interview: CERAMIC HOBS — But Shergar Is Fuckin' Dead, Ya Cunts!	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The Final Band And End Of All Music REPORTS: updated 9th April, 2007---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------: : : : : : : : : : : : new999 / DEVILISH PRESLEY — Live at Underworld (London, UK, 11 June 2006): : : : : : : : : : : : 0-9 — A — ZAVENGERS, THE — Live at Camden Underworld (21 May 2005)DEVILISH PRESLEY — Live at The Spitz (26 November 2005)JOCELYN POOK ENSEMBLE — Live at Queen Elisabeth Hall (14 March 2001)LURKERS, THE — Live at Gruta'77 (Madrid, Spain, 7 May 2006)SMELL & QUIM / ONOMATOPOEIA — Upstairs at The Garage (12 December 2002)WHITEHOUSE — Live Action 86 at Red Rose (13 October 2000)WHITEHOUSE — Live at ATP: Easy To Swallow — SE1 Club (2 June 2005)
ON PHOTO: Stan, Dave and Simon in action at Brigton's Cowley Club. 16th July 2005 PHOTO: © Gary Simmons & Maggie Ponce ON PHOTO: Dave plays and Simon sings at Brigton's Cowley Club. 16th July 2005 PHOTO: © Gary Simmons & Maggie Ponce ON PHOTO: Stan Batcow (guitarist of CERAMIC HOBS) at Ryans Bar, Stoke Newington, London. 15th July 2005 PHOTO: © Gary Simmons & Maggie Ponce ON PHOTO: Ging (drummer of CERAMIC HOBS) at Ryans Bar, Stoke Newington, London. 15th July 2005 PHOTO: © Gary Simmons & Maggie Ponce ON PHOTO: CERAMIC HOBS PHOTO: © unknown ON PHOTO: Gary Simmons and Maggie Ponce at Ryans Bar, Stoke Newington, London, before the Ceramic Hobs gig. 15th July 2005 PHOTO: © unknown artist: CERAMIC HOBS title: But Shergar Is Fuckin' Dead, Ya Cunts! ARTIST: CERAMIC HOBS [ http://www.pumf.net/ ] INTERVIEW: Gary Simmons (a.k.a. GeroGary), August 2004 [ gerogary45@yahoo.co.uk ] * REQUEST: if you found error or erratum here or have updated link, then e-mail [ giag@mail.ru ] interview: ????: On first coming into contact with records by the Ceramic Hobs & picking up on the apparent obsession with being "mad" & "nutters", one could be forgiven for getting the initial impression that the main ethos of the band is to be juvenistically wacky, almost tackily so, the sort of thing most of us probably grew out of around about the spotty bum-fluffed age of 15, i.e; hijacked stickers on CD artwork saying "MAY CONTAIN TRACES OF NUTS" or "Parental Guidance Required: this CD will finish off your parents. IT'S NAUGHTY!" &, to a lesser degree, the CD titles themselves; "Psychiatric Underground" & "Straight Outta Rampton". But, after listening to the music, it becomes noticably clear that, like your 1995 song about macaroni, it does indeed go deeper than that! I am given to understand that all four band members suffer from some kind of mental disorder, a point that the group play on, could you elaborate on just what these psychiatric problems are? SIMON MORRIS: Of the current band line-up of seven (not four!), there are three schizophrenics, one severe agoraphobic, one alcoholic, one with personality disorder & one normal. The only time I've ever felt unhappy with the line-up was during 2001-2002, when I was outnumbered by normals. I'm probably more likely to recruit band members through the psychiatric scene, rather than the music scene... I've had three very severe schizophrenic episodes, in 1968, 1989 & 1996. In the eighties I was sectioned repeatedly. Learning about mental health law helped me avoid this in '96. I'm still trying to understand these experiences & the music of the Ceramic Hobs is for me a way of exploring what happened -it felt like unceasing flows of information with no way to turn it off even when asleep — so my cognitive faculties really struggled to cope. The information often contradicted or conflicted with everyday consensus reality — so much so that I've wondered whether I experienced some kind of gnosis. I guess I'm lucky that the schizophrenia seems to have left the rest of my life unaffected — the three episodes were very distinct & isolated, although they've left me with a few wacky ideas, a general suspicion of "reality" & a lifelong hatred of psychiatry. ????: What was the first music you got into & how did your interest develope from there? I know you personally have very broad taste's ranging from 60's psychedelia, 70's punk, power electronics, 80's heavy metal (well, you did see Motorhead in the US last year AND you sent me a Venom video once!!), some reggae & rap... all blended in with a shot of that oh-so essential ingrediant; HUMOUR! SIMON MORRIS: I started following the pop charts when I was ten, in 1978/79 — some great new wave & disco material was around then. The first thing I remember that really opened my ears was The Beatles "I Am The Walrus" & "Revolution 9", & the Yoko side of "Plastic Ono Band — Live Peace In Toronto" — amazing stuff when you're eleven, amazing stuff at any age really! Hearing Oi! music & general late punk stuff — Cockney Rejects etc — helped make it clear that anyone could do music & you didn't have to be especially proficient. Hearing Throbbing Gristle when I was fourteen made it clear that it didn't have to sound like anything else. Things like Crass & Psychic TV around that time helped me realise that you could explore quite complex ideas through music — I'd always been interested in reading & god knows there was plenty to read & think about on their record sleeves & the associated zines. I think the biggest single influence on the SOUND of the Ceramic Hobs is the Butthole Surfers between '85 & '88. I've never understood why people only listen to one type of music or write off whole genres; there are brilliant minds working in just about every sound field, it seems to me. It doesn't neccesarily need to have humour — eg. I enjoy MB & post-Barrett Pink Floyd. There are some kinds of music where the audience kinda nauseates you I suppose — like the yuppies who like "world music" — but that kinda prejudice shouldn't affect the music itself... ????: Tell me about the history of the Ceramic Hobs. How did you come to form a band & how old were you? Is this the only band you've been in? Are you the only member who writes the lyrics & do you contribute to any of the music? SIMON MORRIS: I started the Ceramic Hobs with Steve Lambert — who lasted til '98 or so — in 1985, although I'd attempted bedroom-based punk & experimental stuff under various monickers since 1979. One big factor in the early Hobs which I guess has lingered to this day was a childish reaction against any kind of sophistication. I was 16 & kids my age were actually listening to Dire Straits & watching Miami Vice, gearing up to buy into some crappy idea of "adulthood". So this is where the "juvenistically wacky" stuff comes in! We did a number of tapes & gigs, & a flexidisc came out in 1988... we were very productive back then, doing a regular band zine "The Turnip Flag" & shooting videos regularly too. 1989 saw us change the name to Satan The Jesus Infekt'd Needles And Blood for that year only. Between '90 & '92 we were known as Orange Sunshine, '93 as Salty Grouse Castration Squad & '94 as Blood Klat (In Spume Bummer)... after a seven-year hiatus we reclaimed the name Ceramic Hobs in '95 & began to play live & record more frequently after wnat had been a few quiet years. I've done guest spots with many other bands — most memorable and fun was being part of the live Smell & Quim line-up during '96-'97. There've been quite a few side-projects to the Hobs. Yesmeansno was an even more infantile version who did one gig & made an LP in an edition of 20 — the master tapes were then destroyed. The Ambulance Chasers was a kind of loud improvisation band with power electronic overtones, the Paraquat Drinkers were similar. Judge Mental And The Heavy Dread Beat made three albums worth of psychotic hip-hop & performed live a fair few times. Blunt Instrument made commercial rock music with a kind of Jim Steinman slant. There was a project covering all of the Beach Boys "pet sounds" with deliberately horrible harmonies. And much more. We all contribute to the music. I guess for the songs I sing (and the same goes for Jane with hers) I'm ultimately responsible for the lyrical content. But it should be pointed out that a huge proportion of the lyrics are plagiarised & recontextualised material anyway. So perhaps it's best to say that the entire history of humanity writes the lyrics. ????: The latest Hobs album, the wonderfully titled (although not EVERYONE agrees on that!) "Shergar Is Home Safe And Well" has been out a while now, backed up with a small promotional tour. What have been the reactions to both CD & gigs? You got a review of "Shergar..." in Chaotic Order magazine & it was obvious (coz he said so!) that Bob Smith had "no idea how to approach the Ceramic Hobs music within (I think Bob meant "without"?) turning any sensibilities on their head & skewing my brain to a 45 degree angle..." which surprised me, C.O. being a magazine "covering alternative media & culture" & what-not. There are far more extreme & "difficult" records in those pages than "Shergar..." which is kind of conventional in a lot of ways, it being in the traditional "rock" band format of guitar, bass & drums, sung vocals with "real" songs that are melodic, rocky, introspective & contain actual narrative! Sure, there's the "wacky" element, but that's not in any way purile or embarrassing... a'la thee already mentioned 15 year old spotty kid. SIMON MORRIS: Reactions to our new album & recent gigs have been predictably muted. There are too many bands in the world for us to get noticed really, & this doesn't especially bother us — we do things to please ourselves. Gigs are always fun, whether 5 people or 200 people turn up. We had a fair bit of mainstream press coverage for the "Straight Outta Rampton" album — Q, Bizarre, Record Collector etc — and none at all to date for this album. We could have called it "Carry On Schizophrenia" or "Sectioned Again" to guarantee newsprint inches but all we wanted to do was make a record we were happy with & we succeeded. The Chaotic Order review was something I found quite flattering, as one of our aims has always been to confuse & make the head spin. A lot of what's termed experimental or extreme culture is just as formularised as Pete Waterman-style pop in terms of the "right" references which have to be used etc. Same goes for punk. (Nineties) Ramleh — quite an influence on the Hobs -attempted genre-bending on their stuff & it probably damaged their prospective popularity, as it does with us. People like to feel part of a community with regard to the music they listen to — whether it be techno or Cold Spring type dark ambient. A band like us sending out mixed messages & an absolute minimum of what communication studies aficionados would term "redundant communication" is always going to find it hard to win listeners. ????: Do you see the band as a vehicle for getting some kind of message across or is it more an outlet for band members possible therapy? Do you have any hard core fans & what popularity do you enjoy outside of the UK? SIMON MORRIS: I'm not sure "therapy" is really the term — it's just fun really. As for as a message goes, it'd be nice to inspire other psychiatric patients to come out & make madness-inspired creative work. It meant a lot to us to hook up with the Mad Pride organisation & become one of their in-house bands. Like I was saying before, I have a very sceptical view of "reality" & in this area I've developed various profitable delusions regarding the importance of the Ceramic Hobs in what I call the spirit world. We seek to blend ever closer with the unnameable, the uncarved block. On the "Shergar" album there are overt & covert references to a universe next door, to alien intelligences, to the subversion of time. There's a secret connected with the record which would gain us worldwide infamy if we revealed it — some readers will know what I'm talking about. We used sigil magic during the recording & thereby obtained information which is encoded on the album. However, my primary aim in the Ceramic Hobs, like all other producers of cultural work, is simply to obtain meaningfull attention from my peers. And that "painfully honest" self-critique is an example of the sickening depths I'll sink to in my attempts to ingratiate myself with you. We have a very low profile indeed in continental Europe — maybe because a lot of our stuff is so lyrics-based. In the USA we do have quite a few fans & have received press & radio play. I suppose there are some hardcore fans — we've had occasional well over-the-top emails & letters over the years, which are always fun. Prize for number one fan goes to Andrew from Preston, who first saw us in 1987, paid for our flexi to come out back then, & still travels to see us in 2004... !!!!: Thankyou very much indeed for your time. However, despite all you've just said, I still think hope is fading fast for that fucking horse. * An extended version of this interview can be found in the forthcoming edition of IDWAL FISHER magazine, issue number 5, with additional questions put forth by IDWAL's editor Mark Wharton. Please contact Idwal Fisher, PO Box 147, Cleckheaton, BD19 6WY, UK. end.