History Lesson

Way back in 1976 four characters were blazing a strange trail around the pubs and clubs of Manchester, experimenting with life, the way you do when you're a teenager. They were into listening to music by the likes of the Stooges, Velvet Underground, N Y Dolls, Can and Captain Beefheart which tended to set them apart somewhat from their contempararies. They were Martin Bramah, Una Baines, Tony Friel and Mark Smith. They had already started writing songs together, practising in the attic room of Mark Smith's flat, when the Sex Pistols played Manchester for the first time at the Lesser Free Trade Hall. Knowing very little about the Sex Pistols other than they were a group with short hair that covered Stooges songs, the embryonic Fall attended and were completely bowled over. Realising that the time was nigh they advertised for a drummer and a later, chance encounter with Pete Shelley led to the group's first gig. The Fall had come into existence, and as the old cliche goes, nothing would be quite the same again…

Martin Bramah left the Fall in 1979 after 2 ½ years(Una Baines and Tony Friel had left sometime before).After a brief attempt at starting a new group with Tony Friel and Karl Burns (both of whom had left the Fall by this time),the Blue Orchids came into being, featuring another ex-Fall member, Una Baines, playing keyboards. They signed to Rough Trade and thanks to a handful of brilliant records and an enviable reputation as a live group they reached the brink of success only to see the group torn apart as one of the ugliest of demons haunting the music business (and society in general) made it's presence felt and the continuation of the Blue Orchids impossible.

Ironically the Blue Orchids had just recorded their finest record, the immaculate 'Agents of Change' l2" EP (SEEK IT OUT) which thanks to record company cockups wasn't promoted and was near impossible to get hold of at the time of it's release.

'Agents of Change' followed two 7" singles - 'The Flood/Disney Boys' and 'Work/The House That Faded Out', and an album - 'The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain)',all of which are excellent and sadly very difficult to get hold of.

The Blue Orchids disintegrated sometime in late 1982 and it came as something of a surprise after a 2 1/2 year gap to hear their new 12" single - Sleepytown/Thirst (Racket recs) played by John Peel a couple of months back. It was indeed a brand new Blue Orchids record on a brand new label. After such a long lay off I thought some sort of explanation was in order, and as an avid Fall fan the chance to find out more about that most colourful. Of groups origins was too good to pass up ...

The Start of the Fall

We started the band (the Fall) up at the end of 1976, early 77. I left in 1979. Me, Mark, Tony and Una started working together in 1976 and we were already writing songs when we went to see the Sex Pistols at the Lesser Free Trade Hall, we were really knocked out by them. We'd heard about them already through the music press, just as a group that did Stooges cover versions. There was a photo of a guy with short hair and I was wondering what these 'skinheads' were doing covering Stooges songs, I wasn't really into the idea. I went along thinking I could heckle or something but I was really bowled over. I got my hair cut soon after. I could see something was happening.

They were just four big silhouettes. Johnny Rotten had on this huge padded jacket. They'd just written 'Anarchy In The UK' and just started performing it. We realised we could do it and we advertised for a drummer. We got a bloke called Dave, we didn't really know him. We just taught him the songs. He was a Tory, he wrote this song called 'Landslide Victory', all about the Tories getting into power.(Before they did!).

I met Pete Shelley in a nightclub and that got us our first gig, supporting the Buzzcocks. Dave only did four gigs with us, we sacked him and asked Karl Burns to join. He was an old friend of mine. I didn't really think he'd be into it, he was in an HM band at the time and had very long hair, so I just asked him to stand in.

From Fall to Blue Orchids

Yes it is the band!?

There were arguments between myself, Mark and Kay (Carroll), who was the manager then. I didn't like the way I was being treated. I think that's why everyone's left the Fall. I think if I'd never been in them though, they'd still be one of my favourite groups.

At first it bothered me that people mentioned me in connection with the Fall all the time but it doesn't bother me at all now. My contribution to the Fall at the time was quite substantial and I'm proud of what I did.

I was very wary when I left the Fall of sounding too much like them, travelling on their coattails etc etc. It was genuine though, with the Orchids that was the music I wanted to play, going back to my influences, Velvets, Stooges etc, songs with strong melodic lines.

Splitting the Blue Orchids

Too many reasons, a lot of things just came to a head. I didn't want anything else to do with the music business. We had started working with Nico, I was really into the idea of working with her but it caused a lot of problems.

There were other things too, the management we had was encouraging us to become popstars. You have to dilute what you're doing, I didn't want to do that. We had financial troubles with the record company too, they didn't want to give us any money. They promised us a big push with 'Agents of Change', we got a better studio and then the guy who was supposed to be pushing the record just disappeared off on holiday the week the record came out. That sold the least of all our singles, a shame because it was so well produced, I only wish that the album could have been produced that well, it was only done on 8 track.

In the end I disbanded the band and carried on playing music in private. Music had taken up most of my life since 1976 when we started the Fall.

Orchids again

Why restart the Blue Orchids?

It was a gradual process, it wasn't like all of a sudden after two years thinking - oh we'll start up again. I spent a year not wanting to play music and doing other things. Then Una started recording a solo album for Rough Trade, it's not come out yet, it's called 'FURYA', she's called the band 'The Fates'. That should be out by the end of October on Taboo records, Una's own label distributed by Rough Trade and the Cartel.

It's a lot different to Blue Orchids and the Fall, in places it's very folky. Una comes from an Irish background, it's quite poetic. I helped on it, played a few things, not just as a guitarist. I played guitars on one track and drums on another and bits of percussion here and there and I helped to mix.it with Tony Friel.

While we were making that I met a lad who played drums and we started making tapes at Tony's, he has his own studio, and he suggested we put a record out. He started up Racket Records. 'Sleepytown/Thirst' was the first release, we should have another single out and then an album on the same label.

Now

'SLEEPYTOWN/THIRST' is the first Blue Orchids record for over two and a half years but follows directly on from where they left off with the brilliant but criminally ignored 'Agents Of Change' EP. Although it lacks the crystalline clear production of it's predecessors, 'THIRST' is a clear indication that Martin Bramah's ability to write gently sad songs that produce a slight knot in the pit of your stomach has by no means diminished.

With 'Long Night Out' from the 'Agents Of Change' EP it had seemed that Bramah had reached the peak of his creation - this most melancholy and simply blue of songs ends with the line (spoken) 'Why is it nothing.seems built to last anymore?' - I mean, how much more profound do you have to get? 'THIRST' despite the two and a half year gap follows close behind 'Long Night Out' and can only be a clear indication of more good things to follow.

Martin Bramah sums up his approach to writing songs thus:

Trying to be honest about your situation, the way we fit into a technological society, the way the world has been fucked up by man. I've always been optimistic but things are so bad you can't just blame one thing. There's always hope!

I like to write happy songs and also sad songs. I always liked Leonard Cohen, very emotional music. A lot of men think it's soft to show emotion, but it's actually very brave. 'Long Night Out' was about drugs and was a reflection of what was happening to people I knew.

Now, to anyone familiar with much of the BLUE ORCHIDS music it won't have passed unnoticed that it bears something of a similarity to some of the recent wave of American bands that have reached these shores, most notably R.E.M.. Did it, I wondered, bother him that the Orchids recent reappearance might lead to some lesser informed individuals reaching the conclusion that BLUE ORCHIDS were just an english band that had picked up on the U.S. sound or would the opposite be true.

Dunno we'll have to see. It's hard to judge if bands have been influenced by you or if you've just had the same influences. I've been told we were very popular in L.A. when the album came out (1982). It's nice to think we're thought of still.

Yeah, right well I hope I'm not the only person who's spent the last two and a half years wondering what became of the BLUE ORCHIDS. Martin Bramah seems to have had more than his fair share of misfortunes both with the Orchids and the Fall and not surprisingly he seems to have very little faith in the music business whatsoever. Twice bitten, thrice shy perhaps. But on the strength of their comeback single hopefully third time lucky.