Balloon Farm
The Balloon Farm - Apathy (7'', 1991)The Balloon Farm - Apathy (7'', 1991)
TRACKLIST/TEMAS: 1. Dissident Sound 2. Never by You 3. Spiral
From their Website (Pristines) - The Pristines came out of it - see entry for the Pristines
"
First Gigs - the Quants to the Balloon Farm
Richard met Gavin.
Gavin wanted to start a band.
Carl & Tony hated Gavin.
It got difficult..
Richard left the Puppets to join Gavin in forming The Quants taking Sarah on bass with him.
Somehow I ended up in both The Puppets and The Quants as rhythm guitarist, both bands hated each other - a kind of sibling rivalry (or quibbling rivalry).
I was caught in the middle - trusted by neither side.
The Quants played the first gig (one-nil to them) at the Hope & Anchor, 1987.
Gavin was a great blagger - it was packed. We opened with a cover version of Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft by The Wedding Present from the album George Best which had only been released earlier that week.
The Quants performed 12 songs or so - either written by Richard, Gavin or myself - but with no collaborations. Again you can see the rivalry factor creeping in.
Another important factor that evening was a friend of Gavin's called DJ Cap spinning the records, a new face to us then but someone who was to become a major part in Coventry's indie scene over the following years. Influential in setting up and Deejaying the first and then only Indie night in Coventry.
I was sacked after that first Quants gig.
It still hurts to this day to think back to that.
It took a long time to patch over some wounded friendships subsequently.
Horror! I was no longer in a band..
I planned my own, I had the name already The Balloon Farm, named after a club in New York where a big influence on me, The Velvet Underground, used to play early gigs. (Sadly, The Balloon Farm is now also a Disney movie!).
I planned to take a couple of months to write songs, but instead the band formed after a mere couple of weeks and lasted for 3 years, with at least 15 different members!
I felt like Mark.E.Smith was to The Fall, but at least this time it was my band, and I could do the hiring and firing (not that I was any good at it).
The Balloon Farm gave me some of my fondest memories of being in a band.
Recruiting Robert Dillam as drummer after seeing him backstage at a My Bloody Valentine gig. (Incidentally, possibly the finest group to ever grace this planet..)
Oxford, at the legendary Jericho's Tavern. Danny (our bass player) getting drunk and wanting to fight the whole of the headlining band's audience.
We had to physically restrain him.
Although, to be fair, the guy jumping around blowing a whistle did really need a good kicking!
It's a long journey to Leeds...
Maybe too long...
By the time we got there we were in no fit state to play.
Robert (the drummer) the only one sober enough to tune the guitars.
None of us sober enough to play them, or remember the songs or the words when we did.
We have a desk tape of that gig. Still undecided whether it is hilarious or just cringingly embarrassing.
You can hear us arguing on stage. I got bored and kept dropping songs the others wanted to still do.
"How does this go?"
"Who starts this one?"
"What's next?"
Danny shouting "Who stole my pint?", when really he'd put it down on top of the bass amp before starting a song, and the vibrations had knocked the glass over to spill inside the amp & bounce behind the stage.
It wasn't even our amp. The headline act were somewhat surprised to see their amp mysteriously blow up mid set.
It got funnier...
Staying in Danny's girlfriends student digs in a cobbled street in Leeds in the February snow.
Richard is so drunk he refuses to get out of the back of the van & decided to sleep there rather than inside.
Only for later that night someone to be awoken in the early hours to see the sight of Rich throwing up out of the van window, and the van rolling down the street as he'd managed to dislodge the handbrake in a lunge for the window!
How to explain that to the van rental company? We had enough trouble hiring one in the first place, maintaining we were going to Leeds to help move some furniture for a friend, and that "no, no, no, by no means - of course we aren't a rock band..".
A story not aided when Richard in an attempt to find his Driving Licence managed to spill a handful of plectrums across the desk!
The whole journey did have a happy ending, however. We arrived back in Coventry the next day, tired and hungover to be greeted by newspapers pronouncing Thatcher had resigned!
Better times did follow for The Balloon Farm.
We became the press darlings of the local paper for a short spell.
Supported Adorable at the Tic Toc (see pic) - their first gig as Adorable, prior to signing to Creation Records.
And recorded a fine demo. Sadly, the only Balloon Farm studio recording. The quality of which is held up by the fact that 3 record labels in 3 different countries have released some or all of the tracks in various format.
It all ended in a clash of egos and arguments in 1991, as so often these things do. The unruly child that was The Balloon Farm had finally gone beyond my control.
Which brings us, finally, to the subject matter..."
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