In the first two parts of our exclusive career-spanning interview with MIKE BADGER - former La’s/ Onset frontman and now singer/ songwriter and influential sculptor/ artist in his own right – W&H editor Tim Peacock and the man himself discussed the highs and lows of Mike’s career from the heady days of Punk on Merseyside through to the end of the 1990s.
In part three, we concentrate on Mike’s achievements from the turn of the Millennium onwards, taking in the formation of The Viper Label, his on-going Ecological concerns, a surprise turn of events in New York and what we can expect from an all-new Mike Badger album, due for release on his Generator imprint later this year.
Although his reputation as a sculptor and artist of some repute was more than cemented by the late 1990s, Badger’s desire for new musical projects remained undimmed and as the new Millennium loomed, he co-founded The Viper Label with Paul Hemmings: going on to score numerous archival and contemporary successes which continue to the present day. Not bad, considering it was mostly considered as a vehicle to release Mike’s under-rated, acoustic-based solo album ‘Volume’ in 1999.
“Yes, we really had no idea how far it would go,” Mike admits.
“But yes, it continues to this day and an awful lot of magnificent music would not have seen the light of day had we not archived or released it. It’s amazing what Liverpool offers to the world.”
Having immensely enjoyed reviewing albums featuring lost gems from the Merseybeat and Punk/Post-Punk ‘Pool eras, through to contemporary albums from exciting new talents such as Chris Elliott and Tramp Attack, this writer can only concur that The Viper Label has already bequeathed the world with sonic riches galore. Yet perhaps their greatest commercial breakdown to date has been their Mercury Music Prize nomination thanks to Edgar ‘Jones’ Jones’ ‘Soothing Music For Stray Cats’ album: a record which still sounds like nothing else in creation and somehow distilled the very essence of both Mersey and Mississippi in the process.
“Edgar lives and breathes music,” says Mike.
“I got talking to him in the school playground and gave him a copy of the Ultimate Rockin’ Horror Disc (excellent, but sadly-deleted ‘50s’/’60s rock’n’roll voodoo vibes album) and he loved it. In return, he passed on a cassette of stuff and when I put it on at home, I assumed it must be old stuff he’d thought could go on a compilation. It was only then I realised – God, this is him!”
Mike’s reaction here was very similar to this writer’s and the album’s remarkable mixture of blues, soul and total out-thereness has since found some heavy friends, with no less than Noel Gallagher naming it his ‘Album Of The Year’ among the many accolades.
“I always say “pleasure to do your records, Mr.Jones”” Mike continues.
“It’s true he’s a really great Liverpool talent, a real one-off. Plus, we really suit each other, Viper and Edgar. There are never any complications, we simply let him get on with it and he delivers the goods. Paul (Hemmings) arranges most of the gigs and tours of Japan and the likes for The Joneses.”
This feeling of boundless enthusiasm, implicit trust and love of what they’re releasing pervades all the released work Paul and Mike have overseen these past eight years or so. Besides, in these cynical, post-Millennium days, there ain’t many guys dedicated enough to make like a two-man Scouse Smithsonian and release albums celebrating everything from prison-recorded blues songs and anthems to the joys of marijuana: in many cases with the songs dating back to the 1920s, 30s and 40s. Between them, they’re giving serious music heads a trip and a half.
“We do it because we love it,” says Mike simply.
“Once we had gotten over the hurdles and learnt about releasing records we felt we had a duty to get this stuff out there and heard. It just rolls and everything’s just happened organically. I’m really proud of what we have achieved – especially in this era of ever more changing times -to be known as Mike, co-founder of Viper, not just Mike, ex-La’s founder and Mike, re-cycled sculptor these days. Though I do still need to get my music out there.”
“The thing about Viper is that it’s 100% independent and we do what we like, we fund our projects from past sales, no big financial help from anyone else. It’s not a huge operation, but the albums we have done will be around for ever, and thanks are due to anyone who has contributed tracks to the compilations. We really are ruthless as to the quality of what gets on – it must be great and that’s what Liverpool is full of! And we even re-introduce lost American music to America, because so much has fallen through the cracks. It’s hard to make a compilation that runs as an album, but we lovingly restore and master the tracks, and if anyone thinks some of the quality is a bit rough…well, they should have heard it beforehand. But then, if it’s a good song and performance, you can live with a little hiss.”
Musically, the turn of the year 2000 proved a creatively busy time for Mike, as his ‘Volume’ record was swiftly followed by the much harder, rockier ‘Double Zero’ album, featuring fellow Scouse stalwarts as bassist Martyn Campbell (Rain, Shack) and ex-Icicle Works and current Robbie Williams drummer Chris Sharrock. This time round, the increase in decibels was very much on the agenda.
“After the plaintive ‘Volume’, I wanted to rock out and those songs had been around with no previous outlet, so it was great to work with such talented people,” Mike reveals.
“I had met Martyn and Chris doing the first Lightning Seeds videos and ended up standing in on guitar on TV! Actually, it was probably when I heard Chris had left the La’s (circa 1989) that I realised how knotted up that band had become. As for the name ‘Double Zero, well that refers to the first month of the new millennium in which it was recorded and of course being counted as less than zero!”
In fact, while Mike’s first ‘new’ album of brand new songs is only now coming into view, the post-Millennium years have been creatively very fruitful indeed, with forays into production and even recording with one of Peter Gabriel’s ‘Real World’ artists in New York during 2003.
As a rule, fans of Mike Badger might not immediately link him with a Tibetan ‘devotional’ singer, but how their Transatlantic meeting and subsequent spontaneous recording session came about is a story more than well worth relating in full.
“I’d gone to a Hip Hop Photographic exhibition in Manhattan's Chelsea district with (Wah! mainstay and all-round Scouse legend) Pete Wylie, because his mate Josh had some photos in it,” Mike explains.
“I’d seen this big Indian guy inside – he looked really dangerous ‘cos he had on a bone choker and wore plaits…he looked like Marlon Brando.”
Rather than the son of Marlon, though, the dude was actually none other than Hip Hop Photographer and another all-round legend, Ernie Paniccioli.
Mike takes up the story once again:
“I went outside for a fag and it was raining, so I stood under the scaffold of the shop next door,” he says.
“The next thing I know, this big Indian guy comes out, looks at the sky and steps under the scaffold. I asked him what part of the country he was from and he said “I’m from here, but we’re from everywhere”.”
A cool answer by anyone’s standards and one that sparked off quite a chain of events…
“I said I was from Liverpool and we got chatting. I told him I was into John Trudell (Indian activist/poet/performer – ed)” Mike reveals.
“Anyway, Ernie was blown away; he couldn’t believe this guy from England had all John Trudell’s records. Guys were coming out of the gallery and he was saying to them “hey, you think you’re so fucking cool, how come you don’t know who John Trudell is.” He showed me his book and I said I’d try to get him an exhibition of his amazing work in Liverpool, he said “let’s go …now”, if only”
This particular project is one Mike is currently still working on, but the smart money suggests he may well achieve it yet. To paraphrase Lou Reed, Ernie Paniccioli’s average week beats most of our years, when all’s said and done.
“He was living on the streets at twelve years of age,” Mike relates.
“He’d been in the Navy and lived with Richie Havens and slept on Cecil Taylor’s couch, meeting all the jazz legends. He was and remains a truly amazing person. We met up later in the week and he said “I’m going to introduce you to one of the most beautiful women on the planet.”
Not a bad way to get a bloke’s attention, all things considered. And it gets better…
“So we took off to Yungchen's place in Queen’s in Ernie’s Pathfinder jeep, photographing graffiti on the way,” says Mike, vividly setting the scene.
“When we got to Yungchen Lhamo’s apartment and I was immediately struck by her beauty. She had hair to her knees and exuded this serenity. There was another guy there, too, called Jodan. He asked whether I knew Yungchen’s music and I said I didn’t, so he put on a video of her performing and tears literally ran down my face, it was so totally astounding.”
“It was like a dream, “he continues. “There was me, the Baddest Hip Hop Indian photographer, Jodan – who was originally from Chester! – and the most beautiful Tibetan woman ever all together in this apartment. We spent the afternoon recording in her home studio, mostly improvised pieces of music and I still have the recordings, they’re great. I was playing guitar, Jodan played drum and Ernie taking photographs while Yungchen sang. And she has a voice that’s like being bathed in tears.”
Wow. There again, Yungchen’s background is harrowing, having been separated from her parents at the age of five when the Chinese broke up families to rule in Tibet. Having then been brought up by her grandmother – who taught her traditional Tibetan prayer songs – she then escaped from Tibet over a thousand miles with a three year-old son on her back and lives in exile in New York. It’s not a story that Mike’s likely to forget in a hurry.
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“No, these guys have done some serious living,” he says.
“That whole day’s one I’ll never forget. Later that day we also recorded a track with Ernie speaking a magnificent monologue about the planet, with me on drum and Jodan playing a kind of blues riff with Yungchen doing some backing singing. Maybe we’ll do something with the recordings some day, a track called ‘Thunder Riders.’ came out particularly well.”
“I really miss them as people, never mind anything else,” Mike concludes. “Ernie has the definitive collection of photographs telling the story from the first block party in the late ‘70s up to the outrageous Bling culture of today, and there’s a film out about him called ‘The Other Side’. Yungchen still tours the world singing and releases records on Peter Gabriel’s Real World imprint.”
Although the results of this spontaneous World Music outing remain unreleased as yet, the past few years have found Mike Badger’s back catalogue being rightly re-evaluated thanks to a string of excellent compilations on his own Generator label, including his ‘Lo-Fi Acoustic Excursions’ and ‘Lo-Fi Electric Excursions’ sister releases and the very timely eponymous ‘The Onset’ compilation from 2005 which collected a treasure trove of great tracks, either unreleased or previously unavailable on CD. Had these songs been released at Britpop’s height, this writer for one is certain things could have been very different indeed.
Never one for looking back in anger, though, Mike has instead concentrated on nurturing new talent aplenty in Liverpool, helping out in a production capacity for bands like the under-rated Tramp Attack and the already much-missed Hokum Clones.
When I ask about his role as a producer, though, he typically plays down his involvement.
“It’s a question of Paul and me providing resources for a band to be itself really,” he says.
“The dictaphone did it for The Hokum Clones, that was brilliant and John Peel played it too. We simply recorded in my attic and while Robby (Stevenson) woke up the kids hollerin’ away it was worth it. They were great sounds to wake up to, after all!”
Couldn’t agree more. And the whole Tramp Attack experience has produced more than its’ fair share of magic too.
“Yeah, I’ll not forget watching a then-teenage Dave McCabe (now Zutons leader, then of the Tramps) putting down a blistering guitar down first take on his very first studio visit,” Mike enthuses.
“I hear a lot of The Onset in Tramp Attack and during this Capital of Culture year in 2008, they should be given the keys to the city. I wish!”
Intriguingly, Mike says this just as the news comes in that he’ll be contributing a considerable amount of music-related artwork (including posters, album designs and the Space sculptures) to the Liverpool Music Exhibition, ‘The Beat Goes On’ at the Museum of Liverpool Life for the city’s Capital of Culture programme. It’s due to run from July 2008 to November 2009 and will surely prove hugely popular, and it’s nice to know he is being given some opportunity to contribute something to the year’s festivities.
In the meantime, the sounds emanating from the Badger songs (backed in some cases by Tramp Attack) that have recently been recorded suggest surprises could well be in store. And it’s not only music and sculpture that Mike Badger’s involved in these days, for recent times have found him dipping his toes into the film pool too. In 2007, the film ‘Invisible’ – from the Wonderdog Productions stable – featured a Badger-penned poem entitled ‘Arrows Pointing North.’
“The film’s a documentary which picks up on the issues of chemicals getting locked into the ice in the Arctic,” Mike explains.
“They get transported by the wind and rain and cannot go elsewhere and then they go into the food chain. That’s the problem we’ve got now, because every time we wash the dishes or the car or our clothes it all goes somewhere. In the northern hemisphere where we are, it goes north.”
“Anyway, my contribution to the film was commissioned by Roz Mortimer, the film’s director. She actually goes back to my days in London and a bunch of artists I got to know in York Way, over the road from where I lived. Roz is now an extraordinary film maker and got me involved. I was very pleased to be asked to be part of such a beautiful film. It should be on TV one day too.”
How about live footage of The Onset? Will there be an outlet for that in the future?
“I would love to compile all the super 8 of The Onset in Germany the TV contributions and stuff I have shot over the years,” he replies, “but it’s a task that will require a lot of input. I will eventually get around to it, though.”
Here’s hoping. But in the meantime, Mike Badger’s keen to explore all kinds of new mediums, not least thanks to his involvement in the Prince of Wales Arts & Kids Foundation: another Eco-friendly outlet for his work. In 2006, images of his sculptures were sent to 10,000 primary schools in the UK alone. It’s something that Mike’s rightly proud of.
“Everything I do is re-cycled in my artwork but I’m as guilty as most at times for being negligent and not doing enough,” he says evenly.
“But there’s no right-on message here. It’s as simple as something that is right and something that is wrong. Some Indian tribes would not act on something without considering how the consequences would effect seven generations ahead. If only we had the same natural common sense, but it’s survival of the fittest and greed is everywhere,” he finishes ruefully.
All true, sadly, but it’s heartening to know that while there are still good guys like Mike Badger out there, we might just have a chance in the future. And talking of the future, it’s lookin’ like Mike’s is so bright he might be needing the proverbial shades as 2008 is set to bring us an all-new album (partially recorded in tandem with Tramp Attack) and a 20-track career overview to follow in its’ wake. How does the author himself describe his new direction?
“It’s got a real feel about it, with bass, drums, rhythm guitar and lead vocals all being recorded completely live, with extra guitar and backing vocals being overdubbed,” he says.
“I feel the album as an artefact is almost a thing of the past now, with the internet changing everything, even so this time I’ve been recording at home in my self-built studio. Martyn Campbell (Rain, Richard Ashcroft and now Shack) is producing from the outset, playing bass and doing backing vocals and Tony McGuigan (Rain, Electrafixion, The Kachinas) is on drums/percussion. So far I’m told the vibe’s along the lines of the Violent Femmes and also Jonathan Richman circa the ‘Rock’n’Roll With The Modern Lovers’ but essentially, as usual, it is a very eclectic album, hard to pigeon hole. I listen to and enjoy all types of music and this is reflected in the titles, but I hope to please my beloved army of loyal if not plentiful hardcore fans!”
Having heard some rough mixes, that’s right on the money. But, ready to emerge into the battle-scarred corporate world of 2008, what are Mike Badger’s realistic hopes for his new project?
“I just hope it gets heard,” he says. “As usual, I’ll do my best to get it out there. Ultimately, rock’n’roll is something you’re cursed with, in those who do it. There’s no alternative if it’s really in you. It must be done for personal satisfaction first and foremost. It’s a great life, though terribly unjust at times and frustrating. But it beats working.”
Amen to that in a big way la’.
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