We start the latest episode of Six Degrees Of Kevin Shields by commemorating the life of English musician, Chris Cross, who sadly passed away on 25 March aged 71.
He made his name playing bass and co-writing songs in Ultravox, including co-credit for their famous moment, the 1981 smash Vienna.
From him, we will as ever, meander across the musical landscape taking a few random twists and turns, until we meet up with Kevin Shields.
Christopher Cross was born in Tottenham, north London, in 1952, although he was tempted as far away as Preston, Lancashire, to start his musical journey with a band called Stoned Rose. He gave that up, returning to London in 1973 to attend art college. It was there that he joined Tiger Lily, who were regular giggers between 1974 and 1976, before they morphed into Ultravox! There were three albums made in 1977 and 78 with John Foxx as lead vocalist, that were well received by commercially underwhelming. Then Foxx left, being replaced by Midge Ure, and work began on the more synth oriented Vienna album (1980). That, of course, spawned the titular single, released in January 1981 (and infamously kept from number one by Joe Dolce's Shaddup Your Face).
Ultravox: Vienna - here
(Official music video)
When Ultravox were between singers, he had embarked on a side project with James Honeyman-Scott (The Pretenders) and Barrie Masters (Eddie & The Hot Rods).
Eddie & The Hot Rods formed in Essex in 1975, with Eddie actually being a dummy that appeared with them during early gigs, before the joke wore thin and they discarded him. In May 1975 the band got a residency at The Kensington in London. Then, in October, they got a joint residency, this time at The Nashville, where they would alternate headline slots with The 101ers. That led to them signing to Island Records and opening for the Sex Pistols at the legendary Marquee club.
Eddie & The Hot Rods: Do Anything You Wanna Do - here
(Live at Epic Records)
The 101ers were a rockabilly outfit formed in 1974, who made their debut on 7 September of that year at the Telegraph pub in Brixton, under the name El Huaso and the 101 All Stars. This was eventually shortened to the 101ers, with the number coming from the squat at 101 Walterton Road, Maida Vale, where the band resided. In April of 1976, they were supported by the fledgeling Sex Pistols at The Nashville Room. This was the night when John Mellor discovered punk - as he later said, "5 seconds into their first song, I knew we were like yesterday's paper - we were over." Mellow would quit the band to form The Clash (and of course become Joe Strummer) before The 101er's first single, Keys To Your Heart, even came out.
The 101ers: Keys To Your Heart - here
(Audio only - Mellor / Strummer's voice is so distinctive)
Richard Dudanski, who had been the drummer with The 101ers, would go on to have spells with The Raincoats, Basement 5 and Public Image Ltd.
Ana da Silva and Gina Birch met while at Hornsey College of Art in 1977, and were inspired to form a band after seeing all girl punk band, The Slits. Dudanski was briefly in the line-up, but by the end of 1978, several personnel changes had left The Raincoats with an all female line up. They were joined by Palmolive, who had drummed with The Slits, and perhaps more interestingly, classically trained violinist Vicky Aspinall. Geoff Travis, the founder of Rough Trade Records, brought Mayo Thompson in to produce the band - their first single was the properly punk primitive Fairytale In The Supermarket.
The Raincoats: Fairytale In The Supermarket - here
(Official music video - created by the band's own Gina Birch)
Mayo Thompson is a musician and visual artist from Houston. He started his band, originally known as The Red Crayola, as part of the local psychedelic scene, in 1966. In the 1970s he moved to New York City to work as a studio assistant for Robert Rauschenberg, a pioneering artist who had started in the pre-Pop Art scene. From there, Thompson moved to London, and between 1976 and 2010, his band, with various line ups and now known as The Red Krayola, recorded six albums.
Red Crayola: Hurricane Fighter Plane - here
(Audio only - a weird concoction of 60s psychedelia and post-punk - think
early Pink Floyd meets Wire)
He also got work as a record producer, working on early stuff by The Fall, Stiff Little Fingers and Cabaret Voltaire. He also became a member of Pere Ubu, playing live and on two albums - The Art Of Walking and Song Of The Bailing Man. He persuaded film director Derek Jarman (The Tempest, War Requiem) to dabble in the world of music video direction, who ended up working on The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths.
Thompson did more production himself, such as The Chills 1987 debut album Brave Words, and Primal Scream's first release the same year - Sonic Flower Groove. The cover art for that latter album was done by Andrew Catlin, a photographer, artist and director, who did a lot of work for publications like Melody Maker and NME, and also was an official photographer for Live Aid in 1985.
Amongst others, Catlin has produced sleeve art works for The Pogues (Sally MacLennane), The Jesus & Mary Chain (including Darklands, Barbed Wire Kisses), The Wedding Present (George Best), Echo & The Bunnymen (Bedbugs & Ballyhoo) and much of Ian McCulloch's solo works.
In 2014, a Seattle based producer, Eric Green, had managed to crowd fund and release a documentary focusing on the so-called shoegaze alternative music movement of late 80s / early 90s Britain. With interviews with the likes of Wayne Coyne (The Flaming Lips), Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) and Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), it focused in on three bands - the aforementioned Jesus & Mary Chain, ethereal Scots the Cocteau Twins and the Anglo-Irish My Bloody Valentine.
My Bloody Valentine: To Here Knows When - here
(Official Music Video)
My Bloody Valentine are, of course, fronted by KEVIN SHIELDS.
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