Interview with Martin Bowes of Alternative Sounds & Attrition

  

 

Alt sounds 4

MARTIN BOWES, as many of you will know, ran the Coventry Alternative Sounds Fanzine in 1979 /

Martin Bowes

 1980, an amazingly popular and documentary Coventry Music magazine during the Two Tone period in Coventry. The magazine wasn't just about Two Tone though, the City was buzzing with lively post punk bands and venues and Martin captured the scene and the atmosphere in his magazine before realising his first dream of having his own band which became Attrition - still going strong some 28 years later having recently toured Russia. Martin recently took time out from his busy schedule to answer some questions for us.

  

Trev Teasdel's Interview with Martin Bowes (2008) 

Trevor - In Coventry people used to talk a lot about apathy! So what got you off your butt to do the Alternative Sounds Project? The inspirations / motivations.

Martin - I remember that....everyone used to say that in the late 70's early 80's...i don't know why...i don't know if times were really any different to now in that way....i suspect that in the wake of punk rock it was actually LESS apathetic a time...there were so many bands around at the time...a lot of people making an effort... but then there were less distractions from computer games and dvd's and the internet...

Punk rock just slapped me in the face. I wasn't happy with the adult world i was entering in the last years at school in the late 70's...and it said to me. ANYONE CAN DO IT. DO IT YOURSELF. I actually had already had dreams of being in a band...there was so much i wanted to say....I went to the Lanch (Polytech) to do an art foundation course in 77/78... I dropped out of that...it wasn't enough...  so as the band thing was a, then, distant dream...i took up the fanzine.... the typewriter rather than the guitar... :)  ..... I was proud that I was contributing to something as culturally and politically important as the punk and post punk music scene... and just to Coventry... as that was my life at the time as well...

Trevor -  How did you get it started / produce it / finance it? Was it a struggle?

 

Martin - I did the first issue with Dill, the singer of Gods Toys...I have to credit him with that extra push to go out and do it... I was a shy boy in those days and he encouraged me...! he didnt bloody well contribute much but i never cared about that!  :)
The first issue we pooled our dole money and photocopied 100 copies at Parbury's in Earlsdon!... February 1979 it came out...only a few pages... nothing special but a first statement...
it sold well staright away and we reprinted!... we got our money back...
then i heard about the Princes trust.... the Prince of wales gave away money to young people to help them start up new projects....(wasn't that kind of him?!  :)  ... i'm no royalist but this seemed like a plan.... so i applied and sent a copy of issue one... and i got £100 to finance the next issues...!
so it wasnt  a struggle...i kept the fanzine going for 18 issues... the first 12 were out on the first of the month for a year....always got the money back from sales... a lot of alternative outlets sold it for no commisssion...something that wouldn't happen now... i took a very few adverts but i wasnt into a commercial concern.... the circulation rose to 1000 copies at it's peak and i really believe it helped the Coventry music scene a great deal...Although it started very much as a local Coventry fanzine...there were so many great bands here... in the end i was looking more and more to bands outside of Coventry...and even started my own band.... so i did the last issue in the summer of 1981... for years i thought of doing another....
maybe i will again... i met a lot of people through the fanzine... local bands...national acts...other fanzines people...which helped my band Attrition get started... and even local journalists who started off writing for Alternative Sounds... such as a certain Mr Pete Chambers...
I even went on to the BBC's something else programme ,... the Coventry edition... to talk about fanzines and show  people how to make one...
that was a highlight..it was a great time for me...and for Coventry...
oh and... when i finished the magazine i had almost exactly £100 left in the kitty....  :)

Trevor - Martin - Alternative Sounds was a lively and popular Coventry music fanzine in the wake of Two Tone and is now a great historical document of the times  - but wasn't one issue banned and branded 'sexist'. What was that all about?

 

Martin - The name Alternative Sounds was a poke at the national music paper Sounds at the time.... i occasionally

Alt sounds 10

changed the title for a joke... one issue i put out a mock "Alternative fiesta"... which was a poke at porn magazines... i used a page 3 model but in the style of the great Linder (she did the famous cover for the Buzzcocks

200px-Buzzcocksorgasmaddictedit

Orgasm addict) or even Crass...i cut her head off....what i thought was an obvious comment on the exploitation of womens bodies...
Unfortunately the fanzine was printed by the students union at the Lanch at the time... and there was a very strong left wing presence there... they didnt talk to me about it they immediately banned it...(actually they still printed it and took the money but that's another issue...)... i couldnt sell the fanzine there any more...
i was really disapointed in them... i always thought that there was a counter culture...that we were all on the same side...i was obviously naive... and my, perhaps crudely executed, statement had not fit into their world view...
well i found another and better printer and went from strength to strength..
shame about that though... it really is...

 

Trevor - 1979 / 80 was an exciting period in the history of Cov music. Punk had happened and Two Tone bands were breaking through. Give us a snapshot of the music scene in Coventry in that period. What was good, what was bad.

 

Martin - Oh i don't like to tell you what is good and what is bad.... what was really positive is the morale boost that Specials and Two Tone gave the city and pubs and clubs were all giving bands a chance to play... i loved the Specials but they were only the tip of the ice berg... there were bands playing every night... there was a real vibe and some real talent in the city... a mix of styles...based around punk or new wave...everything looked really good...there WAS a future...

Trevor -  What were the venues like - How easy was it for bands to get gigs in the city / out of it back then?

 

Martin - Most of the venues were only small clubs or back rooms at pubs.... i even ran a night for a while at the old Zodiac pub near the Parson's Nose chippy in town...now a car park unfortunately). Usually bands brought in their own small vocal PA's in those days... there wasnt the technology available at the venues... but bands would share and it all worked so well... it was very easy to get gigs in the City at the time.... the problem was that it was much harder to get gigs outside Coventry...it was much harder to get the contacts in those days.... we had a good scene with bands...my fanzine...and others coming hot on it's heels... but to break into another city in those days without the internet was much more difficult... and ultimately the bands that did well were the ones that DID get out and play the Uk and maybe Europe... the ones that were left eventually died... you have to grow to survive and many of them fell by the wayside after a couple of years....

Trevor - A lot of bands seemed to either get contracts / make singles or at least have had the promise of that even if unfulfilled. What was happening at this time?

 

Martin  - It seemed everyone made singles at the time!.... i had a great collection... again the do it yourself

 

God's Toys - "Package Tours To Heaven"/"God's Toys" 1980

ethic...most were self financed... some bands got contracts but usually with small labels that were little more than being self financed...Gods Toys were an example...i so wished they had got a better deal...

Trevor - You initiated the compilation album Sent From Coventry. It's a great snapshot of the bands from that time. How did this come about and what effect did it have on the Cov music scene?

 

Martin - Yes...i saw that so many cities in the Uk were putting out compilations of their bands and as i was on the promo mailing list for a number of record labels i approached one of them - Cherry Red - who had just put out a Bristol compilation - and they were really interested...

 

Sent FroM Cov Alternative Sounds

I approached the bands...some had demos already...some Cherry red paid for at John River's Woodbine Studios in Leamington.... i think it was a really good snapshot... they even included a special editon of Alternative Sounds inside the album with articles on all the bands... (A copy of which is <<<on this page - see the Sent from Coventry album cover the magazine is in the collection there)
this all added to the buzz going on here in Coventry in 1980.... it was all positive...

Trevor - What about media involvement - was there a rush to look for bands?

 

Martin - there was interest...Cherry red wanted to sign the Wild Boys...and some publishing companies were

The Wild Boys

interested... signed Protege at least...
there were also more magazines and journalists coming to shows here.... it lasted for a while...then i guess somewhere else became the new big thing...

Trevor -  What about recording studios in and around the city. Were you involved with Horizon studios?

 

Martin  - NO...i went there once to transfer our first 4 track recording to a reel to reel master for a flexi disc Attrition put out.... but i had little to do with the Coventry studios... Woodbine in Leamington did a lot of bands at the time... and later Cabin studios of course although that opened around 1984..

Trevor - Two Tone is well documented of course but do you have any 'behind the scenes' stories or insights to share with us?

 

Martin - Well i wasn't around Two Tone much at all... i knew some of them...Horace i still see around occasionally...  John Bradbury used to work in the original Virgin records... he used to save me wierd experimental records as he knew i liked them...i remember buying the first Teenage Jesus and the jerks 12" from him on his recommendation.... i still live it... (that was Lydia Lunch's first project)... Terry i knew vaguely... i remember bumping into him in Woolworths once...he was buying a copy of the TOP OF THE POPS album with Gangsters on it...(if you remember the awful  albums they would put out in the 70's with covers of the latest chart hits!...)... i would have done the same!...

Trevor -  I remember attending a meeting with you around the creation of a Community Arts Centre of some

Arts assoc

 description. (At the Hope and Anchor I think it was). I left Cov shortly afterwards but did anything come from that meeting?

Martin - I only vaguely remember that meeting.... so i would think it is safe to say that not a lot happened!....
i'm not very good at meeting like that anyway....like wading through mud at times...  :)

Trevor -  Eventually you emerged as a musician in your own right with the creation of Attrition. Can you tell us about that transition?

 

Martin  - As i said like any frustrated journalist i had always had desires of doing music.... but i was a visual artist...i knew nothing about "music"...
so it took some time and really the popularity od synthesisers to give me an out let...a  start....we did our first show in December 1980...actually December 8th...the day John Lennon was shot. and  as i began Attrition my enthusiasm for the fanzine started to wane....

Trevor -  What were the influences and appraoches of the band?

 

Martin - I was very influenced by the more experimental and post punk scene i would say i still am although i've moved on a lot in other ways... so that is Joy Division/Magazine/PIL/Banshees/Wire...and going back to the Velvets.... that kind of thing started us off in style at least if not content... we actually began life as a guitar/bass/drums/vocals line up but soon got a synth in instead of guitar and then bought an early drum machine....eventually we even lost the bass.... although years later the electronics were augmented by viola/violin and cello occasionally...and even some guitar if you listen closely... :)

Trevor -  It's great to see that the band is still going strong and recently you toured Russia. Why Russia and how did you fix that?

 

Martin - We are busier than ever....it's been a long road that has taken us all over Europe...the USA...to Mexico and

 

Attrition - A girl called harmony

now to Russia...
the Russian adventure all started a few years ago when we played at the Castle party in Poland...a Russian label was there and loved the show...they put out our last album "Dante's Kitchen", in Russia... and then hooked us up with a booking agency there...

Trevor - What kind of venues were you playing and what was the response to you like?

 

Martin - the bigger cities like St Petersburg or Moscow had regualr rock clubs but a lot of the cities were a little like throwbacks to the scene in Coventry in the early 80's...the promoters would hire restaurants and they would clear them and bring in a PA for the evening... (i will say the PA's were all excellent quality...)... it's really new to a lot of Russians outside of the major cities...  i was surprised...and really pleased to find that there were a handful of die hard Attrition fans in EVERY town there... and they were all amazed that we had made it out to places like Siberia.... so we had a great response... we loved it....

Trevor -  Any stories of the tour you'd like to share?

 

Martin  - Well we were  a little concerned to be playing Russia in january!.... especially as far east as Siberia.... the Russian winter doesnt have the best reputation does it!... so we bought thermals...!... but actually they had a very mild winter this year so we only got down to -14c...  !
we travelled on trains as well... overnight trains...which we didnt realise until just before we went... it's the only way to get through the snow and the long distances... we were doing up to 41 hour trips on the trans Siberian express....mixing with Ukrainian builders and mongolian peasants...it was like an episode of a Michael Palin travel documentary! and  it was hard work but i wouldnt have missed it for the world... oh and the vodka helped... :)

Trevor - Where can they buy your albums?

 

Martin  - In russia they have shops that sell CD's/DVD's and MP3's!!! ..... which basically means they sell legitimate music and films and then bootlegs as well... we are in the alternative shops... we also did very well selling at shows...
We're planning to do more there...it really is a growing scene...

Trevor -  Martin  - Alternative Sounds was a great contribution to the Coventry music scene in it's greatest hour - that of the Two Tone breakthrough. Have you anything else you want to say about those days or the music scene.

Martin  - Thanks...i need to scan all those issues i still have and put them online somewhere as a resource....
I had a wonderful time in those days.... it was a great period for Coventry and the UK music scene as a whole...
but as i also teach music technology at City College here in Coventry now i can see there is a lot going on here now too...almost 30 years later...
what they need though is a really good fanzine!
thank you!!!
Martin
www.attrition.co.uk

Stop Press - ATTRITION RADIO BROADCAST

There is an ATTRITION radio special broadcast online tonight on Germany's Neurobeat radio!!!

Gallery_2_65_18468

Listen to between 40 - 50 songs from our entire career...

between 7.30pm - 10.30pm Central european time. (6.30pm - 9.30pm UK time and 1.30pm - 4.30pm east coast US...)

Streaming link:
http://85. 25. 150. 179:8000

and the Neurobeat website:
http://www. neurobeat-radio. de

 

Finally here are some collections of Alternatives Sounds (at least the issues I still have copies of)

 

 

Alternative Sounds No 3

 

 

Alternative Sounds No6

 

 

Alternative Sounds No 10

 

 

Alternative Sounds Misc pages from issue 12 and 7 (ish)

 

 

Sent FroM Cov Alternative Sounds

Comments

[Isotope]

good, must check out Attrition's latest album

[Stu Knapper]

[this is good] Nice Interview.....brings back a few more memories from those exciting days in Coventry. I remember Martin and myself doing a kind of mocked up scene for the "Something Else" programme in Virgin Records. It took us a number of takes to get it right as I remember.

Keep Rockin'

[Dave Pepper]

This is good reading! I remember meeting Martin at several venues and the old Rose And Crown pub! All great times!