Steve Etherington: Matlock, Poly Styrene & The Glamnezia Uprising

The Punk Site caught up with punk producer Steve Etherington to talk about his work with members of Sex Pistols X-Ray Spex and an exciting new glam rock project. Steve Etherington has spent decades dancing between the mainstream and the margins, one minute conducting orchestras, the next knee deep in the glorious mess of Fuzzbox, Sisters of Mercy, The Popes, and a dozen other cult corners of British music. He’s a man who can arrange strings for a bruised poet, rebuild a glam anthem from the ground up, and still find time to run Symphonic Ibiza like a raveready Wagner. Now he’s turned his attention to Sweet, dragging their bubblegumglammetalnewwave DNA into a new era with a full album of reimagined classics. Not covers, reinventions. The kind that would make the glittercaked ghosts of 1973 sit bolt upright. We cornered him for a chat. He didn’t escape.

You worked on Bastards and Outlaw Heaven with Shane MacGowan and The Popes, sculpting widescreen orchestral sweeps while everyone else worshipped the lo-fi grit. With the vocals already down and most of your collaboration with Shane happening over the phone, how did you carve out those tracks under such eccentric conditions, and what kind of alchemy did the mixing process demand?

“At that time my preference was hardware based rather than software so, vocals were sampled into a sp808. I made a drum track loop which was again sampled and then basically jammed along on various keyboards with a variety of orchestral and synth sounds and guitars till the whole thing started to work. Mixing into an alesis mastertrack machine. Again, at that time all standalone hardware that to ‘my ears’ still sounds better; however, I do use software alongside my retro hardware.”

Then came the curveball: a reimagining of The Pogues Fairytale of New York with Mungo Jerry and the immortal Anita Harris, a combination so surreal it feels like it was summoned by séance. Word is the session went full rock ’n’ roll meltdown, complete with creative friction. What actually detonated in that room?

“Luckily, the two artists were buzzing on their ‘odd couple’ vibe. But the fact we (mike B) and I made a ‘big band swing track’ took a hard ‘sell’ as it was originally a 6/8 irish waltz feel bursting out of a straight love ballad intro passage.”

You stepped into Poly Styrene’s world to rebuild three tracks, including Fuzzbox fronted versions of I Can’t Do Anything and Identity. Rumour has it your colleague had them singing through hosepipes taped to Unidine B microphones, like some deranged art school science experiment. And somehow it worked. You even spoke to Poly herself while sheadjudicated. What was she like, and how did you inject a pop punk sheen without sanding off the glorious rough edges?

“Poly was VERY ‘posh’ on the phone which surprised me. Her voice was sweet and eloquent. I asked about the rhythm track of Germ free as that was on the mixing desk at the time. I had Glen Matlocks bass playing sent to me which again was top level. She was very helpful with production tips, eg: put the guitar through a boss chorus pedal and that’s your quasi-sequential sound. It was a privilege to have spoken with her and as a mark of respect I recorded Genetic engineering as a track myself which I performed live at Polyfest after she passed.”

Another punk you worked with was Toyah Wilcox when you recreated a track from the critically acclaimed dream child album what’s the story behind that?

“Ok, my esteemed colleague Mike Bennett called me with an urgent request Toyah was performing the New Wave Electronic crossover track Dream Child which Mike wrote and it was for an important cause that provided a highlight for the upsurge of male suicide and the song was perfect because it was about a man child in trouble. The trouble was there was no click track, so I studied the arrangement and I have to say it was an emotional experience considering the concerning subject matter. I had been involved in this project for Mike as well as Hazel O’Connor and The Fall, so I was familiar with the way he worked. Guys from Suede and The Fall had appeared on the original and he didn’t want me to deviate from but to put a modern stamp on the arrangement. I worked through the night on it as did Mike who was getting to grips with the ever-increasing virtual production techniques, I was so familiar with. I literally handed the stem separations over to Toyah’s brilliant tech crew minutes before she graced the stage and it was a triumph. The process was very much a DIY punk affair, but I have to say it was a resounding success, and the body of work did Toyah, Mike and more importantly the charity proud. It was an honour halting it all together. When Mike was producing Hazel O’Connor, he sent me band arrangements and because the budget was limited, I had to put the keys on in breakneck speed and send them back to Hazel. Mike always insists that the budget is small and its breakneck speed city. I mention this because Toyah and Hazel are cut from the same cloth, I enjoyed working with both of these New Wave female artists very much and love a challenge. Like Mike I always work in a fast and furious way you have to on a Punk budget on a small label.”

Let’s talk Symphonic Ibiza, your orchestral rave beast that stands miles apart from Peter Hook’s Hacienda Classical. You’ve got Melanie Williams in the mix, a voice that practically is the 90s. How did this sunbleached, Balearicbaroque monster begin, what’s Melanie like in the studio, and how do you assemble such a wildly eclectic cast of vocalists without losing your mind?

“Symphonic Ibiza began in 2018. I received a phone call from Australia, DJ Andy Joyce called me and asked if I could arrange for Orchestra. I said yes (I’m a classical music theory nerd). It went from there with our first ever show at Eden in Ibiza. It has been very successful Im proud to say even though it is very different to my rock roots. Melanie was introduced to me by Mike Bennet. Initially the first recordings were collaborations for the Vegan Vampires from org film project. Check out Vegan Vampire track. It’s a co-write I am proud of and her voice is top level. Then by Chance, Symphonic Ibiza my orchestra had a show in Warrington ‘Golden square’ One of our singers was unwell, I called Melanie on the day and she sang with us. Between the phone call and arriving in Warrington I wrote the ‘Dots’for the orchestra on my laptop in the car for her sub sub hit ‘Aint no love and there aint no use’ We played it that night. She was fab.”

You teamed up with Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols) for a reimagining of Germfree Adolescence, a collision of punk royalty and synthsleaze that shouldn’t work but absolutely does. With Charlie O’Connor (Hazel O’Connor’s niece) on vocals, the track fuses X-Ray Spex swagger with a Thomas Dolby style electronic twitch. Were you satisfied with the result, and what possessed you to mash those worlds together?

“As mentioned before, with the verbal assistance of Poly herself on the phone we made a great record. I became a new romantic in my late teens but the punk/new wave trend that preceded it has influenced my writing and producing. It seemed perfectly natural to create these great songs in various genres. It’s what I do.”

Your upcoming Sweet album Lip Service is a revelation, a tribute that refuses to behave like one. Sweet influenced everything from hair metal to punk, dipped into funk, bubblegum, power pop, and reinvented themselves mid album like it was nothing. Is that why they’re both wildly influential and criminally underrated? And what is it about Sweet that keeps dragging you back into their glitterstained orbit?

“Firstly, we brought this in on such a small budget because we had some dead time as a Punk band had bailed on one of our producers and it seemed like a creative tangent. The sweet are the reason why I wanted to become a musician. Even, Queen and Bowie were influenced by the Sweet. They simply were the sum of great writing, fabulous decadent harmonies and guitar solos and of course the Flamboyant ‘dandy’ image which influenced the new romantics a decade later. My truncated answer is deliberate as I could write for days about my adoration for the sweet.”

I hear the album was recorded on what you’ve lovingly called “bargain basement rates,” and that it might accompany Sweet: Live at the BBC as a limited edition. How did that come together, and did the low budget, highpressure environment sharpen the creative edge?

“Reinventing ‘holy’ territory is what it felt like. It was made as a homage, a piece of ‘art’ that I hope does not offend any Sweet fans. It was made with love and like all things of that nature the budget was minimal. The effort was maximum and the entire vibe was edgy. I work better under pressure.”

And then there’s GLAMNEZIA, your glampunk Frankenstein’s monster, stitched together from glitter, distortion, and sheer audacity. Where’s this beast heading next, and how far are you willing to push its aesthetic before it combusts?

“Glamnezia is a work of art. An amalgamation of Glam reinventions and ‘nu glam’ songs. As an album it is actually a collection. It had a pause because of covid; the aftereffects push everything back for 2 years. Now I think is its time. Hopefully the world will think so too.”

After a second bottle of some expensive red wine Steve Etherington seems particularly partial to, he drifted out of the Dublin Castle in Camden looking distinctly jolly, the kind of warm, tipsy glow only musicians and poets seem to pull off without shame. He signed a few photographs on the way out, laughing, leaning, chatting, the whole scene bathed in that Camden after midnight electricity. His performances at the noted venue are the stuff of legend, and tonight, he added another chapter.