EXCLUSIVE: Helen McCookerybook Interview (Part Two)

Well the whole thing was supposed to tie in with Helen's new limited edition electronica album, Voxpop Puella, which is only available through http://mccookerybook.blogspot.co.uk/ but, as always happens when Helen and I start chatting, the whole thing got out of hand and will be run over the four days. 

Today is the second, (you can read part one HERE) I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did...

JON: Now, what about your club?

HELEN: Oh Club Artyfartle <laughs>

JON: That sounds wonderful

HELEN: Well that is another art for art’s sake ....well I did one probably about a year and a half ago in a fantastic pub which turned into a bistro – I can’t remember what it was called and it was for people to try out their new songs with an audience that would forgive them if their songs didn’t work out. And the first one had Martin Stephenson – he’s my partner – and Viv Albertine who was in The Slits, and myself and Acton Bell who is running this one with me and and we had Gina Birch doing a talk on her felted bags which were called Birch Bags.

JON: That’s one hell of a line-up

HELEN: Well it was great wasn’t it? And then we had cakes, and paper table cloths which people could draw on and it was a really nice night actually but the problem was I had got a lot of people who wanted to play who thought that they ought to be on the bill, and I didn’t feel comfortable being a promoter at all, and I just did not ever do it again.  I mean it was supposed to be a regular thing and I made a list of people who I wanted to play and then what happened was a couple of months ago I did a gig at this place called The Hangover Lounge in a pub called The Lexington in Islington.  

The Hangover Lounge has actually had a write up in The Guardian – it’s upstairs in The Lexington and is the place where the bands play in the evenings except this is a Sunday afternoon thing and you sit beside the stage and it’s all a bit grubby from the night before and it’s a bit like being in the wings or something. So I did this gig there and I was talking to them about Club Artyfartle and they said ‘oh do one here’ and I thought well that is actually an invitation isn’t it so Acton Bell is helping me to organise it and our guests are Lucy Seiger who had a hit in the 1980s with a song called Forty Miles from Love, and there’s a fantastic video on YouTube with her with her hair done like a treble clef, and she’s Glaswegian.  

She’s a real character. And a guy that Acton Bell works with in The Enterprise pub in Camden, he’s called Magnetic Paul and our guest is actually Joan Asquith from the Royal College of Art, she’s a professor of animation there, and she’s just done a series of photographs using beer cans and the sun. And she’s going to do a talk about ... she’s going to show some slides of her ...they are called pholographs (?) ... she’s going to show some slides and she is going to talk about how to do your own photographs using beer cans from the sun. And that’s the arty part of it.  So it’s like a sort of event on a Sunday afternoon and it’s free and I might make a guy as it’s somewhere near Guy Fawkes Night.  I’ve got the head, because my other daughter had an art project where she made a papier mache head and didn’t finish it, so if I can be bothered to make the body I’m going to make a Guy Fawkes as well. Lots of arty nonsense basically. <laughs>

JON: Which is exactly what I thrive on.

HELEN: I’m glad you thrive on it, because I think a lot of people do and because it’s not financed by the city and it’s not a multi-national corporation and nobody is sponsoring it, you know people sort of forget that sometimes creativity for the sake of it is really an important thing to nurture.

JON: It’s by far the most important thing to nurture

HELEN: I think it is. I think it is sort of .... well partly it’s defiant isn’t it? Because most people only do things because they make money and if you do things because they make art, then that’s quite defiant really.

JON: Exactly

HELEN: And the other thing is that is actually a sort of spiritual activity because it’s the idea of giving people pleasure by... well entertaining them, making them laugh, giving them something and giving them ideas as well.  I mean you always hope when you do these things that people will see them and think ‘Oh that’s a good idea, I’ll do that’.

JON: I’m so glad you said that, because I was just about to say that, and I felt mildly embarrassed and didn’t want to come over as some horrible old hippy but it is totally and utterly true, to do something for the joy of doing it is a joy which most people in the human race have forgotten how to do.

HELEN: Well  I think if you’ve got an ability as an artist or a musician or a writer I think it does set you apart from other people and I think you should share it and I think you should show people how to do it, and let people join in. Because it does give people a huge amount of pleasure and if you just keep it to yourself and sell it as a commodity ... I mean I am not saying that people shouldn’t play for money because I do that and so does everybody else who is on this bill, but I think sometimes you’ve just got to do something that’s erm.. just for the sake of it really. That’s not attached to lots of complicated things that pull it into the mainstream and corrupts it so.... you know.

JON: I agree entirely.  So how often are you going to be doing them?

HELEN: Well, I’ve got no idea.......

Check out part three tomorrow... ...and check out her Gonzo artist page