Some of the bands I used to play with
Diagram BrosDislocation DancePale FountainsHonkiesSmart BombsMud HuttersNicoLemon JellyLoop Ellington
My first experience of making records and playing radio sessions was with my brothers in Manchester from 1980 -1982. I played the bass and John Peel kept repeating our sessions. We ended up doing three.
The only live footage is from a performance on the BBC riverside arts programe in 1981
You can read a biography here. CDs are available from LTM recordings
A website is under development at www.diagrambrothers.com
But there is an old myspace page at www.myspace.com/diagrambrothers
I played trumpet in Manchester with Dislocation Dance from 1980 -1987.
Dislocation Dance was where I first started experimenting with trumpet effects
and created my solo trumpet sound.
You can read a biography here. CDs are available from LTM recordings
The drummer, of course, is Richard Harrison, who is the other half of Spaceheads, and who I also played with in The Mud Hutters, and The Honkies.
Dislocation Dance recently reformed ( I guest with them occasionally) you can keep up with their current activities at the Dislocation Dance facebook page
I played with Liverpool band The Pale Fountains from 1982 -1985. I traveled between Manchester and Liverpool to play and after a first single we signed to Virgin records in 1983. It was my first experience of the “big” music industry and working with top producers in “big” studios. We released two albums and a lot of singles. We recently reformed for two gigs in London and Liverpool in 2008.
Mick and John went on to form the fabulous “Shack” after the Pale Fountains split up.
The best place for info is shacknet
Recently I have been working with Mick on a new project – Michael Head and the Red Elastic Band
The Honkies were active 1987 – 1993. The only band I have been in as a member of a creative horn section with Caroline Kraabel and Kathy Hulme on saxes. The band also featured Richard Harrison on drums and later on John Edwards on Double Bass.
We recorded a vinyl album and two CDs and a cassette album. There is very little online. Hopefully this will be remedied soon, once i raid my photo album and old videos. A temporary website has been set up and is under construction
Here is a track from the album “Who Eats?” from 1992
Our vinyl album “How do we Prevent the Advance of the Desert” was re-released for the first time in the digital realm by the label Music à la Coque. You can listen and order from their bandcamp page
The Smart Bombs
The Smart Bombs formed out of the ashes of the Honkies in 1994. We released a four track EP. and toured around Europe in 1994-1995. We split up after a final concert as “The Smart Bombs Big Band” with 14 people at the London Musicians collective festival at Conway Hall London in the summer of 1995.
This is a track from the Smart Bombs 4 track EP that has since been covered by the excellent band orchestre tout puissant marcel duchamp who are touring around Europe in 2012 and feature this song in their set
Have been active since the early 1970s, and still play occasionally today. Richard Harrison along with his cousin and some friends got together and released singles and albums (including the classic “factory farming” in 1981) on their own “Defensive Records”.
I was asked to join in 1984, and recorded a set of songs that never got released.
Here is one from that session
Included here as I often get asked about it. Eric Random is a friend from Manchester who also released records on the New Hormones label (Like Diagram Brothers and Dislocation Dance). I played on some of his records.
Nico (Velvet Underground) was living in Manchester at the time and was managed by Alan Wise who shared offices with New Hormones. Nico picked up various musicians to play with and regularly played with Eric. I played with her a few times notably at Chelsea town hall in 1985 and a long six week European tour in 1987 playing with Nico and as part of Eric Random and the Bedlamites (my first ever major european tour).
This picture was taken on stage somewhere in Germany. We were dismissively referred to as “the curry jazzers” in James Youngs otherwise excellent biography of Nico “Songs they never play on the radio”
Someone has recently uploaded the complete concert of us playing in Belgrade at the Studenten Kulturzentrum on 29th March 1987
You can watch part 2 here and part 3 here
I played with Lemon Jelly as a guest, rather than a member, with my good friend Fred Deakin. I featured on their 2002, Mercury nominated, “Lost Horizons” album as well as playing a few gigs and radio sessions with them in 2003.
Here is a live acoustic version of the Lemon Jelly single “Nice weather for ducks” recorded for Jo Whiley’s BBC1 Live Lounge in 2003
