Martin Stephenson – Gladsome Humour And Blue Tour

1. Gladsome, Humour And Blue is such an incredibly evocative title, where did it come from?
Straight off the top of the head Rich!

2. How long did the album take to record?
I guess about 10 days then the mixing process was a separate thing

3. Did you enjoy working at Ridge Farm studios?
Yes very much, it was a fun place, beautiful farmhouse with great food and atmosphere, cupboard full of Guinness, nice wee pool table, all the things to distract you from working heh!

4. What was it like working with producer Paul Samwell-Smith?
Yes, he of The Yardbirds and producer of Cat Stevens and Carly Simon, All About Eve. Ridge Farm was his fave place to work so he kinda guided us there, 7pm on the dot he was off for his pint at the local pub in Rusper! I liked Sammy Smith, he was alright man, seeming very posh and normal until you scratch the surface, bonkers x

5. The regular Daintees line up was enhanced with some special guests e.g. Mickey Watson, Virginia Astley, the Ravishing Beauties string players etc…were these all your suggestions? Was Paul Samwell-Smith immediately open to these ideas?
Yes all my suggestions although when I mentioned Gini Astley, Paul was very enthusiastic about that, I think he was sweet on her like the rest of us!
Mickey Watson, Paul Smith and Andrea Mackie all came about when I used to look at bands in Sounds and NME, they were all so cool, you could just imagine them only hanging out cos they were into the same things, so I decided to trawl through the North East Clubs to pick up some down to Earth non precious clubbiness, Mickey, Andrea & Paul Smith were weirder than any artistic type from New York, Andrea was Chubby Brown’s backing vocalist, Mickey worked with Tony Christie and Paul Smith with Chris Rea and Shirley Bassey, so Anth and me named them the ’Sub Contractors’ and we got them out of Clubland for a while!

6. Gypsy Dave Smith’s contributions (including on the non album b-side Get Get Gone) were very special…it seemed like a very open, creative environment allowing him to weave his magic?
Well we had just had some success with Boat to Bolivia and I was very strong on what I wanted, Gypsy was my mate and I wanted to give him a play

7. Tell us about the photographer who took that iconic front cover photo?
That pic was taken by a pal of mine Juan Fitzgerald, we lived near each other in Fatfield and hung out quite a bit, Juan was always around and one day we just decided to do some pics, its nice as he is half Spanish and that pic was plastered all over Spain, top to bottom for many years, so its kinda nice that his work found its way back to his Motherland x

8. Including the Something To Carry With You poetry book offer seemed so right in the way it complemented the album. Again seemed like everyone was open to such ideas?
Man you’ve no idea how hard I had to work to get that as a free gift with the album, had to work very hard to convince everyone, we got there though, my ex wife Angela did a great job on the cover of that wee book

9. Can you tell us a bit about some of the songs and where they came from lyrically? Even The Night is heart wrenching at times…
That song was a premonition I had and came true, it was an imagined future experience of the gut wrenching pain of divorce and not spending your Christmases with your kids, you would have to have experienced separation from your children to truly understand how it can break you in two, that song is sharply focussed on this and it’s strange as I wasn’t a Father then x

10. There is an anger to There Comes A Time, but a positive one?
Yes the anger was directed to certain folk who were producing the single ‘Boat to Bolivia’ who were not taking the band into consideration, the label, management want a hit, the song was written on the pool table in the recording studio as the producer and his cronies were working away on our song for their own ends not ours

11. Nancy, a father struggling with a wilful daughter?
Yep, again not yet a parent, strange yet writing about being a parent, I suppose we imagine and see things

12. Slaughterman, the only song I know that mentions Ian St John?!
Yes this song was written for a young footballer Tommy Mason who was on Sunderland’s books, he moved into my village and brought a lot of light with him, all the young men rough and smooth really admired him, he was a stylish guy and a gentleman, he never quite made it, the Slaughterman is the football critic, at that time ‘Saint & Greavesy!

13. The Wait, a haunting piece that seems to be about an unbalanced relationship?
Hah!  yes its about someone who is held in the power of another, just written in a unique way, I could never plan these songs, they were written purely by instinct, unlike Paddy McAloon who works the opposite way, still he arives at the same place with a good song, science and spirituality, never liked Maths x

14. The single version of Wholly Humble Heart was re-recorded in LA. How did that come about and what was that experience like?
I wrote WWH in my flat in 85 and screwed the piece of paper it was written on and threw it into the bin, I got a call from manager Keith Armstrong one afternoon asking for spare songs to go onto a 12” single London wanted to release, so I went a searching and remembered the bin? pulled out the scrumpled paper and started checking it again, didn’t seem so bad, so we went into Cluny recording studios with Prefab Sprout drummer Neil Conte and Swoon producer Dave Brewis, we did a real ambient version of it and London Records owner and boss went nuts over it, he was sure it was a hit, he sent me over to LA in 88 to work with Russ Kunkel who produced it with all LA top session guys, Christ even the bass player out of Toto, Hugh MaCracken on guitar, Lenny Castro on percussion. It got brought back to London and Jeremy Green had a go at mixing it and Andrea Mackie our vocalist added vocals, then it got sent to New York where another hotshot guitarist was added and it was mixed at some top New York studio heh!  I dedicated it to Clause 28, that confused the fuckers hah!  wonder if I should have left it in the bin, powerful peace of paper though?

15. And on that song, who can believe that such a thing as Clause 28 could have existed just 25 years ago?
Oh I can,  human beings get up to all kinds of shite

16. On its release the album received some amazing reviews. Len Brown in the NME – “…builds bridges between cradle and grave, between folk and pop, between the past and the present.” Can you recall your feelings about the music press reaction at the time?
Jokes aside I was very proud of Gladsome, you gotta understand it was a constant fight to protect my band and also the sound, music technology was rife and we always tried to be as organic and as timeless which in the 80’s was very difficult, recording studios were like laboratories then, you had to watch producers, they could be shifty. Gladsome is a very spiritual album and genuine to it’s core, as a young man I am proud we weren’t selling out and making some intelligent and loving music

17. And a final point on your song writing, you’ve always had a strong belief that there is some other force directing you to write them; what makes you think that?
A spiritual foundation, an awareness of the limitation of the human defined experience 

18. The tours that immediately followed were also very successful (including a UK tour with Melissa Etheridge supporting!), with gigs being celebratory, almost family affairs. Your recollections?
I remember Melissa, she was okay, I remember getting into a rattle with BBC John Walters cos I tried to share my Radio One session to help her, I took Melissa to London and we were setting up in Maida Vale when I got the call from the cheery Mr Walters, got all the BBC red tape shite so Melissa had to sit it out, she appreciated it though, The Daintees were always being kind to other artists and folks, I love the love we generated, only other band I saw do that was Hothouse Flowers, they looked after folks x

19. And of course those gigs saw the introduction of Andrea Mackie on backing vocals – tell us about Andrea?
Andrea hails from Aberdeen and is a wonderful singer, she had a tough childhood and her papa died when she was young, her Mum left her and she was brought up by her Aunties and found her future husband in Newcastle, she soon started picking up backing vocal sessions and became quite a name in the North East, I love her to bits, she is a total character with a beautiful heart, a very very funny woman indeed x

20. Which line up of The Daintees will be appearing on this tour?
John Steel Guitar
Kate Stephenson: Drums
Chris Mordey: Bass
Me dodgy singing

21. Any special guests lined up?
My daughter Phoebe is a bassist in a band with Taffy Hughes’ son Rupert, Rupert is class man, they are a great band. Also my baby Helen McCookerybook will be doing a wee skiffle set with the Daintees backing her. We also have a wonderful young band from Warrington, The Old Town String Quartet with us for a few of the shows, I’ve just produced their debut album, Also Gary O’Dea will be joining me in Birmingham and Scott Macdonald in Glasgow x

22. How have the rehearsals gone for the tour? Not heard you play Even The Night live for a long while!
We haven’t rehearsed yet, we rehearse the night before the first gig in Sheffield, we will make it work though, the band is better than it’s ever been

23. Tell us about the support artists on the current tour – Helen McCookerybook and The Old Town String Quartet.
Helen is my partner and best friend in the world, it took me a lifetime and a bus load of pain to find her, I have been truly happy since the moment I met her, we were friends for two years then ended up as a couple after her divorce. To me she is a true genius, a very unusual soul, a first generation female punk, which to me is as potent as being a first generation French impressionist painter, her post punk bands The Chefs and Skat, and her pre-punk bands The Smartees and Joby & the Hooligans inspired many bands such as Peter & the Test Tube Babies, Helen is very quiet but very bright and carries a lot of soul and compassion, I will always love her x The Old Town String Quartet hail from Warrington, aged between 20 & 22 years old, a kind of cross between early Rock n roll and skiffcana, but great great guys, very humble and talented men, for being so young they have balls and soul, two mountain climbers in the band, wee Freddie the Cellist and Jona the drummer, serious athletes man!  singer Matt looks like Hank when he got outta prison and guitarist Lyle is just a super cool young fella, love em,  my…. (if you can call it) business partner Andrew Bailey and I are trying to manage and help the guys get up a rung or two 

24. I understand the album is to be reissued…any chance of a vinyl version for us vinyl junkies?
Phew I doubt it, it’s a lovely idea but just so bloody expensive!

25. And finally, you wrote these wonderful songs in your early 20’s. You’ve grown up with them; how do you feel about them generally now?
I’m very proud of them Richard and will always be faithfully in service to them, I will always try and play them for any folks that they might mean something to, that’s my duty and my honour

Thanks brother xxx

Thanks,
Rich Cundill