The Journey so far. New Model Army played their first gig in

The Journey so far.
New Model Army played their first gig in Bradford on October 23rd 1980. Its founding members were Justin Sullivan, Stuart Morrow and
Phil Tompkins. The threesome had already been together for a couple of years in a number of Bradford bands with other musicians and
singers but in the Autumn of 1980, they decided to form a stripped-down three-piece, their music drawing on a wide collection of
influences and fuelled by their passions for Punk Rock and Northern Soul. Within a few months drummer Phil Tomkins had left to be
replaced by Rob Waddington. The band slowly built up a local following and created a unique style based on Justin's song-writing and
Stuart's virtuosity on lead-bass.
In Summer 1982, whispers about this band reached London and they were invited to perform at a couple of
showcases. But in a scene hungry for "the next big thing" (the coming "New Romantics"), NMA's fearsome music
and northern style did not win over the Major Record Companies and they returned to Bradford empty-handed.
Rob Waddington left to be replaced by Robert Heaton, who had been working as a drum tech and occasional
drummer for the band ‘Hawkwind‘. Undeterred by the indifference of the Music Business, NMA began to perform
more and more around the country and frequently featured as opening act on a series of all-day concerts at the
London Lyceum which heralded many of the "Post-Punk" bands. Although this meant traveling for several hours
to play a twenty-five minute set for no money, the band embraced the opportunity and their reputation as a live act
grew. A first small-label independent single "Bittersweet" was released in the summer of 1983, followed by "Great
Expectations" on Abstract Records that autumn, both played frequently on late night radio by John Peel. Suddenly
the band had a "Following", people who would travel to every concert around the country to see them.
Early in 1984, the producer of "The Tube", the most important live music show on TV, had
seen NMA in concert and invited them to fill the ‘unknown' slot on the programme. Having
originally asked the band to perform their provocative anti-anthem, "Vengeance", the TV
Company suddenly got cold feet about the song's lyrics minutes before broadcast and
asked the band to change songs. It made no difference. Somehow twenty to thirty followers
had managed to get into the TV studio and when NMA began with "Christian Militia" the
crowd went wild and an electric atmosphere was transmitted around the country. Suddenly
NMA were underground news. Their first mini-album, "Vengeance" knocked "The Smiths"
from the top of the Independent Charts and the major record companies, who had rejected
them less than two years earlier, were now begging to sign the band.
The autumn of 1984 was a time of political turmoil in Britain. After five years of Mrs Thatcher's right-wing government,
which had already fuelled so much of NMA's early fury, a final showdown with the National Union of Mineworkers (the
strike that had begun in March and had split the country), entered a critical phase and much of Northern England
began to resemble a Police State. NMA's last Independent EP "The Price" also featured "1984" a song written directly
about the strike and, with their declared left-wing views, NMA's concerts became increasingly intense.
At the end of the year, NMA signed a contract of "complete artist control" with EMI (which included EMI giving a
donation to a miners fund). The move surprised many people but the band were already looking beyond the confines
of Britain and considered the deal to be the right one. In the Spring of 1985 the album "No Rest For The Wicked" and
the single "No Rest" both reached the national top 40, but this success and now relative financial security had done
little to soften NMA's confrontational attitude. They appeared on Top Of The Pops wearing T-shirts with a motif
reading "Only Stupid Bastards Use Heroin" (a reaction against the fashionable drug of the time).
Then, halfway through the "No Rest" tour, the day after their hometown gig, Stuart Morrow decided to leave the band
for personal reasons. Frantic negotiations were made (by a strange unhappy co-incidence, on the very same day as the Bradford City fire
disaster killed 56 people at a football match), but to no avail. As a result, Justin and Robert decided to follow up the success of "No Rest"
with an acoustic song from the album "Better Than Them" which had not involved Stuart and accompanied it with three specially
recorded acoustic tracks, a move of principle which dumbfounded EMI. By the summer, Stuart had been replaced by 17 year-old Jason
'Moose' Harris, whose first gig was at a benefit for the families of the fire tragedy, and the "No Rest" tour continued.
Thatcher's victory over the miners, and by extension over all organised opposition, marked a new political reality.
This, coupled with the shock of Stuarts's departure and increasing media hostility, resulted in the band taking an
ever more defiant posture, exemplified by a typically fiery performance at the Glastonbury Festival. Then, despite
being signed to Capitol Records in North America, all attempts to tour there were prevented when the band were
refused visas. Many people, on both sides of the Atlantic, believed that this was for political reasons although this
was never possible to prove. Instead, that autumn NMA set out on their first long tour of the European mainland,
which unlike many UK acts, they found much to their liking, and later a trip to Japan. The year ended with yet
another UK tour in support of a newly recorded EP: "Brave New World", a savage portrait of the Thatcher's Britain
and "RIP", an equally furious study of the band's history thus far.
If 1985 had been a traumatic year, then 1986 saw one of the band's many resurrections, with the legendary Glyn
Johns agreeing to produce their third album. Though relations between band and producer were often difficult,
Justin recalls the sessions as "the biggest musical learning curve of my life". "The Ghost Of Cain" was well received by the critics and
audience and many people began to see a band that were capable of developing and changing and adjusting to new realities while still
staying true to their own principles; this was a band that were now pursuing their own musical agenda, completely unmoved by the
whims of the music industry or the expectations of fans. Outside Britain, their name was slowly becoming known and in December of
1986, they finally made a first short tour of America.
1987 was a year of full bloom. In January, Justin and Robert recorded an album with the poet Joolz Denby. Joolz had been the band's first
manager and has remained as a driving force and responsible for all of the band's artwork from the beginning to the present day. She had
previously made spoken word albums and a series of EPs with Jah Wobble but it was inevitable that she would collaborate with NMA. The
album "Hex" was recorded at the very special Sawmills Studio, a unique place in Cornwall, only reachable at high tide by boat. Although
the studio is now well known, at that time it was infrequently used and accommodation was in primitive cabins deep in the woods. From
this new setting, and freed from the pressures of "being New Model Army", Justin and Robert were able to explore all kinds of ideas and
musical avenues that their experience with Glyn Johns had opened up. Later, they both considered "Hex" to have been one of the creative
highlights of their musical partnership, with its strong, romantic soundscapes acting as the perfect accompaniment to Joolz' poetry.
Much of the writing of "Hex" had been done using samplers and the use of this new tool
continued to take the band in unexpected directions. That summer they recorded the "Whitecoats"
EP with its ecological lyric and mystical atmosphere. An interest in mysticism and spirituality had
been becoming more and more apparent in Justin's lyrics (though this was no surprise to those
who knew of his family's Quaker roots). The same summer, Red Sky Coven was born out of a
group of friends who shared these interests and ideas. It included Justin, Joolz, singer-songwriter
and storyteller Rev Hammer and musician Brett Selby. Together, the foursome decided to create a
performance based on this friendship, a unique show which continues to tour on an occasional
basis.
1987 also saw plenty more NMA concerts, including Reading Festival, a gig with David Bowie in front of the Reichstag in Berlin and a
show-stopping performance at the Bizarre Festival at Lorelei in Germany. From time to time, the band added their friend Ricky Warwick as
a second guitarist and also enlisted Mark Feltham, the legendary harmonica player who had graced "The Ghost Of Cain" and "Hex" to join
them. At the very end of the year and the beginning of 1988, they returned to the Sawmills for two more inspired writing sessions, which
laid the foundations for "Thunder and Consolation".
The following months, though, were far more difficult, while NMA chose a producer,
another music legend - Tom Dowd - and set about recording the album. It was a long
drawn-out process and relationships between band members became increasingly
strained, only really maintained by the knowledge that they were making something truly
special. "Thunder and Consolation" was finally released early in 1989, striking a perfect
balance between the band's fascinations with rock, folk and soul music and Justin's
lyrical interest in spirituality, politics and family relationships. The album brought critical
praise and new levels of commercial success and the band toured Europe and North
America, joined by Ed Alleyne Johnson playing electric violin and keyboards and Chris
Mclaughlin on guitar. However, despite the success, relationships at the heart of the band
had not really mended and even after Jason Harris left that summer, stresses remained.
By autumn Justin and Robert were back in the Sawmills working towards another album and, in the new year, they were joined by a new
(and still current) bass player, Nelson, previously of a number of East Anglian cult bands, and a new second guitarist, Adrian Portas from
Sheffield. The new musicians brought a stronger atmosphere to the touring band while, in the studio, Justin and Robert continued to
explore different musical ideas. Partly self-produced, "Impurity" was finally finished and mixed by Pat Collier in the summer of 1990. Still
featuring Ed Alleyne Johnson' violin, the album was more eclectic than "Thunder" but continued to win new fans and the world-wide tour
that followed its release lasted the best part of a year, culminating in a rolling Festival in Germany involving David Bowie, Midnight Oil,
The Pixies and NMA.
In mid-1991, "Raw Melody Men", a live album from the tour, was put together and released. It was to be
NMA's last album for EMI. Unusually, given the history of the music business, the relationship between
band and record company had always remained cordial but had now simply grown stale. There were
minor dissatisfactions on both sides and, after lengthy negotiations, it was agreed to simply terminate
the contract. NMA's own Management Company also imploded at this time and new management was
drawn up. The band was not short of new record company offers and eventually chose Epic, for
reasons to do with support in the US.
Although Mrs Thatcher had been ousted by her own Party in 1990 (a memorable night
coinciding with NMA's first visit to Rome), the Conservative monolith that had ruled the
country for so long remained in power and, against all expectations, won a further election
in 1992. Outside Britain though, much was changed: there was recession and instability and
a so-called "New World Order" in the wake of the collapse of Soviet Communism and the 1st
Gulf War. Already the band was embarked upon a very dark album, driven equally by
personal traumas, including Justin's near-death electrocution on stage in Switzerland and
the changes in the world around them. Produced by Niko Bolas and mixed by Bob
Clearmountain, "The Love Of Hopeless Causes" was not what anyone was expecting. Just
as folk-rock, pioneered and inspired in part by NMA, became a fashionable and commercial
sound, the band made a deliberate move away from it and straight and into guitar-driven
rock music.
Replacing Adrian with Dave Blomberg on guitar, they embarked on the album tour and the European section featured their most
successful concerts yet. However NMA's relationship with their new record company quickly deteriorated. Worse still, they found
themselves caught in corporate dispute between London and New York, which was in no way related to them. By June, the band found
themselves on an exhaustive US tour, in which they had invested much of their own money, with no support of any kind from Epic or any
other source. The tour featured many outstanding concerts but it was a bittersweet experience. By the end of the summer, it had been
agreed that there should be a year off for everyone to rest and consider the future, while the contract with Epic was quickly terminated.
Justin used 1993-4 to produce other artists (a second collaboration with Joolz entitled "Weird
Sister", Rev Hammer's "Bishop Of Buffalo" album and also the unusual Berlin combo, The
Inchtabokatables), tour with Red Sky Coven and create another way of performing NMA songs - in
a duo with new guitarist Dave Blomberg. Together they went back to Justin's first love - small club
touring - and eventually released an album of the live show entitled "Big Guitars in Little Europe",
an album, which has proved enduringly popular. Robert's main wish was to spend more time at
home with his family, which he was now able to do and Nelson formed a new band "Nelson's
Column" which toured England. Ed Alleyne Johnson followed up his first solo album "The Purple
Electric Violin Concerto" which had been so successful with a second entitled "Ultraviolet".
After the year was up, Justin and Robert tentatively began work on a new project and in December
1994, the band (with Dean White on keyboards replacing Ed Alleyne Johnson) reassembled to play
a short series of concerts. However, the next two years were lost while Justin and Robert, plagued
by ill health and personal-life distractions tried unsuccessfully to pin down hundreds of new
musical ideas into an album. It became increasingly obvious to both of them (and everyone else in
and around the band) that they were now on very different musical paths. In 1997, Tommy Tee who
had been the band's Tour Manager in the 1980s returned to take control of the band's drifting
affairs. He enlisted producer Simon Dawson to help finish the project and by the autumn "Strange
Brotherhood" was completed. Unsurprisingly, it's an album full to the brim with different and
contrasting musical ideas while the lyrics range from the politics of the British Road Protest
movement (in which Sullivan had been actively involved during 1996) to the deeply personal and sometimes unusually obscure. During
the mixing, it was agreed that Justin and Robert would go their separate ways after the tour.
Then, suddenly Robert was diagnosed as having a brain tumour, and though the operation to remove it was successful, any prospect of
touring was impossible. So he suggested that his place be taken by Michael Dean, a young drummer who had been working as his
technician since 1993. Having watched Robert for some years, Michael was immediately comfortable with the role of drummer and with all
other aspects of the band. The "Strange Brotherhood" tour began in the spring of 1998 and, happy to be back on the road at last, for the
first couple of months, the band embarked on an ambitious programme of doing two sets each night, a 50 minute acoustic set followed by
a full 90 minute rock. The tour continued on and off through to the end of the year.
By now Justin and Tommy Tee had restructured New Model Army's set-up to take account of the changes that the Internet was bringing
to the whole music industry. This included making sure that the band owned every aspect of their work, and included their own record
label (Attack Attack) to be distributed by different companies in different territories. 1999 began with a review of live shows recorded the
previous year and their amalgamation into a live double album entitled "New Model Army and Nobody Else". After this Justin (assisted by
Michael) began to write new songs for the next album. This was done quickly and easily for the first time since "Thunder", with Justin
claiming to be "reborn as a song-writer." To keep up the momentum, it was decided to self-produce and to record the album in the band's
own studio. Again this was done quickly with mostly Justin, Michael and Dean at the controls. (Living 250 and 300 miles from Bradford
meant that Nelson and Dave were more occasional contributors for purely geographical reasons). The whole process was very much a
reaction to the slow progress of "Strange Brotherhood", with the album given the simple name "Eight" to go with its whole stripped-down
approach. It was released in the Spring of 2000 and was followed by more touring.
On October 23rd 2000, the band celebrated their 20th anniversary by playing another two set
marathon at Rock City in Nottingham and then three months later, further special concerts in
London and Koln which featured four completely different sets spread over two nights - a 57
song marathon in each city attended by over 7000 people.
One of the legacies of the lost years of the mid 1990s was a lot of unfinished material and next,
Justin, Michael and Dean worked to finish and assemble this into accessible form, a double
album "Lost Songs" released in 2002. Another ‘unfinished' project was Justin's long promised
solo album and it was at this moment that he decided to pursue it. Meant to take just a few weeks
to record and tour, "Navigating By The Stars" became another marathon. Hooking up with film and TV music producer, Ty Unwin, the first
week of working coincided with ‘9/11'. Rather than making a political or angry response to unfolding events, the album's purpose was to
‘make something beautiful in an increasingly ugly World'. The album came out in 2003 to surprised and favourable reaction. At first
touring alone with Dean (including a long awaited return to America), Justin was then joined by Michael playing percussion and the
threesome bought a large mobile home and set off across Europe. The live album "Tales of the Road", released in 2004 captures their
unique sound and stripped-down rearrangements of some of NMA's lesser known songs.
In 2004, an exhibition of all Joolz' artwork for the band plus collected memorabilia was assembled for a
touring exhibition. Entitled ‘One Family, One Tribe' it has been on display in art galleries in Otley, York,
Bradford and Hamm in Germany and there are plans for more future showings. Meanwhile, the band
work began work on a new NMA album, at first focused around Michael's increasing creativity as a
drummer. "Carnival" was recorded with producer Chris Tsangerides and mixed by Nat Chan. It's lyrical
subjects and musical roots were as usual very eclectic but included many people's favourite NMA
track, "Fireworks Night", Justin's emotional response to the sudden and unexpected death of Robert
that Autumn. "Carnival" was released in September 2005, but when it came to the tour, Dave Blomberg
was unable to participate for family reasons and his place was taken by Marshall Gill, a blues guitarist from Ashton Under Lyne,
completing the band's current line-up.
The Carnival Tour marked another dynamic new beginning for the band, with Nelson sometimes playing as a second drummer, Dean
sometimes as third guitarist and Michael and Marshall's energy much in evidence. Such was the sense of momentum and togetherness
that for the first time in years, NMA moved quickly on to making another album with major contributions from all members. "High" was
written and recorded in five months at the beginning of 2007, produced by old friend (and another production star, Chris Kimsey) and was
‘angrier' than any releases for a while and lyrically very much in tune with current realities.
The "High" tour continued for 112 concerts in 18 countries on 4 continents. The US leg was the hardest so far - 10,000 self driven miles,
26 shows in 31 days - and was completed with a sold out return to New York City despite the best efforts of US border officials and the
extreme weather. As always, it was the live shows that were enthralling the audiences everywhere, with the new line up now firmly in tune
with itself and Marshall bringing a tougher edge to the band's sound - even managing to re-arrange the classic violin led anthem
"Vagabonds" into a guitar led version. This and 16 other songs were released on a new live album, "Fuck Texas, Sing For Us", in
November 2008 (the title taken from a chant at the band's New Orleans show that serves as the intro to the album).
2008 ended with tours in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and the customary December run of London, Paris, Amsterdam, and Koln with the
band playing a fiery set of recent material. Remarkably, the band’s main 17 song set featured only two pre-2000 songs, as well as brand
new material, a sure sign of the band’s forward momentum - and with their ticket sales up everywhere.
Then, at Christmas, manager Tommy Tee died suddenly and
unexpectedly. This was a major shock to everyone in and around the
band, not only because as he ran all aspects of the band's affairs but
also as a major part of the NMA family and history since 1982. It took a
while before the band could refocus but by Spring this year they were
back in the studio working on their eleventh studio album, “Today Is A
Good Day”. Mostly written last autumn in the wake of the Wall Street
Collapse (an event celebrated in the white-hot opening title track), it
was recorded in the band’s own studio in Bradford with Chris Kimsey
once more at the controls. Chris writes “the NMA 'family business' is
back in full swing. Realising a new found freedom in the recording of TIAGD, the boys sound brave & united.” The album will be released
on 15th September and will be followed by a long tour beginning with a month in North America and with the band demonstrating the
same spirit of independence, determination and focus as ever.