New band, new band, new band! The same message kept coming in the recent WAWS questionnaire as to what readers would most like to see among Kevin’s future plans. Next thing is that the Wizards of Twiddly seem to be on everyone’s lips........ But to call the Wizards just ‘a band’ is like calling Moet et Chandon just ‘a drink’.... Bearing in mind Mick Fincher’s spectacular disappearing act once he’d drummed for Kevin, WAWS set up the latest in technological links and spent an excellent hour with drummer ANDREW DELAMERE to find out about the early days and first stirrings of the infant Twiddlys. There was some earbending and corrective work in the background from the Twids very own Gladys Pugh, the splendid PETE GODDARD to whom thanks is also long overdue for his help.

WAWS. Earliest memories, Andy. The band started in about 1988?

Andy: I went to college in Liverpool and Andy (Frizell) and Simon (James) were in my year and we started playing on and off since about 1984 in too many bands that lasted for about a week. This was at C.S. Mott College in Prescott where Julian Cope went. We did cover versions and some of Andy’s early songs but in 1988 we formed Whatevershebringswesing with a line up of me and Andy and a bloke called Sean Taylor who’s since done a bit of a Mick Fincher. He left and we got Carl (Bowry) on guitar. Simon had met Carl at music college and was writing bizarre pieces with him as he was on the same kind of wavelength. It gets complicated! We had the guitar, bass and drums of Whatevershebringswesing and Simon had the idea for a band that just did everything which was to become the Wizards of Twiddly. I’d had that name for about three years. I’d got it from a review, it’s not a place, just as in ‘twiddling your thumbs’. So we got together using that name and used to have these brilliant rehearsal sessions every Friday night at a place in Liverpool called Falcon Studios which is a real hole. We’d do two hours as Whatevershebringswesing and then Simon would come along and we’d do Wizards of Twiddly songs. Then we decided just to make it one band.

WAWS So you were committed enough to music by this time to have all your own equipment.......

Andy: We were still all playing in lots of other bands. Andy and Simon were playing brass in a band called the Vernons which is where Martin (Smith) came from as well. I was in a band called Crankies for Comptons which was a manic indie pop band and this Wizards of Twiddly became a sort of hobby band where we’d turn up with a song every week. We’d play something like ‘Sex, Drugs and Morris Dancing’ and laugh hilariously and think ‘This’d be way over people’s heads’ and in fact we did this for a year and it didn’t occur to us to do a gig! But from the start it was very exciting. We just assumed it would pass people by..........

WAWS So what became of Whatevershebringswesing?

Andy: We used to do a song called ‘What People Say’ and when I first heard ‘Super Salesman’ I realised our song had the same feel. We used to do ‘Everybody’s Sometime Blues’ as well. We played at the Picket and did four gigs in all - we weren’t very prolific - and the really weird thing was that the Picket keeps all their old posters in the dressing room and when we turned up for the gig with Kevin we opened the door and there was the big red poster from our second gig as Whatever on the wall!

WAWS You did some musical training in Liverpool as well. You never thought of pursuing a classical music career?

Andy: Carl and Martin and Simon all went to Mabel Fletcher (now Sandown College) for a music diploma but it was a course in jazz and rock. I went for a bit but dropped out and did a degree in Sociology.

WAWS Were you aware of a ’Liverpool’ influence?

Andy: Not for me, I still feel like a fish out of water because we’re in a category of one. Besides I’m from Lancashire, Andy’s from London and Simon’s from South Wales. The vocal style isn’t Liverpool and in fact a lot of Liverpool music is straight pop. We’ve never been clasped to the bosom as the hip group - we won the Liverpool Echo Music Award and beat The Farm, much to our surprise, but a certain journalist said it was a pity a pop and rock award had been won by a band that was neither ‘pop’ nor ‘rock’.

WAWS: How do you see the strengths of the different band members?

Andy: (with sharp intake of breath) Tricky one! It’s obviously very difficult to see the internal structure when you’re part of it. Andy and Simon tend to be the songwriters and they’re different but they both complement eachother. Andy tends to turn up with the finished article whereas Simon is perhaps more instinctive - very difficult to say. Carl and Martin have both started writing more and we’ve got a whole new batch of stuff at the moment.

We moved on to talk about the recording history of the band - two early cassette releases in Spring 1989 and December 1990 which both contained embryonic versions of material which would later appear on the first LP in May 1992 ‘Independent Legs’. Andy was asked about the reaction to the release..

Andy: It was ignored by the ‘normal’ press which disappointed us but I was really surprised to find out from other bands that we’d actually done well by accepted standards for an indie release. When we got the Steve Wright airplay we were delighted. The only problem was that no-one bigger picked up on it.

WAWS There was a distribution deal and it came back on CD?

Andy: Yes, that’s right. Then ‘Man Made Self’ came out in . It was done in one session in 24 track sound and it’s got more of a ‘unity of sound’

WAWS Is it fair to say that your records always make a lot more sense once you’ve seen the band live?

Andy: Well, all our songs are rehearsed and designed to be played live. Thinking about them as recordings is something we’re doing more now. When we first started out we had no money to record so it was all designed for the live performance. We’re getting more into the idea of recording something solely for the studio, stuff that now we wouldn’t perform live. The gigs are like a circus of sound and some of the gems are swamped. I personally would like to do a shorter more focused record - you see the show and the manic circus thing but then the record is a different medium. I think we have to get to grips with that more.

WAWS Let’s talk now about personnel changes. What about Keith Lancaster?

Andy: Aah yes, Keith... He was with us right from the beginning and at the first gig he was going to tape himself introducing all the songs and what was going to happen was that one of the band would then press a button, get the introduction and then we’d all play. Then there was the bike....he had this contraption where he’d wind the wheel and all the songs came round on a roller. He’d sit in a top hat and later come on and do ‘Errol’s Last Supper’ but he got a bit bored with sitting in a van and going all over the country just to do that. He always got a massive fan response when he did that and Melody Maker reviewed us and said we should be ‘Keith Lancaster and the Wizards of Twiddly’. Then he developed this idea of drawing the songs and writing comments and holding them up and dancing manically. He was an actor and wanted to concentrate on that so off he went but the door’s not closed to him of course for future appearances.

WAWS The band are renowned as well for their involvement in other projects.

Andy: Yes, we’ve worked with Urban Strawberry Lunch (another Liverpool band who make percussive music on a giant scaffold of sort of scrapyard percussive bits and pieces all welded together). Andy’s worked with the Muffinmen (a Zappaesque band) in Germany. Simon’s currently rehearsing a multimedia show with Jonathon Rasen and a violinist called Jamie McCardall called ‘Learning To Fly’ which is going to be at the B????? in May. Simon’s also involved in the Liverpool Composers Collective with the same people and more. Martin’s done a show at the Everyman Theatre called ‘Blues In The Night’. I’ve recently worked with a band called S which had some controversy because they had an exhibition using holograms banned by the Vice Squad which were a bit rude. Carl teaches a lot. He was in a band called Cardinal Fang but I don’t think they’re functioning at present.

WAWS Now, to the present. October 1st, the Powerhaus, Kevin Ayers....why the affinity?

Andy; The main impetus has been Andy who’s been into Kevin Ayers since he first started looking through his older brother’s record collection. I can remember listening to things like ‘Shouting In A Bucket Blues’ when I’ve broken up with girlfriends. We’ve often listened to songs and thought ‘I wonder how Kevin Ayers would’ve played that one?’ I know it sounds corny but Kevin Ayers has always been part of the fabric of the friendship I’ve had with Andy. I think Kevin and Robert Wyatt stand out as towers of the Canterbury scene and they’re different because they have a darkness to them - things like ‘Rockbottom’ and ‘Dr Dream’ which will always lift them out of being parochial. Our affinity with Kevin lies in the fact that he could juxtapose things that are so different - songs like ‘Bottom Of The Well’ with ‘Oh My’ and then a blues number and it’s all so different and English and tongue-in-cheek and that difference of association is something the Wizards can relate to. It’s a certain attitude rather than trying to sound like him. Since that gig at the Powerhaus....that was beautiful, I can’t stop grinning! Seeing that front row of obvious fans and then listening to the tape afterwards and thinking ‘Wow...I was playing drums on that!’ But it’s frustrating going home and people say ‘Who?’ But others are knocked out by the thought of playing with Kevin Ayers. There’s been a buzz and it’s an honour.

WAWS: What about the Mark Radcliffe session?

Andy: That for me was the best yet. The gig at the Picket I’d not been that nervous for years but we were calmer for the radio session and it was nice to see Mark Radcliffe’s obvious knowledge of Kevin as well as for us as he’s championed us more than anyone. It was brilliant. I think ‘Lady Rachel’ is the best version I’ve heard.

We left the interview there with the promise that we’d talk again in the very near future about how the UK tour and proposed Italian dates had gone. The Wizards have their own plans too of course for recording and touring with Scandinavian dates, particularly in Denmark, a strong possibility. Full details of how to purchase their CDs and merchandise can be obtained with an SAE/IRC to Wizards Of Twiddly, PO Box 4, Liverpool L17 7HN. They have a regular mailing list of tour dates from the same address but again an SAE/IRC is much appreciated.