Equus: Foreheads in a Fishtank - Onions [Peel Session] (27 March 1993)

 

To judge by the John Peel wiki, Foreheads in a Fishtank’s space on Peel’s playlists was narrowing. After this session, they would only feature - as records currently show - on two more Peel shows, one of which would feature a repeat of this session. If their national radio exposure was coming to an end, then it makes sense that they would sign off with some of their most demented and deranged music yet.

The session comprised one track, Pussy, from their recent LP, Yeah Baby Wow and three works in progress which would turn up on their next and final album, Stripper. The recording I heard didn’t include Rum, but I liked both Onions and Bond, however, Onions is the only one that has turned up in its session form. I could have included Bond, but the only version currently available is the one that was recorded for the Stripper album, and although it includes the same sound palette in that it sounds like a herd of elephants has been let loose on a set of brass instruments, it’s not really representative of the Peel Session version. The big difference is that in the absence of most of the lyrics - though the Welcome to the greatest show on Earth refrain was included - the band used samples of a terrified woman taken from what sounds like a third rate horror movie. This seems to be in keeping with the vibe of both Bond and Onions, a sense that normality has been over-run and natural order has been turned on its head. When they recorded Bond for their album, the band dropped the samples, perhaps due to queasiness over the woman-in-peril motif, even though the samples and the track itself feel as though they’re soundtracking a zombie attack on Margate Pleasure Beach rather than a slasher/snuff movie.

So instead, we are left with Onions, which tonally also feels as though it is segueing from respectable civility to outright barbarism. We get a taste of this right from the beginning as the classical string section which open the track are very quickly caught up with by a cacophony of approaching kazoos and party razzers. It’s as though the London Symphony Orchestra were collaborating with a set of Gremlins.

But what’s the song about? I haven’t heard the version which Foreheads in a Fishtank recorded for Stripper, so my observations and examples may end up being completely irrelevant, but from what I can hear, Onions is about coping with loss. Although the bellowed refrain of “Tipp-Ex” suggests that singer Jeff Leahy is trying to erase memories of a relationship gone wrong, I suspect that the loss relates more to death than to a break-up. Leahy’s vocal moves between an urbane crooner and a wizened goblin as in Mr. Whippy, but both voices allude to grief and grieving, whether that’s references to celebrating as the good Lord intended via a wake which would potentially include the sandwiches mentioned at 1:53, to be consumed after living your life in the best way possible. In his goblin voice, Leahy on several occasions urgently and breathlessly gasps the refrain, I can’t, as though the words are caught in a battle within his diaphragm against sobs of heartache. And then there’s the final minute, from around 3:15 onwards as the string section are propelled on by a rapidly growing choral hum, sounding like a fleet of angels bearing the soul of the deceased person onto the next life and ending on what passes as a note of tranquility in the world of Foreheads in a Fishtank.

Video courtesy of The Football Programme taken from Peel’s 27/3/93 show.