The Dudes of Neptune.
Jim’s outline of events to date.
(Established: Worcester, U.K. 2004).
I first met Andy when he began working at the same place as me. This would be in the early eighties. Our first words were exchanged as a result of Andy spotting the Spirit logo which I had stuck on the chin-piece of the motorbike helmet I was removing from my head, on entry to the building. Now, Spirit aren’t exactly a household name in most parts of sleepy Worcestershire, so we had an immediate rapport. Over the years we exchanged musical ideas through common ground in Peter Hammill, Frank Zappa, Neil Young and the like, and turned each other on to bands we might not otherwise have encountered. (I got The Bevis Frond, and Andy, The Cosmic Jokers). I was desperate to do something musical with Andy, but kids and mortgage and marriage and work all somehow got in the way of any creative partnership, and our shared interest was confined to gigs and discussion.
My first venture into home recording saw me purchase a 4-track cassette studio, a Boss drum machine, a Fender acoustic with fitted pickup, an old Wasp synthesiser. a mike and a Fender fretless bass. I made enough racket with this combination to satisfy myself, and learned something about mixing and recording. The resulting “noise placement” (as I was in Brian Eno’s phrase a “studied non-musician”), was compiled onto two CDs under the name The Nature Robots.
In 1996 I met up again with Steve, who I had first met during the seventies, and who had returned from the states where he had been playing with various bands in the San Antonio area, (Red Square, Himmel and Mannequin), and was now looking to do something new. We arranged to meet and try to jam something, but when we did we found the combination of Steve’s guitar and my words and (Heath Robinsonesque) production techniques resulted in a song writing partnership. We recorded two CDs under the name B9, and played a gig in Evesham for a friend’s birthday. (One hour of original material). At this gig we met some young musicians with whom we jammed all summer. Some home and field recordings were made documenting this period as The Herb Boyz. We also played live under this name at several events, doing covers of Pink Floyd mixed up with some blues-rock. We got pretty good, but doing covers wasn’t really my bag, and the youngsters quite rightly went off and formed a band of their own. (Hello Lounge, how ya doin’)? I went back to doing my own thing, and mixed up a couple of albums from the recordings I had made in the summer, and started playing some of my own ideas out. At about this time I had a huge fixation on Krautrock, stemming from a jaded sense of repetition from the new stuff I was hearing, and was buying two albums a week from a specialist shop via mail order. Suddenly the music I was making made sense to me, the resultant period was put to CD as “Nachtjagd: Schrage Musick”, a nod to my influences, (however unconscious they were at the time of recording it). Again back in touch with Steve, we recorded new material as The Cause, again producing several discs of demo songs between 1999 and 2004. Some of the Dudes of Neptune‘s material originates from this period, now re-recorded with higher production values than the original lo-fi recordings. (If anyone is interested enough to want to hear any of this formulative stuff, get in touch, otherwise we’ll save it for the box - set retrospective).
Then in 2004 Andy bought his home studio, (a digital 8-track if you please), and then bought 10 years worth of musical instruments to go with it. We were away. I brought Steve to the party and we already knew Carl, our factotum, (drummerbassistsingersongwriter) who also worked along with us. The first songs emerged quickly over a period of several months, and by Christmas 2004 we had enough material for a decent album. However, creative juices were flowing, and 2005 saw another prolific period of writing. We slowed down our output during 2006 and remixed and re-recorded what we had accumulated in the can to date, alongside several more bits of new writing. We also spent some time jamming as a four piece for our own amusement. At the time I am writing this (03:15 am, 01 January 2007), we now have something like 35-40 finished songs, and at least an album’s worth of material still awaiting lyrics. I’m keen to get back to writing and recording the new stuff. In the meantime I hope the tracks presented here give some indication of where we come from, and hint at where we might be going to.
Hi there, thanks for looking in. Much has happened since we first set foot in My Space land, most of it pleasant, some recent events quite awful. Andy’s heart attack puts everything into stark perspective about the fragility of our existence. He had been working on a new track we had started to put down on our last visit. Later that night death stared into his eyes but he stared him out. He later described the event to me thus: “I felt a huge black bird trying to pull me up out of my body……my reaction was to fight……….I can’t go now I’ve got too much work to finish”.
Well, after a hectic week running around, I’m pleased to report that Andy has been sorted out, and is now recuperating under Chrissie’s watchful eye. The tragedy of the situation was that we had tickets for Van Der Graaf’s gig at Wolverhampton on the Tuesday night. VDGG being Andy’s favourite band, and me being a huge Peter Hammill fan. Steve bravely stepped into the breach, and was possibly the only middle aged man in the audience that didn’t possess a set of the original albums on vinyl at some stage of his life. Bar the odd reluctant partner dragged along, no-one was there out of mild curiosity, and it goes without saying they were magnificent. Sorry Andy, but your health comes first. Assuming you’re well enough, we’ll take you to The Church at the end of the month to say thanks.
I’ve got some stuff I want to put down, Steve’s coming up with tunes all the time, Carl always wants to play and work out and re-do his parts, and I know Andy’s keen to get working, but we have to be patient, as Andy is a patient. We’ve recently explored a slightly new direction with the music, including one song that is now referred to as the “Devil’s Music” which caused us no end of personal grief, for which I can only apologise. However I am as keen as ever to nail the bastard, so we will once again return to the flame, hopefully with a clearer perspective on what is real, what is important and what is fun. One thing I know for sure there is no group of people I would rather work with than my fellow Dudes, and wouldn’t it be nice to meet up with some of you wonderful people sometime soon. Oh to jam with Tony, Kirkenstein and Blipper et al!
There are too many people to mention and thank for their continued support and messages of good will. I hope one big thank you will do for everyone. Being something of a techno-thrope I don’t have access to the messages Andy receives via e-mail, but he keeps me informed on a need to know basis. Send me your addresses and I’ll send you something nice. Love, Jim. Evesham, Worcs. 15.35 21.04.2007.
Please feel free to get in touch with any comments you may wish to make. We value all opinions in the war against apathy and indifference.
