Sarah Jones (; born 30 November 1960) is an English artist and musician. She joined the rock band Cardiacs in 1980 as a multi-instrumentalist, debuting on the album Toy World (1981), and married frontman and guitarist Tim Smith in 1983, becoming known as Sarah Smith. She became the saxophonist and a core member of the band's classic six-piece lineup, also contributing clarinet, recorders and vocals. After On Land and in the Sea (1989), she left Cardiacs in 1989 and later separated from Tim. She continued to play with the group in the studio and occasionally on stage, appearing on their albums as a guest, and retained the Smith name after her and Tim's divorce.
With Tim and keyboardist William D. Drake, Sarah played in the Cardiacs offshoot groups Mr and Mrs Smith and Mr Drake in the 1980s and the Sea Nymphs in the 1990s. Based in Malvern since 1999, she became Sarah Jones in 2002 from marrying Omnia Opera bassist Andy Jones. Since returning to art 2004, Sarah Jones has taught batik workshops in schools, formed the company Eekbatik with Marie-Therese King in 2008, and done art installations. Musically, she has recorded her own unshared compositions, completed work on the Sea Nymphs second album On the Dry Land (2016), composed a soundtrack for her and her brother Matthew Cutts' Transplant art installation and appeared on songs by Omnia Opera and Spratleys.
Life and career
Early life and education Jones was born Sarah Cutts on 30 November 1960, in Coleford, Gloucestershire to artists Jo (née Furmark) and Mike Cutts. Her parents were both abstract painters. Her younger brother Matthew Cutts was born in 1963. As Sarah's grandparents were all fishermen, she used to go down to the quay in North Shields when she was little. From 1977 to 1981, Cutts studied printmaking at Camberwell College of Arts, receiving a BA in graphic design and printmaking.
1980–1990: Full-time member of Cardiacs Cutts joined the cult British band Cardiacs, fronted by Tim Smith, as a multi-instrumentalist in the second half of 1980, The band had released a single and cassette as Cardiac Arrest before shortening their name to Cardiacs and releasing the Toy World cassette in 1981, by which time Cutts had joined on saxophone and keyboards. The cassette marked the debut of Cutts on keyboard, saxophone and vocals and was the last album with Colvin Mayers, who plays keys on a few tracks; most of the keyboards are split between Tim and Sarah, who also plays clarinet. According to Mark Cawthra, who joined the band as drummer in 1979, they didn't have any polyphonic keyboard until Cutts paid for a string machine. Writer Eric Benac said that her saxophone skill allowed Tim to expand his arrangement possibilities, emphasising the influence of Van der Graaf Generator and adding to the feeling of the track "A Big Noise in a Toy World" being "almost straight ska, but with new wave tweaks."
In 1983, Tim Smith married Cutts, who since became known as Sarah Smith. By then, Tim had found other musicians to translate his more ambitious pieces, including percussionist Tim Quy and keyboardist William D. Drake. Sarah would primarily become the band's saxophonist as a semi-stable line-up had emerged by 1983 around Tim Smith (guitar, vocals), Jim Smith (bass, vocals), Quy (percussion, keyboards), Drake (keyboards, vocals), Sarah, and Dominic Luckman (drums) which became known as the band's classic line up. Tim, Sarah and Drake were the only Cardiacs members who could read music. According to Quy, Tim Smith had music written out which didn't fit the Cardiacs genre, so a side project probably called the Cardiacettes was formed of Tim, Luckman and Quy, as well as Sarah on occasion, to rehearse and record some.
The band's shows were characterised by a pantomime theatricality: Tim Smith would harangue his bass-playing brother Jim and kiss Sarah. Tim and Sarah would engage in French-kissing, groping and hand holding on stage; sometimes Sarah would get pushed and shoved a bit. Drake recalled someone spitting at Sarah at a Cardiacs set supporting Marillion, with Tim kicking him in the mouth in time to the music.
"Hello Mr. Sparrow" was written by Tim and Sarah, and features countermelodies from Sarah. "A Wooden Fish on Wheels" includes sax breakdowns from Sarah, which Benac called "particularly powerful" in the context of the track's straighter ska rhythm and tempo. On "To Go Off and Things", the command "take it Sarah" is followed by an "eruption of electronic mayhem".
With sound engineer Graham Simmonds, who was a guitarist of Cardiacs for a brief period between 1983 and 1984, Tim and Sarah collaborated on the recording of Shock of Daylight by the Sound in 1984. The first side group to take shape from Cardiacs was called Mr & Mrs Smith & Mr Drake, which materialised in a single self-titled album released in 1984 on Alphabet. On Mr and Mrs Smith and Mr Drake, Tim, Sarah and Drake put aside the noisy, punk inclinations of Cardiacs and dedicate themselves to acoustic sketches which, according to Ondarock, sit between Henry Cow, Canterbury-style indolence, and chamber folk. Sarah's sax and woodwind create orchestral layers underpinning each composition, while her childlike singing adds a "sweet but sad" atmosphere to the three’s choral reveries. Her voice comes up primarily in harmonies, taking the lead a few times. Sarah's sax adds to the strange mood of "Little Creations", while the beginning of "Camouflage" has Tim and Sarah on guitar and melodica, respectively. Benac said Sarah's sax on the chorus of "The Collar" brings an immediate contrast that Tim Smith's more abstract song's on the album sometimes lack. The album's first instrumental, "All the String", has tuned percussion playing a melody from "Camouflage" which is later mirrored on Sarah's melodica. The album's penultimate song "Dergo" starts with Sarah on a melodica drone. On the song, she sings "Wild thing, you make everything groovy," in a soft choral melancholic call as a nod to the Troggs' classic "Wild Thing" which can also be heard on the Cardiacs song "It's a Lovely Day". Writing for Fact magazine, Alexander Tucker said that Sarah "shines throughout".
In 1986, Graham Bendel wrote to Cardiacs asking them what their influences were. In her responding letter, Sarah extensively explained how the "unhinged" sound of the band came to be, citing Van der Graaf Generator, Deaf School, Wire, Gentle Giant, Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias, and others as influences. According to Sean Kitching of The Quietus, Sarah had once said to him that she thought Tim Smith used too many ideas in one song much of the time, and that he could have easily made an entire pop career out of just one or two of his tunes. In a rare interview without Tim, Sarah said that Tim was a workaholic who would work all night and go to sleep in the morning.
Although Cardiacs were ousiders of the industry, in 1987, the tabloid the Sunday Sport ran a double-page "exposé" story which falsely claimed that Tim and Sarah Smith were siblings in an incestuous relationship, as Tim had managed to persuade a Sunday Sport journalist that they were brother and sister. When fractions of the media mistook their relationship as siblings instead of man and wife, it found the band embroiled in a brief stir that predated a similar controversy between Jack and Meg White of the White Stripes by more than a decade. Tim and Sarah played along with the reports. Reed called the story the band's "one brief moment of infamy", while Marco Sgrignoli of Ondarock called it a publicity stunt of dubious effectiveness. An article in The Glasgow Herald in January 1987 also named Sarah as Tim's sister."Stoneage Dinosaurs" features a saxophone solo by Sarah, which was played note for note on guitar by Jon Poole during concerts in the late 90s. Sarah plays a bluesy saxophone part throughout "All Spectacular", giving the sing-along concert favourite an amiable and open feel. "Loosefish Scapegrace" builds to an artful crescendo which "almost becomes R&B" through Sarah's sax and Tim's guitar. On "All His Geese Are Swans!", Sarah emphasizes different melodies on her saxophone, varying the same melody with the band as one of the standout instrumentalists along with Drake. The 1987 lineup recorded their debut studio album A Little Man and a House and the Whole World Window (1988), with the band working through the night to complete the album. Sarah contributed saxophone, clarinet, recorder and vocals.
"T.V.T.V." from Archive Cardiacs released in 1989 has horn likely played by Sarah. On 1989's On Land and in the Sea, "Arnald" features Sarah's saxophone and many keyboards including harpsichord. On "Horse Head", Sarah comes in for the line "All he wants to do is quietly breathe". "Buds and Spawn" goes into a stop-start rhythm as Sarah and Drake play "fast paced, proggy melodies reminiscent of Van der Graaf Generator or Yes."
"Everything Is Easy!", a concert favourite released on the 1991 album Songs for Ships and Irons, prominently features Sarah, with her saxophone playing the main melody hooks.
1991–2003: The Sea Nymphs and Shrubbies, guesting with Cardiacs, homeopathy The commercial failure of On Land and in the Sea led the band members to reconsider their prospects and started leaving on amicable terms. Soon after, the classic six-piece lineup disspiated. Sarah Smith was the first to announce her departure, and left in April 1989, removing saxophone from their sound with no replacement chosen. Christian "Bic" Hayes joined as the band's second guitarist, brought in by Tim who felt another instrumentalist was needed without Sarah. They separated in the early '90s so Sarah could "be a full-time witch and live in the woods with the snails". She retained the Smith name, even after their divorce, continued to play with the group in the studio and occasionally on stage, and would guest on future albums, preferring to appear on their albums as a guest than as a full-time Cardiac. Sarah was an official member for a day for a concert on 30 August 1990 at the Salisbury Arts Centre, as they recorded for the live album and film All That Glitters Is a Mare's Nest. According to Benac, Quy and Sarah would never play live with the band again after the concert. At one point, Sarah's sax lost its keys and her sound kept cutting out so that she couldn't hear herself. In addition to leaving the band in 1990, her marriage with Tim Smith ended in divorce.
Sarah played saxophones on "England's", a track on Tim Smith's solo album Tim Smith's Extra Special OceanLandWorld (1995) which was recorded in 1989 and 1990. The Sea Nymphs was formed by Tim Smith as a spin-off project involving him, Sarah and Drake. The Mr & Mrs Smith & Mr Drake trio renamed themselves the Sea Nymphs from 1991 for subsequent releases, because by the time the trio changed their name, Tim and Sarah were no longer a married couple and Sarah and Drake had moved on from Cardiacs. Even so, the Sea Nymphs continued to perform live. The project offered a gentler side of Tim Smith's creative output, with Sarah contributing wind instruments, percussion and voice to the group. Drake recalled at their album sessions in Rhosneigr, Anglesey they would get up late and Sarah would cook them "some gulls' eggs that she'd foraged for, and maybe some wild potatoes that she'd dug up from somewhere."