The brothers Morris (Mark – bass and vocals; Jim – guitars; Des – drums), celebrated the 40thanniversary of the first Balaam And The Angel E.P., the indie-goth classic 12” World Of Light last October by releasing a brand new 12” E.P., Forces Of Evil and took a lap of honour with a tour that showed the band were still very much on top of their game. A new video for a radio edit of the E.P.’s title track, now also on streaming as a single in its own right, has now been released and God Is In The TV caught up with Jim Morris to talk about 40 years of Balaam and what’s next for the band.
Your first release, the World Of Light E.P. on the legendary Chapter 22 Records had its 40th birthday last year. It was actually the first ever Chapter 22 release, how did that come to be?
JM: Chapter 22 started initially as a vehicle to release Balaam And The Angel material. It was a collaboration between the band, our manager Craig Jennings (who has continued to become a significant music professional managing bands like Bring Me The Horizon) and a midlands record distribution company Nine Mile. World Of Light was the very first release on this label which we were able to do due to an investment that Craig secured from a local entrepreneur who made his money hiring out pool tables. Whilst it never made it to the Number One slot in the NME indie charts, the four-track E.P. remained in the Top 40 of this chart for over a year. It is worth noting the significance of that chart back in the 1980s which would also feature releases by ‘mainstream’ indie acts such as New Order, Depeche Mode, The Smiths etc. A position in this chart was based on record sales, so being in that chart in any way was a big achievement.
Did you feel an affinity with the other Chapter 22 bands, like The Mission, The Wild Flowers and Pop Will Eat Itself?
I think it is a little-known fact that some of the advance that we received when we signed to Virgin Records went towards the support of the other acts that the label eventually went on to record and release. It was our closeness with The Mission at that time that led them to release their first single on Chapter 22. We have had an affinity with them ever since; did our first tour of America with them and still to this day welcome the chance to perform with them. The same is true in a different way for Pop Will Eat Itself, The Wild Flowers etc. These guys were part of the emerging West Midlands scene (alongside The Wonder Stuff, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin etc). It would be incorrect to say that we were instrumental in why they signed to Chapter 22 but it was great to feel that the label that we had helped to create could provide a platform for these bands in the early stages of their careers.
You then signed to Virgin Records for your debut album The Greatest Story Ever Told back in 1986. What was that time like for the band?
1986 was unreal. We were drawn into the alternative mainstream of the British music scene and loved every minute of it. We were playing headline shows to concert venue sized crowds, opening up for the likes of Iggy Pop at Brixton Academy and The Cult at Wembley, making the front page of the Melody Maker etc etc etc. It was everything our teenage selves had hoped for……what’s not to like ?
I actually saw you play an instore gig at the huge Virgin Megastore in Birmingham around that time, do you have any memories of that?
That was all part of the craziness of ’86. Playing record stores some 40 years before it became ‘a thing’ for musicians to do, (as currently seems to be the case). It was a weird experience. I am not sure quite how it all happened but we did also play London and, I think, Manchester? The Birmingham one was manic…….it felt like there were Balaam And The Angel followers everywhere you looked in the shop and even outside looking in through the windows.
The same year saw you took part in the Yiva Anti-Apartheid festival at Birmingham NEC – how did you come to be involved?
I can’t remember how, or who, approached us to do that show. We had been involved in the Anti-heroin show at Crystal Palace (with Dame Vera Lynn) so I would imagine that might have influenced the organisers to ask us. Of course we said yes without any second thoughts. I don’t think that we could claim to be an overtly political band but the opportunity to lend some support to this movement was something that we were very happy to do.
Your other albums for Virgin (1987’s Live Free Or Die and 1989’s Days Of Madness) went in a more hard rock direction – was that a conscious decision?
Consciously or unconsciously, we were trying to get our recorded material to sound closer to what we thought we sounded like live. Whilst The Greatest Story Ever Told was a terrific success there was a lightness to the sound that we were keen to rectify with the next album. The re-recorded single version of ‘Light Of The World’ shows the direction that we had started to travel in. If you compare that to the album version you can see the ambition that we had at the time to make our sound noisier. The result of this turned out to be the Live Free Or Die album. In reality, I don’t think we realised how far we had pushed the pendulum towards straight ahead rock but it set us off on a course for a more global profile.‘I’ll Show You Something Special’ was chosen to be a track on the John Hughes, John Candy and Steven Martin classic Trains, Planes And Automobiles and ‘I Love The Things You Do To Me’ made number one on college radio and made us a must-see band in the States. It was at this time that we recruited guitarist Ian McKean to join the band and set out to try and showcase his amazing rock guitar skills on the album that followed, Days Of Madness…and we kept going on that path for a while choosing to explore an even deeper rock/metal style as Balaam (singular) on the No More Innocence/Prime Time album. I look at that album as a sonic experiment similar to Nick Cave‘s Grinderman project.
There was a big gap in the band’s activity between the early 90s and a London gig in 2008 – did you have a complete break from the band at that time?
Pretty much. I guess we felt that we had run out of ideas and our enthusiasm for writing new material was very low. So, rather than inflict a substandard set of releases on our loyal fans, we took the courageous decision to focus on other things instead. I personally went into education and had a fairly successful career as head of music and the assistant head teacher at a big comprehensive school in Hackney and Tower Hamlet. All three of us did keep playing in various ways but always kept this ‘under the radar’ and local to our geographical location. I am not sure that we ever thought we would be getting back together but it was a enquiry from Frank from Flag Promotions that led us to consider playing live again. He convinced us that there was a UK audience who would welcome the opportunity to see and hear us again…and the rest, as they say, is history – so here we are.
Looking back now, what period for the band do you look back on with most fondness?
On a personal level I am someone who is keen to always keep looking forward. There were some spectacular times in the past, but the present is here to be embraced and I work to get the most enjoyment and fun out of every experience.
It was great to see some new Balaam and the Angel music coming out last year, with the Forces Of Evil E.P. How do you feel this has gone down with long-time fans?
the response to the new material has been as good as we ever could have expected. We went in to make a sound similar to the re-recorded version of ‘Light Of The World’ (as mentioned earlier) and I think that is what we have managed to achieve. It somehow has all the elements of 80s alternative rock whilst at the same time being completely current. As a result, the feedback from the live audience and online has been tremendous.
You’ve also recently lifted a single from the E.P. (its title track) and have produced a video for it too – do you enjoy making videos and the visual side or is it more a necessary tool to promote your music?
I am someone who like visuals as well as music and throughout the bands career have taken a keen interest in the artwork for the band and, when this has been appropriate, the videos. This wasn’t always possible when we were dealing with the excess of the 80s and videos would cost in excess of £50,000……but right now we are looking at more manageable sums and as a result myself and Adam Smith, our wonderful and youthful video director, have been able to collaborate directly to create the last two videos ( for ‘Dancing Senseless’ and ‘Forces Of Evil’). Not sure my two brothers would feel the same but it is an aspect of being in a band that I really enjoy.
What’s next for Balaam and the Angel?
We have committed to play eight shows this year. We start on Saturday 12th July at the Antenna Festivel in Leeds and finish this run of shows on Sunday 23rd November. Some of these are multi-band shows and some of them are our own headline shows. Details for all the shows can be found on our website balaamandtheangel.co.uk.
As well as that we will be going into the studio in September/October to record some more new material. We are keen to stick to the 4-track E.P. format, (which was in fact the way that we started off with the Chapter 22 recordings), so will be focused on recording 4 killer tracks to be released early in 2026.
