Often stupidly dismissed as "McCulloch's stand-in" during the Mac-Less Echo & The Bunnymen years, NOEL BURKE is actually a charismatic vocalist and fine, erudite lyricist in his own right.
Aside from the under-rated album he made with The Bunnymen (1990's 'Reverberation') he made a fantastic debut with his band ST. VITUS DANCE called 'Love Me Love My Dogma' on Probe Plus in 1987 and it was the expanded re-issue of this CD three years back that led to Vitus finally getting together to play at the Cathedral Quarter Festival in 2005 and then (joy upon joy!) writing a generous dose of new songs that have been recorded for its' belated follow-up, the new 'Glypotheque' album, due on Probe Plus in April this year.
To mark the return of Belfast's finest unsung heroes, the wonders of e-mail brought W&H Editor Tim Peacock and Noel Burke together to discuss the reasons behind St. Vitus Dance's return, what Noel really thought about his time as a Bunnyman and why the members of St. Vitus Dance really should have shares in EasyJet.
W&H: Hi Noel, hope all's going well and great to hear you in such rude health with the new album. We'll get to the new record and everything leading up to it in a minute, but firstly - with hindsight - how do you feel about your time with the Bunnymen? I personally thought you were very unfairly pilloried. I think 'Reverberation' is a really good album...
Noel: Hello Tim, Nice to hear from you – it’s been a long time! In answer to your first question, I have mixed feelings about the Bunnymen episode. It was unfortunate that the music played second fiddle to considerations of personnel as far as the media and the record buying public were concerned, but it was hardly going to be any other way, was it?
I think the thing that kept me sane was the fact that I accepted pretty much from the start that the whole project was doomed due to the decision to keep the name. Why didn’t I insist on a name change? If I had I wouldn’t have been in the band – Will and Les were determined to prove a point to McCullough – I was at a loose end musically after the break up of St. Vitus - I needed someone else to egg me on, get me writing again – I admired Will and Les as musicians and, no small consideration, I was going to get paid for it.
So I signed up and to be honest with you, if you take the complete and utter lack of success out of the equation, I enjoyed every minute of it. We all got on well – no ego trips - and after a couple of tours we began to really gel as a band – I think the album was patchy – the songwriting process was rushed and some songs were better in demo form – but there are quite a few things on there, 'False Goodbyes' especially, that I’m proud of.
W&H: After the Bunnymen finished, am I right in thinking you've mostly been involved in teaching? Were you seriously involved in any musical activity from 1992 and the St. Vitus re-union?
NOEL: There were about thirteen years of no musical activity whatsoever – I didn’t go Syd Barrett or anything like that, I just decided to move on, try something else, preferably that involved some remuneration – that’s how eventually I ended up teaching – I’ve been doing it for twelve years now – approaching Mr. Chips status.
W&H: If I have this right, the St. Vitus re-union came about partly because you were approached by the organisers of Belfast's Cathedral Quarter Festival and also because 2005 found Geoff @ Probe re-issuing 'Love Me Love My Dogma'? Was there a plan to record a new album at this time and what do you remember about being on stage together for the first time in many years?
NOEL: Pete ( the drummer from St. Vitus) had been on at me for years to do something again. Every time I went over to Belfast he and his missus would be giving me a hard time, it got to be a running joke. Anyway, around Christmas 2004 Pete and Kevin (who had played guitar for us early on) had got involved with Bid (Scarlet’s Well ex-Monochrome Set) and were going to act as his backing band for a gig at the Cathedral Quarter Festival.
At first they asked me if I wanted to do backing vocals, next thing I knew it had expanded into full blown reunion. The gig was fantastic – I was, we all were, nervous to begin with, but the atmosphere was so friendly – the crowd were like doting grandparents at a nativity play, really willing us to do well. It spurred us on – you’d never have known how woefully under-rehearsed we were.
W&H: How does it feel to play songs from the first album now? I remember interviewing Jake Burns about the early SLF stuff and he said he still felt a range of emotions playing their early songs because those songs are so wrapped up in the Belfast of the 1970s, but do you have similar feelings about songs like 'The Silence', 'Meet Mohammed' etc, which reflect your situation living in Belfast in the mid to late 1980s?
NOEL: I’m not sure. I think the thing about those songs was that they reflected the “normality” we thought we were living in at the time – we were of a generation who didn’t have any real memory of life before “the troubles”- we were conditioned to lift our arms up to get frisked when entering any department store (it was a struggle to stop doing it when we moved to England – I got some strange looks I can tell you).
As a result the songs tended to be about the things which loomed large in our lives; alcohol, females, lack of alcohol, lack of females…oh and public transport of course. At the time I had a real love/hate thing going on with Belfast but after 20 years in England I’ve come to appreciate it a lot more.
W&H: This is the obvious one, but let's get it out of the way: what does 'Glypotheque' refer to? I've been looking it up and struggling: "glyphography" apparently refers to an electro-type process by which a copy of an engraved plate is obtained with a raised surface (according to my Shorter Oxford) but I have no idea whatsover if this refers to the album's title. You're welcome to be cryptic when you answer here, but it's an enigmatic title for sure.
NOEL: Long story – probably not a very rewarding one either, but here goes. In Belfast terminology a “glype” (or glipe) is an eejit/prat …that sort of thing. Many years ago I went inter-railing around Europe with a few mates from Belfast. We were in Munich, I think it was, and came across a poster or street sign for “Glyptothek” (I think it means sculpture museum). One of our company read it as Glypotheque and went on to speculate as to what kind of dance club it might be etc. (It was funny at the time).
Around the time the idea for getting together to record a second album was mooted I came across the word again in a book and when someone in the band asked me what I intended calling the album the word Glypotheque just kind of popped out – it’s not even a real word – but you’re right, it is an enigmatic title – I wanted something that was about nothing – a bit like Seinfeld.
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W&H: Apart from Maurice, it's still the same band in effect (well, with original early member Kevin O'Neill back) and I remember reading your notes on 'Love Me..' where you say "friendship is the most important thing" or words to that effect. Did you all keep up during the two decades since the band drifted apart the first time round?
NOEL: Absolutely, we’d been friends from before the band so there was never any doubt that we’d stay in touch. Actually one of the main driving forces behind getting together again was that it meant we’d see a lot more of each other, despite the fact that half of us are based in Belfast and half in Liverpool. There’s been a lot of to’ing and fro’ing across the Irish Sea over the last couple of years for rehearsals, gigs and recording. Easyjet’s done well out of us.
W&H: How did the making of the new album contrast with the debut? I believe you did the first one very quickly and with a small budget in County Down. What was the vibe like this time around?
NOEL: Last time around the songs took ages to write and the recording was done and dusted in three days for three hundred and sixty quid. This time the songs were written quickly, the problem was getting people together to work on arrangements – sending cds of rough demos over helped, but I think we could have done with playing the songs live a lot more before going into the studio.
We recorded the songs in a studio in Warrington over three sessions beginning in August 2006 and ending about a year later.
W&H: What role does Geoff (Davies) play in the studio? Does he make suggestions for changes or simply encourage you or whatever?
NOEL: It was great having Geoff around, especially because we hadn’t had much time to work on arrangements – he came up with a lot of off the cuff ideas and was particularly good at reining us in when we started to bung too much instrumentation on, which was fairly often it has to be said.
W&H:Musically, the new album is quite lush, with lots of layers and your vocals (which just get better and better for me!) have plenty of room. Do you feel you've improved as a singer after all this time?
NOEL: That’s for other people to say. I did give up the cigs a few years back and although I don’t think my range is any greater, I can sing for longer periods without straining my voice. Geoff Emerick coached a lot of my bad habits away when we were recording Reverberation, he steered me away from unnecessary vibrato at the end of lines – the type of thing I’d picked up from listening to too much Scott Walker.
W&H: Lyrically, I really rate your work too. There are some wonderful turns of phrase, but I think one of my favourites is "you are what cynicism was made for" from 'The Stakeholder's Lament'. I don't really thin it's fair to ask writers to explain their lyrics as such, but can you tell me a little more about that one? I love the lazy, dreamy sway of that one too...
NOEL: That song is a response to the tidal wave of bullshit that seems to have washed up on our shores over the last few years, especially in the workplace. The whole American work ethos. People using acronyms and jargon in an attempt to look as if they have a clue what they’re doing. I’m also sick of hearing the mantra “Oh, you’re so negative” every time somebody dares to point out the potential pitfalls of a particular course of action. Unfortunately the character in the song gets swept up by it all – it’s quite a dark one.
W&H: Damien's accordion playing is another feature of the record. A few of the extra songs from the re-issue of 'Love Me..' like 'Rubble Every Time' had elements of folk, too. How conscious is this element in the band's make-up?
NOEL: We’ve all been listening to lots of country, Americana and folk for a long time now – I’d been surrounded by Irish traditional music from birth – there are loads of traditional musicians on my mum’s side of the family – and I’d kind of rebelled a bit as a teenager. But about five or six years ago I started returning to things like Planxty and the Bothy Band, classic stuff from the seventies and I’m well into it now, some of it anyway.
We all wanted to have an acoustic feel to this album probably to differentiate from the last one – the mood in the camp now though is that we want to crank it up a bit next time.
W&H: 'Longfinger' is a great, epic ending to the record but does the title refer to 'long fingering' as in to put something to an as-yet-to-be defined later date? That's certainly a term down here in Cork. Is it similar up in Belfast?
NOEL: Exactly – the whole song’s about lethargy – the old black dog.
W&H: As an adjunct to my earlier question about lyrics/ writing, do you have any writers you particularly admire?
NOEL: Lyric writers? Will Sheff from Okkervil River has impressed me lately, I’ve always been a big fan of Joe Pernice and Eef Barzelay from Clem Snide is also very talented.
W&H:Are there plans to tour the new record as such? Is that really an option these days?
NOEL: I’ve really enjoyed the few gigs we’ve done since reforming – it was the chief thing I’d missed over all those years of inactivity – I’d love to do more but it’s going to be difficult due to the geographical situation – we’re certainly hoping to do another gig in Belfast and one in Liverpool in the early summer, but nothing’s confirmed yet.
('Glypotheque' is out in April on Probe Plus)
(www.myspace.com/stvitusdancemusic)
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