Music: Helen McCookerybook
Former Brighton punk rocker Helen McCookerybook spoke to Jeff Hemmings
Brighton has always had a thriving music scene, strong on alternative and DIY approaches that, while maybe precluding many of commercial success, has at least provided a rich cultural backdrop for the city. Helen McCallum, like so many before and after her, made it to Brighton via the art school (now part of the University of Brighton) at the end of the ’70s, but it wasn’t a particularly happy time: “I found it a really disappointing experience because back then it was almost like a finishing school for rich Londoners.
I originally come from the North East of England and I found it a bit shocking, and I didn’t fit in at all at the art college. But when punk started that changed [as well as the adoption of a stage name, Helen McCookerybook]. The Chefs grew out of a punk band and we just started writing songs that were more poppy. After the first flush of punk there was a lot of post-punk poppy bands around like The Piranhas [semi-legendary Brighton band who scored a top ten hit with Tom Hark in 1980] and The Mockingbirds, and we became part of that scene. Being in bands you meet an entirely different group of people: much more mixed, much more open minded.
“The Brighton scene at the time was good: there was the Atrix label and a place called The Resource Centre, a converted church hall. Upstairs it had printing facilities and in the basement there were loads of bands rehearsing. We all knew each other and we could put gigs on down there and it was a really buzzy time. It was a really independent band scene, more of a live scene than anything.”
Despite support from John Peel and Richard Skinner of BBC Radio 1, The Chefs never quite made it and Helen, now in London, formed a new band, Helen and The Horns, which also petered out, whereupon Helen effectively retired from music, becoming a mother, writer and academic (now Doctor Helen Reddinton), before returning to music part-time a few years ago. “Now I work at the University of East London; I teach songwriting and production.
It was one of the students who set me off playing again. There were lots of bands and I made a pledge to see every band, and they really liked that and one of them asked me to do a support for them. My guitar was under my bed, covered in dust, and I could only play three songs. I played them and it was a bit like punk times. I got offered loads more gigs after that!”
Since then she has been releasing records independently and via good friend Martin Stephenson’s (of The Daintees fame) homespun label. “It’s the way to be,” she says. “I’m not a corporate person; it suits me to have control over what you do…”
Prince Albert, Sunday 4 August, 8pm, £8, www.punkbrighton.co.uk, http://mccookerybook.blogspot.co.uk/
