Pete Morgan has been the bassist for the No-Man live band since 2008. He is also a co-founder of BurningShed alongside Tim and Pete Chilvers in addition to the founder of NoiseBox Records. His solo releases can be found under the alias UXB
How did you first meet Tim Bowness and can you speak to his’s evolution as a songwriter?
We were both on the same bill at the Lady Owen Arms in Angel, Islington 1989. I was a one-and band (The Bushbabies) and they were still No Man Is An Island with backing tapes. They were excellent. I was not. We were both supporting a band called Venus Fly Trap who I can’t recall anything about.
Tim came up and spoke to me after the gig and got my details (he is/was always very good at ‘networking’) and he stayed in touch over the years. He’s always been very strong at songwriting though those early NM things don’t tend to have middle eights as they are often built around a groove/breakbeat.
How did you get involved with the No-Man live band?
I was asked to play with Tim’s solo band around the time of the My Hotel Year album and that band became the de facto No-Man backing band when the idea of some live dates arose.
How would you say the live band has evolved between the short 2008 tour and the longer 2012 tour?
We got a bit better at playing the songs and interpreting them in our own way (so that they were not always trying to replicate the records)
Any plans on the horizon for the band to tour the material from Love You To Bits?
None that I know of, sorry.
How would you say the arrangements of tracks differed from the studio to live performances when it comes to bass playing?
Well, the most obvious thing is that some basslines were programmed and I’m playing them live. Also, some were played on a double bass by Colin Edwin and he has a different style to me so I have to interpret them my own way sometimes
What’s the deal with Tim and the track Housewives Hooked on Heroin? Seem’s like a very unusual choice to revive for live performance.
It was a bit of a joke in the rehearsal room. We tried out lots of other songs that never made it into the set because they just didn’t work with the band (from memory: Chelsea Cap, Break Heaven, Teardrop Fall). Housewives was ‘ok’ but we weren’t convinced by it. After every gig we’d go offstage and the audience would call for an encore and Tim would jokingly say “Housewives Hooked On Heroin”? So, one night we decided to call his bluff and say a big collective “Yes, ok”. We played it once and once only. Mainly as it was a bit of a shambles!
What was the impetus for the formation of BurningShed?
I was living in Norwich from 1991 onwards and Tim moved here around 1999/2000. I was making CDs for him (No-Man ‘Radio Sessions’) that he was selling by mail-order to fans.
He and Peter Chilvers came to me with an idea about setting up a label that would only ‘burn’ CDRs to order (hence “Burning” Shed). They wanted me to just make the discs but I suggested that we become a 3-way partnership and that I would make the discs and run the business side, Tim would find the artists and Peter would build the website.
I had just given up running a more traditional label (Noisebox Records) after 50 releases of pressing up 500/1000 copies and trying to get them into shops so the idea of selling online one-order-at-a-time appealed to me.
How exactly does BurningShed go about adding artists to its roster?
Do we like it/them, is there a connection to things we already do, will it sell (e.g. we get sent a lot of great ambient music but we know it will only sell 10 copies)
How did you manage to get King Crimson to sell through BurningShed?
Tim had a connection to Robert Fripp since the Flowermouth sessions and was in touch with Declan who runs the label for King Crimson. We started off stocking the ‘In The Court…’ boxset and they were impressed by how many we sold and the way we handled the orders so they agreed to let us take on the whole store.
How has the shift from physical media to digital/streaming affected the way BurningShed operates?
It hasn’t really. We keep being told we should do an artist-led, ethical streaming service but our customers like physical things to have, listen to and collect.
We all use streaming to listen to things but there’s no replacement for owning a physical copy of an album. As we always say, you can’t sell a second hand download…and you never know when that album you love will drop off the streaming services because the rights have gone or a low-selling artist can’t afford to keep it on there any more.
All The Blue Changes 