Pelvis, 'I Am The Supergrass'
Info: Pelvis were an Irish 3-piece consisting of Jonny Rogan (vocals, bass, piano), Ed Reynolds (guitar, backing vocals) and Mick Goss (drums, backing vocals). In May 1997 they won the Heineken Green Energy Unsigned Band Competition and were rewarded with £10,000 (punts) recording time, following which they were signed to well known indie label, Setanta Records, with whom they released their one and only album, Who Are You Today? The band would go on to appear on the Jools Holland Show and also support The Jesus & Mary Chain and The Divine Comedy on tour. Shortly after the album was released a waiter I worked with in Dublin at the time gave me a lend of the album and I absolutely loved it, particularly 'I Am The Supergrass' and 'Streetlights' (below). After handing it back to him I bought the album on my next pay day, for me at the time, I found Pelvis quite unique amongst their Irish contemporaries. Between Jonny Rogan's effeminate vocals and the happy / sad melody of the guitars, along with a dark sense of humour on many of the tracks, I developed a considerable soft-spot for the album and music. It's a massive pity that Pelvis never got to release more than one album as they had great song-writing ability and though we'll never know, I get the feeling they could have released some really interesting and creative music following Who Are You Today?
Below, guitarist Ed Reynolds gives us a synopsis of the Pelvis story from his perspective and I'd like to thank Ed for taking the time to share some memories;
'I always wanted to be in a band when I was young. Having played in many pub and abstract party bands, it took me until my early 20's before I knuckled down with singer/songwriter/bass player Jonny Rowen and drummer Mick Goss to form Pelvis. We were called R at the beginning. R (with a circle around it, as in trademark). We thought we were smart, but R's pronunciation typeface was way too off the mark for people to catch onto. We played every venue in Dublin at the time, The White Horse, The Baggot Inn, Whelans, Slatterys, The Rock Garden / Dorans, the Da Club, the Project etc. to name but a few.
There wasn't much going on anywhere, work wise, so being in a band meant that we were fending for ourselves and longed to get signed by a record label, record an album, tour the world and get to love what we do! We gave it the hard slog, pretty much, right the way through the 90's. We did get signed, we put out an album with 3 singles released from it, got to tour Ireland, the U.K. and some of Europe (ok, not exactly the world), but most importantly, got to enjoy our jobs.
Pelvis, 'Streetlights'
We got to perform on the Later with Jools Holland show in 1998. That was a great few days! My lasting memory of being in a band comes from that show, when Pelvis, Pulp, Air, Lenny Kravitz and crew were invited upstairs to an after party. I'll never forget Jonny, Mick and myself, humping our amps, drums, and gear out of the BBC studio, up ramps and into the back of our van still in the very suits we wore on the show an hour previous! Everyone else upstairs, quaffing champagne and shooting the breeze and us eejits downstairs like donkeys, trying to squeeze the last of our stuff into the van! I think we did manage to have a glass or two of wine upstairs before the party ended!
I have no regrets in having dedicated the ten or so years of my life to music. I did manage to get it out of my system in the end. There will always be way too much bullshit in the music industry and personally, I was jaded by it and could no longer continue feeding from, and pouring into it. The craic was good though!'
- Ed Reynolds, Pelvis (guitar and vocals).
* Update (October 1st) - Pelvis on Jools Holland
Pelvis, 'I Am The Supergrass', Live on Jools Holland
