COLE BACK ON COURSE

SINGER Lloyd Cole could be heading for Sutton Coldfield’s famous Belfry golf course while he’s in Birmingham to perform at the city’s Songwriters’ Festival on January 26 and 27.

The 38-year-old star has been bitten by the golfing bug and he tries to fit in a few rounds around his touring schedule. During some low-key dates in Scotland he played golf by day and entertained the locals with an acoustic set by night!

“It was exhausting,” he recalls, “but I have a new found respect for folk singers and to finally play St Andrews was a great thrill.”

Lloyd Cole has now been making music for more than 20 years having first formed a punk band at school with two pals.

“I played bass and my friend Michael learned to play guitar from a photograph of the Ramones,” he smiles. “We played parties in people’s living rooms and one night we destroyed eight copies of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’.”

Things got serious when he was studying at Glasgow University. An ad for an ‘electronic keyboard player’ placed on the student union notice board resulted in a meeting with Blair Cowan and the formation of the Soft Cell-ish ‘Fun’, then ‘The Casuals’. Guitarist Neil Clark joined the duo, along with four other aspiring musicians, and Lloyd Cole and the Commotions was born.

However, the four others were soon asked to look elsewhere for employment and Lloyd secured a publishing deal, enlisted rhythm section Stephen Irvine and Lawrence Donegan and signed a five album deal with Polydor.

In 1984 the single ‘Perfect Skin’ was a minor hit and the debut album ‘Rattlesnakes’ entered the UK chart at number 13.

Lloyd says: “I was in a great band and everyone seemed to trust what I had in mind. Maybe the reason ‘Rattlesnakes’ was our strongest record was due to the fact that we actually knew what we wanted to do and we did it.

“It’s very rarely been that simple since.”

‘Easy Pieces’ and ‘Mainstream’ followed but the band became disillusioned. Lloyd left in 1988 and headed to New York.

“Everyone thought ‘Ah, he’s gone solo’ but I had no guaranteed recording contract and no idea if I could really do it,” he says. “I got an apartment and an eight track and after six months I thought ‘Yeah, I can do a record on my own’. In those six months I had more girlfriends than I’d had in the rest of my life, wrote more songs than I’d written in the previous two years, grew my hair and generally enjoyed being the new kid in town.”

He also met Beth Lewis and a year later they were married. Solo albums followed, including some experimental work with orchestras and middle of the road tunes.

“I’m glad I tried to do things that sometimes I couldn’t because I felt that was what artists were supposed to do,” he admits. “I was always very self conscious about that kind of thing - but not anymore. I just get on with writing what I write. I don’t worry about drying up - when I’m done, I’m done.”
Andy Coleman, Go2Birmingham, January 2000