root salad TMTCH
The Men They Couldn’t Hang have cranked up the action. Simon Jones catches up.
sistor, I always thought that doing a ses- sion on his show would be the pinnacle of success. I would dream about it and knew if I did, I’d have made it in music. When he started playing Green Fields Of France we got invited to play on the show and my dream had come true!” Thirty years down the line, Phil and Paul Simmonds – song- writers and originals both – are consider- ing the milestone.
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When had they realised all this was less a lark and becoming serious?
“In 1984 we played the Clarendon Hotel and sold it out: afterwards the land- lord wanted to rebook us. This time though he was going to give us a case of Heineken rather than six cans. If you had known that landlord, you’d know that things were get- ting serious!” Paul grins.
Their debut album followed swiftly. It contained classics-to-be Ironmasters and Scarlet Ribbons, tracks which marked them out as something more cerebral and heart- felt than much of the then emerging cow- punk explosion.
“Things moved very quickly for us,” recalls Phil. “Being in a proper recording studio was a novelty. We had two producers. Tony Poole recorded our earliest demo in IPS Studios on the Goldhawk Road. We recorded Walkin’ Talkin’ and Whiskey With Me Giro, so he was an obvious contender. We were doubly blessed as Phil Chevron introduced us to Elvis Costello who took us to Demon Records. Tony and Phil agreed to split the songs and produce half the album each. It began our trademark style.”
“For me the standout memory was our drummer Jon Odgers smashing a fridge with his shoe to create the back rhythm in Ironmasters. Brian Wilson eat your heart out!” continues Paul.
When had they realised that they were crafting specifically British-sounding rock? Phil explains their genealogy.
“I hadn’t even thought this was a con- scious thing until we were recording The Defiant. It was only when Tom Spencer had written a song with a Greek setting that it became clear. Cush often includes Wales in his songs, it’s in his blood. Paul comes from Welsh and English back- ground which also shows through in many of his songs. My family is a mixture of Irish / Scottish and English, I think my influ- ences come through.”
hil Odgers reminisces about the influence a certain Mr Peel had on The Men They Couldn’t Hang. “I used to listen to him on my tran-
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ad they a definite highlight from three decades? Paul offers that “I have always thought that we became fully formed when we
made Waiting For Bonaparte,” and Phil concurs. “Waiting For Bonaparte was a defining moment – the whole process of recording. We recorded in a residential studio. I suppose you could say we partied hard. Still we came up with something special. Mick Glossop [producer] taught us a lot on that one.”
The Men’s career took a break in the mid-’90s. They say it was “just a pause – TMTCH will always exist, we just go away and hibernate until someone summons us back.”
Duly summoned by a rabid fan-base of people who could never understand why they took a sabbatical, since reformation the band and their audience have inter- twined even more. “The Men They Couldn’t Hang have always been close to the fans – we don’t hide away in the dressing room or rush off after the gig,” points out Phil. And indeed their latest album – the thoroughly excellent Defiant – was funded through a Pledge campaign.
“An incredible success, it enabled us to make the album we wanted, self-financed with a proper budget. If a band has a decent following there is no need to go down the record company route. Vinyl Star was our label, set-up originally for a couple of TMTCH rarities. We used it for solo stuff and
started working with Cargo distribution so the logical next step was to launch The Defi- ant on Vinyl Star with Cargo distributing far and wide,” Paul expands.
The album received a unanimous thumbs-up, and the Men are rightly proud of their latest creation which raucously and merrily combines their social and historical inspiration to brilliant effect.
“If anything, the historical elements of some of the songs serve to illustrate the social ingredients. I see songwriting as much more an extension of verbal storytelling than some opportunity for self-analysis,” says Paul.
They raise a sceptical eyebrow at those
who marked The Defiant as a comeback, since the band’s hardly been away and plan to end their 30th anniversary year as it began with a knees up at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. “We enjoyed that gig so much last year that we knew we had to come back for more. C’mon down, even bring the kids!” Phil raises his arms behind his head, a satis- fied smile on his face.
I wonder what, with the benefit of hindsight, they’d advise their younger selves if they could?
“Moisturise every night!” Paul. “Wear protection – in your ears!” Phil. TMTCH play Shepherd’s Bush Empire on
April 4th.
www.tmtch.net
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Photo: © Judith Burrows
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