Calling all...calling all. Being ill often makes you think of the past and now that I'm well enough to sit at a computer I've managed to find this original interview from 2001 after we had played the legendary Cellar Club in South Shields. Really odd to read something you only said once all over again. Interesting stuff though I think. Naomi was/is a nice lass, hope she's doing ok out there somewhere.
Also News In Brief - The Cheesemakers have found a new rehearsal room (shock) and are back in the swing. The plan is gigs by late summer (yes Ive said that before) but some momentum is on the boil and thats better than nowt so watch this space for further announcements. I won't bleat on about anything else 'we're gonna do' so I don't let you down again!
Also coming soon on this blog, some cracking vintage posters I've found...were you there?
If I had a picture of Naomi I'd print it so you could picture the scene but haven't, so you'll have to sketch yourself.
Anyway, the scene. In the downstairs reception area at The Cellar on the double seat next to the cloakroom, me and Naomi chew the fat....
Interview with Andy Ferguson of The Cheesemakers
27/11/01@The Cellar Club, South Shields. (c) Naomi Watters 2001
Naomi: Can you start by introducing the band?
Andy: My name's Andy, I work at Changesone as well, and we have Jim Hitler as he likes to be known on drums, Hesh on guitars, and Geoff on bass.
(At this point Danny and Neil come along and congratulate Andy on a great gig, Neil also announcing that Newcastle have won, and Andy announces this is the first football match he has missed in 15 years just to play tonight!)
N: Why are you called The Cheesemakers?
A: It comes from the film, 'Life of Brian'. At the beginning of the film, and everyone that reads this will probably know, Jesus shouts, "Blessed are the cheesemakers!", and somebody says, "What's so special about The Cheesemakers?", then somebody replies, "I don't think he ‘s just referring to the cheesemakers but to any manufacturer of dairy products". So, it's from Monty Python. Most good things are derived from Monty Python.
N: How long have The Cheesemakers been together?
A: This paticular line-up has been together for about a year or so. The Cheesemakers as such has been about five years but bass players are generally a bit, urm, flighty and moody to say the least . But this particular bass player has been about a year or so , and doesn’t have any of the aforementioned traits ! This is the best line-up.
N: How has working at Changesone helped the band?
A: Well, it's always a benefit to work for a record company, 'cos you can sign yourself, as I said at the instore, but I think that we're as good as anyone on the label, musically, you know, four guys that work everyday and then turn up and practise every week, as you've just seen, I think we're ok...and I certainly think that we do ourselves justice. And my bass player, this is the first band that he's been in, and after we played he said, "So are these groups professionals, do they do this for a living?" and I said "Yeah, they do it for a living", and so he was well impressed with himself that he had managed to do that, to go to work during the day, finish work and hammer down here - you know, we can't sit around in the pub all day and do whatever some people do, just turn up, plug in, play, we're as good as the two bands that are playing tonight, in our opinion, and I'm not frightened to say that.
N: Good for you!So, what was it like playing with The Chasers on their first unofficial gig?
A: It was good, 'cos I didn't know they were playing, apparently it was hatched whilst we were playing! I knew there was three of 'em there and they'd practised in the afternoon, and Mark joined on the afternoon and I thought that was fairly impressive that he'd managed to get up and do five or six songs after playing with them for two hours, and I thought it was great, yeah. and I think that was impressive that they managed to get up and do that. We've been together for about a year in this line-up, and we're so well-rehearsed now that we can just get up and play, whenever we are asked to - but to get up after two hours of practising is impressive, yeah.. As far as selling the CD goes , we are being dragged along on the coat tails of the bands on the label like The B-Movie Heroes, and Johnny Zhivago, and it’s excellent to be mentioned in the same breath as bands like this , even though we're as good as them! J But more and more people are getting the CD and finding out for themselves .
N: What music are The Cheesemakers listening to at the moment?
A: I listen to all kinds of music, before I came out I listened to Bob Geldofs album...I listen to all sorts, as you get older, your musical tastes broadern, and I listen to all kinds of things, right from jazz, classical up to The Clash...But the main sort of things I listen to are REM, Television, Iggy Pop...I suppose as a group interview, we're mainly inspired by the '70s punk thing - Patti Smith, Television, Iggy Pop and stuff like that. The Jam as well. I wouldn't say as a whole The Jam is a big influence musically, but I think it does come across. I suppose we do like the short two and a half minute songs like The Jam used to do. Can’t hide the obvious influences , wouldn’t want to . The Who are always an overbearing presence too .
N: In your opinion, what's the best venue that you've played so far?
A: Well I've always wanted to play at The Cellar - always! When I first started coming here 20 years ago , it was called The Chelsea Cat, it was just a nightclub then, and it's been three or four different venues in the last year or two and I've always wanted to play, because I think it's great, I think it's the right shape for a venue, like The Office - we love playing at The Office. The Cellar Club has got the right atmosphere.
N: It's got the same atmosphere as Trillians, I think.
A: It does have, I've never played at Trillians, but I've been to Trillians so I can guess what it'd be like, but I just like the idea of a stage and a semi-circle of people to play to, you never, though there's a dance floor, expect people to dance...well, Nick was there! There will be when The Chasers are on but that's to be expected, but you never expect to have people right in your face, and I've experienced that once or twice and it hasn't bothered us in the slightest. I'd have to say that The Cellar is a place I've always wanted to play and I'm proud I've played here, because of the history of the venue as well . The first 2 acts to appear here in the late 60’s were Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience . It’s just a shame the revolving stage isn’t here anymore .
N: What one band has most influenced The Cheesemakers style?
A: I think it was quite a half conscious thing, when the new bass player Geoff arrived about a year ago, the only sort of thing I was listening to at the time - which is also in answer to your question previously - was Television, which is a group from mid-70's New York. And that was an enormous inspiration, the song 'White Trash' is made to sound like Television, so perhaps that's the answer, but I think that things are in-built in me like The Jam, and REM, and U2 as well - 'Higher Than You' sounds like U2, it was probably meant to as well - but I think Television is the answer, certainly the coolest answer! And Iggy Pop as well, we did an Igg song tonight, but it's such an obscure song that people don't really notice, so we've turned that around to make it sound like our own song. So Iggy Pop/ Television.
N: Can you tell me about the tribute album to Television that The Cheesemakers are featured on?
A: Right, that's not a very big thing, it's just basically a Television list on the internet, in the same way of The Wildhearts, and the Antiproduct chat thing, and what's it called, the Antiproduct Peoples Rock Army...Which I should really become a member of - Sorry Alex!! It's just a Television list, and they're all fairly old guys most of 'em, but they get people to record their versions of Television or Tom Verlaine's songs There’s already one volume out which is a compilation and it's already distributed, but the best thing about it, is that it's such a small thing - there's only about 100 people on the list - but it's ran by people in New York, who know, Tom Verlaine, Richard Hell, - all the people in Television, they know Patti Smith, they know Iggy Pop...They know all of those people, ...And basically all they have to do to put this out is to play the songs to Tom Verlaine, and say, "Is this OK?", and he can let us know, because he wrote all the songs, and he's legendarily picky about what he does! And that's the greatest thing about it - that Tom Verlaine will actually hear our version, of the Tom Verlaine solo trackwe’ve done, but the greatest thing about is that it's distributed and sub-distributed and it’s very prestigious that Tom Verlaine will hear it. It's not an enormous thing commercially but it is artistically, really.
N: Can you tell me about the songs on 'The White Trash EP', and what inspired them?
A: The track that we've just been talking about is on, it's called 'Without a Word' and it's a Tom Verlaine solo track' that's on because it was recorded in the same session; thought it was good enough to put on so it’s there . The first track, 'Sheila on the bus', is a punk song , I bought the 'Punk 1, 2, 3, 4' box set, which features great stuff like The Saints - that's an Australian punk band - and The Buzzcocks etc., etc....It was all two and a half minutes, hammer it out, couple of choruses, couple of verses, hammer it out, do it, and that came from that, it's just basic chords.There’s actually a very serious message in there under what seems to be quite a silly storyline . The person who goes on the bus doesn’t really want to , then when he finds that Sheila’s ‘not there’ – metaphorically if you catch my drift – he doesn’t care because he’s tried and tried to do something . So it’s serious shit disguised as silly shit ! ' Higher Than You' is basically us sticking up for ourselves against the mindless cover drivel bands - "we're as good as you" kinda thing, it was written fairly recently, the words are things like "We're travelling at high speed, we are higher than you...", It's not...I don't mean to diss anyone - if that's a word a white person can use! But it's meant to say, we can hold our own kinda thing. 'White Trash' is fairly similar lyrically, and 'Bob Bizzare' is actually about my brother in-law, who used to be a big fan of the group I was in which was called World of Spam – who were actually a mindless cover band - , ten years ago, and he used to look like Robert Smith, and regardless of the gig or the context, he'd always come down and get absolutely pissed and just charge around on the dance floor and generally knock the PA over, and that's what it's about! So we had a setlist of about 30 songs, and they're all originals, and we were suddenly thrust into the position of having to pick four songs for the EP when I'd probably written about 300 in my days, probably 30 or 40 of which are any good, and those were the ones that happened to be best at the time.
N: What is the 'Cuban Paint' LP going to be like, and when do you expect it to be released?
A: The 'Cuban Paint' album, is something quite different from The Cheesemakers, it's myself and Hesh from the group and also Dunf from that legendary mod group The Leapers and the basic idea is, when people need somewhere to go after the pub, some go home and get the Playstation out, some people get the porn on and older people will get The Trivial Pursuit out, our crowd when we go home we get the guitars out, and we sit and play songs, and you'll just sit and play the songs until the early hours, and somebody will say, “one time we should record these songs, you know, we should do them”, and most of the time that just gets forgotten the next day and that's it. What The Cuban Paint album is going to be is the sound of that idea actually coming to fruition , and we're actually recording it, and it's basically just songs that I've written over the past few years that aren't suitable for The Cheesemakers because they're acoustic, and songs that aren't suitable for The Leapers. We've worked our way through each track and we now have a great master tape of demos for 14 songs and what's exciting now is to re-record it and get it done professionally, perhaps on the Changesone label – although I don't think so honestly, 'cos I don't think it's the kind of thing that suits the label - but do the songs justice 'cos they're great songs. It's such a great set of songs that that's what we've decided to do, and that's what it's all about, and all will become apparent next year. There’ll be a few small select gigs where people who are in the ‘in crowd’ , like yourself , will get invited for an acoustic evening with Cuban Paint …ha ha ha
N: What's the name about?
A: It's a fairly obscure thing. When you form a group you try to think of a name and you tend to write things down, what about this, what about that...the best thing's always come from thing's people say, off the cuff, and I was talking to Dunf on the phone, and the original name was Wizards Sleeve, which has already been used apparently we found out afterwards, and we were trying to plan a rehearsal that night, and I said are you gonna play tonight and he said "No, I've got to go back to work tonight" - he works at a paint factory, and he said, there's something going on at the factory and I've got to go back tonight, so I said "Oh, it's sorta like a paint crisis!", and he said I suppose it’s a ‘Cuban Paint Crisis!” So the original name for the band was Cuban Paint Crisis and then over 25 beers it sounded better as Cuban Paint! The actual title for the album was 'The Breakfast Situation', 'cos me and Dunf were on the way to practice, and we got to McDonalds drive thru and we wanted some breakfast and it was ten minutes after they'd finished so they refused to serve us breakfast, so that became the breakfast situation!
N: What upcoming gigs have you got planned?
A: We’re resting over Xmas, but we have plenty of things lined up for next year, no firm dates yet. But there will be lots of stuff and we are hopefully doing a gig with Darrell Bath to help promote his solo album which comes out on the Chanagesone label soon, also Cuban Paint are doing the aforementioned acoustic things , and hopefully more things with all of the bands on the label , 'cos we have to sell 500 CDs! We're not here to make money though, I doubt we ever will, we're just here for our own enjoyment.
N: Where can people get hold of The Cheesemakers CDs?
A: There was an album called 'It's Toasted' which was a home reocrded thing, which was ok, but it was a CD-R, and there's also 'Live in the Orifice' which was live at The Office, but those are both out of press now to be honest. The 'White Trash EP' is available from Changesone now, within about three or four weeks you'll be able to get it anywhere in the country, 'cos as the same with everything on the Changesone label it's going to be through Shell Shock distribution, if you can't just walk in anywhere in the country and buy it you'll be able to order it, and hopefully also overseas as well. I've also got a deal with a guy in a record shop in New York, he's taken some CDs in the past and so hopefully he'll take some for North America. And distribution is going really well for stuff like Antiproducts Van EP, I doubt you'll know about this but we got an order for 300 copies of that today! Hopefully in the future it will be similar for The Cheesemakers and anyone in Britian will be able to at least order The Cheesemakers CDs.
N: Finally, how can you be contacted?
A: I can be contacted at the ChangesOne shop
More release info can be found at http://www.changesone.co.uk , then onto the label page.
It is with great pleasure and not a little hint of anticipation that I announce the return of The Cheesemakers to the live stage in 2010.
