Circlerotate: ’79-’89 – the pivotal years behind ‘AND’

Cover art from ‘AND (Agent of Natural Destruction)’ by Herb Garden, October 2014.

To mark their 1989-92 glory daze Herb Garden present ‘AND (Agent of Natural Destruction)’. It’s a new album of the songs that brought them their allocated 15 minutes – nine lusciously re-mastered earlier versions of Herb Garden’s golden grates, never commercially available until now.

The year 1989
AND’s songs were digitally remastered from original studio recordings owned by Herb Garden, and made available exclusively by the band. It forms ‘Part Two’ of the remastering project started in November 2013 when Herb Garden decided to revisit their studio archives. For this the band returned to The White House – a recording studio near the sands of Weston-Super-Mare, home of Monty Python’s John Cleese. This was where Herb Garden made the bulk of their recordings between 1989 and 1994. ‘Part One’ of the project can be found in the mini-musical Pandora’s Box that is Herb Garden Quartet (HGQ) – an album that finishes where this one picks up: 1989.  HGQ’s ‘We Don’t Need These Things At All’ is one of two songs that pushed the band to try a new approach to their sound. And the second?

The year 1979
The second song (mentioned below) is one that appears twice on AND in unique, early versions recorded 18 months apart. In total the song would see Carl put the ‘scat’ into scatological in three professional recordings of the title, and probably 100 highly animated live performances. Herb Garden can thank this inexplicably expletive-rich lyric, in part, for their modicum of success. Among other things, we’ve 1979 to thank for all this, for that was the year everything changed – even punk. Jilted John was having follow ups to that ‘Gordon’ song. Ozzy got chucked out of Sabbath, Led Zep did their ‘last ever’ über-concert and The Knack hit Number 1.

Kate Bush went live, but in the year Sid died, Herb Garden started going to Big School.

A fan sports a jacket in support of Thee Hypnotics, Herb Garden and Hanoi Rocks, Bristol Bierkeller, 1989.

Think back to the horrors and happiness of 1979: from AC-DC to XTC the rock and pop of 1979 offered a whole bunch of strangeness for pre-teen Herb Garden to lap up and accompany them on their journey into ‘the difficult years’. What stood out in your ‘79? Lena Lovich? The Fall? Talking Heads’ Fear of Music? Elvis? Gary Numan? The Damned? Pink Floyd’s The Wall? Jacko’s Off The Wall?  What about film: how long was it before you caught your first dose of Apocalypse Now, Being There, or Alien? Were you more Mad Max or Moonraker? Life of Brian or The Jerk? The Warriors or The Wanderers? Amityville Horror or Zombie Flesheaters? 1979 will have influenced AND in so many ways. Herb Garden will invite you to take part in a ‘celebration’ of 1979, online, soon. Meanwhile AND is here and now.

Big School

Indeed, to celebrate the importance of Big School in their formative years Herb Garden commemorate 1979 and 1989 simultaneously because, by the time the 90s beckoned, Herb Garden had written one of their ‘biggest’ songs capturing the spirit of Motörhead‘s ‘Overkill’ and ‘Bomber’ (1979) – but maybe not their subtlety. The tune in question – hard-rocking live fave ‘Sh!t On Me’ – was to eventually join a handful of ditties forming the running order of Destructive Natural Agent (DNA), a mini-album, released in 1992 by Warner Bros’ on their East West label – part of the Atlantic empire, and home of Simply Red, Tori Amos and Mr Chris Rea! [ok – and AC-DC].

Wurzels on acid

Carl (vocals) and Ben (drums) recall the period of the release, “The album knocked on the door of obscure rock, thrash and metal charts around the globe but was often turned away” … “While The Cult were busy becoming the new Led Zeppelin with ‘Sonic Temple’, Herb Garden was struggling to become a cult” … “EastWest just didn’t know what to do with us: they’d come out of difficult meetings with ‘hair’ band Kiss of The Gypsy and have no vision for us. We weren’t quite The Wildhearts and we definitely weren’t Muse. We were probably more pairable with TAD but then we weren’t grungy. We were Herb Garden not Soundgarden!” … “To the record corporates we were probably something akin to The Wurzels on acid. We were a square peg in a Black Hole.” … “Soon we were back knocking on the kitchen door of obscurity. In fact we had our own key. We let ourselves in. And East West let us go” … “We were quickly well-known for not being very famous.”

Read another view on Herb Garden’s journey to major label exploits, from Nick Splatz (writing in 1994).

Herb Garden publicity shot, London, 1992, (Hardlsug/Slugshots). Around from bottom-left: Rat, Dave, Ben, Phil, Carl.

The band stress the importance for them to clarify that the songs on AND are digitally re-mastered original versions of recordings that Herb Garden own the mechanical rights to, rather than the subsequent, re-recorded versions created half a year later and released as Destructive Natural Agent on East West Records in 1992. The East West (re)recordings occurred at HG’s fourth (of seven) White House recording sessions, 2-6 December 1991. The seventh session was in 2013 and produced AND, together with HGQ – and may offer up other greats!

Concludes Carl, “Some say the Warners album was polished, slick and shiny. Others say it was too fast. Yet more, different, real people say the recordings remastered here are the better versions of the songs. What can we say? How can we judge? We only wrote, played and recorded all of them.”

Ben winds things up: “So it’s ‘cheers 1989!’ – you gave us some fun for sure. And you gave us our ‘second Herb Garden sound’. But more importantly, thanks Musical Melting Pot of 1979 – without you none of it would not have happened!”

AND (Agent of Natural Destruction) is available to download for £5, along with 15 bonus arty-facts. Stay in touch with Herb Garden at:

• HG Music Shed
• HG Facebook
• HG GnomeTube
• HG Flickr
• HG Blog

Up, and Down-and-Out with the In-Crowd

Nick Splatz, ‘super-fan’, c1994

What DID happen to Herb Garden? As they release their second remasters album of 2014, ‘AND (Agent of Natural Destruction)’, fan and music writer Nick Splatz – writing in 1994 – serves up his version of events that led Bristol’s ‘mad-Muppets on raver-fuel’  on the journey from the South West to the lights of London, via Europe and back to Avonmouth.

Bottom

“Herb Garden (HG) started off in 1987-88 in the regulation way of bands, by hauling themselves around Bristol and the South West doing the usual bottom rung gigs and occasionally playing in people’s kitchens. They spread home grown demos to mates and newcomers, appeared in zines¹ – some of which have long since folded, because it was so long ago. They made a 12″ eponymously titled five-track EP, which they took to London on the bus and watched Porky cut. HG kept winning ‘Battle of The Bands’ nights much to the chagrin of some promoters and rival acts. They won some money and free art work in one of these competitions (some bastard ran off abroad with the cash) and got a cover printed. As the story goes: the Herbs scored, folded, cut and glued every single one of the 500, and, apparently, still have about 10 left!

Furry

The Furry Green Cassette by Herb Garden released independently by the band c1990.

Gigs started getting more widespread. HG recorded two more demos in trusty ol’ Whitehouse Studios in Weston-Super-Mare. These demos became the ‘cult’ tape album Furry Green Cassette (with real fake fur!) – this was before Back To The Planet had even taken drugs! They did some touring in Ireland then teamed up with a brilliant German band called Sharon Tates Children† and toured Germany with them. In return they organised an English tour for the Germans with only moderate success as it seems the English or UK underground scene just can’t cut it for foreign bands – unless they’re American. Sharon Tates Children have recently split for personal reasons but please check them out on 42 Records through DS4A; they were great!

Member

During the latter part of the saga, a promoter called James Harding†† decided to manage HG in 1991. The link had been made through a mutual friend – Niall from Ipswich cassette-zine ‘POPaganda’. James, a former member of The Adicts and the Herbies got on well, he knew his stuff and was a great geezer. Suddenly some business came up: a major label was interested in the Bristol boys. The label was East West (Mick Hucknall’s home and Donald Duck’s holiday cottage). James had contacts at the label who were keen on Furry Green Cassette and wanted to release it as a 12″ EP…. if it was re-recorded. Everything seemed to be falling into place. To this day Herb Garden don’t deny they were flirting – with the idea of ‘making it’, at least onto the ‘second rung’ of the ladder, and anyway, getting new vinyl out without having to pay for it sounded spot-on!

Meagre

So what happened next? Rock’n’roll excess? Depravity? Spinal Tap-style prima donna behaviour about the rider? Hardly. If there’s one thing that Herb Garden are not it’s a rock cliche. (OK two things – they’re also fame-free as a result). HG were now living a double life: on the one hand they were liked and promoted by the underground punk scene, on the other they were signing to a major (see photo).

The CD version of ‘Destructive Natural Agent’ (DNA), released on Hardslug/East West (Warners) in 1992

After a period of suspended animation which felt like a year, East West eventually spat the record out – beautifully presented cover and inner sleeve designed by Herb Garden’s own guys*, with lyrics, and a CD format for the hi-fi kids.

The band made sure it was on their own manager’s label, ‘Hardslug’, thru the major. Perhaps they weren’t fooling anybody because that’s as far as the joy-ride went. Destructive Natural Agent had come out as a ‘mini-album’. But what a merchandising joke: the dealer price was horrendously over the top. HMVs and Our Prices across the UK were putting out the meagre seven-tracker for a storming £14.50! But the tight-fisted corporates at Mickey Mouse Towers (hang on, that’s Disney) still refused to give the Herbs a single unit on Sale or Return. They said they would have to buy them first. The disc looked and sounded terrific – but was disastrously under-promoted. Bargain bins beckoned within months …

Ears

It became obvious that East West weren’t trying to do anything positive with the Bristol lads, continuing instead to groom their favourite sons The Wildhearts (wonder what happened to them?). Mercifully, the flirtation between Herb Garden and mainstream corporate bollocks ended there. The two parties stopped seeing each other and the band left WB with the Loony-Toon sound of Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig’s “That’s all folks!” ringing in their ears. James went on to manage The Golden Lion in Ipswich, (a hotel, not a band) eventually moving to the USA.

Taste

So, that’s the What, How, Why and the Wherefore of Herb Garden’s involvement in such an ‘Æsops Fables‘-style sketch. They knew what could happen when you get given contracts and champagne. They had a feeling of ‘win or lose’ about the whole thing but continued to operate with the taste of taking part still bitter-sweet in their mouths. Signing on a dotted line means sod-all to the profit-maximising, multinational big-boys who can reduce your creations – and YOU – to a column of ‘expenses’.

No one can blame Herb Garden for trying to spread their name about a bit more economically but quite honestly, I reckon it back-fired on them. Destructive Natural Agent is a great, hard-hitting record. You can’t take anything away from that. Search the bargain bins for a copy†††!

Don’t read this as a hard luck story, the Herb Garden had a great time sleeping with the enemy, playing the game. But in the music biz the tale will be a very familiar one. It’s probably happening to a band somewhere right now.” (Nick Splatz, 1994)

2014 Herb Garden notes:

Standard Issue #3 featuring ‘Herb Garden – on signing to a major’.

• ¹Since the ’70s had brought illicit photocopying to Punk, zines were prevalent in the pre-internet ’80s and ’90s. As were ‘distros’ – underground, DIY distribution organisations for zines, band stuff and literature. Many zines operated in not-for-profit support of issues and causes such as anti-vivisection, but always driven by fringe-scene music. Later Herb Garden appeared in a zine called ‘The Zine’ – a glossy mag pretending to be relevant and ‘street’.
• *Illustrations and Herb Garden art were mostly created by band friend Nick Hamer.
• † Sharon Tates Children morphed into Viva Maria! – another excellent outfit. Their Hammond organist Jochen ‘Erich’ Abel went on to create many great independent albums of German folk-psych tunes and the fantastic international musicology documentary, ‘Maybe Bangladesh’. Erich screened this and gigged alongside some of Herb Garden performing as Copper Kites, live in Bristol’s Cube in 2013, (see Copper Kites at  GnomeTube).
• ††James ‘Hardslug’ Harding continues to work with other bands including The Skulls, The Koffin Kats, The Fuzztones, and books acts for the Ink’n’Iron Festival, Long Beach, CA through his Libertalia agency.
• ††† Or check out the original (digitally remastered) versions. Get ‘AND (Agent of Natural Destruction)’ at the Herb Garden campsite!