Crispy Ambulance -

Crispy Ambulance was an English post-punk band that released the 1982 album The Plateau Phase on Factory Benelux. In 1985, an expanded six-piece lineup cut the funk EP Advantage under the name Ram Ram Kino.

Members: Alan Hempsall (vocals), Robert Davenport (guitar), Keith Darbyshire (bass), Gary Madeley (drums)

Background

Crispy Ambulance formed in late 1977 in Manchester when seventeen-year-old singer Alan Hempsall teamed with guitarist Robert Davenport to play Magazine and Hawkwind covers. Hempsall played in another teenage group with Graham Massey at age sixteen, and Massey suggested the Crispy Ambulance name for the new act. Hempsall and Davenport played their first show on Jan. 1, 1978, at Spurley Hey Youth Centre. Bassist Keith Darbyshire and drummer Gary Madeley joined after the performance and established the four-man lineup.

Crispy Ambulance played regular Greater Manchester dates through 1978, including Manchester Musicians’ Collective nights at Band on the Wall and the Cyprus Tavern. Joy Division saw the band at a Manchester show that year and brought manager Rob Gretton to a subsequent performance. Gretton secured Crispy Ambulance a July 13, 1979, appearance with Joy Division at the Factory club in Hulme. The quartet also recorded early demos at Graveyard Studio in Prestwich with Stuart Pickering, who once taught physics to Hempsall at school.

Crispy Ambulance returned to Graveyard Studio on Jan. 28, 1980, to record “From the Cradle to the Grave” and “Four Minutes From the Frontline” with producer Stuart Pickering. Factory and Rough Trade declined the recording, but Rough Trade supplied information for a self-financed pressing. Rob Gretton encouraged an independent release. Hempsall financed a 1,000-copy pressing with a bank loan and named the imprint Aural Assault. Crispy Ambulance released the double A-side through the new label that April.

Hempsall filled in for Ian Curtis on three songs at a Joy Division concert at Bury Derby Hall that April. Gretton became a Factory director after Curtis died in May and persuaded Factory to take Crispy Ambulance that July. The band recorded “Unsightly and Serene” at Graveyard Studio on July 22 and 24 with producer Stuart Pickering, then released the 10-inch single as Factory FAC 32 in November.

The quartet recorded a four-song session for John Peel at BBC Radio 1 the following January, then cut “The Presence” and “Concorde Square” at Cargo Studio in Rochdale with producer Martin Hannett and engineer John Brierley. Crispy Ambulance released the pair through Factory Benelux as Live on a Hot August Night in June. The quartet entered Strawberry 2 in Stockport for eight days in September 1981 and recorded The Plateau Phase with producer Chris Nagle.

The Plateau Phase

Crispy Ambulance released their debut album, The Plateau Phase, in March 1982 on Factory Benelux.

The album expands the established quartet format through austere ARP synthesizer, bass drones, jagged guitar, odd-meter repetition, xylophone chimes, and spacious instrumental sections. Crispy Ambulance wrote all ten titles jointly and developed the material from an interest in soundtrack and incidental music. The group took the title from the plateau stage of the human sexual-response cycle.

“Are You Ready?” mounts from metallic chimes and processed percussion into an uneasy electronic wash and jagged guitar figures, then circles back to distant bells. “Travel Time” pivots through an odd meter, leaving Hempsall’s languid delivery and nagging riff recessed behind brisk accents. “Death from Above” hovers over a very slow chord while muffled radio chatter and whistling cross an ambient drone.

“We Move Through the Plateau Phase” swells from murky drone into deep analog synth and angular figures while successive entries thicken layered electronics. “Bardo Plane” quickens around a looping lower-register line beneath spiky repeating accents. “Chill” creeps from a dark electronic hum through lupine howls, then adds successive layers before full-band entry. “Simon’s Ghost” glides on a gentle lilt while mellow drone and sustained strings hold long, meditative tones.

A1. “Are You Ready?” (5:48)
A2. “Travel Time” (3:50)
A3. “The Force and the Wisdom” (3:59)
A4. “The Wind Season” (5:26)
A5. “Death from Above” (3:21)

B1. “We Move Through the Plateau Phase” (5:46)
B2. “Bardo Plane” (3:32)
B3. “Chill” (4:45)
B4. “Federation” (3:42)
B5. “Simon’s Ghost” (3:42)

Sessions spanned eight days in September 1981 at Strawberry 2 in Stockport, where Crispy Ambulance co-produced The Plateau Phase with Chris Nagle, who engineered 1981 albums by New Order (Movement) and A Certain Ratio (To Each…). He produced the 1982 Wake debut Harmony.

Factory Benelux commissioned Belgian typographer Lucien De Roeck for the lilac sleeve. De Roeck drew looping title script around a compact Crispy Ambulance nameplate on the front cover. He previously designed the Expo 58 emblem for the Brussels World’s Fair.

The album reached a May peak of No. 21 on the NME Independent LP Chart.

Factory Benelux expanded the album on CD in 1990 with “The Presence,” “Concorde Square,” and “Sexus,” three non-album recordings from the original period. LTM retained the 13-track program for a 1999 CD edition. Factory Benelux restored the De Roeck artwork for a 2013 CD, then issued a 2019 double-LP edition with the 1981 John Peel session on the bonus disc.

Later Activity

The four members continued together after Crispy Ambulance dissolved under the name Ram Ram Kino, which used an expanded lineup. EMI financed demo sessions for the group, while Psychic TV affiliate Temple Records issued the four-track Advantage (Tantric Routines 1–4). Ram Ram Kino remained active until 1987.

Factory Benelux released the delayed Crispy Ambulance single “Sexus” (b/w “Black Death (Life Is Knife)”) in April 1984 from recordings made at Little Big One in Brussels on the 1982 European tour. LTM followed with Fin in 1985 from Jon Hurst soundboard tapes of European and British performances. LTM remastered Fin and The Plateau Phase for CD in 1990, then reissued both titles in 1999.

The original quartet reunited at Band on the Wall in Manchester on Nov. 5, 1999, for a concert tied to the LTM reissues. Graham Massey mixed the performance for the 2000 live album Accessory After the Fact. LTM also issued the archival collection Frozen Blood in 2000 and the earlier Piccadilly Radio session as Piccadilly Radio 1980 in 2001.

Crispy Ambulance resumed studio work with Massey and recorded Scissorgun, which Darla released in 2002. The quartet promoted the album with four East Coast dates in November, its first performances in the United States. Crispy Ambulance returned to the London ICA in May 2003 with Biting Tongues, then recorded The Powder Blind Dream with Massey in June. Darla released the album in April 2004.

The quartet resurfaced for two shows in December 2007, including the A Factory Night (Once Again) event at Plan K in Brussels. Another reunion followed in 2014 with four British dates by the original lineup. Crispy Ambulance recorded new versions of several pieces from the final 1982 repertoire later that year, and Factory Benelux issued the resulting Compulsion for Record Store Day in April 2015.

Crispy Ambulance shifted toward instrumental material after the 2015 sessions, with Hempsall moving from singing to keyboards and guitar. The quartet presented new pieces through four Subliminal Impulse Review multimedia events in Manchester across 2015 and 2016. Factory Benelux collected the material on Random Textures in September 2016.

Crispy Ambulance began another studio project in 2017 under the working title Reset:Decoder, but the group left the album unfinished. Factory Benelux later issued the session track “Stratos” on the 2019 compilation Constellation de Comportements. Hempsall formed the electronic duo Scissorgun with David Clarkson and released Assault Two through Aural Assault, while Davenport, Darbyshire, and Madeley continued together in DNR with Tim Walsham.

Discography: