1983-1985 Solo, 1985-1986 with band.

Bane - solo

'Bane' was the name I'd taken to calling myself at the tail end of the Panorama in Black days. No reason really, I suppose mono-syllabic names were just about becoming fashionable at the time, and I needed a name for the solo tapes I was releasing in my more experimental and self-indulgent moments away from the band.

So to begin with it was just Bane the person, it took about 16 months for Bane the band to appear.

I experimented with the new portastudio, effects pedals and any drum machines and keyboards I could borrow, trying to make guitar-based weird stuff that I couldn't have done within the PIB formula. The results were extraordinarily patchy, but that didn't stop me releasing nearly all of it for sale. I also developed a penchant for adding bits of radio, TV and other people's music in a highly un-rhythmic  version of some of the dance stuff that had been going on at the time. It was all fairly random, which meant that some bits were very effective - but as a rule it was a bit of a mess.

The base was often drum machine, bass, one highly effect-laden guitar and one distorted punky guitar. Words were rare, except for the cover versions, such as Robyn Hitchcock's 'City of Shame' and Johnny Thunders' 'Go Back to Go'. There was a fairly faithful if somewhat stilted version of The Doors' 'Soul Kitchen', for which I wanted real drums but couldn't play them. Impatient as ever, I wanted it done that instant, so rather than wait for a drummer to show up I laid a drum kit out on the floor and hit everything, including the bass drum, with the fat end of some broken sticks that someone had abandoned in the cellar. The resulting cacophony is not unlike what I imagine The Velvet Underground's first rehearsal might have produced.

One track on the second tape 'Stop Acting Like An Adult', was written and recorded whilst coming down from an acid tab in the small hours. It makes for interesting, if somewhat worrying listening. Within a year and a bit, I'd released 3 collections of tunes, a live tape and with a breathtaking sweep of quite innocent arrogance, a 'Greatest Hits Remixed' type compilation known as 'Silk Cuts', an homage to my favourite ciggies of the day.

The live tape became possible when Pete, a mate who worked at Backs Records in Norwich, became involved in booking bands for a night called 'Arrive Derci Mr McGregor' at Santanas in the Fine City itself. He had managed to get a huge hero of mine, Robyn Hitchcock, to perform his second ever gig with new band The Egyptians at the club, and needed a support act. Realising that not only would I get to watch RH, but as a fellow artiste I'd also get to hang out with him after soundcheck, I volunteered. I prepared backing tapes to play on a cassette deck (in pride of place on the night, parked on a chair in the middle of the stage, much like Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine used to do), and sang and played a revolting pink paisley Fender Telecaster over the top. It went OK, but the highlight was indeed hanging out with Robyn, who signed my packet of Silk Cut 'Dear Jim, how long can you keep this?'. ...........Well so far Robyn, 16½ years!

Before the gig, Mr Hitchcock was engaged with Colin Body, my manager of the time, in an extremely involved and mind-bogglingly semantic discussion about the nature of proof and certainty, all of which ended up with him being quite prepared to drive to Colin's house in Ipswich to prove whether or not Colin had any salad cream at home. It was pointed out to him that this would mean abandoning the show, so he reluctantly conceded that Colin didn't have any salad cream after all. According to Pete, when he and RH were having a conversation about accommodation, Robyn said that the rest of the band would be OK, but he had to have somewhere to stay as he was made of soap, and would melt in the rain if he was left outside. You just didn't know whether to laugh......or edge away nervously. He wrote to me a few days after the gig, and enclosed various rarities pertaining to his earlier band The Soft Boys - all very much appreciated at the time and still treasured possessions. 

Pictured left and right are two CDs from these experimental days...there's some mad stuff on these because a lot of it was drug-driven and also, there simply weren't many rules as far as I was concerned in 1983-84. Pre-planned lyrics were rare for the first two tapes and the tunes tended to evolve as the tape rolled too. The end result can be very tuneful and engaging sometimes, but other times.......well.............

If you'd like to own them, drop me an email. We ain't talking mega-bucks.

BANE - the band

By February 1985, Colin had done what managers do and found me a drummer and a bass player, both customs officers at Felixstowe docks. Thankfully for all concerned, my drug intake had dwindled to almost zero around this point, in fact as a teetotaller I had become rather boringly 'straightedge'. However, this did mean that there were no uncomfortable clashes of interest to potentially jeopardise the lads' livelihoods. Although....there was the time when Ian Smith-Hughes, drummer and first to be drafted, started training as a dog-handler. He was allowed to use his dog van for private use, and en route to a gig I asked him what was in the sturdy-looking miniature safe between the front seats. He explained that, for training purposes, he had a cache of Class A items in there, including a reasonable quantity of cocaine. I was only half-joking when I asked if they'd notice if a bit went missing. To his credit, he was very firmly negative about this rather silly suggestion.

Next to arrive was Nick Jepson, a mild-mannered but infectiously enthusiastic bass player who had most recently been in a band called Driver. My stuff was, I think, a little bit alien to him, but he'd had enough of the circuit/covers band thing and wanted to get involved in original material. We practised and wrote together twice a week and tried to fathom each other out, and in the end we just about managed it. He once came round and convinced me to persevere with a song that I'd been working on for hours, just as I was about to give up and throw it away. The song was 'Shadows', which as it turned out was a staple in the set for our band and the two that followed. It was not based on personal experience, but on a series of pictures collectively called 'Romance Sextet' by anarchist artist Clifford Harper, and that may have been why I was tiring of it - I wasn't used to writing about stuff that didn't draw on something that had happened to me or someone I knew. I should mention that Ed Wenn (soon to learn guitar and become Ed Shred upon joining The Stupids, before going on to fantastic things, in my view, with Sink and Big Ray) used to write so many sets of lyrics that he regularly had 'spares', some of which I set to music for Bane to incorporate into its set. He also wrote for another local band called The Fringe.

I don't suppose Bane the band did more than about two dozen gigs, in various East Anglian outposts (Felixstowe, Bungay, Colchester), but we did record a lot in the basement. One particularly mammoth session yielded 27 songs, 12 of which came out as a cassette called 'What Happens Next...'. The recordings were presided over by Colin Body, a man with no recording experience whatsoever; and a fine job he did too. We sold a decent amount of tapes, and booked some more gigs to promote it a bit....and then Ian got his long-coveted job as a dog handler in the Midlands, and off he went.

Nick and I did a couple of nights at The Old Times as a duo, and kept our eyes out for a new drummer. Before too long, after 5 auditionees (two of whom never even showed up), a certain Paul Read was spotted playing for VAT, who were sharing a show with particular local favourites of mine, World Service, at the old ABC cinema in Ipswich. We agreed there and then to nick him. Unfortunately I'd also been impressed by Steven Mears, the bass player for World Service, and vowed (just to myself this time) to nick him too.

The Bane boys had been a jovial bunch when all was said and done - the other two did their best to cheer me up a bit after the intensity of Panorama In Black. The music was still overladen with foreboding though and I was struggling to find a vocal style that agreed with me, leaving myself open to unwise and inappropriate influences such as Pete Murphy of Bauhaus and David Bowie's mockney stylings. This band was also the first I'd been involved in that actually sent demos to large record companies, and so my collection of rejection letters started! A special mention must go to Tony Newland at WEA, who always wrote a personalised note on the usual photocopied 'thanks but no thanks' affair, the text of which always proved he'd actually listened to more than 6 seconds of the cassette. On more than one occasion I received a letter out of the blue from him, asking what I was up to. He did turn up to see As Is mk.1 in London once, but he didn't introduce himself, having not been overly impressed, so I never did meet him. But he always kept in touch.

It's probably a bit cruel to say so, but the whole Bane period was really just a stepping stone to the next bit, i.e. As Is, when a lot of the sounds I could hear in my head started to come out of the speakers too. It also provided a great rock 'n' roll moment and a personal favourite of mine, when a young biker-type walked up to me mid-intro at our last gig (at Felixstowe's Cavendish Hotel) and said "You're the worst fucking band I've ever seen". We thought that was tremendously funny, and all agreed that he'd clearly taken far too many drugs.

Other people speak - click here for other accounts of the time....

Notable Lyrics -

 "Digging" - JP,  c. 1985

Another anthem for the kids of today

is blasting out of the boxes on stage

And the preachers keep blowing their air

over those long ago converted

They're sure that there's something out there in the sky

but it's not made of apples, it's made of desire

Can you be straightforward in a world full of corners?

I think this is it, this is why our parents warned us

The ashes of hope are beginning to mould

and we've all forgotten the lies we were sold

What claimed to be fire

was merely masturbation

But I never really believed all that talk

we were the cheese and they were the chalk

So we end up with nothing to our name 

but a footnote in the book of revolution

Of course we remember all that we've done

of course we saved no-one but wasn't it fun

And we put up our feet, in front of the fire

Is that all remains of what was in our hearts?

They'll tell you success is in a hole in the ground

so pick up your shovel and join the crowd

Hey-ho, hey-ho, it's off to work we go

We'll spend the rest of our lives just digging

Pictured left is the CD version of 'What Happens Next', a 24 tune mega-set that includes almost everything from the WHN recording sessions. On the right is 'Serpents & Doves', which contains 16 songs including the leftovers from the WHN sessions, some rehearsal tapes, demos and three live recordings featuring just Nick and me.

If you fancy getting hold of them, drop me an email and we can sort something out. I don't really want any money or anything, I'll probably do it for a couple of blank CDRs and some postage or something like that. Ex band members can have them for nothing obviously.

Music Index  Bloody Fingers  Cyclo-Hexane  The Retarded  Panorama In Black  Bane  As Is mk. 1  The Adicts  

As Is mk. 2  Life after As Is  Next?