Sunday 4 April 2010

A video (demo)

This is the demo version of our song "Past The Witching Hour", which was recorded at Rushy End in Northampton in 2000, with Mike and I on guitars and programming and the girls on vocals. It's a bit rough and ready, but I like it.
This video is the song and a few pictures that I like, of the band in action.


Thursday 24 December 2009

The Passionfish Chronicles

The Passionfish trio (Alison Brooks & Mark West and Mike Pateman) first met on New Years Eve 1992, at a party Alison was hosting, when Mark dragged Mike up to accompany him on a karaoke version of “Yellow Submarine”.

In August 1993, they went to see U2 on the Zooropa tour at Wembley stadium, with work colleagues of Mark. The three were so disappointed that they discussed doing something themselves. The following week, Mike hosted a barbecue and showed Mark his electric guitar. Mark had never played one before (he’d only been playing since the previous Christmas and had taught himself from a book) and he sat in the spare room they later used as an office all night, strumming away on the pieces that he knew.

This led to Mikes suggestion that Mark bring his guitar over to have a mess around to see what they could come up with “because one thing was for certain, we couldn’t be anywhere near as bad as what we’d paid £25 to go and see.”

On Bank Holiday Monday, August 30th, they met at Mike’s house in Rushy End, Northampton. Mark took along some lyrics he’d written, including a set inspired by a journey he and Mike had taken the previous week called “Monday”, which quickly became Passionfish’s first song, “Astra Man”.

Alison and Mike rehearse "Something About The Girl" at Rushy End, 1993

They came away at the end of the day with a virtually finished song. Alison had yet to sing for them (she worked on the vocal patterns at home and presented her interpretation the following week) but Mike and Mark had written the tune, Mark had written the additional verses and they all had something of their own to practise on until they met up again.

Meanwhile, Mark was busy searching for a name.

“Mark and I were going up Kettering multi-storey car park,” says Alison, “and all of a sudden, totally out of the blue, he says, ‘I’ve got it, I know what to call the band!’’. We didn’t have a name at that point and were going for stupid stuff like Alison And The Guitarists or whatever and he said ‘The Dreaded Ampoules’. Well, I didn’t know what the hell ‘The Dreaded Ampoules’ meant, it didn’t make any sense to me. It didn’t to Mike either and we voted him down so he had to come up with something else.”

“I’d always like the name “Rumble Fish”, so I said Passionfish. Again, nobody knew that the hell I was going on about. But it was a poster I’d seen on the London Underground, for the John Sayles film and it struck me as a perfect name. The great thing was, they couldn’t come up with anything else to call it so it stuck.”

“We designed these little stickers for the logo and everything,” says Mike, “and Mark and I spent about an hour going through the clip-art, trying to find stuff. I don’t know what the fish is that we ended up with, but we stuck a heart on the back - the passion - and sliced it with lightning to get conflict. And I think it works.”

With the name and logo in place, the writing moved into top gear. Mark had hit a creative high with his writing and was presenting Mike with three to four sheets of finished lyrics a week. Mike was doing his best to keep up with the composing, often working on the melodies with Alison. By the end of September, the band had a collection of roughly 30 finished songs. It was time to move things forward.

Mike and Mark rehearse the rousing chorus to "Childhood's End", Rushy End, 1993

“the passionfish ep” (recorded on Saturday October 2nd 1993, from 8pm through until 11.30pm) contained eleven songs (Astra Man; The Protest Song; Franklin; A Brave New World (Out There); Something About The Girl; The Day It Rained; The Bigger They Come; Childhood’s End; Old Pete; Rooms and To Make You Realise), with most being recorded in two takes. The trio were so excited, they showed it around and it got a favourable reaction, Alison’s boss going so far as to make a pirate copy! The sleeve notes (written by West) were, “Although the demo recording is not of the highest quality, the band feels that it captures the fun that they have with their own music and that - at the end of the day - is all that really counts. This demo was recorded on a stack stereo system with two Technics microphones, one plugged in guitar and on acoustic. This tape is Analogue all the way.”

In mid-October, Mike and Mark went to visit a studio in Northampton and were very impressed by what they saw, but distinctly unimpressed that it would cost £150 to hire the studio for a day. Maybe that professional DAT recording could wait for a while!

The band realised they needed to keep moving forward and decided the best way would be to perform live. Mark wasn’t as keen as the others (for some reason) and for a long time, the standing joke was that he would stand at the back with a woolly hat and sunglasses on so that nobody could see who he was. In the end, of course, he did nothing of the sort and all three of them got a great thrill out of performing.

The first concert was in the gym at The Hunsbury Centre, but the band had problems with feedback and being able to hear themselves, though the video that Mike’s father shot shows the band and audience enjoying themselves. The problems, however, were disconcerting to Passionfish so it was decided the next concert would be in the main hall. This gig, in front of a larger audience, was also videoed.

Mark, Alison and Mike clown around during rehearsals for the "Past The Witching Hour" ep, 2001

When Mike and Mark wrote ‘Rooms’, they’d been listening to The Bangles first album and decided to try and copy some of the harmony arrangements. They decided they would sing “rooms” as hamorny, whilst Alison sang the chorus. Rehearsing, this worked perfectly but in the hall, the decided to stand back to back and go for the microphone together. This was planned but as soon as they took position, both of them cracked up. This affected Alison and the cameraman until finally everything ground to a halt because everyone was laughing.

Mark says, of this gig, “This was our second and last full concert and I enjoyed it at least as much as anything we'd done in the group. It was fun (which is evident from the looks on our faces), it looks good on the video and the sound isn't too bad and it truly represents what Passionfish were trying to do with their music at the time. It’s a very warming video to watch because the band themselves are always smiling at one another or cracking a joke. Especially with ‘Rooms’!”

Towards the end of December, Mike purchased a music maker program for his PC, where the user keys in the melody and required tune and the program does the rest. It can't be underestimated what a difference this made to Passionfish and their musical style. Gone was the familiar drum beat and timing issues and in was a bass, as many drums as you could possibly want, a string section, more guitarists - Passionfish suddenly had an orchestra at their disposal and could now sound exactly the way they did in their heads.

The first run through was in early January, with David Roberts - a friend of the band - in charge with capturing the technology. The first song recorded was “On The Floor” and the sound quality was excellent.

However, whilst Passionfish was getting better, improving their technique and the technologies to hand, the creativity and initial drive was beginning to fade. Whilst day jobs and other interests were starting to press, the technology itself might have been an issue. At the time, Mark said, “I liked the lo-fi stuff, Tracy’s tape recorder and the Technics mic. and my old acoustic guitar. I know it sounds stupid, but the better technology saddened me in a way, made things easy. It all comes back to what “On The Floor” is about, I just don’t like change much.”

Passionfish ceased in early 1994, on entirely amicable terms. Alison Brooks, Mike Pateman and Mark West had followed a dream and opened the door to something which gave them all a lot of satisfaction. For a while, they had the time of their lives and thoroughly enjoyed it.



updates:
(2001): The three friends still saw one another regularly and re-grouped in early 2001, to write and record the ep “Past The Witching Hour”. In addition, they wrote a further handful of songs.

(2009): All three friends (plus Mike’s wife Melanie, who sang vocals on the ep) are now enjoying family life, though they see one another regularly. Both Mike & Mark can still play “Astra Man” at the drop of the hat and Alison is always on cue with the lyrics.


© Ed Sharman 1994 - originally published in The Snapper Magazine as “The Passionfish Chronicles”

Recording History

One Night In October (live)











1. Astra Man
2. The Protest Song
3. Franklin
4. A Brave New World (Out There)
5. Something About The Girl
6. The Day It Rained
7. The Bigger They Come
8. Childhood’s End
9. Old Pete
10. Rooms
11. To Make You Realise

all songs by m.pateman/m.west except 9, 11 by passionfish

recorded Saturday October 2nd 1993, at Rushy End Studios, Northampton
produced, recorded and mixed by Pateman/West
© & (p) The Wood Company 1993


Postcard For Lucy (ep)












1. The Winter Sun
2. The Protest Song
3. To The Ends Of The Earth
4. Postcard For Lucy
5. On The Floor

all songs by m.pateman/m.west except 5, by m.pateman/i.pateman/m.west

recorded during October 1994 at Rushy End Studios, Northampton
produced by Passionfish
recorded by David Roberts
mixed by Pateman/West
© & (p) The Wood Company 1994

guitar solos on “To The Ends Of The Earth” and “Postcard For Lucy” by Ian Pateman
programming by Mike Pateman


Past The Witching Hour (ep)












1. Past The Witching Hour
2. Rooms
3. Drive

all songs by m.pateman/m.west

recorded February/March 2001 at Underworld Studios, Northampton
produced, recorded and mixed by Pateman/West
© & (p) The Wood Company 2001

additional vocals by Melanie Brown
programming by Mike Pateman


cover art and design by Mark West