This time, Ivo flew to find the Holy Grail to California. His brother Perry was taking Latin American studies at the University College of Los Angeles and could provide a place to stay. When Ivos visa ran out after just a matter of months, he again went back to the devil he knew; Beggars Banquet rehired him to train managers across all its shops. But after just one hour in the job, he quit again: I felt like a caged animal.
After claiming unemployment benefit for six months, the local job centre forced Ivo to apply for a job as a clerical worker at Ealing Town Hall. He once again turned to Beggars, and Nick Austin clearly a patient man re-employed him to do the same training job. In the summer of 1979, Ivo was even allowed an extended holiday, returning to California, where he and his friend Dave Bates first conceived the idea of a record label, and of opening a record shop with a café in Bournemouth on the south coast. Both operations were to be named Freebase (friends of Ivos had claimed they invented the freebasing technique of purifying cocaine). Ivo even went as far as registering the name: Thankfully, it never happened. Imagine being behind a company called Freebase. In any case, the shop and café was pure fantasy.
Ivos first thought for the Freebase label was to license albums by the San Francisco duo Chrome, purveyors of scuzzy psychedelic rock/electronic collage. Instead, the bands creative force Damon Edge suggested Ivo should buy finished product from him instead, which he was unable to afford.1
The next opportunity came after Alex Proctor, a friend from Ivos Oundle days who was working at the Earls Court shop, passed on a demo. Brian Brain was the alter ego of Martin Atkins, the former drummer of Sex Pistol John Lydons new band Public Image Limited (or PiL). Ivo had recommended his tape to Martin Mills, who didnt show any interest. But then I got talking to Peter Kent, who was managing Beggars Earls Court branch, Ivo recalls.
Ivos cohort in forming a record label now lives in the Chicago suburb of Rogers Park, two blocks from Lake Michigans urban beach. Its his first ever interview. Ive always considered myself as a bit player on the side, says Peter Kent. I know people who are just full of themselves, but Im more private. And being a Buddhist, I like to live in the present rather than regurgitate the past. But he is willing to talk, after all. Its nice to leave
something behind, he concedes.
Kent didnt hang around for long in the music business, partly by choice but also due to illness (he has multiple sclerosis). Among other part-time endeavours, he works as a dog sitter, which would give him and Ivo plenty to chat about. But during the time that they worked together, Ivo says, he knew nothing about Kents private life.
Born in Battersea, south-west London, his familys neighbour was the tour manager of the Sixties band Manfred Mann, which gave the teenage Kent convenient entry to Londons exploding beat music boom. Kent says he DJed around Europe while based in Amsterdam, doing everything that you shouldnt. He adds that, A friend was a doctor of medicine in Basle, whod make mescaline and cocaine. Peter Kent isnt my real name; Interpol and the drug squad were looking for me at one point. Its a long story.
Kent also says that British blues vocalist Long John Baldry was his first boyfriend before he dated Bowie protégé Mickey King who he first met, alongside Bowie, at the Earls Court gay club Yours or Mine. After returning from Amsterdam, Kent appeared to calm down when he started managing Town Records in Kings Road, Chelsea, next door to fetish clothing specialists Seditionaries, run by future fashion icon Vivienne Westwood and future Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren. He also ran a market stall-cum-café in nearby Beaufort Market, next to future punk siren Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex fame. By 1976, Kent had opened his own record shop, called Stuff, in nearby Fulham but it didnt make a profit and so he took the managers post at Beggars Banquets Earls Court branch. The labels office, and Ivos desk, was upstairs.
The origins of 4AD are contested. Kent says an avalanche of demos had been sent in the wake of Tubeway Armys success: Part of my job was to listen to them with the idea of forwarding the good ones to Beggars. I also said it was a great idea to start a little label on the side, and Martin said thats what Ivo also wanted to do.
Martin Mills recalls Ivo and Peter Kent approaching Nick Austin and himself with a plan, while Ivo sticks to the story he told Option magazine in 1986. Wed regularly rush upstairs to convince Martin and Nick that they should get involved with something like Modern English, as opposed to what they were involved with. Eventually, Beggars got fed up with us pestering them and said, Why dont you start your own label?
Whatever the story, Mills and Austin donated a start-up fund of £2,000. Kent got to christen the label, choosing Axis after Jimi Hendrixs Axis: Bold As Love album. Ivo and I clicked as people, says Kent. It was like I was Roxy Music and he was Captain Beefheart, but we appreciated where each other was coming from. He was mellower; I was more outgoing. But I wouldnt say I ever knew him well.