Drumming with Dead Can Dance

Ulrich Peter

Description

Ulrich thinks he got the ultimate fan trip—to play, record, and tour with his favourite band, Dead Can Dance. His memoir details the early days, from signing with 4AD, recording their first album, then heading off on tour with the Cocteau Twins. There follow insights into the legendary period of the 4AD label of the 1980s; contributing to This Mortal Coil; guesting with Wolfgang Press, Pieter Nooten and Michael Brook, and Modern English; and touring the US for the first time in 1990. Following his departure from DCD, Ulrich remained close with Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard, and his memoir tracks their parallel paths over the following decades. A must for fans of Dead Can Dance and the 4AD label, and at the same time, a fascinating slalom through the ups and downs of trying to pursue a vision through the music industry.

Sujets

• Musique
• Histoire de la musique
• renaissance
• medieval
• Philosophie et théologie
• Song to the Siren
• Gladiator (soundtrack)
• Gladiator (2000 film)
• Robin Guthrie
• Liz Fraser
• 4AD
• Radio City
• Église de Quivvy
• Coachella
• Dionysus
• Spiritchaser
• Within the Realm of a Dying Sun
• Brendan Perry
• Elizabeth Fraser
• Hollywood Bowl
• Anastasis
• Aion
• Dead Can Dance
• Lisa Gerrard
• Julee Cruise
• Cocteau Twins
• Royal Albert Hall
• Michael Mann
• Hans Zimmer
• Carnegie Hall
• This Mortal Coil
• 4AD Records
• Jeff Buckley
• Russell Crowe
• Tim Buckley
• Ridley Scott
• Ennio Morricone
• David Lynch

Informations

• Publié par: Red Hen Press
• Date de parution: 15 novembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781636280745
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 23 Mo

Extrait

Drumming with Dead Can Dance and Parallel Adventures
Copyright 2022 by Peter Ulrich
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner.
Book layout by Mark E. Cull
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ulrich, Peter, 1958- author.
Title: Drumming with Dead Can Dance and parallel adventures/Peter Ulrich.
Description: Pasadena, CA : Red Hen Press, 2022. | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022016763 (print) | LCCN 2022016764 (ebook) | ISBN 9781636280738 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781636280745 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Ulrich, Peter, 1958- | Drummers (Musicians)-Biography. | Dead Can Dance (Musical group) | Darkwave (Music)-History and criticism. | LCGFT: Autobiographies.
Classification: LCC ML419.U474 A3 2022 (print) | LCC ML419.U474 (ebook) | DDC 782.42166092 [B]-dc23/eng/20220407
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022016763
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022016764
Publication of this book has been made possible in part through the generous financial support of Ann Beman.
The National Endowment for the Arts, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the Ahmanson Foundation, the Dwight Stuart Youth Fund, the Max Factor Family Foundation, the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Foundation, the Pasadena Arts Culture Commission and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Audrey Sydney Irmas Charitable Foundation, the Meta George Rosenberg Foundation, the Albert and Elaine Borchard Foundation, the Adams Family Foundation, Amazon Literary Partnership, the Sam Francis Foundation, and the Mara W. Breech Foundation partially support Red Hen Press.

First Edition
Published by Red Hen Press
www.redhen.org
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thank everyone who appears in this memoir, together with anyone I ve inadvertently omitted, who all contributed to the thickening of the plot.
I thank everyone who helped proofread and check various versions and portions, including Brendan, Lisa, Nicki, Louise, my amazing Aunt Barbara (aka Carolyn Gray), Lisa Tenzin-Dolma, Trebor Lloyd, Jules Maxwell, and Jon Brahams. My thanks also to WHV for extensive support and for making the innocent enquiry which gave rise to my first Appendix.
I thank everyone who helped compile the illustrations - those whose credits appear alongside their pictures, and also Rich Walker at 4AD, Steve Webbon and Sadie Matthew at Beggars Banquet, Saskia Dommisse, Olivier Mellano, Alice Atkinson at Air-Edel, the team at Snappy Snaps in Norwich, Trebor and a bunch of members of the wonderful TPUC crew - Erin Hill, Anne Husick, Sharon Hochma-Hawk, and Tim Dark - who all went above and beyond, and especially Jeff Earp, who mined the vaults with unstinting resolve and unearthed some gems!
I thank everyone who helped with each push along the road to finding my publishing home, with a mention in dispatches for Stephen Davies and Jon Tregenna at Penderyn Distillery, Tom Mayer at W. W. Norton, Tim O Donnell, and Graeme Milton at Helter Skelter.
I thank everyone at Red Hen Press for bringing this book into being, particularly Kate Gale and Mark E. Cull for taking it on, Natasha McClellan and Rebeccah Sanhueza for guiding it so carefully through production, and Tobi Harper, Monica Fernandez and Tansica Sunkamaneevongse for shouting its credentials from the rooftops.
I thank my nearest and dearest, particularly Nicki, Louise, and Ellie, for constant support and encouragement.
And, of course, I can never sufficiently thank Brendan and Lisa, not only for the wonderful music they create, the incredible opportunities they gave me, and their support for my music projects, but also for the enthusiasm they ve shown for this written record of our adventures, and the huge help they ve given me in bringing this all together.
And I thank the huge hand of fate.
Thank you all.
CONTENTS
Drumming with Dead Can Dance and Parallel Adventures
APPENDIX I - An Introductory Guide to World Music
APPENDIX II - Discography
FOREWORD
When I look back at the glazed paragraphs of the past, the stench of stale beer rotting back stage carpets, hunger, and grey London skies, they drift into a dissolving memory from which the poetry of our dreams rose and found unsensed significance, not only in our hearts, but also in the hearts of others.
-Lisa Gerrard
ONE
December 1982. I was working at Riverside Studios, a fringe theatre and arts centre in West London where I was Press and Publicity Officer. I should ve been one of a team of six, but the promotions department had been whittled down to just me as the centre hurtled towards financial disaster. Finally the day came when those of us remaining on the skeleton staff were told that Riverside was going into administration and we were being made redundant with immediate effect. Although we d been expecting it, nobody quite knew how to react. Some vowed to work on for no wages in the hope that a financial saviour would swoop to the rescue, others started packing their things to leave.
I sat alone in my office contemplating a long list of outstanding tasks. If the theatre was about to go dark , what was the point in continuing to promote performances that would likely never take place? A couple of months earlier, I d been offered the opportunity to jump ship and join the promotions team at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith - a larger and better funded setup just down the road. I d been flattered, and tempted, but turned it down out of loyalty to Riverside, which would ve been unable to appoint a replacement for me and left with no publicity staff at all. The position at the Lyric had since been filled, so that door was closed, and now here I was with no job and no idea what I d do next.
The phone rang. The caller introduced himself as Brendan Perry and asked me - with impeccable timing of which he was entirely oblivious - if I had much on. He d heard I was a drummer and asked if I d be interested in auditioning for a band. It turned out he lived in an adjacent block of flats to mine on the Barkantine Estate in an area of East London colourfully called The Isle of Dogs. He d been given my number by a friend from the estate.
The Barkantine is a 1960s-built public sector housing estate of dubious architectural merit, apparently designed to represent the layout of a sailing galleon if viewed aerially. Today this may be possible using a drone-cam, but back then you couldn t unless you cared to charter a plane and fly over it. Its most prominent feature is four, twenty-one-storey tower blocks - Topmast Point, Midship Point, Knighthead Point, and Bowsprit Point - around which various low-rise residential blocks plus a few shops are arranged in equally nautically named streets such as Tiller Road and The Quarterdeck.
Brendan had recently arrived in London from Australia where, by virtue of his father s local family roots, he d been allocated a flat on the thirteenth floor of Bowsprit Point, together with Lisa Gerrard, Paul Erikson, Jeff Earp, and Jim Atkins. Brendan, Lisa, and Paul formed the nucleus of a band called Dead Can Dance , which they d formed in Melbourne a couple of years earlier, and had now come to London in search of a recording deal. Their original drummer, Simon Munroe, had decided against the move and elected to stay in Melbourne. Jeff and Jim were friends from Melbourne, Jeff studying photography and film, Jim a sometime sound engineer and roadie for the band who now, due to insufficient rooms in the flat, inhabited a sizeable but windowless storage cupboard off the hallway and apparently lived off little other than variously prepared configurations of chickpeas.
I d lived for almost two years in a flat on the sixth floor of Knighthead Point with my girlfriend, Nicki. We weren t originally from the area, both having grown up in West London, but my first job after graduating had been in the Public Relations office at Tower Hamlets Council, and I d become eligible for a council flat in the borough as an employee. We moved in when Nicki completed her postgraduate teacher training, and she d quickly found herself a job at nearby Cubitt Town School.
To the casual observer, the Barkantine Estate appeared drab and run-down, with the usual spattering of graffiti, litter flying around in the fierce drafts of wind which were channelled between the concrete monoliths, and a constant aroma of stale urine in the lifts and stair wells. But the flats themselves were bright, spacious and had truly spectacular views over the River Thames and central London skyline. In between Bowsprit and Knighthead lay a characterless, rectangular box of a community hall with anti-vandal wire grilles covering all the windows. The hall was available for hire by local residents, and for convenience s sake (particularly as none of us owned a car) this was the natural choice of venue for my audition.
My phone number had been given to Brendan by Tony Wright, another drummer who lived on the nineteenth floor of Knighthead. Tony had already auditioned, but it hadn t worked out so he suggested me. I wasn t sure what to make of this. Tony was about as different from me as possible - a cool, good-looking, charismatic Black guy who dressed sharply and specialised in slick soul drumming. He was always playing with four or five different bands at any given time and was desperate to break into the music biz on a professional basis and quit his day job as a chef. Tony was technically a far better drummer than me, constantly studying the jazz greats and refining his skills. We d borrow equipment off each other and, whenever I went up to his flat, he d whisk out a flurry of vinyl recordings by the likes of Gene Krupa and Max Roach and have me checking out different beats and fills which were way beyond my capabilities. During his DCD audition, Tony had a