Sunday 23 April 2017

The Dovers - More of the Same Old Thing (1992) C60


I'm back, and before anyone asks, yes I did, and very soon - in fact I'm digitising one of them even as I write this.

This was the last cassette we recorded as the Dovers, and it comes as a surprise even to me because I didn't think I had a copy of this particular material. Something of its evolution is described here - specifically the last five paragraphs if you want to cut to the chase. If you can't even be arsed with the chase, the short version is that as guitarist in a two man band distinguished by a drum machine and a sense of humour, I was terrified of turning into Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine. Therefore I dug out my Casio SK1 sampling keyboard and shoved it through a fuzzbox, and while this didn't represent a conscious attempt to impersonate Suicide, the fact that you could listen to it as such is probably why it sounded all right to us, and crucially, nothing like fucking Carter the Unlistenable Suck Latrine.

Regrettably it all went tits up at the gig due to my ingestion of an unfeasible quantity of booze which helped me forget not only my stage fright but also those fiendishly complicated one finger - three note tunes I'd been working on. We muddled through, and Carl decimated the main band's prissily arranged effects pedals by jumping up and down on them whilst singing along to whatever the fuck I thought I was doing. This was because they believed we weren't a proper band due to our homosexual synthesiser, and thusly did they attempt to conceal us from the audience in a sarcastic cloud of dry ice like the wanky muso Dungeons & Dragons playing cunts they were.

I was mortified by the whole thing, and mortified to the point that I didn't even want to talk about it, so we never did, and the Dovers ceased to be. This rehearsal material sounds okay to me now, and really it was just a slightly crappy gig and nothing more - although I've never heard the actual live tape. Carl says it's decent, but I'll believe it when and if I hear it. I suppose it was shame - at least on my part - even embarrassment, over the contrast between how good I thought it was going to be and how good it really wasn't. I'd even worn a fucking shirt and tie.

Oh well. 


Tracks:
1 - Electricity
2 - Electricity
3 - Compost World
4 - Electricity
5 - Compost World
6 - Sister
7 - Fine Night
8 - Mr. Pop
9 - 8-Ball 8-Ball Martin De Sey



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