Career
Showbiz started as a soundman for anarcho-hippypunks Here & Now in 1976. Showbiz ran the sound and stage at many free festivals such as Windsor and Stonehenge. Stamping his personality on proceedings, using a microphone plugged into the soundboard, he would often amiably harangue those onstage to get on with it, or off, as circumstances might merit. He quickly forged links with the punk scene, producing albums for Alternative TV & The Fall. In 1979 he set up the Ladbroke Grove-based Street-Level Studio with Kif Kif (ex drummer of Here & Now) & José Gross (ex keyboard player from Here & Now, guitarist from Balnk Space and The Real Imitations), going on to record a swathe of bands including The Fall, Alternative TV, Mark Perrys' Good Missionaries, The Door And The Window, 012, World Domination Enterprises, The Mob, Impossible Dreamers, The Astronauts, Blythe Power, Brian Brain, The Petticoats, Androids Of Mu, The Instant Automatons & Take It - many released on the associated pioneering DIY record label Fuck Off Records. At this time Showbiz also began making music himself, playing bass in Blue Midnight (who he continues to record & play live with).
Through connections with Rough Trade Showbiz became The Smiths live sound engineer, working with them from their 5th gig until their demise in 1986. He produced their live album Rank and recorded their last ever tracks "Work Is A Four Letter Word" & "I Keep Mine Hidden". He filmed a backstage video Reel around the fountain. of their 1984 UK tour & recorded most of their live shows.
From 1989, Showbiz was member of studio-based band Moodswings until their 2002 album "Horizontal".
Showbiz continues to tour as sound engineer for Billy Bragg.
Read more about this topic: Grant Showbiz
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“I restore myself when I’m alone. A career is born in public—talent in privacy.”
—Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962)
“Whether lawyer, politician or executive, the American who knows what’s good for his career seeks an institutional rather than an individual identity. He becomes the man from NBC or IBM. The institutional imprint furnishes him with pension, meaning, proofs of existence. A man without a company name is a man without a country.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)
“From a hasty glance through the various tests I figure it out that I would be classified in Group B, indicating “Low Average Ability,” reserved usually for those just learning to speak the English Language and preparing for a career of holding a spike while another man hits it.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)