Horns are blowing, confetti is flying and frontman Jake Shillingford is sparkling in the spotlight, kicking the air and breathing life into a six year old concept band
I first came across the band My Life Story by chance on Saturday 27th July 1996 – on The White Room in a flat above a doctor’s surgery in Fulham. At the age of 22 I was awestruck – captivated by the swooping, orchestral sound and the poppy, glam showmanship of the whole band – the bold, bombastic kicks and the big band soundtrack – but with lyrics representing the “shabby romance of modern life and modern London” – a total contrast to the endless Nirvana imitations of the time. Next day I had tickets to the show at Ronnie Scott’s and was on their mailing list. It was from there that I found my home in London really. It was the peak of Britpop and Camden was its hub. My Life Story revolved around London and, as everyone else at the time was, were Camden-centric, in some ways reminiscent of Covent Garden in the 60’s. It was more than the music, it was the whole arena – the time, the place, the music, the fashion, the drama, the style – the whole performance. My Life Story were also far more than their music – they were the style, the showmanship, the glamour – orchestras and suits; sparkles, tiaras and boas – and a 12 piece orchestra every night – at the same time drawing on the pop and outrageous pomp of Marc Almond, ABC, Dexy’s and The Teardrop Explodes – to Anthony Newley, Scott Walker, PJ Proby.
“Big Strings, Glam, all the things you’re afraid to admit, Anthony Newley, The Pale Fountains, Chapeau Melon et Bottes de Cuir, Scott Walker, Marc and the Mambas, Bond Movies, Jimmy Webb, PJ Proby on daytime TV, Les Bicyclette de Belsize, Dexy’s, Punk Rock, Southend-on-Sea v’s Venice Beach, The Teardrop Explodes, Phil Spektor, Ken Nordine, Writing poems on the District line, The Dice Man, Johnny Boy, The Prisoner, Boating Blazers, Jason King, Yes..Tommy Steele, John Steed, Dressing up on a Monday night and staying in just for the thrill of dressing up, Both Elvi, Girls with Boys, Boys with Girls, Girls with Girls, Boys with Boys.” – Jake on his influences
At the same time many around them were chasing similar themes – Menswear, Orlando, David Devant, Rialto, Posh…it was the right time for the glamour, the pop and the pomp, the pretentiousness, the suits, the glitter. Every fanzine wanted them. It was the time when I would do eight gigs a week. Even 12 years later, most of my friends I met through some connotation with the band, including my partner of ten years. My Life Story were an icon – What did they have that that drew so many in?
“There are classical violinists busting bow strings as they mosh their way through pop music. Horns are blowing, confetti is flying and frontman Jake Shillingford is sparkling in the spotlight, kicking the air and breathing life into a six year old concept band: My Life Story.“ Sean McManus
My Life Story were originally an indie-pop group formed around 1991 by Jake Shillingford, a one-time ice-cream van man and Essex boy – brought up in Southend-on-Sea by his artistic father, Alan Shillingford (a Pop Art-ist of the 1950s) as well as various babysitters from the art college (including a young Alison Moyet). Jake claims it was here that he first grabbed his love of pop – in the “riotously raucous” singles they would bring round in his childhood. Jake rebelled against his upbringing by quitting college with no art qualifications, and poured his energies instead into music. The prototype My Life Story pressed just a handful of copies of their only single, “Home Sweet Zoo” (which now fetches over £125 a copy), on Think Tank in 1986, before disbanding.
After moving to London and working as a DJ at Dingwalls in Camden and Blow Up in Soho, Jake was made redundant and headed for America, where the skeleton of My Life Story was born. Musing with friends over what thought was missing from music they came up with a list including “thought-provoking lyrics; big, bombastic sounds; a bit of show-offness; personality and pretentiousness“.
“I love pretentiousness, it’s what pop music is all about“.
Jake was a showman and his performance was about more than the music – he wanted the style, the scene, the icon. My Life Story had their own arrranger in Aaron Cahill and with Jake made huge, bold, orchestral arrangements, epic cinematic soundtracks, torchsongs – a cinematic sound, with a John Barry influence. Jake had difficulty recruiting musicians to develop these plans for orchestral pop songs however, and resorted to propositioning anyone with the right shaped instrument case he found on the Northern Line. (Source) Some hid behind newspapers, some walked away, but a few were curious enough to audition for him. By Autumn 1993 his band was created – My Life Story were a 12 piece.
“Much the same as in a screenplay, I try to exagerrate the lyrics and and give it a big carchase at the end. As opposed to just getting out of a cab. People respond to that”.
Still sticking to his ideals of huge orchestras and refusing to use artificial sounds, Jake also had difficulty in the studio getting a big enough sound for the orchestral idea in his mind. He resorted to setting up a pair of mics, moving the string quartet gradually further away, and layering the recordings to make it sound like an orchestra pit full of strings. Still this wasn’t enough for Jake who stated “Next time I want to get a full 66 piece orchestra in“. At this time they were spotted by Giles Martin, (son of Beatles legend George) and offered free studio time. It was here that their debut single Girl A, Girl B, Boy C was born – released on Mother Tongue and both NME and Melody Maker’s Single of the Week – “a tale of a bizarre love triangle with a big band soundtrack…All foxy horns and horny foxes“. This was followed in 1994 by two more singles – Funny Ha Ha and You Don’t Sparkle (in My Eyes); an EP (the Mornington Crescent Companion); a track (Under The Ice) on a flexidisc; and in 1995 what was to be their last release on Mother Tongue due to its demise in 1996 – their debut album Mornington Crescent – “homage to London Transport’s notorious Misery Line” – littered with references to the times and the places of the band’s (and their fans’) lives in Camden – Mornington Crescent being not only the stop next to Camden on the Northern Line, but also where Jake worked at the Camden Palace (now KoKo); and Angel also on the Northern Line. It reached number two in the indie chart in February 1995. On the cover was Big Ben and inside 12 oil paintings (one for each song) all by Jake’s father, Alan. As did all My Life Story’s records, the vinyl version also had a message etched on each side in the runout runouts :
“A: You are never given a dream…
B: Without also being given the power to make it come true”
Mornington Crescent LineUp:—————-Golden Mile LineUp:
Jake Shillingford: Voice and Guitar————-Jake Shillingford: Voice
Harry Blue: Bass—————————Paul Seipel: Bass with Vocals
Helen Caddick: Keyboards——————-Danny Turner: Piano, Harpsichord
Jason Cooper: Drums and Timpani————-Simon Wray: Drums,Timpani
Bill Mowbray: Saxophone——————–Ben Spencer: Tenor/Alto Saxophone
Mark Bradley: 1st Trumpet——————-Mark Bradley: Trumpet
Roxanna Shirley: 2nd Trumpet—————Roxanna Shirley: Trumpet with Vocals
Ruth Thomas: Trumpet———————Becca Ware: 2nd Violin
Lucy Wilkins: 1st Violin———————Lucy Wilkins: Violin
Becki Doe: 1st Violin———————–Becki Doe: Violin
Rob Spriggs: Viola and Flute—————–Robert Spriggs: Viola
Oliver Kraus: Cello————————Oliver Kraus: Cello, Keyboards
My Life Story performed ‘A Month of Sundays’ at Dingwalls, with a different setlist for each gig. This was perhaps the turning point for them. In 1996 they were signed to Parlophone and released their single 12 Reasons Why. The newly acquired marketing and cashflow meant their popularity grew exponentially – they shifted overnight from indie music paper faves to mainstream radio and TV appearances including Radio 1, The Big Breakfast, TFI Friday, The White Room, Live And Kicking, The Bob Mills Show, GLR and more. They toured endlessly over the next two years including an unforgettable New Year’s Eve gig at the Hackney Empire in 1996 and the landmark election-night gig at the Astoria in 1997, which included a swingometer to decide the next song, and a guest appearance from ABC frontman Martin Fry. They released four more singles and an album that year – all four singles were released as dual format with different b-sides on each to encourage the collectors. One of them (Sparkle) was a re-arranged, re-recorded version of the original ‘You Don’t Sparkle (In My Eyes)‘ from Mother Tongue. The album was released with a Valentine’s Day gig at ULU. Whilst the album was well received it appeared more produced and packaged than the original Mornington Crescent era tracks – and the double (in the case of 12 Reasons, triple) releases, and blocky artwork gave it a less personal, more commercial feel. My Life Story’s fanbase were hardcore however and many still collected two of every release and followed them round the country (and beyond), even forming “My Life Story Sunshine Tours” and meeting up with other members of the mailing list (this was before the internet had really taken off). It was live that My Life Story were still spectacular – the cascading strings and trumpeting brass; the high kicks from Jake and cheeky smirks from the Crow; the teasing from the strings, the numbers thrown out into the crowd to 12 Reasons by Rox and the strings. The suits in white latex and sparkly silver, personally designed by Mr Gammon. Still the glitter, the confetti, the boas, the groupies played on.
Nowadays, Jake’s personal tailer, a Mr Gammon, takes care of his sartorial extravagances, supplying everything from the ‘little black leather Elvis numbers to ’suits like the ones John Steed wore in the Avengers’. Such attention to detail, coupled with the visual and musical shenanigans of a band the size of a football team minus the goalie, make My Life Story’s live shows quite an event.
It was short lived – there were problems emanating from the relationship with Parlophone, culminating with the cancellation of the release of You Can’t Uneat The Apple (which a promo was already in circulation for) and it’s sudden replacement with the far more regimented ‘Duchess‘. In 1998 they were dropped – some claim due to poor charting, others claim it was a change of management at Parlophone. As a parting gesture the label re-issued Mornington Crescent with extra tracks. Jake, Danny, Simon and The Crow took on a new member and signed briefly to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s offshoot business It Records. They took on a new more synth and guitar-led, 80’s-electronica influenced direction, releasing their third album ‘Joined up Talking‘ in 2000, now stripped down to a five piece. They still failed to chart and played their final three shows at Camden Underworld on 13th, 14th and 15th December. All three nights has different setlists with an acoustic set beforehand, following the shadow of their ‘Month of Sundays’ concept of 1995. The band then went their separate ways. Jake and Aaron Cahill launched their new project ExileInside in 2001, releasing an album in August 2002. Jake also went on to start a solo career without Aaron.
The band began by playing an unplugged set of ‘November 5th’, ‘Claret’ and ‘You can’t uneat the apple’. The main set included most of the third album and crowd-pleasers from the past such as ‘Suited and Booted’, ‘Sparkle’, ‘Motorcade’, ‘Penthouse in the Basement’ and ‘12 Reasons Why I Love Her’. “We’re not really splitting up,” joked Jake on stage, “we just like to see girls cry.”
As it had been at the Month of Sundays gigs, the final song in the main set was ‘Funny Ha Ha’, Jake’s riposte to cynical critics. My Life Story’s dying notes were from the final encore of the moving ballad ‘Angel’. A bootleg double CD of this concert is known to be in circulation.
My Life Story were part of the time and the place of Camden in the mid-90’s but with throwbacks to the 60’s. It all leaked into the sound and appearance of My Life Story as a band and as an icon of the time. At the peak of Britpop Camden was the scene to be in and My Life Story were a huge part of that crowd. Their output was more than the music – a performance of drama and showmanship, glamour and style, representing the shabby romance of modern life and modern London. Their fanbase was largely London-based and formed a loyal crowd. Whilst they always had this hardcore fanbase, their popularity soared when they gained the business hand to promote it, but was unsustainable without the marketing, the assets and the era. As Britpop moved on and the public were pushed to another category My Life Story found it impossible to compete.
Albums
Mornington Crescent (Mother Tongue Records – 1994)
The Golden Mile (Parlophone Records – 1996) UK # 36
Mornington Crescent (Parlophone Records – 1998 )
Joined Up Talking (it Records 1999)
Sex & Violins (The Best of My Life Story) (Exilophone Records 2006)
Megaphone Theology (B-Sides and Rarities) (Exilophone Records 2006)
Singles
Girl A, Girl B, Boy C (Mother Tongue Records – 1993)
Funny Ha Ha (Mother Tongue Records – 1994)
You Don’t Sparkle (In My Eyes) (Mother Tongue Records – 1995)
The Mornington Crescent Companion EP (Mother Tongue Records – 1995)
12 Reasons Why I Love Her (Parlophone Records – 1996) UK #32
Sparkle (Parlophone Records – 1996) #34
The King Of Kissingdom (Parlophone Records – 1997) UK #35
Strumpet (Parlophone Records – 1997) UK #27
Duchess (Parlophone Records – 1997) UK #39
If You Can’t Live Without Me Then Why Aren’t You Dead Yet? ( 1998 ) – Download-only single
It’s A Girl Thing (it Records – 1999) UK #37
Empire Line (it Records – 1999) UK #58
Walk/Don’t Walk (it Records – 2000) UK #48
Links:
Checkmate – Caroline Griffiths’ site
Twelve Reasons Why – Ricchard Harrison’s site
Sean.co.ukSean McManus’ site
mylifestory.com My Life Story official site
http://jakeshillingford.com/ – Jake’s solo site
Wiki on My Life Story
