The Pellicle Mixtape Volume 13 — Burning Sky Brewery Founder Mark Tranter
Welcome to The Pellicle Mixtape, a regular feature where I (Pellicle co-founder Jonathan Hamilton) will be asking people from across the food and drink industry to create a playlist set to a theme of their choosing.
The hope is to gain a small insight into that person and their place of work through not only their song choices but also the thought process and level of obsessiveness they put into their mixtape. I’ll also be asking them what they’ve been enjoying eating and drinking recently, and finding out what else has been exciting them in the world of food and drink.
In this, lucky number 13 in the Pellicle Mixtape series, we have a very special guest in the form of Mark Tranter, founder of Burning Sky in Firle, East Sussex with a direct from vinyl to C90 cassette, which has then been digitised.
As far as the modern UK brewing scene goes there aren’t many brewers that command the same level of respect as Mark does. Before starting Burning Sky in 2013 he worked at Sussex brewery Dark Star for 17 years, becoming head brewer in 2001. It was with Dark Star I learned about Mark and the beers he was making back around 2010. My ex-partner is from Brighton and much of my early twenties were spent in the city, at the same time I was getting into beer in a big way. At this point I hadn’t considered a career in the industry, but I will always remember drinking pints of Dark Star APA on cask at country pubs in East Sussex.
In 2011 I moved to Stevenage for a year working, for “The Man” at Big Pharma and while the pub selection was pretty poor in general with almost every pub belonging to Greene King. But, across town, around a 35 minute cycle from my house was a pub called Our Mutual Friend, which seemed to be the only Free House in the town, and would host occasional beer festivals.
I have no idea how many times I went to that pub, or what I drank but I do remember distinctly having Dark Star Saison on cask in 2011 and it was like nothing I had ever had before. This beer would set Mark down a path that would ultimately lead him to starting Burning Sky two years later, and for me, it was one of a few defining beers of that year which would cause me to return to Edinburgh and sign up for my Masters in Brewing and Distilling.
I followed the progress of Burning Sky with—and at the risk of sounding very uncool to Mark—obsessive interest from their first bottle releases, from one of the first meet the brewer events in Edinburgh, through to the first vintages of the Anniversaire and Cuvée, to the first spontaneous brews and canned beers. Over the years, I’ve lost count of the times I’ve celebrated a holiday, or special occasion has been celebrated by opening a 750 (or Magnum) of Burning Sky. I’ve been lucky to become friends with most of the team over the years, and in the summer if 2017 I got to spend a week there learning from, and hanging out with Mark, Tom, Robin (now at Beak Brewery), Paula and Luke.
It was a special week, getting to leave the madness of London, and the scale of production at Beavertown to spend time in the idyllic countryside of Firle filling casks, bottling beer and importantly learning more about barrel maintenance and cleaning. Despite spending my teens in the Northern Irish countryside, I still found novelty in the village shop, and the fact that the main street where Burning Sky is located is simply named, “The Street.”
I don’t need to convince anyone of the significance of Mark or Burning Sky to the brewing industry in this country, that’s a given. But, if you’ve even seen a photo of Mark you may have noticed he’s pretty much always wearing a band t-shirt, usually from a punk band. Mark’s not a man of many words (although the words you do get are well-considered and thoughtful). When you get him talking about music, however, you can tell just how much it means to him, and how important music is at the brewery, from the artwork that adorns the bottles and cans to the stack of CDs piled up in the kitchen. One memory that stands out from my week at Burning Sky was cleaning down on a Friday and listening to Thunder and Lightning by Thin Lizzy with the lyrics:
“Like thunder and lightning,
God damn, it's so exciting,
It hits you like a hammer,
Goddamn!”
Anyway, that’s enough from me, you’re here for Mark.
Enjoy!
Volume 13 — Burning Sky Brewery Founder Mark Tranter
Music has been a massive part of my life since I was a teenager. The first show I went to was Iron Maiden on the Power Slave tour but quickly tired of stadium type affairs and most gigs I have been to are small intimate shows. With one notable exception, a friend and I went to see the amazing jazz drummer, Max Roach at the Barbican. He was playing with the New York Gospel choir—in our naivety, we thought the choir would be the support band. Amazing—the most effortless drumming ever.
I did a music fanzine with a few friends—notably, Simon Gane who does all the brewery's artwork. Looking back the content was pretty bad but Simon's artwork ensured we sold a lot. When I moved to Brighton in February '95, I quickly hooked up with my friend Tim (who now lives in Tasmania) and helped him do his little record label and distribution. At this time, Simon was doing a lot of art for punk bands too.
Tim and I put on many bands over a few short years, meeting people from all over the world. One of the highlights was the balmy August of '96 when we put Los Crudos from Chicago on. They stayed with me for a few days, we played crab football on Hove Lawns, drank beer and laughed a lot. They were Hispanic and one was an “illegal” immigrant, so he never went back to the U.S. but fell in love in Italy and there he remained.
For my mixtape, I decided to break your rules and reinstate an actual tape. So, it's 90 minutes long—the preferred choice of the mixtape connoisseur, more time than a C-60 and less fragile than the maverick C-120. There are quite a lot of songs on it,—certainly more than 20 because unused tape is wasted tape! On tape and every song from vinyl. When it was put to digital, it wasn't compressed and all *crackles* + my mistakes were kept in. Honestly, I had forgotten how much fun it was to make a tape and be surrounded by vinyl on the floor that you haven't got the time to put back in the sleeve, cos the next track is demanding your attention.
Vinyl is the theme, music spanning 35+ years of my life. I have a lot of different music in different formats but it had to be from vinyl and with far too many records, I am not short on choice. Song one starts the tape and then everything else follows in an organic 'this would sound good after that' fashion. Some songs on there are some of my favourites ever but equally a lot of my favourite songs aren't—cos that's the way of the mixtape.
Liner notes
Side 1:
Fatamorgana are just beautiful, their sound is amazing and dream-like. Released by my friend Paco on La Vida Es Un Mus, there is never a dull moment with the records P puts out. Their trance like sound is followed by a song from the tape trading '80s minimal wave scene and it sounds timeless.
Followed by a tune from Bordeaux duo Black Bug, that is more relevant than ever. As we change pace, Rudimentary Peni lead us on a merry dance with a song off their first ep—I was lucky enough to see them in '91 at one of their rare live shows. There has never been a band quite like them—tagged with Anarcho Punk, lauded by high brow types and with Nick Blinko's incredible art collected by Outsider Galleries.
Wire follow and it cannot be stressed how important/ influential this band is. The 15th is one of my favourite songs off their 3rd LP and as I type this, it's totally in my head - beautiful. Talking of beautiful, Shake some Action is a great power pop song by proto-punkers The Flaming Groovies. Better than Cheap Trick, this sets the sound for a summer. Tenessesse's Nots are totally back on form after a fairly dull second album—fuzzed out and bass driven with swirling noise and great vocals, these ladies ROCK!
Next, Special Interests sound like an amped up version of The Slits with a dirty pounding disco beat. They played a small show in Brighton just before the lockdown and rocked the place. Foolishly, I missed it—I think I was in Cornwall—so not all bad! Now we head west. I hail from the West Country, there is a lot of punk history in the West Country, fuelled by farmhouse cider with varying degrees of success. This is one of Chaos UK's finest moments—so if you don't like it—don't look any further. Fond memories of seeing them live with the Wurzels at Bristol Bierkeller.
Discharge made Stoke more famous than pottery, spawning a kazillion bands aping that 'D-beat' sound. Love it! Bikini Kill were amazing live and really empowered the female audience/ bands and individuals. Challenging, always relevant and kinda started the Riot grrrl movement. But listen to Poly Styrene's vocals on the next track and see just how influential she was. Died way too young, left a legacy and empowered millions.
The Big Boys were a fantastic punk band from Texas - set up a whole scene, didn't sound like anyone else, just effortless. Red Hot Chilli Peppers were inspired to start by them—which is a downside. They played on the same bill a few times and everyone thought they were a joke—The little Big Boys. Great song about the music industry.
L7—I love this song and apart from it being great, there is a bit of personal history here: me age 17 in Los Angeles in 1989 for 10 weeks. Some friends drove me to a show at Fenders Ballroom in Long Beach in a Cadillac with no license plates and a crate of Budweiser in the trunk. L7 played with 45 Grave and Haunted Garage. L7 were great—I'd never heard of them. Then a bunch of skinheads ran amok, furniture and fists flew, noses were bloodied. We drove back, mostly unscathed. That same summer, Green Day played in my friends living room for his birthday party/gig with Neurosis.
After all that, Supernought is just the most righteous riffer ever. Words don't do it justice—plain amazing. Just enough room to squeeze in a song by X of their third LP, one of the best of the early LA punk scene, combining punk with a furtive nod to Americana. Art, poetry, great tunes and a love affair between Exene and John Doe.
Time to turn it over.
Side B:
Victory by Nomeansno is a bit risky at 8 minutes or so but it is my life's mantra—so here it is, 'What about you, could you be a friend to me?' Always amazing live, inspired musically and lyrically. Disbanded after decades of action, John Wright now has a craft beer bar somewhere in Canada. Television Personalities are underrated geniuses to most, put on pedestals by those that know. Dan Treacy is a shambolic laureate and these words and musical notations are timeless.
Suddenly we are back in the West Country and I cannot stress just how important the Subhumans are to me. Dick Lucas is a clever wordsmith and a lovely chap. In a recent email, I reminded him of me visiting his attic room in Melksham—Bluurg Records HQ, circa '88/'89. He remembers. An awkward and shy teenager, I cycled there through country lanes, skipping school. The Subhumans are still going and are still great live. The last band I saw before the lockdown, they may well be the first I see after it.
CRASS. Love them or hate them, they are beyond important to punk rock, independent music as a whole, art and idealism. I like them more now than ever. An almost rap-like beat and scratching guitar. Guns! Leads neatly into BDP with KRS-One and the late Scott La Rock. Writing about life in the Bronx in the '80s, they pioneered what would become gangsta rap. Essential.
John Lee Hooker. I won't even attempt to write anything about this man—just watch some footage of him playing the guitar. This song is a beauty, which sucks you in with a kindly voice only to present harrowing imagery.
The Au Pairs are perhaps not as famous as their post-punk peers, Gang of Four, but are equally relevant musically with Lesley Woods talking/singing about things that in the late '70s/early '80s were not popular topics in mainstream music—sexual politics/the treatment of political prisoners during the troubles etc. etc.
If you don't like Mötörhead, then I'm not sure if we can be friends. The classic line up of Lemmy, Fast Eddie and Phil Taylor—they looked like the most badass gang. Not wanting to be labelled as anything but rock and roll, they paved the way for countless other more famous, yet insipid bands. I still can't believe that none of them walk this earth anymore.
Bad Brains, they just didn't sound like anyone else with stop-on-a-dime guitar riffs and drum breaks, insane bass lines and HR's uncopyable vocals hurled out in between backflips. Early on, they were apparently just incredible. I saw them when they were 'past their best' in the late '80s and they were still incredible.
Black Flag probably held equal time on my teenage record player as the Subhumans and still do now. I love the early stuff with Greg Ginn's percussive riffing on his guitar. Their label, SST, put out some of the most important punk and alternative music ever such as the Minutemen. See, this is why I love early punk music—it wasn't cliched, it was ideas, creativity and boundless energy. This group wrote some amazing songs—hundreds of them. Their magnum opus, Double Nickels on the Dime, has 48 songs, written and recorded in two weeks but this song is off their first EP, 'cos everyone was just scratching their heads about them when it came out.
Zounds were a bunch of hippies really, punk maybe—folk songs too. Touring with the equally fantastic The Mob, they carved their own circuit. I love the pop-like sensibilities of this song, with Steve Lake sounding tired of everything in the world. Dead Moon (and their other related bands), epitomised D.I.Y. They built their own house/music store, cut their own records on a lathe they bought, that apparently cut the Kingsmen's Louie Louie and played some driving garage rock 'n' roll. And we reach the end. Hüsker Dü, another SST band are just next level. I remember buying Zen Arcade at a record fair in Bath when I was a kid. I don't think it came off the turntable for a couple of weeks. Here they do that rare thing of covering a song and totally burying the original.
The end—thanks for listening!
What have you been drinking recently?
The last pint of beer I drank in a pub was Harveys Best at The Six Bells in Chiddingly. It was the last Friday lunchtime that the pubs would be open. Claire and I went there—it is one of our favourite places to go, a country pub like no other. Since the lockdown, we have just existed in a bubble. We live and work in the countryside, I've been to the supermarket 3 times in as many months.
So we have mainly been getting “high on our own supply.” But with Middle Farm open again, I can get pints of Burrow Hill and Westcombe cider, which I love! Tom Olivers 'At the Hop', also. We shared some Mills beers after work the other week—sitting out in the sun at a safe social distance, which was lovely. There had been two birthdays that week at the brewery and it felt really good to raise a glass with a few people. I tend to pop a bottle of Gueuze at the weekends and with the weather being so kind recently, sit in the garden, or field just looking at the countryside. Oh, and I am partial to a slightly chilled tumbler of French red.
Where/What have you been eating recently?
Life at the moment is very cyclomatic. Obviously, we've not been anywhere to eat of late but cook at home every day—something I learnt from my parents—well my mum! We eat well and healthily—curries, chilis, stews, pasta, roasted veg, occasionally some fish and chicken on the BBQ.
I managed to pick a year's supply of wild garlic in about 15 minutes. I then had to carry it 5 miles home in bags and it took me two evenings to blitz it all up with olive oil and freeze into portions. But it is so worth it! We love this stirred through pasta like pesto and topped with slow-roasted tomatoes, toasted hazelnuts and some Parmesan.
The garden is starting to come to life now, we've had chard wilted with lemon juice and garlic as a side to a BBQ. It won't be long till we have the courgette season upon us. I really like them spiralized raw in a salad with cherry tomatoes, kalamata olives, feta, mint, lemon zest and toasted pumpkin seeds.
What have you been reading recently?
I'm finding it almost impossible to switch off at the moment—as I'm sure many people are. When I'm like this, I have the attention span of a gnat—so reading is difficult for me. I rarely follow recipes or read foodie things (other than restaurant reviews), but the best cookbooks I have bought in recent times are Ottolenghi's Simple and Meera Sodha's Made in India.
Drinks-wise, similar—that said I really enjoy historical brewing books and as a younger brewer, Brewing Great Beers by Ray Daniels was an inspiration (as it was for many of my peers). Maybe my favourite drink-related book is Au vrai zinc Parisien. Many a bimble has been inspired by this pocket-sized reference book par excellence!
Otherwise, I'm rereading Cider with Rosie and As I walked out one midsummer morning by Laurie Lee. Dreaming of being able to do the Cotswold Way with Claire, as was planned this year and reacquainting ourselves with The Woolpack in Slad. I'll probably re-read my copy of Wind in the Willows, again soon—given to me on my first birthday by my paternal grandparents. Meanwhile, I'll just roam the Downs, finding my own paths.
Best new to me fiction I've read recently would be": Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons.
Most “makes you so angry,” would be equal to: Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison and Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown.
About the strange human condition would be: The Train by George Simonen.
Unputdownable and possibly the best book I have ever read (many times): East of Eden by Steinbeck
Graphic novel: Monster by Naoki Urasawa (thanks Si!).
Others: Black Boy by Richard Wright, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, The Gilt Kid by James Curtis.
