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.

.....

LOST IN A RADIO LABYRINTH

.....

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.

.....

BONDAGE NIGHT

.....

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?

.....

THE END OF THE PIER?

.....

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.