Art Objects
Hard ObjectsARC049
- Hard Objects
- Bibliotheque
- Fit of Pique
Art Objects
Art Objects played their first gig at the Aston Court Festival (mini-stage) in the summer of 1978. At that point the lineup consisted of poet Gerard Langley, dancer Wojtek Dmochowski, and guitarist Jonathan J. Key (AKA Jonjo) producing a variety of musical and non-musical sounds from his Vox AC-30 and WEM Copicat. They quickly became renowned as the most pretentious band in Bristol - quite a feat in those psilocybic post-punk days - but soon became a local fixture as an opening act (no sound-check or drum set-up required).
The drum-free era ended when Gerard's brother John sat in for three numbers at a show in June of 1979. A week later Bill Stair - that is to say, me - added bass to the same three songs at a Hope Centre gig. Shortly after that Jonjo's brother Robin joined on guitar and we were apparently a band.
As the set developed, songs would be written the night before they were debuted live - having a poet instead of a singer meant we could happily play outside the constraints of traditional song structure, even if it did make it hard to sing along. Some songs would be largely improvised, some would be fairly structured, and the early, three-piece soundscapes would intersperse our set to make sure no one in the audience got too relaxed.
Astoundingly, some people seemed to enjoy it and we recorded our first single - the Hard Objects EP - for Fried Egg Records in early 1980. It shot to number one in the indie chart of the New Music News, a scab music weekly that briefly existed while the NME staff were on strike.
Bill Stair - Bass Player
Featured Track
Art Objects
Hard Objects
Track 3 Fit of Pique
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