PART 17: 1978 into '79 Things your Mother never told you, Berlin: Alles dufte.

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The squat where Wayne , Henry and JJ lived was magnificent, just off South Kensington, it was a fabulous Georgian town house near the Iraqi Embassy. It seemed to be a perpetual party, JJ’s girlfriend was a stringer for one of the Sunday tabloids and Henry’s girlfriend, Christina, had the patience of a saint, taking care of everybody. Wayne had a perpetual string of visitors from the trans community and the place had the air of a circus. At this point Wayne identified as “she” and had had work done in Germany to appear more feminine, was taking a course of hormones and had the intention to transition  within the year.

Val, JJ and Henry, were adamant about renewing the sound and feel of the band, Wayne and Elliot were receptive and frankly excited by the prospect but they all needed some time and space to develop new material for the album, preferably out of London where Wayne’s social circle was a bit of a distraction. I went up to visit Val at his north London flat, had lunch in a vegetarian, wholefood cooperative (his choice not mine) and we discussed options. The obvious place that fitted the bill (and was affordable) was Thomas’s ‘Mountain Studios’ back in Wales, where they could have social isolation, get as stoned as they liked and work whatever hours suited them. They could take both retro (Moby Grape/Electric prunes) and modern stuff (various Eno/Bowie work, mostly) to immerse Elliot and Wayne in and develop tracks for the new album. I would stay in London and get whatever I could in terms of production, recording and touring budgets.

I took Christina down to the studio after about a week and it was hilarious, Wayne had had visions, Henry had nearly killed himself on the unfinished wiring and Val looked like he had found his spiritual home. Elliot looked like a lamb lost in a den of wolves and JJ had one of those contented Zen smiles of a person self-realized. The music however was great, track after track, just the way they wanted it, experimental synthesiser, instrument swapping and yet still, the very distinctive big rock sound that they so loved. It had been a monumental success as far as they were concerned.

I discussed producers with them, I knew they wanted Phil Spector but there was no way that Safari Records was going to pay for that and I put David Cunningham forward as an affordable, modern alternative. David and I had discussed the idea of getting him into production, a really sensible way forward for him, another income stream, Safari was happy to give him points on the album and Wayne thought he was “really cute”.

We went into the studio at Berry St, with Dave Hunt and David Cunningham, I’d check in daily to make sure they stayed on schedule, often until the early hours. I got dragged in to do backing noises (certainly wouldn’t call them vocals) and worked with David on finding obscure sources of percussion on water tanks and heating radiators in the basement, extra layers of sound. Wayne had a huge book of potential lyrics that she brought with her and did a fair amount of improvising to make it all gel with the new backing tracks, but generally it was a smooth enough process. Val and Henry worked tirelessly to get it just how they wanted it. We had a lot of fun , Dave Lewis helped the band with all the kit as well as taxiing Patti Paladin in and out when she was doing backing vocals, it was always party time when Patti showed up.

The album cover was to be designed by Rick Rayner-Canham and the photos were to be shot at the squat in Earls Court, The concept was better than the delivery, having spent most of two days setting up video cameras in all the rooms and monitor screens in Wayne’s boudoir, we had shot hours of footage to play during the main shoot, but the recording failed and Christina and I, JJ’s girlfriend and two of the crew had to simulate erotic or domestic bedroom scenes that would display on the monitors as the shoot was going on. You couldn’t see any of it in the photos but it was fun while it lasted, art for art’s sake.

The live shows were all selling well, we were on the road most of the time but never better than in Germany. They would sell out the smaller venues, Dingwalls, Nashville etc in London. But in Germany they could command much bigger audiences, largely due to the success of record sales through Safaris German distributor, it was a slightly schizophrenic existence touring across Europe the first time with the band, we would have slightly seedy accommodation in fun red light districts, around good but medium sized venues. We nearly didn’t make it to the second Paris gig because the bar in the street near the venue was held up by a nut case pimp wielding a gun at his supposedly errant working girl, while we were having dinner.

We would drive through Europe, around all those great club gigs in France and Holland on a shoestring, but when we got across the border into Germany we were picked up and wined and dined in fancier hotels. There was a lot of fun to be had on the road. The first time I drove across East Germany to get to Berlin was a hoot, Wayne had broken a bottle of Amyl Nitrate in her purse and the whole bus was reeking, I had to drive with the windows open to try and avoid the worst of the intoxication, playing 'The Pop Group' at full volume on the van stereo. When we stopped at the East German equivalent of a service station we were surrounded by armed police and escorted in and out, possible the most surreal experience of my life.

I’ve told the story of Jamming at the Star Club in Hamburg with Val, Elliot and Henry elsewhere, but to recap, we had a night off in Hamburg so we went, without Wayne or JJ, but some of the record company reps and Mike from Better Badges,  to a couple of famous live music bars. The record company had done a lot of promotion for the gigs and the posters around the city announced “Real Rock and Roll” a phrase that had been picked up in the press. It was Jam Night and some of the local musicians, realising who was there, started, quite aggressively jeering at the band, chanting stuff about how good it was that the English could send them someone to teach them how to play 'Real Rock and Roll". It actually got quite aggressive and eventually Val (the pacifist) went over and started what I thought was an argument but in fact was just an invitation to play together and “stuff the record company and their cheap promo” I got to play initially with just Val and Elliot, just fun ‘12 bar’ stuff but eventually with a whole bunch of local muso’s, we had a great fun night.

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Both times I travelled with them to Berlin were very special, the first time we drove in and Wayne was well known in the extensive Trans community in the City having lived there previously to have “some work done” so we were welcomed and treated to the best after hours clubs and a night of  classic trans “cabaret”, at the famous Romy Hague club. The City was at its vibrant alternative best. The second time we flew in and played the last show at the Kant Kino, where the sold-out theatre was shaking to the point that the backline on the stage was bouncing up and down. Val’s Bass stack fell over and he finished the show lying down horizontal playing on top of his bass cabinet. I had a brief romance with a very beautiful Transvestite called Alice and stayed in the City after the band left, at the request of the Kant Kino team, to look after Jimmy Cliff for a few days on the ‘Harder They Come’ tour. They offered me a permanent job at the Kant Kino, It was definitely a city I could have stayed in if there wasn’t so much going on for me in London. I had a late dinner with the Phonogram rep on my last night, in a tiny restaurant in a backstreet and Bowie was at the next table. I so wanted to ask if he remembered us having tea at his place in Beckenham, but as I could hardly remember it myself, it felt it just too intrusive a thing to do.