The Crack is a free culture magazine and website providing a valuable service to the North East. Reviews of books, film, stage and music are packed into each monthly edition.
To find out more about the people behind the magazine I got in touch with one of the writers, Rob Meddes.
‘Reading takes up a lot of my spare time now. I review between two and three new novels each month for The Crack. I also love old films, particularly black and white film noirs made between the 1940s and mid-1950s – The Maltese Falcon, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity’.
‘I never set out to be a writer, but stumbled into it through luck more than anything else. I was born in Newcastle and lived here all my life. I’m now 57. I didn’t go to university but on leaving school I did a Youth Training Scheme on computer programming’.
‘I got a job as a programmer but the company I worked for went bust – hopefully not because of my efforts. Then got a job as a civil servant, working at the big site at Longbenton for around four years. I became frustrated at having to do the same thing every day so thought I’d leave and go back to college. The aim? To become an artist’.
‘I did ‘A’ level art and then the Art Foundation course. I was accepted on the Fine Art course at Northumbria University but figured I didn’t want to do another three or more years of that because I really needed a job’.
‘I wrote to loads of different companies to ask if they would take me on, maybe in an admin capacity. The one company that got back to me was The Crack. I did a bit of everything at first – including selling adverts – before moving more onto the writing side of things. That was in 1994 and I’ve been here ever since’.
What changes have you seen since you started at The Crack?
‘What has actually changed most for me is how the magazine is put together. When I started there was no internet, certainly not in our office. Every image in the magazine had to be physically scanned in. Now they’re all digital’.
Have you seem many cultural changes in Newcastle since joining the team?
It’s Gateshead not Newcastle that has seen some of the most compelling big ticket items – Baltic, Sage Gateshead, Angel of the North, The Millennium Bridge. But Tyneside as a whole seems to have become more of a destination for people outside the area who want to sample cultural life in the region’.
What can you see for the cultural future of Tyneside?
‘After 13 years of Tory backed austerity, particularly for the arts, many of our cultural icons are struggling. We’ve already seen The Side Gallery close and The Tyneside Cinema has started to crowdfund. And they’re just the tip of the iceberg’.
‘But often in straightened times, art – in its myriad forms – manages to find a way to bubble to the fore. What hasn’t changed is people’s capacity to get out of the house and go and see stuff, whatever that stuff might be’.
Original cinematic soundscape musician and producer Alan Rowland and songwriter Carol Nichol have released a new album Northern Crown.
“It’s a mammoth task trying to mix on our equipment set up in a box room at home, it’s D.I.Y. – it’s low fi”.
A toxic mix of Stooges/Springfield/Velvet Underground gave birth to 2017s Pow and 2021s Poor Little Rich Girl. Both sparked with creative energy leaving their third album big shoes to fill.
To find out if they’ve got the right size and same passion I caught up with Carol in old favourite the Centurion Bar in Newcastle’s Central Station.
“Thing is it’s sad to see storytelling becoming censored in the arts you see it even with comedians now, that is what the album is about. We’re having a go basically”.
“The track ‘Little Vultures’ and the lyric ‘drowning statues’ deals with the people who want to wipe out history instead of preserving it. Just Stop Oil protesters throwing a tin of soup over a Van Gogh painting. What’s that about? He died in poverty”
“They’re targeting big sports events and slowing traffic down stopping people getting to work on time. They’re targeting the wrong people. It’s about the killing of culture. We should rejoice in our culture and celebrate it. You had to laugh when people wanted ‘Delilah’ by Tom Jones banned!”
The album has 11 tracks building slowly and throwing in a surprise or two.
“We’ve got a strong running order and a very diverse range of tracks.The song ‘Bubblewrap’ has a go at middle class privilege, the arts are dominated by them. Not only acting but music, they want you to sing about utopia, sunshine and everything’s alright out there”
“We are banned by the BBC for ‘Snowflake Generation’ which was on our last album, although it was played on Amazing radio in USA and here in the North East on the Keith Newman show on Northumberland Radio”.
“We’ve got the cinematic track ‘Chinatown’ with its 60s Latin vibe and then ‘Starlight’ which gets dark, a woman is in a boot of a car and is going over a cliff – it’s a bit Thelma & Louise.”.
“The track ‘Kiss of Life’ is a dig at politicians during lockdown they had their raucous parties when people couldn’t kiss their loved ones goodbye”.
“Neil Tunstall came in and recorded some bass on ‘Creatures’. A song about man’s cruelty to animals which I hate, again it’s us having a go about what’s going on around us. There’s a lot more grit in this album”.
“On this album we have kept to the cinematic music by including two soundtracks, one is a loose ballsy swagger for maybe a film soundtrack that hasn’t been made yet!”
Film being a theme right through this album. British actor Albert Finney is pictured on the front cover, a still from one of my favourite films ‘Saturday Night, Sunday Morning’.
“My mum got me into the gritty, working class, kitchen sink dramas, films like ‘Get Carter’. The reason why I chose Albert Finney is that he grew up working class and made it big in Hollywood films and turned down a Golden Globe and an O.B.E. He wasn’t interested in all that – he was the real deal.”
“It’s a sort of celebration of working class heroes like Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, these people wouldn’t get into the acting business now, it’s saturated with the privileged, the middle class who pay their way into the industry. We need the working class ethic back in music and acting again.”
“Savage Silence’ was my mother’s poem which I used in a song. I dedicate the album to her as a thank you for influencing me into being creative and introducing me to the golden age of 60s, 70s film and music which I adore. Also to remain true to your creative passion as music is an art, and not to sell out to the manufactured mainstream and the masses”.
“I really enjoy putting it all together, we love the process, we’re looking at writing new stuff now. We’ve also had two more TV syncs from our soundtracks ‘Bury My Skin’ and ‘One Drop’ used in the second series of Warner Brothers Swedish TV drama ‘Partisan’. (Series 1 & 2 available to view on All 4).
What can we expect from the fourth album?
“Well I don’t write Adam and Eve type Ed Sheeran stuff I don’t think I’ve ever wrote a song with lyrics like ‘I love ya’ baby!”
Alikivi August 2023
For further info or to buy a copy on CD contact Lowfeye on their social media page:
In the early 80s Tyneside based Avenger released two albums on the Neat record label – ‘Blood Sports’ and ‘Killer Elite’ both firmly planted the band on the NWOBHM map.
Fast forward to 2023 and their last show was three months ago in Spain at the Galia Metal Fest near Madrid…
“It was a cracking festival just in its first edition”said drummer Gary Young.
Next up is an explosive triple bill of classic NWOBHM on Friday 1st September. Joining Avenger are Spartan Warrior plannng an old school 80s set and an exclusive Venom set from Abaddon.
“I think we’ve played more shows with Spartan Warrior than any other band we know. We have a smooth working relationship with them and that makes touring alongside them very easy”.
“We’ve played with Abaddon too, and been friends with him for nearly 40 years! It’s always an honour to share the stage with him and the lads”.
The three bands will be playing on home turf at Trillians Rock Bar in Newcastle…
“We love Trillians….so much history, so many memorable shows there in the past – both as punters and playing. The place is essential to the music scene’s health”.
How influential has NWOBHM been?
“I think New Wave of British Heavy Metal has been a keystone to how current metal music has developed and that’s recognised by people especially when discovering metal for the first time.”
“When researching a bands history they can identify the whole legacy, for example Metallica were influenced by NWOBHM”.
After 40 plus years the NWOBHM North East Division of Satan, Raven and Tygers of Pan Tang are still breathing fire wherever they turn up.
“How has NWOBHM endured 40 odd years? Simple, the sheer quality of the bands”.
Free night of classic NWOBHM at Trillians Rock Bar, Newcastle, Friday 1st September 2023.
Robert Plant, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan and Jerry Lee Lewis are just a few names that have recorded in Sam Phillips Studio in Memphis, USA – a new name to be added to that impressive list is Teesside Rhythm & Blues Singer & Songwriter Emma Wilson…….
“Sam Phillips studio breathes, it has an immense presence. The Phillips family have kept the rooms the same. The live room is awesome, huge, beautifully designed, it took me everything to hold it together. I let my emotions out on the recording”.
Her second album Memphis Calling, scheduled for an October release, with first single What Kind Of Love released on Friday 1st September 2023.
What Kind Of Love was co-written by legendary singer and songwriter Don Bryant (Hi Records) and Scott Bomar, who also produces the album.
“Don Bryant collaborated with his then wife, my idol Ann Peebles, on many huge songs such as the iconic ‘I Can’t Stand The Rain’. For him to offer me one of his songs and then join me in singing was a dream come true…he is so vibrant and such a great singer!” explained Emma.
“When I asked him how he thought I should perform the song he took hold of my two hands and said “Just sing it honey”.
“The band on ‘Memphis Calling’ are spectacular we have members of the HI Rhythm section Leroy Hodges bass, Charles Hodges organ, Hubbie Turner piano, the greatest drummer in the world Steve Potts and young Memphian cats Joe Restivo guitars, Kirk Smothers saxes and Marc Franklin trumpet”.
“Scott Bomar produced the record and is one of the greatest, he restored the STAX desk that we recorded through, it was just a beautiful experience”.
Emma won 2022s Emerging Blues Artist of The Year in the UK Blues Awards, her debut album Wish Her Well, made the finalist in Blues Album of The Year category in UK Blues Awards 2023.
After re-forming in 2014 Warrington based Troyen have played a number of UK and European festivals but their first bite out of the NWOBHM scene was in the early 80s.
A big impact was made on the live circuit opening for Spider, Girlschool, Diamond Head and a European tour supporting Nightwing.
“We have many memories of gigs in the 80’s” said drummer Jeff Baddley.
“We almost left a roadie in an autobahn service station. We saw him frantically running down the road waving his arms to get our attention. Another time we parked our tour bus in an Embassy drive way – didn’t know that at the time – and were woken by armed guards inside the bus demanding ID”.
“When we opened for Spider they liked our track ‘Crazy Lady’ so much they wanted to buy it…we declined the offer”.
A demo, and first production job for Gil Norton (Foo Fighters, Pixies) was released in 1981.
Jeff added “It was a great experience, our good friends Nightwing were in the studio next-door. Gil Norton was great to work with. He was very young and very skilled. We recorded, mixed and produced the four tracks in three days”.
It quickly sold out earning a deal with legendary North East studio Neat records, but the band split before the ink was dry on the contract.
Fast forward to May 2024 – you can never be too early to advertise an event – and after a gig in Edinburgh, Scotland on the 18th, Troyen will be jumping over Hadrians Roman Wall to Newcastle Trillians on the 19th for a night dedicated to the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal.
“Our new album will be out in May 2024 so the set will be filled with new tracks off the as yet untitled album, and classic back catalogue stuff”Jeff explained.
Trillians Rock Bar already has a number of NWOBHM events lined up this year. Dates from powerhouse metallers Tytan and Trespass, while playing on home turf and delivering bone crunching impact are Abaddon, Avenger, Millenium and Spartan Warrior.
Not forgetting a night with the now legendary Tygers of Pan Tang – al’ the way from Whitley Bay! Another band who’ve had numerous line-up changes and are still on the prowl after 40 years plus. 2023 has brought a new album and European gigs.
More live dates for Troyen are 2 September, Flames Still Burns Festival, Nuneaton. 6 October, The Carlisle, Hastings. 7 October, British Steel Festival, France and for 2024 so far 20 January, The Cavern, London. 18 May, Bannermans, Edinburgh. 19 May free entry to Trillians, Newcastle with special guests Culloden.
Troyen 2023 line-up – Jeff Baddley – drums/backing vox, Steve McGuire – guitar/backing vox, Mark Nortley – bass, Simon Lind – guitar/backing vox, Sy Davis -vocals.
Alikivi August 2023
Link to interview with Troyen drummer Jeff Baddley in 2017.
Geordie were signed to EMI, had UK chart hit singles, appearances on Top of the Pops and toured with Thin Lizzy and Nazareth. A few line-up changes took them into the 80s where they finally called it a day.
With a much welcomed return to the stage, the 2020s line up has original members Brian Gibson on drums and Tom Hill on bass with new recruits in former Animals guitarist Steve Dawson, and former Beckett/Back Street Crawler frontman Terry Slesser.
“Terry is working really well as the frontman for Geordie”saidTom.
The band are back on the road in August and heading down south with a series of gigs including the Half Moon in Putney and Leo’s Red Lion in Gravesend.
Tom added “For the set we’ll be introducing some new songs, we recently released three singles in quick succession. All three made the top 20 of Mike Read’s Heritage Radio Show”.
“After this run of gigs we’ll be doing more recording then at the end of September playing a festival in Belgium, keep on rocking”.
The Fauves are fronted by vocalist Mick Smith, Allen Hughes on guitar, drummer Bob Rowland & bassist Bri Smith.
Their new album is not exactly a snoozefest. Throughout are overtones of French alt. rock band Trust and twisty riffs alike to New York’s King of the punks, Ramones – make no mistake The Fauves are on the hunt.
We’re quite busy at the moment. This is our fourth album really, but we count it as our third because most of the songs on the second album Back Off World were redone with Micks vocals, he gave the songs a bit more aggression than the original version explained bassist Bri Smith.
Universal themes of money, war, drugs and love are delivered with seething anger and frustration.
Resistance 22 is obviously a pro-Ukrainian song, No Escape describes the first stages of war in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, while Sanctuary is about wanting to retreat to a quieter world explained frontman Mick Smith.
Who else is in the firing line?
We have a track about the so called social warriors, the compassionate narcissistic types in Shower of Fanatics – while the track Tax me when I’m Dead is about the lazy work shy being financed at the expense of the workers.
Mental health and the darker side of life is examined on Looking in the Mirror and Inject the Poison… That’s about someone overcoming drug addiction while Chemical Curfew is about the overuse of medication and alcohol to keep us in line.
Poverty of Thought is a song about judging and being judged and Sleeping Rough is someone who seeks love on the street because there’s no love at home.
‘You cannot sleep tonight, there’s a face right up close, try to close your eyes again, want to shake off this old ghost’
Among the chaos and debris of life The Fauves retain a sense of humour in the track Where’s Bob.
That’s about a man who will go to any lengths to get the right sound for his band – even killing several soundmen!
For Resistance 22 the band entered Garage Studios in South Shields and again employed the services of Kyle Martin.
Kyle is great, he engineered the album, we’ve recorded all our albums there and it’s also a great place to rehearse. Kyle knows our style of music and knows what sound we like.
He also throws a few ideas in as well. It’s a great little studio, ideal for us and it’s got all the facilities we need added Bri Smith.
We also did a gig at the Bunker in Sunderland in March where it was recorded live. The recording was that good we decided to release it as a live album which will be released soon. It also has a bonus track on, a new version of Slightest Push an old song from years back.
This summer The Fauves are looking to get back on the road to promote their new album.
We are going to break the new songs in gently, maybe introduce three or four songs at a time, we’ve already played a few of them live explained Bri.
We have a few gigs lined up over the coming months, The Black Bull punk festival 30th June, The Underground in Bradford 8th July, Angels Place Sunderland 22nd July, Trillians Newcastle 23rd July then we’ve got the big one on August 6th at The Rebellion four day festival in Blackpool. Really looking forward to that one.
The Winter Gardens stage Rebellion from 3-6 August, bands include The Damned, New Model Army, Big Country, UK Subs, Exploited, The Only Ones and many more. The literary stage features an interview with South Shields born Wildheart, Danny McCormack.
That’s followed by The Punk and Ska Festival in Redcar 7th September, other gigs are being lined up for later in the year at Manchester and other Northern areas.
The new album on CD released on 1st July 2023 costs £10.00 + £2.00 postage in UK and a free exclusive badge until stocks last.
The CD will be available at all gigs from 30th June.
For details including merchandise, contact Phil on thunderbirdsport885@hotmail.co.uk or
Phil Rowland on Facebook Messenger.
From July 1st 2023 the album will be available on all usual online platforms including BandCamp, Spotify, iTunes, Amazon Music, Deezer and many others.
Alikivi June 2023
Check out Ground Zero for more about The Fauves via South Shields punks Angelic Upstarts.
So far, this year has been golden for Raven who’ve been inducted into the Metal Hall of Fame, recorded a new album ready on the blocks for release, awarded a front cover on the highly respected International Rock & Metal magazine Aardschok and preparing for an upcoming tour. Bassist & vocalist John Gallagher explains the positive mood in the Raven camp…
The new album ‘All Hells Breaking Loose’ will be our 15th full studio album. The album name is one of the tracks and it’s always nice to have a title track. This one stuck out as a great title to build the album around and sparked the cover idea too.
But lately at gigs we’ve been playing the ‘All for One’ album as it’s reached it’s 40th anniversary.
Raven at Newcastle Mayfair 16 June 1983 pic Duncan Butterfield.
1983 was a big year for Raven – they hoyed the kitchen sink and both taps at a major USA tour, previously there was a gig at London’s Marquee and a few nights later they landed on Newcastle Mayfair.
The biggest bands on the planet including Zeppelin, Queen, Nirvana and The Who had played the venue, then on one red hot sweaty night in June ‘83, Raven played on home turf.
John remembers that night…I do seem to remember doing a ‘runner’ during my bass solo. Jumping offstage, running up to the balcony, round and back on before most people knew what happened!
John Gallagher Newcastle Mayfair 16 June 1983 pic Duncan Butterfield.
It was a great night, I was doon the front as were many from Sooth Sheelz as the show was opened by local metallers Hellanbach.The red hot atmosphere of the night was captured in these excellent live pics by music fan Duncan Butterfield.
Mark Gallagher, Newcastle Mayfair 16 June 1983 pic Duncan Butterfield.
Sadly, the Mayfair was demolished in 1999 only to be replaced by a shiny pub and restaurant block with some bonny lights.But here we are many moons later and Raven have been busy in the studio mixing up the latest concoction.
It’s 10 songs, about 40 mins of all killer no filler – 1000% pure mania!So far we’ve put out two video singles, ‘Go for the Gold’ and ‘Surf the Tsunami’ and there will be one more when the album comes out.
The Godfathers of Thrash release their new album All Hell’s Breaking Loose on 30th June 2023. Check the official Raven website for merch/album/video & upcoming European gigs in July & September 2023.
It’s 1996 and Greedsville were splitting up after the five years that I’d been in the band. I was exhausted cos I had a day job as well plus I was getting interested in just song writing rather than being in a full-on band all the time.
Me and Pete the singer lived in the same flat and we had discussions about it not working anymore. We felt we had taken it as far as we could and our manager Sue Wilkinson had exhausted herself.
So, I wasn’t going off behind anyone’s back when I went to the studio and recorded a few songs looking at trying to get a publishing deal.
Fred Purser ex Penetration & Tygers of Pan Tang (1982)
The studio was Trinity Heights in Newcastle run by Fred Purser (ex guitar Penetration/Tygers of Pan Tang) who I love, he’s great. I was in three days playing all the parts with keyboards by ex-Greedsville man Mark Burton.
(Check the interview ‘Square One’ with Fred Purser 30 December 2018).
Sue agreed that she would be point of contact for the demo that I’d sent to a number of record companies. After only a few days Sue called me and said that Chrysalis A&R were interested.
They liked the songs but they wanted a band not just singer-songwriter. So, after a few phone calls I got in Ed Box who was guitarist and Gary Foalle who played bass in XLR8R, keyboardist Mark Burton was already in.
I also got Graham Hattam in on drums – he was second Greedsville drummer – when I formed the first version of the band. We called it Arch Stanton, a name featured in the great Clint Eastwood film The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.
Arch Stanton publicity photo (1998)
To put two songs together we went into Sams Studio in Newcastle because Trinity Heights was booked. Sue sent the tape to the A&R guy but we never heard anything back! The Chrysalis receptionist told us it’s on his desk. Still nothing. This was all annoying after the money and time spent.
This was all in the summer of ’96, we wrote a few more songs and done some gigs. Nothing was happening really apart from our manager Sue Wilkinson applying for a National Lottery grant. (Check the interview ‘Making Plans’ with Sue Wilkinson 25 March 2023 link below).
Well things were fizzling out and the other guys went back to XLR8R until I got a call from Sue ‘get the band back together’! The Lottery grant had been successful and we gathered a four piece band with me, Ed Box, Gary Foalle and Mick Robson on drums and wrote some new material.
Then we went into Trinity Heights and recorded four songs and it was the best feeling, it all just clicked. The lovely Sue got us loads of publicity in the media, TV slots on BBC Look North, cable, radio and newspapers.
The timing was great for the band, we all felt good about it. With the Lottery grant we didn’t need to worry about how much the studio would cost – we could relax into it you know.
Greedsville & Arch Stanton manager Sue Wilkinson
Then the BBC contacted Sue and said they were coming up to Newcastle to film us for a National Lottery show and it was going to be a Spice Girls special! A camera guy came up and filmed us miming in Fred’s studio (Trinity Heights).
Along with Sue I was going to be in the TV studio on the night, live TV, millions of people watching. Night before leaving for the Lottery show Sue called and said the BBC have been in touch and they want a girl singer on because it’s all about girl power with The Spice Girls on. There was a female vocalist in a band from Sunderland who also got a grant so she got the gig instead!
On the night it was broadcast I had a ticket to see the comedian Bill Bailey so my mam video-taped the live show. To be honest when I watched it back it didn’t look good with a video montage of Newcastle, Tyne bridge, Ant & Dec that sort of thing you know.
The 10 second shot with us in Trinity Heights studio didn’t have our name on, or music, or any other bands who were awarded grants. But it was memorable for the night that Geri left The Spice Girls.
For the record, I found the BBC Lottery clip on YouTube, the girl who ended up on the show, instead of me, was called Lara – least that’s what I think they said! Her band was called K9. I heard the backstage gossip was you could cut the tension with a knife (laughs).
The whole point was that the grants were awarded to help bands, but none of us were mentioned. Audience was around 12 million – one of them could have made a difference to any of the bands, but it wasn’t to be.
We, Arch Stanton, carried on for another few year playing gigs at venues like The Riverside, and we recorded a seven track album in Fred’s Trinity Heights studio which was eventually released in 2015.
Also a further five songs were recorded in Sam’s Studios and Octopus Studios. This made up the twelve tracks that were released as an album The Stanton Files in 2015, this was also the year I released my first solo album Life Off Line.
Fred Purser (2021).
I was employed at Trinity Heights, by Fred Purser as a video editor/production assistant, with some assistant sound engineering as a second role. The first music videos I worked on were for what become the album Square One by Fred Purser and Jon Deverill – both ex Tygers of Pan Tang.
When the band The Cockney Rejects were recording their album in Trinity Heights, Out of the Gutter, they asked Fred if they knew someone who played harmonica, he said yes, there’s one sitting upstairs doing some video editing!
I had met them when they came in, great bunch of lads, and ended up playing harmonica on the track Collar Felt Blues. The video for this song was shot in the studio with me in it, it was broadcast on MTV Europe at the time.
Evan Dando of The Lemonheads, UK, 1994. (Photo by Denis O’Regan/Getty Images)
Arch Stanton had split by 2000, and that’s when me, Ed Box and Gary Foalle ended up in New York. We were on holiday and our friend Elizabeth from Newcastle lived there as she was engaged to Evan Dando from The Lemonheads. She was a model in London, Paris then New York where she met Evan. She started off by winning a competition in the Newcastle Chronicle.
We were invited to their wedding in New York and we met a few celeb’s, one of them was Anthony Langdon from the band Spacehog. I first met Anthony – originally from Leeds – in March 2000, when I first went to New York City.
We were hustling around passing our demo to people but nothing really come of it. Evan came over to the UK and played the Wylam Brewery in Newcastle in 2017 where I supported, it was a great gig.
Evan Dando & Clive Jackson at the Wylam Brewery (2017)
With the experience working on video at Fred’s studio in 2004 I set up my own company, Automatic Films, where I went to New York to film Evan in a Day in the Life documentary called One Day in New York.
Chanel Four were looking at it but never took it up but this led me to working on other film projects like short films, music video, comedy and entering them into film festivals.
What am I doing now in music ? I ‘m just completing a new album called Distortion and hopefully release it by September 2023.
For more information/albums/photo’s check out Clive’s official website :
Clive is a singer/songwriter who released two solo albums, Life Off Line (2015) and Rocket Science in (2019). He is currently working on a new album for release this year.
A veteran of rock bands who were part of the Newcastle music scene in the 1990’s, he was a member of Greedsville who released an album in 1994.
Greedsville promo pic with Clive on the right.
The main thing that motivated me to get a guitar and become a songwriter in a band was when John Lennon died in 1980, they played tons of Beatles songs on T.V and Radio. I was already aware of a lot of it, but when I heard A Day in The Life on ITN news, I was hooked.
I joined various bands in the 80s, one being Twelve Angry Penguins – it was the era of daft band names! Then I was guitarist in a band called Dark Roads, and in 1991 we recorded a demo at Linx Studio with Mond Cowie (ex Angelic Upstarts) engineering. I was really pleased with my vocals, song writing and guitar work on that but unfortunately within six weeks everyone left Newcastle!
The drummer went to be a policeman in Leeds, the other guitarist went to live with his girlfriend in Wakefield and the bassist moved to Scotland to manage a hotel. In the midst of all that I got a phone call from Andy Carpenter who was bassist in Greedsville.
We sort of knew each other because we rehearsed in the same place, the 244 Rock club on Westgate Road here in Newcastle. There was a car repair shop in the back and in front was an old navy club, it was a very underground set up.
I handed Andy the Dark Roads demo and he asked me to join Greedsville as a song writer, that worked out and I became rhythm guitarist. Other bands on the scene were XLR8R, Strange Thing, 2000 and Roswell.
Greedsville live at London’s Marquee.
We gigged a lot and played in Newcastle, Hull and Leeds, we went down to London Marquee seven times. I had a full-time job in the Civil Service so ended up using all my annual leave when we had to travel to gigs in London. We couldn’t knock back gigs in the capital.
Sometimes I had to arrange a half day here, and a full day there. For one London gig work wouldn’t give me a half day. I pleaded with them as we had reviewers from Kerrang and NME coming along, it was important, one gig could make all the difference.
So, I decided to get the train from Newcastle to Kings Cross, legged it to the Marquee, did the gig, ran off stage, missed the last train, so jumped on the all-night bus from Victoria – still sweating and stinking with my stage clothes on. It was a long night as the bus stopped off everywhere.
Finally got home, showered, then made it to work just in time. But I was knackered, more of this wasn’t doing my health any good.
Around the early 90s we met a London guy called Sean Worrall who reviewed our demo, he ran a fanzine called The Organ and was connected to record companies. He would promote showcase gigs at the Marquee or Camden Monarch where A&R guys would turn up. Sean set up one for us.
There was Geffen records, EMI and MCA hanging at the back of the hall. It wasn’t like a gig more like a jury with them not clapping. Sadly, nothing came of it.
Then London Records saw us play in The Broken Doll, Newcastle and paid for a 4-track demo which we recorded in Hi Level studio. They asked us to ‘grunge’ the sound up.
Then we recorded a rough demo on a four track recorder in the Greedsville rehearsal room. Sean took it to MCA and the first song on it, one I’d written, was more like what they were looking for.
But the rest of the band didn’t want to go in that direction. At the time we were being compared to REM and Roxy Music – quite a wide spectrum.
Greedsville manager Sue Wilkinson
The Greedsville manager was Sue Wilkinson, who has just retired from the BBC. In the 90s she was running Generator here in the North East, she got us loads of publicity, articles and reviews in the press, plus radio and TV slots on local and national TV.
She got us on Tyne Tees, you can watch it on You Tube, Greedsville – Local ITV News, UK (Tyne Tees Television) 21st June 1993. That’s footage from a showcase gig at Newcastle’s Riverside. Ian Penman (Ravendale, music journalist) is also on who was a really nice guy and supportive of the North East music scene. Sadly, he passed away not long ago.
One time we were on the bill at Camden Monarch with Skunk Anansie. There was a chalk board outside the venue with the bands names on – they were billed as Skunk and Nancy and we were Green Sleeves!
I was staring at the board when their singer Skin, she is beautiful by the way, came up to me and asked if I was in Green Sleeves. I said ‘it’s Greedsville’ we were both laughing at the mistakes. They got a record deal. We didn’t.
Our guy in London, Sean Worrall backed off in the end because he explained to us that he’d met the record companies, they’d sent A&R men, heard the demos, he felt that he’d done all he could. It was an amicable parting, no hard feelings he’d just run out of road for us.
There was still a lot of Newcastle connections around that time, like Kev Ridley, engineer at Linx Studio. There was a band I knew called For Gods Sake with guitarist Steve Wallace, there was Steve Charley the Canadian, he was studio engineer for a while. There were connections to the Music for Nations label with Venom and Skyclad.
Then Greedsville signed to North East independent record label Bleeding Hearts run by Eric Cook and Tony Bray, Eric was manager of Venom and Tony was the drummer.
What happened was Sue Wilkinson got a call from Eric Cook asking would Greedsville be interested in a deal? ‘Great’ we all said. At the time we were recording in Trinity Heights studio run by Fred Purser (ex Penetration and Tygers of Pan Tang).
Greedsville album released in 1994.
The singer Pete Turner was involved in all the conversations between Eric Cooke and Sue Wilkinson, and the rest of the band, including myself, were all present at meetings when major decisions were made. The contract was for distribution in Europe and Asia, we had it checked out and it was ok. We signed on the dotted line around 1994.
We had originally planned to record an EP with four songs but with the deal happening it turned into an album. We recorded in three studios – Linx, Trinity Heights and a place in Chester le Street with Frankie Gibbon. It was all mixed and mastered at Fred’s Trinity studio.
Eventually we released The Casino Royale Collection. We made 10,000 copies and it was on sale in shops like Our Price and Virgin stores.
We were due to play in Middlesbrough, then onto the Heineken Music Festival in Gateshead Stadium. But a few weeks before that we played in London and on the way back in the van our drummer Doug Hayes said he was leaving.
So, we quickly had to get someone else in, that was Graham Hattam. We were really up against it, but Graham learned quick in a small time frame and the Heineken gig went well. The Stranglers and Jools Holland big band were also on, it was a great time and Sue got us lots of press.
But we started to lose momentum, Britpop had taken over, the band were falling apart. In 1996 it was all over for Greedsville.
Clive Jackson
Looking back the 90s had loads of different bands playing folk, blues, metal, psychedelia, it wasn’t just one genre. That’s one of the many reasons I think the A&R thing didn’t really happen here.
In one night, they would see a band dressed like they were in a pantomime, others playing Frank Zappa, and in the next pub there would be a full on metal band playing. There just wasn’t a load of bands playing one type of music where they could watch and give a definite yes or no, or maybe sign a band to a development deal.
Back then we sold around 5-6,000 albums but never received a penny. The Greedsville album is still on sale now through outlets like Amazon. If people are getting something out of listening to the songs that’s great – but did I make a living out of the music business? Absolutely not.
In the digital age copyright goes out the window. I do get royalty cheques now and then from my latest solo albums, the last was from Spotify for around $400.
There’s lots more to add to the Clive Jackson story, and that will be added to the blog later, but for more information check the official website:
