Focusing on music in the Channel Islands: Meet the musicians - Foolish things

Welcome to our series, ‘Meet the musicians’, where we meet people involved in music across the Channel Islands.

Today, we meet-up with Foolish things.

Foolish Things are a Jersey-based vocal harmony duo featuring guitar and a double-bass called Arnie. Arthur Parkes and Mia Mannion, each professional musicians of many years standing, both solo and together.

Formerly known as ‘Expo,’ they have worked in the UK, the Channel Islands, Scandinavia, Northern Europe and (through Milanese impresario Piero Massari) extensively in the Middle East/Gulf region – Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain and Damascus – as the resident band in Sheraton, Novotel and Holiday Inn hotels, where they played not only bass and guitar but also keyboards and saxophones. Playing top covers, plus some originals, Foolish things are guaranteed to liven up any occasion!

Tell us about your ‘journey’

“We are both musicians from – almost – birth. In fact, Mia was expelled from her ballet class at the age of 4 for spending too much time watching the piano player! (she still admits that she’s not great shakes on the piano).”

Arthur and Mia both play the same instruments but to varying levels of skill (except that Mia admits to the recorder): guitar, bass guitar, double bass, saxophone, clarinet, ukulele and keyboards/piano.

Mia wants to say that Arthur is by far the better singer and musician than herself. Arthur wants to say that she writes far better songs. So they like to think that they have a pretty fair division of expertise.

Both worked separately, solo and in bands, before they met, but since then, having begun their joint musical career in Jersey as Expo, they have worked extensively abroad: UK, Scandinavia, Germany, Syria and the Gulf.

Since their permanent return to Jersey – the broccoli fields beckoned – they re-interpreted themselves into Foolish things – playing guitar and a double-bass called Arnie – partly in order to save carrying around tons of equipment and partly to return to musical basics. “It also give us the opportunity to use all our personal resources; to see how much we can do with, effectively, 4 instruments: 2 voices and a guitar and double-bass.”

Do you have a ‘day job’?

“Neither of us have a ‘day job’ although we have worked as historical interpreters to fill the financial gap in the (common) lack of work in the business.

“More recently, we have taken musical work – which was very enjoyable – in residential/care homes. Yes, it’s ‘bread-and-butter’ work, but nevertheless the people we meet there are very well worth knowing. It’s great to see someone who can’t get around without help tapping their toes to the music. We can’t wait to get back to them, post-covid.”

How has Covid-19 impacted you?

Since the first lockdown, we have had almost no work, so we are really keen to get started very soon.

We haven’t been resting though as we have done regular musical tributes to carers and key workers. It’s something we can do to, hopefully, make them feel valued and also to have a chance to perform ourselves.

What’s been the highlight of your music career?

As Foolish things, we had an unexpected meeting with Terry Oliver, who invited us along to Acoustic Jersey, which really put our foot in the door, so to speak.

As Expo, being approached by Piero Massari (from Milan) sent us up to another level of work, such as being the resident band at 5-star hotels – Holiday Inns, Sheratons, Novotels. It was a great experience and learning curve, but not always the pleasantest.

We supported the Wurzels in 2019 for the final West Show. It’s such a pity that show has ended. Other things, which felt important at the time, such as Jersey’s Queen’s Hall, Inn on the Park, etc, fade compared to the buzz of that show.

Who has influenced you musically?

Mia says that Marvin Gaye has influenced her for certain. “He was an amazing musician who would do weird things like tap a wineglass, record it and use it in his percussion, but also wrote some of the most iconic songs, such as ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’. But having said that, I also love pretty much all good music, from Nat King Cole right up to Sam Smith.

Arthur lists his influences as the Eagles, the Hollies and Lonnie Donegan. “And neither of us wish to omit Bert Weedon – the man who taught the world to play guitar”.

Tell us about your favourite equipment

We have always loved Peavey sound equipment, but it used to be enormously heavy. Nowadays, we put our whole system, voices included, through two Fender Rumbles (bass amps) because modern bass guitars need treble and therefore modern amps can cope with that.

Headphones are a bit of a problem, because we try to work wirelessly where possible, but most bluetooth ‘phones have a delay which makes them impossible to use for recording. Otherwise, we have some very good but not enormously pricey instruments, including a Fender electro-acoustic with a great ‘big gob’, handy for playing outdoors.

As for instruments, we have a 1972 Strat with a local history and our double-bass called Arnie!

What advice would you give to someone who has a dream of entering the music business?

Always know and believe in the value of your work.
Never apologise for what you can do.
Be generous to other artistes/performers. It’s tough to get up there and bare your soul.

What would you like the States of Jersey to do to support the arts in the island?

Being self-employed musicians means that you are often not taken seriously by governments.

The States of Jersey have decided to ‘ban’ virtually all live music during Covid times. This, while at first consideration understandable, seems unfair as many other closer activities are still permitted. We can’t even go out busking for charity, which is something we used to do.

We can’t organise a fund-raiser for Jersey Cancer Relief – which we have done and want to do again – and had planned when first lockdown landed.

We appreciate that a lot should be done and has been done for young performers, but we would like recognition for more seasoned professionals as well.

Last year, when most music was being shut down for indoor venues, we organised “Open-broken-mics” at the Winston Churchill Park so that we and all our fellow musicians could get out and play – if only to each other.

What do you do in your downtime?

Oh dear, there is always something musical popping into our heads that we should/could do. Writing, recording, rehearsing, costume, etc. But for real downtime, when we get our heads clear, it tends to be cooking ourselves some nice food and watching a quiz such as Pointless, House of Games and University Challenge on catch-up.

What’s your favourite film?

Several and disparate: Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually (especially Bill Nighy’s recording scene!) Independence Day, The Fifth Element, Scrooged, The Lady Vanishes, Night Train to Munich, The Ladykillers… These films are excellent but they also allow us to ‘switch off’.