Fact #156302
When:
Short story:
Acclaimed Liverpool indie band Pale Fountains achieves its only UK chart entry with the single Thank You, which peaks at No 48.
Full article:
After a brief but meteoric indie career, Liverpool’s Pale Fountains signed to Virgin Records for a head-turning £50,000 in 1982, then took two years to deliver their debut album, Pacific Street, to almost universal acclaim. For Melody Maker, their second album, From Across The Kitchen Table, was “the first great album of 1985” but the shape of the pear was looming over them.
Nathan McGough (percussion) : Before me they had an actor bloke doing percussion for them. He was in the film Backbeat, about The Beatles. He left to pursue acting full-time. I was actually the band’s manager, but I was into all sorts of Latin percussion, so I ended up playing on the first single, Thank You, which we recorded in Manchester for Twilight Records. Then, because of that, I went on and did a few shows with them as percussionist but I would advise any manager never to play with his band. I had a strop with Michael, and left just before they signed to Virgin. I went on to work at East-West and to manage Happy Mondays.”
Johnny Mellor (percussion) : “After Nathan, I became their percussionist, largely because I had a driving licence and I could hire a van to get them to gigs. When I left, I went on to do the backline for Echo and the Bunnymen, then moved into merchandising. I’ve also recently started The Magnet club in Liverpool where we’re trying to recreate the vibe that Eric’s used to have, so you’ll find a lot of music scene people down there.”
Michael Head (guitar/vocals) : “With The Pale Fountains I was just writing songs because I thought other people could sing them. I got this idea that I was a songwriter and I was so made up with this idea that I probably got a bit carried away with it over the first Paleys album. The Bacharach and David... Yeah, the first album was taken to extremes with the orchestration.
The problem is that money can buy anything, good things as well as bad. Because I've always been very curious, I began to experiment with everything. I say : everything. Therefore, it's money that killed the band, because it enabled us to buy all sorts of drugs we wanted to.
Three of us used to shoot frequently. Andy (Diagram, trumpet) was the most addicted. He wasn't really addicted, but... the biggest fan of it. I took quite a lot of it, because I thought it would help me to write … the real problem was that Chris (McCaffrey, bass) never touched it. He always was against this idea. He saw our state degrade little by little. And we were beginning to disagree on our music, because of drugs. After "From Across The Kitchen Table", I didn't even pay attention to what he was saying to me anymore. He asked me ten or twenty times to stop the dope. But we were taking too much of it to hear him. He was tormented with being helpless. My brother was taking more and more, and I had got fatter, a lot. We didn't often rehearse, we were convinced that the band would never take off. I spent all my money in bullshit. We should have gone all out, in 86 … We should have toured , but we didn't want to leave Liverpool anymore, 'cos we were feeling... fine there. Chris knew that. He wanted to work. We didn't. Then, instead of watching the band die by inches, he prefered to kill it. I think he was right.
I lost everything because of drugs. I lost my good health, £150,000, and most of all, my best friend. All that remains is two albums and one guitar.”
Andy Diagram (trumpet) : “I left the Pale Fountains before the release of Across The Kitchen Table, so I wasn’t around for the split, so I can’t comment on what caused it. I left the band because I felt we were moving in too much of a rock direction and Mick was wanting me to play more and more keyboards and less trumpet. The split was amicable and we kept in touch for a few years after.
Since then, from 1989 - 1992 I was playing with James, during the Sit Down/Gold Mother and Seven album periods. At the same time I was playing in a free jazz outfit called The Honkies. My current band, Spaceheads, developed in 1990 but became a fully fledged gigging duo in 1995, since when we’ve toured America four times.
I also play with David Thomas (Pere Ubu) in his solo project David Thomas and the 2 Pale Boys.”
Chris McCaffrey (bass) : “Chris died in 1989,” says Andy Diagram. “It was very sudden and very shocking. He developed a brain tumor and was dead within a week. The Pale Fountains were all briefly together again at his funeral. It was very sad. We all loved Biffer (Chris). He was a great guy with a heart of gold.”
Thomas ‘Jock’ Whelan (drums) : Andy Diagram says that he, “last saw Thomas at Chris’s funeral. He was driving cabs in Liverpool.” Sources in Liverpool confirm that Whelan has had ‘difficulties’ in more recent years, but is now back driving his cab again.
John Head (guitar) : “John was only fifteen when Pale Fountains started,” recalls Nathan McGough, “but he joined on guitar in about 1984, then he and Michael went on to form their new band, Shack. They’re on London Records and, after having been out of touch with them for years, I’m now their manager again.”
(Source : not known)
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Nathan McGough (percussion) : Before me they had an actor bloke doing percussion for them. He was in the film Backbeat, about The Beatles. He left to pursue acting full-time. I was actually the band’s manager, but I was into all sorts of Latin percussion, so I ended up playing on the first single, Thank You, which we recorded in Manchester for Twilight Records. Then, because of that, I went on and did a few shows with them as percussionist but I would advise any manager never to play with his band. I had a strop with Michael, and left just before they signed to Virgin. I went on to work at East-West and to manage Happy Mondays.”
Johnny Mellor (percussion) : “After Nathan, I became their percussionist, largely because I had a driving licence and I could hire a van to get them to gigs. When I left, I went on to do the backline for Echo and the Bunnymen, then moved into merchandising. I’ve also recently started The Magnet club in Liverpool where we’re trying to recreate the vibe that Eric’s used to have, so you’ll find a lot of music scene people down there.”
Michael Head (guitar/vocals) : “With The Pale Fountains I was just writing songs because I thought other people could sing them. I got this idea that I was a songwriter and I was so made up with this idea that I probably got a bit carried away with it over the first Paleys album. The Bacharach and David... Yeah, the first album was taken to extremes with the orchestration.
The problem is that money can buy anything, good things as well as bad. Because I've always been very curious, I began to experiment with everything. I say : everything. Therefore, it's money that killed the band, because it enabled us to buy all sorts of drugs we wanted to.
Three of us used to shoot frequently. Andy (Diagram, trumpet) was the most addicted. He wasn't really addicted, but... the biggest fan of it. I took quite a lot of it, because I thought it would help me to write … the real problem was that Chris (McCaffrey, bass) never touched it. He always was against this idea. He saw our state degrade little by little. And we were beginning to disagree on our music, because of drugs. After "From Across The Kitchen Table", I didn't even pay attention to what he was saying to me anymore. He asked me ten or twenty times to stop the dope. But we were taking too much of it to hear him. He was tormented with being helpless. My brother was taking more and more, and I had got fatter, a lot. We didn't often rehearse, we were convinced that the band would never take off. I spent all my money in bullshit. We should have gone all out, in 86 … We should have toured , but we didn't want to leave Liverpool anymore, 'cos we were feeling... fine there. Chris knew that. He wanted to work. We didn't. Then, instead of watching the band die by inches, he prefered to kill it. I think he was right.
I lost everything because of drugs. I lost my good health, £150,000, and most of all, my best friend. All that remains is two albums and one guitar.”
Andy Diagram (trumpet) : “I left the Pale Fountains before the release of Across The Kitchen Table, so I wasn’t around for the split, so I can’t comment on what caused it. I left the band because I felt we were moving in too much of a rock direction and Mick was wanting me to play more and more keyboards and less trumpet. The split was amicable and we kept in touch for a few years after.
Since then, from 1989 - 1992 I was playing with James, during the Sit Down/Gold Mother and Seven album periods. At the same time I was playing in a free jazz outfit called The Honkies. My current band, Spaceheads, developed in 1990 but became a fully fledged gigging duo in 1995, since when we’ve toured America four times.
I also play with David Thomas (Pere Ubu) in his solo project David Thomas and the 2 Pale Boys.”
Chris McCaffrey (bass) : “Chris died in 1989,” says Andy Diagram. “It was very sudden and very shocking. He developed a brain tumor and was dead within a week. The Pale Fountains were all briefly together again at his funeral. It was very sad. We all loved Biffer (Chris). He was a great guy with a heart of gold.”
Thomas ‘Jock’ Whelan (drums) : Andy Diagram says that he, “last saw Thomas at Chris’s funeral. He was driving cabs in Liverpool.” Sources in Liverpool confirm that Whelan has had ‘difficulties’ in more recent years, but is now back driving his cab again.
John Head (guitar) : “John was only fifteen when Pale Fountains started,” recalls Nathan McGough, “but he joined on guitar in about 1984, then he and Michael went on to form their new band, Shack. They’re on London Records and, after having been out of touch with them for years, I’m now their manager again.”
(Source : not known)