'Some people let go through artistic flair/ some people speak out with spiky hair'
(Pity the Earthworm by Sandwich in Motion, 1986)
As reported in the 'News' section of the site, the art booklet accompanying the 1986 album 'Sandwich in Motion' has been found. We'll publish pages from the booklet at regular intervals over the next few weeks...
Here's Mark on 'Sandwich in Motion' the album...
The first of Sandwich In Motion's 3 recording sessions began with 2 songs that
had clearly been prepared before my arrival. I started to feel that there was
some secret concept afoot to which I wasn't quite privy. Should the casual
listener have the hour to spare and the inclination to sit through S.I.M. in its
entirety it's inevitable they'd come away with the same feeling. For beyond the
first 2 tracks (and let's face it Pity The Earthworm is anything but normal)
there lies a parched and primitive musical landscape with lyrics addressing
death, isolation, murder, paranoia, suicide, the emptiness of domestic 'bliss',
loneliness, supernatural happenings, reincarnation and, er, lyrics (other
people's). The only conventional song on the album, the theme from the film
Fair Play (don't ask!) has a message that can be summed up, 'Life sucks - get
used to it' and the patch of potential brightness at the start of Side 2 can
only be read as sarcastic undermined by the 2 songs in question's hysterical and
rather flat deliveries. And Physics And Chemistry was about absolutely
everything ever. I don't remember being particularly any more depressed than
usual and yet until the late arrival of the queasy reggae of Fingerprints
(inspired by the Ray Bradbury short story, The Fruit At The Bottom, fact fans)
and the Goth swirliness of Make Up for Ghosts the sounds are really rather jolly
in their waywardness.
In short following Paranormal's experimentalism, it was the first time we went
truly 'Out There'. Whether the lack of the PD banner allowed for a greater
artistic freedom is hard to say. Certainly it's perverse that this most Guy
like (heavy on the heavy percussion, littered with 'interesting' chords and
generally quite bonkers) of albums was created entirely without his presence.
Only the lack of personnel prevents some tracks from dissolving into complete
chaotic rackets.
Sandwich Soundz: Listen to a track from the album, 'Far from the Western World' (1986)
Alistair on 'Sandwich in Motion' the album...
It
was the Easter holidays 1986. We were busting with ideas and, quite possibly,
teenage hormones in desperate need of sublimation. In short, we were wanting to
make music. Potential Difference had, just a matter of weeks before, recorded
their second ensemble album Paranormal along with keyboardist Adrian
Brailsford. Adrian had played Billy Preston to our Beatles, but it had been such
fun we decided we wanted more. Trouble was, Guy was by now at a different school
and the holidays didn’t coincide, so a PD album wasn’t possible. Never mind,
this was the 80s and ‘sideprojects’ were de rigeur. Following in the, er,
illustrious footsteps of Power Station, Arcadia and Dr Calculus, Adrian, Mark
and I became ‘Sandwich in Motion’, for one album only.
‘Sandwich in Motion’ the album is generally perceived as one for the headstrong only. I think this is a bit unfair as it contains at least a couple of discernible melodies in Living in the Middle Ages and Make Up for Ghosts. The album certainly wears its idiosyncracies on its Paisley puff sleeve, and it has more than its fair share of unpredictable twists and turns. Listening back to the record now, the key for me is to remember where it was recorded. The first and last of the three sessions were done at Adrian’s house. Hopelessly cluttered, with the detritus of a thousand Blackpool souvenir shops splattered all over the walls and surfaces, alarmingly alive with stick insect terraria stacked atop hamster cages and grating budgie squeaks emitting at regular intervals, it would nowadays be the subject of a ruthless cull in a Puritan get-rid-of-it-all-and-live-again lifestyle makeover TV show. At the time it appeared to us as a wondrous Aladdin’s cave of kitsch. And amongst the crazy costumes, wigs and Laurel and Hardy figurines was a box of weird and wonderful instruments – routine children’s stuff like penny whistles and maracas but also something called a ‘zippy zither’ which you can hear to full effect on the otherworldly intro to Physics and Chemistry. Recorders and tambourines and even a viola all made their way onto Sandwich in Motion, as did the unique combination of sensory overload and musty claustrophobia which the house induced. One of the many items of bric-a-brac in the house was Flossie, a vaguely animal-shaped poufee, on whom we were always entreated to sit by Adrian’s Mum. Sitting on Flossie became something of a PD institution and gets a mention in the Talking-Heads inspired ‘Let’s Play House.’
This album is the only of the PD Remasters where you can hear Adrian’s viola playing – he decorated ‘Pity the Earthworm’ with corrosive squawks and did something genuinely avant-garde with ‘Far From the Western World’ which I did my best to undermine with lyrics about toast and bacon rind.
SIM boasts quite a variety of lyrical themes, and is possibly the album with the lowest tally of conventional love songs. ‘Pity the Earthworm’ was inspired by an article I’d read about ‘stress leakage’ which is where even if you try to appear calm and deceive others, your body will always give you away: your leg bobs up and down for example to alert any body language experts who may be observing you that you are in fact stressed. I thought it would be interesting to explore the idea of people leaking stress in other ways, eg environmentally. ‘Make Up For Ghosts’ was our first and possibly only suicide song, but remains a curiously uplifting affair. ‘Living in the Middle Ages’ was borne of my love of schlocky ITV children’s ghost dramas of the 80’s (eg ‘Echoes of Louisa’, ‘Nobody’s House’) and is about a child who goes on a school trip to a castle and regressing to a past life where they were a ‘mad sage’ in the king’s court! The exception to all the lyrical richness of course is ‘I Just Wanna Be Perfect’ which started life as an Adrian solo composition called ‘My Honey Bee’. ‘…Perfect’ boasted one of our cheeriest videos ever in which Adrian performed a medley of sleight-of-hand magic tricks... upside down.
SIM was a bit of a multimedia extravaganza. As well as the lavish 70’s indebted art booklet that accompanied the original tape, we made videos for Pity the Earthworm, I Just Wanna Be Perfect and Fair Play, the latter song also being the title song to our feature film of the same name, which had a pretty simultaneous release. In 1986, SIM was part of a sprawling glut of art that glooped out of us ad we adhered to our (admittedly unwritten) manifesto: ‘Let's make something new… and quality control be damned!’ Or, more prosaically, suppose this is one way to pass the holidays, innit?
Sandwich in Motion: the booklet - exciting first installment (and get part two absolutely free!)
Front page
Commentary: Mark's white pixie boots were quite the thing in the mid 80s. Apparently. Alistair's white socks/ trainers and baggy golfing pants combo remains, er, ahead of its time. The fact there's no title on the page is quite exciting, isn't it? It's secretly a bit Pink Floyd at heart.
Pages 2 & 3
Pity the Earthworm: the illustrated manuscript. Pics: Mark on the 'set' for the accompanying video. Yes, you read correctly. In the 80s even songs this weird had their own videos. Adrian is pictured picturing himself. Note to viewers: Adrian is actually pulling a face in the 2 lower pics. He doesn't really look like that. Much.
'Pity the Earthworm' the song was probably our equivalent of a Strawberry Fields moment. What was so great about it was that it felt totally unpremeditated and instinctual and yet listening to it it is obviously from a very bonkers place indeed. Which presumably means that that is where our heads were at.
Listen to 'Pity the Earthworm' (1986)
More albums from the PD back catalogue here