Paul Sears of The Muffins does live sound at Zu Manifestival
along the way meets Debbie Harry and Robert Fripp
I’m extremely happy to continue my interview series with another fun chat. This time I’m joined by Paul Sears, the drummer for The Muffins and for many others. Enjoy.
Paul Sears Interview:
By the time Paul Sears joined The Muffins in 1976, they had already been playing around the Washington DC area for about 3 years. In that time the band had met their idols Henry Cow in Europe and started their own record label Random Radar Records. The label’s first release in 1977 was a sampler simply called “A Random Sampler”. It included a Muffins’ track, as well as 4 by Fred Frith, 1 by Lol Coxhill and a half dozen more. There are even 2 tracks by Steve Feigenbaum who is well known today as the person behind Cuneiform Records. Steve co-founded the RRR collective with The Muffins, and together they would release about a dozen albums over 4 years including “Hopes and Fears”, the first release by Art Bears which formed out of the ashes of Henry Cow. In November 1979 they recorded what would become side 2 of Fred Frith’s solo album “Gravity”.
After Paul joined the band, The Muffin’s sound opened up even more in the direction of free improvisation. They all moved into the same house which eventually turned into their recording studio where they would create their early releases. By 1981 they had developed into an incredibly tight band and decided to take Fred Frith up on his offer to produce their next album in a more professional studio. The result is Paul’s favorite Muffin album “185”.
Fred Frith moved to the USA in late 1978 at the invitation of Giorgio Gomelsky who was the producer/manager for the band Magma in France before Gomelsky himself moved to NY in early 1978. In France, Gomelsky had created a reliable touring network for Magma and bands like them, including Henry Cow. He now wanted to bring these bands to a US audience, so he planned a big 12 hour long festival in NY to launch his idea. He called it the Zu Manifestival.
Paul already knew a lot about Gomelsky when he was about to answer the phone at The Muffin house in late 78. He owned many of the records produced by the man going back to the Yardbird albums. He did not know Gomelsky was now in NY, and he certainly was not expecting him to be on the other end of the phone call he was about to answer. “Yes sir Mr. Gomelsky. I’ll be on the next train to NY to meet with you.” Well, maybe that’s not exactly what Paul said, but he was thrilled to be talking to Gomelsky, and DID go to meet with him soon after. The Muffins were going to be part of the Zu Manifestival.
Paul ends up spending a couple of days with Gomelsky. Their conversations would last all night. During the day Paul would tour NYC and the subway system with his tour guide Bill Laswell. Needless to say, The Muffins were added to the festival lineup, and Paul returned to DC to prepare with the rest of the band.
As the big festival day approaches, Paul gets another call from Giorgio. He needs Paul to do the live sound. Apparently the guy that was going to do it bailed out. Remember, this is supposed to be a 12 hour long festival. The list of musicians that would need to setup and teardown was very lengthy. To take charge of doing live sound, AND play in a band was a huge commitment. Oh, and the entire thing would be recorded as well. Do you think you could keep an eye on the recording equipment too, Paul? He did. Or at least he would try.
A couple of days before the big show, Paul goes up to Gomelsky’s to get a crash course in the sound system he will be using. The place is of course a buzz of activity, and Paul is directed to a table to relax and have a drink before they go off to inspect the gear. Before he can take sip he sees that his table mates are none other than Robert Fripp and Debbie Harry. They were apparently taking a keen interest in the festival, and Paul would see them again at the show observing from a vantage point near where he was doing sound. These encounters would create a bond for Paul and Robert, and years later Paul would once again find a capable tour guide, this time in England in the form of Robert Fripp.
Text can not do justice to Paul’s description of the chaos that ensued on the big day. The short story is this. No one got a sound check. There are 32 channels of musicians, most using mics. AND there’s an intellectual group discussion on Punk vs Progressive Music with audience participation if they wanted it or not. After 12 hours of this you’d think everyone would be ready to go home. Nope. The band played on with Daevid Allen leading the way. Eventually the power got shut off. Allen invites the audience to participate in an acoustic jam that would somehow end the evening, or maybe it just moved to another location. To this day, Paul is not sure who was changing the tapes during the recording of the event.
Paul loves chaos. He must. Shortly after this event he jumps at the chance to be drummer for NY Gong. The lineup would include Laswell, Al Hertzberg from Manster (and original guitarist with Billy Joel), and Mark Kramer (who would later found Shimmy Disc) on Trombone. This group would convene at Gomelsky’s Zu House for some kick-ass rehearsals that Paul had the foresight to record on whatever portable gear he had at the time. It has never been released. Unfortunately, this lineup would soon fall apart for lack of a plan to get them touring. When a plan did finally come together, Paul was replaced by Stu Martin. Even Stu lost faith in the plan and mid-tour was replaced by Bill Bacon who would complete the North American leg of the tour in mid 1979. (For more on this part of the NY Gong tour, see my earlier blog posts.)
The Zu Manifestival created a lot of momentum for the musicians who participated. They would continue to perform together in one way or another for years to come. Paul and The Muffins would get involved in their own Manifestival in the DC area not long after the Zu version. But The Muffins would cease to be a band sometime in 1981. Paul would eventually relocate from the DC area to Arizona where he still records music and contributes to many music projects. He’s currently working with Steve Feigenbaum of Cuneiform Records on a box set of Muffins material. You can find his website here:
What happened to those tapes that recorded almost the entire Zu Manifestival? It seems they ended up in a box stored at Zu House and remained unseen and unheard for nearly 4 decades. Obviously, whatever plans Gomelsky may have had for them never materialized. When he died in 2016, many of the boxes stored at Zu House were headed for the landfill. Thankfully, a few people had the good fortune to spot these tapes and rescue them. Today you can actually listen to almost the entire Zu Manifestival by going to the Giorgio Gomelsky tribute website.
I found the tapes just before they were going to be trashed, and had them transferred at Dubway. The originals are now at Harvestworks, which was then called Sutdio Pass. You can listen to the mps at giogiogomelsky.com
I was an original “pot head pixie” for Daevid Allen and Gong at the Zu festival. Fred Frith’s daughter, Stormy, was also a pixie. Such beautiful memories 🖤