If modesty is placed to one side I have to say that no one should ever write a biography of Mother Earth but me. If modesty can then be smashed into a thousand little bits, then it can be said that it is due to equal amounts of excellent taste, good luck, bad habits, insomnia and coincidence, that I am the only person, outside of the band, who can tell the real story of the most fantastic, under-rated, boisterous, foul-mouthed and funny bunch of musicians who are known as Mother Earth.

"Hey - but enough of my yakkin' - lets boogie!"

Christmas 1991. Due to the fact that a few friends of mine had recently come under the employment of the then still tiny Acid Jazz Records. I fell out, quite drunk, of a black cab outside what was then still known as The T & C 2, the boxy, dark, live venue in Angel & Islington, London. Clutched in my sweaty palm was a ticket to the Acid Jazz Records Christmas party that to me sounded like it would be a good old messy laugh.

It is through the haze of time and alcohol and some of England's prize winning Rizla 'modelling', that I remember perking up when I saw the unmistakable profile of a Hammond C3 organ and Leslie speaker sitting, humming, on one side of the stage, waiting to do it's growling, burning thing. The reason I suddenly took notice is that I had been trying to learn how to play one of these damn huge, cumbersome, fantastic things for two or three years myself.

"Aha" I thought - this might be interesting. It was. It still is.

Over 10 years on, all I can remember of that night was this motley collection of geezers strolling out onstage, picking their way through the wires, beginning to play, then being joined by this really bloody sexy black woman. They took my head clean off with this brew of rock, funk, weed inspired lyrics, volume and a very healthy blast of loud Hammond that left a large hole in my grey matter (that bit just between your eyes that you need in order to get home safely).

Mother Earth had done such a job on me that the other performance of the evening has virtually faded from memory altogether. The last remnants which I can recall was this skinny little singing kid, wearing Adidas trainers, a big furry hat and a singing a catchy little song about birds, trees and fish and stuff. That poor little guy - I don't think he was ever heard of again. I guess that's just the breaks.
I was strangely enough, as it turned out, going to see quite a few more Mother Earth gigs in the future, but if you enjoy seeing a band develop, change and grow, then the very first gig is probably a good place to start.

Amsterdam -a few months later and I'm working backstage at what can only be described as the largest, accidentally brilliant music festival for 10 years. The Melkveg, in the middle of that mad city - was host to the Dammit Weekender. Acid Jazz's terrifyingly un-organised but absolutely unforgettable festival featuring all the labels groups, artists, DJ's, friends, small time dope hustlers and any other vagabond you care to think of. It was here I finally got to meet Mother Earth, Firstly of course, being a Hammond sniffer of epic proportions I got talking to Bryn Barklam, the short hairy, Ian McLagan look-alike organ grinder.

Bunny (Stephen Bunn) who played dodgy flute, some percussion and was the owner of the smelliest leather trousers ever, made himself known to everyone as A) the gifted beat-poet guy who put this great outfit together. B) The genius who nearly got the entire travelling party arrested on the outgoing ferry when he decided to throw all the life-belts into the sea!

Neil Corcoran - the then long-haired bassist was a bit of a dark horse. He didn't say that much, neither did Matt Deighton - enigmatic guitarist and owner of the most outrageous porn star moustache seen in over 20 years. I thought that they might be shy. It wasn't that. They were in Amsterdam. They couldn't talk properly anymore.

Shauna Greene, lead vocalist at the time - looked like a cross between a young Tina Turner and any other 'blaxploitation' sexual fantasy you care to dream up. Perhaps I had been expecting something else when I first heard her speak. I was greeted with a well-blended barrage of East London fish wife and Jamaican patois. This woman clearly took no shit. Being the only female in Mother Earth potentially might have meant she would have spent most off-stage time blushing at their weird, twisted and lets face it, largely bad taste collective humour. But not Shauna. She could out-filth any off them - with perhaps the exception of Chingford's answer to Keith Moon - Mr Chris White.

I had seen Chris many years before playing with mod revival band The Kick here and there at a few slightly naff mod events in the 1980s. He was in better form than ever. His drumming at the Amsterdam gig stuck in my head due to its simple strength - it was rocky, funky but also very heavy, loud as hell when necessary and perfect for this group. What I remember from the Melkveg show was how all these guys different influences - and I worked out that they were into a lot of different stuff individually - found a common ground in this soulful, funk-ish, acid-rock sound that no-one else had played convincingly in years. They were all ready quite different from what became know as the Acid Jazz sound. They were nothing like the Brand New Heavies or Barrie K Sharpe or the more jazz/funk centred bands. And song writing seemed more important to this group from the outset.

Mother Earth got the chance to refine their live show when they took their place on the Funky Nation Tour it was a drink company sponsored affair, which was asking for trouble. It started out as a triple-header of Acid Jazz signed bands - The Earth, Corduroy and the super spaced out Sandals. You can imagine the look of horror that often greeted this motley collection as it stumbled en masse out of the tour bus. It was all bleary eyes, B.O, stubble, fag ash, beer breath and into yet another motorway service station to stock up on overpriced pale greasy bacon, cheap baked beans, Rizla and the Melody Maker. That's the glamour of it all…….

The tour was completed minus The Sandals who dropped out due to various reasons, probably 'overdoing it' and the fact that the tour manager Martin Bartlett (soon to be known as Nandad) had this funny habit of leaving for gigs on time. That was something The Sandals had yet to master.

Performance wise the tour was a revelation. Mother Earth and Corduroy began to alternate the headline slot. Whoever played last would be joined onstage by the other band, post set for a real, unrehearsed jam session that often ended up featuring members of the road crew, the audience or whoever else had the front to jump up and try their hand. The end result was that Mother Earth now had honed their stage craft. Now they had the basis of an incendiary set finish as they segued from 'Mr Freedom' into 'Stoned Woman', with its ear crushing finale which left a battered, dazed audience to stare at an empty stage that vibrated to the sound of howling feedback from Matt's guitar. This was not very 'Acid Jazz' at all! Hey look - It's a rock band!

Mother Earth's earliest recordings although good were, I am sure even they would admit, a bit of an anomaly. Firstly, a lot of the 'Stoned Woman' LP was sample based, with 'guest' musicians featuring here and there to augment what was basically a 'Bunny and mates' studio project recorded at John DeBrett's tiny studio in East London. Bunny can actually take most of the credit for getting Mother Earth off the ground. His blagging skills and powers of persuasion are legendary, and it is clear that without his unrelenting bending of Mr Edward Piller's ear, it is highly likely that Mother Earth would never have made it out of the starting blocks at all. Bunny made it impossible for Ed to ignore him, and once Ed had relented and visited the tiny studio where the embryonic Mother Earth was taking shape and experienced an earful of what the nucleus of the group were capable of, one track was licensed for inclusion on Totally Wired 6 and the feedback from punters and music journalists alike was very, very encouraging. A recording contract followed pretty quickly after.
There also exists footage from youth TV show 'Rapido' of the band 'recording' there - they of course were just miming along to the playback. Bryn wasn't even in the band at that time of the recording and does not feature on the first LP at all. He was recruited at a rehearsal studio when he was spotted dragging a Hammond out of an adjacent room. This was just before the LP's release hence his name appearing in the credits. Confusing isn't it?

Mother Earth proper unleashed their new sound via the pair of singles 'Hope Your Feeling Better' and 'Mr Freedom'. Finally present was Bryns' Jon Lord/Booker T Hammond sound, Matt taking on the lead vocal duties and Neil & Chris locking in together so tight you would think they were the worlds first Siamese twin rhythm section.

There are always tensions in a good band and this lot were no exception. Bunny had failed to keep up with his bandmate's increasingly excellent musicianship and his role seemed rather awkward and pointless. Matt, a natural wit, also became the major song-writing source and frontman of the group. It is unlikely that anyone enjoyed the process but eventually, it was decided to let Mr Bunn go, who took it as well as could be expected - eventually.

Acid Jazz Records had a very old-school approach to A & R. Bossman Eddie Piller may have a somewhat 'chequered' business history, but there was no doubt that creatively Ed had a great ear and a never ending supply of musical ideas. Playing obscure tracks to the band for inspiration and letting Mother Earth write in the studio, as they demo-ed and recorded tracks was a good idea and a luxury many major labels would only offer to the Eltons', Claptons, and Gallagher's of this world. Acid Jazz Studios, which was in a basement in Denmark Street, WC1 was a renowned smoky hang out for all the labels bands and friends and hangers on. And boy - there was a lot of them.

Mother Earth had already caught Eddie's ear. Matt Deighton's individual and the bands' collective song-writing had already alerted Piller to the possibility he may have another cross-over success on his hands. After selling off The Brand New Heavies and Jamiroquai to major record labels for the benefit of an instant cash injection, Ed seemed in the mood to try his hand at some long-term artist development. I know this is what he was thinking because he told me.

I was now working for the label on a freelance basis. This usually meant doing odds & sods which seemed mostly to consist of moving Mother Earth from rehearsal studio to recording studio and back again as they worked on an increasingly promising batch of new material that was a very long way from the feel of the 'Stoned Woman' LP. I was more than happy to help. They were a great band, collectively some of the funniest bastards I had ever met. There was lots of Hammond Organ talk to enjoy with Bryn as we discussed 'must have' LP's, organ licks, favourite players and our bad backs from moving the damn things from here to there every few days.

Months later - after releasing the two first singles with accompanying videos - the Mr Freedom shoot being a comedy of errors that deserves its own chapter - some of the first tracks that would feature on The People Tree saw the light of day on the 'Grow Your Own' EP.

The title was a nod and a wink in the direction of those other bunch of East London herberts called The Small Faces who were favourites of most of the band - it also featured Paul Weller on harmonica on Mother Earth's version of 'Almost Grown'. What was he doing there? Weller for some time had been re-evaluating his own career - hanging out at Gilles Peterson's' 'Talkin' Loud' Dingwalls sessions for a while previously where he had also re-acquainted himself with old mod Eddie Piller. The old Mod network in the UK is more incestuous and far reaching than the Masons and Paul was keen to check out this band who seemed to share many of his influences. The end result was him blowing some shaky harp on 'Almost Grown', singing backing vocals on Mr Freedom and getting a bit squiffy and knocking down the sound screens much too everyone's amusement. You can also imagine how very pleased I was when 'Take A Trip Down Brian Lane' was released on the EP featuring my porn film style Moog popping up throughout the tracks length. This was recorded in a highly illegal frame of mind at Peter Gabriel's Realworld Studios near Bath as 'The People Tree' LP took shape.
Matt, also did the sleeve design for the EP - and knowingly freaked me out by putting my credit above Paul Weller's. What a laugh!

Which brings me on to another thing. Nearly every hard gigging band in history develops it's own specialised brand of humour. The reason for this is the amount of time spent sitting around together, but doing absolutely nothing for hours and hours whilst travelling, recording, rehearsing or waiting to sound-check, do the bloody gig etc etc.

Without these distractions, most working musicians would go insane much sooner than they already do. Every rock history tells the tale of how groups end up talking there own 'in' language that few outside the inner circle understand. It's very common, but Mother Earth had it in spades. The basis of Mother Earth's humour seems to be based on the premise that the more they like you - the worse the nicknames and piss taking will be. Mix that up with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the foul-mouthed, and wonderfully offensive 'Derek & Clive', the best lines from famed 'rock-umentary' Spinal Tap and you get the very surreal picture. On that premise everyone around the band had an apt nickname. Weller became known as 'Chicken Tonight' due to the fact that his 'wobbly elbow' on-stage movements seemed to have come from that stupid TV advert. Don't tell him though will you?

There were also the bizarre catch-phrases that had no apparent function other than the fun of shouting them at the top of your voice at the most unsociable or unlikely moments.
Fans of Mother Earth I have met, often asked me to explain the meaning of 'blood' or 'touch' or any other number of inexplicable phrases. A particular favourite of mine is 'briefcase' which I believe along with the classic 'face' can be heard scattered throughout many of the bands' live performances and recordings. A catch-phrase may have its origin in a long forgotten tour-bus incident or some other event but there is no real meaning - that, I think, is the point.

Furthermore - the band had been 'asking for it' since they put several secret joke recordings at the end of their single CD releases. Just letting the tape run whilst Matt led the band on some improvised, surreal meander led to the release of 'Radio Cheshire' which surprised many a dozing fan as it suddenly leapt from the speakers nearly 8 minutes after the last track had faded away on the Mr Freedom CD. It was inevitable that soon there would be requests for 'Walking Up My Street' at gigs (along with, of course with the excellent B-side 'Walking Down My Street').
Some time later many keen eared listeners came across the beautiful, tender ballad 'Uncle Fancy' on the Institution Man CD which was recorded in a cottage in Wales during a writing sabbatical. On that recording you can hear the actual sound of an organ exploding through heavy abuse. The next day local villagers commented on the hellish noise that had disturbed the peace from over 2 miles away. Some people just don't understand art.
If you have never heard these little pieces of joy - then you have much to look forward to, all these years on.

The People Tree is, without doubt, a timeless classic of a classic timeless seminal 'must have' brilliant album. Released in February 1994, by now the band's style had changed considerably since the early days and now had elements of The Faces, Brian Augers' jazz-rock work from the early 70's, a hint of Santana and Traffic. But the songs stood out in their own right, above any name-dropped influences. Some tracks were re-recorded to get the best selection possible onto the final LP. Other tracks like 'The Life Eternal' were to re-surface later. The recording had been a long drawn out affair, taking place at some of London's best studios like Westside Studios & The Strongroom in Hoxton.

With Piller in the producers chair, John Laker (Beethoven Hair) taking the engineers role, this album was very important to the band and to the label who had spent more (and had more riding) on this project than anything prior to it. It was during the early stages of recording that the painful decision was taken to lose Shauna Greene from the line-up. It was felt that her vocal talents could not support the band's expanding direction. Shauna's contribution to Mother Earth is still evident as she played an important role in the writing of 'Apple Green' and 'Jesse' two of the bands most popular tracks to this day. Shauna is today married, with a beautiful young son and still singing and cussing out anyone who dares to cross her!

The music business being the twisted collection of evil, corrupt, self-serving opportunists that it is, led to Mother Earth attracting attention of other 'interested' parties. Also much of the talk of this time was about the band supporting other like-minded artists such as Paul Weller or the Black Crowes live and attempting to make inroads into the American market, such was the vibe around Matt and Co at the time. Years later Noel Gallagher retold the story of seeing Mother Earth play in Manchester and being "fookin' blown away" by them. Neil Corcoran likes to tell the story of meeting Faith No More at a festival who were super chuffed to meet the bassist from Mother Earth and showed their dedication by displaying to Neil the stack of well-worn Mother Earth CD's on their tour bus. The point I am making is that this band had a vibe all of their own that was attracting serious admiration from all directions. Got it? Good.

A serious bout of world touring followed the memorable album launch party, which was a over-subscribed, drunken event held on HMS Belfast - the WW II battleship moored on the banks of the Thames down near London Bridge. Audiences in Australia, Germany, France, Japan and the Windsor Old Trout got the chance to experience for themselves what a fantastic live show Mother Earth were capable of providing.
The very excellent song 'Find It', penned by Bryn Barklam (sometimes also known as Mr Smallsize Underpiece) was selected as the next single and the hype around Mother Earth was sufficient to see them invited to play this new track on Channel 4's flagship 'yoof' TV show The Word. Appearing on-stage with them on the show was Simon Bartholomew, guitarist from The Brand New Heavies who just loved the band. In fact I'm sure Simon wont mind me saying that at the time he would probably preferred to be in Mother Earth such was the excitement around them at the time.
Musical historians take note: around this time Mother Earth had lost the backing vocal talents of Meryl Kenton Forbes who owned the utterly stunning voice that graced many of the tracks on The People Tree including 'Time Of The Future' and 'Institution Man'. Her replacement at the time of The Word appearance was an 18 year old Kym Marsh (later of that dreadful marketing ploy hear'say) Kym enjoyed only a short stay with Mother Earth as she somehow managed to get herself completely plum-tuckered out whilst on tour with the band. Heresy more like!

'Find It' (which has an excellent video to accompany it) scraped the lowest rungs of the charts but the focus was now on the hauntingly beautiful follow-up 'Jesse' (which also featured the honey voiced D.C Lee) Acid Jazz Records were pinning their hopes on this fantastic track, as were the band, hoping that this could be the single to take them to the next level.
Acid Jazz being an independent label, did not have anywhere near the marketing clout needed to get this record away. I remember that a real concerted effort was made by all employees to promote 'Jesse' but despite everyone's best efforts the track stalled well down the Gallup chart and that left a funny taste in everyone's mouth. Murmurings of discontent surfaced within the band on several fronts.

Matt Deighton had begun work on his first solo LP 'Villager' that was to be released on Focus Records - a subsidiary Acid Jazz label for the less 'funk' and more guitar orientated acts which was as equally as suited to host Mother Earth's output as Matt's. This, with the benefit of hindsight, was bound to cause hairline fractures within the band.
Furthermore - Acid Jazz had always sailed close to the wind financially, but with Eddie now concentrating on the building of The Blue Note Club in the then very un-trendy Hoxton Square, suspicion was that much of the companies efforts and finances was being re-directed into that project. Legend has it that at the Blue Note launch party one band member turned to another and said:

"Make sure you enjoy this place - it's probably our royalties paying for it".

Some months prior I had blagged myself the A & R managers job on the back of tracking down the British jazz/fusion pioneer Brian Auger with the hope of getting our collective hands on his back catalogue and new material. Brian was a major influence on Mother Earth. I was a huge fan of his work as was Eddie and Matt and of course Bryn. I had sent Brian a copy of The People Tree to his Californian home and he had loved it. In a trans-Atlantic phone call Brian had said to me "Wow man - there are places on that album that remind me of The Oblivion Express days - fantastic!"

Brian was obviously very impressed as some time later Matt & Neil found themselves in their usual rehearsal rooms but playing with the man himself, preparing for Brian's first UK shows in 15 years. A rather scary situation for musicians whose first album was heavily influenced by Brian's work (where do you think Stoned Woman came from?) were now preparing to play gigs with him in person. What Matt described as 'the best two days in music' was actually a nail-biting series of gigs for Matt & Neil who had just had a crash course in Brian's highly developed writing and playing style. The first show was at London's Jazz Café and then on to The Phoenix Festival to play the Jazz Stage. Bryn still gets almost misty eyed when he tells the story of flying back from his honeymoon, going to the Jazz Café with his new Japanese wife Ena, to see his band mates on stage with one of his biggest heroes who was using his Hammond organ. Marvellous!

With The People Tree selling well around the world and the groups live shows being 'not to be missed' events, Mother Earth continued a gruelling tour schedule that saw them out all over Europe and the Far East. Often with support from another Acid Jazz related groups like Australia's subtlety named funk/rap outfit - 'Skunkhour'. The problem with this was that Mother Earth were increasingly removed, stylistically from whatever 'the Acid Jazz sound' was, as well as being very fed up with the limitations that a contract with a small, independent label imposed upon them. With Matt's solo folk LP 'Villager' gathering some great press, some around the band started to realise that there could be problems long-term.

Eddie Piller always had a constant stream of big ideas, and now he had hatched the concept of a TV documentary about 'Acid Jazz' - with interviews with the key players, videos and the finale of an all-star gig to be filmed at the world famous Ealing Film Studios. After months of arranging - the big day went off without too many problems. There were performances from all the labels' artists including free jazz/dub explorers The Emporers New Clothes (known to Mother Earth as Queens Old Rags) and some special guests like The JTQ. The finale was an exciting idea to have a 'super-star' jam session. The arrangements were all made and eventually after a few mis-starts a supergroup took the stage. Playing with Mother Earth that day were, on Hammond, James Taylor (Bryn gave up the organ seat and jumped onto a Rhodes Electric piano), on drums one time Small Faces/Who drummer Kenney Jones and on guitar that Paul Weller bloke again. This Mother/Who/Weller/Face/Quartet ran through the Small Faces 'Rolling Over' whilst the Manor Mobile Recording Studio and several film cameras caught the whole thing for posterity. Or so we all thought.

It is a huge shame that the whole project- which had cost a small fortune, became an expensive dead duck as the labels' management managed to fall out with the film director who refused to release the footage to Acid Jazz. To the best of anyone's knowledge, the whole effort went 'up the pictures'. The only thing salvaged from this avoidable mess was some live Mother Earth tracks that eventually saw the light of day as B-sides.

The band were increasingly keen to break away from all the Acid Jazz connotations, and when they finally got booked for the Melody Maker Stage (as opposed to the Jazz Tent) at the Phoenix Festival, it seemed that people might finally be getting the idea. It was therefore hellishly frustrating when, while I was watching blues organist Jimmy McGriff on the Jazz Stage that I was passed a message saying that Mother Earth were having all kinds of trouble over in the much larger tent.
As I ran backstage I could tell that Bryn's Hammond was being fed an irregular power supply. Without wanting to get too technical - a Hammond will always be permanently tuned as long as it is getting a regular current. Generators of course power festival stages and a Hammond needs a power regulator in the chain somewhere, which obviously McGriff had and Bryn didn't. In fact Bryns' Hammond had notched it self up about half an octave or more. Matt & Neil had tried to re-tune their guitars to line up with the 'speeding' organ but their strings were near breaking point! Add to that the wavering pitch that was now emitted by the organ and the decision was made to pull the show after only four numbers. From where I was standing it seemed like a real disappointment. If Mother Earth had been able to get over to this more 'indie' crowd, which they would surely have done, it could have repositioned them within the business and perhaps provided the impetus to take them onto the next level.

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