Mouse Organ formed in 1998. We weren't always called Mouse Organ. I seem to remember we went through a couple of name changes including 'Minky Spaizoch'. I did not and still don't have any idea what that means. I think a girl was involved somehow.
Anyway we all met at Warwick University under varying conditions of sobriety.
Early rehearsals were characterized by a general reluctance to change chords and an unhealthy obsession with delay pedals. There were nervous discussions as to whether we were getting a bit too prog.
Gradually we got a repertoire of a few instrumental grooves together. Andy had written a song with a continuous loop of Arthur Dent in the background. In honour of the loop this song became 'Infinite Number of Monkeys'. Everybody claimed complete ineptitude at lyric writing (I think my later efforts justified this claim entirely). The songs were given ridiculous names such as 'Infamous Yoghurt Dilemma'. I don't think we ever got over this tendency.
Eventually we were allowed to play the Band Soc Music Marathon. A twelve hour gig open to all Warwick bands. For some reason Mark had no guitar part in one song (I forget which one) and so we decided that it would be a good idea for him to smoke a cigar on stage while the rest of us did our thing. We had neglected to bring an ashtray with us and so Mark improvised with a bundle of napkins. The result was a small fire.
We continued practicing and resolved to cut pyrotechnics from our live act. Occasionally we received feedback on our efforts. An acquaintance of ours told us that we were, loud... too loud. The house manager of the Student Union seconded this opinion. We were pleased. One day an anonymous hippy who had apparently been sleeping downstairs wandered in and sat through the whole of a twenty minute two chord jam staring at us and swaying. We knew that we had struck hippy-nip gold. This jam was chopped to three minutes and eventually became 'Drone On'.
Buoyed by these responses we decided to participate in a showcase of the UoW's musical talent at the Warwick Art Centre's Butterworth Hall. We appeared on the same bill as the university orchestra and the sight of Andy's name next to that of Mozart was a positive sign to us that we were on to something. Our set consisted of two songs and as much white noise as we could make. We made children cry. Also on the bill that evening were Amber, some friends of ours. We must have been doing something right because they asked us to play Offbeat Live.
Offbeat Live was probably our first proper gig. We decided that we needed a crowd pleaser as the audience of fey indie types could potentially turn nasty and the last thing we wanted was to face a deputation of their irate mothers. As Offbeat, the alternative music society, had demonstrated a nostalgia for 80s cartoons with incomprehensible plots, we decided to cover the 'Ulysses 31' theme music. This was a resounding success and is probably the reason people came to see us after that.
Our style continued to develop and we had a particular love of tuning up. Mark eventually left to concentrate on his studies and so we developed the audience participation method of filling out our sound. Our friends would be invited on the night to play chords, bass or hold down notes on the keyboard while we did our thing. Mark West, Marc Burnell and McSimon were among our startled victims.
We played a total of three farewell gigs. The last of these was at the Campbell in Coventry. After that we all went our separate ways.
Andy and Mark got married. Not to each other you understand. They both reside in the midlands (East and West respectively). Paul returned to Hampshire and is working on becoming a property baron. He likes New Zealand but it doesn't like him. Neil moved to London and began a life of reconfiguring Kernels. He then left to be in the antipodes for a while. I returned to London and currently play with Silver Springs .
Three of us have been working on a new project for some time, but this has been disrupted by long periods of absence from the country. We'll have to see if Neil is allowed back in. Watch this space.
Chris xx
