rom the days of Eric's Club through to the creation of The Pink Museum and the Architecture & Morality video projections, Hambi Haralambous has carved out a exciting and varied career on the Liverpool music scene.

More recently, Hambi has been working on a series of Mandalas, digital moving images which have been exhibited in amongst other places Princes Ave, the Bluecoat and the Fact. Stuart Kershaw composed the music for two of the Mandalas and Hambi is also looking to create one for the 2012 London Olympics.

In this exclusive interview he talks about the early days through to his associations with Andy McCluskey and OMD...

What do you recall from your days of being part of acts such as Tontrix and Hambi And The Dance? Do you miss being out of the music scene as a performer?

The abiding memory of the late 70's and early 80's as a performer was that anything was possible. The spirit of the Punk revolution spread quickly throughout Liverpool, and was personified by the opening of Eric’s, a club that presented International and National acts and allowed local artists a platform to launch themselves from. The vision of future stars like Julian Cope walking up Hardman Street in his newly adopted knee-length leather boots, talking about last nights band at Eric’s, against the backdrop of a wall which someone had freshly sprayed The Clash on in huge lettering, feels as though it was yesterday.

"Tontrix appeared on the famous Street to Street album alongside acts like Echo & The Bunnymen, and The Id" The competition between the bands was fierce and the next stage after appearing at Eric’s was to try and get a recording contract. Tontrix appeared on the famous Street to Street album alongside acts like Echo & The Bunnymen, and The Id, and then released a single called Shellshocked and Slipping Into Life before disbanding. Every time a band broke up members were quickly sucked up into existing bands or went out and formed a new band - as was the case with Mike Score who formed A Flock of Seagulls and surprised us all by writing great electronic pop songs, and becoming massive in America. It was at this time that a young schoolboy called Guy Chambers joined the band and performed live with Tontrix at the Everyman Bistro. He later joined Hambi & The Dance to tour and promote the Heartache album.

One of the greatest things about all of this was the ability to create something that didn’t exist, the song. Even then the thrill of writing a song, regardless of whether it would be sold or become successful, was amazing.

Can you talk a little about your background with the Pink Museum (as it was called then) and Andy’s later involvement?

The Pink Museum evolved from the The Pink Studio, which began life in the basement of a large old Victorian villa in Ullet Road overlooking Princes Park. It started out as Tontrix’s exclusive rehearsal room, but gradually we let bands like Dead or Alive and Frankie Goes to Hollywood use the other rooms to rehearse. It was during this time a friendship developed between Holly and Steve Lovell who would later produce Holly’s solo albums. Steve was in the first version of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, along with Ambrose Reynolds, before rejoining Hambi & The Dance. The name was taken from a newspaper article about Frank Sinatra going to Hollywood that was pinned up on their rehearsal room wall.

After Tontrix broke up I turned the rehearsal rooms into a four-track studio with a playing area and a control room. It was during this period that the first version of Hambi & The Dance was formed with Wayne Hussey on guitar, the two Paul’s on bass and drums, and Steve Power mixing and playing keyboards from the desk. Steve Power began his apprenticeship as an engineer and producer and Mike Score brought in his new band A Flock Of Seagulls to record. During this time Chris Hughes (Tears for Fears, Adam And the Ants) became a friend coming to Liverpool to record some demos and play with us. After a year Wayne decided to leave with two Paul’s calling themselves, & The Dance, so I linked up with Steve Lovell again, recruiting Gary Johnson (later of China Crisis) on bass and Les Hughes on drums.

It was this band that was signed to Virgin Records in 1981. Using the advances from Virgin, the four track was transformed into a really swish 16 track under the supervision of Phil Newell, with a 2inch tape, and a desk that had been one of a pair, that Mike Oldfield had used to record Tubular Bells with. Mick Glossop produced the first Hambi & The Dance album, called Heartache, arriving in Liverpool just as the Toxteth riots flared up. After the album was completed we went on tour joined by Guy Chambers on keyboards and the studio opened its doors for other bands to use, and became a professional facility. I guess it was Liverpool’s first professional recording studio, even though Amazon studios existed they were located miles out of the city in a place called Kirby.

Unfortunately after the release of Heartache and the poor sales it generated, Virgin didn’t want to front the advances for the next album. They proposed to put me on a weekly wage and release some more singles before committing to the next album. This didn’t work because we needed the next advances to finish paying for the building of the studio, so we parted company in 1983. I then began working with other musicians in the studio, including Phil Coxon who played keyboards on some demos for me. Phil later produced a song called Seeds by an artist I managed called the Sunlight Experience, that was one of the best things to come from the studio that was never a hit. I then signed a deal with MCA for two singles which didn’t happen, before signing to an Italian label called Durrium Records. The album called Promises was recorded in the Pink Studio with Lee Marles, on guitar and Dave Dix engineering. We then went to Bologna to mix the album.

During my time in Italy with Lee Marles, I lost the lease on the studio at Ullet Rd, due to my solicitor’s negligence, and was given notice to quit. I was devastated at the time but this would turn out to be a godsend.