Ronnie & Clyde

(swim~) Releases

Marrakech, I979. Two small boys stare excitedly from the fifth floor of an ancient, gilded Palace. Beneath them the cities Bazzars hum with life, the ragged stalls like so many mangy travel blankets.
As wildly over-privileged progeny Her Majesties Government's top diplomaticians, Ronaldo Blaise-Pascal and Clydenio Troubridge-Vergniaud lead languorous lives. Whole months are offered up to the glories of Saint-Saens and the wisdom of Theodore Parker. Life is good.

Or is it? As schooled as they undoubtedly are, not even Ronaldo or Clydenio could have guessed the vileness that lurked unseen in the bosom of their own family.

For it came to pass that our gangly chums had been promised as collateral in a massive Baccarat fraud that Clydenio's father had cooked up with the manger of the early-eighties Puerto Rican teen-pop phenomenomenom Menudo. Consequently, on their sixteenth birthday, our shy, bookish friends were kicked, face-first into the brutal, flesh-rippingly feral world of Pan Global Nano-Stardom.

Still. Fuck 'em. Nothing to do with us.

Our Ronnie and Clyde meet under slightly differing circumstances.

Highbury, 1992. Two grown men nearly come to blows over the decks at a mutual friends house party. In the red comer, Ronnie (Ronnie). 6ft 1", I I stone. Milk-crate full of crisp Nu-Groove and Bones Breaks biscuits. In the blue corner, Clyde (Rob). Also 6ft 1" but carrying those crucial extra pounds. His record bags barely containing their battered bounty of Flourgon, Hijack and Harold Budd.

At first they sulk. Then they bicker. Finally they come to their senses, get singing drunk and spend the rest of the night hammering each others platters. Viola!

So anyway. Both were working independently on musical projects Rob was involved with a Cornish folk trio called King Arthur's Sandals while Ronnie split his time between the proto-techno of Molten Sandbox and the Mezbow style pain-core of Thump. Unbelievably, no recordings of these projects exist.

In that fondly remembered Spring of 1995 they cast off their old skins to reveal the slick pulsating scales of Ronnie & Clyde. Over the next few months the skeletal form of what would become The Last Hand E.P. began to take shape. An advance tape found it's way to Colin Newman and Malka Spigel at Swim. They liked what they heard and dutifully passed it on to their head of A&R Ben (8). The lad was down and Ronnie and Clyde were GO! The debut 12" "The Last Hand" was released in April '96 and was picked up by Pressure Drop, ColdCut, Fabio, Patrick Forge and others.

This was followed by the second 12" "Macroscopic" and the near legendary (and still debut) album "In Glorious Black & Blue" as well as a gaggle of remixes and odd tracks on other labels. They were last heard of ripping up a storm on "Mikki Maus" their contribution to the "swim team #1" sampler.

Nice............

Ronnie & Clyde are John Ross and Rob Fitzpatrick. Both live in west London and are prone to fib.

Ronnie (31) ~ likes Japanese food, Brass Eye and driving dangerously.

Clyde (32) ~ likes a full English, Trans Am and Guinness.

(Biography Last updated 17 November 2000)

‘Leaf Compilation’

Release date 12 March 2001
CD Deleted

With popular demand and critical appreciation for Yokota's work at an all time high, The Leaf Label imported a limited number of copies of Leaf Compilation, Yokota's first ever mix CD. Released own Yokota's own Skintone label, from which Leaf licensed his other album releases, it was the first time ... [more]

‘Swim Team # 1’ by various artists [swim~ ]

Release date 20 January 2000
CD In Stock £5.00 buy || MP3 £4.50 buy

Swim, the label established by Colin Newman (of the currently reformed Wire) and Malka Spigel back in 1993, releases this low-price sampler CD of recent and forthcoming delights in May 2000.

A chance to dip into Swim's warm and fertile waters, Swim Team #1 melts the boundaries of atmospheric, ... [more]

‘Classic Plant’ by various artists [The Leaf Label]

Release date 8 June 1998
CD Limited Stock £15.00 buy || 2LP Limited Stock £12.00 buy || MP3 £7.00 buy

'Classic Plant' compiles tracks from The Leaf Label's first three years of EP releases (1995-1998), many of which have long since been deleted; most have never been available on CD.

The label has released distinctive, high quality music in distinctive, high quality packaging - Leaf has always prided itself that the ... [more]

‘Fallout’ by various artists [The Leaf Label]

Release date 1 June 1998
CD Limited Stock £7.00 buy || 2CD Out Of Stock || MP3 £7.00 buy

This is the US version of 'Classic Plant', licensed to the New York based Derailed label. It contains different tracks to the UK version.

There is also a limited edition double CD version (includes The Sons Of Silence - 'Back On Your Heads' EP [DOCK 12CD]). 400 copies only.

check www.derailed.com ... [more]

‘The Sons Of Silence v Ronnie & Clyde EP’ by Ronnie & Clyde v The Sons Of Silence

Release date 13 April 1998
12" In Stock £1.25 buy || 12" Limited Stock £5.00 buy

The first of Leaf's continuing series of soundclashes: four exclusive spankers from the heppest cats in town. Squaring up for a soundclash mightier than Godzilla vs The Welsh Miners: in the Turquoise corner it's those masters of the machine and the haircut, The Sons Of Silence. And in the Round ... [more]

‘Macroscopic’ by Ronnie & Clyde

Release date 10 September 1997
12" In Stock £1.00 buy

SINGLE OF THE MONTH
"...ABSOLUTELY TOP TRACK!... a highly original sound, which sets a new agenda and proves that this duo are DOING IT!". Recommended Magic Feet 10/10

"Four deadly cuts ranging from tearing drum and bass to dubbed out brain drain fodder... A remarkably original set of compositions that deserves ... [more]

‘In Glorious Black and Blue’ by Ronnie & Clyde

Release date 10 September 1997
CD In Stock £7.00 buy || 2LP In Stock £5.00 buy || MP3 £6.00 buy
( play all tracks )

Hard on the heel's of the awesomely well received 12?s (Last Hand VWM15 & Macroscopic VWM17) West London's hippest young gunslingers Rob Fitzpatriick & Ron Ross make their long play debut with their immaculately conceived and executed In Glorious Black & Blue album.

PRESS QUOTES

That they treat the dancefloor as a ... [more]

‘Water Communication’ by various artists [swim~ ]

Release date 10 March 1997
2CD In Stock £7.50 buy || MP3 £6.00 buy

Water Communication combines both a summing up of "the Swim story" in the 3 years up to to 1997 and some glimpses of what this label run by Colin Newman & Malka Spigel had in store for it's next set of releases. It iwas perhaps Swim's first release to show ... [more]

‘Last Hand’ by Ronnie & Clyde

Release date 10 October 1996
12" In Stock £5.00 buy

Ronnie & Clyde had one of Swim's~ unexpected UK underground sucesses of '96 with this debut 12". Rob Fitzpatrick & Ron Ross have been working together under various names since '95 combining their flair for beats & tunes with a wicked & rather sharp sense of humour which informs and ... [more]

‘Prepare for the Others to Follow’ by Pablo's Eye

Release date 15 July 1996
CDs In Stock £7.00 buy || 12" In Stock £1.00 buy

Following the huge critical success (especially in USA/Japan) of their previous two outings on Extreme (You like Chinese Food & You have a Yearning for Perfection) Pablo's Eye were approached by Japanese Mega corporation Pioneer to initially soundtrack (but later direct) their Europe wide campaign for the CD Mega ... [more]

‘Invisible Soundtracks Volume II’ by various artists [The Leaf Label]

Release date 8 July 1996
12" Limited Stock £8.00 buy

This is the second volume of 'Invisible Soundtracks', The Leaf Label's intermittent project that gathers strands of vistic sounds from eclectic, contemporary artists. Our aim is to harvest image-provoking tone-tales instead of simple abstract ambience. All tracks are recorded exclusively for this project. The first instalment brought together Disjecta, ... [more]