Peasants In Paradise: The Indelible Impact of Leatherface
During the late '80s, the UK punk scene found itself at a stylistic crossroad. Amidst the post-UK82/post-Crass climate, many bands saw the only logical progression was to go upward; harder, heavier and faster. Oftentimes this led to lurking into the taboo realms of heavy metal to reach these new extremes.
Simultaneously, there was a small group of bands at the time who chose to pivot in a much different direction. Rather than participating in the Aural Arms Race and creating more riffless racket, these bands boldly injected melody, hooks and melancholic undertones into their songs. At the forefront of this new sub-genre were Sunderland's Leatherface. The emotion in the band's music cut deep into the listener's heart with an edge as sharp as a knife. And the gruff personas of the individual members created a beautifully perfect contrast with the heartfelt and soulful tunes that the group would pound out night after night.
To this day Leatherface continue to be a highly regarded band across all of the micro-splinter sub-sects of underground music. Perhaps part of that lasting appeal is that the band forever retained their underground status, never fully getting their "big break." It's not that they were incapable of achieving something greater, rather it simply was not part of their destiny. Many of their contemporaries at the time did make the leap from indie to major labels, yet none of those bands hold a candle to the entity that is Leatherface. None of them strike a chord with people the way that Leatherface manages to. None of them have the sentimentality, the personality or the sincerity of Leatherface.
Laurence Bell was the man behind the Leatherface records, first with his Roughneck Records imprint and then with Domino Records. While some may feel a gruff punk outfit like Leatherface sticks out from much of the Domino catalog, Laurence cut his teeth in DIY punk. It was on his first label, Head Eruption, that Extreme Noise Terror released their slammer "A Holocaust In Your Head" in 1989. He also did the punk zine Harsh Reality and fronted the band Perfect Daze with members of The Stupids and ENT.
Since starting Domino in 1993, Laurence has maintained a high level of quality and established the imprint as one of the most respected independent record labels going. While the label first began by licensing releases from US bands such as Sebadoh, Smog, Will Oldham, and Royal Trux, it has branched out considerably in subsequent years. Domino has also issued retrospectives from some of the best early indie bands including Postcard Records acts Orange Juice and Josef K and Scottish post punks the Fire Engines, along with more recent albums from the Television Personalities and The Fall.
Laurence was kind enough to speak with us on the phone late one evening and was extremely forthcoming with info. You can sense a sincere fondness for the era as he recounted his experiences of the early 1990s. He came off as earnest and humbled to have been a part of such a special run of records, and we are grateful to him taking the time to share his memories. A huge thanks goes out to the one and only Sean Forbes for his assistance in arranging this interview.
An Interview with Laurence Bell of Roughneck Recording Co and Domino Records
Frankie Stubbs, circa 1993
NI: How did you first come to discover Leatherface? Did they make an instant impression? Did you discover them while you were playing in Sink?
Laurence: I first heard them in the van, I think. We were traveling in a van with the guys from Snuff and going to a gig somewhere in East Anglia. And they put on a Leatherface tape of their first album, "Cherry Knowle," and that was the first time I heard Leatherface. It sounded bloody good, yeah. Snuff had met them or played a gig with them somewhere. And I was like, "Who is this? This is great!" [Snuff members replying:] "Oh, this is Leatherface, you gotta know about them. These guys, they're from up North. They're from Sunderland, and they're fantastic." And they were. It was really exciting stuff.
Not long after that, I got a first job at a record label, and I went to work at this label, Fire Records. And I got a job to run an imprint there. I was doing A&R, and they let me have my own little imprint which I called Roughneck. And I needed acts to sign, and the first act I signed was Leatherface. I thought, "Oh, come sign them, they're fantastic." So I got in touch with Frankie. I hadn't seen them. 'Cause I had just picked up the record, but I hadn't seen them or met them at that stage. And I just got in touch with Frankie, just phoned him up and we quickly arranged and agreed to do something. I must have met up with him actually, gone up to Sunderland to sniff each other out and have a few drinks together. That must have gone ok. Anyway, I signed them to the label for three records.
NI: I've got to be honest. I'm a bit embarrassed, but I did not know that you were the person behind Roughneck...
Laurence: Yes. Yeah, that's a longer story. I was thinking about that 'cause I was thinking really "The Last" is, kind of like, the very end of it really. But I, yeah...
NI: (Laughter) Yes, I would have altered the questions slightly had I known that...
Laurence: So we recorded the "Fill Your Boots" record, straight away. We did "Razor Blades and Aspirin" as a single, and we did "Fill Your Boots." But carry on, we can move through.
NI: OK, so from Roughneck, I’m sort of improvising here... do you want to talk about "Mush" or not really?
Laurence: I can do, yeah.
NI: OK. Alright, let's change it slightly, and we'll do "Mush" sort of on the fly here because that's obviously the hit. When they recorded "Mush" for you, did you know instantly upon listening to it that it was going to be what it became?
Laurence: Yeah, I think I did. It was hugely exciting when they brought that back from the Greenhouse, yeah. I couldn't believe that they'd come up with so many amazing songs and the sound of it was so extraordinary, it just really popped out. Yes, so I did know it was special, yeah, really did. I said, "Oh, this is really something, this album you have made is a cut above." And yeah, this is as good as anything around at the moment, you know?
NI: Were there demos to the album, or did you not hear it until it was a finished product?
Laurence: I don't know if I did hear any demos to be honest. I might have talked about it with Frankie. I don't remember there being demos, no. I can't remember though. No, it was a long time ago, sorry (laughter). But yeah, really I just booked the studio for them and got them a decent budget to record with. There was a studio called the Greenhouse in London which was a really good, sort of, a properly good studio down Islington way. So it probably cost a few hundred pounds a day. It was definitely the smartest place I knew of and had access to. I think it was owned by Pat Collier, who used to be in the Vibrators I think, and he had become quite a popular alternative indie producer. It was where records that were recently quite successful, independent records, and probably major label records, were being made. So we got them into a good studio, and they had a house engineer guy there called Paul Tipler. And that was a sort of magic combination, they really hit it off with Paul. Paul was a brilliant engineer, and I guess he knew the room and he captured it. By then they were just a barnstorming live band; they probably were from the start, to be honest. And, you know, they had their distinctive sound. Frankie and Dickie had written these incredible songs, between them, together. Then you started hearing the lyrics and they were incredible too, this kind of punk rock barroom existential philosophy. Moving and soul stirring. And it was, yeah, just an extraordinary statement, wasn't it? And it still is now.
NI: Certainly. Bands in the United States like the Offspring and Green Day had a popularity boom around 1993, 1994. One of the things that's often written regarding Leatherface is that they were the best candidate from the United Kingdom to achieve a similar level of success. As the label head, did you think it should have blown up even bigger than it actually did?
Laurence: Yeah, of course. We were very, very passionate about what they were doing and knew how good they were and how good the songs were. And yeah, I definitely thought they should have been much, much bigger, but it just wasn't to be. And they were, you know, they did build a following, but it wasn't on any huge kind of scale. They were still pretty much sort of outside of things, there wasn't much context. They just came up from the grotty punk rock underground. What they were doing wasn't remotely in vogue with anything that was going on in the UK. It certainly wasn't fashionable by any means. They toured hard and it just grew quite slowly. There was no internet to spread the word, just word of mouth, and a bit of press. By the time they broke up, which I'm sure we'll get to because that was around the time of "The Last," they were playing to quite a few hundred people in London. But it was still brilliant, you know. I remember them playing their biggest show in London, was probably like 700 people at that time at The Garage, and that was around the time we recorded "The Last"—I think it was the same week in fact. So yeah, you knew the songs were amazing. It was a little bit before things were blowing up with the stuff you're talking about, Green Day and Offspring and all that. It was a bit before that. So there wasn't any context for some kind of crossover success. I am not sure they were built for that anyway. It was too combustible.
NI: Right, "Mush" was '91.
Laurence: So I think it's just timing really and just a little bit outside of everything, you know, fashion and timing and zeitgeist and all those things. It was a month before "Nevermind" came out. But in terms of what could have been with the songs then, yeah, I definitely felt "Jesus, these guys are the best at this kind of thing around, and this is obviously the best punk rock music right now in the UK by far. Most of the exciting guitar music was coming from America at that time, for me, it was the early-mid grunge era I suppose, just before that blew up. Leatherface would open up shows for Mudhoney and Babes in Toyland and people like that. And of course American music got a lot more attention on the scene, and in the press. American bands were more exotic somehow. There was a lot of great music going on at that time, in all sorts of areas, to be fair.
NI: Did you equate it with a resurgence of the first wave of punk in England with like The Ruts and Stiff Little Fingers and things like that?
Laurence: No, not at all really. It felt more contemporary than that. I don't think I would have been too excited if I thought it was a retro punk thing, even if there were elements of that. I can hear a bit of the Ruts in the guitar sounds. I know the Ruts influenced that first wave of DC hardcore quite a lot. But I suppose what we all thought when we first heard them, it was like Hüsker Dü meets Motörhead. Those ringing guitars. It was like Hüsker Dü with Lemmy singing (laughter) was the way we'd all say it, and that was like the tagline when you were telling people about them. "You've got to hear this band, they're amazing. They're from Northeast England, Sunderland. They're writing amazing songs and the singer's got this sort of Lemmy rasp. And they've got this sort of overdriven Hüsker Dü sound with this amazing guitarist, Dickie. He's playing Dag Nasty style licks over this wall of sound and these incredible songs and this amazing vocalist." It was very unique, but they were the references for me and my pals. And that the lyrics were so unique. Maybe more like Shane MacGowan fronting Hüsker Dü.
NI: One thing that's talked about a lot is the tension in the band and their strong personalities and how that came out in the music. From a label perspective, did you ever notice those things or did they ever affect your dealings with the band?
Laurence: Yeah (laughter), I mean there was definitely some lively moments; there was definitely some tension in the group. That was part of it. There'd be a few dust ups and some huge rows, probably a few punches thrown. On a night out, sometimes they would be a bit of a scene—after the show occasionally. But it was par for the course, they were all big characters, and you'll get a bit of that. But they'd always be at the show the next day. And they were gentlemen really. They'd always turn up (laughter). So I knew it was like that, but that's just how it was. You know, there was a lot of characters around in those days, as I'm sure there is now.
But we were really evangelical about that record, "Mush." We thought, "God, this is just the best thing, people have got to turn onto this amazing album."
NI: So you were involved with "Minx" then after "Mush." How did you feel about that record in relation to "Mush"?
Laurence: Well, I thought that the songs were brilliant, and there was lots of songs equally good. But there was probably some issues with the sound, and it was a lot more difficult to record and produce. So there was some stuff with that recording process that made it just a bit problematic. And just things didn't go as smoothly, and in the end, it didn't sound as great. "Mush" just had this sort of undefinable x-factor. It was this perfect sounding record for the kind of music it was. It was like an AC/DC record, it was sort of perfect, it just leapt out. Sonically it was just 10 out of 10 for what it was. And "Minx" just wasn't up to that standard, even though it was a really, really good record, it wasn't perfect. "Mush" was, like, perfect, you know (laughter)? "Minx" wasn't perfect. It was probably impossible to follow when a band makes a record that's perfect, that's just 10 out of 10. There's often nowhere to go after that anyway, so there was a bit of that.
NI: That's a great point. Like you said, "Minx" obviously has some great tracks. "Pale Moonlight" is one of their absolute best.
Laurence: Yeah. There was an amazing unplugged version of that too, on a B side I think.
NI: Can you talk about how you went from having the Roughneck imprint on Fire Records to Domino Records, which was solely your own?
Laurence: I think it was just time for me to do something else really. The main people who employed me at Fire moved on. There was a bunch of people around who I was close friends with. The guy who kind of gave me the job moved on, and some of the other people, guys and girls, who were around that I was close with, they all went and got different jobs. And the vibe wasn't very good anymore, for me anyway, up there. And I suppose I just had an idea to do my own thing. And I thought I'd just give it a go. It was just time for me to go, you know? Try something else. I think I would have gone and worked for another label, but I couldn't get a job with anyone else. And I just thought I'd start my own thing, give it a year and see if I could do it. So I just started my thing, just in my basement flat really. Got a little grant from the government, the Enterprise Allowance Scheme they called it. Forty quid a week for a year.
NI: Was it difficult at that time, as Rough Trade had wound down at that point, and indie and independent music was on a bit of a down turn compared to what it had been?
Laurence: Yeah, it was.
NI: Did that give you any reservation about pursuing it?
Laurence: It did, yeah. I didn't feel, sort of supremely confident. I had a lot of energy, and I was very driven, excitable. But it wasn't a good time for indie music in that there was such a lot of money in alternative music from the major labels. Lots of dough just sloshing about. And if you didn't have any money to sort of compete, even on a small level—I just didn't have much money at all. I started the label with £5000, and I had a distribution deal. The distributor would pay for the manufacturing of the records, and that was it really. So it was really hard to find music to release. I couldn't afford to even make records really. That’s part of the reason why I mainly licensed music from America. I just licensed the rights to European labels for Europe. 'Cause it was cheaper. And I could work with next level artists from America. And in the UK, I also struggled to find acts—if I found something I liked, then maybe someone would say "Yeah, they've just signed to so-and-so for 50 or 100 grand, or even 10 grand." I didn't have 10 grand to give to anybody.
So it was a difficult time. I just existed month to month really. And, you know, the independent label scene wasn't exactly looking good just then —Rough Trade distribution had just gone bankrupt which caused total chaos for loads of other labels, Factory had gone bankrupt, and Creation was sort of skint and scrambling about. All these companies were either going bankrupt or they were selling out to majors, all that sort of thing. And then Britpop was just coming out, you could smell the success of that round the corner and then suddenly there was even more big money sloshing about. My interest wasn't really there, though I liked some of that stuff. But even if it had been, I wouldn't have been able to compete for a minute.
So yeah, you just had to try and find your own niche really. I was just trying to dig deep and find things that I could be excited about. Some of them were—a lot of them were—in America, and I'd find things that I could connect with and that I could actually sway people to let me work with them (laughter). You know, for the label to start putting out records. Just to have something I could sell and be excited about.
NI: Well, it certainly worked out. So was Leatherface one of the first ones that you brought with you to Domino?
Laurence: Yeah, I mean, I didn't really bring them with me to be honest. I'm not sure, kind of, what happened. We were just still friendly and it was more of a one off thing. It wasn't like I didn't [intentionally] sign Leatherface to Domino. Really "The Last" was like just the fruits of a recording session we booked to record some tunes they had when they were down in London. Domino had started earlier that year, in spring '93, to put out some records that we were licensing from America like Sebadoh and Royal Trux and things like that. And a group called Smudge from Australia as well. They were like the three or four things. Royal Trux and Palace Brothers were licensed from Drag City, I had met all those people by then, and that was all important and interesting stuff for me. I was into all sorts of different things. In the UK some of the first things we did were things like Flying Saucer Attack from Bristol and then we got to work with the Pastels, which was quite important as they represented something proud and independent that really appealed, on top of the music the made. I had met Stephen when I was at Fire and become friendly with them.
The Leatherface record, "The Last," was really just going to be an EP. I wasn't looking to sign them. I was still quite close to them, and I think I was just helping them out really. I can't remember exactly what caused it, where the band was at, because, obviously, they broke up, just at that point. Their three record Roughneck deal had ended. But I think it was like, "Let's just do some recordings when we come down to London and we can release an EP," really. I think that's what "The Last" was going to be. So it wasn't like I signed them to a deal or anything. We just made an EP. But then they went in the studio and they made more tracks than we expected. They came out of the studio with eight tracks, so we said let's call it a mini-album. And that's what we did.
That week they were in town, they were playing a show at The Garage, which was the show I mentioned earlier in the conversation, and it was a sold out show, an incredible night. It was Saturday night, I think I remember, and it was amazing. I think it was probably the biggest London show they'd done. You couldn't move in there. There was at least 700 people. It was really a brilliant show. But there'd been some trouble. There was some tension with the group, and they broke up that night, I think on stage. Maybe Frankie said something on stage and that was it. Then the next week it was in—I think the Christmas edition of the Melody Maker—and there was a big story on it. It was like "Leatherface split, it's all over." I think Melody Maker news desk spoke to Frankie on the phone as well and so it became even more official. I guess there'd been some trouble. They'd been touring and they'd been fighting, arguing or whatever. And that was it. But it's all a bit hazy really. So it was a very euphoric Saturday night show, and then it ended with this weirdness.
But they'd done these recordings during the week, and the recordings were brilliant. They had, after "Minx," I'd said "Let's go into a really good studio in London while you're down." They went into this place Blackwing, I think it was, and did the recordings. And they sounded amazing. So at least we had this great document of the last little batch of brilliant songs.
NI: And it does have some brilliant songs on it. "Patrick Kills Me" is one of my favorite songs they did.
Laurence: Yeah, I agree. I was crazy about "Little White God." I just thought that was one of the best things they'd ever done actually.
NI: Is that why you chose to release that on the single?
Laurence: Yes, definitely. I thought it was an amazing single. I thought it was a really, really special song. The lyrics were kind of amazing. And it just sounded so good. It just had that Leatherface twin guitar thing. "He's in love with the little white god. He's so in love he's forgotten about being a mod." You know, it's just this very sad tale about drugs and what they do to people. Frankie took the kid, he was a mod, so he took the drugs, the speed, because he was a mod, and speed was originally the mod drug. Then he kept taking the speed and then he stopped being a mod. He just took the speed, you know? And then he started taking worse drugs, and it was white lines to brown lines and all this. It's a very, very moving paean to the classic decline and what damage the drugs can do. But it was also a completely uplifting banger. Really powerful, very moving.
"Shipyards" on it as well. Showing that side of Frankie's writing, that sort of almost like a Tom Waits song or something. So you've got that amazing thing, like Tom Waits doing "Shipbuilding" or something really melancholy. Beautiful, beautiful.
NI: On the "Little White God" single, did you have any say in them doing the Stooges covers?
Laurence: No, I didn't, no. In fact I'd forgotten that they were even on there. They were on the B side, I think?
NI: Yes, that's correct.
Laurence: What Stooges covers are they?
NI: It is "I Gotta Right" and… the other one is escaping me right now.
Laurence: That's alright. Well, I would have been really excited 'cause I always used to love "I've Gotta Right." I remember I used to have that on 7" single , or my best mate did, and it was definitely a real cult song earlier when I was a teenager. So I was really excited when they talked about doing it, and I might have encouraged that if Frankie had suggested it. But they always had amazing covers, such great covers.
NI: That was going to be my next question, about their covers, because they always had such great ones.
Well, Frankie was a proper songwriter and he appreciated proper songwriting. They covered quite a few mainstream things, like "Talkin' About A Revolution" by Tracy Chapman.
They did an incredible version of "Message In A Bottle." You know that though. It was just amazing. That wasn't a song I liked really, growing up we weren’t having the Police particularly, but then they did it and it was just incredible. You could hear the musicality, the sophisticated chords, and that they could play that stuff. And how those songs were incredibly well written. Then they elevated them, blitzed them, and just made them their own. There was an incredible ABBA cover, they did a fantastic version of that song "Eagle." Have you heard that?
NI: Yes, I have, yeah.
Laurence: Oh, it's so good, yeah. They did "In The Ghetto," "Knocking on Heavens Door" too, "Candle In The Wind," all sorts. They did "Ideal World" by the Christians. There was an idea to cover "A Song From Under The Floorboards" at one time too. I would have liked to have heard that. Then of course on "The Last" there's the Snuff cover as well, which is pretty straight up really. But they were just all very close, that lot, so that was a nice circle right at the end having heard them via Snuff. They recorded "Win Some, Lose Some" for their last record.
NI: And with having Andy in the band, yeah.
Laurence: Yes Andy was playing bass in the band too, bless him. Another great player. And then they had "Ba Ba Ba Ba Boo," which is almost like a Louis Armstrong sort of thing, a kind of goof off or something at the end, but I think it's Frankie's own thing.
NI: From a label standpoint, what's your perspective in terms of what it means to you to have been a part of those records?
Laurence: Incredibly proud. They still give me absolute shivers up my spine whenever I listen to them, and I don't listen to them very often. But of course I went back and listened before I talked to you, as I have done before when sometimes they come up and when people bring them up to me. But yeah, I'm very proud to have been involved. They were probably the first band from when I moved to London that I signed once I got into the 'proper' music business, shall we call it. I'd done DIY records, and I'd done things back in my hometown and put out a few records friends groups, which were great fun and I'm proud of them too. But Leatherface was the first thing once I came to London. And great, I think they stand out. I still think they're the best of that kind of thing from that time. I think Frankie is one of the most amazing songwriters and lyricists, an absolute visionary as an artist. They were a colourful bunch of characters. Dickie Hammond, bless his soul, extraordinary guitarist. Andy Laing on the drums, just an absolute powerhouse. They were really fun to be around. So yeah, I’m proud. They're still quite underrated outside of the punk world maybe—but I'm so glad that people get it and it means a lot to people 30 years on. I always thought that they would become a huge cult, and I was really pleased when the Americans started to pick up on them. I was always hoping Metallica or someone would cover one of their songs and it would just take off (laughter). But that hasn't happened, not yet anyway.
NI: No, but they certainly did achieve the cult following in America.
Laurence: Yeah. Well, they ended up reforming and going out and playing, which I was really pleased about. I still hear a lot from America about that, the excitement around that, that cult status that they had attained. You know, rightly so.
NI: I think there's a certain mystique around them that's different from other bands.
Laurence: Yeah, I think there sort of always was. I think they had a reputation. Even the name. It was such a powerful name at that time. It was like, "Wow, Leatherface." Everyone was just like, "Ooh, that's a bad ass group." You know, everybody knew it. And they were. They had a bad ass sound, but then there's this extraordinary sensitivity and emotion within the lyrics and all that poetry within it. So it was tempered with that, and that gave it that depth and complexity. And that kind of stream of consciousness element. But yeah, incredible stuff. I'm very pleased to have a little bit of Leatherface in our catalogue (laughter).
NI: Certainly. Were you involved at all with those 2015 reissues that came out on Fire Records or was that completely separate?
Laurence: No, I wasn't. No, no, I wasn't involved at all.
NI: Do you have any plans at any point to reissue "The Last" on Domino?
Laurence: Yeah. To be honest, I didn't realize how deleted it is. I guess it's just on DSPs [digital sound platforms] at the moment. And I asked in the warehouse for a copy, and I didn't know it was completely out. So yeah, I imagine we would actually at some point. Obviously it's up on DSPs, as most things are. But there's no physical stock right now. You think that'd be a good idea to do that?
NI: Well, yes, I do. But I still buy my music on vinyl, so I'm hesitant to speak for others.
Laurence: Yeah. But no plans right now, but I'm sure it'll come out again on vinyl for sure. Maybe you can still get cheap CDs out there, but yeah, I'm sure it'll happen.
NI: I know there's very much a bunch of people that would like a copy.
Laurence: Well, I'll talk to the powers that be at Domino (laughter).
NI: I remember when I heard Leatherface for the first time how hard it was to get a physical copy of the music. I heard "Not A Day" on a BMX video, and I remember—we have a chain music store here in Boston here called Newbury Comics, I don't know if you're familiar with it?
Laurence: Yeah, sure, I've been there.
NI: And I remember searching every time I went to the shop for quite a long time for Leatherface, and then finally a copy of the CD turned up on Roughneck Records. And it was a big deal because it was a very difficult album to get here in the States.
Laurence: Well, which album are you talking about here?
NI: That was "Mush."
Laurence: OK. What year was that?
NI: That would have been, let's see, the video I heard them on I got in '97, so I bet I didn't find the CD until 2000? It was hard to find.
Laurence: And then you got it on Roughneck, did you?
NI: Yes, it was a Roughneck CD that I still have. And it came in this like cardboard cover over the jewel case.
Laurence: OK, that's interesting. Obviously, I left Fire, the label that owned Roughneck in '92, '93. But it was licensed to Seed Records, which I think was part of Warner's Atlantic originally when it first came out in like in like 1991. So there was an American edition at the time. But they never went out there at that time, they only went out afterwards.
NI: Did you find that the American distributors did not push the album here as much as you would have liked?
Laurence: You know, I wasn't really out there, so I didn't know. At that time it was quite hard to know what was going on. We thought it was getting a decent push just 'cause it was actually getting released and it was being released via Warner. But it obviously didn't get a proper push. I think it was maybe just kind of a bit of a nudge. So yeah, I didn't really know to be honest. I was talking to someone at WEA [Warner Elektra Atlantic], there was a product manager and people were talking about it, but I didn't know exactly what was going on, if it was being marketed well or whatever. But as they didn't even go out there, there wasn't really an infrastructure, I don't think, for the band to go out and tour. There wasn't that kind of management, or an agency, and things like that. So the whole thing wasn't really happening. Not at that time anyway. I think they were there a few times when they reformed.
NI: That's pretty much all I had. But thank you very much for your time, I really appreciate it.
Laurence: Pleasure. It's good to talk about that stuff. I'm glad we spoke. It cheered me up (laughter).
Mike Foster of the excellent Analog Attack video series has put together an excellent video where he ranks each Leatherface studio album as only he can do. Mike is a treat to watch, and his video adds context, anecdotes, and sharp opinions on every Leatherface album.
Razorblades and A-Sides: An In-Depth Look at Leatherface's Deeper Tracks
Written By: Morgan Coe
Leatherface has always been known for their albums, and two in particular: "Mush" (Roughneck Recording Company, 1991), which was their best and best-distributed one throughout the 1990s, and their split with Hot Water Music (BYO Records, 1999), which finally made them a household name in punk houses outside of the UK. After that, they stopped putting out singles and EPs altogether. But there's also some great stuff on the various 7"s, 10"s, 12"s, and side projects that the band and their main singer/guitarist Frankie Stubbs released over the years. If you've heard their early LPs, it's absolutely worth digging through the deeper catalog; if you haven't I'd suggest tracking down and wearing out at least a "Mush" or two and then swinging back around.
"Beerpig" 7" (Meantime Records, 1990)
Four unreleased outtakes from "Fill Your Boots." Two are covers: "In the Ghetto" by jumpsuit-era Elvis ("Elvis in Memphis," 1968), and "Candle In the Wind'' by Elton John ("Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," 1973). They both have the same sloppy, piss-take vibe as the covers on "Cherry Knowle'' (Meantime Records, 1989) (one of which was an even sloppier, piss-takier version of the same Elvis tune). Speaking of which, the cover art is a tribute to Newcastle Brown Ale, who used to employ so many drunk punks from Leatherface's hometown of Sunderland that Frankie warned me: "If you have drunken Newcastle, you have drunken piss. This I swear."
"Razorblades and Aspirin" 7" (Roughneck Recording Company, 1990)
A snapshot of Leatherface's early sound, with two tracks from "Cherry Knowle" and one from "Fill Your Boots" (Roughneck Recording Company, 1990), their second LP and the one where they really started to come into their own. "Colorado Joe / Leningrad Vlad" starts off as their most directly political song, before turning into one of their eye rolling-est with a chorus of "USSR, USA, they're so gay." Dumb as hell, but keep in mind that at this point Frankie Stubbs was only the singer by default because nobody else showed up with lyrics ready to record. He didn't have enough for all the tracks on "Cherry Knowle," which is why there's an instrumental ("Ghoulash") on that record, and may explain why this one didn't get a second re-write.
"Smokey Joe" 12" (Roughneck Recording Company, 1990)
Now this is an interesting one. First of all, it's one of only two pre-breakup records without guitarist Dickie Hammond on it - for some reason he briefly quit the band in 1990, leaving them to play shows and record this EP without him. Dickie and Frankie's two-guitar dynamic (where according to Frankie, neither one had any idea what the other was playing) was a big part of Leatherface's sound, so it's cool to hear this slightly more streamlined incarnation of the band on record, especially since "You Wanted Everything" doesn't seem to exist on any other studio or live recording. Second, it has early versions of three ripping songs that were re-recorded less than a year later, with Dickie back in the band, during the "Mush" sessions. And one of those ("Scheme of Things," which has some of their best riffs and most cutting lyrics) only came out as a "Mush" bonus track so this early take is especially crucial. Third, "Ideal World" (from The Christians' 1987 debut, which it took me easily a pre-internet decade to track down) is one of their all-time best covers. Leatherface have always loved the one-note joke of running a well-known song through the loud/fast machine, but in this case picking a weirder and less obvious one really pays off. Finally, for a band that was known for baffling and sometimes half-baked record art, this 12" actually looks pretty damn good.
"I Want the Moon" 7" (Roughneck Recording Company, 1991)
Speaking of covers, this one puts us right back in Leatherface's usual wheelhouse with "You Are My Sunshine" (first done by the Carter Family in 1939, and then by a million others since). "I Want the Moon" is such a good opener that they stuck it right at the beginning of "Mush", but this early version of "Dreaming" sounds like a rough draft to me, with an out-of-character fuzz guitar solo instead of the ending they eventually worked out.
"Not Superstitious" 12" (Roughneck Recording Company, 1991)
Exactly the same template as "I Want the Moon": one track from "Mush" ("Not Supersitious" this time, one of their best sad bastard songs), one original ("Trenchfoot," which sounds tighter and hits harder than the version from "Smokey Joe," although it doesn't have that one's sample from A Clockwork Orange), and one big name cover ("Message In A Bottle" by the Police, from 1979's "Regatta De Blanc"). The plot twist is that the two non-album songs have been bonus tracks on every CD or tape pressing of "Mush," so as someone who discovered the band through that album, it's weird to even think of this as a free-standing EP. Which is too bad, because it's great. Even the Police cover, which could have been silly, rules - they play it by the book but you can really feel how well they click with its reggae/new wave vibe.
"Compact and Bijou" 10" (Roughneck Recording Company, 1992)
This was the first Leatherface record that came out after I started listening, and I can still remember how exciting it was to bring home new music from them in real time. As always there's a cover song, but "Talkin' Bout a Revolution" (from Tracy Chapman's 1988 debut) comes off a little more heartfelt, a little less silly than usual. And then "Pale Moonlight" is a really pretty acoustic song, miles away from anything they'd ever done before. It turns up a year later as a full-band closing track on the "Minx" LP (Roughneck Recording Company, 1993), ironically only making the cut because they decided at the last minute to leave off a straight ahead Elvis cover. The electric version is very different but great too, with some of their most Ruts-like guitar playing. "Compact and Bijou" also marks the bass debut of Andy Crighton from Snuff, an older London band who had befriended Leatherface when they started playing out in the late '80s. Apparently all three members of Snuff tried out for the spot; Andy got the nod and ended up being the first Leatherface bassist to last for more than one record.
"Eagle" 7" (Blackbox Records, 1992)
Just two songs here, but they're great: a re-recorded and improved version of "Dreaming" from the "I Want the Moon" 7", and "Eagle" which is a plodding non-hit from "ABBA: the Album" (1977) that has the distinction of being Abba's longest song. I've got a personal soft spot for "Ideal World," but honestly this is the best cover Leatherface ever did, in terms of really making a song their own; I initially assumed it was some obscure NWOBHM B-side. It was meant for a Rugger Bugger Records Abba tribute record (because it was the '90s) that never came out (because it was the '90s).
Wat Tyler split 2x7" (Clawfist Records, 1992)
This one was on Clawfist Records, which was an imprint of Vinyl Solution Records, which was run out of the Vinyl Solution store on Portobello Road, which was a few blocks from the London Rough Trade store, which was where Sean from Wat Tyler (and Rugger Bugger Discs, and later Hard Skin) worked in the '90s. On the Leatherface side, "Hops and Barley" is the most fun and dumb thing they ever recorded, aside from maybe "The Bastards Can’t Dance" (from "Fill Your Boots") which is honest to god just talking shit about bell bottoms for 3 minutes. I'm not surprised they kept playing this one live for years, because it really shows a rowdy side of them that you don’t get from Frankie’s more artful, literary songwriting. On the Wat Tyler side, "Not Superstitious" is really, really great. More jangly and ramshackle than the original but just as good, with a female singer that I don’t remember being on their other records.
"Do the Right Thing" 12" (Roughneck Recording Company, 1993)
Another great EP, along the same lines as "Compact and Bijou" although for once they skip the cover song. This is from the "Minx" recording session, where they spent their recording budget upgrading Frankie’s home studio and tracked everything themselves. Like with "Minx" the production can take some getting used to, as if you're hearing everything through a slight fuzzy haze. Frankie has gone on record saying "Minx" is his favorite-sounding of all their recordings; I definitely wouldn't go that far but it does grow on you. Everything on "Do the Right Thing" came out on other records, but these are mainly acoustic or redone versions and well worth checking out. The acoustic take on "Not Superstitious" is especially great and even more melancholy than the original if you can imagine that.
"Minx" bonus 7" (Roughneck Recording Company, 1993)
I can't help wondering why these fools cut "Can’t Help Falling In Love" (Elvis, "Blue Hawaii" soundtrack, 1961) from "Minx," and then put it right back on a limited bonus 7" that you could only get by buying a special pressing of "Minx".
"Mackem Bastards" 7" (Rugger Bugger Discs, 1994)
"Ba Ba Ba Ba Boo" only exists because after the band broke up in late 1993, Frankie remembered that they owed Rugger Bugger a single. So he did his best Louis Armstrong impression over his keyboard's "jazz demo" track. We've also got drummer Andrew Laing taking his first turn on lead vocals, doing a dead-on version of "Win Some, Lose Some" from the first Snuff LP (great record with an unprintably long title), which bassist Andy Crighton played on in the first place. It gives me no pleasure to say that this record is the "why did this get made?" peak of Leatherface's career.
"Little White God" 7" (Domino Records, 1994)
"Little White God" from "The Last" (Domino Records, 1994) is amazing, one of their all time best songs and a great example of Frankie's obsessions with reggae and the Ruts - a band he introduced Dickie Hammond to when they started playing together, and one of the two bands I remember him mentioning as Leatherface influences (the other was Steel Pulse, specifically the "Handsworth Revolution" LP from 1978, I'm dead serious and that record is incredible). The other two songs on this 7" are from a short-lived trio lineup that was just Frankie, Andy Crighton, and Ian Syborn (soon to be ex-drummer Andrew Laing's bandmate in Sunderland's own Red Alert). "I Got a Right" by the Stooges (1978) is a standard issue bashed out Leatherface cover, aside from a surprise detour into the Mission: Impossible theme. "Meaning" was originally by China Drum (from Newcastle, just up the road), and had only come out in 1993 - an acoustic version, even. When they released a loud version later in 1994, it was faster and more intense than the Leatherface cover; I guess you really do win some and lose some.
Pope "Johnpaulgeorgeringo" LP (Rugger Bugger Discs, 1994)
The Pope LP sounds about as much like the end of Leatherface as the final trio lineup did. The guitars are tighter, because it's just Frankie, but with less chaos and energy than Leatherface used to have, because it's just Frankie. New drummer Chris Mackintosh sounds tight, but less driving. Andy Crighton is still on bass. I guess it's telling that Leatherface finished their initial career with a whimper of recycled live tracks, covers, and joke songs... but six months later Pope was in the studio doing an entire full length. "Plebs" stands out here, a great song driven by a sick bassline that I'd put up there with Leatherface's best work. It's a fitting end to an era, and a capstone for Andy Crighton who would take his own life in 1998 without playing in either band again.
Rugrat "Rhubarb" 7" (Rugger Bugger Discs, 1994) and "Bulltaco" 7" (Damaged Goods, 1994); Bulltaco "In My Day" 7" (Out Of Step, 1995)
After leaving Leatherface, drummer Andrew Laing formed Rugrat with future Leatherface bassist and Frankie Stubbs solo collaborator Graeme Philliskirk, along with Ian Armstrong of UK anarcho-punk greats Dan and Sofa Head. They were soon threatened with legal action by Nickelodeon for using the name and likeness of "Rugrats," which was a popular children's cartoon at the time, so they changed their name to Bulltaco within a year. Rather than looking backwards to their previous bands, their clearest influence seems to be another trio with a singing drummer - former Leatherface bassist Andy Crighton's old band, Snuff. Much like Snuff's early records, the Rugrat and Bulltaco 7"s are a patchwork of melody, aggression, and whimsy; the overall effect is playful at times, disjointed at others. Ironically Snuff had just reunited in 1994, but were in the process of refining this early, chaotic sound into a pop template that brought them to a global audience.
Jess(i)e 7"s (Rugger Bugger Discs, 1995-1997) and LP (Rugger Bugger Records, 1998)
If Pope was the swan song for Leatherface's original run, Jessie is Frankie Stubbs making a fresh start. Right off the bat the band (named after Elvis' stillborn twin brother Jesse, whose spelling they'll get right by 7" number 3) has incredible chemistry, much more relaxed than Leatherface has ever been but with a loose intensity that they never managed before or after. "Indestructible" might be the best that Frankie's punk-reggae fusion has ever sounded, at least on a par with "Little White God," and the slow songs are some of his saddest. And that’s before we even get to Keri McCormick's occasional strings and backup singing. The one tricky thing about this band is that all four 7"s were re-recorded for an LP that's very good, but more cleaned up and buttoned down, so if I could give one piece of advice to every Leatherface fan in the world, it would be: track down the Jess(i)e 7"s. By the time that LP came out in 1998, Leatherface were playing again sporadically in preparation for a reunion; Jesse bassist Leighton Evans was slated to stay on bass but moved to guitar when Dickie Hammond dropped out at the last minute. Why Andy Crighton wasn't in this reunion lineup, and why Dickie left just as it was getting underway, are two huge questions; based on interviews from the time it sounds like there may not be any big reveal for either one.
Frankie Stubbs solo acoustic 7" (Rugger Bugger Discs, 1995), 10" (Sounds of Subterrania, 2000), 7" (Sounds of Subterrania, 2018), 7" (Little Rocket Records, 2020)
I have a theory that Frankie only makes these records when his other projects are stalled out or broken up. The "Unhinged" 7" came out in 1995 after Pope but before Jessie, and included one song from each of those bands; "Plebs" from the Pope LP is especially great and very different from the bass-driven version on the album. "Moon River" (from "Breakfast At Tiffany’'s," 1961) is good too, more heartfelt and less goofy than when Leatherface used to cover tearjerkers like this. The 10" came out in 2000, in the break between "Horsebox" (2000) and "Dog disco" (2004), during which time Leighton Evans left the band and Frankie pushed on as the only Leatherface guitarist - four years is an eternity for a band that used to record or put out a record every few months. This one has a nice version of "Dead Industrial Atmosphere" from "Mush," but the highlight is "Ship Song" by Nick Cave (from 1990’s "The Good Son"). "Horsebox" had a full band version, but the song's so simple and sad that it sounded silly with the usual loud/fast Leatherface cover treatment. Now fast forward 18 years: Dickie Hammond has rejoined, recorded an album, and toured with Leatherface again before passing away in 2015. The band has broken up for the last time, and Frankie Stubbs has put out a heartbreaking acoustic version of "Heart Is Home" (originally from "Dog Disco"). And then, in 2020, a year of many surprises, we get a stripped down do-over of "Shipyards" from "The Last." Frankie originally had to record one hand at a time in order to get the piano part right; now on acoustic guitar it sounds like an old dog finally learning a new trick after all his old ones have run their course.
Very special thanks to Laurence Bell and Sean Forbes for their help with this feature.
Band photos taken from the insert of the 2015 reissue of the "Minx" LP on Fire Records (photographer unknown)
Leatherface record photos from the collection of Morgan Coe and Negative Insight staff.
