35 f P
ersonally, though, I was of the firm opinion that the best way of re-living it would be to have it again. [The editor doesn't get these perks…Ed.] Unable to justify repeating the same one, in the name of thorough research we experienced another. The Spell is a reflex- ology (foot) and head massage with a (massive) difference. Whereas Synaesthesia focuses on a specific positive outcome, The Spell focuses on the release of anxiety (I know, it sounds hippy, but it really isn’t). For this the music is more song-based and per- formed by the Imagined Village, with appearances by Jackie Oates and Simon Richmond. Again it’s an integrated, thoughtful, calming, even cathartic experience.
I can’t speak for From Source To Sea (a deep tissue massage) but the CD is probably the most obvious ‘stand alone’ outing of the four releases. It’s an album of ’50s and ’60s sea-shanties or ‘seamen’s work songs’ as the sleevenotes have it, performed by Emmerson’s group Walking With Ghosts. It features The Petrels (Jackie Oates and Belinda O’Hooley) with appearances by Show Of Hands, John Jones and Eliza and Martin Carthy. And the mighty Captain Pugwash! Validation (a facial) is possibly the most whimsical of the four, suggesting a coastal journey, with some lovely singing including The Smuggler by the Petrels and an evocative, almost melancholic rendition of I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside by Eliza Carthy.
The releases are being sold in the Lush stores. It is, Con- stantine concedes, in his soft West Country burr, handy that they have 700 of them. But as far as business models go, he denies having one. “I don’t really work with business models, I think you’re better off when you start with something you wish to do and then you slowly let the rest work. As long as you’ve got reason- able cost structures.”
His analysis of Lush’s Mark Constantine
the music industry is that it’s now simply not large enough to support the ranks of lawyers, promoters,
managers, and sundry middlemen that it has done. He refuses to read, let alone sign, a contract that won’t fit on a sheet of A4 with room to spare. Simplicity, he says, is key. “I only want to do it if there’s no-one else but the musician and preferably the musi- cian gets the money first and then there’s a split after that, some- thing of that nature.”
On this basis he agreed to set up a record label with Emmer- son, ECC Records (Emmerson, Corncrake and Constantine – though as it’s just the two of them, I suspect Corncrake is another in-joke). So far they’ve put out albums by both The Imagined Village and Duotone whilst Jackie Oates is due for imminent release. Constan- tine defines his role in this as “patron” and as I discover other pro- jects he funds, basically supporting those who care for others or the planet, he strikes me as a true philanthropist.
It’s great for Emmerson, who’s finally living the dream he first had with Scritti Politti, where the whole idea was that the creator of the product is in control of it, “like sixth-form Marixism where you overcome alienation by becoming the product.” Musicians, he thinks, need to stop whingeing about the business and learn to control their own careers.
As Constantine says, “We make products, my wife, children,
colleagues. We dream the stuff up, then we get it manufactured and then we teach people how to sell it. We organise the shops and we sell it. It’s a nice straightforward model of capitalism. Not much else or other people involved. The way I work is that I stum- ble along, I really, really do believe in serendipity: prepare the mind then go on your journey.”
As for serendipity, I suspect Emmerson can’t believe his luck. “The point when Mark phoned me up, I was about to give up,” he says. Well that sad day for a Spar supermarket was a happy one, not just for Lush Spas, but for English traditional music with a twist.
www.lush.co.uk F
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