Geoff Leigh - Biography

Biography

Geoff Leigh's first gigs were with soul music bands in Manchester in 1965, (the beginnings of the now infamous Northern Soul Scene), in clubs like the Twisted Wheel. His professional career began in 1968, touring the United Kingdom and Europe with various jazz/rock/progressive rock groups, mainly Crazy Mabel. In 1969 he joined Gerry Fitzgerald's band Mouseproof, which introduced Leigh to the budding Canterbury scene and musicians like Daevid Allen, Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt.

In the early 1970s Leigh performed with Henry Cow on several occasions, having known the band's drummer, Chris Cutler from school. Leigh accepted Henry Cow's invitation to join the band in 1972, and he played on their first album Legend (1973). After a tour of Holland at the end of 1973, and his preference for playing composed as opposed to improvised music, Leigh left Henry Cow. (Leigh himself insists it was the other way round - he found the composed music becoming more complex for the sake of it, and the improvisations too contemporary classical for his essentially free jazz approach).

As Henry Cow were, at the time, signed to Virgin Records, Leigh took advantage of Virgin's network of artists and performed and recorded with a number of their musicians and groups, including Slapp Happy, and Hatfield and the North. In November 1973, Leigh participated in a live-in-the-studio performance of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells for the BBC, with Mick Taylor, Steve Hillage and members of Henry Cow, Gong and Soft Machine. It was released on Oldfield's Elements DVD. He also guested on Henry Cow's album, In Praise of Learning (1975).

In 1974, Leigh formed Radar Favourites, with Gerry Fitzgerald (vocals, guitar), Cathy Williams (keyboards, vocals), Jack Monck (bass guitar) and Charles Hayward (drums). After only a few months, musical differences led to Monck and Fitgerald leaving, to be replaced by Charles Bullen (guitar), and Alan Möller (bass). The group disbanded the following year after Virgin Records turned them down (for purely financial reasons) - Hayward and Bullen went on to form This Heat, one of the most seminal and influential groups of the time. Leigh and Williams then embarked on a long musical relationship - their first project was a duo, Rag Doll, followed by Red Balune, a music theatre collective they formed in 1976. Red Balune grew over the next few years and attracted a number of musicians, including Colin McClure (bass), Robin Musgrove (drums), Henk Weltevreden (keyboards), Aloijsius van Saus (industrial sounds and performance), and Anne-Marie Roeloffs (trombone).

In December 1977 Red Balune toured Holland and returned to England in January 1978 to begin recording an album. The album was never finished, but they did release a single, "Spider in Love" c/w "Capitalist Kid", in 1978, on their own MCCB record label, which became a "seminal underground classic". In April 1978 the band relocated to Holland, recording the EP Maximum Penalty in early 1979, which featured guest appearances by ex-Henry Cow members Fred Frith (guitar, violin), Tim Hodgkinson (keyboards, alto saxophone, clarinet), Chris Cutler (piano scrapes and general burning ideas), and Aksak Maboul founder Marc Hollander (bass clarinet).

By then Leigh was spending more time in Brussels, playing with experimental bands Aksak Maboul and Univers Zéro, and after the release of his highly acclaimed solo EP Chemical Bank in 1979, played solo performances for almost 18 months, mainly in Belgium and France. In 1981 Leigh moved back to Rotterdam and formed the Kontakt Mikrofoon Orkest, featuring once again Colin McClure, Aloijsius van Saus (vocals, guitar, alto sax, keyboards, electronics), Gert van Seters (drums), and Jos Valster (saxophones and clarinets). This very short-lived group recorded one single on the MCCB label, "Living In Rotterdam" / "Do The Residue" before splitting in late 1981. But the seeds of the most infamous of all the MCCB groups were already sown - Black Sheep, a "surrealistic variant on Henry Cow", with Colin McLure and Aloijsius van Saus. In 1981 they released a 12" maxi single, Animal Sounds, and contributed "Strangelove" (on which Zeena Parkins made her recording debut, as backing vocalist) to a Recommended Records compilation disc, and toured extensively in Holland, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Sweden, and former Yugoslavia.

After leaving the Black Sheep in 1982, Leigh formed several bands which owed more to world music than any of his previous work, the most long-standing being Random Bob, featuring once again Colin McClure, Henk Weltevreden, and percussionist Asad Oberoi, later replaced by drummer/percussionist Coen Aalberts.

In 1986, Leigh once again headed back to Brussels, where he became even more closely involved in the world music scene, performing with Algerian singer Hamsy Boubaker, and Moroccan oud players Hassan Erragi and Abid. With Abid he co-composed and performed the music for a one woman theatre production with Tunisian/Belgian actress Sabra Ben Arfa, produced by renowned Moroccan actor/producer Amid Chakir a close associate of Belgian film maker Chantal Akerman. The play was performed many times in Belgium, as well as in Tunisia and Egypt. Around this time Leigh also had a long-term musical partnership with Moroccan guimbri player, vocalist, and percussionist Jalil El Afra.

Leigh also continued working with Rotterdam-based percussionist Asad Oberoi, composing and performing music for several dance productions. Via his contacts in Brussels he worked with film maker Alain de Halleux on many TV and movie ads, including an infamously groundbreaking trilogy of ads for Perrier. Several short-lived but artistically creative duos and one-off projects from this period included musicians John van Rymenant (saxophones, electronics, programming), Peter Beyls (self-designed software, controllers, interfaces, electronics), Claude Janssens (alto saxophone, trombone, programming). Leigh played with Pierre Jacobs (keyboards, flutes, percussion, vocals) in the fusion group Sables from 1988 until 1992, and in 1988 formed the Morton Fork Gang with British saxophonist Joe Higham - the band included Daniel Denis (drums) and Guy Segers (bass guitar) from Univers Zéro, cellist Jan Kuijken, and saxophonists Mark Bogaerts and Daniel Stokart.

In 1992 Leigh was diagnosed with dystonia, an incurable neurological condition, contracted after a badly performed dental operation some two years earlier, which effected his performing capabilities to such an extent that he was eventually forced to stop playing altogether. He managed to fulfil some concert obligations with Morton Fork and Sables in Brussels in early '93, and after returning permanently to the UK, even rehearsed and performed in small venues with original Radar Favourites bassist Jack Monck and Moroccan percussionist Lahcen Lahbib, as the Highly Irregulars.

But fortunately the medication Leigh was prescribed (Trihexyphenidyl Hydrochloride, formerly known as Artane) did actually work - only about 1 in 10 sufferers can tolerate this medicine, and the chances of it having a long term positive effect are very slight. Throughout the 1990s he slowly regained sufficient control of the condition to resume work.

In 1999 he formed the ethno-fusion band Ex-Wise Heads with bass/guimbri player Colin Edwin from renowned progressive rock band Porcupine Tree. The band have to date released three CDs on their own Hard World label; an exclusive download 5 track EP Grounded has just been made available from Burning Shed; an exclusive vinyl release is due for release on Rotterdam based Tonefloat Records; a new CD Liquid Assets was released in September 2007.

A chance meeting in 2002 with Berliner Tom Zunk (waterphone and Indonesian percussion) led to the formation of the duo Men Working Overhead - they performed several concerts in Germany and London between 2002–04, often augmented by dancer/video artist Elke Postler.

Since the re-release in 2005 of the entire MCCB back catalogue on Ad Hoc Records (a subsidiary of Recommended Records USA), the Black Sheep have got back together and recorded a new album, Out Of Quarantine, featuring both previously unreleased material from 1981-2, and recordings from 2005-8 - this will initially only be available as a download. As a result of renewed interest in the MCCB release, Leigh and Cathy Williams have also started working together again - Cathy has been involved with Indian music and musicians for many years now, and a CD of their new project Mirage was released on the Hard World label in December 2006. They released their 2nd CD Child's Play in 2007, augmenting the group with Sam Christie (percussion), and Gem McSweeney (mandolin and various strings, flutes, and percussion).

In July 2005 Leigh played a one-off concert in London with Faust founder members Jean-Hervé Péron and Werner "Zappi" Diermaier, then played with Lucianne Lassalle (voice, electronics) as Henrico Reed & Lulu at the Faust Avant Garde Festival near Hamburg in September '05. The duo performed again on the 2006 festival, and also contributed to the Faust UK tour in October/November 2005 - a 3 CD/1 DVD box set, Faust....In Autumn was released on Dirter Records in December 2006, featuring the band plus both Leigh and Lassalle. Leigh performed solo at the 2008 Faust festival.

2009 : Leigh is currently involved in several projects, including solo performances, a duo with Simon Crab (laptop processing, ex-Bourbonese Qualk), and several on-line collaborations. He also has several archive releases in the pipeline, including a Radar Favourites cd release, and hopefully a cd from the Morton Fork Gang. A cd with Japanese pianist/vocalist/composer Yumi Hara Cawkwell is planned for release in June. He has become something of a regular at Hastings Electric Palace Cinema, recently voted one of The Guardian's Top Ten UK arthouse cinemas, contributing live improvised soundscapes to short experimental movies. Recent activities include 5 concerts & 2 workshops in Japan with Yumi Hara, plus a guest appearance with Japanese psychedelic rock band Acid Mothers Temple. Leigh & Yumi Hara were joined by legendary Japanese drummer Tatsuya Yoshida for a concert in Tokyo. In August Leigh performed at the annual Avant Garde Festival in Schiphorst, Germany, with Yumi Hara and ex-Henry Cow members Chris Cutler (drums) and John Greaves (bass/vocals). He was also invited to perform with the infamous Nurse With Wound. In late October Leigh played solo at the Nodutgang Festival in Bodo, Norway, and several concerts in Sweden with Magnus Alexanderson (guitar, electronics).

2010 : After playing a short tour of Italy in February with guitarist Adriano Lanzi, Leigh decided to take a break from live performances due to ongoing dental problems, which have obliged him to temporarily stop playing saxophone. However the year saw a handful of local performances, including two appearances at Brighton's Spirit Of Gravity, one with the Warrior Squares, the second with cellist Bela Emerson. Three new cd's were released - Radar Favourites, Ex Wise Heads, and Uwe Bastiansen's "Stadtfischflex", featuring Leigh alongside Jean-Herve Peron and Zappi Diermaier (Faust), and Tim Hodgkinson (Henry Cow).