Show Notes
Rock and roll partnerships are tempestuous at the best of times. Throw twin brothers into the mix? That’s a recipe for Armageddon. Gene Loves Jezebel were, for a stretch in the mid-80s, one of Beggars Banquet’s flagship bands, but when differences between the twin frontmen at the heart of it all became irreconcilable, they split apart – and eventually launched two competing versions of the same group. Which is why episode four of States of Independence gets the ‘two parter’ treatment. First up, we hear Jay Aston’s side of the Gene Loves Jezebel saga.
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Welcome back to States of Independence! This special episode goes deep into the story of Trunk Records, home of The Wicker Man soundtrack, Joe Harriott's Hum Dono, Michael Garrick's Moonscape, the music from Kes, Bod, The Clangers and so much more. Our guide on this grooviest of trips? The label's founder, Jonny Trunk. We discuss the avant-garde music under films of microbes on The Open University, Valerie Leon, high-end intellectuals, Jo Guest eating a banana, hidden worlds, music for washing up to, getting sampled on huge records made by “very cool weirdos”, Robin Hardy and the incredible story of The Wicker Man soundtrack. Who had 35,000 unsold records in their basement? (clue: it wasn't Jonny) and how do you never lose any money on anything? We discuss Harold McNair and “beautiful, miserable” British Jazz, how having lunch with Oliver Postgate was like “sitting with a god”, celebrating the corners of recorded music that everyone else has forgotten, the filthy fan letters to glamour models that are “ten times funnier than anything at Edinburgh Festival”, “Ian’s Pigs”, and the baffling genius of the late Basil Kirchin. Also, missing the classic Stark Reality Discovers Hoagy Carmichael's Music Shop album by a week, the brilliant British electronic soundtrack that was described by its creator as, “that old shit”, the real story of Trunk’s actual hit single, The Ladies Bras, the amazing Janet Beat (who listened to trees) and so much more! Who should I do next? Let me know in the comments - or find me @rob_fitzpatrick on IG or email me [email protected] Thank you for listening 🙌 Host / Executive producer: Rob Fitzpatrick Producer / Editor: Fabio Fitzpatrick
In this last episode of the series we’re at the end of the 90s, a time when Beggars Banquet were signing a lot of guitar bands, but finding it hard to get any of them away. Derby’s own The Beekeepers struggled - the band’s ex-singer Jamie breaks down exactly why. Another that soldiered on and broke internationally was Biffy Clyro, but only after they’d left the label, as Biffy’s singer Simon Neil explains. In 2008 the Beggars Banquet label was shuttered and some artists were moved to 4AD - one of them was The National - and singer Matt Berninger talks us through that whole process. As ever, Beggars boss Martin Mills speaks with striking openness and honesty about these huge decisions of the past and the future of the Beggars Group.
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