A Trip To The Seaside Parts 1 & 2 by John Cooper

A Trip To The Seaside Parts 1 & 2
by John Cooper

It is Friday 19 May 2006 and Section 25 have just come off stage having played their first gig in 19 years at Over The Edge in Poulton-le-Fylde. Larry Cassidy talks exclusively to Scream City about touring the States, recording new material and how but for an unfortunate accident they might've become a Joy Division covers band...

JC: Section 25 have returned after twenty years. What are your plans for the future?

LC: We've been offered a gig in Brussels, and planning a gig Paris as well as a gig in London in September. And after that I would like to go into the studio to do some recording. In the last 3 months of the year September, November and December the odd gig or two. I'd like to devote those three months to making music.

JC: I've heard that you've been recording with Ian from Tunnelvision and a new guy Roger.

LC: Yes, that was the band that was playing tonite.

JC: And who's Roger?

LC: He's Roger Wikely and he's a really good musician and studio expert and he's been around this area for a long time like us. He's very accomplished at picking things up musically, much more than I ever was as a bass player. I could never cover a Joy Division song and sing at the same time and bands like Magazine and the Ramones. These are things we never used to do in the past. Mainly because it never accured to us to do anything like that. I've always been a fan of Joy Division.

JC: The thing with Section 25 is that you're clearly in some ways a post-punk band…

LC: Well we were punk rockers.

JC: Then in the later stages of your career you have all the electro dance stuff going on. So will we see new stuff in both veins?

LC: You mean the Electronic stuff? I agree, I like the electronic but the reason we are sticking to the guitar stuff at the moment is because a lot of our back catalogue, 'Always Now', 'The Key of Dreams', we never change it, mainly because it was all studio based.

I couldn't play the bass guitar and sing at the same time effectively to make it worth while so we never performed that stuff. Now when it came to 'From the Hip' and we had my wife on keyboards and we drafted in extra drums, and my sister on backing vocals and that's how that started. And we toured in America and so on and so forth.

We haven't got that anymore, so we've gone back to what we were doing and it's been an enjoyment to play those songs. You know even our single 'It's Up To You' and that's a song that we never ever played live, we only ever recorded it. At Cargo I think we did a really good job on the record, we just couldn't reproduce it live so we never pushed it, but 'Knew Noise' and 'Girls Don't Count'. Roger's getting used to my bass playing, but he's not like me you just have to look at him.

JC: He almost looks like he shouldn't be in Section 25!

LC: He's a viking. He's really up on the computer side of stuff. Tonight we had a few technical problems.

JC: I think for the first gig in twenty years or so, it was a great show and you were pretty tight and you got a good response.

LC: I thought the crowd was very appreciative.

JC: And obviously you have more proper gigs coming up and and obviously you have offers for more gigs coming up.

LC: We have an offer of a tour in America, but there's no point going to America unless you have something new to promote. There's no point promoting your own back catalogue, we've already done that in '85, but we'll have to go there when we have a new CD. Now you tell me if you'd buy a LP once, how many minutes of music would you expect to get on it?

JC: 50 or 60?

LC: Now see you wouldn't get that on an LP.

JC: No, maybe only 40 or 45.

LC: Well ok, there's no way I'm going to America without something new to push. Because they don't like it, you don't get the press and you don't get the radio. If you've got a new record to promote, they're in on it. So it won't be until next year, but you know I don't want to kill myself doing America. So many people do that. Loads of bands go there, crack up, come back and that's the end of them. Gang of Four, Boomtown Rats.

JC: If the success of reformed gang of four is anything to go by, you should do well…

LC: It would be great to see Howard Devoto, I'm a fan of his an all, as you might well know. I don't know whether you've seen James Nice's film, but he's in that.

JC: Yes, I've seen a rough cut, I think it's good that people can see the people who don't normally get to tell there side of the Factory story.

LC: Yeah, there's Alan Hempsall from Crispy Ambulance.

JC: The new edition of Scream City also features Tony Ashworth's new band 4M and it's all being put together with this Section 25 piece with a Trip to the Seaside banner.

LC: Oh well that's nice!

LC: Are there any Joy Division's cover bands around?

JC: I know there's one called Unknown Pleasures.

LC: About five years ago I got Ian and Roger round to my house in Blackpool to do a Joy Division cover band, because I thought it was interesting idea and no one is doing it. Anyway later that evening, there were no carpets on my staircase and Ian fell down the lot. It was only Jenny and I there and we heard this noise and we went to the stairs and we saw him at the bottom and there was all this blood coming out the back of his head... he fractured his skull and he was in the hospital and that was the end of that band. But we were going to call it Toy Division because my family were toy makers. So that was shelved... But I was quite flattered to hear that Ian Curtis was actually a fan of ours. I didn't know him very well {when there's a Joy Division cover to do} I like the early recordings, I know I would never try and do 'Transmission' or 'Love Will Tear Us Apart', it's not were I want to go. If I'm going to do a Joy Division song, I want it to grap me and no one's heard a cover version before like 'An Ideal For Living'.

JC: There's a piece in the Guardian today about the top ten songs named after places in Europe and at number four is 'Warsaw' by Joy Division.

LC: Roger gets stuff off the Internet, you see I haven't got a computer, I used to be on the Internet and then all my circumstances changed and I had to move house. I went form a big house to a little house. I did have a computer, and I thought I'd buy a new one but I didn't have the money; so I did without one and I've done without one for two years and now I've got a little bit of money and I could buy a computer but I don't want one...

2019 notes: Section 25's comeback continued with dates in Salford, Paris, Brussels all on the itinerary. The band also played live under the Peter Hook Section 25 banner. Sadly Larry Cassidy died on 27 February 2010 due to a blood clot. The band regrouped and reformed with Larry's daughter Beth on lead vocals. In 2019, Vin Cassidy and Stephen Stringer formed the electronic industrial offshoot duo S25 IndustrialUnit to write new material and play live (with some Section 25 material included.)

A Trip to the Seaside Part 2

Stars of the first ever Scream City cover cd (SC2.1)¹, 4M, explain their roots in Blackpool and how the future's formed.

Who or what is 4M?

4M is Chris Anderton and Tony Ashworth.

4M is a vehicle to to give other things shape, i.e a creative outlet for ours and others music, photography, design etc.

Does the formation of 4M mean the end of the line for Tunnelvision?

Tunnelvision was never a line. It was a circle that can't be broken. It's been round twice now and may go round again. We might go back to it in the future maybe with Andy Leeming and his mandolin.

Is 'PSV' a good indication of your new direction?

It's difficult to say. Working with just the two of us has allowed us to explore other areas that were previously restricted. It's early days, we've less than 12 pieces all varying. It remains to be seen if any of these tracks are a good indicator of our direction. The actual sound and feel of the music is a lot more natural though

The Blackpool scene seems to be as strong as ever. What do you put this down to?

The Council redesigned the town centre so you can't hurt your head anything. Musically from what we've heard it's as dire as ever

Who will win the World Cup?

Why when's it on?

Tony - Spain

Chris - Brazil

2019 notes: Chris Anderton is gigging and writing music with VEE VV [->]. Factory Benelux issued a vinyl Tunnelvision compilation in 2019 called 'Watching The Hydroplanes' to critical acclaim. 'The PSV' by 4M is available to stream now via Soundcloud [->].