“Forget alcohol, the hardest part was giving up crisps. They should have a rehab centre where you can stand up and say, ‘My name’s
Thomas Walsh and I’m addicted to crisps’.” wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Clearly there are two sides to the story (Andy wasn’t interested in commenting) but before they parted company there was a final Walsh/Partridge collaboration, the catchy ‘Here We Go Round Again’, which has found its way onto The Olympus Sound. It’s probably the closest we’ll ever get to a new XTC single, not least because Partridge handles lead vocals, and when I tell Thomas the song leapt out at me on a first listen to The Olympus Sound, he reveals others have said the same, “but I don’t talk about it as much as the [other tracks] because of all the shit that’s gone on.”
Other guests include Neil Hannon, who contributes various bits to six songs, and Ben Folds, who plays piano on ‘Dear Belinda’, a song dedicated to the Inbetweeners star and friend of the band, Belinda Stewart-Wilson.
Somewhat ironically, The Olympus Sound has already been described as Thomas’s Skylarking – a comment he can only take as a compliment. The songs were written around the time Walsh was hospitalised for “drink and drugs, and other stuff I was doing” a couple of years ago. He’s since knocked his vices on the head and lost almost six stone in the process. “Forget alcohol, the hardest part was giving up crisps for fuck’s sake. They should have a rehab centre where you can stand up and say, ‘My name’s Thomas Walsh and I’m addicted to crisps…’
“I picked the best of the songs I wrote before and after I went through that change and they all seemed to blend into a cohesive theme. There are some very dark lyrics amongst some very poppy tunes. I like that aspect.”
So is the world finally ready for Pugwash? The advance vibe for The Olympus Sound is good, and their profile is certainly much higher than it was before that freak Duckworth Lewis Method hit. (The DLM are reforming for a follow-up album, incidentally). But impressing peers is one thing, translating that into sales quite another. Thomas is understandably eager that there be a breakthrough.
Pugwash 2012 model. Clockwise from top: Thomas Walsh, Tosh Flood, Shaun McGee, Joe Fitzgerald
“I still live in a bedsit with nine guitars, a Dansette, a telly and a fucking mellotron,” he says. “I collect records and live hand-to-mouth – we all do. The band have given up everything to give this a go. We’ve all reached our early 40s and made some great records… but most of them have gone nowhere.”
The Olympus Sound is out now on Lojinx 47
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