Lupen Crook
is an English musician and songwriter.
Style
Initially making his name as an acoustic singer-songwriter, Lupen Crook (real name Matthew Pritchard) has gone on to create an eclectic music style incorporating garage rock, "broken folk",
– feature in Fly Magazine by Gerry Hectic, 20 April 2005 "skiffle, hip-hop and gypsy punk",
"off-kilter
ska
Ska (; ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a walki ...
" and "gothic
folk music
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...
".
He has been described, variously, as "a solo singer/songwriter of a particularly unique ilk",
[Review of Lupen Crook single 'Love 80']
by Dom Gourlay in Drowned in Sound magazine, 27 March 2006 "insidious, vile, an enigma"
[ Review of Lupen Crook and the Murderbirds album 'Iscariot the Ladder' by Brad Barrett in Subba-Cultcha magazine, 2008]
"a larger-than-life personality that sometimes wilfully seems to court the reputation of idiot savant and awkward bastard"
[ "Loss, Love & Lust: An Interview With Lupen Crook" by Hg, originally published in Drunken Werewolf magazine #5 (reposted on Hydragenic blog on 21 November 2008)] and "Kent's finest neo-gothic psychedelic folk troubadour".
[ “Lupen Crook: Young, gifted and broke”; interview with Lupen Crook by Chris Bell in Subba-Cultcha magazine, 2007]
As influences, Crook has cited
Syd Barrett
Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006) was an English singer, songwriter, and musician who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd in 1965. Barrett was their original frontman and primary songwriter, becoming known for his ...
,
Carter USM
Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine (also known as Carter USM or simply Carter) were an English indie rock band formed in 1987 by singer Jim "Jim Bob" Morrison and guitarist Les "Fruitbat" Carter. They made their name with a distinctive style o ...
, early
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...
and
Bon Scott
Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott (9 July 1946 – 19 February 1980) was an Australian singer and songwriter. He was the lead vocalist and lyricist of the hard rock band AC/DC from 1974 until his death in 1980.
Born in Forfar in Angus, Scotland, ...
of
AC/DC
AC/DC (stylised as ACϟDC) are an Australian Rock music, rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm Young, Malcolm and Angus Young. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock, and Heavy metal ...
as well as "the spirit that is punk rock, the smell of sex and the sound of stray sods singing out from the Medway Towns."
[http://www.the-gig-guide.co.uk/2009/06/01/lupen-crook-and-the-murderbirds/ ]
He himself has been compared to artists as diverse as
Kevin Coyne
Kevin Coyne (27 January 1944 – 2 December 2004) was an English musician, singer, composer, film-maker, and a writer of lyrics, stories and poems. The "anti-star" was born in Derby, Derbyshire, England, and died in his adopted home of Nurember ...
,
The Jam
The Jam were an English mod revival/ punk rock band formed in 1972 at Sheerwater Secondary School in Woking, Surrey. They released 18 consecutive Top 40 singles in the United Kingdom, from their debut in 1977 to their break-up in December 198 ...
,
The Libertines
The Libertines are an English rock band, formed in London in 1997 by frontmen Carl Barât (vocals/guitar) and Pete Doherty (vocals/guitar). The band, centred on the songwriting partnership of Barât and Doherty, has also included John Hassall ...
,
Ray Davies
Sir Raymond Douglas Davies ( ; born 21 June 1944) is an English musician. He was the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and main songwriter for the rock band the Kinks, which he led with his younger brother Dave on lead guitar and backing voca ...
,
The Clash
The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they also contributed to the and new wave movements that emerged in the wa ...
and
Jamie T
Jamie Alexander Treays (born 8 January 1986), better known by his stage name Jamie T, is an English singer, songwriter, rapper, guitarist and record producer from Wimbledon, South London.
Jamie T released his debut album, '' Panic Prevention'' ...
.
[Live review of Lupen Crook at The Flower Pot, London]
by Ben Homewood, published at The-Fly.Co.Uk, 4 October 2010
Crook is also a visual artist (working predominantly in illustration and collage) who creates the artwork and edition packaging for his own releases as well as exhibiting work formally.
History
Initial releases
Lupen Crook emerged as a solo "
anti-folk
Anti-folk (sometimes referred to as unfolk) is a music genre that emerged in the 1980s in response to the remnants of the 1960s folk music scene. Anti-folk music was made to mock the perceived seriousness of the time's mainstream music scene, a ...
"-style acoustic act in the Medway area in the mid-2000s. His first gigs took place in 2004, and his initial demo CD was given a limited release by a Chatham record label, Tap 'n' Tin Records, in early 2005. Tap 'n' Tin also released his first EP 'Petals Fresh from Road Kill' in August 2005, which was followed up by the 'Halloween' single in October 2005. Crook immediately made an impact with
New Musical Express
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
and was included on ''
NME: The Cool List 2005'':
an experience which he made light of at the time, but would later confess "completely threw me – it made me retreat hugely... I was a far more insecure person back then and I didn't have my gang and my band around me."
Crook released two more short-form releases in 2006 – the 'Love 80' single in March
and the EP 'A Silver Boot for Sam' in October.
The Murderbirds
Initially performing solo, Crook began working regularly with two brothers – Bob Langridge (drums) and Tom Langridge (bass guitar, keyboards) – who became permanent fixtures of live sets, and after the release of Crook's first album, became The Murderbirds. Future releases would be credited either to Lupen Crook or "Lupen Crook and The Murderbirds", although the Langridges often contributed to Lupen Crook solo releases.
Lupen Crook's debut album was ''Accidents Occur While Sleeping'' (released in July 2007 on Tap 'n' Tin). The album received a varied critical response (being described as both "schizophrenic" and "cinematic").
Crook himself has referred to the album as being "probably over-ambitious, and as a result (it) was very stop-starty. I personally think it suffers from a sense of suffocation; basically it took too long to record."
In November 2007, Crook released the 'Matthew's Magpie' EP, the first release credited to "Lupen Crook and The Murderbirds".
Lupen Crook and The Murderbirds embarked on a UK tour in 2007 in advance of the release of ''Iscariot the Ladder'', their first album as a group. Crook has since described the tour as "a complete disgrace, utter fucking chaos. It didn't do us any favours in the long term, we made a bad reputation for ourselves along the way but for those few weeks we were untouchable punk rockers, who with little in the way of resources, mostly frozen to the bone and filthy right through, built the foundations of a brotherhood that stand stronger than ever today."
At the end of the tour, Crook and the Murderbirds briefly relocated to America, spending two weeks living as illegal immigrants in New York City.
During their time in New York the band met
fiddle
A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, th ...
and
mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
player Craig Harff, who became the fourth Murderbird.
''Iscariot the Ladder'' was released in February 2008 to mixed reviews. Criticised in some quarters for a lack of songwriting discipline and focus,
it was praised in others for its raw recording and outlook, with Subba-Cultcha magazine commenting that "the raw ingrained grime is spread across this second album's runtime like a public toilet's handtowel. Its sordid themes and embittered melodies are all ruptured and flowing, creativity stemmed only by finances and narrow vision. The fantastist wanderings of Lupen's debut opus are less in evidence here; instead, a balance between grim faerytale and dirty reality has been achieved. Tottering between both, the unhinged quality of Lupen's output is just as plain as ever."
Beast Reality
''Iscariot the Ladder'' was the last record on Crook's contract with Tap 'n' Tin. Having been embroiled in legal disputes with Tap 'n' Tin, Crook went on to set up the Beast Reality label, dedicated to releasing his own material. The label had a strong DIY ethic, delivering releases as downloads or as limited-edition CD releases featuring Crook's own hand-made cover art. Crook has commented that "the whole thing with Beast Reality will be to get material out as much as possible – I'd like to be looking at two to three EPs and an album a year."
The first Beast Reality release was a Lupen Crook solo compilation of archive material called ''Old Books, Broken Bands And Other Little Treasures'' which was released in November 2008. In 2009, material written in New York and other home demos saw two Lupen Crook and The Murderbirds releases – the EP ''The Lost Belongings'' (in July) and "Great Fears & Curious Predictions" EP in September. During the summer of 2009 Crook suffered a relapse of his
schizoaffective disorder
Schizoaffective disorder (SZA, SZD or SAD) is a mental disorder characterized by abnormal thought processes and an unstable mood. This diagnosis is made when the person has symptoms of both schizophrenia (usually psychosis) and a mood disorder: ...
. When recovered, the experience inspired him to release another Murderbirds EP called 'The Curse of the Mirror Wicked' in association with the mental health charity YoungMinds (to whom Crook suggested fans made donations in lieu of paying for the download.
Lupen Crook and The Murderbids released, ''The Pros and Cons of Eating Out'', in 2010, which documented Crook's tumultuous personal life and the bands increasingly dysfunctional nature. The albums eclecticism continued to provoke both interest and irritation in reviewers, with Subba Cultcha magazine complaining "The thing with this album is half of the songs are brilliant and the other half are distinctly average, making makes this album more lopsided than a table with only two legs. Fans of Lupen Crook's earlier work will love this record and everyone else will love half this record."
[ Review of Lupen Crook album ‘The Pros and Cons of Eating Out by Will Holloway in Subba-Cultcha music magazine, 2010] The album was supported by the subsequent release of the 'Dorothy Deserves' EP, featuring a remix of the title track by
Howie B
Howard Bernstein (born 18 April 1963, Glasgow, Scotland), professionally known as Howie B, is a Scottish musician, producer and DJ who has worked with artists including: Björk, U2, Tricky, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Soul II Soul, Robbi ...
.
Internal pressures within the band following the release of "The Pros and Cons of Eating Out" saw Crook permanently return to his solo roots at the close of 2010. The death of Crook's close friend, visual artist 'The MRS', would inspire many of the songs on 2011's "Waiting For The Post-Man". The following year, Crook gathered various musicians from the
Medway scene
The Medway scene consists of the bands and related cultural activities of the Medway Towns, north Kent, England. Main towns involved (from West to East) are Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham, and Rainham. The Medway scene is typically dated ...
, including members of post-rock instrumentalists UpCDownC. The result was his last album, "British Folk Tales", released in 2012. A short tour accompanied the release, finishing at Medway's Royal Function Rooms, for which a hand-made zine, free compilation CD curated by Crook, and night of live music under the banner Non-League Extreme took place, featuring numerous Medway and Kent bands.
The Crooked Family
During 2009, a collective known as 'The Crooked Family' formed. Based out of 'The Unawarehouse', a disused warehouse on Chatham's 'dirty mile', it was predominantly occupied by Crook and artist Matthew Stephens-Scott, although became a hot-bed for collaborations with various individuals. Crook and The MRS jointly exhibited collections of art, and Crook's solo work and that of The Murderbirds music videos were filmed there. Crook and The MRS were eventually evicted, though 'The Crooked Family' continued to be the identifying house for those creative collaborators surrounding Lupen Crook.
Discography: (as Lupen Crook)
Albums
*''Accidents Occur While Sleeping'' (Tap 'n' Tin, 2007)
*''Old Books, Broken Bands And Other Little Treasures (Beast Reality, 2008)
*''Waiting For The Post-Man'' (Beast Reality, 2011)
*''British Folk Tales'' (TPSP / Beast Reality, 2012)
Singles and EPs
*'Petals Fresh from Road Kill' EP (Tap 'n' Tin, 2005)
*'Halloween' (Tap 'n' Tin, 2005)
*'Love 80' (Tap 'n' Tin, 2005)
*'A Silver Boot for Sam' EP (Tap 'n' Tin, 2006)
*'The Curse of the Mirror Wicked' EP (Beast Reality, 2009)
*'Original Sins" Compilation (Beast Reality, 2010)
*'Chasing Dragons' (Beast Reality, 2011)
*'Treasons To be Beautiful' (Beast Reality, 2012)
Discography: (as Lupen Crook and the Murderbirds)
Albums
*''Iscariot the Ladder'' (Tap 'n' Tin, 2007)
*''The Pros and Cons of Eating Out'' (Beast Reality, 2010)
Singles and EPs
*'Matthew's Magpie'' (Tap 'n' Tin, 2007)
*'Great Fears & Curious Predictions' (Beast Reality, 2009)
*''The Lost Belongings'' (Beast Reality, 2009)
*'Dorothy Deserves' EP (Beast Reality, 2010)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crook, Lupen
Living people
English songwriters
English male singers
English rock guitarists
People from Chatham, Kent
People with schizoaffective disorder
Year of birth missing (living people)
Musicians from Kent
English male guitarists
British male songwriters