Poppycock, the post-punk band spearheaded by Manchester legend Una Baines, founder member of The Fall and The Blue Orchids, is set to headline a Rock Against Racism event marking its 50th anniversary in Manchester. I caught up with Una to chat about the event and Poppycock.
Lovely to interview you! You are a founder member of two legendary bands from Manchester. What was it like working with The Fall and Mark E. Smith in the early days of the agit-pop post-punk protagonists?
โWe all worked independently and then pooled our songs, music, and ideas. It was a very interesting time and quite a revelation about how words and music are such an immediate way to communicate with people. (Although Laurie Anderson has included dogs in this respect.)โ
You are a founder member of The Blue Orchids. Was it a completely different vibe working in a collective like that, and how did that evolve?
โThere had been a year between me leaving The Fall and starting The Blue Orchids with Martin, during which time Iโd had a breakdown and a drug overdose โ totally connected. I lost all sense of identity and words had no meaning. I was psychotic and lost a lot of weight due to the thoughts I was having. I believed I had died and now I was living in the โNew Ageโ where we were all telepathic and lived on pure energy, so no need for food right? There was a part of me observing all this however and I knew I was ill but didnโt know how to return to relative normality. After a year of being looked after by a dear friend I slowly began to recover. Martin and I got together and started The Blue Orchids. After my experience my outlook on the world was very different to before. It was a very creative time and I began playing a lot of melodies. It felt very free and I loved all the songs, still do.โ
Poppycock seems to have a revolving door policy, and the music is absolutely fantastic. Where do you draw your inspiration for the songs, and do you consider yourself somewhat of a collective? What is the songwriting policy of Poppycock?
โThere isnโt a revolving door policy in Poppycock although I was always working towards creating a nucleus and then other people could pop in and out and it would add to the texture/sound/s. Heather Greenbank is our ace guitarist whom I have worked with for many years. I was also in a band with her called The Poetic Terrorists and we used to put the table and chairs in my back room into the garden so that we could rehearse on a Sunday afternoon.Heather and I were the โeldersโ of the group. The rest were young punks my sonโs age. Julie Wolstenholme is one of our singers and she has worked with Poppycock on and off for many years. She was also a singer with The Fates and I was in a band that she and her family had started called Beyond the Glass for many years. Her sister Janet is currently playing bass with us. She has also sang, played guitar, drummed and co-produced our album Magic Mothers. She was also a founder member of Beyond the Glass. Rick is our drummer/percussionist and trumpet player. His daughter was in the same class as my daughter at primary school and I had seen him play at the jam night at The Junction pub in Hulme, which sadly is now being left to rot. Julia Nelson is the most recent member of the band. Sheโs been with us for about 3 years although Poppycock had played with her and her last band whose name escapes me, itโs a guyโs name, so I had heard her sing on a few occasions. I hadnโt played in a band for some time. I wanted to record an album and it hadnโt occurred to me to start a band. Janet was working at that time at a community studio in Old Trafford called Seed Studio and she told me about it. I began volunteering there where I met some incredible musicians and singers and we eventually started to record some of my songs. I was also aware of Tamra as she was recording her songs there. Janet recorded and played some of them to me and I was really into what she was saying and writing about. A promoter called Rico Le Rocco was putting on some gigs in Preston and Manchester, โUnpeeledโ for bands whoโd done Peel sessions and I thought, well, Iโve done a couple so I asked him if he could include me and he offered me a spot at Gullivers on Oldham Street. Now all I had to do was put a band together. So I asked people I was recording with if they would like to do this plus a couple of other people. Di Williams whom I had known from when I worked at Prestwich Hospital and Joe Public, as he called himself then, who was one of the singers from The Poetic Terrorists. We had two rehearsals, one with one half of the band and another with the other half. We all met together for the first time at the gig and that is the birth of Poppycock.โ
When you were with The Fall, you proudly got involved in the Rock Against Racism movement. Youโre doing another one imminently. Tell us more about that.
โKatherine Watson, who is in the a cappella group The Lovenotes is performing at this event. She used to play sax, clarinet, sing and record with us. She told Heather about the gig and suggested we get in touch with the organisers to see if we could play and they seem happy to have us. The original gig in the โ70s was memorable due to the fact that National Front skinheads came to the event and threw bottles at us. Being invincible at that age, we hid behind our amps and threw them back. The organiser tried to protect us by closing the curtains. It is also our bass player Tony Frielโs last gig with The Fall so a sad occasion on both counts. You need to click on the poster to see who is performing. It is a free, family event.โ
You are including the underground poet Tamra Smith in your performance. How did this collaboration come about?
โTamra contacted me to ask if she could help with anything and I thought that this gig would be ideal. We have a song called Iron Age Dance. Itโs a funky rhythm with people performing spoken word over the music. Itโs a kick back to the narrative that we are all stupid and spout meaningless crap. On the Magic Mothers album we have people speaking in their ownlanguage about things they feel strongly about. Some of it is translated into English. I like the idea of people getting up and joining us on stage. Tamraโs is a powerful piece. Thank you for inviting me. I hope you can get to this event. Best Wishes Uxโ
Thank you, Una, for taking time out to be interviewed by The Punk Site, and good luck with the Rock Against Racism event!
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