was more hardcore, the Ardmore, PA or Exton, PA scene). Thanks so much to Art for really making this interview come to life (or “Pop!” as the kids say). Take it away….

photo by Jonathan Valania

Where did you grow up? Was it in the city of Philly or a suburb?

I grew up in a place that was basically “nowhere,” culturally speaking: Exton PA. Its redeeming quality was that there were endless woods and creeks out there. It wasn’t as developed as it is now and so you could get on your bike and just ride or walk forever, and just think and dream.

Did your parents or any siblings influence musically?

There was always all kinds of music playing in our house. We had this gigantic TV / Stereo system with this posh turntable and huge speakers. On Sundays, after church and before the Eagles games, my dad played a lot of Perry Como, Al Martino, and of course Sinatra. Hearing those big, fluffy recordings on a deluxe stereo was mesmerizing, even though the music wasn’t really my thing. My mom could play the piano, too. We had one in our house (which is now in my house!). But my sisters were the biggest influence. They would eventually take over the stereo from my dad by whining about the old goombah music and they’d put some Beatles on. Of course, in my little kid mind I was like “holy SHIT, what is THIS?” That was all a huge influence. My sisters are older than me by 7 and 10 years and they could both play guitar. The one closer to me in age majored in music in college, so she was always talking about music all through junior high and high school. It was the early 70s, so it was a very folky thing that she and my oldest sister were into, that whole heaviness-with-an-acoustic-guitar scene was very big then. And our local Catholic church, trying to be hip, dispensed with the organ and had a “guitar group” play the hymns. 10 or so teenagers looking wholesome on the outside but seeming a bit fiendish below the surface, as all teenagers do, was really cool to me. I was really little and hated going to church already, but I did like the sound of the guitars being tuned as we walked into the church. In my little kid mind I associated the big crucifix over the altar with the sound of guitars being tuned. It seemed ominous, like there was something profound about to happen. My sisters also had the first three Monkees albums, which made an indelible impression on me.

photo by Mary Garito

Do you remember the first record you ever bought with your own money?

Well, my folks were giving me records from an early age. They gave me “Billy Don’t Be a Hero” in 1973 and I had my own little turntable to play it on. I wore the grooves out on “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown” by Jim Croce and also the Raspberry’s “Go All the Way.” My first purchase, I remember very well because it pissed off my dad. I bought “The Who Sing My Generation.” I had become obsessed with them because I had seen footage of Townshend smashing his guitar and Keith Moon going nuts on drums. I had just seen the commercial for The Kids are Alright on TV on a Friday night and was supposed to do some yard work for my dad on that Saturday. He gave me the money in advance of the work because he had some errands to run. Then my sister invited me to go to the mall with her. Of course, I ditched the yard work and went to the mall and spent the money without having done any of the work. When I came back with the album my dad was waiting for me. Man, the tongue lashing that followed was intense.

Where was your first punk show? Love Hall? Somewhere else? Who played and what year was it?

We could get to Philly pretty easily on the R5 and by the early 80s, we were taking it upon ourselves to do so. The “other” record store at the mall, called Grand Records, was way better than the establishment one, Sam Goody’s. Grand Records actually carried the SST catalog, which was my entre into punk. I had Land Speed Record and The Punch Line because of that store. You could buy buttons and patches there that said “The Jam!” and “Fuck Art, Let’s Dance!” on them. They also had a little bulletin board with show posters and flyers. It was mostly new wave stuff, all pink and day-glo, about shows at the old Latin Casino, which had been renamed Emerald City. But one day, there was this black and white “xerox” flyer for a show at Love Hall with Hüsker Dü and the Minutemen. I had to go! It said that Love Hall was on Broad and South so I knew I could find it easily. I went by myself. I was scared shitless, this 16 year old kid with a new buzz cut so as to not look lame, wearing a white t-shirt, jeans, and combat boots just purchased from I.Goldberg’s. I scuffed them up on purpose right after I got them so they didn’t look too shiny and new. I was a LONG way from home. Once I got there, I didn’t talk to anyone. I just made myself invisible and watched the whole thing happen. Those bands were way better than I could have ever imagined. I left that show with a whole new concept of music. I think I went to see the Born Again era Black Sabbath that same fall and there was no contest in my mind as to which show was the real thing. But there was nobody at my high school that could relate to my Love Hall experience. They were all either wishing John Bonham hadn’t died, or to decide whether or not Rush’s Signals was a betrayal or a master stroke. Those are valid pursuits, too, and I didn’t become a punk overnight, or ever, really; becoming one narrow thing seemed dumb to me. But I did become a huge fan of it because of those bands.

photo by Jonathan Valania

I first saw you in Tons of Nuns in 1985 or maybe ’86. Was that your first band?

I had played in cover bands in Exton, which is how I learned to play “live” instead of just playing along with records at home. But yep, the Nuns was my first real band. It started as Bernadette Rappold on guitar, Brian Sussman on drums, and Mike Logan (aka Spayce Mann, who currently plays with Brother JT) on bass. Then Mike decided to bail and Bern switched to bass. That sort of became our identity, that trio. And that was how I learned to play guitar in a trio: trust the other two.

What was next, Uptown Bones? How long did that last?

Between Tons of Nuns and Uptown Bones, there was Holy Smoke. Tons of Nuns started to feel too kooky, too gimmicky. I could’ve stayed in it and slowly changed that, but I had my head up my ass. It started to feel like it wasn’t growing, but that’s probably because I wasn’t willing to give it a chance. So I told those guys I wanted out. They stayed together and got Bill Rudolph to play guitar. He later founded Rotgut and then Rear Admiral. They also got a really great guitarist named Dan who could play circles around me. Brian and Bern turned the Nuns into a much better band after I left. I think my leaving gave them a burst of energy, like “we’ll show him!!” And it was probably a lot more fun for them without this pain-in-the-ass brooding perfectionist around who wanted things to be more serious. When Mike Logan heard I left the Nuns, he wanted to jam again. We were very tight buds and quickly got songs together with a drummer named Jay Jurina who was also in Sky Grits. We felt like Holy Smoke had no limits; we used to do long instrumentals, ballads, really fast stuff, heavy Sabbath sounding tunes, you name it. And we had a lot of gigs in a really short time during the spring and summer of 87. But then Mike left Philly without really explaining why. Jay and I tried to keep the band going, but I was really thrown for a loop. I had lost my best friend and didn’t know why. I sort of blamed myself and thought, “well, all I’ve really done is start this kooky band that got better after I left, and then started this other one that wasn’t good enough for its co-founder. I must suck at this.” So I decided to lay low and not be a front man. I went to see the Uptown Bones whenever they played. They were guys who came to Temple a year after I did. They were a spunky little band with super spazzy energy. Plus, they were tight with Eric DeJesus (the Raw Pogo on the Scaffold / Easy Pop Art guy, and eventual best man at my wedding) who had been showing me his poems and stories which were so fucking excellent I couldn’t believe it. They were, in my mind, a “real rock band.” And I could see right away that Rich Fravel, the singer, was probably the best front man I’d ever get to play with. We all sort of spoke a language that nobody else understood. We were like a little scene of our own, wherever we went. When their original bassist Scooter drifted away from them, I stepped in. We started to click right away. That momentum lasted from the spring of ’88 through to our last tour in France in the summer of 93; two full length albums, three tours, and a bunch of singles. But then, we grew tired of each other and could see that it wasn’t going anywhere. We opted out.

Tell me about your involvement in the Lilys? Had you known Kurt previously? How long was your tenure in the band?

I had been messing around with this totally spontaneous band called the Psychic Enemies. It was me, Wayne Hamilton from Suffacox, and Simon Nagle, future Photon Band drummer. We purposefully avoided writing songs. We would jam for hours and never repeat a riff. We’d show up at gigs and do the same. But after awhile, we just couldn’t sustain it. Somehow, all that freedom felt like a dead end. So I was sort of putting word out there that I was looking for a gig. I had my hand inside a turkey on Thanksgiving eve 1993 and Bryan Dilworth and Mike Lenert came up the stairs of my warehouse and said “you’re playing in the Lilys.” I had heard In the Presence of Nothing and Amazing Letdowns and was pretty impressed. And I loved Bryan and Mike. So I said “yes.” We had a gig in DC like a week later. I didn’t know Kurt when I joined, but we instantly got along and had all sorts of things to talk about. I thought the Lilys were set up to do a lot more than we did. We had three songwriters and access to two cool recording studios in Philadelphia because I had my own 16-track and the drummer, Dave Frank (who had been in the Wishniaks) was co-owner of Studio Red with Adam Lasus. I figured we would just be recording our White Album for the next 15 years or so, you know? At least, that’s how I wanted it to work. But it wasn’t my band, and so I respected Kurt’s way of doing it which was to stay true to whatever his inner ear told him to do with his songs. That usually didn’t involve us.

from a You Tube video posted by dstarfreestar

Am I missing any bands in between? Did you do a stint in Robert Hazard & the Heroes that we don’t know about?

Ha...never hung with Hazard or the A’s or the Hooters, heaven help us. But I did play with a lot of other bands. I can’t remember them all, but here are the main things: I played with Baby Flamehead, which was such a breath of fresh air for me, such a pleasure. From about 94 to 2010 when I moved to Savannah, I also played either guitar, bass, or drums in a bunch of John Terlesky’s projects: Suffacox, Vibrolux, Brother JT, and even late period Original Sins. In the mid-2000s, I also played drums for We Have Heaven (Eric DeJesus’s band) and Ex Reverie. The latter is Gillian Chadwick’s prog vehicle. I loved those drumming gigs so much. I was sad to have to bow out of Ex Rev especially, because I had too many other commitments.

How/when did the Photon Band come about? Did you have a vision for it?

Even though I pulled back from being “the guy” after Tons of Nuns, I couldn’t stop the flow of ideas for songs. It seemed to be on the increase. Sometimes, they were so complete when I’d hear them in my head or dream them that I thought it was a cosmic phenomenon of some sort, like there are songs flying around out there in the ether and they choose people. And for some reason I was receiving more and more songs. I had been amassing cassette tapes of song ideas. At the same time, I’m really into astrology because my mother had been into that when I was a kid and it fascinated me. So I picked up this astrology magazine and there was an article in it by a woman named Barbara Hand Clow stating that since around 1962, the earth had gradually been entering into this band of photonic matter that would ultimately encompass our world and blow consciousness wide open. It made sense to me because I felt like that was happening to me. “Photon Band!” I thought. “If I ever start a band, that’s what I’ll call it and anything I write or record will go under that name. Its identity will be that it encompasses all the variety that comes out of me.” At the time, I was in the Lilys and my hopes for that band to become a vehicle for me and Mike Lenert as well as Kurt was dissipating. I left in late ’94 and told Kurt I wanted to start my own band under the name Photon Band. It was an amicable parting. He named the next Lilys album to honor that idea. That Lilys album, Eccsam the Photon Band and the first Photon Band single, “Sitting on the Sunn” came out at around the same time.

I know in the Photon Band you play all or most of the instruments. Did you learn all of those as a kid or pick them up along the way?

I taught myself guitar. Bass wasn’t hard to do after that. And drums came together just by sneaking behind the kit before practice, during break, and after practice and getting a few minutes in here and there. I love playing drums but man, if I don’t keep practicing, the next time I sit down, the drop off is more severe than it is with either bass or guitar. And whether it’s live or in the studio, I really need Jeff Tanner there. His ear understands where I’m trying to go better than anyone I know. His approach to playing bass is really important. And when we were a four piece, what he was doing on guitar was starting to take on its own identity that was re-shaping the songs. As far as drumming goes, Simon, Brendan, and Patrick have done all the best drum parts on our records. It’s only very occasionally that whatever I’m able to do on drums has worked better than them. I’m lucky to have had those guys as willing foils.

photo by Lisa Schaffer

Is Photon Band still going? If so what’s next?

Yes. Since I moved to Savannah, I still record, and we still gig, though much less frequently. Pure Photonic Matter Volume 1 came out in 2013 and Songs of Rapture and Hatred came out in 2015, thanks to Nod and Smile Records. We did release shows for both and a few gigs before and after. In fact, from the fall of 15 through the fall of 16, we played three gigs. I think those three gigs were the most we played over a single year’s span since I left for Savannah. But then I had to finish this book I’ve been working on for quite some time. The publisher was getting antsy, so I had to put the music aside. The next thing will be two albums; one will be the next installment in the Pure Photonic Matter series. Another, probably done around the same time, will be an album of very long songs, sloppy, poppy, noisy, and primitive, with lots of jamming (think White Light White Heat). I’m also putting together a live album from all of the recordings I’ve got from over the years. And I’m going through all of the old DATS and cassettes. There are a number of songs that I’ve earmarked for another album of singles, comp tracks, and outtakes album: Our Own ESP Driven Scene: part II, I suppose. But I’ve also discovered a huge number of tunes that are either finished or nearly finished that I never released, plus also totally different versions of some of the songs that have come out. So over the next few years, I’m going to release an archive of sorts, probably on Soundcloud and Bandcamp.

How did you land in Savannah, GA? Are you involved in any kind of music/art scene down there?

I’m an art historian. I was teaching at Moore College of Art and Design in Philly but started looking around for a better gig. The money there wasn’t great and there was quite a bit of dysfunction and acrimony between faculty and administration. I got a very good offer from Savannah College of Art and Design and off we went. The job, raising two kids, and going forward with my plan to publish the work I had been doing on a sixteenth-century Netherlandish artist named Maarten van Heemskerck have effectively kept me from getting out and involving myself in the scene down here. But now, I have basically taken care of Maarten (that’s the book I mentioned above). I feel like there will come a time soon when I can start saying “ya know any good drummers?” or “ya need a guitar player?” I’d like to get something together down here, another three-piece, sort of a Photon Band South. But what I’d also really like to do even more is just become the guitarist for a really good, no nonsense rock and roll band where I don’t write the songs.

Who are some of your favorite current bands?

Weeding through the shit to get to the good stuff requires time, doesn’t it? It’s good that there are some nice places to hang out here in Savannah that let their younger staff choose the music, otherwise I might have no idea. Some of the Ariel Pink I’ve heard, I really like. The Dear Hunter has made some albums I like and so has Ty Segall. But those are by now, pretty old, right? I like bands that do interesting things with guitars, so I really loved the first Garden State album, also pretty old by now. I haven’t heard anything by them since then that suggests that they’re still committed to weaving together guitar lines the way they did on that first album. Sheer Mag’s guitarists do that really well! On Dead Waves have some good songs, and I like everything I’ve heard by Bass Drum of Death. I really like that song called La La La by Hoops, too. It’s a never-ending quest, isn’t it? There are plenty more bands who have a song or two that blow my mind: the Wavves, the Panic Buttons, Suzi Chunk, Eagulls, to name a few.

photo by Mary Garito

What are your top 10 desert island discs?

Oh shit! Okay…

Neil Young: Time Fades Away

John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band

Stones: Beggars Banquet

Stooges: Fun House

The Who: Live at Leeds (the expanded version, because it has more tunes on it)

Stereolab: ABC Music

Flying Burrito Brothers: Gilded Palace of Sin

MC5: High Time

Rites of Spring

That’s nine. Then I’d lay the following four albums on the floor, have someone mix them up, and pick one blindfolded:

Sun Ra: We Travel the Spaceways from Planet to Planet

Mr. Airplane Man: Come on DJ

The new Ty Segall album

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks: Pig Lib.

Any final thoughts? Closing comments? Anything you wanted to mention that I didn’t ask?

Hmmmm…well, to close the loop on the Mike Logan / Spayce Mann story, all these years later, he came into JT’s orbit and now he has the role that I once had in JT’s band. We’ve reconnected and it feels so good to have that whole thing come full circle in such a cosmic way. It’s not just that we understand each other. We reconnected because he’s playing music with someone whose music is dear to us both. That’s our shared musical DNA, the stuff that resonates with our souls, determining our paths and bringing us in contact with the right people. That’s cosmic.

BONUS QUESTION; What is one Philly band that really shoud’ve made it?

I know the popular answers are Ruin and the Electric Love Muffin, and that’s definitely true, especially the latter. The Muffin were so important for a lot of people, especially me, and they were as good as, or better than, any of their contemporaries. But in a better world, the real answer is either the early period of the Original Sins, or F.O.D. There’s no question that of all the bands of my lifetime that the industry missed, they sure did blow it with the Sins. JT should have a huge audience. If the industry was less shallow, either the Sins or JT would’ve “made it.” And to me, F.O.D. are the Experience, the Who, the Minutemen, the Sex Pistols, and Sun Ra’s Arkestra all in one brilliant three piece. I don’t think there’s a live band that can touch them.

www.darla.com

www.nodandsmilerecs.com

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literal-fand0m-trash · 8 years ago

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Psychic Wars Part 3. Everybody Loves a Clown Part 2

Note: I do not own any of the Supernatural characters or stories, but I do own Dakota Winchester. Please leave comments and let me know if you want to be tagged.

Summary: Sequel to Dakota Elizabeth Winchester.

Part 1 Part 2

Dakota, Sam, and Dean walked into the tent with the help wanted sign and saw a man throwing knives at a target with deadly accuracy.

“Excuse me. We’re looking for a Mr. Cooper. Have you seen him around?” Dean asked.

The man turned around and Dakota saw that he had sunglasses on and was staring past them.

“Is that some kind of a joke?” He asked and he took off his sunglasses so they could see his milky white pupils.

“I am so sorry.” Dean stammered out and Dakota tried to hold her laughter in. She hadn’t laughed in over two weeks.

“You think I won’t give you my eyeteeth to see Mr. Cooper or sunset or anything at all?” The man ranted at Dean who turned to look at Sam and Dakota.

“You want to give me a little help here?” He snapped.

“Not really.” Dakota said with a small smile.

“Barry, is there a problem?” A man asked poking his head poking his head into the tent.

“Yeah, this guy hates blind people.” Barry snapped.

“No, I don’t!” Dean defended.

“This is escalating very quickly.” Dakota whispered to Sam.

“Hey, buddy, what’s your problem?” The man asked.

“Nothing, just a little misunderstanding.” Dean said. “Look, could someone please tell me where Mr. Cooper is!”

Sam started laughing so hard that he was crying and Dakota just shook her head at the scene in front of her.

………..

“You three picked a Hell of a time to join up. Take a seat.” Mr. Cooper said leading them to his office and offered them three disturbing seats with clown faces on them on the opposite side of his desk, “We got all kinds of local trouble.”

“What do you mean?” Sam asked.

“A couple of folks got themselves murdered. Cops always seem to start here. So, you three ever worked the circuit before?” Mr. Cooper asked.

“Yes sir. Last year, Texas through Arkansas.” Dakota lied.

“Doing what? Ride jockeys? Pull shoot? A and S men?” He asked.

“Little bit of everything.” Sam said.

Mr. Cooper stared at them for a moment, “You three have never worked a show in your lives before, have you?”

“Nope.” Dean answered with a smirk. “But, we really need the work and Sam here’s got a thing for the bearded lady.” He laughed and shrugged.

Dakota bit her lip and tried to look anywhere than Sam’s shocked face.

Mr. Cooper glared at them then pointed to a framed black and white photo on the wall behind him, “You see that picture? That’s my daddy.”

“You look just like him.” Dakota commented sweetly looking at the resemblance of the two balding men with large noses.

“He was in the business, ran a freak show till they outlawed them in most places. Apparently displaying the deformed isn’t dignified. So, most performs went from honest work to rotting in hospitals and asylums. That’s progress, I guess.” Mr. Cooper told them before pausing and Dakota wandered what this story had to do with them getting jobs, “You see this place is a refuge for outcast, always has been, for folks that don’t fit nowhere else. But you three...should go to school, find a spouse, have 2.5 kids, live regular.”

Dakota leaned forward in her seat and stared him straight in the eye, “Sir, I don’t want to go to school. And I don’t want to be regular. I don’t want to marry some jackass and have 2.5 kids and be some boring, midwest housewife. I want this. And so do these two idiots.”

She saw Dean lean back and smirk out of the corner of her eye while Mr. Cooper looked them over.

“Let’s start with a trail run. See how you handle things.” He agreed.

Dakota smiled, “Thank you, sir.” She stood up and walked out of the trailer then realised a sigh of relief that her plan had worked.

“So that whole ‘I don’t want to go to school’ thing back there. Was that just for Cooper or did you really mean it? Cause, you’ve always talked about going to college one day.” Sam pointed out as he followed her out of the trailer.

“Yeah and when I was twenty and thought I had a chance of getting out of this life I did. I thought that one the demon was dead and the fat lady sings, I could go to a normal life, but I don’t know if it’s worth putting the people I will meet at risk.” Dakota explained.

“I’m having second thoughts about going back.” Sam confessed and Dakota looked at him in shock. “I just think Dad would have wanted us to stick to the job.”

“Since when do you give damn about what Dad wanted?” Dean asked coming out of the trailer a minute later than them, “You spent half of your life doing what he didn’t want.”

“Since he died, okay? You have a problem with that?” Sam snapped.

“Knock it off. I realize that your methods of griefing are different and are clashing, but we have a job to do. Four people have been murdered by a disappearing clown. Those children are now orphans. You guys can subtextually fight over who Dad loved more later.”

“Subtextually?” Dean asked.

“Yes. Subtext. You are fighting over everything, but underneath it all, that is the question it boils down to. Get over it and do the job!” Dakota snapped.

……….

Their first assignment was to throw on the circus windbreaker and start cleaning up trash around the circus which gave them a great excuse to move around and scan for EMF. So far Dakota had come up with nothing on her section of rides and games and she also hadn’t seen any clowns, murderous or otherwise.

A guitar solo started playing in her pocket, she pulled out her phone and saw Sam’s name.

“Hey.” Sam said quickly, sounding very nervous.

“Hey. You okay? You sound like you saw a clown,” Dakota joked.

“Very funny...it’s was a skeleton in the funhouse. A real human skeleton. What if the spirit isn’t attached to a cursed object? What if it’s attached to it’s own remains?” He asked.

“Did the bones give off EMF?” She asked.

“Well..no, but…” He stuttered.

“We should check it out anyways. I’ll head over to you, you call Dean. We’ll meet in five.” Dakota instructed.

“What is with you taking the reins today? Who are you and what have you done with my twin?” He joked.

“Shut up.” She joked before hanging up.

Sam and Dakota stood outside of the funhouse waiting for Dean who showed up a few minutes later with a pout.

“What took you so long?” Sam asked.

“Long story.” Dean said.

Dakota was about to make a joke when she heard a little girl’s voice say, “Mommy, look at the clown!”

All three of them whipped around to look at her, “What clown?” Her mother asked.

They ran over to where the little girl had been pointing before her mother dragged her and saw that the clown was gone.

“Maybe only kids can see it.” Dakota wondered.

……….

“Dean, I can’t believe you told Papasian about the homicidal phantom clown.” Sam said as they parked the minivan down the street from the house of the family that saw the clown. Dean had finished telling them about what had held him up at the funhouse.

“I told him an urban legend about a homicidal phantom town.” Dean said grabbing a shotgun and holding it up to examine it and Dakota quickly lowered it so no one could see it through the window.

“Oh, and get this. I mentioned the Bunker Brother Circus in ‘81 and their evil-clown apocalypse. Guess what?” Dean said.

“What?” Sam and Dakota asked at the same time.

“Before Mr. Cooper owned Cooper Carnival, he worked for the Bunker Brothers. He was their lot manager.” Dean explained.

“So you think whatever the spirit is attached to, Cooper just brought it over with him?” Sam asked.

“Something like that.” Dean answered.

Dakota turned her attention back to the house and watched the family go about their routine.

“I hate stake outs where I’m watching a house. I feel like a stalker. Seriously, we are watching this family go about their lives and closely watching the little girl like we’re freakin pedophils!” She exclaimed.

“I can’t believe we’re still talking clowns.” Dean muttered.

“I can’t believe we didn’t bring coffee or snacks.” Dakota said.

“I can’t believe you two won’t shut up!” Sam snapped.

They took turns on watch for the next several hours and next thing Dakota new Sam was shaking her awake and pointing at the house. She looked at the large window at the front of the house and saw the little girl walk towards the side entrance, most likely to let the clown in. They quietly climbed out of the car and ran across the street. Dean knelt down and picked the lock and once they were in, they all hid in different rooms as the little girl began talking about visiting her mom and dad. Dakota’s mouth dropped open as she saw a clown in a tattered and bloody yellow costume walk through the house, holding the girl’s hand. She looked across the hallway at Dean who was in the bedroom across from her and he held up the sign for her to wait.

She watched Sam round the corner and she ran forward and moved the girl as Sam emptied to shotgun rounds into the killer clown. The clown dropped to the floor, then stood back up and jumped out of the window behind it. Adult voices started screaming and coming towards them so Dakota booked it the broken window and climbed out, cutting her hands and knees in the process.

……….

It was dawn by the time Dean pulled the car off to the side of the road and they got to work. Sam moved some branches to cover the car, Dakota cleaned the inside, and Dean took the plates off, then they grabbed their bags and started walking back to town.

“You really think they saw the plates?” Sam asked.

“Better safe than sorry, Besides I hate this freaking thing anyways.” Dean complained.

“Well, one thing’s for sure. We’re not dealing with a spirit. That rock salt hit something solid.” Dakota said hiking her bag higher onto her shoulder.

“Yeah, a person, or maybe a creature that can make itself invisible?” Sam guessed.

“And dresses up like a clown for kicks?” Dean sassed.

“Did it say anything is Dad’s journal?” Dakota asked and Sam shook his head. She pulled out her phone and started scrolling through her contacts.

“Who you calling?” Dean asked.

“Ellen. Maybe she or Ash know something.” She said.

“Hey...uh...did...did Dad and Ellen ever have a thing?” Sam asked.

Dakota snorted, “No.”

The boys started fighting over dealing with their father’s death again so Dakota walked a little further up the road before calling Ellen and having a quick discussion with her. She hung up and walked back over to her brothers.

“Rakshasa. That’s Ellen’s best guess. It’s a race of ancient Hindu creatures. They appear in human form, they feed off human flesh, they can make themselves invisible, and they cannot enter a home without first being invited to.” Dakota explained.

“So they dress up like clowns and children invite them in. Why don’t they just munch on the kids?” Dean asked.

“No idea.” Dakota said.

“Not enough meat on the bones?” Sam wondered.

“What else did you find out?” Dean asked.

“Well, apparently, rakshas live in squalor. They sleep on a bed of dead insects. And they have to feed a few times every twenty to thirty years.” Dakota said.

“That makes sense. The carnival today, the Bunker Brother’s back in ‘81.” Dean said.

“Probably more before that.” Sam said.

“Hey, Sam, who do we know that worked both shows? Cooper.” Dean answered his own question.

“You know, that picture of his father, that looked just like him.” Sam said.

“Ellen say how to kill ‘em?” Dean asked.

“Legend says a dagger made of pure brass.” Dakota said.

Dean nodded, “I think I know where to get one of those.”

“Well, before we go stabbing things into Cooper, we’re gonna wanna make damn sure it’s him.” Sam said.

“You’re such a stickler for details, Sammy.” Dean teased, “Alright, I’ll round up the blade, you two go check if Cooper’s got bedbugs.”

They didn’t make it back into town until it was dark and the carnival was shutting down when they hopped the fence into the property.

Dakota doubled over in pain once her feet hit the ground on the opposite side of the fence.

“You okay, Mouse?” Sam whispered.

“My ribs! Jumping out the window, the long walk, and hopping the fence are putting too much strain on them.” She whimpered.

“Shit! I think you broke a stitch! You’re bleeding.” Sam said kneeling down next to her.

“We can fix it back at the motel room.” She said standing up. Sam wrapped his arm around her and helped her hobble through the carnival grounds. When they reached Cooper’s trailer Sam leaned Dakota against the wall as he picked the lock.

“Alright. Come one.” He said grabbing her arm and dragging her inside. Dakota reached down and pulled the knife out of her boot and handed it to Sam,

“I don’t her thousands of little wings. Maybe we got the wrong guy.” Dakota commented as Sam knelt next to the bed and cut into the mattress.

“What do you think you’re doing?” A voice shouted as a gun cocked behind them. Dakota threw her hands up as Sam turned around to a very anger Mr. Cooper, “Get out of here or I’m calling the cops! Out now!” He yelled pushing them out of the trailer with the gun.

“Now what?” Dakota asked and Sam shrugged. They started walking around the campgrounds until Dean sprinted out of one of the tents and almost crashed into them.

“Hey, Dean. So Cooper thinks that we’re peeping toms, but it’s not him.” Dakota explained holding her ribs.

“Yeh, so I gathered. It’s the blind guy. He’s here somewhere.” Dean said frantically looking around.

“Well, did you get the…” Sam started.

“The brass blade, no. It’s just been one of those days.” Dean groaned.

Dakota looked over at Sam who was deep in thought, “I got an idea. C’mon.” The boys started running ahead.

“Wait!” She called and Sam turned around and jogged back to her.

“Sorry, I forgot.” He said and he bent low so she could jump up on his back.

“What happened to you?” Dean asked when they caught back up with him and made their way to the funhouse.

“I have surgery two weeks ago to fix my lung and I have stitches, one of which has ripped.” She said.

“Sorry, Baby Girl.We’ll fix that as soon as we’re done here.” Dean said, but his voice was drowned out by a fake evil laugh playing through the room they were in. Sam and Dakota went into the next room and the door slammed closed behind them, cutting them off from Dean.

“Dean! Find the maze!” Sam instructed as he set Dakota down.

Growling sounded behind them and she slowly turned around and saw nothing, but the growling continued.

“Sam, I think we should go.” She urged and Sam grabbed her arm and led her further into the funhouse.

“I’m never going to the circus again.” She muttered under her breath.

Sam ignored her and she looked over to see what was distracting him and saw an old organ standing at the end of the hall playing some happy tune. She didn’t realize why Sam was going over to it, until it dawned on her that the pipes on the organ were most likely brass and could probably be used.

“Hey.” Dean said as he walked up next to her, having followed the maze to the other room.

“Where is it?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know. Shouldn’t we see his clothes walking around?” Dean asked.

Dakota screamed as a knife flew out of nowhere and hit Dean’s jacket, pinning him to the wall, she ducked as another knife flew towards her and barely missed the top of her head. She reached over and grabbed the knife holding Dean down and pulled as hard as she could, but it wouldn’t budge.

More knifes flew through the air as Sam looked for the rakshasa and finally a high pitched screech pierced the air. Dakota whirled her head around and saw that the brass pipe from the organ was floating in midair and blood was dripping around it. The body reappeared and dropped to the ground, completely still and Dakota finally got the knife out of the wall. She and Dean went to stand next to Sam as they caught their breaths.

“I hate funhouses.” Dean panted.

……….

The next morning they made their way over to the Roadhouse and saw several hunters were already in the bar. Dakota went and sat down at the bar and Ellen handed her a glass of water.

“I was hoping for something stronger.” She commented.

“Well, I happen to know that you have had pain medicine lately and you will not be drinking under my roof for the next twelve hours.” Ellen scolded as she opened two beers and handed them to Sam and Dean as they sat down. “You three did a Hell of a job. Your dad would be proud.”

“Thanks Ellen.” Sam said as Jo walked over. She raised her eyebrows at Dakota and Sam and motioned for them to leave.

“No.” Dakota argued and Jo glared at her. Sam grabbed her arm and dragged her away.

“C’mon. Let’s go find Ash.” Sam said as Dakota pouted. She led him to the door that was marked “Dr. Sexy” and knocked.

“Ash, we are here for your brilliant brain.” She yelled throw the door.

Ash opened the door and smiled, “Where have you guys been? I’ve been waiting for you.”

“We were working a job, Ash.” Sam explained as they walked over to an empty table.

Dean came and joined them at the table, “Did you find the demon?” Dakota asked.

“It’s nowhere around, at least nowhere I can find. But if this fugly bastard raises it’s head, I’ll know. I mean, I’m on it like divine on dog dookie.” Ash said pulling out his laptop.

“What do you mean?” Sam asked.

“I mean any of those signs or omens appear anywhere in the world, my rig will go off like a fire alarm.” Ash said turning the computer around.

“Can I?” Dean asked reaching for the computer and Ash just glared at him.

“Ash, where did you learn to do all of this?” Sam asked.

“M.I.T., before I got bounced for fighting.” Ash said nonchalantly.

“M.I.T.?” Sam asked in shock and Dakota smiled at the dorkiness.

“It’s a school in Boston.” Ash said deadpan and Dakota snorted.

Dean stood up, “Give us a call as soon as you know something.”

“Si, si, compadre.” Ash said waving them off.

“Gracias amigo.” Dakota answered.

“Let’s hit the road.” Sam said. Dakota stood up and hugged Ash, Jo, and Ellen goodbye.

“Alright, sweetheart, you know you and your brothers can always come here if you need a place to stay.” She reminded Dakota rubbing her shoulders.

“Thank you Aunt Ellen.” She whispered.

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@one-giggling-unic0rn @skeletoresinthebasement

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phclemenza-blog · 8 years ago

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Track 1: Any Trouble – Where Are All the Nice Girls? (1980)

A simple life is all I need

Two shots of fantasy and one of make-believe

I never tried too hard to make this succeed

You're the only one I need

— Second Choice written by Clive Gregson

This quote could be the unofficial motto of a diffident and rather understated 80s pub band called Any Trouble. They grew out of the “angry young man” singer-songwriter movement led by Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, and Graham Parker, but Any Trouble, led by singer/songwriter/rhythm guitarist Clive Gregson, always seemed to have some tenderness under that angry façade. Any Trouble is also a band that had such bad luck that I will be using Spinal Tap references to demarcate the sections.

Merely a two-word review, just said, “Sh*t Sandwich…”

I first ran across the band Any Trouble in my high school days in the early 80s, and thought they were slight but passably enjoyable but not much more. However, my esteem for them has grown to the point where I wanted to start this blog to sing, as it were, their praises. So why the sea change in opinion?

In the states in the early 80s, there were three ways to encounter aspiring British bands at least in the Northeast: the then still nascent MTV, 92.7 FM WLIR from Long Island (usually via tapes from friends), and underground radio shows like London Underground. At the time, Any Trouble had already been dropped by Stiff Records and had reinvented themselves as a keyboard-heavy, pastel-coloured 80s New Wave band in the A-ha and Spandau mold. I found this music on early MTV (even though to this day I do enjoy their 1983 eponymous album which I purchased on vinyl back in the day, featuring some fine pop songs buried under layers of keyboard, especially “I’ll Be Your Man” and “Touch and Go”). Gregson explained it in the liner notes from their Complete Stiff Recordings compilation, “The result was my least favorite AT album…featuring some of the best songs! For the first time we tried to chase fashion…and failed miserably. The keyboard and synth heavy sound was a million miles from the guitar jangle we’d previously made…and nobody seemed to much care for the new approach.”1

Years later when I rediscovered the band researching on the extremely helpful and useful AllMusic site, I was surprised that they were a pub band originally. Their driving, heartfelt, singer/songwriter style of pub fare was so much up my alley that I was shocked to find I was unfamiliar with it (although I did faintly remember the video for “Second Choice” on MTV’s very early days, probably before Stiff stiffed them).

If it was in dubly…

The problems for Any Trouble started with the comparisons to the other angry young men, especially Elvis Costello. They had a bespectacled, unconventional-looking lead singer who also wrote the songs and played guitar, and they played jangly, R&B-based pop rock. Some even called their first hit, Second Choice, “stunningly derivative…a retread of ‘Less than Zero’” and Gregson’s voice a “nasal” version of Costello’s distinctive baritone full of “overall nice-guy swellness.”2Gregson even acknowledged the similarities: “Nobody could deny that our first album owed a sonic and arrangement debt to EC’s first LP. Both records are primarily guitar based and focused on mostly short-ish, uptempo, R’n’B based pop rock songs…It was all too easy a comparison to make because EC was there first and had already achieved a great deal of commercial success, we rather come off as a poor runner up.”1

Also reviews at the time were less than forgiving with Any Trouble’s pub band style, something that had, in the cognoscenti’s opinion, run its course 5 years prior with bands like Brinsley Schwartz and a hundred others who never cracked the billboards charts let alone the public’s perception but who inspired Rockpile, Elvis Costello, and a host of punk bands who were pub rocks followers. It is difficult to imagine a band being chastised today for their style being a few years out of date given all of the retro styles being plumbed for inspiration but the seventies were a decade that started with the end of the Beatles and witnessed pub rock, punk rock, disco, and the start of new wave to name a few. Times were a-changing quickly then.

Though Any Trouble espoused the angry young men’s attitude their soft hearts belied their message and in an age of punk, it was inexcusable. Any Trouble’s “nice girls” seemed like Graham Parker’s “local girls” but Clive Gregson still wanted to “kiss her feet and shake her hand”. The band’s name was derived from a misremembered line in the great film Blazing Saddles when Cleavon Little holds himself hostage oddly to save his own life. At least the Shoes correctly cited John Lennon in naming themselves. Talk about an unpretentious, even self-marginalized band.

Their self-effacing approach helps explain their rather diminished legacy, though luck and other factors played a role. This is a band that was happy just to be on the Stiff Records roster though that also ended being to their detriment. But for that we have to review their full history.

We traveled the world and elsewhere…

Any Trouble was formed in 1975 in Crewe, England while Gregson was attending teacher training college. They started as an acoustic trio covering artists like the Who, the Band, the Beatles, and Bruce Springsteen. Their name stuck quickly but “[i]t seemed to conjure up a vision of something approaching an Oi! Band to certain punters who were never slow to let us know they were very disappointed by our brand of melodic (albeit pretty rapid!) pop-rock.” They were even billed as “Andy Trouble” once.1

In a couple of years punk was sweeping the UK, but Any Trouble was more influenced by the singer-songwriter artists like Costello, Parker, and Rockpile, who had “a clearer connection to the American stuff [they] were already playing”. The band moved to Manchester in 1978 and set their lineup: Gregson (vocals, guitar, and keyboards), founding member & lead guitarist Chris Parks, drummer Mel Harley, and bassist and backing vocalist Phil Barnes. Gregson had started to write songs in his “hyperactive new wave style.” 1

By mid-1979, they were ready for a demo tape. The group borrowed money from Phil Barnes’s dad, and on August 17 recorded four songs in eleven hours at Pennine Studios. After 5 more hours of mixing, Any Trouble were ready to release an indie double-A-side single of “Yesterday’s Love” and “Nice Girls”. 500 copies were pressed, some of which the band sold at gigs, but Barnes and Parks, who worked at an HMV record store, would give a copy to each label sales rep. They eventually gave a copy to the legendary John Peel, who was on a road show at Manchester University but “he dropped it into a big black bin bag that was already full of records and demo tapes: every band in the north west had apparently had the same idea!” 1 A few weeks later Peel played “Yesterday’s Love”, and soon the song was making the rounds at the various BBC radio shows. “So in essence we had a single that nobody could really buy, recorded by a band with no professional management or structure, getting what amounted to A-list airplay at the BBC…Pretty amazing!” 1

The band found a professional manager and started fielding offers from major labels like EMI, WEA, Rak, Chrysalis, and Stiff. The studio reps visited their shows and tried the band out in the studio. Once the band heard that Stiff wanted them, the competition was over. “[W]e were already fans of the label, their artists, their style – so we duly signed to Stiff in early 1980.” 1 “We went with Stiff because they were our kind of people working with acts that we actually liked!”4

Any Trouble returned to Pennine Studios with former Squeeze producer John Wood, and made a record in a couple of weeks. “When we made our first album that was our live sound. Just like the Beatles - that first album was our stage show. We made the whole record in less than three weeks - and we should have done it in less than a day really (laughs).” 3

Expectations were high for the release. Gregson: “Half of me was absolutely thrilled that Allan [music journalist Allan Jones of “Melody Maker”] and various other media folk were waxing so lyrical about the album and the band…and half of me couldn’t really understand what they were getting so excited about! I liked the record but I mostly thought of it as a starting point and far from the finished article.” 1 “But Allan was really taken with it and stuck us on the front cover of Melody Maker saying this is the greatest thing since sliced bread and we patently weren't.”3 Talk about modest!

Artie Fufkin, Polymer Records…

The marriage to Stiff was clearly a huge mistake. “In terms of chart success, fame, and fortune, Stiff and Any Trouble patently didn’t work! We were spectacularly unsuccessful…we actually weren’t anything like a ‘typical’ Stiff band…We simply didn’t have the strong visual image that Ian Dury, Madness et al had in spades. Check out our Stiff videos…talk about a band in search of a look!” 1

The album also faltered overseas as the fledgling Stiff America label was out of its depth. “The label was becoming rather more mainstream in many ways... and I think they felt that what Any Trouble was all about was right for the new times. They were hopeful that we could also spearhead breaking the label in the USA.”4 “When we arrived in the States in December 1980 as part of the Son of Stiff tour, we had the most added airplay record nationwide but no albums in stores and no effective distribution or marketing programme…a glorious missed opportunity.” 1

Like Artie Fufkin, apparently, the Stiff America reps had no timing. A Stiff rep also reportedly encouraged Gregson to go solo (as “Buddy” Gregson to compound a bad idea). Stiff did think highly enough of Any Trouble as a live band to put out an “official bootleg” live album but the disc never did get a proper release outside of Germany (in 1989) and as a radio promotion until “The Complete Stiff Recordings 1980-1981” compilation came out in 2013.

“But by the time we had improved and got better the fuss had all gone. You only really get one shot in the big nasty world of the music business and it went disastrously wrong because we weren't really ready for it.”3

Puppet Show and Spinal Tap…

The band followed up Where Are All the Nice Girls? with Wheels in Motion but with a new drummer, new producer, and a relocation to London. The record company started getting nervous about the lack of commercial success. Searching for scapegoats, Wood was removed as producer and replaced by Mike Howlett but the excecs had a falling out with him as well, over the mixes and tended to replace rougher but visceral mixes with the more polished final mixes. The band toured the US to support the album but after about a month were summarily dropped by Stiff. Their manager tried to keep the tour going by booking them to open for Molly Hatchett (Any Trouble Mach 2?). However, the band instead returned to The Stiff office in New York to get tickets back to England but instead had their van robbed. They did return home but did so with their tails between their legs. Of the relationship, Gregson said, “I’ve often thought that being able to say ‘I was in a band signed to Stiff Records’ is not a million miles away from being able to say ‘I was in a Merseybeat band in the 60s’”. 1

How much more black could this be? The answer is none, none more black…

The band then went their separate ways—“we had no manager, no label, no money, and no real prospects.” 1 But Gregson conjured up the version of Any Trouble that I originally encountered in 1983 and signed a deal with EMI America. However, the band never would tour the US to support the album even though they were signed to an American label. They did return to England and Europe.

Any Trouble was so surprised that EMI America picked up the option on a second album that they reunited with producer John Wood and produced a double album with each a different approach for each of the four album sides with guest musicians on side one, horns and string on side 2, moody ballads on side 3, and an odds’n’sods side 4. Gregson calls this the best album of their original run. EMI did not release the double album in the states, replacing it with a single disc version, again did not support a US tour, and finally dropped the band from the label.

Any Trouble played one last gig at Dingwalls in London and would not reunite for another 23 years. “I always say that getting away from EMI in 1985 was the end of my involvement in the music business and the start of my involvement in the Clive Gregson business!”4 The reunited band now has now produced 2 albums: Life in Reverse (2007 on Stiff Records and again produced by John Wood) and Present Tense (2015 on Cherry Red). Clive Gregson has put out 15 solo albums since 1985 when EMI liberated him, including five from his pairing as a folk duo with Christine Collister.5

The Tracks

A note on the track listings – They are listed by the original UK 1980 LP order by side and track for the original 10 songs (e.g., A1 means the song appeared on side A and was track 1 of that side). The original running time was 34:31. In the US three songs were added, two covers—Springsteen’s “Growing Up” and ABBA’s “Name Of The Game”—and the B-side “No Idea” and one song (“Honolulu”) was omitted.6 I, however, first become acquainted with the album via the 1997 Compass release, the first on CD, which included 3 extra tracks to the original ten (run time 43:07). When the band reorganized and resigned with Stiff in 2007, a reissue of the CD with the same track listing as the 1997 disc was released with one addition, the original 1979 single version of “New Girl”. The 2013 Complete Stiff Recordings CD1 of a 3-disc set covers the album and adds the original 1979 single version of “Nice Girls”, a remix of “Turning Up the Heat”, and a demo of “The Hurt” to the 1997 CD version.

As with a lot of forgotten discs, it has evolved over the years. I list all of the songs below.

A1 Second Choice

(Also released as a single with B-side of “The Name of the Game” & “Bible Belt” (live))

Written-By – Clive Gregson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sryujH_qX-4

I never felt the need to cry or rejoice.

I never felt the need to raise my voice.

I only wanted to be one of the boys.

Now, you’ve made me second choice.

The first cut on the album was the single, as was typical in those days, and it also served as a good introduction to Any Trouble’s frenetic music style and its world view. The song opens with Parks and Gregson doubling each other with Byrds-like jangly guitar work and the rhythm section embracing a ska beat. After the opening lines from Gregson, the chorus settles into a more standard pop fare with more of a walking bass line (with two notes per beat) and fewer fills on the drums. The style is Any Trouble at its best: a simple pop song a bit sped up.

As to whether Any Trouble was power pop, it seemed Gregson himself was not sure though he leaned against it, “I was never that sure that we really were a ‘power pop’ band... I always felt that we were rather more of a simple pop/rock band with a bit of an r 'n' b sensibility. I also had roots in contemporary folk music and was never averse to bringing some of that influence to the table. Most acts who were tagged with the ‘power pop’ label had a much tougher, edgy guitar sound than us... we specialised in a particularly scratchy Fender jangle through tinny amps sound! Chris was also very country influenced as a guitarist... Our songs tended to be short-ish with a proper melody, hook lines and plenty of relationship angst themes! Nowadays it all seems to have a rather naïve charm and not much actual ‘power’ at all...”4

As regards Gregson’s message, it takes the rebuffed lover and delves into his psyche from “the nursery school floor” to what he wants today, which in Gregson’s world is merely the girl, the simple life, and the requisite imagination to think this is success.

A2 Playing Bogart

Written-By – Nick Simpson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB-N46M-CaM

Give me something for the man

Who doesn't have to try too hard

Spent a little time rehearsing my tom petty leer

Well I dressed up for my conquest

Come out fighting no holds barred

And I pray for courage and some halfway decent beer

“Playing Bogart” was the only cover on the original album. It was written by Nick Simpson, the lead singer of a band called 23 Jewels out of Manchester.7 The single came out a year earlier and the band would only generate two singles and an EP before fading into the ether in 1981.8 The 23 Jewsels version of the song can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP1QqAARG8U.

The song fits into Any Trouble’s ethos of the nerdy everyman trying to live up to ideal male hero like Humphrey Bogart who always got the girl and looked cool smoking and drinking something neat. The hero waits for his chance at a party to meet a girl, tries to live up to his ideal, but is scared off by her other suiters and ends up sitting on his bed smoking a single cigarette in the dark (there might be a metaphor there). Even though he has that “7:30 Friday night feeling” in his bones, he is defeated before he even starts knowing that he cannot carry off the image he has set for himself with his weariness with the same conversations, his eyes red from smoke and his legs going lame—it’s no wonder with the pathos the hero feels: “all martyrs suffer as I walk back slowly through the bar.” He consoles himself that he is better off by himself if he loses “playing Bogart” unlike those “good-time people [making] excuses on their telephones.”

The hero girding himself for the conquest is also belied by the tense and nervous musical style of the song. If he presents himself as cool and calm like Bogart, that certainly isn’t how he is feeling under it all from the start of the song if one listens to its kinetic style. Any Trouble takes the already fast but sloppy 23 Jewels version and quickens the pace while making the song a tight, neurotic anthem in the Any Trouble vein.

A3 Foolish Pride

Written-By – Clive Gregson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmrIo5iL6vk

She’s so high class, you’re gonna have to let her pass and swallow your foolish pride.

“Foolish Pride” is the first ballad-y, slower song on the album, but as Gregson said, “[W]e played pretty much everything at a furious tempo. Even the ‘slow’ songs…”9 It might be the prettiest and most idealistic song on the album. The guitars soar—and is that a pedal guitar added in as well?—as he sees the girl with “angel eyes” and the song follows a typical boy-meets-girl love song until the hero realizes that she is not the one for him and the guitars crash back to earth. They scratch out a nervous tempo while the hero realizes that he has to swallow his foolish pride and let her go because he is not man enough.

A4 Nice Girls

(Also, 1979 original version released as a B-side to “Yesterday’s Love”; re-released 1980)

Written-By – Clive Gregson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itYqWUSAqRQ&index=4&list=PLJbEfr2GyzFsFPD5eBY_-69ZCw_BWmIOA

Oh, where are all the real girls?

They act the way they feel girls?

I may love Where Are All the Nice Girls? since it follows Rob Gordon’s compilation tape rules from the John Cusack film High Fidelity. It starts off “with a killer to grab attention” and then takes it up a notch. Then it “cools it off a notch” with “Foolish Pride”, but probably the best song on the album and the one that give it its title comes.

“Nice Girls” starts with a simple, plaintive guitar riff and then Gregson sings his most mournful. A second guitar followed by a Procol Harum organ, a “perfect drunkenly sad-organ” 10, then takes up the cause. Finally, drums and bass take it to the next level. A jumpy chorus breaks up the mournful strains, but the song continues to build until it finally fades away.

[Re. the 1979 B-side: The original “Nice Girls” B-side recording is a bit looser (9 seconds longer) than the 1980 LP version. The lonely organ is missing but the result might sound a bit closer to the Any Trouble live sound when they are playing a slow song towards the end of the night to the hoots of the crowd to keep their anticipation up for the kicker at the end. There is also no fadeout like on the album—maybe the old studio did not have that functionality yet.]

A5 Turning Up The Heat

(Also, a remix version was added to the 2013 Complete Stiff Recordings CD1)

Written-By – Clive Gregson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKgx4Y0j5SY&index=6&list=PLJbEfr2GyzFsFPD5eBY_-69ZCw_BWmIOA

Look around you baby and you see them all havin’ fun.

Hey, now, why are you the lonely one?

Again Rob Gordon would be happy: “Heat” builds on the power of “Nice Girls”. A chorus with female backing singers is added for the first time on the album which creates a new wrinkle. Gregson actually sounds like early “I’m the Man”-era Joe Jackson. I am not sure what the lyrics are all about—landing at an airport and there are crowds and then there is a girl who’s lonely and that turns up the heat?—but it is a great pop song.

[Re. the Remix: The remix version has a bit more treble and sounds a bit faster clocking in at 2:54 as opposed to 3:00 for the original. Maybe it sounded a bit more New Wave in the high, fast version like a Vapers tune.]

B1 Romance

Written-By – Clive Gregson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEJ-SMjEvkg&index=10&list=PLJbEfr2GyzFsFPD5eBY_-69ZCw_BWmIOA

They say love’s a mystery.

All seems so clear to me:

Love’s another promise I could never keep.

Side A set up the formula for Where Are All the Nice Girls?, but Side B blows the doors off. The album starts going in all sorts of directions and each is better than the last. “Romance” gets the heart pumping right away with a double beat followed by guitars, bass, and drums frantically racing each other up and down the melody. The last thing it seems is romantic—“sweating in the shade.” Quite the contrary, the words talk about love being a Kafkaesque mystery. Gregson starts out talking to “you”, his alter ego he is advising, then about “they”, i.e., society telling him how he should act and feel, and finally “I”, where he finally owns his failure in romance as “another promise I could never keep.” The song then rushes to an abrupt finish.

B2 The Hurt

(Also, a demo version appears on The Complete Stiff Recordings, CD1)

Written-By – Clive Gregson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pG5fuMfYmbs

Loving you is like playing with fire.

I tried it once and it burned my desire.

“The Hurt” barely misses a beat with Gregson again shout-singing his heart out in Joe Jackson style all the while being chased by racing guitars. At least he is actually trying love this time, but now he is afraid of “the hurt”. Neurotically, he is sure it is rushing towards him. At least he is now being honest with himself as the music echoes his inner turmoil unlike in “Romance”.

[Re. the Demo: It sounds a bit looser and slower (15 seconds longer than the LP version). It sounds a bit like a Greg Kihn cover of the song.]

B3 Girls Are Always Right

(Also released as a single with B-side “No Idea”)

Written-By – Clive Gregson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8cz7Tusig0

The way that girls act is a problem for me.

Everything they do is complete mystery.

They stand around being so outspoken.

They’re just waiting for their hearts to be broken.

“Girls Are Always Right” takes a moment to cool the heat from the first two songs on side B at least initially. Then Gregson sings his heart out in a song that seems to mirror Joe Jackson’s classic “Is She Really Going Out With Him?” As the lovelorn singer wallows in self-pity apparently finally having “the hurt” catch up with him and his only solace is the sarcasm in saying that the girls are always right. The song takes the intensity building in the last two songs and, though it is slower, keeps it building. The female backing singers return like a Greek chorus and with snarling guitars prod and harass the hero. The song is “four minutes of evocative yet tender, poppy angst.” 10 “Girls Are Always Right” is Any Trouble at their gut-wrenching best.

The song builds slowly and progressively. It starts with a shimmery guitar twang and then twinkling cymbals, laconic piano, an occasional bass beat, and a second complementary guitar join in. Then Gregson voice floats in. Finally, drums and a proper bass line join to a crescendo about a minute in. The guitars shimmer and entwine like cooing doves or a couple in love. Then the piano returns with the cymbals momentarily until a second crescendo about two minutes into the song with backing singers now joining in. The piano and guitar (no cymbals this time) return one last time as the song again builds to one last crescendo about 3.5 minutes in. The song soars and builds throughout.

B4 Honolulu

(Note: Dropped from 1980 US version of the LP)

Written-By – Clive Gregson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE-1O2v_Sbc&index=12&list=PLJbEfr2GyzFsFPD5eBY_-69ZCw_BWmIOA

I don’t care if I never say a word.

This kind of a love should be seen and not heard.

“Honolulu” feels like a fresh break from the romantic cycle of the previous three songs, both musically and lyrically. The song starts with Gregson soto voce and upbeat about meeting a girl while a guitar strums. He is just voicing his desires, living in the moment about love being “seen and not heard”.

The music amps up to Any Trouble’s typical frenetic pace but now it sounds like excitement, not neuroses, even if it is all just a dream. The female backup singers appear one last time, doubling Gregson’s wishes as if the girl is into it for once. But it is short-lived…

B5 (Get You Off) The Hook

Written-By – Clive Gregson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GWiYPryuG4&list=PLJbEfr2GyzFsFPD5eBY_-69ZCw_BWmIOA&index=13

Because you're closed in the pages of a hist'ry book And the last one says that you've run out of luck But you can't sew, and you can't cook So the time has come to GET YOU OFF THE HOOK...

The album ends with Gregson again heartbroken and in pain on “The hook”. However, this time he tells himself (addressed again as “you”) that it will be all right—he’ll save himself. The song starts in a mournful shuffle like a lonely man walking the streets and hesitates as he recounts all of the problems he now faces, but it races as he declares that he will get himself of the hook. Now, the song is upbeat with a playful organ riff—a la Steve Nieve on Elvis Costello’s “You Belong to Me” or “Senior Service”—rising over the guitars, and it ends the album in a series of false starts as the hero again has some trepidation but the happy organ keeps breaking through.

Yesterday's Love

(1979 single with B-side “Nice Girls”, re-released 1980 & Track 1 on the 1997 CD release)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYVm73yMAdg

I don’t want to be your lover

I just want to hold you for the rest of the night.

“Yesterday's Love” roars off at the start of Who Are All the Nice Girls? as it was first released on CD (in 1997). That was the version that I was first introduced to and fell in love with. However, I now acknowledge that the original LP version is the best one given the cogent, economic, and effective artistic message it presents. Being the completist that I am, I still prefer the more bloated 13-song CD version though a good compromise would just be to prepend “Yesterday's Love” at the beginning of the LP.

It is a shame that this emphatic song did not make the final album cut since it is Rob Gordon’s perfect kickoff to the album. Initially, it is just Gregson singing in your right ear (love the low tech mixing) like an angel (or devil) on your shoulder. The lines above burst through to open up “Yesterday's Love”, which is a strong Any Trouble version of power pop. The closest comparison in feel is Elvis Costello’s “The Beat” from This Year’s Model, which came out the year before the single was recorded. The song may have been cut just for its blasé approach to love not fitting the album ethic. “Yesterday's Love” is terrific, it must be said, and it is not a surprise it made them a mini-sensation prior to producing their first album.

No Idea

(Side A Track 3 on the 1980 US release & Track 6 on the 1997 CD release; Also released as the B-side to “Girls Are Always Right” single)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGn07K9VqcQ&index=7&list=PLJbEfr2GyzFsFPD5eBY_-69ZCw_BWmIOA

And the only love I know is like a light out in the dark

Shining! Shining! Everywhere.

“No Idea” is maybe the most positive song on the extended album, which may have been why it ended up on the cutting room floor. It is another great power-pop tune about love, loneliness, and loss. The lines above just shimmer--great song but it would get lost in the mix. It does show why Where Are All the Nice Girls? is a lost classic: even a rejected track could have been a standout on an average album. Here it seems repetitive and almost forgettable.

Growing Up

(Side B Track 1 on the 1980 US release & Track 11 on the 1997 CD release)

Written-By – Bruce Springsteen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdeszR8o90g&index=9&list=PLJbEfr2GyzFsFPD5eBY_-69ZCw_BWmIOA

I took month-long vacations in the stratosphere, and you know it's really hard to hold your breath

I swear I lost everything I ever loved or feared, I was the cosmic kid in full costume dress

“Growing Up” was an addition to the US edition of the 1980 LP to appeal to the American crowd. Thematically, it fits in with the idea of emotional growth and Any Trouble rips through it joyfully earning their pub band stripes. It was also a great cover at a time when Springsteen had not yet broken as big as he soon would. However, the Springsteen anthem is at odds with the romantic hero Gregson espouses in detail in the rest of the album The Boss had other ambitions.

The music is typical Any Trouble at a hyperkinetic pace. Their version is about half a minute quicker than the Boss’s. They forego the piano intro for a nervous guitar but add a rousing organ solo by producer Bob Sargeant.

Also, one of the features of the original song is ending each chorus with a rhyming progression from “they said, ‘Sit down,” I stood up” to “they said, ‘Come down,’ I threw up” to “they said, ‘Pull down,’ I pulled up.” Gregson in his hurried style blows right by that progression repeating three times some garbled variation of the last line (“I stood in the mortar and up the driveway, when they said, ‘Pull down,’ I pulled up.” Maybe?). Apparently, the band did not find this out until they played in New York: “I vividly remember playing our version of Springsteen’s ‘Growing Up’ in the Boss’s own backyard only for some guy in the crowd to bellow, “You got the words wrong!’ at the end...and he was right!”1

That was not the only thing the band got wrong with the song. Springsteen’s title was “Growin’ Up”, not “Growing Up”.

Name Of The Game

(Side B Track 6 on the 1980 US release; Also released as the B-side to “Second Choice” single)

Written-By – Benny Goran Bror Andersson, Bjoern K. Ulvaeus, Stig Erik Leopold Anderson (ABBA cover)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee4xHnWvvYk&list=PLZBgEVaTJlNOM5vwPuHU_XsCzKDDjqZwP&index=20

What's the name of the game? Does it mean anything to you?

What's the name of the game? Can you feel it the way I do?

Tell me please, 'cause I have to know

I'm a bashful child, beginning to grow

Another addition to the 1980 US LP was “Name of the Game”. I guess since Americans love ABBA (and yet “Honolulu”, which is in America after all, was taken off the album). It is a nice cover with a disco beat is a pub rock setting. Again it is a nice fir thematically for the band: uncertainty, love, etc.

But it is the least essential song on the list. It was left off the CD reissues of the album until the comprehensive three-disc Complete Stiff Recordings and then as part of the live set At the Venue (disc 3), not Where Are All the Nice Girls?

Ours go to eleven…

They had the dodgiest band name I can ever remember and their stage clothes were laughable, but the songs were world class and on-stage they played with the energy and enthusiasm of four escaped convicts let loose in a bar full or women.

I loved ’em but always stood back from the stage—Clive sang with such passion that he kept spitting over the front row and insisted on playing the ugliest Telecaster I’ve ever seen! Nearly twenty years later I can still sing the words to every song on this album and wish I could see them play the Venue just one more time before I die. (Nigel Dick, former Stiff Records press officer) 11

I loved the whole album…amazed at how much great lyric and melody Clive Gregson could squeeze into tracks that were moving at 90 m.p.h.!!! (Dennis Locorriere, Dr. Hook) 11

I was far away from Manchester, England when I first discovered an album with four curious looking guys staring up at me. It was as if they were they were saying, “Hey, aren’t you going to listen to us?” I was a DJ in Santa Barbara, California, at a little progressive radio station called KTYD. The DJ’s had a lot of freedom to pick their own music and often initialed the cuts they liked. I turned it over an d every song had someone’s initials on it. My curiosity heightened and I placed it on the turntable. Being female, I put the needle down on “Girls Are Always Right”. It was love at first listen. I decided to segue it into “It’s Different for Girls” by Joe Jackson. Beautiful. (Erin Riley) 11

Where Are All the Nice Girls? is an album that not only does not have a weak track, you could take any of these tracks and they would be a standout on another album. There is an urgency that is tangible.

The perfect storm of a finely honed pub band with many influences coming together at the right time musically created this lost classic: “I think you’d get four completely different answers if you asked the band what influenced our sound! I’ve always been obsessed with The Beatles, Chris’s guitar hero was Tim Renwick (Sutherland Brothers and Quiver), Phil wanted to be Kenny Gradney (Little Feat) and Mel was very into Genesis. And of course we didn’t sound remotely like any of those bands at all! We were essentially a fairly basic two guitar/bass/drums band who somehow got spannered into New Wave…”9

Reviewing the tracks on this album in its various incarnations helped me rediscover what it is that I truly enjoy about it. Of course, there is the nerdy romantic hero with whom identify, but there is also the nervous, energetic, driving music that may or may not be Power Pop.

The one thing that I came away with in re-reviewing the album was how good side B of the original album was. It may not be the side B of Abbey Road but the way the songs build and musically and lyrically is pretty impressive. It is also something that is lost when listening to the album in the CD version with bonus tracks added.

Unfortunately, Gregson does not seem to think much of his first record, “I listen back to that first record now and I don't much like it - I don't think we were very good at all. It's very derivative and we didn't play very well and it was just a good honest attempt at what we were doing at that time. A lot of smarter people saw through it and saw it for what it was - just a naive little pop record.”3 But I think there is a timelessness that is based more on feeling that may be lost even on the artist that recorded it. Maybe a naïve little pop record that is made extremely well can transcend such inherent limitations.

There definitely is a style that is embodied by Any Trouble. As Clive Gregson said of the 2007 reconstructed version of the band, “[S]o off we went, having not played together at all in the interim! We recorded the first song for that album…and it sounded exactly like Any Trouble! That either means that we’ve not learned a thing on the intervening 33 years…or that we’d got it dead right first time round...I’ll let the listener make their own mind up on that…”9

Credits 1

Clive Gregson : Lead Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards

Phil Barnes: Bass & Vocals

Chris Parks: Guitars

Mel Harley: Drums

Alison Tulloch & Diane Robinson: Backing Vocals (“Turning Up the Heat”, “Girls Are Always Right”, “Honolulu”)

Bob Sargeant: Organ (“Growing Up”)

Engineer – Paul Adshead

Producer – John Wood (except “No Idea” & “Growing Up”: Bob Sargeant; “Yesterday’s Love”, “Nice Girls (single version), and “The Hurt” (demo): Any Trouble)

Recorded at Perrine Sound Studios, Oldham & Mixed at Sound Techniques, Chelsea (except “No Idea” & “Growing Up”: recorded & mixed at Roundhouse Studios, London; “Yesterday’s Love”, “Nice Girls (single version), and “The Hurt” (demo): recorded & mixed at Perrine Sound Studios)

References

1 Interview with Clive Gregson from Any Trouble: The Complete Stiff Recordings 1980-1981 booklet

2 Trouser Press (http://www.trouserpress.com/entry.php?a=any_trouble)

3 "Clive Gregson - The Triste Interview". Triste Magazine. October 1999. (http://www.triste.co.uk/gregson.htm)

4 Goggins, Patrick. "Interview with Clive Gregson (September 2014)". Dispatches from Coconut Grove blog (http://dispatchesfromcoconutgrove.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/interview-with-clive-gregson.html).

5 AllMusic.com’s Clive Gregson page: http://www.allmusic.com/artist/clive-gregson-mn0000788222/discography

6 Discogs “Where Are All the Nice Girls?” page (https://www.discogs.com/master/view/39536)

7 Dicsogs Nick Simpson page (https://www.discogs.com/artist/676115-Nick-Simpson-2)

8 Discogs 23 Jewels page (https://www.discogs.com/artist/913634-23-Jewels)

9 "An Interview with Clive Gregson of Any Trouble (18th November 2014)". Band on the Wall. (https://bandonthewall.org/2014/11/an-interview-with-clive-gregson-of-any-trouble/)

10 “Underrated Classics: Any Trouble” (June 5th, 2012) on Heave Media (http://www.heavemedia.com/2012/06/05/underrated-classics-any-trouble/)

11 Any Trouble: Where Are the Nice Girls? 1997 Compass Records CD booklet