Edited by Richard S Jones / Email: rsjones@shindig-magazine.com FORTY YEARS OF VILLAGE THING


Alternative folk label Village Thing is celebrating its anniversary with a compilation, Ghosts From The Basement, and an all-day gig. JEANETTE LEECH speaks to the event’s co-curators IAN A ANDERSON and STEVEN COLLINS


From the folk psychedelia of The Sun Also Rises to the affecting singer-songwriter Dave Evans, Village Thing put out several classic releases during the period 1970-73. “The gig almost exactly marks the 40th anniversary of the first Village Thing releases in


September ’70,” says founder Ian A Anderson, who released three albums of his own on the label, “and once I started re-listening to the original masters, I got quite excited.” With performances coming from a number of Village Thing artists including Wizz Jones, Dave Evans, Steve Tilston and Rif Mountain, the label run by The Owl Service’s Steven Collins is also getting involved – quite naturally – with additional appearances from Nancy Wallace, Jason Steel and Collins’ The Owl Service. “Ian said that he felt we were the natural successors to Village Thing.We jumped at the


chance to be involved – much of the music on that label has been a source of inspiration for us. They were trailblazers,” he says, “and they really don’t get the credit they deserve.” Anderson repays the compliment, admiring Rif Mountain’s family of artists and their independent approach. “I occasionally get weird flashes when talking to Steven that I’m meeting my younger self.” Amidst all these compliments that compliment themselves impeccably, for both Village


Thing and Rif Mountain the day is going to be something very special indeed. The anniversary gig will be held on 25th September at Cecil Sharp House, London. Ghosts From The Basement is out now


STILL GOT THE NERVE


Not even the Juilliard School could tear PAUL COLLINS away from his passion for the perfect two-and-a-half minute pop song. BRIAN GREENE holds court with the reigning king of powerpop to talk about what it means to be doing it for yourself


“After one year there I knew that it was not the kind of music I wanted to be doing,” Collins says of his time at the famed school. “It was a great experience but I wanted to be in a rock ’n’ roll band, so I left New York and went to California when I was 17 to seek my fortune. On the third day I met Jack Lee and we started The Nerves.” The Nerves, who also featured one Peter Case,


created some of the most irresistible and engaging powerpop of the mid-to-late ’70s. Sporting skinny ties and playing the kind of adrenaline-filled melodic sounds that seemed to have been forgotten in the era of Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles, they built a cult following but never made much noise with popular audiences. Theyeven wrote ‘Hanging On The Telephone’ and recorded a blistering version of it, but it was Blondie that went on to have that all-important hit. “We hated that music [popular sounds of the times],


we thought it was overblown garbage,” Collins vents when asked about the musical culture surrounding The Nerves.“We were purists into the art of pop songwriting,


getting things down to their simplest elements and structure.We spent days and months working on songs until we just couldn’t go on anymore.” Eventually The Nerves broke up, and after a short


tenure as the like-sounding Breakaways, Case left and formed The Plimsouls. Collins says he was devastated when Case moved on without him but it didn’t stop him from creating his own new band, The Beat (later Paul Collins Beat, to avoid being confused with the more well-known ska act). Managed by Bill Graham, they released a couple of scorching records for Columbia in the late ’70s and early ’80s and are today still highly revered by powerpop aficionados. In the ’90s Collins veered away from pop and made


a couple of country-rock albums but as his new record, The King Of Power Pop! makes clear; it’s high-energy, stripped-down melodies and riffs that have always been closest to his muse. “I think I have finally become settled into what it is I


do, and I feel that finally now, I do it very well. A big part of that was coming to the realisation that the music business sucks and the farther away from it that you can get, the better off you will be creatively. I have come full circle now and am completely DIY.And very happy for it.” Full circle, indeed. The King of Power Pop! features a couple of covers, several re-workings of songs first recorded by The Nerves and The Breakways, as well as half a dozen new tunes. The record has a wealth of hooks, both vocal and guitar-based, and a level of euphoric energy you’d expect from a gang of


adolescents who just got their first four-track. It doesn’t hurt that Wally Palmar of The Romantics and Nikki Corvette make guest appearances, either. King Of Power Pop! by Paul Collins is available on Alive Naturalsound now. Visit www.alive-totalenergy.com for more info


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Maggie Holland


Ian A Anderson


Steve Tilston


Photo: Ian Anderson


Photo: Joe Gedrych


Photo: David Harrison


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