Young Marble Giants

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may need to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please help improve this article, especially its introduction, section layout, and relevant internal links. (help)

Young Marble Giants were a Cardiff post-punk band, a trio formed in 1978. Their style featured minimal, unmistakable instrumentation provided by brothers Philip and Stuart Moxham, supporting the cool, gentle voice of Alison Statton. Stuart Moxham wrote the majority of the band's songs, and his writing was often deceptively simple-seeming, giving the YMG's classic work a uniquely fragile yet powerful quality. Centered around a weird mix of Philip's steel-hawser bass, Stuart's haunting, rhythmic Acetone organ lines and punchy rhythm guitar (played on a rare John Lennon style blonde Rickenbacker), with Stratton's vocals tentatively hanging in the space above, the sound was unlike anything anyone had heard before. Stuart Moxham's then girlfriend Wendy Smith had lent Stuart the money to buy the Rickenbacker. Smith, who was an art student in Cardiff and later Nottingham around the time the YMGs were forming, was to provide artwork for several of the singles that were later made by Weekend and the Gist, Stuart Moxham's later project. She also accompanied the band on their tour of the US, and was to shoot a set of seminal photographs of the band.

Philip Moxham

Alison Statton, Peter Joyce, Philip Moxham, Stuart Moxham

Very early in their existence, there was a fourth member of the YMGs: Peter Joyce, Phil and Stuart Moxham's cousin. Joyce was an electronics whizz, who had made his own synthesiser from a kit. This was a small touch-sensitive keyboard with an attache case-like box of circuitry, with several knobs and dials. It made sounds similar to Eno's synths in the early Roxy Music and Kraftwerk, who employed similar 'low-tech/high-tech' electronics. The YMGs used tape recordings of Peter's home-made drum machine (Roland didn't release the Boss DR-55, the first fully programmable drum machine, until 1979), since they had no drummer. They were also interested in (by today's standards primitive) state of the art effects devices such as ring modulators and reverb units, with the emphasis always on simplicity.

Their first vinyl release was on the compilation LP Is The War Over? on Cardiff DIY label, Z Block Records, in October 1979. While signed to UK independent record label, Rough Trade Records the YMGs released two EPs, Final Day and Testcard, and one acclaimed and very influential album, Colossal Youth (need to combine these two articles) (a reference to the Early Greek 'Kouroi' marble statues, from which the YMGs took the inspiration for their name.)

The band toured and played in the US, Japan and Europe, and played in San Francisco, Vancouver, New York, Berlin. Touring companions included the band Cabaret Voltaire.

Musical influences included Eno, Kraftwerk, Neil Young, Lou Reed, The Velvet Underground, Roxy Music, David Bowie, Can and others. The band were acquainted with Scritti Politti, the band of Cardiff native Green Gartside, and ended up signed to the same label, Rough Trade Records. It was revealed in the 2003 book Journals that the band were, along with Scotland's The Vaselines, Kurt Cobain's favourite band. Courtney Love's band Hole covered the Young Marble Giants track "Credit In The Straight World". Stuart Moxham was a fan of Manchester guitarist Vini Reilly's early work, and was also very interested in Dub Reggae.

After the band split up in 1981, Stuart Moxham formed The Gist, whose song 'Love at First Sight' became a major hit on the continent when covered by French pop singer Étienne Daho under the title 'Café de Flore'. Following a very severe motorbike accident, Stuart moved away from music for most of the 80's, before fans persuaded him to enter the studio again. The result was the album 'Random Rules' (1993), which featured friends old and new, such as Spike (guitar & viola), younger brother Andrew (drums) and London-based French songwriter Louis Philippe (keys & arrangements). A band was formed to perform Stuart's new material, which gigged, albeit briefly, in France and the UK. Another album, 'Cars in the Grass', followed. Stuart had also been recording in the USA (the album 'Fine Tuning'), where he has acquired a small but devoted fanbase. Now based in the West Country, Stuart is still writing songs faithful to the deceptively refined ethos of his first band. A new album, recorded as a duet with Louis Philippe, should be released by the end of 2006.

In 1989 - 1990, Alison Statton worked with Ian Devine, the former guitarist of the post-punk group Ludus. They released two records together, The Prince of Wales and Cardiffians. Interestingly, Blaine L. Reininger of Tuxedomoon plays accordion on the record. The music was predominantly composed by Devine, but Statton's distinctive vocals and influence are clear on many of the songs, and anticipate the sounds and musical ideas she would later explore with Spike et al.

Alison Statton, Spike and Simon Emmerson (later of Working Week and Afro Celt Sound System) formed Weekend (with Phil Moxham on bass) and several respected jazz musicians including Larry Stabbins, Harry Beckett and Keith Tippett.

Philip Moxham went on to play bass for The Communards and Everything But The Girl, who were Ben Watt and Tracey Thorn's group. He features on one of their albums. Statton later recorded with Ian Devine and Spike, respectively.

In early 2003, Statton and the Moxham brothers reunited for a BBC Radio Wales radio special. They performed one new song, "Alright," on this special. It was rumoured that the band might stay together to make further new recordings, but this project has not yet surfaced. There are however plans for at least one 'reunion concert' either in the fall of 2006, or the spring of 2007.

[edit] Discography

	Year	Title	Type	UK Indie Chart Position
Feb	1980	"Colossal Youth"	Album	#3
Jun	1980	"Final Day"	Single	#6
Mar	1981	"Testcard"	EP	#2
	2000	"Salad Days" ¹	Album

¹ compilation of demo versions from "Colossal Youth" and "Testcard" tracks

[edit] External links

Phil and Stuart Moxham	Alison Statton, Peter Joyce, Phil and Stuart	Stuart on Rickenbacker and Phil on Hayman Bass	Alison, Peter, Phil and Stuart
Alison and Peter with the synth	Stuart on Rickenbacker