BACK ON THE STREETS WHERE IT FEELS SO RIGHT
A CONVERSATION WITH PEARL HARBOUR
Pearl Harbour has just re-released her classic and iconic solo debut album Don’t Follow Me, I’m Lost, which has been unavailable for far too long. “I just feel happy that I have this re-release coming out now, I have a lot of good happening that far outweighs the bad.”
For Harbour, the initial release of the album proved to be somewhat problematic. She did not receive support from her record label when it was first released in 1980. “Warner Brothers (the label with whom she was signed at the time) did not like this record and they didn’t promote it and they hardly made any copies and sort of threw it out the window. They were mad at me when I left Pearl Harbour and The Explosions. I handed them this crazy rockabilly album. They didn’t like it. So now people can finally hear it if they want to. It came out in 1980, which was before any kind of rockabilly revival and The Stray Cats. There was no rockabilly fanbase in the United States, but in England they were more interested. Warner Brothers didn’t like the production, or the songs, they said that there were no hits. They said the production was too flat. Also, they were very annoyed that I did not list the musicians on the original album.”
DON’T FOLLOW ME, I’M LOST TOO (EXPANDED EDITION) ALBUM REVIEW
Pearl Harbour and the Explosions did very well, so it was understandable that the record company did not want to see them split up. “Pearl Harbour and The Explosions was the first band that I was in where I did the writing and was my band. The other bands I had been in were other people’s bands. The band was me, the bass player and the drummer, we were all in Leila And The Snakes, and we left the band together to form our own band and write our own music. They got their friend to play the guitar, so the three of them were pretty tight. They all liked jazz and fusion music and stuff I hated. Don’t Follow Me, I’m Lost Too is what I like, rock ‘n’ roll rockabilly based old school stuff. So I said to them ‘I don’t want to do this type of music, I want to do rock and roll’. They were like ‘no, we don’t like that kind of music.’ So, I stuck with them, because I knew them and they were my friends and so I suffered through rehearsals quite a bit when they did their jazz fusion. I was sitting in the corner kind of annoyed, and finally I would say ‘can we play music I can relate to?’
I didn’t like the album we did, but I happily toured with it because Warner Brothers signed us and sank a lot of money into us. We got to tour with the Talking Heads, which was fantastic. So, I was having fun, so I didn’t care that I didn’t like the music. Kosmo encouraged me to move to London to do the music I like.”
Harbour had her reasons for not listing the musicians. “I was trying to be punk rock about it,” Harbour admitted. “On the album are all The Clash and The Blockheads, so the British press would have jumped down my throat…you know, this crazy American girl, who does she think she is? They would say people would only be interested in it because of The Clash and The Blockheads, so I avoided that by not putting their names on it. That was the last straw for the record company.”
It is incredible that she would be met with this response from her record company. Pearl Harbour made her debut with Pearl Harbour and The Explosions. After just one album, that band split and Harbour went solo and changed the spelling of her last name. There was a reason for the spelling, but Pearl Harbor and The Explosions did extremely well with their debut album and tour.
PHOTO CREDIT: GREG ALLEN
Harbour experienced ‘punk’ rock on both sides of the Atlantic. Coming from San Francisco and moving to London at the peak of punk and new wave. “I bought The Sex Pistols album when it came out, just because, and I didn’t love it. Our band was the support act for Elvis Costello and The Attractions on his first tour, just in San Francisco. I hung out with Elvis’s band and showed them all around San Francisco. They told me about Stiff records and Ian Dury and The Blockheads and Wreckless Eric and Nick Lowe. I bought all those records and couldn’t wait to see all those bands. Then Ian Dury and The Blockheads came to San Francisco to start their one and only American tour. They were rehearsing in the same rehearsal studio I was in. I was in the lobby, and this guy with purple hair and a purple plaid suit, comes up to me and he says ‘you’re the second most beautiful girl I’ve seen today.’ I just thought he was a creep. I was like ‘yeah yeah, screw you.’ He said, ‘I am with the greatest rock and roll band in the world, ever heard of Ian Dury and The Blockheads?’. So, I went and watched their rehearsal, and I was blown away. The Blockheads were the best band I ever heard. Then Kosmo (Vinyl) liked me, and he asked me out, so I went on part of the tour to be with Kosmo and we had a blast. He said he worked with The Clash. Through him I met Mick Jones and Joe Strummer, and I hung out with them and really liked them. That is how I got to know them.
“The American punk scene had started out well. Everyone was playing at Mabuhay Gardens and The Filipino Supper Club. My band was playing there all the time as well. Pearl Harbour and The Explosions were not punk, they were more new wave. I didn’t really like the hardcore punk scene. I didn’t really like the negative stuff and all these bands taking themselves all so seriously. I didn’t go for the American punk scene that much. Some of the bands I liked, and I was friends with everybody. When I moved to London and saw all the different punk scenes. I liked it better, The Buzzcocks, Sham 69, I liked their music a lot more. Blockheads and The Clash were fantastic. Madness and Specials were part of the scene as well.”
PEARL, NICK SIMONON, BLAIR CUNNINGHAM & NIGEL DIXON (PERSONAL ARCHIVE OF PEARL HARBOUR)
And Harbour very quickly became quite immersed in the music scene in London in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She was married to The Clash’s Paul Simonon, but she was involved due to her talent and top-notch writing skills. Blockheads member Mick Gallagher produced the album Don’t Follow Me, I’m Lost Too. “I was hanging with The Blockheads with Kosmo. He put everything together for me and with me. I talked to Micky for a long time about music, what I wanted the sound to be like. I really like Micky, he is a great guy and he got what I was talking about.
“When I moved to London, they changed and I was like, ‘no no no’ and they were like ‘yes yes yes’. Finally I gave in, and it distinguished me as a solo artist, because that is when my solo career began.
“I never listen to my music, I am not that interested in myself. When I was playing the record before we re-released it, I had to write notes about each song. It was interesting to reflect on what was going on in the recording studio and how much fun I was having. It made me really happy and made me smile. I had so much fun and everything was such a joy. All I was doing was rehashing great memories. That made me happy.
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Main Photo Credit: Anthony Masterson | Background Photo: Personal Archive Of Pearl Harbour
