Budwiser
Mention the Darling Buds to anyone, and they’ll probably think you’re referring to the over-rated TV programme. But just think back two or three years and you’ll remember three men and a little lady who produced a cracking pop LP, entitled ‘Pop Said’ and went on to have several Top 20 hits.
Between then and now the group’s second LP came and went, and now they’re about to record their third.
I travelled to the band’s home town of Newport where they were just about to fly out to the States to start work on the aforementioned third LP.
In the comfort of a local ale house I settled down to Harley and sometimes Chris explaining the finer points in the world of popular music. The chosen tape facility was ‘record’, and away we went. Funnily enough, the first topic of conversation was the music press. “Music papers, do you read them?” Harley looked bemused, “I used to but…..know and again if I’m on a train somewhere, I’ll buy them for something to read but apart from that I don’t usually bother. They write what they want to write, so you think, ‘What’s the point?’ They either make you look great or a complete t**t. I picked up this magazine when I was in London and it had this Manic Street Preachers interview and the guy was really giving them a slagging off.” Chris joins in, “I reckon he was doing it just to get people to write in, to get a bit of a name for himself.” Harley agrees, “Well that’s what they want, they want to be a big a name as the bands they write about. They want that, they like it.”
The Manic Street Preachers, now there’s another band from Gwent. Harley again, “There’s nothing wrong with them, they’re great. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with anyone who gets up and does what they want to do. Why should they be slagged off, just because they’re having a good time? They’ve signed to a major label, so there’s obviously some interest there. As it happens it’s the same label as us. There must be a Welsh influence at Sony, or we’re all tax losses!”
What do you think of their music? Harley grinned, “Well, I’m not going to mention The Clash!” Chris half agreed, “I thought they sounded like SLF.” There seemed like a general concensus on circa ’77.
What do you think of their statement that they’re the most original band for twenty years? Harley looked thoughtful, “It’s weird, they probably are in a way. They want to be pop stars and how many bands recently have said that? If you go back to the time of Bolan and Bowie they were pop stars, real pop stars. Take the Pixies who are quite big in the UK, they’re aren’t pop stars in the sense of…..they aren’t seen as gods; the Manic Street Preachers are going about it differently. Maybe they’re right in what they’re saying? I just admire them for what they’re doing. I think it’s great.” Chris looked up from his pint, “Actually I put them on just after they started. They sent me a demo and I thought that it was pretty good. They’ve gone downhill since then!” Harley disagreed, “They’ve got attitude though which is what a lot of people like. They didn’t have much of that when they first started. They were just four blokes getting together, doing covers and playing. All of a sudden they’ve a manager, moved to London and they’ve totally changed.”
So what do you think of the razor incident? Harley continued, “Was it 4 Real or something? It’s not something I’d do for publicity. I don’t want it that way.”
The conversation moved on, finally settling on the States. So you’re going to the U.S. on Sunday? Harley started to get excirted, “We’re working with Don Fleming on the third album. Andrea and I went out there not so long back. We went to Woodstock studios and Chris came out and we bummed around for a bit. We saw Gumball play and we met Don afterwards. We mentioned the album and he said he’d like to do it. We came back to Wales, saw Gumball play again, and arranged a date.”
“As for the material, we’ve written the basics but we’ll write the rest in the studio, it’s how we work best. With the first album we’d been playing it live and we just put it down as we played it – into the studio and it was over and done with.”
“A lot of the second album was worked out in the studio and it’ll probably be the same with this one. We all contribute now, Chris, Andrea and myself. Jimmy doesn’t write anything though, it’s very rare you a find a drummer who writes!”
So where are you looking forward to visiting? Harley “We’re basically there for work, but I’m sure we’ll visit a few clubs. I’d like to go to the Knitting Factory, a club in New York. There’s a lot of jazz played there, quite a few new bands as well. I went to Disneyland the last time I went there and it was a pile of shit. I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody!”
Where exactly are you recording? Yes, you’ve guessed it, Harley, “We’ll put the basics down in New York and we may move onto LA. There’s no schedualled release date as yet. It was supposed to be out by now, but there’s been such a change with the label. Although Sony bought out CBSD three years ago, only now they’re making the changes. We have a new A&R man and all our plans have been turned around.”
So what will the album sound like, your first LP or your second? “It’ll be more like the first really, but a lot more heavier. I think we’re all listening to heavier stuff now. OK, we’ve had the dance thing but I never really liked it. WE only did a few dance mixes because the record company said so. I suppose it was fun to do in the studios but when you hear it you think, ‘No, we didn’t do that!’ We fell into the trap because we were looking for an alternative.”
As the conversation progressed we discussed some of the new record releases. I was surprised to find out that Harley was well into Nirvana and the sub-pop thing, “But then again I’ve always been into guitar-orientated music but now I’m looking at the harder edged stuff; but then again we still write what we write. They are basically pop tunes and then you listen to the record and you hear a noise and you think, ‘well if I run that noise on this…..’ There’s still a tune there but heavier. For example, we went inot the studio for four days and recorded an EP for release in the UK (unfortunately it was never released), and that sounded a lot heavier.”
Harley continued, “We really like it, so it looks as though three of the tracks will appear on the new album. The EP was played a lot on college radio in the States; it went down really well.”
Speaking of going down, do you think the bubbles burst on the Manchester scene? “For me the bubble burst ages ago. I can’t speak for the kids though, are they still buying it? In a way though, dance stuff as always been part of anyone’s music. What I find really annoying is when you’re in a club and the beat’s the same all night long. It drives me mad! There’s all these guitar bands playing over the same beat, it’s a bit like karaoke! They stick a drum beat on and get the band to play over it. You can play any music with that same beat and everybody dances, there’s something wrong there.”
Talking of remixes I questioned the boys on their psychedelic mix of ‘Shame on You’. It went out on the brilliant Airspace II compilation a couple of years ago. They were quick to point out that it was a remix and not a dance mix. “Mind you, we did a dance version on a John Peel session about three years ago and I rember at the time he said, ‘Not quite what you’d expect from the Buds’ and nobody took a blind bit of notice of it.”
It was about time Chris had his say, if only a sentence. So what are you listening to Chris? “Quite a lot of hardcore these days; Jane’s Addictio9n; Pixies and a few others.” Harley cuts in, “Andrea’s got a really wide taste in music, she likes anything from Ride to 10,000 Maniacs.”
Ah, Ride, glad you mentioned them. What do you think of that scene, Chapterhouse, Slowdive, etc? “A lot of it is something and nothing really. Lush are alright, we liked them a while back and we asked them to tour with us. They didn’t seem to go down too well at the time. I don’t think people were expecting it!”
Interview by Darren Jones