'Would you please stop sitting around in your pyjamas, eating toast & singeing your legs by the gas fire. Get up & do something creative!'. (Ruth Pendragon)
The Hippies were a (knowingly) ironic DIY punk/new wave band that (unwittingly) followed in the footsteps of precocious odd-balls like The Shaggs and (happily) preceded manufactured kiddy groups like Musical Youth.
The band were: Toby Hulse (11), Matty Hulse (10) & Polly Hulse (7).
The Hippies were based in Reading (UK) but performed exclusively at 63a Sturton Street, Cambridge (UK) during the school holidays. Formed sometime in 1979 at the suggestion of the band's mother (quoted above), they produced a handful of original and irritatingly catchy songs that were eventually brought together on one side of a C45 cassette as an EP entitled 'A Sound for the Future'.
The Hippies' sound was based around the Bontempi wind organ, a pretty straightforward piece of kit that could be faded in and out by simply turning the power on and off. Toby was the lead lyricist / song writer and graciously incorporated suggestions from his siblings. Matty & Polly together formed the rhythm section - an ambitious combination of cardboard boxes, biscuit tins, pots & pans alongside wholesome lentils, beans & split peas in differently proportioned jars. These were shaken by hand, hit with chop sticks or - on occasion - dashed against a wall. The main band photo however reveals that at some point Matty had at least one real drumstick.
Vocal reverb was created by singing down a poster or vacuum cleaner tube and dynamic echo by repeating the last word of the lyric with decreasing amplification. Songs were recorded in one or two takes direct to a (stereo) Hitachi cassette recorder. Live performances were to a ramshackle collection of Cambridge's 'fringe element' - the homeless, animal rights activists, stoners, junkies & transvestites.
What is wonderful is that all of this is true.
THE TRACKS
RABIES
This classic electro punk-rap represents a rare foray into multi-track recording (well, four tracks). Hugh Ashton - bass player in the band Ersatz - engineered the recording which features Polly drumming on a cardboard box and Matty on a Moog synthesiser. The Hippies shared the vocals with Toby taking the lead.
The dub-like 'delay effect' was a happy recording accident that Hugh decided to keep ... well, that's what he claimed at the time, but perhaps it was an Eno-like moment of modest genius.
The forced 'breath' that is clearly audible at the end of the opening chorus is a reaction by Matty to Toby's implication that he had 'dog breath' (rather appropriate given the lyrics). An excess of cheese & onion crisps may have been to blame for this evil stench.
The streetwise Reading accents offer an excellent early example of 'Estuary English'. The Hippies have lost most of this accent - Toby & Polly chatter with a Bristolian twang whilst Matty mumbles, supressing a soft Scots burr.
DALLAS CITY GHOST
The lyrics to this bizarre alternative 'country blues' tune were gifted to The Hippies by Stephen Airey, a researcher into parapsychology at Downing College, Cambridge. The sentiment was aimed squarely at Ronald Reagan but of course the relevance of the lyric has stood the test of time, and is to be encouraged amongst the youth of today.
TERRA NOVA
The band are unable to recall precisely where this dark, gothic & apocalyptic mini-anthem came from, not least because it predates the likes of Joy Division. Around this time Stephen Airey introduced the band to 'fear chords' which the band may have being attempting to reproduce on the Bontempi, with mixed results. John Lydon's influence - uneasy falsetto sneering - is plain to hear at the close of the track.
THE POH SONG
Doo-wop meets The Wailers in this cheeky rap inspired by Matty's Chinese maths teacher, Mr Poh. The Hippies' step-mother described him at the time as 'an ineffectual little man' - which may have been unfair. And yet Matty's grasp on numbers is decidedly shakey until this day. Racist? With the benefit of nearly 30 years hindsight, perhaps just a shade. However, 'Turning Japanese' by The Vapors, anyone?
WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
A heady mix of apathy & testosterone eventually forced The Hippies to split.
Matty has continued producing music & he drums frenetically to this day. He has been involved with the following bands: The No Wires Band, 21 Concerned People, Two Poets In a Bed, Mullet, Death of a President, The Herbies, You Will Be Happy, The One Ensemble (very fleetingly), El Rey Matildo y sus Electromuchachos.
Toby went on to form Celluloid Sex Being with Magnus Nelson and later joined 21 Concerned People.
Polly plays the flute and collabrates with Jez Butler on a variety of projects for Siesta Records.
THE LEGACY
The influence of The Hippies is just about discernible on the following: Young Marble Giants, Cortina Deluxx, Broadcast, LCD Soundsystem, Bis, The Streets, F.O. Machete, Depeche Mode, The Arctic Monkeys, FUZZZ, Lily Allen, Belle and Sebastian, Blur.
The Hippies currently have no plans to reform but an awful lot of cider can work wonders.
