On the 23rd of February the enigmatic and inimitable Public Service Broadcasting launched their second album at the aptly named Rise Records in Bristol.
It was all stations go for all concerned. The crew were set and expectant, as were the onlookers – hopeful and anxious to see what new boundaries could be explored and uncovered by the young men from Leeds.
Wristbands were given to those who purchased the album on pre-sale and who would not have missed this for the world. The narrow space, usually used as a café and delhi was filled, some were adorned with bow-ties and tweed under the high ceilings of this marvellously independent store.
Public Service Broadcasting are like no one else, in their recordings and particularly when playing live. The subject matter in their content is non-fiction made fantastical. The use of visuals is key to captivating the audience and the screen behind the, now, three piece was where everybody’s eyes were transfixed.
The deafening screeches of Signal 30 from their first album – Inform – Educate – Entertain, opened the show and that is exactly what Public Service Broadcasting do. The clever mix of archive footage and samples open your mind to questions and concepts that may have been lost to memory or overlooked in modern society.
The Race For Space exclusively takes on the subject of space exploration and like Inform – Educate – Entertain, it celebrates the historical human endeavour which proves so refreshing in an age of ethical panic and human self deprecation. Instead of concentrating on the negative influence of the human race on our planet, Public Service Broadcasting emphasise mans scientific progression and achievement. And it is a marvel.
E.V.A was next, J. Wilgoose’s riff reverberated from the overhead speakers as violins and synths provide a backdrop for the footage of film and voices commentating on Alexei Leonov becoming the first spacewalker in 1965. The ambience created represents the atmosphere in which Leonov found himself.
“He is walking in space”.
Signal 30 – The opening track of the in-store show
Public Service Broadcasting incorporated the favourites from their first record as an electrifying rendition of Night Mail got everyone moving and Spitfire was received like the hero it was but that was not before the first single from the new album – Gagarin. This track is a marked difference to what PSB fans are used to.
The introduction of JF Abraham on bass and trumpet gives yet another dimension to their compositions and it is the horn section that transports them to the jazz funk genre. We watch the rapturous welcome for the great man Gagarin, on his return from space in 1961 by all in The Soviet Union in the midst of the cold war.
Quiffed Owl asked J. Wilgoose Esquire “In what order do you construct the songs? Do you get the footage and samples and then build the music around what you have?”
J. Wilgoose Esquire: It really depends on the track. With some of the footage it is easier to base the music around but with others it is more difficult.
Quiffed Owl: Where did you get the archive footage from for The Race For Space?
J. Wilgoose Esquire: There is a bloke in Australia, he is a bit of a dude actually. Colin Mackellar had a lot of this stuff and sent it to me. A lot of the stuff still comes from the B.F.I (British Film Institute) but he has been a real help.
Quiffed Owl: Did you intend the song order in that way? The Soviet stuff first and then NASA?
J. Wilgoose Esquire: Yes. The sequencing was thought out carefully. It’s all in the sleeve notes. We are really pleased with it (The Race For Space).
PSB @ RISE Records
Public Service Broadcasting are an intelligent group of men who’s vision is adapted for the listener/watcher to learn for themselves. In the fore mentioned notes, Wilgoose highlights the intentions of the album:
‘Playing the two sides off (USSR & USA) against each other was also something we tried to weave into the album, whether it be through subtle details like recording each nation’s songs with different drum kits and panning them in opposite ways or more obviously in setting the tell-tale NASA beeps against Sputniks signal.’
Two new tracks Go! and The Other Side sandwiched PSB’s presentation of Spitfire. Go! preceded it, with its awe-inspiring chorus of sampled voices from mission control on the ground. This track is introduced by the robotic programmed voice that PSB use in their live shows. “This song is about the men and women who put man on the moon”.
The swift drum beat and deep rolling bass rip through this single and the melodic keys ebb and flow and the guitar thrusts forward the, ever-pulsating archive voices of mission control during the Apollo 11 moon landing.
Retro: Go!
Fido: Go!
Guidance: Go!
Control: Go!
Telcon: Go!
GNC: Go!
Mecom: Go!
Surgeon: Go!
These real time sequenced voices are repeated on loop and as ‘Control’ demand “Okay, keep the chatter down in this room” off we go again. It is truly remarkable.
The Other Side is a brilliantly constructed track of gargantuan proportions of emotion provoked from the use of the real voice recordings of those involved in the Apollo 8 mission to the moon in 1968. The song builds into a spine tingling orchestration of keyboards and drum effects from the smiling Wrigglesworth.
It is one hell of a feat to be able to provoke an audience to have their hearts in their mouths and be as visibly moved by the power of what they were witnessing.
As the space craft circles the moon suddenly Mission Control lose contact and with that the tone immediately changes. The tension rises to the unbearable.
“And now we are in our period of our longest wait”
The synths and radio feedback are all that are audible as we are transported to Houston Mission Control and to the fear there must have been in that room.
The relief is shared by all when we hear “Roger Houston, we read you loud and clear. How do you read us?”
This is a drama unfolding in front of those fortunate to be gathered in Rise as an explosion of guitar and bass represent the relief and the emotion felt.
The night is brought to its conclusion by Everest. Its selection as the final track seemed fitting. This was another time of human exploration or be it, only a decade or so before the powers of the world turned their attention to conquering space. The historical importance of this time must be put into context and it is by PSB themselves via a speech by JFK.
The opening and title track – The Race For Space is an ambient, drifting number reminiscent of The Orb. The former Presidents words float on a heavenly choir. President Kennedy makes reference to the first man who attempted to climb Everest.
He draws on the similarities between the exploration of space and with the adventures on our earth, that took place in the Himalayas years before.
“Many years ago the Great British explorer, George Mallery, who was to die on Mount Everest was asked
“Why did he want to climb it?”
He said “Because it is there”.
Space is there and we are going to climb it.
The moon and the planets are there. And new hopes and knowledge and peace are there”.
Public Service Broadcasting produce inspiring art on a level that sanctifies the soul. Why do they do what they do? Well, JFK can answer that one. “We choose to do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard”.
Long may PSB create such difficult art and allow us to share in the intellectual and emotional feats of human wonder.
The Race For Space – Wrigglesworth, Abraham and Wilgoose.
Photographs by Paula Robins and Sophie Hughes
Details of upcoming Public Service Broadcasting shows can be found at their website:
One would have forgiven a band who had just released their second album in under a year (Fears Trending) for putting their feet up for a wee while and resting on a laurel or two, rather than driving way down south to begin a mini-UK tour.
Luckily for Quiffed Owl, The Lexington in London’s Angel saw The Phantom Band kick off the first of four shows across the country. They even made some time to talk about their new album amongst other things over a nice bottle of red.
Quiffed Owl: After releasing Strange Friend back in June, it has only taken you 7 months to release your new album – Fears Trending. Was that always planned to do it that way or did it just happen?
Rick Anthony: I think it was maybe an element of knowing we wanted to do something with the tracks that were left over, Strange Friend when it comes to tracking and sequencing the record, a lot of songs seemed to fit together quite well. There are more kind of shorter and ‘more to the point’ songs, so that was that record and it worked really well for that and we were left with this group of songs that we really liked, it was never a case of that.
Andy Wake: I think we knew we had another records worth although we never thought “Oh great we’ve got enough for another album”.
We had almost four years, three years anyway to write that stuff so we had loads and we kind of knew we would do another record with it but with sequencing Strange Friend we didn’t feel like the record has got to do this, that and the next thing. We just could look at it and remove ourselves from it and say “What would make this a good record” rather than be like “That’s the scraps and lets do something with it”.
Rick Anthony: When you know you are going to do something with the stuff it is easier and it almost focuses you to see what songs you are going to use.
Andy Wake: Yes, you don’t get kind of heart broken about a certain track not going on a record.
Quiffed Owl: So the songs were all there before Strange Friend was released?
Was it was more like marrying them together to see which songs fitted better?
Andy Wake: Some of them were pretty much there or at least a couple of tracks were being banded about when we were doing The Wants. Some songs were things we already had started recording ideas of what we wanted to do with them but they didn’t seem to fit in with the rest of what The Wants was.
Rick Anthony: The first couple of tracks on Strange Friend and Fears Trending I think we played live, well, two off Fears Trending – Kingfisher and Black Tape.
AW: Yes
RA: They were the first two we played live almost and then I think it was Doom Patrol, they were the first of that period.
AW: A few of us would be sitting in the van on the way down and listening to stuff we had been working on like around the time of the first record that we had just not got around to doing anything with, but we had always planned to but you just have to be in the right space to be able to.
RA: It’s kind of funny really, you hear some stuff from years and years ago and think “Why haven’t we done anything with this? It’s fucking brilliant”.
QO: I suppose you never forget it, it’s in the arsenal so to speak?
RA: We went through a period when we just recorded everything, in every practice, we recorded everything we played because that’s how we write, we write together. Everyone goes away and comes back with specific ideas and when we are all together that’s when we write the songs. So we have got like hours and hours and hours of music and odds that we can expand on.
I think we have limited the stuff now but its nice to kind of rediscover it and find something to do with it.
Rick and Andy in conversation
QO: The Phantom Band’s style is very unique, essentially folk music but you use a futuristic and very experimental style. When you first set out as a band, was that the original design or did that evolve naturally?
AW: We didn’t even set out as a band.
RA: Nothing we really necessarily do is by design, it was very much like, I know it is a bit of a cliché but we just got together to play together for the sake of having something to do on a Friday night and being sociable with your friends.
AW: None of us are actually from Glasgow although we all live in Glasgow so I guess it was a social thing for north east ex-pat’s, because we are all from the north east. Gerry is from Hamilton but we were all hanging about with other people who were also, like, aliens.
RA: We were all kind of friends with Duncan and Gregg, I had played with Duncan before when I was in a band in Aberdeen and he played with us a few times so when I came down to Glasgow, he was like “Look, I am playing with a few friends, we should together”.
In terms of the actual music, I think from a really early stage we never really had a conversation about what we were into, we just played music and whatever anybody wanted to do you write and you all write together in the group and that obviously means that folk elements are reflected and more sort of synth sounds with Andy. Everyone brings their own influence and interests and sounds.
QO: So each member of the band would bring their own personal influences and tastes and your sound would be the overall result, rather than a mutual decision?
RA: Yeah.
It wouldn’t really work any other way I don’t think. I think if we all got together and decided to write a song in a certain way it wouldn’t work. If it happened naturally, that’s fine but if we all decided right, lets write a straight folk song then it wouldn’t work.
AW: It works best when somebody writes something and we think that’s a nice little melody and then it just kind of becomes a track based around whether it is a guitar line or a vocal or even a keyboard line but no, nothing is ever contrived.
QO: What strikes me, as a fan of the band, is your use of a vast array of percussion instruments such as the melodica and claves. Is that something you bring in for fun or is it from ideas you’ve had?
Do you teach yourselves how to play them and go away and learn them specifically?
AW: We haven’t learnt to play any fucking instrument.
RA: I think Ian can play the drums but that’s about it for us.
QO: So where do the ideas come from then?
AW: I think maybe part of it would be like when we practice in a room and we are really bad at time keeping and so we would all arrive and someone would be there messing about on their own, for ages because no one is ever on time. Ian mostly or Gregg and basically when people arrive you’d join in.
Myself for instance, I wouldn’t have time to set all my shit up, cable line and stuff so you just find something to play with and that can be anything just lying around in the room.
QO: What? So you always record in school music rooms then, where all of these instruments are just lying about?
AW: No, we all have the instruments at home so you just bring them along..
RA: Shelf brackets.
AW: Aye, shelf brackets give a nice note. If you hit them with a beater they give nice harmonics. They were just discovered by accident when we shared a flat and we just brought them to the studio. It’s good to have things lying around.
RA: The melodica as you say, it’s good to have that rather than tune a guitar or set up a drum kit.
QO: Well, that instrument in particular is out of the ordinary let’s say? I guess that is the appeal of the band. To have those different elements and give off different sounds and other dimensions other bands just aren’t capable of and it’s fun to watch.
RA: It’s fun to do as well. You want to be involved and you don’t always want to have to play the guitar, you know?
QO: You use the melodica on Crocodile but wasn’t that one of your first ever releases?
AW: It’s probably the oldest track, long before I was involved and Duncan and I were studying together and sharing a flat and I remember Duncan playing that thing that you kind of knock together.
We had the loop and the scratcher thing and that was a long, long time ago but it is still probably our favourite to play. It’s loads of fun.
AW: Yeah, you play the melodica or two of us are playing the melodica on stage and you can’t take yourself too seriously because it’s such a stupid instrument.
RA: The best ones we used to play it at were like the first couple of shows.
AW: Because it had this beer thing, but that’s all he did, for fucking ages, just sit there with his finger on it playing it and people would be like “You’ve got such a serious fucking expression on your face playing it”.
QO: Like on Burial Sounds?
AW: Aye, for like ten minutes, intensely filtering it. It’s kind of like the French saxophone.
RA: It is only when people point out that it is weird that I am playing this thing that you realise that it is quite weird.
The Phantom Band – The Lexington 4/2/15
QO: Scottish Indie music has noticeably had a lot of recent exposure and a lot of deserved success with the likes of yourselves, Meursault, Twilight Sad, King Creosote, Admiral Fallow and Frightened Rabbit. Why do you think that is?
Why do you think there is such a strong sound coming out of Scotland at present?
AW: I don’t think its a ‘sound’. I think it is just the law of averages.
I think it is disproportionate the amount of people in Scotland, particularly in Glasgow that don’t have anything to do, so some people need to have something to do. I don’t know, maybe there’s something about Scotland.
RA: I think you are definitely right. I think there are a lot of people in Scotland seem to be in bands or whatever and Glasgow has a lot of venues or places where bands can go and play.
AW: Aye, and they can develop because there are so many venues and you can develop as a band.
RA: I think also that there has never really been, I don’t like the word but a ‘scene’, probably other cities have has a scene but if Scotland has ever had a scene it is probably based on the love of playing the music rather than everybody sounding the same at any one particular time. It’s not like all Scottish bands sound the same, there is a lot of different things going on.
I don’t know. I have no idea why.
QO: This is more to you Rick. The use of your local accent and your dialect within your vocals, for me, it makes it more credible and more real. Do you think that singing in your own, local accent is important?
RA: Not necessarily. I think you talk in an accent and you sing in your singing voice. Some peoples natural singing voice will be their local accent but for some people, like if you grow up listening to American R&B your whole life then that is the music you love and you sing along with that, then you naturally have a kind of, American singing voice.
It’s more true if you sing in that way than it is to suddenly put on this local dialect singing voice to try and make it seem more real.
QO: I suppose to force anything would be just as contrived?
RA: Well exactly, yeah.
It can be just as contrived as someone who sings in an American voice to be more popular. In the case of a lot of Scottish bands just now, I think they are doing it genuinely, I think that’s their voice and it works with the music that they do. I have never thought that I am necessarily doing that, I am never trying to sing in a Scottish accent.
I used to have a very strong American accent when I sang. When I was a kid I grew up listening to American bands but as you grow up your singing develops and changes. People will say “You should try singing more in your own voice” and you are like “Yeah, right okay”. I always thought it was my own voice but then you realise.
It’s not quite as simple as that. You have your influences.
AW: There is a certain band from Glasgow who we all like, Uncle John And Whitelock and Jake Lovett was the singer but he does this kind of Americana, R&B and it is part of his show. It is almost like his accent is so fake that it’s ridiculous but it is part of the showmanship and if he didn’t do that then it might all just be nothing.
RA: Because it is the performance. In some circumstances it is not going to work and it will come across as quite contrived.
QO: Do you think it all depends on the genre or type of music you are singing to?
RA: Yeah.
QO: For instance a mate of mine, Danny Wilson of Danny and The Champions Of The World. Now he is cockney through and through but they are one of the top British Americana bands and he sings in an American accent and that’s fine because it wouldn’t go if it were any other way.
If you were to think about it honestly, do you think that singing in your accent adds credibility to your music?
RA: I think it all comes down to performance and it all comes down to if you are convinced by your own performance and what you are doing then that will come across in your music. I think that is why, in a modern studio when people over engineer stuff and auto tune stuff and time the vocals, they are taking the vocal performance and turning it into what they think the people listening to radio wants to hear. If it is like “This is what we think will be popular on the radio, so lets tune it and engineer it”, then they are in the wrong type of music and it will suck the life out of it and sound terrible.
People want a genuine performance. That doesn’t mean it has to be genuine to who you are as a person but it must be genuine in terms of you performing it.
AW: I think going back to what you asked about the appeal of Scottish bands is that in certain types of music, if somebody is singing in their own accent then it sounds right.
I personally, don’t think that the Scottish accent is the easiest accent to sing in and sometimes when I hear people really like, well for instance, you mentioned a certain band earlier on before the interview, from Scotland who none of us here like (Not the bands mentioned in the question), it doesn’t work and it sounds strained because it is such a strong accent it is quite difficult to form the vowels around when singing, where as an American accent isn’t.
QO: So, all of that aside, do you think that anybody who is worth their salt will be able to identify if it is real or genuine or if it is contrived?
AW: Yeah, but what I was getting at is, if that person is singing in an accent, even if it isn’t necessarily their own accent whether it be internationally recognised or easy to use then that is dependent on whether it needs to be sung or they are singing it that way because it is important to them because it is something personal to them. so when you hear a band like Twilight Sad, he is delivering it, you know what I mean?
People who aren’t from Scotland will here hear them and be like “Wow, he really fucking means that” because he is delivering it in his own accent and with so much feeling.
RA: If you go and see a person and they are singing some songs. Unless you know that person then you don’t know anything about their musical history or where they come from or who they are.
There is another band from where we are from called Sparrow And The Workshop.
QO: I saw them in Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff supporting Meursault.
RA: Oh Yeah? One of their first reviews read – “Great songs, she can really sing but I am giving them 1 out of 5 because she sings with an American accent”. She’s fucking American, she’s from Chicago.
If you like the music, you like the music.
AW: There was another one, I don’t remember the name but they were slated for singing in an American accent and they were Canadian, which is even fucking worse.
QO: Richard Hawley. Sheffield man but he croons because that is his natural singing voice and who would want it any other way? You have Jarvis and Alex Turner both singing in their Sheffield accent and that sounds great too.
RA: Nick Cave. He came out singing in this made American accent.
QO: In Wales for instance, there is only really Gruff Rhys who sings in his strong west Wales accent. Do you think there is a conscious or subconscious connection with national identity when singing with an accent?
AW: I don’t believe in national identity when it comes to music.
I don’t believe in Scottishness or Welshness or Britishness, particularly as a musician. People kind of invent it.
There is pride but that is different. Perhaps with The Super Fury’s that pride is to do with being the underdog or something.
RA: It is much easier if you are from a smaller place rather than a bigger one. If you are like “I am British”, it can be taken the wrong way.
AW: There is a thing that is happening in popular music where it is getting really fashionable to be singing in a cockney accent.
RA: Yeah.
AW: (In a cockney accent) “Ello, Ow ya doin?”
RA: What was that really fucking annoying song?
AW: The Streets started it. They were okay though.
RA: What was it? It’s not the accent I think its just shit modern music I don’t like.
AW: The Fraggle Boys?
RA: I think that’s it.
AW: (Impression of The Fraggle Boys)
RA: It is just bad. There are no hard edges to it. Like Mumford And Sons.
QO: Oh Dear.
AW: Yeah, its like (weeze) (Upper class English accent) “Gentleman of the road”. I can’t do it.
RA: Everything is rounded and cutesy. I don’t like it.
Polishing the wine off.
QO: You are widely considered to be one of the best live bands in the UK.
AW: Are we?
RA: I don’t think many people consider us to be anything.
Maybe on this couch, 1/3rd of this couch thinks that.
QO: Do you take your live sound and performance into the recording studio with you, for instance in Fears Trending?
AW: I think in Strange Friend and the new one we probably made it sound much more like we do when we play standing in a room, together. I think that is when we are at our best. Just us, in our comfort zone, standing around and playing.
The first two albums, although they were interesting for me musically, we went into the studio to record them without having really written the tracks so, there was an open ended-ness to them which was really good but they were ‘studio’ albums, they were written and then recorded in the studio.
With this one, we were like “Let’s try and make this a bit more organic, a bit more just us guys playing”. I don’t know if it worked.
RA: That was definitely one thing we tried to make deliberate through the recording process, was to eliminate the kind of , in terms of the drums, one solid, whole drum take and with the vocals we would take three goes and then do the best vocal.
I think I prefer it because of that. I think I always prefer the last record we did but certainly Strange Friend and Fears Trending are closer to what I think the band can be.
The Phantom Band – The Lexington 4/2/15
QO: Taking that into account, was that more enjoyable to record then? Rather than say The Wants?
RA: The Wants and Checkmate Savage were quite difficult to record, more to do with the people in the band. Well, a former member of the band.
AW: It was stressful experience because we had booked studio time and we did want things polished but we went into the studio, especially with The Wants without a fucking clue what we were doing and it was an expensive studio. Probably one of the most expensive in the country.
QO: Was that Franz Ferdinands?
AW: No, that was free because we ran out of money. That was the first album.
RA: The first album we thought we had a clue and after a couple of days we didn’t have a clue. So we changed how we were going to record it and then with The Wants we were like “Well, we didn’t have a clue last time and now we definitely don’t have a clue.” We didn’t even bother trying to have a clue.
We actually hummed a tune and tried to make it a chorus.
AW: Or we had another little bit that didn’t actually fit anything so we stuck it on anyway. We somehow created these tracks with a weird digital collage. It was fun because I do enjoy using the studio as an instrument in a way.
It’s not often you get to use amazing sounding rooms or racks of outboard stuff. You can use it as much as you possibly can rather than having all of your tracks basically nailed before going in.
RA: I think going in and not having set ideas like it was with The Wants there are times when, like one night me and Andy went in late, with Derek who you met (Derek O’Neil – producer and mixer) and recorded tons of mad shit over the top of the track. At the time we thought it was brilliant and then the next day we played it and people weren’t so keen on it. They were like “What the fuck have you been doing to this?”
Spontaneity is a great thing in the studio. Its the key because you come out with some interesting stuff and quite often the first thing you come up with is the best.
In The Wants often little bits someone would come up with in the studio like little accompaniments or melodies turned out to be some of the best bits of that record.
Sometimes if you are over rehearsed it can back fire. We demo’d a lot of stuff with Strange Friend which was good.
AW: With the first two albums we had huge debates about the running order. Even Checkmate Savage we would spend a whole week emailing each other. Everyone had a different order. With Strange Friend pretty much everyone had the same.
QO: So it is quite democratic then?
AW & RA: Yeah.
AW: The album just sequenced itself.
RA: Some songs feel like natural opener’s or some best suited to later on but in this everyone was agreed and it was quite clear.
William Crowley’s mixture of the organic and the synthetic in differing tones of photography are mirrored in this fine album of subtley melting folk songs by Cork singer, song writer Cormac O Caoimh.
The title of the album alone is as fitting to the content as the records art work. In most part the feeling of solitude emanating from it is not one of despair but of relief and joy. O Caoimh’s command of what is needed and where, is paramount to the overall success of it.
The Moon Loses Its Memory is by no means an instant classic or a record that immediately startles the listener. Its true qualities become progressively more identifiable the more you play it and in a genre of contemporary folk music that O Caoimh finds himself in, those more robust records tend to dilute any excessive sickly ‘hit’ taste in the pop cordial. Instead this is an album, continuously and consistently presenting songs of equal finery in an admirable honesty.
Cormac O Caoimh is under no illusion of what he is good at and that is his greatest strength. His ear leads everything – his judgement, his passion, his restraint and his precision. That could not be more true than when considering the albums excellent production. It would seem that every decision was made after considerable thought to what he intended to be heard.
There is no element that is overpowering to the senses and in the opener Maze Of Your Heart, Cormac’s soft humming vocal picks up an atmospherically building part as it evolves. The strings compliment both his lead and the barely noticeable but vital backing vocal.
O Caoimh’s vulnerable vocals walk a tightrope between heartfelt and twee but he never loses his balance and in Yellow Crumbs that backing vocal steps out under a cloak of delicate horns and strings with just a hint of that delightful Cork accent. It is conceivable that the positivity in the chords intertwined with O Caoimh’s slightly vulnerable tone could have worked against him but because of the exceptional orchestration and the persistent control he has the result is triumphant.
By the time we get to Thirst And Water we are slaves to the underlying mastery of the mans song construction. The guitar playing is not showy in any way and when the violin appears they help each other along just as the irresistible mix of male and echoing female voices do in the chorus “The sun just succumbs to it” and so do we.
Solid introduces a more Gaelic feel as the glorious string melody played by Colum Pettit glistens above a simple dusted drum beat. Certain influences can be syphoned out of the record, in particular Paddy Mcaloon but yet again, very subtly evident like in the fine, Man Of Sand. The power seems to grow in O Caoimh as the album ages but Morning is an aching lament of real melancholy. Underplayed and understated is the order of the day and it makes The Moon Loses Its Memory a gastronomic delight. The drums are hardly touched while the strings, which are so emotive throughout, washes over us covering us in a pale blue light. A light of West Cork?
The album takes a very brief detour on its path for the next few songs but that path is clearly marked until its end and it is one we all look forward to walking again and again.
If you have frequented a music festival in the UK over the last few years then have a think about what, other than the music and bands you have seen perform, has stuck in your mind. What show, or entertainer, or game, or alternative act has affected you the most?
Of course everyone will have their own examples depending on their own personal tastes and upon the festivals they have attended.
In my mind, there is one that towers above the rest. For pure wholesome entertainment and a guaranteed feeling of joy, I raise you Ringo: Music Bingo.
Since my first experience of it some 5 years ago, I have made a point of beginning every day (when at a festival) with the absurd delights of this game that was the brain child of a man from Cork whom, now is a friendly fixture at End Of The Road.
Ronan Leonard has his fingers in a lot of pies (I am sure he would be able to react with a hilarious one liner to that description), he is a musician, a song writer, a comedian and a disc jockey. He is well known on the Cork scene but further afield it is Ringo: Music Bingo’s growing popularity that has secured Ronan a loyal fan base across the British Isles.
Quiffed Owl caught up with Ronan at The End Of The Road Festival and spoke about Ringo:Music Bingo and other such things like politics, economics and gags.
Quiffed Owl discovered that the loveable man from Munster’s interviewee style was not at all dissimilar to his presentation and comedic style.
QO: How did you come up with the idea of Ringo: Music Bingo?
RL: I was impeccably hungover about 9 years ago, early 2005 and just like my normal performance style it was monoprocysi……well, whatever the word is when you get the first letter wrong in a word and I was talking to some friends about different ways to entertain ourselves on the Monday without going to a pub. Someone said “Why don’t we just go to ringo?” and everyone laughed.
Bill Bailey was asked “How do you come up with ideas for your jokes?” and he said “I start by laughing and then go, what would elicit that response?
So I remember going “What would Ringo be?” as my friends were all laughing at me for saying Ringo instead of bingo. I was obviously trying to say bingo and Ringo is a famous musician so it must be music bingo and I would definitely go to that if I could so I went into a pub I know on the Tuesday and said “Listen I have had an idea, let me know if you would be up for this and I will do this next week and you just give me free booze and booze as prizes, will you just give me a go? I want to scratch this itch?”
And they went “Yeah. Fine.”
I got this educational vocabulary software and did some dicking about with the settings. So I went from basic words like ‘Birds’ and stuff like that for six year olds to learn and then to band names and then just had a basic I-pod playlist.
So I went in on the Monday and brought a crowd and said “Look, free booze to play and within about ten minutes of the game starting the owner was like “We want to do this every week”, and it just kicked off from there.
QO: As well as Ringo: Music Bingo I know you have a lot of other projects going on. What are the most interesting projects that you have been working on as well as Music Bingo?
RL: Well I get easily distracted and also have too many ideas which are major problems and unfortunately not a great combination.
I started off as a musician about 16, 17 and got involved in youth theatre. The difference between youth theatre and stage school is the concept of process not product or product not process. Stage school is about getting 10 people and getting the best singer and giving them the best role and if you are not good enough at singing they just say “You shouldn’t come back” Where as youth theatre is process not product, about pursuing stuff almost like Ringo: Music Bingo. As I explained it was like “Let’s see how this goes”, without a defined end point. So I do loads of things, sometimes just for a few weeks. Sometimes, for ages.
I DJ and do a lot of things as a one man performance style because it is a lot easier to rely on just one person. I change personal goals so I am not letting anyone else down.
Djing is as much to make a living than my main goal in life but I do love a theme so I do something called Dead Cool, only music by dead people. Under cover, where I only play people that have done cover versions. I have also put on one man shows under the name of Adventures of a Music Nerd which is me taking a bunch of songs so that its like a hyper extended version of Music Bingo. So I’ll do an hour long show about a particular type of song, and these would be in like theatre festivals. The most recent one I did was called Adventures Of A Music Nerd. One Guy, Two World Cups where I took just the world cup songs that Ireland released for world cup 90 and 94 and made a comedy show out of that.
I write sad songs and record them and play them to myself but personally I see so many more talented musicians that I am happy to play it like… other people play golf, where they are a fine golf player but they are not the best golf player so they don’t pursue it. Where as with comedy, I have definitely developed a niche thing and it is easier to measure somebody liking comedy than liking sad songs because they laugh.
QO: I would imagine it would be self gratifying if you think it’s funny and you believe in it then you will go and do it?
RL: Exactly, and also because the very thing with Ringo: Music Bingo, (Pause) it is preposterous. Just the idea of it, if you walk in to it in the middle it’s just like “What is he saying?” and it always ends up, I am not applauding myself but rarely in comedy is the punch line written for you, in front of you on a piece of paper so you are just going “How does he get to the answer which is written down?”.
A lot of comedy is about juxtaposition and the element of suprise and the twist but all I am is twist first and I twist into the punch line.
QO: What is the most unusual gig you have played?
RL: The thing about Ringo: Music Bingo is while it has a series of prepared bits it is largely improvised and odd things happen at random.
In comedy you would see a lot of stand ups do it and I do stand up as well but I learnt a term called ‘Call back’ and stand ups do it where they prepare texts so they are just making a sign about something and then twenty minutes later you will refer to it again which oomphs up the second punch line but for the audience themselves, it is in many ways a trick of the mind because the audience themselves are pleased with themselves for remembering the original fact.
So you go “Well done me for getting that and that’s called a call back so the thing with Ringo is sometimes the call back happens before the first mention so I am always kept on my toes about that and keep referring to it.
At the moment I have a running joke with myself of a Cast album and how many times musicians say “Alright” in their songs and that’s a Cast song title.
QO: That has had a great response this weekend.
RL: You play it to your audience and this End Of The Road audience would be quite musically sophisticated and mostly 25 plus, maybe 25 to 40 so we can share cultural reference points but I remember doing a Ringo: Music Bingo in a youth hostel which my second cousin runs and it was quite a challenge to do….well, most of them didn’t speak English or spoke pigeon English so to do those kind of gags. ..you know?
I’ve been involved in mad things like with yourself in Newport which was just the most random idea because sometimes when you do a gig you have two enthusiasts like yourself and your brother were the only people who had ever played it and one other guy, Johnny but there was about 60 people there who had been promised “Look its good, it makes no sense but it’s good”.
You have that kind of audience from scratch when you just have to show them your ‘throw away nature’ but deliberately ride up the front like when a support act has to play the catchy song first. Whereas at End of the Road a good 25% have heard the jokes 4,5,6 times already and sometimes they come like 3 days in a row so you have to find a new way of presenting what they know already.
Because it is not a set script, unique things happen at each event. Earlier today I had this thing where I was playing the theme tune to The Monkees and 3 youngsters, teenagers walked in. I thought it was amazing so I said “Hey, lads will you go back out and walk back in like you are The Monkees?” and they were like “Yeah definitely, no bother”.
Everyone else knew what to expect but then they came in and they were just running like chimpanzees. I think it was the funniest thing I’ve been a part of, its just stuff like that.
QO: With Ringo and anything that you have done, there is a lot of crowd participation. What are the most unusual answers or ridiculous comments that you’ve heard?
RL: Okay well I will tell you straight up. Its vulgar though.
QO: Go right ahead.
RL: It is only Ringo that has crowd participation but things like Dead Cool and as my job as a DJ my job is to entertain but some people, they may be lovely people but they seem to think their DJ set is to show people music they should know which I just find a bit snobby. People always react best, particularly at a festival crowd to three songs they kind of know and then drop someone that they do know they always go crazy.
I listen to so much music but I listen to it at home and work it out and talk about music with friends but when, in a socialising way your job is to be the entertainer just like a barman, if you went up to him and ordered a drink he won’t go “I don’t think you want that, I think you should have this drink instead”.
I always say “Requests are welcome but not guaranteed”, so there is a great song by this Irish band called Republic of Loose and they are absolutely brilliant.
Dirty white boy funk music, absolutely brilliant, you should check them out and they have had a couple of big hits and as a music lover, they have a brilliant song called “Do you like music?” It is about a broke entertainer who is being chatted up by a girl he went to school with who suddenly makes lots of money, well, a wage as anyone who makes music doesn’t make a lot of money and the whole chorus is “What kind of music do you like?” as if only people should like one type of music..umm… so he is tackling the 9-5 way of life…but they have this other song called Come Back Girl and it was a song to his Ex girlfriend saying “This is my Come back girl, you know, I’ve been in a dark place for a while but this is my comeback, girl.” It’s a great tune and so catchy and when I am personally on a low I draw back on it.
Now, bearing in mind the song is called Come Back Girl and they are called Republic Of Loose…..In isolation my jokes might seem in poor taste but as the whole show goes I just take terrible stereotypes and invariably turn them on their heads so, my joke for this is, um:
If Nurses had their own country, Right? Because nurses are traditionally or stereotypically known for, um, loose morals. So if they had their own country it would be called ‘The Republic Of Loose.’
This guy guffawed when I said that because it was called Come Back Girl and he said “Oh Yeah, yeah, because you always cum on their back”.
So obviously he over exaggerated the meaning. He obviously meant one nurse and thinks that’s what their all like. So I always remember that.
The Monkees thing might have overshadowed that now.
QO: It certainly went down well.
At festivals I always have this thing, like ‘Spontaneous Festival Moment’, because sometimes you find people spend their whole time talking, at a festival, about something amazing that happened like two festivals ago. So I am always staging spontaneous moments like that Monkees thing.
QO: I would imagine that doing what you do and working on the festival circuit, you have made some famous/ semi-famous friends. Is there anyone in particular who you’ve remained friendly with?
RL: One of the most famous people, in the music scene I ever saw was, well I am not going to name him because, well it’s not particularly embarrassing but he would be a leading figure in the Scottish, alternative music scene in the las t ten years
QO: Aidan Moffat?
RL: No, not a member of the Chemikal Underground stable, so I will let you work that out. There is only one other label, really of note in Scotland.
Anyway, he came along to play Ringo:Music Bingo and he fell asleep during it. It was the afternoon sun, it must have been.
I know a couple of members of Goldie Lookin Chain would have been at it but I suppose people just enjoy the fun because like I say “Ringo: Music Bingo is like disco dancing, its more fun to do than to watch people doing but sometimes people are just having a few drinks and enjoying the music and the banter because Ringo: Music Bingo doesn’t need much attention either.
To be honest, I haven’t really thought about it.
QO: I remember the one you referred to earlier, Cheese Fest 2000 which was yours I believe?
RL: Well, ours.
QO: Well, at that, Keith Levene from Public Image Limited was there. In fact, I think that was the first solid I have ever seen pass his lips.
RL: I didn’t really know who he was until he was pointed out. I like some of his songs but I haven’t heard all of it.
Ah yes. About two years ago at End Of The Road there is always one breakout band and there was a band who played on the Friday and then they got pulled in to do the secret gig in the Tipi tent on the Saturday and then they played the third stage because their was a cancellation. It was Alabamma Shakes and they were brilliant. They happened to walk passed on the Saturday and then made a point of coming back on the Sunday which was kind of cool.
You sometimes forget that when musicians and bands are at a festival they also want to ramble around.
QO: I know you love your music. Who are your favourites?
RL: Arab Strap. They are the greatest band of all time. I am also a fan of The Dirty Three and Damien Jerado. I think because I have listened to them all so much they are in in my muscle memory, I can go a year without listening to them. There is also an Irish band called The Frames who were very influential in my early music career as a writer and performer I find I often tap back to that.
I find it funny that people make a point of disliking things they used to really like years ago.
QO: From over listening, do you think?
RL: No. For instance Oasis were one of my favourite bands at 15 and I still love them because I remember that time of my life. As a critic I have evolved passed that time of my life.
QO: Their first two albums, you cannot ignore how great they are.
RL: Yes but as an influence they increased my confidence because it was something I was a part of.
Dylan and The Band would be huge and then it would be lots of individual musical moments. You hear some things but it takes me longer to get really excited by a new act and I think it is because I have heard so much.
It would be like going to a restaurant, and I eat out about, like five times a year and I order something on the menu which I think is so inventive, I don’t know, mushroom with goats cheese and then someone else is like “That is so cliché”.
QO: I suppose it is just putting yourself out there to become more exposed to it? For me, there is still nothing more exciting than hearing a new band that you like for the first time and that is why music keeps bringing you in.
RL: Because I do Dead Cool and Ringo you are vvery aware that there are a lot of kids there and they have never heard these songs and you see them kind of looking around. An 11 year old might hear Perfect Day by Lou Reed which is actually one of the most iconic songs, everybody knows it and the look on their face of discovery is brilliant.
I DJ weddings and stuff and it is nice to be reminded that not everyone listens to music as much as we do. This is an aside but it reminds me of an interview with Fran Healy from Travis and the interviewer was like ” How do you feel about the ubiquitousness of the song?” because it was one of the most played songs at that time and he replied “I don’t listen to that song that much. I wrote and then we rehearsed it alot and then we recorded it so now we only play at least once a day.”
That just goes to show, I listen to a lot of music a lot and then there are all these classic tunes whether it be Dianna Ross or The Beatles, I rarely listen to them because they are so well known but it reminds you what people like in a pop song and that should have recognition.
QO: Your presentation style is seamlessly disjointed. Is that a conscious decision?
RL: I don’t know, I have never sat down and thought what would be the best way to deliver Ringo: Music Bingo but because I am the world leading exponent of it, it is what it can be. Like I said I get bored easily and the random style of Ringo makes it more fun for me so that keeps me on my toes.
By its very nature of being random it has got to be disjointed. Sometimes, when doing Ringo I have been very hungover which can make you sloppy but at certain times like when you are doing a corporate gig or a staff party you have to be more forceful, a bit like a teacher just to get it across that it is fun, which I know sounds counter intuitive but at a festival you read the audience and I think people love the shambolic nature and at things like End Of The Road I deliberately ramble and am off hand because I am always aware that a proportion of people have heard a lot of the jokes before so it is the asides that will entertain them and the people who are there for the first time will just have to put up with the asides. You have to play to both audiences so, I guess it is deliberate yes.
One of my favourite books is The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy and the classic passage in it, that I have reflected upon so much is, I know it sounds grand but when Arthur finally learns how to fly it is because he has to stop thinking about flying and anytime you are flying and you think about the fact that you are flying you fall. That is the thing, I deliberately don’t think about how I am performing because then I would probably become to aware of how I am perform and I know it works so I leave it at that.
QO: What makes End Of The Road Festival special and unique? What does this festival have to offer?
RL: Well I have been here so much, it is the same for The ATP Festival and same with Green Man, the first time at each festival was the best time but you get used to the stuff that the people here for the first time thinks is amazing. We are currently having a drink at a converted barn with ale put into it and they change the selection of ale everyday. When I say that I mean it is a barn with ale put into it not a barn full of ale. It’s these little touches that you wouldn’t see at a more mainstream festival.
QO: The eye for detail perhaps?
RL: It is these touches, for instance they didn’t do that last year and I am sure next year which shows that they are, well, Chairman Mau called it a constant revolution.
There are always great acts that I have always wanted to see and then there are acts I have heard of and wanted to see and then there are acts who come out of nowhere and you think that was great.
I have got to know it so I have gotten used to it but you look around and people are always having a good time. That is I suppose the core of it, you go to a festival to be festive.
I like the way it didn’t expand too much. It went from 3000 to 4000, to 5000 to 8000. There was no expediential growth like “We now do 12000”, which would go towards losing its essence.
QO: You have a night where you DJ called Dead Cool. Who are the three dead people you would most want to see dancing to your set?
RL: Oh, That’s good.
The staple of Ringo is there are so many songs that people know but, if you ask people to write down all the songs they know people will always remember Help! by The Beatles or Take On Me by Aha. Everyone knows those songs but there is another song list of the same length that people don’t know that they know or forget they know until they hear it and go “I love this song” and I love playing those ones at Dead Cool and one of my favourite’s of those is Everybody Needs Someone To Love by The Blues Brothersand John Belushi in that would mean he would be a great guy to see dancing.
John Belushi, not just dancing but I would say because hewas such a gregarious character that if he heard a song that he had forgotten but that he knew, you would see him gesturing to people and getting excited.
Do you know what? I am not saying this just because he has recently passed away but I think Robin Williams would be fun to have at a night you were djing at. I don’t want to make this too gender specific so the next one I would like to see dancing is Dusty Springfield. I would definitely like to see her socializing because she definitely liked to drink so that would be fun. Oh no wait, Janis Joplin!
QO: Jesus Christ
RL: No, Janis Joplin. She would be hands up and the kind of person to sing along to her own song.
I just realised that all four of those people I mentioned suffered from severe and ultimately life ending addiction problems. Maybe something in common there?
Here is just a little aside and in isolation it may sound in bad taste but it was Cork ‘pride week’ about two weeks ago and I was booked to do a Dead Cool set. I decided to do, of course, nobody who isn’t dead but I decided to play nobody who died of Aids. Just a little tribute. It went down well with the people who got the joke.
The thing with Dead Cool is I regularly do late hours and long sets and people would be up afterwards saying “Hey, that was great. I love the broad selection of music because it isn’t just gender specific”
I would be like “And did you notice anything else?”
They would start to think and be like “No, not at all”
“They are all dead” and you would see them going “Oh Yeah”
When people know the trend you see people saying to their friends “Oh Jesus, I didn’t know he was dead”
I remember once that I had to break the news of Nick Drake’s death to a 20 year old and she was like “When?”
And I go “Before you were born”
A lot of people think Bill Withers is dead which he’s not but I have noticed a lot of people don’t know Joe Strummer is dead.
QO: Who are the three people you wouldn’t like to see dancing?
RL: Nobody!
There are people, who are dead that I wouldn’t like to see but I would like the challenge of having them on the dance floor.
QO: Chairman Mau for instance?
RL: Oh god. Chairman Mau would be terrible. He would slowly and administratively get everyone to dance in exactly the same way.
QO: And to the left of the dance floor.
RL: Of course Maggie Thatcher I wouldn’t like to see but here’s the thing. I have this theory and it’s not because they are dead but when somebody who is remotely famous reaches out to shake your hand, you will always shake their hand. A friend of mine, in a news story, like when the Prime Minister or someone turns up in a building and they have announced 800 new jobs, my friend was working in one of those places.
The Prime Minister guided Ireland, face first into a recession. His name is Brian Cowen and he turned up at one of these places, It was actually a poisoned challis he was given but he was presiding the ship as it went down. Anyway, he shook my buddies hand, he reached out to it in that politician way and my buddy shook his hand. His face beamed up but he has never lived it down.
I have the feeling that if I ever meet Thierry Henry, as much as I hate him I would still probably shake his hand.
QO: To just touch ‘that’ hand?
RL: Yes. I have a friend who met Maradonna once. He was absolutely off his head and my friend reached out to shake his hand and Maradonna put out his right hand because that’s your standard hand shake one and my buddy went “No, no, no”
And Maradonna, with a glint in his eye went “Oh, okay” and then he put out the left hand.
At the time of print Maradonna is alive but I want him on the dance floor.
I wouldn’t like to see John Lennon because I would be so in awe of him that if I played a song he clearly didn’t like I would have to turn it off.
QO: I don’t think Yoko would let him out anyway.
As a comedian. Who do you draw from the most?
RL: Kenn Dodd. There we go.
People like Bruce Forsyth and stuff like that. Ringo is a natural descendant of late 70’s to mid 80’s Saturday night light entertainment. Stuff for all the family. Bad jokes and a lot of fun.
QO: Is that because it is so accessible?
RL: It’s what I call ‘Post Ironic Fun’. For so many people ‘fun’ seems to have become a bad thing and I just don’t know what’s wrong with it. I don’t know why people don’t have the craic.
I am serious person. I go through the serious stuff as we all do but why waste all of your time on stage doing that kind of stuff.
I am a singer and songwriter and that’s where I tackle it, you know? The hard stuff. Personally, the comedians I love like Dylan Moran and Tommy Tiernan and there are a pop troop trio from Limerick called The Rubberbandits.
The Rubberbandits style would not have influenced my style of performance but as an art it is just amazing and Dylan Moran was a shambolic, hung over drunk guy so that style would probably shift into how I perform stuff. I would like to think it is mutually exclusive, his influence on my performance style and his influence on my intellectual humour.
Steve Wright for the one liners and Tim Vine for the puns are two other people but you see I have never portrayed Ringo: Music Bingo to be the most original thing you’ll ever see as some of the jokes, in a sense are just gags and I know a lot of stand up comedians always bitch about Peter Kaye or Michael Macintyre because they are like “Oh, its just like jokes you’ve heard before” because , I suppose they do and there is nothing wrong with telling a joke or two that’s an easy joke for people to laugh at because your job is to entertain and people always forget this stuff.
QO: Since 2005 when you started doing Ringo: Music Bingo you have built quite a following and a loyal fan base.
RL: Well, a base.
In fact that reminds me of an interesting article I read about being an independent musician in America but an economist sat down and worked out that to become a professional musician that could live from his wage you needed, I think about 11,000 fans and the idea was that a fan would be someone who bought one album, one t-shirt and two gig tickets in a year and this would be based on travelling just around America so it didn’t include trans- Atlantic flights. I think it was based on doing 150 gigs a year or 120 so he built in petrol costs, accommodation, food and this was for a band so four people to make a living.
I thought it was really interesting but now, to extrapolate all of that data over a year, I don’t have enough fans to make a living off it so that still puts me in the semi-pro, enthusiasts bracket. I would love to make the jump up but that would mean having to commit to way more things and way in advance and that would mean stopping a lot of other things I like to do on a whim. I am 34 and I should have made that decision years ago but I still haven’t.
I know it sounds cheesy but at this festival (End Of The Road) I would say that I have talked to 30 or 40 people whom I have never met before and probably wont meet again who just say “That was really good fun, that’s great”. Then they’re are people like you who I’ve met and we are just buddies so you make friends with outside of the Ringo: Music Bingo so those are fans but to turn those into patrons of your work, that is the hard step.
I can’t release a record but I should make t-shirt’s and sell them but I haven’t got around to that.
I just realised I cut you off. What was your question?
QO: No that’s fine, I was going to ask what your plans are for the future? But I think you’ve answered that.
RL: Well to do a little bit more admin and answer all of those emails.
Quiffed Owl 