In the summer of 1996, Danny and I had written a clutch of new songs we were eager to record. We managed to save up and borrow enough money to go to Bark studio in East London, and work with our friend, the talented Brian O’Shaughnessy. Many of the early Creation records were recorded by Brian, including the original of ‘Loaded‘ by Primal Scream. We were regulars at his studio, we loved it there.
Through our friends, Jess and Martin we met the photographer Corinne Day (credited with discovering Kate Moss). At this time Corinne was photo-documenting Martin’s band, Pusherman, along with getting paid small fortunes for photoshoots by the major record companies. Corinne took some photos of us one afternoon in our basement Highbury flat, only charging us for the film, which was incredibly generous of her.
We had a name – Plaza, the Corinne Day photos were ready to go out with the new music.
A very cool start.
Rick, Jo and Danny
We recorded four songs and we were delighted with them. One song in particular was getting a great reaction, ‘Dying Kiss‘.
The three of us were working very hard, taking our music seriously, trying to get as good as we could. Pushing ourselves, digging deep. My vocals are as dark as I’ve ever sung on, ‘Dying Kiss’, matching the somber lyrics. I can hear me glimpsing the next phase and trying my best to get there. Just at the very end a hint of light comes in. I was quite surprised when I heard it for the first time in twenty or more years.
(When the light came back into my voice, it exploded, ‘Just Hit A Nerve’ was recorded back at Bark a couple of years later, it blows my mind how different these vocals are).
The guitar playing is pretty cool. My Fender Jaguar and numerous pedals did me proud. We all sounded great. Danny’s and my songwriting was really starting to get somewhere too. After a gig at the George Robey in Finsbury Park, we were told by an enthusiastic A&R man, that ‘Dying Kiss’ was ‘a hit, both sides of the Atlantic’! The plan was to re-record it (with an orchestra!) when we had the record deal.
We released ‘Walk Out Into The Sunshine’ as our debut, on 7″ vinyl. Gary Crowley played it on his GLR Sunday lunchtime show and read our names out. We were delighted!
We signed a publishing deal on the back of these songs, with Trevor Horne‘s ZTT.
And so we marched on.
With the publishing money, we were able to go back to Bark and record three new songs and release them as a c.d. single. Once again on our own Push label. Signing the deal had boosted our confidence. Another great session was had; developing our own sound, we were learning more with each studio visit. For the first time, we were concentrating on how we sounded in the studio without worrying how we’d play it live. I was very happy with this recording session, really on to something now, chuffed to bits.
We recorded ‘Futures’, ‘Light Of Day’ and ‘On The Fourth Day’ and released them as a cd single.
The celebrated Scott Piering (previously manager of The Smiths among many other things) agreed to be our radio plugger and got us a Robert Elms live session on BBC Greater London Radio (GLR), where he also got the single ‘b’ listed, which meant daytime plays. We picked up a bit of press in Melody Maker and Music Week.
We were friends with Nigel Clark from Dodgy. Nigel let us use his studio in Stoke Newington, down the road from where we lived, to record ‘Breathing Space’. Another act of kindness to help us on our way.
This was released as one side of a clear vinyl 7″ single on the Kooky label. Steve Lamacq played it on BBC Radio 1’s Evening Session when Danny and I were driving to Scotland, we shrieked with delight.
Over the following months and years, Plaza morphed into other musical projects, ultimately to It’s Jo & Danny who we signed to RCA Records as in 2000.
I decided to compile the Plaza recordings into a collection which I’ve called ‘We Didn’t Think Of That One’ – I really hope you enjoy.
Track listing:
1. Futures (originally Push Records cd single A side)
2. Don’t Know Which Way To Go (previously unreleased)
3. Dying Kiss (previously unreleased)
4. Light Of Day (‘Futures’ cd single)
5. On The Fourth Day (‘Futures’ cd single)
6. We’ve Really Got To Do This Again (previously unreleased)
7. Breathing Space (Kooky records clear vinyl 7″)
8. Walk Out Into The Sunshine (Push Records 7″)
Indie Through The Looking Glass 