Entertainment For Lively Minds
Were you ever in a band?
I was, when i was at school.(late 70`s early 80`s)
Formed in the lower sixth and about as cliche`d as you could get for a white middle class boy from Gt Yarmouth.
Hence, bad (as in very bad) cover versions of, yep, "Smoke on the water", "Woman from Tokyo", "Paranoid" and a couple of Magnum covers, to name but a few. We did later branch out and attempt The Stranglers "Something better change" but basically we wanted to rock.
We were called Damaged Goods which was far too new wave/ punk really.
The Band
Leader Singer. Couldn`t hold a note but had an eye for the ladies. Now quite high up in Suffolk Constabulary and featured quite prominently in the Suffolk Ripper investigations a few years back
Keyboards. The musical genius bahind the band. A boffin who could play pretty much anything and worked out all the music for all the band.
Guitar. Highly strung, technically very proficient. T****r.
Drummer. Nicknamed Sticks. The solid part of the solid rhythm section.
Bassist. Me. All other positions were filled.
We practised every Saturday in a Community Hall. When we got bored we kicked a polystyrene head around. One day, after my Mum (having done the weekly shop at Fine Fare) had picked me and my Westone Thunder One bass and Laney 30 watt amp up, she stopped on the way home and asked if I seriously thought we were going to make it. I think the mock A levels were on the way.
We played two gigs, above a friends Mums bakery on the High Street. A friend did the lights (i.e, turned them on at the first crash of the powerchords) and recorded it. The drummer still has the tapes somewhere complete with sneery comments about Deep Purple from the one trendy Echo and Bunnymen fan we knew.
We got played on Radio 1 though, having sent in a jingle to the Mike Reed show, written by The Keyboard player of course.
That was pretty much it once University and the wonderful world of work called.
I loved it all though and i`m trying to banish all thoughts of "getting the band together again when i`m 50" in 5 years.
Anyone else have any similar stories?
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I have a soft spot for Uriah Heep
simply because theirs was the first song I ever played on stage in public. There is a whole generation that will never know the thrill of trying to force a barred G chord down on a catalogue guitar, fuzz pedals made from Maplin parts by the geeky guy in your chemistry class, and the joy of locating just the right groove on the vinyl LP so that you can lift the tone arm up and play that riffy bit over again until you have an approximation of it ready to go at the next rehearsal. 'Magwytch' we were called (yes, I was doing 'O' level English at the time) and I spent a great deal of time shouting the fret numbers at the bass player so he could play the E string appropriately - ("Three! Eight! Ten! Eight! Three!"). I once wrote a rockin' little number of which the chords were C,A,B,B,A,G,E. It was a terrible song, but no-one ever forgot the riff.
http://skirky.blogspot.com/2010/08/do-put-your-daughter-on-stage-mrs.htm...
You`re quite right.
It is a thrill. Playing music live is brilliant. Even if you were crap (we were we were) it`s still brilliant. And even if you were crap, a tiny tiny part of you still thought you were fantastic.
Are you sure i wasn`t your bass player? It all sounds very familiar.
Trouble is
You said he was a t****r!
Once a bassist...
I miss my bass, it shows how long ago since I played...the other day I snapped the smallest (thinnest) string on my six-string acoustic (probably thrashing away to a Black Flag album or something like that) so popped into the music store to get a new one.
I automatically asked the chap for a new G string. Got it home ready to string up and suddenly remembered the G string is the smallest string on a bass, NOT a bloody guitar!
Scream & Scream Again
The best post-punk band you've never heard of.
Formed in the very rock & roll town of Cheltenham in 1978 with yours truly on drums, Scream & Scream Again changed the course of popular music. Rehearsing on Sunday afternoons in a smelly basement on the London Road (right before Killing Joke, fact fans!) we honed our craft until we were ready to be unleashed upon an unsuspecting public with our debut at the Subscription Rooms in Stroud supporting UB40 on their very first tour. Subsequent support slots included Generation X at the Jamaican Club in Gloucester and the UK Subs at Witcombe Lodge, near Gloucester, with Blurt supporting us! We even had a hot chick on bass!
But the dream didn't last long and we broke up the following year mostly due to the fact that we really weren't very good and none of us could actually play. But you know what? Despite never having picked up a pair of drum sticks before, and the bass player had never picked up an instrument before (and the singer had never sung before) at least we gave it a go.
The last time I was in Cheltenham I noticed there's still an "SASA" logo graffiti'd on a wooden fence on Fauconberg Road. The band may be no more, the music may have died but the name lives on.
scream and scream again
well,where to start,i think you may have got a few things wrong in your post,the first gig was at witcombe lodge with the subs,blurt etc,dont remember playing the sub rooms in stroud,though we did play the marshall rooms surpporting the vox phantoms,managed by pete aston and promoted by chris garland,remember the reheasing in the basement,i have been doing work for micky whose flat it was for years,he went on to drum for another band i was in a r`n`b band chicken lickin yours truly playing blues harp and singing the odd song he now drums for profoundly blue,its been a long time mate,and yes we did have a hot chick on bass,i lived with her for years,saddly the graffiti is no more,might have to do somthing about that,nearly forgot after you left 2nd line up played with the exploited and the passions,and the 3rd with billy brag,the line up alasdair patrick drums sian evans bass kev eden guitar liam o`connell guitar andy leitch vocals,liam is now in noise agents check out you tube all the best mate in the U.S of A
Is this Andy?
Tie me to a tree and call me Brenda!! Blimey. The UK Subs was the last night of Witcombe Lodge. That was our debut gig? Funny how the mind and 33 years can alter perception.
The Marshall Rooms were in Stroud? I remember playing somewhere in Stroud, anyway.
I'm an old man now. I don't remember much anymore.
Allergy then Whiskey Bottle
in Guildford '72-'75. I was the drummer, younger brother on lead guitar, mates on bass and 2nd guitar. At the big gigs at the Civic Hall we pestered the life out of a local promoter to put us on at the Gin Mill club in a bingo hall on a Tuesday night. One night, he said 'yes' - we shit ourselves. We were to support Be Bop Deluxe! To cut a long story short, Bill Nelson cancelled three hours before the show due to bad acne (bad? I'll show you bad, tosser.) The big local band, Peaches, stepped in at the last minute. We were good, even though we had nicked a riff from Peaches and put it into a song of our own - they weren't too pleased. We got paid £3 between us. A few other gigs but then that was it. I settled for marriage and a steady income, younger brother nearly made it and still has his own band in Oz. Even younger brother, who I gave my drum kit to, went on to be a pro songwriter, number one hits here, top ten in the U.S.
Do I think about it? Not every day!
Sunday Drivers
It was all down hill after supporting Mega City 4 on our second gig.
Strangely enough there's a Spanish group of the same name these days.
Sunday Drivers
Seems to ring a bell with me for some reason.
Were you Liverpool or thereabouts based? Seem to think my mate was either a member of the band or a big fan.
I was in a band with my friend Matt and his brother Simon...
we were called Roi (pronounced Roy) but sadly never got out of the living room rehearsal space.
We had a demo tape with 2 songs on it. But in our heads we had a series of albums ready to go...
Roi
Roi II
Roi III
Untitled
Houses of the Roi
Physical Roi
etc
We may have been hindered by the fact that we were shite.
At university some chums and I...
formed a band to play at the Students Union Battle Of The Bands which was, as usual chock full of Cure-alike, Guns 'n' Roses-lite and Jamiroquite student bands. We rocked up with a vocalist, an acoustic guitar, a viola player, an accordion and a bass guitar (and NO DRUMS - to much scorn and amusement from all and sundry) and announced ourselves as being "Seaport Confusion".
Rocked out some covers of Matty Groves, Crazy Man Michael, The Hiring Fair, Meet On The Ledge and a couple of hastily constructed originals. Ended up coming second (to the shoe in rugby club band "Chips 'n' Gravy" - no prizes for guessing their set-list) much to all the others' amazement and annoyance.
We were so shocked at the success that we decided to actually continue as a proper band. Renamed ourselves "Tintagel" and spent the next 4 or 5 years as weekend warriors around the folk and pub circuit plus a few festival fringes.
Highlights included playing the Big Top at Greenbelt to a packed audience a residency at a local pub's comedy night where we provided warm-up music at the start and between acts. Ended up supporting the likes of, if memory serves, Linda Smith, Mark Steele, Eddie Izzard and Bill Bailey (in his Rubber Bishops guise).
Still play bass now and then as a hobby all these years later in a covers band and at church.
I was in this band...
...and curiously, there's every chance that we might play again next year...for the first time in over 20 yrs!
Check out my band from 1994..;-)....Ditch
I'm the lead singer...I banged out the riff and lyrics in about a 1/2 Hour.We never made a cent but we put a fair amount of effort into it over a few years and played some fairly big shows.Never had a clue there was any footage out there till an old bandmate emailed to say we were on Youtube.Cheers
Yes.
I was in a band called Idiot Bear. We thought we were ace. We were probably quite good on our best day, if I'm honest. Had deals with two infinitesimal indie labels and got played on the radio in Portugal once. We weren't any great shakes, barring a handful of rather nice tunes. But luckily that didn't matter, since that band gave me my best friends, who remain so to this day, and some of the best times and memories of my life.
Here we are, aged all of 19. That's me on the left, and Roo of this parish (drums) on the right in the specs. People who have actually met me will note alarming lack of, erm, pie-induced girth.
I was also briefly in the lovely Karma Errors, the Blog Band, which I started and then promptly quit when I realised I didn't have the time or the inclination to be in a band these days. They are, I imagine, going from strength to strength under the expert stewardship of Hannah, Katy, Stick, Specs and co.
And I have a little two-person electro-pop-with-guitars thing going with a friend which might turn into something. But it's not a band. I'm done with bands!