ULTRASOUND
As you’re probably all aware by now, ‘Indie Heaven’ was set-up by myself a year-or-so ago, with a goal of reconnecting with my teenage self. I liked that guy. It’s good to reconnect. Sourcing, editing and publishing these pieces takes me somewhere ancient. My teenage bedroom, my mum bringing me through a cup of coffee, scrapbooks, making my fanzine, the excitement of the NME and Melody Maker arriving on a Wednesday morning, big dreams, walking around Doncaster with my Walkman, the world open to me.
Ultrasound were all of this to a seismic degree. Each single release was an event to me, where I would purchase the CD, and the alternative formats, insert them into my stereo, turn off the lights… and leave. Where did I go? Fuck knows. But it was a place of magic, of awe and of wonder.
Vanessa Best [bass] and Andrew ‘Tiny’ Wood [vocals and guitar] have a story to tell unlike any band of whom I can think. It’s a pleasure to dip into that story for this induction into ‘Indie Heaven’.
I’ve always considered Ultrasound a very meta band. You’ve got a tonne of songs about being in a band. I guess the obvious example is ‘Same Band’, but even your 2011 comeback ‘Welfare State’ seemed as much about the timeline of the group as much as it was you scolding the concept of poverty porn…
Tiny: “Oh, I’m loving the phrase 'poverty porn', a phrase I'm not familiar with, along with 'meta', both of which are accurate. We always believed in us and I for one always will. We may have had personal issues in the past, and communication problems, but despite all that, when we play together a spark is lit and it truly is special.”
I’m not surprised there were problems. Let’s return to them later, but Ultrasound entered the world – by which I mean the music press, really – on a tidal wave of hype. I’d heard of you long before I’d ever heard you. Did this help or hinder you, do you think?
Tiny: “It was more of a hindrance I suppose. Hyped bands tend to be viewed cynically by the public and it can take longer to bring them round and allay that mistrust - although it's nigh on impossible to develop a word of mouth buzz when you can't get anyone to come to gigs in the first place! My way of thinking is at least the hype made people curious, so it's a double edged sword. Being courted by so many record labels was fun for the first couple of months, but making a decision about who to sign to was much harder. Deciding to retain full artistic control over getting wads of money was probably the sensible thing to do.”
Hype aside, what was the reality of your relationship like with the music press? I will say until my dying day that Tiny on the cover of the NME is one of the great NME covers…
Tiny: “I had long since stopped reading the music press sometime back in the 80's, so there was a certain amount of mistrust of them, regarding them all as sensationalist druggies. We did a few more ‘in depth’ interviews but not much of the serious stuff ever got printed, especially in the cover feature, which focused primarily on sex and drugs. The NME had an attitude like they owned us. They actually threatened me over the phone when we refused to take part in their Brat Bus Tour. The person I was speaking to on the phone actually said "we made you and we can break you". I put the phone down on him.”
I think I’ll embed your performance of ‘Floodlit World’ from Later… above. Vanessa, I always thought you had the most extraordinary voice. Do you know that about yourself?
Vanessa: “That is very kind indeed! I can’t extrapolate my voice from my spirit. I’m less aware of myself as a singer but yes, I am aware of my personal power. There’s something far greater than notes and words in music. I’ve played notes and sang words with some fabulous musicians over the years and it can be great fun… but it’s not Ultrasound.”
Woah.
Vanessa: “It’s almost like the correct sequence of something aligns when we get together. As a youngster I sang along with everything from Yazoo to Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Then later Aretha [Franklin] and Janis Joplin. That seems to me to be a totally different art to realising music with Ultrasound. I’m Head Of Music in a secondary school now and I have the pleasure of introducing teenagers to amazing things. I’ve got 54 GCSE students and I’ll share with them the Binson Echorec, WEM Copycat, Daphne Oram, Carol Kaye, Pink Floyd in the studio, Kraftwerk, Sylvia Robinson and… god, how do I fit it all into two years!”
Teacher! Don’t leave those kids alone! So I saw you at Glastonbury in 1998. The weather was evil. And yet, I think for 30-minutes you were perhaps the greatest band in the world, as well as being the only group I’d be willing to get foot rot for…
Tiny: “It was a blast. I remember us coming off stage and sliding about in the mud feeling quite glorious. The following year was dry and was special for a number of reasons, not least of which was that it was our last gig. We were further up the bill and therefore had more time to flesh out the set. Performing [b-side from unreleased single ‘Aire & Calder’] ‘Goodbye 25’ for the first and only time was incredibly special.”
Because I’ve embedded the clip of you playing ‘Stay Young’ at Glastonbury above, I’ve got to ask… The lyrics of that song essentially predicted Gary Glitter’s demise. Sort of. When that ‘stuff’ came out, was it a head fuck?
Tiny: “Well, the revelations were hardly a surprise I guess, but by then he had become cabaret, musically speaking. When ‘Rock and Roll Part 2’ and ‘I’m The Leader Of The Gang (I Am)’ came out [the first in 1972, the latter in 1973] he was a hero to my 9-year-old-self, leading the way forward to a glam revolution, and inspiring a brighter future, which I still believe in.”
I guess all of this brings me to the debut album, Everything Picture, released April 13th, 1999. It’s long. Two discs long. One song is 39-minutes long. I always wondered whether that was more about you thinking, ‘this might be our only shot, load it up!’ rather than you thinking you needed your debut album to be a double album?
Tiny: “Yeah, the idea was to just put everything on it because we didn't know how long it would all last and we were surprised we even made it to the end of that. Originally we planned to make it a triple album, but Nude persuaded us to cut it. The title comes from Richard [Green, guitarist] who, as a child, used to make everything pictures.”
Tell me a bit about the evening making the album sleeve? That feels like a story lost to the sands of time.
Tiny: “Well, we had been several months planning a cover with Cally, who had designed most of our single covers. The idea was to have an architect's drawing of the kind of house that we could happily live in so it would look like the kind of thing you would get in a town planning vision of the future. It would be a bizarre shape full of weird and wonderful things, a bit like the model on the front cover of Arctic Monkeys’ Tranquillity Base [Hotel & Casio], but mixed with M.C. Escher.”
I’m into it.
Tiny: “However the day before the deadline to file it, this thing turned up that looked more like a computer graphic sci-fi nightmare. Deciding we could do a better job ourselves we bought canvasses and paints and holed up overnight in our PR company Savage & Best’s offices, frantically collaging and daubing into the night. By morning we had our cover.”
Sixth months after the record came out you broke up. You cancelled a bunch of gigs - including T In The Park – saying you were working on the second record. Was there any truth in that or was it cover? Had you made any inroads on what would have been album two?
Tiny: “There is some truth in that - just a little. There were a couple of songs knocking around. The idea was that we were going to write a bunch of songs that we would play and record live on tour and then use those recordings to release as our next album. I still think that's a great idea. Has anyone done that? I think Richard had already written the music for what became ‘Welfare State’, which was released on what did become our second album [released post-reformation, in 2012] Play For Today. I believe a couple of them also became songs on the first [The] Somatics album [Richard Green’s post-Ultrasound project].”
I loved The Somatics! That gives me an excuse to embed a song! It’s hard to explain how I felt when Ultrasound split up. You weren’t around very long, but I adored your band. You felt important and real and somewhere safe for weirdos like me at a time when music felt like it was getting blokier and straighter. I felt let down in truth. How did you feel?
Tiny: “I can't speak for the rest of the band but I sort of felt numb. I was very aware of where we fit in and what our role was within the music industry and I didn't want to let anyone down, but at the same time I didn't feel particularly aware that anyone out there even got it or would even care. It's only through meeting and talking with people subsequently that I came to realise that what we were doing was working.”
But what wasn’t working?
Tiny: “It's hard to say. A breakdown in communication led to a lot of paranoia, not helped by drugs. Vanessa has changed so much since then, but it has to be said that her volatility made for some very unproductive sessions. Richard feeling a whole weight of pressure of responsibility to keep coming up with the goods whilst not getting the credit he deserved was a problem. I had separated myself as much as possible from the rest of them, which probably wasn't the best thing to do, but I did feel there was a lot of resentment directed towards me, probably paranoia again. I would say the main thing that has changed is Vanessa. She’s now the oil in the machine, the catalyst, the mediator and the director. The band exists because of her.”
What about you Vanessa?
Vanessa: “Life is a long time and everything you are is shaped by what you have learned to that point. As I said, I’m a teacher now, Head of Music in a secondary school. I see all manor of behaviours that I have become adept at managing authentically. Emotional super powers. The fire that drives rage can also fuel your journey through life. We never place any validity on spiritual teaching or personal development. A token nod to mindfulness but every behaviour is communication. The angry boys have such weakened souls; the fiery girls don’t understand where to get their power from. If we address all of this through childhood, and ensure no adult is reacting to things because they haven’t got the tools, then the world would be a better place.”
Once again, woah.
Vanessa: “Next time you see someone, distressed or angry, ask yourself, “what can I do to help?” Or “is there something we can do collectively to meet everybody’s needs” If you are OK, then we can all be OK. With the band, clearly none of our needs were being met. Everyone behaved in a way to survive with the tools they had, that’s all. There’s a lot of deep love in the room. That’s why we’re still here!”
Did any of you see each other after the split?
Tiny: “We didn't see each other at all. We all moved away and got on with our own things I guess. It wasn't until Vanessa emailed me in 2009 about the Tim Smith tribute that we began to talk, and meet up again. We all finally met towards the back end of that year in a rehearsal room in Stoke Newington. We plugged in our gear and attempted to play ‘Same Band’ and instantly it was there, that thing that we have. In that sense nothing had changed even though everything had changed.”
Tim Smith. Cardiacs. How important was he and his music to what Ultrasound are?
Tiny: “It's impossible to know what Ultrasound would have been without him, or even if there would have been an Ultrasound, but his spirit was a constant flame in our makeup - a pilot light in our boiler. I often regret not asking him to produce Everything Picture. He was on the list.”
What was your route to the Cardiacs?
Tiny: “When we were at music college in Newcastle in the early 90's we were turned on to them by Paul Hope. Then we formed Sleepy People [eccentric Newcastle rock legends, featuring Tiny and Richard Green], which was heavily inspired by them. We met them several times when we went to see them live. Through our love of all things Cardiacs we got to know Sean [Worrall] and Marina [O] who ran a fanzine in London called Organ. When we moved down there, they helped us get gigs with various like minded bands like Monsoon Bassoon, eventually getting us a support slot with Cardiacs at The Astoria. Tim was the most generous and loving person who made unique and glorious sounds out of his mind. He continues to inspire those of us lucky enough to have been touched by him.”
I should say I lived in Newcastle for years. I’d sometimes see you in the Blue Apple Café on Heaton Road. And I think my band might have supported your post-Ultrasound band Siren.
Tiny: “The café did do a nice veggie breakfast. It was run by Paul and Rachel [Hope] of Sleepy People, who are lifelong veggies. If you want to know the secret to veggie cooking you really need to ask them. I really enjoyed Siren - it was a total blast - but it was the age old thing that as soon as people are good enough to move on to the next level they up and leave and I really couldn't face doing it all again at that point.”
After reuniting for the Tim Smith tribute, you reform in 2010, release your second album Play For Today in 2012, and then in 2016 comes the excellent Real Britannia. I believe that record was funded by some doctors who also happened to be fans? Have I made that up?
Tiny: “You haven't made it up. We became friends with a guy called Phil Peverley on Facebook, who, along with some other doctors and and their friends had set up a page to play records together. He was a big Ultrasound fan and introduced the rest of them to us. He put up some money to make a video, and the next logical step for them was to invest in a recording.”
Vanessa, I was amazed - but mainly delighted! - to learn that during the time that Ultrasound were away, you formed a band to play Northern Soul covers, with some of Dodgy! You might be the ‘Indie Heaven’ house band!
Vanessa: “Yes! The Soulwinners! I love Math [Priest, Dodgy drummer] and [guitarist, Andy] Miller! Much like Ultrasound it seemed to be about the power of three. Line-ups change, in Ultrasound, Tiny, Richard and I are the code. Math, Miller and I were the code of the Soulwinners. Such incredible connections occur with some people. The Soulwinners is never over, it just lies dormant until summoned!”
I want to see you play! I mean, because of COVID, I’d like to see anyone play, but…
Vanessa: “We played last summer at the Tunbridge Wells Forum, at a fundraiser-celebration of our good friend Pat Pope [NME and Melody Maker photographer]. Unfortunately, in 2018, he had a huge stroke and we wanted to do something lovely for him. Mark Davyd from The Music Venues Trust was the catalyst there - seems like a pattern here, when things get really awful, music is the force to attempt to repair or heal. The Soulwinners was the greatest party band, but we realised that Northern Soul fans are largely luddites and only want to hear the original 7” version. What can you do!”
Tiny, I’ve got to ask… when Minuteman – ex-keyboard player Matt Jones’ band, later of Beady Eye – released ‘Big Boy’ in 2002… well, how the did that make you feel?
Tiny: “Are you suggesting that 'Big Boy' was meant to be about me? I've never really heard any of Matt's stuff, although I always got on with him and often stayed at his house when we were rehearsing and stuff. I regarded him as a friend until a couple of years ago when he blocked us all on Facebook and stopped communicating with me. That still hurts and I miss him. Actually, I just read the lyrics to the song and it mentioned going out for drinks - so it can't be about me as I don't drink!”
Fuck it. I’ll ask this one too… You’ve got songs that are almost the length of a half of football. Is it problematic playing these songs the older you get and the more you need to wee?
Tiny: “You make a great point… only half of football! People are always complaining that music should be shorter and going on about three bloody minutes. It takes more than three minutes just to build an atmosphere! The longer a song is the more you get for your money and the more time you can spend languishing in its world. I'm all for it. And hey, I'm not that old... yet.”
Speaking of which, I think we’ve reached the end of this song. Please plug some stuff! I believe you’ve got a box set coming?
Tiny: “Yes, Everything Picture is being re-issued, and this time it's even longer, even bigger and more ridiculously over the top. It features all the hits and more besides - or b-sides - in a lavish four vinyl box set with a CD containing various sessions and live versions - and a 28-page booklet and poster. It should be available for your grubby mitts on August 27th, COVID willing.”