Robert Dilliam - Adorable Interview
Are you originally from Coventry? What was growing up like for you? When did you first begin playing music and more specifically the guitar? Was music something that was relevant in your household growing up? Do you have any siblings?
Yes, I am from Coventry. Born in 1968, I was around 12 in 1979/80 when Coventry was the home of 2 Tone and the Jam had released All Mod Cons. At that time everyone in the city (that wasn’t into heavy metal) was into Ska / 2Tone or they were a mod. At the time, my brother, John, and I and 2 friends called David and Richard (also brothers) had a Jam covers band going. In the 2000’s everyone was in an Oasis covers band, then it was the Jam. That’s how I learned drums, aged 12, playing in a band doing covers. When I got to 13 I started picking up my brothers guitar and by the end of that year I could play both instruments well enough to not be terrible. The music in the household was from my brother who was 2 years older. He liked the Skids a lot and used to play music like the Go-Gos and the Bangles and all sorts of other stuff. We occasionally still play together, he still plays guitar and I still play drums, but we live in different parts of the UK so we don’t get to meet that often, which is a shame. He’s a good person.
Who were some of your influences early on? Where would you go to see shows in your community and what groups/performances stood out to you the most during that time? What would you and your friends do for fun back in the day?
My influences early on are The Jam, The Clash, various punk bands (including American bands like the Dead Kennedys). Later I got into The Smiths and the Jesus And Mary Chain and what, at the time was called ‘indie music’. I particularly like the Shop Assistants, The Pastels, Meat Whiplash – a lot of Scottish bands in the mid to late 80s’. I was really (really) into My Bloody Valentine. I first saw them supporting the Soup Dragons when David Conway was still singing. I really liked the Ecstasy album too and then when they did You Made Me Realise I was at the record shop before it opened to get the record on the day of release. I’ve probably seen MBV around 30 to 40 times over the years. Fast forward to now and I really like Mogwai. I think I’ve seen them about 60 times. At the time, we’d go to indie nights and there were local band gigs happening. I was in a lot of local bands when I was around 18, there were lots of bands but not many drummers so I was in 7 bands at one point, rehearsing with different bands on different days. In the end that got a bit much so I moved down to just a few. What did we do for fun? Go to gigs, listen to records, go out to places where you could dance to Primal Scream records (their Byrds phase, the MC5 phase, the Screamadelica phase, I liked them all and danced to all of their songs as well).
Prior to Adorable, you participated in groups such as The Balloon Farm and The Pristines? Would you mind telling me about those groups and how they initially came to be? I understand they released their debuts fairly close together in ‘91, with The Pristines’ “Moments'' and The Balloon Farm’s “Apathy EP”. Would you mind telling me about writing and recording those records with those outfits and how the deal with Elefant Records and Meller Welle Produkte came to be?
Balloon Farm/Pristines, you’d need to speak to Jon Hardy. We were in the same class at school, in 6th form, in the end we had a similar group of friends and so the BF was one of the bands I was playing in, they were Jon’s bands though. I think the Pristines was ‘lighter’ sounding and more of a solo thing for Jon, with help from the people around him. The BF was heavier and was a solid (but movable, they had a few different line ups over the years) 4 piece band. I can’t remember how long I was playing with the BF for, a few years maybe? Jon used to communicate with Elefant etc and he got the songs recorded at home or at a local 8 track studio that we all used (called Sable Rose, Andy the engineer was great with us all, he taught us studio-craft) and got the records released. I wasn’t that involved with that side of things, like I said the BF was Jon’s band.
How did you initially meet Kevin Gritton, Piotr Fijalkowski and Stephen Williams? You guys were in a group called The Candy Ashes, prior to kicking off as Adorable, correct? What were your first impressions of them and what led to the decision to start the band around ‘91? How did the name for the group come about? When and where did you guys first get together to jam/rehearse and what was the chemistry like right off the bat?
Pete/Piotr, Kevin and Wil were in the Candy Thieves. I met them via a mutual friend, called Danny. Wayne had just left the band and moved to London to continue studying/work in the film industry and there was a gap and I was a guitarist looking for something ‘special’. I heard the demo (Homeboy, Pilot, I’ll Be Your Saint I think it was) and I just loved it. I want to be in that band. The fact that I had a shedload of gear (amps, guitars, drums, pus a car to move it to gigs in) probably helped the 3 of them decide to work with me… But aside from that, I met Pete and Wil first, at Silvers, the local indie night on a Thursday. Pete was into the House Of Love and Wil liked dance music and Jazz amongst other things. When we first met, Pete was cautious and Wil was obnoxious. The first rehearsal we jammed a song that Pete had, it was called Sunshine Smile and the guitar riff I used was borrowed in a way from Robin Guthrie. The second song we played together became Breathless. After the first rehearsal we knew we had something and Kevin was also friendly and a really good, tight, drummer. We used to rehearse at my parents’ house. At full blast, gig volumes.
I understand the band made their live debut at the Tic Toc club. What was that experience like? The group recorded a number of amazing singles from ‘91 to ‘93 before releasing the incredible debut LP, “Against Perfection”. Would you mind walking me through writing and recording a few of those records like “Rare Groove Pirate”, I’ll Be Your Saint”, (my personal favourite “Homeboy” and “Sunshine Smile”?
The first gig was at the Tic Toc in Coventry and we had quite a few people show up. As I recall, the Balloon Farm supported us so I played twice (my last gig for the BF and first gig for Adorable…) During Adorable’s set my amp packed in so I threw my guitar at it to fix it. The amp worked after that event but the headstock was snapped on the guitar, so I smashed it up. That was the end of the set. That night I went home and watched the start of the 1991 Gulf War on the tv and the next day I went out and purchased another guitar (the same as the one I broke), which I still have.
How did you guys initially meet Alan McGee who owns Creation Records, a label that would be the home of the band’s wide output for the next three years, or so? Tell me about writing and recording the incredible debut, “Against Perfection”. It’s such a superb record! I understand you guys worked with artist/singer-songwriter Louise Rhodes for the cover. What was the concept with the burning and rose and what does it mean to you?
After playing a gig in London at the Camden Falcon, we met someone called Eddie. He liked us and went on to manage us. He had a link with Alan McGee and Creation as he was in a band called Meat Whiplash, one of the bands to release a 7” record on the Creation label. Alan heard us and came to see us at the NME ‘On for 92’ gig in London and decided to sign us. We had been writing the songs for AP through 1991 and 1992 and had the material ready to go (or most of the songs anyway, only ‘Still Life’ was written during the actual recording of the album. We made the album with Pat Collier, a well-known and very friendly and helpful / supportive producer at his studio, the Greenhouse, in Old Street in London. He has already recorded with us, he even pressed up the white label 12” sunshine smile / breathless / I’ll be your saint 3 track e.p. Again, Eddie knew Pat and Pat decided to work with us. Pat knew what we wanted and had the ability and vision to take our songs and develop them sonically, to create the AP album. I didn’t know Louise Rhodes, I think Pete did, or Pete got in touch with her. The burning flower is a great image and I’m really happy with how it looks on the cover of the record, even today. It still looks fresh and appropriate for what we were trying to communicate. Artistic direction came from Pete, I only saw the picture at the end of the process. You’d need to speak to Louise or Pete for more on that.
Would you mind walking me through the magnificent songs that are featured on the album and a little bit of the backstory to each of them? If I may be so bold to say, as I’ve already previously stated, “Homeboy” was my introduction as it was featured in a friend of mine, Corey Duffel, skateboard video part some years back and the moving number “A To Fade In”.
In terms of the songs, look at the information provided in the liner notes to the Footnotes compilation cd. Aside from that, some were written at my parents house and then when we outgrew that space, others were written at Rockhouse rehearsals in Coventry, where we met often to play, rehearse and write. With the songs, Pete or maybe Wil would come in with an idea, which we would all then play with until the 4 of us all had something. Then we’d add a verse, a chorus and add some structure and some identity to the song. If we wrote 10 songs, 4 or 5 would probably be dropped as not being good enough, two or three would be okay so we would see how they were going and then they might be b sides or something, but then one or two of them would be good enough for us to like them and for them to be album tracks or single releases. One example of the whole thing working together would be Sistine. Will had the bass line, Kevin added the drums to get the vibe, Pete added lyrics and the guitar hook and I filled in the gaps with the rest of the guitaring. We then recorded this with Pat, who added the idea of the sonic guitar intro, which I played and a skipping hi-hat 16 beats to the bar drum pattern from Keven to get the drums to ‘travel’ and skip along. Put it all together, and….
The band would go on to record their final LP, “Fake” as well as a few singles in ‘94. Would you mind walking me through the process of writing and recording this great record and what you guys wanted to achieve and/or express with this release that differed from the debut? I understand you worked with engineers Chris Howles and Julian Withers on this project.
The debut AP was uplifting and positive (eg Glorious), Fake was downbeat and introspective(eg Go Easy On Her). Things were good around AP and not so good around Fake. We weren’t getting along and the records were not selling enough (and since Sony is now in the Creation offices, that is not seen as good). The first song from AP to Fake was Kangaroo Court. Again, very ‘Adorable’ sounding, so the song writing was still good. We wanted a more live sound, so drums and bass up in album 2 after having album 1 as being guitar heavy. This album was produced by Paul Corkett, he was a thoughtful individual and he got us a good sound. By now though, we were starting to look at the end of the band, and the frustrations of that are on the record if you listen closely enough. I like Fake, but for totally different reasons as to why I like AP.
What eventually happened to the band after the release of the album in ‘94? I understand you went on to play in groups such as The Zephyrs and Viet Cong Blues Proj. Can you tell me about working with the good folks over at Cherry Red Records for the 2008 release of “Footnotes 92=94”? For a band that was only around for three years, or so, you guys put the work in!
We split up just before going onstage in Brussels at the VK club is 1994. In the end, having the band finish was a bit of a relief. We didn’t speak for around 10 years and then after a while, we started emailing and eventually after 20 years, talking. After 25 we played the 2019 shows and we’re all okay now, with each other. Cherry Red putting out Footnotes did get us to all revisit the band and each other and it was interesting and enjoyable to write the sleeve notes. They are worth looking at. And yes, over the years we have put a lot into the band, work wise, ie it is your life (whether you like it or not!) . After adorable, I went quiet for a bit, but was always playing or doing something with music. I moved to Scotland and started spending a lot of time at ex Adorable sound person Michael’s recording studio. I met a lot of musicians there, including the Zephyrs (who I eventually joined – and I’m still with them after around 15 years on and off) and Mercury Tilt Switch. Chris from MTS and I decided to do a one off track (Drop 19s ‘Winona’ for a Club AC30 cd compilation release) and we called the ‘band’ Viet Cong Blues Project. I’m on drums and some bass and guitar, Chris is doing some bass and the other guitaring and we got some friends in to sing and play harmonica etc etc. It’s a decent track, in my opinion.
What have you been up to as of late now that things are somewhat back, but forever changed for better, or arguably worse? Are you planning any gigs, new releases from projects, etc.? Is there anything else you would like to further share with the readers?
Adorable did the reform shows in 2019 and that allowed us to show ourselves that we can be friends and we can be creative. It was great to play and now it is done. I now play with the Zephyrs and album 6 – For Sapphire Needle – was released last week (after taking around 10 years to write and record. We, by the way, were all raising children at the same time, so 10 years isn’t that weird). I aim to make more Zephyrs records. As far as I know, Pete is still writing and doing Pete Fij solo things, he has made some really good records on his own and with Terry Bickers over the last few years. You’d need to speak to him for more information though. Go and check out the Zephyrs on www.thezephyrs.com. The 5 albums in the Zephyrs back catalogue can be heard via links in the website. Those of you into the shoegaze thing might be interested in a track on the 2nd album, called ‘Setting Sun’, which has Rachel from Slowdive singing on it. The current album is released on the Aquarela label and is called ‘For Sapphire Needle’.
Thanks,
Robert
