10 Reasons to Love Prolapse

Sound of Confusion: 10 Reasons to Love Prolapse

by Everett True, Melody Maker



1. They're funny

That's misleading for starters.
Frightening, moving, scary, hypnotic, totally f***ing exhilarating...yes. Funny...well, OK, but only cos singer Mick has such a laconic, self-deprecating humour on stage.

2. Live, they've got the potential to be absolutely crap

"Live would be alright," argues Tim (drums) "except there's always this big Scottish bloke jumping around at the front."
"That's the best bit," says big Scottish Mick (voice), affronted.
"It's shit," shoots back the drummer.
"We have the potential for complete disaster," mediates Dave (guitar), "cos there's no organised rhyme or reason to it. It's complete chaos, but complete chaos that everyone's totally dedicated about."
"I'd like to see us live on telly," says Pat (keyboards), "if I wasn't in the band. It'd be different - or abysmal - but at least it wouldn't be as dismal as something like Echobelly or Menswear."
"We aim to be as good as the Cranberries," sneers Mick (bass).

3. They sound like all the bands you missed out on first time round

Maybe I should explain. The reasons given here are the band's, not mine.
One Prolapse trait is to be self-deprecating. (Another is to have vans break down two miles outside the venue on the side of a motorway, get drunk on subsidised beer and end up spending the night in a creche. As happened at Brighton Uni recently.)
The first time I met Scottish Mick, he insisted on singing half my back catalogue to me (songs even I had forgotten existed) and claimed that Prolapse are "the C86 band it's OK to like." Ugh! Damned by faint praise. The second time (in a venue on Brighton seafront), he and fellow singer Linda had a truly scary argument on stage, which ended up with punches being thrown. Theatre? Possibly.
The sixth time (at Reading Festival), he made a point of buying me back an owed drink - "cos no one ever buys me drinks" - and seemed very nonplussed when Eric from Hole informed him he'd just told Danish radio Prolapse were his favourite UK band (wouldn't you be?)
Anyway, I seem to be straying off the point.
Prolapse reckon the main reason people like 'em is cos they sound like all the other bands those people like. What a refreshing, wryly honest, viewpoint...to a degree. So, try Nurse With Wound, Savage Republic, Huggy Bear, The Legend! [sic], Prolapse, Prolapse... oh this is silly.
The reason I love Prolapse is for the way Linda screams at Mick "what's your excuse?" and asks "do you blame me?" so quite and scared. The reason I love Prolapse is for the way the guitars fade away on Every Night I'm Mentally Crucified (7000 Times) from the new album so sonorously; the way the guitars collide and collide again on the truly righteous Strain Contortion of Bag; the pounding of the drums. The reason I love Prolapse is...
"Do you want us to sing a C86 song for you?" asks Mick the bass. "Go on, name a band."

4. They're like a 'care in the community' band

"We're always willing to extend a helping hand to outcasts," explains Mick the voice. "We have nutters come up to us in Torquay, people who say we're the first band they've liked since the Sugarcubes, and then keep writing us strange letters. We take 16-year-olds to the pub and get them pissed. Well, alright, we didn't buy that boy any drinks, but we were nice to him, and we sang New Order songs to him as well, and he looked really scared."
"While all our fans will be soaring the heights with their fanzines and maagazines," he continues, "we'll be down in the gutter, drinking... piss."

5. They own cats

Yesterday, a friend lent me her copy of the video to Breakfast at Tiffany's, purchased only a few days before. Small gestures, which mean so much. Even though the ending's all wrong, and George Peppard doesn't deserve to be in the same frame as Audrey, it's till... look, you can't go to New York City and not visit Macy's, Tiffany's, run through several stop signs, fall in love with the first apartment cat you meet, and spend at least one dawn watching the sun come up over the Chrysler building.
Prolapse, you know, are people who understand this. They own cats. Prolapse, you know, are the kind of people who - if they lived in New York - would wear cut-price feather boas and get into arguments about David Gedge's parentage in bars between 7th and 8th streets.
When I was in Texas recently, I played a tape of Flex, the hypnotic lengthy opening track of Prolapse's new LP, Backsaturday, to King Coffey, drummer from Butthole Surfers. "A violent Stereolab," we all cried, delighted. It was perfect driving music for the humidity. Only problem was: the volume refused to go beyond a certain point. F*** it. We sang bawdily along anyhow.
Last night, I slipped Backsaturday into my CD-Rom player and blanked out. It felt like the world was ringing, falling through my ears. Prolapse understand the terror of solitude.

6. They're nice people

"We're a very nice, approachable, easy to work with band," says Tim. "We are."
"Ay, we are," agrees Mick the voice. "We sing nice songs, and if someone buys us a drink we're even friendlier. And our records are shite."

7. They read books

Unfortunately, I forgot to ask which ones.

8. They're romos

Oh f*** off, Mick. You're not.
Prolapse are just about the most un-stylish band I can think of. With the exception of Mick's black jumpers and Linda's boots, they have a dress sense which makes Mark E Smith look like the Fourth Earl of Argyll. Dressing down? Down and out. That's not to say they don't have their own style, however... but they're far darker than today's crop of young hedonists.
"A lot of us just like the darker side to things, musically," explains Mick the voice. "We went to Ian Curtis' grave. Tim's got mud rubbings of the inscription on a pink bit of paper, which he carries with him everywhere he goes. It was four days before the anniversary and the grave was completely boggin'. In the same graveyard is one for Edward Woodward... "
"Even though he's not dead," interrupts Mick the bass.

9. They play every last song like it's their last

"Maybe next week we won't be here," muses Dave. "Then we can sit around in a pub pissed, feeling really cynical and twisted, saying, 'I used to be in a band, you know.'"
"It's the best way to record," states Pat, "thinking that you're gonna split up afterwards."
"Every gig could be our last," says Linda.
"Every gig sounds like it's our first," Tim corrects her.

10. They argue constantly

"We're a low rent Gallagher brothers for people who can't afford the real thing," states Mick the voice, finally.

Methinks thou dost protest too much.

Interviews - Bobbins fanzine

from Bobbins fanzine, issue 8

Like the happy family from hell, or rather Kaos, Prolapse are a six piece in a whole combination of comedy double acts. As I didn't know anything about them I thought it a perfect opportunity to find out more when they played the Roadhouse. Oh joy! I am fed chips and share cough sweets. Prolapse aren't at all scary and make me feel at home.

'Prolapse is our band.' 'We started it, just me and you. We are the most integral members of the whole thing.' Say Mick and Pat. 'I'm the important one,' interrupts Linda, all bright eyes and good haircut. There's Mick, a 6ft Scots who sings, Pat and Dave (guitars), Mick Harrison (bass), Linda who also sings and Tim (drums). Originally a four piece from the start in 1991 they've released some singles: Crate ep, Pull Thru Barker, Doorstop Rhythmic Bloc and the album Pointless Walks to Dismal Places. Which is great. Touring with the album has received a mixed reaction. 'Shite.' 'No, it's all right.' 'Absolutely amazing.' 'It goes up and down.' 'It's sold out every gig.' 'Except the other five.' 'We've only done five dates.' On the whole a better reception comes from London 'because there's just more people there' Linda says, with the audience fluctuating elsewhere.

'We played Folkestone and it was pretty empty apart from a lot of metal heads which was brilliant.' 'Tell her about the total maddy story'. Prolapse audiences seem to have their unfair share of mental types in attendance.

'This man came in, he had about six potatoes and we had to sign each potato in a different colour. And he wanted to be reincarnated as a patch of lichen.' It was his first gig since the Sugarcubes, about five years ago.' 'He also said 10 year olds should be shown snuff movies to scare them away from killing and that kind of thing.' 'Which I agree with.' 'We asked him what he does for a living and he said he was between lives.'

Your live shows are described as avant garde. But with six of you onstage how do you all fit? Linda: 'To be honest I get frustrated. I've got four square inches to move in. I've been kicked by Pat and elbowed by Mick.' 'And what happens is all the instrumentalists jump up and down? 'I keep pulling out Dave's leads while he's doing a really important bit. Then it'll all stop.' 'Yeah but it's on purpose.' And when Mick and Linda fight on stage: 'It hurts. He's going Aaargh (pulls hair) and I'm going Eeeg (animates pained expression) and he's doing the same to me. But you can't tell.'

Is the album doing as well as you want?

'It's a bit odd cause the amount of press doesn't tally with what it's doing in the indie charts. HMV picked us out , and we had this massive thing in MM.' 'That's because it's crap.' 'When I heard it I thought... it's too well produced.'

Mick and Pat, those integral band members, decide to split from the band and go their own way under the title Rusty Grifter. 'Rusty Grifter' Mick speaks into my dictaphone.

Who thought of the album title? Mick: 'That was me.' Linda: 'No. I said dismal. It wouldn't be what it was if I didn't say dismal.' 'OK, we've go 50-50. That happened in Glasgow. I was trying really quickly to show them somewhere nice so I took them on this crap walk and we just ended up in the middle of Glasgow and it was really boring and putting us off... the dismal places... the bland places... '

You changed production for the latest releases. Steve Mack produced this album, but you've also worked with John Robb. 'It worked really well with John Robb. On the last ep there was this track which was completely improvised.' 'John was walking round with a mic behind the radiator to get an ambient sound. I'd have loved to do the album half and half, a kind of mixture. ' 'But it's a very different way of working. John Robb is very much laid back , but Steve Mack was more "go in and do it again".' But we haven't cleaned it up too much .It would be stupid if we sounded like Genesis on record, then Huggy Bear live.'

Influences? '1-2-3 Stereolab.' 'People used to say The Fall which is fair enough, most of us in the band like The Fall. But you only have to play something repetitive and people'll say The Fall.' 'But people used to say Huggy Bear a lot but we're not really.' 'We're not as makeshift. we've no got the same politics.' 'Not in any way whatsoever.' 'In the MM Everett True said we'd stopped listening to Huggy Bear and started listening to Stereolab too much. But a) we haven't been listening to HB and b) we've always listened to other bands and perhaps not even as much as... well personally I've been listening to the sources of Stereolab, the German noise sort of bands. People just pick on things for an easy point of reference.'

'I like Linus.' 'There's not many new bands around I like. Spoonfed Hybrid.' 'Long Fin Killie, and lots of the Too Pure stuff, Laika. Gorky's Zygotic Mynci.' Bringing in the subject of regional accents, very obvious in Prolapse's music. Mick: 'I like that. There should be more of them.' Linda: 'You've got to let your own accent come through because it's an important part of yourself.' Has anyone wondered about Sonia, her from Liverpool. Her accent is so strong, but where she sings, an amazing transformation happens. Sonia can be understood. 'She's a complete pain in the arse. And bands like Teenage Fanclub, cause they're Scottish but they sound like Americans almost. I don't know how they do it and keep a straight face.' 'I think the regional accent thing is great, like Oasis from Manchester but I can't listen to things like Blur or Carter, it does my head in. I'd prefer if they sang in a northern accent.' 'But that's just regional bias.' 'I know it is, but I still can't stand Carter.' 'But The Jam sang in a London accent.' 'Yeah, OK.' And that, is more or less, that.

Live, Prolapse give an energetic, exhaustive, mesmerising show, one of the best I've seen in a while. Mick jumps on and off stage, Linda struts and snarls, they occasionally wrestle each other to the ground. Things sound on the verge of collapse... but not quite. If this band play your town go and see them.