The first time I can recollect writing for a publication was aged 11 in my first year at school. I was given a chance to write for the school newspaper and had a useful lesson in journalism from it. I could write for them, but not on any subject of my choosing.
I was given a Barry McGuigan boxing match to review. As an avowed pacifist even then, I wasn't best pleased about the assignment, but put something together anyway as I wanted to get my name in print. I don't even remember if it was printed in the end or not, but I certainly no longer have a copy of the fight review.
Almost ten years later in a different educational institution, I became Music Editor at my college magazine (The Printed Image). It's useful to be somewhere at the beginning as it's easier to pick the role you want for yourself. It turned out to be a great role too, as I learned what a cunning blag being a 'music journalist' was - just give your name and the publication you write for, tell the record company/band/manager what you'll do for them and end up getting showered with goodies!
I ended up using the position as an opportunity to meet many of my musical heroes of the time and interview them. The list of early 90's British indie bands that I got through was pretty extensive - including The Wedding Present, Ride, Teenage Fanclub, Silverfish, The Fall, Carter USM and the ones who appeared in the article below, The Darling Buds. I ended up getting to know them a little too, as I would often bump into them on the South Wales gig scene (which was pretty small then).
Not long after this time, Wales ended up with a place on Britain's musical map just as I moved to another town and my tastes diverged pretty solidly from those indie roots.
The Printed Image, if I recall correctly, only ever made it to a third issue. The Darling Buds themselves fell apart shortly after their third album, partly down to record label disinterest.
What it is about things coming along in threes?
Manchester – so much to answer for, South Wales – well, not much really (with the obvious exception of Tom, Shakey and Shirley). How many well known/successful Welsh bands can you think of? Yes, you don't need the other five fingers. The Darling Buds should be high on your list.
They are a four piece band hailing from Newport (Caerleon to be exact), with the exception of their drummer, a Liverpudlian. The line up consists of Andrea (vocals), Harley (guitars), Chris (bass) and Jimmy (drums).
The band have been going since 1986. Andrea had moved to London and Harley was still committed to another band then as well. He worked in a recording studio and whenever he had a spare hour, the band would go in and record something. Harley had some money from a pension he'd taken out and invested that in the pressing of The Darling Buds first single 'If I Said'. It was released on their own Darling label.
Harley: 'Why do a tape? Everybody does a tape. Why not spend a little more money and do a single which is more accessible and can be easily played?'
By 1987, there was enough interest in the band from the single via the music press and a healthy John Peel interest, that the group started to take it all more seriously and signed to independent label Native Records.
One of their first gigs together was supporting The Butthole Surfers at Newport Centre. The next year, after a couple of singles on Native, they signed to Epic Records, a branch of CBS (now Columbia).
Andrea: 'When you're signed, you get an advance and you've got to work out how much you're going to spend on the album, because this is an album a year; how much on each of you living.'
Harley: 'I could earn more working in a bar!'
Andrea: 'We live on the bare minimum and the rest goes back into the band. There's always perks. When we go off on tour now, before we were in cheap little Bed and Breakfasts and now we can stay in some nice places and make it a bit easier for us. We don't have a luxury lifestyle at all.'
They had a blitz of popularity when they first signed to Epic, with a Top 40 single, a Top Of The Pops appearance and countless front covers. Unfortunately for the band, the label didn't know what to do with them, and when The Darling Buds wanted to release new material, Epic would insist on pushing the album ('Pop Said...' their debut), by releasing more tracks as singles etc, all against the band's wishes.
Andrea: 'The thing is, within the company, it is so huge and there are so many bands that are so different to us. You've got a whole bunch of people trying to get their heads together around these bands and a lot of them don't understand The Darling Buds at all and get things completely wrong. All these silly things happen and we feel really annoyed and we feel let down by it all. But there are people within the company then, that are really good for us. Probably about five people who we really do trust and we do really like, but then all the others are just people who are doing a job and that's what gets annoying because they do things wrong.'
They also went from press darlings (ahem!) to last year's thing pretty soon too. The press have never been too keen on Wales as a potential musical force.
Harley: 'Wales is just not on the map in a lot of places.'
Andrea: 'I think it was in Washington. We walked into this radio station and there was this DJ on the air. His assistant let us into the studio and she said we'll be off air in a minute and he'll be straight into chatting away to you. So we walked in and found a chair each. He was on air and he said (adopts American accent), 'And they're here. The Darling Buds have just walked in. Hi, it's The Darling Buds...from Manchester, England''. (several groans)
Harley: 'And we were going 'Hang on a minute, no we're not!''.
Andrea: 'And he was saying 'Well, Wales is right next to Manchester'. Yeah, right next to it mate!'
Harley: 'I mean, we're all Welsh.'
Andrea: 'Except Jimmy.'
Harley: 'And he's closer to Wales than Manchester! We're all Welsh and it's just something that's totally overlooked. We found out that when we were starting out. We couldn't get gigs outside of Wales. No one was interested. Half of the time they think you're a heavy metal band. John Peel has done a lot for Wales. He's really tried, but there's no encouragement from anywhere else.
They have a lot of S4C (Welsh TV channel) programmes, don't they? Welsh pop programmes. I can't understand them because I don't speak Welsh (laughs from around the table).
I was never taught Welsh at school. I was watching one the other day and they had several great bands.'
Andrea (tongue in cheek): 'That Manchester scene's great though, don't you think?'
Harley: 'There are a couple of good bands. Like The Stone Roses first album. That is a really good album. When I put it on, I can hear The Who, I can hear all these other bands. But you know, what's wrong with that?'
Andrea (sarcastically): 'I can't fault it. I love the whole scene.'
Harley: 'The thing is, I got the Happy Mondays album and I can't get into it. Ride, that's a really good album. That's an album I listen to a lot. I think the guitar is definitely going to come back. Well, it's never going to go away!'
Andrea: ' I think it's people's tastes that change, not so much the music. We were part of that guitar thing. Before that, there was the C86 thing. Then the very guitar orientated thing, with the blonde singers. There were also a lot of bands around with boy singers. I mean The Wonderstuff, The House Of Love. They were all sort of poppy, guitar bands. Then it went into The Stone Roses with their retro guitar sound, and the dance stuff. It's peoples' tastes really. And then Ride happened and I think people were getting so sick to death of the dance scene and of the summer of love, that they're going back to guitars.'
Harley: 'That's the thing with this country, fashion goes really strongly with music. The fashion at the time was Soul II Soul, who were wearing all that stuff and then The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays with the flares.'
Andrea: 'I think they're fantastic, I do. I love them.'
Harley: 'Don't be so sarcastic.'
Asking them about their influences, and realising the many, many different bands that they take their sound from, the general consensus is of 'guitar bands...with good melodies'. I asked them about their own songs.
Harley: 'I don't want to be really, really famous. I think the band still want to write a really good song. I don't think we've written our best song yet.'
Andrea: 'There's things we're really proud of. You get excited about everything that you write and maybe a couple of years later, you go back and think it's crap and you rip it to pieces and start again. Then again, you write a song and you're dead proud of it and you get really excited about recording it, the same as you did when you did your first record. All that comes back again and that is brilliant.'
Harley: 'There's several off 'Crawdaddy' that I just don't like at all. There's one or two off the first album. 'You've Got To Choose', I hate.'
Andrea: 'We were in the studio the other day and he had his portastudio out and was playing lots of early demos. There was 'Hit The Ground' on there and it was so gorgeous. It was just us doing it on the portastudio and it sounded so naïve and really simple.
I think also we do get a bit disappointed when we record things in the studio, then listen to them and we're quite happy. Then six months later, we listen to them and still think that hasn't captured us live. There is a lot of atmosphere at the gigs and on records we just seem to be losing that.'
We talked to The Darling Buds for over two hours in the pub that we met in and covered many other topics.
Harley: 'I don't think that the Manic Street Preachers (the only other Welsh band with any press) would get on with us. A slight clash in...did I say Clash!?' and the demise of Sounds (defunct music weekly) to which Andrea sarcastically replied 'I'm going to miss that!' Harley is getting some money from publishing and is hoping to put it towards setting up a record label that will be geared towards getting bands in this area recognised. The band themselves are currently writing material for their third album which is due out in the Autumn. They are hoping to produce this LP themselves. The meeting ended with a discussion on Harley's prowess as a guitarist.
Harley: 'The guitar is an extension of the penis, yeah? But at the moment, the guitar has still got me. I'm not in control yet.'
Andrea: 'Must be a peculiar shape, Geraint (Harley's real name)!'
Harley: 'The guitar is a very personal thing to a lot of guitar players and when you've got control of it and you feel like you're playing with it, this might sound pretty weird, then that's great. But at the moment, the guitar is still laughing at me, which makes me think I've still got a lot to do!'
He described the band as 'just pissheads'. May these 'pissheads' continue to bloom.
I was given a Barry McGuigan boxing match to review. As an avowed pacifist even then, I wasn't best pleased about the assignment, but put something together anyway as I wanted to get my name in print. I don't even remember if it was printed in the end or not, but I certainly no longer have a copy of the fight review.
Almost ten years later in a different educational institution, I became Music Editor at my college magazine (The Printed Image). It's useful to be somewhere at the beginning as it's easier to pick the role you want for yourself. It turned out to be a great role too, as I learned what a cunning blag being a 'music journalist' was - just give your name and the publication you write for, tell the record company/band/manager what you'll do for them and end up getting showered with goodies!
I ended up using the position as an opportunity to meet many of my musical heroes of the time and interview them. The list of early 90's British indie bands that I got through was pretty extensive - including The Wedding Present, Ride, Teenage Fanclub, Silverfish, The Fall, Carter USM and the ones who appeared in the article below, The Darling Buds. I ended up getting to know them a little too, as I would often bump into them on the South Wales gig scene (which was pretty small then).
Not long after this time, Wales ended up with a place on Britain's musical map just as I moved to another town and my tastes diverged pretty solidly from those indie roots.
The Printed Image, if I recall correctly, only ever made it to a third issue. The Darling Buds themselves fell apart shortly after their third album, partly down to record label disinterest.
What it is about things coming along in threes?
Buds Wiser
Manchester – so much to answer for, South Wales – well, not much really (with the obvious exception of Tom, Shakey and Shirley). How many well known/successful Welsh bands can you think of? Yes, you don't need the other five fingers. The Darling Buds should be high on your list.
They are a four piece band hailing from Newport (Caerleon to be exact), with the exception of their drummer, a Liverpudlian. The line up consists of Andrea (vocals), Harley (guitars), Chris (bass) and Jimmy (drums).
The band have been going since 1986. Andrea had moved to London and Harley was still committed to another band then as well. He worked in a recording studio and whenever he had a spare hour, the band would go in and record something. Harley had some money from a pension he'd taken out and invested that in the pressing of The Darling Buds first single 'If I Said'. It was released on their own Darling label.
Harley: 'Why do a tape? Everybody does a tape. Why not spend a little more money and do a single which is more accessible and can be easily played?'
By 1987, there was enough interest in the band from the single via the music press and a healthy John Peel interest, that the group started to take it all more seriously and signed to independent label Native Records.
One of their first gigs together was supporting The Butthole Surfers at Newport Centre. The next year, after a couple of singles on Native, they signed to Epic Records, a branch of CBS (now Columbia).
Andrea: 'When you're signed, you get an advance and you've got to work out how much you're going to spend on the album, because this is an album a year; how much on each of you living.'
Harley: 'I could earn more working in a bar!'
Andrea: 'We live on the bare minimum and the rest goes back into the band. There's always perks. When we go off on tour now, before we were in cheap little Bed and Breakfasts and now we can stay in some nice places and make it a bit easier for us. We don't have a luxury lifestyle at all.'
They had a blitz of popularity when they first signed to Epic, with a Top 40 single, a Top Of The Pops appearance and countless front covers. Unfortunately for the band, the label didn't know what to do with them, and when The Darling Buds wanted to release new material, Epic would insist on pushing the album ('Pop Said...' their debut), by releasing more tracks as singles etc, all against the band's wishes.
Andrea: 'The thing is, within the company, it is so huge and there are so many bands that are so different to us. You've got a whole bunch of people trying to get their heads together around these bands and a lot of them don't understand The Darling Buds at all and get things completely wrong. All these silly things happen and we feel really annoyed and we feel let down by it all. But there are people within the company then, that are really good for us. Probably about five people who we really do trust and we do really like, but then all the others are just people who are doing a job and that's what gets annoying because they do things wrong.'
They also went from press darlings (ahem!) to last year's thing pretty soon too. The press have never been too keen on Wales as a potential musical force.
Harley: 'Wales is just not on the map in a lot of places.'
Andrea: 'I think it was in Washington. We walked into this radio station and there was this DJ on the air. His assistant let us into the studio and she said we'll be off air in a minute and he'll be straight into chatting away to you. So we walked in and found a chair each. He was on air and he said (adopts American accent), 'And they're here. The Darling Buds have just walked in. Hi, it's The Darling Buds...from Manchester, England''. (several groans)
Harley: 'And we were going 'Hang on a minute, no we're not!''.
Andrea: 'And he was saying 'Well, Wales is right next to Manchester'. Yeah, right next to it mate!'
Harley: 'I mean, we're all Welsh.'
Andrea: 'Except Jimmy.'
Harley: 'And he's closer to Wales than Manchester! We're all Welsh and it's just something that's totally overlooked. We found out that when we were starting out. We couldn't get gigs outside of Wales. No one was interested. Half of the time they think you're a heavy metal band. John Peel has done a lot for Wales. He's really tried, but there's no encouragement from anywhere else.
They have a lot of S4C (Welsh TV channel) programmes, don't they? Welsh pop programmes. I can't understand them because I don't speak Welsh (laughs from around the table).
I was never taught Welsh at school. I was watching one the other day and they had several great bands.'
Andrea (tongue in cheek): 'That Manchester scene's great though, don't you think?'
Harley: 'There are a couple of good bands. Like The Stone Roses first album. That is a really good album. When I put it on, I can hear The Who, I can hear all these other bands. But you know, what's wrong with that?'
Andrea (sarcastically): 'I can't fault it. I love the whole scene.'
Harley: 'The thing is, I got the Happy Mondays album and I can't get into it. Ride, that's a really good album. That's an album I listen to a lot. I think the guitar is definitely going to come back. Well, it's never going to go away!'
Andrea: ' I think it's people's tastes that change, not so much the music. We were part of that guitar thing. Before that, there was the C86 thing. Then the very guitar orientated thing, with the blonde singers. There were also a lot of bands around with boy singers. I mean The Wonderstuff, The House Of Love. They were all sort of poppy, guitar bands. Then it went into The Stone Roses with their retro guitar sound, and the dance stuff. It's peoples' tastes really. And then Ride happened and I think people were getting so sick to death of the dance scene and of the summer of love, that they're going back to guitars.'
Harley: 'That's the thing with this country, fashion goes really strongly with music. The fashion at the time was Soul II Soul, who were wearing all that stuff and then The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays with the flares.'
Andrea: 'I think they're fantastic, I do. I love them.'
Harley: 'Don't be so sarcastic.'
Asking them about their influences, and realising the many, many different bands that they take their sound from, the general consensus is of 'guitar bands...with good melodies'. I asked them about their own songs.
Harley: 'I don't want to be really, really famous. I think the band still want to write a really good song. I don't think we've written our best song yet.'
Andrea: 'There's things we're really proud of. You get excited about everything that you write and maybe a couple of years later, you go back and think it's crap and you rip it to pieces and start again. Then again, you write a song and you're dead proud of it and you get really excited about recording it, the same as you did when you did your first record. All that comes back again and that is brilliant.'
Harley: 'There's several off 'Crawdaddy' that I just don't like at all. There's one or two off the first album. 'You've Got To Choose', I hate.'
Andrea: 'We were in the studio the other day and he had his portastudio out and was playing lots of early demos. There was 'Hit The Ground' on there and it was so gorgeous. It was just us doing it on the portastudio and it sounded so naïve and really simple.
I think also we do get a bit disappointed when we record things in the studio, then listen to them and we're quite happy. Then six months later, we listen to them and still think that hasn't captured us live. There is a lot of atmosphere at the gigs and on records we just seem to be losing that.'
We talked to The Darling Buds for over two hours in the pub that we met in and covered many other topics.
Harley: 'I don't think that the Manic Street Preachers (the only other Welsh band with any press) would get on with us. A slight clash in...did I say Clash!?' and the demise of Sounds (defunct music weekly) to which Andrea sarcastically replied 'I'm going to miss that!' Harley is getting some money from publishing and is hoping to put it towards setting up a record label that will be geared towards getting bands in this area recognised. The band themselves are currently writing material for their third album which is due out in the Autumn. They are hoping to produce this LP themselves. The meeting ended with a discussion on Harley's prowess as a guitarist.
Harley: 'The guitar is an extension of the penis, yeah? But at the moment, the guitar has still got me. I'm not in control yet.'
Andrea: 'Must be a peculiar shape, Geraint (Harley's real name)!'
Harley: 'The guitar is a very personal thing to a lot of guitar players and when you've got control of it and you feel like you're playing with it, this might sound pretty weird, then that's great. But at the moment, the guitar is still laughing at me, which makes me think I've still got a lot to do!'
He described the band as 'just pissheads'. May these 'pissheads' continue to bloom.
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