Written by Ric
Hello, my name is Ric Neale and I am in a band called the Housekeeping Society. We thought it would be a good idea to explain a little bit about who we are and what we’re trying to achieve in this new musical project. The Housekeeping Society came into existence in the summer of 2009, but the three members had already formed a strong musical alliance long before that…
As well as me the band features Spencer Bayles. Spence (as he is lovingly known) had been the main songwriting force behind Leeds band Last Night’s TV http://www.lntvweb.co.uk/ for many years and I started to work with him when we met, bizarrely enough, on an internet chat forum. Despite being warned off going out for drinks with men I met on the internet by friends, I persisted and we went out on a “man-date” that consisted of us going out for a few pints and talking about music. It was pretty clear that we had a lot of musical heroes in common and so I asked Spence to come and play bass for me as part of my solo project http://www.ricneale.co.uk/ . I had just finished my second album and was doing a few gigs to promote it. Spence was not initially a bass player, preferring the acoustic guitar and vocals but he acquitted himself admirably. Spence and I went through a number of band members before finding the third member of the Housekeeping Society; Mr Ivan Mack.
Ivan has played percussion as part of the Ric Neale Band for about three or four years. We met via an ex-girlfriend of mine and then shared a few gigs when I played on a bill with his previous band; Bradford based Rent, who have since disbanded. In fact the first gig I played with Ivan was when I deputized on keyboards for Rent and we became firm friends, and drinking buddies, from then on. Ivan started playing percussion with me and Spence, along with Stu Hudson from the band Loqui (who me and Ivan have both been in at one time or another) and we started to
record my next record “Someone Else’s Home” all four of us worked really hard on the record and over time Stu’s other commitments took him on to pastures new and three of us were left to add the finishing touches to the record.
As well as me the band features Spencer Bayles. Spence (as he is lovingly known) had been the main songwriting force behind Leeds band Last Night’s TV http://www.lntvweb.co.uk/ for many years and I started to work with him when we met, bizarrely enough, on an internet chat forum. Despite being warned off going out for drinks with men I met on the internet by friends, I persisted and we went out on a “man-date” that consisted of us going out for a few pints and talking about music. It was pretty clear that we had a lot of musical heroes in common and so I asked Spence to come and play bass for me as part of my solo project http://www.ricneale.co.uk/ . I had just finished my second album and was doing a few gigs to promote it. Spence was not initially a bass player, preferring the acoustic guitar and vocals but he acquitted himself admirably. Spence and I went through a number of band members before finding the third member of the Housekeeping Society; Mr Ivan Mack.
Ivan has played percussion as part of the Ric Neale Band for about three or four years. We met via an ex-girlfriend of mine and then shared a few gigs when I played on a bill with his previous band; Bradford based Rent, who have since disbanded. In fact the first gig I played with Ivan was when I deputized on keyboards for Rent and we became firm friends, and drinking buddies, from then on. Ivan started playing percussion with me and Spence, along with Stu Hudson from the band Loqui (who me and Ivan have both been in at one time or another) and we started to
record my next record “Someone Else’s Home” all four of us worked really hard on the record and over time Stu’s other commitments took him on to pastures new and three of us were left to add the finishing touches to the record.At the same time as recording my record, Spence began working on a new EP under the name “The March Greens” http://www.themarchgreens.co.uk/ and he invited Ivan and I to take part. Three marvellous songs were recorded and released on iTunes around about the same time that “Someone Else’s H
ome” was released. It was around April 2009 at this point and the three of us went out to celebrate our respective musical ventures. Whilst very drunk one Saturday night at North Bar in Leeds, the idea of us joining forces to become one band was tabled. This idea was further discussed on the following Sunday over lunch where a number of issues were talked about – all of us had been in bands before and had had similar problems with people not pulling their weight or the way that labour was divided. We agreed that we were all a bit/lot older now and we had been working together long enough to know that we would not let one another down. The unanimous decision was reached – we had become the least impressive super-group of all time.Having decided that we were going to start creating music together rather than just get one another to play on our separate pieces we set about trying to find a theme that we could write about. We all decided that if we were going to make an album together we shouldn’t just write separate songs about our own lives or experiences, we wanted to create a group of songs that hung together under one consistent theme. We discussed at length various ideas by talking about the things we had in common. All three of us have moved away from our home towns to go to university and have ended up making so many friends and contacts that we ended up staying where we studied. This made us think of all the good, and bad things about this. It made us think about how things have changed, as in the past what we have done was simply not an option for many people. We started talking about the big mill towns in the north of England and the way that mill owners built mills, and then surrounded them with affordable housing and schools to attract workers. This all meant that many generations would naturally carry on living and working in the same place as their parents. This interested all of us and we got thinking about how different our lives would be if we had stayed in our home towns doing the same jobs as our fathers, and grand fathers.
A bit more research was done before the pub quiz at the Midnight Bell in Leeds (which we miraculously won) and we started to solidify our idea. We would write a group of songs about the experiences of a community working in a northern Mill town in the late 1880’s. We chose that period as it was the time when ideas started to spread more freely via the development of cheaper printing presses making newspapers and magazines (in fact the first edition of “Good Housekeeping” came out in 1885 from which we got our band name), the record player and the first cars were coming in to wider production.
The songs we then began to write were not specifically about working in a mill but were, instead based in broader themes inspired by our concept – songs about longing, about feeling trapped, about realising that there might be a different world out there. Musically, this project was also a bit of departure for us. For starters I am playing piano and keyboards rather than guitar as I have done on all my solo stuff. Also, Ivan is taking far more control of samples and drum loops he’s been building out of found sounds. Spence and I are sharing lead vocals and all three of us are doing a lot more complex harmonies.
All of us have been very excited in our early rehearsals and we can’t wait to start recording some of these new tunes and see where this project takes us.
