Troy Tate - Thomas (1981)

While still playing guitar with the Teardrop Explodes, Troy Tate released his first single as a solo artist in June 1981.

Thomas (1981)
- Thomas
- London’s Swinging

Sounds welcomed the release with the following article:

‘Pre-employ in the Teardrop camp and post the decline of Shake, Troy has drifted from the glamorous environs of the music biz into labours of a less salubrious nature. By day assembling on a factory production line and by night and weekends in a restaurant kitchen hidden behind a sky bound stack of dirty dishes discarded by the hunger-mad, food crazy diners in their quest for appetite satiation. In the few spare hours that this busy life of toil and tedium offered Troy was committing to tape demos of self-penned material. This action resulted in a publishing agreement with Warner Bros and the in-the-racks-now-pop-kids single 'Thomas' with the rear graced by 'London's Swinging' on Why Fi c/o RCA (sleeve designed by the beautifully titled Pablo Cuckoo).

'Thomas' sets off in a broody fashion, in some ways akin to a slow burning John Cale ballad. Troy's voice being well up in the mix makes it necessary to raise sound levels to allow the delicacies of the masked staccato strumming and the discreet build-up to the marching beat that underlays the chorus to emerge and fully maximise listening pleasure.

"It was recorded on an eight-track machine in the bedroom of Phil Chapman. There was no room for a drum kit in there so they were added separately just before I left for America.
"Now there's some hilarious reviews saying it's over produced. It was edited the day before we did 'Treason' for Top Of The Pops and the artwork done literally just an hour before the programme."

‘Lyrically 'Thomas' could, given the lightest of casual hearings, be dismissed as just another well-meaning but dreary anti-war tirade. But let the artiste enlighten:

"It's basically about the way events take over people. I meet people I used to play in groups with and now they're sales reps or whatever, not that there's anything wrong with being a sales rep but 'Thomas' is a twist on the way fate can push people into situations they didn't want.
"On my mind too was that that is the way an army mobilisation can happen. If they're not careful everyone could be in the army if the government and/or world events dictate it.
"The song covers this in a slightly off-centre way. I didn't want to just sing 'Oh, I hate war'. The line 'the train's on time' comes from the title of a story by Heinrich Boll, written during the war about the way people get sucked into it in quite arbitrary fashion. 'It's like watching war films when you're a kid and before you know it you're out there fighting in Northern Ireland or Poland and it's nothing to do with you.
"In some ways it's like the music business too. Like having the hit single and selling out all the gigs, we never expected that to happen. It's taken two months for that to start to sink in.
"One gig I was watching the Delmontes (UK tour support), I was tired and a bit out of it and I seriously wondered who the main band were. You suddenly think God! All these people are coming to see us!"

‘The not-to-be missed flip, 'London's Swinging' bursts out with an Iggy/Bowie style raunch, heavy duty sustained guitar leading the cut and thrust form start to finish. These grooves are made doubly dangerous by the oft-used refrain which fairly bulldozes its way to the cranium.

"That one's partly autobiographical. When the economy is bad everything is down to a minimum and people think I've got a job. Get some money and get ripped on Friday night and don't give a shit. People aren’t grabbing things and changing them any more.
"There's the comparison with the Swinging London of the sixties. Nowadays London isn't really part of England anymore and the swinging is from a yard arm.
"It's partly a tongue-in-cheek rock and roll song as well the ‘Johnny' in it has been in every rock and roll song ever written. It's like a package and I do like the idea of rock being disposable, you can take it seriously and throw it away.
"It's not like religion or the government, rock and roll keeps changing and rock and roll is bananas and that’s why I love it."

‘Prolonged globe-trotting, rather than sapping energies, has fuelled and strengthened Troy's zest for existence. Pausing only for a brief week-long rest, he's recording further personal compositions in readiness for a future follow-up RCA forty-five.

‘Strings still buzzing, he remains studio bound for the making of the second Teardrop LP, the material on which will be publicly unveiled on a September scheduled Euro-tour. Any possible unfilled studio seconds will find Troy crawling round to face the mixing desk, hopefully producing (past credits include TV21) Birmingham's Pinkies. Does he never relax?

"It's important to do things, not just talk about them. I don't want to sit around on my arse. The Teardrop Explodes is a very positive thing, a real buzz gets across to the audience and it encourages them to do things for themselves. It's a slightly different angle on the punk thing. Be creative and go out and take life. Don't let anybody give you any shit.
"I went to see James Brown at the Lone Star Club in New York. A legend just ten feet away from me on a tiny stage, doing the splits and jumping up and down and after a heart attack. It was a great inspiration seeing someone like that, you know you’ve just got to keep going.
"If there is anybody reading this (!) and they really believe in something and really want to do it, then they will do it."

(Sounds, August 1981)



Thomas can be found here (thanks to our friends at fade2gray)



(see also: http://micksinclair.com/sounds/troy.html )