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Date: Tue, 5 Dec 1995 11:25:48 GMT
From: turner <G.A.Turner[at]-remove-exeter.ac.uk>
Subject: ***BISHOP***
Boy, you guys ain't exactly gruntled, are you?
So.
There's a hell of a lot of questions and shit to wade through, and
I'll do my best to answer the more major specific queries here.
Bear in mind however, that any authority I have on these matters
is probably less to do with the fact that I am in the band than it is
to do with the fact that I've spent more time on the telephone to
Pat then you lot in the last few weeks.
Reasons for the demise
Well, as you seem to have figured for yourself, the end of the JBC
is more to do with the end of the name than the... uh... retirement
of Pat Fish.
Whoever it was who mentioned media-related politics was, as it
goes, close-ish to the mark, although it makes it sound a little
cynical (i.e. it's a case of redressing the media-relatedly impolitic
idea of calling your band The Jazz Butcher in the first place. Also,
I didn't note where you come from, but if it ain't England, then you
really can't understand what a profoundly omipotent force the
music press is in this country).
Pat has, as one of you correspondents points out, wanted to ditch
the name since he signed to Creation in 1987 (McGee wouldn't let
him then) (no, that makes McGee sound like the kind of Suit that
he plain isn't... he dissuaded Pat is more like it), so it has been a
long time coming.
There is more to it than that, however. Pat is in the studio,
probably as I type (er.. retract that, he's probably in bed... but he
will be in the studio later today), recording some stuff for the new
project. Whether this will become an album, a single or just
demos, I dunno, and I haven't heard any of it yet (well, I did hear
some down the telephone wire, but you'll understand my
reticence to comment on that... there's one song going under the
working title of "Nobody's In The World Is Ever Gonna Miss You
When You're Gone" which I have great hopes for, however), so I
don't really know what it sounds like. What I do know is that it is
gonna end up sounding a fair amount different from what you
might be expecting. The first thing to note is that he's doing it all
pretty much on his own (with lots of sneaky electronic pals
providing extra limbs), although there will be some contribution
from erstwhile Conspirators at a later stage (I'm going up next
week). How the hell it will translate into a live experience is pretty
much anyone's guess at present. We ought to find out what it
sounds like first, and I apply this statement to Pat as much as to
the rest of us. Someone mentioned the idea of the new band
playing old tunes live, but I think it's pretty safe to say that that is
not even under consideration.
As far as names go, if you see anything on the racks under the
names of... ahem:
Audio-aquatic
Cathode Ray Mission
or Cosomonaut
then it's fair to assume that you know the score. It's not like
anyone has to decide anything as yet.
I ought to point out that McGee and Creation are right behind the
whole affair, so a) the records will be made, b) they'll definitely
get to the shelves in this continent, c) they stand a much greater
chance (like pretty well 100%) of getting to shelves across the
water, too and d) Pat's gonna get paid some money as an
incentive to do it all. Day jobs? Nein danke.
Other Miscellaneous points
America.
Yeah, we would have liked to do one last American tour, too
(OBVIOUSLY... there seems to be this idea kicking about that the
JBC have "shunned" America since 1992, when the truth is far
more like America shunning the JBC). If any of you can arrange
us one which will cover our travelling expenses, then please feel
free to do so. We'll even come out of retirement, if the rider's
right.
Remixes.
There may be some in the pipeline. Some guy in Paris is doing a
couple and some studio out-take type affairs already exist, you
won't be at all surprised to know.
Patrick Guy Sibley HuntRODS
Stranger Tractors.
Any suggestion that the end of the JBC has anything to do with
Pat's Tractor action is wildly off-beam. Still, anyone turning up to
the last ever show will get to see Pat attack his vodka drums with
the Traktori in their support slot.
Birthday shit.
Pat's birthday is, in fact, the TWENTIETH of December. There is a
great superstition surrounding JBC action on this date as a
result. Something always, he claims, goes horribly wrong. The last
time the Jazz Butcher was seen out and about on Pat's birthday
was the night Max left the band, and he's plain refused to do it
ever since....... Until this year. We're playing at Slurps Wine Bar in
Northampton on 20th December. Well, he figured, the band is
splitting up the next day... What could possibly go wrong?
As regards the messages, you're right, he would hate you for it,
but I equally agree that that's a good enough reason to do it. If
you guys want to get messages together for him then I will
happily make sure that they get to him BUT I must have received
them by this Friday (the 8th), 'cause I won't have any access to
cyberworld after that date (well, until next year). Alternatively,
there is a computer from which we can at least reach the Web
site in the studio in which we will be working next week (although
only until the eighteenth), so if David would like to collate them
and stick them up there somehow, then that would probably work
also. If that's the way you choose to go about it, then let me know,
and I'll make sure we have a look nearer the time.
Oh, and seeing as you're all feeling so celebratory, you might like
to know that Dooj has his birthday three days later and, in my
humble opinion, he deserves birthday wishes every bit as much
as Fishy. He is, after all, balder.
Right, that would appear to be that. Sorry if I flew you all in to a
wild panic with the tersity of my original communication, but I was
running late, see.
I guess I shall see some of you at the Garage (or, as we like to call
it, Armageddon)
Have a laugh, now,
Gabriel.
NRCUV.