Describe your time with The Wedding Present in five words:

Sleep, work, play, work, drink

How many years did you work for the band?

From 1989 to around '95ish - I can't remember when I did my last gig...I think it was at Le Jimmy in Toulouse at the end of a European tour with the Smith/Gedge/Dorrington/Belk line up but I do have some distant memories of Jayne being on stage, so maybe I did a few one-off festivals after that.

What roles did you perform in your duties?

The first time I worked with them was a PukkelPop festival in Belgium in '89 and they had me doing the monitors to check me out more than anything else. I nearly turned them down as it was Reading Festival weekend and The Ramones were playing. Luckily they also played at the PukkelPop festival so I got to watch them from the side of the stage and get a much treasured Ramones plectrum (still have it...!). John Parkes saw Joey Ramone trying out his mic stand in a corridor, doing all his poses with it and asked him 'so you practice that do you?'. 

After that, I just did front of house sound and helped with loading in and out for a few years..and when they trusted me enough I was allowed to drive the van.

What was a typical working day like?

If we were doing a sleeperbus tour it would be:

Wake up at some godforsaken time (6AM)

Try to find somewhere to poo (there was a golden 'NO POO' rule on sleeperbuses) (8AM)

Check the venue out and sort out with the PA guys what we needed off the van (9/10AM)

Unload (catering first, if we had some, so they could have breakfast on the go) and put up the PA and lights (11AM/12PM)

Fire up the PA around midday whilst John and Sally set up the bands gear

We'd then have a quiet time for the lighting guy to focus and then lunch followed by a sound check that usually finished around 3 or 4 to allow the support band to do a sound check

Hang around, have dinner, gig

After the gig we would take everything apart again, pack up the truck and then shower

Finally, we'd all pile into the bus around 1AM for a few wind down drinks and sleep whilst we drove to the next stop.

Not bad for £50!

If we were in the USA it was the same except for changing the words 'sleep' with 'drive like a bastard across Kansas (again) to some other craphole' and taking out the word 'shower' and 'wind down' and replacing them with 'drive like a bastard and find that alll the motels en route are full'!

Not bad for £45!!

 
What is your favourite TWP/Cinerama track?

I don't actually know any Cinerama tracks (sorry David, you can send me some if you like!)...as for TWP probably Dalliance, Dare, Suck..in fact, most of Seamonsters plus a few of Bizarro and all the obvious oldies like MFD, Kennedy etc. To be honest, I can't say that I listen to TWP that much anymore, though when I do (like just now to see what my favourites were) it takes me straight back to the memories of gigs...argghhh, the horror...nurse...my tablets..NOW!!! 

What TWP live performance stands out in your mind?

We did a couple of shows in a row at the Astoria (London) that, for me, were great...the sound was fantastic - one of those times when everything clicks into place. Quite often, when I wasn't pleased with the sound and couldn't get it how I wanted I'd tell the band afterwards and they also weren't happy with their performance..so I guess the two are linked: so if it sounds great they must have played great as well!

A lot of the Seamonsters tours were fantastic - the songs suited my preferred sound, kind of dark and claustrophobic (with great big fucking guitars and drums and not much in the way of vocals!). There was also a lot of space around the individual instruments which helps to slot everything together.

The Ukranians tour was good because we got to eat curry every night for a month and The Ukrainians who at the Town and Country Club was very special with the dancers at the end.

What was your favourite venue?

I loved the Hummingbird in Birmingham (along with all the other 'Mecca Ballrooms' that were dotted around the country were great venues, always sounding good) had the bounciest floor in the world...the first time we played there I ended up with all the bouncers (and there were a lot of them - some venues are kind of 'tied in' to local 'security' and 'waste disposal' firms, if your get my drift) with their arms linked up around the mixing desk trying to stop the whole lot bouncing across the room.

The other places would have to be, in no particular order:

Glasgow Barrowlands (fantastic atmosphere)

Le Jimmy in Toulouse (swimming pool outside and the owner fries up a mean fish, answering the telephone with my favourite french phrase 'Ello oui?')

Anywhere in Bordeaux (in fact all of France is OK by me)

There's probably others but I can't remember (I was very drunk).

Did you have any input at recording sessions?

Not on proper recordings, I went to a couple of sessions at Air Studios near Oxford Circus. If there was any radio or TV sessions when we were on tour I would oversee them.

There's a huge difference in the skill set needed for a live vs studio sound, I don't think I had the patience for studio work (and lots of studio guys don't have the balls for live sound). You need to be able to perform at the highest level whilst completely pickled and also be able to drink more than anyone else..skills I picked up with ease.

What are your thoughts on the studio recordings versus the live experience?

They are two seperate things, live you can be much more extreme with the dynamic range, going from a whisper to ear-splitting. Also you feel, as well as hear, the music - I always tried to have the kick drum so you felt it in your chest. Unless you have a massive Hi-Fi at home, you're never going to get that effect. I did a Lolapolooza tour with Superchunk once and Cypress Hill, who were on the bill, were so bass-ey that your eyes wobbled..you couldn't focus properly!

Tell us about some of the excesses that you saw on tour (names can be omitted)?

To tell you the truth, there wasn't that many tales of sex and drugs and rock'n'roll. David wasn't a big drinker so it was always a laugh when he got pissed. We did all get very drunk once in Brittany - at a meal in the venue after the gig with a load of drunk frenchmen. I gave one of them a glass of wine mixed with mustard and told him it was English Mead and he drank it and then fell over! Sally fell asleep on a toilet and I tried to rescue her by standing on the cistern of the next cubicle. Suddenly I was surrounded by procelain, water and shouting frenchmen. There was an argument about suitable recompense for said toilet and then the promoter drove us back like a mad man to the hotel where we (me, Paul D, Dally and David) carried on drinking. It all got a bit hazy (someone was shouting 'where are the strippers, I want strippers!') and when I woke up in the morning my room looked like something out of Naked Lunch...red wine stains all over the walls and ceiling and croken glass everywhere...

Paul and me going 'shopping' (for lager) in Brighton before a soundcheck and turning up at the venue completely bladdered...Paul had to be woken from a semi-conscious state just before the gig..I was true drunk to hear properly so just turned everything up until the red lights blinked and Paul appeared to be trying out some free jazz versions of the songs...sorry Brighton!
 

Any funny anecdotes from on tour?

Paul Dorrington in general! 

Which band member(s) did you get one with best?

I got on with everyone really..I'd known Paul before he joined the band so was always up to no good with him. Keith was quite reserved until he got to know you but then was good fun. Simon was also a good laugh. Peter was Peter and David was a bit more aloof..although he would still join in the fun.

Towards the end of my stint (and the main reason I left apart from low wages) the humour was constant one-upmanship and picking on the weakest. I still remember sitting in the dressing room at the last gig and thinking that I'm not going to work for this lot again because it had turned quite sour.

What was your favourite lineup?

Smith/Dorrington/Gregory/Gedge for 'serious' music and Smith/Gregory/Solowka/Gedge for hit-worthy indie pop tunes. I was never comfortable with any of the lineups after that (though Darren was fun!)..they seemed too much like bums-on-seats just to keep going.

Tell us something that not a lot of people know about David Gedge

He doesn't like it if you wee straight into the toilet water..he prefers the aim at the side technique to cut down on excessive wee noise.

He can be charming and gregarious (though also tight as a gnat's chuff).

He used to tug at his earlobes which annoyed Sally immensely.

I owe him fifty quid (actually quite a few people know that - he still mentions it to mutual friends 10 years later!).
 

Have you seen TWP or Cinerama live since leaving the setup?

I saw TWP in Brighton with Mike Stout doing the sound (he was their sound guy before me)..but that was years ago..'95 or '96. I kept meaning to turn up a Cinerama gigs to heckle but never got round to it.

Were the recordings that formed the official live tapes remixed afterwards, or is what we hear what was coming out of the PA via the mixing desk?

Straight from the desk...no messing around or overdubs. Occaisionally, where the desk allowed, I would put up a couple of audience mics and mix those into the direct sound to give a bit of ambience.

How many gigs per tour were recorded?

An many as we could

What happend to all the DATs? How much do you want for the box of unreleased tapes under your bed?

They were mainly done onto cassette until I 'borrowed' a review DAT machine when I worked at Vox magazine. David kept all the tapes..I might have a couple around somewhere. I never did get copies of the ones they 'released'.

Have you got a box of 'TWP-stuff' in the loft? Tell us what's in it?

I kept a lot of backstage passes and some singles, hit parade box sets and some one-offs of the painted sleeves we spent the weekend painting for Brassneck..if you say I've got anything else, I'll deny it!

What have you been doing since parting from TWP?

As they never paid enough I was always working other jobs as well, first of all I was on the Enterprise Allowance scheme which supplemented the pittance they paid me (they were the only band who treated your daily PD payouts as an advance against wages).

I moved down to London in 1991 and started as a picture editor for the 'second best to Q' Vox Magazine but that stopped after a couple of years to concentrate on tour managing and sound guying. Worked with Superchunk, Rocket from the Crypt, Drive Like Jehu, Unrest, Yo Le Tengo. Was a Channel 5 retuner and retired from rock in '98 to settle down and be normal before I went insane.

Got a job on the London Underground and, like one of my heroes Jah Wobble, became a tube driver, though, unlike him, I was never a contender.

Now I help to write safety standards and set up document management and database systems and am climbing up the greasy pole of management in the Underground. Have girlfriend, child, proper job, mortgage and getting double glazing..so for all intents and purposes I have achieved my objectives of normality..though ask anyone from my past and they may have a different story!