AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #364: JOHNNY MALE

A guest posting by Leon MacDuff

A contribution: a Johnny Male (who he?) ICA

This ICA started with an idle thought: why were Republica so naff? I mean, if there is such a thing as a guilty pleasure then “Ready To Go” is it. But that band should have been so much better. Regardless of the material, Saffron is a great frontwoman. And behind her, they had Tim Dorney out of the ace Flowered Up! And Johnny Male out of – wait, who’s Johnny Male? Yeah… this is going to need some explaining…

I was first aware of Johnny Male from the single which starts this compilation. First aware of him specifically, that is. I already knew of his previous band, but it would be ages before I made the connection. Sensation were floppy-haired indie-dance scenesters, while I only knew Soul Family Sensation for their not-sung-by-Johnny late-night Brit soul near-classic I Don’t Even Know If I Should Call You Baby. And I only had that on a compilation, and never noticed the giveaway that both songs bore the credit Batson/Male. It wasn’t until about a decade later, by which time I was equipped with the interwebs, that I dug out that single I liked for a month back in the 90s, and wondered whether the group responsible did anything else. And that’s when I learned of the connection between Sensation and Soul Family Sensation. And Republica. And some other bands I’d never heard of. And, at a slight remove, Saint Etienne. And Doves. I’ll explain those later.

While Republica were the most commercially successful of Male’s various projects, for me his best work has been in collaboration with Guy Batson and/or Pete Smith, which means the real core bands are Soul Family Sensation, Sensation and Cheapglue. For this ICA I’ve also included a track from Johnny’s first band Metro-Trinity, and a couple of songs written for other artists.

Now, I’ve got to make one thing clear, because the way I’m talking him up, you might think I regard Johnny Male as some kind of overlooked genius. Well, no disrespect to the fella, but no. What I do regard him as, is somebody who’s improved my life in a teeny tiny way by making a few records which I don’t exactly consider lost classics but which I do sorta quite like – but who nobody’s really heard of, even the squillion or so people who bought “Ready To Go”. So why not give him a turn in the spotlight? This could be the most low-key Imaginary Compilation Album ever, but on the other hand he may in fact be the perfect subject for this series because after all, nobody’s going to do a Johnny Male compilation for real, are they? I mean… I’d buy it, probably, but there’s no way they’re going to recoup their money on that.

Side One

1. Beautiful Morning by Sensation (Burger Habit, 1993)

Sensation was officially a duo of Male and his songwriting partner Guy Batson, though future Doves dude Jez Williams, then plying his trade in Sub Sub, was a strictly unofficial third member, playing guitar throughout their debut album.

I’m not sure whether Burger Habit is meant to be a concept album as such, but the predominance of songs about teenage life (Male was on the cusp of 30, but seemingly still getting his adolescent issues out in song), and a weirdly conversational lyrical style, make it… unusual. It’s the quirkiness of his lyric-writing that really piqued my interest. Sometimes the lyrics rhyme, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they stick to a regular meter, sometimes not. We don’t follow no stinkin’ rules here! Another thing Male often does is throw in details that make it sound as though he’s relating a story to somebody he knows, like the offhand mention of “trying to write my book” in this song, as if he’s talking to someone he’s discussed this with before, and doesn’t need to explain it any further. He does this sort of thing all the way through Burger Habit, so even if the music sometimes veers toward generic indie-dance, there’s always a slight oddness to the lyrics.

2. Home by Sarah Cracknell (Lipslide, 1997)

Much like Jez Williams, Sarah Cracknell is one of those people whose path doesn’t quite run alongside Male’s, but whose wibbly-wobbly route nevertheless crosses his quite often. There’s even one moment when all three paths intersect: weirdly, it’s on a single by Mexico 70, a band none of them were actually members of. Anyway, following a successful co-write with Cracknell on Saint Etienne’s Hug My Soul, the Sensation boys went on to supply several songs for her solo album Lipslide, and I think this is quite a good one. That’s all.

3. Sheffield Song by Soul Family Sensation (New Wave, 1991)

Wangst. Though I’m fairly sure it’s deliberate.

Though it rarely gets the attention afforded to the simultaneous Madchester and rave scenes, the early 90s were also something of a boom time for the slower-tempoed, more jazz/soul-inflected variety of British dance music, and Soul Family Sensation were among the groups looking to catch that wave. They got quite a bit of attention for their debut single I Don’t Even Know If I Should Call You Baby but there were disappointingly few takers for the subsequent album New Wave. It’s no Blue Lines, but it’s not bad if you can forgive some cheap synths.

Jhelisa Anderson was SFS’s usual singer (and she’ll turn up later in the ICA) but Male took the occasional lead vocal. This particular song prefigures the style of Burger Habit to the extent that it was subsequently recycled – in the same version, just with “Soul Family” dropped from the name – as the B side for Beautiful Morning.

4. Greatest In The World by Cheapglue (Sexyhorses, 2002)

Following Burger Habit, Sensation reconvened to tape a second album, but couldn’t find anybody willing to release it, so the project rather ground to a halt. But as we know, Male landed on his feet: Tim Dorney, who’d done some production work for Soul Family Sensation, invited him to play guitar with his new group Republica, and while nobody really cared who the blokes standing behind Saffron were, it would become the band that brought Male his biggest commercial success. Which I am going to completely skip over in favour of an album nobody bought, by a band nobody’s heard of.

Although that missing Sensation album, Yesterday Things Got Worse, did eventually turn up, it was a bit of a disappointment. Much better, and a more fitting sequel to Burger Habit, was Sexyhorses, the first and only album by Cheapglue. The core members were Male and ex-Denim member (and sometime Sensation backing vocalist) Pete Smith, but a whole bunch of Male’s multi-instrumentalist pals also took part, including Batson, Dorney, former Yachts and The Christians tunesmith Henry Priestman, and Richard “Duce” Van Spall (with whom Male briefly played in Jesus Jones-style dance group Airstream) on drums. And to add to the “old friends together” vibe, Cracknell popped in for a duet, too. Which isn’t this.

There’s nothing startlingly original about Greatest In The World, which a few years earlier would have been a natural inclusion on a Shine compilation, rubbing shoulders with Dodgy and The Supernaturals. But it’s a fun time for four minutes.

5. Slip Away by Metro-Trinity (Die Young EP, 1987)

Where it all started for Johnny. And for Jez Williams, which may explain the ludicrous prices this EP now commands (though you can get Burger Habit, which he’s also all over, for a quid or two). They were joined by Tim Whiteley (bass) and Colin Rocks (drums, though he doesn’t have a lot to do on this one). I believe Jez’s brother and fellow Doves member Andy was also in the group for a while before they split up (he’d hardly be in it afterwards, would he?), but he isn’t present here. Typical decent late-80s indie guitar fare, with Male’s conversational lyrical style already in effect.

Side Two

1. Luv’d Up by Crush (Crush, 1996)

Here’s a real off-the-beaten-track choice. Crush were a duo comprising former Byker Grove actors Donna Air and Jayni Hoy, and developed from the short-lived spin-off band Byker Grooove (because why settle for just two “o”s?). Their album is straightforward manufactured pop but far better than it has any right to be, thanks to the calibre of those doing the manufacturing.

Saint Etienne producer Ian Catt was involved with the original one-off Byker Grooove single, so I would guess it was via his contact book that Sarah Cracknell and Johnny Male got involved. Cracknell provided three songs as part of three different writing teams – the best of which, the Henry Priestman co-write Penthouse Girl, Basement Boy, would be remade for Lipslide. Male provided most of the rest, writing alongside Pete Smith and Danny De Matos. Jellyhead seems to be the song people remember (it was actually a minor hit in the States, too) but Luv’d Up is the highlight, a joyful Motown-hinting number providing the missing link between Kenickie and S Club 7. Because that’s what you’re here for, right?

2. Tell Your Parents I Hate Their Guts by Sensation (Burger Habit, 1993)

More conversational teen-angst from Burger Habit.

3. High On The Grass (demo) by Sensation (recorded c.1992, released as a bonus track on Yesterday Things Got Worse, 2000)

And more of the same, though less angsty. This song is a good example of the weirdness of Burger Habit (a more polished version appears on the album). Male seems to be telling us stories from his life, but actually he does no more than hint at them, as if reminiscing with someone who was there and knows it all already. I mean, he’s not actually talking to us, his listeners, is he?

4. The Day You Went Away by Soul Family Sensation (New Wave, 1991)

Penultimate track… so it’s token ballad time!

It’s been said that most songwriters, however successful they are, make the majority of their earnings from a single song. I think we can safely assume that in Male’s case that song is Ready To Go, but before that hit came along, this was probably the one keeping him and Batson above the poverty line, all thanks to Australian singer Wendy Matthews.

Although pretty much unknown anywhere else, Matthews’ 1992 cover seems to be considered something of a touchstone for early 90s Australian culture. It went to number 2 in the Australian charts and cleaned up in awards season, but personally I think Matthews just takes it far too seriously. Where Jhelisa Anderson emotes, Wendy Matthews over-emotes, and furthermore does it in that annoying way that’s calculated to sound subtle, but because it’s so obviously calculated, really isn’t subtle at all. So here’s Jhelisa Anderson, doing it properly. And remember I mentioned the cheap synths? Well, I rather like the weedy synth strings here, I think they stop the song from getting too overwrought. So, turned out nice.

5. From Anywhere by Cheapglue (Sexyhorses, 2002)

And after the ballad, the big fun closing number. And some nice touches in it, I particularly like the dub-style bassline.

Bonus 12″ mix EP (free with the first 10,000 copies!)

A

Saint Etienne: Hug My Soul (12″ mix) 6:20

Soul Family Sensation: I Don’t Even Know If I Should Call You Baby (Marshall Jefferson Dance mix) 5:50

B

Republica: Ready To Go (original mix) 5:01

Sensation: Beautiful Morning (BBG’s Big Breakfast mix) 7:41

Starting with three songs mentioned but not included on the main ICA. The Saint Etienne track is a straight extended mix. I could have picked any of the numerous remixes of the SFS track, but Marshall Jefferson’s rework beefs up the original agreeably while keeping it recognisably the same track. Johnny’s biggest hit Ready To Go appears in its original mix, released a few months before the more familiar version, and we finish with quite a radical remix of Beautiful Morning which drops the verses and brings Gloria Robakowski‘s counterpoint vocals up front. How are you feeling, it’s a brilliant morning…

Leon