Nasher releases a new album (May 1999)

Nasher is back on the musical stage and ready to conquer the world with the forthcoming album "Ripe". The FGTH pages took the opportunity to ask the former guitarist what he has been doing in the past and what he's up to now. Enjoy!

You have recorded a new album called "Ripe". Are you working with anyone in particular ? How long have you been working on the album?
 
Several musicians contributed to the recording of the album and here is some information about them. Tony Kiley played the drums and was formerly the drummer in The Blow Monkeys. He is currently touring with Chris De Burgh because he did something very bad in a past life!!  Bass was played by Andy Coughlan who previously played with Gary Numan and a few other dodgy blokes. Keyboards were played by an outstanding musician called Nigel Hopkins who plays with Celtic Cross and an R&B outfit called The Shirtlifters. A chap called Anthony Griffiths did some bass and some singing and he plays in a band called the Real People who's original drummer was Tony Elson (small world). Harmonica was applied by a chap called Mitt Gamon who really has played with everyone and is currently working in Cornwall on a project called "Staiway To Devon". Mitt's pal Monti played drums on one track and he has previously worked with Ian Dury and Curve and is a slow groover. The album took about a year to make but we were not working flat out!!
 
How would you describe the music ?
 
Bonecrunching, organic, mayhem, in your face, psycho sex-funk from heaven. Seroiusly though, most of the songs were written with an acoustic guitar and were fleshed out with drums, bass and keys. I have never been a fan of putting music into any particular bracket and I'm not going to start now. I would say there is something for everyone.
 
Which song will be released as a single?
 
Initially the album will only be available on the internet so there will not be a single as such but I may put an MP3 of one of the tracks on the website but I have not decided yet.
 
Do you get any help from the record label to promote the record?
 
When I finished recording my album I approached about five record companies to see if anyone would be interested in giving me my own label and distribute my stuff. I would play them the songs and there reaction would be " Yeah, yeah, it's really great but not for me". I had built my own studio and had funded the album myself so rather than keep going to see dickheads and getting more and more depressed about the state of the U.K. music industry, I decided to release it myself on the internet and maybe pick a distribution deal somewhere in Europe where the record companies seem to take more notice of the music than what pants you are wearing.
 
What happened to Dr Jollys Salvation Circus?
 
It was a good vibe while it lasted but I felt that of the four memebers of the band I was doing more than fair share of everything that keeps a band going so I decided to have a go by myself. I will always be grateful to Grant Boult, my songwriting partner in DJSC and Low, whose encouragement led me to take the microphone myself and ultimately leave him behind. He has songwriting credtis on some of the material on "Ripe" so I hopefully he will earn a few quid if I am successful in this venture.
 
Besides your current music project, what are you into these days?
 
My musical taste is very varied and my purchases are guided mostly by reviews that I read in Q. Recently I have bought Grant Lee Buffalo - Jubilee which I really like, Fatboy Slim - YCALWB which I think is alright but a bit overrated and I am currently listening to Afro Celt Sound System - Volume 2: Release which was engineered and written by my mate Martin. My favourite album recently has been by a little known girl singer called Jonatha Brook and is called Plumb. I also love The Posies, Jellyfish, Prince and The Real People but not necessarily in that order. I liked Madonna's last album and will be finishing my live set with a version of "Ray Of Light"
 
Let's go back to the glory days with Frankie. You and the others in the band were big stars and suddenly you broke up from each other. What was your personal feelings about that? Do you think this was the best way or did you want to continue your career with Frankie?
 
All good things have to come to an end. It is very difficult for a group of strong personalitys to get on famously all of the time and I think it was better to call a halt to proceedings before it got really nasty. There was a divide between Holly and the rest of us and sometimes we thought his actions were selfish and he no doubt thought the same about us. I read his book recently and I realised that Holly has been a loner  from a very young age and never really been a team player and if I would have known then what I know now maybe things would have been handled differently. The saddest thing on reading his book is that he was thinking we were up to no good and we were thinking the same thing about him. If we could have communicated a bit better and been a bit more united towards the record company then things could have been easier.
 
Were there any plans to reform the band?
 
If there were then nobody asked me!! I believe that if you have been part of a successful band then you are part of people's lives and their memories. We can never recapture those times and those feelings for ourselves and we can never do it for the fans either. I would rather people remembered FGTH as five people having the time of their lives rather that five thirty-somethings who are only doing it for the money, which is the only reason why bands reform.
 
What do you think of Trevor Horns producing? I mean, FGTH were (I guess) a rockband and you were the guitarist. Although the guitar playing was often more in the background of the studioversions, especially on the Pleasuredome album. What is your opinion about that?
 
Trevor Horn is an excellent producer but it has to be said that he surrounds himself with excellent engineers/musicians/songwriters who never seem to bask in his glory and have to go off and find their own. He has been responsible for some fantastic records but recently has been involved in some shit like Rod Stewart whom he once described as "someone's dirty old uncle" following a Top Of The Pops appearance. I don't think FGTH would have sounded like they did without Trevor but the band wrote the songs and it was the band that sold it to the world so don't believe the hype!!
  
Could you tell  something about the best and the worst FGTH gig?
 
There were so many brilliant things that happened and some fantastic disasters that are too numerous to mention but here are a few that spring to mind:
We once blew out 56 windows of a huge gymnasium in Seattle when our pyro technician had to finish of the last of the maroons before we went to Japan were maroons were not allowed. On the last chord of Two Tribes there was an almighty bang followed by a huge crash as the windows blew out. We felt the blast onstage and Ped was nearly blown off his riser.
On the last gig in Bordeaux we all stripped off and showed the audience our arse which they seemed to enjoy. An event I captured on video ( no offers please!! )
We performed at a place in Chicago called The Bismark Theatre and when we came onstage there was a huge dip in the dancefloor in front of the stage. After 3 songs the gig was stopped as the floor had collapsed over an old orchestra pit and the only thing keeping the audience up was the carpet. About six hundred people had to leave the venue while fire marshalls erected barriers fifty feet from the stage but the show went on. The Daily Star had a reporter who was sent to cover the gig and the next day the front page headline read "Frankie Sink The Bismark". I would love to hear from someone who was at that gig.
The bad gigs were usually where the sequencers or keyboards broke down. We were using some very technical equipment for the time and were one of the few bands using this stuff live so sometimes it did go horribly wrong and we would have to do a thrash version of Relax with no keyboards (not easy).
 
 Do you know what Mark and Paul are doing nowadays?
 
I spoke to Mark recently and I think he is concentrating more on his golf swing than his bass.
I heard that Paul was in the country recently but I did not see him as he doesn't call me anymore but that's Paul. I will probably bump into him somewhere in the future and he will probably act like I saw him only last week and tell me he lost my number!!!
 
You, Ped, Paul and Mark were sued by your ex-manager. Could you tell something about that. What happened?
 
Our old manager sued us because he reckoned he was owed royalties. If the case would have gone to court I feel we would have won for reasons I won't go into. He had legal aid so even if he lost in court we could not have recovered our legal costs from him so we made an out of court payment to him instead of spending double the amount to go to court just to prove a point. I would have gladly paid him if he would have asked for it but he chose to hide behind a lawyer instead of being a man and picking up the phone. It inspired me to write some songs as I channelled all my vitriole into a tape recorder. I'll close by saying his lawyer  probably earned more money than he did.
 

What about your future plans? Are there some goals that you haven't reach yet in your life?
 
My plans for the near future are to go and do some gigs and take "Ripe" to the people.  The musicians I have are all fantastic players and as someone once said " A slendid time is guaranteed for all". I had always wanted to win an Ivor Novello like Mark, Ped and Holly but I think it has been devalued recently by some of the tossers that have won it so I think I would like to win an Oscar for best song in a film or something like that. I can really see myself giving an acceptance speech in a t-shirt and trainers.

� 1999 by Tommy M�kinen

May 16th 1999