Pim Keats
"Listen To The Voices Of The Void"
Pim Keats (Guitar, Vocals)
Marlborough student, reader of runes, artist, cricketer, philosopher, model, mathematician and poet, Prometheus Hemmingsley Mather Keats-Wondering was the greatest folk guitarist of his generation.
Keats was born in Rangoon. His mother, a delightful actress and painter named Emily, returned to England with the infant Prometheus after his father Lord Poseidon Keats-Wondering died during a particularly strenuous meal.
Keats was placed at Marlborough where his talents brought him to the attention of Headmaster Norris McWhirrter. "Pim was good at everything. He excelled in all disciplines. This lead to him being universally loathed by both his peers and teachers".
The raven-haired Keats went up to Oxford, driving there in a car he built himself. In the back seat, a Martin guitar given to him by his devoted mother. Within weeks Keats had mastered the instrument, writing touching folk ballads in complex tunings and time signatures. "I invented several tunings of my own", Keats revealed at the time. "Including the very complex E, G, E, G, B, K, B, D# tuning".
Despite having only played once for friends in the college refectory, young American producer Palmer Butter immediately signed Keats to his Wicked Wimple label. "I gave Pim complete control of his publishing and a majority share of all profits. He was so gifted it would have been a crime not to".
Keats' first album, 'Tree of Bruised Leaves', featured the cream of the British folk scene - Bryn Featherman, John 'Crumps' Crumplingham, Diddy Stack, Shelley Gosh, Anthony Worrell-Thompson, Speedy Trickleton and Keith Strangle.
But the album was not a success. His songs moved one critic to describe the album as "a collection of dreary folk ballads by a gravelly-voiced public school ponce".
For the first time in his life Keats was faced with failure. "Up to that point he was better at everything than anyone else around him", says Butter. "Despite his amazing playing and singing, the album only sold one hundred and fifty seven copies. Ithink most of them were bought by his mother".
Despite this setback Keats travelled to Dusty Ivy's Trout Tickle studios in Wiltshire to record his second album, 'Death Is On My Footpath'.
"No-one realised Pim was suffering from a very deep depression", says Ivy. "It was only when we recorded 'I Shall Soon Take My Life' that I even had an inkling. He told me he was a bit 'fed up' and 'cheesed off' with it all. He even kicked my dog, which was a bit rum".
Keats attempted suicide in 1974, just four years after the release of the psychedelic-tinged 'Listen To the Voices of The Void'...
However, it turned out that suicide was something else Keats wasn't terribly good at. "I tried throwing myself off Hammersmith Bridge but fell onto a passing longboat carrying mattresses to the Harrod's Depository", says Keats.
"As I lay there, bobbing down the Thames on an extremely well made pocket-sprung mattress, I realised I should give up making records and stick to things I knew I could do extremely well".
Keats became the managing director of a small company involved in high-risk technology. "Basically, I got into computers and became rather successful at it".
Pim Keats received an MBE for services to British Industry in 1987. A major contributor to the Tory Party, he has since gone on to fund several Internet launches, including Google, and his many companies are involved in the production of leisurewear, mobile phones, armaments and computers.
SINGLES
BUTTER DISCS CUP76 ' Listen To the Voices of the Void'
BUTTER DISCS CUP 78 'Shed Of Sorrow'
BUTTER DISCS CUP 714 'Mournful Moonglow'
BUTTERTONE LOFAT CDS 3 'Listen To The Voices of the Void (Arthur Baker remix)'
ALBUMS
BUTTER DISCS SPREAD 5 'Tree Of Bruised Leaves'
BUTTER DISCS SPREAD 14 'Death Is On My Footpath'
BUTTERTONE LOFAT CD6 'Wreck Of the Desperates' (Best Of 3 CD box set)
"Listen To The Voices Of The Void"
Pim Keats (Guitar, Vocals)
Marlborough student, reader of runes, artist, cricketer, philosopher, model, mathematician and poet, Prometheus Hemmingsley Mather Keats-Wondering was the greatest folk guitarist of his generation.
Keats was born in Rangoon. His mother, a delightful actress and painter named Emily, returned to England with the infant Prometheus after his father Lord Poseidon Keats-Wondering died during a particularly strenuous meal.
Keats was placed at Marlborough where his talents brought him to the attention of Headmaster Norris McWhirrter. "Pim was good at everything. He excelled in all disciplines. This lead to him being universally loathed by both his peers and teachers".
The raven-haired Keats went up to Oxford, driving there in a car he built himself. In the back seat, a Martin guitar given to him by his devoted mother. Within weeks Keats had mastered the instrument, writing touching folk ballads in complex tunings and time signatures. "I invented several tunings of my own", Keats revealed at the time. "Including the very complex E, G, E, G, B, K, B, D# tuning".
Despite having only played once for friends in the college refectory, young American producer Palmer Butter immediately signed Keats to his Wicked Wimple label. "I gave Pim complete control of his publishing and a majority share of all profits. He was so gifted it would have been a crime not to".
Keats' first album, 'Tree of Bruised Leaves', featured the cream of the British folk scene - Bryn Featherman, John 'Crumps' Crumplingham, Diddy Stack, Shelley Gosh, Anthony Worrell-Thompson, Speedy Trickleton and Keith Strangle.
But the album was not a success. His songs moved one critic to describe the album as "a collection of dreary folk ballads by a gravelly-voiced public school ponce".
For the first time in his life Keats was faced with failure. "Up to that point he was better at everything than anyone else around him", says Butter. "Despite his amazing playing and singing, the album only sold one hundred and fifty seven copies. Ithink most of them were bought by his mother".
Despite this setback Keats travelled to Dusty Ivy's Trout Tickle studios in Wiltshire to record his second album, 'Death Is On My Footpath'.
"No-one realised Pim was suffering from a very deep depression", says Ivy. "It was only when we recorded 'I Shall Soon Take My Life' that I even had an inkling. He told me he was a bit 'fed up' and 'cheesed off' with it all. He even kicked my dog, which was a bit rum".
Keats attempted suicide in 1974, just four years after the release of the psychedelic-tinged 'Listen To the Voices of The Void'...
However, it turned out that suicide was something else Keats wasn't terribly good at. "I tried throwing myself off Hammersmith Bridge but fell onto a passing longboat carrying mattresses to the Harrod's Depository", says Keats.
"As I lay there, bobbing down the Thames on an extremely well made pocket-sprung mattress, I realised I should give up making records and stick to things I knew I could do extremely well".
Keats became the managing director of a small company involved in high-risk technology. "Basically, I got into computers and became rather successful at it".
Pim Keats received an MBE for services to British Industry in 1987. A major contributor to the Tory Party, he has since gone on to fund several Internet launches, including Google, and his many companies are involved in the production of leisurewear, mobile phones, armaments and computers.
SINGLES
BUTTER DISCS CUP76 ' Listen To the Voices of the Void'
BUTTER DISCS CUP 78 'Shed Of Sorrow'
BUTTER DISCS CUP 714 'Mournful Moonglow'
BUTTERTONE LOFAT CDS 3 'Listen To The Voices of the Void (Arthur Baker remix)'
ALBUMS
BUTTER DISCS SPREAD 5 'Tree Of Bruised Leaves'
BUTTER DISCS SPREAD 14 'Death Is On My Footpath'
BUTTERTONE LOFAT CD6 'Wreck Of the Desperates' (Best Of 3 CD box set)
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