Making their Irish debut at The Bright Side of Life, a new Sligo comedy and music festival inspired by the comic genius of Spike Milligan, trumpeter CHRIS BATCHELOR of Pigfoot, ahead of the acid tradsters’ 5th on Teeling show, sets the scene
“We had a pick up gig in late-2012 and I brought along a couple of New Orleans tunes, because they suited the line-up, and those pieces went off really well, and I realized that all of us had some interest and facility in this style. I subsequently booked some gigs and we ended up recording the first Pigfoot gig almost by accident, and some of that material went on the CD 21st Century Acid Trad.
I transcribed a load of classic trad tunes and made lead sheets and then we improvised on them, but with reference to some of the things that have happened since the style came about in the 1920s such as free improv or asymmetrical time signatures.
We have all been playing together for over 20 years in various combinations. I played with Liam [Noble] in Mark Lockheart’s In Deep, and in Liam’s own band Brother Face; Oren [Marshall] was in my band Big Air; Paul [Clarvis] and Liam made the duo CD Starry Starry Night together, so we are all very familiar with each other’s playing.
‘Spike is a big hero of mine and I would consider him a major influence (along with Les Dawson)’
I think that we have a certain chemistry as a band, and a common liking for experimentation, which makes playing together very exciting and enjoyable. In addition, we all have a wide range of musical interests and experience, which means we can take the music to the outer reaches it wouldn’t normally go.
I hope that Spike Milligan would have liked it, and I think he would have appreciated the surreal musical moments which tend to happen on every gig. Spike is a big hero of mine and I would consider him a major influence (along with Les Dawson). I grew up in the area where he lived when he first came to London and I was raised on Goon shows, his kids poetry, autobiographies, novels and television shows. I met him briefly in the 1980s when he was a guest on the Wogan show that Loose Tubes played on, and he was very generous and kind.
The 1920s stuff is generally looser and wilder than the subsequent revision that happened in the 50s. In New Orleans they were still figuring out how to put the music together and consequently there was a freshness about it, combined with a sense of danger. Louis Armstrong and Earl Hines were doing things that were all in the cracks of the rhythm and harmony. I tend to think that the best music can’t be written down, it’s too rich with inflection, like Albert Ayler’s or Ornette’s, and there are lots of New Orleans 20s recordings that fall into the same category.
We gradually started to introduce tunes from outside the New Orleans tradition, such as ‘Tennessee Waltz’ or ‘Stand By Your Man’ or ‘In The Midnight Hour’ just because I wanted to play them with this band, and give them the Pigfoot treatment. Then it became clear that we could play anything that had a strong melodic hook, and with trumpet and tuba we have two distinct voices.
I set up an occasional residency at the Vortex called ‘Pigfoot Play…’ for us to play a different genre each time. So far we have done opera, Motown and Elvis Presley. I transcribe a dozen tunes, make some lead sheets and off we go. The opera gig was very interesting – we did some Verdi and Rossini, Bizet, even some Wagner.
We are now in the position where we have quite a sizeable book of tunes, probably 70 or so, and about half is trad, with lots of classics like ‘Basin Street Blues’ and ‘Just A Closer Walk With Thee’. But we are just as likely to burst into ‘For Once In My Life’ or ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ or ‘Carmen.’”
Chris Batchelor above left, with Paul Clarvis, Oren Marshall, and Liam Noble. Photo: Alex Bonney
Pigfoot play The Bright Side of Life on Friday 10 April.
For more details and ticket information visit the festival website here