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ROYAL FAMILY AND THE POOR

A \ B \ C \ D \ E \ F \ G \ H \ I \ J \ K \ L \ M \ N \ O \ P \ R \ S \ T \ U \ V \ W \ X \ Y \ Z

Formed by Mike Keane (sound effects) & Arthur McDonald (voc) in 1978 & they sent a tape to Factory Recs of sound frequencies with rap.
Joined a year later by Nathan McGough (bass) (O'Boogie Brothers later Pale Fountains), Phil Hurst (drms) (ex Nightmares In Wax later Hollycaust, Giant), & Mike took over voc,gtr,keys. Played at the Moonlight Club in London supporting Joy Division. Feat on a Factory dbl comp LP where 4 bands got a side each, 'A Factory Quartet' (1981), other bands were Duritti Column, Kevin Hewick & Blurt.
By 1980 Phil left to join Hollycaust & was replaced by Donald Johnson (of A Certain Ratio). Rel; 12" Art On 45 (Factory Feb82).
The end of 1981 & into the following year saw the Royal Family revert back to the orig duo, playing their final gig at Plato's Ballroom (which Arthur & Nathan had set up as a venue). Arthur then moved to Newcastle (any news?) & Mike got involved in solo projects & also formed Legend Agency & the Project before resurrecting the Royal Family in 1984 with himself, John Neesam (violin) (of Walking Seeds, Mel-o-tones), Peter Hook (drms,voc,keys) (of New Order), Lita Hira (keys), Chris Jones (voc). Rel LP on Factory 'The Project Phase 1' (Apr84). Mike is also touring the UK at this point with The Stockholm Monsters.
1984/85 sees another complete new line-up of; Mike Keane (voc,keys,gtr,perc), Karen Halewood (keys) (ex Ex Post Facto, later Rebél Da Fé), John Walsh (bass,gtr), Ambrose Reynolds (bass,perc) (of Pink Industry), Jeff Turner (sax,gtr,violin) (of Wrecked Career), Kif Cole (perc) (of Delado & Urban Jazz Ritual). This line up toured with New Order. Rel; on Factory (Mar86) LP 'We Love The Moon.'
1986 saw Jeff, Karen & Kif depart to be replaced by Paula Simms (voc) (of Paradise Express), John Metcalfe (violin) (of Durutti Column) & Judith Laity (cello) (ex Marshmallow Overcoat, later Goat People). Feb86 Rel 7" picdisc on Factory We Love The Moon. Oct86 rel LP on Recloose Organ recs 'Live 1983-85'. Also tour Holland.
1987 & Mike sets up Gaia Recs, recruites a new band feat; Simon Crab (voc,keys) (of Bourbonese Qualk), Merlin Shepperd (sax) (of Ministry of Love), Andy Frizzel (bass) (ex Perfect, Wake Up Africa, later Absent Black Cat). Band toured Germany & Belgium with extensive media coverage & rel; LP 'In The See of E' (Jul87)

Pete Fuck (aka Pic Meter, Peter Jones, Cosmic) played keys with them in 1987 (then aged 19), but didn’t do any gigs.

Mike Keane got in touch (Oct04) - and rather than interpret what he said I've pasted it up for you to read…
I was wondering if you knew that I have my own comprehensive website now
and also that my ENTIRE back catalogue has been re-released by LTM records
AND also I did my first NEW album in 10 years last autumn, & that it was
released on May 3rd 2004 to critical acclaim worldwide? The Royal Family & the poor is still alive and well in me, and I have
several NEW musical projects on the go at the moment.

In 2001 I also re-launched my own Label which I started in 89 GAIA
COMMUNICATIONS WORLD NETWORK and released a lavish 28 page full colour
booklet & CD LP titled, " songs for the children of Baphomet-a musickal
celebration on the theme of Magick & a tribute to the life & works of
Alistair Crowley - 1875-1947"

This album is in 2 parts, the first 5 tracks are direct adaptations of
various poems, rituals and words by A.C.C, the rest are songs written
derived from over 15 years work with A.C.'s teaching-put into song. In this
sense I believe that my musick has always been VERY unique in its
conception and creation as ALL my songs/works are directly expressions of
my own experiences with various eastern and western esoteric traditions. I
think this makes my work particularly unique as well as having a
shamanistic integrity that cannot be compared. I say this because nearly
all of my works are done completely spontaneously, being drawn-as it were-out
of the air itself and without any preparation other than meditation and
trance, ALL the tracks on the AC tribute are particularly done this way.
You could therefore say quite accurately and truthfully that the Gods
themselves speak thru my work! :-) And it wouldn't be untrue.

Considering that today, the music scene has degenerated into an ugly and
superficial industry it is sadly no longer true to say that there is a
genuine "underground" music scene in the UK that not only influences a
great many better know acts but also in its creative and eccentric diversity
actually represents a genuine culture of
feeling, thinking, radical, contemporary shamens of electronic transmission
and transmutation who were interested in communicating-in their various
ways-directly into the brains of their audience and listeners-REAL (what
for want of a better word) had "magical" effects upon the listeners.

For a while in the 80's, I was proud to say that I was a part of such a
sub-culture of musickal intelligencia AND that it did exist and it did so
only because of punk and the independent scene as it was from 77 to
89-mostly supported by rough trade and red rhino-who recognised the
potential and significance of small artists and who were the ONLY big
distribution companies in the UK to give manufacturing and production
deals to bands and artists who could only sell 1000 copies plus, this meant
little or no profit for red rhino or rough trade BUT they did get all their
money back & the artists could make a few 100 quid. This good will went a
VERY long way and it was for similar ethics that I was lucky enough to
become the ONLY "scouse" "band" EVER to be on Factory records roster, thru
me they expressed their acknowledgement of the significance of Liverpool in
the emergence of the whole independent scene.

That ALL ended in 1989 when red rhino went bankrupt and was liquidated.
Rough trade had gone commercial and stopped giving ANY band or artist
manufacturing & production deals (they pay for the records to be pressed
and distributed-the rest is up to the artist) who didn't sell more than 5000
copies, Red rhino still maintained their original indie ethic and was
supporting virtually ALL of the entire underground music scene in the UK
from 84-89 including me, it was only because of them that I secured a deal
with them as well as an advance despite the fact they knew I wouldn't sell
a great many more than 1-2000 copies, and I was able to set up my beloved
GAIA COMMUNICATIONS
( URL http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/michaelkeane....or just do
a search for Royal Family & The Poor)
and release a new album ( In the sea of E) and a 12" single.

However, just as I was finishing the A.C. tribute as well as preparing to
work on a new album with Robert Anton Wilson, borrowed 5000 grand to build
my own 8 track studio (on which I recorded the ac tribute in 8 months in
88) AND was also preparing a double album release called " Musick in Theory
and practice- An audio-occult-journal" which was to have a gatefold sleeve
by Jamie Reid (never mind the bollocks artworks) AND a free book
containing art, writings and stuff from ALL 14 bands on the album (Chris &
Cosey, Psychic TV, Coil, Young Gods, Sleep Chamber, Temple of Olympus, Coven, Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, rf&tp, as well as various occult writers such as Colin Wilson, Robert Turner, Chris Bray, the Head of
AC's masonic organisations etc etc...... right on the cusp of all this I
got a letter from a liquidation company telling me that red rhino had been
possessed by them & that I owed them "x" amount of money etc etc.....in 14
days I was baliffed and lost EVERYTHING overnight !!!!

It took me a while to recover from that one! :-)

In 94 I got a PC, as well as an opportunity to raise some money, so I built
a website, re-launched GAIA COMMUNICATIONS WORLD NETWORK on the www and set
about financing the AC tribute I had been forced to shelve for 4 years
before the master tapes themselves started to rot and become unusable (studio reel tape has a shelf-life of only a few years before it starts
flaking) as well as designing a lavish booklet for it. It took me 6 months
to re-master all the tracks digitally, and design the booklet-which is a
limited edition-hand-numbered 1 - 2000 copies,
however, because of the luxury colour and printing on the booklet they were
expensive to produce, £2500 for 500 copies- which I paid knowing that I
would NEVER be able to make the outlay back because I already knew I
couldn't sell them for more than £3.50 a copy trade, then a wonderful thing
happened, 250 of them had their CD cases broken in transit, all the cd's &
booklets etc were fine, just the cases, so I asked the company to replace the
cases, Instead they provided me with another 500 copies FREE on their
insurance !!!! :-)

So I was able to eventually sell them off and recoup most of my
money, although it took me nearly 3 years to sell them off AND the Internet
was severely disappointing on sales, I only ever sold TWO copies thru the
website, in the end I had to get out there and find a physical distribution
company to help me promote it a bit and get them out there in the shops,
only them did they sell a few 100, but the bulk of them went in Germany.

Germany has now become the CENTER for the underground Indie scene; many of
the UK's old underground bands are still going strong and playing to
audiences of over 20.000! The Legendary Pink dots spring to mind also
Alien Sex Fiend? Coil, etc.... they are all doing better now than EVER
over there, the Indie scene there is HUGE. Nearly ALL my audience is now
German based, RF&TP is selling NOTHING in the UK!

My point is that this country has REALLY gone downhill as far as interest
in genuine creative experimentation goes. I say this because I made a
definite choice at a certain point in my life, I was faced with 2 roads,
one lead to becoming a successful artist doing performance in art galleries
all over the country as well as opportunities to work with other
performance art groups who were already successful-BUT ALL my energy and
creativity would go no further than safe and sterile art galleries, The
second road was to take full control and responsibility for MY own
creativity and life and use my recently discovered talent for a good song
to take my ideas and creativity out of galleries and suchlike and into
clubs and places where REAL people go, PLATOS BALLROOM was the result of
that decision although I was never credited with the fact that it
originated from my own suggestions and ideas.

Since them I have been pivotal to many of Liverpool's finest and least
known clubs and events, such as "The Sun at night" and "club Logo" both
done at the Mardi gras in bold street between 1985-86, where, for a POUND
every Thursday you got super 8 scratch films projected all over the walls
as a backdrop, kino-eye artwork everywhere (or in club logos case various
"logo" style designs we came up with on big boards) one of the FIRST ever
ALL-NIGHT surrealist cinemas showing classic dada and surrealist films, one
of the first ever "acid-house" disco's with DJs upstairs, poetry
readings, up to 4 bands a night, shadow theatre groups, mime, Joan Collins fan
club, etc, etc, etc.........FUCKING HISTORY IN THE MAKING MAN and TOTALLY
IGNORED by the outside world/press, music scene as was Plato's ballroom up
until recently, when it was finally acknowledged as a significant venue post
Erics.

Well.... I hope you enjoyed that little history lesson from rf&tp land
?!!:-) I call it the "merlin syndrome" !!! By this I mean that history
attests to this fact-that the most creative and influential of our species
are hardly ever the ones who are even heard about, what the world sees is
only the echoes from their passing and as they pass they change and shape
the world and everything around them. Such people are reasonable for all
the worlds philosophies, religions, sciences, civilisations, AND, when we
misunderstand them, wars, genocide, atrocities,

but ALL those who appear on the world stage as "players", except for the
very exceptional few, are only riding upon the echoes/waves that went before
them. Creativity, TRUE creativity has nothing to do with our own mediocre
conceptions about them, we think if a person writes a book it automatically
makes them a "genius" or "creative", the book might be shit, but just
because its a book and the publicity tells us its good we accept it, having
a baby is a far greater and more creative act than what we usually accept
as being acknowledgeable, people stand in awe at the feet of the gods of the
red carpet and yet cannot acknowledge in themselves a beauty and talent FAR
greater than ANY of these media puppets and desperately sad people who crave
attention and are completely closeted into a world that does not even exist
outside of their own little lives and worlds.

As we/I speak the world approaches a crisis =of unimaginable proportions
and consequences and yet we are all still trundling along as if its never
going to happen ?! WE KNOW, because we were all told in 89 that there would
be serious consequences if our governments and leaders did not acknowledge
and do something about C02 emmisions, instead they have doubled every year
since then. As we speak our ozone layer has now already broken down so much
around the equator that there are constant forest fires on the equator which
burn without ceasing, devouring untold proportions of that huge expanse in
South America, our scientists have predicted complete ozone layer breakdown
by 2025 and that's an optimistic assessment, 2012 may be more likely.

And yet a little bit of doubt here and there cast on these conclusions and
everyone including those who can stop it ( the big industrial companies who
are responsible for the massive levels of toxins they pour out of their
factories every day) and why ? Because there is no longer enough people
keeping the pressure up on our governments and leaders, we are trusting them
and that's the most dangerous social climate of all in these times.

A \ B \ C \ D \ E \ F \ G \ H \ I \ J \ K \ L \ M \ N \ O \ P \ R \ S \ T \ U \ V \ W \ X \ Y \ Z

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Contributers: Pete Cosmic, Mike Keane

This page was last updated on 09.03.07
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Arise Sir Michael

(c) Crud World Domination Enterprises 2007