A: Ah, well, that's an easy one. The Oblique Strategy, [MCB's roughest punk band…] were indisputeably:
A: Well, from about November 1991, to about April 1992… and what an exciting six months it was, readers! :)
A: Well, you see, the avant-gardencentred omnidelic collective Hybrid had dissolved in the aftermath of its 'infamous' gig at Dromore Rugby Club, leaving Nickless, Deakie & Stephen to seek a new vehicle to pop success. A bold plan was in their heads: they wanted to enlist the services of the legendary sonic wizard of Cairnshill & the Belfast Royal Academic Institution, the man who boldly introduced himself to those who courted his presence as
But the offer put Mike into a quandry. He was already commenced on a sawdust strewn musical
voyage with his drumming soulmate John Sweeny. How could he abandon his companion in audio
bliss? It was a heart rending choice. But the pretenious time signature changes our boys
were offering him proved a temptation Mike could not refuse. He came. And he brought his about
50 (well at least 3 ;-) synthesizers, his Copicat, a Marshall 4-by-12 cab, fuck-off bass bins,
millions of leads and spangly guitar with him. But more than just these.
Mike brought: his pedals…
And thus, The Oblique Strategy was formed.
A: Well, for some reason we took it upon ourselves to learn this bloody massive
great two-hour long set of cover versions, under the bizarre delusion that the public
houses of Belfarce would pay us hundreds of pounds to entertain their punters with these
tunes. And oh, what tunes! An incongruous mixture of sawdust music from the likes
of Deep Purple, Steppenwolf and The Doors, and the new wave analogue classics of
Tubeway Army, The Stranglers and Brian Eno (who of course inspired the band’s name).
Probably the only ones we all liked were the wonderful Genesis numbers such as
The Fountain of Salmacis and Firth of Fifth.
Original band compositions were few and far between, although the period did see the
"genesis" [sorry—Ed.] of such Nick Carlisle classics as People With & Without Pets
and Scary Parrots
A: Well, after their 3rd gig, most of the band had A-levels to revise for,
and if the truth be known, we’d all bored ourselves a bit with endless rehearsals to learn
a stonking great 2 hour set of (rather oblique) cover versions note perfectly, while neglecting our own
song writing somewhat.
So, when those A-levels were been & done, we just never really got back together again…
Mike hung up his guitar, plugged in his synths, and teamed up with Johnny Rice’s band Midway
Down, who very shortly turned into Belfast’s most palindromic inter-galactic erp-rockers,
AmonullonomA, although these days he’ one half of electronic experimental
psychedelic-ethnic-hypnotic recording act
The Singularity.
Nick, David & Stephen quickly became embroiled in NornIrond’s most avant-garde, androgynous and ahine Queen Tribute Band, the Blue Powder Monkeys [Mike joined us on stage at the BPM’s 3rd gig for an encore of Watcher of the Skies]. Nick and Dave then went on to werk together for nigh on an decade in analogue popmeisters The Feline Dream (with Stephen being not unknown to help them out on drums from time to time)
The Oblique Strategy performed three lovely gigs, which were:
Well, of course The Oblique Srategy never made any records.
Nonetheless, the scary fact is that in our dusty archives there is about 3 full CDs worth
(yes that’s 3 × 74mins!?) of recordings and demos, including all of our 1st and 3rd gigs.
And to top it all, the 3rd gig is also available on video—
YouTube Madness!!
(Stills from that video adorn this page.)
Here's a link to a site dedicated to Eno & Schmid’s Oblique Strategy cards…
