Interview with Et Cetera, January 2001.

They are legendary in this valley, and no ammount of waffle can do them justice. Now, after 26 years, Et Cetera have re-formed to tour and promote the re-release of their legendary album - "The Self-Titled Eponymous Debut". Evan Paris caught them during rehearsals at the Graphics Barn.

EP - Ok, lets get your names and instruments for the tape, as is customary.
AL - I'm Adam Lucas and my instruments are piano, strummage and vocals.
JH - Jo Hustler: keyboards.
JC - My name's John Craven, and I play a George-Guitar.
LI - Er... Linda Imeson: flute and banging noises.
JM - Jessica Moore: bass.
II - And I'm Ike Imeson.
LI - He drums.
EP - And together you are Et Cetera.
AL - That's right.
EP - You were last together back in... 1974, is that right?
AL - Yeah.
JC - Well, she wasn't.
JM - I wasn't even born.
JC - But the rest of us, for sure...
AL - Well we saw each other a couple of years at Clustcwyr events, but, we've not played with each other...
EP - So what's with the young blood?
JH - Well Tim went missing in 1974.
EP - Your original bass player.
JH - Yeah.
JM - So I'm standing in.
EP - And how do you come to be involved?
AL - She's our daughter's girlfriend.
JM - A-huh.
EP - You and Jo?
JH - Yeah.
EP - Your daughter's Claire, yeah? Is she involved too?
AL - No-no. She was quite clear on the subject.
JC - Doesn't want anything to do with her parents' outfit.
EP - Seems a sound perrogative.
JM - It's Claire's loss.
EP - You and Claire are in Magenta Moor of course...
JM - Yeah, that's right.
EP - Is that not gonna clash with the Et Cetera stuff?
JM - I'm a part timer.
AL - We've got Flinton Thorns from Square Root filling in later in the year.
EP - A-huh. But the rest of you are all from the original line-up.
AL - The Et Cetera line-up, yeah.
EP - What ever happened to Tim Scott, your bassist?
JH - He just...
II - No-one knows.
AL - He vanished.
JC - Up his own drug-addled arse.
JH - Yeah well.
EP - He was an acid casualty wasn't he?
LI - Yeah. That's pretty much the long and short of it.
JC - By the time I joined, the poor bugger was already fruity. But he was pretty much the boy genius before that, so I'm told.
LI - For sure. He was the main artistic force in the band.
JC - Our very own Syd, as it were.
JH - Mm.
JC - Which makes me Dave Gilmore, dunnit? Only more trim.
EP - So tell me a little more about what you were all up to back in '74, before you split.
JC - Well this lot... save the young 'un... were in a band before I was involved, but then I came along in 1973 and changed all that.
JH - Me and Ad stumbled across him in a bar in New York, and he followed us home.
JC - That's right.
EP - So what was going on in New York?
JC - I was living there, and these two [Adam and Jo] were there on a holiday.
EP - And you followed them home?
JC - I was fed up, and Jo seemed an attractive proposition, as it were... pretty young lady with a guitar, and an interest in synths.
EP - So Et Cetera came to being out of your pure animal lust for Jo?
JC - You could say that. But she wasn't interested. What with going out with Adam and everything.
JH - Wasn't for your want of trying.
JC - No, sure. It's what kept me involved. I like a challenge.
JH - The two of them [Adam and John] were very competetive around me. It was rather thrilling.
LI - Practices were covered in drool. I think the reason we sounded so strong was through Ad and John's rivalry.
JC - Nah. I'm just naturally talented, Lind.
AL - Me too.
JM - You've gotta love this modesty.
EP - So is the working relationship here still founded on everyone wanting to get in bed with Jo?
AL - Nah. He can have her.
JC - Yeah?
JH - Charming!
JC - That alright by you, Jodie?
JH - Well, I guess we'll have to see. You'll have to be a good little boy.
JC - Oh, I can't be doing with that.
JH - You'll just have to do without then.
EP - So you split up in '74. Presumably the jealousy tore you all apart.
LI - Not really. It was a combination of factors.
JH - Tim leaving...
AL - And the record company screwing us over.
EP - That was Tapioca yeah? When they did their disappearing into the flames trick.
II - A-huh.
EP - They did the insurance company and then split with the cash didn't they?
II - They never got the insurance, but they left town with all our money.
JC - And our tapes, I wouldn't wonder. It'd certainly explain a lot.
EP - I thought your tapes went in the fire.
II - Well the bootlegs had to come from somewhere.
LI - And that's before you get to the covers.
EP - Of course. This is the nitty-gritty of the story, so let's spin round it another time shall we, before we get to the creamy centre?
JM - What?
EP - Next month you're finally releasing your infamous album: "The Self-Titled Eponymous Debut".
AL - That's correct.
JC - It's a record that was meant to have been put out by Tapioca in 1974, but they did a runner, and we were left without a deal and without the tapes we'd made.
II - So the record never got released.
LI - Because we didn't have a copy.
AL - And the next thing we know, one of our songs is number one.
EP - What?
JH - Well it wasn't one of our songs, but it was very similar.
AL - Bohemian Rhapsody.
EP - So Bo Rhap was written by you?
JH - We had a song called Bramalian Rhapsody.
AL - On the Eponymous Debut.
LI - It was a similar thing.
II - Heavier.
JC - Sort of the opposite way round. Clearly a copy though. Words and chords and... well... everything.
AL - How Queen got hold of it, well...
JC - Well Tapioca got to them, presumably.
EP - And then more of the lost tracks got remade didn't they?
LI - Ambrosia got turned into Go West.
EP - That's on the Ambrosia rice pudding ads at the moment, yeah? That's you isn't it?
AL - Well it's not our version but yeah. It's what it was. It's a cover. That's come out of the bootlegs. All part of why we've got together again.
EP - And Paranoid Android was one of yours too?
JC - And "All Sit Down". And "You Spin Me" by Dead or Alive.
AL - We're certainly well covered.
LI - But no-one's ever believed us, of course.
EP - Well it's hardly surprising. Sounds completely made up.
AL - As a rumour, it's genearlly been ridiculed.
II - But then the bootlegs appeared in the early nineties.
EP - Which was before Paranoid Android of course...
JM - Yeah.
AL - And then people began to take it all a bit more seriously. Then we started to become, well a bit more legendary.
JM - It's all really, weird, innit?
EP - For sure. So how's the re-release come about?
II - It's a bit o' craft really.
JC - I used the bootlegs and some rediscovered demos to piece together Paranoia and Ashes to Ashes...
EP - ...two of the Et Cetera tracks...
JC - ...right... to peace together them for my Craven Images comp. And Ad got wind and got in touch to see if we could do the rest of the album similar.
AL - I heard the Craven tracks, and thought they turned out really great, save their lack of me.
EP - Yeah, you redid the vocals, didn't you?
JC - Aye. So anyway, it was a bit harder to do the rest of the tracks...
II - See the bootleg's shite, sound-wise.
AL - Yeah, and there were no demos available for most of the songs too.
JC - So we had a lot on us plate.
EP - And what did you end up doing?
AL - Well we got very hi-tech with the bootlegs, and re-recorded some of the parts.
LI - Faithfully.
AL - Yeah, faithfully.
EP - So it's not the original recording then?
AL - Well as much of it as possible is.
JC - But some of it was re-done this last year.
EP - Kind of remastered and remixed.
JC - Well we tried to keep it as close to the original as we could.
EP - I see. And so when it comes out...
AL - People will be able to hear it in a decent quality for the first time.
EP - Yeah. Course, you're having to credit the songs to other people.
AL - Yeah, we don't have any way of proving any of the covers were ours originally, so we've got to go with their credits.
LI - Which is rough really, but they're big and toothy, and we're little mice.
II - And we're not allowed to say they ripped us off either, cos they'll rip us to shreds.
EP - I thought you already had?
JC - Like they'll read this?
EP - Fair point. Why'd you bother with the credits anyway?
JC - Clustcwyr got their knuckles wrapped with Songs To Scream At.
EP - Your covers album?
JC - A-huh. So they play it safe nowadays, just incase the PRS or whoever are earwigging.
AL - Welcome to the scary world of copyright law.
JC - I don't give a shit anyway. They're welcome to the tunes.
AL - We're very altruistic in that respect.
JC - Let the capitalist junta get rich on our hard work.
AL - It wasn't that hard.
JC - True.
II - It's like...
JC - I mean, who's the richer man? Them with their million-selling singles? Or us... with...
EP - Well quite.
AL - But we're not bitter.
JC - Not at all.
II - We keep our neuroses in a jar.
AL - Do we?
II - I do.
LI - Speak for yourself.
JC - Mm... What were we on about?
JM - Et Cetera.
JC - Oh yeah.
AL - So the record comes out next month, all being well.
II - And then we start touring.
EP - Oh yeah?
JM - Yeah.
EP - And what'll you be playing?
AL - Et Cetera tracks, obviously. But some solo stuff too.
EP - Correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't you all been kind of bitchy about each others' solo stuff?
JC - Oh yeah. I can't stand their stuff.
AL - Yeah, we're not so keen on John's stuff either...
LI - But we're all clubbing together to do the solo stuff we tolerate the most.
II - And John and I are gonna make some noises on our own too.
AL - As are myself and Jo.
EP - So it's a combined Et Cetera, Adam & Jo, and Metal Headed John Craven tour then?
LI - Yup.
EP - Wow.
AL - Get your tickets while you still can.
EP - For sure. This sounds fantastic. A proper release for the Eponymous Debut, and then a tour like that.
JC - I'm looking forward to it. Just like old times.
EP - What solo tracks are you doing together then?
JH - You'll have to wait and see.
EP - Can't you tell us now?
JM - That'd spoil the surprise.
JC - She's right.
EP - Well ok. All I can say is I'm really looking forward to all this. Any other plans on the horizon?
II - I think we'll take it bit by bit, Evan.
JC - Yeah. See how we feel at the end of the tour.
EP - Ok then. I won't keep you from your practice any longer. Good luck, and I hope it all goes ok.
JH - Thanks.
JC - Cheers, Ev.
 

"The Self-Titled Eponymous Debut" is due out in February. For tour dates see pp87-92.