Fonda 500: skint bears who work magic from Hull.

Welcome to the 8th dimension, the natural habitat of the collective known as Fonda 500 who consist of a charismatic leader wearing fluffy bear ears who answers to the name of Simon and his four 80s computer game characters – Nick, Bod, Ian and Paul – brought to life and taught to play a combination of guitar, drums and cute beats.

 

You are all expected to embrace this world on the condition that you prove your worth as an aficionado of the band’s musical leanings. I am an extra bit special as I have obtained a secret pass to their consciousness in order to interview them before an all too brief 30-minute performance to launch Yo-Yo’s very own Live Lab at The Welly and how long I choose to be a part of this is up to me. But is there actually a choice?

 

The reverberation of the bands new album ‘The Spectrumatronicalogical Sounds‘, their first for Gentle Electric records is enough to send the most cold hearted and hard faced citizen into uncontrollable childish giggles and at the complete mercy of lead singer and champion keyboardist Simon who dominates the interview and subsequent gig in equal fascinating measure. The man has a multitude of ideas both musically and verbally at his helm and it is a constant struggle to keep up with the pace as he explains the origins of the band members’ musical beginnings only to quickly change tact and confide in how he longs to live the life of a bear.

“I would prefer to be an animal than a man. It would be great to be a bear, to spend all your time trying to live to an age until a man shoots you. I’d love to be stuffed and put in a museum so you could still see the 3 bullet holes in my back-ass!”

It would be a tragic and surreal end for the member of a band who seem to be experiencing a renaissance akin to a new band starting out afresh despite being on their fourth album. A recent record label move appears to have added a renewed vigour to the band and illustrates how a little loving and tenderness can actually accomplish wonders as Simon carefully explains.

“The past label (Truck Records) were like invisible men. They were good people but they left us alone too much. They thought that we liked it, but it’s nice now with Gentle Electric, they are in touch and actually talk to every member.”

This simple but effective label hands-on approach which surely would be considered as being a major pre-requisite to accommodating a band does seem to have paid dividends not only in a new album exuding a sunny confidence but in a complete turnaround in the experience of the touring life.

“It’s only with this tour that we find that you do get treated well. We never had an agent booking us gigs before ”

Simon hints at dark moments in the past where they were chewed up and spat out onto the dirt floor of some of the most dangerous establishments known to gig-goers. But you don’t half get the impression that this happened not before the kind of glucose fragrance you expect to find in your local sweet shop was left floating around the venues.

Besides, Fonda are their own biggest fans, as Simon admits, and any negative treatment you would imagine would get blown by the wayside. “I send texts to Nick (guitarist) after gigs saying how good that was and how we are my favourite band“ and it’s this self belief which has spawned a new album of extreme diversity.

 

The opening track is called “Like a Welcome from a Friendly Cassette” and appears to consist of an infant robot playing the Xylophone whilst surrounded by lots of remote control cars going haywire. This only hints at what is to come as the listener is transported into a world of electronic divineness with an undercurrent of childlike discovery. It is as if a spoilt brat’s toy cupboard has been raided and every little play machine has been divided up into obscure groups for the sole purpose of musical influence. A showcase at 79 minutes of every band members input in 29 conceptual performance pieces for the ear is a really charming listen as Simon’s wide-ranging vocals and the Beach Boys style harmonies of the whole band interchange with the range of instruments all being played to many degrees of sound and length. For instance, can the guitar really sound so differently on so many occasions by the same performers?

Presumably so. Even the drummer for God’s sake gets two songs in ode to him; one of them being the excellent rockout of “ I a m a d r u m m e r “ which contains the best use of the numbers 1 to 8 since the heady days of Sesame Street.

 

Its larger than life cousin is “Simons Alphabetical Beard” with its musical display of the finer points of the alphabet and is much better than anything Big Bird could come up with. It is almost a shame when each song ends almost prematurely leaving you wanting much more but before you are left yearning too much along comes another track to work at your imagination and leave you irritatingly happy.

 

It all begs the question: Was this album really conceived in Hull? In parts it sounds like it was written, recorded and performed on a Spanish mountainside with “Cinco Ciento Show Show” being a prime example of Latin brilliance and if I don’t hear the brooding castanet shaking “La Mariposa Del Noche” on some poncy advert for the next top of the range automobile leisurely taking on the streets of some quaint Spanish village in the near future then the world of television advertising is in a mess.

In summary it’s an album containing so many ideas and sounds that it is comprehensible that the Beach Boys and the Beatles all got together in their heyday, took a lot of drugs and fizzy sweets and produced it. Standout tracks like the melodic “Un Elephant” which sounds like a far superior Super Furry Animals track, and the soothing “Avigato” are such pop gems that if given the backing and the airplay would surely make a mark on the public conscience.

However the harsh realities of the music industry can impede on that desire as Simon explains whilst shivering. “Fonda have to get up in the morning and do another job. We have never had the chance to actually get up and say ‘right, we can go to rehearsal today’ or whatever. I think if we had the time and if somebody believed in us and said ‘forget about your jobs, here is so much money now go over there and write and record we could create something big.”

It is obvious from one listen to the album what a talent have and if someone could actually come along and seriously back them then mainstream success or, at least, the chance to actually continue the band would come to pass.

“I think one of the reasons there are a lot of tracks on here is that it could be our last album. People need to buy it in order for us to make another.”

It deserves acclaim from the music press in order for people to purchase it.

The actual performance gave them a chance to showcase songs from the new album and was highly accomplished and characterised by the extremely tight sound of an experienced band, with an air of irrelevance towards the crowd actually being there as they played to their hearts content knowingly satisfied that their brand of shimmering scuzz sounds was pushing all the right organs in their bodies so sod the rest of them.

In fact, despite downright falsely predictive resignation that nobody would turn up, the gig was packed and they were also feeling it too. There was a noticeable outbreak of what will now be defined as ‘bodyshock’ moves where random members of the crowd would start contorting their bodies in short spasms as if some deranged doctor had come up behind them to administer a quick succession of resuscitation boosters. Alternatively though was this just the first sign of the local gig-goers of Hull experiencing a re-awakening in the music sense as if you have not already realised by now, Fonda 500 are not your typical Hull band.

“We don’t see ourselves as a Hull band. We just happen to be a local band struggling against the tedium of local rock. In Hull people don’t want to seem to bother with Fonda, I don’t think they like us. I think the people of Hull like to back the winners and don’t really like to take a chance on the losers. We are the losers,” proclaims Nick. The joyful crowd do not seem to agree as there are chants for an encore.

It is hard to take in that after 6 years together and the artistry shown tonight that the latest album, like the previous three, was recorded entirely at home. The band have no choice in the matter due to finance but feel nobody really fully understands this.

”I reckon they believe we go into a really expensive studio and put the album through some kind of shit filter,” says Nick. It just goes to show that, despite featuring on Channel 4’s ‘Teachers’ soundtrack and supporting Goldrush and Athlete, Fonda 500 do not have a chest of thousands of pounds hidden away.

The future for the band is looking good, mostly touring until April and then, maybe, a summer festival visit to a country that really does give them the recognition they deserve, Belgium.

”They respect us and give us Euros and food, they seem to think we are bigger in England than what we actually are” explains Simon.

Intriguing utterances of pipelines and irons in the fire gives rise to speculation that things could really happen for them this year and that they are not ready to depart to an alternative world of calculators and robots just yet. For instance, this is their self described most professional tour yet and when asked to define ‘professional’ Simon comes straight back with “We have our own backdrop now.”

You know that this is a band heading in the right direction.

https://fonda500.bandcamp.com/