The Hollow Men
It is 1987. I have just returned from a defining three month road trip around the United States and am preparing for my final year at University. My big distraction; music had not yet given me an excuse to drop out and it seemed silly to contemplate, so close to graduation. That said, a guy I knew from Jumbo Records called Choque was doing something very interesting in Leeds. I had stepped out to see him a few times in London with his other band Salvation and a college friend from Leeds named Howi was putting some bass on what was to become the first album: Tales Of The Riverbank. Howi was already active with The Passmore Sisters from nearby Bradford and he recommended me to Choque and singer David Ashmore. We met at the ludicrously named Chocolate Factory Psychedelic night and a plan was hatched for me to play drums on the follow up.
During another of my lengthy holidays i played on a good half of 'The Man Who Would Be King' which wound up getting some decent reviews, and yielding 'White Train': a nifty little pop song penned by Howi and David.
It was a bit weird playing over existing tracks and a drum machine, but the band seemed to give me a bit of freedom and invited me to contribute percussion and backing vocals which I duly performed. Everyone was very welcoming and a plot was thickening to bring The Passmore Sisters' Brian E Roberts into the fold and play some live shows.
If I was to be a part of it, I would have to move back to Leeds, which I did after I graduated.
I recall being a bit deflated, returning from London so soon, but it didn't hurt being a part of a band that were going places.
Choque was your classic big fish in a small pond, man about town: Hard working, outspoken, gregarious and sometimes cruel, especially with the ladies.
David was the bands' visionary, not a great singer by any means; Dave was however a good lyricist and a meticulous planner: Howi once said you could learn all you needed to know about the guy by watching him make a bacon sandwich, which in his case involved a pair of surgical scissors.
Howi is one of the funniest people I've ever met, but underneath it all he was deadly serious, the logistics man, frugal in the extreme.
And then there was Brian, last man in, The Merchant of Didsbury as he was called. This was due to his innate sense of dramatics, both personal and musical, one of the best guitarists I have ever worked with.
Together we produced a live show for what was until that point a devoutly studio centric project. Gathering momentum with a video based on kids TV show 'Magic Roundabout' and playing shows in Leeds, Manchester and London.
Our first show was opening for The Lilac Time at Manchester University and was quickly followed by shows with The Wonderstuff and I think most memorably The Stone Roses. It was a great time for live music in retrospect. Most established indie rock bands had their own traveling following and I think we even managed to pick up five or six of our own. All of the combined momentum rewarded us with a major record deal in 1989. In part because of our collective love of The Church, we chose Arista.
The deal gave us the opportunity to record a new album in a residential studio, just as the Manchester scene exploded.
The external indie rock revolution gave way to our own internal revolution at The Windings Studio in North Wales that summer: Swapping The Jesus And Mary Chain and The Waterboys for The Beloved and The Happy Mondays. There were a few awkward moments being relegated to programming the drum machine, but overall it was an intensely creative time. The Ffrwd Valley sessions were bookended by recordings made at Black Barn in Ripley and at 10cc's old Studio, Strawberry in Stockport.
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Next to the first two independent LP's; Aristas' 'Cresta' was something of a commercial disappointment. But it did make a splash in the US, selling 20000 copies before a bar band from Kansas City (with the same name) put a stop to us trading as The Hollow Men. We were inevitably dropped by Arista. The group became splintered and David quit the band whilst making what was to become our last and in fact posthumous fourth album: Twisted.
Like most great bands we were a gang, we'd do anything for each other and in those few years together we became great friends. Choque would cook us all curry, roll joints and play us the latest offerings from the record store on a Friday night, I would take trips to Manchester on the coach and write with Brian in his flat. Towards the end of the bands lifespan I made another trip Stateside with David, taking a peek at what was to become my new home: New York.