Siderealpressextras

INTERCHANGE MAGAZINE

Interchange was a magazine dedicated to electronic and experimental music that ran for four issues between 1982-1986. Four postings will reproduce all the issues, made from scans of the original masters, together with a few anecdotes regarding how each one came into existence. I have also added various other bits and pieces from the Interchange archive such as cassette booklets and music by Ward Phillips. The online images are low resolution but you can also print out your own copy of the magazine via a link to a hi-res PDF. A short piece on the genesis of the magazine and scans of Interchange 1 can be found HERE. Interchange 2 is HERE, Interchange 3 HERE and Interchange 4 HERE.

THE ADVENTURES OF TWIZZLE:

THE GREAT WASTER (c60 cassette)

A FEW OBSERVATIONS...

    The Adventures Of Twizzle were the duo Jude Atkinson and Paul Coates plus whoever else they chose to work with. Paul was one of the first friends I made outside the University having met via a tape swap advert in a local record shop.

    Both he and Jude were local boys and shared a flat in the West End of Newcastle nicknamed ‘Hex End’. I was a regular visitor there and at one point a temporary resident. Both were quite eccentric (Jude especially so) and spent many hours with a (cassette) four track cutting up various albums and messing with electronics.

    They released five cassette albums of which this is fourth. Many had humorous elements within them as one can see from this cassette’s title which amalgamates two nicknames, ‘The Great Beast’ and ‘The Little Waster’. ‘The Great Beast’ is of course Aleister Crowley, but ‘The Little Waster’ is perhaps less well known outside the north-east of England and was the pet name of club comedian Bobby Thompson (1911-1988). Thompson’s act was presented in the character of ‘Little Bobby’, an unemployed (and happy with it) north-easterner who would tell tales of (non) working class life complete with the downtrodden wife etc, delivered in broad dialect. ("Ah went to the doctors. He said, "Can you walk?". Ah said, "Work! ah can't even waak!") It made him a fortune and there were some records made including a single.

( L-R) 'Little Bobby' on stage. Bobby Thompson with his third wife.

   I would occasionally see him in central Newcastle (probably in that suit, hair slicked and very shiny) on his way to ‘Greys Club’ which was regarded as ‘classy’ in the 1970s and ‘80s but when I visited once in the early ’80’s (and once was definitely enough!) it seemed full of old folks drinking their lives away. However I digress…

    I lost touch with both Paul and Jude when they moved to London, but Paul went on to create the Hypnogogia record label. I have no idea what happened to them.

    I note on Discogs that The Great Waster is not regarded as an Interchange release and that may well be so. That said, I seem to have all the original artwork and obviously distributed it, so until somebody tells me otherwise I’m giving myself the benefit of the doubt. If you want to hear the music then I am afraid you must search elsewhere, because that’s definitely not mine to (re)publish.

    The images on pages three, five, and twelve look as if they are from a performance made at 'The Basement', possibly from 1982. The photos on pages nine and ten are of the artists - Jude on page nine and Paul on page ten.

A NOTE ON THE SCANS.

The scans are made from the original masters. The online images are low resolution, but you can print out your own copy of the cassette cover and accompanying magazine via the compressed hi-res PDF HERE.