Information/Write-up
Andrew Matheson is a British-Canadian rock singer, most noted as a founding member of the British proto-punk band Hollywood Brats in the early 1970s. He later released two solo albums, and garnered a Juno Award nomination for Best New Solo Artist at the 1995 Juno Awards. (winner was Susan Aglukark, other nominees were Sara Craig, David Gogo, and Éric Lapointe).
M’Luds, Lads & Superlative Musicians
Once upon a laugh I recorded an album titled “Night of the Bastard Moon” at Oslo Lydstudio deep in the heart of Viking territory sometime in the latter decade of that most ridiculous of centuries, the 20th. The record was engineered by a ghostly presence named Jan Roberg, mixed (and more) by the brilliant Ingar Helgesen and deftly, expertly produced by a local outlaw named Casino Steel.
The following musicians made specific and invaluable contributions to the record. Without their individual and collective talents this would have been an entirely different record, needless to say a lesser record. Alas, due to record company chicanery of the lowest order they were not paid for their efforts.
H.P. Baarli – Guitar
Stein Ramberg – Guitar
S.D. Hauge – Guitar
Per Madsen – Drums
J. Bogeberg – Bass
L. Hafreager - Keyboards
Lads, I could not have made this record without you. I’ll never forget that and will, somehow, sometime, honour my debt to you.
Meanwhile should any of you spy me in your strasse, rue, street, gate or boulevard please feel free to stride up and sock me in the jaw
Night of the Bastard Moon.
I was on the run, lost. The daft fragments of whatever talents I once possessed were typed on a modest mound of scrap paper, scribbled on bar-room napkins, murmured drunk into late night, bedside tapes, barely legible in the morn.
Most of it utter rubbish.
But there are far better places to fester than North Hollywood.
I left Los Angeles, city of lost angles, on a cheap flight, heading east with a double scotch and a suitcase full of troubles.
I landed where the plane did and two days later signed a publishing deal.
Five days afterwards, on a rainy Tuesday at 3:00pm, I approached (cap in hand, as one did in those stupid days) Michael (Mickey) Mouse Records for a “deal”.
They hummed, they hawed. They had twelve meetings. Then they hired a photographer to document the moment they deigned to toss a few grains of chicken-feed my way.
I genuflected (as one had to in those days) and said “Thanks, oh mighty record company, now can I please record in Norway with Casino Steel as producer?”
The tall foreheads gasped, reached for their oxygen masks and sent their secretary’s to find out where this place called “Norway” was. “Oh, and Trixie” they wheezed “while you’re at it check out this ‘Casino Steel’ person”.
Ultimately I did show up on Norwegian shores. And I felt right at home.
At peace among kin.
Walking around Oslo. Treading ground my forebears trod.
Blood and bone.
I recorded “Night of the Bastard Moon”* at Oslo Lydstudio.
Produced with a firm hand, an acute ear and an unerring eye by the great Casino Steel.
Engineered by Jan Roberg
And mixed by the incomparable Ingar Helgesen
And check this for a band:
Guitars: Petter Baarli, Stein Ramberg, H.D Hauge
Bass: J. Bogeberg
Keyboards: L. Hafereager
Drums: Per Madsen
Not to mention of course Brady of the HB’s, cranking up his inimitable guitar histrionics on “Three Dead Mexicans” and “Postcard From Hollywood”.
Top tracks for me?
“Crushing the Doll”
“Walk a Mile In My Blues”
“Eighteen Straight Whiskeys”
* Strange, but at the “Bastard Moon” sessions we never actually got around to recording the title song.
“On the night of the Bastard Moon
Stars collide like drunken dancers”
P’raps there’s time yet.
The photo below shows three Brats in Oslo Lydstudio, 1994.
Me: with gleaming dental-work, a tailored Charles Tyrwhitt, Jermyn Street shirt (1994) and a Selfridges cravat (1974).
Brady: with suspicious, swamp-creature teeth and a dodgy purple shirt only a Philadelphia pimp’s mother could love.
Casino Steel: sporting a multi-patterned, short-sleeved surfer chemise given to him by Beach Boy Brian Wilson’s cousin Boo-Boo Wilson at the Chimney Sweep Bar on a wild Saturday afternoon (free hot-dogs) in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles 1989.
(Also. If you’ll notice in the photo, Cas is, via hand-signal, letting his adoring female public know the minimum sized vagina required to accommodate his massive member.)
Casino Steel.
The consummate gentleman.
Recorded At – Oslo Lydstudio
Banjolin, Bouzouki, Mandolin – G. Sundstol
Bass – J. Bogeberg
Castanets, Tambourine – Kid Twist
Cello – D. Foster-Pilkington
Design – Concrete Design Communications Inc.
Drums – Per Madsen
Engineer – Jan Roberg
Fiddle – Fats Ratline
Guitar – Stein Ramberg, S.D. Hauge*
Guitar, Other [Atmospherics & Special FX] – E.S. Brady
Guitar, Other [Smirnoff] – H.P. Baarli
Harmonica – R.C. Finnigan
Keyboards – L. Hafreager*
Mixed By – Ingar Helgesen
Percussion – Paolo Vinnaccia
Photography By – Deborah Samuel
Producer – Andrew Matheson, Casino Steel
Whistle [Penny] – Adrian Carr
Written-By – Matheson* (tracks: 1, 7), Andrew Matheson (tracks: 2 to 6, 8 to 13), Steel* (tracks: 1, 7)
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