Demolishing the Record Cover

LONDON — Hell. Curved Air seemed to pop up overnight and have taken a year to do it. I first saw the group twelve months ago this month and although they’ve had odd pieces of publicity since then it wasn’t until their first album was released in Britain a little while ago that the group really came to the fore (or wherever it is they are).

Perhaps their main claim to fame prior to that, and something much of their early publicity was centered around was that vocalist Sonja Kristina was one of the principles of the London Hair. This apart, the fact that two members came from the Royal Academy of Music would seem a sound qualification (not forgetting an art student and a former member of Eton School). Facts though.

The group’s main work is centered mainly around the work of electric violin (Darryl Way), guitar, organ, mellotron and VC3 systhesiser (Francis Monkman) and vocals. Violin and guitar are impressive, vocals are beautiful, bass (Ian Eyre) and drums (Florian Pilkington-Miska . . . some name huh?) lay down fine undertones; no loose ends or untogetherness, sometimes hard, sometimes soft, never lacking in excitement, some trip.

Sonja, bar her clothes could be taken for a school-kid, complete with that odd fringe that doesn’t know which way to turn. Her full eyebrows and definite mouth give her a very strong appearance, sometimes added to and sometimes offset by her voice which occasionally reminded me of a country girl from Somerset (or is it East Anglia or perhaps . . . ?) Her dark appearance certainly bears no relation to her truly Scandanavian name.

She sat on the edge of a floor-level bed in a flat near Hyde Park. It was the second time we’d met: the first was a couple of years back in the communal flat of the Deviants (one of the original Underground bands, but they split. The MC5 made it later anyhow). At the time she was taking a break from Hair. (I also remember about that time a piece in the London Evening News — “Sonja has the longest hair in the cast” — with a picture of her looking very groovy in a mini-skirt).

“I was in Hair for two years. Before that I’d been doing folk singing...”

. . . And gigged with an R&B band — the Piccidilly Line, run London’s Troubadour and refused to join the Strawbs.

“I was getting a bit stale in the show and frustrated in the things that I wanted to do, and I couldn’t accompany myself on guitar so I was looking around for musicians with the idea of making my own album. Three of the present band, Darryl, Francis and Florian and another bass player called Rob Martin had met each other in record shops and were making music together. Darryl had just got his first electric violin. They were chosen to play the music for Who The Murderer Was which was on in Notting Hill Gate, a musical. Then I was introduced to the four of them by the two managers, theirs and mine, and we thought we could dig being with each other. I joined them getting onto a year ago and we started gigging. Playing the Pop Proms last year was one of the first lucky steps because John Peel heard us there and put us on his radio show. People heard that, started writing letters and things went son from there. It was just a series of lucky steps. But Rob had a crippled hand and he found it difficult to keep up and it would fuck up on him sometimes. He left and we got Ian. We’ve had bad luck in some Ways like when all our equipment was stolen, but we’ve had good luck like when we got fhe advance from Warner Brothers and could buy a whole lot of new stuff which is really nice.”

Within a short space of time Sonja has already been compared with Mick Jagger (on stage that is) in Billboard’s Record Mirror with a half page photo to prove the point and Grace Slick in Melody Maker.

“I don’t think it’s a general thing, just something people, have said. Grace Slick is a girl singer with a progressive band and I think that’s the only similarity. She sounds very much herself and only she could do that, and I’m only trying to be myself.”

Certainly a thing Air will be remembered for. is that they were the first (and so fair the only) group to demolish the record cover and label concepts by printing all the information and visuals on the disc itself, a process which hasn’t been repeated with the Stateside release. Group manager Mark Hanau had seen the idea used in Germany where it had already been accepted. As there were no factories capable of it here (the whole thing printed onto black plastic and a thin layer of transparent plastic laid over the top to prevent wear) the records were made in Germany and imported. With all visuals on the disc it can be sold in a transparent cover. Mark was once a designer so he handled the visuals. Side two is made up in such a way that it gives a hypnotic effect while on the turntable. Curved Air were happy, the public were happy, Warners were happy because of substantial advance orders until orders went too high, machines clapped out and there were delays.

“Some of the so-called Heads and some of the people in the business, especially those companies we’d turned down before signing with Warners said it was all a hy£e, but it wasn’t conceived as that. But I think most people thought it was a good idea especially the national press. And a lot of the group’s success depended on radio and television and they’re not going to play the record even if it is coloured, only if they like the music„ That’s the way a lot of people heard if. And the reviews were favourable as well. It’s bound to have helped, but you can’t really say that if we’d done a black record it wouldn’t have, done so well. Record companies might as well have black sleeves but they, don’t because it’s a selling point; you can say a hype extends that far. So maybe we’ll see some more coloured records in the future: I hope so.

“We were very pleased with the way the album came out because for the others it was the first time in the studio, although I had done the Hair albums.”

Perhaps the main track, one which was alsb issued on single is “Vivaldi.” Maybe it’s not too representative though.

“ ‘Vivaldi’ is the only classical sounding thing we do and we’re never likely to do a straight take-off because the guys have got so many ideas of their own.

“The date set for the American tour is somewhere at the end of March I think. Mark said it was going to be a round tour. First we thought it was going to be coast to coast,” indicating with her hands that coast to coast meant going across, “but now it’s going to be a round tour,” indicating that she meant going round in circles. First of all we’re going to ... Is Los Angeles in the south? Well we’re starting in the south anyway I think. And we’re doing the Fillmores, but I don’t know what they are, they’re just names to me.

“I don’t know if we can go down well there, I’ve no idea what American audiences are like, we’ll just have to see when we get there. People say we’re a kind of West Coast sound. I don’t think that applies but that’s what people seem to think of qs as.

“I’m looking forward to the tour very much. Darryl isn’t because he doesn’t like travelling and hates aeroplanes. I like seeing new places especially somewhere that’s as important as America, important to the world structure, the structure of civilization and things. It’s a very strong place, a very definite place with lots of contrasts in it. It’s a very extreme country.

“We’re doing a tour when we come back from the States as well. We like doing gigs and as long as we can keep pleasing the audience I think it’ll all stay pretty high.”

She took a drag on her joint.

Pete Stone