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CYNTHIA APPLEBY |
| CYNTHIA APPLEBY AND FRIENDS |
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rudy trouvé craig ward |
| 'Cynthia Appleby and friends' is the full name of an obscure project of Rudy Trouvé and Craig Ward. Not many people actually know the combo, and with reason. Cynthia Appleby is basically Rudy and Craig on 4-track- they never performed live. They never really released anything either- a low-profile
b-track on an obscure promo, and three tracks on a super-rare demo tape is where Cynthia Appleby’s public appearances end.
The first release was a 1996 promo single cd called ‘ Xeroxed music’. It was a promotional item, released for the opening of a bar in Antwerp, called ‘The Milk Bar’, which opened its doors on
saturday august 31st, 1996. The promo has two tracks; ‘Xeroxed Music’ from the 'Prefab Allstars', and the
‘b-side’ was Kathleen Nr.1 by Cynthia Appleby and friends. Why Cynthia Appleby ended up on this strange
cd is a mystery to me though. Besides this rare promo, three Cynthia Appleby tracks were also released in 1997 on the ‘ HeavenHotel presents some snapshots’ demo tape. Lots of songs were recorded however, and at a ratio of writing and recording one per afternoon, that's hardly surprising. Some tracktitles are 'Introduction to Dressage', 'Irrelevant Country interlude' and 'The Boxer', a cover of a Simon & Garfunkel original. The (-cough-) ‘single’ Kathleen is a fantastic track, which has Rudy and Craig in the middle of a hefty discussion. This girl ‘Kathleen’ apparently gave Craig her telephone number to give it to Rudy, but in stead Craig gave it to Dave Robertson. So Rudy is pissed at Craig because Dave just left for Spain and is afraid he won’t get the telephone number back from him. The music is –as far as I can tell- nothing more than a 4 track recording, with the same style drumbox as heard in Gore Slut, and the same cute little guitar sounds and samples as in Lionell Horrowitz and his combo. Plans were to bring out a full album in ’98, but since then, nothing is heard of this potentially fantastic combo. Recently, Rudy said two albums of Cynthia Appleby are already finished (!), of which one cd with the best tracks will probably end up in the stores sooner or later. But, since Craig Ward left dEUS last march to spent more time with his wife in Glasgow, chances are slim he’ll be making any more music with Rudy in the near future. Craig also used to be in Kiss My Jazz, but he hadn’t actually done anything with the band since a couple of years, which makes the chances of a come-back to the Antwerp scene even smaller. Let’s hope he doesn’t mind Rudy releasing the songs they already have recorded… |