Spratleys Japs

Tim Smith's Spratleys (formerly Spratleys Japs) are an English psychedelic rock band originally formed by Cardiacs leader Tim Smith and Joanne Spratley in 1998. The band changed their name to Tim Smith's Spratleys Rats in 2021 to distance themselves from the negative connotations of the derogatory term Jap. As of 2024, the band's name is simply Tim Smith's Spratleys.

Original line-up (1998-1999)
Spratleys Japs originally emerged during a lull in Cardiacs activities during which Tim Smith wanted to try something new. The band's original line-up was Smith (vocals, bass guitar, Mellotron) and Joanne Spratley (vocals, flugelhorn, Theremin), plus Heidi Murphy (electronic devices and synthesisers), Mark Donovan (guitar) and Viv Sherriff (drums). Murphy, Donovan and Sherriff had allegedly been members of an American rock band called the Rev-Ups, which had initially formed near Mexico but had subsequently moved to the New Forest area of England. Since neither the original Spratleys Japs band nor the Rev-Ups have ever been recorded as having played live, it has been suggested that the Rev-Ups personnel were fictional and that all sounds were in fact created by Smith and Spratley.

The band project was known to have been inspired by the sound of a malfunctioning Mellotron loaned to Tim Smith by Planet Mellotron coordinator Andy Thompson. The Mellotron was used extensively on the original Spratleys Japs recordings. (It has since been repaired). Sean Kitching of The Quietus has also claimed that "according to Tim, the note for the project that became Spratleys Japs read: 'Record something really quickly, make the drums sound shit.'", while The Organ would claim in 2024 that "Tim once said he was trying to write pop songs [for Spratleys Japs] and to his frustration 'they always came out sounding like all the other shit I do.'..."

Spratleys Japs released one album — 1999's Pony — and one single, 1999's "Hazel". Both of these recordings were released on Smith's own short-lived All My Eye and Betty Martin Music label. Pony sold several hundred copies, and the band never performed its material live before lapsing into inactivity.

Although the band never formally split up, there was no further Spratley's Japs work for the next seventeen years. Joanne Spratley went on to work with Christian Hayes' project Mikrokosmos, while Smith returned to Cardiacs activity. Meanwhile, the Spratleys Japs recordings became popular with Cardiacs fans, despite being unavailable for many years.

Revival (2016–2019)
In 2016 Joanne Spratley's son Jesse Cutts suggested they should form a band together; in autumn that year she organized a Spratleys Japs concert in Brighton. It took place on 19 November and was billed as "Spratleys Japs Performed Live". The concert did not feature Tim Smith, who remained unable to perform following his 2008 stroke and heart attack (although he attended as an audience member) but did feature Spratley plus musicians drawn from various Brighton bands including Clowwns, Crayola Lectern, Muddy Suzuki and Heavy Lamb.

The concert led in turn to a full revival of Spratleys Japs featuring the new lineup, which included — alongside Spratley on vocals/percussion and Cutts on bass guitar — Adrien Rodes (keyboards), Étienne Rodes (guitars), and Damo Waters (drums). They did assorted concerts in England during 2017, including a small tour. Billing themselves as "Tim Smith's Spratleys Japs", they made their live London debut at the Lexington music pub in a double-header with Guapo: Kavus Torabi made a cameo appearance for their encore, joining the band for a cover of Cardiacs' "Flap off You Beak". Attending the gig, Paul Lester of Prog hailed the band's "maverick spirit" and "curious thrashy vignettes [which] locate the weirdness at the centre of post-war English genteel society and culture... File under barmy but affecting." Lester also noted the band's multiple musical ingredients ("prog punk... classical, psych and prog... galumphing strangeness") and the way in which the song "Burnt" "violently transitions from hippie to rhythmic post-punk, goes back to psych, fits in a Mothers of Invention snark chorale, then repeats", as well as commenting that "[Joanne] Spratley sings like a Victorian girl trapped in an attic – her distracted, plummy English tones are a signature component of this mad miscellany."

On 18 December 2018, the single "Her/Hands" was released, featuring two tracks written collectively by the current band and with Tim Smith credited as "executive musical producer". This was followed by a Christmas gig at the Garage club in London to celebrate an Honorary Degree as Doctor of Music from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland which Smith had received in October. Reviewing the concert, Roger Trenwith of The Progressive Aspect commented that it "gave my quirk button a gentle nudge", drawing attention to the "fabulously angular but direct" songs "Klog" and "Cabinet" and observing that "Jo Spratley has a beguiling stage presence, moving around like a marionette set free, messing up her hair and casting cryptic glances at the thronging melee in front of her."

In January 2019, Tim Smith's Spratleys Japs performed an almost full performance of Pony, although Spratley was suffering from a throat infection. On 4 February 2019, the band had a session with Marc Riley. On 17 May 2019, they supported Gong at Oslo (Hackney) and revealed plans to release a new album by the end of the year. A further concert was played at The Green Door Store in Brighton on 21st December 2019.

Further activity (2021–present)
Despite their previous plans, Spratleys Japs' second album was delayed, and there was no further public activity for a couple of years. Three live tracks from the 2019 Brighton concert ("Hands", the as-yet-unreleased-on-record "Pandy" and a cover of Cardiacs' "Is This the Life") were released via Bandcamp on the "CONFINEMENT/release6" EP on 3 July 2020, as part of a series of Covid lockdown releases featuring bands connected to Joanne Spratley and Christian Hayes.

On 5 June 2021 Joanne Spratley announced on Facebook that the band would be changing its name to Tim Smith's Spratleys Rats after discovering the offensive nature of the term Japs to some people. The original name had innocent origins, as Joanne Spratley explained, "When we named the band we thought [japs] sounded like some sweets that you got in a paper bag when you was a kid weighed out by the man behind the counter from one of them big dusty jars." "Spratleys Rats" was a suggestion from Marina Organ, with the addition of Tim Smith's name by Joanne Spratley to commemorate the band's original composer, who died in July 2020.

With Stephen Gilchrist replacing Damo Waters on drums, the band resurfaced in May 2024 to play a series of "Sing for Tim" gigs in London and Leeds in honour of Tim Smith, alongside The Smith & Drake Ensemble, Crayola Lectern and Cardiacs & Friends (the last being a line-up of various ex-Cardiacs and related musicians playing a headlining set of Cardiacs songs). For these gigs (and going forward), the band changed their name to Spratleys.

Reviewing Spratleys at the first London gig, The Organ stated "there’s a lot of emotion up there, there’s joy, there’s tears, there’s drums, tambourines and ribbons and a beautiful sway, these songs always had a beautiful sway, a flow, a majestic rhythm, a kind of pushing throb, they are different, still with that same wonderful essence though and they are being performed rather well to a very very attentive joyous crowd tonight, of course they are. I wasn’t going to start picking out songs this evening but the performance of "Oh" does deserve particular mention, that really was quietly beautiful, it was a rather brave performance, fragile, raw, extra special on a special night." Further shows are planned for autumn 2024.

Members
According to Eric Benac:

Original line-up


 * Joanne Spratley – vocals, flugelhorn, theremin
 * Tim Smith – bass guitar, vocals, Mellotron
 * Heidy Murphy – electronic devices and synthesizers
 * Mark Donovan – guitar
 * Viv Sherriff – drums

2016 Revival
 * Joanne Spratley – vocals
 * Jesse Cutts – bass guitar
 * Adrien Rodes – keyboards
 * Étienne Rodes – guitars
 * Damo Waters – drums

2024 onwards
 * Joanne Spratley – vocals
 * Jesse Cutts – bass guitar
 * Adrien Rodes – keyboards
 * Étienne Rodes – guitars
 * Stephen Gilchrist – drums

Albums

 * Pony (1999)

Singles and EPs

 * Hazel EP (1999), AME CD002
 * "Odd Even" (2017)
 * Her/Hands 7" (2018)
 * Confinement/release6 (2020)