Recorded in three weeks at Nick Seymour’s (of Crowded House) Dublin- based studio, The Olympus Sound came out in Ireland last August. Its UK release has been delayed because Pugwash were suffering financial difficulties (more on this later). On the plus side, the hiatus has given their new label Lojinx a chance to take PR advantage of a flood of praise for Walsh from the great and good since Duckworth.
One of the most precious testimonials arrived by letter while he was recording the new album with the now-stable Pugwash line-up of guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Tosh Flood, bassist Shaun McGee and drummer Joey Fitzgerald. “I arrived home late one night, knackered, to find a letter from the States,” Thomas recalls. “I nearly dropped when I realised it was from Jeff Lynne. I grew up worshipping ELO – I could tell you how many hairs there are on Jeff Lynne’s arse. He’s my idol. It was such a beautiful letter in which he said a lot of really nice things about Pugwash. He also said ‘…and I really liked the cricket album, but I didn’t think it featured you enough.’ So I rang Neil straight away and said, ‘Neil, Jeff Lynne’s sent me a fookin’ letter. He’s slagging you and all in it, it’s brilliant!’”
Other celebrity admirers have included Jellyfish’s Roger Manning, Chris Collingwood of Fountains Of Wayne, Granddaddy’s Jason Lyttle and Brian Wilson’s manager David Leaf – who revealed that Jollity was the SMILE tour bus album of choice.
“Then, about six months later, I got an email from David saying Brian had expressed his wishes to meet me when he played Dublin‘s Vicar Street the following month,” says Thomas. “I know the guy who runs the venue, Bren Berry, because we’ve played it a few times and when I went up to the stage door and told him Brian Wilson had asked to meet me, he says, ‘Ahhh, would yer feck off!’ Then Jeffrey Foskett [leader of Wilson’s touring band] saw me and said, ‘Hey Tom, get in here!’ It’s one of my great rock ’n’ roll moments!”
The “audience with Brian” was predictably brief and surreal: ‘”Jeffrey introduced me,” laughs Thomas, “then Brian goes, ‘Are you the ‘Nice To Be Nice’ guy?’ (referring to Pugwash’s Jollity single). I went, ‘Er, yeah.’ And he goes, ‘Great song!’ and does a thumbs up. I had my picture taken with Brian and told him he was an inspiration… and that was it. 90 seconds maybe.”
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“Brian Wilson goes, ‘Are you the ‘Nice To Be Nice’ guy? I went, ‘Er, yeah.’ And he goes, ‘Great song! and does a thumbs up!”
Around this time Thomas also began an occasional song-writing partnership with Andy Partridge – who ranked second only to Jeff Lynne as a musical hero. Their first collaboration [with ex- Pugwasher Duncan Maitland] was the beautifully melancholic and Wilson-like ‘Anchor’, which became the closing track on Jollity. Having been a besotted XTC convert from the moment he’d heard ‘Grass’ in a Dublin kebab shop, circa ’86, it was obviously a thrill for Thomas. But it was also destined to be a relationship of great highs and perplexing lows.
Thomas co-wrote several songs (many unreleased) with Partridge between 2005 and 2010, including ‘My Genius’ and ‘At The Sea’, and was deeply flattered when Partridge expressed his eagerness to sign Pugwash up for a five-year deal to his fledgling label Ape – even though Andy’s erstwhile band mate Dave Gregory, who’d been responsible for introducing the pair, tried to warn him off.
“I thought it might be a mistake for Pugwash to sign with Ape and I told Thomas so at the time. I could understand him wanting to be a part of the Partridge ‘family’ but Andy isn’t a businessman and I knew that somewhere along the line it would end in tears. Andy loves being the boss and throwing his weight around, but Thomas is an artist with his own ideas.”
Ape’s only Pugwash release, ’09’s Giddy, was an “introduction to” set featuring tracks from their first four albums chosen by Partridge. It picked up some interest but before Ape could offer any new Pugwash product, Andy was clobbered in the credit crunch. Business relationships went sour in all directions, and a new accountant informed him he was heavily in debt. When Walsh asked to be released from his contract, the fallout damaged their friendship irreparably.
Jolly Rogers: Dave Gregory of XTC, Colin Hare of Honeybus and Walsh (top); Walsh and Duckworth Lewis Method partner Neil Hannon collect their Ivor Novello Award in 2010; the DLM album; Pugwash’s 2005 album Jollity, stupendous Christmas single ‘Tinsel And Marzipan’ and the Andy Partridge-curated Giddy comp
“If this interview was eight months ago, you wouldn’t have been able to publish anything I said [about Andy],” Thomas admits. “It’s only through the dilution of time…”
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