Exiting to England

Rip It Up, Issue 243, 1 November 1997, Page 13

Exiting to England

jggßgggggfl When Garageland walked off stage at / r Christchurch’s Lancaster Park on February 1 this year, they boarded a flight to Auckland, then left the next morning bound for London, becoming the first Flying Nun act to base themselves in England since the Chills did so in 1987.

For the past eight months, Garageland’s home has been a rented house in the South London suburb of Tooting, a 20 minute drive from the city centre. It’s been a period of upheaval and frenzied activity for the band Since their arrival in England. Their first task was to replace founding member Debbie Silvey, who opted out of the UK adventure. Then shortly after Garageland settled in London, Flying Nun boss Roger Shepherd resigned his position at the label. Englishman Andrew Claridge was recruited as second guitarist, and Mushroom Records (owners of Flying Nun) made Garageland labelmates with Symposium on the Discordant imprint, releasing the Comeback Special EP, as a follow up to the earlier Nun UK-released singles ‘Comeback’ and ‘Pop Cigar’. Garageland’s debut album, Last Exit to Garageland hit the shops in the UK early in October. Across the Atlantic, Flying Nun USA released the Comeback Special EP to coincide with Garageland’s 10 date stopover in America in June, and the band have since signed a USA album deal with indie, Food Chain. The band returned to the States late in October for a three week tour to promote the American release of their album. With no plans to play in New Zealand before early next year, to keep their hand in at home, this month Garageland release a new single, ‘Feel Alright’, a track recorded in London with the Velvet Underground’s John Cale. On a night off in Tooting, the day after returning from a gig in Glasgow, Garageland’s singer/guitarist Jeremy Eade is eager to heap praise on Cale, but won’t entertain the possibility of a Garageland Diana tribute. “No way, I’m not even going to joke about it. I find it quite sick that ‘Candle in the Wind’ crap.” Cale’s involvement with Garageland eventuated after Mushroom’s Rob Jefferson let slip that Cale was keen on producing young bands. “Rob got a letter from [Cale’s] manager, saying Cale was interested in having a look at any stuff. We’d mentioned to Rob that we were big Velvet Underground fans so he sent Cale our stuff and we got a letter back saying he’d be interested in doing something with us. “That all happened just before we toured America, we went there for 10 days and [Cale] was in New York at the same time so we were able to meet up. It was pleasant, he wasn’t playing on the fact he was a huge artist in the 60s and we weren’t trying to be brats, we just got on. He’s one of my favourite artists and I think he’s got a really nice touch. He did a really nice job of the song.” How much does John Cale cost these days? “I think it was a pretty good deal because our budgets aren’t that much. I don’t know the exact figure but it’s nothing like outrageous.” Do you expect his involvement will assist the band commercially as well as artistically? “I have no idea how people perceive John

Cale... I think it will be the song itself that sells it, not John Cale. Obviously it will appeal to people who know who he is, but from a commercial point of view his name is not going to sell too many records to Joe Six-pack.” When you arrived in London, and began playing live, was it a struggle to accept the band was effectively starting from scratch? “When we did a national tour in New Zealand, the main centres were good, we had good crowds, but in Timaru we’d play to 50 people. So coming over here and playing to small crowds didn’t feel like a major step down. We had a good start ’cause we got a tour with Symposium, who are the big new things out here, and all the venues were packed. “We’re starting again, but I think the thing is to make sure you’re not starting again all the time. If I felt we were going backwards I’d seriously reconsider what I’m doing, but at the moment, everyone’s feeling pretty up because things are moving forward.” Where is Garageland’s profile at in the UK? “People who read the weeklies, the NME and the Melody Maker, know who we are now. When we came to London for the first time in November 96, we played the Monarch — which is probably the size of Squid Bar — and we had a ring of people standing around the room, we played the same room three weeks ago and we filled it.” Are you moving beyond playing to ex-pats only? “I’ve always wanted New Zealanders to turn up to our gigs if they were Garageland fans, but I didn’t want them to turn up if they identified with me as a fellow New Zealander. I’d say it’s about 50/50 in London, and that’s a good ratio, so I think we’ve done well appealing to the New Zealand music fan rather than the New Zealand traveller.” How are British audiences responding to Garageland? “It’s taken this long for people to realise that we’re not going back, and they’ve started to refocus and realise we’re not just a fly-by-night band they’ll only see live once and maybe buy a seven inch. We’re still seen as a New Zealand band, but people know that we’re not going away.” How are the English press treating the band? “The press are so fickle here and their opinions about a band can change overnight. Since I’ve been here I’ve seen bands torn apart by the media, and what you’ve got to do if that ever happens is stand up to them and keep going ahead with the plan. A band like Blur have been written off four times and come back four times — there’s no point in worrying about how your perceived because you can change it pretty fast. People are just starting to build a perception of Garageland.” Has the band progressed at a level you’re happy with? “Not really, but it’s always been like that. People in New Zealand said we built really fast

there, but I thought it was miles too slow.” Three months ago, Roger told RipltUp Garageland were at the point where you needed good radio play to advance in the UK.

Is that happening? “We’ve had some good signs. They’ve got the evening sessions here, on Radio One,

which goes out to the whole country, we’ve been played on that but not as much as we’d like. John Peel played us early on, and there’s also X-FM, which is the equivalent of Triple J in Australia, and we’ve been spot played on that, but we haven’t got any serious playlisting as of yet.”

Are Garageland viewed as a Flying Nun band in the UK, or a Discordant act? “What was happening was, we’d go out to the shops on the Flying Nun label, and the label has such a cult status here that they wouldn’t take it, they’d just think, ‘this is so culty no one’s going to want to buy it.’ They wouldn’t even listen to the record, so [Mushroom] just created a new name called Discordant, and then they gave us a listen. We’re still a Flying Nun band in France, and in New Zealand and Australia.”

Have Flying Nun maintained a good rep in the UK?

“It’s considered a great label, but like any indie label, when you take it into a retailer, he’s saying, ‘l’ll put my ‘Candle in the Wind’ dance remix in the shop window,’ they don’t want a cult artist in their shop. Flying Nun bands are really respected here, but it’s a big myth if you think they’re selling huge amounts.” What was your view on Roger leaving the label?

“On an industry level, it was really early on for us when he left, we were here a month and then Roger resigned. On a band level, he’s still involved with us, we see him all the time and ask his advice. I think he felt a bit guilty because he was leaving us in the lurch, but he’s kept the personal contact happening ’cause he realises we need his support.” Did you feel he pushed or forced to resign? “The office politics of it all I don’t know, everyone seems to be all smiles and happy now. I presume Roger had been thinking about leaving for quite awhile. I don’t think he was pushed but I think he had lost interest, and that’s what he told us.”

To what extent was Roger involved with Garageland before he left? “I read the article in RipltUp where Simon from Loves Ugly Children suggested that Roger was playing no part in what we were doing, so I guess that’s where your question is coming from. When we first came here last November, we did so because of Roger, and we were dealing with Roger and his second in command, Helen [McLaughlin, Nun UK] — the original set up and impetus was through Roger.”

You’ve opted to go with Food Chain in America, rather than Flying Nun US, how did that deal come about?

“That was a really weird one. Lia, who’s part of Food Chain, she’s a radio plugger in America, and her and her husband formed Food Chain with some other people who used to work for majors. She was in Queenstown 18 months ago and she saw a Garageland t-shirt and she thought it was an amusement park. Thank god the girl in the shop told her it was a band, and she played [Lia] our record, and she loved it. She went back to the States and they got in touch, we met them and they gave us a lot of independence, so we went with them.” Basing Garageland in London, and the attempt to break the band from there, has it been overwhelming at times? “I never get overawed by anything. At the end of the day it’s just a bunch of people in suits trying to sell your record, and they go to a bunch of people in suits who’ll hopefully play your record, and they go to a bunch of people in shops wearing jeans who sell your record, and you’ve just got to keep your head together and make the music.” Has the band had any lucky breaks? “The first week we were here we made the indie chart on The Chart Show on national television, and we made it later with ‘Nude Star’, but I can’t really pinpoint any major breakthroughs because it hasn’t happened.” What’s been the best thing that’s happened? “We played a great gig at the Reading Festival in one of the tents, and we packed it out, about 1000 people, and that was a really nice feeling. The next day we got some good mentions for it in the indie press and that made us feel pretty good.” When are the most difficult times? “Touring is pretty stressful, we’ve played more gigs in the past eight months than we did in the whole of the time we were in New Zealand. Having said that, we’ve had our best gigs ever over here, and we’re so much a better band.” What’s the longest drive you’ve done so far? “We toured France in a Transit van in March, we drove from Paris to Toulouse which was 11 hours. Campbell Smith [manager] took the scenic route and we got stuck behind a lot of tractors.” Have you defined a breaking point, where if the band isn’t progressing, you’ll return home “Definitely. I keep going back to that moving forward thing, and everyone in the band has got their own goals.' We’ve made steps here and we’re starting to pull crowds, but it’s got to keep going on from there. I’m not in this to have cult status, I want to sell records and that’s why we’re here. I’d like to get through another two albums, and by then we should have progressed to a point where we’re pretty comfortable, and if we’re not that’ll be a crime against nature. There’s no way I’m going to labour on as some idiot martyr, playing to 20 people in Bournemouth... or 20 people in Auckland.”

JOHN RUSSELL