tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20079716088028429252024-02-19T15:16:51.658-08:00Ruth PO! Songwriter and musician with Po! and Ruth's Refrigerator; owner of Rutland Records; co-writer of punkgirldiaries.com. Now recording, filming, writing for new company unglamorous music.Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-67479875008686665382019-10-12T11:47:00.000-07:002019-10-12T11:47:27.998-07:00Why PO! is a terrible name for a band<h3>
Back in 1987, PO! was a great name for a band:</h3>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBrkJsxHlVxUUNl1VEthKlv1t6Rn1rbBel2TzFZA-3ctjp4xBSqJVC1S4e8E9AzO0wHqvOStN0EDLgmMVky7boVCpoUGsEeGIWjw19ftNJKHUcw7dq1ewVp9GYooSGV3FXwR2fney-I38/s1600/po_006+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Marc Fuccio Ruth Miller Julian Glover" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1096" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBrkJsxHlVxUUNl1VEthKlv1t6Rn1rbBel2TzFZA-3ctjp4xBSqJVC1S4e8E9AzO0wHqvOStN0EDLgmMVky7boVCpoUGsEeGIWjw19ftNJKHUcw7dq1ewVp9GYooSGV3FXwR2fney-I38/s640/po_006+%25282%2529.jpg" title="Po!" width="435" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was the exact moment when we decided to call the band PO! - outside a white-tiled cinema in Leicester ................... and look at my Walkman on the ground!</td></tr>
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<ol><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJNrcgPG9pIWZ_oL_oddJnDRHhq6EfJWSnkeJ35CphF_16HioPP1Nnlsi_Dq852VB7s18ikAuFUhrXNHsVHF9_DmKNqb5e-OcDS9qpnRJz3Ft-E3rjHwAnAZz6jiki2vpZujBFGewpuPw/s1600/po_010+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1163" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJNrcgPG9pIWZ_oL_oddJnDRHhq6EfJWSnkeJ35CphF_16HioPP1Nnlsi_Dq852VB7s18ikAuFUhrXNHsVHF9_DmKNqb5e-OcDS9qpnRJz3Ft-E3rjHwAnAZz6jiki2vpZujBFGewpuPw/s200/po_010+%25282%2529.jpg" width="145" /></a>
<li>PO! was short, so that you could print it in font size 300 to be easily seen on a poster.</li>
<li>It was trendy to have an exclamation mark back then.</li>
<li>I chose the word PO! because it meant lots of different things in different languages; it was a common word around the world but a bit intriguing for the English. </li>
<li>In 1987, there were no other bands called anything like PO! as far as I know. </li>
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This photo session was done while we were talking about possible names. The original band members were me - Ruth Miller, bass player Julian Glover and Drummer Marc Fuccio. If only we had thought a bit harder about possible future inventions that might impact on us....<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeOR7xkpAIUzQJ9XwdomyXZ0lXDNN7fv4eKJQBJ9o0PqsbM9COJiYiIDy04JPX-z0MhrWOv396QczRFkUGJi0Bww0YHiwoge8hynpoJZrthay2faiveZjOpSo4reKlUPwLcRzwDQlZtZs/s1600/po_007+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1096" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeOR7xkpAIUzQJ9XwdomyXZ0lXDNN7fv4eKJQBJ9o0PqsbM9COJiYiIDy04JPX-z0MhrWOv396QczRFkUGJi0Bww0YHiwoge8hynpoJZrthay2faiveZjOpSo4reKlUPwLcRzwDQlZtZs/s320/po_007+%25282%2529.jpg" width="219" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzm1dcDSMRP7ypq1XjOQs4FpzA9APh_YlP2wgCd6iVWr9xdyflxAWGL5lOEUJLhu2tPtiByhc6CHhNmWhZ1kdG0Qfbj_6yWsswgq1lFXdgqFcTT6myhX4lXykhWWKwGDozLP5LQrmuRBU/s1600/po_009+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1096" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzm1dcDSMRP7ypq1XjOQs4FpzA9APh_YlP2wgCd6iVWr9xdyflxAWGL5lOEUJLhu2tPtiByhc6CHhNmWhZ1kdG0Qfbj_6yWsswgq1lFXdgqFcTT6myhX4lXykhWWKwGDozLP5LQrmuRBU/s320/po_009+%25282%2529.jpg" width="219" /></a></div>
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<h3>
In 2019, PO! is about the worst possible name for a band. </h3>
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<ol>
<li>Internet protocol means that an unknown band CANNOT use capital letters for the name. We cannot be PO! - we have to be Po! by the Internet rules, apparently....</li>
<li>Many search engines pay no attention to the exclamation mark, so it doesn't help to find us and it just looks wrong without the !</li>
<li>Because po is a common word, lots of artists across the world have the word po in their names. A search of Apple music reveals 630 artists with the word po in their name. </li>
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There are even other bands called Po! who are not us. Despite the good international intentions of the band name in 1987, I couldn't have anticipated that one day finding my band in a virtual record store would be so hard. Here are just a few of the 630 recording artists that are not Po! (previously PO! recording on Rutland Records)<br />
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<i>Po' girl </i><i>Prince Po </i><i>Po KMON </i><i>PO PO </i><i>Big PO </i><i>Po Brothers </i><i>Po A Tree </i><i>Po! </i><i>Po Boyz </i><i>Po Patiri </i><i>Ben Po </i><i>Po Len </i><i>T Po </i><i>A Po </i><i>Po' Baby </i><i>Po </i><i>Po Block </i><i>Po' It </i><i>PoCa </i><i>Po Millionnaires </i><i>Po Livin </i><i>Po3t </i><i>Monsieur Po </i><i>PO8 </i><i>Haze Po </i><i>Po the pop Diva </i><i>Mr Po </i><i>Po La'von </i><i>PoE </i><i>Te Po </i><i>King Po </i><i>Po Lazarus </i><i>Li Po </i><i>Po Cholley </i><i>Ryan Po </i><i>Edwin Po </i><i>Vic Po </i><i>Cliff Po </i><i>Ronnie Po </i><i>Oleg Po </i><i>Dmitri Po </i><i>Picky Po </i><i>Po Lavon </i><i>Po All Ova </i><i>Will Po </i><i>Po Derek </i><i>Po' Boys </i><i>Po Pimp </i><i>Dirt Po </i><i>Po Slicc </i><i>Po Jama </i><i>Uncle Po </i><br />
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Good luck trying to find us on the Internet and streaming services - I'm trying to improve things. According to one fan we are 'ungooogleable'! But as the new band records new songs, it's tempting to change the name to get away from the tyranny of P and O.<br />
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My other vintage band on the other hand was called Ruth's Refrigerator - a good name and it googles like a dream; all the information is there and you have to go to page 3 before you meet something that's NOT to do with the band. (Ruth's refrigerator cakes recipe)<br />
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Here's me having a coffee at the Exchange Bar in Leicester. You can see The Curve theatre that opened in 2008. The white building behind me is now called Athena, but it was previously a cinema. The white tiles are still there from years ago; the same white tiles you can see in the first picture above.<br />
<br />Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com4Leicester, UK52.6368778 -1.139759199999957752.4826958 -1.4624826999999576 52.7910598 -0.81703569999995773tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-31683332606866395852018-03-31T09:24:00.001-07:002018-04-03T11:35:09.783-07:00Guitar for PO!When I started PO! I had some thoughts that could have been principles but I never stuck to them.<br />
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1. It's important that females play instruments in bands and girls shouldn't just be the singer.<br />
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2. Girl guitarists are particularly cool when they can play interestingly well.<br />
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3. Don't form a band with someone you're in a relationship with.<br />
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4. Don't have a relationship with anyone in the band.<br />
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5. Don't get in a more competent male player to cover up any female lack of ability.<br />
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These ideas came from punk, from bands like The Raincoats and The Au Pairs which I liked when I was younger. It has proven hard to stick with them and I'm not even sure that they're right.<br />
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The original version of PO! (Ruth, Julian Marc) and the second version of PO! (Ruth, Jan, Mary) hit my targets, only to be disrupted by the much more tuneful, jangly and downright competent sound when Terri Lowe joined the band, countering principles 4 and 5.<br />
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From Ducks and Drakes onward, Terri provided lovely guitar over my functional playing. He was an insightful player and some of his best guitar figures make the songs what they are. However, we were that band couple. People might have thought that it was Terri Lowe's band and he'd just got his girlfriend in to sing his songs.<br />
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From 1999, I decided I didn't want to do it any more and did other things. In 2007, Terri left me, and in 2015 I successfully endured treatment for cancer which changed my view on life.<br />
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After that, I was desperate to write songs, play and record again, regardless of what anyone thought. So, with Paul and Gary, the new PO! was formed. I liked that again, my ex-punk principles were on show - along with my rather weedy-sounding guitar playing. And it was great fun.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Still in a long sleeved stripy T Shirt 30 years later</td></tr>
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But the sound wasn't good enough; I thought we weren't doing the songs justice. I needed more guitar so I could focus on singing better.. I could probably have mangled up some computery pedal, or there might have been a female guitar hero not in a band, who likes old music and lives near me, but I couldn't find her. Instead I decided to forgo principle 5 and get a man in.<br />
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Introducing Mark Nenadic (also known as Mr Plow), PO!'s silver bullet with a green guitar. I can't wait to play live and show a different angle to PO! Mr Plow has a background in Leeds-style strident punk and Johnny Cash twaaanging. He can sing too! We have new songs, and rearrangements of old songs and it's been even more fun.<br />
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So we are very much looking forward to our gigs later this year, including our first gig with extra guitar power playing with Say Sue Me on April 23rd at The Soundhouse, Leicester.Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-11911490277159972582017-07-22T12:56:00.000-07:002017-07-22T12:56:08.539-07:00Ruth's Refrigerator 1990 -1992Songs, albums, European tours all happened with the band Ruth's Refrigerator. I don't quite know how it all came together but it provided an excellent side project during a time when there were no other members of PO! to play gigs or plan anything significant.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Ruth's Refrigerator l-r Terri Lowe, Ruth Miller, Blodwyn P. Teabag, Alan Jenkins, Robyn Gibson</i></td></tr>
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Main man, Alan Jenkins was in cult 80's band The Deep Freeze Mice and he put out records by various obscure artists. He wrote a letter to me after hearing the flexi on John Peel and invited me to his flat in Leicester to talk about him putting my song 'Appleseed Alley' on a compilation. Then he invited me to sing on some recordings and a band was formed. Before long we were writing songs and drinking lots of very strong coffee.<br />
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Alan Jenkins was always intriguing and fun to work with. We had a connection without talking much or touching or anything like that. One of the best aspects of playing music with other people is the spirit of play. Writing songs with a like-minded person creates a world-in-a-bubble that stretches time. Alan and I both liked a songwriting challenge. We would take a title and each write a song to go with it, or we'd take a guitar to the corner of a room with 20 minutes to come up with a song. Sometimes we'd choose a random phrase from a book or newspaper: "When it comes to being a lollipop person..." and both write a song. "Gosh what a lot of umbrellas" was another like that.<br />
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<i>Gro Harlem Brundtland Wants Some Fish</i></div>
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In putting together an album and a tour, Alan gathered various musicians that we were both linked with: Terri Lowe, Blodwyn P. Teabag and Robyn Gibson. We recorded versions of each other's songs, swapped the singers around and brought out clarinets, accordians and all sorts. The title 'Suddenly a Disfigured Head Parachuted' was chosen in the style of the game consequences with each band member selecting and writing a word on paper. Alan's manic artwork and sleeve notes are very amusing. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Now reissued : http://www.cordeliarecords.co.uk/</i></td></tr>
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The best days were probably those where Alan and I just did songwriting, but it soon evolved into group evenings and happenings. There was a soup dinner party where we had five different kinds of soup - all eaten from paper bowls because Alan didn't like washing up. Between 1990 and 1992, I had the greatest of times, although there was a distinct awkwardness between Alan and Terri Lowe of PO! They were very different musically, creatively, socially and in terms of work ethic. This culminated in an end-of-tour argument about whether Terri should have been paid extra for driving the van, and he decided to leave. Since there was now a chance to do more with my own band, PO! I finished with Ruth's Refrigerator but subsequently missed the creative challenge and friendship that I had lost. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Ruth's Refrigerator l-r Ruth Miller, Blodwyn P. Teabag, Alan Jenkins, Robyn Gibson, Terri Lowe</i></td></tr>
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<br /></div>
<div>
During my time in Ruth's Refrigerator, I wrote a few songs for the group, including:<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Gosh What a Lot of Umbrellas</li>
<li>She Lies in State</li>
<li>My Head's on Fire</li>
<li>The Lollipop Person</li>
<li>Exit ....Pursued by Bear</li>
</ul>
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<br /></div>
<div>
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Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-60444582819930895992017-03-15T15:40:00.001-07:002017-03-15T19:43:22.752-07:00What is indiepop? Is it a world of girls?At an indiepop festival, a friend asked me,<br />
'Is that the theme? Do all indiepop bands have to have females in them?'<br />
My answer?<br />
'No, you don't have to have females for a band to be indiepop; it often just seems to happen like that.'<br />
<br />
Getting to basics, indiepop has three core elements:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>The punk ethic that anyone can form a band and be listened to.</li>
<li>A joy and wonder in the world reflected in tuneful, often simple songs.</li>
<li>Small-scale media publicity via word of mouth, fanzines, blogs, podcasts and mixtapes.</li>
</ol>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtU-kLusaGec_6tdJm3vCZVfgVvsSA4nq2l-U5f0GUnuHprFjCvVaD7O_nWokAE3cOd4LzY52sxjeVXEwMfG0K2D0Yh3hfHdRVMCtd2EAycSgHPbacF-vVFlqXEWMLQFmw6OssJhcb9GU/s1600/hard-rock-music-barbie-doll-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtU-kLusaGec_6tdJm3vCZVfgVvsSA4nq2l-U5f0GUnuHprFjCvVaD7O_nWokAE3cOd4LzY52sxjeVXEwMfG0K2D0Yh3hfHdRVMCtd2EAycSgHPbacF-vVFlqXEWMLQFmw6OssJhcb9GU/s320/hard-rock-music-barbie-doll-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The toy industry's idea of an 'indie-girl'</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Being male or female has nothing to do with these; it's just that indiepop doesn't set itself up as a boy's club. Women and girls may feel more willing to have a go within this genre, feeling that their ideas are welcomed. I guess that the child-like joy and wonder thing often correlates with middle-class decency and romanticism, which is why so many indiepop bands look like a bunch of lovely young primary school teachers. It's also probably why so many Japanese people like it.<br />
<br />
But the actual sound of indiepop is a wide spectrum; it can be grungy and garage-y; there is sexiness and politics and mad humour at times and sometimes it's wistful and sparse. In these modern times, there's less self-deprecation on stage, but it's still there on a good/bad day. There seem to be lots of bands with couples in - and having a band together with your mate is a sweet and fun thing to do.<br />
<br />
Last year, I loved it when my band PO! played Indietracks festival and there were so many bands with female musicians playing; often as front people but also many drummers, bassists and so on. Having a gender balance makes music more civilised whilst also being super exciting. So yes, indiepop is a world of girls, but only because so many other genres are weirdly macho.<br />
<br />
What's also great for me is the generosity and loveliness of audiences. Those floppy-haired boys who collected and followed indiepop seem just as sensitive and spirited twenty years later when they're balding and bespectacled.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-8149173710852250252017-01-07T15:39:00.001-08:002017-01-07T22:52:05.848-08:00Is there a female guitar style?This is a ridiculous question. How could there be a female guitar style? People are people. There's no female way of eating, or sleeping, or going to the toilet.... hang on a minute.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxKiieX3H14BV_9E_ca8dp6P8z914dz7LldOPoZQEolX6a602GuxHKpehH_WuZOf_C2Q0B67Q0eTIR2k5b20x7T4R5IcQC5emzvkE_VPE6GNStk7SzBRxFNL0WMn4gygWJenwQWnEZRJc/s1600/54004149908e6e8635cff6285e71618f.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxKiieX3H14BV_9E_ca8dp6P8z914dz7LldOPoZQEolX6a602GuxHKpehH_WuZOf_C2Q0B67Q0eTIR2k5b20x7T4R5IcQC5emzvkE_VPE6GNStk7SzBRxFNL0WMn4gygWJenwQWnEZRJc/s320/54004149908e6e8635cff6285e71618f.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
The proportion of female to male guitarists is tiny; there are very few females whose playing is considered noteworthy. I think there's two issues going on.<br />
<br />
1. Confidence<br />
2. Lack of ownership<br />
<br />
I'll start with lack of ownership. Modern guitarring is usually about churning out lightning-speed blues runs. It needs a lot of practice and a strong wrist. Boys are often more dedicated to putting in the time with this kind of activity.<br />
<br />
The hobby/collector/trainspotter mentality runs through guitarring, too. The memorising of names that could be lorries or amplifiers ACs and JCs, the discussions about the merits of digital, analogue, diesel. I find that my memory doesn't tend to hold these numbers and letters easily. BUT I DO KNOW WHAT I LIKE.<br />
<br />
I won't even mention the guitar as penis thing because that's just ridiculous. But maybe also slightly relevant.<br />
<br />
I am always pleased to see some girl or woman playing really great guitar in the traditional male style. I often see them on Facebook - some 14-year-old marvel doing something the Americans call 'shredding'. It's absolutely brilliant. It would be particularly brilliant if the girl has chosen this style for herself and has no musical family members. Often though, I suspect there's a proud dad in the background who has transferred all his technique to the next generation.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgd7jRUtx86CRJEFOlF5AZMmEL8zr-vtvEL6UYYl1Je74lE8HxAho1qhTdapW-YneftOPrRYXctCQJeIi4Bmxm75m1g63lg3L2VzeEWQi-wImz_qBbjmIM_wpGC2xEYLmIACSLJwgD3kQ/s1600/CartwrightDyson-300x207.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="137" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgd7jRUtx86CRJEFOlF5AZMmEL8zr-vtvEL6UYYl1Je74lE8HxAho1qhTdapW-YneftOPrRYXctCQJeIi4Bmxm75m1g63lg3L2VzeEWQi-wImz_qBbjmIM_wpGC2xEYLmIACSLJwgD3kQ/s200/CartwrightDyson-300x207.jpg" width="200" /></a>Here's a couple of female jazz guitarists playing at a London jazz club; look at the comments though - it's not rampant sexism, just a bit of male sneering at Deirdre Cartwright, who inspired me on the TV programme Rock School.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS9LtGOVnUk" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS9LtGOVnUk</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicdi1Njaj2whOxCW3BiDkUqutIMLlJfoN9ux0eMJU8G_uqmJyuU7HClQOLUWdnluBYC4MQNqWRQ6Dvwdz6MkMZAB5WhNdOh-cQ2byroYzIGv-lPLypKbMXKevijqaclf0Cm-jjDoAXEhQ/s1600/3f5a8da8aff7a8cebfc85148526e4480.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicdi1Njaj2whOxCW3BiDkUqutIMLlJfoN9ux0eMJU8G_uqmJyuU7HClQOLUWdnluBYC4MQNqWRQ6Dvwdz6MkMZAB5WhNdOh-cQ2byroYzIGv-lPLypKbMXKevijqaclf0Cm-jjDoAXEhQ/s200/3f5a8da8aff7a8cebfc85148526e4480.jpg" width="133" /></a>There probably isn't a 'female style of driving', but the fact that so many women drive, and that there are female driving instructors means that there's a broad range of driving styles. Some drivers are more cautious, more empathetic, slower. I don't race my car and I hardly ever sound my horn. That's not a female style of driving, but I bet more women drive like that.<br />
<br />
So could there be a female guitar style? Before Hendrix, Chuck Berry and Elvis there was Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Her rhythmic gospel blues picking is a wonder; she played her own style and influenced many male musicians who went on to make playing guitar a speed race and a noise competition.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuVzm86oB1Y" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuVzm86oB1Y</a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEYesfYEX_bQ-ZDCxPVMOtNQolYGTq5FWTAEaSnuUG592JEPK2Cnq4GqHKn7nCqzIsaD76IjQHNcfQtD4q1JjLKsrmquRejIXcFCAkq9kjVf6LAmjtfIUQb4Q-I47NUVyBWilBYH4o6qY/s1600/220px-Joni_Mitchell_2004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEYesfYEX_bQ-ZDCxPVMOtNQolYGTq5FWTAEaSnuUG592JEPK2Cnq4GqHKn7nCqzIsaD76IjQHNcfQtD4q1JjLKsrmquRejIXcFCAkq9kjVf6LAmjtfIUQb4Q-I47NUVyBWilBYH4o6qY/s200/220px-Joni_Mitchell_2004.jpg" width="138" /></a><br />
<br />
One way that women have made a guitar-playing impact is with alternative tunings -like Joni Mitchell. I respect this and think it does seem like truly female playing.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7YGPv3xeNY" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7YGPv3xeNY</a><br />
<br />
<br />
But what made me want to play were the female post-punks; the Raincoats, The Slits, The Mo-Dettes, Delta 5. They had the cack-handed technique like the punk boys but their creativity was fabulous and very female.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdIaHbSHPSXxwRW49BAoT4eh2uGYoY6ljNHM2CVf40ASTzWSTni1aMjeeuxcMw6uNPudWoAii6fhjrOiVtHfkcp_d_7ntt2BBGVzkiDcyNge_VusnEefFPEeqYDJG_gDBqQxHt7A9ay_w/s1600/8590.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="139" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdIaHbSHPSXxwRW49BAoT4eh2uGYoY6ljNHM2CVf40ASTzWSTni1aMjeeuxcMw6uNPudWoAii6fhjrOiVtHfkcp_d_7ntt2BBGVzkiDcyNge_VusnEefFPEeqYDJG_gDBqQxHt7A9ay_w/s200/8590.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL3BWAXKfSWtXl7ufvEgdg1rnod0r6PUD2D33SYBiR0uAHctjKFiTp5_tEv_wb0_uy54vJDVW5z2CuoslwkgQLYpFEyZ_ios5y7J007ZDNHYbxS_Gor1_agyOIhPZCRVehOummgJ44-hQ/s1600/images.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL3BWAXKfSWtXl7ufvEgdg1rnod0r6PUD2D33SYBiR0uAHctjKFiTp5_tEv_wb0_uy54vJDVW5z2CuoslwkgQLYpFEyZ_ios5y7J007ZDNHYbxS_Gor1_agyOIhPZCRVehOummgJ44-hQ/s200/images.jpeg" width="133" /></a><br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
Lesley Woods from the Au Pairs was another role model for me and I'd often be down the front at gigs watching her playing more than her singing.<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RnuVXWR9p0" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RnuVXWR9p0</a><br />
<br />
So some women have made certain styles of playing guitar their own. The other big factor is confidence. I still believe that I am a rubbish guitarist because I cannot churn out a Claptonesque party piece or play the theme to Top Gear or that snooker music.<br />
<br />
And just as women in every area of professional life believe they are not good enough, so we leave guitarring to the boys because more of them have the self-belief as well as the wrist action. But if you can conquer the confidence gap, it doesn't matter what you're actually doing. People just want to see you play with passion. Let's have some more female guitarists.<br />
<br />
I write this because today, for the first time ever, I went into a music shop and tried out a guitar amp. Despite playing in bands for years, I have never had the courage to play in this arena of male virtuosity and hard rock judgement. Today I felt very brave and I did not care what the five men in the shop thought of my playing. <br />
<br />Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-66459090573899442602016-10-14T13:01:00.001-07:002016-10-14T13:01:58.005-07:00Making 'Little Stones' PO!'s first album<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My blogging history of PO! got stuck around 1989. That's when 'Little Stones' was made. I'm hoping to re-release it soon, so here's a little information about it. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaVB5b3Y-QqK4le70bwil2bzmvgkxyTFKRp6TnDqTmE26NQ34b2n8sHUDva7mkbS5mtvmoZ2GSyQ1G4vzoH4OQR_Tf54F-Fm_zU6tQSB_3ixuYdSaL7zoWTb58fpSM1tPBeMKXS9NKuu0/s1600/R-722505-1151923624.jpeg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaVB5b3Y-QqK4le70bwil2bzmvgkxyTFKRp6TnDqTmE26NQ34b2n8sHUDva7mkbS5mtvmoZ2GSyQ1G4vzoH4OQR_Tf54F-Fm_zU6tQSB_3ixuYdSaL7zoWTb58fpSM1tPBeMKXS9NKuu0/s1600/R-722505-1151923624.jpeg.jpg" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">PO!'s first album, Little Stones, was recorded by Terri Lowe of The Originals on his </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Tascam 1/4" reel to reel 4-track machine at a cost of £20. Members of The Originals played the backing tracks, recorded at Leicester's Chatham Street basement. This was because the former members of PO! had left me with with no musicians. The vocals, extra guitars and other instruments were recorded at the Originals' house on Aylestone Road (on the corner of Rutland Avenue) over a number of weekends when there were no Leicester City home matches. (Terri Lowe went to the home games). </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I had written most of the songs over a period of a few months. Usually I composed on acoustic guitar with a pad and pen to write down chords and vocal melodies down before evolving the lyrics. I can remember living in a flat that was freezing cold, and wearing fingerless gloves for at least one of the songs. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">At the time of recording, I was suffering with throat problems and a chest infection that affected my singing. Producer </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Terri set high standards for the recording. On one occasion, he insisted that I go out and ride a bike as fast as I could to the top of the road 'to clear my lungs' before singing. I think at least one track was recorded in the bathroom for its natural reverb, and he tickled me to get the giggling on 'All I Really Want to Do'.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The LP record was processed by AWL of Leicester. We had to drive round to Mr Lipinski's house to pick up the boxes of sleeveless (and therefore cheap) vinyl. Mr Lipinski lived in a tidy detached house about 2 miles from where I lived. He was like a friendly great-uncle who pretended to be interested in our musical achievements, but he wasn't impressed when I told him that John Peel had played our flexidiscs. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A friend, Boris Barker, designed the sleeve. Computer-aided publishing was in its infancy and so it was a mixture of letraset. computer printing and physical cut and paste. We had 1000 records pressed and card sleeves printed, which had to be folded and glued by hand. I numbered the first 200 on the inner sleeve. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I think it's good to be able to sum up the purpose of a song concisely. So here is a quickfire list of the headlines. Naturally, I like the songs to work on many levels, using a range of different voices, timbres and structures. But essentially, most of these early songs were created as a challenge to a world that seemed unfair and abusive. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Glass King</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">One of many 'challenging patriarchy' songs; kind of Davina and Goliath.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Confidence</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">One of many 'I had a friend and things went wrong when we grew up' songs; also it's quite sour and jealous, too.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Ruthless</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Anti-corruption with name-checking; No-one like me got anywhere. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Ever Been Had</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A feeling sorry for oneself song. It also has the same line that a (much later) Tracey Thorn song has: "I'm walking past your door, but you don't live there any more."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Haunt You</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Challenging patriarchy and giving them the willies.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Farmyard</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">About wrecked dreams, specifically that of a rural male ballet dancer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Safe</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">About luck / lack of luck.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Appleseed Alley</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Patriarchy; a song with spunk.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Lying on My Side</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Be what you are.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The Torturers</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Bad times for young women.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Poor Old John</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Drugs and rock 'n' roll and not much else.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">All I Really Want To Do</span></b><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A Bob Dylan Song with giggling.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I'm not sure whether to re-release it via itunes, or press another vinyl - a CD doesn't seem right. Let me know what you think I should do. </span>Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-55816501926914380642016-07-25T16:09:00.000-07:002016-07-25T16:09:32.094-07:00So who are PO! and will I like them?<br />
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<img alt="IndieTracks-Logo" height="164" src="http://www.rutlandrecords.co.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/IndieTracks-Logo-300x247.jpg" width="200" /></div>
<br />
<span style="text-align: justify;">This post is written for anyone attending Indietracks festival this weekend 29-31st July 2016. It always seems a shame when there's so much choice of what to go and see and you might miss something good if you haven't got your schedule totally organised. But then again, there's the serendipity of discovering something worthwhile - and hopefully that will happen for me. </span><br />
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Back in 1986, the must-read music paper of the day, the NME, printed a number of editions with free cassette compilations. The start of the indie-pop movement is often attributed to C86, which was one of these cassettes. The following year, I formed the band PO! My motivations were largely feminist anger at a harsh world, but there was no Riot Grrrl then and I was probably too nice. I also did like singable tunes and wordsmithery so indie-pop was the genre that fitted best of all. If you didn't listen to the lyrics, you might be cheered by the soaring and jangly tunes, but the words are often more reflective, miserable or aggressive. The name PO! means lots of different things but originally meant Piss Off!</div>
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<img height="179" src="http://ampwares.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Silverface-Pro-Reverb-Front.jpg" width="200" />Over the next 15 years, PO! had various line-ups. For a while we were an all-female band. Later versions of the band got very grown up and serious until I decided to stop doing it around the millennium. Since then, the Internet has generated interest in PO! and I kept reading things online about how I had disappeared. A divorce, and a year of treatment for breast cancer have re-motivated me to communicate with the world through song. This year, I'm singing my old songs. After that I might have something different to say. </div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.redwings.org.uk/sites/default/files/albert_in_memoriam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="125" src="https://www.redwings.org.uk/sites/default/files/albert_in_memoriam.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Albert stole my heart</td></tr>
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The PO! songs which seem best-loved live or on You Tube include <i><b>Fay</b></i>, which is a quiet song about how a sparky, daring and mouthy young girl full of potential becomes damaged and suicidal in adulthood. <b><i>Appleseed Alley</i></b> is a wide-themed song about the spread of ideas, sex and control; it's based on the legend of Johnny Appleseed. <i><b>Sunday Never Comes Around</b></i> is a pure pop song; I always say it's the only love song I've ever written, but I realise that's not true because I also wrote a love song for Albert, a horse at the Redwings Horse Sanctuary. </div>
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I'm sometimes called a veteran of the scene. These are the things I've done that I'm proud of:</div>
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<li style="text-align: justify;">My 100+ songs have substance; mostly they are about girl experience in a tricky world;</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">I was good in the 1980s/90s at promoting my band; locally, nationally and internationally;</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">I set up and ran Rutland Records for over 10 years;</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">John Peel rang up and offered us a Radio 1 session, which was repeated.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Our last 7" was Single of the Week in the NME.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Online people who are half my age seem to like what PO! did;</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Despite not playing or releasing anything for 15 years, I still get offered gigs;</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">I am still alive, fairly healthy, not 'disappeared' and can make music again when I want to.</li>
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I'm playing with a scaled-down PO! band on Saturday 30th July at 5pm on the indoor stage, and as a solo performer on Sunday 31st at 8.20pm. I'll be pleased to see anyone there and hope to meet PO! fans old and new. </div>
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<br />Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-65049749911469287322016-05-17T12:46:00.000-07:002016-05-18T12:34:26.718-07:00PO! music - what's out there?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I'm just about to put together a website and make PO! songs available in a digital and physical way again. It might take me a few months, but I'm determined to do it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In the days when letters came through the post and I parceled up cardboard on a daily basis, it was fun to run a record label, but I guess it can be just as fun with instant downloady technology, analytics and 'likes'. Just got to get used to it, that's all. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In the meantime, here are links to all the tracks I can find online at present: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Your Shout</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Appleseed Alley </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I Took My Head on a Date</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Sunday Never Comes Around </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Haunt You</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Fay </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Good Behaviour </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Things That Might <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-795124448/things-that-might">https://soundcloud.com/user-795124448/things-that-might</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Bus Shelter .... in the Rain <a href="https://soundcloud.com/user-795124448/bus-shelter-in-the-rain">https://soundcloud.com/user-795124448/bus-shelter-in-the-rain</a> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I Won't Stay </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Two Friends (Bedroom Version) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Your Brother (Thanks for finding this, Andy) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">She Lies in State (Bedroom Version) </span>Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com7Leicester, Leicester, Leicester, UK52.6368778 -1.139759199999957752.4826958 -1.4624826999999576 52.7910598 -0.81703569999995773tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-2369727963736329052016-05-09T13:26:00.001-07:002016-05-09T13:26:44.777-07:00Doing a U turn on playing gigs<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Before I had cancer treatment, I had retired from music. I wrote in my blog that it would be unlikely that I would ever play with PO! again; I was too old, nobody would want it and it just seemed a crappy thing to do. </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>But after having a whole body and hair reboot, the idea of making music with friends just seems like a fantastic idea, because making music IS fantastic. If nobody wants to listen then they don't have to, and it doesn't matter what anyone thinks, because I could have died and not had this opportunity. </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Strangely though, my interest seems to be coinciding with other people's interest in PO! Some are old fans whose names I know from the old mail order business; others are much younger people who have grown up with Japanese fanzines and Spanish vinyl and somehow know that PO! are part of the indie-pop furniture.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>2016 got off to a good start when Mark Hibbett emailed and asked me to play a gig at Totally Acoustic in London. A few weeks later, Marianthi from Indietracks was also offering a slot for PO! at the July festival. The guitar came out, songs were considered and practised and, on April 7th, I played solo at Totally Acoustic - the King and Queen pub where Bob Dylan played his UK debut in 1962.</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIgvE9NDVI5mTXO6OHh8gN8dWVT-iRJ83h9RhElH2eRRCMIWcCQn-Mqi2ylaP9Y8v7BaanCTUQd8sBSN7JV_63J7Ycib_C5nIPPO8EPE8MZNbxh7wog3h8Ey4_dvIYvNfID9qvDJEd6KE/s1600/DSC_0045.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIgvE9NDVI5mTXO6OHh8gN8dWVT-iRJ83h9RhElH2eRRCMIWcCQn-Mqi2ylaP9Y8v7BaanCTUQd8sBSN7JV_63J7Ycib_C5nIPPO8EPE8MZNbxh7wog3h8Ey4_dvIYvNfID9qvDJEd6KE/s320/DSC_0045.JPG" width="320" /></b></a></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>An amazing kind soul, Alan Hames, has also helped by plodding through all my tape reels and DATs to get the old recordings into this century's format. It means I can re-release the first album, Little Stones fairly soon and put some recordings up on the Internet. I feel like I'm a proper old woman of indie-pop and that's quite a fine thing to be!</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>The last step is starting rehearsals with Paul (drummer) and Gary (bass) to see if we make the right noise as a 3-piece. The requests from fans are influencing what we'll play at Indietracks (and at least one other gig as a warm-up). I will let you know soon.</b></span></div>
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<br />Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-4182707431206047462015-07-27T12:16:00.000-07:002015-07-27T12:16:30.240-07:00Band Rehearsal Rooms I Have Known <div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>My first experience of seeing a band rehearse was in Newark, Nottinghamshire when I was about 15. Before that, I had never considered that a group might need to play their songs over and over again with a bit of arguing, blaming and shouting in between.</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #741b47;">At the end of the '70s, there were two significant rock bands in Newark: Paralex and Overlord. Although I was too much of a punk to admire the hard rock of these bands, the different youth cultures tended to mix together in such a small town.</span></b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYrlzvVoJ8_Yk7lUWI2B2AuMU8C9sVbYes16oy7kPW0DC_8vXydvkLIpR826qYC7x0aUmYpYB1euiDivow6wlzVT0NP10gW0szWAlyesP-smPv_T0L2f_YAy-aGJlR4VWqHhuoK1VuAsw/s1600/paralex.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYrlzvVoJ8_Yk7lUWI2B2AuMU8C9sVbYes16oy7kPW0DC_8vXydvkLIpR826qYC7x0aUmYpYB1euiDivow6wlzVT0NP10gW0szWAlyesP-smPv_T0L2f_YAy-aGJlR4VWqHhuoK1VuAsw/s320/paralex.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paralex were the first band I ever saw rehearsing. They went on to join New Wave of British Heavy Metal</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>One Sunday afternoon in the late 1970s, someone took me and a friend to see one of these bands rehearse - I tend to think it was Paralex. The rehearsal took place in a small detached bungalow. Each member of the band was in a different room, with cables running down the hallway. The noise was unbearably loud, even as we walked up the road, but worse still inside. Looking back, I guess we were taken along as 'girls'. But I didn't realise that at the time; I don't think we stayed long.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Soon after that, The Devices were formed. A bonus for any band is to have a member who has access to a space for rehearsal and John Bingham had the keys to the Palace Theatre Workshop in Newark, Nottinghamshire. This was a space where theatre flats and lighting equipment were stored. It was also tucked away at the back of a car park where no-one could hear anything. We spent some time clearing the space and then used it to rehearse our naive punk-pop. We played The House of the Rising Sun as well as songs by The Ramones, then quickly went on to write our own agit-pop songs. I think we also put on a couple of gigs in that workshop room. I revisited Newark recently and it seems that the workshop room is now a drama studio.</b></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Palace Theatre, Newark - Where The Devices formed, rehearsed and performed in 1979</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>My next bands, The Chaos Biscuits/Pandas were purely bedroom bands, that never played any gigs. We played quietly at Totley Highfield Halls of Residence, and at our flat next to Dore Station, where the recordings were made.</b></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flats by Dore station, near Sheffield. Bottom right hand flat was where The Pandas recorded demo tapes</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>PO! was formed with links to Multiplex and Leicester City Council's Community Arts service. This meant that you could hire a room at Fosse Neighbourhood Centre for a fairly cheap price; the only problem was that it was very much in demand, so it was often unavailable. It was also two bus rides away, or a very long walk carrying a guitar case.</b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJbanDmEcFWN58bzk1GhqX2BZXkdhfGkbq14Ph94fJloBI9ccStgLrs9XEzuI0xPzd18XHDOAcE-HEQG1XEQAaePPv9XuAp86zNaPippIZlDtpv7yEBRx8FhABns2qIvwpsv305PmbmfM/s1600/fosse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJbanDmEcFWN58bzk1GhqX2BZXkdhfGkbq14Ph94fJloBI9ccStgLrs9XEzuI0xPzd18XHDOAcE-HEQG1XEQAaePPv9XuAp86zNaPippIZlDtpv7yEBRx8FhABns2qIvwpsv305PmbmfM/s320/fosse.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fosse Neighbourhood Centre, Leicester</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>After a few months, the band started using 'Archway' studios in Leicester. This was under a railway arch alongside car repair firms and sandblasters. You paid a fee for 2 hours rehearsing, and could use the old drum kit and amplifiers on offer. I think there were parts that dripped; it was certainly dark and dingy.</b></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Archway Studios - used for PO! early rehearsals 1987</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PO! rehearsing at Archway</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>One of the best rehearsal/recording studios at the time was Happy House. This was in a building on the edge of Leicester's cattle market (now the Freeman's Common Morrisons site). Previously the building had been a mortuary and then a BBC Radio Leicester studio, but the band <i>The Swinging Laurels</i> had taken it over, changed their name and rented it out to other local bands. John Barrow writes about this era in his book <i>How Not to Make it in the Pop World</i><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 19px; line-height: 1.3;">. </span>I have struggled to find a photo of the Happy House building, but maybe a better one will turn up once I publish this.</b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOgUHmhioMNDzWElCja3AHnQTLZeT5W4aV0Z1sFVW4myUAweiY-k2_RtCN-yHypAjc4XSK2HMZJxfOPdfPJni0fNF9Q-5l84RfPYEUHCFJ1GLVG5IMMNjNpnVnFFbkqxareqphUvUYeTs/s1600/happy+house.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOgUHmhioMNDzWElCja3AHnQTLZeT5W4aV0Z1sFVW4myUAweiY-k2_RtCN-yHypAjc4XSK2HMZJxfOPdfPJni0fNF9Q-5l84RfPYEUHCFJ1GLVG5IMMNjNpnVnFFbkqxareqphUvUYeTs/s320/happy+house.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the roof of the Happy House building back when it was a mortuary!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #741b47;">After a while, it became hard to get rehearsal time at Archway or Happy House, because they were so well used by other bands. Another rehearsal space was then tried; this was Chatham Street - run by Ian Redhead and his brother. It was a basement under a textile factory, with an hourly paid room, a resident room and one that was not used, known as the 'wet room'. After a few uses of the hourly room, I persuaded Ian to let us clean up the 'wet room' and have it as our own residential room, maybe sharing with another band. This was agreed on, and we spent a week getting rid of rubbish, trying to dry out the floor and walls with little fan heaters and doing a bit of painting. I think that we may have put pallets on the floor and then covered them with carpets to keep our equipment out of the puddles, but it was still extremely damp.</span></b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieJ-YEEsDwlruF__wP1KdVgQ419fwMo3bz7BhQQ2p7ebqkz3EHNmEnfOOxbVn5YIvNnZ0oMOvhvWXu3cEWWz8kriDy5Ep8AjyxFy2dh1k-YCX_zXgdflBzkpsa2K3hs1aJpYHDBS_UHp0/s1600/PO%2521+wet+room.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieJ-YEEsDwlruF__wP1KdVgQ419fwMo3bz7BhQQ2p7ebqkz3EHNmEnfOOxbVn5YIvNnZ0oMOvhvWXu3cEWWz8kriDy5Ep8AjyxFy2dh1k-YCX_zXgdflBzkpsa2K3hs1aJpYHDBS_UHp0/s400/PO%2521+wet+room.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PO! rehearsing in the newly painted 'wet room': Julian Glover, Jan Frazer, Ruth Miller</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ruth waiting outside Chatham Street rehearsal rooms; load out bay on Stamford Street</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #741b47;"><b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">For a while there was a little scene going, with nightly rehearsals followed by drinking in the nearby pub 'The Black Boy', but w</span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">hen the rainy season came, the 'wet room' proved too wet to continue playing safely, so PO! moved into the resident room, sharing with The Originals and The Brand New Executives. Meanwhile, Ian Redhead was planning to open a massive rehearsal and recording complex on Conduit Street, near Leicester railway station. This was to be called 'Stayfree' - I assume after the Clash song.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>The most significant feature of the Chatham Street rehearsal space was the toilet provision. Many males in bands don't seem bothered about how gross a toilet gets, and I did try to adopt that way of thinking. I got by for several months laughing at the rock 'n' roll toilet that looked like some kind of monochrome Jackson Pollack creation and not worrying about bacteria, pubic lice and stuff like that. However, I recall hitting the point where I went out and bought toilet cleaning equipment, did the job and made a bold imperative sign for the boys. Things didn't improve greatly, but I tried. To get to this toilet, you had to climb a curved flight of stairs that had been amateurishly installed. As time went on, the stairs began to sink on their fixings; particular steps smashed through and we were told not to use them. But when you've gotta go, you've gotta go - so visiting the disgusting toilet became a feat of mountaineering, stepping lightly on the few step-edges that seemed more firmly fixed. Until someone smashed the toilet bowl, and Ian Redhead opened a new rehearsal space which we moved to straightaway.</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0212TYJzRXauIKFUImoIenhTYoM_jOYV9ILQRaH8UXJYzhy6EJw4f_QbuV4hIOapOqa92NdnlMs3S5SUSJ9uhMHB2D917eIGL3wGuu2ds0sZuqT0VlO3z1cFDZSaRyIJ_MoK18BjI08g/s1600/loo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0212TYJzRXauIKFUImoIenhTYoM_jOYV9ILQRaH8UXJYzhy6EJw4f_QbuV4hIOapOqa92NdnlMs3S5SUSJ9uhMHB2D917eIGL3wGuu2ds0sZuqT0VlO3z1cFDZSaRyIJ_MoK18BjI08g/s320/loo.jpg" width="222" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span><b style="color: #741b47; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;">To be continued...</b><br />
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<br />Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com3Leicester, UK52.6368778 -1.139759199999957752.4826958 -1.4624826999999576 52.7910598 -0.81703569999995773tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-48501930231921938332015-05-06T11:10:00.000-07:002015-05-06T11:10:28.161-07:00How to Play Your First Gig <span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The way you present yourself on stage in your first gigs can make a big difference to the success and longevity of your band. The music can be terrible, howling with feedback, out of tune or time. But with character and energy, you can gain fans who will come to more gigs and allow you to develop and improve musically. Just by having confidence, you can make it a great band!</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In your head, you might aim for this perfect musical gift for the audience....</span></i></h4>
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<i><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">However, deep down you know that it's more like this kind of gift....</span></i></h4>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And that's where the first bit of learning comes in. Don't feel bad about what you do; be proud!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In your first gig, you are showing what you can do. Yes, you should rehearse and plan and promote all that you can, but being a good band is about persuading people that you are a good band. So which of these statements after the gig sounds like a good band?</span></div>
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<i><span style="color: red; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"It's usually better when the drummer's in time. Sorry it was rubbish"</span></i></h4>
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<i><span style="color: red; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">"Wow! that was great. I don't care if you don't like it. That's us"</span></i></h4>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But I so often hear the first kind of comment so many times from inexperienced bands. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Never apologise for what you do; otherwise you might as well give up. After you have played 10-20 gigs, you will actually be much better and it will be easier for an audience to enjoy your playing. The problem is that most new bands fall out over terrible gigs and audiences don't enjoy watching an apologetic band. Many split up before they've had a proper chance - often because not everybody is committed to the project and there is no shared vision of what you're trying to achieve.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The band thinks that the issues are tuning, timing, playing badly, forgetting the words, not being able to hear...... all of these things can be sorted out with experience. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">However, the audience thinks the issues are ... lack of confidence, being boring, taking too much time between songs, looking shy, staring at the floor or the instruments, not being any fun, being self-indulgent, not being aware of the audience, looking as if the band hate each other ........ I could go on.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The point of playing a gig is to play it FOR AN AUDIENCE otherwise why not just stay in rehearsal, or ask your mum and dad or girl/boyfriends to come and listen to you if those are the people you want to play for. So think who you want to play for and what impression you want to create.</span></div>
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<h3 style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: red; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Top 15 tips for your first gig:</span></h3>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1. Publicise it well - not just to your friends but as widely as you can, at least 1 month in advance.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2. Don't involve your parents on the night.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">3. Be prepared to spend a bit of money on tickets, posters, free sweets or other gimmicks.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">4. Know which is your best song - start with it and do it again as an encore.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">5. Agree a set list and practise the songs in the same order over many weeks.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">6. Practise eye contact with the audience. Don't look at the floor or your guitar.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">7. Look happy, cute, angry, cocky or sexy. Choose one, or vary throughout the set.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">8. Avoid on-stage clichés. Don't ask the audience how they are. Get on with it. </span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">9. Make sure guitars are in tune, and be able to tune quickly onstage if needed.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">10. Practise moving about while playing. Get someone to film you rehearsing.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">11. The drummer should show character by waving, shouting etc occasionally.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">12. Tell the audience you want them to dance, or move closer or clap or whatever.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">13. Avoid stimulants. You need to be able to perform without if you're going to survive.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">14. Look as if you love each other and are having a fantastic time, however bad it is.</span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div>
<b><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">15. Get as many people to talk/share with others about the 'amazing' gig then do it again soon.</span></b></div>
<div>
<i><br /></i></div>
Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-5930219962460733312015-04-11T07:10:00.001-07:002015-04-11T07:10:36.818-07:00Will You Vote For Me? - A song for Jon Ashworth MP<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VGvpKee9ya0" width="459"></iframe>Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-88310741627201308452015-03-04T00:42:00.000-08:002015-03-18T14:22:31.691-07:00PO! – First recordings: flexi-discs1988<br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>My ambition for PO! was serious; that's why I paid for a Post Office
Box so that we could receive letters and not have people knowing where I lived.
I also thought it made us look very professional. </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span style="background-color: white;">PO! recorded three tracks for a demo tape, funded by
Leicester City Council and sold copies of the cassette at gigs. As a result,
someone called Charlie offered to make a flexi-disc to go with his fanzine
‘Samantha’ The songs were 'Confidence' and 'Appleseed Alley'. At this time, before the Internet and social media, the only ways to find out about new indie bands were through fanzines and
John Peel’s Radio 1 show. The mainstream music press, such as the NME also promoted a small number of ‘next
big things’ according to the whims of the writers. </span></b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCMY825fxOLT2cgXQpdKK5tdrviX9JPYhNoT66t3echc4_-QGBG8nKsd4ubgOkybD03u6iV0HRZxsRN8uY_egMXhKhbK41Lo0LZdKHs3AFkTbhGF3dayCBQUzvFIRGUZVuKmU-IWQo_kI/s1600/samantha.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCMY825fxOLT2cgXQpdKK5tdrviX9JPYhNoT66t3echc4_-QGBG8nKsd4ubgOkybD03u6iV0HRZxsRN8uY_egMXhKhbK41Lo0LZdKHs3AFkTbhGF3dayCBQUzvFIRGUZVuKmU-IWQo_kI/s1600/samantha.jpg" height="200" width="155" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The PO! flexi peeking out from Samantha Fanzine</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Fanzine Charlie was a lovely person; he was so dedicated to
promoting new bands and single minded in his efforts to make his fanzine successful. In
fact, he’s the only person I’ve ever known who bought his own photocopy
machine, which stood just outside the kitchen in his small flat on Leicester’s Saxby
Street. Charlie explained how easy and cheap it was to get a flexi-disc
manufactured, and straightaway, I decided to make one myself and start a record
company. <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>It was not long before John Peel played the Samantha flexi,
and read out our contact address and this resulted in a
flurry of letters and requests for more information. Some of the first people
who wrote to us remained fans and friends for many years. Having investigated
the cost of producing vinyl records and flexi-discs, it seemed to be relatively
cheap to make a 12” LP and so that became the long term aim. In the meantime, Julian, Jan and I played as many gigs as we could, including Leicester, Nottingham and Derby. We attracted lots of positive attention at gigs and through PO Box 132. At some point in 1988, we had received 7 fan letters so of course, I made a list. Wonder where these guys are now?</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiomr30oxTgcF9THXjcTW5dKR5qd2VJOz_1X3m-STy-Xu782JRFaisMeO76XjOBb255BtMlbgiMUahk4plnyEEISHGLY3_zWlHKEhZqCQSDB_1nTsQv6AKGAmdqP0jQfz6QG2z9LJyTNMk/s1600/fan+club.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiomr30oxTgcF9THXjcTW5dKR5qd2VJOz_1X3m-STy-Xu782JRFaisMeO76XjOBb255BtMlbgiMUahk4plnyEEISHGLY3_zWlHKEhZqCQSDB_1nTsQv6AKGAmdqP0jQfz6QG2z9LJyTNMk/s1600/fan+club.jpg" height="200" width="186" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>At that time, there were government grants available for people setting
up their own small businesses – the Enterprise Allowance scheme. You had to
prove you had £1000 in the bank and some kind of plan, and then you qualified for a weekly allowance. I didn’t have £1000, but
I did know someone who agreed to transfer the money into my new Rutland
Records bank account and then have it paid back again a week later. The name Rutland Records
came from ‘Rutland Avenue’ in Leicester, where my friends in The Originals
lived, but it also refers to England's smallest county, which is next to Leicestershire, measuring about 20 miles across and is a symbol of English eccentricity and doing things small-style. </b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNSYaCvfijhTGCv4K4UH7FN0PWZlcDlg5UUTkSaa7tCEJyJOH0GhzDeF_kKOVgfDNW8KCBiv1-ut-ui7JgNGA4L8TOWnaj6PSUonkEvXNGyOeCXVOR-G-O5GJbF11lo7TmnVpRAioxvDg/s1600/rutland+ruth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNSYaCvfijhTGCv4K4UH7FN0PWZlcDlg5UUTkSaa7tCEJyJOH0GhzDeF_kKOVgfDNW8KCBiv1-ut-ui7JgNGA4L8TOWnaj6PSUonkEvXNGyOeCXVOR-G-O5GJbF11lo7TmnVpRAioxvDg/s1600/rutland+ruth.jpg" height="341" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ruth Miller on the border between English counties: Leicestershire and Rutland</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>The Originals: Rags, Yvonne, Kevin and Gary were a really
well-rehearsed zany band who shared rehearsal premises with PO! This was a
basement on the corner of Chatham Street and Stamford Street, underneath a
clothing factory. Now, there are student flats there, but you can still see the
load out bay we used when doing gigs. The Originals rehearsed every
night; their sound was like a more rock version of The Smiths or Talking Heads, with childlike
talk-singing from Gary. I admired their work ethic and made Julian and Jan
rehearse more than they liked to. At about 10.15pm each night, we would all go
into the nearby pub ‘The Black Boy’ for a drink. <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA6bEdquWOSOJwd1msuMlxe3y3TacnMAgL-PzwlRFo_9cujd3VFx3UDBvb_b-hudqhgEDx2TUHp5Etvk0hJenPDAt2Jj9UO72Ss3VxZNmj5IUk3ainv8YB9vryuu_JBK49pYzHsjE1bGo/s1600/glass+king.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA6bEdquWOSOJwd1msuMlxe3y3TacnMAgL-PzwlRFo_9cujd3VFx3UDBvb_b-hudqhgEDx2TUHp5Etvk0hJenPDAt2Jj9UO72Ss3VxZNmj5IUk3ainv8YB9vryuu_JBK49pYzHsjE1bGo/s1600/glass+king.jpg" height="320" width="318" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PO! first release on Rutland Rceo</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>The first Rutland Records release was a 1988 shared
flexi-disc between PO! and The Originals. The PO! song was 'Glass King', recorded at Dave Davis' home studio (credited as Wolfman De Moog III). Dave was the partner of Teri Wyncoll, from the community arts organisation Multiplex. By the time of recording, Julian and Jan had left PO! and so the musicians from The Originals acted as my backing band.</b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>With home computers and dot matrix printers in an early stage, artwork had to be produced by hand. This involved using Letraset rub down lettering. You bought a sheet of the font that you wanted and rubbed over each letter to transfer it onto the paper. The sheets were quite expensive, and after a couple of years, the plastic letters dried up and cracked, but there was something artisan and time-consuming about Letraset that pleased me.</b></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ1_UjIygBy5ObBzZgFpLAVO6N-LHH-IrfYhVoDNnzJS2i23ZI-SHbf8iORGpIugVB02Ydd3VnGeb37b38n-yWhgg44ta_zC5GAcKcea8GcoSsaloRcsCC1ryUrHp8jeg2WQCQYNDVuEk/s1600/letraset.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf3QlJqefs8WhJ6bEt3ETLTy_KrEWy-363vvydQ8z23oaR_5jMMLbR9IcJ5N_Y4VSrYLJEotlEC_UxDe1e8bfTcGZLFu2J2Fk_Qx-5BWohf-M_VZHWXi9n56RkRQdVVlliCBIPAhWkVks/s1600/japan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf3QlJqefs8WhJ6bEt3ETLTy_KrEWy-363vvydQ8z23oaR_5jMMLbR9IcJ5N_Y4VSrYLJEotlEC_UxDe1e8bfTcGZLFu2J2Fk_Qx-5BWohf-M_VZHWXi9n56RkRQdVVlliCBIPAhWkVks/s1600/japan.jpg" height="197" width="200" /></a><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ1_UjIygBy5ObBzZgFpLAVO6N-LHH-IrfYhVoDNnzJS2i23ZI-SHbf8iORGpIugVB02Ydd3VnGeb37b38n-yWhgg44ta_zC5GAcKcea8GcoSsaloRcsCC1ryUrHp8jeg2WQCQYNDVuEk/s1600/letraset.jpg" /></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>A recently acquired teddy bear 'Larry Rutland' belonging to Rags from the Originals became the boss of Rutland Records; he is pictured on the Originals' side of the flexi and also wrote the sleeve notes. Most of the Rutland newsletters and information were printed on red paper; even then I had some idea of 'branding' within a supposedly amateurish tiny business.</b></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj17i3ew5lq8TjMNVqJONHKvO3G5G0J83Wf5ugLLkWZc1shU16NAHneBEP5wOwvGtM0cDE7hYTSDNAbz8tT3XVc1epKSUbrELKvG4iNtweNVsWUNog73sJjPcdHROj3jYBLMh1-a_N-LGQ/s1600/liner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj17i3ew5lq8TjMNVqJONHKvO3G5G0J83Wf5ugLLkWZc1shU16NAHneBEP5wOwvGtM0cDE7hYTSDNAbz8tT3XVc1epKSUbrELKvG4iNtweNVsWUNog73sJjPcdHROj3jYBLMh1-a_N-LGQ/s1600/liner.jpg" height="320" width="317" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">inner sleeve from the first Rutland release PO!/Originals flexi</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>The next few months were spent in a delightful game that was just like 'playing at shops' when I was a kid. I set up a mini office in my flat with an old typewriter and the latest BBC B computer, and visited the PO Box every day to pick up the mail. Then there was a weekly trip to office supply shops to get paper, envelopes, Letraset and other stationery essentials. The photocopy shop was downstairs from my flat at 122 London Road, Leicester, so I got good deals on printing out newsletters, posters and cassette sleeves. At the same time, I was writing songs and deciding which ones I wanted to record with The Originals as backing musicians for the PO! vinyl LP. How could we record and manufacture it for the lowest possible cost?</b></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPev5P1ZDTjZkok3k2owqraGbymVQrdjzcPuBavIDRbE9iEnGhpPr7ONQi8r-5zyzFmRBU8IfC2GuDSfOW1LS6hQVma63pHAJa6p6eeX2VP8gtwabInWi_gEaXx-dQO1grk1ISce0wp_0/s1600/stamp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPev5P1ZDTjZkok3k2owqraGbymVQrdjzcPuBavIDRbE9iEnGhpPr7ONQi8r-5zyzFmRBU8IfC2GuDSfOW1LS6hQVma63pHAJa6p6eeX2VP8gtwabInWi_gEaXx-dQO1grk1ISce0wp_0/s1600/stamp.jpg" height="222" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Rutland Records Bear Mail Stamp: edited due to comments in section below!</td></tr>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Nineteen Gigs played by PO! in 1988</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">January 22nd Princess Charlotte </span><div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">February 6th O'Jays</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">February 13th Town Hall Square Rally</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">March 12th Granby Halls</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">March 19th O'Jays</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May 7th Princess Charlotte</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May 15th Derby, The Cockpitt</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May 20th Derby ? unknown venue</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">May 28th Princess Charlotte</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">June 23rd Nottingham ? unknown venue</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">July 22nd O'Jays</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">August 13th Abbey Park Festival</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">August 18th Nottingham, Peggars Inn</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">August 27th O'Jays</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">September 7th Clause 28 Benefit</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">September 8th Nottingham Peggars Inn</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">October 27th Gig with Brand New Executives (unknown venue)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">November 3rd Princess Charlotte</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">November 12 London Hype</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
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Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com14Leicester, Leicester, UK52.6368778 -1.139759199999957752.4826958 -1.4624826999999576 52.7910598 -0.81703569999995773tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-90647768346725845212015-02-22T14:38:00.000-08:002015-02-22T14:42:05.043-08:00PO! Early Days 1987<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk3Wu11UMoQvikIi9ypSTMV2ZHtAmS2KgI6e6pbTagBUs8iNN-V0Rk5DH3NKTwxToZGCqdiX7RZKNwmgQ6nyill3rMl1AMr8g9DNCCuyl-7NVZGUITH5Ftg4Io6JYAgJLKW7Ut0SXyN_0/s1600/ruth&Jan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk3Wu11UMoQvikIi9ypSTMV2ZHtAmS2KgI6e6pbTagBUs8iNN-V0Rk5DH3NKTwxToZGCqdiX7RZKNwmgQ6nyill3rMl1AMr8g9DNCCuyl-7NVZGUITH5Ftg4Io6JYAgJLKW7Ut0SXyN_0/s1600/ruth&Jan.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>I wanted to make a new band fuelled by my own shell-shock. After a long, plain and lovely childhood, I had suddenly encountered the cruelty of the world and been badly affected by a short spell of 'adult bullying'. Suddenly I could see terrible treatment and inequalities everywhere and I had to tell the world about it.</b></span></div>
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<b style="color: #741b47; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">From my 'Spare Rib' Diary of 1987, it looks like I auditioned drummer Marc Fuccio as a potential new drummer for The Soviets but then hijacked him to form PO! with bass player Julian Glover in February. We practised at Archway Studios initially, with Julian coming round to my flat on Highfield Street, Leicester to write songs. I did not have much furniture, so we sat on the floor. The first time, I came up with a song called 'Fairweather Fowl'. Like PO! songs until the very end, the mood was anger, sweetly sung. </b></div>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>In those early days, I wrote the song 'Danny's Girl' in an attempt to portray how you can love someone who is abusive and get trapped in a terrible cycle. </b></span><b style="color: #741b47; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I had a clear purpose in writing songs like these to express myself, but chose Julian and Marc to play bass and drums respectively for convenience rather than as soulmates. Marc was in demand as a drummer and was in 5 other bands at the time. </b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigfjqp5svL0dsQEZvNep8i7Z6hqaWTU8AFtMYwOh2qxE2IpP_hrWeoEXIaiJ1Z_XKuqD-vRbybyB5u4AKhqv86vAjOlRFXjXmoK0CDtzH8qe8X9iCJ9d-66eSMsO9lDF1f9Ppu0q7D8ew/s1600/PO!%2Barchway%2Bstudios.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigfjqp5svL0dsQEZvNep8i7Z6hqaWTU8AFtMYwOh2qxE2IpP_hrWeoEXIaiJ1Z_XKuqD-vRbybyB5u4AKhqv86vAjOlRFXjXmoK0CDtzH8qe8X9iCJ9d-66eSMsO9lDF1f9Ppu0q7D8ew/s1600/PO!%2Barchway%2Bstudios.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></b></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>An early PO! rehearsal at Archway Studios, Bath Lane, Leicester</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><b>The three of us were keen to promote ourselves and decided to do things in a significant way, by bursting onto the Leicester scene. This consisted of writing and rehearsing songs, booking a big Saturday night gig at the premier big pub venue The Princess Charlotte and a massive fly-posting campaign.</b></b></span></div>
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<b style="color: #741b47; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The name PO! served two purposes. The name actually came from Post Office, but we liked it because it meant lots of different things in other languages. There are references to Edward De Bono, but we also used it generally to mean Piss Off! The second advantage of a short name is that you can print it BIG on an A4 poster and be seen from across the street.</b></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>PO! in the area of Leicester that is now the cultural quarter</b></span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjzKxp69GDIMmme7aZ0UzadnGUdqXGoDVfsg-bDFL9mvWCGq01-mitzd0pSYymx80lLduUjqKGJGLrm_a58AJuZaRKrgSn3Ho0q8_eLAR_JEmSbwV4hjGvTf1jdn2pEEmHDMbHKrVDHDc/s1600/poster2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjzKxp69GDIMmme7aZ0UzadnGUdqXGoDVfsg-bDFL9mvWCGq01-mitzd0pSYymx80lLduUjqKGJGLrm_a58AJuZaRKrgSn3Ho0q8_eLAR_JEmSbwV4hjGvTf1jdn2pEEmHDMbHKrVDHDc/s1600/poster2.jpg" height="400" width="275" /></a></div>
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<b style="color: #741b47; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">I had pinched the idea for the fly-posting campaign from Manchester, where I'd recently seen mass fly-posting and graffiti from The Stone Roses. Although I was not familiar with that band at the time, the impact was obvious, and I wanted to see my posters all over the city. It was a classic teaser campaign, with plain PO! posters going up weeks before the gig details were posted.</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht7T4UwI7-HIQu7a_jENPd1ldzZAyJG2cML9icFJlwBbDdex9as7TMChfcRY7C5OyiMQqzgw2VVuvaLYbOkhQcBNCpoadn1iyERHUj5pShou-cjo6Smz00G8xHhJB0Oh4v1LMZX8T4wjg/s1600/flyer1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht7T4UwI7-HIQu7a_jENPd1ldzZAyJG2cML9icFJlwBbDdex9as7TMChfcRY7C5OyiMQqzgw2VVuvaLYbOkhQcBNCpoadn1iyERHUj5pShou-cjo6Smz00G8xHhJB0Oh4v1LMZX8T4wjg/s1600/flyer1.jpg" height="320" width="216" /></a></div>
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<b style="color: #741b47; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">In those days, fly-posting was a cool part of local band culture. We'd mix up a bucket of wallpaper paste and dress in dark clothes to go out at night. I would usually slop the paste about, then Julian would slap the brightly-coloured poster on. Back then, local bands seemed to think that paper only came in white. My flat was above a photocopy shop and so I harnessed the power of brightly-coloured A4 to ensure our success. Just before PO! played a gig, Marc was asked to choose between PO! and his other bands, and he left. Fortunately I had met a great woman drummer called Jan Frazer, who quickly learned the songs and liked the pro-female stance of the band. </b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCAYDpYGK9KYJkbCqCAkCXLux9nBtuvIxQY06ROZqpLOUrttin4Ke0uyANodqyUaLtGEfGbJA3uCeHERwh88BPJeA1aufgTkM07ky0GcbWW7OlX2mlHjkUWcp_KwfDYb5xCzOqNO75I_A/s1600/PO!1987.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCAYDpYGK9KYJkbCqCAkCXLux9nBtuvIxQY06ROZqpLOUrttin4Ke0uyANodqyUaLtGEfGbJA3uCeHERwh88BPJeA1aufgTkM07ky0GcbWW7OlX2mlHjkUWcp_KwfDYb5xCzOqNO75I_A/s1600/PO!1987.jpg" height="208" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #073763; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b style="background-color: white;">Jan Frazer, Julian Glover, Ruth Miller<br /></b></span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjReVmkwjNWzjRK2gUlsML40qbnadeckXLgnGxt3W6SX3YYF9PFOwQGMw8QUo7833b9OATYJAdLPS3crgWhniGGTxMt2s9RilHcBfZdy1BmP36hjKhnw5i8TQt0yvyYNmH8WBB6iShsBT0/s1600/ticket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjReVmkwjNWzjRK2gUlsML40qbnadeckXLgnGxt3W6SX3YYF9PFOwQGMw8QUo7833b9OATYJAdLPS3crgWhniGGTxMt2s9RilHcBfZdy1BmP36hjKhnw5i8TQt0yvyYNmH8WBB6iShsBT0/s1600/ticket.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b style="color: #741b47; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">PO!'s debut gig was at The Princess Charlotte, Leicester on Saturday 18th July 1987. We aimed to make our first gig different from your average local band debut. We paid to have the same kind of tickets as professional touring bands. My idea was to have scenery in the form of massive cut-out objects that referred to each of the songs. I painted large neon-coloured paintings on thick board, cut them to shape and we hung these from the ceiling. Sadly, I don't think anyone took any photos of these or the gig. We got the local paper to write about us and so PO! began.</b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZbP-Nujw_0Yknu7g2TlKL8eiNLkBkrk0H8RkN1aToE2rTy_NiKUXmFWDkkk5Kl2V0zA28AR2srcwY8EYTsE2YTRlqkajxR06jZEcIQOzT1sfzE3Z78ifc47dOlqspTnUBmQj1jO29ros/s1600/princess+charlotte.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZbP-Nujw_0Yknu7g2TlKL8eiNLkBkrk0H8RkN1aToE2rTy_NiKUXmFWDkkk5Kl2V0zA28AR2srcwY8EYTsE2YTRlqkajxR06jZEcIQOzT1sfzE3Z78ifc47dOlqspTnUBmQj1jO29ros/s1600/princess+charlotte.jpg" height="400" width="267" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">The Princess Charlotte pub in Leicester</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv-qJJgVfRIMDuAuF3Otbu21qs6G5zeORiBBWavG9Qs8oY2KmcCmwYMJMd6XsPmBQxR-g2ht2nRAAgyUblX6WairAaBA2dNAUyoaVhK5ybDTsg_z9Yz2Oyp5GXvBgUNK0jPGZ4YiTUVe8/s1600/220px-The_Charlotte,_Leicester.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv-qJJgVfRIMDuAuF3Otbu21qs6G5zeORiBBWavG9Qs8oY2KmcCmwYMJMd6XsPmBQxR-g2ht2nRAAgyUblX6WairAaBA2dNAUyoaVhK5ybDTsg_z9Yz2Oyp5GXvBgUNK0jPGZ4YiTUVe8/s1600/220px-The_Charlotte,_Leicester.jpg" height="400" width="267" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #0b5394;">became premier pub venue The Charlotte</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">A list of gigs by PO! in 1987</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">18.7.87 Princess Charlotte</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">8.8.87 Highfields Community Centre (Gay Pride)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">10.8.87 The Cooler</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">15.8.87 Abbey Park Festival</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">27.8.87 Royal Mail</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">31.8.87 Abbey Park Show</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">2.9.87 O'Jays </span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">17.9.87 Royal Mail</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">26.9.87 Worcester Summer's End Festival with Hawkwind</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">8.10.87 Leicester University</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">16.10.87 O'Jays</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">28.11.87 O'Jays</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">5.12.87 Palace Theatre Newark</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0b5394;">6.12.87 Leicester Polytechnic</span></div>
Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-46997856179974623432015-02-08T13:59:00.001-08:002015-02-08T13:59:46.537-08:00PO! - I Took My Head on a Date<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6Iok7KTIR8o" width="459"></iframe>Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-85436167309358996592014-12-12T12:03:00.000-08:002014-12-12T12:22:40.808-08:00How To Write a Song Part 2 - The Chorus<div style="text-align: left;">
I have little idea of music theory. I am not an amazing guitarist or piano player, yet I have been able to write songs that I'm proud of and that have produced effusive responses from people who have never met me and don't owe me any loyalty in praising my creations.<br />
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I know that you can go to music college and learn the theory that will make you effective at playing and writing, but I also believe that there is an element of personal passion and the wild nature of beginners and amateurs that stands tall and makes good songs. So:<br />
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Most songs consist of a vocal melody that is sung (unless it's a rap), with a rhythmic and chord-based backing. A lot of people write songs by playing around with chord riffs or patterns and then singing over the top of it. Often the result is a vocal melody line that just follows the changes of the chords and is therefore either simple perfection, or more likely, rather dull. However, if you're a young band just starting out, or a group of accomplished players over the age of 40, this method of writing songs will be quite adequate because it is tremendous fun in that moment and your friends will love it. Check out my previous blog for how it works if you're 17: </div>
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<a href="http://ruthpo.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/how-to-write-song-part-one-1969-1984.html">http://ruthpo.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/how-to-write-song-part-one-1969-1984.html </a></div>
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DO YOU NEED A CHORUS?</h3>
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Some songs don't have a chorus; they're just a straight or crooked line to the end and then they stop. Such songs can be great, as the T-Rex classic 'Ride a White Swan' (by Marc Bolan) shows. I would contend that this is just one long chorus and a guitar solo, but I'm sure many wouldn't agree.</div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">Here's another song that is just a single section repeated. Is it a verse without a chorus or a chorus without a verse? Who cares? 'Ain't No Sunshine' (by Bill Withers)</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;">However, the pop convention is to have a chorus, and I do like a good chorus. The verse builds towards the chorus and the chorus packs the power of the song musically and lyrically.</span></div>
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THE SIMPLEST OF ALL CHORUSES</h3>
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The simplest chorus repeats the same vocal melody and backing chords. Strip away the fast pace, heavy instrumentation and outrageous costumes and 'Let me entertain you' (by Guy Chambers and Robbie Williams) demonstrates this. The title is the chorus, and the chorus is merely the title repeated 2 or more times with an unchanging backing. I can't say I like this, but it is damned easy and if your message is straightforward, it's an effective way to draw attention to your song - and maybe the other parts of the song allow this simplicity to hang well. <br />
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<span style="color: blue;">Let Me Entertain You - Chorus 0:38</span></h4>
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SCRATCH LYRICS</h3>
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At this point I need to explain that after the age of about 23, I have mainly written songs with 'scratch lyrics'. This means that, at the composing stage, the meaning of the lyrics has less importance and I don't think about them until later. Paul McCartney of The Beatles famously had the musical and syllabic phrase 'scrambled eggs' that eventually became the song 'Yesterday'.<br />
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The advantage with this approach is that it produces much better vocal melodies which makes for a better song, but also you sometimes find that your subconscious works on the lyrics. As the musical sound of the song starts to fire synapses in the brain, sometimes words just appear, although usually they can come along later when you are relaxed and not thinking too hard about it.<br />
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BUT HOW DO YOU GET YOUR IDEAS?</div>
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What often happens is that one melodic line comes to you - often a series of 6 - 10 notes that have a charm or a nagging insistence that tells you it's a good sequence. I have often come up with such a 'hook' whilst out on a solo bicycle ride; the turning of the pedals creates a rhythmic pulse and inevitably I start to whistle until I come up with something.<br />
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THE REPEAT CHORUS</h3>
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When the phrase seems good, the temptation is to repeat it 2 or 4 times and that makes your chorus. It worked for Robbie Williams and it worked even better for Joy Division, with the same melodic line serving as title, instrumental melody hook and chorus:<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">Love Will Tear Us Apart - Chorus 0:47</span></h4>
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THE REPEAT AND GROW CHORUS</h3>
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Once your song writing starts to refine a little, the next step is to write a chorus that does not just consist of one repeated catchy line. Most bands use a bit of repetition and then grow from it by changing the phrase slightly.<br />
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For example, in this song, Teenage Dirtbag, (by Brendon B Brown), the chorus consists of the same vocal melodic phrase repeated 3 times with different lyrics and then on the fourth line resolves to go into the next verse.<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">Teenage Dirtbag - Chorus 0:45</span></h4>
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CHORUS WITH CHANGED BACKING </h3>
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To take this idea further, instead of simply repeating the same phrase in the same way, you can often get a good effect by singing the same vocal melody line but changing the chords beneath it; obviously descending or ascending chords affect the mood of the piece. In 'The A Team' (by Ed Sheeran), the chorus which is sung is largely a 2-note doorbell tune, but the changing chords underneath it create a mood that goes downwards with the progression.<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">The A Team - Chorus 0:33</span></h4>
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THE UPFRONT CHORUS</h3>
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A trick that the poppiest of pop songs use is to start the song with the chorus; or even a double chorus. It sounds good on the radio; even better riding the Waltzer, and its instant radio-friendliness means that it appeals to those who 'like' music as well as those who 'love' music.<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">It's My Party - Chorus 0:00</span></h4>
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BEYOND SIMPLICITY</h3>
<span style="text-align: start;">If you are interested in the theory of why certain chord progressions sound good, you should take a look at the Seechord website : </span> <a href="http://www.seechord.co.uk/">http://www.seechord.co.uk/</a> <span style="text-align: left;">Joe Samuel from Brighton, UK has worked out a way to map out the chord sequences in songs to investigate how and why they work. </span></div>
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There are banks of professionally trained experienced songwriters who use the musical intervals and instrumentation that is in vogue to supply the big record companies. They write all the time, and that is probably the way to write a good song. I have a lot of respect for the various teams that have produced popular songs, be it Carole King in The Hit Factory, or even Stock Aitken & Waterman. Below is a link to an interesting article about how it works nowadays writing material for the likes of Rihanna. A big deal is made of the songwriting role of 'Top Liners' - the women (usually) who produce the hooks, choruses and vocal melodies to go on top of the male (usually) musicians' backing.<br />
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<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/03/26/the-song-machine">http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/03/26/the-song-machine</a></div>
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If you write constantly, the difficult part is recognising which of the many songs you write is the good one, because amongst scores of mediocre songs or ideas, there may be just one. Often I would put song ideas in a drawer for a month and then see which would ripen and stay alive after that time. With a lot of editing work, joining different sections together to make a more interesting structure, you can produce something good and then fly in some wonderful lyrics that fit the musical mood.<br />
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SONGWRITING MAGIC</h3>
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I believe it does exist. It has happened to me and I have heard other songwriters describe it in the same way. Very occasionally, you will sit down to write a song and a song will deliver itself very neatly to you in one dollop; just like a baby into the world. When this is happening, time loses its meaning. It may appear to have happened instantly, but in reality it may have taken hours. Weirdly, songwriters often have a 'pregnancy' feeling for weeks in which you anticipate that there's a song in there but it isn't ready to come out. Sometimes the songwriting magic works as if you are in a showroom; there are amazing songs already written which whizz about ready to be plucked off the shelf and made yours.<br />
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But when that does happen, you then start to worry that you have simply copied an existing song that you have remembered subconsciously. Even now, I hear an old song and think it sounds like one of my old songs and so I have to check when each was written to find out if I have accidentally copied. Once I heard the Green Day song, 'Wake me up when September ends' (by Billy Joe Armstrong) and thought I had copied my song 'Fay' from it. Really it's only the chord sequence, which anybody could have come up with, but I was reassured to find out that my song was written 12 years before the Green Day song. <br />
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<span style="color: blue;">When September Ends - Chorus 0:45</span></h4>
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FINALLY -THE LATE AND GREAT CHORUS</h3>
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One of my all time favourite songs is Fountain of Sorrow (by Jackson Browne). It has an admirable and complex verse, which allows the song to hold back before giving you the chorus. It's almost 3 minutes of a double verse before you get the chorus. Even then it's a sparse doomy chorus with an unconventional chord sequence, but then it grows triumphant and uplifting just within the space of the 8 or so lines. It's absolutely masterful songwriting. It's not an obvious hit, but, despite the snide aside about the girl in question and the end of tour lack of crispness, I so admire Browne's great craftsmanship and longevity.<br />
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<span style="color: blue;">Fountain of Sorrow - Chorus 2:50</span></h4>
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In the third blog on songwriting, I hope to write more about composing lyrics. Thanks for reading!</h4>
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<br />Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-31480352472473886242014-12-03T08:41:00.001-08:002015-01-24T13:52:36.834-08:00Community Arts and How PO! began<br />
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I love Community Arts. It used to be a kind of yogurt-weaving joke; the idea that rough kids from inner city estates would do a bit of circus skills, parachute co-operation games and muck about with old lorry tyres and somehow get civilised. I still think it works. I still think that it's better than doing nothing.</div>
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There are half-dead men in their 40s, who grew up in affluent suburbs and never experienced Community Arts. If you grow up with financial stability and success as a default, it must seem weird that anyone would ever want to do those things - how can making a giant elephant out of old pallets be useful for young people who should be training for jobs?</div>
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" 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I guess there's always been bad parenting; there are selfish ones and immature ones and ones that just aren't around enough. But when I was younger, Community Arts filled that gap. There were dens and adventure playgrounds and youth centres, and arts workers who went out on the street to find the kids who might want to learn the bass guitar. This wasn't strict like school, but it was caring, like a home should be and it earnestly conveyed the idea that through arts activities you could become someone better.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://mythologicalquarter.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/20140417_3056.jpg" height="187" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Bokor, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.6399993896484px; text-align: justify;">Unleash children’s joy, fantasy, and creativity–then they are free, social, and curious children.” – Palle Nielsen</span></td></tr>
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I don't really know what happens in inner cities now; some would have us believe that street gangs pop up to meet those emotional needs and provide activities for young people. I know that there are still many great youth projects, but Community Arts has lost status in our education and social system, and we really need to shout out and protect it.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Carolyn Drury's Community Theatre - still doing it 30 years later</td></tr>
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My first encounter with anything like this was a drama group, in Newark, run by Carolyn Drury. I think she was influenced by 1970s American improvisation group The Player's Workshop. Although I was doing all right at school, I was rather passive and didn't really understand a lot of what was going on around me.</div>
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Drama brought me alive; I could be anyone I wanted to be; I could see the perspective of another person by talking with their tongue. Carolyn's passion for drama was obvious; she showed the teenagers in the group that life is fun and people are free, but that you need to do something worthwhile with that freedom.</div>
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In the summer of 1981, I got a holiday job in Camden with Inter-Action. The founder, Ed Berman had set up so many inspiring projects and I was employed on the first ever children's computer camp.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small; text-align: start;">http://www.inter-action.uk.com/founder.html</span></td></tr>
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Nowadays, computer camps are often residential affairs for affluent nerdy-types, but then computers were only just evolving as an educational tool. The idea was that kids from the estates would come for free each day and be taught BBC BASIC programming by 19-year old tutors like me. It was a fun job; the children were really motivated and had ideas about what they wanted to do with this amazing new technology. Often they'd tell you about their lives; nothing dreadful, just about mums out at work cleaning and nobody to look after them over the summer.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The BBC B Computer as used at Computer Camp </td></tr>
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On page 14 of the 1988 report on the Inter-Action website, you can see that 200 young people a week used computers once the project became full-time; a project funded by the Department of Education and Science. http://www.inter-action.uk.com/founder.html </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVWVyvdc7WWCmP50_WAI99sweWGv39kRELYX6GO8zqM8u19CklMArngfPH_4jzwOJiWrJYluNSliRGPXpr5SreT0Aqd7AXuICWnO-UIPPvZOHwk8QOS5uFHlOpSXSN7lSEBVctlRwC46M/s1600/Maxine-Greene.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVWVyvdc7WWCmP50_WAI99sweWGv39kRELYX6GO8zqM8u19CklMArngfPH_4jzwOJiWrJYluNSliRGPXpr5SreT0Aqd7AXuICWnO-UIPPvZOHwk8QOS5uFHlOpSXSN7lSEBVctlRwC46M/s1600/Maxine-Greene.jpg" height="239" width="320" /></a></div>
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After being in Leicester for a while, writing songs and rehearsing with The Soviets, I joined a course at Fosse Neighbourhood Centre Studios about sound recording. It was run by Multiplex, led by Teri Wyncoll. I loved the activities and learning about sound engineering, and The Soviets recorded their first cassette release there. We met a few of the key people involved in bands in Leicester at the time and realised that there was a lot of support from the City Council for youth music. This included employment opportunities for musicians to work with younger kids, as well as more professional level training and workshops to develop your band.<br />
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Whilst Community Arts implies a collectivism and flexible response to the interests and needs of the community, I don't think it can be successful without clear leadership; it takes an individual or small group who are relentless in their push towards their goal. I know of many true collectives that have fallen apart in petty arguments, or wasted years on internal matters. Meanwhile, the mavericks, the inspired control freaks and the straight-talking action women and men get things done. Teri Wyncoll was such a person. She got things done in the Leicester music scene; courses, gigs, workshops and The Abbey Park festival - a miniature Glastonbury that kept growing and growing until the City Council decided that maybe it should be commercially funded and not come out of the Council Tax.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Community Arts van takes PO! to play at a festival in Worcester with Hawkwind!</td></tr>
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Looking back, Teri's Multiplex was vibrant and full of possibilities. When The Soviets fell apart, it made forming and launching a new band extremely easy as there were gigs, recording facilities and even grants for instruments on offer to young people. However, this doesn't mean to say that Teri was generally admired; in fact her power and influence engendered a huge amount of resentment from many musicians. The thinking was that she had a clique of friends, and 'ordinary decent bands' didn't stand a chance of sharing in the perceived millions of pounds on offer. At the heart of it was that Teri wasn't interested in covers bands, but in promoting original talent that might have a chance in the wider music business. This is why she encouraged us to train kids to play and form bands, but it's also why some 'ordinary decent bands' didn't really get picked to play the high profile gigs.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">PO! playing at the Abbey Park Festival 1987</td></tr>
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I always liked Teri's warm Geordie manner, her flat full of interesting objects and her determined pro-female outlook. PO! would not have lasted more than a couple of months had it not been for Multiplex and the Leicester music scene at the time. However, Teri's interests were rooted in a desire for freedom and commercial success rather than dutifully following Council expectations for correct procedures and accountability. By 2002, the scene and funding possibilities had changed so much that Teri moved on to other projects, leaving a trail of unused community recording studios with outdated equipment across the city. After more than half a lifetime of banging on about the music business, Teri and her long-term partner Dave seem to be now pursuing a more peaceful world of canal narrow boats. However, PO! must be eternally grateful to her for the opportunities and support that we had in the late 1980s and early 1990s. </div>
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In the meantime, another organisation, Soft Touch, has grown to become the main Community Arts organisation in Leicester, funded largely by the Arts Council, but also gaining status as a result of increased schools' music funding . Soft Touch's growth over many years has been controlled, professional and understated; their website shows the admirable work that they do, but it's also full of the policies, evaluations and risk assessments needed for a community organisation to succeed in today's climate. </div>
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It's great that more young people are receiving a short burst of music tuition in schools, and that there are still projects that engage disaffected youth with the arts. However, we need so much more vision, funding and belief in Community Arts. So many people from other nations admire British edgy creative artists; the fashion, film and music industries could generate income to match our defence and chemical industries, if only we had the talent. If only we nurtured the talent....... </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Recent campaign in Leicester against huge City Council cuts to play scheme funding</td></tr>
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<br />Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-49997467717624240722014-10-27T16:30:00.000-07:002014-10-27T16:30:38.915-07:00Politics, The Musicians' Union and Me <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>I didn't grow up in an overtly political family. As a young child, Mike Yarwood was my route into politics; through his impressions, I knew many politicians of the time. I did think that Women's Lib had their own party, which seemed a good idea, but then I found out that Lib meant Liberals.</b></span></div>
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<b style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;">When I was 11, I asked my mum which way she would vote. I wasn't surprised when she told me she was a Liberal, like her friend, Councillor Kate Neil, in Clevedon. I was shocked, when she said my dad would vote Labour. Until then, the media had given me the idea that Labour were the party of smelly factories and nasty aggressive men. My clean, mild-mannered schoolteacher dad did not fit that image at all, but I think that got me interested in finding out what the parties stood for.</b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Me, Snow Brian Clough, Mum, Front Brother Peter</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><b>Subsequently, my dad often claimed to have 'given up' on politics. He used to say something like 'I gave up on religion in 1959, gave up on football in 1969 and gave up on politics in 1979'. My dad also told me never to be cynical.</b></b></span></div>
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<b><b>After we had been living in Newark for a few years, a fantastic teacher at our school, Miss Catherine Spencer, encouraged pupils to enter public speaking competitions, and I found I was quite good at it. So, in 1977, I was in the Yorkshire Television Public Speaking Competition. My speech was about 'death' but I didn't win; 16-year old William Hague did.</b></b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb_DpJdzgcLiXb9diaHLg8gujWJF6bj1QdOzFxA59XguIWQ9L21zKpNy7jmxBq-0BSv_eJD9BPfp0g3X6QsnV2I131EHwqGKIG2Ii743d9PU0b8c-pn5cbzex6OFIH_ijCm-41SKS8OTM/s1600/Speaking+comp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb_DpJdzgcLiXb9diaHLg8gujWJF6bj1QdOzFxA59XguIWQ9L21zKpNy7jmxBq-0BSv_eJD9BPfp0g3X6QsnV2I131EHwqGKIG2Ii743d9PU0b8c-pn5cbzex6OFIH_ijCm-41SKS8OTM/s1600/Speaking+comp.jpg" height="320" width="221" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The programme for the final won by William Hague</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggT6Ix4F5vJdJCoJopBeBVGU9NnH2M1TkgiSLIeZN-zrZOJrhEGb7cE4cB3yvkPQENZA1sthE479QO3E1L07xQINhVDILTV-Dmjha6ftxqToz7YstQRwtDq8Atoax2LWQkAWvmoHqbidE/s1600/Death+speech.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggT6Ix4F5vJdJCoJopBeBVGU9NnH2M1TkgiSLIeZN-zrZOJrhEGb7cE4cB3yvkPQENZA1sthE479QO3E1L07xQINhVDILTV-Dmjha6ftxqToz7YstQRwtDq8Atoax2LWQkAWvmoHqbidE/s1600/Death+speech.jpg" height="320" width="205" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My marksheet for the talk on 'Death'</td></tr>
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<b style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Around 1978, when I was friends with Clare Weatherall of The Devices, I became 'radicalised' as a small-town lefty. This involved going on the train to Nottingham and spending a lot of time in alternative bookshop Mushroom Books. We bought and read pamphlets and got into trouble at school for trying to set up a branch of the National Union of School Students. Clare made me feel ashamed for not being working class enough, as my parents had a mortgage and did not live in a farm labourer's tied cottage. It seems ridiculous now, but that's how it was. </b></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My favourite political pamphlet from Mushroom Books</td></tr>
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<b style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><b>As a result, when I went to Sheffield Poly, it was as an anti-Thatcher student, with some interest in the anarchist way of things. I marched on the Reclaim the Streets in Leeds and for various other causes, as well as being the founder editor of the student newspaper - the Sheffield City Press. In an attempt to be a professional-style journalist, I toned down my way-out thinking and became a mild lefty-liberal for a while. I always used to say that I would join the Labour Party when I got old.</b></b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Nico obsession at Sheffield Poly</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An edition of the Student Newspaper I edited</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMNwXybFIhhU0ORx1Aax-ylq6dimHVOssRd7oxZ9cxvlDHL8dMk6r2EWai-lhC6eLKIw7QsVVyc2Uw20XUeq_CKOLCWTYw8hhxYNpNJpXOzCrwhkIOThmd3LNyHptONeo1jKhScPw4HoA/s1600/SCPress+budget.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMNwXybFIhhU0ORx1Aax-ylq6dimHVOssRd7oxZ9cxvlDHL8dMk6r2EWai-lhC6eLKIw7QsVVyc2Uw20XUeq_CKOLCWTYw8hhxYNpNJpXOzCrwhkIOThmd3LNyHptONeo1jKhScPw4HoA/s1600/SCPress+budget.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And the lavish annual budget</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>After moving to Leicester University, and forming The Soviets. there was more of the 'Support the Miners' kind of activity; I was on the student union executive and was quite shocked to encounter Tory toffs and Hellfire types - I'd led such a sheltered existence until then and hadn't thought that many young people would be Conservatives. I did enjoy the commons-style bickering in meetings, and continued to give speeches if any of them would listen.</b></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwLTz5lGBeKOrUfxN1-b85q7rbcb7DOsheNf-bL16xo5fOinNPuOAMUTpvfzyinWnZWjImyYFeTFWICHjtkwv8Cjec50lbM41u-YW7yMDSAXjPsMD6foIgpsc38o5C9PqUeZUuOZVBx7Q/s1600/march.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwLTz5lGBeKOrUfxN1-b85q7rbcb7DOsheNf-bL16xo5fOinNPuOAMUTpvfzyinWnZWjImyYFeTFWICHjtkwv8Cjec50lbM41u-YW7yMDSAXjPsMD6foIgpsc38o5C9PqUeZUuOZVBx7Q/s1600/march.jpg" height="223" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><b>Once I had formed PO! as a band of serious intent, I decided to join the Musicians' Union, because that was now my trade and I believed in Trades Unions. Their monthly meetings were listed in the local council news sheet, so I decided to go along to a meeting. </b><b>It was listed as being at the International Hotel, Leicester. I imagined a hotel conference room with rows of crimson leather armchairs full of Miles Davis types, smoking officials sitting at a table at the front, and lots of 'procedure'.</b></b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZR9eYW1Dv_EzE_mtgRVcFwEoR1pgMmfyKiH3okrhdMU4HDwF4rAb5dAEW2dW7BDw4Lg979t9seg5LNusEDRFyF2Bs2Z_oacBCAkr_yU7dAeGZFz1-Hk5VL9sczzIKTK3GqRi0IReILYk/s1600/international+hotel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZR9eYW1Dv_EzE_mtgRVcFwEoR1pgMmfyKiH3okrhdMU4HDwF4rAb5dAEW2dW7BDw4Lg979t9seg5LNusEDRFyF2Bs2Z_oacBCAkr_yU7dAeGZFz1-Hk5VL9sczzIKTK3GqRi0IReILYk/s1600/international+hotel.jpg" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The International Hotel</td></tr>
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<b style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Instead the MU meeting was held in one of the hotel bedrooms. I remember, as I went up to the 9th floor in the lift, wondering whether it was maybe a bit dodgy and I shouldn't be involved. Mind you, I think the three guys at the meeting were certainly shocked when I turned up. There was little attempt at a welcome, as I squeezed in to sit on a stool, and they carried on the meeting which mostly consisted of 'Do you remember when old John Duncan played his harmonica at the Liberal Club?' type conversations. During that first meeting, they broke into song on three occasions, and then, after they got rid of me, the branch secretary gave each committee member £3 for attending.</b></div>
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><b>Through sheer stubbornness, enjoyment of the old guys / young punk girl dynamic, and a commitment to Trades Unionism, I stuck with the MU and attended every meeting until they got used to me. It always used to start, 'Good evening gentlemen ..... and Ruth'. Gradually, the meetings became more purposeful. We even stopped meeting in a hotel bedroom and moved to the Belgrave Liberal Club. This was a much bigger room, but there were still usually four of us. The club seemed to be an oasis of old white blokes in the middle of one of the biggest Hindu communities in the UK.</b></b></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left Bank in a proletarian cap</td></tr>
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<b style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><b>Around that time, the MU nationally was trying to get more members from the rock and pop field. There was a national rock and pop officer, Horace Trubridge (now Assistant General Secretary). He had been a saxophonist in a band called 'Darts' and did a good job of trying to get the MU to move with the times. Somehow our work in Leicester, putting on showcases and events within the rock and pop genre was noticed and I became involved with the East Midlands branch in Birmingham, and the national Rock and Pop Sub-Committee in London. I found this all a terrific wheeze; I must have been awfully earnest in trying to explain myself to the majority of people who did not really understand the indie pub circuit, DIY recording, let alone sampling and mixing.</b></b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Assistant General Secretary on Saxaphone</td></tr>
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<b style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The pinnacle of my time with the MU was attending national conference as an East Midlands delegate. I got to address a hall full of classical flautists and jazz trumpeters about a number of things that I now forget - I think one was the 'two in a bar rule' about performing licenses, but I know I used my public speaking skills to the max. After the proceedings each day, there would be entertainment - usually a jazz big band - and everyone would drink heavily. After that, the delegates would retire to the college conference accommodation and act like students on Freshers week.</b></div>
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<b style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The orchestra players were the heaviest drinkers. One guy showed off a mini travelling drinks cabinet that he took on tour with him that held two bottles of whisky and some glasses. Out of a couple of hundred people the only women were me, about 8 orchestral players, and a few elderly wives who were there for the food. And there was a lot of classy food.</b></div>
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<b style="color: #660000; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><b>The experiences in the Musicians' Union seemed unlike any politics I could recognise; it was more like a battle with the old guard and How We Do Things. 'Keep Music Live' was the old 1970s MU slogan that was somehow overtaken by an ever-flowing tide of disco, karaoke, sampling, DJ mixing, downloading and the Internet. Ironically, the greater availability of digital recorded music has not killed off local bands where I live; there seem to be more open mic acoustic nights and live venues than before, and certainly there are many more impressive female musicians getting up on stage.</b></b><br />
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<span style="color: #660000; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>I don't hear or see anything of the Musician's Union these days; maybe they need better PR. After finishing performing and recording with PO!, I stopped being part of the MU. I miss the old guys and was pleased to find out that one of them is still playing local rock n roll gigs at the age of 77.</b></span></div>
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Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-51767262593032686512014-10-11T13:07:00.000-07:002014-10-11T13:07:05.276-07:00Songs by Ruth Miller<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjckXDGoGu6Bj-lScyLz3Ct76XbvhwOA094H6qpDGbQVSLPjq59MCfVcPDzrEtK73h_p6lRzUkrvX80pgUHMELDABBzr4on3rQlzAwHPpFVrMPoRNqwyo9Dr0twfJETEBcjwfTLb4VcI0I/s1600/EPSON026.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjckXDGoGu6Bj-lScyLz3Ct76XbvhwOA094H6qpDGbQVSLPjq59MCfVcPDzrEtK73h_p6lRzUkrvX80pgUHMELDABBzr4on3rQlzAwHPpFVrMPoRNqwyo9Dr0twfJETEBcjwfTLb4VcI0I/s1600/EPSON026.JPG" height="400" width="285" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looks like it could be the Royal Mail, Leicester?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Today I am in the mood for lists, so here it is:<br />
<br />
A list of 80 songs written by Ruth Miller<br />
<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>A Lovely Letter</li>
<li>A New Grandma</li>
<li>A Page a Day</li>
<li>Albert Stole My Heart</li>
<li>Appleseed Alley</li>
<li>Better</li>
<li>Bigger Wall</li>
<li>Bus Shelter </li>
<li>Confidence</li>
<li>Danny's Girl</li>
<li>Early Hours of Summertime</li>
<li>Elephant Chains</li>
<li>Empty Vessels</li>
<li>Engineering</li>
<li>Ever Been Had</li>
<li>Failed Inventor</li>
<li>Farmyard</li>
<li>Fay</li>
<li>First Foot</li>
<li>George Orwell's on the Trail</li>
<li>Ghost of the Green Grass</li>
<li>Glamour</li>
<li>Glass King</li>
<li>Good Behaviour</li>
<li>Good Boy Jacob</li>
<li>Haunt You</li>
<li>Higher Than Your Smile</li>
<li>I took my Head on a Date</li>
<li>I Won't Stay</li>
<li>In a Mermaid Tail</li>
<li>in My Dream</li>
<li>In the Rain</li>
<li>Ipswich</li>
<li>Jacqueline's House</li>
<li>Jennifer Television</li>
<li>Kitchen Sink Drama<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ6hpUsA9rNUnwyIA8bCTWQ8ip4O-q9YBsN4hUGUf4tiwDw_ZGxEY8-l6mjE27SFRpfHKUk-nCeqjI-9xbQnCtPw7PIeKS0oawJISvVJAjHT1qaLrYVhqQkSsyDdwSNNYMN3NXio1hJ3A/s1600/EPSON027.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ6hpUsA9rNUnwyIA8bCTWQ8ip4O-q9YBsN4hUGUf4tiwDw_ZGxEY8-l6mjE27SFRpfHKUk-nCeqjI-9xbQnCtPw7PIeKS0oawJISvVJAjHT1qaLrYVhqQkSsyDdwSNNYMN3NXio1hJ3A/s1600/EPSON027.JPG" height="400" width="267" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Northampton Labour Club</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</li>
<li>Last Bus Home</li>
<li>Leopard</li>
<li>Lips That Are Not Mine</li>
<li>Loneliness</li>
<li>Look for the Holes</li>
<li>Lying on my Side</li>
<li>Milksop</li>
<li>My Head's on Fire</li>
<li>No Flowers</li>
<li>Northern Wonder</li>
<li>One Last Thrill</li>
<li>Plastic Charity Girl</li>
<li>Poor Old John</li>
<li>Pop Stars Wives</li>
<li>Ruby Dream</li>
<li>Ruthless</li>
<li>Safe</li>
<li>Sallyann</li>
<li>She Lies in State</li>
<li>Shed</li>
<li>Sixteen Boxes</li>
<li>Speak Again</li>
<li>Squinting at the Sun</li>
<li>Summer got Angry</li>
<li>Summer Pudding</li>
<li>Sunday Never Comes Around</li>
<li>The Artist and the Model</li>
<li>The Boys Who Went to Good Schools</li>
<li>The Mad Girl</li>
<li>Things That Might</li>
<li>Tina</li>
<li>Tomboy and Cowgirl</li>
<li>Torturers</li>
<li>Trains Go By</li>
<li>Treasure</li>
<li>Two Friends</li>
<li>Walking in my World</li>
<li>What Makes You Cruel?</li>
<li>When</li>
<li>White Cloud</li>
<li>Why I'm Not at School Today</li>
<li>Your Brother</li>
<li>Your Shout</li>
<li>You're the Judge</li>
</ol>
<br />
There were quite a few others registered with PRS/MCPS that I don't remember, so I haven't included them here. That's a lot of songs. But also.....<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmxGOgypidcKsgLq0zSpjvThxVfXBPi8O8FQzjn0vTIpoAYpih4EqEjMFDFWtxJeKyYRibJ5pNVSBwSFQTUeMZjNs32Hw8uzmjtI3owQHJRm04bjFSe0JWCJImqHB_B_-b8MxewRlWCEE/s1600/EPSON024.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmxGOgypidcKsgLq0zSpjvThxVfXBPi8O8FQzjn0vTIpoAYpih4EqEjMFDFWtxJeKyYRibJ5pNVSBwSFQTUeMZjNs32Hw8uzmjtI3owQHJRm04bjFSe0JWCJImqHB_B_-b8MxewRlWCEE/s1600/EPSON024.JPG" height="400" width="290" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My notebook from 1986, when I wrote Appleseed Alley.</td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgctafoJDTveRGYZ8gMMAABgxE2V6o8akQ3KzrqWGeDdQCQvxRclGDV_CA58wyGkx-KIBU6zYM_rJpxNHR5sz7UXjHXxWWDR9pZ5yKyweoJ0Tv5bZYlRGlkRdjt2l-Ipd2Fqa5_XPELfIw/s1600/EPSON025.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgctafoJDTveRGYZ8gMMAABgxE2V6o8akQ3KzrqWGeDdQCQvxRclGDV_CA58wyGkx-KIBU6zYM_rJpxNHR5sz7UXjHXxWWDR9pZ5yKyweoJ0Tv5bZYlRGlkRdjt2l-Ipd2Fqa5_XPELfIw/s1600/EPSON025.JPG" height="400" width="290" /></a></div>
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A list of joke songs written by Ruth Miller for the cult cable TV series Chez Lester<br />
https://twitter.com/ChezLester<br />
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<img alt="Embedded image permalink" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bwo6ANMCAAAPtoI.jpg:large" /><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Born to be a Star</li>
<li>Bouncing Bikinis</li>
<li>Don't Prick Your Finger on the Holly</li>
<li>The Slate Dance</li>
</ol>
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<br />Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-34813805604548007792014-09-24T14:28:00.001-07:002014-09-24T14:28:52.314-07:00Too old for indie-pop? Is all this nostalgia A Good Thing?<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>I resent being too early for stuff, and it seems to have happened all the way along. I was born too early for skateboards, and I would have been a fantastic skate girl... or BMX stunt rider... or any of that. I ran a super wee record label in the 1980s and 1990s, using a computer only for typing and printing out my newsletters and tape inlays on a dot matrix printer. I bought those massive sheets of stamps from the post office and even had a PO Box, where I would go to get an elastic-band stodge of letters most days. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #741b47;">It was truly fun, but how great it must be to make music nowadays with a World Wide Web! Where you can tweet to fans worldwide, and facebook-invite them to secret gigs. That would have been good back in my day. But, like a 19 year old girl trying to learn skateboard for the first time, would it be an embarrassing spectacle to do it all again on YouTube or at some festival, when you are comfortably middle-aged?</span></b></span><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><br />
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/proxy/AVvXsEhJ3OfUApCACmfiSVVM2uk0zMG_cx5ELs-1eAUrEv-bszAZmtRbIz6qOzMdXLM8CIGeRpDJL4DbLu9Zo34EZVLc8tpRFa_u_V0D94yTTjOqPhypZCsY6ZXDlRJmjMJAPIT9_82XxIJQwF96Eky0C2ZRyBA=" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><img border="0" src="http://ronsen.org/monkminkpinkpunk/1/covers/po.jpg" height="194" width="200" /></b></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>The first album 1989 - Little Stones as yet not re-released in digital format</b></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>I quite like writing a blog. It's helping me to sort things out in my mind; gradually I'm building a jigsaw puzzle of my life in music - a life in music which I thought ended last century.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>If I'd been a bit more successful, I'd be a has-been, but, with a rather insignificant streak of success that runs to a few aging pop-kids in Spain, Japan and the USA, I'm not even a has-been.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>For at least ten years, I made no reference to the music I had been involved with. I didn't play the CDs, I never pulled out a guitar to drunkenly strum out 'Sunday Never Comes Around', I kept myself to myself and forgot about the life in music.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>But something has changed in the last couple of years. I think it started when somebody told me that there was a lot of stuff on the Internet about my band PO! So, of course, you google yourself and it all starts, doesn't it? There are Wikipedia articles and strange YouTube videos put together by fans, and people saying back in 2005 that I have disappeared. No. Not disappeared, just tried a bit of ordinary life. It was all right.</b></span><br />
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<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>That is, it was all right for a bit.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>I guess it must be like experiencing some exciting gay encounters in your youth, but deciding to go straight in order to have a family and please your family because you think it will go away and that you can control it. And I've seen people do that for a good few years. Half a lifetime, even.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>But you can't forget about it for ever. The Person inside starts knocking loudly and calling "Hello?" and you start to have ideas and urges. I began to watch live performances again, with a mixture of thrill and dread. But now I'm paralysed, not knowing what to do. Is it all just stupid nostalgia and vanity, or do I need to go back to music? Should I try to write and perform songs looking like some middle-aged mumsy? Songs about tennis elbow and parents evenings? I don't think so. I could write the same songs about the same subjects as I always did, because not much has really been achieved on the 'wielding of power and the situations that result from it' front, has it?</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b> I do still have a massive prejudice that pop music is for young people and that it's greedy to hang on in there once you can actually afford instruments and you know too many of life's secrets. To persuade me, many friends have come up with the names of 'veteran' performers who are eternally young and very respected, but I just don't know.....</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Or... and this does seem more attractive... I could forget my real position as wage slave, single parent and coward, and just promote What Has Been. I could work out how to get my old music officially online and see if anyone today would like it. Is that crass nostalgia? Cashing in on the 7"s in my attic? The songs are good, if you like that sort of thing... but how many people like that sort of thing now? I did work hard on the songs and could say a lot about the life and meaning of each one. I reckon if enough people express an interest here, I could be coaxed further.</b></span><br />
<span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="color: #741b47; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>I am rather intrigued by the number of people in Romania reading this blog. PO! did have fans all over the world, but I had not thought there were any in Romania; so, say hi please, people. Shall I carry on doodling with the old music in this way, or shall I look for a promotion at work and spend some time getting the shower and the car radio fixed?</b></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWH0F6MFV_FKzeMpZqtLquG4NBn-wzvoCdu1KDtY6Uewa4HUj9OFiMwlkn1aB4vT_jM0SopBBZU3yqUKK8nHNEbJMWC8cUZyvPxOOF9cyKEHkLpbcg5nkmgv2KZiZVQVJycsDBu3ha71Y/s1600/EPSON022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWH0F6MFV_FKzeMpZqtLquG4NBn-wzvoCdu1KDtY6Uewa4HUj9OFiMwlkn1aB4vT_jM0SopBBZU3yqUKK8nHNEbJMWC8cUZyvPxOOF9cyKEHkLpbcg5nkmgv2KZiZVQVJycsDBu3ha71Y/s1600/EPSON022.jpg" height="183" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me and little brother in Sunday best, ready for a trip in the Renault 4 to Avebury</td></tr>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Age 7</h3>
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<a class="irc_mutl" data-ved="0CAUQjRw" href="http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&docid=dJ_axiCTHv6RNM&tbnid=9udEK1U4U421eM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Flucidfrenzy.blogspot.com%2F2012%2F05%2Fslits-raincoats-opposite-and.html&ei=rDplU_26F8mUPI7QgGg&bvm=bv.65788261,d.d2k&psig=AFQjCNGOH_Tj5AsgcYNqZNuzW1cLx2cxiA&ust=1399229428893815" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br /></div>
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<a class="irc_mutl" data-ved="0CAUQjRw" href="http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&docid=dJ_axiCTHv6RNM&tbnid=9udEK1U4U421eM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Flucidfrenzy.blogspot.com%2F2012%2F05%2Fslits-raincoats-opposite-and.html&ei=rDplU_26F8mUPI7QgGg&bvm=bv.65788261,d.d2k&psig=AFQjCNGOH_Tj5AsgcYNqZNuzW1cLx2cxiA&ust=1399229428893815" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br /></div>
I used to make up songs whilst in the car. We lived in Wiltshire, England and my parents thought it good practice to take the children out in the Renault 4 every weekend; usually to a white horse or a hill fort. I can't remember whether my parents had any input into the songs or not - on reflection, maybe they were based on army or girl guide tunes - but once each had evolved, the whole family would join in. With no car radio, CD player etc, I suppose we made our own entertainment, because it truly was the old days (and fancy me being alive then!).<br />
<br />
My favourite composition went like this:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://thumbs1.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mI6nOpHq1ByJoivj92bNzNQ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Reader's Digest AA Book of the Road - 1967 Vintage Road Map" border="0" class="img" src="http://thumbs1.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mI6nOpHq1ByJoivj92bNzNQ.jpg" /></a>It's the biggest man-made mound in Europe<br />
It's the biggest man-made mound in Europe,<br />
It's the biggest man-made mound<br />
That ever can be found<br />
It's the biggest man-made mound in Europe.<br />
<br />
It's the biggest stack of standing stones in Europe,<br />
It's the biggest stack of standing stones in Europe,<br />
It's the biggest stack around<br />
That ever can be found<br />
It's the biggest stack of standing stones in Europe.<br />
<br />
The two verses were sung whilst driving past Silbury Hill <a href="http://www.stonepages.com/england/silburyhill.html">http://www.stonepages.com/england/silburyhill.html</a> and Avebury <a href="http://www.stonepages.com/england/avebury.html">http://www.stonepages.com/england/avebury.html</a> respectively. It had an oompah kind of a tune, and I had done my research on the back seat, reading the 1969 AA Book of the Road, which I loved. <br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="irc_mutl" data-ved="0CAUQjRw" href="http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&docid=sYes8EewKHhzvM&tbnid=3GuLPuQsHPCuiM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.whitehorsechallenge.com%2Froute.htm&ei=qDdlU-bwMYexPJzBgdgL&bvm=bv.65788261,d.d2k&psig=AFQjCNHARhDZ48u5ajokgLhvQA6Kx7A-9Q&ust=1399228680449912" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img class="irc_mut" height="124" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSrVbfr2PS4oglpq7xzeDH3Hz28VNEoo6WW_QhUckLopjZtSL5i" style="margin-top: 133px;" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">White Horse</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a class="irc_mutl" data-ved="0CAUQjRw" href="http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&docid=n3RsU6VqPh1pUM&tbnid=fhPu_OfhBKZyqM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fjournal.goingslowly.com%2F2009%2F05%2Favebury&ei=6DZlU9HWL4KDO-KJgfgH&bvm=bv.65788261,d.d2k&psig=AFQjCNE7Qex17wZQj9DGa6H78keY9CT2Lg&ust=1399228506931753" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img class="irc_mut" height="133" src="data:image/jpeg;base64,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" style="margin-top: 42px;" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Avebury, Wiltshire, UK</td></tr>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
Songwriting tip 1</h3>
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Sit in the back of a car driving through the countryside and make up a song. No instruments, bar the 4-stroke internal combustion engine, but that will create some kind of pulse. Think trumpets playing your melody, and get the driver to sing back some of the words as an echo (an echo). </div>
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<h3>
Age 13</h3>
I REALLY liked the song Angie Baby sung by Helen Reddy (Written by Alan O'Day)<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8mGsis9nNo&feature=kp">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8mGsis9nNo&feature=kp</a> This version has a stallion bass mix.<br />
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<img class="rg_i" data-src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRwYzk6ofLinR5M4h_g-x7nmpQZA0JNfwBw6uPtSqglFL45wEZo" data-sz="f" name="B3dRKRJ0DvRL3M:" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRwYzk6ofLinR5M4h_g-x7nmpQZA0JNfwBw6uPtSqglFL45wEZo" style="height: 184px; margin-left: -9px; margin-right: -8px; margin-top: 0px; width: 246px;" /><br />
Although this did not help me write any songs back then, it helped me identify what I liked in a good song - namely:<br />
* an ordinary setting<br />
* a narrative<br />
* an air of mystery to the ending<br />
* themes of madness and female importance<br />
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<h3>
Songwriting tip 2</h3>
Find a song that really burns and work out what the important elements are. Then review your own work and see whether it comes anywhere near. <br />
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<h3>
Age 17</h3>
My grounding was not in cool musicians like Bowie, T-Rex and Dylan, but in chart hits; disco, novelty songs, Bay City Rollers. Most of them were dreadful. I was aware of heavy rock and those progressive bands where the men had long hair and sang falsetto, but had written them off as boring boys' stuff. Then punk came along. Not the first wave of American New York Dolls; nor the second wave of Malcolm McLaren's London, but the regional explosion that came with The Buzzcocks and The Swell Maps, and the girls in bands like The Raincoats and Delta Five. <br />
Suddenly there was a reason to write songs. Not for the good of the English countryside, but for the sheer excitement of being 17 and being a powerful girl in a corrupted world. I don't think I hated anything or anyone; I had none of the punk tantrum in me, but I did have energy for sarcasm and two friends that believed. And that is all you need. <br />
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I wrote a song with The Devices called 'College Boys' in which I imagined what it would be like at university, where girls were cool and boys were pathetic idiots. In the song, (narrative, of course) I get picked up by a lad who boasts to his friends about his sexual prowess but is unable to maintain his hot rod in the presence of a ball busting princess like me. Well, I was 17.<br />
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<h3>
Songwriter tip 3</h3>
Be 17. Get someone to play a bassline. Be sarcastic and joyful at the same time. Just be in a band and invite everyone to hear you. It will be great!<br />
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Age 23</h3>
The desire to write a song that had a clear political message mellowed into my wanting to tell the story of ordinary people's lives and situations brought about by politics and particularly power relationships. With lots of time and a depressive aura, I would sit and strum my guitar in sequences of chords that were satisfying. This usually included a B minor. I also discovered the sound of a capo on the second fret, which brought my preferred chordage into vocal range. Although I should have experimented more with alternative tunings, I tended to find that the result was too folksy and dreary. Instead I stuck to the post-punk power pop with a few B minors thrown in to show I was serious and down-trodden. <br />
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Lyrically, I went through a period of being deliberately obscure. I only half-knew myself what I was going on about, but there was an attempt to intrigue the listener and probably to play the intellectual. <br />
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I had a bass-playing friend who would come round to write songs with me. This involved sitting on the floor. I had a book where I had previously written song ideas - sometimes full verses and chorus - other times just groups of words or a concept. He would inevitably say, "I've got this bass run, and I would fit some of my ideas to it vocally, whilst playing the related chords. In this way, we'd work out a basic idea, which I would then work on later before playing it through with the drummer. <br />
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<h3>
Songwriter tip 4</h3>
If you get ideas for words, write them down in a book. When you look at them weeks later, they may prove to be terrible, but at least you have them. They might form the basis of a classic song, or, twenty eight years later, you could show them to the world in a blog. Also, on a guitar, never stray too far from the B minor. <br />
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To be continued.... including the switch from writing the lyrics first to vocal melody first!<br />
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Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-1999635440009860212014-04-19T11:25:00.000-07:002015-01-24T13:51:16.765-08:00The Soviets Era 1983-85<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFfc1ZFCZ6md-SirEJCTirtZhTfbT1Nfz7PcVOggZUPxFL9YBkC45PiIBnRvsK9qcX_4RU4MSZ-GGvvXIGjuSx37hiXzjqRoB3YBO-ne06nJKndrjGDDYKnktiDdn8GcHIvmVmB6N9qq4/s1600/cemetry+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFfc1ZFCZ6md-SirEJCTirtZhTfbT1Nfz7PcVOggZUPxFL9YBkC45PiIBnRvsK9qcX_4RU4MSZ-GGvvXIGjuSx37hiXzjqRoB3YBO-ne06nJKndrjGDDYKnktiDdn8GcHIvmVmB6N9qq4/s1600/cemetry+1.jpg" height="231" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dress made from an old bed sheet; coat and jumper - mum's from the 1960s.<br />
Hanging out in Newark Cemetery.</td></tr>
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After my three years 1979 - 1982 in Sheffield, where I was only in bedroom-style bands, I moved to Leicester. The reason was to do a PhD in the Communication of Science using new Information Technology. In fact, with a colleague, I published the first ever academic paper on data downloading. It was a mystery subject back then in 1981 and my research found that hardly anyone downloaded anything, let alone knew what the word meant. <br />
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<a href="http://jis.sagepub.com/content/8/1/7.abstract">http://jis.sagepub.com/content/8/1/7.abstract</a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Soviets: Simon, Richard, Ruth, Andy</td></tr>
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I lived in a succession of bedsits, and was desperate to join a band. Before too long, I met other postgraduate students who shared my musical tastes and politics. Andy, Simon and I formed The Soviets - an overtly left wing political combo. We did have different bass players: Martin and Neil but they were less involved with the group ideology. There were similar groups about then; we were compared with the Gang of Four or the Redskins, and the music was a fast jangly guitar pop. After a while Richard joined us on bass and guitar, which enabled us to sound slightly better and get some high profile local gigs at political events and Red Wedge concerts. <br />
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Andy - the 'vocal stylist' was an intense, probably screwed up and narcissistic tall guy, who liked the Joy Division way of things too much for his own good. He was studying American Literature and he had a great mind that he put to work living the life of a Poet. I am aware that a blog is a publication and so I need to be certain that my text falls into the scope of 'fair comment', particularly regarding people's musicianship. I contend that Ian Curtis was a much better singer than Andy, although no-one would have dared to say anything like that. There was always the insinuation that the desire to sing beautifully in tune was a bourgeois concept, so we shut up. I was not encouraged to sing, mainly because Andy didn't play any instruments and he wanted to be the singer. I was in a relationship with him and, under the Poet's spell, I chose to pander to his self-image. There was also the coolness of being a competent female instrumentalist and not the focal point of the group. <br />
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Simon the drummer was doing research into the portrayal of the Falklands War. Whilst the rest of us had met Marxism through studying literature and cultural theory, Simon came from a Labour Party background and had tried all the Socialist/Workers/Revolutionary/Militant groups that were active on university campuses then. We didn't join any of these, largely because Simon told us they were full of 'posh kids'. However, we were always keen to do gigs for them.<br />
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Richard, the jangly guitarist, had previously been in bands in the North East, and was a great singer and songwriter in his own right. His presence brought more fun, and a fascinating personal style that consisted of immaculate politeness, hesitance, and constant apology. Richard had gentleness and an awareness of gender that created an alliance with me and gave Trotsky a rather cross look. Still, the hegemony (!) of the band did not allow Richard or I to sing.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc7Y1ZbFfgxAZMMtRufSo7DMr30bjLfhBIXQwvkEnenkf0SRk1Lq-PjGrHWvmcWZhUixV9mIRiXXTc4qE_XilC8aaUmERPkXoiclc4q6dCL__FWUV-CLA2ZbxkTo-z4HzNVThrDiUa11c/s1600/soviets+rview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc7Y1ZbFfgxAZMMtRufSo7DMr30bjLfhBIXQwvkEnenkf0SRk1Lq-PjGrHWvmcWZhUixV9mIRiXXTc4qE_XilC8aaUmERPkXoiclc4q6dCL__FWUV-CLA2ZbxkTo-z4HzNVThrDiUa11c/s1600/soviets+rview.jpg" height="430" width="640" /></a></div>
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We played Leicester's De Montfort Hall several times for the May Day celebrations. The miners' strike was obviously a huge event though I can't remember whether we played any of the benefit gigs such as for the 'Dirty Thirty' fund. It is awful how I remember the intensity of my life back then but very few of the details. Anyway, our most high profile gig was on the Red Wedge tour at Highfields Community centre. We played in the middle of the day, but the highlight was a question and answer session with some of the 'stars' of Red Wedge. My whole attitude to the scene was changed by this event. We were poor students, playing in a venue in the middle of a really deprived community for nothing, not even any free food or drink. After hanging around all day, Paul Weller and his team were driven in to sit in front of us and answer questions. I couldn't take my eyes off him. His haircut and designer jumper would have cost more than most of the people there would have earned in six months. Weller's body language seemed arrogant and inappropriate and I felt talked down to. I think Rhoda Dakar was on the same panel and she was more human, but Red Wedge lost me on that day. <br />
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It's generally not a good idea to be in a band with someone you are having a relationship with. It's far better to be eternal good friends and I regret that my musical career has sadly ignored this principle. My relationship with Andy was turbulent and abusive. He could not manage his money; I felt he lived a true artist life style but it was not for me. In the days of no food banks, Andy would just eat egg and chips till they ran out, and would scramble roll-ups together out of butts he picked up off the street. When he did get a student grant, benefit or other windfall, his priorities in order would be to buy designer clothes, cigarettes, a large bag of potatoes and a dozen eggs. This was the '80s, clubbing had started, and it mattered how you looked. The rest of the band just wore charity shop clothes or old things bought by parents, but Andy was desperate to have the best clothes - maybe it was the Paul Weller influence? <br />
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I can't remember the Soviets splitting up. I guess it just fizzled out as we finished or abandoned our student lives. Since then, I haven't really kept in touch with anybody in the band, apart from a couple of one-off meetings in recent years. Playing in an 80's revolutionary pop-combo seems to have been a good preparation for proper jobs in academic and public sector leadership. Fascinating times; they have had a huge impact on everything that has happened since. <br />
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<br />Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-70101872964619380472014-04-19T03:02:00.000-07:002014-04-19T03:02:41.436-07:00The Chaos BiscuitsFor 3 years after leaving The Devices and going to Sheffield Polytechnic in 1979, I did not play any gigs. Mind you, I went to plenty. It was a great time to be in Sheffield; my first few weeks included going to see Siouxsie and the Banshees, Echo and the Bunnymen, Orchestral Manoevres in the Dark, the Dead Kennedys, and The Human League at Doncaster Rotters club. I had chosen Sheffield for its music; my aim was to see Cabaret Voltaire, which I did - at the fantastic Psalter Lane Art School - supported by Clock DVA. <br />
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My three years as a student were a rich musical banquet. I revelled in the fact that you could go out to the Limit Club and see Martyn Fry of ABC or Phil Oakey of the Human League out having a good time, and sometimes they'd say 'hi' to you. Pulp's Jarvis Cocker was a well-known guy around town; often to be seen in the pub which had hundreds of tea pots around the ceiling. Does that still exist? After a night out, the 2.30am late bus to Totley (7 miles) was double the normal 12p fare, thanks to the Labour city council of the time; they played Abba music on the night bus to discourage people from fighting. The art school students made Sheffield challengingly creative and there were hundreds of confident, stylish and original young people to feast your eyes on whenever you went out. A particular favourite was one guy who used to wear tailored suits in different kids' curtain fabrics. I never spoke to him, but I loved his verve. A few new club nights started up - always on a Monday or Tuesday - never at the weekend, and they throbbed with electronic sounds and art-school poseurs. I loved it; I don't think I drank alcohol at this time, and the clubs didn't seem to be big on drugs or excessive booze; it was mainly about the carrying-off of daring style.<br />
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During this time, I did still write songs, though. I was in a bedroom band, initially called The Chaos Biscuits, but then changing to become The Pandas. It tended to include a biscuit-tin or drum machine rhythm section (hence the name), me on guitar and a twangy bass. Sometimes I sang, and sometimes Simon Knott sang. He is now a highly respected photographer and historian of East Anglian churches. Another member of the collective was Anthony Kershaw Wilson, who got progressively interested in horoscopes and the Tarot, and now, I believe does it professionally. One song by The Pandas is called 'Sunday', and it was later recorded by PO! for the album 'Not Marked on the Ordnance Map' under the name 'Better'. I didn't manage to get in touch with A.K.W. who wrote the lyrics, but I did credit him.<br />
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Mike McKrell, Ruth Miller, Antony K. Wilson. I am wearing a 'Girls At Our Best' T shirt.</div>
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Ant with Simon Knott </div>
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David James - part of the biscuit tin rhythm section</div>
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Simon, Mike, Antony: the boys in the band doing the kind of thing we did back then. </div>
Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-23883652309735182802014-02-02T10:14:00.003-08:002014-02-02T10:57:55.314-08:00<u><b>How Music Got Me</b></u><br />
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My thing has always been song. The kind of song that stands alone without instruments. It probably sounds better <i>with</i> instruments, but if you whistled it, it would retain the essence of The Song.<br />
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My mother started me off with singing at the sink; songs I have never particularly heard in other forms. Schubert's The Trout was a favourite (of hers). She also sang one about 'young Molly who lived at the foot of the hill', and 'oh no John'. I ought to find these songs I suppose.<br />
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The second influence on me was my cousin Christopher who was much older and liked rock groups. I thought they had to have a colour in the name to be good; Pink or Black or Purple. Anyway, he taught me a couple of chords on the guitar and that was good because...<br />
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The third influence was a book of American Folk songs, which I worked out how to play, using the guitar chords. My favourite as a child was Big Rock Candy Mountain, which I now understand has significances beyond my understanding at the time, but I liked the concepts as I recognised them to be.<br />
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My Church of England Primary School in Bruton, Somerset played a big part. There I learned hymns with fantastic tunes - melodies that skipped up and down several octaves without doubt that any young children could gargle their way through them. It was the 1970's and school assembly moved smoothly from Victorian hymn 'Ye Holy Angels Bright' to Ralph McTell's 'Streets of London' without a breath. There was also a local old codger who came in to teach us songs from the World Wars, and I quite enjoyed 'Keep right on to the end of the road' - particularly the bit that goes 'Keep right on round the bend'. I learned to play the recorder there and the music teacher, Mrs Goodwin, got us to compose Christmas carols. My first effort at songwriting: 'Litttle Baby Jesus' I believe, was chosen as one of the best three, and so I got to play the organ for my carol at Bruton church. It was that which made me think that I could write songs.<br />
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Skip forward many years, in which we moved to Newark, Nottinghamshire. I failed to learn the clarinet, didn't do 'O' Level music (that's what the posh girls who played clarinet did) and gave up piano lessons because I hated the teacher blowing cigarette smoke in my face. I got a cool friend Clare Weatherall who liked punk bands. Clare and I were in a teen drama group that was largely a comedy group. We did comedy shows and Victorian music hall, organised by the fantastic Carolyn Drury. Clare and I decided to form our own band, and roped in lanky theatre manager John Bingham because he could play better than us and at 22 was a proper grown-up with his own flat, a leaky car, hundreds of punk 7"s and a healthy respect for the feminist way of things. We called ourselves The Devices (orginally The Ditto Devices - after something in a a Marshall McLuhan book I was obsessed with) and played some small-town gigs in Newark.<br />
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There was a phone call from Cherry Red records and a letter from another company asking us to sign to them, but we decided to go to polytechnic instead. When Cherry red signed The Marine Girls a month later, I was kicking myself - I hadn't realised that you could be in a band and still be at university at the same time.<br />
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To be continued....<br />
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Clare Weatherall back left with Ruth Miller on her right (I am wearing my dad's shirt because I had recently seen Annie Hall).</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ2N0OjWJgLr5NOTjUHWTZIdPjtAN1G_kcwUH0ghxS63_xB3XuVeYcnPicSYqFlJPjpI5SGdaQOsEAUOm5CSe5iqpbpNA643E5VAiCh_UVIuwW-HMKbj2D3Y1VYJohXmtUexnR7vyR0NI/s1600/EPSON009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ2N0OjWJgLr5NOTjUHWTZIdPjtAN1G_kcwUH0ghxS63_xB3XuVeYcnPicSYqFlJPjpI5SGdaQOsEAUOm5CSe5iqpbpNA643E5VAiCh_UVIuwW-HMKbj2D3Y1VYJohXmtUexnR7vyR0NI/s1600/EPSON009.JPG" height="320" width="232" /></a> Me and Clare by the river in Newark. John is behind the fence - this was a feminist statement, as I remember it. </div>
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<br />Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2007971608802842925.post-35393012458764695922013-12-26T09:46:00.001-08:002013-12-26T09:46:54.325-08:00Here's some photos of the original line-up of PO! in 1987. Ruth Miller (vocals and guitar) Jan Fraser (drums) and Julian Glover (bass).<br />
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Ruth PO!http://www.blogger.com/profile/08620166356700070214noreply@blogger.com0