Lovemaking In Irish 

£200 Damages

Cemental Health Records EEG01

All tracks © control Anal Memoranda.

Recorded at Ghetto, June 1980–January 1982 except where noted.
Mastered 09–10.01.1982.
Digitally remastered October 2004.

Solo [original release never in fact named Ian Shuttleworth at any point]
except where noted elsewhere.

Cover from a portrait of Hieronymus Holzschuher by Albrecht Dürer.
This title (P) 1982, 2004 Cemental Health Records.
 

Even an effort like this has people to thank.  So...
Steve there, Steve here, Paul ’n’ Davy, Dai, even Marcus.  Woody sei Dank.
Also A to L for more inspiration than you could ever have imagined or feared.

Don’t you wonder someti-i-imes...

ORIGIN
I set out to make an album of my songs, but gradually lost interest in them and turned instead to instrumentals; this is the result.  The first side is mainly to show that I can be as avant-garde as the next man; it’s not pretentious, because I don’t claim any merit for it, except being wonderfully effective for getting rid of unwanted guests.  The pieces on the second side have more of a formal structure, though they too were written as I played them.  The two tracks with frivolous titles exist solely because I thought those phrases were too good to waste; the other five relate to my ceaseless search for emotional fulfilment (oh, Gawd, a concept album).  I know the quality leaves a lot to be desired, which is why the whole enterprise is as non-profit-making as possible.  The point is that if I can do it, anyone can; and if the wind’s blowing in the right direction and the cassette machines decide to play at the same speed the whole way through a track, I can just about do it.

EQUIPMENT
National Panasonic musicentre SG1200L • Amstrad twin-deck radiocassette (with dodgy motor, which is why the pitch sometimes varies a bit) 7090 • ITT radiocassette RC500 • Bush cassette recorder, model unknown • Sanyo portable B&W television • Marshall 30W Master Lead Combo • Hondo II Strat copy with DiMarzio pickups (yeah, I know) • Shergold Marathon bass guitar • Korg MS10 synthesizer • Newton’s cradle • Various tapes and waxings.

NEXT PRODUCT
I shall now attempt to prevent my songs from decomposing where they lie, and by the middle of the decade Tube-Steel Elephants should be available, the album that this ought to have been.

TRACK LISTING

ORIGINAL
  • Theatre Nine (12:02): developed from Theatre One, title by Honest Rob.  Tapes, radios, television, waxing, bass, percussive bass, guitar (twice), voice (four times).  Keneth Young supplied three more voices and some matches.  Words are from journals, verses, signatures on a CND petition and an article by Keneth in a Wisconsin high school newspaper.
  • Haetchblacks (0:52): tape, recorded with failing batteries from radio Éireann’s coverage of the 1981 elections: interview with the mother of a newly elected hunger-striker T.D.
  • Repeat Massacre including Isolations, Kraft durch Freude and Joker (15:49): original recorded on St Val’s Day, 1981.  Waxings, tapes, television, radios, Newton’s cradle, voice.  Joker: bass and Honest Rob on synth.  Title of Isolations from verses on the track, of Kraft durch Freude from Mr Strong and Mr Happy, and of Joker from The Last In The Pack (full version to appear on next product).
  • Before (4:17): synth only, three or four tracks. How do you relax prior to important meetings?
  • I Was Immoral, Says Linda Hargrove (3:42): synth only, five tracks. Title from the front-page headline on an edition of Country Music Weekly.
  • Clive With A Spatula (1:16): synth only, three tracks.  Title from one of Keneth’s anecdotes.
  • Matchpoint (3:54): synth only, five tracks. Ich Dien: my serve.
  • Anger Is Also A Form Of Homage (5:18): synth only, five tracks.  Title from A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man.
  • Out Of The Bottle (6:13): synth only, five tracks.  Title from a Zen Buddhist riddle about geese.
  • Twice In Footsteps (4:08): synth only, five tracks.  Meanwhile, in the jungle next door...
 BONUS
  • Lissingdown Salute (0:56)
  • Bonsoir Dublin / Sellout I (2:57)
  • Sellout II (2:36)
  • Sellout IV (3:37)
Sellouts I–IV were my first instrumentals, omitted from original release partly because the sound quality is even more appalling than that of the other ’uns, partly because on them my total inability to play guitar is showcased.  (The original demo of Sellout III can now be found on EEG09, which also boasts a comprehensively rearranged version.)

Plus

RADIO TIRANA live at the Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast 
11th December 1982:

  • intro / Maid Of Armenia (The Waltz Anger Is Also A Form Of Homage) (4:13)
  • Twice In Footsteps (2:34)
  • Matchpoint (3:07)