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Greetings! This is the space of Monty Oxymoron keyboard player with The Damned since 1996. I can also play guitar, bass, drums and percussion, in fact Ill give any instrument a go and will play objects not meant to be musical instruments if an interesting noise can be obtained from them.

I was brought up on psychedelic progressive and punk music but Im also interested in jazz, blues (if REAL) classical (especially early and modern) and some world music. I am into experimental and improvised music. Unfortunately in this era of instant gratification, commercial hegemony and the rule of the safe, the false and the obvious most people dont like to lend their ears to something unfamiliar. Music is a whole world of activity to be explored. Like new exotic food it can grow on you opening a labyrinth of listening possibilities. OUR EARS ARE IN PERFECT CONDITION said John Cage.

I like music of energy and excitement, music of imagination both sublime and absurd, music with a sense of humour wit and satire, music with a sense of the cosmic, music of brilliance and ingenuity, music touched by insanity and perversitythe surreal, the maverick, the unusual, the subversive; music that breaks boundaries, looks under rocks and splits open wood. Music that stimulates thought as well as feelings. Music that suprises , music that inspires, music that silences.

I tend to be wary of music that is very successful and popular. I value the obscure and neglected side of things. Too much bad music has been made for purely commercial reasons. LET MUSIC NEVER BECOME JUST ANOTHER WAY OF MAKING MONEY said Keith Tippett. Equally let good music never be so neglected that artists starve!

So, support musical explorers, plunge into the depths of all sound possibilities. Sound the world releasing the voices of objects like spirits enriching and dangerous. A whole world waits to be struck, plucked, blown into, massaged and tickled into being!

Sonic Past (For more on this see journey into Montys brain parts1 to 5 at www.officialdamned.com )

I have improvised since I was very young. I had piano lessons but found reading music virtually impossible. I always wanted to originate music, not reproduce it. Teaching me piano must have been a nightmare! I spent most of my youth alone in my room listening to music or trying to play it, plucking cheap guitars and drumming on cardboard boxes. I couldnt afford any proper instruments until much later. I seldom went out, just to see bands. I had few friends. We were the odd ones out, we didnt like sport or disco and couldnt get girlfriends. Our band was Moon Orchid: tape experiments and silliness, but good fun. Later I was in the Second Attic , and actually did a gig in someones front room! (See the Circle Dance on my album, which was a song we used to play.) At art college I met Alasdair Willis and we went insane with toy instruments, the best thing too do there! (He is the originator of the Vitamin B12.)

Acid Tapes
After this I released some recordings facilitated by my uncle on drums and engineering who now does stuff under the name Mikeys Militia. Some of this has been released recently on a CD called 18 Symptoms of Musical Insanity. www.bendirecords.com

At this time I started learning to play jazz, regularly attending Brighton Jazz Club and sometimes sitting in at the famous Sunday afternoon sessions at the King and Queen hosted by Vic Richards.

The Zap Club
I performed regularly at the Zap and met Captain Stupidt with whom I have done various odd gigs. He features on English Holiday on my album. As a result I also worked with compare Ian Smith (see www.mischieflabas.co.uk ) appearing on a T.V.S. programme Hits the Fan which I never got to see. We also did a performance at Brighton Art College Sallis Benney Hall featuring my grandmother reading stories, myself playing among other things, a gerbil cage and Ian on actions. I also worked with the Theatre of the Bleeding Obelisk and with poet/comedienne Evo Luna. The Zap was also where I first met Captain Sensible.

Gong
Ive always loved this band and the huge variety of music that has come from this green planet, so I regularly attended Daevid Allens workshops in the late 1980s and have kept in contact with G.A.S. ever since. This year I shall attend the Gong Uncovention at the Milky Way in Amsterdam November 3rd to the 5th and maybe get a chance to do some improvised stuff there, we will see! (www.planetgong.co.uk)

Rod Paton
Rod is a very creative composer and player of the French horn. I met him while studying Psychiatric Nursing at Graylingwell Hospital in Chichester. He was teaching at Bishop Otter College just down the road! He persuaded me to study for a BA in related Arts. What great fun that was! I also used to play improvised jazz with him. We called it ID, Improvising Duo. I also played percussion in his monumental Jazz Mass and worked with him with people with special needs. (see www.rodpaton.com ) At college I met some good and strange folk including Martin Pottle. We made some of the most insane music I have ever done! (Wonder where he is?) Mr Paton is also connected with the Music and the Psyche project.

Healthy Concerts
After this I studied Art Psychotherapy at Goldsmiths College. Musically I was now playing with Captain Sensible at Club Spacetoad in the Prince Albert pub Brighton. I was also playing my own jazz compositions and some covers with talented saxophonist Dee Byrne. We played concerts in people front rooms as part of Paul Chis Healthy Concerts. (Good music: hooray! No smoke: hooray! No drink: Boo!) See www.healthyconcerts.com

Soon thereafter I played with the Dr Spacetoad Experience, Captain Sensibles solo project: Punk Floyd and thenthe Damned!

Sonic present

The Damned
Yes Im still with them (and long may it continue!) The line up is Dave Vanian: vocals, Captain Sensible: guitar, Pinch: drums, Stu West: bass and myself on keyboards. We are gigging extensively and hope to do a new album as soon as. (For all things Damned see www.officialdamned.com )

The Dr. Spacetoad Experience
A mixture of good olde english eccentricity, psychedelia and theatrical absurdity. The experience consists of Dr. Spacetoad: troubadour from the 4th dimension, wandering minstrel of the mind, palm reading star gazing cosmic gypsy on vocals guitar and mandolin, Captain Sensible on bass guitar and Toad baiting, Captain Barrington White/ Cardinal Sinn on space noises and blow up nun and myself on keyboards. We have had various drummers: originally I played drums. Currently we have the excellent Dave Burke of Johnny Moped fame! We like to play festivals like the Big Green gathering. For our last gig we were privileged to open the Arthur Brown spectacular at the Astoria last year.

The Vitamin B12
On Sunday afternoons I often go up the road to make some very strange music with these explorers of sound forms and noise possibilities. The B12 have released numerous albums on vinyl some of which Im on (dont ask me which ones!) Each one has an originally crafted cover: Im certain that they will fetch millions on the art market in years to come! The B12 (me too!) played at the 2005 All Tomorrows Parties festival at Camber Sands. AFRIRAMPO were there too, they were great!

Tim Burness
Tim is a good friend and fellow Gong enthusiast. I played on his Finding New Ways to Love album and will feature on his next one too. See www.timburness.com

The Sumerian Kyngs
Are a heady mix of experimental poetry and jazzy improvised music. The Sumerians were the original creators of civilisation: we attempt to dig up their ancient magic and blast it into your brain cells! See www.myspace.com/sumeriankyngs

The Safe House Collective
This is a meeting of like minded explorers of improvisation who meet every 1st and last Wednesday of every month at the Open House pub near London Road station Brighton. This is a really good scene that I have just started to be apart of this year. Power to it!

Monty Oxymoron 2006
See www.myspace.com/safehousebrighton

OTHER STUFF

VISUALS
I used to do a lot of visual art. At school it was an escape from the oppressive unreality as well as a vital safety valve of self-expression. I wanted to be an artist until I realised how bloody hard it is to make any kind of living that way! When I was released from school I went to art college to try to be like heroes of mine who developed art as well as music: Syd Barrett, Viv Stanshall, Captain Beefheart, Daevid Allen, Ian Dury, Wreckless Eric et al
Unfortunately Eastbourne Art College at the start of the 1980s was not a cool happening kind of place! BUT I did meet Alasdaire Willis there and we continue to explore the further reaches of musical no-mans land to this day. I left after a year and languished on the dole for 3 years while Maggie T. made us all miserable. Finally I ended up on the Computer Aided Animated Arts Theatre (C.A.A.A.T.) the aim being (apart from getting us off the social security for a year) developing software for children with learning difficulties. I was hopeless as a programmer (and still cant do much with these damn machines!), but I enjoyed working in the special schools and considered teaching. Suddenly I was initiated into the world of psychiatry which changed everything, but I continued with the music and artwork.
After qualifying and working as an RMN for a year I went back into college: this time on a Related Arts course which suited me much better. This gave me time to explore creative stuff of all sorts for three years. I actually started to ENJOY life!! My final exhibition included the states of mind pictures and some stained glass stuff. I havent had much inspiration for art recently but put everything into the music. Kirsty, my girlfriend is active as an artist. She creates really good fantasy art, landscape and cartoons. Power to her!

Gongalope - Kirsty

Universe of C.S. - Kirsty

States of Mind: Confusion - Monty

States of Mind: Anxiety - Monty

States of Mind: Dipsomania - Monty

States of Mind: Anguish - Monty

States of Mind: Rage - Monty

Journey into the Underworld - Monty

Mayan god of Fire (Arthur Browns ancestor?) - Monty

Dave Vanian - Kirsty

Captain - Kirsty

NURSING
Nursing saved me from staying a sad unemployable git living with my long-suffering parents forever. At school I was horrified at the prospect of spending all my life in some meaningless job whatever it might pay. Time is precious! Nursing is meaningful and can be rewarding when its not to stressful! Psychiatric nurse training was a baptism of fire as I was a very shy reclusive character with no common sense or self confidence and a skewed way of looking at things! I made it through however, and it still teaches me how to make decisions, prioritise, assess situations, work with other people of all sorts etc. Bank nursing keeps me busy when not playing music and I enjoy it (some of the time!) I work with some excellent carers: good carers SHOULD BE PAID MORE, whatever setting they work in. (For any high up managers reading this!) Also: SAVE THE N.H.S.! Free health care makes Britain great, (apart from great pop music!)

ART THERAPY
While nursing I became interested in Art Therapy. Unfairly it seems still to be a marginal and misunderstood occupation. It is NOT a matter of giving folks with problems some paints and saying there, there, do some pictures and forget about it. Nor is it an intrusive way of peering into peoples heads to see whats going on in there. Rather, like any other dynamic psychotherapy it works through the relationship between the therapist and person in therapy and the creative third element: the artwork as it emerges. It draws heavily on psychoanalytic theory especially that of Donald Winnicott who said famously It is sad if we are ONLY sane. A bit of creative madness is useful! I studied Art Psychotherapy at Goldsmiths College. Sadly I was unable to find work in this area after, but then the music OPENED UP suddenly. Coincidence?
Im still interested in the creative arts therapies (there are also music, dance and drama therapies) and I hope they flourish and become widely available. More positive than giving people drugs all the time (legal or otherwise!) All these forms of activity involve improvisation in some way: I IMPROVISE THEREFOR I AM.

Discography
Grave Disorder The Damned Nitro Records 2001 Tiki Nightmare DVD The Damned Unisonsquarepictures 2003 M.G.E.25 DVD The Damned ILC music 2005 Little Miss Disaster CD single lively arts 2005 Time Machine The Dr Spacetoad Experience Blueprint 1996 Mad Cows and Englishmen Captain Sensible Scratch Records 1996 Learning How to Love Tim Burness Expanding Consciousness Records 2004 18 Symptoms of Musical Insanity Monty Oxymoron Bendi Records 2006 Living My Life Backwards Monty Oxymoron Oxy-records 2005