THE LEGEND OF HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE PART II

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A number of Holy Roman Empire songs appeared on 'Snakebite City' albums over the years; compilations of indie bands put out by Paul Talling and Bluefire Records. Our dealings and friendship with Paul got us regular trips to London to play The Red Eye in Islington and the occasional booking at the West End Centre in Aldershot with the help of Chris Shepherd. 

We had played our first ever gig at the college battle of the bands in our final year, but the following year the organisers asked if we would come back and play again. We were keen to try out new computer programmed arrangements of the songs so immediately said yes.

I finished work and we piled round to Martin's to get ready. I was rummaging in a bag trying to find some leads as Martin was playing with the handcuffs that would become part of my outfit. I remember telling him to be careful with the cuffs as "there is one set that I've lost the keys for". Just then I heard a click, slowly turned round and found Martin handcuffed to a tambourine. He was stuck. 

Martin drove us to college, socialised in the bar and then played the gig all while firmly attached to the tambourine. Once we came off stage we went and found a security guard who could open up the maintenance department and hopefully find a sharp or powerful solution to our problem. As we were both slightly the worse for wear, the helpful guard insisted on taking charge of the operation. I couldn't look, but I don't think Martin had much choice as the chosen tool buzzed into life and successfully released him right before his boggling eyes!

After that, the tambourine became firmly established as Emma's department and Martin was never left alone with one again. 

For me, HRE being “one of the best nights out you could have” often meant that there was something that didn’t go quite to plan that made each gig memorable. Whether it being some tech that had a gremlin, an instrument that would play up, a vocal hiccup, or a venue issue, every gig was just a little bit special. And a lot of fun.

One of my favourite gigs was at the Jericho Tavern, and for some reason, there were  few people there to watch. On this night, the soundtrack played perfectly, our vocals were great, Ste’s musical genius shone, and Martin’s showmanship was on fire. We were flying. During the last track of our ‘perfect gig’, Martin went and shook hands with every member of the audience before returning to stage for the final chorus. HRE went home on a high that night.

I met Tim Healey in summer 1998 when he called round to pick up a tape of 'Even in my Sleep' to put on the Truck 98 compilation album he was releasing on his Luscious Peach record label. He knew Robin and Joe and was helping out with making Truck something special. 

I can't remember if we spoke on the day of the festival, so the next time I know for a fact that we met was when we bumped into each other outside HMV in Oxford one Saturday in October that year and he challenged me to write a Christmas song.

It always felt especially good to be a part of Tim's life - if only for a few years - as he did seem to know a lot of interesting people and maybe that meant we were interesting too. In the studio recording 'Holy Water Baby' he told us that he used to work in publishing with Neil Tennant of Pet Shop Boys and would love to send him a CD to show he had become involved with an electronic band. I don't know if he ever did, or if Pet Shop Boys ever knocked out a hi-energy disco diss-track about us the following year (I love the first few PSB albums, but lost track of them some time in the mid-90s). In the same session he also announced that he couldn't stay late as he was hosting a celebrity fancy dress swimmathon at 7.30. This prompted engineer Richard, who had been very quiet otherwise, to spin round on his chair and say to Tim, "You just live the most bizarre life, don't you?" To be fair, he only said what we were all thinking. And still do. And always will. 

Tim would occasionally say things to me that I wished he hadn't. When Luscious Peach released 'Benazir Bhutto' on 7" single in the summer of '99 he was keen to secure a deal with the independent distributor Shellshock. He excitedly told me one day that he had received communication back from Shellshock stating that they don't normally handle novelty records, but they would make an exception for us! 

Far more often, though, Tim said things I'm glad he did. "Bloody marvelous!" was how he greeted everything that pleased him and we heard it more than a few times. He was always very supportive of HRE, even when he had no more money to pour into it. In 2019 when I was getting things together for the release of the remastered HRE tracks he was good enough to go rummaging in his loft to find that video of 'Benazir Bhutto' and send it up to me....

I'm not sure who we thought would show or watch such a thing, but with the release of 'Benazir Bhutto' as a single in 1999 it was decided we should make a pop video. My brother had a friend called Simon who had a video camera and some editing software and who kindly offered to make a promo for us. 

It was filmed one afternoon at Cassington Cricket Club pavilion. Martin had grown up in Cassington and was a bit of a cricketer, so that was how the cricket pavillion had become our regular practice room every Thursday night for 6  years. 

We had a green screen behind us and just ran through the song a bunch of times in much the way that we did on stage. Simon did his magic with the the editing and effects and sent it back to us in the post. I think we may have watched it once before we handed it over to Tim at Luscious Peach for him to put on his website! Videos on the internet? Whatever next?

And that was that until twenty years later when I was putting together plans to release to the remastered 'The Illusion of Chaos' compilation album. I remembered there had been a video and wondered if Tim still had it somewhere. He did.  Bloody marvelous!