So Tough Tim's Twitter Listening Party
| Start | Hello everyone. (10:01) |
| Mario's Cafe 0:00-4:37 |
We started with dear Dirk Bogarde, reading one of own poems. The next line is "and my train leaves at ten". Pete had a copy of Adam & the Ants' Dirk Wears White Sox. I still enjoy using the phrase "never trust a man with egg on his face." (10:03)
 The Johnny in this song was the same Johnny in the Echo Cafe, one for b-side connoisseurs. Harvey (on the longer version) is Harvey Williams, one of my oldest pals, Another Sunny Day, Field Mice hero, and fellow Brian Wilson obsessive. (10:04) Glad we got a Chris Eubank reference in, that really date stamps it. And Prince Be too. (10:04) |
| Railway Jam 4:38-8:51 |
Werk. (10:05)
Golden Teardrops by the Flamingos, as heard at the bottom of a lift shaft. (10:06) The title of Railway Jam comes from Pete mishearing a line on Joy Division's version of Sister Ray. (10:08) There was a vocal version as well, I think it's on the CD deluxe edition. (10:09) |
| Date With Spelman 8:52-9:10 |
Suggsy (10:09)
Phil Spelman is a legendary record dealer, if your thing is sixties British 45s. Me and Pete had just been to his house in Essex. I came back with one of these. Video Reference (10:10) |
| Calico 9:11-14:22 |
Big Joe Meek influence on this album too. Me and Pete were living ten minutes walk away from his studio on Holloway Road. And if you got the 43 north you'd end up going past the Archway Tavern on the cover of Muswell Hillbillies, and Fairport too. (10:11)
That melody was borrowed from Augustus Pablo sample. All sorted out and above board. We were also listening to a lot of dub reggae. Jon Savage set us off on that route, playing us some incredible King Tubby stuff. (10:12) I love Q-Tee's voice. It reminded me of Roxanne Shante, who in turn reminded me of Peppermint Patty. (10:12) We went to see her at her flat on the Kidbrooke estate (since demolished) because her mum wanted to make sure we weren't sharp practitioners. It was really light and spacious, proper municipal housing. (10:13) Bit of George Sanders, followed by David Essex... (10:14) |
| Avenue 14:23-22:03 |
This took us five days to record, which was a record for us. We had a vague rule that if a song wasn't coming together after two days in the studio we gave up on it. Ian Catt was amazingly patient with our flightiness. (10:16)
There was a song called Everlasting we started for So Tough which we abandoned. Flight From Tashkent was another. (10:16) The Avenue in the title is maybe, subconsciously, the Avenue mentioned in New Orde's Ceremony. It's one of my favourite words. (10:16) Savage Amusement is the name of a Michael Chapman album. One of his Decca albums. (10:17) This is the very first song that me Pete and Sarah co-wrote, with Yan Catt's invaluable help, too. (10:18) Paul Kelly's video for Avenue was the first time we worked on anything visual together. I loved it. Features the young Noah Kelly, who went on to star as the "titular" Mervyn Day. (10:20) Gotta go, get away was a slogan from a British Rail poster at East Croydon station (10:21) Pete's Japanese alarm clock, and a bit of Ride, into Tom Courtenay... (10:22) |
| You're In A Bad Way 22:04-24:46 |
You're In A Bad Way was meant to sound like Hermans Hermits with a Moog bassline. Seemed like a good idea at the time. It was recorded as a b-side but Alan McGee (who was managing us at the time) thought it might be a hit. (10:23)
The American video was bloody horrible. Cost a fortune. Major labels (we were on Warners in the US) didn't think twice about spending $50,000 on a video, which is roughly three times what the album cost to record. (10:24) But if we hadn't signed to Warners I may never have met Geoffrey Weiss, a very dear friend, who later signed Kenickie in the States (can't remember how that worked out.) (10:24) Sorry if I'm stopping anyone from watching Trump's medical procedure live on Fox, by the way. (10:25) |
| Memo To Pricey 24:47-25:09 |
Here we have Simon Price (then at Melody Maker and a heavy Malibu user) and Gareth Sweeney (northern soul fiend and dry wit). We were in a pub on the east side of Holloway Road called the Landseer. (10:25)
Simon Price added the following on Twitter during the Listening Party: So here's the story of Memo To Pricey, and how I ended up on a Top 10 album for 20 seconds. I first knew Bob Stanley through journalism, both writing for Melody Maker, and I was a huge fan of Saint Etienne. I moved in just around the corner from the house in Tufnell Park where he and Pete Wiggs lived. We became friends, often having drinks at The Black Horse, a tiny Irish (genuine Irish) pub off Holloway Rd which had a fire, a jukebox, and importantly, lock-ins. One day, Bob asked me if I would do a little spoken word bit on their next album. I was a bit surprised, because I don't have one of those rich, resonant Welsh accents that people usually want. But obviously I said yes. I asked what he wanted me to say, but Bob said there was no script. I should just come to the pub and they'd record me. But we didn't go to The Black Horse this time. The location was The Landseer, the opposite side of Holloway Rd probably because it DIDN'T have a jukebox. When I arrived, Bob & Pete were there with other mates, and members of the Heavenly Records mob. (The man who is my main interlocutor is Bob's friend Gareth Sweeney). I filled my head with self-consciously cool, quotable things to say. When the record came out, I was mildly miffed that they ignored all that stuff and instead used an off-guard moment when the dictaphone caught me talking bollocks about how I didn't like harsh-tasting adult drinks like whiskey and lager, and preferred Malibu. I joked that my journalistic integrity could be easily bought with Malibu and some Chinese food. In hindsight, though, I thank Saint Etienne from the bottom of my soul, because I know that if I heard the clever-clever, show-off outtakes now, I would cringe myself INSIDE OUT. The music, by the way, is from a Chanel perfume ad from the early 70s. You can probably find it on YouTube A postscript to all this: a few years ago, Bob asked me if I'd get onstage during Saint Etienne's Brighton gig (supporting Scissor Sisters) to sing Tim Burgess' part on I Was Born On Christmas Day. I practiced and practiced. Unbeknownst to them, I planned to drop a bit of Memo To Pricey into the outro before I walked off. "Malibu & Coke, Chinese food, Bob knows the address..." A little in-joke for the true heads. But - get this - this gig was SNOWED OFF! My moment of glory was cruelly snatched away, and Memo To Pricey remains unperformed live to this day. One other thing: the first bit goes "I can't get past that S&M barrier". Various lyrics sites get that wrong. I will answer questions later! |
| Hobart Paving 25:10-30:13 |
Roy Harper! (10:26)
I so love Sarah's vocal on this. (10:26) Another Paul Kelly video, with our mate Jim and a model who had also (I think) been in Suede's Metal Mickey video. Filmed around the back of Kings Cross, near the potato market - the site is now probably Google HQ. (10:26) The album was recorded at RMS Studios, near Selhurst Park. The pavements were being dug up by a company called Hobart Paving. Their name sounded much more exotic than it needed to. (10:27) We ran into Grant Showbiz while we were at RMS, the legendary Fall roadie-turned-producer. He was also in Moodswings, who weren't musically a million miles away from us. (10:28) Mr Ian Catt on harmonica. I remember him doing this live on stage in Glasgow, in a turret. Maybe I dreamt that. (10:28) There was a studio dog at RMS, an Alsatian called Diesel. The whole studio smelt very doggy. (10:29) That's my lovely sis Jules doing the Muttley laugh (10:30) |
| Leafhound 30:14-34:18 |
There was usually a copy of Record Collector or When Saturday Comes lying around the studio. The wants ads in Record Collector always included the one album by a group called Leafhound, one of the rarest albums in the world. (10:31)
The Leafhound album cover looked incredibly off-putting to us at the time. Very hairy. Like Diesel. (10:31) Anyway, tragedy plus time, this sounds terrific to my ears now. (No, I don't have an original copy). Also I like the idea of being a "freelance fiend", rather than a PAYE fiend. Video Reference (10:32) This is one of Pete's. I think it might be my favourite (10:33) Marc Almond (10:34) |
| Clock Milk 34:19-34:32 | No comments from Bob. |
| Conchita Martinez 34:33-38:35 |
Conchita Martinez was a clay court tennis player. I think she won Wimbledon the year after the album came out. Not that I'm saying we're psychic. It was Martina Navratilova's last Wimbledon and Conchita beat her in the final. (10:35) We got invited to Martina Navratilova's post-Wimbledon party but we didn't go. We wanted to. The problem was the invite "Saint Etienne plus one". We could imagine the embarrassment of being turned away because none of us had ID that said "Saint Etienne" (10:36) We were aiming for a cut-and-shut Shut Up And Dance production on this. Another big influence. Their records still sound incredible. So we were aiming for something like this: Video Reference (10:36) Or this, which has one of my favourite mismatches of song and title: Video Reference (10:37) When we got permission from Rush to sample Spirit Of Radio they were very sweet and wrote "No problem, but we don't know why you want to ruin your lovely song with our guitar". Probably the nicest letter we ever received from disciples of Ayn Rand. (10:38) Lord Of The Flies. A ghost! (10:39) |
| No Rainbows For Me 38:36-42:31 |
This was recorded in mono, as a homage to Phil Spector, in particular his Paris Sisters records. (10:39) The title was half-inched from a line in this beautiful Tammy St John single, which I was put onto by Mick Patrick and Malcolm Baumgart, a pair of incredibly knowledgable girl group enthusiasts. Big debt to Mick and Malcolm. Video Reference (10:40) Has anyone ever tracked down Tammy St John? I think she was originally from Hornchurch. Terrifyingly (for me) she must still have been in her thirties when we recorded So Tough. (10:41) |
| Here Come Clown Feet 42:32-42:54 |
The title Here Come Clown Feet comes from a page in Dr Seuss' The Foot Book. (10:43) Chunky shoes. The Family. Someone asked me the other day what my five favourite ever TV shows were - that's one. (10:44) |
| Junk The Morgue 42:55-48:06 |
The thinking here was that this would be the direction of our third album. Detroit techno, with a bit of Space Bass by Slick. (10:45)
Very cocky, we were already thinking about the album after. (10:46) It sounds more like Tiger Bay than I remember, except without the folk melody. (10:47) |
| Chicken Soup 48:07-48:27 | And here's Jerry Jaffe, our American manager. He had great stories of being "on the road" with the Osmonds and the Jam. Bon Jovi played at his wedding. And he went on to manage Joey McIntyre. And he wrote a fictionalised novel about the Shangri La's. (10:48) |
| End | Thanks everyone! Too much to take in! I'm really happy there's so much love for the album nearly (ulp) thirty years after we recorded it. (10:56) |