MYTHS, MELODIES & METAPHYSICS: - Prefab Sprout

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CBS produced a promotional booklet 'Probably the greatest writer on the planet', a collection of press reviews of the albums and a tribute to the outstanding songwriting talents of Paddy McAloon. During a week in July, the band did a seven night warm-up tour with support band, label mates Hurrah! (aka RAH on some posters), billed as The Great Escape Tour. Upon the band's return to Newcastle, Paddy noticed that the Kane Gang was enjoying major chart success, much to Paddy's frustration. The Kane Gang hadn't gigged for ages and that's all Prefab Sprout seemed to have done for the last two years - hammering it out to promote the band and their records. Paddy vowed that he'd never tour again and it was this, coupled with his desire to spend more time writing new songs, that was to bring about a reinforcement of McAloon's views towards touring. The attraction of the 'band thing', and all the easy things that go with it were running very thin with him. On July 13, Neil Conti played on stage with Kevin Armstrong (guitarist on tour with the Sprouts and guesting on Steve McQueen tracks Hallelujah and Desire As) and Thomas Dolby as part of David Bowie's backing band at Live Aid. After the gig, Martin McAloon and Neil Conti did some as yet uncovered work with Bowie, setting off many out-ofproportion rumours amid the music press along the lines of "Paddy McAloon has been kicked out of Prefab Sprout!" In July, Faron Young was released, with Silhouettes as B-side (complete with lead vocal by Wendy Smith) and despite surprisingly mixed press reviews, reached number 74 in the charts and becoming one of their best 'live' numbers at their concerts. On 25 July, Thomas Dolby joined The Sprouts on stage at London's Dominion Theatre for an encore, dressed as a priest to sing When The Angels. Deciding to step up the pace, Kitchenware concentrate on promoting Prefab Sprout, dropping The Linkmen from their line-up and hungering for further success in the Steve McQueen quarter and laying on a television promotion itinerary for the next single, Appetite (accompanied by their touring keyboardist Michael Graves in the video) in August. They played live on The Big Tube and were featured on Bliss, both Channel 4 productions, and did a session for John Peel and Graham Bannerman on Radio One, comprising of the songs Lions In My Own Garden (Exit Someone), Rebel Land and a brand new Paddy composition Cars and Girls. Appetite reached number 92 in the charts. The 12" B-side featured Heaven Can Wait (an instrumental version of the song When The Angels), the title of a Warren Beatty movie, who Paddy admires, even just on the basis that he says he'll never do interviews and then goes ahead and does the lot. Appetite had peaked Steve McQueen's activity curve and it was now time to rehearse for the major tour to promote the album further and to celebrate the removal of Paddy's 'songwriter' beard, an activity which was to enjoy as much publicity in the tabloids as the album itself. During McAloon's years studying English and History at Newcastle Polytechnic, he gained a passion for literature. One book in particular affected him through sheer personal irony. He struck an affinity with the character Holden Caulfield, in J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.
McAloon was fascinated by Caulfield's feelings, aspirations and the ultra-awareness of his surroundings. He will maintain that by the time you have settled down as an adult, you will probably have read The Catcher in the Rye and have accepted it as a teenager'seye-view of the world, but if you have a sense of truth, quality and passion, then a piece of what was Holden Caulfield remains inside you for the better. 'Catcher' is an impressive book, written in dialogue fashion, with a colloquial American youthfulness, similarly prevalent in Bernstein/Sondheim's West Side Story. It was in many American schools included as reading to represent one of the country's mid-20th Century literary successes. One American critic called it a "crusade against phoniness". Sixteen year old Caulfield was driven to near-despair by the hypocrisy of the adult world. In some US states the message was so interpreted that the book was banned as it was considered "dangerously subversive for receptive young minds." Caulfield's life as a sixteen year old was summed up in three days in the novel. McAloon found many things about Caulfield's life which he could relate to. Caulfield was educated at a boarding school, Pencey Prep, at which he described his efforts in English And History, both McAloon' s Polytechnic subjects. Similarly, Caulfield was an avid reader of a wide range of material, but not really interested in History, in fact, he "flunked it". Caulfield comments, "What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it." McAloon took that statement one step further; he was beginning to put together a collection of writings, some of which were to feature in Prefab Sprout's first two albums and to take direct references to The Catcher accordingly. In McAloon's song Desire As, he adapts the phrase "strictly for the birds" to "throw it to the birds". In Horsin' Around and Blueberry Pies, McAloon plays again on the colloquial slang of Caulfield. Horsin' Around was Caulfield's favourite pass-time, but only in the right place, at the right time and with the right people. As McAloon puts it, "Horsin' around's a serious business, last thing you want somebody to witness." "Blueberry Pies", on the other hand, were Caulfield's worst habits, "I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera. I'm terrible." McAloon was to carry this attitude forward in his innumerable taunts with the media, with 'Blueberry Pies' littering many an interview, insisting that if he must conform to the niceties of what is 'expected', then at least he'll have a laugh in the process. McAloon hated 'phoniness' just like Caulfield. 'The Catcher' builds up to a crescendo of awareness of all the 'phoney' things that adults grow to accept as 'the way of life': Why do we clap at the wrong things why do people change their opinions or outlooks if they were perfectly adequate beforehand and why do people take on careers for the wrong reasons? As Caulfield's teacher states to the dismay of Caulfield and to the realization of McAloon, "Life is a game that one plays according to the rules." Furthermore, in reaction to Caulfield's being sickened by human behaviour, another exteacher suggested, "you're by no means alone on that score, you'll be exited and
Page 1 and 2: Foreword MYTHS, MELODIES & METAPHYS
Page 3 and 4: Musically, McAloon was growing up i
Page 5 and 6: the new family home in Witton Gilbe
Page 7 and 8: The 'Sprouts', as they were becomin
Page 9 and 10: Goldberg and Hobson has known Armst
Page 11 and 12: A typical demo back then would see
Page 13 and 14: Newcastle adult comic VIZ held a sp
Page 15 and 16: or hold them up as ideals. As a con
Page 17 and 18: You're charmed by that and you get
Page 19 and 20: with the same basic arrangements as
Page 21: dropped the car but used the bike f
Page 25 and 26: From Tiffanys to Acapulco Rolf's Th
Page 27 and 28: found that out when he found that t
Page 29 and 30: During the recording of the song, P
Page 31 and 32: Spitting Image puppet of Michael Ja
Page 33 and 34: Paddy and Wendy aptly visited Calif
Page 35 and 36: est songs, if I can say that, is 'T
Page 37 and 38: heard a record, I had no curiosity
Page 39 and 40: about the myths they create, whethe
Page 41 and 42: wanted to look at a group of contra
Page 43 and 44: centre to build a recording studio)
Page 45 and 46: confidently meet the challenge of t
Page 47 and 48: Church, where he began singing, see
Page 49 and 50: McAloon loved Webb's compositions,
Page 51 and 52: person's point of view. You can cho
Page 53 and 54: In July, the second single, If You

MYTHS, MELODIES & METAPHYSICS: - Prefab Sprout

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