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Paul Smith set up Blast First in 1985 specifically to release Sonic Youth's seminal Bad Moon Rising in the UK. Twenty years on, the Blast First legacy is a back catalogue comprising some of the weirder and most influential US rock acts, as well as jazz, obscure electronica and experimental eclecticism. Paul has most recently set up Blast First (Petite), releasing releases by Klang (featuring Donna Matthews of Elastica fame) and No Things (formed from the original Liars line-up).
MAT SMITH : I recently found out that you worked with Ricard H Kirk and Stephen Mallinder (of Cabaret Voltaire fame) at Doublevision - how did that happen? Had you been involved in the music business before?
PAUL SMITH : Music had always been an important part of my life since I was kid, which later bloomed into working as a 'management trainee' in a record store and - as an occasional bad musician, but better organiser - I had previously 'managed' a couple of local bands in the Nottingham and Sheffield hinterlands, one of whom had gone onto be briefly signed to Polydor on a singles deal... as long as they changed manager.
Disillusioned with the music 'business' I, along with my friend John Moon, decided to present a series of nights showing the then developing world of music video at The Midland Group Arts Centre in Nottingham on ten cheap secondhand TV's and a signal distribution box from a local TV shop. We showed everything from ABC to Z'ev, including some work by Cabaret Voltaire.
Shortly after, Cabaret Voltaire released Red Mecca and did an interview with the NME talking about their interest in funding a pirate radio station. As this was at the height of Thatcher's powers I was doubtful such a notion would last for any length of time and knowing the Cabs' interest in film and video, I re-contacted them about the possibility of starting an independent music video label. This, with CV's sole funding, and their considerable effort in making their own 90 minute programme, became Doublevision DV1.
We went on to release programmes by Throbbing Gristle, 23 Skidoo, Chris & Cosey, Tuxedo Moon, The Residents and Derek Jarman, and a great compilation called TV Wipeout for the price of a blank tape! After the initial, wildly expensive 'professional' run of DV1 from a 1" TV quality master, Doublevison rented 6 VHS and 2 Betamax machines and I hand copied batches of tapes from the then state of the art Lo-band U-matic master machine that lived in the back bedroom of my terraced house in Nottingham. At that time video releases were still unclassified by the BFI and therefore under the radar of the government - Blondie had released the first longform music video 'Parallel Lines' priced at £40 and no music papers (or indeed anywhere else) had a section to review such releases.
Doublevision Presents Cabaret Voltaire became the first indie music video release, a claim which was usurped by Factory Records' IKON label, who in fact put out the Press Release first and the video second.
MS : What were Richard and Stephen like to work with? I always got the impression that they were very organised, structured. In fact, Richard's work ethic seems very similar to Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore in so far as it's really difficult to keep track of all the records he puts out.
PS : Richard creates EVERY day, it's what he does with his life and he's very dedicated, hence a lot of diverse recordings. Thurston is, as you correctly observe, very similar.
MS : How did you move from releasing videos to releasing records?
PS : In order to get the reviews to highlight the existence of the long form videos we began releasing the soundtracks as records - this was my introduction to releasing records commercially.
One day I was reading a Sounds music paper interview with Lydia Lunch about her '50 One Page Plays' with Nick Cave, which I thought would make for a great long form video. Via Rough Trade I tracked Lydia down to flat in South London but unfortunately she and Nick had just split up as a couple only weeks before so we could not develop this idea. Lydia however had with her the incomplete recordings of what became her In Limbo mini album and a strong desire to move back to her native New York.
Lydia completed the recordings at Western Works (CV studio in Sheffield) and Doublevison released them, giving Lydia an 'advance' by buying her an air ticket back to New York.
Thurston Moore had played on some of the backing tracks to In Limbo when they had been recorded the year previously in NYC. Lydia, who had on her return sung on Sonic Youth's 'Death Valley 69' reported to Thurston that there was an 'OK guy' in the UK and Thurston sent me a cassette with about two thirds of what became Bad Moon Rising. Listening to these recordings was an epiphany for me and as Doublevison only released things that all three of us liked (RHK, Mal & myself) and Richard was not interested in 'amercian rock n' roll' I started out on a mission to find an outlet for the album. After several months of taking the tapes to every UK indie record company I could think of, eventually, after suffering me repeatedly go on, and on, and on, about the merits of Bad Moon Rising, Peter Warmsley (who was head of Rough Trade International Dept and the Cabs' main contact at Rough Trade) decided he could arrange to have the record pressed if I could afford to get the rights from the band.
After three seemingly astronomically expensive phone calls to Lee Ranaldo in New York, I had a deal with the band, and after two skipped mortage payments, the deposit / advance for the rights to Bad Moon Rising in the UK and Europe for five years - this was the birth of Blast First.
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