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Kim Phaggs on how the Readers Wifes became a pop group...

Well it all seems a bit cloudy, kind of in the same way as to how we came to be DJs. I guess it kind of started in the DJ booth at Duckie. Chelsea and I would be playing a song, and to make each other laugh we would start to make up our own lyrics and sing them over the top of whatever it was we were playing, for example, "I got married to the widow next door, she's alright, she's a fucking whore!" Anyway it made US laugh. Some of the lyrics we made up developed into entire verses that just seemed to expand over the weeks, a particular favourite was to "Anaconda" by Sisters of Mercy!

Around about the time we did "Tits" (the annual Readers Wifes compilation CD) we had been toying with the idea of writing a "proper" song, we were working with Jock on a track called "Readers Wifes Covered in Blood", which featured Chelsea on vocals and Jock and myself doing little bits of music and samples. It ended up on the next annual compilation.

Sometime after that Mark and Jeremy told us one night that they had done a remix of the song. When they said remix, what they actually meant was that they had got one of their friends in (a posh sounding actress friend) to sing Chelsea's vocal, and added bits of "DJ" by David Bowie.

We were quite impressed and asked if they had any other tracks, they gave us an instrumental piece which we decided should be "Bitch at the Brits", which was an expression we would use for all those vacant girls who seem to be hanging around at award ceremonies and record company parties, who know fuck all about music but are quite interested in becoming a pop stars girlfriend.

Chelsea had written the words and we had a rough idea about how they would fit the music. So one night we went to Mark and Jeremy's flat and after about six bottles of wine we made it into Jeremy's studio where we shouted the lyrics into the mike, with me standing behind Chelsea, hanging onto his shoulders.

I think Mark and Jeremy were a little bit apprehensive at this point. However when we played it back a bit later it wasnt half as bad as perhaps it should have been. We spent a bit of time reworking it, adding the ALIEN, ALIEN, BOMBER! BOMBER! bit, which was a phrase we used to sing over a Gary Numan track, and it ended up as the version you know now.

When that track was complete we decided to carry on working and did "Endless Night" which was originally called "Charmaine's on the Game Again", then "Boy Aint Right" which just took AGES. And basically it was such a laugh that we just kept on going.

Once we had six songs done that we were all happy with, we thought it was time to let our friends hear them, as no-one had actually HEARD any of the songs, thats when we decided to do the "Six Songs No Encore" night at the Retro Bar, also it was Chelsea's Birthday, so it seemed like a good idea for a night out.

At the moment we are working on a couple of new tracks which I am not telling you about. . . yet, but you should be hearing them in the next couple of months or so.

 
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Chelsea KelseyKim Phaggs
Jeremy KimberleyMark Satanic
 
 
 
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