Chris Thomson (Friends Again/The Bathers) interview - Bathers, break-ups and bailiffs
transcript
show notes
Everyone loves a music business survivor – and few have survived the vicissitudes of the exploitative music business quite like this week’s guest.
Dumped by his friends and former Friends Again bandmates when they decamped to form Love and Money in the mid-80s, Chris Thomson thought he had had weathered that perfect storm with a new Phonogram record deal. Until it was pulled. (The more observant listener may hazard a guess at who may have been behind that particularly ruthless move.)
Undeterred, he later released several albums as The Bathers - including the implausibly perfect Kelvingrove Baby; all of them signalling the revival of a rare talent; all of them failing to “do the units”. Then came the bailiffs. “They were a couple of friendly bailiffs, lovely, “ he tells me at one point in our interview.
“Nevertheless, they asked if I had 30 grand in my bank account. I said, ‘I’m overdrawn by about a thousand’.”
Huge thanks to Chris for this interview. It really is a tale like no other.
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