05/11/03 - Ron Howe reminisces@ the Kings Head, Horley (UK)

**(Interview from an old Fools Dance site)

(images © - please do not steal)

Ron Howe 2003

Ron got involved with Fools Dance after he got to know Simon and Gary through the Horley music (punk) scene in the early 80s. Even nowadays Horley is a haven for numerous musicians, apparent as Ron greets a friend at the bar. "He's a musician too. You see, nearly every man and his dog owns a guitar or some other music instrument here. Parents just buy them for their kids".
Prior to Fools Dance, Ron had been in numerous bands as a sax player and hooked up with them a point in time where Fools Dance felt they needed to add some new sounds to their songs (plus their keyboardist had just buggered off). Ron saw their music as a new and exciting learning curve and already knew the band and liked their music. "At that age, I steered clear of the jazz and blues bands that sax players tended to get involved with. I wanted to be in a punk band and Fools Dance suited this just fine".

We met up with Ron in Horley in a pub where the band used to drink, many decisions were made here, "this is where it all happened" says Ron.

"Fools Dance were not really trying to go anywhere, there were no laid out commercial plans. It was about doing what you enjoyed doing and no one felt the need to have a so-called appointed leader. A sense of humour, a drink, playing in front of a good audience and a free trip around europe were the important things".
Fools Dance appeared to have toured, drank and enjoyed Holland a lot where they had a good fanbase and every show was a good one. Many of the trips to Holland and a journey to Berlin on a train made up the best memories of Fools Dance that Ron still keeps with him. "At the time I was working with the railways. When we were playing in Berlin I didn't want to fly and suggested instead we all took the train at a discount. Everyone came along and the whole journey was just amazing. Drink induced randomness and seeing the whole country as we travelled was just one of the best times. and Berlin was great - the whole atmosphere at that time, everything being available whenever we wanted. We stayed with a fan's parents whilst there, which was strange. I remember Gary ended up getting friendly with the girl and upsetting the boyfriend...just completely strange and brilliant time. the journeys were always good - we saved the drink and drugs for then!" In turn, much of the band's music was inspired by such experiences they had on tour, impromptu jam sessions and alcohol included. a l c o h o l. Once they even managed to drink an entire bar dry. "We were in Brussels I think and the crowd consisted of mainly of gay guys who all tried to pull us afterwards. An interesting experience. We went to a pub and drank the entire bar empty between us and the support band. I don't remember much else of that."
So what were the support bands like? "It was usually a few local bands with us the head of the bill. Once we were supported by The Cult though. The tours were always great. We had a good tour manager and had a lot of what we wanted."

So who went on tour with the band? "There was always a big group of us. Ric Gallup with his half-a-beard and half-a-moustache was really strange but did our lighting. and a girl named Pascalle who helped out with publicity and stuff. Charles our photographer...a big bunch."

These wild stories led to the band and their manager acquiring quite a reputation that preceeded them wherever they went prior to their shows, but Ron remembers the band as actually being quite harmless. "Once, in an attempt to quash these rumours, we stopped at a petrol station on the way to a gig in Belgium and Gary (a little drunk) decided to buy every bunch of flowers on sale there. It must have been about a hundred. We then proceeded to throw them at the audience during the show. They just got scared. I could see people in the audiences ducking and looking terrified".
After all, Fools Dance thought of themselves as a group of friendly goths with a more than healthy interest in faeries. But the group took a surprisingly long time to get themselves settled. Before Pete joined on drums they had about 10 different drummers all too interested in long drum solos. Simon was left with the responsibility for the programming of 2 drum machines. "One of the long list of drummer that were dismissed was a guy called Mike. There was this trip we had to make by ferry and when Mike was asleep Simon and Gary put an ashtray on his head and we all piled it up with anything we could find. Then set it on fire. He didn't stay with us long after that."

Fools Dance had a number of different influences. Gary Biddles was seen as the ultimate Robert Smith clone at that time. He was a fan of the cure and had no sense of bitterness towards them. "Many people wondered if Gary's singing was an imitation of Robert's voice but it was the only way he knew how to sing". Simon ended up singing two songs The Ring and Happy Families Waiting At The Skylab Landing Bay. "They were co-written by him but he sang them because they only made sense to him - they had a personal meaning and it just ended up that way".
And did the band ever get frustrated by an audience of mainly cure fans there to see Simon? "No, we played Simon's role in The Cure to the fullest extent but we never really went down well in the UK. The Cure didn't have that much of a following then anyway. But the Dutch loved us. Fools Dance was really a band made purely for Holland and we loved playing there ".
Fools Dance were also inspired by greatly The Doors. "Simon was a big fan of them and after seeing the film saw the whole Doors thing as a way of life."
The lyrics were mostly written by Gary and Simon sometimes chipped in witht he music more often than not being being the result of a bassline to which the rest was added. Asking Ron which was his favourite Fools Dance song, he replies with "The Don Diddy song. Definitely. Don Diddy was my nickname at the time and, I think it was at a soundcheck, when Simon started to improvise a bassline. I started to jam along on my sax and the song was written from that."

After about 4 years, the band got together in the Horley local with Robert Smith as a special drinking guest, after Simon announced they should have a talk. A decison had to be made by Simon, The Cure wanted him back and it was hard to say goodbye to the jolly old times with Fools Dance. "Everyone wasn't shocked to hear Simon say he was teaming up once again with The Cure. Everyone understood that it was time for him to move on and it was the best career move for him." After this Fools Dance disbanded. "No one even considered continuing without Simon. The band revolved around him and the group dynamics just wouldn't have been the same."

And sadly that was the end. "Basically everything that was written at that time ended up either on an album or a single and was played live." There is no back-catalogue when it comes to Fools Dance. Well, how about a reunion gig? "A great idea! if the others would want to I'd definitely be interested. It was a great time and i'd love to work with Simon again.".

The Fools Dance gang then moved on to new things. Ron played with Simon again on the Head on The Door on A Night Like This single and Gary roadied for them for some time until an interest incident on stage in Brussels. Ron remembers everyone as always being behind a drink and even for us can't conjure up an unpleasant memory of that time.

How Ron describes each band member at that time:

Simon:
Simon was and still is a true musician, never minded the odd drink and even though he had the reputation of having a big ego I always got along with him fine. He doesn't have an ego at all. He is truly focused and is a gentleman in every sense of the word. It was a long time ago and we're all going grey now (Simon should lay off the Grecian 2000) but he was a great guy. He always had a mental battle going on, I remember being at a party with him once and him smashing up a wooden cabinet out of sheer anger, but we were much younger then.

Gary:
Ah! Now's the chance to have a dig at Gary! and yes, you can quote me on that. Gary was a great artist though. Robert Smith incarnated!

Stuart:
Stuart was nicknamed Dewey in the band. A mouse. Quiet and introverted but very focused.

Peter:
A country boy from the Sussex swamp! Always a little insane - another mental battle going on. Now he lives in his own world in the West.

Ron on himself:

Confused! I was young at the time and although you think you're very together at the time you look back and see you just weren't.

and what happened to their manager?

He disappeared after Simon left with the tapes. Never to be seen or heard of again.

[Many thanks to Ron Howe for his time and help with this site.]

(I found this article online - http://web.archive.org/web/20040805130405/www.carmenrosa.com/towelflick/foolsdance/)