Drank the bar dry at the last chance saloon...... (25/2/17)

Anguish & Fanfare - Hightown Pirates

“The truth’s just like you, just like me, it’s never that simple.”

I think what we’re talking about here is rebirth and dichotomy, despair and celebration. Simon Mason and I are sitting in a small Hackney Marshes cafe on the banks of the River Lea, a short journey from his Stoke Newington home, talking about his band, Hightown Pirates’ forthcoming debut album, Dry & High, and live shows in London’s Water Rats and Liverpool’s Zanzibar on March 2nd and 4th respectively.  The Marshes, and this cafe next to a rowing club, are/is one of those areas of London that you don’t expect, an idyllic country moment in the midst of the city, perfect for dog walking and reflection; it’s a long way from the Sefton village that provides the band’s name and even further from a large slice of Simon’s previous life.

For those who have read Simon’s memoir, or seen his one man show, both entitled ‘Too High, Too Far, Too Soon’, you’ll know that his story’s subtitle ‘Tales From A Dubious Past’ is honest and accurate. For those that haven’t, know this: Simon lived a life during the Britpop era; a life of ambition then excess then addiction; a life filled with interesting figures that you may recognise; a graffiti artist who he shared a flat with and turned down the chance of managing and a band who he will only refer to as ‘the Manchester (City) Frisbee Team’ but who he introduced onstage at Glasgow Green and whose record breaking Knebworth shows he left under less glorious circumstances.

We touch on all this, plus his links to, and love of, Liverpool, as we talk; most importantly though, we talk about the now and the next, where his life is and where it’s going, what he’s creating and what it means:

‘New ideas for tired minds.’

There’s an obvious question to ask a man based in London and born in Weston-super-Mare; a question about names and locations. It’s a question that throws up an answer demonstrating his links to the city he regards as a second home. Why Hightown Pirates?

“I was out and about with Mick (the ‘Mick’ in question here is the legendary Michael Head of Red Elastic Band, Strands, Shack, Pale Fountains fame) a couple of summers ago. We’d been out in Bootle staring at the Iron Men, jumped on a train and found ourselves in Hightown. There’s a pub just as you come out of the station next to the abandoned shed that apparently was once home to the Hightown Bugle local paper and over lunch there we came up with the idea of ‘fantasy pirate ship’ where you chose the crew for your fantasy pirate ship. I honestly don’t know who was the first to say it but, ‘Hightown Pirates? That’d be a great name for a band.’”

It was a band that Simon had no real intention of forming; his band days were behind him, his days of music making an ambition of the past. It was Mr Head, once again, in the period surrounding a small, invitation only, Stoke Newington Church set arranged by Mr Mason, who suggested that the guitar in the corner of Simon’s flat might have better uses than simply gathering dust. Simon found himself moving from arranger/promotor to support act and found old songs breathing again as new ones entered to sit alongside them.

“There are plenty of recent songs on this album and the next will be entirely stuff I’ve written recently but some of the songs go back over ten years, ideas/demos from when I was still very much in the grip of my drug addiction. I write about my band, Monkeyman, towards the end of the book and some of those songs come from that period of my life. A few years after I got clean I found the ‘courage’ to listen to the demos again and realised I’d really fucked-up a great band due to my inability to quit using at that time.”

He’s very open about the addiction that cost him both time and opportunity. 

“Drugs are a full-time occupation for me, If I’m doing drugs, nothing else will last, my attention is taken by darker things. I spent years in recovery playing in a band called The Should Be Deads; we were all recovering drug addicts and although we agreed our remit was only ever going to be to play covers and try and entertain people, I really enjoyed the journey with that band. We had a lot of fun and I think, for me as a singer, it was possibly the best education I could have had.”

That education has resulted in a debut album with a massive sound and emotion drenched songs. There are works with a minor key subject set, in a grand tradition, to major key classicist indie rock. Think, ‘Be Here Now’ with actual songs rather than forgettable bluster. Think of The Waterboys at their ‘Big Music’ peak. The celebratory blast of the trumpet and the peace of the flute bring light to very dark true life moments, to loves lost and times wasted; emotional anguish coloured by fanfares. Is this the sound that Simon Mason envisaged as he picked up that guitar again?

“I have to say it, sometimes I only bring the bones of songs to the band. I’m not a very good, in fact I’m a shocking guitar-player. I bring the words and chord structures, but the band bring the magic.”

The ‘band who bring the magic’ leans on both the bands that he’s mentioned so far. Guitarist Matt Purslow is a lifelong friend, drummer Jon Finnigan was in Monkeyman (and Gang of Four and others..), Dave Aird, Anna Tosh (who guests here on guitars) and flautist Lilly Vasill had also played in the Should be Deads. “Flute wasn’t something I’d ever really considered, but at the end of the day, it’s all about the energy you create and Lilly brought an energy all of her own.”

The fact that the previously unconsidered flute is such a strikingly different aspect to the album, bringing a pastoral taste of Traffic’s ‘getting it together in the country’ to the massive sound of the twin/triple guitar and horn attack of the band is simply another example of how ‘right’ the origins of the band are.

“It was over the course of a few phone calls that it became obvious this thing was meant to be, there was a very limited window of opportunity to rehearse and record and everybody involved was available for the exact two weeks we had. I originally asked my mate Pete Wilkinson (Cast/Shack/Bunnymen/Aviator) to play bass in the studio, but he wasn’t available, so he suggested Mark Neary.”

Simon knew of Mark as bassist for Aviator but hadn’t realised that he would also be the engineer and producer who would be perfect for the project.

“I had no idea when I first met Mark that he’d engineered Noel Gallagher’s first solo album and had played bass with Van Morrison. When he told me I was like, “Mate I don’t think I can afford you?”  His response, was in keeping with everybody else who got involved; ‘I’m into it, it’s fucking great, we’ll sort it out.’ He was right of course, we did and it is.”

There was still something to add though, something to finalise the sound:

"I knew we needed a brass section and a big soulful voice to put over the songs. There was only ever gonna be one place to record that and only a couple of people I would ask, so yeah, go get the Shack horn-section and Shona Carmen up in Liverpool, record it at Ste Powell’s studio in Sandhills; absolute no-brainer. I asked, they all said yes. Some fella from ‘Kenny' also turned up to and added a few guitar parts to a song as well. He’s good that lad, could make a living out of it, I reckon.”

The first fruits of this alignment of chance and inevitability (sans that lad from Kenny who has appeared in this story a few times so far) were made public in December last year; a pair of support slots for the Dodgy/Ultrasound co-headlining tour, on the back of Simon’s solo support shows on Peter Doherty’s Eudaimonia tour, were followed by a full live debut at London’s legendary Water Rats which combined the attack of The Hold Steady with the rock’n’roll triumphalism of the E Street Band and the sway of a soul review. Water Rats will also be the venue for their next show, followed swiftly by a night at the Zanzibar on 4th March. Both legendary venues, Water Rats holding particular sway in Simon’s story as the first place that he ever saw ‘the Manchester (City) Frisbee Team’ and changed his life forever, but why the Zanzibar? Why Liverpool as a city?

“Football brought me to Liverpool initially. The first match I ever saw was just a couple of months after my dad had died; I was 11 and devastated beyond belief. My mum had a cousin who lived in Coventry and he wanted to try and help, so he offered to take me to see Liverpool play Coventry at Highfield Road. The reds lost but I’m pretty sure that despite that, I intuitively knew following them was more likely to bring me joy than supporting the sky-blues. Even at the final whistle, despite the defeat, the Liverpool fans were making more noise than the home side; I wanted/needed a bit of that really. My musical ‘education’ perfectly complimented my choice of football club too. Around the same time as I went to see the reds for the first time, one of the older kids in my school gave me a compilation tape; he was also trying to help alleviate my misery. So I heard The Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes and of course the ‘Fabs’ too. Pretty persuasive argument all that. I’ve spent a lot of time in Liverpool and performed my one-man show there a couple of years ago. This will be the first time I’ve brought a band though and I am ridiculously excited; I can’t even begin to tell you.”

So, with all this, with a life lived, a band formed, an album recorded, live shows, songs that are open and honest about every stage of his life, what does it all mean. What does Hightown Pirates mean to Simon Mason, what’s the message that they’re sending out?

“It’s more than a band. Way more for all sorts of reasons, the most seductive being; it really has no ‘right’ to exist. Aside from the fact some of our core members are survivors of chronic addiction and dysfunction, the way it came about last year is ridiculous and wonderful and the stuff of magic and unstoppable force. On a day to day level, it means the realisation of dreams shared with long-standing friendships while at the same time, attracting new ones and then there’s the actual music…. We sound like your new favourite band and because of that, we’re creating happy memories and moments of joy.”

“The message? It’s not my message, it’s just a message, never give up, believe in yourself and others, fight for what is right and good. If this band means anything it’s exactly that. We’re multi-gender, multi-racial and  multi-generational. We live in times where people are being told to fear that which does not look or ‘sound’ like them, yet here we are, proving that idea to be a falsehood. Plus, we all want to be a pirate really, don’t we?”

What’s next, then? After the album is out and in your hands, after the magnificent live shows in venues that are really just that bit too small for such a massive sound, what comes next?

“I can’t even begin to get my head around that, we’ve not really started with this yet. Hopefully more and more gigs, more albums,” and he laughs, “more of everything, some things never change eh?”

Hightown Pirates play Camden Water Rats on March 2nd and Liverpool's Zanzibar on March 4th. Dry and High can sill be pre-ordered here:  

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/hightown-pirates-dry-and-high