Archive Interview: Prolapse

Around twenty years ago, our fanzine The Weedbus did an end of year Readers' Poll, as we thought we were the NME or something. Anyway, Prolapse won the Best Band category fair and square so we chased them for an interview. We usually did interviews in person with bands when they visited Belfast, or sometimes their press people sorted out "phoners" for us, but with Prolapse we decided to conduct it via the Royal Mail, with written communication from our PO Box to theirs. This took ages, and if I recall it properly, it only really took shape when Linda started coordinating the band's replies. The results are below, it's quite fanziney, a bit silly, and I'm pleased to say they answered some of our questions with their tounge firmly in cheek, but I'm posting it here for posterity. We never did get Scottish Mick's replies....

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this interview was published in the Weedbus issue 12, May 1997
Winners of our last substantial reader's poll, Prolapse are returning to the public eye with a fantastic new single 'Killing the Bland' and an album due in September on Radar records, owned by Warner Brothers. With the help of vocalist Linda I managed to get most of the band to complete a postal interview - apart from Scottish Mick that is, whose answers may appear at a later date! Otherwise it all went smoothly, so here are the results....

How did the band first get together?
Mick (bass): "In 1979 myself, Tim (drums), Scottish Mick (vocalist) and Pat (guitar) were fishing for squid just off the boundary surrounding Ben Nevis. Pat caught three squids and a girl called Linda who despite being covered in coral and sharks teeth was singing a very good version of 'Don't Slip Up' by Meat Whiplash. Scottish Mick only succeeded in catching a bag of eels, Tim caught loads of plankton (which he still has in a jam jar). I was having a bad day, I only caught an amoeba called Dave Jeffries. Prolapse was formed."

Why did you only issue one album on Cherry Red ('Pointless Walks to Dismal Places' 1995)?
Pat: "The label discovered that my brother had been in the infamous Cherry Red outfit The Tights!"
Dave: "They had a dramatic reshuffle and all of their bands fell out of the pack."

Since then Lissy's has been releasing most of your material - what's the set up there?
D: "Lissy's is run by Jamie from the Rough Trade Shop in Covent Garden and basically he puts out records that he likes."
Linda: "Jamie gave us a few fivers to record a single for his label and we ended up recording a whole album ('Backsaturday') by accident."

Would you rather release one-off singles or albums?
L: "Six and two threes - they both have good and bad points."
D: "I don't buy singles and I would like to think that we're able to do both, but I'm not sure that we're capable of either!"

You've now signed a 'proper' deal with Radar, who are owned by Warner Brothers. How is this going to affect things?
L: "We wouldn't sign if there was a whiff of us getting pushed into anything. There would be no point."
D: "We don't know. They seem pretty open to us as an entity. Artistic control is pretty important, but record companies have product to sell, so... let's wait and see, eh?"

What are your immediate plans?
D: "We're in the studio working on the new album with Donald Ross Skinner (ex- Julian Cope, Baba Louie) and plans are to tour pretty soon."

What annoys you about the current music scene?
L: "Anything to do with corporate manipulation."
D: "Where do I start? Most of the music, the national music press, the touring agent competition, the London-centredness as usual."
P: "The current music scene is mainly either bland or ultra-conservative or both."

What inspires you about the current music scene?
P: "One of the things is that at least people are more likely to listen to a broad range of influences - from Tibetan throat music to Lee Hazelwood."
D: "I'm supposed to say something about the way in which the DIY ethic is coming back and Bis are getting on TOTP even without a record deal. However, it doesn't mean anything to me personally and beware of what you read about Bis 'cos they had a huge publishing deal before their much publicised TOTP appearance."
L: "Really what inspires me is the occasional gig/ single which makes me go I LOVE THIS - ie Broadcast/ The Yummy Fur (gigs) and those two Tiger singles, among (few) others."

Are there any current bands you particularly rate?
L: "As well as Broadcast, the Yummy Fur, Tiger, there's Stereolab, Papas Fritas... shit I hate questions like this cos my mind goes blank!"
P: "Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Stereolab."
D: "Apart from Stereolab and a great band called Juno, there's not much worth shouting about. Drum n bass is best - in patches mind!"

What about influences? Tell us what you think of the constant Fall/ Stereolab/ Krautrock comparisons.
P: "Musically I think the comparisons are reasonable. I personally listen to a lot of Krautrock stuff - I can remember my brother's band doing a cover of 'Hero' by Neu!"
D: "All three are an influence on me personally, but it needs to be said that Prolapse were listening to Kraut stuff at the same time as Stereolab and before they started releasing records."
L: "All Prolapse people have different influences. Don't know what mine are but I'd hazard a guess at Dusty Springfield/ Kim Gordon/ loony bin inmates. As for the Stereolab/ Krautrock thing - we and Stereolab are different interpretations of similar influences so it's slightly peeving when people say 'Prolapse are influenced by Stereolab' cos that makes us a different generation which isn't the case. We LOVE Stereolab - but we are their spiritual cousins, not their proteges... or something."

Your onstage tension, particularly in 'Tina, This Is Matthew Stone' is semi-legendary. Do you all get on?
L: "Yes, but every member of the band has been in a fight with another member. Except Pat!"

Who is Matthew Stone anyway?
D: "Matthew Stone is the lead character, played by William Shatner, in a really bad film called 'Impulse'. He plays a psycho, though not very well."
P: "It's an amazingly bad film - it has to be seen to be believed."

There are a lot of European references in the songs - do you feel more European than British?
D: "I'm afraid to say I'm British despite being Welsh and having lived in Brussels and Dublin. I certainly think we're a very British band."
L: "I don't feel at all European. Europe's a funny old stick if you ask me."
P: "Usually, especially when touring abroad I realise there are some good things about Britain but mainly it's on a downward spiral. The anti-European stuff in the press and from politicians irritates me. You only have to go out on a Saturday night in Leicester to realise what a fucked-up country we're living in."

Finally, what are the best and worst things in life? Get the worst out of the way first!
P: "Kula Shaker, nightclubs, Jim Davidson, Birmingham New Street station, Man Utd, getting out of bed, marmalade, flying, loud music, ginger cake."
D: "Being in a band, seriously! Touring. Too many bad bands to mention. Not being able to spend all my time with my family."
M: "People who eat loudly, getting up early, Noel Edmonds, Ocean Colour Scene, baked bean stains on black jeans, food dribbling from mouths, halitosis, Robin Williams, Jeremy Beadle, Hitler, rich students, posters of blokes with babies, Elvis Presley, Frank Skinner, Suggs, Eric Hall, smell of vomit and crap, Neneh Cherry, Alanis Morrisette, the powdery scrapings at the end of a packet of Golden Virginia, being in Prolapse."
L: "Those moments when you think I HATE MYSELF AND I WANT TO POP MY CLOGS IF ONLY IT WASN'T SO PAINFUL/ MESSY/ EASY AND ANYWAY I MIGHT FEEL BETTER ONE DAY."

And the best?
D: "My family - partner Penny, daughter Ella (3 1/2), son Isaac (7 months). Art. 'Composition for 16 Musicians' Steve Reich, 'Ascension' John Coltrane, reading philosophy and generally being pretentious. Rolling Stones circa 1968- 1972."
P: "UK Gold, Guinness, Sandy Denny, Coronation Street, weasels, stoats and polecats, anything with a long body, piercing eyes and sharp teeth, Everton winning (rare, I admit), Bamboozle."
L: "Those moments when you think I LOVE THIS..."

Interview co-ordinated by Jonathan, with the help of Linda from the band

Spotify playlist no.3

The one regular feature on this site that I have managed to stick with is the weekly Spotify playlist. The third instalment features acts that have been mentioned on the site over the last week. There's a live track from the National, Josh T Pearson plays an electric version of a song from his album, there's another Guided By Voices album track, new releases from The Shins, Francois and the Atlas Mountains and Django Django. This week's token oldie is from Prolapse. Next week's selection will have 30 mins and join up with the others to make a 2hour playlist of highlights from the month on here. Listen up!

Great Lost Bands No.2: Prolapse

Great Lost Bands No.2
The second in this occasional series is the Leicester based band Prolapse, who were active between approximately 1992-2000. Despite having the worst name, they first came to my notice in 1994 when I heard them on Radio 1's Evening Session.
The tune was "Pull Thru' Barker" and I wrote the name down with 'Stereolab, The Fall, Huggy Bear' scribbled beside it in case I forgot what they sounded like. They also sounded like a couple having a row over a krautrock-backing track, but I didn't write that down at the time.

Pull Thru' Barker (vid goes dark after a while, but the track is pretty rare so I'm sharing it!)

I managed to find a copy of their debut album, the excellently titled "Pointless Walks to Dismal Places" and it clicked with me immediately. 1994 wasn't a great year for me, and Prolapse sounded exciting whilst managing to come across as depressing and intense, so they suited me perfectly. I played it a lot and for me it became one of my favourite albums of that entire decade.

Doorstop Rhythmic Bloc (single release from Pointless Walks)

I tracked them steadily over the next year, when they played a blinder at the Reading Festival culminating in the mock violence of "Tina, This Is Matthew Stone" which was so convincing one friend thought it was for real!
They released records on all sorts of labels, mostly singles like the brilliant 'T.C.R', including a mini-album called "Backsaturday" which is worth tracking down alone for the epic side-one-filling "Flex".

T.C.R.

Prolapse proved so popular with the fanzine that I edited at the time ("The Weedbus") that they actually won Best band in our reader's vote. I attempted to interview them; a messy activity co-ordinated by Linda from the band vis post. It ended up like this.
The band signed to Radar records and were given a decent recording budget and some money for promotional videos. They released a fine second album "The Italian Flag" in 1997 which increased their profile and got them some radio play. It was produced by Donald Ross Skinner (of Julian Cope fame), who actually joined the band for a while. Unfortunately the album never sold in the quantities required and they parted company with the major label soon after. Their live shows were still a sight to behold, and I have fond memories of a dream double bill with the Delgados in Dingwall's in Camden, and a superb headline show in Highbury Garage, which in retrospect must have been near the end of their life as a band.
This chaotic clip of them performing Flex is probably my favourite amateur gig footage ever.

In my memory, Prolapse gigs were always like that! The band made one final album, The Ghost of Dead Aeroplanes, in 1999 on Cooking Vinyl records, which failed to make much of an impression but it still hit the spot for me. The band drifted apart, Scottish Mick moved to Norway and went back to being a field archaeologist, Linda got a proper job as a journalist with the Leicester Mercury, whilst guitarist David Jeffreys is a professor at the Art College in Savannah in the USA. They are fairly obscure to today's music fans, but there is still a hardcore fanbase that would love to see them reform. This thread over at ILX is always worth having a read if you are curious for news of the band. All I can say is that, for a large period of the mid-90s, I LOVED them, and I still listen to them regularly now.
I nearly forgot to link to Pointless Walks blog, which is your main resource for Prolapse facts and fun