20 posts tagged “bands”
Golden Cross - My Space bands
PIECE IN COVENTRY TELEGRAPH ABOUT IT HERE
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Read about Horace's New Book HERE
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"We work on the principle of Mutual Aid and devote our time to actively promoting an alternative to the big business of the Music Industry. We have no paid employees but rely on a collective of experienced people who believe in the ethic of cooperation. This is a project that has been 40 years in the making, which is now made possible by new technology.."
The Gnome are aiming for four releases each quarter and to develop from there (keep an eye on their site for details and developments) - Gnome Label and Gnome Fest
More details on these can be found on the Gnome Label site Here
"Songs from the Coventry Underground Is a collection of the earlier songs from poet and performer Trev Teasdel.
This is the guy that played an important role in the development of Coventry musical conciousness. He kept an alternative voice alive with the production of Hobo magazine that continued the trail from where the fading footprints of the Gnome could still be identified. Taking over the booking of live bands at the Arts Umbrella, he continued the policy that allowed many of the new local bands an airing as well as bringing in some excellent but not often seen names from outside of the City.
He also created one of the cornerstones of the Coventry Music scene, with the inception of the open jam sessions at the Holyhead Road Arts centre.
He left Coventry to study and has since been as active as ever, with an impressive workload of teaching new writers, running poetry magazines and venues from his Teesside home while still writing and performing his own material.
But that's not the only reason for choosing his work for this release. He is a master craftsman of his artform. His lyrics are carefully honed with the occasional surprise. The working of the words " under the Speenhamland scheme" into the lyric of Captain Swing, written some 20 years before the arrival of Billy Bragg, is phenomenal and deserves a place in the record books.
Aside from that, his work reverberates with the angst and expectations that many living in Coventry at the that time will have felt. Often written on long walks home up the London Road after the last bus, or in teabreaks while working at the GEC. The collective lyrics paint a picture of youthful exhilaration and myradiacl inspirations with echoes of revolt. Some might suggest that they could have been written in and about any city in those times. No they could only come from one place....Our Coventry.
Trev has posted many of his lyrics and the thought and activities behind their writing on his Vox space HERE
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The brilliant 1980 Coventry Album SENT FOR COVENTRY produced by Martin Bowes of Alternative Sounds
You can listen to excerpts from the tracks which include - The Wild Boys, Clique, The End, The Urge, Hot Snacks (Machine), Solid Action, The Mix, Vietnamese Babies, Squad, Riot Act, Protege, Homicide.
This is from the illustrious Two Tone Period in Coventry when Coventry was buzzing with musical life and bands. See the Alternative Sounds supplement with more info on the bands shortly - watch this space.
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All important music, songwriting, poetry and art isn't created in a Commercial vacuum. It reverberates with meaning, maybe with protest, towards a better way of living, often one that has tolerance for different creeds and cultures and respect for gender, race, the environment, peace and love, co-operation as opposed to exploitation,
The wider, international context of the 60's counter culture movement is well documented and here's a time line from 1960 to 1969 - HERE. There are a lot of stereotypes of what a Hippie was / is - the site linked tries to clarify that.
Much inspiration had been received from Gerrade Winstanley's Digger Movement in 1649 - influencing the formation of
In Coventry, in the late 60's / early 70's we had our own Diggers developing co-operative ventures and producing a magazine which was the first to give the Coventry music and counter culture a consciousness of itself - The Broadgate Gnome - represented here in it's new form.
The object of this post is to stimulate discussion / thought or research on how both the ideas of the 60's and growing up in post war Coventry helped to shape / characterise Coventry music, poetry and art. (Maybe somebody will rise to the challenge and study it - and there are plenty of primary sources and contacts on this site to facilitate it! If anybody does this - let us know - we'll help with sources). Here's some pointers -
During 50's and 60's, Coventry was in throes of a major regeneration programme as a result of the city centre being flattened in bombing raids during world war two. The regeneration programme wasn't just down to Hitler though, the process had begun in the 1930's - Trinity Street area had been redesign and plans for a new City Centre were on the drawing board. The bombing raids brought plans forward and widened their scope and significance. Musicians grew up in the a city that was at once highly industrialised with the Car factories and engineering and yet had brand new open-spaced city centre with the greenery of the Broadgate / Lady Godiva Island in the centre - a Phoenix city rising from the ashes! Many of the city's young musicians, writers and artists, growing up in the 60's balked at this bland 'Grey' industrial landscape, where all you could be, mostly, was someone who put bolts on cars on the Assembly lines. The symbolic image of this 'Grey' existence occurs in some of the songs that came out of the city -
The 'Grey' is mindless conformity, the 'default', the 'inevitable' - no one thinks for themselves in the land of 'Grey'. They get their opinions from the tabloids or the conventional opinion handed down to them.. They take the path of least resistance and not the one less trodden by. Their environment shapes them and they accept it (albeit begrudgingly sometimes).
The great thrust which came out in the music was to transcend the 'grey', To escape the Rat Race, the Ghost Town, the Concrete Jungle - all images which have come out of Coventry songs. The Broadgate Gnome called it 'Throb City'' - in reference to the background throb of the car factories all through the night - I think!
ESCAPE FROM THE 'GREY'
In Whispering Ned (by top Coventry folk band - Dando Shaft) - 1971 they sing -
Well he came to a land
where heads were banned
and the land was grand
and the people were grey
and they worked all day
in a diligent way
trying to keep out heads
and Whispering Neds
In the Selecter hit Three Minute Hero - Neol Davis wrote
THREE MINUTE HERO
(Neol Davies)
The Selecter
They asked you if you’re alright,
You say yes,
But all the time you know,
It’s a mess,
It’s 5 pm and you’re on your way home,
Just another day with that endless grey drone.
(Chorus):
Three minute hero,
I wanna be, a three minute hero,
I wanna be,
a three minute hero,
I wanna be, a three minute hero,
Drag yourself along the road,
Sit on the bus,
Switch on your transistor,
Cause a fuss,
It’s 11 pm and you’re on your way home,
Just another night with that endless grey drone.
(Chorus) I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be, A three minute hero, (Chorus): A three minute hero, I wanna be, A three minute hero, I wanna be, A three minute hero, I wanna be, A three minute hero,
It’s too early in the morning,
Stupid job,
Don’t wanna eat, can’t think straight,
Same as yesterday,
It’s 7 am and you’re leaving home,
Just another day with that endless grey drone,
(Chorus):
A three minute hero, I wanna be,
(Repeat to fade)
Escape from the ' Grey' Comes into some early poems by Dave Clarke (Printed in 1970 by a group of Diggers intheir magazine The Broadgate Gnome)
AN EXPERIMENT WITH TRADITIONAL RHYME AND STRONG STRESS METER
Dave Clarke
From Broadgate Gnome 1971
City you cannot last
Nor must you think that time gone past
Will remember you and say
This is how it should be today.
You have no roots, only bricks and mortar.
Conceived in conflict, concerned with slaughter
And shall your offspring, sons and daughters
Pay homage, or plot your doom
Perhaps in the fields at
Their eyes will turn towards your
Shadowed graves and marvel how once
Men lived like slaves.
In the depths of your swollen womb
Perhaps in green grey gardens through
Mirrored moons
They will sit peacefully and reflect
Upon your ghost forms, cold and derelict
None here will mourn your mutilated form
Nor yet will fevered eyes still gaze
In tomorrow’s dawn.
Upon your profit priests in suited grey
Atheist children all robed in nature
They will laugh aloud to read your beasts
Yet see no traces
Of your golden age of your super race
No gods or ghosts will walk this
Wretched ruin of yours
No angry groans or tortured moans will
Pour molten shapes, mutilated forms
That writhe in fear
No super races here
Only the watchful glare of shapeless
Moon and the eternal gloom of your
Quick, unlit tomb.
ON MOVEMENT AND PURPOSE
Spilling from the city's noise they come,
Slipping past evening's first opportune hour.
From the swollen abdomen of the factory some
Drone their weary way, through gate and tower,
Belched out at five.
They, faceless for a time, molten seep
Into human channels, consumed deep
In the irregular flood, at first a patterned tide
Split only by an aching, frenzied halt,
As, like tributaries unperceived, others join, match stride
-Ooze their thoughtless path, eager to assault
Drawn blank in an organic ritual.
Happy those who conjure imagination
Avoiding the fact that they bear no relation
To cloth arms and unknown feet
That move annoyingly close, almost familiar,
with their own purposeful, aimed retreat.
Many tread homeward with ideas similar
Hurrying towards some mystic meet.
Others from college, peacock daubed, set apart,
Flaunt homeward, promiscuously apparent for an early start.
Outcasts but design these, yet not quite free
from economies, or traditions or laws, or all that abstract oppose
The natural instinct. Chained in society;
Yet suspended for a time in freedom's awkward pose,
They, warlike, gimmick a possible future.
Condemned to learn, no tax form claims them or cares
Subtle in her wooing, society hides her snares
Challenging and extreme in her ultimate offering.
Parallel, roars man and machine
linked in dash-daring unison.
Revved hearts spurt mean
Grimaces, turned to defy, shun
Limits with limitless power.
Tailored for destruction, they combine in one
Machine, motor, mind and gun.
With fear streamlined in oiled silence
Watch how they move, slip gear, accelerate away
Substitute war or violence
with symbol. Linked thus, they may,
Fuse metal and power with hand and feet
Hide stature on cushion and seat,
'Till mover and moved blurr totally.
But more likely, they will use the thrill
of combining, creation and will,
To risk a future -
To answer in part the constant need
For measuring life, in space and speed
Seeking pleasure or praise or lust.
Watch though, how death rides too a wheelspin away
Rears at a junction, reducing move or stay
To mere instinct. Til machine and man
Lack purpose, unless the purpose be....
To eliminate the lapse between A and C
Between movement, pause and movement.
Dave Clarke - Coventry 1970
Song lyric By Trev Teasdel 1970 Coventry
As I pass the streets lined with tears of unexpressed souls
Rows of tins of compressed talents chained in their folds
Lines of ‘I could’ve been if I tried, but didn’t pursue my goals’
Chains of the ‘same as the day before and day before that’ plastic moulds
Boxes of ‘shun the new, it’ll be our ruin, stick to the beaten path’ holes
Chorus
I just put my face to my hands
My fear for to hide
That I might yet become just another
Flower of the Wayside.
Their bins are full of screwed up dreams from the morning of their youth
and yes they still have their dreams in the straight-jacket of their lives.
They follow convention down the steps, in his drunken waltz
To fall into the waters deep, to find they cannot swim, to find they cannot think.
They’re too busy not being busy trying to be themselves,
They’ve been hung up upon society allocated shelves.
They pay homage to the idle with numerals on his face
And as his arms rotate, they start their diurnal chase
Machines I once thought were extensions of men’s arms
But men have just become extensions of machines,
Turmoiling in their cogwheel confusion
While I stage my independence – the water bearer’s revolution.
r
You're working at your leisure to learn the things you'll need
The promises you make tomorrow carry no guarantee
I've seen your qualifications, you got a Ph.D.
I've got one art O-level, it did nothing for me
Working for the rat race
You know you're wasting your time
Working for the rat race
You're no friend of mine
You plan your conversation to impress the college bar
Just talking about your mother and daddy's Jaguar
Wear your political T-shirt and sacred college scarf
Discussing the world situation, but just for a laugh
You'll be working for the rat race
You know you're wasting your time
Working for the rat race
You're no friend of mine
Working for the rat race
You know you're wasting your time
Working for the rat race
You're no friend of mine
Just working at your leisure to learn the things you don't need
The promises you make tomorrow carry no guarantee
I've seen your qualifications, you got a Ph.D.
I've got one art O-level, it did nothing for me
Working for the rat race
You know you're wasting your time
You're working for the rat race
You're no friend of mine
To their great credit - the Two Tone bands reflected this change in their lyrics and music -
A BAND CALLED GEORGE
Listen NCB Man and others here (My Space)
C. 1974 Visit their Website HERE
Developed from Sweeney Todd (on My Space)
Bob Young – Lead vocals and guitar. Colin Young – Bass. Nicky Trevisick – Drums
Roger Prince – guitar. Baz Andruszko – accordion. Roadies Ricky and Dave. (Dave wrote something for Hobo under the name of Just a Guy - I think about van hire). Ricky played guitar - I jammed with him a few times and introduced him to guitarist Andy Cairns - they formed a Jazz funk band with Horace Panter on bass and they played at the Hobo Workshop (Golden Cross ) in 1975 among other places.
A Band Called George were planning a tour of late August 73.
Joe Reynolds (Joined a reformed version of the band in 1974)
Original material in similar vein to . Members from Coventry & Leamington area.
Single NCB Man (on Bell Records) released .
According to HOBO the BBC did not select the single for airplay and this led to the band’s demise. CET described the song as a ‘ light hearted song about coal miners’
Appeared on ’s Today. (CET) ‘It’s a fun folk rock song, not quite representative of the band live’ (CET)
Managed by Sunshine Agency (SAM) (Managers Craig Ward & Graham
Wood, Bob Young)
Sunshine Agency was set up to record Bob Young’s songs.
I met A Band Called George at the Sunshine Music Agency in Gulson Rd. Coventry in 1974 when I breezed in to introduce myself and Hobo Magazine. Bob Young was one of the managers and there's quite a bit about Sunshine already on this site. Previously some of the members had been in Sweeny Todd (I remember seeing them in the early 70's at the Colin Campbell. Baz Andruszko later played with the reformed Dando Shaft for a while. Nicky Trevisthick was the only one I knew previously - I'd met him at the Lanch and other places. According to Kevin Harrison he went on to play with American Housewives / Café Society / Tom Robinson Band / Moon / The Dukes. Bob Young has a My Space for A Band Called George which you can access at the top of this post.
On their website is says -
The first line up of A Band Called George consisted of Roger Prince, Guitar, blues harp, Mandolin, Barley wine and Vox, Colin Young, Bass, Hilariously funny cigarettes and Vox, Bob Young, Guitar, Kazoo, keyboards, Bikers Grog (Light Ale with a Barley Wine in it. Quite lethal in the wrong hands) and Vox, Basil Stephan Andruzko, on double meat pie and chips,who, was said by some to have played Bass and Accordion as well. He also sang. "Ahhhgh the pain". Harry Heppingstall on drums.
A single NCB Man was released in 1973 on Bell Records published Island Music.
Harry was replaced by Nick Trevisick shortly after the single was released.
We were all replaced by the Branch manager of the Midland Bank when the overdraft became due.
Although He allegedly had a very fine tenor voice we believe he remains unsigned
The following was taken from the the Band's My Space blog -
SWEENEY TODD
TO
A BAND CALLLED GEORGE
Sweeney Todd was formed by Brothers Bob and Colin Young in Leamington Spa Warwickshire England in late 1969 early 1970. We got the idea and name Sweeney Todd from the 30s film, starring Todd Slaughter (what a name eh!!)
The first line up of Sweeney Todd consisted of My self (Bob Young) on lead Vox and guitar, Colin on Guitar and backing Vox, John Cirriani on bass and backing Vox and a drummer from Sunderland whose name Im afraid I cant remember. (If any body remembers him please drop me a line.) Sweeney Todd used to rehearse in St Paul's church hall on Friars St Warwick just up the road from The Seven Stars Pub.( I apologize to the neighbours ). We werent there long; we got chucked out because of the racket we made. Turn it down..WHAT.TURN IT DOWN..WAIT A MO WELL TURN IT DOWN ah! those were the days.
As Sweeney Todd we had various rehearsal rooms mostly church halls. There were no Garage bands then, and amps were either on or off.
If you wanted that nice loud crunchy guitar sound you had to crank it up to number eleven and the neighbours didnt like it.
So to get to your rehearsal room you also had to have transport as well. We were lucky, my dad gave us an old Bedford minibus. Just for fun we painted it matt black (blackboard paint) with runny blood red SWEENEY TODD letters on the back. (We havent come across a photo of the Sweeney Todd van yet. Again any body whose got one, we would love a copy) The state of this Sweeney Todd van got me stopped by the cops about twice a day (ah! perhaps they have a photo)
Control to all cars...be on the lookout for a mat black van with Sweeney Todd written on the back If you see this van lads stop it at all costs, its full of longhaired bleedin' hippies and a danger to society as we know it)
"E..VEN..IN SIR
IS THIS HERE SWEENEY TODD V..HICK..COOL YOURS SIR..
Yes officer
ave you been drinkin sir
No officer
PLEASE STEP OUT OF THE V..HICK..COOL SIR."
I spent a lot of time producing my driving documents down at the cop shop, until the dreaded day when I got stopped yet again. This time my MOT TEST CERTIFICATE (ministry of transport) was out of date. They finally got me. ( I wonder how many police hours it took) I got fined twenty quid. (about $30) I had to pay the fine off at two quid a week. I accidentally missed the last payment; I think we spent it on essentials. A pack of 20 No6 (ciggs) and the rest we wasted down the pub. Some days later there was a knock on the door, there stood a big burly sergeant copper. He said he had a warrant for my arrest (For two quid) and took me down the cop shopI had to be bailed outfor two quid I ask you (less than $4)
It wasnt long after this the Sweeney Todd van got swapped for a ford transit van, a dirty grey green one.nice and anonymous apart from the great iron bar and padlocks across the rear doors. This van later blew up on the way to the M6 some where near Birmingham. We were on the way to a gig at the Cavern in Liverpool. We had to hire a car to continue the Journey..when suddenly..
E..VEN..IN SIR
IS THIS V..HICK..COOL YOURS SIR..
No officer its on hire
I SEE SIR, ave you been drinkin sir
No officer
AH BUT YOU AVE BEEN SPEEDIN SIR
PLEASE STEP OUT OF THE V..HICK..COOL SIR.
They were so pleased you would have thought they had captured The Great Train Robbers in stead of Sweeney Todd.
By now the line up of Sweeney Todd consisted of Me on guitar, and kazoo, Colin on Bass, Roger Prince on guitar, harmonica, and mandolin, Fat Bas on accordion and I think Harry Heppingstall on drums. Unfortunately Roger was driving and got the speeding ticket, we had run through the dreaded radar speed trap. Quite a novel thing for us to do as in those days there were probably only two in the country. (west midlands police had obviously been told we had swapped the van) We arrived at the Cavern with only guitars. This was in the days when you took your own PA as well as all the back line. We used another bands gear for the gig. Im ashamed to say I cant remember who they were. I do remember that they were very good(Again if it was you let us know and Ill stand you a beer)..."AH! ANOTHER PINT OF GROG ROGER? ..Slurrp Ah! where was I ..ER.I SEE! PLASTIC GLASSES!!......ARE WE EXPECTING TROUBLEIt all gets very hazy from here on in But, Sweeney Todd were in the famous Cavern, Aaah! you could smell the .........er...atmosphere.....!!ANOTHER PINT ROGER? WELL THANK YOU..I DO THINK I WILL.We were on form and feelin' good. After a few pints we went to our dressing room.another sort of ..well cavern down a few steps.ripped plastic covered benches around the walls, nothing but the best for Sweeney Todd. Fat Bas lay down on the far bench opposite the door, muttering something about the lack of pies, he farted and fell asleep. He only suffered from stage fright when he was more than five miles from a chip shop. We all sat around wondering what to do next. We had a dressing room but apart from Colin who had a pair of cowboy boots we didn't have any stage clothes to dress up in, although Roger did have some Brut aftershave.
Suddenly the door opened and in came a young lady in a very short black dress. She lent against the door in a very provocative manner drooling slightly from the corner of her mouth. The door closed as she lent on it click..we all looked up.what would happen next..she slowly slid down the door..until she was sitting on the step.skirt rolled up and all legs. She got up and staggered over to where Bas was lying asleep..... on his back....on the bench.
For what seemed like an age she stood looking down at this peaceful sleeping giant.. and then...........threw up all over him.
It was obviously love at first sight.
To those of you who didnt know Bas he was..... Ukrainian..... and seemed to be permanently angry, even when he was happy.
He awoke in an explosion of beer and vomit..We were all very sympathetic of course..but we laughed until we cried, and apart from the threats of violence it all turned out ok because as far as I remember he took her outside and had his evil way with her. Consenting adults and all that.
If that was you drop us a li.. ...........No!! No!! what am I saying.
The gig turned out ok, but we couldnt hear ourselves sing (this was before monitor speakers. You monitored by listening to the sound bouncing off the back wall, and there was always plenty of that). Still we had played the Cavern and that was all that mattered.
I Dont remember where the next gig was..in fact I dont remember leaving the Cavern.I remember coming off stage and thenBluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuur it was 1973.
We used to frequent a pub in Leamington called the Coventry Arms
(I often wondered if there was a Leamington Arms in CoventryPlease no e-mail)
We were all in the pub I think after a rehearsal, all having a jolly old time when the conversation got around to the music we were playing.
The set we were using had the title track SWEENEY TODD in it. All other songs referring to SWEENEY TODD had gradually been dropped and replaced by other stuff of a much gentler nature and somehow the name Sweeney Todd didnt seem to fit what we were doingwe werent a heavy rock band any more.
So in a drunken stupor we decided to change the name Sweeney Todd to something more suitable..Some one produced a matchbox, one of those with the little sayings and proverbs on the backthis one was about a young lady trying to find a name for her babyshe said to her husband that she would like to call the baby George he said No, every Tom, Dick and Harrys called GeorgeWell we all fell about laughingBelieve me YOU HAD TO BE THERE.
from then on we were called A BAND CALLED GEORGE a revolutionary name for the time
We dropped the SWEENEY TODD songs and changed the complete set and later that year released a single NCB Man on Bell Records (p) Island Music.
More from the memoirs of SWEENEY TODD after we have had a lay down
OK every one Heads on desks
To cover ourselves against e-mail from Sweeney Todd fans who have much better memories than us we would like to parody the late Eric Morecambe and say
"We have used all the right memories but not necessarily in the right order"
To be continued