How Not To Run A Record Label Part 7
2017 - January to June
When 2017 began there was a sense we were making some progress but we were hit with the sad news of Alana’s passing, a devastating loss. My radio show had morphed into a podcast of just music without the usual DJ Chat. The Cambridge connection was kicking into gear and we were expanding our reach in Scotland. The mix of new and legacy releases continued.
To kick off the year release wise we launched a rescue mission, the ' lost near mythical' Hamsters single recorded and ready for release in January 2015 was scheduled as a 7 inch double A sided vinyl before label funding issues scuppered the event. It needed to be heard. “Basically Johnny Moped” , celebrates the legendary outsiders Johnny himself along with Slimy Toad , Dave and Fred Burk and the mysterious Xerxes while giving namechecks to other faves with unique visions Jon the Postman , Wild Man Fischer , Marc Bolan and Tiny Tim. It was a celebratory blast and salute to people who walk their own chosen way. “Freudian Ships” was a wonky shanty concerning a hapless bunch of mutineers who end up adrift in both a physical and moral sense. We even got plaudits from someone famous. Captain Sensible of The Damned said “He's back, had his teeth fixed, new album and now Johnny Moped has been immortalised in song by a band called the Hamsters. 'Basically Johnny Moped' manages to cram the whole insane story into a 3 minute tune.. and it's good too - well worth the 75p download from German Shepherd Records website. Give 'em a visit.. they're a fun label with loadsa wacky and inventive tracks for perusal. What a nice morning it is when you find fun and interesting music thriving away from the ghastly mainstream autotuned plastic crap that is unfortunately popular currently (poor teenagers, is all I can say!). Rant over.” Thanks Captain!
Next, Ian and I were back with a new single. We said of the first track “A ritual sacrifice to the old gods to bring a better harvest , a defiance of science , a deviation of nature , an abomination , so who but a fool ?”. We said of the second track “The dregs of a once fine wine , spoiled , bitter and not easily stomached , only the truly delusional will touch this.” m.t. scott joined us on guitars and ambient sounds on King For A Day, and a damn fine job he did too! I look back on this release with great fondness, i’ve always liked music that builds into structure slowly from chaos.
The Junta was hard at work on a new album. As a preview we released a single crammed with anglo-saxon language - we weren’t going to get any radio play with that, too many cuss words, so we did a clean version, it took ages to remove all the f-words from the vocal track. Ian guested on vocal as Ralph Florian Wumme - with a nod to Kraftwerk. It’s mad percussion crammed piece - Ian in catharsis mode, still.
The Moss Brothers returned at John The Revelator with a tribute to Oscar Wilde “Poor Oscar , martyred for a cause that would be crushed by conformists who feared and loathed the unnatural in equal measure , ruffles and velvet were out the horrors of starched shirts and tweed would follow rendering the country uptight and terrified of sex”. Ian would return to Mr Wilde in due course.
Franco Bandini reverted to Sam Smith for his next release. It was one of his most personal and visceral records, where he explored some of his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love and the consequences of self-destructive behaviour. Inspired by Ryan Adams’ ‘Love is Hell’ album, Springsteen’s ‘Tunnel of Love’, “American” era Johnny Cash & Mark Lanegan’s cover of Solitaire by Neil Sedaka, it was an insightful release. The B-Side was a version of Irish folk song ‘The Moonshiner’ inspired by Uncle Tupelo’s cover of the same song and provides accompaniment to the overall theme of the release. This closed January.
February kicked off with the Moss Brothers again, changing their names as many times MUFC have changed managers in recent years. El Topo this time and a celebration of the the walk your own way lifestyle of Francesco Zappa.
Back to the archives for the next one. Eddie Fenn asked to release recordings by the legendary Waterfoot Dandy, the pseudonym of musician Gary Lomax. Gary sadly passed away in 2015. Born in Rawtenstall, Gary played for Bolton Wanderers’ youth team as a young man before deciding to train as an artist. While studying art at Manchester University he trained under Rossendale’s most famous artist, Dave Pearson. He then took up a Masters degree at The Royal College of Art, where he studied under renowned photographers Michael Langford and John Hedgecoe. He went on to work as a teacher at Harper Green School, in Bolton, and at Burnley College but always maintained a keen interest in music. He was a member of The In Sect, punk band Sons of Potto and post-punks Victor Drago – who supported The Fall at the Hacienda – he remained good friends with former members of The Fall including Marc Riley. This release featured the first of The Waterfoot Dandy’s recordings all performed live in his 4 foot waterlogged coal cellar of a studio in approximately the mid to late nineteen seventies. Bass guitar was played with his bare feet and equipment was all resurrected from skips. Eddie said “Gary lived the dream and now he’s dead. But he’s no Solomon Grundy and won’t be back on Monday but his presence lingers on in the fabric of the nth number of time, space continuums that permeate our cosmos. This is his first release since “14 days to live” (In Tape). Originally designed to be released on his and his fellow collaborator The Honourable Ted’s label (NOB Records. That’s Naughty Old Boys) and after much consultation with his wife and soulmate Christine has kindly agreed for it to be released on German Shepherd records as they are good old boys and like minded chaps”. This was rescued from a CD and some mastering was used to bring levels up. It’s a remarkable collection of music from a unique and individual artist. I’m reminded of mid 70s Arthur Brown albums and Zappa at his quirkiest. Good stuff!
Next up, probably my favourite Screaming Love Collective release “This Tragic Universe” again features Paul Winter on vocals. Immense mouth harp playing. A rich and complex piece music filled to the brim with emotion - again it should have been huge.
Outside of Stereopod and his work with Screaming Love Collective Drew McLatchie had another project called Issac Navaro. Of this release he said “Paths to the shore, is collection of somewhat incongruous tracks, within which there is no theme nor any discernible meaning or purpose other than the enjoyment it gave me working them up from initial ideas to finished products. Above everything, the album marks a line being drawn under these tracks as I move on in hopefully new and exciting directions. I’m one half of both Stereopod and The Screaming Love Collective and look forward to being part of these projects again, as well as being a solo project. Any and all money accrued through sales of this album will go towards the first base food bank in Dumfries”. This was a wonderful release, packed with ideas, moving from moody ambience to intense electronica.
Things got pretty local for me for the next one. A few miles south west of German Shepherd headquarters is the area known as Patricroft, part of Eccles. Located there was a talented singer-songwriter named Dominic Carlton Jones. He had been active on the Manchester/Salford scene for a number of years and after being in bands he was exploring solo work. He came to our gigs and introduced himself. We were pleased to release his excellent music.
March and more material from the productive House Mouse and Space Museum partnership. A couple of pop tunes, some more intense stuff and some ambient material recorded in early 2017. All proceeds were promised to Shelter.
More Moff next and a collection of the music played at The Castle, in Manchester on 17th March 2017 as part of Smoked Ears Will Not Grow Back 3. I was in a foul mood that night for reasons I won’t dwell on but just to say I cannot do three things at once and there was a smidgeon of rock star behaviour going on - thank god it was a Robinson’s pub and I could numb my annoyance with some decent beer. Forgetting that this was a great collection.
Stephen Doyle began a new run of live promotions under his "Sonic Diary" banner with Poppycock and Kit B and North Manchesters Y-Key Operators who Monty out of Kit B and The Junta has guested with. It was at Fred's Ale House in Levenshulme on March 25th
The Junta's EP "Hydra" went to wider digital distribution on March 31st when we combined the original EP with a selection of remixes of the track Agent Coulson to create a mini-album of classic techno tuneage.
Dave Hammond had been wanting to showcase some of the excellent music in the Cambridge Area and tie that in with some fund-raising for charity. He mentioned to me he wanted to do it but was struggling to find a label to host such an endeavour. Well, I said, there is us of course. Bit of a stretch for a Greater Manchester label to be releasing a Cambridge focused album but why the hell not? So the Cambridge Calling Project came to our door. Volume One, supporting the Arthur Rank Hospice, was great, the diversity of the music was impressive, covering rock, hip hop, folk, indie, punk, psychedelia, pop, jazz, Americana, garage and electronica with nods to all eras of popular and contemporary music. Artists ranged from those in the first flush of youth and already developing sounds that “bode well for the future” to more experienced souls continually developing their craft. Five of the artists on this collection were already part of our label or were soon to join it. Overall the Cambridge Calling Project was great but a big lesson learned was always check with the artists that they are not going to want to extract a track from the collection in future when they get “signed” by another label. One such ne’er do well insisted we remove a track which ended in my having to reload the whole collection without said track. Suffice to say the trouble-maker didn’t achieve any subsequent fame - some sort of karma I guess. I had enough on my hands, I didn’t need any prima-donnas making additional work for me!
The next release was from a band on the Cambridge Calling album. At the time Keltrix was known for a blend of haunting vocals and soaring strings with electronic beats, bass and synth lines, bridging the gap between alt/folk and electro. With influences as far ranging as Kate Bush, Bats for Lashes, Massive Attack , Prodigy, Karl Jenkins and John Williams the result was both interesting and engaging. Keri (singer/songwriter) and Sharon (violinist/producer) first met when performing with Dj’s and Live PA’s at dance music club nights back in the late 90’s. It wasn’t until several years later, however, that Keri formed the original Keltrix, an alt/folk/rock band that Sharon soon joined. After several years, two albums and a certain amount of success, a continuing love of 90’s rave and trip hop, along with the desire to progress musically, meant it was time to change direction. The 2015 double album Between Storms (band)/Beyond Storms (electro) (which we would eventually release) was the turning point and Keltrix had been a live electro act ever since with DJ Rose Wood joining the line-up around this time. There were links of course Keri was originally from Liverpool and Sharon came from Salford.
I have to pause at this stage and reflect that Sharon has recently succumbed to cancer and is no longer with us. There are more chapters in the ongoing Keltrix story but Sharon was a key part of Keltrix for many years and a major figure on the Cambridge scene and is sadly missed. “Bobby Says” is a triumphant celebration of the talent of Keri and Sharon. It is a timeless piece of work.
March concluded with a preview EP from Screaming Love Collective - three tracks from a forthcoming album. A great collection of tunes from Bryn with assistance from Paul.
Around this time Jason Hurley introduced a new line-up for The Electric Cheese. On drums there was Al Superstar Green (left). A former member of pioneering New Zealand beat combo Captain Fogpocket. On bass, Allan 'Cheddar' Tanner (right). Allan recently returned from Australia after moving there as a child and played in various top bands down under including Daktari, Urban Wildlife and Wolf Club.
The intense rehearsals and a few live shows under their belt meant Four Candles were ready to get some music recorded. Low on funds they scraped together enough cash for sixteen hours studio time in November of the previous year , in five hours ten tracks were recorded in one or two takes with minimal overdubs , the next eleven hours saw the album mixed. How did we get around to releasing it? Well, the first week of April was a tad busy……and this says a lot about our working methods so I am including the complete diary notes of that time…..
Monday 3rd April : A disagreement with a Sunday Night King Prawn and Cashew Nut concoction from the local take-away had left me somewhat jaded and inconvenienced, pottering around feeling sorry for myself. A message from my partner in musical crime Mr Moss indicated that he was aiming to get copies of the debut Four Candles album made for the forthcoming gig at the Eagle so "could I do the necessary background fettling with those nice people at Mint Copies in Stockport?". The answer was yes of course. A word to the wise "background fettling" is not as glamorous as it sounds, it generally involves several hours waiting for files to upload to various platforms chewing up bandwidth and making it impossible to do any multitasking on the lap-top. Anyhow the job was less onerous this time as the very talented Mr Jon Rowlinson (bass player of this parish) has already done the artwork, which was very impressive. Most of Monday afternoon was spent uploading the ten WAV files for sending on to Mint. It then strikes me, always a glutton for punishment, the Mr Moss might also want a digital release of said album so I put it to him, he says yes. So Monday evening is spent uploading the tracks to Bandcamp, also a laborious process, again chewing up the bandwidth making multi-tasking impossible etc etc....I asked Mr Moss for some liner notes.
Tuesday 4th April - part of the digital distribution means signing up with a company that does the work of sending your releases to all the various platforms out there. Again there's the tedium of uploading the files to them, so most of Tuesday is eaten up with that with the usual impact on bandwidth and multi-tasking. There's also the job of getting the news out to 400 or so DJ's, Radio Stations, and Bloggers who get bombarded with our releases on a weekly basis. Always a complex process because people want things in different formats so there's a need to upload things to a cloud for sharing (more time expended whilst that goes on) and to write some promo which "sells" the album, always remembering that a good proportion of the people you are writing to haven't got a clue what you are whittering on about and , and if they are like me, get dozens of e-mails from record companies or pluggers on a daily basis. You have to sell the uniqueness of your product. There's also the need to tell people that we are releasing it via the usual social media outlets... Facebook, Twitter etc and that, hopefully the CDs will be done for Saturday and the gig at the Eagle, where the band are performing with The Get and Cannonball Statman. All the above is dutifully completed by around 9pm which means I can finally get around to catching up with doing work for next weeks podcasts. 40 of the 400 promo e-mails get bounced back for various reasons but that can wait for another day.
Wednesday 5th April - an e-mail from Ipswich Community Radio advises that a track from the album will be played tonight - result! Mr Moss reports that the CDs have arrived, well done Mint. We can let people know we will be selling them on Saturday night. The results of the dodgy King Prawn thing are just about wearing off so I'm feeling more human, better write a review with my schizo blogger podcaster hat on then........
The Hamsters had to be put on ice in 2016 for various reasons which are too complicated to go into here. Messrs Moss and Rowlinson wanted to continue, the momentum from the Hamsters was good, and Mr Moss needs a "proper" band to properly exorcise his demons, as well as his other projects with brother Nemo and that Space Museum chap. The new drummer is Phil Peak who was in Resist with Jon, and the guitarist is Mark Taylor from Middlesbrough now based in Manchester. Mr Moss tells me is very excited, "we are doing interesting stuff" he says. Mr Moss circulates the recordings it to a few hardy souls, including myself. The general view is it is excellent, "the best band you have been in" Mick Middles and myself say to Mr Moss almost simultaneously. Gigs occur at the Eagle and Freds Ale House and the audience reaction is extremely positive. Maybe this one gets taken out of the German Shepherd kennel and released by more recognised label? It's that good. That, for whatever reason, doesn't come to fruition.
The band continue to rehearse and write, new material starts to emerge on Facebook. We're close to getting another album finished, says Mr Moss, better get the first one out. Can we do it in five days?
Of course we can, but let's not make a habit of it!
As a student, participant, and would be hagiographer of Mr Moss's body of work I have sensed his frustration at not having a vehicle strong enough to realise the visions in his head. There have been moments, and high points if you will, of course, in the Hamsters, The Dodos, The Stepbrothers and the much regarded Kill Pretty, but there was always a feeling nagging in the back of my head that the propensity of musicians to want to ape their heroes rather than innovate could ultimately stifle Moss's ambition to deliver something new and different.
I'll be bold here and say this is Mr Moss's "In A Silent Way" or "Agharta" - the culmination of a body of work which lead finally to something that stands on its own, and stands apart from toxic genre classification, and breaks the mould.
Why is the question? What is the difference?
One key point is I think, finally, here is a band devoid of ego, where the constituent parts come together perfectly to create a band that stands as unit.
The other key point is the instrumentation.
A drummer who plays an electric kit which can deliver a variety of options with the flick of switch, funk, dub, punk and prog are all deliverable from Phil's kit. This allows for variety and experimentation across the album, and even within songs.
Jon Rowlinson's bass has never sounded better melding punk and funk with riffs and runs that perfectly compliment the music.
Perhaps one of the main things though is Mark Taylor's guitar which comes from a style of music not necessarily associated with Moet's previous work, there's an edge, be it Neu-Metal or whatever else you want to call it, but it is different, it adds a symphonic layer which transforms the tunes. There is invention and there are new sounds. The phased/flanged opening of the title track being a case in point.
And Mr Moss, after a period of prolonged ill-health, is back with gusto, and belligerence, and sometime tenderness with his best recorded vocal performance in a long while. At times he pushes his voice to the limit creating a dynamic sound which fits perfectly with musical explorations going on behind him.
The songs contain the usual Moss subjects and obsessions. There is the recognisable rock biog approach (as seen with 4VT and Basically Johnny Moped) with "Napa State" which recounts the tale of The Cramps infamous gig in a mental hospital. There is a sports biog with a tale of the Ali-Frazier "Thrilla in Manilla" in "14th Round". Moss loves to celebrate outsider heroes and the band deliver a killer tribute to Lenny Bruce with "I Learned The Truth". Moss's literary explorations of identity continue with "The Man With No Mirrors" , "Monkey See Monkey Do" and title track "Killing the Image", and his metaphorical tales continue with the both insanely catchy but sad "Horse". The lyrically almost world-weary closer "I Was Almost Happy" nods back to the "punk wars" "show business" and the inevitable point in time when your idols let you down, is counterbalanced with a massive martial beat and catchy melody. I reckon with this album Mr Moss can at long last be happy with his lot. There is more but I won't spoil it for you. This is music you need to explore yourself, and find your own meanings. It is great to listen to.
And there you have it. An album released and promoted in five days with a launch gig on the sixth day. And on the seventh day we rested.......
We were starting a memorable collection of releases from a great band. This first album is raw and uncompromising, perhaps more basic punk than what was to follow from them. Rick Sarko’s video of the opening track was recorded around the Northern Quarter and close to a new venue that had just opened called The Peer Hat. Aidan, Monty, Una and Anne-Marie plus band members and various friends all contributed.
Next STAGGS returned with a funky electronic rant about game shows - why weren’t the people at 6Music picking up on this? It was marvellous. Perhaps Michael’s howling at the moon vocals scared them. Great saxophone on this one from Gary Linsley and a guest appearance from Brucie!
The Screaming Love Collective album was next. A Psychedelic Punk Rock Disco Groove Sensation it included previously released material as well as some new things. From hereon in it become solely Bryn’s preserve with Drew concentrating on Stereopod. Repetition and rhythm are the focal points of an eclectic first offering.
Jeff “Captain” Black closed April for us with a truly exceptional album. Material included work with Carl Lingard of Pearl Divers and Nathalie Haley would become the new vocalist for a revived Positronik. Monty also appeared. Jeff created some excellent pop music on this release - picking elements of soul, dance and electronica and melding that with outstanding melodies, hooks and choruses. Should have been huge.
"We need a change - send me some percussion driven pieces" said House Mouse after the nth pint of Doombar in the City Road Inn.....we were going to see the reformed Three Johns at the shiny new place at the end of Deansgate. Space Museum obliged with a more trip-hop sound than of late ......House Mouse delivered three tales covering the usual themes - identity, serial killing and demons, and a celebration of a new rural idyll. Electronic free improvisation perhaps? Final track The Soot Creature was completed at a different time for a planned spoken word/short story thing - the ambient sounds being created with a midi guitar, the instrument itself being somewhat dusty through lack of use....an everyday tale of particulate matter.....Riding the shells of electrons and sliding between the Quarks.....I think this stands up really well in hindsight in that you can’t ascribe any specific genre to it. I only lasted for two of the Three Johns numbers by the way.
Ian, Neil, and Gaynor returned as EmoNemoGaymo for two singles. The first a modern fable set in a sanitised state , where “so much order leads to a creeping dissatisfaction”. The second came with the gnomic comment “As Mr Davies had it ‘ it's a mixed up muddled up messed up world’ , an existential crisis set to sweet pop music”.
Jesse Statman got back in touch and asked if we would be willing to release some more material. An excellent four track EP emerged. This is a perfect distillation of Jesse’s work - music packed with ideas and emotion.
May saw us getting some positive press. We had decided that I would do all the background stuff and Ian would be the “face” of the label - so he ended up doing all of the interviews. This was one of the first.
Taser Puppets - who are they you ask? Well we did release their stuff but there was a disagreement/misunderstanding and we parted company - not something to dwell on.
Four Candles made their Strummercamp debut at Manchester Rugby Club on Sunday 28th May as part of the three day festival.
I hit a bit of a creative black spot with my own work so I decided to go back to my original methods and re-imagine the work of other fine musicians on the record label. This resulted in an interesting collection of material across a variety of styles. The set starts with a Toska Wilde composition and featured the unique vocal stylings of Bruce from The Get. There are two collaborations with Moff Skellington who had created some excellent rhythm tracks for use at the Smoked Ears Will Not Grow Back event earlier in the year. they were too good to ignore so I decided to explore options for making something new with them. The dark and sonorous voice of m.t. scott appeared on the track "Andrew Revisited" which is a remix of the Scott composition "The Ballad of Andrew Trouble". Both Positronik and Bouquet of Dead Crows got serious makeovers the former being a massive dub reworking of the classic song "Save If For Me" and the latter by turning rock ballad "Like A Flower" into a lengthy ambient prog rock deconstruction.
The Junta distilled his love of all things electronica into a fresh set of tunes with inspiration from, among others, John Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk and OMD shining through the beat orientated infectious music. With catchy earworm melodies and rhythms that inspire your best dance floor shapes it is hard not to exercise your mojo on hearing this release!
We were pleased to announce the addition of Berlin based band PrunX to German Shepherd Records. Introduced to the label by Cannonball Statman, the band were formed in 2000 and had gone through several line-up changes. The extant line up of the band was: FrankOz Pfeil - Guitar, Vocals; Mikado K. Schütt -Keyboards, Vocals ; Joushi Schütt - Guitar, Vocals; Stilgar T. Krennrich - Bass, Vocals, and Tom Schneider - Drums
The ep "vol.III" released on June 19th 2017 and featured three tracks. Special guest metal percussion was provided by N.U.Unruh, of Einstürzende Neubauten on the track The Iron Dream. Blimey!
Bryn was still on a roll producing lots of material….another album emerged from The Screaming Love Collective - funky and groovy stuff.
m.t.scott was next with a "concept album" loosely based on the The Edelweiss Pirates and Swing Kids youth groups of Nazi Germany, whose rebellion was, initially to drink, dance, sing and play "degenerate" jazz or swing music. However, fighting Nazis was also on the agenda......The release was dedicated to them and “all who stand against fascism to prevent the darkest times of the 20th Century seeping into the 21st”.
”We will sing and play with gusto, we will dance and we will fuck with abandon. And when we have to, we will fight. If not us, then who, if not now, then when?"
To conclude the first half of the year we celebrated Ian’s 60th Birthday with a music filled gig at The Witchwood in Ashton-u-Lyne on June 25th. The show ran from 2pm and 8pm and featured some of our own artists plus a selection of the best bands in the Greater Manchester area at the time. The line-up was Factory Acts, Poppycock, ILL, Four Candles and definitely the last ever gig from The Hamsters. The Hamsters set was preceded by an impromptu performance of “Lou Reed’s Supper Club” by Patriq from The Prick Jaggers and Ian. Tangerine Cat were supposed to play but had transport problems. Some of the music was recorded and would appear on the label in due course.
A productive and satisfying six months overall.
NEXT July to December 2017