Prior to shepherding Iron Maiden to global megastardom, Rod Smallwood managed a band who, despite all efforts, largely failed to capture the imagination of the record-buying public.
London-based Gloria Mundi were a band out of time. Sharing a philosophy of self-determination and rebellion with the prevailing punk zeitgeist, they were also theatrical, technically adept and artistically ambitious: 1978’s Bowie-influenced I-Individual debut (now finally remastered for vinyl) is an overlooked masterpiece of dystopian proto-goth neo-prog. Vocalist Eddie Maelov takes up the story.
“Sunshine Patteson (keyboards, vocals) and I met at college then went our separate ways. I did a job in theatre and she went to London, where we hooked up again. We decided to travel the world and got as far as Paris, where we decided to write a rock opera.
“Back in London we advertised in Melody Maker for a musical collaborator, and the only person to answer was John Foxx, so we ended up in the early Tiger Lily before they metamorphosed into Ultravox!.”
John Foxx told me Gloria Mundi were “the first goths, the first London band with a synth”, and that it was Sunshine and you who inspired him to buy his first ARP synth. So who was inspiring you?
We’d seen the New York Dolls when they first came to London, but I saw Bowie at The Rainbow. Now here was a guy doing theatre and music together, which is just what I wanted to do. Not the same, but similar. Then I started to get more angry, which came out in the music.
You were already dressing strikingly; there were post-glam hints of 1930s Germany, science fiction…
We wanted to be our own artistic statement, to make each performance an event, an audio-visual experience. We decided early on that grey was going to be the colour of the band, and I had a few theatrical tricks; we used a lot of white light and strobing.
Where did you find the rest of the band?
Ice [Rowland Oxland, bass] was a friend of Stevie Shears from Ultravox!, we got Mike Nicholls [ex-Curved Air, drums] and Beethoven [one-time Sex Pistols auditionee Pete Vas, guitar] from an ad in the Melody Maker, then I met CC though some art performance people. He just came up to me one day and said: “You need a sax player in your band.” I couldn’t find a good reason why not, and so he joined.
How did manager Rod Smallwood come into the picture?
After we started selling out the Marquee, management started sniffing about, and we went with what looked like proper management. Rod and his partner Trevor were proper because they had an office in Knightsbridge… If people ask me what our manager was like I always say: “Have you seen Spinal Tap?”
How are you enjoying re-immersing yourself in I-Individual?
At the time, I was disappointed it didn’t sell more, but that’s the way it goes. I wasn’t entirely happy with the production, but it sounds a lot better now than I remember it. Back then we thought it was us against the world, and it got to a point where we just got too knackered to carry on fighting. Now, I’m speaking to people who actually thought we were good, and it’s vindication.
Gloria Mundi is out on vinyl now via Antenna Records.
(LouderSound)
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