(Translated by Henry Wassoom)
Q: What are some of your favorite songs?
HLP: This is something that changes over time but I have always loved �The Wonger is a Wurdle-Wurdle� (�Le Wongeur est un Wourdel-Wourdel�), the composer of which is unknown.
Q: What is that you like about that song?
HLP: I heard it as a child and didn�t realize how it embodies some of the character of Building Trade Singing(BTS), which, of course, I came across much later in life. Without having the almost complete freedom of melody, lyric, rhythm, tempo and harmony that is found in the highest practice of BTS, it contains the seeds of this style of music.
Q: Can you explain a little further?
HLP: Well, take the refrain, the wonger is a wurdle-wordle. That evokes an almost unlimited range of possibilities, such as, �the lover is a wet noodle�, �the dog is eating cream cheese� (un fromeur), �the father is a barn owl� etc. etc.. This is mirrored in the tune, which is fairly open, and the rhythm, which can support a dirge-like rendition or like a jig.
Q: You mention BTS. Is there a French tradition that is similar?
HLP: Not really. Not that I know. BTS seems to be a peculiar invention of the perfidious British.
Q: Some have said you discovered BTS when undercover for the Deuxieme Bureau. Is that true?
HLP: If you really want me to answer that I may have to kill you.
Q: So, what is it about BTS that you like?
HLP: Everything. It�s the most completely open musical form. There is no restriction to keeping the same tune or metre or lyrical progression.
Q: Who are the great BTS performers? Is Higginbottom a favorite?
HLP: Yes, but as Binky would be the first to admit, since he became a populariser of the music, he�s lost contact with the real BTS and he�s not what he was. I�m still partial to the stylings of Bloggs but he�s retired now and it�s difficult to catch him in his full glory. Part of the attraction of BTS is that it�s practically unrecordable. You just have to find out the site where he�s working and listen. Since he�s retired he only does small stuff now, so no-one now will ever again hear him in his full glory on a large building site. Still I caught him a couple of months ago making a shithouse on a council estate near Bootle and he was glorious.
Q: Didn�t the Anachronisms do a tribute to Higginbottom?
HLP: Strictly it�s just titled �Higginbottom� and is intended as a tribute to the music itself, as in the subtitle �I am a building site�. Still, back then Alphonse was about as good as you got, when working a big site. There�s no adequate way to really convey the musical power of four brickies, with laborers, a couple of carpenters and a plumber or two putting up row (terraced) houses. But we took a shot at it.
Q: You sound a little dissatisfied?
HLP: No. I have no regrets about any of the Anachronisms recordings. Within the limitations of the recorded format we captured the essence of BTS but it�s as they say, like capturing lightning in a bottle. The main element we just couldn�t emulate was the interplay of voices spatially separated over hours of work, starting off on the same song, switching into other songs, adding completely improvised portions, all in different keys, etc.. All interspersed with badinage and commentary of various sorts, from speculation as to the specific type of bacon for breakfast that added a certain piquancy to the flatulence of one or more brickies to politics. So we compressed it.
Q: Are there any younger BTSs to watch for?
HLP: Oh yes. Albert Snodgrass and Vernon Bilge are working on a big development up near Newcastle for the next few months. I would advise anyone to get up there and catch them before they move on. Tommy McNamara is coming into his own right now but is hard to find. He generally works in the Rossendale hills. Try to get a listen before the tax authorities do. There are many others.
Q: How do they compare to the older generation?
HLP: To my ears, they�re not as good. Not just Bloggs and Higginbottom but many others, like Bickerstaff and Ashworth. But that�s just personal preference. The main thing is that the tradition is still strong of producing music that has no regard for the conventions of key, time signature, lyric, harmony or tempo, which, as Foucault has said, are simply expressions of bourgeois power relations.
Q: Is that Foucault or Fuck-all?
HLP: What�s the difference?
Q: Thank you for the opportunity to discuss music with you.
HLP: My pleasure. I�m glad I didn�t have to kill you.