Chairman Ralph's Ministry Of Truth

With all the ink that's been devoted in recent years to the Great Punk 'N' Reggae Crossover of '76-'77, one name is often omitted from the list of "usual suspects" (The Clash, The Police and The Specials, to name three of the more obvious candidates)...The Members.

My introduction came in college, via a skinny-tied, wraparound-shaded classmate who told me...during a break in our "Thinking Visually" class...about a certain single, "Offshore Banking Business," that he swore -- hands down -- was the most effective melding of the two styles he'd ever heard.

Well, I checked out the results myself, and from then on, kept my ears open to whatever the band did. To this day, "Offshore Banking Business" is my favorite Members song -- even now, I haven't seen too many outfits tackling the skulduggery that often passes for high finance ("They're doing more than growing bananas/They've got a tax dodge goin' on").

Rereleased in 2009 as "International Financial Crisis," the song remains timely as ever -- one of many classics to bear the imprint of guitarist Jean-Marie "JC" Carroll, often in collaboration with vocalist Nicky Tesco, and bassist Chris Payne. Thirty-odd years after the band first sprang to life, the Members' banner is flying proudly again, so now seemed like a good time to catch up with JC, and get his thoughts on what made their music go bang, then...and now. I shot him an email, and here's what came back...thanks, JC!

CR: What prompted you to start playing, and who were your biggest musical influences?

JC: Led Zeppelin, The Animals.

CR: How did you end up joining the band?

JC: The Members were interested in my Songwriting. Nick Tesco asked me....

CR: The Members wrote quite a few classic songs about urban alienation (“Fear On The Streets,” “Solitary Confinement,” “Sound Of The Suburbs”, to name three)...

JC: “Fear On The Streets” is the Sound of The Members before I Joined, Members Mark One if you like.... “Solitary Confinement” and “Suburbs” are Autobiographic songs about me moving from the burbs to London. A Lot of my Material is Deeply autobiographical.. I Had a One room apartment and An Acoustic Guitar that I wrote all that Early Material....

CR: Nowadays, of course, we read a lot of cliches about "council estate rock," and this sort of thing, but what was the average person's quality of life like back then? What were you trying to say about it, especially in "Suburbs"?

JC: Quality of Life wasn't really that bad. When you grew up in the burbs you dreamed of life in the big city, the sophistication, the gigs, you felt that you were missing out on something really amazing... I now Know that we weren't ...it's the pull of the big cities... for young people... it happens all over the world!

CR: I've always been intrigued about your first job (bank clerk – you and Jake Burns, actually!). Did that influence your outlook as a songwriter, particularly on “Offshore Banking Business,” and “Brian Was”?

JC: It's funny you should mention “Brian Was.” I kinda wrote that in response to Jake's [version of] “Johnny Was,” because I was obsessed with where I had come from, the step from bank clerk to punk rocker was a big one and I wrote some of my best songs on a battered acoustic guitar in a one room flat when I was a bank clerk, etc, etc. ....a lot of punks pretended they were real blue collar workin' class etc., etc....our image was we were actually quite nice middle class boys from Camberley and so I wanted to write from that perspective instead of pretending to be a dead end kid from the city... “Offshore” was about what I saw was wrong at work...

CR: The Members worked with quite a few different producers (Vic Coppersmith-Heaven, Rupert Hine, Martin Rushent, Steve Lillywhite, Larry Wallis): who did you guys enjoy working with most? Which of the albums stands up best, in your opinion?

JC: The First Album has the Best Songs but is really Shockingly Lightweight in production.... I make better sounding records in my home studio .....Martin Rushent and Vic Coppersmith were artists from the Old School. They had learned their tricks when recording was in its infancy.....In Retrospect Rupert Hine wasn't bad at all...all these guys helped me become the producer I am today for I have made lots of records in the last six years...my output is quite big....

CR: Of course, reggae formed a major part of the Members' sound, as it did with many bands of the time (The Clash, Ruts, Slits and quite a few more names that don't occur to me) – and one that soundtracked a lot of peoples' lives (including mine, I might add). How did you get exposed to the genre, and what made it such a critical part of the band's approach?

JC: I Bought my First Reggae Records in 1974 and became obsessed with it.... The Members' Bass player, Chris Payne, is a Great Reggae bass player and his Song “Rat Up A Drainpipe” was very very Early Reggae...lots of people in those days said you can't play if you aren't black, which is of course total nonsense....

CR: As you mention in your Facebook notes, "Working Girl" is one of the main songs you'll be forever associated with – tell me the story behind it, and how you came to write it.

JC: I Wrote that song with Nick Tesco and it was about having a Girlfriend or Wife who earns more then you...This is not uncommon for a musician... I guess that's it!

CR: What led to the band's demise, in your opinion, since “Working Girl” promised a newly high-profile era for you (albeit with a different sound, obviously)?

JC: We were exhausted from touring America, the Money had run out and Nick Left the Band because he could make more money as a solo songwriter... It never really split up completely.

CR: What have been your favorite projects since the Members? What led to the band regrouping in 2007, and will there be a new album coming out of the experience – since the current lineup has coalesced around you and Chris?

JC: Since the Members I played in an Electric Folk Group called the Wise Monkeys. I did movie soundtracks for Marlon Brando and Johnny Depp (Don Juan de Marco). I Did soundtrack work on two Julien Temple films...The Joe Strummer one and the Dr Feelgood one...

My First Solo album, The Rock Is In The Laptop, is an interesting Album... My New English Blues Solo Album is, I think, a Fantastic record of my work.... and the Album The Golborne Variations, a Progressive song Cycle done with Pink Floyd Bass Player Guy Pratt is excellent, as is the Recorded on one Microphone Live album, Live Acoustic.

We have 85% Finished a New Album which features Damned Legend Rat Scabies on the Drums. Rat has been drumming with us for nearly a Year Now and we have a Great Sound together...The material on the New Album is taken in Part from some of my Solo albums, but also contains some great Chris Payne Songs...and Features Nigel Bennett on Guitar...

CR: Thirty-odd years later, almost all of the prevailing ills that punk rock spoke out against (crappy mainstream music, draconian governments, high gas prices, and so on) seem stronger and more prevalent than ever, yet the current crop of musicians doesn't seem to have much to say about any of it. Is it a generational thing, you think, or do we just wait for another turn of the wheel?

JC: Nowdays Punk rock is seen as a Uniform you can slip into if you like tattoos, loud music and CBGB Tee Shirts, Back in the Day it was much more varied... look for example at the excellent “URGHHH! A Music War” Movie and you will see the depth and variety of what was regarded as PUNK....

CR: And, lastly...what are the definitive Members songs, in your opinion?

JC: “Offshore Banking Business,” as you said in an Early Email... Has Lasted incredibly well: people said when we brought it out it was a mistake, but in retrospect, it has stood the test of time...“Soho a Go Go” is Great, as is “Working Girl."


"IT WAS QUITE A PLUNGE IN THE DEEP END":
NIGEL BENNETT SPEAKS HIS MIND (12/07/13)
British guitarist Nigel Bennett knows a thing or two about keeping busy. For 30 years now, he's been rocking audiences around the globe – first, through three albums with the Members (1979-82)...whom he's since rejoined...and, subsequently, in the '90s-era four-piece Vibrators lineup (plus lesser-known stints with the likes of Julian Lennon, and session work for Joan Armatrading, Hugh Cornwell, Eddie & The Hot Rods, Tom Robinson, and Toyah Wilcox).

Just don't get him started on current British pop, for which Nigel has no time: “America, to me, really is the land of the guitar. Over here, we have a lot of little boy bands that do dance routines, and it's like the music incidentally comes from nowhere. Whereas, in America, they still like kick-ass guitar bands, and that's why I like America.”

As it happens, America also looms large on Bennett's first solo album, TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES (Zip Records/Sony Red), which marks his emergence from years of sideman work – and a shift in his musical priorities. About half the record is devoted to instrumentals, which has sufficiently fired up Bennett to make vocals a bigger priority on his next one (“You're sort of self-contained, so I need to do that”).

Bennett is currently playing gigs with Swedish bassist Kalle (pronounced, “Carl”) Englemarc, and 25-year-old drummer Alex Bayou, whom he actually met about a decade earlier, during a brief stint in a cover band (“I said to him, “You're gonna be my drummer one day”). “These days, a power trio is a great thing to work with, if you can,” Nigel notes approvingly, of his current merry men (Bayou played on his album, while Englemarc didn't).

Produced by Pat Collier (Primal Scream, Robyn Hitchcock, Vibrators), the 13-track CD finds Bennett tackling many different styles – from reggae (“In My Dreams”), to pumpin' jump blues (“Robidoux”), country, rock, and some unlikely choices.

How unlikely, you might ask? Well, try a power chord-driven-raveup of the Joni Mitchell standard, “Both Sides Now,” which is where our conversation begins. (For more about Nigel's activities, visit his own website, www.nigelbennett-music.com/.)

CHAIRMAN RALPH (CR): Kudos to you for doing “Both Sides Now,” because...when I investigated it on Youtube, that put me in mind to thinking: “I've really got to talk to this guy – what was all this about?”

NIGEL BENNETT (NB): I honestly don't know – I was never a Joni Mitchell fan. I think I heard it on the radio one day, and I thought, “Wow, what a great song...what a good, catchy melody, and great lyrics.” But I've always known that when a song is popular, and good, you never try and cover it the same way – it's totally pointless.

So I said, “It's a sensitive song, sung by a girl, how would the Who have done it?” Because I like the Who, and I like power chords. And we whacked it down at the end, and it turned out to be a lot of peoples' favorite. And it was great to fun to do, and it came out much better than I ever imagined. So that was it – quite what made me do it, I don't know.

CR: You don't choose to do a cover the way she would have done it, you chose to do it as if – say – you would have written it, almost.

NB: Absolutely right, because that's the kind of guitar that I grew up playing, and really liked. I think Pete Townshend was the inventor of the power chord, which, of course, was used, then, in all punk music. And it certainly didn't come from any of the punks. Big, fat chord sounds really came from Pete Townshend – and a lot of the punk bands – and, of course, bands like AC/DC – have used them ever since.

CR: Exactly. So, was Pete Townshend was one of the biggest influences on you coming up? And, if so, who else was there, besides Pete?

NB: Well, it's funny – I've got to appreciate Pete Townshend more and more as I've got older. He wasn't a huge influence – because I listened a lot, and tried to learn, by imitating guitarists like Jimi Hendrix, and Jimmy Page, and people of that era. But Pete Townshend was [influential] for his chord sound – and I thought that was so important, and he definitely taught me about chords.

Having said that, I never wanted to [be], and I was never was, [strictly] a rhythm guitarist. But playing good chord sounds is all part of everything – during the punk days, you weren't allowed to mention that you'd listened to anything before punk even started.

But I was about 21 when punk started breaking, and that's how I got my break, if you like – all the auditions I went to were for punk bands, and suddenly, everyone was a punk. I mean, yeah, I was an angry young man, but I didn't have a safety pin through my nose, or anything. I just wanted to get ahead in playing the guitar, you know?

CR: Yes, I was fascinated to read [in Nigel's press bio] how you auditioned for the Sex Pistols and Iron Maiden, more or less around the same time. How does that work out?

NB: Well, there used to be a paper called Melody Maker. It doesn't exist anymore – Melody Maker was the one that really a lot of musicians read, and it had a classified section...so, every audition that came along, I would go to – and I didn't care what it was...because, that way, you got to play with people, meet them, and see.

I went to the Sex Pistols audition, and that was a joke [laughs] – two of them were drunk, lying around, making a lot of noise. And I immediately knew it wasn't for me. I also went – within the same couple of weeks – to [audition for] this band in the East End, called Iron Maiden, and they were wheedling away...and I liked it, but again, it wasn't really my thing, at the time.

But then there was this band called the Members. And I auditioned for them, and it went very well, I thought. I really enjoyed it. And they rang me the next morning, and said, “You're in the band, our first gig's in two days' time, learn all the songs” – and I had to try and learn an entire set. You know, it was quite a plunge in the deep end.

But the Members were good training for me, because, yes, they liked guitar solos – but you only ever had four or eight bars maximum...making it [a solo] thoughtful, and short, which was the opposite to long and indulgent, that was happening...even bands like Led Zeppelin, apparently. The concerts were so long, and Jimmy would sometimes play guitar on his own for 20 minutes. Now, no matter how any good anyone is, no one wants to see that – that's rubbish, you know?

CR: Well, I saw The Song Remains The Same recently, and I was thinking [about], the endless version of “Dazed And Confused”: “This got to be a bit much, didn't it?”

NB: Well, you see, apparently no one told them – you're surrounded by sycophants, they were at the top of their game. No one was gonna say, “Hey, don't you think you should cut it out, it's a bit rubbish, hearing it for 20 minutes?”

Also, there was a bloody long drum solo, and when I saw them live at Earls Court, everyone was going to the toilet during that [much laughter at this point]...and back in the day, sound systems weren't so good. I remember seeing them at Earls Court, and it was just appalling – oh, God, it went on far too long [RH laughs again, harder still].

CR: Indeed! So, going back again to the [new] record – how do you decide to do a song like “Scarborough Fair,” which you chose to do instrumentally?

NB: I had about a year off, and people have said for ages, “Nigel, you really should make a record,” and I thought, “All right, I'll do it.” So I could choose what I wanted, and “Scarborough Fair” was just a beautiful melody that I'd always loved. I just thought, “I'll try it out by playing the acoustic part on the acoustic guitar” – the rhythm part – and then, layering it with the melody, and again, it turned out all right.

I did it in four-and-a-half days, so – not a lot of time, you know? Everything you hear is first take. The more takes I do, the worse it gets – I like to be spontaneous. And I also work out what I want to do before I get to the studio, because you're running against the clock, which is money...and I had to finance it myself.

CR: Right, of course – and, in a studio, time is money. You certainly don't want to sit around all day, trying to get a snare drum sound, or something, like they did back in the '70s.

NB: Tell me about it! Neither am I so technically brilliant, that I wanna do it all at home...back in the day, as well, I went to one of two few rock star houses. I remember going to Chris Squire's place, from Yes – he had a studio, and he showed it to me, and it was just covered in dust! It was in the house, and no one used it. He had all this expensive equipment, but it was the opposite [mentality] – he wasn't indulgent. It just obviously never got used, which I thought was funny.

CR: [Producer] Pat Collier, it seems to me, has become – in England – the “go to” guy, if you want to do something with a rough, raw, aggressive edge. So what do you think he contributed to this record, as far as working with him went?

NB: I tell you what – I like Pat, we like each other, and I've worked with him with the Vibrators...he was originally in the Vibrators, very early on, got sick of going on the road, decided to be a producer. The thing I find about Pat is, before I've finished a sentence – and tried to explain a sound – he's got it up there on the desk, and it's that intuitive.

For instance, on “Both Sides Now,” I thought, “I want a big fat sound.” So I was in the studio, playing with a Marshall stack, quite loud, with headphones on. And one of the hardest things is to get the sound you hear live, out of a stack, onto tape...and he said, “Well, look, try this, Nigel,” and he got a POD [note to non-guitarists out there: basically, a box that boosts your guitar amp signal].

I said, “Oh, God, I'm not crazy on PODs” – but, within a few seconds, I got this fantastic guitar sound, just completely quickly double-tracked the rhythm again, and it was superb...and that's the sound you now hear.

CR: Yeah, and there's one instrumental on your record – “Robidoux” – it has a nice jump blues sort of feel, I think.

NB: Yes! I have good friends that live in a city called Riverside, which is 50 miles east of Los Angeles, and I stay there quite a bit. And a nearby town is called Robidoux [pronounced “ROO-BI-DOO”]. And I just like the sound of it, so that's why I used it.

Because I had never made a record before, and I had all these ideas lying around; I just put them together. Actually, the common thread was me, and they do seem to fit all right. The continuity, I suppose, is my style of playing – and the rest is just what it is, you know. I had these tunes, and whacked them down. I was pleasantly surprised by the results, I must say, because I had no idea – and I was very nervous about it.

The thing that I was also aware of – being a guitarist, and liking a lot of guitar players – I didn't want to appear over-guitar-indulgent, or show lots of little tricks that only other guitarists would appreciate.. Guitar happens to be my instrument, so that's how I express myself.

But I didn't want it to be all widdly-diddly-diddly, with hours of rock guitar solos – you know where I'm coming from. The only real solo is the first track, and I didn't have much more to sing, you know? I'm not self-indulgent for the sake of it, and that's what the Members taught me.

CR: To me, if you can't hum the tune, or whistle the tune, then it might be a little bit suspect, perhaps.

NB: I agree, and that's why one of my favorite living guitarists is Dave Gilmour, because the solos that he plays, people know note for note...because they're so brilliant, and iconic. And they are saying something, they're not just widdling up and down the fretboard for the sake of it.

CR: So where does the inspiration for a track like “In My Dreams” come from?

NB: People say, “Yeah, in your dreams,” and I thought, “Not in your dreams – in my dreams.” And then, what do people dream about? And I wrote it as a sort of, summer “boy-meets-girl” song, very innocent, walking down the street – a young boy, you see a young girl looking at you, too, and then, the rest of it is a bit of a fantasy. It seemed to come very quickly. When you're a young man, you're very unsure of all that [emotional involvement], and girls are too, I've discovered. I always used to think they were confident, but I have an 18-year-old daughter. Teen angst is the same for all teens.

CR: You've played with quite a few different people – what experience was the most significant?

NB: When I left school at 17, it took me about four years to find a working professional band, [in] the Members. I was the last to join – and, very shortly afterwards, things started happening. And then, we had records in the charts, and were playing big gigs, and flying around at our first world tour – that was an incredibly good feeling, because it was such a rush...and exciting.

All those years of struggling, and everyone says, “Get a real job,” and, “Get something to fall back on,” and all that shit you get [laughs]...I mean, I wasn't stupid enough to think that was it, and it was gonna last forever, but I really enjoyed that period a lot, when the Members started becoming successful. It was a good feeling to be part of that.

CR: So, you were always – in your mind – destined to become what you are now, which is a working professional musician?

NB: Well, I started playing the guitar at seven. All through adolescence, which is a time of great metamorphosis, for most people, the constant thing I did every day was play the guitar. When I was 16, I was in a school band – and one of the guys lived in Bristol, in England, said, “Look, there's a singer I know, and he's d been offered to a tour of the south coast, for the holidays. Are you up for it?” I said, “You know, damn right, does the Pope shit in the woods?”

We did this tour, only for about two weeks – sleeping in cars when you're 16, absolutely loved it – and I left school a year later, because I knew, without a doubt, what I wanted to do.....and then, I got a break with the Members, and I've been doing it ever since. So I was lucky enough to know what I wanted to do, even though I chose a very difficult profession – because thousands of boys wanna be a footballer, or a guitarist.

CR: You guys probably never thought, when you did “Offshore Banking Business,” that you'd be recording a song which would not only still hold up, but – if anything, would make you think, “Wow, full circle again, isn't it?”

NB: I was just gonna say, it really is full circle with all these big corporations getting caught with their pants down: “Offshore Banking Business.” You know, I think I played that recently, as the Members asked me to stand in on the gig. That's one of my favorite songs of theirs, there's no doubt about it, so – good reggae, and great lyrics, and great subject matter.

CR: Yeah. I mean, it was just spot-on. Of course, how many people like [lead guitarist] J.C. [Carroll] could say they wrote a song which got condemned by people in the Bahamas?

NB: Yes, it was. J.C., when I first met him, when I joined the band, worked in a bank somewhere, you know – he hated it. I was working as a van driver when I had my audition. And that's where I didn't know anything about the offshore banking world, but that's where J.C. got to know enough, to write that song. He and I are good friends. I just saw him last weekend – we keep in touch a lot.

CR: Yeah, if you look at my site, there's a little chat that I did with him, as well as Knox, so...

NB: Oh, Knox? Knox and I are dear friends – I love Knox. We don't live far away from each other. And he helped me make the demos for that [solo] album – because I'm not very technically-minded, and I've got a digital eight-track machine here, and he knows how to operate it, so he helped me demo my whole album. That's the kind of friend he is.

CR: So what other plans do you have at the moment?

NB: I like different themes. I just watched this show – Gary Moore did an evening of Jimi Hendrix songs, and it was absolutely amazing. And I will do an evening of Jimi Hendrix songs. Otherwise...I wanna write some more of my own songs – because I've already got the one album. It's not enough – neither will I wanna play all of that live, and a lot of that is instrumental. And so, you know, I just wanna expand a bit.

CR: When you look back on the punk era, how do you feel about the long-term impact? Because some people say that's what was needed, in restoring emphasis on the basics...other people argue it wiped out a whole generation of musicians.

NB: I don't think it wiped out anybody – but I think times have changed constantly, and I think people are too nostalgic for it, and some of these old bands that are reforming. They're doing it for money, or nostalgia, but it's not the same. And it's a lot of middle-aged people there that want to look back on their childhood. I suppose that's normal...you know, with these dreadful economic times, and unemployment, and wasted youth, it might be a good time for something else like that to happen again.

CR: Well, of course, the other issue is that people have to make a living – and if you're known for that one thing – from their point of view, it makes more sense to do that, doesn't it?

NB: Well, it not only makes more sense, it's hard to get arrested otherwise. I mean, J.C. went out on his own, I think, with the J.C. [Carroll] band...and it was terribly hard to get arrested, so he decided to call it the Members, and managed to get bookings.

CR: So, again, going back to that discussion we're having of nostalgia – what is the one thing that people consistently get wrong when they talk about the punk era? 'Cause I imagine you read a fair amount of stuff.

NB: The only despicable, disgusting thing about it was – for some reason, someone thought it was all right to spit at people in bands. I think that's the ultimate human insult, in any culture. Even if you bumped into a tribe deep in the Amazon jungle, if you spat in someone's face, they'd probably try and kill you.

And I would never like to put up with that – and you'd still get people who thought it was all right. They knew it was revolting. If anybody tried to spit at me, I'd try and whack them over the head with my guitar. I mean, people would spit, and you never knew where it would land...it would come out in someone's mouth, or any of them. It was disgusting – that's about the level of it.

What was good about it? It gave kids a break, that's what I think – you know, I don't look back through rose-tinted spectacles. It was good and bad, like so many things.

RH: Right...whereas, of course, once that first wave of punk had passed, then – of course – a lot of things got taken back again by the record companies to a certain extent, right?

NB: Oh, they were always there, as greedy as ever [laughs] – it's what they always do, you know? We were ripped off by Virgin Records; everyone was. It's almost like a credential of being a musician, if you survive. They're not stupid.

And I quickly learned that, although they felt they were really hip, and groovy – and people didn't have to wear a uniform in the offices – it was the same as if they were selling baked beans. It was marketing, and product, and money, and profit, and all that shit, you know – but one needed the other. A band needed a record deal, and a record company wouldn't be there without music, so it is what it is. I mean, I've always hated the business side; maybe that's why I haven't got any money.

CR: What's the magical thing you would tell people, if there was such a thing, to stick it through, when things get difficult?

NB: You've gotta be driven, so that it doesn't really occur to you to do anything else. When I was a kid, people said, “It's all right if you wanna be a musician” – patronizingly, they said – “but have something to fall back on.” Well, I don't live my life with the idea of falling back.

Because, if you even entertain that notion at the beginning, then it's always there – whereas, if falling back isn't an option, there's only one way to go, and that's forward. So I think you've gotta be dedicated mentally to doing it – stick at it, if it's in your blood, and if not, just do it as a hobby for awhile... and then, get a job in a bank.

CR: Well, it worked for J.C.: he got a great song out of it!

NB [laughs]: No, the bank came first.

CR: And I believe Jake Burns [of Stiff Little Fingers] was a bank clerk, too, if I recall...

NB: Well, I think they were probably hiring people at the time – J.C.'s no more a banker than I am, in mentality. I worked in shops...cleaned a cinema early in the morning, so I could play in a band in the afternoon...I did shitty jobs, showing me what I didn't wanna do.

I swept streets. I worked in the tunnels underneath a department store, in the storage rooms – it was all those sort of menial things that you can handle in your late teens, and early twenties. And then, I drove a van around, in central London – but I wouldn't dream of doing that now. I just couldn't. And again, there's someone far more suited to doing that stuff, that's 18 or 19. I'm not qualified at anything, you know?

CR: So what would say keeps you going, after all this time?

NB: Love of the guitar – I love playing the guitar. That's important. Always have done, always will. Right now, I want a new white Stratocaster. I've always pretty much been a Les Pail man, but I really wanna start doing some more Stratocaster things.

And that little thing alone inspires me, you know? Get a new guitar. Then you're playing it, and you get a new riff, there's a new song, and then: “I'll record that song, and maybe someone will like that a year later, and ring up, and say, 'Let's do an interview!'” It sort of perpetuates, if you're lucky.

(Thanks to Cheryl Squadrito for setting up this interview.)

<FURTHER INFO:>
The Members:
http://www.themembers.co.uk/

JC Carroll:
http://www.jccarroll.com/

Nicky Tesco's Blog:
http://www.musicgoulash.blogspot.com/


NEW ALBUM InGrrrLand Finished/Available
UPDATE: 4/18/12: The Album Features JC, Chris and Rat Scabies along with Guitar from Nigel Bennett, Drums by Nick Cash and other very special Guests. Artwork Concept is by the Man who Designed the Original Members Sleeves, Malcolm Garrett, and it is mixed by Cure Producer David M. Allen.

The Members released the album Digitally on March 3. InGrrrLand is now available via the band's website, too...for relevant details, simply go to this link: http://www.themembers.co.uk/products_ingrr.html.

<FURTHER INFO:>
And Last (But Surely Not Least):
JC's New Album (21st Century Blues) Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7szY6H7wek

iTunes Preview:
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/21st-century-blues/id497689102