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Grey
Parade
ASLEEP Released August 1985 |
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CLICK THE HIGHLIGHTED SONGS TO HEAR SAMPLES |
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NU 10 7 inch vinyl 45
r.p.m. NUM 10 12 inch vinyl 45
r.p.m. Numan Music, 1985 |
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A §0 7:17 Asleep (Extended Mix) |
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B
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§1 6:12 House of Steel (Extended Mix) |
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§2 3:34 Asleep
(Edit) |
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all
tracks written by Austin / Fulton / Campen / Stacey track 0,
2, Produced by Grey Parade and Pete Buhlmann track
1, Produced by Grey Parade Engineered
by James Ebdon Grey
Parade are: Kirk Austin, Jeff Fulton, Les Campen, Karl Stacey Recorded
at Rock City Studios, Shepperton, Middlesex, England Marketed
and Distributed by Precision Records & Tapes Ltd. |
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LAST UPDATED ON 01 APRIL 2005 |
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Coming May 2005 Life in the Bush
of Ghosts The Roundacre Wailing Wall Band of Brothers |
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 Et Tu Numa  |
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Despite all, this was a fairly prolific
period for the group. Dividing their
time between Surrey Sound Studios and Rock City Studios, Grey Parade wrote
and recorded six new songs: The Disappeared Intuition Looking Glass New Lies for Old Unholy Book Among these, Pete Buhlmann favored
"House of Steel" as the potential demo most likely to impress a
certain established artist who had just recently started up his own record
label, and then asked the band's permission to introduce the track to him.
Kirk Austin had composed the lyrics for this doom-steady nod to The Comstat
Angels as a sobering examination of the self-enshrouded psyche: how the sangfroid of an emotionally
gun-shy yet obsessively curious person can, as a result, forge the steely
cage of a life lived vicariously. |
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"We signed to
Numa because we were at a low point and had no better alternatives. The whole episode with Rialto had
left us drained and we badly needed something positive to happen. We had reservations about signing
with Gary because of his 'polarising' influence and the fact that he was the
subject of derision where most of the music industry in the U.K. were
concerned. However, we valued
Pete Buhlmann's opinion that it might be a way forward for us." Sadly for everyone, this failure to be
forthcoming about their concerns was to color their artistic and professional
relationship with Numa almost from the very moment their names were signed to
dotted lines. There was at first some hopeful
progress. During that year in
which Gary took his two other recently signed acts, Hohokam and Larry Loeber, on tour, Grey
Parade worked diligently in the studio to expand its portfolio of songs. Numa management was relatively--and
understandably--absent during this time. In point of fact, never was Gary seen at the studio
while Grey Parade was working, even though the band would have welcomed his
attention and input. "I
think Gary was happy to let us get on with it on our own," says
Campen. Mind you, Numan's
absenteeism should be interpreted as a sign of his confidence in the group at
that time, rather than a lack of interest. The startup of his new label, the continuing work on his
own material and his commitments to produce other artists kept him on a short
leash of manageable time; furthermore, unlike Hohokam, whose inexperience in
the recording business warranted a little mentoring by Numan, Grey Parade's
relative experience and proven background permitted them greater independence
and a more relaxed grip from the label's hand of management. Here, again, stepping into the role
of motivator and producer was the indispensable man, Pete Buhlmann. Steadfast in his creative and
emotional support of the group, he was regarded by the band as its trusted
fifth member. His skillful
engineering, his impeccable producer's ear, and his willingness to experiment
added a great deal of ingenuity to their music. Grey Parade credits Pete, in fact, as partly responsible
for shaping their future sound as showcased in their recording of
"Asleep" in May 1985, which was released three months later as
their first single on the new label:
"This track was a true collaboration between ourselves and Pete
Bulhmann and I can remember being encouraged by him to go beyond the normal
level of performance in the studio." |
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Unfortunately, the premier of this Grey
Parade single also heralded the disintegration of the group's professional
relationship with the label. As
predicted by Austin and Campen, "Asleep" was neither the song Gary
Numan was expecting nor the sound in which he and the label had wanted to
invest: rather, it seemed to
flaunt a vivacious tempo and lively vocal style in open defiance of that dour
sensibility promised originally in songs like "House of Steel." Numan readily voiced his disapproval
to Pete Buhlmann, who from this moment on adopted the role of diplomat and
messenger between Numa and Grey Parade. The general displeasure with "Asleep"
coincided with something else, too, that at the time must have seemed an
uncomfortable parallel to Rialto / Plan B: Numa's efforts to promote "Asleep" and Grey
Parade stalled forthwith. It's
difficult to say if this occurred in consequence of Gary's changed feelings
about the band or as a symptom of his debacle with the press and Radio
One. Whatever the motive for
neglecting "Asleep," no visible plans were drawn to market or
promote it. However, Gary
did invite Grey Parade to support him on The Fury Tour in the fall of 1985 as
a way of giving some visibility to the act and the new single. Despite the realization that Grey
Parade's style of music was not altogether compatible with Numan's audience,
the appeal of live performance in a professional tour once again called out
to the group and they accepted his offer. |
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Fortunately, despite the occasional
aggressions, Grey Parade's support of The Fury Tour was largely a rewarding
and enjoyable experience for the band, augmented by the challenge to perform
exceptionally and by their respect for the professional nature of
touring. Their primary
disappointment, however, was their feeling that, throughout it all, they were
supporting the wrong act. Gary
Numan's music and stage performance possessed a strong and unique character,
and, as the whipping boy of the U.K. press, Numan had amassed a sizable army
of loyal defenders who had little patience for any music, be it support act
or otherwise, which did not appear to align itself with the Numan
mystique. Had Grey Parade opened
for such bands as China Crisis or Level 42, not only would the fans have
regarded their music as more compatible, but they would likely have remained
more open and accepting of support acts in general. Closing night, however, of any tour is an
animal unto itself, exempt from the usual rules of audience dynamics and
touring protocols. On the final
evening of the The Fury Tour, for example, at the Manchester Apollo (9 October
1985), Grey Parade were actually joined on stage by Gary Numan's backing band
to play scrap metal. Later in
the evening, near the end of Numan's set, the band rushed the stage dressed
as mummies (or rather, wrapped in paper towels) and deployed a series of
shaving cr¸me pies along the front of the stage that were duly lobbed at the
faces of front row Numanoids (and with perhaps a little more gusto than
necessary whenever a known hostile or abusive Numanoid had been espied). |
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That hopeful material included two new
songs, recorded in October 1985:
"Crusade" and "People in High Places." [To
listen to samples of these songs, click the corresponding icons or
highlighted song titles.]
Riding on the fumes of the just-completed tour and fueled with renewed
spirit of social cycnicism, these two tracks were an absolute showpiece of
what Grey Parade and Pete Buhlmann hoped to achieve musically while at
Numa. In short, they were
Grey Parade's best work. Like their predecessor "Asleep," both
songs cleverly capitalized on samples and dubbing effects but, thanks to
Buhlmann, de-emphasized synthesizers and showcased instead the band's
masterful playing skills and tight harmonies, all the while delivering a
commercially appealing punch and vitality. "Crusade" is an uncannily prophetic tune about
charasmatic televangelism and the rise of the Religious Right. "People
In High Places" is an equally energetic track, similar in many ways to
"Crusade," but stronger in its ability to burst with crisp, lively
vocals punctuated by vibrant crescendos, tight harmonies, and a balanced use
of female backing
vocalists. Campen states,
"Like many in the UK and around the world, I don't put too much credence
in organized politics or religion. The answer does not lie in changing the
world, it lies in changing ourselves and accepting the responsibility for
what we do or allow to be done in our name."
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Word came down from Numa management (i.e.,
Matt Nicholson) that Gary did not think much of the new material, primarily
because the songs were not commercial enough. Why he formed this opinion is not altogether certain. It may be merely coincidental that,
at about this same time, Numan conducted an interview with a television news
program that provided a glimpse into his life as studio owner, music maker
and record producer. (During the
filming, Hohokam are shown "at work" recording vocals for
"Harlequin Tears," though in truth the song had long since been
completed and the bandmembers were just fiddling about, to look the
part.) One of the more contrived
aspects to the interview, however, was to promote Gary and his new roster of
artists as a nonpartisan, nonpolitical "nursery" of new music
talent during a time when conservative Tories had taken control of the
country. Numan was often painted
as a Thatcherite during the 80s, despite his declarations to the contrary
that emphasized, if any political position at all, his more centrist,
nonpartisan viewpoint. In fact,
he was later invited to participate in a celebrity oriented political talk
show in the U.K., T.V. Eye, as the designated celebrity Centrist. So, there's no telling for certain whether
the interview at his Shepperton Studio was any less the artifice of the
press's own political agendas.
Still, the unabashedly liberal tenor of Grey Parade's new material
might have been viewed as a potentially leftist liability to a new record label
that was already struggling to steer its identity clear of any political
ideology. And Grey Parade were
obviously cognizant of the liberal tenor of their own lyrics, particularly in
their apparent criticism of American culture, of which Gary Numan has been
very defensive in his biographies.
Campen explains, however, that Grey Parade's lyrics were unfairly
characterized: "Much of the
shared Grey Parade / Mea Culpa ideals may appear anti-American, but in actual
fact it was directed against materialistic values in general." Whatever the impetus for Numan's decision, the effect was
devastating to the Grey Parade band members, who were now feeling neglected,
if not outright rejected, by the label:
not only was their new material the pinnacle of their creative
efforts, given half a chance its commercial credibility was sure to make up
for the failure of the "Asleep" single, yet it seemed to have been
all so easily dismissed by Numa.
Campen feels that this more than anything signaled the beginning of
the end for the band's tenure with the label.
Sadly, formality and diplomacy would soon
enough be moot, as an unhappy series of events surrounding a now infamous
photo shoot in February 1986 would put an end to the matter altogether. |
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