I always get emotional about the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. I felt they had several more great albums in them and could have held a defining role in music at the start of a new century, so Simon Jeffes' death seems to me a greater, more tragic loss than any other musician/composer who has died too young.
I got this, I think, when it came out during the first term we lived in Cosin Court in Cambridge, at the end of 1984. Inside the sleeve I've kept the press notice of the gig they played at the Mermaid Theatre in December. Also there's an interview with Simon Jeffes from an April 1985 issue of Sounds — see the photo below, and click on it to get a legible version.
These press clippings were precious then. I don't want to start one of those "kids these days, they don't know they're born" grumbles (because hiding behind every such grumble is a bitter envy of youth and youth's greater capacity to exploit new privileges not available to us when we were young). I just want to observe that Google and Wikipedia provide a fantastic resource of information to go back to whenever you need it. Because it's always available your need for the information is less intense.
When I bought this album, my second or third by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, I had no idea what they looked like.
I found out at the Mermaid. Their presence was a jumble of very English compromises and miscegenation, a bit like the music. They had something of a Black Tie dress code for the evening, but apparently not everyone was willing and able to stick to it (ukulele player, Neil Rennie, I remember, had an old v-necked pullover under his suit jacket, looking every bit like the teacher I believe he is in his day-job). They had a dancer who moved balletically behind the musicians, but only on a couple of the pieces.
It might be easy to see the Penguin Cafe Orchestra's music as a lightweight curio — the titles ward off seriousness — but that would be to miss its frequently extraordinary beauty, the way that it gets complex results with simple means and vice-versa. Often with each listening my ear focuses on a different element of a different piece and finds that beauty within it. This time it was the melody carried by the strings in Sheep Dip.
 MusicBrainz entry for this album
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I liked your description, and felt the same way about Simon's death back in '97. I was fortunate enough to have a chat with him for about half an hour backstage in Venice '95 - I remember his almost childlike enthusiasm for what was to come next re: the Orchestra - "new music with no roots", "dissonance instead of consonance", "more electronic", "more space for improvisation", "a link to the very first album", "the space between in sound" were more or less the descriptions for what was to come next (an album called 'Chaotic Garden', beautiful title). really sad it was not to be.
thanks also very, very much for the Sounds snippet. would it be possible for you to post a higher-resolution scan of Simon's interview from the WOMAD Talking Book? PCO interviews are so hard to come across..
Posted by: Max Blazevic | 15 September 2006 at 10:40 AM