would write little articles about what they were up to, so our supporters became their supporters too, thus helping strengthen the network as a whole. Then we started making friends with lots of other bands, told our supporters about them, then thought it would make their lives easier if we could make their stuff available through us. So the Music & Elsewhere label proper was born. We’ve released well over 500 albums on cassette now, plus a couple of CDs, and we distribute a lot of CDs done by our bands either independently or on other labels. So, as that happened, the newsletter began to include more and more reviews etc and kind of turned into a zine. Serendipity.

CDS: So you’ve known Don Campau, who runs the No Pigeonholes Radioshow in the San Francisco bay area, for a long time?

MM: Ooh yes, we go way back, Don remembers dinosaurs. Big scary ones. Think we first made contact circa 1990, back in the heady days of Kentucky Fried Royalty, the global underground distribution network of the day. There was that Stephen Parsons bloke running a cell in England, then Lord Litter doing one in Germany, and Don in the States. So we all made friends and swapped spit in the shower. Then late ’91, Don and his northern Californian compadre, Kevyn “Hot Wheels” Dymond (undoubtedly the grooviest wheelchair user on planet Earth), decided to do a European tour as a vacation. Frimley (the village wot we live in) was on the itinerary and it was a great visit. Had a good old spacey jam session and Kevyn bought us all a nice Chinese meal, though Don took the credit for it. So we’ve been friends ever since. Strange coincidences # 42: Five years ago, Don married an American singer called Robin O’Brien, her sister Wendy is married to Englishman, Peter Turton, who just happens to be the vicar in the parish church of… wait for it… Frimley! So we got to see Don again when he and Robin visited them soon after the wedding. He hadn’t grown. Still needed turn-ups in his underpants. We call him The Magic Munchkin.

CDS: Tell me, where did you get the name The Psychotron?

MM: Just a derivation of the term “psychotronic”, as applied to a certain type of movie. Plus, as Dr. Magic PsD, I held a doctorate in Psychotronics, the science of things that electrify the mind. Got a 1^st, with honours. I’m very very clever. Sammi says nobody likes a smart arse. So I hid her favourite nose stud in the garden shed.

CDS: Was it fun making the CD? Please tell me much about it.

MM: Took ages, nightmare of logistics. I live in Frimley, the studio is in Plumstead, around 45 miles away, the other side of London. Bit of a murderous drive through the city traffic. The plus point being that, in England, you don’t have to worry about being shot at by cars you overtake. Then there was the thing that only me, Sammi (my girlie, and backing vocalist on the album) and Leonie live in the Frimley area. All the guests came from all over the place. Well, all over the south east of England. So it was a tad difficult arranging all the sessions. Didn’t have a choice though, MMATT being a kind of “cartoon band” since the original foursome split in the late 80s. The band had kind of been “me & whoever” since then. Life, eh? But sure, it was mostly good fun. It took about a year in all. Worth it though, it’s a very warm feeling when you get your first “proper album” in your hands. Not that there’s anything wrong with tapes, I still think cassettes are the epitome of underground cool. But for bands, it’s hard to beat a manufactured album, be it CD or vinyl.

CDS: While back, you had a court problem with a musician, Mark Jenkins, who was supposed to help you with the CD. In your words, tell us what happened and how did it turn out?

MM: My own words? Shucks, I was going to use some of George Clooney’s, but never mind. Ah, the Jenkins Wars, I’m not really sure I want to go back to that too much, not one of my favourite years, 1996, my own personal year of hell. Lost my father to cancer four days before the first court hearing too, one seriously shit year. The basics: Jenkins ran Future Age Music Express, a CD manufacturing broker business. We contracted them to manufacture the “Creavolution” CD. They did a real piss-poor job of it, then tried to bullshit me when I phoned to complain. Due to the lack of co-operation, we sued for breach of contract. It took us five months to get the masters and artwork back. Jenkins kept failing to turn up at court hearings and came up with every trick in the book to avoid paying us the court judgement award. Eventually, after a year long legal battle, we got our money back, plus a compromised amount by way of compensation. So in the end, it was okay, but you can really do without that kind of shit when you are trying to deal with a serious bereavement as well. I’m a bit of a space cadet at the best of times, so as you can imagine, the whole experience left me feeling kind of out there. Still, that’s all water under the bridge now. We go to a company called Sounds Good Limited these days and they are really excellent and very nice people. And they make you coffee. But no biscuits.

CDS: Did you get a lot of listeners around the world listening to the “Creavolution” CD?

MM: I think the term “a lot” is a bit subjective. We sold about 1,500. For us, that was excellent, many more than we hoped for. Now if that had been Hawkwind, I gather they’d have been seriously disappointed!

CDS: Have you got any famous bands that you sell, like Dr.Brown or the Pink Fairies, selling off your market?

MM: Are Dr.Brown famous then? Ooh, must tell Kev, he’ll be thrilled to hear that! Yeah, we have a few cassette releases by the good Doctor on the M&E label. Nothing by the Pink Fairies, though I do know Twink and MMATT supported the band once at The Crypt in London, circa 1989. Guess the most famous band on the M&E tape label is Inner City Unit, good old Judge Trev, their “Judgement & Thunder” tape is our all time top seller (excluding MMATT stuff and compilations, both of which have an advantage, natch). Apart from that, there are a probably a few bands that most hardcore underground music lovers would know about, and many more they wouldn’t. But trust me, we have some superb unknown bands on M&E, really superb. Got some fine material on our distro service too (CDs and vinyl), the likes of Mr.Quimby’s Beard are a real must for space heads.

CDS: Tell me about the world underground network and tell us how these bands contacted you and how’s the music business work for you?

MM: Shit, that’s a broad question! The network is vast, we’re only in touch with a small percentage of the activists, just a few hundred, mostly those working in similar musical spheres to those we cover at M&E. Not quite sure what you mean by how the bands contacted us… I mean, they sent demos, obviously, so that can’t be it, surely? Suppose they hear about us through the wonderful collection of underground zines (like this awfully nice publication, for example) that helps spread the word. If we think we can help, we offer cassette