I still can’t read music, and I don’t know notes, but I can hear. I’ll set a beat going, and just play keyboards on top, muck around. I still play keys with two forefingers sometimes. The technology doesn’t interest me at all. I still have an engineer, and that’s because I don’t want to press buttons, I don’t want to know about what Pro Tools can do, or be reading a manual. I don’t want to be thinking about watching a screen, and plugging things in, and shuffling things to get them all in time, like a maths project. I don’t wanna do any of that shit. I wanna make music!
I can’t sing like Bob Marley, I can’t play guitar or write songs like him, but Island saw me as the right man to keep Marley’s tradition alive. In my way, I was a musical rebel, and outspoken too. That has always been my place in music. I’ve always been the outsider who got in there somehow. I got my foot in the door, but I definitely shouldn’t be in here – especially after all these years!
I always got advice from Chris Blackwell, even after he left Island, but I sometimes still wonder: if he hadn’t sold up, would things have been different? I think I would’ve done all my best work by now, but seeing as he did, and I went through all those years of disappointment vainly trying to find ‘another Island’, I really believe that some of my best work is yet to be made. It still lies ahead of me. All the problems in the last twenty years or so – that’s all good, because now the best stuff’s coming again. I’m constantly recording, and I know things are getting better.
By nature, I’m an experimental artist, and to be able to experiment you need time. You can’t rush it. You have to have a bit of space to realise which experiments have worked and which ones haven’t. Instead of polishing up everything you write for release, you need time to step back for a bit, then have a listen and say, ‘Actually, half of this is shit,’ and throw those tracks away. Before, those tracks would’ve got released. Now I’ve got the luxury of recording for a couple of weeks, going on tour for a bit, coming back, sifting through what I’ve done and keeping only the top-notch tracks – and my music has gone up another level again. It’s got a new energy about it. Now that I’m doing my own label, as the boss of False Idols, I’m almost thinking like an A&R man – dip a toe in the water and see how we work together and what the reception is like.
I’m excited about bringing up other artists, too. When you get to a certain position, you’re meant to be bringing others through, introducing them, giving them the opportunity. I feel that’s part of being a musician. Plus, I’m not inspired when it’s only about me. It’s always been that way. I’ve got some incredible artists on False Idols.
I’m learning a lot from doing the label. The new singer in my live band, Marta, is doing an album, and I know I have to treat her as I would hope to be treated myself as an artist. She might play me a track she’s made with another producer, and all I can do is offer advice. I might say, ‘I don’t think it’s good enough for your voice,’ but at the end of the day, it’s her album, and if she really wants to put it on there, it’s her choice. I can’t tell her what my record label needs. I have to go with it. She will either listen to me or she won’t! That’s how I’ll deal with an artist.
As for my own music, I’m really excited about where it’s going. It’s weird timing – with this book, and the label, everything is coming together at the same time. The other day I said to Horst, ‘I’m back! I – am – back!’ It’s like, I’m getting to know myself a bit better now, and talking about my life in here has definitely helped. It’s like getting something off your chest, isn’t it? It’s helped me be logical, to understand myself more, and to realise, ‘I am like this, because …’ I’m more comfortable with myself and all my mistakes and who I am than I was even a year ago. Now, I feel like I don’t need to do music to feel better about myself. It’s easier to do music because I’m not doing it to survive. I’m doing it because I love it.
I’m different in the studio now, I’m having more fun. It’s more natural, but more thought about. Sometimes in the past my music has been all energy, and not thought about. It’s been like puking up. Often there’s been confusion, because I don’t know how to express myself. Now, it’s still from the hip, but I sit back, listen to it, and arrange it. You’ve still got the darkness, and the tension, but there’s some thinking behind it. It’s more focused than ever before.
It’s still kind of like Tricky, but this is new Tricky! And what else is there to do? I couldn’t stop doing it, or retire. How do you retire from something you’ve done all your life? What do you do for the rest of your time? Ever stopping – that don’t make no sense to me!
WHAT A FUCKING GAME
Mina Mazy Topley-Bird
This book starts with my mother’s suicide. If I had known that it would end with my daughter’s suicide, you wouldn’t be reading this now.
When I was young, my uncle Martin told me this story. He’d just got out of prison after seven years, and he was in the centre of town. It was raining, he had no money, and he had one cigarette left. He put up the collar of his coat, lit the cigarette and said to himself, ‘What a fucking game!’
‘Lie awake and let the visions take me, think of life and how it tried to break me’
I was rewriting those lyrics the day before I found out about Mazy. My baby died. My world over. The person I was, he’s gone. Everything looks different, sounds different. Like I’m in a world that doesn’t exist.
What a fucking game.
MAXINE QUAYE, MY MUM
YOUNG ME
(CLOCKWISE) ARTHUR GODFREY WITH HIS FATHER, ‘FARMER’; UNCLE MARTIN, AUNT OLIVE & MARTIN’S WIFE
UNCLE MARTIN & UNCLE TONY, 2012
(PHOTO © LEE JAFFE)
NANNY VIOLET
UNCLE MICHAEL
COUSIN MICHELLE & DAUGHTER WITH HER MUM, MARLOW
UNCLE TONY & WIFE WITH MARLOW
MARLOW WITH HER KIDS, MARK & MICHELLE, AT BUTLINS, 1970S
ME AT BUTLINS
HANGING WITH MY COUSIN MICHELLE & TREVOR & CLAUDE
COUSIN MARK & HIS SON RICKY
GREAT-GRANDMA MAGA
CHILDHOOD IN HARTCLIFFE
FARMER GODFREY & MAGA, MY GREAT-GRANDPARENTS
HANGING OUT WITH FAMILY
RICKY & TASHA, MARK’S SON & MICHELLE’S DAUGHTER
UNCLE TONY, DICKIE EWING & UNCLE MICHAEL
AUNTIE MARLOW’S WEDDING. SOMEONE IN THE FAMILY LATER BLACKED OUT THE (EX-) HUSBAND
WITH (L–R) LUCKY GORDON, SUZETTE NEWMAN AND CHRIS BLACKWELL
(PHOTO © LEE JAFFE)
SHOOTING BROWN PUNK WITH ELLIOT GOULD, 2012
(PHOTO © LEE JAFFE)
DAVID BOWIE’S LETTER TO ME
WALKING THROUGH BRISTOL
(PHOTO © LEE JAFFE)
WITH TERRY HALL
LA LIFESTYLE
WITH CESAR: TOUR LIFE IN NORTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA
JIN, PARIS
(PHOTO © CHARLES DE LINIERES)
AT 104, PARIS
(PHOTO © CHARLES DE LINIERES)
LIVE IN PARIS, 2017
(PHOTO © VERA RODRIGUES/VERACITY MUSIC)
WITH CHARLES IN PARIS
SHOOTING BROWN PUNK, 2012
(PHOTO © LEE JAFFE)
CHRISTMAS IN BRISTOL WITH SOME OF THE FAMILY
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thank you to all the family and friends who contributed to this book, to Andy Perry for interviewing them, to my management and to the team at Blink, to all of them for making this book happen.
INDEX
(Page numbers in bold refer to contributor entries and main entries)
A Perfect Circle 296, 297–8
Aaliyah 150
Abdul, Paula 230
Aceituno, Cesar 227–8, 232–8, 253–4, 302
Adam and the Ants 153
Adams, Bryan 176
Adrian Thaws 287
Afrika Bambaataa 98
‘Aftermath’ 110–17, 124, 126, 318
agency work 78–9, 82
A
jax club 65, 66, 74
Albany Road, Bristol 16
Alex (fan) 273
Alex (‘son’) 289, 294
Ali, Muhammad 22, 251
Allen, Grace 43, 320
Allen, Mervyn 62
Allen, Whitley 43–6, 51, 56–9, 60, 62–3, 64–7, 71, 73, 76–9, 80–5, 92, 93, 97–8, 208, 265, 266, 279, 301, 318–20
Ames, Roger 142, 160
Andy, Horace 106
Angels with Dirty Faces 205, 206, 207, 214, 287
Angus (lighting man) 226
ANTI-Records 222
Après-Ski Party 88, 89
Archaos 78
Arctic Monkeys 264
Armageddon 239
Arnolfini 99
asthma attacks 8–9, 151–2, 209
Aswad 61, 125
B, Eric, see Eric B & Rakim
B, Howie 127
Baker, Peter 27
Balkie (Mike) 66–7, 70
Bamboo Club 2, 15–16
Bana, Eric 239
Barrett brothers 242
Barrow, Geoff 129, 134
Barry (protection guy) 226
Basquiat, Jean-Michel 147, 242, 243
BBC Radio One 116, 190
BBC 6 Music Festival 288, 319, 320
Beatles 118
Beautiful South 138
Becker, Serge 194–6
Beckford, Trevor 19, 147, 317
Beese, Darcus 208
Bell, Laurence 264, 274
Benn, Nigel 217
Besson, Luc 240
Beyoncé 275–8, 279
Big Day Out 172, 173
Biggie 182–3, 206
Bim 96
Bionic 231
Birkett, Derek 159
Björk 154–5, 159, 160, 162, 165, 181, 322
Black, Cilla 138
‘Black Steel In The Hour of Chaos’ 118–19, 121, 126, 127, 292
Black Uhuru 61, 125
Blackwell, Chris 111, 114–16, 126, 135, 161, 166, 178, 181, 183, 186, 187, 206–8, 214–16, 222, 240–3, 274, 284, 323–4
Blackwell, Mary 186, 222
Blowback 224–5, 229
Blue Lines 100, 101, 103, 106, 115, 134
Bolan, Marc 7, 54, 118
Bono 178
Boomtown Rats 135, 137
Bowie, David 129, 131, 138, 140, 147–8, 161, 164, 203, 299
Boyle, Jimmy 31
Bragg, Billy 172–3
Branson, Richard 95
Brill Building 188
Briquette, Pete 135, 137–40, 144, 152–4, 203–4
Brit Awards 130, 162–6
British Airways 189–93
Bronson, Charles 226
Brown, Merrick 217
Brown Punk 240, 290
Brown Punk 240, 241, 243
Bruckheimer, Jerry 239
Burning Spear 61
Buster, Prince 54
Butler, Bernard 264
Byrne, David 137
Callomon, Cally 123, 129
Cameron, David 245
Cameron, Samantha 245
Campbell, Naomi 140, 161
Cantarella, Robert 258
Caple, Ian 177
Cavallo, Bob 221–2, 223
Cave, Nick 173, 282
Centquatre (104) 255–61
Chani (Cesar’s friend) 232
Channel 4 3, 138
Charles, Ray 69
Chemical Brothers 301
Chen, William C. C. (‘Master Chen’) 247–52
Cherry, Neneh 96, 120, 127, 322
Chevalier, Patrice 138
Circa 95
City Rockas 97
Clapton, Eric 176
Claridge, Rob 64
Clifton College 107–8
Cobain, Kurt 205
cocaine 61, 92–3, 145, 184, 205
Cocker, Jarvis 115
Cohen, Lyor 216
Coldplay 278
Colourfield 157
Colston, Edward 5
Combs, Puffy 182
Connaught Road Junior School 6, 7, 28
Conteh, John 260
Cooke, Sam 19, 267
Cope, Julian 160
Cranberries 161
cross-dressing 60–1, 129
Culture, Smiley 57
Cure 120, 121, 137, 165
Curry Mile, Manchester 12
Curtis, Tony 30
D, see 3D
D, Chuck 100, 119
D, Peter (Peter Davies) 99
Daddy Freddy 65
Daddy G, see G, Daddy Damon, Albarn 141
Davis, Miles 174
‘Daydreaming’ 76, 100, 101, 103, 109, 110, 114
De Niro, Robert 169
Death Row Records 182
Def Jam 186, 215–16
Diamond, Neil 19, 188
Dick and Joanne (squatters) 76
Dicks, Julian (‘The Terminator’) 21–2
Dirty 241
DiStefano, Peter 174
DJ Houdini 81
DJ Kicks 282
DJ Milo 72, 73, 74, 76, 96, 97, 147, 187
Domino 264, 273–4
Drake 290
DreamWorks 187, 188
Dug Out 67–8, 83, 87
Durban Poison 187, 188, 290
Dylan, Bob 204, 226
ecstasy (E) 61, 93
Edmond, Rayful 183, 184–5
Elastica 173
Elbow 115
emerging markets 271–3, 289, 292–3
Eminem 214
epilepsy 3–4, 26, 260, 261, 309, 311
EPMD 70
Eric B & Rakim 67, 70, 80, 100, 108, 119, 322
Ewing, Dickie 31
The Face 131
False Idols 281, 289, 290, 324
False Idols 283, 287
family tree xi
Farrell, Perry 172, 173–4, 175
fashion 54, 60–1, 86
Feliciano, Wilfredo (‘Bio’) 99
FFRR Records 85
Fieldings, Danny 29
The Fifth Element 165, 240
finances 280–304
Fisbach, Frédéric 258
Ford, Betty 184
4-Skins 54
Fourth & Broadway 95, 97, 115, 124
Franz Ferdinand 264
Fray, Iona (‘aunt’) 78, 91
Fray, Shaun (‘cousin’) 78, 81, 91, 123, 216–17
friends and family, importance of vii, 300
FTV 126
Fuentes, Brim 99
Fuji Rock Festival 226
G, Daddy 72–3, 74, 76, 89, 96, 101, 104–5, 106, 124, 320
Gallagher, Liam 162–3, 298
gang culture 26, 30–2, 62, 187, 232–5
Garvey, Guy 115
Gary (squatter-hippy) 62–3, 76
Gaye, Marvin 19, 54, 109, 110, 125
Geldof, Bob 138
ghettos 1, 2, 4, 15, 68, 70, 73, 75, 85, 117, 253–74
Gilmour, Dave (A&R guy) 115, 121, 149
Glastonbury 27, 60, 61, 66, 93, 172, 225, 275–9
Glitter Band 157
Godfrey, Arthur (great-uncle) 11, 24, 26, 27, 33, 34, 51, 265, 312
Godfrey, Farmer (greatgrandfather) 4–11, 24, 28, 39, 265
Godfrey, Margaret (‘Maga’) (née Lawrence) (great-grandmother) 4–6, 9–10, 11, 13, 19, 24–5, 28, 33–4, 35, 312
Godfrey, Margaret Rose (aunt), see Porter, Marlow
Godfrey, Martin (great-uncle) 3–6, 9–12, 18, 24–7, 28, 29, 33, 34–5, 40, 51, 55, 69, 265, 312, 327
birth of 24
in children’s home 23
club owned by 30, 31
Maureen stabs 12–13
notoriety of 23–4, 26–7, 30–1
in prison 26–7, 31, 314 (see also prisons by name)
Roy threatened by 4, 13, 17, 314–15
Godfrey, Maureen (great-aunt) 10, 12–13, 24, 25, 33, 35
Godfrey, Olive (great-aunt) 10, 24, 36, 265
Godfrey, Violet (grandmother), see Monteith, Violet
Godfrey, Violet (maternal grandmother), see Monteith, Vio
let
Goldfrapp, Alison 204
Goldie 99, 180–1
Goldstone, Michael 187, 188
Gould, Elliott 241, 243–4
Gravediggaz 183
Green, Al 69
Gripper, see Morgan, Chrissie
Grove Studios 177
Guest, Anthony (cousin) 61, 279
Guest, Theodore (‘Ted’) (maternal grandfather) 28, 35
Guest, Tony (uncle) 6, 11, 12, 28–32, 35–6, 38, 40, 51, 61, 208, 225–7, 260, 263, 265, 296
Haçienda 32
Hadley, Tony 137
Hagen, Nina 259
Hall, Terry 53, 54–5, 138, 155, 156–8, 161, 175, 291
Happy Mondays 30, 107, 133
Harper, Ben 257
Hartcliffe, Bristol 15
Harvey, PJ (Polly Harvey) 115, 118, 124, 136, 140, 142, 143, 160, 161, 162, 206, 298, 305
Hawkman 222–3
Hayes, Isaac 129
Hazel (farmer) 25
‘Hell Is Round The Corner’ 122, 127, 129, 292
Henry, Caresse 230
Holiday, Billie 8, 54, 114, 118
Hollywood Records 221, 223, 238–9
Hooper, Nellee 73, 96, 97, 124, 141, 161–2, 322
Horiyoshi III 219
hunting 9–10, 11, 25, 27
Hutchence, Michael 138
Hyde Park BST 322
Ice Cube 125
Iman 138
Indigo 291
Inkerman 65
Inkworks 64
insomnia 145, 209, 295
Irie, Tippa 57
Island Records 111, 112–31, 177, 183, 185–6, 191, 202, 207–8, 214–15, 221, 242, 286, 323–4
Island Trading Company 186
Italian Stallion 32
Izzard, Eddie 165
Jaffe, Lee 242–4