Red Square (band)
Encyclopedia
Red Square is a pioneering free improvising
band originally from Southend-on-Sea
, Essex
, England
that formed in 1974 and broke up in 1978, before reforming again in 2008 as a result of renewed interest in their music. The line up has remained unchanged, consisting of Ian Staples (electric guitar
), Jon Seagroatt (soprano saxophone
, bass clarinet
and electronics
) and Roger Telford (drums
and percussion).
Staples, fresh from the London underground scene, had been gigging regularly at the legendary Middle Earth Club
in London with Ginger Johnson's African Drummers, alongside, amongst others, Pink Floyd
and Mark Bolan. He was working with tape multi-tracking
, noise, psychedelia and action painting
. Staples’ electric guitar playing was a revolutionary blend of Jimi Hendrix
and Captain Beefheart
, with the sonic palettes of Derek Bailey and Karlheinz Stockhausen
.
Seagroatt, galvanized by the explorations of John Coltrane
, John Tchicai
, Evan Parker
, Steve Lacy
, Ornette Coleman
and Albert Ayler
, also drew freely on groups such as Can
, Faust
, Weather Report
, the Art Ensemble of Chicago
and Soft Machine
.
Both were also heavily influenced by developments in contemporary 'straight' music.
From the beginning of their collaboration they determined to improvise all of their music. Initially Seagroatt and Staples experimented extensively with tape multi-tracking, using a combination of standard instruments, toys, percussion, voices, violin and prepared electric guitar. Seeking to expand their collaboration by working with other musicians they found a kindred spirit in drummer Roger Telford, a committed exponent of the free-jazz style of kit playing being pioneered at the time by Milford Graves
and Sunny Murray
.
The combination of electric guitar, amplified bass clarinet & soprano saxophone and drum kit gave Red Square a unique sound palette to explore, as well an instantly recognisable group sound.
The line up of Seagroatt, Staples and Telford remained constant throughout the band's history, as did the original commitment to total improvisation, but, given the group's wide range of influences, their improvisations drew as much on avant-rock as they did on jazz or contemporary improvised music.
Staples became adept at unleashing cunningly atonal guitar riffs, which referenced metal without ever becoming metal. These onslaughts were critiqued and counterposed by Telford's coruscating, densely-textured polyrhythms. Seagroatt moved between the two, weaving sinuous cats-cradles of fractured melody in the liminal space where metal met jazz.
Live, the group was often punishingly loud (one urban myth recounts that a Red Square set drowned out Cliff Richard who was playing at a venue half a mile away!). Despite the support of luminaries such as Miles
, then writing for NME
, they frequently enjoyed a combative relationship with audiences. Their enthusiasm for playing inappropriate venues (including folk clubs and pub-rock dives), and their willingness to engage forcefully with hecklers led to a number of hurried back-door exits from gigs, and presaged the arrival of punk a few years later.
As well as their now legendary semi-squatted 'residency' in a vast, condemned Victorian hotel in Westcliff-on-Sea, Red Square played innumerable gigs (four in one day on one occasion), benefits and student occupations, and gigged with Henry Cow
, Red Brass, David Toop
& Paul Burwell
and Lol Coxhill
. They were also active in Music For Socialism.
They released two cassette-only albums, 'Paramusic' and 'Circuitry', the latter being a live recording of a gig with Henry Cow
in Southend-on-Sea.
Red Square were in many respects years ahead of their time, and methods and sounds that they pioneered have since become common practice amongst experimental and avant-rock musicians.
The group broke up in 1978 in the face of continued audience hostility to their music. Though largely forgotten for 30 years, Red Square were a key link bridging the worlds of psychedelic rock
and avant-jazz. The group also had a fierce, ideological commitment to total improvisation delivered through very big speakers. There was an almost proto-punk Quixotism about their railing aural assaults on the mainstream: very few people thanked them for it, and their music was considered far too extreme for release at the time.
in 2009.
Since reforming Red Square have gigged regularly and released two further albums. Dates and broadcasts have included Cafe Oto, the Vortex
, Resonance FM
, Darkstar at the Dogstar, Southend's Culture As A Dare Fringe Festival, Utrophia's Cwm Festival, Oxford Improvisors, Chatham's Brutally Honest Club and Brighton's On The Edge. In addition to gigging Red Square have, since 2010, curated and hosted the day-long Tinderbox Festival, held annually in June in the village of Cropredy
in Oxfordshire
, UK.
Since reforming Red Square have attracted critical acclaim for both their live and recorded work, and in 2010 they were the subject of an in-depth feature by Frances Morgan in the journal Loops.
Jon Seagroatt also plays soprano saxophone
, flute
and percussion with the reformed psychedelic folk band, Comus
.
Free improvisation
Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician involved. The term can refer to both a technique and as a recognizable genre in its own right....
band originally from Southend-on-Sea
Southend-on-Sea
Southend-on-Sea is a unitary authority area, town, and seaside resort in Essex, England. The district has Borough status, and comprises the towns of Chalkwell, Eastwood, Leigh-on-Sea, North Shoebury, Prittlewell, Shoeburyness, Southchurch, Thorpe Bay, and Westcliff-on-Sea. The district is situated...
, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
that formed in 1974 and broke up in 1978, before reforming again in 2008 as a result of renewed interest in their music. The line up has remained unchanged, consisting of Ian Staples (electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
), Jon Seagroatt (soprano saxophone
Soprano saxophone
The soprano saxophone is a variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument, invented in 1840. The soprano is the third smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists of the soprillo, sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, contrabass and tubax.A transposing instrument pitched in...
, bass clarinet
Bass clarinet
The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet...
and electronics
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
) and Roger Telford (drums
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
and percussion).
Formation and early history: 1972–1978
The groundwork for what became the Red Square sound was laid when Jon Seagroatt & Ian Staples began a musical collaboration in Southend-on-Sea, Essex in 1972, following encounters at a number of experimental music workshops.Staples, fresh from the London underground scene, had been gigging regularly at the legendary Middle Earth Club
Middle Earth Club
Middle Earth was an influential hippie club in London, UK in the mid to late 1960s, following on from the UFO Club after it was closed down due to police pressure and the imprisonment of its founder John 'Hoppy' Hopkins....
in London with Ginger Johnson's African Drummers, alongside, amongst others, Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
and Mark Bolan. He was working with tape multi-tracking
Multitrack recording
Multitrack recording is a method of sound recording that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources to create a cohesive whole...
, noise, psychedelia and action painting
Action painting
Action painting sometimes called "gestural abstraction", is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied...
. Staples’ electric guitar playing was a revolutionary blend of Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
and Captain Beefheart
Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet January 15, 1941 December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 12...
, with the sonic palettes of Derek Bailey and Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
.
Seagroatt, galvanized by the explorations of John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
, John Tchicai
John Tchicai
John Martin Tchicai is a Danish jazz saxophonist. He was one of the earliest European free jazz musicians. He is of Danish and Congolese descent....
, Evan Parker
Evan Parker
Evan Shaw Parker is a British free-improvising saxophone player from the European free jazz scene.Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation, and has pioneered or substantially expanded...
, Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy , born Steven Norman Lackritz in New York City, was a jazz saxophonist and composer recognized as one of the important players of soprano saxophone....
, Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s....
and Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer and composer.Ayler was among the most primal of the free jazz musicians of the 1960s; critic John Litweiler wrote that "never before or since has there been such naked aggression in jazz" He possessed a deep blistering tone—achieved...
, also drew freely on groups such as Can
Can (band)
Can was an experimental rock band formed in Cologne, West Germany in 1968. Later labeled as one of the first "krautrock" groups, they transcended mainstream influences and incorporated strong minimalist and world music elements into their often psychedelic music.Can constructed their music largely...
, Faust
Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend; a highly successful scholar, but also dissatisfied with his life, and so makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures. Faust's tale is the basis for many literary, artistic, cinematic, and musical...
, Weather Report
Weather Report
Weather Report was an American jazz-rock band of the 1970s and early 1980s. The band was co-led by the Austrian-born keyboard player Joe Zawinul and the American saxophonist Wayne Shorter...
, the Art Ensemble of Chicago
Art Ensemble of Chicago
The Art Ensemble of Chicago is an avant-garde jazz ensemble that grew out of Chicago's AACM in the late 1960s. The group continues to tour and record through 2006, despite the deaths of two of the founding members....
and Soft Machine
Soft Machine
Soft Machine were an English rock band from Canterbury, named after the book The Soft Machine by William S. Burroughs. They were one of the central bands in the Canterbury scene, and helped pioneer the progressive rock genre...
.
Both were also heavily influenced by developments in contemporary 'straight' music.
From the beginning of their collaboration they determined to improvise all of their music. Initially Seagroatt and Staples experimented extensively with tape multi-tracking, using a combination of standard instruments, toys, percussion, voices, violin and prepared electric guitar. Seeking to expand their collaboration by working with other musicians they found a kindred spirit in drummer Roger Telford, a committed exponent of the free-jazz style of kit playing being pioneered at the time by Milford Graves
Milford Graves
Milford Graves is an American jazz drummer and percussionist, most noteworthy for his early avant-garde contributions in the early 1960s with Paul Bley and the New York Art Quartet...
and Sunny Murray
Sunny Murray
James Marcellus Arthur "Sunny" Murray is one of the pioneers of the free jazz style of drumming.-Biography:...
.
The combination of electric guitar, amplified bass clarinet & soprano saxophone and drum kit gave Red Square a unique sound palette to explore, as well an instantly recognisable group sound.
The line up of Seagroatt, Staples and Telford remained constant throughout the band's history, as did the original commitment to total improvisation, but, given the group's wide range of influences, their improvisations drew as much on avant-rock as they did on jazz or contemporary improvised music.
Staples became adept at unleashing cunningly atonal guitar riffs, which referenced metal without ever becoming metal. These onslaughts were critiqued and counterposed by Telford's coruscating, densely-textured polyrhythms. Seagroatt moved between the two, weaving sinuous cats-cradles of fractured melody in the liminal space where metal met jazz.
Live, the group was often punishingly loud (one urban myth recounts that a Red Square set drowned out Cliff Richard who was playing at a venue half a mile away!). Despite the support of luminaries such as Miles
Miles
Miles is the plural of mile.Miles may also refer to:- People :*Miles Brothers, American cinema pioneers* Miles ** Miles Browning, World War II admiral** Miles Davis, jazz trumpet player** Miles Austin, Dallas Cowboys wide receiver...
, then writing for NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
, they frequently enjoyed a combative relationship with audiences. Their enthusiasm for playing inappropriate venues (including folk clubs and pub-rock dives), and their willingness to engage forcefully with hecklers led to a number of hurried back-door exits from gigs, and presaged the arrival of punk a few years later.
As well as their now legendary semi-squatted 'residency' in a vast, condemned Victorian hotel in Westcliff-on-Sea, Red Square played innumerable gigs (four in one day on one occasion), benefits and student occupations, and gigged with Henry Cow
Henry Cow
Henry Cow were an English avant-rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members...
, Red Brass, David Toop
David Toop
David Toop is an English musician and author, and as of 2001 was visiting Research Fellow in the Media School at London College of Communication. He was notably a member of The Flying Lizards. He was a prominent contributor to the British magazine The Face. He is a regular contributor to The Wire,...
& Paul Burwell
Paul Burwell
Paul Dean Burwell was a British thaumaturge and percussionist, influential in the fields of free improvisation and experimental art....
and Lol Coxhill
Lol Coxhill
Lowen Coxhill, generally known as Lol Coxhill is a free improvising saxophonist and raconteur...
. They were also active in Music For Socialism.
They released two cassette-only albums, 'Paramusic' and 'Circuitry', the latter being a live recording of a gig with Henry Cow
Henry Cow
Henry Cow were an English avant-rock group, founded at Cambridge University in 1968 by multi-instrumentalists Fred Frith and Tim Hodgkinson. Henry Cow's personnel fluctuated over their decade together, but drummer Chris Cutler and bassoonist/oboist Lindsay Cooper were important long-term members...
in Southend-on-Sea.
Red Square were in many respects years ahead of their time, and methods and sounds that they pioneered have since become common practice amongst experimental and avant-rock musicians.
The group broke up in 1978 in the face of continued audience hostility to their music. Though largely forgotten for 30 years, Red Square were a key link bridging the worlds of psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
and avant-jazz. The group also had a fierce, ideological commitment to total improvisation delivered through very big speakers. There was an almost proto-punk Quixotism about their railing aural assaults on the mainstream: very few people thanked them for it, and their music was considered far too extreme for release at the time.
Interregnum: 1979–2008
Jon Seagroatt and Ian Staples continued to work together after the original break-up of the group, gigging and releasing albums under the names of B So glObal, Omlo Vent and Miramar for a number of labels including Chillum, Fo Fum and Emergency Broadcast. Seagroatt formed a writing partnership with singer Bobbie Watson which led to the formation of the trip-hop band Drift, and, later, to the punk-jazz inflected Colins of Paradise, whilst Ian developed an extensive catalogue of solo material as the Visitor.Reformation: 2008–present
In 2008 the members of Red Square were approached by FMR Records who were interested in releasing an album of their recordings from the 1970s. The three so enjoyed trawling through the reels of tape to choose album tracks that they decided to re-form, and they played their first gig in thirty years at Klub Kakofanney in OxfordOxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
in 2009.
Since reforming Red Square have gigged regularly and released two further albums. Dates and broadcasts have included Cafe Oto, the Vortex
The Vortex
The Vortex is a play by the English writer and actor Noël Coward. The story focuses on sexual vanity and drug abuse among the upper classes. The play was Coward's first great commercial success....
, Resonance FM
Resonance FM
Resonance 104.4 FM is a London based non-profit community radio station run by the London Musicians' Collective .The station is staffed by four permanent staff members, including programme controller Ed Baxter and over 300 volunteer technical and production staff.Until September 2007, ResonanceFM...
, Darkstar at the Dogstar, Southend's Culture As A Dare Fringe Festival, Utrophia's Cwm Festival, Oxford Improvisors, Chatham's Brutally Honest Club and Brighton's On The Edge. In addition to gigging Red Square have, since 2010, curated and hosted the day-long Tinderbox Festival, held annually in June in the village of Cropredy
Cropredy
Cropredy is a village and civil parish on the River Cherwell, north of Banbury in Oxfordshire.-Early history:The village has Anglo-Saxon origins and is recorded in the Domesday Book...
in Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
, UK.
Since reforming Red Square have attracted critical acclaim for both their live and recorded work, and in 2010 they were the subject of an in-depth feature by Frances Morgan in the journal Loops.
Jon Seagroatt also plays soprano saxophone
Soprano saxophone
The soprano saxophone is a variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument, invented in 1840. The soprano is the third smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists of the soprillo, sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, contrabass and tubax.A transposing instrument pitched in...
, flute
Flute
The flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
and percussion with the reformed psychedelic folk band, Comus
Comus (band)
Comus is a British progressive rock / folk band which had a brief career in the early 1970s; their first album, First Utterance, gave them a cult following which persists. They have revived in the late 2000s and played several festivals.-History:...
.
Discography
- Thirty Three: Recordings 1974 - 1978 (2008)
- Shuttle Bag (2009)
- UnReason: Live at the Vortex (2010)