GIANT THE WOODENTOPS

THE WOODENTOPS COULD HAVE BEEN MASSIVE, WITH A UNIQUE STYLE AND THE RIGHT CONNECTIONS, EVEN INADVERTENTLY HELPING PIONEER BALEARIC BEAT. THEIR INDIE-DANCE FLAVOURS ULTIMATELY PROVED PREMATURE, BUT NOW, WITH A NEW ALBUM FINALLY IMMINENT, THEIR CLASSIC 1986 DEBUT DEMANDS REINVESTIGATION.

It’s about time we were happy,” songwriter and frontman Rolo McGinty sings early on Giant, just as opener Get It On is building a characteristic head of steam. He had every reason to believe this, given the route The Woodentops had pursued to their debut album. Seb Shelton had quit managing Dexys Midnight Runners for them, and their first 7”, 1984’s Plenty, had been flamboyantly endorsed by Morrissey in the Melody Maker – “A personable celebration amid the pallid hoohah of false popness... Please GOD, make this a hit!” – while XTC’s Andy Partridge produced 1985’s follow-up, Move Me.

They’d also toured with allies Julian Cope, Dexys and The Smiths, quickly signing to Rough Trade, the latter’s label. Well Well

Well maintained their good fortune, hitting the top spot in the independent charts, while It Will Come peaked only a few places lower. With David Bowie and Lemmy soon among their fans and The Beat’s producer Bob Sergeant behind the desk, Giant should have been colossal. But, although McGinty was ever the optimist, he took nothing for granted.

That introductory song’s next line was therefore more downbeat – “About time we should cry” – and was topped off with a mantra for life: “Get up/ Fall down/ Mess around.” This certainly foreshadowed what lay ahead. Though Giant was a No.2 indie hit, it stalled at No.35 in the official UK charts, while 1988’s Wooden Foot Cops On The Highway, an indie No.1, was their last studio album till 2014’s Granular Tails. Even their fourth LP’s only due this year. On the bright side, they did get to

“mess around”, but the lack of a hit begs a question: Why? Ironically, as we’ll learn, it bears repeating.

The Woodentops weren’t McGinty’s first rodeo. He’d already played in The Upset and Liverpool’s The Wild Swans, joined schoolmate Pat Fish in The Jazz Butcher’s original line-up, and auditioned for Adam And The Ants as well as The Teardrop Explodes. But after Shelton encouraged him to start songwriting, he began jamming with Simon Mawby, another school pal, then brought in keyboardist Alice Thompson, later an award-winning novelist. By 1983, he had his band, joined on bass by Frank de Freitas – brother of Echo And The Bunnymen’s drummer Pete – with Paul Hookham completing the line-up behind the kit.

They settled into a rehearsal studio in a desolate Battersea building leased by renowned artist Panni Bharti, who’d provide many of their covers. Meanwhile, their name, suggested by Thompson, was taken from the classic mid-50s BBC kid’s TV series. It rather suited them, McGinty told ZigZag, because “we liked the idea of having a light-hearted name because that meant we could be as naïve as we actually are.” And, initially, they were naïve, “five mates,” according to Smash Hits’ similarly light-hearted Sylvia Patterson, “who got together, hired a very horrible room to practise in and became ‘an awful busking band’”. McGinty, however, was just getting warmed up. “I had this hallucination around the time we named the band,” he continued to ZigZag. “The Woodentops [are] frenetic, with lots of hand clapping and spunky things going on.”

Their debut single arrived through McGinty’s Liverpool connections, namely David Balfe, The Teardrop Explodes’ former

“I HAD THIS HALLUCINATION AROUND THE TIME WE NAMED THE BAND. THE WOODENTOPS ARE FRENETIC, WITH LOTS OF HAND CLAPPING AND SPUNKY THINGS GOING ON.” ROLO MCGINTY

keyboardist. Having run Zoo Records until 1982 with future KLF auteur Bill Drummond, he’d just set up Food Records, a new indie label (later home to Blur) which made The Woodentops its second signings. An early press release called them “a cross between The Teardrop Explodes and The Pale Fountains,” and Plenty, a burst of innocent excitement dominated by jangling guitars and Casio keyboards, created a stir. But though Hookham left for The Redskins after Move Me, their inaugural Rough Trade single, his replacement, New Zealander Benny Staples, proved revelatory.

“His drumming is explosive,” McGinty told NME’s Len Brown in 1986. “It’s more insistent, more danceable, a hot, hard technobeat.” Indeed, with his armoury of cowbells and woodblocks adding an irresistible urgency, Staples helped transform rollicking shows already famed for their hectic nature into the stuff of legend. “Benny and I used to really take the speed up,” McGinty wryly told the Pennyblackmusic website in 2007 while NME’s Jack Barron, reviewing a 1985

Wag Club gig, confirmed their potential. “The Woodentops are to be checked out immediately before they enter – as they will in time – the puppet state of chart pop.”

Recorded in London, Giant lived up to their promise. Hear Me James and Shout were manic, Travelling Man yet more so, and even playful songs like History had a habit of ending in a blur, while Love Train riffed inventively on rockabilly.

“The Woodentops make you want to shout words like ‘magic’ and ‘adorable’ and ‘glorious’,” Melody Maker’s Penny Kiley raved, while NME declared “Their Giant walks, nay dances, 12 songs tall.”

McGinty, however, shared a soft centre with his chocolate Rolo namesake. If Good Thing rattled along, its emotional ties were unmistakable – “I could talk to you any time/ You’ve always been at the back of my mind” – while the achingly sentimental Give It Time ended with uplifting brass. Even superficially morose closer Everything Breaks, which began: “All the doors slammed in my face this evening”, concluded with wide-eyed euphoria: “See the stars shine so brightly for me tonight.” As NME’s Kiley underlined:

“It’s hard to rationalise something which goes straight to the heart.”

Inevitably, this returns us to that earlier question: Why wasn’t the record a hit? Almost four decades later, McGinty elucidates succinctly. “The one regret I have is we didn’t finish Why Why Why.” A highlight of their live sets, the song was only completed when a demo was remixed by Adrian Sherwood as a B-side for Love Affair With Everyday Livin’, and the next summer this – and 1987 concert album Live Hypnobeat Live’s recording – exploded in Ibizan clubs. It was ultimately used, in one form or another, by – among many DJs – Danny Rampling and Paul Oakenfold to close their sets.

Soon Why Why Why took over British clubs, with Oakenfold licensing it for Balearic Beats Volume One, but sadly Rough Trade refused to release a standalone 12”. “Most of those guys went to bed at 11,” McGinty jokes. “That’s when we went out!” Still, if the opportunity to capitalise on this accomplishment was missed, Giant remains a towering achievement. McGinty meanwhile remains both happy and justly proud. And after all, he always knew the score anyway. “Get up/ Fall down/ Mess around...”