Leeds man about town JOHN PARKES was so delighted to revel in his own obscurity that his 2006 debut album 'Faithlessnessless' (sic) even closed with an epic tune called 'You've Never Heard Of Me'.
However, in recent times, the former Wedding Present roadie and staple member of Greenhouse, The Fuzzbirds and The Sinister Cleaners has begun to experience an upsurge in popularity of sorts. Indeed, over the past nine months or so, our hero has been involved in three important indie releases: an exhaustive 20-track Sinister Cleaners retrospective collection ('Shine'), an incendiary new album from his current band Whole Sky Monitor (the scabrously-titled 'Bland Bland Bland') and a second solo album in the breathless, opinionated 'Illegal Songs'.
The underground press have reacted accordingly with a brace of rave reviews, 'Atomic Duster' magazine have voted 'Bland Bland Bland' as their 'Album of 2007' (not bad, bearing in mind it was only released a couple of weeks prior to Christmas) and solo shows and WSM gigs have grown in significant number. Hell, Parkes and his cohorts are now even travelling to exotic locations like Edinburgh and Nottingham rather than simply the West Yorkshire hinterland.
Crikey, John, it's hard to know where to start thanks to this raised profile of yours, but how about with The Sinister Cleaners. 'Shine' is the record that started pricking ears up last year, but how beneficial has the retrospective feedback been?
"Well it certainly got some consistently positive reviews," replies the chatty, affable Parkes.
"For me, I'm just delighted that the contents stand up so well. The best thing is that we managed to avoid the worst, stereotypical sounds of the 1980s so it still sounds fresh now, unlike, say, A Flock Of Seagulls' back catalogue."
Indeed, and - while I don't discuss this with John - I don't recall anyone from the Cleaners suffering under the weight of a dreadful, 'frozen waterfall' haircut like AFOS leader Mike Score. But that's another story and best left locked away.
"The Sinister Cleaners was more of a side project for me, anyway," says John modestly. "I was only one of several writers within the group (which also included the 'Legendary' Len Liggins, Weddoes drummer Simon Smith and Andrew Middleton), so I was just glad to get a copy of the CD as a souvenir!"
I thought you'd actually recorded a few new tunes to complete 'Shine' though?
"No, not exactly, we had porta-studio demos which we finished off for inclusion on the album," John corrects. "So we had the bones of them down already, but it was good to complete them. I doubt there will be more though, 'cos everyone's cast to the four winds now."
Really? What are your fellow Cleaners currently up to?
"Len lives in Reading these days, and I haven't had so much contact of late, but the great news is that he's doing a new Ukrainians album up in Castleford next week," John reveals.
"Simon's off tour managing in the US, so he's always busy and Andrew's got a high-powered job in Sheffield," he finishes enigmatically.
As I mentioned earlier though, you're getting a lot of good press these days. 'Album Of The Year' for 'Bland Bland Bland' from 'Atomic Duster' and loads more I've come across. You're quietly becoming press darlings, aren't you?
"Yeah, among the elite of the website jockeys," he laughs.
"It isn't so much the mainstream press, although Lamacq played 'Harehills Chapeltown' and just recently XFM played 'Cinenema' (new WSM single - ed) on their Rock Show, followed by Viking Skull, so I'd watch your backs!(laughs)"
"But yeah, it's coming together in an underground way, people are certainly starting to offer us gigs from much further away."
Indeed they are, and it seems you're chopping and changing between solo shows and full-on WSM rackets with alarming regularity just now. Is this all a bit quixotic? I mean, they must be two entirely different disciplines, surely?
"Well yeah, they are, though it's more a logistical thing in the sense that if it's a John Parkes gig it's just me and a guitar case rolling up somewhere, whereas with WSM it's more of a gang mentality," John muses.
"It sounds terrible, but to be brutally honest with the band it doesn't really matter if you forget a few words, you can get away with it when there's a big backbeat pounding away," he continues, disarmingly.
"It's a mixture of experiences really, often something really unexpected happens. Like last night, I played a solo show in Nottingham and there were a load of women in their 20s turned up...believe me, that's not representative of my normal, er, demographic," he says.
Maybe not, but then Parkes has never been slow to throw in his lot with the outsider. Hell, one of the highlights of Whole Sky Monitor's album 'Bland Bland Bland' is a tune with the immortal title 'Three Cheers For The Weirdo'. John, is this REALLY about an argument on a bus?
"Oh yeah, I tell you what, it was a legendary incident too!" John fires back.
"I was on a bus going through Harehills in Leeds and this guy gets on and the driver goes "that'll be £1.40 mate" and this guy goes "I'm not paying, I'm the King of Africa!", to which the bus driver goes "I don't are who you are mate - it's still £1.40"
This sounds like it's got potential...
"Yeah, yeah," John laughs. "It got really heated, it ended up with the King of Africa bloke going "You Motherfucker!" to the driver and the driver shouting back "No, YOU'RE the Motherfucker!" back at him repeatedly. It was hilarious - from an observer's point of view."
It didn't actually get violent then?
"No, although the driver did say something like "if I wasn't on this bus I'd sort you out properly" or whatever. It was a real memorable spectacle. I loved the way The King of Africa bloke was arguing, he had real panache, it was more surreal than threatening."
|
What was the end result?
"The King of Africa bloke got off the bus," says John.
Inevitable, really, I suppose. But while we're still on the subject of the best of the recent Whole Sky Monitor album there's also 'Way Over Fourteen': an altogether darker affair concerning human trafficking.
"Yes, where I used to live in Leeds there was this mysterious shop with neonlights around the windows but no shop sign," says John.
"And there were all these people slipping furtively in and out. Dunno about you, but round here you'd probably automatically think 'massage parlour'..."
Er, I think I'll take the fifth on that one. Pray continue.
"Well, then things got a lot more serious because someone put a bullet through the window, so most of the community began to realise something a lot more dangerous was going down," says John.
Crikey. Sounds like Leeds is becoming a hotbed of intrigue for a writer these days, however inadvertently...
"Yes, that's true actually," John confirms. "For example, the practice room in Leeds we had for years was in the red light district (a la The Arctic Monkeys' 'When The Sun Goes Down') and these songs and the likes of 'Harehills Chapeltown' are all about living in these areas of Leeds. "
Fascinating stuff, but let's discuss 'Illegal Songs' for a while. Like Parkes' fine debut album 'Faithlessnessless', it's another wholly acoustic guitar and vocal affair, stripped down to the bone, but with passion, attitude and humour to spare. Like its' predecessor, it also pulls off the difficult trick of engaging for 45 minutes without the need to dip into additional instrumentation, well save for the odd blast of Neil Young-style harmonica.
The titles themselves are potentially pretty incendiary ('Pray For Recession' etc), but does it worry their author that a song like 'Glorification of Terrorism' could be taken literally by more casual listeners and thus easily misrepresented?
"On the one hand, I really want people to notice, so in that sense I've no problem if there's an outcry," says John, gently fanning the flames.
"There again, though, it's getting to the point these days where everyday opinions are ridiculously popularised, so I can see what you mean about people not getting irony and missing the point."
"Realistically, I guess I'm still under the popular radar," he considers, "whereas if it was a major release there could well be people asking questions. I quite understand it's a touchy subject, but ultimately if you think how many people are REALLY killed by terrorism in the UK compared to traffic accidents or acts of domestic violence, it's actually tiny. I really do want to stress that I'm not deliberately being controversial here and you can't condone terrorism either, but all that's a fact nonetheless. Ultimately, also, if people miss the point, well...you can't legislate for stupidity, can you?"
Rhetorical question, methinks. But let's conclude on a lighter - yet potentially just as prevalent - subject. We're chatting just as Valentine's Day is looming and on 'Illegal Songs', Parkes' admits he "doesn't do Valentine's Day"'. So you're not a man for chocs, flowers, champagne and over-priced holidays you need to re-mortgage the house for then, John?
"No, for me, Valentine's Day is the enemy of love and romance," he replies emphatically.
"Luckily for me, I'm with someone who feels the same," he admits.
"But the problem I have with it is that I feel it's a case of blokes being forced to spend money on overpriced tat. These days, it seems to be forgotten that there's supposed to be an element of women declaring their love too. It's all part of a greater social and commercial conspiracy."
I must confess I'm personally a bit of an old romantic where Valentine's Day is concerned, but I can see what John's driving at. Besides, he's hardly Ebeneezer Scrooge or Cupid's equivalent anyway.
"Listen, I want to buy flowers when the mood strikes mate," he says passionately.
"Flying to the moon is a romantic ideal for me...but I don't like a lot of drivel they sell in shops. It's another of the many small oppressions men have to endure."
Right on. So you don't 'do' shops either, then, John?
"No, especially when everything in sight is pink," he spits. "Personally, I like 'Buy Nothing' day, that's the sort of thing I can get behind. How about 'Buy Nothing' week...or year, for that matter!"
Maybe, but then we couldn't buy great albums like 'Bland Bland Bland', 'Illegal Songs' or 'Shine'. And the idea of not being able to 'do' great albums would be tragic, especially when we still have talented artists like John Parkes in our midst.
(www.johnparkes.com )
|
