7 posts tagged “coventry music”
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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The Earthquakes
c 1974
The Earthquakes hailed from Derby originally but settled in Coventry. They were managed by the Sunshine Music Agency in Gulson Rd. Coventry. Sunshine are blogged about on the this site - see the index.
Co-director of Sunshine and the main songwriter - Bob Young of A Band Called George - offered them a song -
From the unpublished version of Hobo issue 3
"MAD CAT MOLLY are another band set to make a single for possible release on the Bell label. Again it is a Bob Young composition (no relation to Neil Young Jamie!!) called Dancing to the Music originally going to be done by the Earthquakes who hail from Derby. The line up is Steve Lore on lead; Mick Murphy on Rhythm; Paul Wright on bass and Chris Potter on drums. They have quite a few booking lined up around the country thanks to Sunshine Music Agency."
East Light was Coventry singer Songwriter - Roger Williamson's folk rock band c1970.
Roger Williamson was around the Coventry Arts Umbrella Club, playing at the Umbrella folk nights on a Saturday evening. I got to know him a bit through Esther who used to be a regular at the Umbrella. I have vague memories of him siting in the Umbrella coffee bar in the wee hours playing and talking.
In 1970, as well as putting on the bands at the Umbrella, I used to help out on the door at Pete Waterman's Tuesday
NEWS
We have now heard from Roger and he's living in Minneapolis, MN, USA running Magus Bookstore
and is an artist - you can view his art work HERE
Roger Says in his e mail - "
I remember it being a wonderful and exciting time but then of course it was
the 60's. There were so many small folk clubs in the back rooms of pubs,
The Fox and Vivian in Leamington, others in Warwick and Stratford and so
many in Coventry. Such a lot of talent as well June Tabor, Rod Felton,
Martin Jenkins just to name a few. It was a great time to grow up in.
I have lived in Minneapolis for about the last 23 years and started Magus
Books 15 years ago. Magus is in Dinkytown next to the University Of
Minnesota, Minneapolis on 4th Street SE, which is immortalized in Bob
Dylan's Positively 4th Street. He used to live across the street from the
store. I have written several books since moving here, The Sun at Night,
set in London, The Black Book of the Jackal, Lucifer Diaries and Howling at
the Sky. These are all available from Magus or Amazon USA. I recorded a
limited edition CD, "On the Arrival of the Machine" a couple of years back
which is myself reading some of my short stories set to music by my son
Luke."
Here is some information on Roger's Bookstore - Magus Books
About Magus Books
Magus Books began business at high noon on September 1st, 1992 with the commitment of supplying new and used religious, metaphysical and thought-provoking books to the community at large.
You will discover upon inspecting our inventory that we do not subscribe to any one belief system, as we realize that what is right for one person's quest of self-discovery is not necessarily right for the next person.
Therefore our selection of titles covers a wide range of material including Wicca, Buddhism, Hindu, Christianity, Islam, Alchemy, Voodoo, Santeria, Magic, Freemasonry, Tarot, Astrology, Palmistry, Dowsing, Mythology, Herbalism, Alternative Healing, Celtic Mythology, Norse Mythology, Native American, Psychedelic, UFO'S, Lost Civilizations, Martial Arts and other subjects. We supply herbs, candles, oils, incense, tapes, compact discs and jewelry. Our focus has always been to develop individuality, to encourage interested parties to explore themselves and the environment, and to seek out our own untapped potentials.
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 -
BLUE JAYS
Circa 1974
Came out of Fission with the emphasis now on commercial pop (Tie a Yellow Ribbon on an Old Oak Tree), but also played rock when a rock gig came up. Pop / rock band – any occasion.
Line up –
Johnny Adams - Lead guitarist and songwriter (From
Fission and later with Squad)
Al Varney – Bass (Ex Fission)
Mick? – Drums
From Hobo Issue 4 1974
BLUE JAYS
Out of the ashes of Fission awakens a new group called the BLUE JAYS featuring the lead guitarist / songwriter / vocalist from Fission - Johnny Adams;
Fission bassist Al Varney and a drummer known only to me as Mick. This
time around though the band are playing more commercially orientated
music including Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree!!
in order to earn enough money to finance new gear for the band. When a
'Rock gig' comes up though, they revert to their own rock material.
ASGARD c1969 - 71
Asgard held open rehearsal sessions in the little theatre of the Coventry Arts Umbrella as well gigs c. 1969 –71. I first saw them in 1969 at the Umbrella’s mini-arts festival – Transcendental Cauldron (One of the first Cov bands I ever saw when I was 18). At that time they were a four piece including Neol Davies on lead guitar. I think he left soon afterwards and they continued as a three piece. Can’t remember the names, but they had a drummer / bassist and an organist (Farfiza). Mainly original material but with an Ummaguma – period Pink Floyd sound. They covered Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun. Mick Gawthorp
(Sax player with another band on at the Transcendental Cauldron) told me recently he gigged briefly with Asgard.
The Arts Umbrella News (December 1970) entry for them was; -
“Our resident electronic-instrumental group practise this Wednesday and most Wednesday in the little theatre. They don’t mind if sympathetic ears listen. But we emphasise that these are not performances, but music workshop sessions.” Wednesday