Still going after all these years After tracking them down in South London and Hampshire we finally caught up with them at their label headquarters, Bitter and Twisted Records, in London. Paul (guitar and vocals) sits relaxed on a sofa; sipping tea while Dec (drums) and Russ (bass and vocals) are transfixed by the KISS pinball machine in the corner. All seems well in the Midways camp and in fact they all look well for a bunch of people in their late 30’s/ early 40’s.
The title of this album is Always Ends; where did that come from? Dec: It comes from the deepest darkest recess of Paul Thomson’s mind! Paul: I think my deeply cynical and pessimistic side usually appears when it comes to songs and titles. And there seems to be recurring themes of frustration, anticlimax, hopelessness and futility that run through almost everything I write, even the poppiest tunes! Not sure why... Title wise, we had the song "This Is How It Ends" but thought it might be tempting fate a bit too much to call the album that, so I was just trying to find a phrase around that that had a ring to it. And "Always Ends" has quite a few nice connotations. It fits nicely into the MS "character" anyway...! |
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What is the record about and what was the inspiration behind the new record?
Paul: See above! Lack of faith in humanity and individuals; people's greed; relationships failing on all sorts of levels and the pain that causes; suicide; the Gallagher brothers; the ultimate futility of life; guys who can't take it any more and end up shooting people in a post office, running down an avenue on a nice sunny day...usual sort of thing. Inspiration is usually (repeatedly) trying to capture that vibe in a song...the bittersweetness of almost everything.
This is arguably some of your best work to date with your smallest fan base; how do you reconcile that and what makes you keep coming back?
Paul: Well, let's face it Midway Still have never been popular, even when the NME were all over us! So we're absolutely used to fighting against rampant ambivalence and a distinct lack of interest and these days we just tell ourselves it's just like starting all over again. You have to assume that nobody knows who you are so they don't know your stuff, early or recent, good or bad. It is a bit frustrating that we are now a much better band than we were when we had all that publicity though.
Paul: I think we all really like what we do, and we think it's still good music, that we would want to hear ourselves. I'm fortunate enough to have a small studio at home so we can record for free (we did Note To Self and Always Ends there) so it doesn't cost us anything really. But I guess the main thing is that we are all good friends and would be socialising anyway, so it keeps us out of the pub. For a while...
You now run your own record label, Bitter & Twisted records. How did that come about?
Paul: We released Note To Self on Boss Tuneage and Aston and Julie did a great job for us very enthusiastically, for which we were really grateful. But when it came to "Always Ends" I thought it would be interesting to be involved at all levels from production through to the pressing of the CDs and marketing. It's something I've been interested in doing for a while and if we're going to mess it up, better to mess up our own record than someone else's. And as recording is free our costs are minimal.
Who are you listening to at the moment?
Dec: Lately I have been listening to Red Fang, Holy Mountain and lots of Motown
Russ: Cancer Bats, Winnabago Deal, Lafaro, Rise Against, Mew and Slayer; lots of Slayer.
Paul: I like Azealia Banks ‘cos she swears a lot. But as you would expect of an old man, I think all modern music is arse. Russ and Dec keep feeding me with things like Red Fang, Lafaro, Pulled Apart By horses etc. But usually it’s the same old thing ends up in the car...AC/DC, The Damned, NoMeansNo, The Carpenters...I keep trying things out on the kids, see how they react. The Damned didn't go well. Motorhead and AC/DC are very popular. Midway Still they can take or leave.
Declan you seem to be a ringer for other bands as well; Southport being one of them. How do you balance working for two bands?
Dec: Its easy, I basically make sure I play very simple (moronic?) beats that a well manicured chimpanzee could master in a couple of days. If I stop the fills I reckon could I actually play in another 10 bands without any effect on my health and safety.
You are sporadically touring at the moment. What are your highs and lows of being on the road?
Russ: The lows usually come in the form of the hung over journey home. Usually this is hours spent in a Volvo on Britain's finest motorways but a while back we played in Glasgow and then tried to sleep on the floor of Glasgow Prestwick airport. I wouldn't recommend it. The highs are everything else really...we're all good mates so even hanging around before playing a gig is easy, the only thing we have to worry about is the amount of beer consumed before show time. After the gig we don't really worry about the amount of beer we drink.
Paul: The highs are getting to make a huge racket in front of a couple of people who like what you're doing. A few beers before and after, the company of a couple of mates, smashing. The main low is the grinding exhaustion you feel the day after when faced with a 3 hour drive back from Manchester. Still, the car has a fantastic stereo, so we just blast ourselves to oblivion with Saxon.
Given the dominance of twee folky bands where do you think Midway Still and rock/punk/noisy bands fit in?
Paul: I don’t think we fit in anywhere! We didn't really fit in when we were meant to. Not quite crusty, not quite punk, not quite indie! Jack of all trades....These days I have no idea what's going on in rock music, so couldn't really comment except to say no band seems to be doing anything that different from 20 years ago.
Russ, you recently worked with Kiss on a major book project. Flying in private jets etc. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
Russ: I've been a KISS fan since I was very young so obviously it's a dream come true for me. The book is called KISS Monster and it lives up to its title - the pages are a whopping 90x64cm and there's no text, only amazing photos printed poster size. I am the picture editor so I had my work cut out for me! I joined them on tour twice last year in Canada and the US and pretty much commissioned myself to photograph them for 6 shows. I worked my ass off, the guys really put on a huge show but it's surprisingly difficult to capture. And also quite dangerous, e.g. trying not to slip on the kerosine Gene spits out when he breathes fire, not to mention all the main pyro, there are explosions everywhere. The crew and the band treated us really well, particularly Tommy Thayer and Paul Stanley and yes, I've flown on their 12 seat private jet a couple of times which was, quite frankly, surreal. I've been working closely with Tommy on a daily basis now for about 8 months to shape the book into something we are all happy with and it finished printing yesterday. One thousand copies only, all signed by the band but it's, ahem, rather expensive.
How would you describe the 1991 Midway Still?
Paul: We were absolutely clueless. The interest in us started so fast, after about 8 or 9 gigs, that we were totally unprepared. We just went for it. I thought this was my career mapped out and that was that. Wrong!
Dec: Much younger.
Russ: I would describe them as a slightly tamer beast than they are now, musically. I mean that in a nice way. The two albums I've played on sound way more powerful than Dial Square or Life's too Long, and that is down to Paul's production and the fact that he has learned to embrace his heavy metal beast when it comes to song writing. We're rather fond of heavy metal, you know.
What advice would you give them now?
Paul: Try a little harder to be good at what you're doing. Just try harder full-stop, actually. Just because someone has taken an interest does not mean you are a fantastic band. Write some better songs. Watch out for the sharks...they're everywhere and sometimes it's hard to tell ‘em from the good folk! Be nice to Laurence Bell, he'll go far....
Dec: Don’t talk to strangers.
Russ: What advice would I give the young Midways though? Maybe tell Dec that the drumming gloves really aren't a good idea?
Paul, there was a rumour you had gone into advertising is that true?
Paul: Unfortunately untrue. I was asked to write a song for a couple of campaigns that were being planned but they never came to anything. Surprise, surprise...! Would be nice though...money for old rope if you ask me.
On to something a little lighter; where are the Hawaiian shirts?
Russ: I've eaten them all; in a big shirty sandwich.
Paul: In the wardrobe. Sometimes they come out on holiday, but really no one likes to see an old tosser trying to stand out from the crowd; especially my kids.
Dec: In my cupboard, but I do still occasionally wear them. One at a time though, not all together, that would be ridiculous and I’d probably struggle to get my coat on over them.
What’s next for the band?
Paul: Well, bearing in mind the economics of doing what we do, if it doesn't cost us anything to do it, I guess we'll keep doing it as long as we physically can, though Dec is often struggling with one niggle or another. Maybe we can get back over to Japan later this year? Waterslide Records have released the album over there. And maybe we should apply to become a living National Trust monument; it's always nice to know they're there but you can never be arsed to go and see ‘em....
Russ: We'll gig most of the summer, then think about touring in Japan again because last time was pretty special. I'm sure there'll be another album on its way at some point. Other than that, we'll just talk a lot of nonsense.
Dec: More of the bloomin’ same, but maybe with a small cocktail or two at the end.
It is clear that Midway Still are back, except this time they are older, wiser and sonically more appealing than ever.
The new Album Always Ends is out now on Bitter and Twisted records and the band are currently on tour
Paul: See above! Lack of faith in humanity and individuals; people's greed; relationships failing on all sorts of levels and the pain that causes; suicide; the Gallagher brothers; the ultimate futility of life; guys who can't take it any more and end up shooting people in a post office, running down an avenue on a nice sunny day...usual sort of thing. Inspiration is usually (repeatedly) trying to capture that vibe in a song...the bittersweetness of almost everything.
This is arguably some of your best work to date with your smallest fan base; how do you reconcile that and what makes you keep coming back?
Paul: Well, let's face it Midway Still have never been popular, even when the NME were all over us! So we're absolutely used to fighting against rampant ambivalence and a distinct lack of interest and these days we just tell ourselves it's just like starting all over again. You have to assume that nobody knows who you are so they don't know your stuff, early or recent, good or bad. It is a bit frustrating that we are now a much better band than we were when we had all that publicity though.
Paul: I think we all really like what we do, and we think it's still good music, that we would want to hear ourselves. I'm fortunate enough to have a small studio at home so we can record for free (we did Note To Self and Always Ends there) so it doesn't cost us anything really. But I guess the main thing is that we are all good friends and would be socialising anyway, so it keeps us out of the pub. For a while...
You now run your own record label, Bitter & Twisted records. How did that come about?
Paul: We released Note To Self on Boss Tuneage and Aston and Julie did a great job for us very enthusiastically, for which we were really grateful. But when it came to "Always Ends" I thought it would be interesting to be involved at all levels from production through to the pressing of the CDs and marketing. It's something I've been interested in doing for a while and if we're going to mess it up, better to mess up our own record than someone else's. And as recording is free our costs are minimal.
Who are you listening to at the moment?
Dec: Lately I have been listening to Red Fang, Holy Mountain and lots of Motown
Russ: Cancer Bats, Winnabago Deal, Lafaro, Rise Against, Mew and Slayer; lots of Slayer.
Paul: I like Azealia Banks ‘cos she swears a lot. But as you would expect of an old man, I think all modern music is arse. Russ and Dec keep feeding me with things like Red Fang, Lafaro, Pulled Apart By horses etc. But usually it’s the same old thing ends up in the car...AC/DC, The Damned, NoMeansNo, The Carpenters...I keep trying things out on the kids, see how they react. The Damned didn't go well. Motorhead and AC/DC are very popular. Midway Still they can take or leave.
Declan you seem to be a ringer for other bands as well; Southport being one of them. How do you balance working for two bands?
Dec: Its easy, I basically make sure I play very simple (moronic?) beats that a well manicured chimpanzee could master in a couple of days. If I stop the fills I reckon could I actually play in another 10 bands without any effect on my health and safety.
You are sporadically touring at the moment. What are your highs and lows of being on the road?
Russ: The lows usually come in the form of the hung over journey home. Usually this is hours spent in a Volvo on Britain's finest motorways but a while back we played in Glasgow and then tried to sleep on the floor of Glasgow Prestwick airport. I wouldn't recommend it. The highs are everything else really...we're all good mates so even hanging around before playing a gig is easy, the only thing we have to worry about is the amount of beer consumed before show time. After the gig we don't really worry about the amount of beer we drink.
Paul: The highs are getting to make a huge racket in front of a couple of people who like what you're doing. A few beers before and after, the company of a couple of mates, smashing. The main low is the grinding exhaustion you feel the day after when faced with a 3 hour drive back from Manchester. Still, the car has a fantastic stereo, so we just blast ourselves to oblivion with Saxon.
Given the dominance of twee folky bands where do you think Midway Still and rock/punk/noisy bands fit in?
Paul: I don’t think we fit in anywhere! We didn't really fit in when we were meant to. Not quite crusty, not quite punk, not quite indie! Jack of all trades....These days I have no idea what's going on in rock music, so couldn't really comment except to say no band seems to be doing anything that different from 20 years ago.
Russ, you recently worked with Kiss on a major book project. Flying in private jets etc. Can you tell us a bit more about that?
Russ: I've been a KISS fan since I was very young so obviously it's a dream come true for me. The book is called KISS Monster and it lives up to its title - the pages are a whopping 90x64cm and there's no text, only amazing photos printed poster size. I am the picture editor so I had my work cut out for me! I joined them on tour twice last year in Canada and the US and pretty much commissioned myself to photograph them for 6 shows. I worked my ass off, the guys really put on a huge show but it's surprisingly difficult to capture. And also quite dangerous, e.g. trying not to slip on the kerosine Gene spits out when he breathes fire, not to mention all the main pyro, there are explosions everywhere. The crew and the band treated us really well, particularly Tommy Thayer and Paul Stanley and yes, I've flown on their 12 seat private jet a couple of times which was, quite frankly, surreal. I've been working closely with Tommy on a daily basis now for about 8 months to shape the book into something we are all happy with and it finished printing yesterday. One thousand copies only, all signed by the band but it's, ahem, rather expensive.
How would you describe the 1991 Midway Still?
Paul: We were absolutely clueless. The interest in us started so fast, after about 8 or 9 gigs, that we were totally unprepared. We just went for it. I thought this was my career mapped out and that was that. Wrong!
Dec: Much younger.
Russ: I would describe them as a slightly tamer beast than they are now, musically. I mean that in a nice way. The two albums I've played on sound way more powerful than Dial Square or Life's too Long, and that is down to Paul's production and the fact that he has learned to embrace his heavy metal beast when it comes to song writing. We're rather fond of heavy metal, you know.
What advice would you give them now?
Paul: Try a little harder to be good at what you're doing. Just try harder full-stop, actually. Just because someone has taken an interest does not mean you are a fantastic band. Write some better songs. Watch out for the sharks...they're everywhere and sometimes it's hard to tell ‘em from the good folk! Be nice to Laurence Bell, he'll go far....
Dec: Don’t talk to strangers.
Russ: What advice would I give the young Midways though? Maybe tell Dec that the drumming gloves really aren't a good idea?
Paul, there was a rumour you had gone into advertising is that true?
Paul: Unfortunately untrue. I was asked to write a song for a couple of campaigns that were being planned but they never came to anything. Surprise, surprise...! Would be nice though...money for old rope if you ask me.
On to something a little lighter; where are the Hawaiian shirts?
Russ: I've eaten them all; in a big shirty sandwich.
Paul: In the wardrobe. Sometimes they come out on holiday, but really no one likes to see an old tosser trying to stand out from the crowd; especially my kids.
Dec: In my cupboard, but I do still occasionally wear them. One at a time though, not all together, that would be ridiculous and I’d probably struggle to get my coat on over them.
What’s next for the band?
Paul: Well, bearing in mind the economics of doing what we do, if it doesn't cost us anything to do it, I guess we'll keep doing it as long as we physically can, though Dec is often struggling with one niggle or another. Maybe we can get back over to Japan later this year? Waterslide Records have released the album over there. And maybe we should apply to become a living National Trust monument; it's always nice to know they're there but you can never be arsed to go and see ‘em....
Russ: We'll gig most of the summer, then think about touring in Japan again because last time was pretty special. I'm sure there'll be another album on its way at some point. Other than that, we'll just talk a lot of nonsense.
Dec: More of the bloomin’ same, but maybe with a small cocktail or two at the end.
It is clear that Midway Still are back, except this time they are older, wiser and sonically more appealing than ever.
The new Album Always Ends is out now on Bitter and Twisted records and the band are currently on tour
Shock ! Horror! Actual NEW press from Mass Movement Magazine 31st May 2012 for new album Always Ends out on 6th June 2012 - pre-order NOW.
NME I Won't Try - Single of the week
Can't remember the exact date of this but it was single of the week 1 and Elvis was single of the week 2!
Melody Maker Sidelines 10th August 1991
NME 2nd Nov 1991 Astoria review
This was during the Cud tour, one of the first bigger venues we played. Great review from Simon WIlliams.
NME Turn Ons Wish 2nd Nov 1991
NME?
Not sure where this one comes from - anyone?
NME Better Than Before release PR
NME News debut LP & Tour 25th Apr 1992
NME Turn Ons 25th Apr 1992
Public NME 25th Apr 1992
On tour with Mega City Four in Europe
Interview in Melody Maker 9th May 1992 with Ann Scanlon
When MIDWAY STILL first exploded onto vinyl eight months ago, their noisy guitar sound was something of a novelty. Nirvana have changed all that but ANN SCANLON reckons that the Midways' wrist-slitting melancholy can be traced directly back to Husker Du.
It's a drizzly afternoon in North London, and Midway Still are sitting around in a tiny studio, waiting for the clock to strike five pm so they can start recording their next single.
It's too bad that the band's only afternoon off in weeks has been blown away by the man in the workshop downstairs who - bizarre as it sounds - has imposed an all-day ban on the studio simply because he can't deal with the noise.
If it's noise that's the problem then he would have had a hard time coping with Midway Still who, despite their glorious pop sensibility, are noisy punk rockers at heart. Today of all days they're likely to have the volume cranked up viciously high as they attempt to cover Captain America's debut 45, "Wow" - a song that the Midways admit to not actually knowing how to play yet.
The general idea is that their Roughneck labelmates will return the favour by recording Midway Still's first single, "I Won't Try", and the songs will be given away on a free flexi disc when the two bands play at London ULU early next month.
It will be interesting to see what Captain America's Eugene Kelly (a man who Kurt Cobain describes as "the most beautiful, intense, visceral singer on the face of this planet") will make of "I Won't Try".
When Midway Still released their first single last summer, "I Won't Try" was hailed as one of the best British debuts of the decade, and the Midways were welcomed as a much needed blast of noisy guitar rock.
At that time, most people were too busy trying to disassociate themselves from Manchester or celebrating the new scene to realise what trios with a guitar and a couple of mega-volume amps were going to mean by the end of the year. The ones who did glimpse the future were those who had understood the power and glory of the late Husker Du (when asked why no one had thought of doing what Nirvana are doing before, bassist Chris Novoselic recently pointed out that, actually, Husker Du already had).
Two singles on from their debut, Midway Still are about to release their first LP, "Dial Square", and are finding that the post-Nirvana world that they're now dealing with is very different to the one that they unleashed "I Won't Try" upon, eight months ago.
"The Nirvana thing is probably destructive rather than constructive," decides vocalist / guitarist Paul Thomson, "because everyone just goes, 'Oh, you're trying to copy Nirvana', and also there's gonna be a total overkill on guitar bands. I've heard EMF and bloody Pop Will Eat Itself are getting back to noisy guitars."
"Even the Inspiral Carpets are going for grungy guitars now," sneers bassist John, who sometimes switches to his real name of Jan. "When we started everyone was saying, 'You've got your guitars turned up ‘cos you don't like dance and Manchester and all that stuff, haven't you?' and we were like, 'Um, no, we can't really say that we did'."
Weaned on classic power trios like Husker Du, Big Black, The Minutemen, early Motorhead, Dinosaur Jr and Snuff, it probably didn't occur to Midway Still to be anything other than loud and fast and tuneful.
"Husker Du were such a great band," enthuses drummer Declan Kelly, who completes the Midway trio. "Just the noise and the tunes, sort of like a punk rock band into The Byrds and The Beatles. At that time you were either well into tunes or you were well into punk rock, the two things didn't really go together. I think the Huskers did a helluvalot to change that, yet it's only now that they're being recognised for merging the two things."
After giving up his job as a proof reader of legal contracts ("You'd get this document for the purchase of one X15 DL Space Rocket worth 25 billion dollars, and sometimes they'd write million instead of billion"), Paul sat around for six months writing songs and trying to pluck up the courage to actually start a band. Towards the end of 1990, he placed an advertisement in Melody Maker and along came John and Declan, old school mates whose most recent band had been USMF.
After "I Won't Try", Midway Still looked for a producer who they hoped would understand them. Roughneck suggested Don Fleming (who also works with Teenage Fanclub, to whose "A Catholic Education"-era the Midways have often been compared), and he produced their next two singles, "Wish" and "Better Than Before", and the LP.
"Don doesn't like to do anything straight and on the album no two mixes are the same," Paul explains. "Every song sounds like it's been recorded in a different bloody studio, but that's what he sets out to do."
Whatever the producer's intentions were, Midway Still manage to sound laid back while a key line, wracked with broken-hearted passion, seems to leap out at you with every other chord change ("take a hammer to my dreams", from "Better Than Before" is one that immediately springs to mind). In the real world of Midway Still there seems to be a very real sense of striving, yet things always seem to slip away or fall apart.
"Yep, you sussed it," smiles Paul. "You absolutely sussed it. All the songs that we're doing at the moment were written two years ago when I was massively depressed, and they're all about one particular person."
He doesn't really need to stress the severity of his depression, since all his songs are imbued with sorrow, regret and a profound yearning to turn back the clock and not f*** up again. These days, Paul is a happier soul with a new girlfriend (who, handily enough, has never questioned him on the source of his muse), but he is still someone who's never satisfied with his songwriting.
"They're alright," he shrugs. "But they're not as good as say (Leatherface's) 'Not Superstitious', that's a bloody song and a half. Or old Bob (Husker Du's Mould) doing 'Too Far Down', that absolutely summed it up for me. I'm so far down that 'you wouldn't want to know anyway' - that was a killer."
Like Nirvana, Midway Still have taken from Husker Du's rich legacy and, along with Leatherface, are giving us tunefulness, simplicity and a total lack of pretence. If there's room in the charts for Senseless Things and Mega City Four (who Midway Still have been supporting around Europe), there's definitely a hallowed place for Frankie Stubbs and Paul Thomson.
"If someone gets up in the morning and really wants to play 'Wish', then that's enough for me," claims Paul. "When we were supporting the Megas, some kid came up to me and said, 'I've seen Carter, I've seen the Neds and I've never seen anything like you - you blew the whole lot away.'"
"For some little kid to come up and tell you that you're the best band he's ever seen does knock you back a bit," adds Declan. "But, then again, it does make you wonder about his taste."
Midway Still: pop music at its self-scathing best.
Midway Still's month-long UK tour starts (started - at the time - Ed) on May 7th at Sheffield Poly.
Transcription nicked from http://www.bandplanet.co.uk/forgottenbandplanet/midwaystill/index.htm Thank you!
It's a drizzly afternoon in North London, and Midway Still are sitting around in a tiny studio, waiting for the clock to strike five pm so they can start recording their next single.
It's too bad that the band's only afternoon off in weeks has been blown away by the man in the workshop downstairs who - bizarre as it sounds - has imposed an all-day ban on the studio simply because he can't deal with the noise.
If it's noise that's the problem then he would have had a hard time coping with Midway Still who, despite their glorious pop sensibility, are noisy punk rockers at heart. Today of all days they're likely to have the volume cranked up viciously high as they attempt to cover Captain America's debut 45, "Wow" - a song that the Midways admit to not actually knowing how to play yet.
The general idea is that their Roughneck labelmates will return the favour by recording Midway Still's first single, "I Won't Try", and the songs will be given away on a free flexi disc when the two bands play at London ULU early next month.
It will be interesting to see what Captain America's Eugene Kelly (a man who Kurt Cobain describes as "the most beautiful, intense, visceral singer on the face of this planet") will make of "I Won't Try".
When Midway Still released their first single last summer, "I Won't Try" was hailed as one of the best British debuts of the decade, and the Midways were welcomed as a much needed blast of noisy guitar rock.
At that time, most people were too busy trying to disassociate themselves from Manchester or celebrating the new scene to realise what trios with a guitar and a couple of mega-volume amps were going to mean by the end of the year. The ones who did glimpse the future were those who had understood the power and glory of the late Husker Du (when asked why no one had thought of doing what Nirvana are doing before, bassist Chris Novoselic recently pointed out that, actually, Husker Du already had).
Two singles on from their debut, Midway Still are about to release their first LP, "Dial Square", and are finding that the post-Nirvana world that they're now dealing with is very different to the one that they unleashed "I Won't Try" upon, eight months ago.
"The Nirvana thing is probably destructive rather than constructive," decides vocalist / guitarist Paul Thomson, "because everyone just goes, 'Oh, you're trying to copy Nirvana', and also there's gonna be a total overkill on guitar bands. I've heard EMF and bloody Pop Will Eat Itself are getting back to noisy guitars."
"Even the Inspiral Carpets are going for grungy guitars now," sneers bassist John, who sometimes switches to his real name of Jan. "When we started everyone was saying, 'You've got your guitars turned up ‘cos you don't like dance and Manchester and all that stuff, haven't you?' and we were like, 'Um, no, we can't really say that we did'."
Weaned on classic power trios like Husker Du, Big Black, The Minutemen, early Motorhead, Dinosaur Jr and Snuff, it probably didn't occur to Midway Still to be anything other than loud and fast and tuneful.
"Husker Du were such a great band," enthuses drummer Declan Kelly, who completes the Midway trio. "Just the noise and the tunes, sort of like a punk rock band into The Byrds and The Beatles. At that time you were either well into tunes or you were well into punk rock, the two things didn't really go together. I think the Huskers did a helluvalot to change that, yet it's only now that they're being recognised for merging the two things."
After giving up his job as a proof reader of legal contracts ("You'd get this document for the purchase of one X15 DL Space Rocket worth 25 billion dollars, and sometimes they'd write million instead of billion"), Paul sat around for six months writing songs and trying to pluck up the courage to actually start a band. Towards the end of 1990, he placed an advertisement in Melody Maker and along came John and Declan, old school mates whose most recent band had been USMF.
After "I Won't Try", Midway Still looked for a producer who they hoped would understand them. Roughneck suggested Don Fleming (who also works with Teenage Fanclub, to whose "A Catholic Education"-era the Midways have often been compared), and he produced their next two singles, "Wish" and "Better Than Before", and the LP.
"Don doesn't like to do anything straight and on the album no two mixes are the same," Paul explains. "Every song sounds like it's been recorded in a different bloody studio, but that's what he sets out to do."
Whatever the producer's intentions were, Midway Still manage to sound laid back while a key line, wracked with broken-hearted passion, seems to leap out at you with every other chord change ("take a hammer to my dreams", from "Better Than Before" is one that immediately springs to mind). In the real world of Midway Still there seems to be a very real sense of striving, yet things always seem to slip away or fall apart.
"Yep, you sussed it," smiles Paul. "You absolutely sussed it. All the songs that we're doing at the moment were written two years ago when I was massively depressed, and they're all about one particular person."
He doesn't really need to stress the severity of his depression, since all his songs are imbued with sorrow, regret and a profound yearning to turn back the clock and not f*** up again. These days, Paul is a happier soul with a new girlfriend (who, handily enough, has never questioned him on the source of his muse), but he is still someone who's never satisfied with his songwriting.
"They're alright," he shrugs. "But they're not as good as say (Leatherface's) 'Not Superstitious', that's a bloody song and a half. Or old Bob (Husker Du's Mould) doing 'Too Far Down', that absolutely summed it up for me. I'm so far down that 'you wouldn't want to know anyway' - that was a killer."
Like Nirvana, Midway Still have taken from Husker Du's rich legacy and, along with Leatherface, are giving us tunefulness, simplicity and a total lack of pretence. If there's room in the charts for Senseless Things and Mega City Four (who Midway Still have been supporting around Europe), there's definitely a hallowed place for Frankie Stubbs and Paul Thomson.
"If someone gets up in the morning and really wants to play 'Wish', then that's enough for me," claims Paul. "When we were supporting the Megas, some kid came up to me and said, 'I've seen Carter, I've seen the Neds and I've never seen anything like you - you blew the whole lot away.'"
"For some little kid to come up and tell you that you're the best band he's ever seen does knock you back a bit," adds Declan. "But, then again, it does make you wonder about his taste."
Midway Still: pop music at its self-scathing best.
Midway Still's month-long UK tour starts (started - at the time - Ed) on May 7th at Sheffield Poly.
Transcription nicked from http://www.bandplanet.co.uk/forgottenbandplanet/midwaystill/index.htm Thank you!
NME Indie LP's 16th May 1992
NME Indie 45's 16th May 1992
NME PR for Dial Square and tour 16th May 1992
NME Album recommended 16th May 1992
I think the PR team had a bit of a field day in the NME for that day!
Melody Maker review of Reading Festival 1992
© Schamhaar productions 2012
