Introduction
This is the story of the wonderful, 5-piece British band called Cousteau who emerged on the London music scene in 1998 and captivated audiences with their uniquely elegant and soulful music. Although "utterly out of pop fashion" their first self-titled album was critically-acclaimed and sold 150,000 copies worldwide, going 'gold' in Italy where the emotion and dark romance of the music struck a special resonance with the public. Backed by some intrepid touring, the band soon built up a strong following of fans around the world from Europe to Japan and from the USA to Australia.
Sadly the band's success was short-lived. Following the release of their second album (Sirena) in 2002, the band's principal founder Davey Ray Moor decided to quit, leaving the remaining members to pick up the songwriting mantle. This they ably did, but as luck would have it, the new record company to whom they had signed was wound up not long after the third album (Nova Scotia) was released. Although the band was renowned for its determination and fortitude in the face of adversity (plenty of which they had endured), this was a bitter blow and the original Cousteau adventure effectively came to an end. Fortunately, the spirit of Cousteau was kept alive while both Liam and Davey pursued their own individual music projects over the next decade or so. Then, in 2015, the pair unexpectedly decided to get back together, relaunching themselves as CousteauX. The collaboration would proceed somewhat fitfully, but fans were not disappointed with the release of two quality albums (latest being Stray Gods in 2021). Where Liam and Davey go next remains to be seen, but this is the story so far...
Preparing to Dive
As good a place as any to begin the story of Cousteau is obviously the date of their first gig, which took place around May 1998 at the Water Rats, one of the many pub/club/theatre venues in the London indie scene. However, the story really begins several years earlier when, in May 1996, the songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Davey Ray Moor crossed paths with the baritone voice of Irishman Liam McKahey.
At the time all five members of Cousteau-to-be (Davey, Liam, Joe, Craig and Robin) were doing their own music things whilst holding down their day jobs. Joe was a session musician doing various bits of theatre, occasional jazz gigs, writing some stuff, and doing a bit of teaching; Craig was a session musician for many things including the contemporary dance scene, writing music, and lots and lots of gigs (for example with The Wolfgang Press); Liam was singing in a band (Blackwood?) and dabbling with sculptures when not decorating and building; Davey was mainly doing "jazzy things" to please himself when not composing TV soundtracks; Robin was also composing and had written the music to a dance piece to be performed at the Sadler's Wells, Lillian Bayliss, theatre. (One of the dancers was Nicky Smedley who later became better known as Laa Laa in the Teletubbies.) In fact, Davey and Robin had been composing soundtracks together for many years (along with Alexander Zennor) and had also played together in a band called 'Davey Ray and the Straw Dogs' in 1994. Craig met Davey and Robin around the same time through the theatre and dance connection. Joe knew Craig through being the bass player in Craig's jazz group - The Very Vear Trio. (The third member of the jazz trio was Jonathan Eato.)
In September 1995 Davey got in touch with Craig to do some session drumming for some songs he'd written. After a couple of months of occasional session work Craig asked Davey if he would like to do something more permanent and, along with Joe, the beginnings of a band, which they called 'Blue Planet', emerged. The band played a number of gigs around London, particularly at Smithy's Wine Bar. At one such gig, around May 1996, Liam was in the audience (with his wife Harriet) and was sufficiently impressed to contemplate joining the band. Fortunately for the rest of us, Liam got the opportunity when Davey invited him to sing harmony on some demo songs he was to record at Magneto Studios. The man "who could wear the songs", as somebody later wrote, had arrived. After a few rehearsals the new band played their first 'official' gig in September 1996. To mark the event, the name of the band was changed to Pusha (a name suggested by Davey). At the end of 1996 the band recorded Heavy Listening Vol. 1, which was a small selection of the 30 songs Davey had by then written, but it was never released.
Throughout 1997 Pusha played around London, in particular at the 12 Bar Club where they played some 8 gigs. In the summer they decided that they needed a single and Talking to myself was released on the Pet Sounds label. The single included Wish You Were Her and of course Talking to Myself, which was re-released as a single by Cousteau in 2002. A second single called 'Seven Stupid Regrets', which included the famous You My Lunar Queen was released in October. The single was intended to be more of an attention-getter than the first, but the band (at least Davey) later regretted ever releasing it. On the two Pusha singles, Craig appears as "Craigy Watts" - a nickname given to him by the Wolfgang Press' producer and Cholmondeley composer Drostan Madden. Then, at a gig on 22 November 1997, Pusha was joined by Robin and the band that was soon to become Cousteau, was complete. The gig is remembered not only for Robin's appearance, but also for Liam grabbing the mike in true crooner-like fashion. (As an aside, the Pusha version of Talking to Myself reached about 140,000 in the Amazon sales ranks; 5 years later the same single released by Cousteau ranked about 70,000.)
Pusha (aka Cousteau-to-be) had not been together long when in March 1998 they suffered a setback (the first of many) by Craig's decision to leave. Craig felt he wasn't able to commit the necessary time to the band and anyway he was busy with lots of other work as a player and composer. The band suddenly needed another drummer. Fortunately, the band knew a drummer called Dan Church and after an audition in April, he joined the band. As the story unfolded (see below) Craig was to rejoin the band two years later. At around the same time as Dan joining it was decided to change the name of the band to something more distinctive and classy. They'd also noticed that there appeared to be several other bands called Pusha on the circuit, which was another reason for changing. Davey suggested the name Cousteau and the rest of the band agreed.
So, in April 1998 Cousteau had finally arrived. The five members of the band (from left to right in the photo) were:
Joe Peet (bass)
Dan Church (drums)
Davey Ray Moor (piano, flugelhorn)
Robin Brown (guitar)
Liam McKahey (leads vocals)
A web site, the first of several over the ensuing years, was duly created featuring the famous winged apple icon and 'Neptune's piano'.
As Davey and Liam were to repeat in countless interviews subsequently, the name Cousteau was an allusion to the French underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau and intended to be a metaphor for the songs, which were full of watery imagery, deep longing and angst, with perhaps a hint of mystery. Liam and Davey would later say that the name was also a tribute to le commandant who they had watched and admired on television when they were kids and whose diving crew they'd dreamed of joining. Was it really true? Who knows, but it made a good story... Interestingly, the choice of name did not go unnoticed by the official Jacques Cousteau Society, in France, who later demanded that the band stop calling themselves 'Cousteau' and threatened legal action. Trademark lawyers became involved before the matter was finally resolved peacefully in 2002 with no further action being taken. However, another dispute about the use of the name was to surface in 2004 (see below) with much more serious consequences for the band.
Cousteau played their first gig at The Water Rats theatre/pub in London in May 1998. They played there again several times. In July the band put together yet another demo and tried to get a recording deal with Mercury Records, but to no avail. Towards the end of 1998 it was clear that Cousteau was still not getting anywhere. It was a rather depressing time. As Davey remarked later about that time, the band initially created quite a buzz around the London scene, but the breakthrough failed to materialise and "there's nothing worse than an ex-buzz". Then, in October or November, Davey and Liam came up with the idea to switch the focus fully to Liam's voice instead of the existing dual vocals arrangement in which Liam sang (Art Garfunkel style) harmonies. Ironically, they had thought of the idea before, but their manager Nick Stockman (aka "stock cube" or "the Pope") hadn't liked it! Nick had recently taken over management of the band, which up until then had been managed part-time by Harriet (who was also the manager at The Water Rats). Then, in November You My Lunar Queen was released on a Beatwax compilation. Were the band's fortunes about to change?
1999: Sink or Swim
The year began on a promising note when in early 1999 Bob Geldof played the You My Lunar Queen song on his XFM radio show. Geldof had joined the "cutting edge" radio show in 1998 in a deal to help revive its flagging fortunes. (He agreed to do the show for a limited period and in fact left six months later.) Geldof is credited in some circles with 'discovering' Cousteau and perhaps there's an element of truth about that. However, what happened next was that Paula Greenwood, who worked at Palm, heard the song on the radio. She decided to track down the band and a demo with Palm was subsequently set up. Unfortunately, Palm declined to sign the band (!) and it looked as though 1999 was going the same way as the previous year. It seemed that there just wasn't (and perhaps still isn't) a big market for majestic, moody ballads in a pop world of "boy hoofers and Ibiza pizza". So, whilst continuing to polish their act at sporadic gigs around London and the south-east, the band decided that if they were to go any further they would have to do something themselves. It was sink or swim.
During the summer of 1999 the band set about recording their own debut album, which was to be entirely self-produced in Davey and Robin's home studios otherwise known as the "dodgy bedrooms and bedsits too sordid to detail". It was also largely self-financed, but the band received a fortuitous helping hand from Trevor Holden who had recently started the Global Warming record label. Trevor had heard the band before when they were Pusha and really liked them. He had received a 'Band Register Unsigned' CD with a track from Cousteau on it, but didn't immediately connect the two. However, a fellow A&R chap persuaded him to see Cousteau performing (at the Monarch?) whereupon he realised who they were and agreed to help when asked by Nick Stockman, Cousteau's manager at the time. Interestingly, Trevor recalls that he only stayed for half a song and Nick rang him up the next day because he thought he'd left because he hadn't liked the band!
The self-titled debut album was duly released on the Global Warming label with that classic tagline - "Send lawyers, guns and money - this thing might fly ..." To help promote the new album, the Last Good day of the Year track was also released as a single. It immediately became a favourite of Radcliffe and Lard and was playlisted at MTV, GLR, XFM and Radio 2. The album also sold quite well and by the end of the year all 3000 copies had been sold. As Liam recalled in an interview with Dotmusic, "I think everyone in the record industry was waiting to see if the thing had legs because if it didn't have legs it wouldn't make them any money. But it did have legs ..."
The band continued doing gigs around London and the south-east, including the 12-Bar Club. Then, on 16th November they appeared on the BBC Jools Holland programme at which they played Last Good Day of the Year and She Don't Hear Your Prayer. It was the band's big moment and the potential climax to years of hard work. Unfortunately the performance didn't go very well. The band played too fast and pleaded to redo Last Good Day of the Year. It was a lost opportunity. Davey recalled the show as "horrible".
2000: Palm Balm
Despite the disappointment of the Jools Holland show the band's momentum was at last gathering pace. They embarked on a steady schedule of gigs up and down the country to consolidate their budding fame (or perhaps notoriety). Over the course of the year they would end up playing some 60 gigs, including shows at the Glastonbury festival (the newcomers tent), the Reading/Leeds festival, a tour with Elevator Suite (which is how Dan Moore entered the Cousteau story - see below) and finally, in December 2000, the first of many visits to the continent with a gig at the Transmusical de Rennes in France.
Whilst paying their dues performing at pubs and clubs with all manner of bands and solo artists, Cousteau was continually on the lookout for the big-time record deal (Global had shared some of the costs of the debut album, but it wasn't a long term arrangement). A recording deal finally materialised from Chris Blackwell's new label Palm Pictures, which had rejected the band a year earlier. Palm had noticed the excitement that the album (on Global) had generated and decided to sign up the band in February 2000. At first Palm planned to re-release the first (Global) album on the Palm label, but the band decided that they wanted to re-record it. The main reason was that they didn't think the original recording was good enough, but also because Davey had decided to sack Dan Church before the deal with Palm was signed. It was tough on Dan, but with Liam's help Dan received some money for the time he had spent with Cousteau. That left Cousteau without a drummer, but after much pleading from Davey, Craig rejoined the band around March of that year. To fund the re-recording, Nick Stockman managed to get £10k from Alistair Norbury. The record deal was to record two albums with an option on a third one. As part of the deal Davey handed over his beautiful songs (some 30 in total) to the music publishers Blue Mountain Music, an arrangement that he would later regard as an albatross around his neck. The songwriting royalties, a substantial sum of £250k, Davey generously divided with the band, retaining a 1/6th for himself and the remainder (84%) put into the Cousteau pot.
The 'debut' album, which included an extra song Wish You Were Her, was recorded and mixed at various studios (eg Magneto Sound, Mayfair Studios) and released in October 2000 to critical acclaim. A few reviewers didn't get it, Terry Wogan famously said that he'd never play Last Good Day of the Year again (i.e. the single that had also been re-released by Palm), but those with more discerning taste were enthralled. To help promote the band and the new album, the Last Good day of the Year single was accompanied by the band's first video. It was recorded on location at the unlikely venue of Dungeness beach in Kent and, so the story goes, the filming was a fantastic day, the sun was shining and everybody had a great laugh. The single was greeted with enthusiastic reviews and, of course, went on to become something of a classic of the genre. It was later to be used in several TV commercials (e.g. Nissan Altima car, Borsci liqueur). Later still, it was even included in the music for the New York City Ballet Workout.
The album sold well achieving 150,000 copies by the end of the following year. Sales in Italy were particularly good due to the efforts of the Italian record company NuN Entertainment, managed by Stefano Senardi. Other main licensing agreements by Palm were with Naive (France) and Zomba (Germany). In contrast to Italy, record sales in the UK were modest, which was a problem that would continue to trouble the band in the following years. However, at the end of 2000 the band appeared to have firmly established themselves on the music scene and plans were made to tour Europe and the USA the next year.
During 2000 the management side of running the band began to grow significantly. The band, up until now, had been managed by Nick Stockman, but as he was finding it a little difficult to cope, they asked their tour manager Nigel Ford, aka "Fordy", to take over the job, which he'd partly been doing anyway. Fordy worked closely with Elizabeth Dameron at Palm as she had a lot of experience in the music industry and good contacts in the US, which the band intended to tour the following year. She recommended someone in the US she had worked with called Charlie Hewitt and in due course a three-way management team was formed with Charlie covering the States. Unfortunately, within six months or so the band became unhappy about the way matters were being managed and eventually decided to end their relationship with Elizabeth and Charlie. (The management agreement was contractually ended in December 2001.) Fordy was on his own ...
2001: Into the Blue
If 2000 was a year partly spent treading water, 2001 was when things finally got moving. The year kicked off with a well received gig at Dingwalls in London (see Guardian review), which was the first of nearly 100 performances that would follow in 2001. The band's first European tour was supporting a rather quirky band called Dandy Warhols, which took them through Norway, Germany and Italy, with brief stops in France, Belgium and The Netherlands. The Italy tour was especially successful so much so that the band returned to Milan to perform a showcase at La Casa 139.
After the Dandy Warhols tour the band toured the UK, with brief visits to Glasgow and Dublin (their first gig in Ireland). A third single from the debut album, Wish You Were Her was released on 26th March 2001. Following the UK tour in April the band crossed the Atlantic to play their first gig in the US, which was at the Village Underground in New York (performing two shows, back to back in the same evening.) The NY debut was preceded by the release of both a 3-song enhanced CD featuring the video for Last Good Day of the Year and then, on 24th April, the first album. The 3-song EP, called Into The Blue, was used as set for the full-length album at retail and lifestyle marketing. This was to be the first of many visits to the US, particularly to New York. The debut gig led to an invitation to play in August at the Gavin 'Triple A' convention in Boulder, Colorado. Beginning in June, following early college radio play, an intensive campaign at Triple A and public radio began, which heated up after the Gavin convention.
Over the year the band won fans and support from lots of the radio stations such as KCRW (Los Angeles), KMTT (Seattle), KINK (Portland), KXST (San Diego), WXPN (Philadelphia), WXRV (Boston), WXRT (Chicago), WRLT (Nashville), WYEP (New York) and KEXP to name a few. They also performed on some of them, for example on the KCRW 'Morning Becomes Eclectic' programme (see photo), WYEP and KEXP. Interestingly, the Last Good Day of the Year single wasn't originally expected to do well on the rock-oriented, commercial AAA radio, but by the end of the year 90% of the format were playing it. On the retail front, initial support came from the Simms accounts, HMV, Tower and Virgin later spreading to Borders and Barnes & Noble. Other highlights included some MTV2 airplay with the added feature in the MTV2's "bands to watch in 2002" and in-flight entertainment on United Airlines and Delta.
When not touring in the US, the band was busy hopping back and forth to the continent. They toured in Spain, Portugal and Germany (the latter in support to David Gray), played at the Fleadh in London, made a brief excursion to Italy in the Summer before returning yet again to both Italy and the US for more extensive tours in the Autumn and Winter. It was a busy year indeed. It was undoubtedly the band's most successful year yet and it finished strongly with a live TV appearance on The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn and a feature on NPR's Morning Edition. The band looked forward to 2002 to build on their hard-earned success. In particular, they had great plans for the new album, which they had begun recording in August of that year.
Finally, it's interesting to note that the band were in the States shortly after the infamous terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre. Not surprisingly, the tour schedule was disrupted. In particular, one of the two gigs at the Village Underground in New York was cancelled and the other performance became part of a Red Cross benefit show for the firemen.
2002: Mermaids and Sirens
The year began with yet another tour of Italy, the first of five visits which were boosted by the news that the debut album (on Palm) had sold 50,000 copies and earned a gold disc. The Italians certainly loved the band and some of the most devoted fans (Arabella, Claudia, Nenna and Stefy) even constructed an Italian Cousteau web site to prove it. However, 2002 turned out to be the most tumultuous year in the band's history, with triumph and elation in the first half of the year turning to frustration and despair in the second.
On return from Italy the band completed the recording of the new album, which had new songs like Nothing So Bad and Have You Seen Her and some old ones from Pusha days such as Talking to Myself and Peculiarly You. The album was called 'Sirena' (a name suggested by Liam), which means mermaid in Italian and Spanish. It was a clever choice of name in keeping with the Cousteau theme, but also a small token of thanks to the Italian fans who had helped to make the band a success. 
The beautiful cover was designed by Liam who had also had a mermaid tattoo-ed on his arm to mark the occasion! After the recording was completed and to celebrate the imminent launch of the new album, the band gave a showcase performance at the famous Cobden Club in London on 13th March. At the end of the show the band were presented with the Italian gold disc by Stephani Serdani of Nun Entertainment. A great night was had by all, but especially by the 100 or so invited guests including some of the fans from the internet forum.
Bizarrely, Sirena was released in the UK with a different cover. Suzette Newman of Palm rejected Liam's artistic design and insisted that the album in the UK must be released with a cover showing a photograph of the band. With little consultation a photo-shoot was duly arranged, which took place on a cold miserable day at Hastings on the south coast. The photographer was Stephen Pyke. The band was not happy about the way the matter was managed and the relationship with Palm, which had not been good at the best of times, further deteriorated. Ironically, the cover that was eventually chosen was so dark and black that it was impossible to recognise the band, which made a nonsense of having a photograph in the first place. The arguments about the cover also delayed the promotion and release of the album. (In fact, Sirena wasn't released in the US until 9th July.) The Talking to Myself video was nearly a disaster too, the band being given just one week to film it. Fortunately, they found a small company called Twobigeyes (the working name of directors Scott Weintrob, Luke Taylor and Gavin Rowe) to film the video and Fordy was on hand to help with the script.
While the publicity geared up for the album launch, the band set off on a 15-gig tour of the UK supporting the Scottish rock veterans Del Amitri. In some people's opinion it was a strange choice of band to support (as they had little in common with Cousteau), but the tour seemed to go well enough. Indeed, the band were full of praise for Del Amitri for all the support they'd given them (for example, allowing them sufficient time for sound checks) and considered the tour one of the best support performances they'd ever done.
After the Del Amitri tour it was back and forth again to the continent including yet more trips to Milan for television promos on Gay TV, Volo TV, Rete A TV and an appearance at the Iceburg Fashion Show, then a dash to Bologna to appear on Yesterday TV before finally commencing a tour proper of Italy at the end of June. One of the many highlights at the time was an appearance on the popular Festivalbar show before a crowd of some 30,000 in the Cagliari amphitheatre - Cousteau's biggest live audience ever. Another was a video of (Damn These) Hungry Times made by a group of students from the Italian Universita Cattolica di Brescia. The delightful video, filmed in black and white, was a montage of clips of the band recorded whilst they were on tour in Italy. The students were directed by their tutor Domenico Liggeri and the video was released by Nun Entertainment.
At the end of a very successful tour of Italy the band switched their focus back to the US with a big tour planned for the month of July, which was also to include two gigs at Montreal and Toronto in Canada. Palm Pictures had finally got their act together and primed the tour with some good publicity material about Sirena, which was due to be released on 9th July. Their (internal) marketing notes spoke enthusiastically about making Sirena "THE lifestyle record of the summer" and "the album's combination of sexiness, rawness, and beauty is sure to make it a favourite in hotels, restaurants, and boutique shops". The band was to be advertised in lots of alternative and music magazines, plus a front-page Billboard ad booked for the week before street date. There was a merchandising plan to produce branded plastic bags for retailers like Virgin, Tower, CIMS and LINCS plus full-colour posters. Palm had even created an E-card to go with the Talking to Myself single. Then, unbelievably, just a couple of weeks before flying out, there was a potentially show-stopping snag - Davey's visa had not been issued and he was therefore unable to go! Palm Pictures had overlooked the US government's new work policies concerning people born in 'hotspots' and because Davey was born in one (Beirut) his visa application was held up.
The US tour was for a while seriously in doubt. Fortunately the band knew a musician called Dan Moore who was able to step in and take over playing the keyboards. Dan was a member of the band called Elevator Suite, which had supported Cousteau on tour two years earlier. Fordy had to make a lot of phone calls to track him down, but eventually Dan was located and flew out to Italy to join the band and, more especially, be coached by Davey. So, after the initial scare, the US tour went ahead as planned. Phew! It included visits to some old haunts (Troubador, Joe's Pub, KCRW radio) and a few new venues. Dan fitted well into the band and in his own words it was, "one heck of a trip ... a marvellous experience"! For the promo radio performances Dan used his melodica, a rather curious reed keyboard instrument made famous by the Jamaican dub guru Augustus Pablo. Overall, the tour went well, but probably not as well as previous US tours. The gig in Somerville, Boston had to be cancelled at short notice because the '608 Club' venue had closed down and by the end of the tour, in Washington, the band were looking tired and weary. To make matters worse, the tour ended $7,600 in debt, which has still not been repaid by Palm Pictures (US). Also, many fans were left puzzled and disappointed by Davey's absence.
On their return to the UK the pace quietened down while the band took a well-earned break, only appearing at one festival in Portugal in the middle of August. Then, just as the band was gearing up for its next tour, they were suddenly and unexpectedly faced with their biggest crisis yet - Davey had decided to leave Cousteau! There were a number of reasons behind his decision. First and foremost was his feeling that his presence in the band was no longer really essential. The US tour, with Dan Moore ably filling in on keyboards, had illustrated to him the ironic fact that Cousteau could exist without him actually being present. With his first child about to be born in a few weeks time, the pressure and hardship of an absent father away on such "non-essential duty" seemed harder to justify. Second, for some time he had been feeling that his songwriting was stagnating and that he needed a change of direction to revive it. Third, and coincidentally, Cousteau had recently come to a break in its recording and publishing contracts with Palm (following the release of Sirena the record company had taken up their option for a third album and invited ideas from the band) and Davey felt that it was an ideal opportunity, certainly for himself and maybe for the others too, to do something different. He wrote to the band announcing his decision, but at the same time offering to remain involved and help out as necessary. Perhaps not surprisingly the other members of the band greeted Davey's announcement with a mixture of alarm and anger. They thought that his decision to leave, in the middle of touring and whilst still promoting Sirena, was potentially disastrous. However, far from asking him to re-consider, they decided that a clean break would probably be best for both parties and even declined his offer to collaborate in the future. Davey hoped that relations would remain amicable, but instead a stony silence descended and communication thereafter was minimal. Ironically, Davey hadn't wanted to leave the band entirely (and there are plenty of examples in the music business of songwriters who do not tour), but sadly things didn't work out.
At the time the outside world was unaware about what was going on, believing that Davey's non-appearance at several gigs (Naples, Paris) was solely down to his partner having just given birth to their first child (in early September). The fans were naturally disappointed not to see him, but remained largely sympathetic and loyal. Palm Pictures were similarly in the dark and the promotional information at the time gave no hint of the ruction. For example, the email newsletter of 9th September announced the forthcoming tours, the creation of a flashy internet 'sitelet' all about the band, and even mentioned Davey's collaboration with Cristina Donà. Obviously Palm had to be told and a meeting with Alistair Norbury was duly held in September. At the meeting it was decided to release Davey from his contract with Palm.
At the end of September the band, including Dan Moore, set off on the tour of Europe visiting Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and The Netherlands, returning to London for a gig at Dingwalls on 16th October. (The two gigs in southern France in Marseilles and Toulouse were unfortunately cancelled because the promoter felt Naive had not done enough to advertise the shows.) The headline tour of the UK, which had been promised earlier in the year, was obviously out of the question. During this period rumours were rife that Davey had left, but there was no formal announcement from Palm Pictures, or even the band themselves. It was left to Davey to reveal what was going on, which he did by posting a leaving message in the chatroom that he had indeed split from the band.
The year ended with one more tour of Italy, but still without any formal announcement about the band's predicament or its future plans. The idea of releasing a 4 or 5-track E.P. was briefly floated, but otherwise there seemed to be an air of gloom if not disarray about the band. Perhaps reflecting the mood even the internet forum descended into acrimonious squabbling. A year which had started with so much promise and excitement, ended on a truly flat note. Maybe Sirena wasn't such a good choice of name after all. It was supposed to evoke the image of a beautiful mermaid, but instead maybe it was the sinister siren, who lured sailors to their death, that had really been awakened ...
2003: Heavy Weather
The departure of Davey in 2002 could easily have brought the Cousteau adventure to an end, but fortunately neither Cousteau nor Davey were sunk or shipwrecked by the stormy events. However, 2003 was definitely another year of heavy weather in the band's eventful and somewhat troubled history. It was dominated by two important events - making a third album and signing a new recording contract, though in the case of the latter event it might be more accurate to say extricating themselves from the existing contract with Palm Pictures. These events took up so much time and effort during the year that the band was unable to tour as much as usual. Indeed, the band performed only 7 full concerts in 2003 compared to over 100 in each of the previous two years. Not surprisingly, when the band weren't recording or performing they were doing what they could to earn some extra money and "keep the wolves from the door". Happily, by the end of the year things had sorted themselves out and the band's prospects were looking much better. As Liam said, "you can't keep a good band down"!
The band's first priority was to record the third album. This was vital to keep them afloat financially, particularly as sales of Sirena had been very disappointing, but also to re-assure their fans that Cousteau was still alive and kicking. In order to make a new album the band had first to compose some new songs! Since the beginning of Cousteau, the principal songwriter had been Davey who was of course no longer with the band. (Also, the band had turned down Davey's offer of collaborating with him and using his material in the future.) The band set about the task with their usual determination and energy and the end of February they had composed some 4 or 5 songs. At about the same time they began recording in the famous Wessex Studios in London, ably organised and led by Craig who proved he was more than just a drummer. The original plan was to finish recording in April, but this was put back to May until after the band returned from a brief tour of the US. However, as events unfolded the final recording sessions had to wait until later in the year and took place not at the Wessex Studios but at Roundhouse and Soho Recording Studios. In August and September the remaining new songs were recorded bringing the total to 12, an achievement of which the band felt justifably very proud. It wasn't possible to complete the mixing of all of the songs at that time, but a promo CD with seven finished songs was produced and distributed in September. The remaining songs were mixed in October and November by Ger McDonnell and the long awaited third album was finished.
The completion of the third album begs an interesting question as to why Liam, Robin, Craig and Joe had not previously composed any of the band's songs. Clearly there was a wealth of untapped talent lying dormant. Had it been neglected or ignored? Or had the guys been too complacent and content to let Davey shoulder the songwriting burden? Possibly it was a bit of both, but the truth of the matter lies in the very inception of the band. Cousteau was always a vehicle for a group of songs that Davey had written in his own individual style and particular direction. As he was clearly good at the job, there was very little motivation for the other members of the band to write. With hindsight, maybe the band could and should have tried harder at composing and working together more closely. However, it must also be said that there was a lot of weight behind the record company's expectation and view of the band. They saw Cousteau as having a good singer (Liam) and a good writer (Davey) and any variations would have been 'politically' troublesome.
While the band was composing songs and recording the album Fordy set about sorting out a new record deal. At the start of the year the band was still contractually tied to Palm Pictures, the company having taken up their option in 2002 to fund a third album from the band. However, the band had long before decided that they needed to find another record company as soon as possible. In addition to failing to provide adequate support to the band over the previous year, rumours were rife that Palm UK was on the verge of bankruptcy. Ironically, if the company were to go bankrupt it would actually work in the band's favour since they could take ownership of the first two albums. However, events took a turn when Palm indicated that they would not be complying with their side of the contract. The band then had a number of options, including sueing Palm for the balance of the advance. They chose instead to allow Palm to breach the agreement and drop the band on the basis that the third album recordings were assigned to them free of charge, the re-recording restrictions were waived and Palm paid a proportion of the £60k still due. Eventually, at the end of June, the deal was done and Cousteau was free. Unfortunately the band was still owed £30k, but after further negotiations Fordy managed to recoup £10k from Blue Mountain Music...
Throughout the year Fordy held discussions with various record companies such as Warner Bros, Motown, Universal (Andrew Kronfeld) and BMG. Although they expressed a lot of interest in the band, a financially-rewarding deal was not forthcoming. The band was to some extent caught in a Catch-22 situation - without Davey they needed to produce an album to prove that they were worth backing again, but they needed support and funding to make the album in the first place. Fordy also discussed licencing the third album with the NuN Entertainment in Italy, but the deal offered by NuN was disappointingly low (an advance of only 8,000 euros). Eventually, the band was offered a record deal by the UK music veteran Nick Stewart (aka Virgin Radios's Captain America). Nick was until recently vice-president of A&R and Marketing for Gravity Records, which he had launched in October 2001 under the BMG umbrella. Later, after he parted company from BMG/Gravity, he bought the small independent label, Endeavour Records Ltd., with the aim of "signing and promoting young British acts who write and perform their own material". Cousteau was one of the first acts to be offered a contract, in September 2003, but frustratingly it was to be more than a year before the deal was finally done (see below).
The few concerts that the band performed during 2003 began with an unusual appearance on the Italian Rai 1 TV programme called Amore mio...diciamo così on which they performed two songs (Last Good Day of the Year and (Damn These) Hungry Times). It was good publicity for the band even if the programme wasn't exactly MTV. The performance was also unusual because the band included Sean Hughes, the ex-BBC radio DJ, playing trumpet! This had come about because the band wasn't able to perform live and hence needed somebody to mime Davey's part. (Click on the photograph opposite to watch a video of the show.)
At the end of April and beginning of May, the band undertook a brief 6-concert tour in the US. The concerts in L.A. and New York were used to 'showcase' the band to a number of record companies. Following the US tour there was a long break until a gig at The Borderline in London in September. Unexpectedly, this turned out to be the final gig of the year. A short tour of Italy was planned for October, but unfortunately had to be cancelled at the last moment because of a family bereavement in the band (Liam's father died). The Borderline gig also turned out to be the final appearance of Cousteau in another sense - see below.
The review of 2003 wouldn't be complete without mentioning Craig's adventure in Antarctica! Thanks to a new joint Artists and Writers fellowship scheme from Arts Council England and the British Antarctic Survey, Craig was given an unique opportunity to visit the Antarctic. As explained in Craig's weekly diary in the Guardian, the purpose of his trip was to compose an "electronic symphony" based on a unique library of recordings of Antarctic sounds: mammals, birds, machinery, the environmental and the phenomenological. Craig departed from UK at the end of October, returning after 8 weeks at the beginning of January 2004. He sailed on the royal research ship James Clark Ross, which kept an interesting diary too. Nice one Craig!
2004: Dr. Moreau
The year began dramatically with the announcement that the band was changing its name to Moreau (as in The Island of Dr. Moreau). The immediate cause of this sudden change was the refusal of the band to pay Davey for the continued use of the name Cousteau, which Davey had been demanding. In the band's view, even if they could afford to pay for the name (which they couldn't) they were opposed on principle to making such a payment; it had been Davey who had left Cousteau rather than the other way round. It wasn't an easy decision to take as the band risked losing momentum, not to mention some of its fans. However, in the circumstances a change of name seemed the only practicable solution, particularly as there were other legal wrangles between the two parties that needed to be resolved.
Leaving aside the dispute over the band's name, the year began brightly enough with a plan for the band to sign with Nick Stewart's Endeavour Records label at the end of January. The release date for the album, to be called Nova Scotia, was set for early May with a tour in Italy planned shortly afterwards. Fordy's optimistic timeline for the year even anticipated recording a 4th album towards the end of 2004. The future was finally looking good and the new Moreau website was duly launched with the bold announcement that "Cousteau is dead, long live Moreau!" Unfortunately, as had happened so often in the past, things did not go quite according to plan. Nick Stewart was taking far longer than expected to set up his new company and consequently the January date for signing the contract passed and continued to slip further and further to the right. In addition to the band's disappointment and frustration, this put them in a difficult situation financially. Without the record deal the band had to pay for all their own transport, rehearsals and recording work.
While the band waited patiently for the record deal with Endeavour to be sorted out they undertook a brief tour in Italy. The four concerts were in fact the only performances that they would perform that year. Interestingly, if somewhat confusingly for their fans, the band toured as Cousteau, not Moreau. This was done to fulfil the band's obligation for the previous Italian tour that had been cancelled back in October 2003. The short tour went as well as could be expected and is especially remembered for the birthday tribute to Liam at the Scandiano concert. As noted in Fordy's diary, by the time of the third encore it was past midnight so it was officially Saturday (17th April) and therefore Liam's birthday. This was acknowledged by the band playing "Happy Birthday" to a red-faced Liam. (Also shown in the photograph, playing acoustic guitar, is the band's trusty technician and occasional guest musician Tom Clues. He is now in a band called The Family Curse, formerly Largeman.)
By June, after months of delay, it seemed as if the waiting would soon be over. Nick Stewart had teamed up with veteran UK producer Robin Millar (who had very recently bought the Whitfield Street Studios in London for a cool £3M!) and the date of 21st July was set for Moreau to sign with the new label. The deadline duly arrived, but once again the contract could not be signed. The band was on the verge of giving up completely on Endeavour, but after further reassurances that the deal would indeed happen, they decided to stay with the record company and endure the further waiting. Eventually the deal with Endeavour Records was done and the contract was finally signed at Whitfield Street Studios on 21st December. (The photograph shows Craig, Robin and Liam with Nick Stewart.) However, one of the conditions of the contract was that the band rename themselves Cousteau, as they were called when the first contract was drawn up in September 2003. This the band agreed to, but in the knowledge that certain well-known problems might return in the future.
With the record deal secured at last, the band could refocus their attention on the new album and future ones too. The third album had effectively been completed the previous year, but during 2004 the band decided to record two new tracks (Sadness and There She Goes) and drop two of the previously recorded ones (Into The Night and Nova Scotia). The new tracks were recorded at the Whitfield Street Studios and produced by Ger McDonnell. The title of the album (Nova Scotia) was left unchanged and the release date in Europe was provisionally set for April 2005. In an interesting development to end the year, the Italian Cousteau/Moreau web site that had been devotedly maintained by a group of fans (see 2002 above) was re-designed and re-launched as Cousteau's Official Website. Congratulazioni ragazze!
Finally, as for Davey, he had been busy recording his own solo album and had signed a record deal with NuN Entertainment, the Italian company that had supported Cousteau so well in the past. The album was called Telepathy and was released in Italy in March. The release of Telepathy provided an interesting opportunity to compare and contrast the musical styles of Davey and Cousteau/Moreau and see how much or perhaps how little they had changed. First, considering Telepathy, it's clear that Davey had stuck to what he knew best, which was composing songs, leaving the lead vocals to others as he had with Cousteau, but in this case with four vocalists instead of one (Cristina Dona, Sergio Cocchi, Darion Marshall and Debbie Saunders). Second, compared to the earlier Cousteau material it is clear that both Telepathy and Nova Scotia sounded more contemporary and dynamic and the lyrics less flowery. However, whereas Moreau stuck close to the Cousteau formula with perhaps even more brooding elegance, Davey's sound emphasised a more groovy, sometimes plaintive pop/rock mix. Maybe there were incompatible forces at work after all?
2005: Nova Scotia
Just as had happened at the start of the preceding year, 2005 also started with a dramatic announcement, which was that Craig and Dan were leaving the band! The timing of their departure, so soon after signing the record deal with Endeavour and so close to the release of the new album, seemed at best perverse and at worst potentially disastrous. However, two replacement musicians had been signed up beforehand so that as far as possible the band's momentum, that had taken so long to re-build, would be kept going. Craig would be replaced by Paul Wigens (ex-Grand Drive) and Dan by a relatively unknown keyboard player called Chloe March. The reasons for Craig's and Dan's departure were never made public, but for Craig it was clear that the move was something he'd been thinking about ever since his trip to Antarctica. It wasn't a decision Craig had taken lightly, and it caused him some pain to leave the band, but he felt strongly committed to the music he was making (outside of Cousteau) and wanted to give it a chance. As he said himself, "sometimes one has to follow what is in one's heart". In due course, later in the year, he set up EV2 with his long term musical collaborator Jonathan Eato.
Fans, who understandably might have felt rather bewildered by the latest fracturing of the band, had little time to dwell on the turn of events as attention focussed on the forthcoming album and in particular the customary showcase, which was held on 2nd March at the Whitfield Street Studios in London. There were about 150-160 invited guests at the event, including of course Nick Stewart who enthusiastically introduced the band with high praise and high hopes too. The showcase was a relatively short event, the band performing just six songs — four from Nova Scotia, a new song called Shine, and that classic favourite, The Last Good Day Of The Year. Despite the short time that Chloe and Paul had had to rehearse they delivered highly proficient and professional performances, if understandably a bit low-key, and seemed to fit into the band very well.
Nova Scotia, the long-awaited third album, was finally released on the 18th April. According to the press release from Piranha-PR (with publicity photos by Ian Tilton) the title of the album was "incredibly fitting" because, just like the pioneering British settlers who had founded the 'New Scotland' territory, Cousteau too had shown real grit and determination to start its musical career afresh. The historical references were perhaps a little suspect — the Brits spent 150 years fighting to supplant the French settlers who were already there in Acadia! — but no one could dispute that Cousteau had fought a long battle to produce their first post-Davey album. For an interesting change, perhaps reflecting the new outlook, the imagery on the album cover looked heavenward to the stars instead of downward to the watery depths of the sea (and since the band was back to being called Cousteau, the Moreau album cover was of course redundant). Reviews of the album were generally favourable and there were even a few new names to add to the collection of bizarre and inappropriate comparisons that were always made — this time it was the Scissors Sisters and the Doves! The question was, would the album sell?
After the release of Nova Scotia the band embarked on a 7-gig tour of the UK supported by the talented singer/songwriter Tracy Bonham. The tour went reasonably well although none of the venues were sell-outs. That was perhaps inevitable given the fact that promotion of the band by Endeavour had been fairly minimal. Indeed, at the Glee Club in Birmingham, fans noted that there wasn't even a poster of the band or of the tour anywhere to be seen. As in the past, the band played for about one hour and the songs were a mixture of Nova Scotia, a few oldies like Mesmer and Last Good Day of the Year, but also a few new songs such as Fire, Shine, and Blood Heart and Soul. During the UK tour, Sadness, the first single from the album, was released along with a video that had been made the day after the showcase. Interestingly, the video featured the band's old friend, ex-BBC DJ Sean Hughes, in a cameo role as Liam's alcoholic father.
After the UK tour the band travelled to Italy to play at a number of festivals, just as they had done frequently in the past. This year the Summer tour included a performance at the magnificent Arena Sferisterio in Macerata where Liam sang, in Italian, a famous 60's Italian song (Mi Sono Innamorato Di Te, by Luigi Tenco) much to the delight of the Italian audiences. Nice one Liam! The band returned from Italy feeling happy and well loved (as always in Italy) and full of thanks to their many Italian friends and especially the four "web site girls".
Following the tours in the UK and Italy, fans eagerly awaited further news of the next tour, provisionally planned for November. There was also the prospect of another album as the band had stored up quite a few new songs, including the Italian one (Mi sono ...) that Fordy had said the band intended to record. Instead, at the beginning of August Fordy announced that Cousteau was ending its contract with Endeavour and would not be taking up the option to record another album with the company. The planned second single from Nova Scotia, She's Not Coming Back, was unceremoniously cancelled too. No explanation was given for the sudden break with Endeavour, but it was obvious to all that the record company had no money to support and promote the band. In fact, the truth would later emerge that not only did Endeavour have no money, but it had ceased to exist!! The company was formally dissolved in May 2005 and Cousteau's record deal, less than 6 months old, was thereby terminated as well.
So, what about the band? At the beginning of the year it had never been made clear if Chloe and Paul had joined the band proper or were instead just temporary stand-ins, although observant fans had noticed Chloe's remark on her own web site that she had been asked to "join the tour" rather than join the band. However, following the announcement about Endeavour it became obvious that Cousteau, as a band of five musicians, no longer really existed. In due course Paul returned (did he ever leave?) to his Bristol-based group Limbo and Chloe added Cousteau to her biography.
At the end of 2005, with no record deal, two musicians short, and severely strapped for cash, it looked as if Cousteau would finally have to call it a day. However, Cousteau was never a band for quitting and the year ended with a few glimmers of hope. First, there was news that Nova Scotia would be released in the US on the One Little Indian label, although ironically it would have to be released under the name of Moreau, the yanks preferring not to re-ignite a fight with the Cousteau Society. Second, Robin had been busy re-mixing Sadness and a promo single with two versions, Babyman remix and Handbag remix, was in the offing; one of Cousteau's more dedicated fans (Inma) had also produced the artwork for the cover. Third, there were rumours that the 'band' would be back in the studio in January to try and finish a fourth album, which they would need to sell themselves to prospective record companies. Sales of Nova Scotia had been disappointing, but the album had been an enormously valuable experience from which the band had learnt a lot and could build on — maybe. Onwards and upwards ...
2006: Sadness
The collapse of Endeavour Records was not only bad news for the band, but a personal calamity for Fordy who had financed the recording of Nova Scotia, the rehearsals, the Italian tour and tour management in the belief and understanding that Endeavour would pay for the album recording costs. The money was never paid. That left Fordy in severe financial difficulty and caused him to cease trading his own Rural Management Company. The band (Robin, Joe and Liam) released a statement on 28th February announcing that Fordy would no longer be managing the band.
Myspace page for
Joe Peet set up 6th July.
Myspace page for
Cousteau set up 30th July.
Myspace page for
Liam McKahey set up 5th August.
The other main event of the year was Liam's decision to emigrate to Australia! The Endeavour fiasco had been bruising experience for all concerned and for Liam (and his wife Harriet) it was time to start afresh somewhere else. However, before departing Liam spent four days recording an album with some friends – Robin Brown, Tom Clues (acoustic guitar), Blair Jollands (producer, backing vocals, piano, harmonica, trumpet), Denny Pooley (bass guitar) and Cymon Reid (drums) – and managed to get eleven tracks done. Liam also made contact with Trevor Holden (from Global Warming days) to explore the possibility of releasing the album on Trevor's new independent record label called "
Series 8 Records". Whether or not anything would come of it we would all have to wait and see ...
2007: Going Solo
Liam's solo album given the title
Lonely Road. A few samples are made available on
Myspace.
2008: Lonely Road
Facebook page for
Cousteau (Moreau).
Facebook page for
Liam McKahey.
Liam's solo album
Lonely Road released on the Series 8 label.
2012: Wizard of Oz
Liam and The Bodies performs his first gig in 6 years at the
Holy Grail (Kingston, Canberra)! It was a short and impromptu set, but perhaps the first of many more...
2015: CousteauX
In August 2015 Liam and Davey get back together and CousteauX is born...
06-08-15 Nice tribute to Denise Woodcock...
"As we begin this new adventure we'd like to take pause to thank Denise Woodcock. Denise has worked tirelessly through the Dark Ages to keep the flame alive here on the net. It is due to her unquenchable faith that we are able to do this again. She remains central to the project and we'd like to offer her our deepest gratitude and appreciation. Thanks, Denise. Liam and Davey"
Website....
CousteauX
New CousteauX logo was created by New York-based designer and digital illustrator, Robert Mag, from
Robert Mag Studio.
2019: Last Good Day...
On 18 March 2019 Liam and Davey announced on Facebook that CousteauX had ended. This was the final message to their fans:
" Beautiful fans, here's letting you know that Liam and Davey are no more together as CousteauX. We've gone our separate ways, as two singers and songwriters making our own unique music. There will be plenty more of this good stuff coming your way soon.
Keep in touch with Liam's music at his page:
Liam McKahey and The Bodies
and with Davey's music at this virginal page:
Davey Ray Moor
Thanks to Fordy, Denise, Lorenzo, Max, Marco, Alfie, and everybody who has supported us over the years.
Love, CousteauX. "
2020: CousteauX 2
On 22 October 2020 Liam and Davey announced that they were back with a new album and a new website (www.cousteaux.com). The album
Stray Gods was released in August 2021.
Introduction
