Clive Product
Clive Product (born Clive Snowden in 1963) is an English "new wave-folk-pop" performer. Since 1990 he has lived in Berlin, Germany.
Clive's teenage career was with groups such as The Mysterons (1979), The Interferons (1980) and Introducing Dragons[1] (1981). After that he self-released his early recordings to limited success. Reviewing Songs From An Untidy Bedroom, Graham Larkby wrote that some tracks "call to mind an acoustic Smiths: some are better than that suggests, while others veer into bedsit singer/songwriter territory...".[2]
A collaboration with Lora Logic in 1988 led to some rough demo recordings, but no commercial release. However, when Billy Bragg stood in for John Peel on BBC Radio 1, he ended the show with "...And for those of you who have written to me asking for The Smiths, who are a bit worried about what records you're going to take away to college with you when you go away for the first time, this is my candidate for your turntables. Singing a song that also expresses a lot of my sentiments: Clive Product, Songs From An Untidy Bedroom"[3]. Thus it was that Clive Product became the second artist after Billy Bragg to appear on Utility Records[4]. Billy's 1983 album Life's A Riot with Spy vs Spy had been the label's first release (UTIL 1), but there wasn't a UTIL 2 until Financial Suicide[5] in 1989. By then Utility was owned by Billy and Peter Jenner and they were trying to showcase independent acts which had tried hard, but so far failed, to break through. Clive fitted the bill perfectly, having already released four albums, to no appreciable commercial success.
Financial Suicide was released on 13 March 1989. It was a six track compilation mini-album, taking tracks off Clive's earlier LPs. It was notable for featuring a photograph of Clive's very own tea pot on the cover. The compilation includes Shoddy Body and Songs From An Untidy Bedroom (from Songs From An Untidy Bedroom[6] (1986)), Everyone Sees What I See and The Man Who Thought He Was a Steam Train (being the A and B side of the single taken from The Care Assistant[7] (1987)), Penguins (from Village Tours Start Here[8] (1983)) and a track that Clive released as a single, There Goes The Floor Again[9]. The CD of this mini-album added Two Fat Girls (also from The Care Assistant).
In 1990 Clive relocated to Berlin and produced one more LP (Fate On A Plate[10]) in 1992. Between 1994 and 1997 he wrote and edited the fanzine Big Untidy (with key collaborator Barry O'Brien), in which Clive interviewed several artists including Kevin Coyne, Zal Cleminson (The Sensational Alex Harvey Band), Jackie Leven, El Vez, Robyn Hitchcock (who also drew the cover to issue eleven), Dr Feelgood, Placebo and TV Smith[11]. His interviews with Kevin Coyne led to the publication of a book in 1999, Beautiful Extremes: Conversations with Kevin Coyne[12]. Clive was a close friend of Kevin and after Kevin's death in December 2004 he contributed A Loving Hand for Whispers From The Offing – A Tribute to Kevin Coyne[13]. Clive also features on Nikki Sudden's contribution to Whispers From The Offing and following Nikki's death he played at the Nikki Sudden Tribute Night in Berlin on 31 August 2006[14] and also contributed to Road of Broken Dreams[15] tribute EP.
An acoustic EP, Broken Pieces[16], was released on 9pm Records in 2004. Clive has also toured and recorded as part of The Anglo-German Low Stars[17]. Their "film soundtrack" album The Night of The Amazon[18] was released on 9pm Records in 2001 and they recorded an EP (The Dead Grandmas of Potsdam[19] (2005)).
Clive has appeared with or supporting several artists over the years, notably TV Smith, Nikki Sudden, Jowe Head, Harry Coltello[20] and Grae J Wall[21], with whom he recorded No One Should Drink Alone[22] in 2006. His most recent album is the poignant Like The Tide Coming In[23], which was privately released in 2009. A live version of Dissolved (a track originally featured on Like The Tide Coming In) was included on the Meyer Records Sampler Vol.4[24], released in 2014. Clive is featured in Einige Abenteuer und seltsame Begegnungen im Leben des Stillen Kommandeurs[25] by H.F. Coltello (aka Harry Coltello) and was name-checked in Mark Ellen's book, Rock Stars Stole My Life[26]
Discography[edit]
LPs
Village Tours Start Here (1983), Nuclear Records
Stretching Arms & Legs (with Gary Williams) (1985), Nuclear Records
Songs From An Untidy Bedroom (1986), Upstart Records
The Care Assistant (1988), Big Untidy
Financial Suicide (compilation) (1989), Big Untidy
Fate On A Plate (1992), Big Untidy
No One Should Drink Alone (with Grae J Wall) (2006), Trashville
Like The Tide Coming In (2009), Big Untidy
EPs and Singles
Honest! It's Product! (EP) (1982), Nuclear Records
Everyone Sees What I See (1987), Big Untidy
There Goes The Floor Again (1988), Big Untidy
Broken Pieces (EP) (2004), 9pm Records
References[edit]
- ↑ "Introducing Dragons". Discogs. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Larkbey, Graham (February 1987). "Review". Folk Roots (44).
- ↑ Radio 1, September 3rd, 1987.
- ↑ "Utility". Discogs. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Financial Suicide". Discogs. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Songs From An Untidy Bedroom". Discogs. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "The Care Assistant". Discogs. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Village Tours Start Here". Discogs. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "There Goes The Floor Again". Discogs. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Fate On A Plate". Discogs. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "A Little History of Big Untidy". The Big Untidy Magazine. Archived from the original on 8 July 2007. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Product, Clive (1999). Beautiful Extremes, Conversations With Kevin Coyne. Berlin. ISBN 3-9805993-3-7. Search this book on
- ↑ "Whispers From The Offing". Discogs. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Nikki Sudden Tribute Night". Phil Shoenfelt & Southern Cross. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "The Nikki Sudden Download EP". Trashville. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Clive Product - Broken Pieces". Disagreement. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "The Anglo-German Low Stars". 9pm Records. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "The Anglo-German Low Stars". 9pm Records. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "The Anglo-German Low Stars - The Dead Grandmas Of Potsdam". Blueprint Fanzine. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Harry Coltello". Discogs. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Grae J Wall". Trashville. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "No One Should Drink Alone". Trashville. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Like The Tide Coming In". Discogs. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Meyer Records Sampler No.4". Discogs. Retrieved 16 January 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Coltello, HF (2012). Einige Abenteuer und seltsame Begegnungen im Leben des Stillen Kommandeurs. Salis. Search this book on
- ↑ Ellen, Mark (2014). Rock Stars Stole my Life!: A Big Bad Love Affair with Music. Coronet. ISBN 1444775499. Search this book on
External Links[edit]
Clive Product discography at Discogs
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