Danielle Dax

Pete Farrugia's Contributions to Her Solo Works

Sometime in the early 1980s, I was in a band called the Fast Set with David Knight. Through mutual musical friends, we got introduced to multi-media artist Danielle Dax. Danielle had formerly been in the Lemon Kittens with Karl Blake, but was now trying to establish herself as a solo artiste.

Well, one thing led to another, and Dave set up home with Danielle, and they began making music together. Every now and then, I went over to help out. They had a huge collection of different musical instruments, and endless ideas about what to do with them.

At first, I simply helped out with their home demos, but after a while I made some contributions to their singles and albums. This went on right into the 1990s, and who knows, maybe it's not over yet (watch this space)!

Cat-House 12in Single Sleeve Chemical Wedding Album Sleeve Dark Adapted Eye CD Insert
The single Cat-House (Awesome Records AOR 12, 1988) did very well in the indie charts. Among all of my recordings, this has to be one of my favourites. I played guitar and bass, including the big guitar solo which borrows a few ideas from both Chuck Berry and Steve Jones. On the B side, Touch Piggy's Eyes, my old pal Chad Strentz (then appearing with myself in Shout Sister Shout!, now playing for Paul Lamb and the Kingsnakes) played harmonica. These two tracks also came out in Japan on compilation album The Chemical Wedding (VAP Inc. 35191-20 1987).

Back in the UK, Danielle signed to major label Sire, who also released a compilation album called Dark Adapted Eye (Sire 25818-2, 1988), featuring the Cat-House single, an alternative version of the single White Knuckle Ride (I'm on the album version, James Piper plays on the single) and Whistling For His Love on which I played sitar-guitar..

Blast The Human Flower CD Insert 1990 saw lots of recording activity, which led to another album Blast The Human Flower (Sire 7599-26126-2, 1990). I played on The Id Parade, Big Blue '82', King Crack and Daisy.

This album was produced by the award-winning Stephen Street, and for a while it seemed as though great things would happen, but sadly it achieved more in the way of critical acclaim than actual sales .
In 1995, back in indie-land, Danielle set up the Biter of Thorpe label, and released a double CD, a compilation of indie singles and album tracks, and some new material. "My" tracks Cat-House, Whistling For His Love and Touch Piggy's Eyes got their third outing on this album, ironically called Comatose Non-Reaction - The Thwarted Pop Career Of Danielle Dax.

That brings us pretty much up to date, but who knows? Maybe there'll be more collaborations between Danielle, Dave and I in the future. Here's hoping!

 Comatose Non-Reaction CD Insert

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