Originating in the slums of Luton town (the suburbs of the slums at any rate), Strawberry Forks are a band with a history shrouded in mystery and/or intentional misinformation. Initially a multi-person organisation consisting of around 9 people, the band quickly developed into a predominantly 3 man operation. In the early years a young Harold Syddell would supply lyrics to Mark which he would put to a tune and a whole album of songs was quickly created. Jackson 1 got involved early on in the project as at this point he was almost living in MiLK Studios (otherwise known as Mark’s house) he helped expand the Strawberry Forks sound with a range of harmonies and drumming ability.
After a period of uncertainty, the Forks returned with a whole album’s worth of new material created predominately by Jackson 1 and Mark Morris. The whereabouts of the third member of Strawberry Forks, Harold Syddell, are currently unknown; rumours have it that he lost himself whilst travelling in South America, however, rumours are just rumours, and it is just as likely that he is lost in the local park.
The early Forks recordings were very much biased in songwriting and vocals. Mark took lead vocals and acoustic guitar on nearly every song on F.O.A.H.C. and We Got Sued! (© MiLK Records, 2006), Jackson played drums and electric guitar – everyone else just made it up. This could have been an unintentional continuation of the band leaders’ first musical effort, the psychedelic rock band Spacejunkie (c. 2005), or just something they got used to. Even so, the band made ultimately humorous and moderately catchy snippets of pop songs, and filled two albums worth of material with them. But after the release of “We Got Sued!”, problems arose. The band’s main lyricist, Harry, was hard to get hold of. The other members’ loyalty to the band was starting to flake. And the main problematic situation the Forks had to overcome was much harder to swallow. Harry and Jackson were both falling deeper and deeper into drug use. This became a moderate success during the light-user days of the first two albums, and made for some interesting songs and lyrical content. Even in the heavy days, songwriting remained fruitful and frequent. But for the others, it was a huge burden. Personal relationships were becoming tarnished with angst and torment. Nobody knew where they stood. Nobody knew where they were going to be standing in the future…
Arguably one of the catchiest songs of the two albums, “Save The Grass”, is the only early SF tracks to make it on to the new collection of hits.
From ’06 to ’07, the band was on a mild hiatus. The band hadn’t talked in regards to the band in nearly a year. Other projects had been on the go, and the members were just generally too busy to think about their next effort. When the band eventually got to talks about the next album, relationships within had lots of time to settle and repair themselves. The band were on much better terms, and had made a big decision with regards to whom was to remain in the Strawberry Forks. The band was now made, and all involved had simple yet defined roles to make the band the success it would become in the near future. Harry, now a well-recognised stoner, was to be lyrical genius for the band – this suited him fine, as he played no instruments. Jackson’s songs became encorporated onto the albums to the point where he was very much an equal partner in the songwriting stage of the band aswell as the actual recordings. He played drums, bass, electric guitars, keyboards and lead/backing vocals, being used occasionally for falsetto parts and chorus backing, which gave him the nickname of “Oooh Guy”. Mark was prolific in lyric and song writing at this point, and worked extensively with Harry to create the bands most succesful album yet, “Fade Out”. This lineup would remain up to the present day, and gave the band the dynamic that it needed to be the perfect songwriting trio they have become today.
After the initial success of “Fade Out”, an album full of singles and hits (but admittedly, some mistakes), the band took another hiatus. Without the gory details, the band members underwent a lot of changes in personality, in style and in attitudes in this period. When the band was ready to reconvene, Mark had a big idea. It was unclear what the project was to be exactly, but the band was going to attempt what they had been talking about since the early days – a double album. He had written a bunch of new songs for the album, and eventually the idea became a reality – the first CD consisted of mainly Harry’s old and new songs, adapted to fit the music that Mark had put them to, and the second consisted of Mark and Jackson’s most recently penned efforts. The band was incredibly excited about the best songs they had written since “Fade Out”, and didn’t hesitate to get into MiLK studios once more to record the demos for the said double CD. Although the band recorded the whole album again, the demos gave them the confidence to believe in the music they had spent the majority of their teenage years writing and recording.
When the band had nothing more to add to the record, they spent the rest of the year getting regular slots at Luton’s primary music venue, part-time rock, part-time jazz venue, the Hat Factory. They played the club’s 5th anniversary gig, and had become a fan favourite down in the dark basement, with people recognising them and talking to them about “That Vegetable Song” (“Brainless”) and their other hits that took the fans by surprise.
In 2008, the band once again started the recording process, but only demos were recorded. This was originally intended to become the band’s fifth album, originally entitled “Album #5″. Two songs from these sessions remain unused for any public hearing – “We Have The Power (The 8 Stages of Love)”, a genre-hopping experiment inspired by Weezer’s “The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived”, and “We Are the Forest”, a mid-tempo pop-rocker recorded after Jackson had turned up at MiLK Studios still seeing things after staying up all night. The remaining songs were forwarded from these sessions to be re-recorded in their new studio, ready to be put on their newest idea for a record.
After around 2 years of recording in MiLK studios, the equipment became somewhat redundant, Jackson moved out and Mark went to Norwich. Recently the band have begun to re-record their extensive back catalogue of songs in order to create an album of their best songs. Originally intended to be around 20 songs long. they decided to cut it down to 12. Thus creating what would later be named “Song Time”, marking the beginning of the band’s trilogy of primary-coloured albums – along with “Story Time” and their most recent work, “Play Time”.
You can see more information about the individual records in the Discography section above.
Thanks to everyone who continues to love the Strawberry Forks.
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