Home About Bands Programme Venues Facilities & Advice Workshops & Education Sales Interviews Links
	CHRIS HELME Interview - Page 2 © 2001 Cultural Foundation
	during a break for a beer ....... (Chris) ...........I found meself listening to the Stone Roses the other day, and getting into it. "The Second Coming". I'd totally forgot. I wasn't into it when it came out. But I'm into it now for some reason. 33. Is it true that The Seahorses recorded a second album? No. You could probably get a handful of tunes on bootlegs. I don't know if you can actually. Just like ... demos which we recorded in Wakefield, which are shit quality, and hardly worth bothering with. Unfinished tunes with unfinished lyrics. And they're all John's songs. I think we recorded three or four songs in a week, or it was maybe a fortnight, I can't remember now, at Olympic Studios in Barnes - a really trying time 'cos I didn't like any of the songs. I told John I didn't like any of them before, and he still... ignored me. So... it's quite difficult to sing something with feeling and passion and get that across if you're not really into what you're doing. So ..... the script was wrong. I couldn't really do it, so that was that. That's what went wrong. So, there was only about four songs. They weren't even properly recorded. I don't know what he's doing with them. I know that he's still got the recordings and he. .. John owns the rights to them all and so he might release them. But he won't have me singing on them I hope. So ... probably some poor sod..... 34. "You've an obvious talent as a singer / songwriter - do you feel it's necessary to use musicians who have "made it" with other top artists (like St. Etienne, Primal Scream, and so on). No. No. It's just ... it's a lot quicker. I've found through experience that the pick-up on the ... it has its pros and its cons really because it's like looking through an encyclopaedia of different parts to play, and you have to choose which one it is you want. What would be ideal would be if, you know, I was 15 and I had time to wait ... to keep playing with the same group of people and we all learnt together until I was 22 or something and we'd be excellent. But I'm getting on a bit now, I haven't got time to do that, so .... There are a lot of really good players who can just do it. And I've met some people who're just ..... I've played the song to them once and they've .... There's been different time changes in it and everything, and really weird, weird structure, and they've just got it - the second time they've heard it. And then we've put it down on tape. There's a song called "Fireflies" which I'd only just written about five minutes before I actually played it to anyone, and then we just recorded it. It was at five o' clock in the morning and .... I think the vocal could have been a lot better, but everything else is groovy really, it sounds pretty good. So .... sometimes things like that happen, you know. There's more chance of it happening with people like that because they're .... I mean, the drummer was like a jazz drummer, but did session work, and they're both twins actually, they're called the Stacey twins, Paul and Jeremy. Paul's playing bass, and Jeremy's playing drums. And they've been playing together for years so it was tight as fuck anyway. It was a pleasure playing with them. Too expensive for me now though. As a footnote to that - Squire picked relative unknowns. Yeah, there's a reason for that though. We couldn't afford solicitors at the time. (Laughs). No, no. I think he probably thought ... I don't really know. You should ask him really, but I have my own ideas about it. I think he probably thought it was a bit daunting playing with session musicians who were as..... probably as competent as he thought he was. He relied upon ... he always thought it was a competition, you see, being in a band. Which it isn't. Even the Who played together and actually listened to each other. It wasn't - "Let's see who can play the fastest and loudest and twiddliest", so .... I remember him saying to me it was a competition, which I always disagreed with. Who was it said ....was it Peter Tosh who said, "Music's a mission, not a competition". And he's right. The thing is, you know, I'm really grateful that he asked me to join the band and everything like that, and it was great experience. I don't think he bargained on us having minds of our own though. So there you go. He should have got session players. 35. How did you get your present band together? Just through people we know, really. James (Nesbitt), the guitarist, he knows quite a lot of people throughout London and stuff, and there's a bass player that we know. Seems to be quite a lot of people who've played with St.Etienne. Steve, the bass player, played with St. Etienne, and plays with various other people - Rod Stewart .... Darrin Mooney, drummer for Primal Scream, he's also played with James and various other different outfits. So ..... I suppose it's just me saying to James, "So and so can't play drums tonight, who're we going to get to do it". And he'll just reel off a few names and ring 'em up and see who can do it and ... you know. We auditioned a few drummers, and Darrin was the best one. But at the same time he's not really a permanent fixture because he's playing a lot with other people as well. He's playing with Gary Moore at the moment. He gets quite a lot of money for that. So much that I can't compete with it, really. That suggests a session drummer - someone who can do your stuff, and Gary Moore. Yeah, yeah. But he's very ..... You know, if you listen to Primal Scream it's not as if it's like listening to Pebble Mill jazz, is it? He's great. 36. Do they still have commitments with their other bands? Yeah. They have to do a lot of juggling but ... at the same time, I'm benefiting from playing with these people as well. And I'm quite surprised that they're all doing it for nothing at the moment. Quite flattering really. The amount of people that they play with, you'd think they'd want to put their feet up when they're not working for money, and just watch TV or summat, or, I dunno, take up a knitting course, or something. But they don't, they play with me, which is quite good. 37. You answered this a little bit off-tape before - Are you still in touch with the other guys from The Seahorses? Stuart, I am. And Andy, the first drummer. And Malcolm, as well - the second drummer. And Mark - I haven't spoken to Mark, our last drummer, but .... Yeah, I saw Andy last week, actually. He came down to a gig I was doing in London, at Heavenly Social and he was ....full of himself, as usual. It's great to see him though. He looks really well. He's got a band called Mozer. I think they're doing quite well round London. He's not playing drums though -he's singing and playing guitar. He always had a better voice than he could drum .. No, actually, he was a good drummer when he wasn't singing and he was a good singer when he wasn't drumming. So ... I don't know if any drummers have tried it - but trying to sing and play drums is fuckin' difficult. I think he's doing a lot better now. He's a lot happier now - got a couple of kids, and stuff. His heads pretty sorted. A good lad, really. It's nice to see him. 38 PC: How about the people you met from other bands while you were in The Seahorses. Are you still in touch with any of those or do you actually get to meet many of them? I met a lot of people but, it's sort of ... it's difficult to explain. Just because you're in the same job, or whatever, as somebody else, doesn't give you licence to ring 'em up and ask 'em if they want to go out for a drink. It's like if you're a barman, say, and you go on the town, on the piss, and end up in some pub and you get chatting to the barman there, and you ring 'em up next week and ask them if they want to come out for a pint... It's just not going to happen. It might happen, I don't know, but .. it's that sort of thing. I was always a bit wary of doing that because it's sort of .... You know for a fact that all you're going to do is take drugs and get pissed and talk about music. Which ... I used to do anyway - so it's not much of a different night out really. I don't know, I've got a lot of phone numbers but I've never really bothered 'cos I've just always thought, "Well, it's a bit ...". I don't know. I've got my mates. 39. We've referred to this before, so you might want to skim over this one: "How important do you think it is to spend time in London? Are Northern artists at a disadvantage?" Who's this by? PC: Me. It's by you (laughing). Sorry. "Do you think you've got to be down there to get noticed?" Well, put it this way, record companies won't come up to York. Ever. I've never known it. Especially now. If you notice the lack of guitar bands that are in the charts now .... no-ones gonna make a bee-line to York and see what's going on. So for show-cases it's easier to go down there. And also for show-cases it's easier to have the musicians down there. It's cost-effective and, you know, you get the idea across. I mean, say if I was Paul Weller or someone - it's piece of piss: I already live in London, I've always lived there ... you know what I mean? He's got a bunch of session musicians playing with him - the bass player knows James - he used to play with James, so it's that kind of thing. The only difference is that I've got to go down there, as opposed to them coming to me. It is all down there, but at the same time you can do it in, say, Manchester... There seems to be ... it is where all the ... and I hate to say it ... all the record company people are in London, especially after all the take-overs that have happened over the last few years. That's where they all seemed to have settled, because they have had to, because of the job and stuff. It's shit really, 'cos it costs me a fortune on't train. I wish they'd come up and see me a bit more often. That's the way it goes. As far as northern musicians are concerned .... Not really, no, because ..... I mean, when I do an album I don't really want to use the same people on every track. Some people are better at playing on some things than others. A lot of the favourite albums that I've got, I think it's a Jackson Browne one in particular, have got a lot of people playing on them... it stops it from sounding boring. I would love to be in a band, but I've got to play with people for a long time to actually discover who it is that's going to be in it really. Whether they want to really be in it, or whether they want to be traipsing off and playing with loads of other people. It's one of them things that you just have to do to find out, I suppose. Does that make sense? PB: And there's a wealth of talent up in the North, isn't there. There is, yeah. And they're all in about ten different bands as well! Especially in York. Trying to get a decent drummer and bass player in York is a fuckin' nightmare 'cos they're all in four bands. 40. Has " The Seahorses experience" influenced your present musical direction, or are you more on-track with where you were before all that? Are you saying "Have I gone back to what I used to do?". P.C.: Not so much "gone back", but was The Seahorses like a divergence in your musical direction? I didn't really have any musical direction when I joined The Seahorses. I liked playing, I knew what I liked. I think it was roughly about that point where I didn't know enough about it to actually sound like what I liked. I think I thought that if I did then it would be copying, or something stupid. But then I think that writing "Dreamer" put that to rest really. Trying to do my own Lennon impression. I learnt a lot about .... I had the luxury of being able to play all the time. I suppose it's made me a more efficient writer. I find it a lot easier to write songs than probably I ever did. I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing though. If you know too much about something sometimes you get straight to the point instead of .... lingering ... for a bit. 41. Going back to talking about writing, and you've talked about your musical influences - Do you read any .... What about writers? Books? Yeah, books..... poets ...? Yeah, I read a lot of books. I don't like poetry much. Well, it's not that I don't like it, it's just I don't write poetry. I read a lot of science fiction. Philip K Dick's great. My mate Dave Keegan got me into reading that. He's excellent. Mad. Last book I read was by Christopher Reich, which was called "The Runner". A pretty good book. As far as inspiration goes, I don't know really. It all sinks in from everywhere. But, books ..... I used to read Richard Bach books, like "Bridge across Forever", and stuff like that. That was quite good for writing hippy-dippy lyrics. It does help to read a lot, actually, it really gets the lyrics coming, because ... it's all words, that's all it is. It's all songs are anyhow. And someone might say something which I might forget about, and then it'll come into a song later on, and I'll think I'm a genius and I'm really original .... Yet someone else has said it years ago, you know. 42. Do you play any of the songs you wrote before joining The Seahorses now? I do, yeah. Just to reminisce, really. There's one called "Stale Water" which I never .... It was either going to be that or "Moving On" which was going to be a B-side to... I can't remember what it was .... what song it was .. it was something like "Love Me and Leave Me" I think. Or maybe "Blinded by the Sun". Yeah, "Blinded by the Sun" it was. "Moving On" was the B-side to that. And it was going to be "Stale Water". And I think I might ... what do you call it when you dig up someone's bones? Disinter them. Yeah. I'll disinter that one. (Laughs). 43. Now here's a good one for you. What do you think of the present state of the music industry? I think there's a lot of very scared A&R men that don't have ... Just watch "Popstars". Right. Look at Paul Adams' face. He looks like it's all just gonna go tits up and he's going to lose his job. And I think that's probably the face of many an A&R man and woman across the whole board of big record companies. They're all shitting themselves for their jobs. Because there's always someone underneath them that's going to take it off them. And if you don't get the acts in that are going to make loads and loads of money then .... that's it. Which is why guitar bands disappear, because no-one's ... Bands are expensive, especially guitar bands. You need a lot of equipment. You can't just run off a computer or a DAT like a dance band can. They need promoting and everything like that, and the thing is as well you're not appealing to a market of kids, which is basically the biggest market that there is. So... I'm afraid if it carries on as it is the older that you get the more bleak the new music's gonna be, because nobody's gonna be catering for your tastes. I think that's changing, though. There's a few bands, like "Starsailor", that are getting noticed. There's someone else, I can never remember their name though. They should change their name because I can never remember it. It'll come to me. No.... it's gone. There's quite a few good bands, good songwriters. So ... it's just - see what happens, really. Either that or I'm getting old. Maybe kids music is absolutely brilliant, genius, and I've just missed the point. But I haven't heard anyone say that to me. 44. Avoiding the issue of how complex things are... Many fans expected you to just walk in to the next major deal. Are you biding your time, or are you facing obstacles in re-establishing yourself? Facing obstacles in re-establishing myself. (Laughs) I think I just answered it responding to the last question. 45. Is it true that you might be touring with Tom Hingley from the Inspiral Carpets? Where did you find that out from? PC: Somebody approached us for a gig, for Tom ... Brian Stubbs. Oh, yeah. I know Brian. He'd just found out about the gigs at Blakey, basically, and he sent us an e-mail, mentioned you, and said he was looking to do a joint venture with the two of you. Well, that'd be a good gig. Yeah. He's still got to get back to me on that but I wouldn't mind doing it. I don't know ... I've met Tom once, actually, when I was in The Seahorses. Can't remember where I saw him. I think it was in a hotel somewhere. I don't really know him, but I've heard that his shows have been quite entertaining and stuff, and he seems to have done the same places that I've done, when I was doing acoustic stuff. I think we'd probably go down well together. He's from Manchester, which is a bit of a.... shame. (Laughs). No, I'm only joking. I will do it. I don't see why not. There isn't anything to say I shan't, at the moment. If it was pulled together? Yes. I think there's another lad as well, called .... fuckin' 'ell I've got Alzheimer's today .... Aaah... I played with him in Sheffield. Lee Griffiths .... That's right. He's wanting to do some stuff with us as well, and he's from Manchester and, sort of like ... we all play quite well on our own so it might be quite good to do it with all three of us. Must be something to think about. 46. It's a good point that - the practicalities - A&R you were talking about - and the dosh that the majors even are prepared to put up front to give a band space to get things together - it used to happen all the time, up until quite recently. You wonder whether the "acoustic revival" has been engineered. Well it has, because it's a lot bloody cheaper to do it. I mean, I'm going to do this EP, but I'm not going to do it with a band. It's too bloody expensive. So I'm going to do it on my own with ... I auditioned a double bass player the other day, and I'll maybe play a bit of percussion on me own and stuff like that, and get James down, or Lloyd, or whatever .... And do it like that. But it's only going to be six tracks. PC: What timescale are you looking at for that? I want it finished by April. I want the CD ready by the time I play at your place, really. I might be being a bit ambitious, but .... I know I can go in and record it all, twelve songs, in a day. I can do it - vocals and everything - straight off. Like I do a gig. And then just put other stuff on over the top of it. And I'd be quite happy with that. I'm sure a lot of other people would be as well. It won't be polished, but I don't want it to be polished. I hate Steely Dan. 47. PC: The Seahorses album only took .... 30 days was it? But that's not really necessarily true, because we spent six months working stuff out on four - tracks. And ... we didn't have a drummer... and then we had a drummer for about three months... and then it was a month to record it, and then it took about two weeks to mix it. It's still quite quick, yeah. With John on that one ... he does know when to stop ... well with that album anyway. I think he was frightened with what happened with the Stone Roses really, so he just ... "Right, that's that. That's nailed". And we'd go on to something else. And in some respects I think it was a bit short sighted, a lot of it, but.... I don't know really. I was never happy about the way I sang on that album, to be honest. I didn't particularly like the whole sound of the thing. I thought it was a bit kind of ... boxy. Did you? That brings us nicely on to another question: 48. It is fast work. 30 days. Alright, you've worked the stuff up - you're not going to waste time in the studio, not constructing stuff in the studio. How did you find working with Tony Visconti? Tony. He was great. Same age as my dad, to the day, nearly. I think he's born a day before, or a day after, my dad. We got on great, me and Tony. I really do like his company. He's one of these people who've done and seen loads of shit go on. And he never says anything about it. And you daren't even ask him because you just know that ... you don't really want to spoil the fact that if you did ask him he'd sort of start blurting loads of shit out about ... and, you know, just being a prick. But also I think he's one of these diamond people who didn't really ..... "That's none of your business, young man", sort of thing.... pretty good really. Amazing musician. He could work out a harmony before my brain had even thought about doing one. And really .... encouraging. Great to work for. In fact, I was thinking about him last night. I was thinking whether I should ring him up and see if he was up for doing some stuff for me. But then ... I don't know. Done that one though, haven't I? Maybe I shouldn't. 49. Who would you use now, if anyone, as a Producer? Tony Visconti, maybe. I'd love to spend a bit longer with him than we did. (Laughs). It'd be more fun. I like his string arrangements. I'd like him to arrange a string quartet for me instead of an orchestra. 'Cos I'm really into Jack Nietsche, who did all the Neil Young stuff. And I know that Tony was good mates with him, or knew him at least. Summat in that vein would be quite fun. 'Cos I know he's probably the only person who'd be able to do it. And .... who else... I don't know who produced it but there was a guy called Nicol ... I'll write this down for you actually.... Nicolai Dunger ... (writes it) ... I think there might be a couple of dots over the "u", I dunno the German spelling .... I don't know if he's German or not. I think he's from Sweden, or Denmark or something... and he's this singer / songwriter. And his album sounds really good. But it also sounds like it's been recorded in my bedroom, which I quite like as well. But... it's really organic. It's got that sort of early seventies Van Morrison feel. It's just really nice to listen to. It does have a real vibe about it. I don't know who produced it, and I'd love to find out. I've tried to look on the credits, and I couldn't find anything. So that's a good album. Anyone else .... I don't know really. There must be. What do you think about producers who would bring in a particular sound, like Daniel Lanois, who would bring in their own sound to it? Matt Lange. They're always alright for a time aren't they? It's like Stock, Aitken, and Waterman. Or Matt Lange. Is that what he's called? Mutt Lange is it? PC: Mutt Lange - worked with AC/DC ...... How could someone do such a great album as that AC/DC one and then go on to do that bloody awful... what were they called .... that bunch of blokes from Doncaster ..... Def Leppard .... Sheffield, weren't they. And he made .... Is it Mutt Lange that's done all that Shania Twain stuff? It's just music to goose step to isn't it. It's like ... well it's not music, it's fuckin' maths. Shit. So no ... not him. Anyway, you're right, he does have a definite sound. And it's shit. George Martin, don't know. I think the Beatles sounded like the Beatles and he made them sound a little bit better than they would have done without him. A lot better than they probably would have done without him. To come back to The Seahorses - Ron Jacobs sounds like he was pretty influential as an engineer. Rob. Is it Rob? Yeah. Yeeeah. Him and Tony used to argue all the time about what microphones to use. 'Specially for my vocals, they were like "I'm thinking he'd benefit from using this" and Tony was, like "No, No, this one's a lot warmer". Rob'd be seriously arsed, and Tony'd get his Producer's head on and storm out... Yeah, Rob was.... He'd done a lot of stuff with U.2 and I think he'd worked with Sheryl Crowe as well... and the Eagles, he did that .... Is it "Hell Freezes Over" he did? I thought that was a bit too... it was a live album. A bit too "naice", wasn't it. Rob's a really nice bloke. He's one of these kind of Pepsi Max kids ..... I couldn't believe how young he looks. I think he's about 35 or something and he looks about 20. He was into all that supercross stuff, motor bikes and everything. Gorgeous girlfriend from Texas who's just .... blonde hair... and just looked the part, you know. Stunning. But as far as his engineering skills are concerned .... I don't really know. I listen to the album and I think there's some good noises on it but ..... It was all pretty much recorded in a "this is how it sounds" kind of way. There wasn't really any trickery. It wasn't like .... The guy who did Radiohead, what's he called .... Nigel Godrich. It's not like that. 'Cos he's like an Engineer, and then Producer. 50. If we can just go back to The Seahorses bit - when you were first invited to join how did you feel? Well I didn't think I was going to get it. It's brought it all back watching this "Popstars" thing on TV. I know it sounds sad but it was that thinking that you've got something and then you haven't, and then you have, and then you haven't, and you have, and you haven't ... And it was like .... 'cos John couldn't make his mind up. And his manager later told me that he had to say to John "Well what the fuck is it that you want, 'cos if it isn't this then you don't know what you want". So he sort of went "Yeah, you're right" and then....... I was in. And that was it. But I always remember thinking for about a year that any moment I was going to get booted out. That's probably why I looked so fucking nervous on TV at the time. Also someone said to me "In this business promises are written on the water". And I was like ...... "Thanks. This gives me a lot of fucking confidence dunnit". It took me a while to actually think, fuck it, I may as well enjoy it. And just get on with it. And during that time I did actually get on with it, but I also can't remember a lot about it either, 'cos I was off me tits most of the time. But then I remember we did like ... there' was one point when we were doing like a Christmas tour and we did two dates at the Barrowlands, and that was ace. We were rockin' by then. We'd just finished playing in Japan. We did a tour with Oasis, round Europe. Finished that, came and did the UK tour, ended up at the Barrowlands just before Christmas - did two dates there. Packed out. And then it stopped. It all stopped ' cos .... John didn't like the drummer that we had. And this tour with him seemed to just grind to a halt, really, over this sort of period. There just didn't seem to be much going on, and then it lost its momentum. We were all fucked anyway - we deserved some time off because we'd been touring for the best part of two years or something. We'd not stopped. (We pass him gig list lifted from The Seahorses web-site) What's that!? (Looking through it) Fuckin' hell, did we do all these gigs? (Laughs). You're kidding. (Continues reading through it) Wow - whee! We played a lot of places. The Posies! (Disbelief). I can't remember playing with them. I think I liked them, actually. I think I did. When we started playing again, doing the Rolling Stones thing, we were doing all John's new tunes, because you get more royalties if you're playing big gigs, so he made sure they were all his songs that we were doing. PRS? Yeah. I remember all the new songs - and I didn't like any of them at all. I was getting really fucking bored. There was one bit ..... The Stones' stage must have been half a mile long, and my microphone lead wouldn't stretch so when John was doing his solo to "Love is the Law" .... I must have heard it, Christ, how many times.... I just ran to the end of the stage and used to just sit on the bars, just looking at the audience, swinging me legs, looking at my watch, thinking "Well........?". You know. In front of like, 90,000 people. They didn't know what to make of it at all. It was like .... "Is this a band I'm watching or is it.....I dunno". I think that's when I started to get a bit bored really. 51. What was it like working with the Stones? Err... definitely felt like the underdogs. Put it this way, football stadiums are massive, and their dressing room is right by the stage. Ours was ... right over here. Right at the other end. So we had to ... took us like twenty minutes to walk to the stage. Twenty minutes is a long time, especially before you go on stage. Usually you want to go for a shit, don't you, at some point. Well I don't know in your case but it's like .... I do anyway. And there's two toilets on stage. No, there's four toilets - I think they had one each. And they were all locked. We weren't allowed in them, obviously, 'cos we were not gonna use their toilets, they wouldn't let us. So you could be there sometimes thinking (laughs) ..... "We're going to go on stage to 90,000 people, I really wish I'd gone for a crap!". And you never did, you know. (Laughs) Aaah, it was awful. And it was bad as well, because our crew were a bit slack, and all the Rolling Stones crew were really on it. And our crew .... I remember once getting on stage and Alan, the guitar tech, had forgotten he was supposed to be there, on stage, giving me my guitar, 'cos I didn't know where it was and .... you know. Nothing worse than getting on stage to that many people and not knowing where everything is. It's in a different place every time. And he was downstairs with a big spliff in his mouth playing on the bloody driving game. The tour manager had to get him, and there was me stood on stage for ages in front of all these people just thinking .... "!!!", and they were all like .... It started off being a sort of murmuring and everything, and then it was like slow clapping. I thought, "Oh, God". Then Alan came on with guitar, and it just changed into, like, applause ... thank fuck. It could have gone the other way and just been awful. Yeah. It's all coming back to me now. (Laughs). during another break for a trip to the bar....... (Chris)............it's funny - I really like Noel. He's a really nice feller. Who's this you're talking about? Noel Gallagher, Oasis. He's just, dead .... he's a cunt, but he's honest. You know what I mean? And I think Liam .... He's not thick. And he can play guitar really well, actually, can Liam. He's not as good as me, like. (Laughs). No he's all right. He can carry a tune, and stuff. PC: I read an interview that Liam did actually, and he rated you as one of his favourite singers. Did he? Oh, was it .... "Richard Ashcroft, and that lad from Seahorses, he's got a good voice". Yeah. (Laughs). I remember when he did that. I remember thinking "Oh. Fucking' hell". 'Cos he always likes people that can sing quiet, 'cos he can't really do it. He said he's a bit of a shouter. Whereas I like him 'cos he can scream his tits off for an hour and a half, and .... I mean, if you listen to his voice on the first album it was quite sort of thin sounding. And then on the second one it had got totally worn in and sounded great - like an old boot. And then on the third album it had started to flag, and got a lot worse, and stuff. But even when it gets worse ... it's like Jim Morrison, isn't it. His voice tended to sound shit by the end of the Doors but it's still rock 'n roll and it's got feel and everything. I hated the fact that I can sing really nicely and clean sometimes. It really pisses me off. That's why I got lathered most of the time 'cos I'd just think "Fuck it, I'm gonna tear the house up this time". 52. The skill you have Chris, is one of projection of your voice. Use of microphone .... I think I must be deaf. I think that might be it. 'Cos I never think I'm singing loud enough. Fiona says to me I've got a really loud voice, and I don't think I have. Did you ever have any tuition? I did, yeah. I've had a couple of lessons off... No, I've had a few, actually, thinking about it. There was one point when I really needed some lessons when I was singing in Chutzpah ' cos they were gigging all the time, and it was more of a... stopping it from destroying itself, really, and maintaining it, than actually learning how to sing. A girl called Em Whitfield, who lives in Rievaulx. You know Em, don't you, she was down there. Good teacher. Should put her number on at the end of this actually, she'd be able to get some work. And then there was the woman who taught the Sex Pistols. Toni DeBrett. I went for one ... me and Andy went there. She was funny actually. She said I shouldn't have been singing the songs that we were singing on the Seahorses album. She said "Well, they're obviously in the wrong key for the both of you". Especially with the harmonies ... were just ridiculous. It was like the BeeGees on helium, a lot of it. And poor Andy was really struggling with it. And I don't blame him 'cos it was at the top of my range when I was doing it so... Singing lessons? Only really just to sort the odd thing out. I didn't really want to start singing like Elaine Page or Michael Ball or someone like that. I don't think that lot can sing, any way. I think it sounds fucking awful. Drama school. 53. I just want to go back, briefly, to The Seahorses. So you got the job, right, and you started rehearsing. Obviously the material was well worked up before you went into the studio. What was that process like? How did it work out? Well initially John, after I'd gone all the way to Manchester to play at the Roadhouse for him to decide whether he wanted me in the band or not, after that gig, we went into his car and he played me a demo of his tunes. And I've still got that tape if anybody wants it. After that we all went to the Lake District. We were all put on a wage of £100 a week. We used to go there for the week, and then we'd come back on the weekend. There isn't anything to do in the Lake District apart from walk about, and drink, and write music I suppose. 'Cos that was what we were there to do. So we did actually buckle down and get a lot done. And the guy who we rented the cottage off, fortunately, had had a wedding in for the week before, and they must have been quite wealthy people because they'd built a stage in the barn for the wedding, for the band to play on. So we had a stage there. Which was great, but we didn't have a drummer. We had a guy called Mark McNeill who was an absolutely amazing drummer, fucking phenomenal... it didn't work out, for one reason or another. And we ended up being without a drummer for ages, and then we got Andy in. All we used to do is .... Me and Stuart used to spend time upstairs and work on the four-track, and John'd spend time on his own. He never used to sort of play with us. He never liked jammin' with us, or anything really, and he never ever did. We never ever had a jam in that whole time being in that band. I don't know what it was. I mean.. I can't play guitar, and I'm not exactly the best at rambling off sort of train-of-thought lyrics, but I'll do it. 'Cos it's a laugh. He always wanted it to be perfect every time. I don't think he gives himself enough credit really. He should have just gone out there a bit. He should have just got a bit hammered and just played. It'd have been a lot more fun for all of us, really, if we'd done that. 54. So, your own tunes then - did they figure in the set list you were working on? Well, when I actually got chosen to play, in between us going to the Lake District, I went to see John. He used to live in this little cottage in Lancaster. And I spent a weekend there. We just went through his tunes and everything like that, and I played him a few of mine. 'Cos I'd sent him a demo anyway and that's how I got him to come down, as well as the busking thing. Someone gave me an address to send it off to and that's basically what happened. He liked one of the tunes on it - it was called "Moving On". Which was the B-side mentioned earlier on. And he liked that. And then when me and Stuart were in the Lake District we ended up playing "Blinded by the Sun" which was a song that I used to sing in a band "Dirty Monkey" that I was in before. We used to do it like... (claps heavy four - beat pattern) (sings) "How would you feel, if I was to kneel....". It was like a real stomp thing. Really rockin', but it sounded crap, actually. I was willing to do it slower but everybody wanted it to be really fast otherwise ..... Dirty Monkey? Was that after Chutzpah? Yeah. I'd been to Brighton. We'd been to France as Chutzpah then came back, band split up. I went to Brighton for five or six months, wrote "Blinded by the Sun", which was quite a nice little slow thing, and then came back to York, after leaving Brighton 'cos there was too many beggars, and then started a band with Lloyd and err .... Yeah, we just ... We only did one gig. No, we did two gigs. And then I got carted off. Totally different. It was really ramshackle. It was alright. If we'd have been together for a few years we'd have sounded ace, but, you know, I didn't have a few years. When we did have the luxury of spending months at a time in the Lake District. So, did your own tunes get focussed into the set-list at an early stage or how did that work? Well, John liked "Moving On" and he liked "Blinded by the Sun" and we used to just have writing days where he'd spend a day in his room, and I'd spend a day in mine. And he told me to stop writing, 'cos I was writing three a day, or something, and he wasn't. And he said ... it was funny how he put it ... he goes "Well, you've got to stop writing now and concentrate on the songs in hand". I was like ... "Oh, all right then". And I did. But if you stop doing something you kind of forget how you're doing it. I was on a run. I was getting it all out. I'd never had this opportunity before. I've got a few of the songs which I wrote, actually. Some of them are alright, some of them are crap. There's one called "Topsy Turvy Curly Wurly" which is a bit embarrassing, sounds a bit like the Bluetones. There's a lot of stuff which no-one's ever going to hear. 55. A couple more bits. Any memorable gigs, any gigs which, for whatever reason, were really memorable amongst all that list there? Yes, there is. I remember Lawrence. That was weird. It's a tiny little venue in the Bible-belt and there was all these repressed kids that were trying to nick our beer off the stage. That was quite a good laugh. Errrm. Fuji Rock, Japan - 'cos we never played it. See what we did is you get insured for gigs, and if they don't happen, you get paid the money you was supposed to get. And the insurance costs about 200 quid or something. And we ended up going to Japan and we spent all weekend there getting pissed with Prodigy and everyone 'cos it was like ... it was fucking barmy. 'Cos the poor bloke who put the gig on ... he was ... it started raining, and there was mud slides and all sorts. We turned up the day after and they said "Well, we don't know if you're playing or not" and we hung around for a couple of hours and they said "Well, you're not". So, we didn't do that one. It was, like, a stage and it was in the clouds. You couldn't see anything, and there was the fizzing, the popping.... electric stuff. It would have been really dangerous to do anything. But the best gig I can ever remember doing, in me whole life, was ..... at a place called the Troubadour in Perpignan, in France. And there's a guy called Louis, who's an ex-rugby player who runs it. And it wasn't with The Seahorses, it was with Chutzpah. And he gave us some Scampi rum and we all got very drunk. And threw up. We did too many to remember one, actually ... The Seahorses. Oh. Wolverhampton. Yeah - Wulfrun Hall. The first one. That one there (pointing it out on gig list). April 23rd. Absolutely shit me pants, doing that one. Couldn't hear a thing for the whole gig. And I actually blocked me voice through panicking. I was trying to sing - you were on about me projecting - I was going: (sings in a high pitched, can't get your voice out of your throat, fear-riddled babble) (Laughs). I was just like ..... (does it again). There was Noel Gallagher in the side, like, and there was loads of NME journalists, and Melody Maker, and all sorts of people out in the front. And it was fucking awful. It was really bad. But fortunately John's guitar fucked up, so I had to sing "Moving On". And I did that on my own and that was all right. 'Cos I could hear what I was doing. But I would say that for most of these gigs I couldn't really hear a thing, to be honest. It was all pretty much .... deafening. 56. How did you cope with life on the road? There's a fairly extensive gig - list there. You were busy for a few years. I can't even believe it looking at it now. That's fuckin' mental. That's loads of gigs. Errrm... I don't know really. I don't think I did. 'Cos you used to do the gig and then you just go on the tour bus, or go back to the hotel, or whatever, and just get drunk. Then go and do the next one. It was hard. I don't think my head was in the right place when I was doing it, at all. 'Cos you get sort of sucked into it, and you end up doing it, and you're wondering why you're doing stuff. It's very difficult to have any sense of reality or anything. The first thing I wanted to do when the band split up was get on and do something that was worthwhile. ' Cos it didn't seem like it was worthwhile, any of it. Although it was. It was just hard. It was just that we were on this endless treadmill doing this stuff. Someone said to me, who was doing the adverts in NME, I know him from St. John's College, and he ended up working for them, and he said "You do realise that your band ... you've done more gigs this year than anyone". I was like "Have we!" (disbelief). Well it was like our manager, who was Simon Moran, the promoter, was also making money on the promotion side, so .... I'm not surprised there wasn't a second album in the pipeline 'cos we were too fucking busy touring. It amazes me that we've done all this. It's just mad. I think I've had a knock to the head and forgotten about it all. You've got serious intent now. How do you organise things now to cope with that sort of pressure? Well for one thing I'm enjoying it a lot more. I make sure I can hear what I'm doing, and what everyone else is doing. And ....... I don't drink as much. (Laughs). God, I'd love to go to these places again, and actually see them. I never went out. I never left me hotel room, 'cos I've got a really bad sense of direction, so I'm frightened of getting lost. I used to sort of look down each way of the street and if it meant having to go through loads of little streets I didn't bother, especially somewhere like Japan, where no-one speaks English .... trying to get a cab was a fucking nightmare, you know ... so I just used to sit in me room, and watch telly, and write tunes. (Pointing at one of the gigs). Ah, that was cancelled. I was talking about that the other day. Neil Young. I'd have loved to do that. You see that would have been my bestest gig ever. I could say, "I've supported Neil Young". Fuck the Rolling Stones. That would have been excellent. That would have been amazing. And he cut his finger on a ham sandwich didn't he. Cutting up the ham sandwich. I heard that they weren't selling enough tickets, to be honest. Yeah, he was chopping a ham sandwich up, caught his finger on the .... 57. What about your management experience since The Seahorses? Errrm. It's been varied, I'd say. The thing is, you've got to trust somebody. And everybody's got really good intentions, or they haven't. And I think with the people I chose to manage me after the band spilt up - they all had very good intentions, but at the same time they found it hard to focus on me, exclusively, because there was a lot of other stuff going on, which was quite frustrating for them, and even more frustrating for me so.... Life's too short to fuck around, getting into stuff that was going off so, no disrespect to any of them. I think they all tried as hard as they could but there's not enough hours in the day for it. How very diplomatic of me. 58. With the current band, are you working your material up as fast as you'd like? How's that going? Well at the moment we're sort of jamming it and everything, and there's some nice sort of things coming out. The added bonus of them being really good players is that it does come out a little bit differently every time but it's still 'on it'. With the people I'm playing with at the moment I've not had the luxury to actually spend any time in the studio. We've recorded some stuff which does actually sound really, really, good. We were auditioning a drummer and the bass player brought along this new Korg multi-tracker thing. It's like a 16-track. We just mic'd everything up and played it into that. And anyway, about a week later he came back with this thing and it just sounds like....you could release it, you know. It's really good. In that respect, sometimes it's great, sometimes stuff needs a little bit of work. I just wish they were all up here and we could rehearse every day, you know. It's tough. It's difficult finding the time to do it, and getting down there, and trying to juggle it, but in the meantime, whilst that happens, I'm going to do something on my own anyway, and release it anyway. I think it's about time somebody heard what I was up to so... You mentioned, prior to this interview, that you'd been given space in a local recording studio. Yeah, in... what's it called .... Used to be called Submarine, I think it's called Studio Seven now. It's Alan's. Alan from Shed Seven bought it - the drummer. I'm doing some stuff down there. I've already done some sort of, like, acoustic. Just me. Demos. But I think ... the way that I want to do it is just have it really basic, you know. It's not going to be a big full-on rock kind of thing. It'll be just like a little EP with just six tunes on. And then I could do two albums of acoustic stuff but I don't know if it'll be interesting enough for people to listen to, you know. I don't think I could handle that from anybody. It'll be nice. I'm going to sell it on the web-site once that gets up and running, which will be in the near future so... 59. What about lining up gigs? Are you doing that yourself? Yeah. I need a product really to get the agents and stuff interested. But at the same time it's a lot easier not to have an agent involved, anyway, when you're doing it acoustically, 'cos they get their cut and by the end of it you don't get any money and it's all a waste of time. And then you have to listen to them sucking up to you at the end of the gig telling you how great it was. (Laughs). I'm not too keen on agents and all that sort of people really. So you're taking a cautious view, in a sense. Well, there really isn't any need to get them involved at this stage. When I'm doing stuff on my own, acoustically, and I can sort it out meself, then why do I need one any way? 60. You were talking about A&R people before - what interest have you had from the record companies? If you can gauge that. A lot of them are interested but it's kind of... there's a bit of a stigma that goes along with The Seahorses and the fact that it cost the record companies an awful lot of money, that they never got back. They'd put all their hopes and dreams on John, thinking "Oh, Stone Roses" et cetera, and it never happened, and I think they're all a bit concerned about their jobs and too worried to stick their necks out, even though they like it. It's very frustrating for me, and I get very annoyed about it, but, at the same time - no use beating your head against a wall. But that's not particular. That's endemic within the whole industry. Yeah, that's it. So I might as well just do it on my own. My mates have been telling me for years - just do it on your own. You don't need anyone. That's what they've been doing. They seem to do alright out of it so ..... 61. In your time you'll have come across record company executives. What about the major companies - you said earlier yourself that, you know, Sony now control half the recorded output in the world... Hmm. And Seagram own the other third, or summat stupid, don't they. So how do you view all that. Did you ever engage in those meetings? Nah, but... when the band was splitting up, the shit was about to hit the fan anyway, you could not get in touch with anybody in the record companies because they were all flitting around trying to make sure that their jobs were secure. I don't even know if John's still got a record deal. I'm not sure if he has or not. But as far as .... Did I ever get involved with the record company people ....? Yes, are they all suits, or what? Yes, they're all accountants and lawyers. I'm reading David Geffen's (head of Geffen Records) biography at the moment, which is quite interesting. Fucking hell, the amount of shit which I never even knew went on. It's totally amazing. 'Cos you think, when you're in a band, that you're the be-all and end-all, 'cos you're this band and they've given you loads of money. And they make you think like that as well, they encourage it. And then you realise that behind the scenes they're just like..... all you are is a little chit of paper, and it's just being passed around, and they're wondering how much they're gonna make on you and that's it. Which is how it's probably always been, I think. Since they started ripping off blues artists. At the end of the day, it's the company that counts, and they're the ones that're buying it so .... People seem to like what I've been doing for the live stuff, so ..... I've just got to release something on my own I think. And you never know. If I start selling loads and loads and loads of it a record company might decide that they're all of a sudden very interested again. 62. Compressed into just a few years you've had an incredible amount of experience. Do you feel any benefit, or feel strengthened by that? I do and I don't. There's a lot of stuff that I get pissed off by. But then again there's a lot of stuff that ..... I know, for a fact, that I'm writing and playing a lot better than I ever have done. And I'm a lot happier with the music that I'm doing. I'm a better performer. It's so much more fun now. I don't shit meself anymore, I don't give a fuck now. Me son's been born, that's it. He's the one I'm working for, and I don't care what anyone says. And, you know, it's great. Everything's a lot clearer. But then ..... I haven't time to spend having meetings with people who might be interested in this, that, or the other, or not. It just does me head in. I'd rather just go out there and play. And just get on with it. I am happy. I'm a lot happier than I was when I was in the band 'cos obviously I'm playing my own stuff. I don't sing songs I don't like singing. And I can say at a gig - I can change me mind half-way through and go, "We're not going to do that one. We'll do this one instead". Which is great. I was never allowed to do that. Never at all. I just felt like an employee, whereas now ... it's just.... I don't know, really - I don't even feel like an employer 'cos all me musicians are really into what they're doing. I don't really tell them what to play. We just have a bit of a laugh, really. 63. If you were conducting an interview like this, what questions would you ask? If I was asking myself? Yes. ........ What did you do with all that money? (Laughs) That's what I'd ask myself. If I was interviewing myself. I don't know really. I'd probably ask meself if I'd do it all again. O.K. And I definitely would. Of course I would. Right. Thanks, Chris. We'll leave it at that for now shall we? Yeah......... After the recorder had been switched off we had another drink and were just chatting..... "We've forgotten all the "Smash Hits" sort of stuff - like "What's your star sign?"" Chris says: "I like that stuff. It's a laugh. I was born on the cusp between Cancer and Leo - which gives me the Cancer , crabby, tenacious thing and the Leo ....... ferocity" (Laughing). "What about your Chinese sign?" "I don't know". "We'll work it out for you". "O.K. My birthday's (writes it down) 22.07.71." (This makes Chris a Pig, or Wild Boar, in the Chinese astrological system.) "The sign of simplicity, honesty, and great fortitude. Gallant, sturdy, and courageous, a person born in this year will apply himself to an allotted task with all his strength, and you can rely on him to see it through. Scratch the surface and you will find pure gold. He seeks universal harmony. No doubt he will have fights and differences with others, but will not carry grudges unless you give him no choice. He doesn't like to add fuel to the fire in a confrontation and will usually let bygones be bygones. His life is fated to be blessed with all he will need and the money, power, and success that come to him will be unselfishly shared with one and all. The Boar believes in miracles and miracles happen to him......" (from 'The Handbook of Chinese Horoscopes' - Theodora Lau, Fontana, 1991). "O.K. What's your favourite colour". "Don't ask me. I'm colour blind. Never realised until at school we were given this picture of dots to look at and they were asking 'What number can you see?' and I was going 'What number?' "(Laughs). Chris remembered the name of the guitarist mentioned at an early stage of the interview and said he'd write down the names of all the band members he'd worked with at that time: Daisy Space / Genuine Moon Material: Vox: C Helme Backing vox: Helena Bass: Andy Parrish Guitar: Martin Tilly Keys: Keith Hyde Drums: Steve Chutzpah: (not all at the same time!) Vox: C Helme, Jamie Fowler, Stu Wilkinson Guitar: Nick Walker, Jamie Fowler, Chris Weston Bass: Andy Parrish Keys: Chris Johnson Congas: Toft Patches, Matt Thompson Drums: Billy Hickling.
	Back to Page 1 - Chris Helme interview
Home About Bands Programme Venues Facilities & Advice Workshops & Education Sales Interviews Links
All pages © 2001 Cultural Foundation