| "HAVE
HAT WILL TRAVEL," smirks David
Thomas when I ask for a rapid précis of
his career. "I've tried to make a
career out of avoiding descriptions. Pere
Ubu never fitted in anywhere, I've never
fitted in anywhere. I like to explore a
lot of different things, explore all the
facets of my talent." Pere
Ubu, in which David Thomas was a singing
central figure, lived and died amid the
industrial wonderland of Cleveland, Ohio
and bequeathed a substantial body of work
(David has kept the substantial body).
Their six albums included
the mighty 'Dub Housing' of 1978 and the
final flourish of 'Song Of The Boiling
Man' some three years back. Instead of a
series of conceptual albums,"
continues David, "we produced the
conceptual career. We started and set off
to go someplace and on the way knew we
were cutting our throats commercially.
"We started as a
garage band, progressed through the land
of big record companies as a garage band
and we finished in the swamps of the
Independents as a garage band – you
better not quote that."
To continue reading
this article and to discover many more (over 140,000 words-worth!),
purchase Mick
Sinclair’s Adjusting
the Stars: Music journalism from post-punk London.
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