Death of a Duo

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Credits

All songs written by My Computer
Produced by My Computer. Tracks 3, 8, 9, 11, My Computer/John Leckie
Tracks 3, 8, mastered at Centrepoint, London. All other tracks mastered by Rob Ormerod at Noahs Ark, Radcliffe.
Cover Art by Hannah Jones Photography

Death Of A Duo

The out - takes from the first two My Computer albums VULNERABILIA and NO CV assembled and released for the first time. From the torch song opening ‘One And The Same’ to the Mersey beat closing of ‘The Best Thing’, you are left wondering how such songs, music and interludes could be excluded from release. The answers lie in the sprawling works of VULNERABILIA an album signed by David Holmes, tracklisted by his friend and Sigur Ros manager Dean O’Conner and the John Leckie produced NO CV.

No CV was tracklisted by the legendary and sorely missed Rob Partridge.

Rob was the man who discovered U2 and bought them to Island's attention. He was also public relation guru for the likes of Bob Marley, Tom Waits and Marianne Faithful, throughout their careers.

Many bands have swaggered out of Manchester, mouthing off to the world of their peerless musical output. None however have matched the sheer tension, beauty and drama contained in My Computer’s uncompromising homage to the truth through music. With a total disregard for fashion and chart positions, Andrew Chester and David Luke, smoked their own body weights in Skunk and Pollen and submerged themselves, for five years, in a subterranean basement studio.

They were obsessed with sound, classic vinyl and making music match poetry. Their demise was inevitable at the hands of Universal, who simply couldn’t fathom the seamless 5.1 surround sound mix of the gods that was handed to them when NO CV was finished after a gruelling 3 year recording exercise.

From this moment on, the writing was on the wall for My Computer, despite the divine intervention of Rob Partridge. Rob intercepted the record from Universal and smoothed its release a year later through an associate, Guy Holmes at GUT.

Guy could only plug them into a life support machine though. The man who reportedly made six million from the crazy frog had either no luck or no idea about marketing a record that actually said something about life. To add to that, he only put them on one tour. This was the tour that saw both the beginning of the end and the future for My Computer. It was the tour where Andrew Chester met Black Jackson.

With both VULNERABILIA and NO CV taking an unimaginable amount of time, effort and perfection, the nationwide critical acclaim, so richly deserved for both records, resulted in no sales. The only barometer used to sustain a career in the old music business.

My Computer Mark 1 officially died in November 2005.

This is the death of that duo.

Track List - Death Of A Duo

One and the same
High time
If you never leave me
Green eyed girl
Time
The end of love
Go to jail (John Leckie's answer phone)
Do you believe?
Time off
Hand in hand
The best thing
Enter the dragon

What's it all about then?

A track by track guide by Andrew Chester.

1. One And The Same

The lyric - That moment, when you are sure that love has vanished from your life forever and you are proved wrong, you think, forever. The music - Inspired by Nancy Wilson's 'How Glad I Am' Andrew Chester rips open his heart and soul and tells it like he feels it. Liquid audio shags the lead vocal senseless and vice versa. Exultant strings and things develop the theme on a cooling breeze of Spanish guitar. A torch song.

2. High Time

The music - The sound of the good times that follow the thrill of new found love. A bluesy Chuck Berry riff is absolutely pulverised by a punishing brutal beat supplied by John Leckie. The whoops of the synths then decide they quite fancy the beats A LOT and get low down and dirty with them. An extremely exciting interlude.

3. If You Never Leave Me

The lyric - The crushing weight of co-dependence when the thrill has gone. The music - When I first listened to Bitches Brew, I didn't get it until I dropped a tab of acid. Twelve years later, David Luke, the man I dropped that tab with, picks up a trumpet and pays his respects. If Miles were around today and got in touch with Portishead...

4. Green Eyed Girl

The lyric - The class love song I wrote to get the love of my life back. I rebel against a 50 year method of repeating the verse and chorus. I don't need to. Love is better than drugs and lasts longer. Fact. Did it work? No it fucking didn't but that doesn't mean it won't work for you. Forget wonderwall. This is the main event.

5. Time

The music - The time between being left and being alone.

6. The End Of Love

The lyric - Needs no explanation. The music - The kind of song Radiohead were writing around the time of OK Computer. Absolute desolation in my friend Vinny's attic with a Gibsin Duo Jet given to me by Sigur Ros. I tell my friend Steve earlier on in the day I am going to write a song called The End Of Love. I don't disappoint. A funeral march with a Fender Rhodes piano found in the trash can. I manage to invert The Beatles All You Need Is Love in my abject misery. Steve's Absinthian rant at the end is pure, real, Manchester.

7. Go To Jail

The music business is on it's way down to the studio for playback of NO CV but Dave is in Jail. Someone in his flat has been growing weed. I ring John Leckie to tell him. He doesn't ring back but he e-mails me the panic.

8. Do You Believe

The lyric - A Bronx tale pulled from the pages of The Guardian. A journalist spends ten years in the Bronx and reports life there back to Britain. I copy and edit the words.

The music - Twilight on the streets of The Bronx, playing good block, bad block with Philip Glass.

9. Time Off

The lyric - I sing the first thing that comes into my head after laying down a riff I have carried around for ten years in a made up language I imagine is Esperanto. John Leckie asked me if I was taking the piss. I am slightly offended, I am just trying.

The music - Getting away from it all. Sometimes you have to. Mexican madness.

10. Hand In Hand

The lyric - At the height of the start war on terror, I am watching television one evening extremely stoned. I hear or imagine an Arab in some news footage say the chorus lyric. I am moved to song. The music - Middle eastern soothing flute choirs with an ending refrain that imagines the questions of God.

11. The Best Thing

The lyric - My respects to my ex. The music - A piece of merseybeat as interpreted by Paul Heaton arguing the toss with Paul Simon era Gracelands. From Liverpool to Manchester, with love.

12. Enter The Dragon

The lyric and music - When you have given all you have to music and get dropped by your dick head record label. John Leckie told me not to write in the first person. I ignored him and paid the price. I still am.

What's next for My Computer?

The transition to Mark 2... Unplug IT!!! NO COMPUTER is coming soon.