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Less than a year before, I'd have not believed that it could ever happen, but, six months after first being suggested to me, ‘Tender Bruises and Scars’ was released on June 16th, 2003.

 

It collects together every studio track I had released on Factory and Cherry Red between 1980-84. My present day mixed emotions about this work are well chronicled, both in other items on this website and elsewhere, including the actual TBAS CD insert essay I wrote in February 2003 - though there I was asked by Cherry Red's re-issue co-ordinator Alex Blades to edit out some of my most negative comments! Fair enough - they have an album to sell but there's the artist giving it the equivalent of a 0/10 review!! Of course I DO believe it has some merit. I even feel like THAT Kevin Hewick’s Dad - well, I’m twice his age - and, as he isn't here to stick up for himself, I'l have to do it for him.

 

He certainly made some odd artistic decisions, many of which cost him dearly on both a career and a personal level, and it has been like going on a pilgrimage to see the ruins of my youthful follies. I'm glad I dont have to stay there but TBAS has helped me to come to terms with what I did then. And all was not, is not, lost after all...something very original and honest was there in the songs, TBAS proves it. At the time of writing this, I've no idea how it will be received or if it will be totally ignored. Back then I was often on the receiving end of reviews so vicious you'd have thought everything bad about the eighties was my fault, (but surely that was down to Margaret Thatcher and John Hollingsworth?) Some of the music press I got at that time was so bad you'd have thought I'd run away with their wives/hooked their kids on  heroin/burned their houses/stolen their cars/shot their dogs etc...but no, my crime was that I wrote a few daft songs, did a few gigs that they didn’t like very much. Anyway, I've been glad to see some of them in recent years on TV advertising soap powder, arguing with fellow middle class elitist pseuds on BBC2's Late Review and witing for the very establishment press they once _bit more suss these days, especially as claimed to despise...and | hear some of them now flip a mean burger...Peace, Love and Empathy to them all. (..but truth is, I’d buy any of them a pint and hope and say no hard feelings…)

 

And | blame MYSELF most of all. I did and said some very stupid things. I didn’t have a clue how to play the game - and I lost it,  I mean LOST it. ...and the main reason I lost it was because to me it wasnt a game at all. I still can’t free myself from the notion that the ART is everything, that being real is all that matters and if you DARE to do it the hope is that people will, to use an old funky phrase, get into it.

 

I remember saying that you either do what the audience wants or you try to make the audience want what you do. It’s clear what side of that concept I was/am on, although I go about it with a bit more suss these days, especially as I’m an old badger now. (Official.) So there were times when I thought it had all vanished and me with it, and my only hope was to die before I was 30. But somewhere, someone always cared.

 

And I now intend to live to be 300. And the new technology DID connect people, not only to the present and the future but to a re-evalutation of the past. Through websites and email affectionardos of all kinds of weird stuff, even Kebin Hewick 80s vinyl, have found they are not alone in their log cabins, high rises, castles and submarines...in that invisible hum of cyberspace is where Tender Bruises and Scars began, in nebulous form. Some people out there wanted it, were trying to collect the pieces that made the whole. Most of all, things changed when Steve Rees constructed KevinHewick.com. Meeting up with Steve and Gary Knight (after a gap of 12 years - a fair bit of which he's been working abroad), led to their setting up the site. I'm a very lucky boy. Steve's web skills and Gary's grasp of the conceptual, of THE VISION, has made all of this possible, and I'm ever thrilled with it as it ever evolves. We tell people to look at it often because it really does constantly develop, there's always something new to for them to see.

 

It’s not that I haven't been trying, through the 90's into the 00's I've written/recorded/released songs on CDs/Compilations/Tapes etc and played

hundreds of gigs. But the establishment of the website has spread the message, whatever that is, faster and further than imaginable in pre-mass produced PC/cyber-cafe times.

 

Through the site activity came a remarkable piece of synchronicity. Gary has become an amazing champion of the KevinHewick.com cause and has promoted it in many directions and has established contact with some great people all over the world - and closer to home. He e-mailed Cherry Red Records where we share a connection - Gary and Steve's enchanting 80's combo In Embrace were also on the label at one time. This led to Cherry Red MD lain McNay checking out the KevinHewick.com site, which was good in itself - but it also co-incided with ideas he was developing to celebrate 2003 being the 25th anniversary of Cherry Red.

 

To my surprise, | received an e-mail from lain, our first contact for eight years or so. Hearing from him again as pleasing enough, but,even more suprisingly, he proposed that my 80's. studio recordings could perhaps be compiled onto a CD as part of a series of Cherry Red rarities to be re-issued in 2003, which started us on a long, but highly enjoyable process. Chemy Red allowed me a very large say in the whole project. I was able to extensively discuss anything about it with lain McNay and Alex Blades. lain and I know each other of old, but I was a new and ultra-demanding artist for Alex who handled everything with incredible

patience and good humour. I was allowed, as mentioned, to write my own ‘liner notes" as they used to call them, and my wish to have Gary Knight desgn the packaging was accepted.

 

Gary and | exchanged dozens of e-mails about TBAS, about every detail, and every detail of every detail, imaginable. Nobody could ever have cared as much as Gary did...and so we pieced it together via mails/texts/calls and the odd meeting in London, over sushi at Yo!Sushi (the robot drinks waiter there has become a very close friend of ours) and downstairs at Bradleys just off Oxford street - a little bit of Spanish Castle Magic in Central London.

 

And, loaded with more symbolism than a Bergman movie, | ‘returned’ to the Cherry Red offices, though they have in fact changed location twice since ‘my day’ - and, with McNay not present at the time I was there it was in fact a strange place with strange people in it.

 

(In fact, totally blowing my chance to make a cool entrance to an office of A&R young guns. Alex had to come out and find me. I’d got totally lost on the New Kings Road and surrounding environs.) Alex had trouble stopping me wandering off to explore the treasure crammed office - lots of CDs/DVDS etc you expect but framed autographs of Napoleon Bonaparte and Leon Trotsky?????!…and it’s hard to keep me on track sometimes, I think I talked about t.A.T.u more than I did about TBAS…but that’s because I care about music as a tool of positive subversion, to be used to help to nurture a more creative, more compassionate and sexy society.

 

As well as Gary, Steve, Iain and Alex’s dedication to the project, there was also Alan Wilson at Western Star Studios in Bristol who worked with delicate two-decade old master tapes, and where masters were sadly lost or damaged, vinyl copies were digitally transferred. Alan constantly consulted me, way way more than most would have been bothered to, about how the tracks should be complied. I felt very fortunate to have this crucial role entrusted to a man whose skills have rescued many past gems…it’s little wonder that Cherry Red use him all the time. Alan’s mastering notes were so good that we’ve included them here.

 

A final Cherry (!) on the TBAS cake is the beautiful endorsement by Jackie Leven on the back cover. This was entirely Jackie’s idea. It’s a true honour to receive such a personal tribute from an artist who easily ranks amongst the finest singer-songwritersin the World. Our connection spans the decades since the 70s, as does my friendship with fellow Jackie/Doll By Doll fan Mick Nolan who took many of the photos used on the TBAS design.

 

I’ll confess I was a little reluctant about the this element of the cover art at first. There’s NOTHING wrong with the pictures themselves, it’s just my vanity. I’m thinner of hair and fuller of figure compared to the fresh-faced lad of TBAS…me, and millions of other 40-something blokes, but, if you’ve got a photo taken 21/22/23/24 years ago, you’ll appreciate how, without Botox or an Elton hair job, it’s the way it is. As I went through my old pcitures I found some fine, and very useable images, especially those by Mick. They are the truth of the time they were taken and Nolan’s mastery of light and shade make him the official TBAS court photographer!

 

So, because of all these good people’s efforts, and the great support the website has received for the music that I once assumed would die with me, cybersupport from all over the world, from Sweden to Hawaii, from Canada to Singapore, these songs walk the earth again, looking for the Moulin Rouge, the Solid Crew, the Laughing Cow, the Whispering Grass, Splinters and Thorns, Nancy Wilson’s broken guitar strings, Larry Young’s sleeping Hammond and the Asmoto Running Band.

 

Anyway, I digress slightly (!), I promised to guide you through the songs of TBAS and their attendant mysteries…so…we will begin.

 

Haystack (with New Order)

I wrote this on December 30th 1978, making it the oldest song on TBAS. The night before, I'd seen Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick in ‘The Days of Wine

and Roses’ on TV. As befits a viewing of a film about a golden couple's descent into booze hell I drank brandy all the way through it and was as

smashed as they were pretending to be by the end,

 

I was haunted by a scene where they work on her Dad's farm, trying to dry up and avoid the pressures and temptations of the big City life. They both tumble into this haystack, frolicking I guess you could say...add a bit of scrambled heroin and sexual imagery and there's the song. I used to just slap them down fast on an AKAI reel-to-reel in my bedroom. I knew this one was especially good.

 

Needless to say I've never been satisfied with any of the versions ever released. The live ‘Factory Quartet’ one is pretty badly played and sung. The version here with New Order reveals my inexperience in the studio, my nerves at being there with former members Joy Division - a band that I'd hero-worshipped and our lack of rehearsal. I like the idea that the great Martin Hannett produced it in his sleep. Respect!

 

I recorded it AGAIN in 1993 for my ‘In An Open Air Surgery’ cassette album with Rob Vom of Crazyhead on drums and me on guitars/bass trying to sound like Crazy Horse. Crazyhead... Crazy Horse...some cosmic connection there surely?

 

Originally released on the Crepescule cassette ‘From Brussels With Love’.

Alan’s note says: “Heavy bass with guitar…picked up her stiletto.”

 

Ophelia's Drinking Song

Written on a Casio keyboard but transposed to my usual guitar later on. I did this very fast at home -I was in a hurry to go out and hurried to finish it. I think my Ophelia is a Marianne Faithful Ophelia.

 

Depression/Insanity/Madness/the weed/mud clogged water offers a compassionate release. Just the Kind of thing you write before heading aut on the razz with a couple of Lesbian mates…typical Leicester lad stuff…I love Shakespeare but | think my favourite Is ‘The Tempest, not "Hamlet.

 

I think it's a big comedown for Gwyneth Paltrow, to go from William Shakespeare to Chris Martin, but I’m sure she has her reasons.

 

Originally released as a Factory 7-inch single.

 

Cathy Clown

Utterly separate song from ‘Ophelia’, they just flowed nicely together live and I did them like that for the Factory single. The title also caused confusion in its homage to The Everly’s Cathy’s Clown’.  It was as unFac as you could get that I was a big fan of 50s rock’n‘oll like The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Chuck  Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and the man who was to become a huge iinfluence on myreturn to wrting/performing in the late 80’s, Roy Orbison,

 

Of course with A Certain Ratio's Donald Johnson on the percussion and me on guitar and vocals we were The White Stripes about 20 years before there was such a thing...or Tyrannosaurus Rex 10 years too late...see, it's true, it's all about timing…

 

The song itself is about my, er, crush on a girl called Kate, changed to Cathy for the song - ‘Kathy Clown’ didn't look right somehow. I worked on floor 8 of the now defunct Leicester Lower Hill Street DHSS office - and she worked on floor 9 and used to come down with some filing - true office romance stuff! The ‘Clown clothes’ bit came from the fact she used to wear really colourful trousers, multi-colured checks. My friend on my section, Louise Campling (Daughter of John who took the full face shot of me on the cover of TBAS), called them ‘Clown Trousers’.

 

I actually did pluck up courage and ask Kate out. Our date was a mega-flop. She never did get to hear the song.

 

Originally released on the Ophelia’s Drinking Song 7" single on Factory.

 

He Holds You Tighter

This is one of my favourites on TBAS. No OTT lyrics, no OTT singing...as it was about four in the moming when | sang it, no wonder. I begged Tony Wilson to let me do it again but he was right.

 

Sadly, a jealous tirade against some girl I  fancied's boyfriend who was probably) a very nice chap...but come to think of it, no, he wasn't

 

Originally released on the Ophelia’s Drinking Song 7" single on Factory.

Alan’s notes say: “Guitar, shakers, finger pops.”

 

Normandy

It’s no secret that Side One of the ‘Such Hunger for Love’ LP now perplexes me - greatly. Even at the time I KNEW…I remember playing the acetate copy I got from Cherry Red. It was like Peggy Lee's "Is that all there is?" - “Is that all there is...to my first studio album?"

 

So, there was no joy or celebration. ‘Normandy’ sets the tone for what's to come I suppose. A kind of IgotsomebutnotmuchandnowI’mnotgettingany tirade.I should have took my own advice - “don't make sex complex” (‘Make’)

 

"She was only a young girl having a bit of un: Get over it, Hewick 1983!” Said Hewick 2003. It especially distresses me that this song might be read as misogynistic. It isnt, it's just nasty and petty and I regret ever making it public. However, it's part of the work I did then...it

belongs here because of that.

 

From the Cherry Red LP ’Such Hunger With Love’.

Alan’s notes say:”Giggle, well I never!"

 

Spain

Kate - yes, that Kate - told me she was going on holiday with her mate to Spain. A wickedly clever lyric and funny pastiche of all things espainiol (and a rare appearence by the acoustic guitar - everything else here is on electric’s) but the “poor me left here all by myself in England while shes goes and has FUN in Spain” sentiment is pathetic. Get a life!

 

From the Cherry Red LP ’Such Hunger With Love’.

Alan’s notes say: ”Starts with a nice acoustic lead riff, very Spanish!”

 

Gibraltar

I just hated this G.I.B (Good in Bed) thing. (The press then would run articles like "Is your Man G.I.B.” etc.) and, judging from this, I clearly had some, er, gender issues with masculinity too.

 

My cousin Peter Hewick was in the Navy and sent me a great postcard in 1964 of one of the Gibraltar apes that I still have, it’s like a 3D picture, so maybe that has something to do with it too. This song isnt LITERALLY set in Gibraltar then folks. It's about a black rock that stands in the’ middle of a perfumed sea. The Bitches surely have no need of the songs of men but if Rockbitch ever do a covers album maybe they could trash this one for me.

 

From the Cherry Red LP ’Such Hunger With Love’.

Alan’s notes say: ”Almost an industrial start.”

 

At First Sight

As true now as it was then | suppose. An attempt to get funky in a stiff kind of way, though Chic it isn’t. The bass | used, a British Shergold, belonged to the studio and was stringed upside-down for left-handed playing, hence the lopsided quality of my Bass line. Well mad guitar solo at the end, it's final note deconstructed by an early Lexicon digital delay box, ‘Such Hunger For Love’ producer David Motion and I's tribute to Frippertronics.

 

A bit like ‘He Holds You Tighter’, this is a straightforward lyric, a pathetic persona again, a kind of erotic nearly man.

 

This I like.

 

From the Cherry Red LP ’Such Hunger With Love’.

Alan’s notes say: ”Funky chords”

 

I Rap Too Much (aka Elizabethan Death Rap)

This I DONT like.

 

Look, Bowie did ‘The Laughing Gnome’, we all do stupid things we regret. It's my hamfisted attempt to sing about something that’s a taboo. Actually I could live with its honesty about my own sorry state of affairs but after “The Elizabethan’s called orgasm death" bit, after that, ouch!

 

Sorry girls.

 

From the Cherry Red LP ’Such Hunger With Love’.

Alan’s notes say:”Straight in from last track with percussive stuff on = guitar?”

 

Make

A much better take on the theme of ‘Normandy’, a miserabilist meditation on a one-off fling, but what a lyric! I wrote this on the Casio keyboard but decided to go for acapella shock value. There's a much simpler and much more effective melody in the original version. I've always wanted the ‘melody’ here transposed for a string quartet -it’d be very Bartok - but here it’s just very barking!

 

From the Cherry Red LP ’Such Hunger With Love’.

Alan’s notes say:”Vocal - you made me an off-off-er”

   

Door To Door Salesman

I think this is one of the best songs of the eighties by anyone. I am so proud of this. DO listen to this one. If someone famous had done this, imagine if

McCartney had done it or Dylan or Billy Bragg...critics would have gone nuts about it. It’s got the angst but without the self-pity. It's got compassion, it says we’re all (un)happy hookers. We'e all Jills and Johns. Or Dave. I saw a documentary about working women where one said they often call the punter ‘Dave’.

 

"It's Hewick’s problem not ours” - Dave McCulloch, Sounds, 1983.

 

Perhaps THIS is the one Rockbitch should cover. With a lot of courage and a leap of faith that most of us can, sadly, never dare to manage, they’ve found a solution to the longings expressed in this song. Good for them.

 

From the Cherry Red LP ’Such Hunger With Love’.

Alan’s notes say:”Soft chords with D to D Saleman in lyrics”

 

Shells

The start of Such Hunger For Love's second side, the ‘spiritual’ side. A meditation on mortality, the speed of time. The lyric is rational poetry, the

performance nicely understated - not a word I'd often use for my 80's output! It's good how the CD links this with ‘Door to Door Salesman’ and ‘Edie’.

 

From the Cherry Red LP ’Such Hunger With Love’.

Alan’s notes say:”Guitar chords, only a little…”

 

The Hill Of Leopards

Another lifted title, the second novel by Sylvia Plath, her follow-up to her masterpiece ‘The Bell Jar’. Her Mother claimed she bumed the only copy of ‘The Hill of Leopards’ manuscript in front of her on a bonfire one day.

 

If ‘Scapegoat’ is physical/spiritual terror of…er, a Leopard? A Woman?? A Leopardwoman??? One for the Psychologists I reckon.

 

A slide guitar solo on this, a very ODD slide guitar solo. Done on the old Hofner lap steel, a guitar I still have to this day. Sadlly, I flogged the ‘68 Gibson SG I used on Side One (and the previous Factory tracks on TBAS) and the Yamaha FG180 acoustic on ‘Spain’ in a fit of

fit of depression in 1986. I used a Fender Stratocaster from ‘Door-to-Door Saleman’ onwards, a lovely '81 cherry sunburst that got stolen from a car in 1990. The only other survivor from ‘Such Hunger’ is the bizarre headless Bunker electric clattering through ‘I Rap Too Much’…oh and me, of course.

 

From the Cherry Red LP ’Such Hunger With Love’.

Alan’s notes say:”Really groovy guitar intro - I want to cover this song!”

 

Feathering The Nest

A pure direct song about domestic bliss gone to rack and ruin, from marital bliss to divorce. Surely worthy of Sinatra had he have got to hear it , or perhaps it's Not too late for Tony Bennett to consider. Though unusually relaxed guitar wise (I leaned against the piano doing the rhythm track and the

seminally jazzed off solo was also casually knocked off too), the vocal was too mannered. In the parallel universe that was 1983 Cherry Red issued this as a SINGLE. If not this version, I am simply amazed that SOMEONE didn' /hasn’t realised that this is one of ‘those they-don't-write"em-ike-that-

anymore’ songs. But I did!

 

Instead, for the single review | got Lyndon Barber in the Melody Maker. What | ever did to him I'll never know. He sure did Something to me - like ruin my chances of any ‘MM’ reader buying the single. Lyndon, the pub is warm and friendly and, 20 years on, it still awaits you. In the end, as I said in the intro to this, despite my occasionally still spitting tacks over it, I'd buy any of Lyndon and his evil mad 80s journo pals a pint and call it quits.

 

Anyway, ‘Feathering the Nest’, let it into your heart, it's good.

 

From the Cherry Red LP ’Such Hunger With Love’.

Alan’s notes say: “clean laid back guitar intro, softly sung vocal"

 

She Holds Him Tighter

The similarity to ‘He Holds You Tighter’ is deliberate but this isn’t possessive clinging ‘love’, it's selfless love, a Mother and Child. This was inspired by a stay at Larry of Section 25's house at Poulton-le-Fylde after a gig with them and New Order in Blackpool. It was a great night and after, back at the house I sat up talking with Larry and fellow house guest, the now sadly late Ruth Polski who ran New-York Danceteria. It as a real peak, my last great Factory night really. Next day, as I said ‘goodbye’,  Larry's wife Jenny sat with their son.on a Wall. He was a tot, kept wiggling to get free of her arms:

 

I guess it was my wistful pining for such a set up myself. In fact, it came to me 13 years later and though my actual relationship with her Mother Claire didn't last, I have a fantastic daughter, Bethan.

 

Interestingly, in seven years together, Claire never got fo hear ‘Such hunger For Love’! With this reissue, she has, at last, has that exciting treat, denied her for'so long!

 

From the Cherry Red LP ’Such Hunger With Love’.

Alan’s notes say:”Vocals at start, something about lizards?”

 

Mother's Day

If this IS a bit loopy it's no loopier than some things Jim Morrison or Patti Smith did and they got away with it - so why didn't 1?

 

Clearly trying to connect the theme’ of the previous songs - like spirituality / protectiveness / parenting / nurturing / loss / death / rebirth etc into one final catchy S Club style number. I was also singing about Sylvia Plath (!?) and the lyric seems to suggest she was a bit of a closet hippy chick(?!) who wanted me to “give the world to our children”. (Not literal children. I was. 6 years 1 week old on the day that she died  - February 11th 1963  - the same day that The Beatles recorded their ‘Please Please Me’ debut.)

 

The run-off groove synth drone was yet another of those lovely games you could play with vinyl, blame that one on’ Sgt. Pepper’,

 

‘Mothers Day’ actually enjoyed(?) a live revival in the early 90's in a band version where Domininc Bentham shone on bass. That line-up we had with Lee Allatson on the drums did some great stuff back in 1990/91.

 

From the Cherry Red LP ’Such Hunger With Love’.

Alan’s notes say: “Little laugh followed by percussion"

 

‘Neath Dancing Waves

Actually the first song recorded on the ‘Such Hunger For Love’ sessions, but used as a B-side for the ‘Feathering The Nest’ single. It's hard to say if the World needed a song - in the first person - about Natalie Wood drowning or not…probably not.

 

It's the same kind of use of imagery as ‘Haystack’ but this isn’t a well realised version - a couple of tracks on you'll hear what happened when The Sound got hold of it.

 

From the Cherry Red single ’Feathering The Nest’.

Alan’s notes say: ”Starts with a guitar - not unlike the Cure's guitar sound”

 

Tender Bruises And Scars

Another synthstrumental named after a line from ‘Neath Dancing Waves’. Just pretty arpeggios, cascading down. It was lain McNay who spotted what had been under my nose for 20 years - THIS was THE title for the Kevin Hewick 80's retrospective.

 

From the Cherry Red single ’Feathering The Nest’.

Alan’s notes say: “Keyboard intro”

 

Plenty (with The Sound)

‘Plenty’ version 2, in fact. Version 1 had different lyrics, matching eye colour to emotions, green eyes getting jealous etc. I recorded it wth The Sound and submitted it to Factory for what became the ‘Ophelia’ FAC 48 single. Tony just didnt like it, but perhaps somebody did because when I first

listened to New Order’s ‘Temptation’, I picked up straightaway on the eye colour bit - “Oh you've got Green / Blue / Grey eyes"...spooky paranoid bizzare love triangle conspiracy theory! My bedroom original used a Wasp Synthesiser, an amazing, eccentric touch-sensitive noise machine that has

many fans to this day - Vince Clarke of Erasure for example. I got this lashing, pulsating rhythm pattern and put this classic bass line on it, in homage to Hooky of course. The best bass line he never played.

 

I re-recorded this, again with The Sound, for a Cherry Red EP. I rewrote the lyrics on the way to the session.

 

Now, a much smarter reflection on the ARTIST and ART. The backing track is, er, sound (!) - the band knew the studio (the Elephant, Wapping) and the engineer (Nick Robbins). Robbins quickly got Michael Dudley’s drum sound and a great tone for Graham Green’s bass etc.

 

However, someone gives a rather mannered vocal performance. I should have let Adrian Borland sing the lead vocal as well.

 

From the Cherry Red EP ’This Cover Keeps Reality Unreal’.

Alan’s notes say: “Starts with a bass guitar”

 

‘Neath Dancing Waves (with The Sound)

I let Adrian do allthe guitar and this though. The part he came up with was so good that my playing just got in the way. Colvin Mayers’ keyboard work was equally superb - what a transformation from my weedy solo version!

 

Better on the vocal for this. It all gels well and, most of all, displays the beautiful talents of Adrian and Colvin who both left us too soon. Here are the OTHER young men.

 

The Sound’s albums are all out now on CD. Discover for yourself and seek out Adrian’s solo output too - you’ll thank me for it!

 

From the Cherry Red EP ’This Cover Keeps Reality Unreal’.

Alan’s notes say: “Starts wit guitar - not unlike The Cure’s guitar sound”

 

Amber (with The Sound)

Adrian went to town on this. He and Graham scratched cymbals, and Adrian also did bass, then slowed the tape down to make a subsonic rumble. I

famously crushed polystyrene McDonalds cartons, pure Stockhausen!

 

We wanted the sound of compression, of a prehistoric forest fossilising, of decay, the crushing, compressing weight. I remembered a book at school that had a picture of an insect that had flown into amber, that had solidified into a block. That little creature looked like it was flying forever and ever.

 

As sparse as my solo stuff, yet as much a band effort as ‘Plenty’ or ‘Neath Dancing Waves’. Again, Colvin is outstanding on piano here, really on the money.

 

From the Cherry Red EP ’This Cover Keeps Reality Unreal’.

Alan’s notes say: “Starts with a sound that sounds like a machine”

 

Scapegoat In A Country Churchyard

Recorded in 1982 before Such Hunger For Love's Version version at Q studios in Leicestershire. Originally intended for a compilation that didn't happen for Dave Barker’s Glass records. Well known for its commercial work, the Q engineer, one of the Branstons who owned the complex?, clearly thought I was mad. "You want to record a track of FEEDBACK!I?!" He said, incredulously. Clearly Hendrix hadnt reached Queniborough yet.

 

An interesting, lighter contrast to version 2 with its HUGE synths at the end, here you get my controversial feedback instead. My Q-baffling session was a good analogy for my relationship with Leicester itself. I wasn't a popular local hero, few ‘got the point’ of what I did and my getting on Factory and Cherry Red was even met with downright hostility. I recall one member of a band having a go at me at a party about how HIS band should have been on Factory, not me. That and people constantly asking for free records/badges and t-shirts.

 

From the Cherry Red EP ’This Cover Keeps Reality Unreal’.

Alan’s notes say: “Lazy guitar chords…I go to the church”

 

Ophelia’s Drinking Song (enhanced video)

This was shot by A Certain Ratio’s Donald Johnson during the July 1981 trip to Finland with the Durutti Column and ACR. Tony Wilson and John

Hollingsworth were with us as we filmed outside Helsinki station and on a boat to an island just off the coast. It was a miserable day, though Donald never seemed to get rattled by anything. I remain very fond of both Tony and John but the pair of them together...ouch! Any opinion I had that differed from Tony's was simply shouted down. I didnt like the use of a live track recorded the night before at the show at the Old Student’s House. I also didn't like pretending to come out of the station with my guitar in its case like the wandering troubadour who then catches a boat to an island. A tad comy really, and being shouted at all the time hardly enhanced the mood.

 

It's depressing to think I was then slim enough to swap shirts with Hollingsworth so that he could pretend to be me up on the clifftop, the camera panning back to reveal me on the beach. Men in red shirts, men in blue shirts, beware, beware.

 

John and I had a bad argument on the island too - but | did enjoy meeting two girls there. I kept in touch with them. One was called Paivi.

 

The sea?

The Baltic,

 

The picture of the woman on the guitar?

Selina Scott.

 

From the Factory VHS ‘A Factory Video’.

 

Closing Words on Tender Bruises...

So, that's Tender Bruises and Scars, Song by song. The art relived by the artist.

 

I used to be very dismissive of my Factory/Cherry Red past, but I've learned something in looking back. My greatest hope is, that people who buy it because of New Order or The Sound will find other things they like in it and check out this site and discover what I do now and maybe even come see me live.

 

So, to old fiends and new, and all who made ‘Tender Bruises And Scars’ possible, my thanks.

 

Kevin Hewick

June 2003