More of an essay than an autobiography - Tick Tick (part 1)

When all is said and done

So finally My Swelling Heart is released as I always knew it would be.  The original master tape went missing about 2 hours(only a slight exaggeration)  after we walked out of Guardian Studios, Pity Me back in the late spring of 1980.  Our plan was to release it as a single with Examining My Fear on the b-side but after the financial sting me, Gary and Richard took on our 12 inch EP “The Immortalisation of Tick Tick we were unwilling to stump up again. 

It was a such a rubbish decision on so many levels.   

·         It would have been so much cheaper than the first time with no lavish plan to release it on a 12inch single

·         The recording costs were a lot cheaper than for our record. 

·         We were led by the nose when we recorded “Immortalisation”. 

·         This time there were 5 of us to share the cost and in any case we just knew more about how to go about it. 

·         We could even have just left it up to Pete Farrell to sort it.  He had recent experience of bringing out  records with  The Amazing Space Frogs, Discharge/Filth and Terry Tranz. 

Hindsight and all that.... but there is in something to be said for releasing it for the first time, so long after it was recorded.  We are thrilled of course but if some old fellars had come along in 1980 and said we’re going to release a record of something we recorded just after the end of the second world war (do the maths) we’d still be splitting our sides now.   Yet I don’t think it’s quite the same is it?  Popular music hasn’t moved that far in the last 30 years.  One of the best bands I’ve seen this year were Parquet Courts a hip young American band who sound to me like a Richard Hell/early Talking Heads cross over and with that in mind I’m not the slightest bit embarrassed to big up it’s release. 

Aside of that because we didn’t release it as a single as Richard put it the follow up to the 6 track Immortalisation of Tick Tick is another 6 track EP and to accompany that I’ve written down a few words and am going to recall a few memories.  I have no notes to work from which I see as a positive, I like to think it’s the Tick Tick way.  So here goes.............. 

Job Done, Tick......Tick

Band members:

Tick Tick 1 – September 1979
Richard Sanderson
Geoff Spence
Gary Widdowfield

Tick Tick 2 – March 1980
Paul Fowler
Richard Sanderson
Geoff Spence
Ste Weatherall
Gary Widdowfield 

The Maid’s Neck – September 1980
Paul Fowler
Geoff Spence
Ste Weatherall
Gary Widdowfield

Tick Tick 3 – early 1981 (a punt)
Peckover
Geoff Spence
Ste Weatherall
Gary Widdowfield 

Tick Tick 4 – spring 1981 (another punt)
Morgan Duffy
Geoff Spence
Russ Spence
Ste Weatherall
Gary Widdowfield 

Tick Tick 5 – September 1981 (and another)
Morgan Duffy
Russ Spence
Ste Weatherall
Gary Widdowfield

Tick Tick 6 – Haven’t a clue
Ronnie Burr
Jeff Luke
Kate O’Neill
Ste Weatherall
Gary Widdowfield 

Getting it together 

I first came across Richard at Marton Sixth Form College in 1977.  We studied English together and my earliest memory of him was of us being given homework of writing a sonnet.  We were told it should to be about love and Richard wrote his sonnet about electricity pilons.  The teacher took Richard to task in front of the class.  He told Richard “you can’t write a sonnet about electricity pilons”.  Richard was having none of it, he just kept saying said “well I love electricity pilons”.  I nearly pissed myself laughing.  Anyway having missed more lessons than I attended I fell on my sword and packed college in after 1 year before my mam and found out about how much I was knicking off so we lost touch. 

Me and Gary at the Middlesbrough Rock Garden in 1979 via Ste Weatherall who I’d only  just met as well.  We came came from similar backgrounds.  Gary was from Teesville, Ste Thorntree  and I was from Berwick Hills.  We all hit it off straight away.  Particularly Gary and I had similar views on lots of things but particularly on politics and music.  He was into Patti Smith, Television and Burning Spear and impressively more obscure reggae artists such as Pablo Moses and Yabby U.  I was interested into Wire, The Fall and Alternative TV at the time.

We were interested in the attitude of the bands and had definite ideas about what we liked and didn’t like.  We were interested in concepts and applauded the unconventional, almost by definition.  We’d both liked the initial spark of punk rock, it’s politics, it’s anti-establishment and the way it challenged the conventions of writing and performing music but we’d both got bored with it.  On a national level punk had become part of the musical establishment.  All the major labels had their punk bands and most of them were just boring.  Locally, all the new bands pretty much sounded the same and as for punk and  politics?  I really can’t remember to be honest. Happy to be put right but apart from Rock against Racism/Anti –Nazi League (punk more than did its bit), definitely The Pop Group and the Anarcho Punks (Crass, Poison Girls etc.) any political point seemed to have been forgotten

We talked about forming a band.  We’d both written some songs and Gary could play the guitar.  I initially lied and told him I could as well but it didn’t matter because we agreed I’d be the singer and he’d play the guitar.   

Of course we needed a bass player but decided we didn’t want a drummer, instead we’d have a drum machine.  Drum machines were still really pretty new and unheard of in the local music scene.  The Human League had been booed off, supporting Siouxsie and the Banshees at the town hall but we liked them.  We’d heard Suicide and Cabaret Voltaire and liked the repetition of the rhythm.  We also liked the early Echo and The Bunnymen sound so we thought we’d go for it.   Actually thinking about it again it wasn’t as clever as I’m making out.  I just don’t think we were very confident of finding a drummer who’d be willing to join our band. 

We became part of a little sub-scene at the Rock Garden with some lads from Hartlepool, Braz (Paul Brazil), Smigger (never knew his real name), Ronnie Burr and Jeff Luke.  Not exactly sure how we became pals but I’m guessing live-wire and then socialite Ste was the conduit.  Also Richard came back on the scene.  We were all interested in what has since become known as post-punk (it wasn’t called anything then).

Richard was already a well established local musician.  Guitarist/Singer songwriter with Drop, he was a friend of Julian Cope from The Teardrop Explodes and it doesn’t sound much now but one of the DJ’s at Radio Clevelandwas a big fan.   It was a big deal back in the day.  Through talks with Gary and I Richard made it clear he was bored with Drop so we asked him if he fancied playing bass in our band the three of us became Tick Tick.

3 piece

We knew what we wanted to do and how we were going to go about it.  We were definitely going to bring out a record.  We would play live but we would only ever do short sets.   We would never compromise,  we wouldn’t say thank you for applause after songs or play encores.  We had ideas of concepts.  For example one plan was to play an exact version of Alternatives by Alternative TV live at The Teessider (that will only mean anything to people familiar with the song and preferably The Teessider.  We planned a concept show with loads of in jokes “Appleyards, Atkinson's, pogo at the bar”, for those no in (most), excuse in joke.

We started practicing in Gary’s bedroom and later at Richard’s house.  We were thrilled to have Richard on board even though he was still also in Drop.  We would never have asked him to leave Drop but amazingly and to our great pleasure he did.  I thought he wouldn’t like not being the focal point of the band and the fact he was a much better singer than me was a bit intimidating but I blagged it out  and he didn’t seem to mind at least certainly while we were a 3 piece.   We all fully bought in to the Tick Tick way of doing things and it was just so much fun.  Richard described his time with us as like being in a gang.  We were inseparable.  As well as play in the band together we socialised together.  Gary and Richard even worked together.  I think really Richard just liked knocking around with 2 hard lads from East Middlesbrough.

We all brought lyrics and we would work on the music together and when we’d worked out a melody we’d just fiddle about with the drum machine until we found an appropriate back-beat.  It all sounded fantastic to us.  I can’t remember much about the early songs (actually can’t remember many of the later songs either) but I do remember Gary wrote Respect and My Present.  I brought Mythical Bedsprings with me (originally written with my brother who eventually joined Tick Tick 4), wrote Not Before Time and Disco Smirk Hopeless Smiling and Richard wrote Attraction.  We must have written other songs but we decided to record these and bring them out as a 6 track 12 inch EP.

I cannot stress how difficult it was to bring out a record back in the day.  I got some details about mastering the record, pressing the record, labels etc. from the back of a Scritti Polliti record cover but we had no idea about recording studios.  I didn’t even know where there was one so asked for help from somebody we thought would in Blank Frank formerly of local punk heroes Blitzkrieg Bop and now keyboard player for Basczax.  He’d had lots of experience recording with both bands so we thought he would be willing and able to help us.  He booked us 8 hours in the 16 track Impulse Studio in Wallsend where Basczax had recorded their Madison Fallout single. 

It was really expensive as well.  Blank bought 2 hours off us but it still cost us just under £200.  To put that in perspective we were all working but our combined weekly wages didn't cover that.

In truth it was a disaster.  We got to the studio and the engineer hadn’t turned up and when he did he seemed out of his head on drugs.  The production was sterile and we weren’t given the slightest bit of advice from anybody.  We actually recorded a 7^th song, Joy Pass By that by some way was the best song of the day which we naively and foolishly agreed to let Blank have it for a local Teesside LP he promised was going to be released. 

We released the record and I think we knew it wasn’t very good.  They were really good songs but as I said the production was shit and particularly my performance was lacklustre.  We could have done with better advice and leadership really.  We should have practiced more before we went into the studio and had a real idea about how we wanted the songs to sound.  We just turned up there and expected it all to happen.  The engineer was totally out of his depth, he was used to heavy metal bands and he didn’t know what to make of us or what to do with the sound.

Nevertheless Disco Smirk was played by John Peel and more impressively Kid Jenson played Mythical Bedsprings on day time Radio 1 but..... it just should have been so much better.

It was just great the 3 of us, probably my best time in the band.  It was so easy with 3 to reach a consensus; there was never any need to have a vote and just really fun.  More about the live shows later but we always challenged our audiences.  Most of the people in our audiences had never seen/heard anybody like us before and people either loved us or (more) hated us, nobody was indifferent. Somebody once told me a story that Carl Green a fairly successful local musician being interviewed by a fanzine got angry when asked a question about Tick Tick!  I'm really chuffed he cared, I was totally indifferent towards him. 

-----------

For those that have made it this far - That's enough for now eh?  I've written more but I'll publish it in chunks.