Welcome to The Meecipality of MoM?, a happy land fit to bust with the beautiful and the gifted. And lots of cake. Here’s an A-Z to get you acquainted.

ManOrMouse? mull over the mix (photo by Dean Tidey)

A is for Atkinson

Drummer Jonathan Atkinson is the gadget king and a bonio-fido show-biz prince. Devilishly handsome and possessed of a searing intelligence, Jonathan first worked with MoM? front-man Billy Mowbray in cult Brit-pop outfit, Velvet Jones (see V) before staking his claim as one of London’s leading session drummers. He’s played for everyone from Dr Who to The Lion King via Keith Harris and Orville. A mainstay of the ‘80s revival, he regularly lends his metronomic talent to the likes of Kim Wilde, Boy George, Rick Astley and yes! Kajagoogoo.

He’s also an established Kids TV composer with credits on Roobarb And Custard Too and Fluffy Gardens.

B is for Barber

(photo by Dean Tidey)

Ricky Barber’s phenomenal bass playing ties the eclectic ManOrMouse? sound together. ‘The first song we worked on was Jackson,’ remembers Billy. ‘The bass line I’d done for the demo was basically one long drunken mistake so I doubted anyone could recreate it. Ricky nailed it first time and I thought, aye aye. We’ll have a bit of that!’ TV Sound technician, studio boss, publisher, music library supremo and all round mac daddy, Ricky’s capacity to get things done is matched by his boundless enthusiasm, easy wit and affable charm. Check out his own brilliant tunes at www.myspace.com/gumbo73

Ricky’s also had the most unlikely life. You can read the first chapter of his (very) unofficial biography here. It’s a cracking read. MouseBoss will post the next installment as and when he’s made it all up.

(photo by Dean Tidey)

C is for Crypt

That’s The Crypt Studios in Crouch End, to be precise. Run by producer Matt Sime (Feeder, Moloko, Dirty Pretty Things) and Ricky Barber (see B), The Crypt is the spiritual home to Feeder and a growing throng of up-and-coming London acts including ManOrMouse?, Bang Bangs, The Chemists, Matthew Neel, Gumbo and The Reverse. It’s also HQ of production house Bleach (www.bleachlondon.com), publishing company Black Circle, live music video hub The Crypt Sessions (www.thecryptsessions.com) and Sideshow Records (www.sideshowrecords.co.uk). Matty’s one of the best recording engineers in the UK and the studio itself is a haven. Look at the videos on the Extras page and you’ll understand why so many musicians love the place.

D is for Dunn’s

The Learning Curve was fuelled by the finest cakes and sausage rolls what were purchased from Dunn’s bakery on Crouch End High Street. Fresh, pricey and delightful. Thank you ladies.

E is for Ethel

Billy had already written Ethel And Maud (track 9 on The Learning Curve) before discovering that two of his great-great aunts had the same names. ‘The song is not about sapphic siblings,’ he assures us. ‘It’s about people needing people and having the gumption to give into it.’

F is for Felix

The trouble with having such great musicians playing on The Learning Curve is that getting them all on stage at the same time is nigh on impossible. You know how it goes, Dean’s in town, but Jonathan’s playing to 20,000 Singaporeans with Peter Andre. Undaunted, Mouse Boss, Billy, has started grooming a stable of extra players to ensure that every gig’s a winner, baby. First into the paddock were thoroughbreds Remy Felix Vas (guitar), Jimmy Shewbridge (drums) and Giles Barton (keys) – a tre of regulars at The Crypt poker table who just happen to be blinding musicians to boot. Next came keyboard genius Peter Jewell, followed by Billy’s old mucker Dave Bell, on guitar.

G is for Gomez

The wonderfully charismatic ManOrMouse? artwork was designed by sisters Lisa and Ellie Gomez. Lisa is la suprema of up-and-coming design company, BiroRobot. Ellie (Billy’s next door neighbour) is a successful artist and book illustrator in her own right. The album covers for The Learning Curve Special Edition CD were lovingly hand printed by the sisters in Billy’s flat using a Japanese Gocco printing press. They are things of rare and simple beauty (and the covers aren’t bad either.) For their all-round artistic genius-ness and tireless commitment to the MoM? cause, the Gomezes have been bestowed with the title, ‘The Sisters Of The Gocco’. You can contact Lisa at – www.birorobot.co.uk

H is for Happiness

Happiness is a song. Literally. You can listen to it here. Billy wrote it as a wedding present for The Learning Curve’s producer Matt Sime and his gorgeous wife Lizzy. Their son Eli gets a name-check in the song. He has the craziest hair in the world. ‘It’s a kick writing songs for the people you love,’ enthuses Mowbray. ‘Beats an M&S voucher, any day.’

Writing Happiness, however, was extra special. ‘It’s a long story, but let’s just say that without Matty, ManOrMouse? wouldn’t exist. Simple as that. He’s been amazing. He’s also some kind of a magician. I record all my parts on a donkey-powered system in my back room at home – usually in the middle of the night – playing very quietly so as not to wake my neighbour’s baby. But Mr Sime works his alchemy and suddenly the songs sound rich and bold and exactly how I meant them to.’

I is for Instruments

The following instruments can be heard on The Learning Curve: drums, bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin, banjo, saxophones, flutes, whistles, harmonica, kazoo, ocarina, toy trumpet, recorder, piano, thumb piano, harpsichord, rhodes, synths, tambourines, various shakers and a percussive frog.
The Marvellous Mechanical ManOrMouse Organ

J is for Jack And Jill

Jack And Jill was the first single from Nashville singer-songwriter Kim Richey’s last album, Chinese Boxes. Billy sings backing vocals and plays a number of instruments on the album. ‘It was the best job I ever had,’ he says. ‘Kim’s such a good songwriter and sings so beautifully. She and producer Giles Martin (see M) gave me the songs and said, here you go Billy, go do your thing. So I took them back home, opened up my silver box of weird instruments and had a ball. I can’t believe they kept most of the ideas.’ Check out Kim’s MySpace page at – www.myspace.com/kimrichey – You’re in for a treat.

Billy and Kim – up the hill at Greenwich (photo by Dean Tidey)

K is for Knight

Billy honed his song-writing skills under contract to Sir George Martin’s publishing company, GMM Ltd. ‘But that’s just the half of it,’ he says. ‘George and Giles (see M) have been keeping me in work ever since I left university.’

Indeed, the first proper session Mowbray played on was for an all-star recording of Under Milk Wood that Sir George was producing.

‘He brought me in to do a bit of improvised sax over a scene where Catherine Zeta Jones was undressing by a window. So there I am in this tiny recording booth with Sir George Martin standing on my left and Sir Anthony Hopkins on my right, giving me instructions! All I could think was, “Do not fart. Do NOT fart.” I did the first take and Hopkins whispers, ‘The sex was there, Billy, but can you make it sweeter?’.

In the evening, me and my mate Harry entered a pub quiz and won. It’s been downhill ever since.’

L is for Learning

The Learning Curve is the first album by ManOrMouse? The title comes from a line in the song September Rains – ‘There’s nothing so sad, nothing so hard, nothing like sliding back down the learning curve.’

You can listen to The Learning Curve, get a free track and download it. Or, alternatively, you can buy a beautiful, special Limited Edition CD of the album with hand-printed, eco-friendly covers.

M is for Martin

The Learning Curve was mastered at Air Studios by Giles Martin.

Mowbray and Martin met at university and have been making music and meringues together ever since. Well, Giles makes the puddings and Billy scoffs them all.  Giles won two Grammys for mashing Beatles songs together for ‘Love’ – the spectacularly successful Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas and its accompanying, multi-million selling album. Hardened hacks admitted they cried during the show, having heard their beloved Beatles music afresh for the first time in decades.

He’s a talented man, is Giles, and no mistake. Thankfully, he’s also a friend of MoM? otherwise we couldn’t have afforded him. He finished working on a Beatles computer game last year, and can now be found baking award-winning brownies, producing shows all over the world, beating Dean at Futbol del Mondo and changing nappies.

N is for Name?

‘I had a teacher at school called Mr Croker,’ remembers Billy. “He was a rum old bird – guernsey and tie, dicky hip, ancient labrador – you know the type. He used to share digs with another master and, although they were in their sixties, they were ludicrously competitive. Legend has it that Croker was teaching a junior rugby team how to tackle properly – all that stuff about going in with conviction and you’ll never get hurt. Just then his nemesis walked passed. “If that’s the case, Croker,” the flatmate said, “then tackle that tree over there.” So our hero goes a little white, mutters to himself, “Man or mouse, Croker? Man or mouse?” and charges at the tree…. Bust his collar bone in three places. Most of our music’s about daring to let go and just being yourself. But Mr Croker’s limping around in there somewhere, a little nod to the occasional folly of courage.’

O is for Orgasm

The Chocolate Orgasm requires 1 Penguin biscuit and 1 cup of coffee. Bite a corner off the top of the biscuit. Now bite off the corner diagonally opposite it. Stick the bottom bitten corner into the coffee and use the Penguin as a straw, sucking on the top bitten corner until you feel the coffee draw in your mouth. At this moment, ram the entire biscuit into your gob. Spark up a smoke and relax. For multiple relief, repeat process until sated.

P is for Princess

What is it about Princess Leia that makes her so irresistible to pre-pubescent boys? Is it the ammonite hair-do? The virginal, tent-like robes? The haughty facade that can’t quite hide the chipmunk inside? Or Carrie Fisher’s poor little rich chick schtick of repaired damage?

Whatever the reason, the Princess doth still inspire. Here’s the second verse of She Rules (track 4 on The Learning Curve):

“She takes me out to a Japanese movie
Ai No Corrida and Korida knows me
Wears her hair tied just like Princess Leia
And a see-through Biba blouse from ‘73″

.

Q is for Q Theory

Aged 76, Billy’s father Mo retired from his job and went straight to university to read Theology. He passed with honours, followed up with an MA and celebrated entering his 80s by starting a PHD. So, as a pensioner he gets free travel and as a student, subsidized booze. Clever, that. Pa Mowbray is an inspiration to many, and not just because he funded the printing of The Learning Curve Special Edition CD.

R is for Richardson

(photo by Dean Tidey)

Drummer Mark Richardson has recorded three tracks with MoM? including She Rules and Mahalia on The Learning Curve. He appears on the album ‘courtesy of anybody‘, as he instructed us to say. And who’s going to argue with him? Frankly, when you stand next to the lad, the question ‘ManOrMouse?’ is a bit redundant. Having powered three of Britain’s biggest rock bands (Little Angels, Skunk Anansie and Feeder) Mark’s built a reputation among fans and musicians alike as one of the best drummers in the business and watching him in coruscating action is one of life’s great thrills. Since he can’t watch himself (that’d be weird), Mark gets his kicks elsewhere. A long-distance biking fanatic, he’s ridden the 2,500 mile EnduroAfrica rally with Riders For Health and this year he’s tackling the Paris-Dakar. That’s the thing about Mark. He’s got a heart the size of his kick drum. Drop a cog and give it handful my son.

S is for Sandstone

The last band Dean and Billy were in together was Sandstone Veterans – a mighty mixture of blistering power pop and magnificent musicianship led by Tommy the French singing drummer. They were proper. Check out some of their songs at – www.myspace.com/sandstoneveterans – including their delirious cover of Hopelessly Devoted.

T is for Tidey

Southpaw guitarist Dean Tidey and Billy Mowbray have been in bands together forever. They met during an ear-bleading Dave Lee Roth gig at the Hammersmith Odeon (with Steve Vai on pink, heart-shaped, twin-neck guitar) and have been making music ever since.

This is what Billy wrote on Dean’s MySpace page -

“When the big baker in the sky dishes out the cookies, we’re lucky if we get a stale digestive, let alone an Oreo. Most of us have to make do with mere crumbs. Dean, it turns out, was blessed with a giant batch of piping hot, killer caramel brownies…with a side order of sex. Most of you will know him as a colossus of Rock, an axe legend mesmerising the Feeder masses with his total fret-board understanding. But the talents of the man know no bounds and, as Travolta nearly sang, his skills are multiplying. An author of Bukowskian truth, a photographer of unparalleled vision and sire of the coolest kid on the planet, he is magnificence personified – my favourite addiction. Fight to become Dean’s friend. He will transmogrify your world and love you like no other.”

U is for Untidy

Billy’s studio desk. ‘Nuff said.

V is for Velvet

Keeping it in the family, Billy, Dean, Jonathan and Giles (see M) were all in Brit-pop darlings, Velvet Jones, while MoM? producer Matt Sime engineered the band’s debut album, Colin. It proved to be their last. Like so many groups, VJ’s epitaph read ‘Got signed, got close, got shafted.’ It’s a crying shame. Mojo’s David Stubbs wrote of Colin, ‘Sit back and marvel to the record that should have won the BRIT for “Most Criminally overlooked album of the Year.”
You can hear some of the Velvets’ songs at www.myspace.com/velvetjonesuk

Velvet Jones – Dean, Giles, Blandy, Billy, Jonathan

W is for William

‘If anyone calls me William,’ says Billy, ‘they either don’t know me at all, or they do and I’m in a lot of trouble.’

X is for Kiss

‘Gonna walk right up to him
Give him a great big kiss’.

‘If that’s not the greatest couplet in pop history, then I’m Jodie Marsh’, says MoM? songwriter Billy of the Shangri-Las classic. ‘It’s perfect in every way, although I prefer the New York Doll’s version, myself.’ Less perfect was Mowbray’s formative taste in music. ‘You could never have accused me of being a cool child,’ he says. ‘The first album I owned was by the Nolan Sisters. I was ten and I fancied Linda something rotten.’ It gets worse. ‘The first gig I ever went to was Barry Manilow at Wembley Arena.’ And worse still. ‘I even had the first Wet Wet Wet record, for god’s sake. Until it got nicked…..Hold on. Who the hell steals a Wet Wet Wet album?’

In fact, it wasn’t until he heard Radiohead’s Creep on the top deck of a No.88 bus that Mowbray realised there might be a whole world of music out there that had nothing to do with the mainstream. It changed his life. Now his favourite band is Pavement. ‘Dean told me to check out their album Terror Twilight when it came out. I listened to it four times straight through without getting it. During the fifth listen, I realised that the songs were packed with these spectacular alien tunes. And then I started clocking what the singer (Stephen Malkmus) was yelping on about and my head sort of exploded. If I ever see Mr Malkmus, I shall walk right up to him and give him a great big kiss.’

Y is for Yngwie

Renowned as the fastest of all shredders, poodle-permed Swedish guitarist Yngwie J Malmsteen (referred to in MoM? song, Waterfalls) bestrode the ‘80s baroque rock scene in a flurry of hammered pomp, kidney busting volume and dazzling technique, ripping off Paganini riffs with terrible ease. Sadly (for comic potential alone), the current ‘80s revival has had the good taste not to exhume the fretboard acrobatics of Malmsteen, Vai, Satriani and the like. We live in hope.

Z is for Zzzzz

In the words of The Dread Pirate Roberts, ‘Sleep well and dream of large women’.