Anxious High (1989-91) I moved house this year – a process which involved not only sifting through the Pandora’s Box of my past, but also necessitated the many late nights spent listening to numerous boxes of unmarked stereo cassettes. Every track evoked memories – the feel of a particular studio, the other players, and what was going on in my life when I recorded a specific song. This strong sense of time and place was especially snared by the music recorded at The Church between 1989 and 1991, the period I’m calling Anxious High. The songs on this album have been salvaged from some of those stereo cassettes and tapes. In 1988 I signed to Anxious Records, the label founded by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics. We had briefly met in 1980 while appearing on the same bill at a Festival in Cascais Bull Ring, Portugal. He and Annie Lennox had been Tourists and I was a member of the Original Mirrors. We later become label mates at RCA signed by the same A&R person Jack Stevens when I began a solo career in 1984 although our paths rarely crossed. We’d also shared the same gentleman Solicitor James Wylie for years and this didn’t become apparent until after a period signed to Chrysalis Records when I was again looking for a deal and James suggested Dave’s new Label. He and Annie had recorded their 1984 hit album Sweet Dreams in a studio they built in the upstairs of a church they were renting in Crouch End. The success of the album enabled them to buy the building and, by the time I arrived, The Church was a sought-after London recording venue with three state of the art studios alongside a trio of lesser known spaces – Fundamental, 16 Track and the eponymous Basement – the repository for cannibalised analogue equipment, reel to reels, amps, PAs and a temperamental monitor desk which had to be wooed into life by the nurturing talents of its users. After a UK tour promoting my first album release on Anxious in 1989, I was seconded to Dave’s new project The Spiritual Cowboys, and co-wrote ‘Jack Talking’, the band’s first single. For several months we worked between London and LA then began touring extensively in Europe. There was little time to work on my own musical ideas. So in those intermittent fragments of a free day or night here and there, Dave gave me the freedom to use the 16 Track, Basement and Fundamental studios to write and record demos. Fundamental studio was a high ceilinged room, poorly illuminated by a large mirror ball and a few sixty-watt bulbs that hung from long cables like nooses. It was baking hot in summer and freezing in the winter. Barry, the enigmatic singer from Pleasure, had ‘informed’ the studio using puppet parts, dolls, plastic flowers and dark graffiti creating the atmosphere of an abandoned operating theatre from Silent Hill. The 16 Track at the back of the church on the ground floor was like an extremely damp large walk in wardrobe, dimly lit by small stained glass windows set in high recesses, with dark angular corners that could accommodate a kettle, a table for the desk, reel to reel and a few foldaway chairs. The Basement studio beneath the crypt housed Dave’s portable digital recording studio alongside the dismembered remains of puppets and sets from the Captain Pugwash, Trumpton and Camberwick Green children’s TV series, forgotten and orphaned by their puppet Masters Bob Bura and John Hardwick who once imagined there. This mixed with the euphoric chanting and wailing occasionally seeped through the walls from the ‘working’ Church next door, where a devout African congregation conducted their services at evenings and weekends. It all added to the strange ambience of the place, as did the smell, which was both rancid and sterile. The intoxicating aromas of pharmaceuticals, head cleaner, incense and exotica permeated the control room like familiars – summoning images of Doctor Benway, whose ethereal imprint was often in residence. The audio-visual and sensory effects of religious services, strange smells and whacked out interior design combined to produce an eerie and otherworldly ambience and presence that permeates the recordings made there. The songs feature Anxious artists, musicians, associates and mavericks that moved in my particular sphere at the time; primarily Chris Sheehan (The Starlings) along with Nick Pyall, Nan Vernon, Barry Maguire, Gully, Siobhan Fahey, Olle Romo, Martin Chambers, Johnny Turnbull, Paul Thompson, David Winthrop, Chris Bostock, JC001, DJ Desire and the ever present Andrew Morton (Editor the Anxious fanzine). The sessions were generally nocturnal affairs, restricted by time, but fuelled by curiosity and a kind of innocence. Experimentation, the wilder the better, was the rule, and songs and sketches were often written, recorded, mixed, and then ultimately abandoned all in one night. Dave gave us money, a garret, the canvas, brushes, paint and catalysed this ever evolving sentient instillation and indirectly influenced it from afar, by phone, fax and rare appearances. He used to say, ’It’s a beautiful thing’. That it was; the output from these other studios by Anxious artists was prolific – songs, videos, photographic sessions and rehearsals that provided a continual flow of art in all its multiplicity, produced for the label. Some were highly successful and critically acclaimed, others less so and captured more by chance than design, as is clear from this collection. Looking back it was like a school, a school for students like me (hence the title) that mainstream establishments (the Majors) couldn’t handle anymore, had expelled or didn’t recognise the potential in. Thankfully, our Governor’s ethos and perception was a little different, he saw beyond the instant profit and cosmetic, empowering us all with unrestricted access to facilities enabling us to develop and evolve. In a sense, he was emulating the ethos of Warhol’s Factory and like that model, it was equally dazzling and dark. It shone so very brightly for a while, but over time the evolving dynamic between Anxious Records and its major label investors’ expectations became incompatible with some artists’ musical direction. Dave tried to maintain investment in his artists whilst satisfying the distributors typically commercial interests. He also became more and more entranced by other artistic pursuits such as photography, filmmaking and further solo albums during his informal sojourn away from the Eurhythmics. So gradually the label waned, lost its lustre, surrendering the innocence it harboured, once espoused and tried to distil and develop. It got darker; too dark sometimes. Not everyone who was there is still here now, but at its best, for a brief moment in time, it was a beautiful dream, everything most of us ever wanted, anarchy in its truest sense. These songs compiled on Anxious High provide a snapshot or a sketchbook of a time, a specific place and the series of brief encounters that took place there. The music is what remains of the various comings together of the nomads, lost souls and bright sparks who inhabited the second home and safe house that Anxious Records and The Church had become – my pals, my peers; the Alumni. JP. The majority of recordings on this LP have not been heard before, some can still be found on rare vinyl and CDs Manta Ray Nan Vernon LP (1994) CD British Pharmaceuticals MISS WORLD LP (1992) Vinyl & CD Alice don’t Leave by the Fire Escape B-side of No more Lullabies 12” Nan Vernon (1990) Vinyl & CD Sperm B-side of I can’t say No 7” Jonathan Perkins and the Flame (1990) Vinyl & CD Hangman B-side of A little hate makes love much better 7” Jonathan Perkins (1991) Vinyl & CD Featured Musicians: 1. Manta Ray (N. Vernon / J. Perkins) Recorded by Olle Romo in the 16 Track 1990. Vocals: Nan Vernon. Guitar: Chris Sheehan. Decks: D. J. Desire. Ambience: JC001 & Barry Maguire. Backing vocals, Casio & Keyboards: Perkins. 2. Nobody loves you when you’re down and out (J. Lennon) Recorded by Olle Romo in the Basement 1991. Vocals: Barry Maguire. Drums & Percussion: Olle Romo Backing vocals & Keyboards: Perkins. 3. Falling (S. Fahey / J. Perkins) Recorded by Barry Maguire and Sophie Muller in The 16 Track 1991. Vocals: Siobhan Fahey. Guitars: Gully Backing vocals & Keyboards: Perkins. 4. Sperm (J. Perkins) Recorded by Chris Sheehan in Fundamental1989. Guitars & Bass: Chis Sheehan. Saxes: David Winthrop. Keyboards: Perkins. 5. British Pharmaceuticals (J. Perkins) Recorded by Chris Sheehan in Fundamental 1989 Guitars & Bass: Chris Sheehan. Vocals & Keyboards: Perkins 6. Hey, That’s no Way to Say Goodbye (L. Cohen) Recorded by Nick Pyall in Fundamental 1991 Vocals: Nan Vernon Guitars: Nick Pyall Organ, Bass & Vocal: Perkins 7. I’m Up (J. Perkins) Recorded by Chris Sheehan in Fundamental 1989. Guitars & Bass: Chris Sheehan. Drums: Olle Romo. Backing Vocals: Nan Vernon. Saxes: David Winthrop. Vocals: Perkins. 8. I Can’t Say No 12-inch (D. A. Stewart / J. Perkins) Recorded by Chris Sheehan in Fundamental 1989. Guitars & Bass: Chris Sheehan. Drums: Martin Chambers. Backing vocals: Nan Vernon & Martin Chambers. Vocals & Keyboards: Perkins. 9. Alice don’t leave by the fire escape (Nan Vernon / Perkins) Recorded by Nick Pyall in Fundamental 1990. Guitars & Bass: Nick Pyall. Vocals: Nan Vernon. Keyboards & Bass: Perkins. 10. When Christina Sleeps (J. Perkins) Recorded by Chris Sheehan in Fundamental 1989. Drums: Paul Thompson. Guitars & Bass: Chris Sheehan. Vocals & Keyboards: Perkins. 11. Number 10 Love Potion (J. Perkins) Recorded by Olle Romo & Barry Maguire in The 16 Track. 1990. Slide Guitar: Johnny Turnbull. Guitar and Bass: Chris Sheehan. Decks: D. J. Desire. Vocals & Keyboards: Perkins. 12. Hey Little Girl 12-inch (J. Perkins) Recorded and Programming by Olle Romo in Fundamental 1990. Guitars: Chris Sheehan. Backing vocals: Nan Vernon. Vocals & Keyboards: Perkins. 13. Hangman (J. Perkins) Recorded by Chris Sheehan in Fundamental 1990. Guitars: Chris Sheehan. Drums: Martin Chambers. Bass: Chris Bostock. Saxes: David Winthrop. Vocals & Keyboards: Perkins. I’m grateful to Matt Exelby for salvaging and saving these stereo only recordings found in damp boxes of unmarked cassettes, shredded reel to reels and corrupted DAT tapes and Steve Temby for reanimating and mastering them. Additional Artwork: Steve Temby. Thanks to Dr Valerie Reardon and Dick Porter. Catalogue No. MISSWLP6