JOSEF K / PAUL HAIG

For two brief years at the dawn of the 1980s Josef K gave the

Postcard label its sharpest cutting edge. Although outlived - and

outsold - by labelmates Orange Juice and Aztec Camera, Josef K's

flame burned brightest, while their influence has touched bands

as diverse as Propaganda and the Wedding Present. Yet just as

interesting are the subsequent solo careers of all four members,

which include stints with Orange Juice, Aztec Camera and 4AD

outfit the Happy Family. Not to mention the undervalued body of

solo work produced by enigmatic frontman Paul Haig.

TV ART

Inspired by the heady punk summer of 1977, and later Pere Ubu and

the New York art-punk sounds of the Velvet Underground and

Television, Josef K came together in Edinburgh in mid-1978 as TV

Art. Initially a three-piece, guitarists Paul Haig and Malcolm

Ross and drummer Ron Torrance were briefly joined by bassist Gary

McCormack, later to find fame of another kind with the Exploited.

After David Weddell took over on bass early in 1979 the group

began gigging locally, joining a thriving Edinburgh scene which

also included the Associates, the Visitors, TV21, Fire Engines,

the Scars and Another Pretty Face.

At this point, Haig and Ross shared lead vocals, both apparently

being strongly reminiscent of Lou Reed. It therefore came as no

great surprise that their covers included the Velvet's Sweet Jane

and I'm Waiting for the Man, as well as Be My Wife (Bowie),

Psycho Killer (Talking Heads) and Marquee Moon (Television).

Summer 1979 saw TV Art change their name to Josef K, a reflection

of Haig's then-current fascination with Czech writer Franz Kafka.

Like another influence, avant punks Subway Sect, the group took

to sporting sharp monochrome suits - from Oxfam. Josef K also

recorded their first eight-song studio demo tape with the

intention of landing a deal with a credible label such as Radar

or Rough Trade, though these embryonic songs failed to elicit

much interest.

Of this formative period, Malcolm Ross would later comment:

Josef K was like a gang. We would all hang out together. We

didn't like talking to promoters and such. It was

snobbishness to an extent. We just thought that they

weren't in the gang or on the same wavelength. I suppose we

were quite puritanical. We didn't like sexism or

laddishness... It was modernist. I was quite interested in

the original mod movement, and that was one of the

influences in wearing suits. Again, it was a reaction to

the whole dirty, long-haired thing that punk reacted to,

but punk wasn't too far off it either. Punks were just as

dirty. I didn't like that - I wanted some kind of dignity.

We were forward looking.

None of us had ever played in groups prior to punk so it

gave us clean slate. Whereas you could tell the bands who

had, because they would chuck in rock guitar cliches here,

there and everywhere. We never did. Paul and I were always

striving to be, if not experimental, at least not cliched.

ABSOLUTE POSTCARD

Meanwhile, a chance encounter with Steven Daly, drummer with

Glasgow band Orange Juice, lead to a loose alliance between the

two bands, who began playing out together, alternating headline

status on one another's home turf. After Daly set up his own

label, Absolute, Chance Meeting by Josef K became its first (and

last) release. Both sides were lifted straight from the earlier

demo, and although initial sales were modest on release in

November 1979, BBC radio airplay from John Peel afforded the band

a degree of national exposure.

Edwyn Collins and Alan Horne, singer and manager respectively of

Orange Juice, subsequently set up Postcard Records, to which

Josef K duly signed. Arty and camp, Postcard stood in stark

contrast to the colourless majority of independent labels of the

'cold wave' era. The second Josef K single, Radio Drill Time, was

recorded in April 1980 during a shared session with Orange Juice,

who cut Blue Boy. The flipside, Crazy To Exist, is credited as

'live', but was in truth recorded in a cottage in Fife. As well

as doubling up on studio time, both records also appeared in the

same sleeve, a double-sided wraparound affair, many of which were

arduously hand-coloured.

Radio Drill Time found favour with the rock weeklies, who now

ventured north to check out 'the Sound Of Young Scotland', a

phrase appropriated by Horne from Motown. In consequence Josef

K played their London debut in October, and one month later

released It's Kinda Funny. Easily their most relaxed and

reflective single, Funny earned them the kind of hyperbolic

reviews that in time came to weigh increasingly heavily on the

group. Interestingly, the song would also prove the most durable

oldie in Haig's solo live set.

DEBUT ALBUM

November 1980 also saw the band record their debut album, Sorry

For Laughing, a record which (until its appearance on CD in 1990)

quickly joined the pantheon of Great Lost Albums. Twelve tracks

were cut, test pressings made, and a deluxe silver sleeve proofed

- yet at the eleventh hour the release was cancelled. Over the

years an astonishing stock of rumour has attached to the record,

while even at the time no little hype surrounded its

cancellation. Horne claimed that the twelve-song set was too

well-produced (!), while rumours abounded of several thousand

finished copies being destroyed.

Later, the band would claim that the mix was unsatisfactory (as

in too bass-heavy and clean), and that it failed to represent

their blistering live sound. Certainly, most of the songs were

already old, and the album gave little indication of what the

group proved capable of delivering just nine months later with

the Only Fun In Town. Yet while many subsequently judged Sorry

For Laughing a more listener-friendly set than its successor,

it's an inferior piece of art. And collectors are warned against

paying hundreds of pounds for test pressings, it being rumoured

that rather more than the usual handful were pressed, with the

express object of producing saleable rarities.

Thus Sorry For Laughing would gather dust in a vault for a

decade. Ever uncompromising, Josef K were already displaying a

marked disdain for careerist notions, even going so far as to

boast of making only one or two albums before splitting in a

blaze of glory.

THE CREPUSCULE CONNECTION

In December 1980 Orange Juice and Josef K travelled to Brussels

at the invitation of Les Disques du Crepuscule for a New Year's

Eve concert at Plan K. The date also featured Brussels p-funk

enigma Marine, a jazz band and silent films. Manager Allan

Campbell recalls:

The concert was invaded by a group of inebriated punks, one

of whom threw a plate of food in Edwyn Collins' face when

he was onstage. The OJ singer retaliated with a kick. By

the time Josef K appeared feelings in the crowd were

running high. A fight broke out in front of the stage and

the group had to stop playing while the promoters attempted

to sort things out.

Indeed, at a distance of twenty years, it is easy to overlook the

fact that Josef K considered themselves a live rather than a

studio band. Allan Campbell again:

Since their early live shows with the likes of Echo and the

Bunnymen, the Cure, Magazine and the Clash (where they were

heckled for being 'mods'), they were now becoming

formidable live performers. In concert was the place to

truly experience Ross and Haig's sensational guitar work.

Ross' lead playing in particular was inspiring. Fiery,

committed and ringing, it was a key element in the group's

sound. Onstage was where Josef K made most sense.

It was becoming increasingly apparent that Josef K weren't

the serious young men that they first appeared to be. A

penchant for psychedelic shirts, the occasional kaftan and

liquid light projection was their tongue-in-cheek way of

repudiating their monochromatic image. Because Haig refused

to talk to the audiences (part of their anti-showbusiness

stance; neither would they play encores or sign autographs)

he would tape song introductions and play them over the PA.

Later, he and Ross would expand this to include their own

versions of some old Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis routines -

"Did you take a bath this morning?" / "Why? Is there one

missing?.

During the first visit to Brussels Josef K also re-recorded the

track Sorry For Laughing for single release. When Crepuscule

released the record in April 1981 it was rightly hailed as the

group's strongest offering to date, and established the

definitive Josef K style of circular rhythms paired with incisive

guitar angles. Indeed, the song became so highly regarded that

German sophisticates Propaganda later covered it (albeit blandly)

on their acclaimed ZTT album A Secret Wish.

CHANCE MEETING

Horne, upset that the groups' best single yet was to appear on

another label, pressed Josef K into re-recording Chance Meeting

for Postcard, thus triggering a frantic six-month burst of

activity. In March, several songs from the scrapped debut album

were donated to the BBC as a fake John Peel radio session, while

in April the band crossed to Brussels again to play several more

shows, and to record their debut album a second time. Chance

Meeting, released in June, was far superior to the Absolute

version eighteen months earlier and, complete with added brass,

saw Josef K beginning to sound like a bona fide pop band.

This overt commercial edge, together with a distinct funkiness,

was further developed that same month by their one proper Peel

session. Bearing in mind that these four songs were to prove

Josef K's last recordings together, their excellence makes the

demise of the group all the more heartbreaking. Heaven Sent and

Missionary were the new songs, two fine slices of looping punk-

funk, the latter heavily influenced by Life in Reverse, a single

by Brussels band Marine released on Crepuscule in April. However

the biggest surprise came with a charming Alice Cooper cover -

Applebush - sung by Ross's wife, Susan Buckley.

THE ONLY FUN IN TOWN - PARADISE BUNGLED

Although expectations for the 'debut' album were now running

high, it met with mixed reaction upon release in July. Although

praised in Melody Maker, The Only Fun in Town was roundly slated

by Sounds, while Paul Morley, writing in the NME, bemoaned:

...an artificial paradise totally bungled. Fun is not much

at all chasing itself in dizzying circles. Somewhere

between the chunky echo beat and the wound down punk bleat,

through a large door and down a shady lane, in the hands of

a world famous producer, lies smart and shirty and

splenetic. The Josef K Sound that would present their songs

with class.

The precarious balance between reality and reverie is lost,

lost, lost, the reduced production degenerates rather than

glorifies the escapist desires and poetic fancy. Fun is

subdued not sublime: an errant substitute for what could

have been... Singer Paul Haig is brilliant. He acts rich -

as the group should do, as the production should be - but

he alone cannot stop Fun being scruffy. I am appalled. Will

there be a third time? Can they forget their past? Is

what's lost all? Josef K have cheapened themselves and

cheated the world: not bad for a first LP.

Barely half an hour long, comprising many familiar songs from

singles, and blessed with a hyper-bright production that belied

the six day schedule in a Belgian eight-track studio, TOFIT

arrived as a shock indeed to anyone expecting Josef K to turn in

the brand of sophisticated pop subterfuge that, say, the

Associates would produce a year later with Sulk. Haig now

reflects that:

I think we committed commercial suicide. When we were

mixing the album, we wanted it to sound like a live

concert, because we were so into playing live. I purposely

mixed down my own vocals. God knows why. I regret that.

Nonetheless TOFIT remains a dazzling record, featuring ten left-

handed pop nuggets of undeniable genius, and while very much the

uncompromising 'punk' album both band and Horne had long

promised, it effortlessly topped the alternative charts for

several weeks. The album also stands as the only album that the

original Postcard label ever got around to releasing.

CRAZY TO EXIST?

By way of promotion Josef K set out on a lengthy UK tour during

July and August, with boy wonders Aztec Camera in support. The

last London show, at the Venue, is preserved on the 'Crazy to

Exist' CD. However, the final Scottish date at Glasgow Maestro's

would prove their last. The exact reasons behind the split -

principally Haig's decision - remain obscure, although it would

appear that a combination of too-great expectations, small

incomes, Haig's dislike of touring and unspecified disagreements

over future direction were primarily to blame. Rather fancifully,

Alan Horne saw fit to blame the NME. Whatever the cause, one of

the Great White Hopes of the decade had self-destructed after

just one album, thus fulfilling their own brash prophecy.

Interviewed by Johnny Waller in Sounds early the following year,

Haig confessed:

I was pretty depressed for a week because it was the end of

an era, but after that I was really happy that we'd split,

because I could get on with everything I wanted to do. I

don't listen to any of those records now. It's all gone.

Nothing from that period interests me, except maybe Sorry

for Laughing. We didn't really get on all that well towards

the end. We didn't have anything in common, so there were

no jokes, no happy feeling. It was just down to doing a

job. Josef K weren't that famous anyway. We've split up, so

what? Everybody changes.

More tellingly, the singer revealed:

I've lost alot of the ideals I had in Josef K. About not

wanting to be commercially successful, suffering for your

art and all that. Not that I wasn't sincere about it at the

time... But I got sick of it. I want to be signed to a

major and make a great record that will get radio airplay

and be a big hit, then make my own money from that. I don't

mind being manipulated to a certain extent in order to get

what I want, but in time I want to control everything.

It's an ideal which Haig, perhaps to his detriment, has never

strayed. But before going on to examine the subsequent careers

of all four members, it is worth jumping forward in time and

covering the many posthumous Josef K releases.

THE RECORDED LEGACY

First came Crepuscule's 'Farewell Single' in 1982, combining

Missionary (from the Peel session) with two instrumental takes

on the Angle (from TOFIT). Former manager Allan Campbell (who

also oversaw Haig's solo career until 1984) then took charge of

the back catalogue via his Supreme International Editions label,

issuing an ep featuring Heaven Sent (Peel again) as the lead

track, and a compilation album, Young and Stupid. The track

selection of the latter - undertaken by the band themselves -

left a little to be desired, presenting neither an accurate

overview of their career, or a complete collection of wallet-

withering single sides which had rapidly become pricey New Wave

rarities. Fortunately, in 1990 LTM collected every

Josef K song ever committed to vinyl (together with demo tracks,

the Peel session and the shelved album) onto two remastered

compact discs.

In Japan, the LTM CD releases were split into three, with the

addition of a 'Rare Live' set identical to the first 12 tracks

on the live album eventually released worldwide by LTM in 2000.

German label Marina released a fine 'greatest hits' set titled

Endless Soul on CD in 1998 (with great sleevenotes by Allan

Campbell), while the following year Creation offshoot RevOla

reissued the LTM CD coupling of Sorry For Laughing and The Only

Fun In Town.

In the years immediately following their Josef K would spawn a

legion of imitators, a perhaps questionable legacy given that

their influence was chiefly mirrored in the shambling C86-stable.

The direct covers and tributes number just three: Sorry For

Laughing (Propaganda), It's Kinda Funny (the Confettis), and a

heartfelt adieu from the June Brides, titled Josef's Dead.

PAUL HAIG SOLO - RHYTHM OF LIFE

Back in 1981, none of the former group members wasted any time

in exploring new avenues, although singer and chief songwriter

Paul Haig would maintain the highest profile. With Postcard

disintegrating amidst the JK split and Orange Juice signing to

Polydor, Haig quickly released two interim singles on Edinburgh

independent Rational, run by manager Allan Campbell.

The first of these, Soon, was a collaboration with fellow

Edinburgh musician Steven Harrison (formerly of Metropak), while

the second single saw Haig guesting on a what was in effect a

vanity record by artist Sebastian Horsley. Exploring territory

first charted by Heaven 17 in their BEF guise, both singles

appeared under the generic name Rhythm Of Life Organisation

(RoL), an imprimatur Haig has retained ever since for everything

from production work to his backing band. Such anonymity also

suited his avowed dislike of publicity; indeed Haig has never

once released a record with his own hardly wretched face on the

front cover.

Also via Rational, Haig released a bizarre cassette-only set of

home-recorded electronica titled Drama, featuring Kafka texts set

to music as well as an odd take on Forever Drone. With just 700

copies manufactured, collectors will be hard put to track down

a copy today, though it should be added that this minor curiosity

is hardly a must-have.

Haig subsequently teamed up with Crepuscule to release future

product, and in January 1982 made solo live debuts in Edinburgh

(Valentinos) and London (the Venue). According to the NME's Dave

Hill, for the latter show:

Rhythm of Life remained a mystery... Initially they seem

like an artful re-arrangement of the Iggy-Oakey ice-box

delivery, and the Bogart mail order catalogue, into a

perfect cliche of the same. But how straight are their

faces? I don't know, but Haig projects with the efficiency

of a sly android, blonde, doleful and besuited, spooning

each painstaking tune with an immaculate croon. All is calm

and self-contained... Since Josef K split Haig has pursued

several lines, yet the cool execution of this show is

undeniable, elegant and curvaceous.

The following month Rhythm of Life took part in Crepuscule's

first trans-European package tour, Dialogue North-South, also

featuring Durutti Column, the Names, Marine, Richard Jobson,

Antena and Tuxedomoon. Eschewing a live drummer in favour of a

rhythm box, RoL gained plaudits for their versatile, snappy brand

of funk minimalism, and five excerpts from these shows can be

found on Crepuscule's souvenir compilation (TWI 082). Since two

of the songs (Stories and Glory) were never subsequently re-

recorded, it's an album well worth seeking out, although

completists are warned that the CD version omits the rather

shambolic rendition of Shining Hour present on the vinyl and

cassette. The CD liner notes also reprint much of an excellent

on-the-spot report written by the late Johnny Waller, reprinted

from his piece in Sounds (April 3 1982).

BACK TO BELGIUM

Haig elected to move to Brussels in March, and there embarked on

an intensive recording schedule at Little Big One studio. This

resulted in two self-produced singles, Running Away and Justice,

although the latter was destined to be shelved. However, after

just four months Haig tired of continental living and returned

to Edinburgh. Running Away, a charming cover of the Sly Stone

classic, appeared in May on Crepuscule subsidiary Operation

Twilight and topped the independent charts in the UK, its success

unhampered by the Raincoats' decision to release their own

version of the same song simultaneously.

The excellent follow-up single, Justice, was cancelled after

Crepuscule signed a licensing deal with Island. 7" test pressings

on Crepuscule (TWI 100) nevertheless exist, as does a separate

12" release on Crepuscule/Interference featuring two mixes of the

song Blue For You, although this seems to have been intended as

a DJ record more than a proper commercial release.

While in Brussels Haig also recorded the infamous Swing in '82

set, partly at the instigation of Crepuscule kingpin Michel

Duval. Originally intended for release as a 10' ep, Swing saw

Haig tackling six big band numbers Sinatra-style. While Vic

Godard fans no doubt found much to admire, others loathe it with

rare passion. The anti-faction now includes Haig himself,

although back in 1982 he had this to say to Masterbag magazine:

After listening to lots of Frank Sinatra records I became

aware of these fantastic old songs. I think the music and

the lyrics are absolutely incredible - especially the

lyrics. You just don't hear lyrics like them nowadays.

They're just so emotional. It was a big challenge to try

and sing them. The 'swing' side starts with The Song is

You, then All of You and Let's Face the Music and dance.

The 'dream' side is Love Me Tender, The Way You Look

Tonight and Send in the Clowns. I think the first side is

around 1938, with songs by Cole Porter, Irving Berlin,

people like that. The second side is slightly more modern.

The basic instrumentation on side one is just drums, double

bass and piano, with the addition of string synthesiser on

side two. We had to try about three sets of musicians

before we found these old session musicians that had been

playing jazz all their lives. The piano player must have

been 70 years old! The drummer was quite young, in his mid

twenties, so it was quite a challenge for him to keep pace

with these brilliant jazz musicians, as it was for me too.

I'm sure they thought it was a joke. I remember I turned up

at the studio the morning they arrived. They said, 'Are you

the singer? The producer?' They looked at each other in

disbelief.

It could either be slammed or it could be looked upon as

something brilliant. I tend to think that in England it's

going to be laughed at, but I don't think that's justified

because the musicianship is really, really good on it. If

anyone slags it off then it must be for some other reason,

but they can't fault the playing.

In fact this record too was shelved, and not released by

Crepuscule until 1985, with five tracks only , Haig having

finally vetoed the inclusion of Send in the Clowns.

THE GREAT WHITE HOPE

Thanks to the Island licensing deal Haig recorded his first album

in New York at the end of 1982, with the late Alex Sadkin

producing. Featuring a host of crack sessioneers (including

Bernie Worrell, Anton Fier and Jack Waldman), his new direction -

a brand of polished dance/electro - seemed a million miles away

from the abrasive edge of Josef K. Indeed Haig was already

disowning his past with a vengeance, informing the NME that JK

was a 'cockroach' he wanted squashed, although in fact songs such

as Adoration and Heaven Sent had begun life with that band. Yet

fine though songs such as Justice, Adoration and Stolen Love

were, Haig's solo debut played very much as a producer's record,

and in surrendering a measure of artistic control Haig lost

something of his identity. And, it cannot have helped that Sadkin

was then heavily involved with the odious Thompson Twins, whose

Tom Bailey also guested on the album.

The first single release on Island was Heaven Sent, a drastic

club refit of the earlier JK number. Despite Island's best

marketing efforts, however, it stalled at 74, and failed to

provide Haig with the hit many had confidently predicted. The

Rhythm Of Life album appeared in October 1983 and was accompanied

by a short seven date UK tour. Haig's touring group included

Malcolm Ross on guitar, together with bassist David McClymont

(also fresh from Orange Juice), drummer James Locke and former

Associate Alan Rankine. However, although the album sold

respectably Haig found himself caught between two commercial

stools. Plainly ahead of his time, Haig had perhaps moved too far

too fast, his polished pop alienating many Josef K fans not yet

ready to trade their raincoats for a sharp Italian two-piece and

a place in line outside Studio 54. Reviewing the album in NME,

Chris Bohn lamented the fate of an artist:

...dropped somewhere mid-Atlantic and left to drown in

liquid demi-disco. Though four percussionists are credited

the record has no forward momentum. It sort of slithers

across the dancefloor. Worse, Haig has tailored his

songwriting to serve a form he only imagines is there.

Cutesy couplets are left in mid air, grappling after non-

existent rhythm hooks... More than a name producer and an

NY studio he needs sympathetic musicians to bring out the

character of his songs.

Simple bad luck seems to have prevented all three singles

providing the solid hits which might have allowed Haig to cross

over to a new, wider audience. Inexplicably Island failed even

to release the album - or the singles - in the US, a market in

which they might have performed well. Although the slick New York

Remix mini album was belatedly issued in America in 1984

(appearing on Crepuscule in Europe), it was a textbook example

of too little too late. In 1990 Haig recalled of this difficult

period:

The main thing was that I didn't want to be the centre of

it all. The initial idea was just to keep working with

different people under the name Rhythm of Life. It was more

of a big joke. It all went a bit funny when I signed to

Island, but before there were quite a few things in the

pipeline. But Island wanted a pop image to sell... and they

didn't get one.

BIG BLUE WORLD

Already relations with Island had become strained. Incoming MD

Dave Robinson showed little enthusiasm for Haig's music, while

an overly candid Sounds interview and an abortive appearance on

a childrens' television show (Hold Tight) to promote Never Give

Up soured relations further. When Haig recorded a new single, Big

Blue World, in December, Island chose to cancel it just a

fortnight before its scheduled release. Fortunately, Crepuscule

continued to release Haig product in Europe, so that the delayed

record - with a sublime cover of Suicide's road classic Ghost

Rider on the flipside - arrived in the UK on import. Both sides

of the single featured the same group that Haig had formed to

promote the album live.

In 1984 Haig joined forces with several celebrated electro peers,

recording The Only Truth in collaboration with Bernard Sumner and

Donald Johnson (of New Order and A Certain Ratio respectively),

and The Executioner with Cabaret Voltaire. November saw the

completion of a new album, this time recorded in London with

Rankine co-producing. Unfortunately the failure of The Only Truth

as a single lead to Island severing the Crepuscule connection,

and so the untitled second album (co-produced by Alan Rankine)

was shelved. For the record, the tracklist ran as follows: Love

Eternal/Shining Hour/One Lifetime Away/Fear and Dancing/All Our

Love/Trust/Love and War/Big Blue World/The Only Truth.

Nevertheless all but the ballad All My Love were subsequently

released, with this (inferior) early version of Love Eternal even

appearing as a single over two years later.

THE WARP OF PURE FUN

Rather than release the shelved set on Crepuscule, it was decided

to combine half the album with new songs recorded throughout

1985. Haig launched his fightback later in the year with a

powerful single, Heaven Help You Now, and the excellent album

Warp Of Pure Fun. Again produced with Alan Rankine, it was a less

one-dimensional set than its predecessor, focusing on the songs

and arrangements (and live drums) rather than programmed rhythm

tracks, though without entirely abandoning club appeal. In the

UK Warp appeared on another short-lived Crepuscule offshoot,

Operation Afterglow, but while the album fared comparatively well

as an independent release, Afterglow failed to propel it into the

national chart.

Unhappy with limited sales, Haig left Crepuscule to seek another

major deal. After demos recorded for EMI came to nothing, Haig

spent most of 1986 writing new material, surviving on PRS

royalties from his Crepuscule back catalogue. He also found time

to embark on a fruitful partnership with another Associate, Billy

Mackenzie, the result being low key dates in Glasgow (May) and

Edinburgh (September), which mixed their own greatest hits with

covers such as Running Away and Yoko Ono's Walking On Thin Ice.

Later the pair united to perform Amazing Grace on a Scots

Hogmanay television programme, and each donated a song to the

other's forthcoming album. Chained would prove a highlight on the

next Haig album, although Mackenzie's version of Reach The Top

remains unreleased (as does Haig's) after the Associates' patchy

Glamour Chase set was shelved by WEA. Following Mackenzie's

untimely death in 1997 an entire album of Haig/Mackenzie

material, Memory Palace appeared on CD in 1999. Much warm light

on the pair's firm friendship is cast by Tom Doyle's admirable

biography, Glamour Chase, published by Bloomsbury in 1998.

Haig returned - albeit briefly - to Crepuscule in September 1987

to record several tracks, though the only new record to emerge

was the fine Torchomatic single, complete with spy theme and a

home-recorded instrumental cycle on the flipside. The European

Sun compilation album followed, including most of the shelved

Island album not included on Warp plus several rare b-sides, and

the unreleased Cabaret Voltaire collaboration from 1984. An

expanded CD version was licensed to German imprint Interphon.

CHAINED

Early in 1988 Haig financed the recording of a new album himself,

once more produced with Alan Rankine. Virgin offshoot Circa

purchased the tapes in August, but chose not to release the

album, titled Chain, until May the following year. Neither Chain

nor the lead single, Something Good, broke commercially, and to

some the album came as a disappointment, with strong material in

places undermined by underdeveloped arrangements. Sales were

scarcely assisted by Haig's refusal to undertake any lengthy

tours, and with much of his following was in Europe and Japan,

many fans were not even aware that a new record was available.

Nevertheless, a showcase at the ICA in London on May 18th saw

Haig and his band in fine and powerful form.

Following Drama, Swing In '82 and the Mackenzie pairing, 1988's

off the wall project came in the form of the Dub Organiser

single, a club cut recorded in collaboration with Allan Campbell

and released as a one-off on Manchester indie label Play Hard.

Unperturbed by Chain's modest commercial showing, Circa financed

the recording of a new album, produced in New York by dance gurus

Mantronix and Lil' Louis, and also by the Chimes, whose drummer

James Locke had been a periodic Haig collaborator since 1981. The

album marked a timely return to the dance orientation of Rhythm

of Life five years earlier, as suggested by its title, Right on

Line. But after the fine I Believe in You single failed to build

on a measure of club success, Circa delayed releasing the album

until a reworked Flight X (featuring rapper The Voice Of Reason)

broke. When two versions of this track stalled early in 1991 the

album was shelved. Unlike the loss of the second Island album

this was a genuine disaster, since Right on Line largely

comprised pin-sharp original material, together with another

wayward Suicide cover, this time the lush ballad Surrender.

CINEMATIQUE

With the RoL album in limbo, Haig released an instrumental set

of imaginary film themes through Les Temps Modernes, who had

previously issued the Josef K back catalogue on CD. Cinematique

appeared in September 1991 to glowing reviews, and comprised

three distinct suites, being City of Fun (accomplished noir

jazz), Lagondola (new age, almost) and Flashback (electronica).

In 1993 the Right on Line album finally emerged as Coincidence

vs Fate on the ever-accommodating Crepuscule label, albeit with

two weaker tracks relegated to the flipside of the accompanying

single (Surrender) and three new tracks added. After a two year

delay its state of the art production style might have sounded

a tad dated in places, but not fatally so, and in this writer's

opinion RoL/Coincidence... may yet prove to be the best Paul Haig

album to date.

Despite warm reviews neither Cinematique nor Coincidence vs Fate

sold in great numbers, due in part to low-key press and

distribution, and to Haig's ongoing reluctance to submit to self-

promotion. By his own admission:

I just don't like playing live much. Maybe once every two

years. It's a situation I can't handle. Up on stage it's

very strange. It just seems an awkward situation to be in.

You're on stage and there's all these people looking up at

you. I can't help laughing at the thought of it. I just

want to do it as little as possible. Other people love it.

It only depends on what kind of person you are, if your ego

can cope with it. Weird, eh? (Deadbeat, 1984)

With me it's quite simple. I just do my own thing and don't

compromise for anybody. If you can do this and still

succeed, that's perfect. New Order manage it - perverse and

breaking all the rules - they just make records that sell.

I hope I can fit in in my own way. There might be a place

for people who have some sort of background, who have

substance as opposed to being just another manufactured

act. But apart from that I don't see where I would fit. I

couldn't really define the sound. I don't think it's like

anybody else. (Melody Maker, 1989)

It's just music and records. That's the main thing for me.

I find the rest of it completely alien and uncomfortable.

I'll just have to retire quite soon. Not retire from making

music, just from all this [promo] kind of stuff I just find

it more and more ridiculous. Ideally I'd like to be

involved in the background, and still make music but not to

have to be seen or anything like that. I guess film music

is the obvious area for that kind of thing. Or weird

experimental records. (The Scotsman, 1990)

All of which is a great shame, since Haig remains one of

Britain's finest songwriters, and it seems a tad premature to

label him a Scott Walker for the new millennium. In 1999 Paul

Haig unveiled a new label, RoL, with the release of several

archive Billy McKenzie collections, and an excellent second

volume of the Cinematique series.

OTHER JOSEF K SOLO PROJECTS

Returning to the Josef K split back in 1981, Malcolm Ross and

Davy Weddell quickly became involved in the Happy Family, a band

based around quixotic singer/songwriter Nick Currie. Currie had

handed Ross a rough tape at JK's final show in Edinburgh, and

soon after Ross and Weddell helped him record a studio demo with

which he hoped to land a deal. Since Ross had already joined

Orange Juice, his involvement with the Happy Family remained

strictly casual. Nevertheless Fiction were sufficiently impressed

to offer the group two Scottish support slots with the Cure in

December, after which 4AD signed them for a one-off single.

Although the Happy Family was strictly a Nick Currie vehicle,

Much of the publicity attendant to the release of Innermost

Thoughts in April 1982 focused on the presence of 'former Josef

K bass player' David Weddell. After drummer Ian Stoddart fell ill

Ron Torrance stepped in to replace him, while yet another Josef

K connection came via guitarist Paul Mason, previously a JK

roadie. With the addition of keyboards, the group proceeded to

record The Man On Your Street as a five piece, producing a fine

(if rather mannered) literary concept album, which should

nonetheless please any Josef K fan on a musical level - even if

many found Currie's convoluted lyrics and outre obsessions a

little hard to swallow.

Despite some fine songwriting, the JK connection drew unenviable

comparisons, and the album was neither a critical nor a

commercial success. Indeed, even 4AD's cultish following steered

clear, although a remastered CD would in time appear. After a

third and final concert in Glasgow (with Jah Wobble) in December

1982 the group split, apathy and disinterest seemingly the cause

rather than musical differences. Currie returned to university,

and after graduating reinvented himself as Momus, going on to

record a string of acclaimed (sort of) albums for El, Creation

and other labels, and achieving semi-stardom in Japan.

In 1984 Les Temps Modernes released ten 4AD demos on cassette

only, together with a booklet featuring Happy Family ephemera and

texts. One of these tracks, March In Turin, also appeared on

LTM's Heures Sans Soleil compilation album a year later. Finally,

completists may wish to invest in early copies of the third Momus

album Tender Pervert (Creation), the initial run of which

contained a free 7" featuring a song recorded for the 4AD album

but left unused, The Poison Boyfriend.

Prior to joining the Happy Family, Ron Torrance had briefly

joined Edinburgh band Boots For Dancing, although without playing

on any of their records. After the demise of the Happy Family

Weddell played with a variety of bands, including Lip Machine and

the High Bees (with Malcolm Ross), before teaming up with

Torrance again in 1985 as Heyday. Fronted by Steven Harrison (who

had earlier cut an RoL single with Paul Haig), Heyday recorded

an ep for Crepuscule, produced by - surprise! - Haig and Rankine.

For reasons unknown the three tracks remained unreleased until

Tel Quel Records licensed them as part of a Steven Harrison mini

album in 1987. By then, however, Heyday had come and gone. The

Heyday track Sad and Blue also appeared on a Crepuscule

compilation, The Rough with the Smooth, in 1986, albeit credited

to Harrison alone.

MALCOLM ROSS

Following the demise of Josef K guitarist Malcolm Ross become

something of a gun for hire, and just one week after the split

was announced accepted an invitation to join Orange Juice. Since

OJ had already recorded their debut album You Can't Hide Your

Love Forever Ross did not contribute, but did complete the

accompanying tour, and remained on board when the original band

fragmented early the following year. The Ross/Collins/Manyika/

McClymont line-up then hit commercial paydirt with the hit single

Rip It Up in February 1983, which climbed to Number 8. Sadly,

Orange Juice were unable to consolidate on this success, with no

less than nine of their singles stalling between 75 and 41

between 1981 and 1984. Ross contributed several songs during his

stay with the band and stuck around until late 1983, but

eventually quit after clashes with Edwyn Collins over the Texas

Fever album.

Ross immediately hooked up with mercurial Roddy Frame in Aztec

Camera as second guitarist, joining in time to record and tour

the Knife album. Ross's role in Aztec Camera was strictly as a

session player, and with their work over the group disbanded,

Frame only later re-emerging with the Love album in 1987. Ross

then guested on the second Blancmange album, Believe You Me, and

also appeared with the duo live.

In 1985 Ross embarked on the High Bees project with wife Susan

Buckley on vocals. However, after a handful of live concerts and

a lone single, She's Killing Time, on Supreme International in

October, the project faded. Since then Ross has guested with Paul

Haig, former Moodist Dave Graney, and - with Weddell - backed

Nick Currie/Momus live. After completing a music degree, Ross

released two distinguished solo albums on chic German label

Marina, Low Shot (1995) and Happy Boy (1998). A third set is

currently being readied for release.

Josef K manager Allan Campbell, incidently, is now an established

BBC television producer, with Film 2000 among his many credits.

While it seems highly unlikely that his erstwhile charges will

regroup, the band's rich legacy - and any future records that

individual members release - will continue to inspire for many

years to come.

James Nice, April 2001

JOSEF K ON-LINE:

http://home.wxs.nl/~frankbri.josefhis.html - band biography

http://home.wxs.nl/~frankbri.josefdis.html - band discography

RELATED SITES:

http://www.rolinc.co.uk/ - Paul Haig and RoL Records

http://www.marina.com/ - Marina label inc. Malcolm Ross

http://prospectstreet.future.easyspace.com/index.htm - Haig site

http://www.planete.net/~fregnot/index_eng.html - Haig/band site

http://home.wxs.nl/~frankbri.contact.html - LTM label site

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