Patrik Fitzgerald - Polydor

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In April 1978 and just having released a couple of records on Small Wonder Patrik was in no hurry to go to a major as an interview with Sounds Lindsey Boyd tells.

"...he’s unwilling to sign with a major company because he believes he’d be pressured into changing his material and going for a bigger production. He doesn’t like the idea of big companies anyway and avoids any business dealings. Neither does he plan, as yet, to use a backing band." Sounds 29.4.78

A year later and the situation had changed. Patrik, though still signed to Small Wonder, would be distributed by Polydor records. He released the album 'Grubby Stories' with a band that included John Maher from the Buzzcocks and Robert Blamire from Penetration.

“...basically I take in the tape and they just press and distribute the records. If they’re unhappy about something then fine (laughs). But they’re not a bad company...I mean you either fade out, go on doing shitty records, or sign with a big label and have a bit of scope. If you wanna make records in a serious way, which I do, you need some scope. I don’t want to do just bitty little records forever.” 24.2.79

 
Not only that but Patrik was going through a purple patch. He wrote and starred in his own play 'Babytalk' at the Garage in SW1 with the youth theatre group attached to the Royal Court and had a book of his work published.

It’s just a little paperback. It’ll only cost about 50p. It’s got loads of poems in it and some song lyrics. Some quite good stories too. I like my stories. I think I write better stories than anybody (laughs). A lot of my stories are moral tales. A lot of my songs are too. And people don’t understand. I think most people don’t listen. It’s sad. 24.2.79
The Tower Hamlets Art Project decided they wanted to go into doing books for the community. Mine was the second to be published. They knew my stuff and poems and they thought it would give them a bit more credence and they said do you want to do it. It wasn’t seen as a rival to the bible. It was just a small book. A lot of it was poems that I used to do on stage and stories in between songs and which also used to get strange receptions at places like the Roxy. People used to come up and talk to me about the characters in the stories like Jarvis. Someone asked me who it was based on. I said ‘it’s made up.’ They said because I know who that bloke is!! Strange contact between fact and fiction.

At the time the book came out I wasn’t in the theatre group but I was still living in the commune and going out to their dos and doing charity gigs and community centre gigs. It certainly wasn’t expected to be reviewed and largely slated. It was just a funny little book.
   
The Polydor record 'Grubby Stories' was the first to feature a band and for some the album was a let down as the songs were conventional and lost the edge of his solo work. For Patrik though it was a chance to develop and experiment with different chords and melodies within the dynamics of band.

I wouldn’t say that any of my records come together as grandly as that, having arrangements and stuff. We just went into the rehearsal studio a week before recording and I sort of played through the songs and others jammed along. There’s nothing particularly inspired about it. They’re basically just colouring for the songs.

That was early in the contract with Polydor just before 'Grubby Stories'. Looking back now in 2006, Patrik is a lot more cynical about the whole major label affair and the machine he had joined.

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