GREY PARADE

EXTERIORS

Released June/July 1983

COMMENTARY

AND RATING

CREDITS AND

INFORMATION

SONG

LYRICS

CLICK THE HIGHLIGHTED SONGS TO HEAR SAMPLES

on the Rialto / Plan B label

12 RIA 18 12 inch E.P. vinyl 45 r.p.m.

Plan B Communications / ATV Music / Rialto Records, Ltd., 1983

The Reason*

GREY 1

LP vinyl 33 1/3 r.p.m.

Plan B Records, 1985

4:48 Exteriors

SIDE ONE

3:58

4:07

3:39

3:21

3:22

Crocodile Tears

Flags Are Burning

Each Time We Touch

The Empty Room

The Reason

SIDE TWO

B

§1 3:00 Interiors

§2 4:00 Exteriors Dub

3:18

4:49

3:18

4:30

3:36

Winter

Exteriors

The Chosen Few

Impressions of Africa

Heaven and Hell

CLICK HERE TO READ LYRICS AND HEAR SONG SAMPLES

All tracks written by Kirk Austin, Les Campen, Jeff Fulton and Karl Stacey

Engineered by Gez Prior

Sleeve Design, STd

P. and c. Rialto Records 1983 4 Yeomans Row, London SW 3, UK

All titles composed by Grey Parade, except

"Flags Are Burning" composed by Grey Parade, Richard Cole and Robin Green

Produced by Nigel Grey (a.k.a. Nigel Gray)

Keyboards, Les Campen

Drums, Vocals, Karl Stacey*

Lead Vocals and Bass, Kirk Austin

Engineered by Jim Ebdon and Pete Buhlmann

Sleeve Design, Std

Special thanks to Clare

* Paul Patch appears credited as drummer on the original demo recordings of these songs.

* Heartfelt thanks to Ivan Gadsby for bringing my attention to this obscure LP, and for graciously providing its track listing and credits.

Ratings (1-5)
A	3
B §1	2
B §2	2
overall	7 / 15

rare 1983 Rialto promotional photo of Grey Parade

LAST UPDATED ON 01 April 2005

Comments

PART ONE

One Heart, Many Bands

Selling Hot Property

Even Hotter Property

Moving Picture, Still Life

Paul Patch: A Different Drummer

SFX Magazine

Marching On with Ambivalence

PART TWO

Switching To Plan B

Rialto Records and Pete Walsh

Heavenly Rumors

Patching Things Up

"Each Time We Touch"

"Exteriors": Inside and Out

Making Sense of The Reason

PART ONE

One Heart, Many Bands

While Numan enthusiasts recognize the name of "Grey Parade" as an early Numa Records act and a support band for the popular U.K. Fury Tour in 1985, few realize that the timeline of Grey Parade stretches as far back as Gary Numan's own moment of music-making glory. On May 6, 1979, as Gary Numan and Tubeway Army were swept up in the release of "Are 'Friends' Electric?", the very song that would shortly propel them to the top of the U.K. charts, musicians Kirk Austin and Jeff Fulton were inviting keyboardist Les Campen to join their local Grays, Essex band, Hot Property.

Les's background of classical piano made him tempting fare for his keyboard skills. By the time he was approached by Austin and Fulton, Campen was already adding his talents to a New Wave rock band, Harvey Wallbanger, on his Korg 700 synthesizer. Like most aspiring musicians, though, other jobs made the musician's lifestyle possible. Les was working as a mechanical fitter whilst serving an apprenticeship at an oil refinery. Jeff Fulton was gainfully employed as a carpenter. And Karl Stacey was an electrician. (At the very least, they could all competently build the stage sets where they wanted to perform!)

Canvassing an assortment of college bars and local pubs during the summer months, Hot Property performed a balanced blend of original material alongside covers of recognizable New Wave hits. Some of their Punk and New Wave crossover influences were XTC, The Stranglers, Magazine, and the ubiquitous Bill Nelson. In fact, the college scene was to be familiar territory for at least one Hot Property bandmember with academic aspirations: Kirk Austin would be starting his first term in a Chemistry degree program at Oxford University in September that year. Just prior to school going into session, Hot Property recorded a demo tape at Spaceward Studio in Cambridge. Over the next five months, though, they resolved to record a second, more commercially representative demo tape, so they headhunted another bandmember and returned to Spaceward Studio in March 1980. Their new member was a very young man with a mature talent for drums, Karl Stacey, who was purloined from a competing local punk band called Shout! (Says Les Campen, "They never forgave us!") Furthermore, as "stolen goods" Stacey gave the band's name a certain ironic credibility.

The tenure of Hot Property, however, was shorted lived, as Campen soon after seceded from the group, citing a "lack of commitment" by other members to the goal of becoming commercially viable: Austin was understandably other-directed with his Chemistry degree program and relocated to Oxford, while Campen wanted more earnestly to develop his music career in professional arenas. Les went on to perform in London and environs with Parachutes, a group remembered for all posterity as setting ablaze the video screen at the 1981 Reading Festival during a pyrotechnics display. Anticipating the hostility that festivalgoers would quite literally lob at a lesser-known act like Parachutes in the form of cans or bottles, the band decided to invest in an impressive display of fireworks to appease them. When the pyrotechnics chose to ad lib and alight the video screen that was situated between two stages, the lighing crew brought the fire under control while Parachutes played on implaccably and endured their trial by fire.

Meanwhile, as Les was setting the music world ablaze, Kirk and Jeff regrouped Hot Property into a band called Picture Movement, conscripting once again Karl Stacey for the project but also briefly recruiting Chris Wall as a second guitarist; they then recorded the obscure single, "Art Extravaganza" (1981 RAM TWO b/w "Still Life"), on Rambert Records, the Essex label started by Roy Mette of Warrior and Jeff Merrifield. In 1981, Chris Wall left the band and was succeeded by Richie Cole, Rob Green (brother-in-law to Culture Club's Roy Hay) and Paul Barber (former David Gilmore roadie) for the project. The enlarged scope and enhanced talent of the group seemed promising as Picture Movement obtained a greater New Romantic feel from its new members. However, by the end of that year Picture Movement broke apart yet again. Disagreements over musical direction caused Richie Cole and Rob Green to jump ship and form their own band, Russian Bouquet; Karl Stacey later joined them. Meanwhile, Kirk Austin moved his project to London and continued writing songs that would later become the more familiar repertoire of the Grey Parade album. Les Campen returned to Picture Movement in June 1981 as a guest musician on a new song, "Garden of Eden," recorded at the new Spaceward Studio in Ely, and again in February 1982 to record "Winter in Berlin"--a moody composition somewhat in the style of Ultravox, which characterized much of the music of Hot Property and Picture Movement up till then. These collaborations became the impetus to creating an Austin-Campen studio duo that, in a continuing theme of visual arts, was christened "Still Life." Sharing its name with a song on Japan's 1981 album Tin Drum ("Still Life In Mobile Homes"), the duo Still Life occupied its time recording backing tracks until Austin and Campen's taste for live performance reawakened and they once again sought to bring a stage band together. Using his connections to his previous band, Parachutes, Campen enlisted its bass player Paul Riordon, while, in response to the band's advertisement in the back pages of Melody Maker, the preeminent Paul Patch auditioned and subsequently join Still Life on drums.

Paul Patch was at least ten years older than the other musicians--a meaningless difference among the middle aged, but for the younger set was sufficient to create a gap of personality, musical influence, and social maturity that sometimes unintentionally alienated Patch and pushed him to the fringes of the group. Mind you, Patch had a reputation for living somewhat on the fringe of modern culture (and still does, according to his close friend Paul Program, who recently described Paul's use of "a windup gramophone player and candle driven cassette machine.") These same tendencies sometimes biased Patch against the use of new music technologies. Nevertheless, Still Life accepted him and drew strength from his skills as a musician and his Old School sensibility. Patch, for his part, capitalized on feeling somewhat disenfranchised from the others by reinventing himself among them as the consummate noncomformist. In fact, he recounts with some amusement the first time the band visited his flat, all wearing karate slippers on their feet. (Karate slippers are a type of thin-soled footwear worn to the dance floor by any masochist with high arches; they were as indispensible then to New Wave couture as the high-top sneaker.) Determined to provoke them for their choice of "uniform," Patch excused himself, ducked into another room, and emerged wearing combat boots. (Careful observers will note that all but Kirk Austin are wearing karate slippers in the sleeve artwork for "Asleep"!)

The newly formed Still Life gigged in London with the same approach as Hot Property: a balance of covers with original material. According to Paul Patch, the band's primary influence at this time was The Comsat Angels, a Sheffield group that received critical success for its first album Waiting For a Miracle in 1979, and which toured with Siouxsie and The Banshees and U2 in 1981. Covering the music of other bands was not so much an issue for Still Life, as Austin had written or co-written enough original material over the previous two years to assure the band's credibility. However, there was some concern over a clear absence of image for the group, karate slippers notwithstanding. Austin is recalled as saying on one occasion that even The Comsat Angels "looked terrible, they had no image." His concern for Still Life was well founded if the group intended to compete commercially among hundreds of other bands that in some instances relied more on image than on talent. If image would not be the means by which exposure could be had, then Still Life would have to find another way.

At this same time, the British New Wave music scene was flourishing, and electronic instruments had not only come into their own but in fact were paramount to the vanguard of new music. The music press was also trying more unorthodox and innovative routes, as illustrated by the formation of SFX Magazine, an experimental music periodical that offered interviews and rare songs on cassette tape. The magazine's methodology and appeal were very much like those of In the City, a predominantly Punk Rock oriented, underground newsletter wherein rising stars were given exposure alongside up-and-coming local artists in feature length articles and interviews. The novelty of an audio magazine, however, came at a time when record companies and music producers were promoting the new medium of the "cassingle" as something more portable and disposable than the average vinyl 45 r.p.m. SFX, in fact, encouraged buyers to recycle and record over its 60-minute cassette when finished with the magazine.

Issue No. 15 (June 12-24, 1982) of SFX featured some revealing interviews with Roger Taylor of Queen and Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet of Yazoo, as well as some very frank reviews of Roxy Music, Modern English, and others. In this "Extra Music" edition, however, local band Still Life was given a modest spotlight, and the demo of "Flags Are Burning" was included on the cassette. [You can listen to Still Life's review on SFX by accessing the file in the Grey Parade Lobby.] Finally, a bit of notariety had come due. Additionally, the audio medium was an apt opportunity to showcase Still Life's musical talents and songwriting style without first having to run the gauntlet of "image" crucial in so many printed music periodicals. When Still Life's moment arrived, however, the SFX editor introduced the band by its proper title but unfortunately muddled the lineup and confused the names of the bandmembers by announcing, "This is a band from London called 'Still Life,' who are Kirk Austin, Les Campen, Paul and Jim Barber." (Paul Barber, it should be known, did at one time belong to the band but had already left by the time Paul Patch came on board. The origins of Jim Barber are anyone's guess!) Furthermore, just as the group was making a name for itself in London at smaller venues, another Still Life (duo Jon Newby and Ian Campbell from Lincolnshire) started drawing greater attention after the release of their first single, "My World." The Lincolnshire Still Life went on to enlarge its number and support Culture Club on tour. (Strange, how some names keep turning up.)

To avoid inevitable confusion, copyright entanglements, and the threatening letters from solicitors that would inconveniently materialize at the venues where they performed, Austin, Campen, Riordon and Patch once again changed the group's name, this time to "Grey Parade". Although it seemed to be a nod to the now famous 1979 downtempo B-side by The Skids, "Grey Parade" was actually chosen as a statement of the band's distaste for the Thatcher reforms and the U.K.'s insidiously expanding culture of grey suited, yuppie Tories that set the political tenor of the country in 1982. "Grey Parade" was therefore chosen in irony to suggest a march of celebration at a time when, as Campen explained, "There was absolutely nothing to celebrate!!!" Along with the new moniker, however, came yet another alteration in the band lineup: Paul Riordon, citing personal differences between Kirk Austin and himself, parted ways in July 1982, and Kirk's former band colleage, Jeff Fulton, who hadn't been in another group since Hot Property disbanded in 1980, took Riordon's place on bass.

PART TWO

Switching To Plan B

In late 1982, Grey Parade was rehearsing in a studio in the Barbican that was owned by Paul Riordon's colleague, Graham Williams. Becoming more familiar with Grey Parade's music and determination to secure a record deal, Williams introduced them in October to Nick and Tim Heath, the sons of big band leader Ted Heath and the owners of Rialto Records. With recent chart success by the Corgis and the Planets, Rialto expressed interest in Grey Parade for a new, "more serious" record label: Plan B Records. Shortly after, the record deal with Plan B was signed, along with a publishing contract with ATV Music. By December, between sessions at Crescent Studios in Bath and The Workshouse in London, Pete Walsh (brother of Greg Walsh) worked with Grey Parade to record three solid tracks, including "Winter" and Plan B's choice for a single's release, "Each Time We Touch." [To listen to samples of the 1982 demos for these songs, click the corresponding icons.] Pete Walsh had only recently completed production on the Simple Minds album New Gold Dream, and his contributions to Grey Parade's recordings achieved the same very appealing, sophisticated effect of layered sounds. Les Campen referred to the artistic partnership with Walsh as "an inspired choice, with mutual respect and creativity in plentiful supply." Among the three tracks, "Each Time We Touch" (a song that appears on the subsequent album with different production) was selected as the inevitable single; final production of it was moved to Regent Street's Aire Studio, where Pete's brother was at work on the Heaven 17 album Luxury Gap.

This is where rumors and disputation about Grey Parade's album, The Reason, begin. Paul Patch and others contend that Pete Walsh, feeling pressure to inject a New Wave sound into the production of Grey Parade's music, borrowed many of the same synthesizer sounds used by his brother on the Heaven 17 album and put them into the demos that would later become the album. Additional reports have been that the changes were made unawares to the band, and that bandmembers returned the day after their recording sessions to find a much-changed song. However, Les Campen recalls no such influence or changes to the single (not the album) that was being produced at the time Greg Walsh completed Luxury Gap. Rather, Campen recalls that the keyboards were the final additions to be recorded on "Each Time We Touch," and that later the bandmembers were all present at the final mixing session to put their stamp of approval on the production. Regardless, the story remains one of the interesting folkloric episodes in the band's history.

As intimated earlier, Paul Patch's years of maturity, both in musical accomplishment and in behavior, eventually resulted in a clash of personality with Kirk Austin. Patch had little patience for Austin's sometimes arrogant and inconsiderate behavior. (Recall that other bandmembers had earlier parted ways with Austin for similar reasons.) This came to a head in January 1983, at a New Year's Eve party where Patch and Austin had a heated argument. Though a rapprochement was attempted, by March the relationship between Patch and Austin had actually worsened. Rialto / Plan B strongly advised that something be done to resolve the disruptive disharmony in the group, and regrettably Paul Patch was ousted. Patch, understandably, regarded his removal as a betrayal, and other members of Grey Parade even now harbor some remorse over this decision.

Former colleague Karl Stacey succeeded Paul Patch and, as is customary with a change of musicians, he brought with him his own perspectives and possibilities to band's sound. One of these was the use of drum machines. After Stacey's reinstatement, the band recorded or re-recorded a substantial corpus of material in eight- and sixteen-track studios. The mood was positive and was heightened all the more by some promotional artwork produced by Storm Thorgeson, an artist most famous for having designed Pink Floyd's album covers but who also boasts an impressive and ecclectic career as a movie director and documentary filmmaker. However, the general feeling of possibility and promise was to be soon dampened by a gathering ambivalence from Plan B / Rialto, first apparent in the ill-fated single "Each Time We Touch."

News came in June 1983 that the band was to be shuffled off to Pineapple Studios to re-record "Each Time We Touch" with producer Nigel Gray in hopes that a new direction would make the single a stronger market contender. It was a strategy that not only was disappointing for its exclusion of Pete Walsh but also aroused suspicions that production was now being completed "on the cheap"; from it, some had begun to speculate that Grey Parade were being set up as a tax loss contract. In point of fact, Plan B / Rialto were already suffering financial setbacks by the time Grey Parade had been introduced to them, and there was some hope that the band's product would help the flagging label recover by year's end. Plan B was, of course, anything but forthcoming about its own financial difficulties; but given Nigel Gray's impressive track record, Grey Parade pledged its full commitment to Plan B's decision to change the direction of production. Consequently, under Gray's supervision the band recorded another nine tracks at Surrey Sound Studios. Although those tracks would lead to the completion of The Reason, inexplicably the release of "Each Time We Touch" as a single was never pursued any further. Instead, Gray arranged for a limited 12" release of the song, "Exteriors," taken from the eight track demo recording earlier that year.

Although "Exteriors" is not the strongest track of the ten-track album, its commercial appeal for the 1983 music market was clearly evident. Furthermore, it was a fine spotlight of the compatible qualities in Grey Parade's musical style and Nigel Gray's production techniques. Listeners will note a clear respect for the vocal talent, especially at the beginning of the song, as well as a clear admiration for the skills of the musicians who, each in his turn, receives a showcase of sorts because of Gray's production. However, Stacey's use of the drum machine throughout was a main attraction: an important change of direction since the departure of Paul Patch; Paul's Old School adherence to the acoustic instrument was greatly admired by the other bandmembers, but it kept them slightly out of step with other New Wave acts. Furthermore, Gray's very subtle use of synth textures could be enjoyed more as a subconscious element to the music, rather than a gimmick as so many other bands of the time had done. It's highly unlikely that "Exteriors" was intended to chart (hence its limited release), but it did demonstrate that Grey Parade was a serious act ready to take on the dimensions of a fully promoted and marketed band. "Exteriors" was proof that Grey Parade was not a flash-in-the-pan New Wave gimmick, but rather a legitimate group of artists creating their own musical territory with integrity, originality and the commercial aspirations that were Les Campen's goal from the very earliest days of Hot Property. If there is any kind of bandwagon trendiness to fault in the "Exteriors" single, it is among the easily dismissed but perfunctory B-side tracks. Personally speaking, I would have just as soon seen the record be a double A-side. However, the choice was made instead to include "Interiors", which seems throughout its three minutes like a dumpling molded from the various leftover instrumental tracks of "Exteriors." Not that the effect is altogether terrible, mind you. Nor are the instrumental elements ill chosen. In the overall result, however, "Interiors" is just not a very inspired instrumental version of the A-side, and certainly not a very interesting offering for a 12" single with limited release, especially in light of the other B-side track that follows it.

One of the early 80s music phenomena to have sprung from the advancements in recording technology (especially with recorded loops and other mixing elements) was the "dub." Granted, the techniques used in these primitive mixes of songs are the roots for all sorts of sophisticated mixing effects that emerged later. In their own time, they might have been an opportunity for music technicians to strut their technical know-how. But, in retrospect, they seem often to have been self-indulgent: blanched, throwaway sound experiments canabalizing A-side material in ways that encouraged us to re-play the A-side again and again rather than listen to the disappointing instrumental dub versions that didn't even permit a decent sing-along. Again, the "Exteriors Dub" and "Interiors" are far from being unlistenable and are certainly no worse than other dubbed instrumentals made during that period. But they do very quickly redirect the listener back to the A-side about midway through. If you have any doubts, click on the icons and give the tracks a listen, yourself. I'd certainly welcome your feedback. Neverthless, considering all the other songs that could have appeared on the B-side, including demo versions and Paul Patch recordings, one can only assume that the executive decision to include instrumental and dub versions of "Exteriors" was calculated to make the band appear to be technologically cutting edged and discoteque ready. In that sense, it might have been a necessary contrivance to promote the band in its first tentative steps into the market--for which I can forgive it utterly.

And the real product of concern was the forthcoming album, The Reason, recorded in August 1983 and then engineered by Pete Buhlmann and Jim Ebdon--two impressive music engineers with whom Grey Parade had begun to forge a good professional relationship. Even in its finishing stages, however, there was an unsettling lack of support from the label that left the bandmembers, the engineers and the album's producer at the mercy of charitable acts just to see the project through to its completion. Les Campen recounts, "throughout the winter of 83/84 we continued to work on new material with Pete using 'dead time' at Surrey Sound. Pete gave his time for free and Nigel allowed us to use the studio without charge. (Karl and Jeff even lived there for about six months.)" As can be surmised from the time frame, Plan B was very close to declaring bankruptcy, which conveniently went unreported to its contracted bands. In consequence, the The Reason was treated like just another loose end for Plan B to tie off rapidly, and its production and promotion were given the bum's rush, which denuded it of the luster of sound that Buhlmann and Ebdon were more than qualified to give it, and enervated it of the spark of performance that the band had wanted to deliver (and did deliver in their demo versions). In light of Plan B's earlier failure to release "Each Time We Touch" as a single, and now its apparent abrogation of any strategy to promote Grey Parade or its new album, it was clear that Grey Parade's allegiance to Plan B / Rialto would have to come to a swift and resolute end.

Rialto ceased trading by late 1983 and, to the label's great shame, The Reason lost its window of opportunity for promotion and exposure. One scarcely finds this record on the secondary market today; however, had Plan B been just a little more forthcoming about its financial problems, Grey Parade and Nigel Gray might have pursued more creative avenues of self-promotion while there was still time. Instead, what should have been a memorable celebration for a measure of success was reduced rather pitifully to Rialto co-founder Tim Heath meeting with Grey Parade bandmembers in a parking lot to give them a few copies of the album he somehow managed to have pressed. The gesture must have seemed bittersweet, if not altogether anticlimactic, since Grey Parade by this point had already signed to Numa Records.

To read more about the complex Numa years for Grey Parade, a review of their only Numa single, "Asleep," and the vissicitudes that eventually lead to the band's untimely exit from the label, click HERE.

LEFT TO RIGHT: Jeff Fulton, Pete Walsh, Paul Patch, Kirk Austin, Les Campen

Much gratitude goes to Paul Program and to Paul Patch for taking up my cause so graciously and volunteering skeins of information about Grey Parade's pre-Numa years. Les Campen also very warmly reached out to put the facts in place and the misinformation into its proper perspective. Les, you will always have my sincerest thanks for this gesture of trust. Anyone else who would like to contribute additional details or anecdotes about Grey Parade, Still Life, Picture Movement, Parachutes, or Hot Property can reach me at Karl.Sherlock@gcccd.net. I will gladly acknowledge your input on this page.