Frenzid Melon
Frenzid Melon
Group
Genres: punk, indie, new wave, art rock, Cassette Culture
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About Frenzid Melon
Frenzid Melon were a d.i.y. bedroom punk/post punk/ experimental band that existed from 1977 - 1981. During that time they released 7 diy cassette albums and one cassette single. The founder members and constant nuclei were Peter Ashby and Barry Lamb (except for a brief period during "The Great Roll and Butter Swindle" where Ashby disappered whilst the band enjoyed the most populous list of members it ever had). Throughout the years the group's personnel was enhanced by various friends and/or local musicians (or just people hanging around whilst recording was in progress) who made varying contributions ranging from the very slight to the fairly significant. Their eponymous debut cassette opened with the seminal "Piss off" which became a highly regarded classic and set the tone for much of what was to follow. The early tapes were recorded on mono cassette recorders and duplicated in Heath Robinson fashion by connecting two recorders with a 5 pin din and duplicating in realtime. And recordings thereafter were cobbled together on all manner of different cassettes and combinations thereof. Despite the archaic equipment and labour intensive methods, they often experimented with multi-tracking and even created primitive effects through the manipulation of tape. Ashby & Lamb's musical connection emerged in 1974 as they found themselves in the same class at secondary school. Along with albums from the more popular rock groups Ashby had grown up with psychedelia, underground rock, jazz fusion and experimental music courtesy of his older brothers and classical /orchestral music courtesy of his father who was himself a competent pianist. His ears went way beyond the mainstream of rock music. Lamb had grown up with a healthy appreciation of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan courtesy of his New York born grandfather's love of folk and blues. He also had some experience of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Joe Harriott and countless others due to his father's love of jazz. His father also introduced him to the music of David Bowie, Van Der Graaf Generator and the more progressive and adventurous side of pop music. Hanging out with each other on a regular basis, lstening to music and exchanging ideas about music naturally developed into the notion of forming a band, not letting the fact that neither had ever picked up an instrument before hinder their ambitions. By the begnning of 1976 they had formed a band with some school friends. However, before they had even managed to have their first rehearsal Ashby & Lamb found themselves thrown out of their own band by the over-controlling parents of the other two members. "I think we were seen as bit too anti-establishment" says Lamb "and some kind of threat to their own vision of the band". That "vision" turned out to be slogging away on the Social club covers circuit for a few years. Ashby & Lamb, now reduced to a duo, but with their creative and artistic integrity unscathed, set about creating their own vision of how their music would sound. Initial sessions produced three songs which were recorded but sadly later lost - "Cold Hearted Woman", "Earthlight" & "General in the Army", respectively an anarchic blues track, a rambling experimental piece and a decidedly silly ditty. The former two later emerging re-recorded, one on "Graffiti Spastic Plastic" and the other on "Frenzid Melon II" Around this time the emergent upstart that was punk forced its way onto Ashby and Lambs' radar and although initially dismissive of it, by the Winter of 1976, they had connected with the energy, vitality and the lyrical potency on offer. The creative possibilities now seemed endless, and the way of working that the duo had already initiated fitted this new movement as if it had been planned. The decidedly unruly first forays into recording needed no real transition , only lyrically did things take a shift. The backdrop of life in what they termed as "a dead end seaside town", the boredom factor, a cynical world view and a healthy dose of schoolboy humour now informed the words chosen to accompany the chaotic music. The sheer joy and enthusiasm of making music unencumbered by any monetary ambitions or considerations, topical relevant wordplay and a total artistic freedom had now all tumbled into place. By mid 1977 they were buying copious punk singles and getting ever more into punk music as there was an emergence of punk bands in Clacton notably the Johnny 7 Combo & The Hoovas. The duo by now was named Frenzid Melon and they started work on visual ideas, learning their instruments and writing songs. The sound remained raw, gritty, experimental at times but with a punk rock diy attitude. The lyrical content continued to reflect the teenage experience of growing up in Clacton, the political and social issues of the day, always littered with humour but spurred on by serious intent. The debut album born out of all this creative energy was very much a punk affair. Short, gritty, edgy songs delivered haphazardly but with absolute sincerity. Yet from this point on a more experimental side of their nature began to develop and flourish as Ashby & Lamb carved out their own individual musical pursuits and worked on collaborations outside of the band which were often much more diverse projects. But always the odd relatively normal song would somehow be written amidst all the experimentation, and a sense of humour was never too far away. No subsequent album had quite the impact nor immediacy of the first as is often the way of things, but they all had their highlights. Frenzid Melon were never going to find themselves in the mainstream although they did briefly flirt with Virgin records creating a little bit of interest shortly after the first cassette was released. Peter Ashby -" I feel that Virgin were just after something controversial to exploit. We were very young and spouting abuse which in itself was enough to excite them...we never pursued it thankfully." Eventually, in the Spring of 1981 Frenzid Melon gave up the ghost. As their equipment failed irretrievably, they abandoned a rehearsal, went to the pub and called it a day. A few months later they were to re-emerge with a new vision for the next leg of their musical journey and with the addition of another member they were to morph into the insane picnic. "It was mainly two schoolboys messing about and having fun! But we loved music so much that there was always a more serious creative purpose lurking just beneath the surface. A potent mixture of growing up, friendship, emerging teenage angst, dissatisfaction and disillusionment with the world we thought we knew...nothing revolutionary in any of that, just our own life experiences and our own take on things. We used our limited skills (and occasionally those of others) to make music and songs about anything and everything and we often experimented with sound and ways of making sounds. The results were of course very mixed...sometimes tedious in the extreme, occasionally wonderful. That experimentation has never left us, either in our own solo efforts or whenever we work together. We had an incredible amount of enjoyment being Frenzid Melon and we have never really stopped being those two schoolkids, having a laugh and doing things our own way!" - Peter Ashby "We would often bunk off school to make an album and we'd pretty much record the whole thing in a day or two ... we weren't so fussy back then. A couple of takes and then that would do. During one of the tracks on the first album we were interrupted by one of our parents midway through and had to abandon the recording because we were making too much noise and they were bothered by our bad language. We just picked up where we left off the next day splicing the track together only to find it had a completely different guitar sound and was in a different key... we just left it as it was. We'd take the tapes into school play them in break time and would give copies to girls that we liked and sold a handful. The artwork was usually hand drawn and coloured in with felt tips but by the time we released our 5th album we discovered the joys of the Xerox machine. Later as the diy cassette network developed with the help of mainstream music papers, fanzines and a growing number of small pirate radio stations we would sell them through the post or more often swap them for an album by a fellow sojourner. Of all the music projects that I have ever been involved in people are most curious about Frenzid Melon. It's a bit of an enigma because there's hardly anything out there. This new compilation ends the mystery, speculation, and intrigue, but we hope is the beginning of a journey of fascination." - Barry Lamb
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