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[SLEEVENOTES FOR THE 2003 "NoMen Greatest Hits" CD]

There was, and still is, [not any more!] a Scottish band called the Yes Men who played their own psychedelic, velvety, pop music and recorded a fine version of the Television Personalities "Part Time Punks" (released on "If I could write poetry" a tribute to the TVPs CD on 'The Beautiful Music' label in Canada 2005).
In the same town there was the Deciders who shared a guitarist with the Yes Men. The Deciders had their own DIY label, "Topplers" records. Allan from the Deciders and George from the Yes Men were huge fans of Steve Treatment, a late seventies DIY punk artist who had released his first record with the Swell Maps! Allan had two of Steve's singles but didn't know anything about the man. Using the Topplers website they put out a search for info about Steve Treatment and were quickly contacted by Steve's sister and then Christine Isherwood, the backing vocalist on his singles. They informed Steve, who was not aware of the internet interest in him, and telephone numbers were swapped. At the very end of 2002 Steve phoned Allan and an immediate friendship was struck.
Steve then sent up a package of tapes that basically started the NoMen's career!!! These tapes contained almost everything Steve had recorded. His three singles were only the tip of the iceberg. He had gone on to play in a band called the "Ticket Inspectors" who had released a cassette only album and had, over the twenty odd years since his last official release, been religiously recording his songs onto cassette. He picked out a couple of tracks that he wanted put up on the Topplers website but George and Allan had different ideas. A plan was hatched to get Steve up to Scotland to record with Allan & George. Billy, from electro-pop band the Electroluvs was a friend who played drums and had a recording studio. He heard the tapes and the singles... he liked what he heard and became a part of the plan. As an experiment Allan recorded a rough demo of one of the songs on Steve's tapes. George came round and added some percussion and vocals. It sounded good! A copy was made to send to Steve... but what would would it be called? As a joke Allan inverted the Yes Men's name to the NoMen. Steve was sent a tape with the version of his song with a couple of Yes Men and Deciders songs! He loved it! ... and the name The NoMen stuck!
George, Allan & Billy were now the NoMen and a first rehearsal/recording was arranged! Steve Treatment got excited about the project and sent George a specially written song for the occasion - "The Keys to Talgarth Road". The NoMen recorded this track along with "Carve my Name" and "The Treatment" and over the next few weekends had an albums worth of material. Somewhere along the line the idea of getting Steve to sing got forgotten, but he loved what we were doing! "You sound more like me than I do", he declared!
With eleven tracks finished the NoMen released the album on Topplers records and did a special 15 minute ambient dub mix of 'Fast Wrist' a song whose lyrics were written by Steve but he'd never finished any music for them. Steve dictated his lyrics down the phone to George NoMan who created this swirling eastern trance music - trying to create the sound of an out-take from the Monkees "Head" album! On this special remix the song is presented first and, as an extra treat at the end of the CD, the instrumental "Mong-Out" fades in and freaks out... all three members of the band contributed a guitar solo to the track none of which made it in the final mix or even in the chill out version, but here they all are - some backwards, some forwards, some just freaky!!!

So where did the NoMen go next? George, almost jokingly, suggested doing covers of other DIY punk records like the Television Personalities, O Level & the Swell Maps and packaging them in pastiches of the original sleeves!

Steve Treatment's first single was on 'Rather' records, the label owned by Swell Maps and indeed the Maps were his back up band on the original recordings so what better place to start than with 'Zip Nolan' by the Cult Figures, another record on Rather with the Swell Maps on backing! And what a great record it is! The NoMen (just Allan & George this time) had great fun blasting out this one! It's a two chord, pop gem with a thunderous drum beat sampled from 'I Wanna be Free' by The Rings! The band also recorded the B Side 'Play With Toys' and the extra 'Zip Dub' track and lovingly recreated the fold out pink sleeve that was such a feature of the original! This version is a slightly different mix than the MP3 version with the full feedback,chaotic ending and the stand up comedy! Through a bit of e.mail detective work the NoMen contacted Gary from the Cult Figures, now an artist in Brighton, who heard it and said..."I have just downloaded the zip MP3... jeez, for a minute there I thought it WAS the Cult Figures. A tribute indeed! Great artwork on the sleeve too!" He wanted an extra copy to send to Jowe Head, the Swell Maps bass player, who had produced the original single and Jowe e.mailed the band saying,"I heard what you did for the cult figures, and was well impressed! Also, the sleeve was very swell!"

Our next project was obvious... Allan NoMan always had a soft spot for Jowe Head's 'Pincer Movement' LP which came out as the Swell Maps split up... A few tracks were chosen and another session was arranged this time with Brian McCluskey, who plays guitar with the Yes Men and contributed guitar and songwriting to the Deciders, and also Lewis Mitchell who is the Deciders singer. Five tracks were recorded including 'Cake Shop Girl' with the NoMen Viking Choir and 'Bear Garden', a trippy nursery rhyme on Jowe's album, turned into a dreamy instrumental by the NoMen - like a theme tune to some lost 'Bagpuss' episodes - with a hint of the Frog's Chorus! It ended up having very little to do with Jowe's original but it made such an impression on George that he plays it as part of the Yes Men's live set. Once again a recreation of the original sleeve was done and a copy was sent to Jowe Head himself!

A favourite song of George's was "I Know Where Syd Barrett Lives" by the Television Personalities which the Yes Men had being doing at rehearsals. One bright sunny afternoon George did an acoustic version of the song which positively sparkled! The original TVP recording has the sound of birds chirping throughout the song, but as the NoMen ventured outside to get some ambient bird song, the little feathered bastards refused to cooperate and stopped singing. As soon as the tape was switched off the bird song started again! Look out for the lovely organ break on this track!

Another TVP song was recorded next, but this mellow vein was shattered when Allan suggested the feedback-noise of Slaughter Joe's "I'll Follow You Down" as the next cover. Slaughter Joe was Joe Foster, a one time member of the Television Personalities who had played on Jowe Head's Pincer Movement LP (small world), Slaughter was his mid eighties attempt at out-feedbacking the Jesus & Mary Chain and came out on Creation Records. The Nomen slapped down a quick backing track for this one and buried the inherent sloppiness under layers and layers of feedback. (George's favourite sound - ouch!) When Steve Treatment heard this one he panicked... he thought his smoke detector had gone off!!!

All these versions so far had some form of Swell Map connection (Jowe Head went on to play bass for the Television Personalities, so that's the connection there!!!)... it seemed inevitable that the band would soon cover the Maps themselves, but first... Billy NoMan sang with the Electroluvs but as yet hadn't used his tonsils with the NoMen... they planned to do an obscure electronic DIY single by Metrophase (which once again featured Jowe Head) but it had more than the three chords that the band know and couldn't work it out. Instead they launched into the all time classic proto-electro-punk of 'Private Plane' by Thomas Leer!
In fact they did both sides of the single and ACC/Paralysis by his co-conspirator on Company Records - Robert Rental. Private Plane is a dub-heavy monster with a brooding bass line overlaid with layers of electro bleeps and George's patented "Zip-Hop" scratching! Billy sings it in a deadpan voice and George takes over for the dreamy choirboy chorus! Class!

Jowe Head had passed on copies to other ex Swell Maps, so it was time for the NoMen to dive in to the Maps! For this session a new NoMan was draughted in on guitar... Cal Murray! Five Swell Maps songs were recorded over a couple of sessions including 'Midget Submarines' from the band's first album. On this track the original drum intro was sampled and served as the foundation for the whole five minute freak out! Although conventional guitars and bass are apparent, it's the gurgling water, toilet flushing, Dyson and cutlery being flung around the room that gives this track it's distinctive sound... and who's that talking at the beginning and adding little vocal flourishes throughout the song? Why it's Jowe Head himself! Jowe sang down the phone using a kiddies reverb mike but unfortunately the NoMen's recording equipment didn't pick up as much as it should have, but having Jowe's presence on the recording gives it a real air of authority!

The NoMen's contact with Jowe involved swapping recordings and the idea of a genuine collaboration was mentioned. A second Jowe Head/No Men session was arranged (The band go under the name of the Jowe Men for these sessions!!!) and six songs were recorded from Jowe's 1990's' Unhinged" album along with some tracks from an unreleased album (Sly Boots) that Jowe had given the band. On one track George sings his own song over music recorded by Jowe and Steve Treatment joins in over the phone with a tribute to Stingray!!! 'Shoe Horn' is the track chosen here and it features Billy and George dueting in the vocals with Allan impersonating Pinky & Perky on backing vocals. Apart from bass, guitar and a bit of a rock guitar solo at the end, the music is done on multi tracked Kazoos and toy xylophones!

Epic Soundtracks was the Swell Maps drummer who went on to perform with a host of left-field musicians throughout the eighties. The NoMen had thought of trying some Nikki Sudden songs (the main singer and songwriter with Swell Maps) but didn't get inspired... then they heard two of Epic's albums! These songs were unlike the other tracks the band had covered. There was not a trace of DIY punk eccentrics... these were fully fledged, mature songs! A real challenge to the NoMen... but one they mastered! Three songs and an instrumental were chosen of which 'Meet Me on the Beach' is included here. This song features the usual NoMen with Cal Murray dropping in again on acoustic guitar. George added layers of Blixa Bargeld style slide to the track and Lewis Mitchell took lead vocals. Without listening to the original he poured his heart into it and made it his own! Lovely!

Somewhere within all this NoMan activity, Topplers records planned to do a Steve Treatment album with the NoMen on backing. Steve was sending up acoustic demos of his new material some of which sounded good enough to release as they were! 'Letter to the World' is a sweet acoustic ballad on to which the NoMen (George, Allan and Brian) added subtle guitar and bass. This was the stand out track on the '5 "A" sided CD' that was released, and on this version some extra orchestral slide was added. Playing with Steve Treatment is like"being on 'Jim'll Fix It' on acid" said George NoMan!

At this point Topplers records stopped the NoMen and pointed out that they had recorded 10 collections of other peoplles somgs and it was time for a greatest hits!

NoMen Recordings in 2003

TOP006 The Keys to Talgarth Road - Steve Treatment Songs fast wrist, talgarth road, echo in the back street, the treatment, carve your name, ignorant eyes, t.w.i.a.s, it was good while it lasted, they loved you, new youth society generator, the hangman ©2003 Topplers records
TOP006a Fast Wrist - 15 minute chill-out psychedelic mega-mix! ©2003 Topplers records
TOP006.01 Cult Figures Zip Nolan, Play with toys, Zip Dub ©2003 Topplers records
TOP006.05 THOMAS LEER & ROBERT RENTAL Private Plane, International, ACC, Paralysis ©2003 Topplers records
TOP006.66 JOWE HEAD - PINCER MOVEMENT Cake Shop Girl, Mermaids, Swissair, Diesel Loco Train, Bear Garden ©2003 Topplers records
TOP006.75 JOWE HEAD - Shiney Shiney Shoe Horn (shiney shiney), Merman Blues, Cooling Fins, Serpentine, Boxing Day ©2003 Topplers records TOP006.54321 Television Personalities - I Know Where Syd Barret Lives & Mysterious Ways SLAUGHTER -I'll Follow You Down ©2003 Topplers records
TOP006.999 SWELL MAPS Midget Submarines, International Rescue, Full Moon in my Pocket, Steven Do, Cake Shop Girl, Harmony in your Bathroom ©2003 Topplers records
TOP006.314 EPIC SOUNDTRACKS Meet Me On the Beach, Something New Under the Sun, She Sleeps Alone, Hear the Whistle Blow ©2003 Topplers records TOP0062468All the above are performed by the NoMen
STEVE TREATMENT - 5"A"sided CD 2003 (backing by the NoMen) Carve My Name, Letter to the World, Boy of 14, Manufactured Pain, Using the Lord as a Weapon plus versions ©2003 Topplers records
TOP007 Greatest Hits

Technical Notes - The NoMen recorded all these tracks at the Topplers home studio. Equipment: I Mac G3 using Cubase VST/32 5.0, Tascam US-428 mixer, Soundlab Micro mixer, Apple stereo mic, Audio Technica ATR25 stereo mic, 2 x Hitachi Karaoke mics, 1970s Bontempi electronic organ, Casio SA10, VOX 10watt amp. PYE long wave transistor.

We knock 'em out fast - 'cos they're not meant to last!
At the end of the first phase of the NoMen's career we have a couple of specially recorded tracks for this "best of" compilation...
'Oxford Street' - the 'B' side to the TVP's first single '14th Floor". Maybe not the TVP's finest song but it gave the NoMen the chance to use the Xmas beat on their drum machine!
'Smokescreen' - the first single by DIY legends "the Desperate Bicycles" given an almost Hawkwind like treatment by the NoMen.
'Revolver' by O Level (or "No Level!") a song which mentions Steve Treatment, Swell Maps AND the TVP's in the lyric and a fitting way to end the NoMen's 10th Anniversary!

These songs are presented as first takes 'warts-and-all' - with a sound as rough as sandpaper... don't worry, it's not your speakers; they do sound like that!

So with 10 releases since March 2003 it's time for the NoMen to put their feet up and have a rest... who knows what they'll come up with next... keep checking the website for news! Remember; all these tracks are [were!] available to download free at the website - www.topplers.co.uk and, in some cases, there is artwork in PDF format which you can print yourself and create your own NoMen CDs.

original notes from December 2003 by Allan NoMan

At the time of this release IKEA were selling cardboard CD sleeves with a neat little pull out section. They obviously weren't selling well and were in the sale for 50p for 10! I bought hundreds of them!!!
The NoMen Greatest Hits (and the Deciders CD) were packaged in them with an A3 coloured insert and pictures of each release. A label was printed for the rears and when we posted them, we simply stuck an address label on the front, sealed it with a sticker, stuck on a stamp and posted it... Perfect!

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