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History of the LMC Clive Bell “It’s funny, we do all these interviews with Melody of musicians, usually referred to as the ‘first gener- musicians was John Stevens’ work in concerts and Maker and NME and the fanzines, and we try to talk ation’‚ of improvisers. These included Evan Parker, workshops. Maggie Nicols was another improviser about this real underground of London, improvisers like Derek Bailey, Paul Lytton, John Stevens, Tony who excelled at leading workshops. Within one Evan and Derek, Lol, Moholo, the whole African Oxley, Howard Riley, Paul Rutherford, Barry Guy hour, a roomful of assorted and embarrassed indi- contingent —and of course none of them have ever and Trevor Watts” (Quote from Resonance Vol 2, No viduals could be led to build a communal musical heard this music. It’s kind of a bummer. It’s such an 2). This was around 1971, and concerts were held experience of enormous power. Suddenly the mys- underground music. It’s very serious but it’s also very at the Little Theatre Club in Garrick Yard and the teries of group improvisation and experimental humorous. It’s very alive.” Unity Theatre in Camden Town. music were opened up—veils fell from eyes, and Then, in April 1975, came Musics magazine, the sheer joy of music-making seemed accessible Above left: The Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth in The Wire 108, Feb which Martin Davidson remembers as resulting to all. I recall one musician warning me that after Club Room 1993. from a phone conversation between himself, his a John Stevens workshop he had observed that with Martin At the end of the 90s, the free music world can Klapper and wife Mandy and Evan Parker. The editorial board most of the male participants had erections. I still seem a wonderfully well-kept secret, a gen- Richard in summer 1975 was Bailey, Parker, Steve couldn’t really see what was so wrong with this— Sanderson 1998 uinely underground art activity. For 25 or 30 years Beresford, Max Boucher, Paul Burwell, Jack Cooke, maybe this music wasn’t so cerebral and abstract Above right: there’s been a scene there, all those club concerts Peter Cusack, Hugh Davies, Mandy and Martin as some people made out? Feminist listed monthly on the London Musician’s Davidson, Richard Leigh, John Russell, David In 1975/76 the London Musicians Collective improvising Collective (LMC) Calendar, the LMC Annual Toop, Philipp Wachsmann and Colin Wood. I emerged from a series of meetings, and mailed group, late 70s Festivals —but is it a musical genre? Sometimes it remember Colin Wood remarking that Musics was out its first newsletter in August 1976. The Below: Derek feels like you can pin it down. At Derek Bailey’s the first thing this crowd had found that they Collective was separate from Musics magazine, but Bailey, Maggie annual Company series, even though the musicians Nicols, Lol could all agree about. And I’m sorry about these involved many of the same people. It was hoped ranged from classical French horn player to thrash lists, but if you want to make enemies with a histo- that an organisation would carry more weight in Coxhill 98, guitarist, you could see a simple listen-and-get-on- Otomo & Eye ry like this, all you have to do is leave out some- dealings with other organisations, institutions and with-it approach. But even here the low key pre- 94 one’s name. the press. And these musicians had a lot in com- sentation, the strange theatre of encounters “STOP PRESS REVIEW SECTION:Three years ago ten mon: nowhere to play, and no wider recognition of between musicians who had never met, and the their music. outbursts of completely unplanned musical bril- music students from Cologne sat in horseshoe, one end of fine Wren church in Smith Square, sang ninth chord A major difference from the Musicians’ Co-op liance all combined to bewilder and undercut neat was the LMC’s openness to anyone who wanted to theory. The qualities of Company were often down all evening, sound mixed and rarefied by man in nave. Last Saturday ten religious men from Tibet sat in join. Richard Leigh again: “It was always seen as a to Bailey’s personality and style. As in the world of network drawing more and more people from var- jazz, strong individuals stamped their character on horseshoe on same spot, sang tenth chord all evening, no sound mixer.” ied backgrounds into the scene”. Improvisers were musical encounters. And the LMC was born dipping their fingers into the many pies of mixed because individuals wanted to band together for Colin Wood in Musics No 4, October 1975. media, dance, film and performance art. And in everyone’s benefit. Musics came out six times a year and ran for 23 fact at this time, just before punk and its DIY “The group of people that were working around the issues. In its coverage of improvised and non-west- ethic erupted, there was a remarkable burst of SME (Spontaneous Music Ensemble) at that time —John ern music alongside performance art, it reflected energy in the underground arts scene. Dancers Stevens, Derek Bailey,Trevor Watts, Paul Rutherford — the broad interests of a so-called ‘second genera- founded the X6 Dance Collective and New Dance were working on a method that I could call ‘atomistic’‚ tion’ of improvisers, and provided a convivial focus magazine at Butlers Wharf, while film makers breaking the music down into small component parts point. Interested outsiders were welcome to share started the London Film Makers Co-op. These too and piecing them together again in a collective way, so in the work of pasting the magazine together. In have survived and are with us today, in the form of as to de-emphasize the soloistic nature of improvisation those pre-wordprocessing days pasting meant the Chisenhale Dance Space and the Lux Cinema and replace it by a collective process. But at the same paste, as well as glue, scalpel and unwashed mugs. in Hoxton Square. For musicians, the venue crisis time AMM had what I would call a “laminar” way of These days the unwashed mugs are the only sur- was becoming acute. The Little Theatre Club had working, where although the solo had been lost and the vivors of the era. folded and the Unity Theatre burned down. The emphasis was on a collective sound, an orchestral sound “The LMC was formed by the slightly newer lot of usual expedient of hiring a room in a pub, college if you like, it was not done by breaking the music into musicians simply because everyone was fed up with or community hall was dependent on the whim of small components but by contributing layers which playing in bad rooms above pubs or nowhere at all. the landlord, and would not allow performances to would fit together and make a new whole.” Whereas Musicians’ Co-op members had briefly enjoyed be run on the musicians’ terms. A space with max- Evan Parker, talk at Actual Music Festival, ICA, August (?) the hospitality of Ronnie Scott and his club, due to Mr imum flexibility was needed if the work was to 1980. Scott’s justifiably high regard for Evan Parker,Tony Oxley, develop freely. “An obstinate clot of innovation”, was how the Howard Riley, Barry Guy et al, musicians such as Nigel “We had been looking for premises (I remember surreal Wire magazine described the LMC in 1997. The Coombes,Tony Wren, Paul Burwell or Colin Wood might dealings with the Diocesan Committee for Redundant LMC has shown remarkable powers of survival, just as well have come from Mars (or stayed there). Churches)..Actually a lot of the connections between the but it was not the first grouping of its kind. There was nothing happening, other than the music.” LMC and LFMC happened through informal contacts, for Richard Leigh: “The Musicians‚ Cooperative was David Toop, Resonance Vol 2, No 1, winter 1993. instance I had fallen in love with Annabel Nicolson when set up as a pressure group for a clearly defined set A source of continuing inspiration to the younger she and the Film Co-op were still in the Dairy in Prince of PAGE 2 • VARIANT • VOLUME 2 NUMBER 8 • SUMMER 1999
Wales Crescent, and I hung about while she was free improvisers, one of its most distinctive fea- Left: Tilbury programming films there, doing odd jobs like selling tea tures as an organisation was its openness and Below: Paul and biscuits, sweeping the floor, and designing a inclusiveness. Other musical pressure groups were Burwell on the beach in the membership card that was also a Thaumatrope... The more closely tied to one genre or style of music making, while the LMC forever had a hankering seventies LFMC wanted to take the space at 42 Gloucester Avenue Bottom: Derek for the genuine experiment, whatever the idiom. (Camden Town), but it was too large for them, and I Bailey and think Guy Sherwin approached the LMC with a view to This has contributed to its resilience, and also gen- dancer subletting. I think Annabel might have had something erated a constant debate about what on earth the to do with the idea, as the LMC ‘office’‚ and meetings LMC stands for. were located in her one room flat.” For many years the LMC was a large collective Paul Burwell, Performance magazine. (200 members), supposedly running itself in an authentically collective manner. Open monthly Even before finding a venue, “LMC events” had meetings enabled the entire membership to par- been happening all over London, ever since the ticipate in a lively criticism of any member who organisation was founded. Now many of these improv. Dislocation Dance (Manchester) and Reptile Ranch (Cardiff) linked up with local alt- had actually done any work. The problems of col- moved into the Camden building, and a calendar lectivity are well known. These days we shake our and newsletter were started up (1977/78). The punk duo The Door & The Window. Andrew Brenner’s 49 Americans had explored left-field heads and think we know better, but the LMC’s level of activity, and its breadth, were both factional struggles were a simple result of a large remarkable, and for the next ten years an average pop “in a relaxed atmosphere of concerned patrio- tism”, sharing their Tuesday night slot with The number of musicians all being passionately of 200 public performances a year were organised, involved and trying to get a hand on the steering almost entirely by unpaid administration. Nearly Majorca Orchestra (“original marches, waltzes, descriptive fantasies, Edwardian disco and wheel. In this piece I am deliberately giving my every day of the year the space was in use for personal view of what the LMC was all about—in rehearsal. This was a musicians’ initiative, run on Scottish reggae”). The LMC was bursting at the seams. the early days there were many different agendas. musicians’ terms, so the chaos was often high, but Many British improvisers were, and still are, high- there was plenty going on. The National Jazz “BARRY LEIGH’S REPORT: ly politicised, in all the different Marxist and anar- Centre in the 1980s, by contrast, spent half a 1. The wall blocking the railway bridge at the rear of the chist hues. For many others, the collective spirit decade and untold sums of money not organising building has been demolished. still expresses important truths about the co-oper- a single gig. 2. Jumble leftovers are to be cleared from the loft. ative and non-hierarchical nature of improvised By anyone’s standards the LMC building was a music, and the importance of musicians taking 3. Health inspector and surveyors will be contacted flexible performance space, little more than a creative control of their own music. A glance at about the toilet (to be installed). It was noted that shell packed with potential. Members spent hours life inside an orchestra, with its composer-driven relations with the Film Co-op are deteriorating. clambering all over it, trying to render it habit- hierarchy, is usually enough to remind us of the able. Sylvia Hallett installed electricity and TOILET:The Gulbenkian Foundation say nothing doing‚ alternative. wiring, and Annabel Nicolson contributed a wood- about our application for financial assistance. en floor from her flat to build a wall. The floor was “The dynamics of the current magazine meetings DOORS: Stuart Boardman will put handles on the doors depend more on pointed silences, emotional blackmail, as hard as you like: you could flood it, light a bon- to the performing space.” fire on it, bounce rocks off it. And after the show mumbled asides and semi-sneers than on direct no staff would grumble, because there were no LMC Newsletter, December 1979. statements. The Musics collective is frightened of staff, and you would be cleaning it up yourself. But behind all the glamour and the razzmatazz, growth, frightened of taking and using power.There is Many saw the space as not especially to do with what was the LMC really like? Personally I always no sense of history, of where the music is from and why improvised music, but simply “astonishing...a found it a rich source of friendly and healthily people play it. The collective is a morass of impersonality. place where you can do things you can’t do else- eccentric people. Joining was like running away to We trivialise each other’s contributions.” where”. (David Cunningham, quoted in Time Out, join the circus. The place was a model of self-help Steve Beresford, letter to Musics collective meeting, 1980) and an opportunity to experiment in ways impos- titled “Why we need a new publication”, October 1980. sible elsewhere. As an organisation, it was most “Was the real Britain very different from how you had In 1980 factional struggle and good old-fashioned riven by factional strife when the membership was imagined it? personal rowing resulted in several resignations most active, of course. And as a building it was a from the LMC and the demise of Musics maga- On my second day here I went to an Environmental bottomless pit into which you could pour your Music Festival, where I met some musicians who played unpaid time. There was always some administra- on canal boats, and others who played the piano with tive headache to do with the ghastly business of their feet, and I thought: what a different attitude running a London experimental venue in a bare towards art, so playful and free. loft. Noise: the laundry downstairs and the Kings What inspired you to set up the Frank Chickens? Cross main line out back ensured there was noise I became involved with the London Musicians Collective coming in. As for noise going out, there were flats after the festival I mentioned, and started performing across the road, our soundproofing consisted of straight away. I had had this idea that I was an artist closing the windows, and some of the concerts since childhood.” were a little, er, exuberant. I remember watching the Dead Kennedies building an immense PA one Kazuko Hohki interviewed in Japan Embassy sunny afternoon, in preparation for an unpubli- newsletter, March 1998. cised gig which had people queuing around the David Toop’s 1978 Festival of Environmental block. I cycled away before the mayhem was Music & Performance was a nine day event, in unleashed. Then there were fire regulations (“You some ways a massive celebration of the LMC’s new can’t do that in here”), charitable status (“We found home, and a major influence on subsequent can’t give you subsidy to do that”), and a lack of work. Warming up with a talk from Trevor Wishart toilets. There were toilets in the Film Co-op next and an instrument building workshop, Toop, door, there was a British Rail toilet under the Burwell, Parker, Paul Lytton and several others building, there was a toilet in the pub opposite... flung themselves into a continuous 24 hour con- OK, let’s admit there were no toilets. This became cert called Circadian Rhythms. Visiting perform- a conundrum, a problematic fortress against which ers included Alvin Curran (USA), Luc Houtkamp successive waves of voluntary admin would charge (Holland), Carlos Trinidade (Portugal), and uphill, only to reel back down in stunned defeat. Christian d’Aiwée (France). F.I.G. (the eight piece Benefit concerts, grant applications, sympathetic Feminist Improvising Group, whose performances builders—nothing seemed to work. Let’s just hope were renowned for their hilarity) alternated with it added to our beatnik loft-dwelling cred. seminars (“Music/Eventstructure/Context”). Stuart Marshall, Annabel Nicolson and Whirled “When we joined the LMC two years ago we did so in Music played on nearby Primrose Hill, and guer- the belief that it was a collective—built on the political rilla activities by Lol Coxhill and Michael Parsons tenet of collectivism.We find in actuality a club set up to could be encountered along the towpath of the celebrate individualism.We feel that the newsletter Regents Canal. must call for collective involvement from its ‘collective’ The festival came at the end of a month (July membership, yet in doing so we are accused of being 1978) which had already witnessed 13 perfor- sectarian. However, under the constant cringing mances, several open workshop sessions, and two criticism that we receive, we shall continue to co- meetings: one devoted to the LMC Records label, ordinate the newsletter and until removed by the LMC the other the usual monthly meeting open to all shall continue to attempt to build toward ‘Collectivity.’’” Collective members. Improvisers Mike Hames, Dick Beard and Tim Dennis, LMC Newsletter, August Roger Turner, Hugh Metcalfe, Sinan Savaskan and 1980. Roger Smith had played. The Alterations quartet If we accept the liberal idea of art as an (Toop, Beresford, Peter Cusack and Terry Day) had autonomous space, where other values can be con- brought over Fred Frith and Peter Brotzmann to sidered and explored, then the LMC building was perform alongside their own brand of dub’n’din like a concrete expression of this. Established by VARI-PAGE 3 • VARIANT • VOLUME 2 NUMBER 8 • SUMMER 1999
Left: Eugene zine. The December 1980 newsletter contains the exit. quit. By March 24th 1988.” Chadbourne 99 scary outpourings of vitriol and the squealing of “Memories... the Musicians Du Nil changing the LMC Press Release, September 1987. Centre: Cusack bruised egos. Frustration is clearly audible. group Collective into an Eastern Bazaar after their concert, Almost completely unrecognised by the outside The Film Co-op, also given notice to quit, hung on Right: Clive when they attempted to sell the audience their for many years before decamping to Hoxton Bell 99 world, these musicians were consistently ignored instruments, trinkets, and, I think, items of their or sneered at by the music press, and regarded as Square. But a rumour went round that the LMC Bottom: clothing... Annabel Nicolson flooding the place in a had already closed up shop, so members stopped Tristran suspicious charlatans by the contemporary music representation of the Mississippi river (actually quite hiring the space, income dried up, and moving out Honsinger 99 establishment. Arts Council support was indeed convincing, but I’d drunk a whole bottle of Southern came to seem a positive option. The words “alba- forthcoming for larger scale events and it paid the Comfort and thought I was Huckleberry Finn).” rent, but long hours of unpaid admin and building tross” and “neck” were used in discussions about work were leading to burnout at a tender age. Paul Burwell reminiscing in Performance magazine. the dear old building. Both brake cables on my Meanwhile our richer and better equipped neigh- New, younger members arrived to gaze with bicycle were severed one evening during an LMC bour, the Film Co-op, was trying to evict us. respectful awe at a room where Evan Parker had concert, something I noticed only after tumbling played a trio with Kazuko Hohki and a seven foot off at the bottom of a hill in Chalk Farm. This “There is a clear polarisation between ‘collectivists’ and inflatable Godzilla. Or to dismiss the past as “a stoked my paranoia, but it had no bearing on the ‘musicians’. Many of the Cs are interested in music, and bunch of saxophonists tooting away for hours to an LMC’s decision to leave. In spring 1999, 42 many of the Ms are concerned to maintain collectivism, average audience of six or seven” (The Door & Gloucester Avenue still stands, derelict and empty, but it looks as though the basic differences are The Window, quoted in Time Out). Not everyone sadly gazing at railway and canal. insuperable. The Cs resent any suggestion that there are was happy with the LMC’s name; I recall someone In spite of the end-of-an-era gloom, the final useful musical criteria which give certain examples of suggesting that the building be renamed “Risks”, Gloucester Road newsletter in June 1988 publi- music greater value than others. In my view if you can’t, and neon letters should be fixed to the roof. For a cised some dozen events happening there, includ- or won’t, distinguish between a ‘good’‚ piece of while we affectionately subtitled it The Palace Of ing a Musicians Against Nuclear Arms benefit improvisation and one which isn’t, there’s nothing to Living Culture, as we struggled to mend smashed involving 40 players. The LMC’s longest surviving aim for and you might as well watch the telly.” windows and doors. inhabitant, Member Number 1 Paul Burwell, hav- Tony Wren, open letter to LMC, in December 1980 By 1987 it was clear that professional adminis- ing played the premises‚ first ever concert, also Newsletter. tration was required, whether we could afford it or performed at the last. Administrator Dave After patching up the spat with the Film Co-op, not. A hiring out for a private party had resulted Matzdorf was now followed by Simon Woodhead the LMC kept up a high level of activity during in equipment being stolen from our neighbours, and Philippa Gibson. The organisation camped out the 1980s. Some of the founders had resigned, and the Film Co-op. Recriminations flew. After ten in Simon’s office in the Diorama, Regents Park, political strife seemed a thing of the past. years of concerts, we were informed we had no and contemplated its venue-less future. Events Members came forward to do the dirty work, license for “music and dancing”, so were liable to were organised at the Diorama, Red Rose, Air whether it was taking glasses back to the pub or be closed any day by Camden Council. And the Gallery and Tom Allen Centre in Stratford, but a phoning the Goethe Institute. Peter Cusack, Paul condition of the building was not compatible with proper home proved hard to find. Burwell, Sylvia Hallett, Susanna Ferrar, Tom our status as pioneering arts animateurs, let alone From September 1989 Richard Scott, a big Sheehan and Dean Brodrick all showed astonish- its original function as a British Rail social club Ornette Coleman fan, brought a certain jazzy flair ing reluctance to pack it in and get a proper job. canteen. to the admin. His “Three Cities” festival in March Those who sat in the little office space overlook- 1990 featured the first performance by “A last minute ironic twist to LMC development plans: Manchester’s Stock, Hausen & Walkman, “the ing the railway tracks were sometimes accused of Today is the launch of the LMC’s ‘Home Additions’ being power-crazed careerists, but the truth was industrial cartoon soundtrack tape manipulation appeal, our plans to carry out major improvements to ensemble”. SH&W went on to became one of the that your own music would probably suffer if you these premises, starting with the foyer area you are spent too much time there. On the other hand, if internationally most successful young improv standing in! In total part one will cost £9,000... As long groups of the 90s. you leaned on a broom in a corner of the space for ago as last September we discussed the possibility of a long enough, you would see an extraordinary car- However, the period 1989 to 1991 feels with long lease with British Rail. There doesn’t seem to be a hindsight like the LMC’s darkest hour. A series of nival pass through. For example, Dean Brodrick’s problem, they replied. Last week they sent us a notice to “Great Little Inuit Eskimo Show” in February woefully underpaid workers wrestled with a dozen 1985: an Inuit drum battle, shadow puppets, igloo types of administrative chaos. In February 1990 building for beginners, a contest where pairs of the AGM heard they had been struck off the regis- singers chanted into each other’s mouths, the film ter at Companies House (not Richard Scott’s fault, Nanook Of The North accompanied by improvis- I hasten to add). Elder members wrung their ing string quartet, and a discussion led by anthro- hands. Susanna Ferrar and Eddie Prevost adminis- pologist and film maker Hugh Brody. For several tered the kiss of life to the accounts. Nick Couldry months Max Eastley’s Aeolian harps were fixed to performed legal emergency surgery. But even Paul the roof above the entrance, singing eerily to the Burwell’s new computer seemed powerless to street whenever the wind got up. Inside, one of arrest the slide. the many “floor percussionists” might be setting “In the past year or so, organisations have sprung up (for up: Barry Leigh with his revolving glass coffeeta- instance in Manchester and Colchester) which have bles, played with chunks of polystyrene, or Roger shown that wider audiences can be achieved with Turner’s junk kits, heavyweight detritus of the positive presentation which makes no apologies for Industrial Revolution. what improvisation is, but equally does not assume that In 1982 Alan McGee, later to be mogul of everyone out there somehow knows about it. I believe Creation Records, was running the weekly Beet- that with a lot of hard work and clear thinking the LMC Bop Club in the LMC. Possibly the most spectacu- could do the same, in fact the LMC should aim to lead lar and downright life-threatening event was the the field, not drag behind it. The LMC’s ambition should debut performance by the Bow Gamelan be to be the principal organisation representing Ensemble, climax of Sylvia Hallett’s 1983 improvised music in Britain. If however the LMC does “Evening Of Self-Made Instruments”. This was not have such ambitions, those involved should also a prime example of how the Collective regu- seriously ask themselves whether it deserves the larly gave birth to highly original and influential funding it is claiming.” work, which barely fitted within any definition of Nick Couldry, document titled “Does The LMC Have A new music. The place was packed for this riot of Future?”, September 1991. pyrotechnics and barely controlled arc-welding equipment abuse, but it was noticeable that “Ambition” is the key word here. The LMC had Burwell’s friends were hovering nervously around been lively, angry, wild at heart and wonderfully PAGE 4 • VARIANT • VOLUME 2 NUMBER 8 • SUMMER 1999 deaf to common sense, but maybe it had never out of the hall. Suddenly journalists and promot- actually strengthening and professionalising the been ambitious enough. The first sign that this ers from Europe and the States were hanging out. organisation, as directors bring in a wide range of might be about to change was a small glossy Older improvisers were fiercely condemning the skill and experience from the outside world. At leaflet splashed in orange and white, advertising antics of younger ones, and anyone concerned recent meetings directors have virtually been the LMC “Autumn Collection”, a series of ten con- about the LMC’s health could heave sighs of relief. queuing up to make professional-style presenta- certs from September to December 1991. “Cardew was wise to stake out and defend his ground tions involving laminated boards and highlighter Someone had invented word processing and by spelling out the social dimension to his music. His pens. No laptop animations or corporate sweeten- graphic design, and the LMC had noticed. Then purpose was not, of course, to defend “his” property ers yet, but it can only be a matter of time. came the December 1991 newsletter—in place of rights, but to fight a corner and to express something Discussion has been tightly focused, pragmatic the one-sheet catalogue of despair, castigating the human, faced with what Phil Ochs called the ‘terrible and good humoured—as a veteran of Collective membership for its lethargy, this was a 16 page heartless men’ who still run our lives. Cardew’s music is meetings it all feels odd, but strangely sane. magazine bulging with record reviews, advertising not concerned with entertainment or self-gratification, Backed up by a team of gluttons for punish- and a substantial interview with Alabama gui- and I suppose in the wake of the collapse of ment and hard work (Rob Storey, Dave Ross, Mick tarist Davey Williams. There was even a trailer for communism and the triumph of capital (don’t you just Ritchie, Steve Noble, Caroline Kraabel et al), an interview with 84 year old calypso singer The hate it when that happens?) few will take an interest in England and Baxter have been administering and Roaring Lion, to be published in Variant maga- these recordings. Listening to them now, I am steering the LMC since 1992, which is consider- zine. Phil England and Ed Baxter had arrived. overwhelmed, rendered inarticulate and revitalised. ably longer than any comparable team. Having “The venue was unconventional—a swimming pool, Great stuff. The newspaper is full of details of how long observed them at work in the office, I have noth- complete with water and hot, chlorinated atmosphere. ‘Starlight Express’ has been running. It’s all quite clear. ing but praise for their ability to combine mind- The number of acts was uncommon—nine, and to There is only one lie, there is only one truth.Whey hey numbing paperwork with the seizing of initiatives. describe their repertoire as diverse would be a highly hey!” These are ferociously creative people who would misleading understatement. Judged in brutally logistic have a major impact on whichever organisation Ed Baxter reviewing Cornelius Cardew’s Piano Music in they found themselves in, and the LMC is lucky to terms, the event was a resounding success. The the pilot issue of Resonance, September 1992. auditorium was packed; the concert started almost on have felt their boots on its backside. Of course this Later that year (September 1992) the burgeoning time; the proceedings managed to accommodate the tiresomely positive view is my own—feathers have newsletter finally exploded, supernova-like, into activities of a BBC TV crew without serious disruption. I been ruffled and resignations have been handed the pilot edition of Resonance magazine, under the for one enjoyed the evening, although the overall in from time to time, but the LMC in 1999 has no editorship of Keith Cross and Mick Ritchie. impression was more reminiscent of a night at the shortage of vision or ambition. Picking up the threads 12 years after the demise music hall than a concert of leading-edge state of the “Running throughout Resonance 107.3 FM was Peter of Musics, Resonance has proved more durable. art experimentation. But that’s no bad thing in my Cusack’s London Soundscape. Listeners were asked to Seven years later its thought-provoking mix of opinion.” send in or tell of their favourite London sounds. interviews, reviews and theoretical articles now Surprisingly some of these included arcade machines Forestry Commission employee Robert Matthews comes with the tempting bonus of a cover CD. and even traffic. From the vast response Big Ben was the reviewing “Fiume” in LMC Newsletter, March 1992. Unlike the promotional fluff of most cover CDs, favourite, but it was often the case that a collection of LMC funding had been devolved from the Arts however, Resonance features recordings unavail- sounds was chosen.Who ever hears a sound on its own Council to the London Arts Board. By 1991 I sus- able elsewhere, usually culled from LMC live anyway? The recording of Deptford Creek was pect that LAB saw an opportunity to offload a events. The magazine has been creatively steered particularly memorable with the power station hum flaky client, and more or less threatened to with- through the hands of a series of guest editors by and the Thames brought together.” draw funding unless the LMC proved itself to be Phil England. By keeping the editorial team small more than an ageing crew of indignant but impo- it has avoided the factional gang warfare that crip- Tom Wallace writing about Resonance 107.3 FM radio, in tent improvisers. Nick Couldry assembled a new pled Musics. And the sightlines have always been Resonance magazine Vol 7, No 1, autumn 1998. board of directors, including newcomer Ed Baxter, aimed wider than the confines of experimental In spring 1999 it feels like the LMC is pausing to who had been looking into Camberwell Bus music, trying rather to locate that music within a catch its breath after a year of extraordinary activ- Garage or Butlers Wharf as new LMC bases. wider debate about culture. ity. It was hard to believe there was not a secret Baxter picked up the LAB gauntlet and set about Phil England became part time administrator back room packed with full time workers some- promoting events much more ambitious in scale. in the summer of 1992, as the LMC stopped squat- where, rather than the slender part time employ- “Fiume” was intended to create a splash, as it ting in members‚ flats and took office space in ment of two people. The Annual Festival, were, about the potential still within the LMC. Kings Cross. The office moved to Community increasing steadily in international stature every United in the swimming pool were new arrivals Music in Farringdon for several years, and has now year since 1992, finally moved out of Conway Hall like Sianed Jones and John Grieve alongside old settled, south of the Thames for the first time, in to the South Bank Centre. Charlemagne Palestine favourites Charles Hayward, David Toop and Max the Leathermarket complex near London Bridge. and Pauline Oliveros visited from the States to Eastley, and Frank Chickens. For many the eerie Ed Baxter tried to give up his programming post great acclaim—their first appearances here in 25 beauty of Lol Coxhill’s bald and bespectacled fig- in autumn 1992, and has been trying unsuccessful- and 17 years respectively.Vainio, Fennesz and ure playing an almost submerged soprano saxo- ly to give it up ever since, as the LMC’s activities Rehberg divided the audience with their fierce phone remains an abiding memory. This was the have grown ever larger in ambition. brand of Powerbook-driven electronica. Canny kind of crazy avant garde extravaganza the media Meetings open to the whole membership were fundraising ensured that for the first time the loves, and the coverage was enormous. finally abandoned as hopelessly inefficient—if Festival actually came in on budget. The next step was the First Annual Festival Of project coordinators failed to turn up the meeting Resonance 107.3 FM was the Collective’s very Experimental Music, five days in the Conway Hall, could be effortlessly hijacked by anyone who fan- own radio station, broadcasting for four weeks in Holborn, in May 1992. Fresh-faced youths shared cied a debate on the purpose of the organisation, June 1998 as part of John Peel’s Meltdown the stage with names from the Jurassic early sev- while practical work would be shelved. A team of Festival. This colossal and unique project, instigat- enties. Visitors from abroad notably included Ikue directors with particular responsibilities was tried ed by Phil England, was London’s first station ded- Mori (New York drum machinist, formerly of Arto instead. Any member could still put themselves icated to Radio Art. Over 300 people took part in Lindsay’s DNA) and Sainkho Namtchalak forward as a possible director. Slightly modified, creating 600 hours of material, including live (Mongolian throat singer wearing vinyl LP head- this system continues today, with about eight broadcasts, children’s shows, drama and historical dress). Baxter had the vision to see that if the directors having skills in marketing, law, website works of radio art from station archives around event was big enough it would not only be visible management and so on. The AGM remains a the world. Described by New York’s Village Voice Left: Filament: on an international scale, but also more attractive chance for all members to kick up a fuss. as “the best radio station in the world”, Otomo & to funding bodies. A hectic plethora of offstage There are only four or so musicians currently Resonance FM was nominated for the Sony Sachiko 98 performances, discussions, workshops and video among the directors, and this is a direct result of Station Of The Year Award. Provocative and often Middle: The Ex, screenings complemented the main concerts. At the Charities Commission ruling that they cannot wild, this was the LMC at its most reckless and Tom Cora and times the heated debates in the bar seemed as be remunerated for LMC activities; in other visionary. friends compelling as the music simultaneously bursting words, no paid gigs for directors. I suspect this is Fifty programmes were specially made for Right: Sachiko M 99 VARI-PAGE 5 • VARIANT • VOLUME 2 NUMBER 8 • SUMMER 1999
Above Left: Keith Rowe 94 Resonance FM at LMC Sound, the LMC’s new stu- then ignored by Arts Council panels. This music, Above Right: Alan Tomlinson and Sainkho dio in Brixton, which opened formally in so distinctively British in some ways, is supported Nemchylak 92 November 1998. A carefully nurtured Lottery by a fraction of the funding offered to contempo- Left: Paul Burwell & Steve Noble 93, Elliot funding application has resulted in a fully rary composition or electronic music. Is it because Sharp & Zeena Parkins 93, Maggie Nicols equipped digital studio, which now bids in the it’s a little more working class? Because it doesn’t & Pete Noble 93 market for commercial work and enables use as much sexy technology? Or simply that it Collective members to devise recording projects deals too much in the provocative, the unexpect- there, or simply master their CDs. A small team of ed, the damn weird? enthusiastic engineers is kept under control by At a grassroots level the music carries on all project manager Mick Ritchie. As I write, the stu- year round in a gaggle of club spaces run by per- dio is in the midst of recording 30 hour-long shows sistent promoters. A new LMC initiative aims to dealing with London’s alternative music scene, to help out with publicity or PA equipment for these be broadcast weekly in the New York area by small but established clubs. Established, but not WFMU station. A sharp learning curve for all necessarily cosy—the last time I played one was at involved, hopefully these shows will be taken up Hugh Metcalfe’s long running Klinker, in an elsewhere. Also launched in November 1998 was Islington pub. After some initial confusion (Hugh the website
While writing this piece I arranged to meet LMC administrator Phil England to find out what was currently on his mind. Not so much an interview, more a rumination over bowls of yogurt soup in a 24 hour Turkish café. England stressed the strate- gic thinking behind much LMC activity in the last seven years. Fighting against any tendency to parochialism, the strategy has been to raise the profile of the music to the highest visibility possi- ble, as a way of benefiting the alternative musical community and its individual constituents. Rather than talking always to its own audience, the emphasis is on reaching out and placing LMC activities in a wider context of cultural debate. The way that improvisers work and collaborate locks in to many other cultural subgenres and tiny currents in society, and music must be part of that wider picture. This strategy becomes all the more crucial given the chronic undervaluing and underfunding of this musical area. Inviting saxophonist Evan Parker onto a TV arts programme to react to a Jackson Pollock painting? It makes perfect sense to me, but it’s unthinkable because Parker’s entire musical genre is virtually invisible. Phil England points out how the Arts Council’s own reports rec- ommend exactly the type of musical activity pro- moted by the LMC, and how these reports are