From 1984 until 1986 Colin Murrell formed one half of a performance art duo called The Demolition Company. The other member was Sean Stokes. When Sean and Colin joined The Apostles in 1986, their duo disintegrated into desuetude which I considered rather a shame. I wrote a set of instructions on a sheet of paper and called this The Demolition Company. A couple of weeks before Fritz and Colin were due to arrive in the studio, I was there finishing one of my interminable pop songs when my attention was distracted by a gang of builders outside, employed to execute repairs on the exterior of the building. I recorded 3 minutes of their work, took this home and inflicted it to the rigours of tartism.
When Colin and Fritz arrived a fortnight later, I presented the instructions and the backing tape to them and advised them to convert into their own work, ignoring my instructions if this proved artistically necessary. Ultimately Colin took control of the piece (possibly inspired by the title I gave it) and it became (almost) a solo work, with myself and Fritz adding voices now and then where instructed. The net result is one of the most intriguing numbers of The Workshop, the album on which it appears. Is this the most avant garde work we’ve ever recorded? Wenn Worte Töten Könnten (also available on this site) certainly matches it as do some of the tracks on Rock In Opposition: Phase 3.
The photographs are generously provided by the famous Birmingham poet Andy Nunn.
Colin Murrell – Vocals, Piano, Harmonica, Saxophone,
Mandolin, Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Bass Guitar, Drums.
Fabian Fritze – Bagpipes, Viola, Vocals.
Andy Martin – Vocals, Tape, Tartism.
Text & Music - Colin Murrell.
If you have enjoyed this track we recommend you check out these works by UNIT on this site
A Study Of Alkaline Metals
Barbara's Bridge
Another Faded Fragment
The Quasar
Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes
Sports Day
Donations to our finances can be made ([email protected]) if you wish to support our future work.
In 2016 we released our 30th album (Fast – Clean – Cheap) and with it an era passed. We realised it is neither necessary nor desirable to continue to issue our work on compact discs. The process is expensive and time consuming (pressing CDs, printing booklets and tray cards, buying jiffy bags, going to the post office – it’s so 1990s) so now Band Camp exists, an avenue is presented by which we can release our work to the public directly. Our projects will be obtainable from this address:
unit-united.bandcamp.com.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The paypal address for our Band Camp and Lulu sites is now [email protected].
In addition there are currently 12 books available. These are proper books in print, not fake, ersatz ‘books’ you see advertised on the internet these days as ‘e-books’. They can be purchased from lulu.com. Type ‘Andy Martin – Grange Hill’ to locate them.
[email protected]
