IN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS LLOYD COLE WILL BE PLAYING FIVE SHOWS IN THE UK WITH GLASGOW OUTFIT THE LEOPARDS AS HIS BACKING MUSICIANS. THESE DAYS COLE MOST OFTEN PERFORMS AS WHAT HE SOMEWHAT ARCHLY DESCRIBES AS A SOLO “FOLK-SINGER”, AND THIS HANDFUL OF BAND SHOWS REPRESENTS THE FIRST TIME IN MANY YEARS THAT HIS EXTENSIVE BACK CATALOGUE HAS BEEN GIVEN ‘THE FULL TREATMENT’.

Last year an impressively curated box set collected together almost all of the work by erudite 1980s lit-poppers The Commotions. At the time of its release Cole and The Mouth Magazine podcasted at length about it (listen again, here). When we signed off, Cole described plans for a further box set, concentrating on the four albums which followed. His solo debut LLOYD COLE (sometimes referred to as X) was released in early 1990; a strong, confident and liberated rock record which was run through with a sense of geography. It was written and recorded in New York, the city Cole had moved to in 1989 to escape London and his recent past. Later came the songwriter / rock band hybrid DON’T GET WEIRD ON ME BABE (1991), the experimental and misunderstood (though, to some, miscalculated) BAD VIBES (1993) and the ‘comeback’ of sorts LOVE STORY (in 1995). Here, in Part Three of a three part interview in which Cole discusses his solo work, we focus on his efforts in putting together the forthcoming box set, plus a little about his UK shows in 2016…

Part One (focusing on X and DON’T GET WEIRD ON ME BABE) here
Part Two (focusing on BAD VIBES and LOVE STORY) here

AFTER THE COLLECTION WAS FINALLY ISSUED, YOU PARTED WAYS ON YOUR MAJOR LABEL CONTRACT AND YOU HAD THIS NEW ALBUM READY TO GO BUT UNRELEASED…
It was ’98, I think, by the time I actually left. Unfortunately I left with that album that hadn’t come out finished and ‘in the can’, and also there were quite a lot of recordings done with this brand new band The Negatives. I’d actually formed that band as a sort of antidote to everything else that was going on. 

THE ALBUM WAS ETC – AND IT DID SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY IN 2001, I THINK, AS A PART OF THE COLLECTED RECORDINGS BOOK/BOX SET PUT OUT BY FRENCH LABEL XIII BIS…
Well, sort of. But that wasn’t the actual album… ETC was the songs from those sessions which didn’t end up on THE NEGATIVES album, plus a few instrumentals and demos that I’d done.

THE SONGS ON ETC (FROM THE COLLECTED RECORDINGS SET), THEY’RE VERY INTERESTING. THERE ARE A COUPLE WHICH DETAIL A SORT OF MID-LIFE CRISIS – THE SONG OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW BETTER, FOR INSTANCE… YOU WERE WHAT, 35 OR 36 AT THIS POINT?
I was 35, yeah.

THERE, WERE YOU WRITING IN CHARACTER AGAIN? I GUESS I’M TAKING THE LONG WAY ROUND TO ASKING WHETHER YOU WERE HAPPY ENOUGH AT THIS POINT OR WHETHER, OUTSIDE OF THE RECORD COMPANY STUFF, THERE WAS ‘A CRISIS’ GOING ON?
Well, these things are not disconnected. There’d been a huge economic crisis and I’d gone from feeling quite wealthy to struggling for money, all of a sudden. It was really depressing – especially as we had a new-born child at the time… We had to move out of ideal living quarters into (still very nice, but) less than ideal living quarters. So, I mean. yeah, there were a few songs… There are some songs there which do address a situation, or various scenarios, which were not a million miles from where my life was at. Of all the groups of songs that I’ve put together it’s closer to autobiographical work than is usual for me… The album that was never released, by the way – because it was never released it was never given a formal title.

DID YOU HAVE A WORKING TITLE?
It’s been funny working on it for the box set, because I remember that it was either going to be called THE MIDDLE AGES or SMILE IF YOU WANT TO. I think I was leaning towards SMILE IF YOU WANT TO. It’s a lyric from one of the songs. 

I THINK THE MIDDLE AGES IS A REALLY GREAT TITLE TOO, ACTUALLY… ANYWAY, THE BOX SET – I KNOW WORK HAS BEEN PROGRESSING ON THAT FOR QUITE A LONG TIME. YOU’VE BEEN GATHERING TOGETHER TV FOOTAGE AND THE LIKE, AND I DON’T DOUBT THAT YOU’VE BEEN TRAWLING YOUR RECORDING ARCHIVE FOR INTERESTING STUFF. SO, IS THERE MUCH THAT’S COME OUT OF THAT? 
I think so. We managed to find nearly all of the demos that I did on my own, or with Quine and Fred, in the room in New York. Those were for the first and second solo albums. Most of the demos that were recorded for BAD VIBES and LOVE STORY actually ended up being used for the b-sides to the singles anyway – so those have already been released on an album, a box set, called CLEANING OUT THE ASHTRAYS. We’ve tried to make sure that there isn’t any overlap between the two because I don’t want to ask somebody to buy the same thing twice. 

CLEANING OUT THE ASHTRAYS CONTAINED A FEW UNRELEASED MIXES AND SOME PREVIOUSLY UNUSED DEMOS… SO WHAT’S LEFT FOR THE FORTHCOMING BOX SET?
There’re twenty demos on it that, pretty much, I think nobody’s heard before… or not many people have heard before. There’s a lovely demo version of a song called THE ONE YOU NEVER HAD which, apparently, someone was telling me, I shared on a Christmas podcast a few years ago. It’s got a guitar solo by Quine which is much better than the ‘finished’ one on the album (DON’T GET WEIRD ON ME BABE). There’s also a version of THE SHIP SONG by Nick Cave which – probably ill-advisedly – I once tried to do a version of. The only song I demoed which remained lost was a Lee Hazlewood song called POOR MAN. Quine introduced me to that. It’s a fantastic sort of ‘death row song’. I remember doing a really nice little demo of that but I sent the DAT (tape) to the record company and the record company lost them. Actually the record company lost most of the demos I sent them…

… AH, THAT’S FRUSTRATING…
Well, we’ve managed to find, maybe, ‘back-up copies’ of this and that, here and there. Most of the demos were recorded directly to cassette, so most of the mastering that we’ve done has been from those original little cassettes – and it’s amazing the job that Ian (Jones) at Abbey Road has done. They sound really quite good! They certainly sound a lot better than my original cassettes did, that’s for sure. He’s cleaned them up pretty nicely.

THAT MUST BE ONE OF THE MOST PLEASING THINGS ABOUT THE FORTHCOMING BOX SET (AND THE COMMOTIONS BOX SET FROM LAST YEAR)… THAT YOU HAVE THIS SORT OF STUFF CLEANED UP AND AVAILABLE… NOT ‘LOST’…
There’s a couple of things about the box set – that is, the box set which will appear if everything goes to plan – that I’m the most delighted about. One is finally getting everything back ‘in print’ again – so you don’t have to buy the albums on iTunes or go to Spotify to stream them or whatever it is that you do. You’ll actually be able to get hold of physical copies of the albums. Secondly, we’re finally releasing that 1996 album on one disc in the manner I wanted to release it – the way I thought it was originally coming out. Most of those songs have been heard before but they’ve never been heard before in this context; they’ve never been heard as one album. There’s actually one mix which slipped through the cracks when we were doing CLEANING OUT THE ASHTRAYS; the original version of MAN ON THE VERGE, mixed by Mick Glossop. The one which ended up on THE NEGATIVES album was mixed by Stephen Street. Quite a bit beefier… So, there is one track on the 1996 album which is previously unreleased.

ONE OF THE THINGS I PARTICULARLY LIKED ABOUT LAST YEAR’S LLOYD COLE AND COMMOTIONS BOX SET (DESPITE ONE OR TWO OMITTED TRACKS) WAS THE ATTENTION TO DETAIL, AND JUST HOW SUBSTANTIAL AND ‘COMPLETE’ IT FELT AS A PACKAGE. IN YOUR CASE PUTTING TOGETHER THIS KIND OF BOX SET REALLY IS METICULOUS WORK… 
Yeah, it’s hard work and it can get complicated. There’ve been quite a few hiccoughs. No, not hiccoughs… What would you call them? We’ve been trying to track down certain photographers who took certain photos, to see if we could get permission to use them for the sleeve. That’s ended up taking a really long time and there was one set of photos which we really wanted to use – but we just can’t find the photographer who took them, so we can’t use them… 

… THAT’S ALSO FRUSTRATING…
Yeah, it is… They’re great pictures. But we did end up tracking down quite a few other photographers, including Kevin Cummins, from Manchester. He photographed me for the cover of the NME for the first solo record. We managed to get access to that whole session he did, which is really lovely. So, at the moment it looks like a photo from the session at Times Square subway station will be on the front of the box set. My friend Youri Lenquette, from Paris, who took photos from day one of The Commotions, he’s also supplied some pictures which haven’t been seen before. Anyway, sorting these things out has taken a lot of time.

SO WHEN IS IT LIKELY THAT THE BOX SET WILL  APPEAR?
We were aiming for October / November, but we actually missed the deadline for this year. So it’s going to be early next year…

YOU’RE GOING TO BE OVER HERE IN THE UK IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE, FOR A BRIEF RUN OF DATES WITH THE LEOPARDS, A GLASGOW BAND. I’M GUESSING YOU WERE ABLE TO GET THEM ABOARD DUE TO YOUR OWN GLASGOW CONNECTIONS?
That’s right, yes. When STANDARDS came out (my 2013 album), there seemed to be a demand for some shows that sounded quite a bit like the way the album sounded. It’s quite a loud record. In fact I think it’s the loudest record I’ve done. Maybe BAD VIBES might be louder but, in terms of loud guitars and loud drums, all the songs I wrote for STANDARDS seemed to be calling out for something like that. That kind of record and those kinds of show.

IT’S REALLY INTERESTING THAT YOU WOULD ‘EMPLOY’ AN ALREADY FUNCTIONING BAND FOR SHOWS BASED AROUND STANDARDS…
I really didn’t want to do another band tour in the manner which I’d done them before – effectively assembling a group of session musicians, or musicians who hadn’t necessarily played together before but who wanted to play with me. Every time I did that there was always one weak link. I hate to seem mean about it, but it’s very difficult to choose individual musicians and know the band is going to be good by using auditions. I just don’t want to ever do that again…

… YOU MEAN THAT SOMETIMES THE SUM MIGHT ACTUALLY BE LESS THAN THE PARTS?
You know, when you’re in a band like The Commotions and you’re going on tour, even if you’re not loving it you know you can always play as a band. That side of things is not something you need to worry about at all. So, I’d thought that if I was ever going to do this again, if I was ever going to go out on a tour with a full set-up, maybe it’d be the best idea to find a band that I actually really like, that might be willing to come out and play with me…

… AND THE LEOPARDS HAS GREAT PERSONNEL…
Yeah, it does. The Leopards is Mick Slaven who used to be in Bourgie Bourgie and The Jazzateers, Campbell Owens who used to be in Aztec Camera and right now their current drummer is Jim McDermott. He’s the younger brother of Kevin McDermott who… I mean… Kevin McDermott, Mick Slaven, Del Amitri; we were all playing gigs together when we were first getting started in 1983 or so. I’ve known these people since way back then. Also there’ll be Douglas MacIntyre, who I think is a full-time member of The Jazzateers, playing with us. And Blair (Cowan) is going to be available. The Leopards themselves are only a three-piece band, so we’re augmenting. It’s The Leopards plus Douglas MacIntyre and Blair, plus myself. We’re going to be doing just five concerts – in fact, not very much music at all, it turns out. We’re doing these Rewind shows, these Rewind festivals. My agent thought it’d be a good thing for me to do. I just found out that our set is twenty five minutes long, ha ha. We shouldn’t have any problem with that – it’s just a question of working out how to cut it down… which songs to do in those twenty five minutes.

BECAUSE OF THE NATURE OF THE CROWD AT THESE KIND OF EVENTS, OBVIOUSLY YOU’LL FEEL UNDER A BIT OF PRESSURE TO REPRESENT ‘THE BIG HITS’ AT REWIND… BUT, KNOWING YOU, I WOULD THINK THERE’S A SLIGHTLY PERVERSE TEMPTATION TO SLIP SOMETHING TOTALLY ‘ANTI-HIT’ IN THERE… IT’D BE REALLY GREAT TO PUT IN SOMETHING FROM BAD VIBES, MAYBE?
Well, The Leopards played some concerts – and the Jools Holland TV show – at the start of 2014, in the wake of STANDARDS… When we did those shows we actually played a song called MISSING, which is one of the outtakes from LOVE STORY. That’s one of my favourite songs of mine, which never really saw the light of day. So this time round I’m sure we’ll be playing MISSING again… but probably at the other shows. We won’t be doing it at Rewind, ha ha…

I WONDERED HOW YOU’D GO ABOUT ASSEMBLING THE SET LIST FOR THE OTHER SHOWS WITH THE LEOPARDS. THEY’RE A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO AIR THAT LOUDER MATERIAL, OF COURSE, BUT ON BALANCE YOU PROBABLY HAVE TO DITCH EVEN THE VERY BEST OF THE QUIETER STUFF?
Well, actually I’m also bringing my son William over with me this time. The previous Leopards shows had been electric, full band, all the way through but I think this time we’re going to do a kind of ‘T-Rex acoustic interlude’ in the middle of the set, where I play one or two, maybe even three, songs with William. Maybe it’ll be 2CV and ARE YOU READY TO BE HEARTBROKEN? acoustically, and then back to electric songs with the band.

YOU TOOK WILL OUT ON A ‘DUO’ TOUR A FEW YEARS AGO AND, WHEN YOU GOT HOME, WENT INTO THE STUDIO AND RECORDED A ‘SMALL’ RECORD WITH HIM. THERE WAS A REALLY NICE VERSION OF THE VELVET UNDERGROUND’S PALE BLUE EYES ON IT, WHICH YOU’D ALSO DONE AT THE SHOWS… IT SEEMED TO FIT THE SET REALLY NICELY AND, FOR ME, I THINK IT KIND OF ‘QUALIFIED’ YOUR OWN NEW YORK PERIOD. IT SORT OF ALIGNED EVERYTHING…
Yeah, that’s what we try to do when we cover songs. You want something which fits in with the whole experience. A song like that is pretty hard to make a big mess of, really. PALE BLUE EYES is great – we did enjoy playing that one. Actually, the day after The Leopards tour is done, in fact the next day after the southern part of the Rewind festival, William and I are going out on tour as a duo right through to November… We’re going all over the place…

… INCLUDING SOME MORE DATES IN THE UK.
Yeah, we’re back in October. We’ve actually sold out three nights in London at the Union Chapel. I can’t believe it… I think there’s a small chance that the UK tour may actually sell out completely… We added a few extra shows here and there, recently. Last time I played Nottingham, for instance, the Glee Club in Nottingham, I was a little way short of selling out I think. This time, we put the tickets on sale and it completely sold out in three days…

IT’S FANTASTIC THAT THERE’S STILL APPETITE FOR THESE SONGS…
Yeah, I’m not quite sure what’s going on, though. I’ve been discussing it with a few friends recently and I think, possibly, the ‘kick-on’ effect of the STANDARDS album has been quite a bit stronger than I thought it might be. Perhaps it’s to do with The Commotions box set, too. So, that could tie up with the shows and how we’ve advertised them to be. These concerts with The Leopards and, in fact, the whole tour with William… the time covered begins in 1983 and ends in 1996. The set will be songs from that period, or the periods within that time. I’m only playing songs that the two box sets cover…

WHAT IS YOUR ENTHUSIASM FOR PLAYING LIVE THESE DAYS? I ASK THIS BECAUSE YOU’VE ALSO PUT OUT A COUPLE OF ALBUMS OF ELECTRONICA WHICH (DESPITE THE MELANCHOLY OR THE SENSE OF LONELINESS IN THEM) HAVE SOMETHING JOYOUS ABOUT THEM. SO I GET THE FEELING THAT YOU MIGHT ACTUALLY BE HAPPIEST IN THE STUDIO…
Probably not, actually… Probably not. If I would have butted in there I might have said that if you can just keep me from singing then my music would generally be more joyous. There’s no singing on any of the electronic records. My workspace is based up in the attic (which I am in as we’re talking, now). I keep my modular synthesiser in the next room, and the room I’m in right now is my office / library. I’ve got to the age in my life, the point in my life, where I really do need clear demarcation. I need to know what I’m working on. So, all the music stuff is through there and all the administrative stuff is through here. But I do still enjoy trying to find music using the modular synthesiser.

THOSE TWO ALBUMS (SELECTED STUDIES WITH ROEDELIUS, OUT IN 2013, AND LAST YEAR’S 1D ELECTRONICS) ARE VASTLY DIFFERENT TO ANYTHING ELSE PUT OUT UNDER THE NAME LLOYD COLE…
Yeah, they are, though I do have a plan for the next record, actually; the next song record. I want to integrate some of the things that you would’ve heard on those two electronic records. Maybe not some of the exact things, but some of the processes and some of the types of sounds. I’m still going to be singing and playing guitar and, probably, playing piano on the record as well but the sound of the record is, I think, going to be a sort of hybrid acoustic / electronic…

… PERHAPS A SMALL STEP BACK TOWARDS THE SOUND OF THE 2002 ALBUM MUSIC IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE?
Sort of – but a more robust sound, maybe. MUSIC IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE is a deliberately small and slight sounding record. The record which I envisage making over the next six months or so is not going to be a huge record, either, but it’s going to be a little more expansive than it sounds like it might be from what I’m suggesting. That’s the only way I can put it.

IT SOUNDS INTERESTING… AND YOU’RE HAPPY ENOUGH BEING UP THERE IN YOUR ATTIC, WORKING AWAY AT IT?
I’m happy enough up here, but New England gets awfully, awfully, hot in the summertime and, actually, I really don’t like working on my own in the recording situation anymore. I quite like being alone up here and figuring out the modular synth ideas, but having to be the person in charge of the computer and having to work the digital audio workstation – I really hate it…  I love the fact that I was able to not do that at all while we were making STANDARDS, but I know that this album I’m about to make, I’m going to have to need to do some of that. I’m just sort of bracing myself. 

WAIT UNTIL THE WINTER – ALTHOUGH, OF COURSE, YOU PROBABLY CAN’T WAIT UNTIL THE WINTER ‘COS YOU’RE OUT ON TOUR! … GET THE ICE COMPARTMENT IN THE FRIDGE FIXED FOR GOOD…
I am actually working on the songs right now – I’ve started, finally, getting them into the sort of position where I can say “This one’s definitely going to at least work”… So I’m pleased about that. I think probably the only exception to the 1983 – ’96 rule that I’ve set for this coming tour will be if I finish one of these new ones… I’ll want to start airing it to see if people like it or not.

LLOYD COLE AND THE LEOPARDS play Holmfirth Picturedrome on Thursday 18th August. Tickets here