Baked Beans A-La-Bubonique, the original recipe card from "Marc Bell's Brain Dead Cooking For Busy Rock Stars" (£1.99 - Botulism Books, 1994)

MM: I see a note in the M&E News that reminds me of something I simply have to bring up; your cooking! I quote; “Just been up at Brain Dead Studios again for the weekend, and there was still half a saucepan of baked beans on the side from my last visit, five weeks ago. Actually, they tasted fine with a bit of brown sauce.” I remember we made your Baked Beans A-La Bubonique something of an underground legend. But actually, your fry-ups were great, and the kids seemed to like them too. I survived the weekends without food-poisoning, but did get clambered over a lot by Zit and Bono, your two rather lively offspring. Working all the hours you did must have had a negative impact on family life, and you’ll know my reasons for asking this; do you ever regret the amount of time you put into working on music and might you do things differently if you had that time again?

MB: I’d do it all over again….. I have no regrets. In-fact I’m doing it with a pile of acts younger than my own children at the moment! I never actually mentioned the catering in the advertising…. It was rough & ready and people really enjoyed it. Baked beans and brown sauce are still a favourite of mine. As a young kid, a child of the 50’s, I was brought up to eat almost anything. My grandad had an allotment and kept chickens & rabbits in the backyard for us to eat! Today I’m pretty much vegetarian (I do eat eggs & cheese) and grow most of my own food at a local allotment. Both Bono & Zit grew up to be pretty well balanced adults. Bono (Francis), short for Bonehead (not from U2…. he got that nickname for breaking my nose when he was about 18 months). Today he is an Architect. Zit (Heather); ‘Zit’ was the first word she spoke…. Today she spends her time trekking across places like the Arctic Circle (Svalbard etc) and appearing in Greenpeace calendars. She’s one tough kid, I took her rock climbing first at 2 years old & we still climb together to this day…. Life is about taking risks. Who the fuck wants to live & die in front of a TV eating take-aways?

MM: Come the autumn, I began to bring up our guest artistes for the album, starting with Inga Leru, who I had borrowed from Twister to sing lead on a few tracks. I remember being greeted at your front door by Zit, who looked up at her and asked if she was my mummy! She was actually a fair bit younger than me, so I probably thought it was funnier than she did. She was, however, quite stunned by your cooking. As we both were with that wonderful orgasm she faked for “Demonic Attack” Oh, and we played it to her boyfriend when he came to pick her up, he was stunned too. I bet that was an interesting drive home. Other memorable sessions came (no pun intended) with Brian John Doran’s (Operattack) wondrous operatic baritone and Damien Page’s (Hecate’s Dream) blitzing guitar solo on “Lights Turn Blue”. What are your own memories of those sessions, who did you feel was really outstanding and were you offended that neither Brian or Damien would eat a thing while they were there?

MB: That was one cool time! The rain that Autumn delayed the re-roofing and extension to the studio somewhat, but the recording sessions for ‘Creavolution’ were still going well. I still can remember quite a bit about your sessions. You came with the sequencing complete, which saved me hours of programming. Then for the guitars you turn up with this ancient pedal board array….. it actually sounded pretty good. But the vocal sessions were my favourite, esp: Leonie Jackson, what a voice! I think when Brian John Doran was here we were in the middle of a rebuild & had the roof off & covered with a large tarp! Despite the conditions he pulled off a magnificent performance. Damien Page was a standout memory, I’d be the first to admit a better and more inventive

guitarist than me or Mick. So easy to work with. And I think you got to meet a lot of the local crowd up on Shooters Hill? Derek, Debbie and even Chris Dors….. It was recorded at the same time as ‘Too Old To Rock’, the last of the major 8-track productions at Brain Dead. By the time ‘Creavolution’ had been released we had a Fostex 16 track reel to reel! One of the things I enjoyed most was the amount of rough (running) mixes we produced. I don’t think any of these have officially seen the light of day? But they helped shape the final product and made ‘Creavolution’ almost mix itself. ‘Demonic Attack’ was my favourite track from ‘Creavolution’. And I still listen to ‘Operattack’ on cassette to this day….. Brian John Doran sure can sing! I wonder what he’s doing these days? I have cassette players all over the place including in the greenhouse, its one of my favourite places to listen to music. I still pick up blank cassettes from Studiospares to record on….. they sound better than CD & a million percent better than MP3 crap.

Our Sam with Zit and Bono on a trip to Greenwich, they had a mean time...

MM: We had some good times during those sessions and really were made to feel at home, thanks. I know Sam had a lovely time when Jane and the kids took her to Greenwich while we were working, all much appreciated. The kids were great too. I remember on one occasion, we were sat in the kitchen with Brian (not that he was eating) one lunchtime, when Zit comes running up to me, points and says “Have you got a willy?” I really hope she’s got out of that habit now she’s in her twenties! That was nearly as funny as the time Bono put a pot of yoghurt on Jane’s chair. Later in ’94, it was looking like the album wasn’t going to be finished at all; our lead vocalist, Leonie Jackson, aka Lulu The Space Bimbo (oh, how she loved being called that), had given birth to a little girl called Thea back on Saturday 4th June (God, she’ll be 20 this year!), leading to some rather serious medical problems that resulted in her having to pull out. The original release date, 25th October 1994, was scrapped. So, we may as well have a chat about the many other things you were up to while we wait for that situation to resolve; you were also running a little cottage industry called TMR Productions, a service that offered music related lists and info for bands (A&R,

The "Creavolution" sessions; clockwise from top left - Inga Leru (Twister), Leonie Jackson, Damien Page (Hecate's Dreams) and Brian John Doran (Operattack), all were wary of Mark's cooking...