Scenes de la Bohème
Scenes de la Bohème
Scenes De la Bohème was born out of adversity and an innate desire to create poetic, subversive pop music. I had long been been enamoured and influenced by electronic music, though I was never able to afford a synthesizer. During my musical travels, I came across people who could lend me gear. Whenever possible, I cajoled and schemed to borrow low budget synthesizers here and there for a day or two and proceeded to record my own music.
In February 1982, the invented character Anthony Whistler Wilde Waites which I had concocted for myself and fellow Bohemian Seamus Fitzsimmons, both high on Diconal (Dipipanone Hydrochloride) headed south of the river to some southern suburb where a guy with an awfully patterned jumper had a recording studio in his bedroom. Four hours had been booked to record two tracks, using my beloved cherry red Hagstrom guitar and more importantly a longed for Roland synthesizer and drum machine. I set about recording ‘Act 1 Zara’ and ‘The Tale of The Butterfly’. In the commercial charts that week, the top five consisted of The Jam, Stranglers, Soft Cell, OMD and Kraftwerk. Further down, you had The Human league, Depeche Mode, more Kraftwerk, Japan, The Associates, more soft Cell i.e. ‘Tainted Love’ and Modern Romance. Looking back now this was probably the apogee of a certain type of music. So is it any wonder I headed for a studio? With the half-inch recorded tape snuggled warmly under my arm, Seamus and I headed back to North West London where oblivion gladly opened the door to my studied London Bohemia.
Bohemian Records was born. The artwork painted and labels designed. 150 copies were pressed and 100 copies given to some company found in the back pages of Melody Maker, who sent them out to local radio stations. In the first week, three radio stations not only played the 7 inch vinyl but made it their record of the week. No other promotion, hustling or scheistering was given to this venture. A few copies were sent to musical friends I had met in Paris and Munich who played in bands and that was it. It was treated and conceived as a work of art, a one off. Wouldn’t it be cool to make a record on your own label and make sure no one sent it off to John Peel , The NME, Beggars Banquet, or Rough Trade Records? Was this subversive and transgressive? Yes, that was Bohemian Records, one act only one single release of vinyl. That is what happened. The money for this artistic endeavour was kindly given by my parents as a twenty-first birthday present. I never attempted to sell this record as this was not the point. Side 1 or as I saw it Act 1 had the song ‘Zara’ on it, and Act 2 ‘The Tale of the Butterfly’.