Picture Chords

memories 1

I came upon your request for memories of the Manchester Musicians Collective in the late 70’s. I was a member in 1979/1980 as part of a band called Picture Chords. I’ve attempted to write my reminiscences of that time below without drawing it out too much. I have many anecdotes about playing with other peoples equipment, turning up at dodgy venues, rehearsing in what is now a very expensive apartment block on Deansgate etc etc, but these stories have probably become exaggerated over the years so I will stick to more factual memories.  

The MMC meetings took place at the North West Arts Centre downstairs in what looked like café if I remember right. When I joined in January 1979 there were mainly punk and new wave type bands. After each meeting most of us would end up in the Sawyers Arms on Deansgate and talk about our music and the music we listened to. This was all part of being in the collective, talking to other musicians of varying capabilities all really enthusiastic about their ideas. I was also educated in some of the more diverse music influences of other people which led to me picking up on a lot of new stuff.

  The meetings usually revolved around arranging the gigs at the Band On The Wall and people providing ideas for other locations we could play. For most people the MMC was the only real opportunity they had of playing live. I remember leaving one of my first meetings with a combination of fear and elation at having been given a date for Picture Chords first gig even though we didn’t have any real material and certainly not enough to fill more than 10 minutes.

  The MMC gig night at that time was Tuesday at the BOTW. There were usually 3 bands on starting at 8:00 each playing for between 30 to 45 minutes. The size of the crowd varied and usually depended upon the number of followers each band had. The bands playing got to split the takings from the door. The most I ever remember getting was about £30 between 3 of us.

  Things seemed to change after the release of the MMC compilation album released on Object by Steve Solamar. Steve did this with the best intentions but it seemed to hinder rather than help the MMC. Those selected were very happy to have their first opportunity to make a recording and be feted by the likes of Radio Manchester and Paul Morley of the NME Those not selected were either disappointed, envious or just angry. The atmosphere definitely seemed to change.

  By late 1979 the location for the MMC night changed to Sunday at the Cypress Tavern which in a lot of ways offered a better venue but didn’t really have the same atmosphere as the BOTW.

  I last attended an MMC night around April 1980. I hadn’t been to one for a few months and I was amazed at the number of different faces. I suppose this was what the collective was all about and a lot of the bands I originally met through the MMC had either split up or gone on to bigger things. There certainly seemed to be a lot more structure with talk of meeting minutes, committees and actions. The first meetings I had attended may have been a bit chaotic but this was all part of the charm of it. I think its naivety and lack of order was what attracted a lot of people.

  My lasting image of what the collective was originally will be that of people applauding some of the most unrehearsed bands without any words of criticism and only encouragement. Maybe this was because they knew that in the coming weeks it would be their turn. Nevertheless it was a great atmosphere to make your first excursions into playing live and gave people the confidence to try out new ideas.

memories 2

Picture Chords

The band was really just me and Pete Pojuner but we added Paul Cop on vocals and for live gigs Andy Hanney on drums. We actually did rehearse on the 3^rd floor of the Great Northern Warehouse which is now a shopping centre and cinema, I think the part we used is now apartments. It was rented to us by the Martial Arts place across from the BOTW and was used by them as a practice room. There were no proper electricity connections, plugs etc so we used to connect bare wires up to the mains. The sound was really bad due to the high ceilings and solid wooden floors.

MMC Meetings

It was mainly newly formed bands meeting up at the North West Arts Centre off Deansgate.

There was no apparent agenda just general discussion about where to get gigs, good/bad venues and contact names etc Mostly I remember discussing the rota for the MMC nights at the BOTW which for most of us was the only chance of a gig Also those more “experienced” people would give advice on arranging gigs, using PA’s etc

The MMC

What I remember most was the amount of new and varied music coming from loads of new bands, most were what could probably be defined as “new wave”

but some were trying more experimental stuff Bands would often form, break up and form new bands within weeks. There was one band I knew who I saw 3 times in 3 months and the only common thread was the singer who had previously been the guitarist and bassist.

There was the sense of a “movement” happening although we soon seemed to start taking ourselves too seriously and more competition seemed to creep in.

I remember having the MMC Album bands photo taken outside the BOTW one Sunday with everyone trying to get into a position where they could be seen. As usual we were at the back talking when the photo was finally taken and ended up hardly being visible.

  BOTW Gigs

These were on Tuesday nights.

There always seemed to be a sense of excitement and expectation. I remember even feeling nervous for other bands playing since you tended to know most of the bands there. Generally it was the same faces each week and it felt like our own club for the night.

We used to use whatever gear was available on the stage. In 1979 very few of us had the money to buy much more than the instruments we played so being able to borrow from others was essential. Problem was that getting the sound you wanted from someone else’s amp was not always easy and usually ended up with the owner getting pissed off when they realised you had changed all their settings Our sets were often under rehearsed and forgetting the chord sequence half way through a song was not unusual – we got pretty good at covering this by agreeing that if we made a cock up you just played it twice to make out that it was really part of the song The bands would split the door takings between them but we often spent more at the bar than we made off the door Once or twice Tony Wilson turned up and got nothing but abuse from everyone – Steve Coogans portrayal of him really was the most accurate.

Cypress Tavern Gigs

We only played there once – our last ever gig We had lost our singer days before and so we decided to improvise a few things. For some reason we ended up with Steve Solamar and Steve Miro on stage with us as well as the drummer and bassist from Vibrant Thigh. It was completely chaotic – 3 guitars, 1 synth, 1 bass and drums and absolutely no structure. The bassist and drummer finally gave up after about 20 minutes but the two Steve’s valiantly played on oblivious to the chaos. Crazy thing was that the few people listening actually seemed to get into it and cheered for more when we finally ran out of ideas.

Deeply Vale

Turned up without any amps as usual and managed to borrow gear from Spizz Energi. I don’t think they had ever had that happen before but we convinced them that it was the way we worked in the MMC and therefore quite normal.

As we hung around the back of the stage we were approached by several “spaced out” people who wanted to join our band for the night which we politely and as time wore on less politely refused., We were asked to do a sound check and were dully followed on stage by 2 or 3 of these guys. We completed the sound check only to discover that the sound guy had mixed in at least one extra guitarist who had unbeknown to us decided he was playing with us.

As we completed the set we left the stage to mainly jeering and abuse but as we went to leave one of the organisers insisted we were brilliant (its amazing what good drugs can do) and insisted that we should do an encore.

You can imagine the crowd’s reaction to seeing us walk back out on stage.

Problem was that we didn’t do encores and had nothing prepared so we made something up. The crowd’s reaction was not really positive and at one point I remember a whole potato narrowly missing me, why a potato was chosen to show their disgust I’ve no idea.  

What about trying to put together a band by band breakdown and links like the old Pete Frame charts. A lot of the bands ended up linked in some way and a few actually went onto bigger things. I know I can do one for Picture Chords but I’m not sure how easy it would be to get the other bands info.

  Cheers

  Andy

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Property Of......

I wanted to be in an all girl/women band

I was living with Dick witts and Martine was going out with Tony Friel ( Fall and Passage ) .We formed property of as a duo and did our first gig just the two of us with a drum machine.  We only had 3 songs and “Dance like your dead” was a gift from Tony . To start us off. We then searched for a singer  (Lynne) and gigged like that for a bit and then the guitarist Cath  Carol (later of Glass Animal ,Meow and columnist for NME) only joined the week before we did the recording. We rehearsed at Franks and at my flat. Both were big Victorian houses and we had the equipment but Martine had a car.  We “ mutated into Sacred Opera for a while” I left, then Cath eventually left to form The Glass Animals and Martine joined The Passage.

Martine and I later formed another all girl band called Electra Complex.

Louise

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Rare Device