Neo
Neo (not to be confused with Neon) were a band built principally around bassist/singer Ian North who had been in an American outfit called Milk & Cookies. With songs that straddled the line between short commercial pop (marketed as a faux Bay City Rollers by Island!) and a sound more akin to The Ramones (as can be found on their 1976 recorded CBGB’s concert), Milk & Cookies were another band with a claim to being prepunk.
For the purposes of this site the interest is in the band Neo which appeared on the Live At The Vortex album, played the punk circuit and who included members of bands like Ultravox, Masterswitch, Time UK and Gillan! Neo was sunk by multiple personnel changes, bad luck and poor decision-making.
How had you first become aware of punk rock? Milk & Cookies played regularly with the Dolls and had The Ramones wanting to support you. Did you feel part of the scene?
A: When Milk n Cookies recorded our album in 1974 there wasn’t a name for the music. Our producer Muff Winwood was puzzled – he said to me “Ian this isn’t rock and it’s not pop, so what is it?” Since the label punk didn’t exist at that time, I didn’t know what to say. Unfortunately, record companies need labels in order to know how to market a band. It wasn’t until the Sex Pistols that the label “punk” came along and Island went “oh yeah we used to have a band like that” and so finally released it in ’76.
Island offered you a solo deal and you moved to London. Pre Neo you formed a band called Ian North’s Radio which featured among others Martin Gordon (ex Sparks & Jet before he left to join the Radio Stars). How did it evolve into Neo and what was the impetus behind it?
A: Post punk. Ian North’s Radio was still kind of Milk n Cookies. Neo became a band and sound in its own right. I felt that I had done the punk thing already and that we should be the next step – a little more sophisticated than punk.
How would you describe the music you were playing mid-1977 compared to other punk bands you played with?
A: I thought they all sounded the same – they all wanted to be the Sex Pistols. We sounded a little different. I liked the Pistols but I hardly thought they were brilliant. How we differed from other bands was our arrangements were more advanced, the musicianship more professional in that we were not sloppy. and the lyrics were more thoughtful and personal.
Names of other songs in the set? Any covers?
No covers – I could never figure out anyone else’s songs. Milk n Cookies “Girls In Gangs”, “She Kills Me”, Don’t Dance” and “The Robots” which was a song about all those bands. And “Tell Me The Truth” which was about Sham 69 as seen from backstage – not quite what their fans thought they were.
We and a few other bands including Sham 69 were asked to play a daytime gig at some shop – anyhow there was no big turnout but Sham 69 and only Sham 69 were allowed to set up on the roof and then after they started to play they called the police to say there was a “punk riot” going on in order to grab some headlines. purely manufactured hype. typical showbiz.
What did you make of the Roxy Club and its punk clientele? Did you identify with them? The closest to the club would have been CBGBs – how did they compare.
A: CBGB’s and the Roxy were nothing alike. At Cb’s everyone sat at tables and really listened – they were into the music. At the Roxy the kids were into it cos it was the new thing. They pogoed and spit. They appeared to be having a great time but it wasn’t about the music. These types of kids in later generations would be ravers and then later hip hop B boys.
You had two punk sounding tracks on the Live At The Vortex album ‘Tell Me The Truth’ and ‘Small Lives’.
A: True. We were doubled booked the night of the recording – we tried to back out but they wouldn’t let us. So we played at the Vortex early before the club opened and the record company dubbed in crowd noises later. I do remember going into the studio and re-recording a vocal track. Don’t kid yourself – everyone does it. We got the best reviews of anyone on that album and so secured us a record deal.
The record sold 50,000 copies and we never saw a single penny. We only played the two songs for the recording – we knew we were about to get a record deal and did not want to give away any more material. But it got Charisma Records and Jet Records into a bidding war to get us.
The departure of Rob & Paul Simon saw a period of instability with members coming and going for the band. At one time you had Mr McCoy who left to join Gillan.
A: Rob left to join Ultravox – so I decided to replace his brother as well. I made a mistake in hiring session players – Steve Byrd on guitar, John McCoy on bass and Bryson Graham on drums. I taught them how to play my style – but mentally a session player is of a very different mindset and only there for the money.
We recorded the album in Gillan’s studio and when he heard my band – he hired them away from me! So I went back to Mick Sweeney who was not a session player and got Steve Wilkinson (a person of incredible integrity) who had a band in the same scene and an unknown drummer from Liverpool (Derek Quinton). And we were a real band again.
A single was released from the sessions that failed to make an impact.
Ian: Same story as Island – one single then the album was shelved. Well not exactly; I got myself thrown off the label for behaving even worse than I had at Island. Jet actually wanted me to do a second album and I refused! Dumbest thing I’ve ever done. The option period had expired without Jet exercising their rights. This was not intentional but it meant that both parties would have to resign the contract and I kept saying no. Finally by the time I realized that no one else would sign me as encumbered by the Jet contract being up in the air, they had changed their mind. Dave Arden said to my solicitor “Ian doesn’t want to be on Jet – well then he’s not.”*
You then split from Jet and your visa ran out and you returned back to New York. Had you given up by then on the band and just wanted out or had you intended to keep Neo going and return?
A: While we were on tour with Magazine our manager Raf Edmunson played us Kraftwerk – and I was hooked. I went back to New York and bought a drum machine and a monophonic synth and recorded the album My Girlfriend’s Dead. It was minimal pop.” Then I came back to London to try to sell it. Depeche Mode hadn’t even come out yet and the record labels said “you can’t make records with drum machines”. Once again being one of the first to do a new sound can be dangerous to your career. It only just recently came out in the UK on Repressed.
You did however release an album of Neo songs. Where did this material emanate from and who played on it? Was this attempt to capture some of what Neo was about?
A: Like I said it was done with the session players. It was all material I played with the Simon brothers except “Heaven On Earth” which was about my disenchantment with those very same session players. Oh and “No Sound from 25” and “Hollywood Babylon” were new.
Ian North Interview January 2007 – * This quote from Collin Makamson interview with Ian North 7/11/06
TalkPunk
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