John Parish - Biography
The trickiest thing about a biography is to decide exactly
where to begin. When it comes to someone's life and career,
can we point to one event and say, "this is where it all
began"? There are dozens of ways to start this particular
one. We could write about that day in 1973 when young John Parish,
14 at the time, saw his first concert ever in Bristol, David
Bowie on the Aladdin Sane tour, and decided that this was what
he wanted to do (actually, he got to perform himself in the
same venue 25 years later, during a PJ Harvey tour). Or we could
tell how John recorded his first EP with new wave band Thieves
Like Us in May 1980. But perhaps the most convenient way to
start would be to go back to 1983, in a record store set in
Yeovil, Somerset, where a young man named Robert Ellis was working.
So our story begins on the day when Rob Ellis recognized a
customer as the only person in Yeovil involved in a record-making
band: John Parish, also known as Scott Tracey, who drummed for
Thieves Like Us at the time. John and Rob became friends and
decided to form a band together when Thieves Like Us folded.
They were joined by bass player David Dallimore, and so the
Headless Horsemen were born. A Glimpse Of Heaven was the only
song they ever released on a record: it appeared on The Sheep
Worrying EP, a split EP involving four different bands (you
can admire the sleeve in our discography section). They also
contributed one song to an album called Magical Mystery Sheep.
In 1983, Jamie Anderson replaced David Dallimore and Headless
Horsemen mutated into Automatic Dlamini, an experimental percussive
band which was to last until 1992.
Before moving on to the long and somewhat complex Automatic
Dlamini story (due to many changes in the band's line-up), just
a few words about the name, which is about as strange as the
story itself. A friend of John's used to work in Swaziland,
where Dlamini is quite a common surname. He knew a person whose
parents, wishing to give him an English name, had ended up calling
him... Automatic. So his name was actually Automatic Dlamini.
When life gets as twisted as fiction itself...
The three-piece band started doing shows around the West Country.
In August 1983 they went into the studio with producer Richard
Mazda (Wall of Voodoo, Birthday Party, The Fall) who had heard
an early demo tape. But it was not until in 1986 that the first
Automatic Dlamini record was released: The Crazy Supper EP,
which was voted single of the week in Sounds. Around this time,
John was asked by his friends The Chesterfields to produce their
first single. So began his parallel career as a producer, leading
him to work with bands such as The Becketts, The Brilliant Corners,
Basinger and Grape - mostly because, he says, he was the only
person in the area who had already produced records.
The band was soon joined by Giles Smith from Cleaners From Venus
on keyboards, guitar and backing vocals. Shortly after this,
at the beginning of 1987, Rob Ellis was taken ill and retired
from the band for six months, to be replaced by Andy Henderson.
It was around this time that Automatic Dlamini did their first
concerts abroad and made an appearance on the second stage at
the Glastonbury Festival.
The first major change in the band's line-up occurred in July
1987 as Giles Smith left and Rob Ellis returned, joined by new
members Ian Olliver and Jeremy Hogg. A few months later, Automatic
Dlamini released their debut album The D Is For Drum. Their
single Johnny Pineapple was supposed to be released in May 1988
on Roustabout through Red Rhino, but unfortunately Red Rhino
collapsed while the band was waiting for the test pressing.
So the single was never released and this first version of Johnny
Pineapple was lost.
During the summer of 1987, Jeremy Hogg met a young girl named
Polly Harvey at a party in Dorset. Polly asked the band to play
at her 18th birthday party in October the same year, but they
couldn't perform because Rob Ellis was ill. Still, the others
went to the party and became friends with Polly, who had her
own two-piece band at the time and started giving tapes of her
songs to John. In 1988 Rob Ellis left the band and was replaced
again by Andy Henderson while Polly Harvey joined the band on
guitar, saxophone and backing vocals. Andy Henderson (who later
joined Echobelly) and Ian Olliver were next to leave.
More changes in the band's line-up soon followed, but the central
core of John Parish, Jeremy Hogg and Polly Harvey remained until
1991. In 1988 Automatic Dlamini were joined by Jerome Ball on
bass synth and drum machines to do a few shows in Berlin and
Warsaw. He was soon followed by Ben Groenevelt (bass) and Ichiro
Tatsuhara (drums). The band did a five-week tour of Europe in
June and July 1989 and met with a few problems when Ichiro Tatsuhara
was refused re-entry into Britain after the end of the tour.
It took three months before the whole thing was sorted out.
In the meantime the band started working on their second album.
Here Catch, Shouted His Father was recorded in Oxford between
November 1989 and January 1990. The sessions included a new
version of Johnny Pineapple with vocals by John and Polly. The
record was never to be released but has been much bootlegged
since.
In January 1991, Polly decided to form her own band PJ Harvey
with Rob Ellis and Ian Olliver (later replaced by Steve Vaughan).
Around the same time John joined The Ensenada Joyride for a
few shows and recording sessions. The last Automatic Dlamini
album, From A Diva To A Diver, was recorded at the end of 1991
in Yeovil's Icehouse studio. On New Year's Eve, Gillingham saw
the one and only appearance of FABBA, featuring Grape member
Mark Barber, Bastie (legendary West Country soundman), John
Parish and Polly Harvey. The set consisted entirely of ABBA
covers. The following New Year's Eve the same line-up reconvened
joined by Jeremy Hogg, Clare McTaggart and Mark Hodgson to play
a set of Hot Chocolate covers under the moniker Got Chocolate.
Automatic Dlamini split in 1992 after releasing their second
album. John spent some time writing music for a couple of shows
and producing records. One of these albums was Myth by The Becketts,
which he still quotes as one of his favourite records among
those he has produced. He also worked at Yeovil College as a
lecturer in Performing Arts, specialising in Rock Music &
Recording Techniques.
However, his path was to cross Polly Harvey's again in 1994.
Many things had changed for her in the meantime, due to the
success of her first two albums (Dry and Rid Of Me). She had
just parted from Rob Ellis and Steve Vaughan and was about to
record her third album. Polly didn't want to work again with
Rid Of Me-producer Steve Albini since she felt that her next
album needed a different kind of production. This time she asked
John and producer Flood to help her. So they ended up producing
the album together. John also played on all ten songs (guitar,
drums, percussions and organ). To Bring You My Love was released
in 1995 and immediately recognized by the press as a remarkable
record; several magazines (including Rolling Stone) even voted
it Album of the Year.
John spent the next year touring the world with Polly and her
new band. It was during this tour that they started working
on their next common project. After hearing instrumentals composed
by John for a college touring theatre production, Polly expressed
the wish to add vocals to these tracks. This collaboration was
to be completely different from their previous ones: John wrote
and performed the music while Polly did the lyrics and vocals.
They went to the studio after the end of the tour, in 1996,
to record nine songs and two instrumentals. They were backed
by producer Head, who had already worked on Dry. Mick Harvey
from the Bad Seeds joined them for the second time (he collaborated
on To Bring You My Love) to record a cover of Leiber and Stoller's
Is That All There Is? originally performed by Peggy Lee.
Dance Hall At Louse Point was released in September 1996, followed
by one single, That Was My Veil (John and Polly both appeared
in the lovely video shot by Maria Mochnacz). Heela was released
as a promo CD only and a rarely seen video was made for Is That
All There Is?, featured in the movie Basquiat. Dance Hall At
Louse Point seemed to puzzle the press and the audience at first
but it soon gained many hard-core supporters. The album, which
combines the best of John and Polly's respective talents, is
both experimental and very emotional. They did very few shows
to promote this record, apart from a few TV appearances. One
concert took place at the London Astoria while four small club
shows were organized in John's hometown of Bristol (Fleece &
Firkin), with dEUS as the opening act. The band included former
Automatic Dlamini members Rob Ellis and Jeremy Hogg, plus Eric
Drew Feldman (Captain Beefheart, Pere Ubu, Pixies) who had already
taken part in the 1995 tour. Mick Harvey joined them for the
encores on October 9th to perform three songs including two
by Serge Gainsbourg (Harley Davidson in French, Bonnie &
Clyde in English). John and Polly also collaborated with the
Mark Bruce Company to prepare a dance show based on Dance Hall
At Louse Point, featuring the aforementioned band and five dancers.
The show was premiered in Nottingham on 25th January 1997. Twelve
other dates followed in Manchester (2), London (4), Sheffield
(2), Newcastle (3) and Oxford. Two further performances were
given in July '97 at the Salzburg Festival in Austria.
During the next couple of years John was involved in a number
of records as a performer or producer. He joined Rob Ellis and
his band Spleen to record their debut album Soundtrack To Spleen.
John played the guitar and percussion on four songs, which he
also co-wrote together with Spleen members(Watermelon, Vulpine,
Black Bullet Fiesta, 3Ft Shy From Yesterday). He also got to
produce an LP for a band from Yeovil, Elliot Green (United States,
co-produced by Head), and worked with Irish band The Harvest
Ministers, producing their album Orbit for Setanta Records.
One of John's most remarkable contributions at this time was
his collaboration with American band Sixteen Horsepower, who
sent him a copy of their first album Sackcloth'N Ashes. He went
to see them live, met David Eugene Edwards and his band and
accepted to produce their second (and excellent) album Low Estate,
occasionally playing on a few tracks (percussion, guitar, organ
and xylophone). The album was recorded and mixed in the USA
(Louisiana, Tennessee). Another Spleen record followed in 1997,
entitled Little Scratches.
The recording of the next PJ Harvey album was spread over a
year, between April '97 and April '98. This time John left the
production work to Flood, Head and Polly and contributed mainly
as a musician. Most of the people involved on this record were
regular PJ Harvey collaborators or close friends, people such
as Joe Gore (who had already worked on To Bring You My Love),
Mick Harvey and Spleen member Terry Edwards as well as the usual
Parish/Ellis/Hogg/Feldman team. Is This Desire? proved once
again an outstanding record, a brilliant attempt to explore
paths which Polly Harvey and her musicians had never trodden
before. The band started touring during the summer of 1998 with
a series of European festivals, followed by a few isolated shows
(a Peel Session for Radio One, a Black Session for the French
radio, other showcases and TV appearances - including Top Of
The Pops). The tour continued in October with American shows
and concluded in the UK in December. The set included a number
of songs from Dance Hall At Louse Point, which integrated naturally
with the PJ Harvey material: Rope Bridge Crossing, City Of No
Sun, Civil War Correspondent, Heela and especially Taut, spookier
than ever, which quickly became one of the audience's live favourites.
1998 also saw the recording of John's first real solo album,
which was actually a film soundtrack. While he was in Tucson,
Arizona to produce an album for Giant Sand (John has often expressed
his admiration for Howe Gelb and his band), a young Flemish
director named Patrice Toye contacted John's record company,
Island, in the hope that he would agree to write some music
for her first film Rosie. Patrice Toye used to listen to Dance
Hall At Louse Point while she was writing her script and thought
that this kind of music would suit the film perfectly. Thus
she found it natural to ask John himself instead of having some
other composer trying to imitate his style. John had already
expressed his interest in film soundtracks, music which is not
aimed at being played by a pop or rock band, but had never actually
composed one. What made this experience so special was the fact
that Rosie was in Flemish, which he could not understand, so
he focused on the images and feelings to write the music. The
soundtrack CD, released on Swarf Finger, contains twelve instrumentals
and one song, Pretty Baby, performed by Alison Goldfrapp. The
music could be described as subtle and atmospheric and works
perfectly by itself without the images. It has that particular
quality which makes the difference between an ordinary soundtrack
and a very good one: the ability to suggest strong feelings
to people who have never seen the film.
Following the release of the film in Belgium, four live performances
of the soundtrack were organised in Amsterdam, Antwerp, Bruges
and Portsmouth in January 1999. The shows included projections
of extracts from the film repeated again and again while the
band played, creating a mesmerizing effect. John was backed
by Rob Ellis, Jeremy Hogg and Eric Drew Feldman as well as Alison
Goldfrapp, Mauro Pawlowski from Evil Superstars (who wrote the
lyrics to Pretty Baby) and Clare MacTaggart, who once played
with Automatic Dlamini. Other familiar names such as Head or
photographer/video director Maria Mochnacz took part in the
preparation of the shows.
Shortly after this, John and Polly performed a show for Radio
One on the occasion of John Peel's sixtieth birthday. The programme
took place on April 1st in London (Improv Theatre) and also
included Echo & The Bunnymen. The set consisted mainly of
PJ Harvey oldies played with drums and guitars only. Then John
spent some time in Barcelona to produce an album for Pat McDonald.
On his way back to England, he stopped in Bonn to pick an award
he received for the Rosie soundtrack.
And this is where our story will have to end, because this
is as far as we can go now. But we promise to keep you updated
regularly thanks to John's collaboration. All you have to do
is check our news page. As for what will happen next, only time
will tell. But we can bet that many years of good music lie
ahead of us. And that is all we really need to know.
