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Part Two MH So, where were we? B We'd just recorded our first load of songs MH Our first album B And we got back home and played it over and over again going wow MVB What a drum sound MH And it was quite a drum sound. Drum sound impressions B But we were really pleased and wasted no time getting our first tape made MH "Gravel Monsters" MH After the band B Which became RUTHSongs after we changed our name, and that had Fear of Flying and Sideways on it and Mike and stuff. MH We also did some shorter tapes with just Fear of Flying, Sideways and B Mumble mumble mumble MVB What's wrong with that one? MH It's too embarrassing MH And I sent that one out to various managers and Record Companies B Did we go down well? MH Well no one said we were shit. MH But no one said we were great either. But then was the great BASCA adventure. B Oh yes - tell us about that MH Well I was a member of BASCA, which is the British Association of Songwriters, Composers and Arrangers which is like a Association of songwriters MH In Britain MH Yes, that's why they're called that name they are called. Anyway they do these songwriting workshops every now and then where you can go along with a bunch of five or six other writers and have your stuff listened to and slagged off by people in the music industry. I'd been to one before and there'd been someone from EMI and some other publishers and they'd been quite encouraging, and I thought that would be a better way for us to get heard than by sending out hundreds of tapes. MH At least if they're in the same room it's harder for them to ignore it. MH Yes quite a lot harder. They'd have to secretly put their fingers in their ears MH Or have little earphones on that are playing different music to your music and listening to that and not your music B This was in September 1992 which was quite busy for all of us, cos we were all going off to new schools. In fact I remember that on the day of the BASCA thing I'd gone to London to go and look at the Halls where I'd be living cos I'd just done my A-levels and I'd got into Goldsmiths MH Oh really? How did you do? B Very well, thankyou MVB How come only you two went to this thing? MH Well that's because only I was a member and you could only have one guest. MVB Oh right, so it wasn't just because you hadn't told me about it. MH You wouldn't have come anyway MVB You're probably right B Yes, so then what happened MH Well we went along to the BASCA offices in London and I'd done these little Gravel Monsters leaflets with all the details and the lyrics, and we got in and there were about seven other people there MH Who were all older than us so we were VERY NERVOUS MH Cos we were just small boys. We had cups of coffee and chatted and finally the panel arrived. There was a guy called Bob Clifford from EMI publishing MH Who had very stary eyes MH And a guy from Leosong which was another publisher, and another guy called Brian Wade from Waif Publishing B Who looked like John Craven MH What? B Matt came home and said he looked like John Craven MH Well I thought he did MVB Gene Wilder MH Well he looks like John Craven MH Anyway, we all sat round this table and looked at each other's bits of paper, and I was going YES cos I could see that our leaflet was much better than everyone else's MH Then we started listening to the tapes B I remember being very interested to hear what kind of system they used and if it was really excellent or anything MH Well it wasn't. Everyone had two tracks each, and you went round hearing the first one and the critique of it then you did the second one. We were fourth out of five weren't we? MH Something like that MH It was really awful because the first three got totally ripped apart by the panel. I mean it was fair enough because they were dreadful, but I was sitting there shitting myself. In fact I wrote a little message to you saying "I'm shitting my pants" MH And I still have that very piece of paper to this day. In my Gravel Monsters file. MH Then it came to us, and we timidly gave them the tape and they put it on, and I can remember it was great cos everyone was talking, and then Fear of Flying started with that "Oi!" and everyone shut up and listened. MH And we were both just sitting there listening, not looking at anyone. MH It was horrible. But it finally ended, and they turned off the tape and all shouted, all together, "Hit Single!!!". It was like WEEEE! MH WAHEY!!! WE'RE GOING TO BE FAMOUS!! YES!!!! MH And they went on about it for ages MH All the others were looking a bit pissed off, but that didn't matter cos WE WERE GREAT!!! MH Eventually they stopped talking to us and listened to all the other stuff, which was much the same again. Then it it came to us again, and we put on Sideways. MH And at the end of that, the EMI bloke turned it off and said it was crap. MH Well he said "That doesn't work", and I was so enraged by this that I went "What?" really amazed, and then all of a sudden the other two on the panel and some of the other writers were going "No, it was great". It was like bloody Karate Kid or something. And after it had all finished, we were having more coffee and all the guy from Leosong came up and said some bullshit at us B Was that the famous "You're on the verge of major success" thing MH He was such a twat, that guy. MH But then Brian came up and said that he thought we had some great songs and that he'd like to help us out, but his company wasn't really big enough to do much for us cos he mostly did film and TV music. B I remember you coming back and telling me all this and it was like a film. MH Yes, like Karate Kid. B I was so excited I thought I would never sleep again. MH What happened then? MH We went round thinking we were on the verge of a massive success because Brian would give us a record deal. B We sent him more songs didn't we? MH Yeah, but he was just off on holiday B Didn't he realise we had to get on with a career??? MVB I don't remember any of this MH Hadn't you just started at college then? MVB Yes, I was doing Audio Visual Studies at Bournemouth Art College B And living in a Guest House MVB So I had better things to think about than being a pop star B Then I went off to Goldsmiths MH And I went to start my third year at City MH And I'd just started training to be a Psychiatric Nurse. MH Do you remember our first meeting with Brian and Geri? MVB I remember having to get a bus from Hammersmith and not knowing where we were going. B I remember their brown leather sofas and being incredibly excited and not knowing anything. In fact, does anyone know what that meeting was about? MH It was about how they thought we were good and they wanted to be involved and how crap the music business was. B Oh - and how come nothing was going to happen for six months and we should just keep writing songs. I was so disappointed. MH It's taken us a long time to find out that everything you want to happen always happens a year or two after you thought it would MH Unless you get signed by a proper label with loads of money. B Well we weren't MH That was pretty much it for 1992 B 1993 Was a pretty important year, really. MH Yes it was. Better than 1994 certainly. B First of all we just did loads of gigs MH In Eastbourne MH Well you were the only one who knew how to get gigs then B Wasn't it that February that we played the Powerhaus for the first time MH No that was the year after MH No it was 1993 MH Was it? B Cos that was the one we got about seventy people to MVB How did we manage that? MH We've never been able to do it since MH We'll never ever bring in more people than that again MH Not even when we're famous? MH Not even then. No more than seventy to a gig. Even when we do Wembley Arena. Seventy people. B Wait! Wasn't that Powerhaus gig just after we played at the Notty Ball [Matt's Halls of Residence] MH Supporting Katriona and the Waves and Bad Manners MVB That was a nightmare getting to that one B Bad Manners were good though. MH We got paid œ250 pounds for that MH Did we? That's amazing B And that was a historic gig cos it was the first one we did with our new name MH It's a good name B Yes it is MH But we did do a lot of gigs in Eastbourne B All the pub owners found the fact that we were called RUTH and we were four blokes very amusing. Do you remember that place - MH The Golden Cross B -Where we played to three people, but they still paid us œ50 MH That was great MVB That was stupid B We met a lot of mad people too MH Mad people collect at soundchecks and tell us loads of useful stuff about how to tune drums B Then it was the famous Brixton gig. Steve, why don't you tell us about that? MH Oh all right then. I'm a member of the Methodist Association of Youth Club's choir which is made up from all the young Methodists in Britain B This is a thing that puzzles me, Steve, for whilst you could happily be described as many things, a Young Methodist isn't one of them MH Well Young Methodists are allowed to grow quite old before becoming old Methodists B I see MH And anyway, they don't want to get rid of me because I'm so bloody great B Please continue at speed MH Well every year lots of young Methodists come to London for a weekend for a big event which is called London Weekend and lots of things happen and one of the things is a big choral and orchestral concert which happens at The Albert Hall which is in fact where that song of yours that bought us together was performed B Matt? Are you a Young Methodist? MH No - it's a long story of misguided lust MH I've had that MVB What? MH I've had misguided lust before and B Did it turn you into a Young Methodist? Go on MH Well at there is also a big rock concert at Brixton Academy at the same time and because there are so many people at London Weekend there are two performances of each concert and one lot of people go and see one of them in the morning and then they swap over and see the other one in the afternoon and a few years ago I played at it with the Toffs and it was great and so I thought we should do it and I sent a tape and they liked it and we got asked to play and so we said yes because we wanted to play to 6000 young children MH It was a great experience, 3000 people each gig, and we were the first act. The roar of the crowd.... B Virtually all of ALAN were at that gig. In fact we started it up just after that, so if you're reading this and you were there, just look what you've done! MVB It was a really amazing thing to do. We were all so hyper and everything was so fast. B I remember we stayed at the Academy that night and went and sat on the stage really late the night before and went and looked at the desk and the PA and everything and looked out into this huge empty room. It seemed much bigger when it was full of people MH I remember pushing that bloke's van after we'd been out for a meal MH It was so nice to do it, though, and afterwards we were absolutely mobbed, everyone was rushing out to see us and have us sign things MVB That was crazy and we were all just standing there behind that bloody wobbly table with hundreds of people reaching for us and wanting us to talk to them MH Well I'd seen it all before, of course MH I got very good at my signature B That's when I perfected my amazing all-in-one-movement signature MH I spent ages when I was little doing my autograph MH So did I B I did, but I wisely used a different one than the one I did when I was little cos that's what I use to sign cheques and stuff. I didn't want to get mugged for my cashcard. MVB It would be awful to get mugged by a fan B Well, we could talk about it forever MH But we can't B And we won't. Well, what happened next? MH It was May then B May the 15th, and it was the same week that Spilt Milk by Jellyfish came out which I was supremely excited about MH But it must've been quite soon after that that I was sitting in my room and B It was a Thursday MH On a Thursday morning and I got a call from Brian who said, in a state of great agitation, that some Advertising Executive he knew had just rung him asking if knew any bands who might like to go on MTV, and this was something to do with British Knights. But the thing was the auditions were being held that very day. I mean it was pretty flukey that I was in cos I didn't sit around in my room all that often. B And it was even more flukey that I was in too [Matt was at Halls in Islington, Ben was at Halls in Camberwell]. I had no idea what you were talking about - I thought it was something to do with your University, but I rushed over anyway, bringing tapes and shirts with me [At the time there were special horrid shirts for doing gigs in]. Come to think of it, it was only a week after Brixton, because the shirts hadn't been washed and I remember thinking that it was ultra-cool to have to say "Sorry we smell so much - we just played Brixton Academy in these shirts". But then I got there and Matt did his best to explain MH Brian had said we should just go along for a chat, but it turned out to be a screen test B It was in this really cool warehouse conversion off Old Street which was very nearby - it was exactly the kind of place you'd expect a pair of advertisers to live MH Cos it turned out to be the home of the Production assistant. But that's not all that important; we turned up there and there were a load of dodgy looking blokes hanging around who were also auditioning, but we went straight in and sat round this kitchen table with some slimy ad-types and this Scandinavian bloke who was wearing a cap despite being forty, and we talked about what we did and what we'd done B Oh God that's right, cos that was just after we were on the Future Music tape [Future Music is a dull Music Technology magazine which did a tape of the best Readers Demo Tapes it had heard, the first track of which was Fear of Flying], so they had that lying around and the little piece it had on us, featuring that bloody awful photo MH Then they explained what they were looking for, which was four young bands of different styles to show that British Knights were really into new music, to be in this advert to go out on MTV, and in this advert, these four bands would each be performing their own idiosynchratic readings of "Born To Be Wild" by Steppenwolf B I don't know what that was supposed to prove - that BK were hip to new sounds but still dug the classics MH They told us about this and we were going "er..." cos it sounded a bit crap, but it was MTV, and then they said "Come on then, lets see you in action" and led us over to where there this camera all set up B And this was a bit alarming cos we weren't expecting this to happen MH But they put Fear of Flying on, pointed the camera at us and off we went, trying to be as starry as possible B But at the same time lovable and zany guys. Or at least hyperactive mad guys MH And then they said thanks then and off we went going that was strange. At that point we weren't all that bothered by the whole thing cos it seemed so unlikely to happen. BK's image up to then was very Street Style and black, and we're just fresh-faced young white boys who don't even wear trainers B Let alone fleecy sleeveless jackets and hooded tops MH But it was quite nice that it had happened cos we hadn't heard much from Brian for a while and we thought he'd MH Been a bit of a dead loss B Next we heard that we'd gone down very well and would we like to come back with the whole band MVB I'd forgotten about that. I was playing the drums with wooden spoons on a Black and Decker Workmate MH It was so stupid MH We were all very foolish MH But it seemed to do the trick cos we soon heard that they wanted us B It wasn't that soon, actually. There was a huge long gap between us doing that and them saying yes definitely MH And we didn't have to do Born to be Wild because they'd changed the campaign to use the bands' own music MH Which made it a much better deal - although 'deal' isn't really the word for it. They argued that they were putting us on MTV for two months and so they didn't really have to give us anything else MVB Apart from loads of free trainers B I have fond memories of various meetings after that, like the one where they showed us their great idea for the advert. And their job is to come up with great ideas, and yet they came up with this: "The Nuisance" it was called. We all got a bit of paper with "RUTH Promo" written on it - "The Nuisance". They'd obviously settled on our most distinctive feature instantly. And they kept asking us if we thought it was good and how come they should do a "funny" one because we were "funny" guys. So in the end ours was totally incomprehensible cos they tried to get this story into 30 seconds, about how some fat guy's telly is all ruined because we keep appearing on every channel with our irrepressible pop tunes, so he's forced to turn it off and then we appear in his room!!!!!!! Except they didn't really have enough time to develop this so in the end it just looks like the telly's going on and off and then we come round to see him. But we said yeah, we think it's really great so it's our own fault. MH The days of filming were great though MH We did two days, the first was at this studio in Dean Street, which is like Film Central in London, where we spent the whole day in the Big White Room MVB An Infinity Room it's called MH In the business B But it really was very white, and where the walls met the floor was all curved so you couldn't tell when you were going to run into it, which we did a lot of MH They needed the bits where we were on the Fat Man's TV, doing our lovable and energetic thing MH We were doing it to the edited version of the track which was twenty-seven seconds long, but we must have spent about four hours doing it over and over again MVB In different coloured T-shirts B Oh and the nail-ripping shoes MH Yes, they wanted us to wear this particular design of trainer which they only had in size 7. And the thing you should know, ALAN, is that the boys from RUTH all have big feet. Or at least the other boys do, so I had to wear the small trainer even though it was still two sizes too small. It was all right for a bit, but my toes were all scrunched up, and then one take my big toenail got bent back MH Well that's not right, is it? B Did you sue? MH No, but later it went all black and then it came off altogether. Which was great cos one morning I was able to play a trick on one of my housemates by getting one of my other housemates to pretend to pull it off with a pair of pliers MVB That sounds like fun, Steve MH It is. Everyone should try it MH That day always felt like a real classic one of the time, because I was finishing my degree while this was all going on, and this day was the same day they put up the results, so I spent the day filming for MTV with my band, then I went to the University to get my degree, then I spent the evening doing a tribute to Howard Jones at my department's Eighties Night. I thought that summed up June 1993 pretty well B And what did you get? MH I got a round of applause B No, for the degree MH I got a 2,1 MH Were you pleased? MH I was very pleased B And about a week after that was the second day's filming which was back at the place we'd auditioned, and they'd put the set together there for the Fat Mans house, which was pretty cool. Except they'd obviously got most of what they wanted from us and were mostly just filming the Fat Man MVB I didn't mind though because it gave me a chance to watch how a film crew worked, which was all very useful for my course B At least someone was happy. And then there was the whole business with The Word At The End MH They wanted us to come up with a single word or maybe a short phrase to shout at the end which would sum up both ourselves and British Knights shoes MH Which aren't all that similar really MH We came up with "Unstoppable" which was OK for a while but then it turned out it had already been used by LA Gear, so we had to think of another one, and there was that great moment when one of the Scandinavians from the european Advertising Agency MH There were a lot of agencies involved MH Well a Scandinavian one - one who I should point out was not a native English speaker- came up and said "how about 'explicit'". MVB Which we thought was a jolly good idea B What must 'explicit' mean in Swedish? 'Really terrific'? MH We had a lot of trouble coming up with anything that wasn't totally shit, and they were coming up all day going "Have you thought of your word yet" B So we had to do "Explosive!" even though we aren't and neither are BKs. And we had to say it. Well I had to say it cos everyone else was crap MH And because we were using the "Oi" at the beginning of the ad, so it seemed to make sense to have a big shouted RUTH "EXPLOSIVE.....BK!!!" MH We should have done it like that B So that was that MH Except that it now transpired that our ad was going out earlier than we'd thought at the beginning of August, and it was now at the beginning of July, so we got onto Brian, cos we'd been planning to try and get a deal to release Fear of Flying to go with the campaign, but it now we didn't have very long. But he said he'd get onto it B And that was awful because then it was summer and we all went away from London to our homes and families, phoning Brian every bloody day to hear the latest MH And I phoned you every bloody day to hear the latest MVB I can't remember what I was doing B It was going well at first cos Brian and Geri had been round the record companies a lot and knew people, so there were millions of meetings with A&R men and they all went well, they all liked the track and could see the sense and the relatively low risk of doing a deal for one single, but they always had to go and get someone else and do another meeting the next week and so it dragged on MH And in the meantime we were busy doing summery things MH Like playing gigs in my house without Matt B People reading this will think you weren't in the band in 1993 MVB That's how I want it to be MH And because we'd been such a success at Brixton, we got onto the Greenbelt Festival that summer MH Only because I ran to the guy's house on the last afternoon and posted him a tape, though MH For which you will be justly rewarded in Heaven B As will we for doing Greenbelt MH Wasn't that when we had our T-Shirts made MVB The famous T-Shirts B Yes it was. Never never ever choose T-Shirt colours over the phone MH I'm not sure it would have made all that much difference B No, I'm sure it wouldn't. They'd still be the shittest T-Shirts in history MH Please feel free to buy them, everyone MH They have got a nice design on them, though B But Greenbelt was nice, all very hot and summery, and there were thousands of big tents and amps and PA systems, and that's what I like MH We played a very large number of gigs in those two days B We were real attention whores MH And after Greenbelt the very next week we had a gig at The Mean Fiddler which loads of record companies were going to be at and we'd get the deal on the spot B Even though the advert had already been on for a month and would've finished by the time they'd done anything, had any of them turned up MVB There was one there though MH But his name was Torquil B And the week after that we were at St Marks to do the session that became Birdworld MH And we all stayed in our flat me and Ben had just moved into B And it was awful MH That was a great week at St Marks, though B And at the end of that week we all went to Brian and Geri's, and that's where the next chapter begins, which is the sad one and I'm bored now MH Yes MVB Yes MH Hey! Let's have some tea! |