Anthony Moore -

Anthony Moore (born Aug. 13, 1948) is an English musician and songwriter from London who recorded three minimalist albums in 1972 for Polydor. He then formed Slapp Happy, an art-pop trio that made two albums and merged with Henry Cow for the 1975 albums Desperate Straights and In Praise of Learning. Moore resumed his solo career with the 1976 Virgin release Out, followed by the 1979–84 indie titles Flying Doesn’t Help, World Service, and The Only Choice.

Background

He was born Anthony John Moore on August 13, 1948, in London, England. Moore attended St Christopher School in Letchworth, where he met Peter Blegvad and played in school bands. He attended Newcastle School of Art in 1969 and studied Indian classical music with tabla and sitar musician Viram Jasani. Moore composed his first film score for David Larcher’s Mare’s Tail with acoustic instruments and manipulated tape.

Moore moved to Hamburg, Germany, in 1970 and worked with filmmakers Dore O and Werner Nekes. His Hamburg work extended the tape methods from Mare’s Tail into sound pieces for film and non-narrative structure.

Minimal Albums

Polygram recorded three albums of Moore material in 1971: Pieces from the Cloudland Ballroom, Secrets of the Blue Bag, and Reed, Whistle & Sticks. Producer Uwe Nettelbeck oversaw the Wümme sessions before Polydor issued Pieces from the Cloudland Ballroom as Moore’s first solo album.

Pieces from the Cloudland Ballroom sets repeated vocal cells against spare piano tone, bowed high-register lines, and small percussive accents. “Jam Jem Jim Jom Jum” locks three voices into chant-pattern repetition, while “Mu Na H-Uile Ni a Shaoileas” thins the field to quiet piano and piercing bowed figures.

A. “Jam Jem Jim Jom Jum” (21:18)
B1. “Mu Na H-Uile Ni a Shaoileas” (12:03)
B2. “A.B.C.D. Gol’Fish” (7:36)

Secrets of the Blue Bag narrows the process to chamber-scale variation. Three long pieces circulate one five-note cell through soprano, strings, and bassoon, with slow-cycling lines and restrained sectional change.

A1. “Secrets of the Blue Bag 1” (14:21)
A2. “Secrets of the Blue Bag 2” (11:13)
B. “Secrets of the Blue Bag 3” (19:35)

Reed, Whistle & Sticks turns object sound into looped, tactile pattern. Bamboo-stick impacts, whistle loops, chime tones, and field-recording haze repeat with offset accents, so the album works through shifting sound placement more than theme-led composition.

A. “Red Now I Wonder, Part 1” (18:30)
B. “Red Now I Wonder, Part 2” (20:00)

Reed reappeared as a 1998 Blueprint CD with the two pieces broken into 99 tracks of brief duration.

Slapp Happy

In 1972, Anthony Moore formed Slapp Happy with American singer/songwriter Peter Blegvad and German vocalist Dagmar Krause. Nettelbeck produced their debut, Sort Of, comprised of twelve Moore/Blegvad numbers. The pair demoed a second album with Faust, then rerecorded the songs for the 1974 Virgin release Casablanca Moon. Moore lone-wrote the experimental closing piece, “Slow Moon’s Rose,” which features erstwhile Henry Cow saxophonist Geoff Leigh. The Faust-backed demos later appeared as Acnalbasac Noom.

Cow backed Slapp Happy on the 1974 Virgin release Desperate Straights, a thirteen-track set with four Moore/Blegvad co-writes and three Moore solo cuts: “The Owl,” “Apes In Capes,” and the title track. Slapp Happy then integrated with Cow for the latter’s 1975 album In Praise of Learning, which opens with the strident Moore/Blegvad number “War.” Moore left the conglomerate before the 1975 shows represented on the 1976 Cow release Concerts, by which point Krause joined Cow while their bassist, John Greaves, formed a partnership with Blegvad.

Meanwhile, Virgin issued a final Slapp Happy single: “Johnny’s Dead,” a grim Moore/Blegvad ballad backed with Blegvad’s “Mr. Rainbow.”

Out

Anthony Moore released his first song-based solo album, Out, in 1976 on Virgin.

Out blends folk and chamber numbers with Eno-like studio treatments. Moore lone-wrote everything apart from the Blegvad-penned “Johnny’s Dead” and the Fifties cover “Catch a Falling Star.”

“Stitch in Time” tilts around an asymmetrical keyboard figure before shrill guitar pressure gives way to a piano-led coda. “Lover of Mine” saunters over a polyrhythmic bed and bends its light-toned verse through off-center accents.

“Johnny’s Dead” tolls its teenage death text through rising saxophone and synthesizer lines, with additional voices thickening the chorus. “A Thousand Ships” hangs choir-like vocals over a lush arrangement. “The Pilgrim” burnishes its hallelujah refrain with bottleneck guitar obbligato and a broad, high-gloss cadence.

Out features backing by bassist Steve Thompson (ex-Stone the Crows), serial drummer Barry De Souza, and journeyman guitarist Andy Summers. Kevin Ayers plays bass on “Please Go” and “Wrong Again,” both arranged by David Bedford.

A1. “Stitch in Time” (3:12)
A2. “A Thousand Ships” (2:49)
A3. “The River” (3:58)
A4. “Please Go” (2:44)
A5. “You Tickle” (2:43)
A6. “Lover of Mine” (3:34)

B1. “Johnny’s Dead” (3:16) – Moore/Blegvad; features saxophonist Ruan O’Lochlainn.
B2. “Dreams of His Laughter” (3:42)
B3. “Catch a Falling Star” (3:14) – was a 1957 hit for Perry Como, written by Brill Building songwriters Lee Pockriss and Paul Vance.
B4. “Wrong Again” (2:41)
B5. “Driving Blind” (4:46)
B6. “The Pilgrim” (3:27)

Moore recorded Out between summer 1975 and spring 1976 with producer Peter Jenner at Abbey Road, Air, and the Manor. Engineers John Leckie and Phil McDonald appear across the track credits, while Alan Perkins appears on “Johnny’s Dead.”

Out features graphic and visuals by the post-psych design firm Hipgnosis, which pictured the artist in a dim-lit garden setting.

Virgin billed the 1975 “Johnny’s Dead” single as ‘Slapp Happy Featuring Anthony Moore.’ In April 1976, “Catch a Falling Star” became his first solo single, backed with the non-album original “Back to the Top” (2:48).

Between albums, Moore played organ on one track (“Dread Jaws”) on the 1976 self-titled debut by Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias. He also appeared with De Souza and ex-Patto guitarist Ollie Halsall on Ayers’ 1978 album Rainbow Takeaway.

Flying Doesn’t Help

Anthony Moore released his second proper solo album, Flying Doesn’t Help, under the A. More credit in 1979 on Quango.

The album compresses three- and four-minute songs around clipped keyboard arpeggios, serrated guitar accents, electronic interludes, and dry-voiced lead vocals. Moore wrote nine of the ten songs. “War” carries a Moore/Blegvad credit and reworks a song first issued by Henry Cow and Slapp Happy on In Praise of Learning.

Flying Doesn’t Help features four drummers, including Charles Hayward and Chris Slade, plus bassists Festus, Sam Harley, and Matt Irving. Keyboardist Bernie Clark appears in the credits. Saxophonist and mouth-harp player Laurie Latham and backing vocalist Edwin Cross complete the credited ensemble.

“Judy Get Down” claps through a blunt lead and crowd-like replies while stereo-spread accents mark the chorus. “Useless Moments” snaps at a brisk pace, then tightens the middle around a terse break. “Lucia” hesitates through crowd noise before it chatters into a stop-start verse. “Caught Being in Love” circles spoken loops and drones before a shouted refrain cuts through the deadpan lead. “War” stomps on a rigid electronic pattern before its bridge breaks into sampled voices. “Twilight (Uxbridge Rd.)” closes the album in a cold electronic wash.

A1. “Judy Get Down” (2:58)
A2. “Ready Ready” (3:09)
A3. “Useless Moments” (2:48)
A4. “Lucia” (4:38)
A5. “Caught Being in Love” (4:57)

B1. “Timeless Strange” (3:44)
B2. “Girl It’s Your Time” (3:19)
B3. “War” (4:23) – Moore/Blegvad
B4. “Just Us” (4:14)
B5. “Twilight (Uxbridge Rd.)” (2:22)

Anthony Moore and Laurie Latham produced Flying Doesn’t Help at The Workhouse Studios on Old Kent Road in London, where Edwin Cross co-engineered the album. Quango lifted “Judy” as a March 1980 single (b/w “Lucia”).

Also in 1979, Moore played sequencer, synthesizers, and supplemental guitar for Manfred Mann’s Earth Band on their album Angel Station, which also features auxiliary rhythm guitar by Fingerprintz frontman Jimme O’Neill. Elsewhere, Moore earned a co-production credit on the first album by This Heat, recorded piecemeal across thirty months at the trio’s Cold Storage facility.

World Service

Anthony More released his third proper solo album, World Service, in 1981 on Do It.

The album presents eight Moore originals with atonal guitar details and clipped ensemble parts. Players include by synthesist Le Bleu, drummer Orb, double-bassist Hans Hartmann, and guitarist Ollie Halsall.

World Service sets dour vocal placement against speech fragments, percussion patterns, and clipped section changes. “Run Right Back” lightens the opening with a more open refrain and a less severe surface. “World Service” chants close to speech over eastern-tinged percussion and inserts borrowed voice fragments into the arrangement. “Fat Fly” circles a minimally arranged rhythm while a sawing guitar line cuts the middle and saxophone improvisation flickers behind the vocal. “Broke’n Idle” sets glum text against the album’s most contoured lead. “Nowhere To Go” closes with the album’s starkest experimental turn.

A1. “Run Right Back” (3:36)
A2. “Pieces of the Puzzle” (4:02)
A3. “World Service” (5:24)
A4. “Fat Fly” (3:51)

B1. “Broke’n Idle” (5:43)
B2. “Outta Angels” (4:51)
B3. “The Argument” (4:37)
B4. “Nowhere to Go” (4:29)

Le Bleu produced World Service at Sunrise in Switzerland and the Workhouse on Old Kent Road in London. Laurie Latham, R. Vogel, and Rick Walton mixed and engineered the album.

Do It lifted “World Service” as a September 25, 1981 single (b/w “Diving Girls”). In June 1982, “World Service” reappeared as a single (b/w “Run Right Back”).

The Only Choice

Anthony More released his fourth proper solo album, The Only Choice, in 1984 on Parlophone.

The album presents ten Moore originals with chant-like backing vocals, found-sound inserts, African rhythmic patterns, and clipped keyboard programming.

The Only Choice lightens Moore’s early-eighties song surface with understated arrangements, found-sound fragments, and rhythm parts drawn from a wider percussion palette. “Industrial Drums” and “Find One Voice” carry outward-facing lyric matter through clipped refrains and wry vocal poise. Several cuts thread African rhythm accents through the arrangements without crowding the lead voice. Other songs fold found sounds into small background placements. The relationship-centered material aims its text at communication, blocked exchange, and withheld speech.

Backers include bassist Chucho Marchan, drummer John Lingwood, keyboardist Matt Irving, and ex-Fingerpintz guitarist Jimme O’Neill. The broader ensemble features harmonica player Marc Feltham, Dream Academy reedist Kate St John (oboe, bassoon), string player Graham Preskett (violin, mandolin), brass players Nicholas Payn, Paul Nieman, and Paul Spong, plus backing vocalists Dagmar Krause, George Chandler, Jimmy Chambers, Lee Vanderbilt, and Pip Gillard.

A1. “Find One Voice” (3:30)
A2. “The Only Choice” (3:46)
A3. “No Parlez” (3:46)
A4. “Humana” (3:55)
A5. “Souvenirs” (4:43)

B1. “Industrial Drums” (3:06)
B2. “Goodbye Kisses” (3:40)
B3. “Your Stars” (3:43)
B4. “The Conference” (3:44)
B5. “O for the Ocean” (3:06)

Laurie Latham produced The Only Choice at the Workhouse apart from “Humana,” recorded at Abbey Road.

Parlophone lifted “Industrial Drums” as a 1984 single (b/w “The Conference”). “The Only Choice” became the second UK single in September 1984 (b/w “O for the Ocean”).

Discography: