Trip City

 

When Trip City was released in 1989, there wasn't the slightest chance of getting hold of a copy.

Although the Berlin Wall had just fallen, I began to explore the record stores in the west of the city with a modest budget, but the method of choice was to make recordings from the radio for a while. Monika Dietl played “Voodoo Ray” in the SFB, of course, but also tracks like “Time waits for no Man” and “Rockin Ricky”. And at some point, not too long later, the albums “Automanikk” and “Hot Lemonade” were in the record cabinet. But on “Trip City,” I first came across Discogs, but everything was already there.

Almost 3 years ago, Velocity Press took pity and brought a new edition of the book onto the market. This time the music came not from tape, which would have been appealing, but from vinyl. “Valentines Theme” is an absolute hit here for me. A typical, groovy Gerald Simpson track as you know it from “Time waits…” or “Subscape”. You already know “FX” from the Automanikk album. In general, we're listening to A Guy called Gerald 1989. The album has fewer melodic moments than Automanikk, but has that AGCG sound from that time throughout. Put on Trip City and go back to back then. Feel free to read later the Book.   

„In the summer of 1989, when Trip City was first released with a five track cassette EP by A Guy Called Gerald, there had been no other British novel like it. This was the down and dirty side of London nightclubs, dance music and the kind of hallucinogenic drug sub-culture that hadn't really been explored since Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Maybe this is why Trip City is still known as "The Acid House novel" and an underground literary landmark.

Over the decades, Trip City became shrouded in scandal and mystery. The original London book launch literally descended into a riot - shut-down by the Metropolitan Police.

Everyone from the makers of Raiders Of The Lost Ark through the director of Candyman tried to adapt the book into a movie - but imploded in the process. And the galleys of the 25th anniversary edition were destroyed in a fire, before they could even be proofed or printed.

Perhaps Trip City is uniquely summed-up by the original publisher, dearly departed sci-fi legend Brian Aldiss, who wrote of the novel: "In the vintage of Thomas De Quincey's Confessions Of An English Opium Eater - but smack up to date.

It's about a young man's descent into hell - a hell that looks very much like London."

- Velocity Press -

„It was an overcast afternoon, early in 1989 when I went to visit A Guy Called Gerald at Moonraker Studios in Longsight, Manchester. The long bus ride felt quite strange. Plus for many people, the idea of a soundtrack for a novel was particularly absurd. I wanted to use the word 'visionary' myself. | wanted this process to be something that would kick the Trip City legend into overdrive, add a dense layer of atmosphere, like a smoke machine in a club - or at the very least make the story more accessible for the people who might read it... But, you have to imagine or cast your mind back to a time before electronic music was largely generated via software or complex apps. Drum machines and sequencers were the gold standard - or all there was. So, the early pioneers like Gerald Simpson were literally inventing a 'sound' that didn't totally exist, yet. More importantly, the kind of narrative multimedia you see every day now on Instagram hadn't been invented.

I must confess, I was a little sceptical at first when Gerald opened a few beat-up holdalls and started lifting out a weird collection of 808s, 303s and the like.

Still, he plugged them together like some mad genius and then literally conjured a soundtrack from thin air. I was staggered by his intuitive skill and virtuosity. I was energised by how he changed-up and dropped into different styles, without skipping a beat. From orchestral, through danceable, even the sombre power of Gregorian chants... He made a theme for the main character. A track emblematic of the

'Latin' club in my story. Then a longer piece that was allegedly inspired by the fictional designer drug, as depicted in the text. I wrote a few lines - which he used as lyrics - and five minutes later he called up a female vocalist and she was singing the Trip City theme. If you listen closely, it's Gerald's voice saying "you can feel the atmosphere - there is sound, everywhere..." on the Trip City title track.

Later on, a number of journalists came up with the idea that this music or soundtrack was created to listen to as you read the book. Somebody even said that the staccato writing of the novel is meant to emulate the 4/4 beat of Acid House. Maybe I even said that myself.

Thirty-plus years later, I would like to think that the soundtrack is important because it sets the story in a time and a place. It's an atmospheric companion piece that may well transport you back to those sweaty nights in a smoke-filled club when too many pills took hold. If it does - great. And if not, it doesn't really matter - because these are still terrific tunes that sound just as unique and emotive as when Gerald made them, all those years ago.

I remember back in the 80s, in my hometown, Tony Wilson (of Factory Records fame) was fond of calling Shaun Ryder the WB Yeats of his day. In that vein, whether or not I like to see myself in the canon of Anthony Burgess and Clockwork Orange - with these five tracks, AGCG feels very much like the Ludwig Van to my Alex DeLarge.

- Trevor Miller -

“I got the manuscript off Trevor, the book wasn’t out yet, I read bits of it and made music to go with what I’d read. I wouldn’t say I read the book and sound-tracked it. I read bits of the book which got me thinking and feeling and then went ahead and made the music. So, I’d have to say the book did influence the sounds. It’s what I was asked to do and I thought it was a really interesting concept and collaboration”

The music on the Trip City EP is relentless groove. There are no break downs or drops, just an undeniable dance beat, which goes on forever without any stops. The tracks coming out today mostly have break downs and build ups, drops and sections which show the crowd when to dance and what to do. It’s like wait for it, wait for it…..OK NOW!“

- Gerald Simpson -

https://www.discogs.com/release/19135738-A-Guy-Called-Gerald-Trip-City