 The Boats are Craig Tattersall (Remote Viewer/Archivist) and Andrew
Hargreaves (Beppu). The pair met at an outdoor art installation that
involved fire! When the fire was nothing more than a smouldering heap
Andrew asked Craig about his t-shirt and the duo became instant friends.
Not long afterwards the pair found themselves working for the same employer
and using their dinner breaks to record songs about the sea, spelling
and drinking wine. They were joined (when the boss was away) by Elaine
Reynolds for vocal duties. These recordings were released on the Moteer
label as "Songs by The Sea" (other tracks from this period
were released on "The Boats are in the Bay" under the moniker
"The Sea" on New York's "Music Related"). People
seemed to enjoy the album while some went fucking nuts for it (Andrew
Johnson, Accrington).
While working home from a hard day Craig saw two men pushing a piano
towards a skip. "I'm havin' that" exclaimed Craig. One phone
call later Andrew and Craig dressed in black rescued the piano under
cover of darkness. Work began on a piano based album with haste. The
results were unveiled as 2005's "We Made It For You" (Moteer).
Reviews for this album were all of the highest standard and the sales
went gangbusters! Still to this date "We Made It For You"
is The Boats biggest selling album.
The Boats didn't want to cash in on the success of "We Made It
For You" by making another piano record, besides the piano was
now horribly out of tune with three broken strings and living on Craig's
patio. It was summer 2006 and The Boats stereo was playing pop music
"We should make a pop album" suggested Andrew, "OK"
replied Craig. The pair quickly amassed an albums worth of material
(with a few extras) and were playing the rough mixes over dinner, suddenly
there were vocals drifting in from the next room! Work colleague Chris
Stewart (Need More Sources) was singing along unawares that The Boats
were listening. He was hired and along with Elaine completed the vocals
for what became "Tomorrow Time" (Moteer). The Boats were proud
of this album but were shocked to find that most of the reviews talked
about the song titles rather than the music! Their joke of beautiful
music with harsh titles had backfired.
Aside from the one special concert in Manchester The Boats had been
wary of playing live. This changed in 2006 as a small tour of Europe
was announced in support of the forthcoming "Tomorrow Time".
Craig was unable to join Andrew for the tour as he had just laid his
new patio and had a full summer of parties planned to show it off. Andrew
not wanting to do the shows alone asked close Boats friend and mastering
extraordinaire Miles Whittaker (Pendle Coven/MLZ) to join him. Miles
said yes. The shows went well and all had a hedonistic time. Craig came
to see The Boats play in Manchester and commented, "Miles doesn't
much look like me, but he sure sounds like me!" For the final date
in Leeds Craig joined Andrew and Miles and brought along Chris, Elaine,
Annabel Keach and Andrew Johnson (Remote Viewer), for the only ever
8 piece line up of The Boats! As a memorandum for those who came to
the shows The Boats produced a limited edition tour CD-R that featured
remixes and exclusive tracks from The Boats and Pendle Coven.
A big change happened to The Boats camp in 2006. Just prior the tour
Craig got a new job, the dinner recording sessions were no more. Andrew
was so upset by this that he could no longer call Craig by his real
name, instead referring to him as Bernd Hamblin. Craig retaliated by
using Kibbee Theodore when he addressed Andrew. They worked through
the change by producing an album of instrumental electronica under their
new German furniture building aliases. After the release of "The
Scientific Contrast" (Moteer) Andrew was feeling happier with the
change and the pair reverted to their birth names.
In late 2007 The Boats returned to the tapes they had been recording
before the Theodore and Hamblin affair. The results were the most fragile
music The Boats had produced (with vocals again by Chris). The decision
was made to make these available in a limited edition. The Boats did
not consider this a 'proper' album but a special album for fans. "Our
Small Ideas" was released in January 2008 on The Boats own label
"Our Small Ideas". The aim of "Our Small Ideas"
is to release small quantity CD-R's of The Boats and related projects.
The releases would act as mops for material that did not have a home
on any of their proper albums. The "Our Small Ideas" album
was so popular that the initial run of 100 CD-R's was not enough to
satisfy demand so a further 100 were produced.
Shortly after the release of "Our Small Ideas" Andrew and
Craig returned to work on the next album proper. Some of the recordings
dated as far back as December 2006 but the majority of the album was
recorded at Andrew's new home and Craig's old home in early 2008. This
time The Boats have returned to working as a duo (aside from a single
vocal from Chris) and created an album that is an ode to the transistor
radio. "Faulty Toned Radio" will be released on the Flaü� label
from Tokyo. The Boats are pleased to join the Flaü �family. .
::discography::
albums:
Songs By The Sea (moteer,2004)
We Made It For You (moteer,2005)
Typewriter (2006)
Tomorrow Time (moteer,2006)
Our Small Ideas (our small ideas,2008)
Saturation, Humm and Hiss (our small ideas.2008)
Faulty Toned Radio (flau,2008)
compilation & remixes
Echod (flau,2006)
Atone - Un An Plus Tard (autres directions,2007)
Monoceros - Tales From Late Night Remixes (Imaginary Nonexistent,2008)
Bracken - Remixes (anticon,2008)
The Declining Winter - Moteer Remixes (mobeer,2008)
aus - Antwarps (preco,2008)
V.A. - Little Things (flau,2008)
as The Sea:
Giardini Di Mirò - North Atlantic Treaty Of Love (2ndrec,2006)
The Boats Are In The Bay (music related,2007)
as Theodore and Hamblin:
The Scientific Contrast (moteer,2007)
official website
http://www.oursmallideas.co.uk
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