It is the summer of 1994: Westfield Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham. Five friends have gathered to smoke Marijuana and Malboros, drink Hooch and make music. Adz (drums), Ash (lead guitar), Bryn (bass), Liam (rhythm guitar) and Rich have been jamming for a few months in the top floor of Adz’s parents’ massive house. Mostly supplemented by the dole and the occasional bar job, the teenage outfit spend most of their time at the White Swan pub at the end of the road or at one of the local rock clubs, Edwards no 8 or Snobs.
The band only ever play one gig at King’s Heath’s renowned Hare and Hounds pub supporting comedy-folk duo “Colin and Graham: The Trainspotters“. Until now, their legacy has been shrouded in mystery, passing into legend.
But now, a tape of their original demo as recorded at Rich Bitch studios in Selly Oak has surfaced. Recorded by Christopher Seymour (now engineer of ska legends The Beat), the songs are solid indicators of a buoyant talent. Indeed, the band even had their first break on cult TV show The Big Breakfast which is also recorded somewhere on the tapes of time.
Tragically, one night at the White Swan, the group sacked singer Rich. Unable to resolve their guilt, they split, spreading throughout the country chasing careers, relationships or educations.
Presented here for the very first time as fully downloadable MP3s are those original, long-lost master recordings from 1994. I’m sure you’ll agree, this is one funk-rap-metal group the world never missed.
Seriously, though – this was the first ‘proper’ band I was in and though I can’t say any of it is any good now, it sounded great then. Let’s have a listen…
Translucent Zebra
Adam’s parent’s top floor was paradise to us. They left us alone to do what we like and Adz even had a full PA, drumkit and amps up there too. Man, we could smoke, drink and write till dawn – not that we did, though. The decor wasn’t especially striking unless you were stoned, as we frequently were. I remember an Australian girl passed out in there once when we played her our blistering rendition of ‘Voodoo Chile’. As the wallpaper pattern was a black and brown stripe; one afternoon we decided it was like living in a translucent zebra. We all threw in non-sensical lyrics and bingo!
No Attitude
At the time, Rich was living on Portland Road which was notorious for its halfway house and prostitutes. I remember some very strange times there: a man getting his skull attacked with a hammer, a house fire, some gun pointing, a great deal of acid, smashed Tekken discs and tinned Shepherd’s Pie. Anyway, I suppose this track reflected just a few of his experiences at the time. And yes, it’s kinda cheesy, bruv!
Loaded with Love
I suspect you’re now getting an idea of why no record contracts were thrown our way. I had little to do with this particular track as it was originally written by Adz’s previous band, The Rising. I don’t think I ever particularly liked it as it’s clearly about love and I had no idea or intention to discover what that was about. I still like the solo though.
Misty Blue
Conversely, I wrote all of this little ditty. I think I envisaged updating the entire whole blues genre with this narcissistic number. Completely cringeworthy, my imagination clearly went wild…
Move
I can’t remember the actual name of this song, but I know Adam wrote the lyrics as he’d moved to university the year before. Well I think he’d moved, I can’t remember. Whatever, it’s delightfully unoriginal with riffs ripped directly from Metallica‘s ‘And Justice for All’ album.
1,2,3,4
I definitely wrote this. A mindless 5-chord throwaway punk tune with Rich getting his best Zach de la Roche grunt on at the end. He never did get the vocal delivery right on this: which’s probably why I sacked him. We’re friends again though, he was the best man at my wedding.