as better than Lovecraft... usually meaning that atmospheres are evoked then marred by personality piffle.
By the way, on Cacophony, the sunken segments between the tracks were intended to be the equivalent of Lovecraft's descriptions of dark matter, or as he put it, the mad spaces between the stars. Jon also enthuses about the record: for me, it was the most interesting thing that we had done musically, in terms of all those weird time signatures, and the lyrics are fascinating... even if I don t understand all of them! I just think that the band as a whole put in a really good performance, and it was the best thing Nick has ever done vocally; I think he was at the absolute pinnacle of his creativity on that album. I don't Share his interest with Lovecraft, but I think his lyrics are amazing, and I think that is one the main things that distinguished us from other bands of our genre.
The different style of Cacophony was not intended, adds Grant more cautiously. It just comes out that way, and in retrospect I regard it as a move in the wrong direction, into self- indulgence. As a result of that, in recent years, I have pushed to build upon and improve the more traditional Peni Style. I actually introduced him to Lovecraft, and that was part of the reason why we fell out claims Mark Farrelly. ''Because I was getting more and more jealous of the Lovecraftian tomes he was finding... he acquired some lovely books that I didn't have in my own collection, and I didn't like it very much!
I didn't actually see Cacophony' until years later, but when I picked that it up, I couldn't believe it; every single Song seemed to have some Lovecraftian theme. But, oh, good luck to him, y'know? '
It was all just personal stuff why we went our separate ways; I wanted to get out of Milton Keynes, where I was still living with my parents... and Nicks with his folks, and wanted to make some kind of break, but didn't know what to do. After all the intensity of Part One and Peni, we were at a bit of a funny crossroads; it had all gone very quiet on the western front. I knew I didn't wanna do music any more, but I didn't really know what I wanted to do instead... so we both just decided to carry on doing gruesome illustrations, writing Lovecraftian horror stories, and then hopefully, by the time we were Sixty or seventy, someone would discover this great tome of work we'd created...! That was the plan anyway, and we were both labouring under a similar illusion, Nick had always been more of the recluse when I first met him, but by the end of the eighties, I was the recluse, and he was the one making connections with the big, scary outside world.
There would be another yawning hiatus before Rudimentary Peni returned to terrorise our world again - an inconsistent ethic they've maintained to the present and, to be honest, when the third album, Pope Adrian Psychristiatric', was unveiled in 1995, it was something of a let down for all concerned. With Nick in the throes of mental illness, and with many of his delusions finding their way into the fabric of the new album, Pope Adrian... was always going to be a rambling schizoid affair, but it a sadly lacks the vital spark of cacophony, with a flat production also adding to the impression of a band just going through the motions.
The reasons for the lapse between releases are varied, elaborates Grant, sometimes illness, sometimes just lack of interest. Now we're at the stage where we just do short EP's every few years, in order to keep the quality as high as possible. Pope Adrian is my least favourite of all our releases though. A total turkey in my opinion; there are too many long, repetitive tracks which just Sound smug and careless to me.

imagines as still suckling at his mother's breast when aged eighteen! But he did post me a little model of a coffin, and I’ve still got it. It was a little plasticine figure, in this incredible tiny coffin which he made with stick bandage... this little brown emaciated figure of plasticine, with his own hair an its head, it was about six inches long, an inch wide and he’d written my name and address on it in his spidery scrawl, the postage stamp was almost too big to go on it! But somehow it got to me safely. 1997’s Echoes of Anguish EP saw the band returning to a slightly more conventional earlier sound, pitching itself stylistically somewhere between the Death Church album and the two singles that preceded it, albeit far more measured and calm when considered alongside their original outbursts. 2000 then saw the release of The Underclass and 2003 The Archaic EP both, just like Echoes comprising, twelve short, sharp, bursts of minimalist gloomy punk rock. My favourite release is The Archaic EP reveals Grant, it has a good sound and more refined song structures, i.e., with all the irrelevant, waffling, cluttered bits taken out. We’re working on another EP right now, though it won't be out for a couple of years yet.
There's no intention of ever doing another full album though and there won’t be any live performances either. We’ve really never split up or reformed in the conventional sense; instead we simply get together to record stuff when we feel like it. For me it's been very rewarding, reflects Jon on his time with Peni, I think we made a valid contribution, and I am very proud of most of the stuff we’ve put out. Showing my kids a cutting from Sounds of Death Church at No 3 in the indie charts and No 1 in the punk charts was a very proud moment.
None of us have ever been that fussed about playing live though; I think that our very early experiences effectively suppressed that desire. Also it would have virtually impossible for Nick to recreate most of the vocal stuff off Cacophony live. I would just like the band to be remembered as one that were exceptionally creative and made people think. Nick Blinko though, ever the enigma, has a suitably nihilistic parting comment.
Us remembered? I think not!