"Driftwood was a pop-folk band formed at the University of Sunderland between 1993 and 1995. The band featured musicians Rob Redhead, Rita McNulty, and Mags Allred. This is their story."
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MusicTranscript
00:00I'm the sort of person that drives 130 miles up into the middle of Denmark.
00:09Realises it's completely shit now.
00:13Does three songs, tells it to fuck off.
00:18And chucks the spanners outside, out the box, or the washers.
00:22They're still using fucking kroners.
00:25They're not using euros, they're still using washers, you know.
00:30And fucks off.
00:32Because it only takes me three songs to work out what the fuck's going on.
00:34Like, suss them out, like, what a miserable bunch of cunts.
00:40That place, well, they were always a bit like, they were always like fucking weird, like the Danish.
00:47Nothing can fuck off.
00:50And I'm back in Germany.
00:53And I'm tired.
00:54I've been driving all day.
00:55And, erm, even in this, it's, what time is it?
01:04It's like nine o'clock at night.
01:07I've got a nice spot here.
01:09So it's far too late to be talking about me barn, the drift, driftwood.
01:16Or is it?
01:18So if I sound drunk, I'd have a drink.
01:23Well, if I sound drunk, it's because I've been driving all day and I'm tired.
01:26I just want to get these things out of the way and I'll have these, er, little bios about the, me barn, my barn project, you know.
01:36Me barns and that I've done.
01:37So in 1993, I went to university study natural history illustration, which is basically just drawing and painting sheep and any of that sort of animals, you know.
01:58And I'm doing that course and, you know, I mean, being, me first, I'm a creative person and, you know, before you get your hands on a guitar or a piano or a fiddle or a saxophone or whatever when you're a kid, you know, as a creative person, you're using, you know, pencils and paper and stuff, doing drawing.
02:23That's how they see so many musicians or artists.
02:28Isn't that weird?
02:29Well, no, it's not.
02:30It's because it's just creative, you know, you're just creative.
02:33And you just, you know, you can pick what sort of creative thing you want to do.
02:38And I was one of those, I picked music.
02:42So that's how I ended up, you know, doing art, graphic design course, and then a natural history.
02:53Illustration course, that's sort of, sort of saying, you know, let's be sensible and get a job with doing art, you know.
03:05I didn't, I didn't want to take any music courses, like, in production.
03:10I never entered my mind, you know.
03:12You know, for me, if I'm doing music, it was always just to create my own thing, you know.
03:20It was, I would never have wanted to, to, you know, it was, for me, it was just about songwriting, you know.
03:28I was, like, on a mission to try and come up with the best songs.
03:32So in 1993, I'm at university, and I'm riding around on my mod scooter, listening to The Who, Codafenia.
03:46And that's all I'm doing, really.
03:49I'm in the classroom.
03:51My heart's still with music, you know, and I cannot really get into this sort of natural history illustration, drawing animals.
04:00You know, obviously, I love nature, I love animals, but, and I had a sort of style of, you know, my own way of doing illustration.
04:12Because I can actually, you know, I can draw and paint, you know, so it looks like a photograph.
04:19I've always been able to do that, but I've always thought, why bother, you know.
04:23Because, you know, so, you know, I'm more of an illustrator, and even then, I'm more of an ideas person.
04:28I think I would have been more suited for graphic design, actually, but it was just, even though I couldn't get my mind focused, because the music was so strong with his songwriting.
04:39Really, the art, the art of songwriting, you know, was always just full on, like, that was my obsession.
04:45And so, I'm not really focused on this course.
04:51And for the first sort of year, I'm basically just kind of on my own, really.
04:57I think that the people in the class I was with probably saw us as a bit of a disruptor, really, because they were wanting to do the art.
05:09And obviously, I would be like, obviously, he's not really interested, is he?
05:15He's just coming in every now and again, then he's off on his mod scooter, you know.
05:20And when he is here, he's just mourning.
05:22He's mourning about the art, you know.
05:25He's definitely not interested, like, which is a shame, because he's got talent, but he's obviously into his music.
05:31So, I was sort of out on my own a bit there.
05:37And it was a bit of a rough time, actually, the first year, like, and I didn't really have any friends.
05:46And, you know, it was tough, it was tough, like, you know.
05:52And, you know, but a lot of it was just, you know, being a sort of eerie, you know, I'd been the sort of rock star teenager.
06:01And this was a reality check, you know.
06:04I'm still riding around on my mod scooter, you know, I think I'm in the 1960s.
06:08But the reality is, like, you know, you're not on tour now, Rob, you know, sort of thing.
06:16And so the first year was rough.
06:22When the second year, when I went back and I've, there was a lot I liked in the classroom.
06:38And I says, you know, do you fancy getting a band together?
06:43Because I knew I heard you play guitar, you know.
06:46And he was a good illustrator, like, and he was focused on his art.
06:50And he says, well, no, he says, I'm doing my art, like, I don't want to get distracted, you know.
06:55So he says, what you should do is you should go to the Irish Folk Club, the student Irish Folk Club.
07:03That's where all the musicians are.
07:05And I thought, all right, all right, no, I may do that.
07:08So that's what I did.
07:10The Irish Folk Bar.
07:11So I went there and when I went there, I heard about, there was like, you know, there was a big sort of, there was a lot of young musicians.
07:26So I'm in my mid-twenties.
07:29There's a lot of, there's a lot of them in their sort of teens, you know, university students.
07:35I mean, I wasn't the oldest.
07:37There was still ones my age.
07:38I had a couple of mates my age and that and a couple of older people.
07:41But at the university student board heard, there was talk of, oh, you should see these two lasses, hear these two lasses, Mags and Rita.
07:57They're absolutely, absolutely fantastic, you know.
08:01They do, they do, they sing together and that.
08:04And I was, all right, no, yeah, so, but, you know, there's a, people around campus and that and the Irish-based student board, they were singing, you know, about these two.
08:17So, I'd heard that they were on the following week, so I came and saw them and either were brilliant, you know, harmony vocals.
08:27And I had a few drinks and then I approached Rita and I just got talking to her and, and, and Mags and I asked them if they'd be interested in getting something going, you know.
08:45Says, I'm like, I play acoustic guitar, sing and I've got my own songs.
08:49So, what was, what we did was we started, we started rehearsing, started playing together at Rita's digs, Rita's house.
09:01And we're all students, like, they're all student digs, but me and Rita, Rita lived on one side of the street and I lived on the other.
09:09I got digs across the opposite side of the street from her.
09:12The best street, like, in this town, like Sunderland, leafy street, big trees down the middle, like these old sort of Edwardian, big, really big old, lovely Victorian, or, I don't know if it's Victorian or Edwardian, but houses, you know, that were sort of all, a lot of them in the street were student flats.
09:36But, you know, something you would think you would see in sort of Oxford and Cambridge, that sort of thing, you know, very cool life.
09:46And, so the bands were starting to sit down and work stuff out.
09:53And there was a lad called, an Irish lad called German, and he was a keyboard player.
10:04He didn't want to, he didn't, he wasn't really that keen, I sort of, sort of persuaded him that, you know, to join the band, really.
10:14And I think he was just more focused on his work, you know, and, because it's a big distraction.
10:21And also he wasn't, he wasn't too sure about his ability as a keyboard player.
10:26And, you know, I've always, I've always said to friends and musicians who played, I would always encourage them, just like, well, you know, if you want to do it, you'll get better, you know, you'll get better at it.
10:42It's not like rocket science, you know.
10:44But, you know, sometimes some people will do it as a sort of mild hobby, and they might have a lot of talent at it, but, you know,
10:51they'll never really get that proficient instrument or, they're good at music and they like music, but it's not the number one thing.
11:01So, I think German was one of them.
11:04So, he was in, he was in the band.
11:07So, there was the four of us for, for literally just three, three months or something, first three months to the band.
11:15Well, the band lasted for a two year.
11:17And, but in that time, we got to, we got to do a live session on local radio, the local radio that was for that city in the town of Wales, which is Metro Radio.
11:37We recorded, we went in and recorded four or five songs, which we got a copy of that recording.
11:45And it came out really well, like, we got a copy of that recording, and that was turned into demo tapes that were sold.
11:55One of the famous, the first famous song, I mean, there's all songs that I wrote, like, songs like Window and, you know, For Hannah and stuff like this.
12:09And, window would, window was, window was the sort of song I wrote for Rita's voice, you know, and I wanted Rita to have her own sort of song piece, you know.
12:22I also, I wrote Driftwood, the song Driftwood as well.
12:26That was specifically for Mag, so she would have her piece as well.
12:31And, and that's how I did it with, with Driftwood, you know, it was, and I've always done that, you know, I've always done that, I've always, if I haven't had vocalists there, I've always imagined a vocal, you know.
12:46So, but, it's, it's, it would be great, you know, it's great, you know, to have a, sort of a female vocal, and, you know, I've got that, now I've got that sound in my head, so now I can come up with a song to fit, because I know that'll fit that voice.
13:05And, that, it was a really, it was a great writing experience for us, with, with Driftwood.
13:14And, so, we've created a demo, it's went down really well.
13:23Rita was, remember Rita was walking, she says she was walking through Sunderland, and she was amazed there was a, a, a window open in somebody's,
13:33er, you know, a window open, and Driftwood was blaring out of it, and she was amazed, she said, I don't know who lives there, I don't know the person.
13:44People's listened to her music, and I was just saying, yeah, I know, that's, that's, that, well, that's what they're doing, man.
13:50I remember years later, Argencast, Alan was, the same thing happened with Alan, the singer.
13:55And, er, he was walking through the, this, this town, local town, and somebody was driving past with Argencast blasting out of the car,
14:04and he didn't know who the person was, as it drove past.
14:07It's just because it's good songs, and it's just, it's music, you know.
14:10So, we've done that, we started to do a couple of gigs, a few gigs, around campus, and then Jermit left the band.
14:26So, he went to concentrate on his studies, and there was never any thought about myself, Rita, and Mags looking for, you know, a replacement keyboard player,
14:45because we sort of started as a three-piece, and, er, I, I, I, I don't think Rita was too keen on piano, anyway.
14:59And I think, I think we're all sort of in agreement that it was working as, just as the three, the three of us, you know.
15:07But my original thought of this band was a kind of folk ABBA, that would have been my original thought, you know.
15:16But it was working so well as a three-piece, we were so tight, the three of us as musicians, that the vocal harmonies, we, we sat and worked on.
15:29Our three voices suited, well, obviously, Mags and Rita's voice worked really well together,
15:35because they had been singing before I met them, and my, my, my lower male voice sort of just fitted in nicely as well.
15:46And it just, it just worked, you know.
15:48The, being very, a very good guitar player, and I took that into acoustic playing as well, because it's all done on, it's all,
15:58you know, you know, I'm playing acoustic guitar, Mags, Mags, Mags, I'm vocals, acoustic, Mags is,
16:07um, fiddle, violin, vocals, and Rita is baran drum, Irish drum, and vocals.
16:16So, in terms of the, it wasn't just the vocals were in, very professional, and entwined, and tight.
16:24So was the musicianship as well.
16:29Rita was a great little drummer, she could not keep a good timing on a beat with the, the drum.
16:35But there was a kind of virtuoso-ness between me and Mags, with the acoustic guitar, and her, her on a, playing the fiddle.
16:44We would sort of bounce off each other.
16:46Um, I, I would kind of suggest, um, you know, what, what, on the fiddle, which, what I would like, sort of, melodies on the fiddle to go with the guitar,
16:59as well as Mags come up with her own things.
17:03Because she was playing the fiddle, well, if I play it like this, yeah, that would be, sounds great.
17:07So, it was a musical, vocal, very, very, very tight.
17:18And, it, it, for me, it was, it was eye-opening, and ear-opening.
17:24And, you know, to just sit in a room, you know, sitting on the floor, which would sit in the, it read as living room, and would just play.
17:39And it was just, it was just so professional, it just sounded so good, you know.
17:43And, and, friends would come around, and sit around, and, and just listen, you know, would have a little crowd, little crowd listening.
17:53And, it would, it, it was just, it was just full on, proper, real deal, you know.
18:01The songs I was coming up with were working really well.
18:06Me vocal, me lyrics, I was having to try and, you know, pull out all the stops to try and mature.
18:13Me lyrics, you know, which, me lyrics had always been lagging a bit behind, you know.
18:21You know, because it wasn't me, me, and interest, lyric writing.
18:25But, but, because it was okay if you're doing psychedelic rock, or prog rock, or something like that.
18:30You know, heavy metal, you know.
18:32But, once you start getting into proper music, like, you know, folk, and like, you know, which is basically, you know,
18:42all about, not all about, but a lot, well, probably is actually more about the lyric, you know, storytelling.
18:51And, I had the, I had sort of the backdrop of Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie and, you know, old Irish and English folk songs to,
19:03to get inspiration from and know what sort of direction I had to go in.
19:09So, yeah, I mean, Driftwood was the, was all the melodies in the, you know, the sort of, that I could always come up with all that on the guitar.
19:18And the vocal melodies, that that's where I had to up my game, you know.
19:22Because, you know, I've got two fantastic singers here.
19:26I don't, you know, they need to be singing songs that have, you know, not, not, with not silly lyrics, you know.
19:35And, I managed to pull that off.
19:37Also, Mags was a brilliant songwriter as well, and a brilliant lyricist.
19:43She brought lyrics to the, to the table as well.
19:48So, there's, there is songs where Mags actually, I remember asking her to write lyrics, and I will put music to her lyrics, you know.
20:03It just is something else to do, and we've done that with a couple of songs that came out really well.
20:07So, what we did was just, we kept on gigging, you know, in the local, local area, doing different shows.
20:20We've done, it, more towards the end, we've done it, it was Mags who had done all the, the organ, it was, it would usually be me, like, organising, to do demo tapes and all that.
20:34But, Mags was the one who was sorting all that out, like, I mean, I'm glad she did, like, we've done some, just recordings at Rita's house of all the songs on that tape, which Mags had sorted out.
20:47And then, later on, Mags sorted, towards the end, Mags sorted out a video, which we'd done in this church in Sunderland, which was a bit echoey, a bit reverby, I remember.
21:00And, but, you know, with the technology you've got there now, that could be, the reverb could be reduced, like, although it might sound good.
21:10But, that is not online as yet, and I'm hoping it does see the light soon, it would be nice if that ends up on the internet, you know, in some form or other.
21:27But, it has to, it has to, you know, hopefully Mags has still got that, and she can, she can get that up online, or she can get in touch with me, somehow, and I can come and collect it, and I'll sort it out, and I'll get it online, you know.
21:46And, hopefully, Mags, you've still got that, like, that would, you know, you know, that would be very important.
21:56I mean, I know I didn't, she said, Mags said, do you want a copy, you know, because I went back to see her a few years later, and I didn't want to see it, you know, because it would just remind us too much of the past, you know.
22:07I said, no, Mags, you just keep a hold of that, you know, and, but, you know, I think, with AI coming in, as well, like, I mean, the sky's the limit there, like, although, you don't really need AI, AI day, because it was just, it was a video film, and it was recorded.
22:29So, it's just there, isn't it?
22:31So, that might say the light of the day.
22:32And, what else happened?
22:37Well, we're not much, really.
22:40Well, we've done what many, many other bands did, you know.
22:44We got together, we got photos taken, we're doing demo recordings, we even got, you know, video footage done in that, you know, even in the early 90s, that was a rare thing, really.
22:57So, that's amazing that we got that done.
22:59So, unfortunately, the shapes, I don't think, have got any video footage.
23:06We've done the gigs, you know, we sold demo tapes.
23:11Everybody thought, well, great.
23:13But, what was happening?
23:15Nothing was happening.
23:16Just the same things, which had happened with the shapes earlier.
23:19There's only so much you can do, I mean, as a creative person.
23:24Well, what should I say?
23:25There was something else as well.
23:29There's something else as well there.
23:30A few doors down from Rita and across the street from me, there was a guy who had a recording studio.
23:40And he was in the music business.
23:45And he had connections with, you know, your sort of Jimmy Neal, Cocktail Shoes and the Lindisfarne crowd and all that lot.
23:55It's studios in Newcastle upon time.
23:57And, you know, with Rita being, like, very attractive, both Mags and Rita were very attractive.
24:09And so was her, right?
24:11But with Rita being very attractive and known as a singer, right, this guy is asked her to come.
24:21He was married, like, and Rita's gone a few doors down, right?
24:28Now, I said to Rita, she said he's invited us to come down and look at the studio because he might want us to do some vocals.
24:34I said, great.
24:35I said, get in with him.
24:36Get in with him.
24:38This guy, you know, if he's working with Jimmy Neal, he's got contacts.
24:42He's in the music industry, local music industry.
24:45Get in with him.
24:46I go for it.
24:47So, and, of course, Rita being Rita, you know, you know, she knew, she knew, she knew, Rita wasn't, Rita wasn't girly, you know.
25:03She's like, she was, she knew the crack, you know, and she would want to be, you know, to have some sort of success in the music as well, you know.
25:17So, you know, it would be to get contacts, you know, and, you know, we were tight as a band, you know.
25:29So Rita's going to do this, but going to go down and try and get us in with them, right?
25:37Because Rita knew, Marks knew, and I knew that we're shit hot, you know.
25:42We're a great band, you know.
25:46So anyway, she's went, she went and she had a look at the studio.
25:51She says, then she, she was telling me afterwards, that there was another fella turns up in his sports car, open top sports car, right?
26:01The whisks, the whisks, the whisks, she sits in the back of the sports car, she's just seen his downstairs studio in Sunderland.
26:08The whisks are off across to the studio in Newcastle, showing her now, and she's like, oh, hi, great, hi, fantastic.
26:16Anyway, she's, they do all that, and I think sort of Rita was saying that that was it, basically, you know.
26:26And the annoying thing was, you know, I heard Crocodile Shoes, we've all heard Crocodile Shoes, and it was not a patch on anything I was writing with Driftwood.
26:45And nothing came of this, this, this, basically, what I'm trying to say is, you've got a great young band, right?
26:57Two lasses and a lad, same age, look great, sound great, great songs.
27:05But it was such a closed shop type community, you know, in the music industry, you know.
27:15Are they really going to let anybody into their empire when this sort of, this lad's writing better songs than this fella, who's trying to impress Rita, you know.
27:30You know, when, when Rita and Max can sing better than probably, you know, the female session musicians that they've got.
27:42Do you know what I mean?
27:43So it's, you know, you're almost, you're almost too good.
27:49You know, you're almost too good.
27:53If you're too good, you'll get the door shut on you, you know.
27:58And that's, that's, that's the way it was, you know.
28:01And that's, that's just the way it was.
28:06Driftwood ended after, basically, we'll read, and Max started to,
28:17Max started to concentrate more on her studies towards the end of the Driftwood two years.
28:27And myself and Rita, we, we kept, sort of kept going as a duo for like three, four months.
28:34And we're regularly done gigs in this regular slot in a bar in Sunderland.
28:41And, you know, I mean, it was, it was good, you know, Rita, Rita, I enjoyed our music, you know.
28:50But it was never, it was never, it was, you know, the spark was the three of her, like.
28:55And, um, that's, that's where the magic was, like.
28:59And, um, it just, it just came to an end.
29:03But fortunately, you know, we got the music down.
29:06We got the picture, we got the photographs of her, we got the music, and there's this video that'll service one day.
29:12And with the help of AI, I can sort of do, do me a little bit, uh, sort of tidy everything up.
29:18And I always thought, like, Driftwood, like, I always thought, well, sort of, like, there was always that sort of Wuthering Heights,
29:26Kate Bush, Victorian, Beamish Museum type of thing, you know, so, you know, Wuthering Heights, you know, as a soul.
29:41The AI could really come up with some really interesting videos to go with the songs that'll be polished up.
29:48It was never going to go anywhere because, you know, it's Sunderland, you know, and, um, you know, it wasn't, uh, you know, it wasn't London.
30:04And it's, it's a shame, but at least with the internet, you know, you can have that stuff up and people can find it.
30:16And, um, they can hear what we were, what we were.
30:20I've always said that, that, you know, it's, let's face it, the internet's destroyed the music industry.
30:30It was definitely the last nail in the coffin, but, you know, the music industry was pretty flawed anyway.
30:39It was diabolical, so, at least, at least with the internet, you can have your music up online.
30:47Uh, and it's not just on tape cassettes, rotten in the bottom of some drawer somewhere, you know.
30:52So, it's, it's digitally up there forever.
30:57And it's, it's a shame.
30:59Of course, it's a shame.
31:01It really is, you know, especially when you look at all the shite that there's been, that there's been, you know.
31:09And even now, I mean, people, because, because of the rigged game, the rigged casino that is, like, YouTube and everything else now, it's just, meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
31:21It's just like the music industry, hello again, you know.
31:23It's just, just like this fella, a few doors down from Rita, you know.
31:28He, he's, he was, like, YouTube in human form, you know.
31:33It's just a closed shop in it.
31:34And still people aren't getting to hear bands like Driftwood and The Shapes and Jagencasts and all sorts, you know.
31:42They're not getting to hear it because the algorithms are just skewed against everybody, apart from the same old, same old.
31:52But, like, the record company, record companies have the copyrights too and want to keep pushing them.
31:58And the poor general public doesn't realise how many great bands there is and there has been, you know.
32:06But, like I've said, I see it, the end, the future is a long time, you know.
32:14So, that's, the future is a long time.
32:17So, there's a long time for bands like Driftwood to, that music to be, to be discovered.
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