THE PIER EXTENSION

PART 2 OF AN INTERVIEW WITH THE PIER

IF YOU MISSED THE FIRST PART, CLICK HERE

We sat in the beer garden of the Little Angel one afternoon, Nick to the right of me, Max on the left, next to him Grace (psychological support), then on the other side of the table Jack and Mat. At one point Max asked if there was anything specific I needed to know?

Well no, not really. It wasn't necessary to do much more than throw in the odd question, stand back and watch the ripples spread. That's the beauty of a real time interview recorded as it happens. As well as interacting with the interviewer, the band interact with each other and the dynamics within the group become apparent. Egos are laid bare.

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LOST IN A RADIO LABYRINTH

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Bob Fischer

On Saturday 6th of June, The Pier performed on Bob Fischer's Saturday night BBC Radio Tees show. Having never seen them live, I was impressed by the way they played and interacted with each other. So how was it broadcasting to the nation (well the north east bit of it at least)?

Nick: Oddly chilled.

Max: There's three mics and not much room or anything.

Nick: You can't play anything too loud. The mics can't really cope with it.

Max: He's a nice guy Bob. I like Bob.

PW: He certainly champions Whitby bands.

Max: It's dead easy to talk to him.

   

An early incarnation: Jack, Nick, Max and Mat

PW: Is he there on his own? I like it when he puts a record on and goes down to answer the door. I've been past BBC Radio Tees on the bus and it's a fairly big building.

Nick: When we turned up we just pressed this button by this tiny door round the side and there was this huge studio all empty, with just Bob in the entire place.

Jack: Then Mat set all the alarms off.

Mat: It's like a labyrinth. Like the BBC in London. That's impossible to find your way round.

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BONDAGE NIGHT

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The Pier attract a young audience

Why do you think there's a recent upsurge in the Whitby music scene? Is it that there are suddenly more venues to play?

Max: The Starms, that's good. We should play there.

PW: There's the Captain Cook in Staithes.

Jack: Avalanche Party are a good live band. We saw them at The Captain Cook. They were great. That's a good venue for them.

Mat: We played there last year supporting Friends of Dorothy I think. It was bondage night.

PW: Why was it Bondage Night?

Jack: There was this bloke in bondage on the poster, or something like that.

Mat: It was the owner.

PW: Who? Heath Waterfield? Kyle and Kane's dad? He's in Friends of Dorothy you know.

Jack: I saw them play. I thought they were great. I got a Friends of Dorothy t-shirt. It's really weird.

Mat: Doesn't James have a Clawmarks t-shirt? He doesn't like the band but he loved that shirt.

Jack: Clawmarks are like weird, really weird. We saw them in Middlesbrough supporting The Fat White Family, and halfway through the set, the guitarist went 'If any of you have got somewhere we could sleep tonight it would be really great, because we haven't got anywhere to go'.

Nick; That's what we should do. Go on tour without any gigs booked, just turn up at pubs and go 'We're the band'.

Mat: Yeah

Nick: Clawmarks, are they still alive, or did they die of dysentry?

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THE END OF THE PIER?

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All bands go through an inevitable evolution sound wise, and I was keen to find out how The Pier got to where they are today?

 

Kirk

Max: We got through some guitarists and keyboardists.

Jack: We listened to Psychedelic Music for Psychedelic People.

Mat: No. It was Acid Music for Acid People.

Jack: If you look on YouTube for Acid Music for Acid people, there are loads of full albums on there. I mean instrumental albums like Goat and stuff. We listened to loads of that.

Nick: I just wanted stuff that was, you know, saxophone. Saxophone music.

 Max: Yeah, because Nick is off in September to the Guildhall              Consevatoire of Drama and Music.

Coltrane

   PW: What's going to come out of that?

   Nick: A degree in saxophone.

  Max: ...and work in Starbucks.

  Nick: I'll be working in Starbucks, but I'll have a degree in                 saxophone.

  PW: Which saxophonists do you admire?

  Nick: Roland Kirk, he can play three saxophones at once.             Coltrane's   pretty good. A Love Supreme, you've got to sit in the                                                          dark with some candles and listen to A Love Supreme.

 

Coleman

 PW:Ornette Coleman died the other day, didn't he?

 Nick: I never really listened to him until he died. Just started  listening a couple of days ago. I'd never really heard of him before.  Coleman's an alto sax player. Coltrane's more of a tenor, or soprano  guy.

 Tenors are wrong, because it doesn't make sense in the harmonic  sequence to have an instrument in B flat.

 Max: But it sounds good.

Nick: No. That's why you get all those weird growls and stuff. That's why it sounds a bit jaggedy.

Jack: You were doing wah-wah saxophone on something, weren't you?

Nick: Yeah, that works. I felt like Hendrix.

Mat: We try to experiment with sound.

Jack: It's because we listened to Frank Zappa.

Nick: Wah-wah bass clarinet. Brilliant. Kind of.

We talked about other things too, for instance an odd incident in a cave, a foggy drive home from a gig, sleeping with Yoko Ono and Mat steering the car into a ditch. Then we filed off home. I have no idea what this band will do next, or what will happen when Nick leaves, but in the meantime let's console ourselves with this rather splendid Whitbydelic video of the song Ocean.

And no, it's not about the Chinese chip shop near the Stakesby Arms.

TEN FOOT TOM AND THE LEPROSY CROOKS

 LIVE AT THE FLEECE WITH THE JOHN DOE'S

11: 07: 15

Photos by Kevin Peirson

Alan and Dave of The John Doe's

Tom (10 ft)

A great night's entertainment provided by the excellent John Doe's (who are reviewed elsewhere in this fanzine, scroll down) and Ten Foot Tom and The Leprosy Crooks last night.

A leaner, meaner TFT treated us to sinewy, wiry and searingly dishevelled blues by the river.

Admittedly it was the Esk rather than the Mississippi, but the weather was hot and humid in keeping with the TFT vibe. Stripped down to a three piece, the sparser sound added intensity and urgency.

Tom has a rivetting presence as a frontman, he feels the music like truth in his blood and he breaks strings by trying to make them do things they're not equipped to do. A new guitar was required at one point, kindly (some might say foolishly) donated by Rob from the John Doe's.

Tight and compact, the engine provided by Mr Boyes on drums and Mr Corner on bass propels each
song like a runaway train to its final destination, which is usually a flailing guitar meltdown in front of a straining valve amp.

So sizzlng temperatures, Golden Sheep ale, two top bands, lovely company (Sarah and Kevin), a disappointing raffle, a conversation about map projections with Shepton and Chris, beermat fixation and drinks on the verandah. What more could you ask of a night out?

In the morning we'll be all confused and we won't know what to do, but that's Saturday Night for you, eh Tom?

Tom and Chris out of Ten Foot Tom and The Leprosy Crooks

THE PIER: PART 1

God, it seems such a long time ago since I had the brilliant idea of interviewing The Pier at The Little A in Whitby and recording the outcome. We went into the beer garden feeling it might offer a quiet place to converse. Unfortunately a bunch of happy, drunk and loud visitors had also chosen the area as the ideal place to perform some shouting.

The Pier are...
Nick Hann: Lead vocals, keyboard, guitar, sax and stuff like that.
Jack Waller: Bass guitar
Max Crossling: Drums and backing vocals
Mat Glaysher: Guitar

Grace was there too, offering moral guidance and psychological support.

So it's taken ages to transcribe the interview, largely because everybody in the band was talking at the same time whilst conversations about who shagged who went on at the next table, the volume set on 11. It might have been Brian Blessed's family, thinking about it.

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IT WAS A CADILLAC

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The origin of a band is always interesting, so I asked The Pier to cast their minds back into the mists of time. 

Fylingfest 2013

Max: When the band started out it was me, Nick and Mat.

Nick: Without drums. No drums.

Max: You know Fylingfest? We were playing at that. We were down as The Mat Glaysher band.

Mat: Just Mat Glaysher actually. No band. Then we met Jack, who'd just come to listen.

Jack: I ended up playing drums for them.

Max: We went back to Mat's house just down the road. Then about Xmas time we realised Jack is actually a bassist.

Nick: You were seriously distraught though Max. We were saying 'Why don't you play the drums. 

Max?' and you said 'no, I want to be a frontman.'

Jack: I'd played bass in other bands. It seemed logical, as I was a bassist.

Max: I guess that's why I joined Nocturnal Dictionary. I had to be a frontman of something.

PW: You're not the singer, but you've got the biggest instrument.

Max: Nick, your personality comes out in our music.

Nick: My music, because I write and record it, yeah.

Max: Our personalities come out onstage. I like to play drums like Keith Moon.

PW: Do you live your life like Keith Moon?

Max: Yup. A lot of cocaine and a lot of hookers.

Mat: ...and a lot of Rolls Royces in swimming pools.

Nick: It was a Cadillac.

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THE CHAMOMILE CONNECTION

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Posters for gigs featuring several bands collected under the banner of Chamomile Records have appeared in Whitby recently. As well as The Pier, outfits such as Warhol Superstars, Nocturnal Dictionary, Buddha Machine and Tom Found seem to be included in this set-up.

So what is Chamomile Records exactly?

 Max: Chamomile is Nocturnal Dictionary's independent label. George, the lead singer, thought it would be good idea so he could do gigs and have a label. Makes them look more professional I guess.

The Pier's backdrop painter at work

PW: Has he put stuff out on it?

Max: They've got a cassette out on Chamomile.

PW: You play sax in Nocturnal Dictionary, but you play drums in The Pier don't you Max?I went to see Nocturnal Dictionary at The Starms when they played with Moonwreck.

Max: Did you like it? Was it a good gig?

PW: Very much so. There's a link between the two bands isn't there? A similarity in approach?

Max: Yeah. Was it Whitbydelica you called it?

PW: Well you're not just hammering out rock, are you? It's a little bit different.

Max: Whitbydelica. I like that.

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THIS ONE'S CALLED TENT

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Nick gave me a CD wrapped in sheet music to listen to. On The Pier 2 (which is actually more of a demo than an album) he plays all the instruments, however live and on the radio the band interpret the songs. Their collective sound is refreshingly human. A very interesting combination of nervous energy and restraint.

Nich Hann walking purposefully

Nick: I write and record all the songs.

Max: We just help play gigs.

Mat: Jack wrote one once.

Nick: Ages ago. Good times.

Jack: I write bits and let you finish them.

Nick: Well done.

Max: I wrote drum parts for the first album. On the new songs it's all Logic.

Nick: I just replace Max with a drum machine.

Max: I do play half the drums, because it's a little bit more complicated than what I can play.

Nick: Yeah.

Max: I'm mainly a sax player, but I turn my hand to drums.

Mat: You're alright. You've got better. It started out with you on bass didn't it?

Jack: Its better than when I was playing drums.

Band: Laughs!

PW: Why don't the song titles on the CD mean anything?

Nick: I didn't realise they showed up on the display, so they're just random titles I used when I was making them.

PW: Don't your songs have fixed titles then?

Nick: They do, probably. We just think of them before we play them though. We're on the radio and they say 'What's the song called?' and we go 'Oh, I dunno'.

Jack: (Referring to an impromptu title they gave to one of the songs they played on Bob Fischer's radio show recently) This one's called Tent.

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Part two of this interview will be published later this week, let's say, ooh, Wednesday night? It will include The Pier's radio adventures, a brush with bondage and sax wars.

Remember, piers can be dangerous places, so don't lean too far over the metal rail.

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