A Brief History of...
Mary Jane
Chapter One: The Magic Cat
Mary Jane was formed in Southampton, November 1993 by Paul Alan Taylor (acoustic, electric & 12 string guitars), Jo Quinn (vocals, flutes, acoustic guitar), Peter Miln (fiddle, mandolin), Nick B Davies (drums, percussion), and Geoff Newitt (bass).
Paul & Nick had previously played together in The Magic Cat, a psychedelic-orientated group that had played in and around Southampton before breaking up in 1992. The Cat had in addition consisted of Paula Hamill (vocals), Mat Walters (bass), and Mark "Sparky" Wells (electric guitar). Apart from Nick who was a seasoned player on the Southampton circuit, the band was still somewhat inexperienced, but had supported popular psychedelic-blues band Dr Brown in the past. Upon the break-up of The Cat, Paul set about finding a replacement line-up of more dedicated musicians, whilst retaining the services of Nick on drums.
The first requirement was a singer, and Jo fit the bill admirably with her considerable vocal talents and a proficient background in traditional music and song stemming from her Irish family background. Jo's cousin Carlene Anglim, a virtuoso Irish fiddler, was also pursuing a career for herself amongst the more mainstream Anglo-Irish folk circle. Thanks to some string-pulling by Jo's mother, Ann Quinn - who was herself an experienced folk singer - Pail and Jo recorded some traditional material at a BBC Radio 5 studio (though unofficially) in January 1994. The results seemed promising, they felt obliged to form a band and have fun. Geoff was soon recruited on bass, but it took until meeting Peter, a more experienced folk musician, to have a good enough bassi from which to start. Peter had come down to Southampton from Gloucester, but remained in his own band there, the roots-influenced Reincarnation, by frequently commuting back.
Paul chose the name of the new band from a song by Nick Drake, and all was in place. Rehearsals of the new five-piece began in early 1994.
Chapter Two: She Moved Thro' The Fair
Early Mary Jane rehearsals at Southampton University Students Union consisted in equal parts of psychedelia, progressive & folk influences mixed in the tradition of the 60's & 70's. This was something that no other band seemed to be able to do successfully anymore, or at least no other bands seemed inclined to try. From the outset, Mary Jane had a dedication to writing original material rather than relying exclusively on traditional songs or covers. However, when the chance to record a demo came upon Mary Jane unexpectedly soon, it was a popular part of Mary Jane's '94 set, the traditional standard She Moved Thro' The Fair, that was chosen to showcase the new band's sound. Original material had still not evolved sufficiently at that point for the band to feel happy recording it yet, though a repertoire was developing extremely fast. The day of the studio time came Mary Jane's way through a donation from Ann Quinn, and hastily assembling an acoustic track, The Snows, plus an unaccompanied vocal Lagan Love, the band went to Crazies Hill Studio near Maidenhead for a pastoral summers day's 24-track recording.
Passing a few copies of the resulting demo tape around drew interest from amongst others HTD Records (The Albion Band/Ashley Hutching's recording label), and Woronzow Records, the label owned by Nick Saloman (aka underground psychedelic legend The Bevis Frond). The positive feedback was encouraging, but when a copy passed to mail-order music purveyor and musical veteran Rustic Rod Goodway, was quickly forwarded by him to the German September Gurls label, who were specifically looking for an English psychedlic-folk band, Mary Jane seemed set to be signed. The promise of a modest advance sealed the deal, and in the spring of 1995, the band made preparations for assembling an album's worth of original and traditional material.
However, not everything was going quite so effortlessly. Live performances were popular but proving too infrequent to bring in much money, and the inevitable 'musical differences' were arising between Geoff and the rest of the band, eventually resulting in his leaving. The more experienced Martin Griffin, a friend of Nick's from the New Forest, filled the gap nicely soon after. Martin and Nick were also to moonlight as designers for future Mary Jane covers, as they both had the necessary expertise to produce finished artwork.
Chapter Three: Hazy Days
The summer of 1995 saw both the release of the debut 7" in September and the recording of the first album Hazy Days during five swelteringly hot days in July. The venue was an unoccupied design studio in Southampton, and a portable 16 track studio was used. The band lived largely in the studio for the five days: three days to record, two to mix, and there was Mary Jane's first album in a surprisingly short time. The tracks were a varied mix of Mary Jane's styles: from the heaviness of Glasgerion, Blackwaterside & In My Garden, to the mellower 1970, Wilderness Song & Dreams of the Forest; from the whimsical Hazy Days & Mary Jane Blues, to the moody Our Lady Babalon and the decidedly folky Under The Broad-Leaved Tree and Medley.
By this time Peter had decided to return permanently to Gloucester's music scene and Reincarnation, however; his other commitments had been making it increasingly difficult for him to find time to also play in Mary Jane, and so the recordings proved to be his last involvement with the band.
Chapter Four: Zaney Janey
With the resulting temporary lull in Mary Jane activities, Paul and Jo took the opportunity to record an album of original material under the name of Zaney Janey with Woking-based Pete Jardine (vocals, guitar, bass), who had previously been playing with acoustic songstress Lisa Von Hasenberg and Surrey funksters Chooby. The project grew from several informal jams and the combination of Pete's funk/jazz background together with Mary Jane influence produced a disitinctive and varied array of material. September Gurls agreed to release the Zaney Janey album along the same lines as Hazy Days, and recording commenced in November 1995 at Ade Lunn's Lunar Studios, Cranleigh. This was a more produced effort than Hazy Days and thanks to Ade's input and use of his equipment sounded a great deal more professional.
Nick appeared as percussionist under the pseudonym Max Barclay(in reality his middle names), Martin designed the artwork, and members of a band Leith that Ade managed at the time also guested on drums and bass. The members of Zaney Janey had earlier in the year attended the Fhleadh Cheoil traditional Irish music festival in County Kerry, Ireland, and the many feelings and experiences from there were to also rub off onto these recordings.
Recording concluded in April 1996, and a 7" single Sad Day b/w Prelude released, followed in May 1997 by the Zaney Janey album itself. The delay in its release stemmed from disagreements with September Gurls over the tracks themselves. Agreement was finally reached, but not before the celebrated seventies album cover artist Patrick Woodroffe, who had agreed to provide an original drawing for the cover, withdrew his interest in his annoyance over the record company's reluctance to offer him a fee.
The album's fourteen tracks were arranged in such a way as to tell a dreamlike story, and started & ended with the lively Irish inspired Janey's Jig/Janey's Gig. Autumn Dream then acting as a kind of overture, various characters, feelings and situations were presented in the remaining songsas observations, and on, life in general. Time Slides By, Blues For The Goddess, The Trip, Raspberry Jam at the Beatnik Emporium tended towards jazz, whilst the agression of Sad Day contrasted well with the fragility of A Little Bridge, Cut Your Hair, Circle, Meadow Fayre, Begin & Lazy Summer Days. Photography for the album and single was shot by Mark Tuckett, a friend and local photographer who had previously been tried out briefly as rhythm guitarist for the band in 1993, but who had found his talents were best used behind the lens instead.
Collaboration continued throughout 1997 with Pete on more original material under the name Kallisti (meaning, from the Classical Greek myth of the start of the Trojan War, ‘to the prettiest one’) and an extensive collection of ideas were soon assembled on various cassette tapes. The material was an extension of the more Eastern, mystically-inclined moments from Zaney Janey and Hazy Days, incorporating such varied instruments as sitar, zither, and ocarina, plus more conventional folk instrumentation. Though these songs & instrumentals were not formally recorded or played live at the time, some went on to provide the basis for subsequent Mary Jane tracks, whilst the project in itself gave the opportunity to explore some more exotic musical instruments and increase the standard of musicianship generally. The rest of the sizeable collection of Kallisti material was intended to be put out on release when time & opportunity allowed, but first there was the matter of continuing Mary Jane’s activities and creating the planned second album.
Chapter Five: Isle of Wight
Another activity undertaken in 1996, after the release of Hazy Days and Peter Miln’s departure, was a musical collaboration with Dave Cook (bass), who had recently left Dr Brown. Together with Ben Sullivan (slide guitar), Paul, Jo, and Nick began Ultimate Blue Day, a heavier blues-rock band that would hopefully be able to generate some more live work and revenue in addition to Mary Jane’s gigs. Though promising, it was a short-lived affair as Dave become involved with other bands, and Ben moved away to art college; the only recordings extant are rough rehearsal tapes. However, the idea did influence the next Mary Jane EP, Isle of Wight.
Mary Jane had continued playing live as a four-piece and recorded the rockier Isle of Wight in October 1996 as a prelude to a new album. The track referred to the 1970 festival, and the demise of a generation’s ideals that the event unintentionally demonstrated. Consequently, it had a fittingly heavy bass & drum sound that highlighted Nick and Martin at their best, and this together with the lack of a fiddle provoked some criticism as not being sufficiently ‘folky’ enough for a Mary Jane song. The point that Mary Jane was a band that enjoyed its experiments with other musical styles seemed, unfortunately, to have been missed entirely. The EP was again recorded at Lunar Studios, and consisted of two traditional tracks: Oxford City and Polly Pretty Polly. The latter was a solo acoustic performance by Jo of a song she had known and performed since a child, whilst Oxford City provided a chance for the band to try a longer, more mesmerising album track. Shortness of time meant overdubs on Oxford City were limited for the EP version, and the track would have to wait until the recording of the new album was actually underway before finishing touches could be added.
The EP was eventually released in 1997 but further haggling about repertoire and artistic control with September Gurls delayed further Mary Jane recordings throughout the year, and it was November 1997 before recording of the second Mary Jane album could finally get underway. Meanwhile, Nick had left the band earlier in the year to get married, and Martin had agreed to step down whilst awaiting surgery that would prevent him playing live for a while. Replacements were found in Simon Hayman (drums) and Chris Lilley (fiddle), but a regular bass player was not forthcoming. During the summer of 1997 the band struggled to assemble a live set: Chris left to form his
own band whilst remaining as a regular session fiddler for Mary Jane, and Simon moved to London and so left at the end of 1997. Martin rejoined in 1998, soon followed by (but in a studio/recording role only) Nick.
Chapter Six: The Gates of Silent Memory
The ‘difficult’ second album was entitled The Gates of Silent Memory, after a drawing by Edwardian artist and mystic Austin Osman Spare. The music continued to evolve during its recording to again express the various moods and contrasts of Mary Jane, and featured Chris on fiddle & viola, as well as a guest vocalist, Gail Holliman, singing an unaccompanied duet with Jo. Traditional tunes such as Boys of Bedlam, Janey Picking Cockles, Morrison’s Jig and Gail & Jo’s aforementioned The Silver Whistle sat alongside the progressive, Celtic sound of the new material Waiting for the Storm, A Newer Day, The Far Watchtowers, The Gates of Silent Memory and Half-Sick of Shadows/Fiddlin’ Mary. Also included were gentler acoustic compositions such as Twilight Song and Flibbertigibbet, and the guitar solo Brigit’s Daughter. The two EP tracks Isle of Wight & Oxford City (the more complex album version) were also included. Mark’s photography was, again, suitably expressive for the atmosphere of the music, almost all of the tracks
of which were related in some way to the remembering of things past. It was a melancholy and bittersweet theme, perhaps reflecting in some degree recent upheavals in the lives of band members and friends.
Hence, as recording concluded on the new album in October 1998, Mary Jane were a four-piece, but lacked a drummer and fiddler for live work. Dutch percussionist Emily Tooke joined to replace Nick on-stage and complement an acoustic live sound, with Jo tentatively taking over some fiddle duties, and Paul adding banjo & bouzouki to the instrumentation. The influences of the Kallisti material had also permeated back into the evolving Mary Jane sound, and the music - Mary Jane or Kallisti - now seemed very much just all part of one whole sound.
(The Gates of Silent Memory also marked the recording debut of Pete’s Crazy Alien studio, which has been set up in compact 8-track form in rooms of his own property that had been strangely altered...)
Chapter Seven: Tacit
By the end of 1998, Emily had moved on and Nick once more was inclined to return to his full live/recording role by January 1999. Mary Jane was again playing live after a year of working almost exclusively on the tracks for the second album. New friends of the band were inevitably made on the live circuit, most notably members of Vernon Fleece, Senseless Amelia and Nature’s Children, bands mostly based in and around Southampton. Increasing live work was leading to something of a renaissance for the band, and when Nature’s Children’s James Carey (rhythm acoustic guitar, vocals) joined Mary Jane for a year, the five-piece worked on more new material.
The band took some time in September 1999 to record a live session in this their latest incarnation at Planet Hellingly, East Sussex, and also featuring Chris Lilly shortly before his permanent departure for Donegal. Soon after, work started on more studio tracks at Lunar Studios in late 1999; after finishing his parts Nick for the last and final time retired from music, to be replaced by the energetic Andrew 'Pidge' Pidgeon on drums in March 2000. Pidge’s first recording was to be on another live session at Crazy Alien, this time all acoustic. Together with the previous electric session, Mary Jane approached September Gurls to see if a live session album could be released. An agreement for an LP only release was struck for sometime in 2001, and Tacit (referring to the understated feel of the sessions) was decided on as the name.
The first side consisted of the Crazy Alien session, and included the instrumentals Reaping the Rye & La Rotta (a slip jig and an Italian folk-dance respectively), as well as dark treatments of the ballads Polly on the Shore, Lady Margaret, I Loved a Lass & Maid on the Shore. The second side of electric material included new versions of Morrison’s Jig & She Moved Thro’ the Fair, as well as a lively set of reels and the Irish ballad I Roved Out. Also included here was a more West Coast version of the traditional favourite Wayfaring Stranger, another legacy from the Ultimate Blue Day project.
Chapter Eight: To the Prettiest One
Mary Jane were now in a good position. Local live work, and the Internet, had won a following for the band; they had the forthcoming LP release on September Gurls as well as a moderately well selling studio album in Gates. The studio tracks that had been started off at Lunar in late 1999 now needed to be finished and added to, so that a completed fourth album could come into being in 2001.
By the end of 2000, however, both James and Martin had left the band to pursue their own musical interests, so yet again more personnel changes were in the offing. New members were recruited in late 2000: Steve Bayley (bass) an ex-bandmate of Pidge’s - and Gillie Leach (fiddle), who was playing Irish music after coming from a predominately classical background. Now once more a five-piece electric band featuring flute, fiddle & guitar (as during the Hazy Days period), the new members gelled quickly and naturally with the old, and a fresh and exciting vitality was coming into the live set.
The studio tracks for the fourth album were finally finished in 2001, and also incorporated further material from the Kallisti period that had lain incomplete. The album’s tracks hence covered a recording period from immediately after The Gates of Silent Memory, through the recording of Tacit, and incorporated three core sets of recordings. These were the unfinished Kallisti material from late 1998/early 1999, the Lunar sessions from late 1999/early 2000, and additional material from the new line-up in 2001. In deference to the Kallisti influence, and because so many people had in the end contributed to the album, the name To the Prettiest One was chosen as a general dedication to all who had played a part in the music; both in supporting, and performing with, the band. It was a brighter, more harmonious and positive album, in contrast to the darkness & melancholia of The Gates of Silent Memory. The arrangements were maturer, the musicianship more proficient, and the styles varied yet complementary (partly due to the fact of three different sessions based around the nucleus of Paul & Jo). It seemed also a good time to explore different record label options, and an offer from Southampton-based Seventh Wave Records was accepted amid rival bids from September Gurls & High Note Music.
The album, whilst including traditional material such as the Gaelic-Latin hymn 'Deus Meus', Irish tunes 'Return to Milltown' & 'Morning Dew/Lads of Laois', the violent Somerset ballad 'Bruton Town' & the re-worked 'Three Maidens', also introduced some complex new original material. 'Leaves are Falling' & 'Spiral' displayed more Progressive leanings, 'Fragments' ventures into jazz themes, whilst 'No Effort Required' is as near to pop as Mary Jane dare venture! There is the contemporary Celtic song 'Journey' with guest vocalist Isabelle Lydon, the Eastern-flavoured 'Helios' & 'Mahadev', and the abstract psychedelia of 'Phaethon'.
Meanwhile, 'Tacit' was released on September Gurls subsidiary label Acony Bell in October 2001 as a limited edition LP. The band immediately started plans for a CD release of 'To the Prettiest One' with their new label Seventh Wave in 2002, as well as a CD version of ‘Tacit’. Alongside this, 2001/02 had been the busiest period in terms of live performances for Mary Jane, with the welcome consequent rise in profile. This led to links with other similar bands, such as The Morrigan, Bluehorses, Arlen & Beltaine, and the consequent exposure to their fans through joint gigs & appearances. In addition, the band were growing more proficient than ever at their live performances, and featured twin fiddles & vocals at points on stage from Jo & Gillie as another feature of the group. New material was also forthcoming at a goodly rate, and it seemed like early 2002 would be a good time to begin work on the fifth album.
Last updated: February 2002
Appendix: Discography
Amongst all of the coming & goings, to-ings & fro-ings, ups & downs, here’s the entire released output of Mary Jane (and offshoots) so far:
7" Singles/EP’s:
She Moved Thro' the Fair 1995 September Gurls
Zaney Janey 1996 September Gurls
Isle of Wight 1997 September Gurls
Albums:
Hazy Days 1996 September Gurls
Zaney Janey 1997 September Gurls
The Gates of Silent Memory 1999 September Gurls
Tacit (LP) 2001 September Gurls
Tacit (CD) 2002 Seventh Wave
To the Prettiest One 2002 Seventh Wave
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