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Joe Gideon & The Shark basking in glory thanks to snap of fate’s jaws
Words Niall O’Keffe
If Archie Bronson Outfit had a bigger tour bus, Joe Gideon & The Shark wouldn’t exist.
There was once a band called Bikini Atoll - a quartet. The Archies wanted Bikini Atoll as their support band, but only had space for two on their bus, so singing guitarist Joe Gideon and his sister Viva joined the tour as a blues-punk duo. They haven’t looked back, despite Joe’s early misgivings. “Viva couldn’t play the drums!” he remembers during a pre-show chat at The Free Butt in Brighton. “She was trying to tell me that she could - just give her six weeks! So that’s exactly what we did.”
Viva’s versatility is well proven. In 1992, she competed in the Barcelona Olympics as a rhythmic gymnast. Subsequently she worked as a professional dancer, before joining Bikini Atoll as pianist. Now, as The Shark, she alternates frantically between vocals, keyboards and drums, making heavy use of loops. Joe, meanwhile, writes lyrics of great warmth, spiced with wicked satirical humour. He names Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Waits as inspirations.
Another man plainly had a big influence on Joe and on Viva too: their dad. In the seventies and eighties, Alan Seifert managed Elkie Brooks, Toyah Wilcox and Marianne Faithfull. To his son, he bequeathed a love of Talking Heads. With his daughter he would watch musicals: Singing In The Rain, Cover Girl. “That’s my real musical influence,” she says today.
“That and Faust,” corrects Joe.
Everything’s been falling into place for the duo. A deal with Bronzerat Records led to sessions with PJ Harvey producer Head and an excellent debut album, Harum Scarum. They’ve meanwhile honed an hypnotic live show that flits from wit to wisdom, tenderness to ferocity, melody to noise.
Success is their destiny. Consider this: Roy Scheider, star of shark movie Jaws, appeared in 1979 musical All That Jazz as a drunken choreographer named... Joe Gideon. It’s almost too perfect.
Plainly, Archie Bronson Outfit will have to find a new support act. They’re going to need a bigger bus.
