James called me into the studio for some session work with Vinnie on sax (from Jazz Defektors). We played a live jammed version of the track “Gold Mother” with the band set up in different rooms around the studio. The recording ended up on the album of the same name, and I ended up being asked to join the band.
I wasn’t sure. My Pale Fountains experience of the music business had left me disillusioned. I wasnt sure if this is what a 30 year old musician should be doing. Where is the future in it? Surely it would be better to carve out a career as a more experimental musician… something I could enjoy doing for the rest of my life.
James were insistent. I joined them on tour at the end of 1989. They were wild shows with stage invasions and mass sing alongs. I recorded more songs with them, and it was fun. So I ended up joining, on condition that I could carry on my own projects.
The Honkies were starting to tour around Europe, through contacts with bands like The Ex and The Dog Faced Hermans.
James really started taking off and were playing in front of audiences of thousands. My most memorable were two nights at the Winter Palace in Blackpool in the summer of 1990, and our first concerts at Manchester Gmex in December in front of 10,000 fans each night.
I had just had an operation on my foot and went on stage at Gmex with crutches. I wore a flowery dress to cover my plaster cast.
In the spring of 1991,still with my foot in a plaster cast and on crutches, I went on a six week tour around Europe in a transit van with the Honkies and Orchestre Murphy. There were 8 of us in a van staying on peoples floors
Just as we were in the last week of our tour around Europe … James released “Sit Down” and it went straight to number 2 in the UK charts where it stayed for 6 weeks. I went on “top of the pops” and played keyboards with my crutches.
More recordings and more hits followed, and I continued to tour with James in front of thousands and then with the Honkies in front of 50. Strange times.
James started to break through on US radio and started touring the USA. More long tours of the USA were in the pipeline and it started to get in the way of my own projects.
I decided to leave and gave a years notice. The “seven” album would be my last and I would help promote it and then leave before the next one was recorded.
They tempted me with the promise of working with Brian Eno on the next album. I would have loved to work with Eno, but wasn’t prepared to do the multiple 3 month tours of the USA planned to promote it.
One of the last gigs I played was the biggest to date in front of 30,000 James fans at Alton Towers UK. I left on good terms, had a big leaving party and James invited Spaceheads as support on their acoustic tour at the end of 1992.
My use of technology had developed with james as I started using a radio mic and introduced radio mics into the Honkies set. I was also using digital delays and a Yamaha SPX pitch shifter with James as I battled it out as the lone trumpet in a very loud band.
The Honkies went on tour with Tom Cora and the Ex. Tom was playing cello and looping himself live. I suddenly saw the potential of live looping and how I could develop that with Spaceheads………….
