Peter Banks and John Russell discuss DIN plugs over a cuppa

One of the quieter success stories of '79 has been that of After The Fire. Not that they're nothing if not noisesome ("He takes the word axe literally", said someone of bass player Andy Piercy), but while their label CBS have put promotional weight behind them, ATF's reputation has grown out of a really homest appreciation from both punters and media.

The last few months have seen a first UK headline tour, an OGWT appearance, the dubious honour of finding One Rule For You a top ten hit in South Africa, and a real showcase album in Laser Love. Prior to that, they'd put together unaided an album called Signs of Change which shipped 2,000 copies in two weeks, thanks mainly to an efficient fan club and hardcore following. Admittedly some of that may be down to the fact that - in an industry where every move would try the patience of a saint - all four band members are Christians. The average agnostic on the street probably would'nt be any the wiser: their lyrics on any secular level are unusually fresh and cutting ("Like the power of a jet ... that's what your love is like to me") but the fact that they may be taken to other levels is simply a bonus option.

Guitarist John Russell is the most recent recruit, coming in to what was then a three-man line-up in mid-78.

"I went along and saw them at the Hope & Anchor",

he recalled,

"and I was overwhelmed. The music that they were doing was the sort of thing that I'd always wanted to do - it was energetic, it was exciting, it was very melodic, it was totally different from the old club thing that I'd been sucked into. I just felt at one with everything they were doing."

The original ATF was founded in 1972 and is now remembered chiefly for Peter Banks' penchant for wheeling a Hammond organ around onstage like a souped-up supermarket trolley.

The famous Hammond, with Multimoog on top

"We were fairly into the classical-rock thing, but not as complicated as that,"

said Peter, the only remaining founder member,

"simply because I couldn't handle the fingering. We're all in fact self-taught."

After one disbanding, Peter reformed the group in '74, from whence it has progressed variously as a trio or a quartet to the present line-up. Andy Piercy was originally a guitar player, switching to bass circumstantially early in '78, while drummer Ivor Twiddell (he of more shades than Elton John) was recommended by a departing drummer a few months earlier.

"We knew Ivor at the time,"

noted Peter,

"and Andy and I said, 'No way'. All we'd ever seen was a double bass drum and a load of cymbal bashing. Finally we said, 'OK, we'll try him just this once ...'"

Around the time ATF turned pro, in '76, they'd worked around the companies, gaining interest but no deal.

"The whole thing was, 'Well, you're just not marketable, lads ... we don't see a single there',"

recalled Pete,

"But we knew we could sell albums, and we'd already got 2 or 3 albums worth of material ready. We knew we could raise a couple of thousand pounds as a loan. From live dates we sussed out what would be the most popular songs, and we did a deal with a studio that was just changing to 16 track, whereby we were one of the first bands to go in there. It wasn't so much that we would get a lower rate as they would let us pay them against the release date, when we got some money back, and meanwhile they would check out the equipment."

"The reason we went for an album, rather than a single or EP,"

continued Andy,

"was that a lot of our stuff was too long to put on a single and also that - while a 'concept' would be a strange word for it - the material was kind of linked together. Plus the fact that we saw that, with what was happening in music at the time, our chances of getting an album deal then were really slipping away."

Not suprisingly, the logistics and legwork of orginising pressing, sleeves, et al, was more time-consuming that planned. There was minimal advertising , but 4,000 copies went eventualy,

"and we're still getting orders. If we wanted to have another re-press, we could,"

admitted Peter,

"but the amount of work involved in it would be too much now. We're trying to concentrate on what's current."

While the success of the enterprise was partially a yah-boo to the establishment, the band felt more satisfied simply by the achievement of having put material on record. It also, incidentally, enabled them to lower their debts by £4,000. But has CBS changed their lives?

"One thing that's interesting,"

noted Andy,

"when we turn up at gigs, you can sense from people - especially the support band - a feeling of 'Oh, it's easy for them, the record companies bought all the gear.' What they may not realise is that we'd bought most of the stuff before we got any money. Admittedly, for things like the Yamaha CS80 and the drum kit, we've had the money from CBS to finance. But I think we'd have gone ahead and bought them anyway eventually."

Which seemd like a good time to talk about the gear. The aforementioned drum kit was (in the absence of it's owner), reputed to be a Yamaha, natural wood finish, with four rack, toms, a floor tom, a single bass drum, a Ludwig snare, and Paice cymbals. The CS80 was, unsurprisingly, Peter Banks' affair; he uses it in conjunction with a Multimoog lead line synth, and Electro-Harmonics Vocoder, and a Hi Watt 100 with an Epicentrum 1x12 and tweeter cabinet.

"Though Frunt are currently building up a specifically keyboard ampilifier cabinet combo for me to try out. Both keyboards are touch responsive so if you press down you can bring in vibrato or alter the filter sound, which is something I especially like,"

continued Peter.

"The two instruments, if they were combined into one, would be absolutely magic."

"When we had the Hammond,"

added Andy,

"there was always a label stuck on us, we sounded like this group or that group, the differences in sound were too subtle. We ummed and ahhed a long time about forking out money on the CS80, but we knew it was going to give us our own identity. After all, put against another group with a CS80 the sounds you can get from it are so different that you wouldn't recognise it as the same instrument. It's one of those instruments that has got a very special sound,"

agreed Peter.

"It's also one of those cases where no two CS80's have an indentical sound anyway. Somewhere they're using cheap components that aren't consistent, but in doing that they're creating a very special instrument. Inside it's an absolute bird's nest of electronics, but not in fact a state-of-the-art instrument, a lot of the stuff is quite old-fashioned. But it demands a peculiar type of playing which is well suited to me, because I like bending notes, like a guitar, because I can't handle the flash bits, the jazz-type phrases. I do undestand that 95% of the CS80's are totally reliable, though this is the second one we've had and it always picks the most expensive situations to break down. I certainly think it's helped the band as a whole, though I'm keeping an open mind and would look at another keyboard if the right one cam along."

Bass player (and lead vocalist) Andy Piercy styles himself as

"a bit of a heathen when it comes to instruments, I make musicians weep."

His Fender Precision, bought secondhand for £150, was already in ATF's stockroom when he switched from guitar, and he likes to give the impression he's bever looked beyond it.

"It's all I really want - just two knobs on it, out of which I only want one, the volume, and one pickup. It gives me all the sounds I want. But I sweat all over it, so now it's rusting up. I'd probably get another Precision, though I always used to have a policy that if you hit 'em hard enough they all sound the same anyway."

Andy betrays himself with his sound rig hjowever.

"For a long time I used a Hi Watt 200 with a Wem 412, again because it was already in existence in the band. When I was in the studio, I had a chance to look at other things, and eventually I bought an Ampeg SVT bass rig. Instead of having big speakers, 15" or something, it has eight 10" speakers which give it a nice hard punchy sound rather than a woofy wallowy one. It's a valve amp whic I like too, there never seems to be any character in solid state.

"The Frunt company did in fact give me an amplifier to try, which costs about £150 against Ampeg's £700 or so, and that was about the closest I've ever had. I play all the time with a plectrum,"

continued Andy,

"a heavy Gibson which I'm always shredding. The strings are Rotosound, and I break a good many of those as well. I like the clunk of a plectrum and build my technique out of that; I've tried playing with fingers but just can't get the bite. I do tend to play the bass as a rhythm instrument rather than the bottom end, a lot of which I think came out of the three-piece before we had a rhythm guitar. Also I set the action so that it's just beginning to buzz on the frets, giving that extra bit of rasp. The other extravagence I've got of late,"

he admitted in conclusion,

"is a Rello radio system. I move around on stage a lot and was laways spending money on expensive leads because the other ones would just twist up, and then I was forever tripping over them. I'd seen AC/DC using one, and then I had a proper look at the Live Music Show. The things are about 475 quid, it's frightening,but then again I've been electrocuted really badly, so it's worth that to have peace of mind. Now I'm totally mobile, I can go 1/4 mile away, but by that time you're getting sound delay. Additionally, in fact, it helps my sound because there's a preamplifier stage in the transmitterm so I'm getting much more bite to the signal."

Russell in the studio in Munich

Guitarist John Russell's gear lines up as a Gibson Les Paul 20th Anniversary with Di Marzio PAF pickups, De Dario regular strings (a set a night), Vox AC30 as pre-amp, and a Fender Twin Reverb.

"I added the PAF's,"

he explained'

"because I wasn't really impressed with the original Gibson pickups - these are a lot meatier. Guitar-wise I wouldn't mind trying something in, say the top Yamaha range. But being left-handed it becomes a real pain in the ass because you're very limited as to what you can get. Gibson I know do them, but you have to pay about 20% more than the standard one ... manufacturers plaese note. But overall I've got, to my way of thinking, the ideal combination for my sort of playing. I really go for the over-driven sound of a Les Paul, and the way I do it is this: the AC30 I wind up to full volume and nothing comes out of the speakers because there's a dummy load at the back. I take it out of the amp and into the Fender twin reverb which has all the versatility of tone controls. There's so much versatility there, and it gives me that beautiful sustained singing sound for lead plus a rauchiness for rhythm."

"There are some basic philosophies common to all of us,"

concluded Peter.

"Each of us is playing our instrument slightly differently from how 95% of musicians would treat it. And we're all trying to produce as much noise as possible from as little equipment as possible."

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