JC Carroll
Encyclopedia
Jean-marie Carroll is an English composer, songwriter and musician of French-Irish extraction. After playing in various school bands, JC's first taste of serious music was a 1974 chance meeting in the Three Mariners in Bagshot, Surrey with pub rock pioneer and 1970s icon Graham Parker. Together they subsequently recorded a two-track 1/4-inch tape in JC's bedroom later to become known in Parker mythology as "The Akai Tapes". Parker went on to international acclaim, whilst JC settled into life as a band clerk living in a bedsit in Kilburn writing songs on a battered acoustic guitar about living in a bedsit in Kilburn writing songs.
A chance meeting on a train with Nicky Ritz (née Lightowlers) a Liverpool University graduate, sometimes insurance salesman, singer, beat poet bon vivant with a fantastic talent for self-promotion led in 1977 to him being asked to Join Ritz's seminal band The Members
. Carroll promptly renamed Ritz Tesco, and The Members were on their way.
The group's first single "Solitary Confinement" (a JC co-write Nick Tesco) was released on the then achingly fashionable STIFF records. The original 7-inch pressing of this record is highly collectible. In the spring of 1979 . The Members released their UK anthem "The Sound Of The Suburbs" (another JC co-write). This record went on to sell 250,000 copies in months. The track has subsequently been on hundreds of punk compilations and is what The Members are most known for. The subsequent album At The Chelsea Nightclub... gained critical approval and has been listed in Record Collector as one of the top 20 punk albums ever. made.
The Members then recorded the groundbreaking "Offshore Banking Business", a very early example of white reggae (with a political message) and a song that was to provide a blueprint for bands like the Police and the Specials. The Members then concentrated on the American and overseas market as they chalked up hits in America ("Working Girl") and Australia ("Radio") before becoming dormant in 1983.
JC then went on to concentrate on playing the accordion and mandolin and study various European and ethnic music. Playing for many years in a folk group The Wise Monkeys. It was during this period he recorded music with Sex Pistol Glen Matlock and New York Doll Johnny Thunders, playing both mandolin and accordion on Thunders' version of "Que Sera Sera". Another chance meeting with film music composer Michael Kamen led to JC being asked to play accordion on a movie called Don Juan de Marco, featuring Marlon Brando and Johnny Depp. This signalled the start of a long association with film and TV music.
In 2008 Carroll re-established The Members as a live and recording band with original bassist Chris Payne and new drummer Nick Cash (later to be replaced in 2010 by Legend of the Damned Rat Scabies).
In 2009 Carroll recorded a concept album, The Golborne Variations, with Guy Pratt, Nick Cash, Chester Kamen, Chris Payne and Jennifer Pearl. Long-term collaborator and producer David produced this album. M Allen. In 2011 Carroll shot and edited a movie, with filmmaker Simon Godley, called The Golborne Variations. This film was subsequently premiered together with the first public performance of Golborne Variations at the 2011 Portobello Film festival, where it won a special prize, A Golden Trellick.
In 2011 the influential New Musical Express (NME) listed two of Carroll's songs, 1979's "Offshore Banking" and 2009's "Caveman TV" as among a list of forgotten masterpieces in a publication called 501 Lost Songs
A chance meeting on a train with Nicky Ritz (née Lightowlers) a Liverpool University graduate, sometimes insurance salesman, singer, beat poet bon vivant with a fantastic talent for self-promotion led in 1977 to him being asked to Join Ritz's seminal band The Members
The Members
The Members are a British punk band that originated in Camberley, England. Their best known recording is "The Sound of the Suburbs" .-Career:...
. Carroll promptly renamed Ritz Tesco, and The Members were on their way.
The group's first single "Solitary Confinement" (a JC co-write Nick Tesco) was released on the then achingly fashionable STIFF records. The original 7-inch pressing of this record is highly collectible. In the spring of 1979 . The Members released their UK anthem "The Sound Of The Suburbs" (another JC co-write). This record went on to sell 250,000 copies in months. The track has subsequently been on hundreds of punk compilations and is what The Members are most known for. The subsequent album At The Chelsea Nightclub... gained critical approval and has been listed in Record Collector as one of the top 20 punk albums ever. made.
The Members then recorded the groundbreaking "Offshore Banking Business", a very early example of white reggae (with a political message) and a song that was to provide a blueprint for bands like the Police and the Specials. The Members then concentrated on the American and overseas market as they chalked up hits in America ("Working Girl") and Australia ("Radio") before becoming dormant in 1983.
JC then went on to concentrate on playing the accordion and mandolin and study various European and ethnic music. Playing for many years in a folk group The Wise Monkeys. It was during this period he recorded music with Sex Pistol Glen Matlock and New York Doll Johnny Thunders, playing both mandolin and accordion on Thunders' version of "Que Sera Sera". Another chance meeting with film music composer Michael Kamen led to JC being asked to play accordion on a movie called Don Juan de Marco, featuring Marlon Brando and Johnny Depp. This signalled the start of a long association with film and TV music.
In 2008 Carroll re-established The Members as a live and recording band with original bassist Chris Payne and new drummer Nick Cash (later to be replaced in 2010 by Legend of the Damned Rat Scabies).
In 2009 Carroll recorded a concept album, The Golborne Variations, with Guy Pratt, Nick Cash, Chester Kamen, Chris Payne and Jennifer Pearl. Long-term collaborator and producer David produced this album. M Allen. In 2011 Carroll shot and edited a movie, with filmmaker Simon Godley, called The Golborne Variations. This film was subsequently premiered together with the first public performance of Golborne Variations at the 2011 Portobello Film festival, where it won a special prize, A Golden Trellick.
In 2011 the influential New Musical Express (NME) listed two of Carroll's songs, 1979's "Offshore Banking" and 2009's "Caveman TV" as among a list of forgotten masterpieces in a publication called 501 Lost Songs