MUSIC FOR ABORIGINES Live

An update of the Music for Aborigines gig t Night & Day Cafe (Manchester-UK) on 10th October 2011:

Colin Smith, member of the band, has published on his Facebook profile some pictures from the show.



Thanks Colin for sharing them

MUSIC FOR ABORIGINES, KIZILOK & Cornelius Crane Concert

An update of the gig MUSIC FOR ABORIGINES played last 29th July in Manchester (UK) @Night&Day Cafe:

This is the set list of the MFA gig. The played some songs of Black Swan Lane & Weaveworld:

1. Tidal Wave (Black Swan Lane)
2. Pathetical Twat
3. An Individual Mind (Black Swan Lane)
4. Hydraulic Bottlejacks
5. Singing September Songs
6. Kink in your Plan (song from early band "The Neighbours", Col Smith & Andy Whit were in 1980 before forming MFA)
7. Sitting on a Biscuit
8. Perfect Day
9. Out and Down (Weaveworld)
10. Open up my Eyes (Weaveworld)
11. Davy Jones (Weaveworld)
12. Faith

(Thanks Col for the set list)


We have also collected some pics of the event and we have included them in the MFA Photo Album, available here and at the side bar of this blog. Mark Burgess and John Lever attended the show, as part of the audience.

Hope you like the pics. Special thanks to Col & Izzy Wizzy for sharing them.










Background: As all of you may know, MUSIC FOR ABORIGINES was founded many, many years ago by Colin Smith, Andy Clegg & Andy Whitaker, and then two Andys created the SUN & MOON band with John Lever and Mark Burgess from the Chameleons.

MFA was supported in the gig by KIZILOK and CORNELIUS CRANE. If you want to know how these bands sound like, just take a look at the following links:

MUSIC FOR ABORIGINES:
www.myspace.com/whitakerandy
http://www.myspace.com/weaveworld
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0A_iXFF_gQ&feature=related

KIZILOK:
http://www.youtube.com/user/kizilok1

THECORNELIUS CRANE:
http://www.myspace.com/captainsofindustry31
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001967923438

All the info on this Facebook Link.

Rare Pictures of MUSIC FOR ABORIGINES AND SUN&MOON

Colin Smith, member of MUSIC FOR ABORIGINES, has published on his Facebook profile a collection of MUSIC FOR ABORIGINES AND SUN&MOON eighthies pictures.

The whole set of pictures can be viewed on this Facebook link

Here we post some of them:

MUSIC FOR ABORIGINES Pictures



Members: Colin Smith, Dave Booth, Andy Clegg & Andy Whitaker

We have also added them to the following MUSIC FOR ABORIGINES Photo album, which can be viewed here, or at the side-bar of this blog. Hope you like it.





THE SUN & THE MOON Pictures


Members: Andy Clegg, Andy Whitaker, John Lever & Mark Burgess

Thanks a lot Colin, for sharing this good old memories with all your fans.

We have also added them to our SUN&MOON Photo album which can ve viewed below and on the side bar of this blog

MUSIC FOR ABORIGINES Biography

Andy Clegg has sent us an interesting biography of MUSIC for ABORIGINES, and some photos we proudly present here. For too long there has been a lack of information regarding this fantastic group, which was (like The Chameleons) totally underated by the entire world. Although too many years have passed since this group disbanded, let´s try to do some justice. Here is all the info for those who will be interested in knowing more about MUSIC for ABORIGINES:

In November 1979 Andy Whitaker and Andy Clegg who were friends from school, decided to get together and record improvisations in song form with verse, chorus etc. Guitar parts vocal melodies and lyrics were all improvised and recorded live on to a tape deck with no overdubs etc. The ideas were the length a typical song and were given titles and an album title. They would treat the improvisations as a finished product and would enjoy listening to them later, as if it was a new album by a new band. Gradually other instruments would be used, drum machine, keyboards, and bass.

In 1983, Dave Booth a friend of Andy Whit would join on guitar. It was at this time that they decided to give themselves a band name. Andy W came up with the name Music for Aborigines and began to choose a selection of songs from the improvised albums to play live.

They played a few local gigs using a drum machine then decided to look for a venue in Manchester for which they could sell tickets and create a live venue for bands. They discovered The Star and Garter and the venue is still hosting live music today. Their first gig at the Star and Garter was very successful. It was at this gig that Chameleons drummer John Lever who had been friends with both Andy's, advertised the gig on a Chameleons radio interview and Mark, Reg and Dave had all agreed they would help out, by collecting the tickets on the door.

In 1986 a mutual school friend of both Andy's Col Smith joined MFA on keyboards. Their next gig would be at a local pub for charity and John Lever would join on drums. As John was officially with the Chameleons, MFA needed a permanent drummer and Mike Simms who was the drummer for Manchester band BFG (who supported New Order) became MFA drummer. After many gigs, some being supported by Eskimos and Egypt and with the Chameleons at Middleton Civic Hall the band decided to go in the studio to record some demos. "When You Were A Child" and "Ragbone Man" were the first demos to be recorded in Didsbury M/C and were used to get a record deal.

Later, Col, Dave and Mike departed from the band and John Lever introduced the 2 Andys to guitarist Aky who was a member of a local punk band The Hoax that featured Mike Joyce of The Smiths on drums. Then they decided to go in suite 16 studios owned by Peter Hook of New Order where Script of the Bridge was recorded. They chose more songs to record from the improvised albums and purposely wrote new material with the intention of releasing a 3 track 12 inch single. They asked John Lever to play drums for them. Due to Aky only just joining, he only played guitar on "Sitting on a Biscuit" and came up with the idea for "The End of Tracey Smith". The 2 Andy's played all of Col and Dave's parts, initially written for the songs. The 10 songs were recorded in 2 days and 3 of the songs were chosen for the single. The majority of the songs were taken and reworked from the improvised albums created by Andy W, Andy C, Dave Booth and Col Smith.A 12" single was released. Chris Cundy (a local artist and friend of the band) created the artwork. Chris also became the creator of the visuals the band used in their live sets.

Sadly for MFA, John rejoined the Chameleons. Later when the Chameleons eventually disbanded Mark and John approached Andy W and Andy C to form The Sun and the Moon, which Aky also would be involved with. The track "Faith" would become a regular live feature in the SATM concerts and many ideas that were created through the improvisation albums became SATM album tracks.

(Thanks a lot for this biography to Andy Clegg)