No headaches

Late last year our good friends at Penny Black Music published another fine interview with The Distractions by Malcolm Carter.  This time Mike and Steve were joined by Neil Storey, ex-Island Records and now head of Hidden Masters, who is managing the (slightly delayed; more news soon!) 'Parabolically Yours' book-set.  Here's the first part of that interview.

 

The Distractions : Interview
Author: Malcolm Carter
Published: 14/12/2013

 

At a time, even when it seems that almost every album ever made is now given the reissue treatment on CD with anniversary packages, box sets and limited/deluxe versions appearing weekly, most music lovers could still make a list of albums that have long been deleted and never been reissued on any of the ‘new’ formats. On a personal note one such album on my list is The Distractions' ‘Nobody’s Perfect’. Originally released on the Island label in 1980, the Manchester band’s debut album has never been reissued on any format, and of the clutch of 7” singles the band released around that time, few have made an appearance on any of the many compilations of 80's music that are readily available.

It’s been frustrating for fans of the band, although maybe understandable. ‘Nobody’s Perfect’, although receiving critical acclaim at the time, failed to sell in great numbers and once the band parted ways it was probably felt that there wouldn’t be enough interest for a reissue, but that all changed when The Distractions released a couple of EPs on the Occultation Recordings label a few years back. Finally gaining the recognition they always deserved, and not just from the music press this time but from a new generation of music fans who had discovered the band’s now thirty year old recordings and couldn’t believe that they hadn’t aged a day during that time, The Distractions proved that they had lost none of the magic they created over three decades ago.

Two of the new songs on the EPs, namely ‘Lost’ and ‘Oil Painting’, could have been pulled from ‘Nobody’s Perfect’, the timeless, intelligent pop music that the band produced all those years ago was back sounding as fresh and relevant as ever. The fact that ‘Oil Painting’ was written by ‘new’ Distraction Nick Halliwell, but sounded like a Steve Perrin song meant that original members Steve Perrin and Mike Finney had given some thought to the project and were keeping alive the standard they set some thirty years ago. And Mike Finney had lost none of the emotion in his vocals; he still ranks as one of the best blue-eyed soul singers ever.

2012 finally saw the release of The Distractions' second album, ‘The End of the Pier’. While capturing the spirit of ‘Nobody’s Perfect’ the ten original, new songs also captured more attention than the band’s debut did on release. Again, timeless, intelligent pop music, coupled with sharp lyrics was the order of the day. The album was more, so much more than we could have hoped for.

We have covered the history of The Distractions over the previous interviews that have been published on this site together with reviews of their Occultation Recordings releases, but news has just arrived that the long promised reissue of the band’s early work is now really underway and finally looks like actually happening.

HiddenMasters, the label behind the 'Jess Roden Anthology', which has been extremely well received, not just for the music that it brings together but for the outstanding way the package is presented, has taken on the task of not just reissuing ‘Nobody’s Perfect’, but compiling a complete retrospective of the band’s work from their early days right up to the present. Given the label's past excellent work, it comes as no surprise that this is not just going to be the standard double CD reissue of an album and a few extra tracks but the complete Distractions story. A PledgeMusic campaign is being set up shortly and this link www.pledgemusic.com/widgets/6874?get_widget=true will point you to a free download of a previously unreleased Distractions song as a taster of what is to come.

We took this opportunity to put a few questions to Neil Storey from HiddenMasters and Steve and Mike from the Distractions about the new collection, and their answers reveal that ‘Parabolically Yours’, the title given to the project, is going to satisfy the needs of the most dedicated Distractions fan.


Penny Black:  It’s been over two years since the initial murmurings of a re-issue of ‘Nobody’s Perfect’. Is it now really going to happen? The fact that a title, ‘Parabolically Yours’, has now been revealed has given us a little more hope! Has a date been set?

Neil Storey:  It most certainly is! And yes, that’s the title. There’s no official date currently set due to a number of factors, not least of which is we’re still wrestling with the budget which will also impact on the actual pricing. Due to the nature of what we have planned, this won’t be a cheap-as-chips manufacturing process either; careful consideration has to be given to the weight of paper being used, the quality of that, the board being used to house the actual book and having bespoke packaging made in which to ship the finished set.

All of those things (and many more, for example, where we actually manufacture which is currently either going to be in the Czech Republic or maybe Germany) have to be firmed up before we get to the stage of working out the actual price. I’ve a rough figure in mind but we won’t confirm that until the actual pre-ordering process begins. So long as all goes according to plan, then I’m reasonably confident we should have finished copies by approximately May/June 2014.

PB:  Obviously organising such a project takes time, but this seems to have taken an especially long time to come to fruition. What caused the biggest headache on this project?

NS:  Firstly, there are no headaches involved in a project like this; a few problems and issues to resolve but, because HiddenMasters projects are what some might describe as labours of love, that means there can’t ever be headaches, just ‘stuff’ to figure out. We’ve also had to find all the source tapes and, in fact, we’re still short of one. So, if any of your readers knows the whereabouts of the BBC session recorded in October 1980, I’d love to hear from him/her!

Steve Perrin:  I would add that the fact that this is coming to fruition is largely down to Neil’s dedication and tenacity. Others have tried in the past and been put off by endless wrangling with former labels. I guess Neil having contacts in the Island/Universal organisation helped, but he’s had to put a lot of hours in to get to where we are now.

[to be continued] 

True pop

More from the Palatine: The Factory Story 1979-1990 box set.  Volume 3 was The Beat Groups, and there are short but rather sweet words from Paul Morley, Martin Hannett and Jon Savage.

THE DISTRACTIONS / Time Goes By So Slow

Oh, I really loved this song.  Billy Fury Baudelaire at the end of his tether, at the end of a mortail coil. /PM

The dramatic appearance of the Gay Animals, Liz Naylor and Cath Carroll, in their matching 60's suits.  And what about Pip?  City Fun.  Factory met Zoo halfway at Leigh and nobody came.  MH: 'Four cars parked in a field.'  True pop: melody masking deep loss. /JS

Palatine

The original Factory Records compilation was Palatine: The Factory Story 1979-1990, released in 1991.  The Distractions feature on Volume 3:

Future Factory Records projects remain vague; Fac 3 (Fac 1 was the original Factory venue poster, designed by Peter Saville) looked set to be a 12-inch disco single from The Tiller Boys, but internal confusion has temporarily shelved that.  Factory has expressed an interest in The Distractions, The Negatives, and current musician's favourites Manicured Noise (ask Vic Godard, the Banshees, Wire what they think of M. Noise - politely, of course).

Send Factory Records your cassette: The Factory, Hulme, Manchester.  Let's all take risks this Christmas!

Paul Morley, NME, 2nd December 1978

Adverts

Here's a handful of adverts from the music press in 1979 and 1980 - for Time Goes By So Slow, 'Nobody's Perfect' and Something For The Weekend.

Factory Records box set

Here's some more detail from the Factory Records box set, FACTORY RECORDS Communications 1978-92.

These are the credits in the booklet, which, at last, correctly credit Adrian Wright as writer of Time Goes By So Slow:

Interestingly, Eurobeat Ltd were publisher; this company is connected to the first EP that The Distractions recorded, but which was never released, as featured two years ago.  This will, of course, be included in Parabolically Yours, news of which will be released as soon as some final legalities are ironed out.


06 FAC 12

Artist             The Distractions
Title              Time Goes By So Slow
Time             3:19

Writer           Adrian Wright
Production     Brandon Leon
Design           Peter Saville
Format          7-inch single
Date              September 1979

Publisher       Eurobeat Ltd
Copyright      1979 The Distractions
Licence         courtesy of The Distractions

The track was licensed directly from The Distractions, who get a thank you at the end of the booklet:

Special thanks to James Nice at LTM, Julie Lockwood at EMI, A Certain Ratio, The Distractions, Crawling Chaos, James, 52nd Street, The Railway Children, Northside, Jon Savage and Paul Morley.


Here's the tracklisting of disc 1, where The Distractions sit alongside gig-mates Joy Division, ACR, OMD, X-O-Dus, et al.

(c) James Nice, Rhino.

Surpassed the punk rising

Here's the second half of Frank Worrall's 18 September 1982 Melody Maker article on the Secret Seven, featuring Mike Finney.

SEVEN WONDERS

Frank Worrall (words) and Zbysiu Road (picture) regress to the happy days of THE SECRET SEVEN

BUT isn't the Secret Seven simply another cog in the manufactured romantic pop wheel; in effect, just another Dollar?

"The crucial point here," Mike states, "is that yes, there are lots of pretty and at the same time succesful grops - like Duran Duran and Altered Images - but they're riding on hype.

"The end of the day they've not got a good song to their name.  So sure, we've got Julie and her good looks but we've also got Julie's good voice, my voice and bagful of good songs.

"If anything, we're a thinking man's Dollar," he conclude.  I take a sip of lager and try not to look too shocked.  But you've no depth to your music, I say, hoping to provoke him into submission.  "I wouldn't agree with that," he retorts.  "But what do you want - zenbudhism or pure metaphysics!

"I don't think love songs are lightweight.  I think anything you can touch is lightweight; anything you can't touch can't be lightweight."

Mike confesses that he has a special affection for the music produced by the old great soul artists.  "The best pop lyrics in the world are those by Sam Cooke and Otis Redding," he claims.  "They're so very ambitious, so very clever - and yet they say everything.

"I'd love us to be produced by Isaac Hayes or some of the other great Stax producers.  But I'd settle for someone in Britain like Trevor Horn!"

Yes, but don't you feel that the Seven are taking an easy way out by never broaching upon more topical subject matter?

"We're not the news and I'm not Reginald Bosanquet," he says smiling.  "And we don't want to be.  What's the point and how honest would it be for us to be mouthing off about what's happening in Ireland or Iran?

"Music is escapism that should be totally entertaining," he continues.  "My philosophy on life is if you don't like it don't do it: if you do like it do it again!"

We're just happy producing music that we feel is making a point about one particular aspect of life - emotion and feelings.

KNOWING that Mike has seen, survived and surpassed the punk rising of the late Seventies, I wonder if he accepts that the Secret Seven are just another notch in the post-punk complacency which has suffocated the music world over the last couple of years.

"I know what you're saying - that there's not the same urgency and rough passion - but I don't think that we could be compared to boring bands like Yes.

"Of course times have changed but we're not complacent or self-indulgent.  Bands like us and ABC and The Human League have drawn from the experiences of punk and now we're putting them into practice.

"That means we won't be dull like Yes but I'd also like to say that we don't want to be marketed as a rebellious band like The Sex Pistols were.  I mean they were just as big a part of the business as anyone else."

Julie has been present throughout these exchanges, but hasn't said a word because she's no nervous.  Which surprises me.  At the Hacienda she appeared to be exuberantly confident, pure bluff apparently.

"When I first joined the group I wouldn't even sing if Mike was in the same room," she eventually says.  "I used to go in the loo and he had to go to the bottom of the stairs and listen to me from there!"

Now can you imagine the bleached pumpkin out of Dollar saying that?  Neither can I: far from being artificial The Secret Seven pump real blood, real flesh and real passion through their music.

(c) Frank Worrall. Melody Maker.

Ahead of their time

More post-Distractions stuff from the archives.  This is part one of a piece by Frank Worrall in the 18 September 1982 issue of Melody Maker, and sees Mike Finney discuss The Distractions before going on to explain the Secret Seven venture.

SEVEN WONDERS

Frank Worrall (words) and Zbysiu Road (picture) regress to the happy days of THE SECRET SEVEN

MIKE Finney beams broadly at my first question. "You do have to sell, yes," he whispers. "But I wouldn't say that I'm as such a mercenary as a realist. I'm a man who's learned his lessons as well."

Mike smiles a lot during the course of our jaunt around Manchester's hostelries. Later in the evening I tell him that he's got a lot to smile about.

He nods in agreement - and smiles! Just a short time earlier he'd been reflecting sadly on the frustrations of the past couple of years, when total disillusionment all but set in.

"The Distractions could have been big, he said. "But it all fell apart after we'd got the record deal with Island."

I tell Mike that The Distractions hold fond memories for me and that in retrospect their music was a foundation  from which many of today's "pop" bands have developed.

"It's true," he says. "The music we were making in 1979 was two years ahead of its time. In fact, there's not much difference between what we were doing then and what Haircut One Hundred are doing now."

WE jump forward to March, 1982 when the Secret Seven - with nucleus of Mike, Julie Middles sharing vocals, AJ playing bass and Bernard Van Den Berg on keyboards - started their great adventure.

"It wasn't at all difficult to start over again," says Mike. "I knew that there was something special in the line-up and the new challenge refreshed me. Now the only different between us and The Distractions is that we've got five less songs and we're already more famous. Can't be bad, can it?"

He talks of a calculated master plan conceived to launch the Seven.

"I didn't want to make the same elementary mistakes as before so I thought about it carefully," he admits. "With the help of Mick (Middles), our manager, I made sure that we alerted all the right people in all the right places."

That means he didn't want to get caught up in the staid, messy "rock circuit" idea. "Instead of playing pubs and playing clubs we decided that the Seven would take an easier route."

And it's worked. Look at the Seven's gig at the Hacienda the other week when the club was swarming with vultures from the big labels. "I'd rather be in the position we are now than still be playing some dingy pub in Stockport," he adds.

That's all very well, but isn't there something basically immoral in manipulation and jumping on the latest "pop bandwagon"?

"You think we're on a bandwagon?" he demands. "I don't. Sure we're a pop group but I've always made pop. I believe that the Secret Seven are ahead, not abreast of music fashion; I know we're different.

How's it different? "Well, there's nobody else, expect perhaps the Human League, who are bringing together synthesizers and pop as effectively as us."

[to be continued...]

(c) Frank Worrall. Melody Maker.