On 22nd June 2010 I had the honour to meet some of my heroes from Modern English, Steve Walker (keys), Mick Conroy and Gary McDowell and I can report that you could never meet more friendly, down to earth rock gods than these.
I had come along with a long list of questions to ask but the atmosphere was so relaxed and the guys were so happy chatting I just left them to it and was more than content to listen to three old friends reminiscing about old times. And you could tell they were good friends by the real pleasure you could see in their faces at being able to chat together after so many years.
Steve had brought with him three photo albums and a large bag full of memorabilia and the first thing he pulled out was a flyer advertising a gig by ‘The Lepers’ which had Gary & Mick on their feet to come and have a look. ‘That will have been before you joined the band, Steve’ said Gary as Steve pulled out a small black and white poster adverting the first ever Modern English gig, which had written beneath ‘formerly The Lepers’. ‘That must have been your first show, Steve’ said Mick, ‘That’s right,’ added Steve, ‘I’d only just joined’.
Steve then reveals one of the photo albums has the original mock up for the ‘I Melt With You’ single cover, which has just been printed on t-shirts ready for the US tour. Mick said ‘My sister has been organizing getting the t-shirts done and she got in contact with Vaughan Oliver who has allowed us to use the graphic for free. I know that some bands have been using his artwork without his permission which he wasn’t very happy with so we are obviously very grateful to him for this. We will also be setting up a Modern English shop. The t-shirt’s all we have at the moment but we hope to produce more merchandise.’ I suggested they record one of their concerts and release it as an album. ‘Mick will be recording all the gigs’ said Steve. ‘He’s recording everything,’ added Gary,’ In fact he’s recording you now’, and sure enough Mick had his I-phone videoing me.
Steve added,‘I remember when John Peel first played ‘Gathering Dust’ he said it was reminiscent of Hawkwind and we thought we don’t sound like that. The version we are doing now does sound like Hawkwind. We’ve changed the sound a bit. Cranked it up a bit. We haven’t changed what didn’t need changing but we’ve got to leave you some surprises.’ Steve mentioned that he didn’t have a keyboard when he got the invite for the band re-union so went out and ordered himself a Nord Wave which he has been thoroughly enjoying playing and learning about.
‘Do you know, there were two tracks on Mesh & Lace that I thought were really anarchistic tracks, they are full on, hard grr..,’ said Gary, ’Sixteen Days and Dance of Devotion.’ I let Gary know those are my two favourite tracks off the album. The guys said that they hadn’t decided on a set list yet as some of the tracks they had been rehearsing weren’t working out and with Gary now present that will influence which tracks to keep or drop.
I mentioned about how it is now difficult to get Modern English CD's and Mick said that 4AD are a bit lax about doing CD pressings and wont produce any unless they get at least 500 orders per CD. He has been speaking to some re-issue labels to look at the possibility of getting their back catalogue re-issued but have found they are far too money orientated offering a record contract in reverse where they would have to buy 3000, or where the CD is released in poor quality with the insert having spelling mistakes. He did say he wasn’t that impressed with the 4AD re-issues which hadn’t been mastered very well so they are looking at alternatives.
The guys said they needed to head back so I asked if I could take a photo of them. As they stood together and I told them to smile Gary said, ‘watch out, I might blind you,’ as he revealed his gold and diamond teeth in all their glory. After the photo shoot, my photographing the guys on my phone and then doing the same for each of them on their phones, I could not let them go without asking for their autographs.
‘I haven’t given an autograph in years,’ said Gary,’ I’ll need to practice,’ so I passed him a piece of paper and pen. ‘This will be my autograph, not my signature as they’re different. I’ll try and put a star in Gary or something.’ ‘You don’t want us to sign on that lovely artwork do you?’ asked Steve so I got each of them to sign their autographs on my ‘After The Snow’ CD insert on the page listing the band members, now a very treasured possession.
They needed to go back to Colchester to have dinner so headed back to Steve’s van where all three of them sat in the front. Just before they headed off Mick remembered,’ Robbie told me to ask you if you could advertise an ‘instore’ we’re going to be playing. I’ll forward you the details.’ Then off they went with a wave and a smile, definitely three truly Modern English gentlemen.
That is Awesome!!!! I also can't wait to meet the guys! I'll also put a link on the website to this under the News section, ok?
Excellent Interview or Conversation! I love this picture!!!!
Mick has very kindly sent me copies of the photo's he took of me meeting up with them. I particularly like this one of my self and Gary talking about mobile phones (my 5 minutes of fame).
Here is a picture of myself and Steve (no he is not trying to escape) just before I took the photo of the three guys.
and finally Steve, Gary & myself have a friendly chat in the English sun.
Awesome Richard, thanks for sharing.