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On Friday 20th, my guest was the owner of Brain Dead Studio, original recording engineer and remastering genius main man at TMR Records, Marc Bell. Facebook doesn't make things like this easy in the first place (because you're not paying), but it gets to be even more fun when the guy you're talking to is not only celebrating his birthday, but imbibing even more alcohol than usual because he's trying to numb the pain of a stress fractured ankle! And can STILL master an album better than me! |
On Saturday 21st, I got to swap memories with the band's original vocalist and Mrs. Magic no.2, the delightful Shona Moments. We waxed lyrical about the beginnings of MMATT, played a few tunes, and if you never thought you could imagine she and I singing "Come Outside", you won't have to any more, it's all there. Also included are a couple of Sho's faves, "Acidic Heaven" and "Pandora", plus a rarely heard 12 minute epic called "R.E.M." that she and Kate did as an ATT project in 1987. |
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The once shy 16 year old whose anonymous letter inspired a song, two albums, and ultimately lead to my marriage to Sam and the birth of our daughter, you couldn't make it up! Now Councillor Julie Howell, the first ever Green Party Councillor in Peterborough, winner of several significant awards for her "Jooly's Joint" website, even making the "Top 50 Most Influential People In New Media" list in 2003! She remains one of the most remarkable women I have ever had the honour to know. |
Mal and I have been friends from our teens, going all the way back to the heady daze spent in Galinis coffee bar in the early 70's. We met up again at MMATT's second gig, by which time he had become poet, Mal Cieslak, and a member of electronic music duo, Leviathan. We worked together during the At Twilight Time Sessions in the Fall of 1987, Mal also performing with us at The Grain Festival the same year. Now an accomplished author, we had more to talk about than time available to talk about it! |
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The Exocet Kid himself (no, you don't want to know how he got that nickname!), the one with the red mohican at my wedding to Shona Moments, poster boy (we'd sneak round the town and he'd help us put them up) and Billy Idol lookalike of the earliest MMATT promo pix, and the bloke whose dulcet tones deliver the vocals on "The Eddie Irwin Song". Amazingly, Nick never pursued a career in singing, although he has now managed to become a huge star on German radio anyway. Honest... |
We first came into contact with Thayen when he was producing the Guilfin newsletter, did a few benefit tapes for them on M&E and ended up earning ourselves some of the most fantastic cover art I've ever seen. This is the talented man that brought the inner recesses of my mind into reality for "Creavolution", as well as putting together a few visions of a dystopian future for the iconic cult comic, '2000 AD'. Today working as a storyboard artist, I caught up with him on the evening of Sunday 5th August. |
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Long time editor of Aural Innovations until its demise in 2016, Jerry had said of "Creavolution" in a review that it was "the best damn spacerock and roll dance party sci fi concept album" he'd ever heard. On repeating that claim on social media a few months back, he inspired first a free online second edition to mark its 22nd anniversary, then secondly, a complete remaster a couple of months later on TMR Records. If you think about it, had he not done that, there would be nothing here for you to read! |
Wayne and I first became friends via a regular Mensa meeting he was hosting back in 1987. Before we knew it, he was videoing our debut gig, gifting us loads of great recording equipment and becoming our official photographer. He's the man responsible for that omnipresent and iconic set of monochrome photos of the original MMATT foursome. In latter years, Wayne became Rick Wakeman's webmaster took a job with Microsoft and emigrated to Seattle, where we said hi just recently... |
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When I first met Pippa at The West End Centre in Aldershot, not long after the release of "Zoen Nostalgia", she was singing with a mod influenced band called Rising Signs. I was in the market for a new vocalist and she looked and sounded great for the part. However, having made just one successful and promising test recording with us, she found herself caught up in the infamous 'Lost Year', by the end of which she'd gone. My bad entirely. We finally caught up last weekend... |
"Get Into The Dream Cream", "Shades Of Purple" and "Bewitched" may be quite well known tracks, having been included on the Klappstuhl "Flashbax Ω Ultimate" best of set in 2015, but much of the rest of the album has never even been digitised. Until now! I presented a one hour special online to present the other 'forgotten' tracks, including "Shazdanz", the legendary 'missing' number from the original album, finally recorded by Leonie Jackson a couple of years later... |
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Fully one half of the Christ & Satan duo that helped launch a fledgling Music & Elsewhere label way back in 1988, and became well known voices due to their contributions to "Zoen Nostalgia"; you know, "Mick Tron For President" et al. These days, Philip's life is no less interesting, touring with the Lucky Dog Theatre, writing lots of books, hosting Ghost Walks and Jack The Ripper Tours. I talked to him not long after his return from The Edinburgh Festival, with strict instructions not to mention Jo... oops, nearly! |
Chris was the first person to ever take any real notice of MMATT, the first person to air our music (and elsewhere) in public, the first to give us a gig. We went on to collaborate on the local band co-operative that was The Grain, produced a zine, staged gigs and events, culminating in an all day festival for Greenpeace in the September of 1987. It was one of the most interesting periods of my life, and Chris remains the most charismatic stage presence I ever had the pleasure to work with. |
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Sunday 19th August was 'Flashbax Freebies Day', all free albums courtesy of that mightiest of labels, Klappstuhl Records. Of course, all those free albums have long since gone now, but once all of those bits had been taken out, the tracks from our release on the label and the MMATT story that accompanied them still remained. Photos, graphics, words and music will take you through 'The Cassette Years', from 1986 to 1992, enjoy muchly! |
As we come into the final countdown to the release of the CD next Friday, we come to the participants on "Creavolution" itself. Borrowed from M&E duo, Twister, Inga's was the dark and sensuous voice that graced "Lights Turned Blue" and "Demonic Attack". I talked to her about her gothic roots with Three Times The Crow, right through Twister and the cassette era to her present day gig with rock outfit, Kilter. And okay, I may just possibly have mentioned that faked orgasm once or twice! |
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For the next four hours, I trekked through the tale behind the album, in words, pictures and music, playing every track on it, plus many others that help fill in the blanks. You can hear; Leonie sing with Obsessive Fascination; the early 1985 comedy sketch that gave birth to "Spirit Electric"; the amazing operatic baritone of Brian John Doran with his own band, Operattack; the voice of the 'face in the sky, the lovely Isabelle Gernand with Sabotage QCQC. And so much more. It's a trip... |
And I finished the session with the smokin' guitar man whose blistering lead solo sent "Lights Turn Blue" into a different dimension, whose stylish play-out reshaped "The Torch" and whose groovy 50's licks added some serious rebop to "Rock & Roll Lifestyle", daddio! We talked about his transformation from hairy frontman of M&E favourites, Hecate's Dreams, to Professor Page, the decidedly less hairy Dean of The Carnegie School Of Education at Leeds Beckett University. Where did it all go so wrong? |
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T H E F I N A L E V E N T : F L A S H B A X O M I C R O N 1 3
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And
thus we come to the end of the extended Facebook album launch event series
with this grand finale! Presenting the very last in the "Flashbax" series,
a very special free download including one previously undigitised track
from each of the 13 MMATT albums, plus two further bonus albums; "Live At
Frimley Community Centre" (the complete set from our 1987 live debut, plus
the 'husband and wife duo from north west Surrey' rehearsal for the
earlier cancelled gig) and "Mmattland Community Radio" (the classic 1992
April Fool's broadcast by Captain Garry Lee and crew at Freedom Overflow).
Not to mention the visit from The Doc and Mick Tron with the shock
announcement about who I'll be recording album no. 14 with! Watch out for
"Gravitas" by Magic Bullet - you heard it here first!.gif){kind=small}