Total Big - Rehearsals 19 & 20 (1986) C90

Carl played the guitar group instead of Total Big.

I know what you think, but this is my blog, so it's tough. No one can force you to do such a download. And I'm sure Grey Wolves C90 is pushing and recording next week. In any case, this is the last Total Big belt. I believe these songs ended shortly after recording. Both attempts took place at the Hollytree House in Ottawa, Kent. The first eighteen songs were Saturday, November the 8th, 1986. The rest of the day was two weeks on the 22nd day of the same month. Then on Tuesday, December the 9th, we went to a night work event to protest the suggestion to reduce the art education fund at Maidstone Art College. Carl, Chris and I attended the Mark Smith's saxophone, our kit is He Believes, Are You My Mother (Or Just A Hole In The Ground?), Rock Sandwich, Louie Louie, Sister Ray, Hey Joe, You're Okay, Keep Your Dreams A'Burning, Do The Frug, and All Day And All Of The Night. For some reason, we did not record it. As you may have noticed, we've done everything.

I believe that, shortly after this article, Chris moved to Dover, or perhaps already moved, but temporarily lifted. In any case, this is the last Total Big belt. My diary does not have any details about Carl's rock music, and I went to June 1987.


This text from Google is translated from Google, English, Japanese, Latvian, Latvian Latvian.

Please click on this link to download all thirty-five amazing songs.

Tracks:
1 - Catch the Pigeon
2 - Rock Sandwich
3 - Carry On Sid
4 - He Writes the Songs
5 - He Believes
6 - Keep Your Dreams A'Burnin'
7 - Louie Louie
8 - Sister Ray
9 - Hey Joe
10 - Armchair Maniac
11 - Are You My Mother?
12 - Hail Fellow Well Met
13 - Love to You
14 - Check Out Your Pants
15 - Cold Sore Herpes B
16 - Moses
17 - Badtime Baby
18 - He Believes
19 - Catch the Pigeon
20 - Check Out Your Pants
21 - Born in the Woods
22 - He Writes the Songs
23 - I'm Not Losing Sleep
24 - Louie Louie
25 - Sister Ray
26 - Hey Joe
27 - Precinct
28 - Do the Frug I
29 - He Believes
30 - Are You My Mother?
31 - Keep Your Dreams A'Burnin'
32 - Check Out Your Pants
33 - Do the Frug II
34 - Do the Frug III
35 - Do the Frug IV
 
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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. 

Download all nine tracks by clicking on this link.

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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The Dovers - Nobody Never Told Me Nothing About No Lights (1992) C90+

That's Maydew House in Bermondsey which would be where we recorded the material on this tape, because I can't be arsed to scan a boring generic cassette inlay card. Carl's flat would be somewhere at the bottom on the right, and I think Danny Baker lived on the floor above at some point. The arbitrary title of this cassette derived from a conversation I had about double negatives with fellow Catford based postman Micky Evans who said this was his favourite one, as uttered by some bloke on a television documentary. The tape was recorded by Carl Glover and myself on Carl's portastudio between Sunday the 27th of October, 1991 and Saturday the 25th of January 1992, except Tim Song, which wasn't on the original tape. Tim Song and the recordings immediately before and after were recorded on Saturday the 11th of November, 1991 with Christine - Carl's girlfriend - as part of a tape letter sent to my friend Tim. This seemed as good a place for it as any. There are plenty of other entries concerning the Dovers to be found elsewhere on this blog so if you're still confused about anything, please refer to the index which can be found at the foot of this one.

 

As for the stuff which isn't self-explanatory - 8-Ball 8-Ball Martin De Sey, named in honour of a former Cravat, was us going through my address book and insulting everyone in alphabetical order. There's a longer, probably funnier version on one of the other tapes. Cheer Up, Gen is the very definition of self-explanatory but I mention it so as to request that anyone of my acquaintance who happens to know him please refrain from grassing me up. It was a long time ago, he probably wouldn't get it anyway, and yes - I'm sure he has a great sense of humour. Ghost Dance is almost a Prince Buster cover. Telstar Air Strip was done for a Joe Meek themed compilation done by Chainsaw Cassettes, but the bloke didnae like it.

 

The Glenn referred to in passing at the end of the tape was, as is probably obvious, Glenn of Konstruktivists, Whitehouse, former Throbbing Gristle handler etc. etc., this being around the same time Carl and myself recorded stuff with him which ended up on some Konstruktivists CD or other. Anyone who calls themselves a true fan of the Gristle will therefore already have this material on the luxurious 360g splatter-effect vinyl triple album released by Waitrose Org a few years ago, much to the envy of those lightweight Johnny come lately part timers who were still listening to Captain Beaky when we were snorting nose candy off Chris Carter's gristlesizer backstage at Knebworth.

 

Crazy times. 

Download the tape by clicking on this link.

Tracks:
1 - Partial Bastard (version)
2 - American
3 - 8-Ball 8-Ball Martin De Sey
4 - Tell Him About the Rabbit
5 - Tales of Tom
6 - Two Men Standing on a Rock
7 - I Can't Wait
8 - Cheer Up, Gen
9 - Wooden Head
10 - Don't Know What to Do
11 - Measuring Rooms
12 - Everyman
13 - Big Mouth
14 - Ghost Dance
15 - Telstar Air Strip
16 - Pink Brick Town
17 - Ed is Great
18 - Alan Retentive
19 - (Maydew House 16/11/91 I)
20 - Tim Song
21 - (Maydew House 16/11/91 II)

 
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The Dovers - Water Pistol Filled with Beer (1991) C90

This is what rock and roll used to look like, you autotuned assholes.

Here's another Dovers tape, and definitely one of the better ones. All of this stuff was recorded on various portastudios. The first eleven tracks were recorded at Carl's flat in Bermondsey over a long, hot weekend in the late eighties, as I've written on the inlay card. He Writes the Songs through to Do the Frug were apparently recorded at John Jasper's house in Chatham on his portastudio around the same time. The rest were recorded at Carl's flat from winter to spring 1991. The aforementioned inlay card was too boring to be scanned and is thus absent from the download. As I may have mentioned before, whilst these tracks transfer to my own iTunes in the right order, they'll probably download in alphabetical order for you, depending on what you use and how you listen to them, if you listen to them, so I'd advice rearranging them in the correct sequence shown below, not least because a couple of them segue into each other. I'm primarily digitising this shit for my own entertainment, so I'm not going to give them titles like A9 Work That Body! because it offends my pedantic sensibilities. If that's annoying, screw you because it's not like I'm charging anything, unlike Radiohead and Oasis, and what you get is about a million times better than Radiohead or Oasis, so great bolshy yarblockos to thee and thine.

Some of these tracks also appear on the album that never was. The versions on The World of the Dovers are probably mixed a little better, but there's probably not much in it. Carl, as pictured above, handled most of the vocal stylings and programming, and I played guitar and can usually be heard giggling in the background. I'm not sure about the photo, as I think that's Carl from when he was in a group called Churchill's Shoe, possibly, which was before we met.

Download tracks.

Burn to a plurality of CDRs.

Slap in car stereo and drive down to Camber Sands and eat ice creams on a hot day.

Job fucking done.

You're welcome. 

Download the twenty-five tracks by clicking on this link.

Tracks:
1 - The End
2 - Eggs, Beans & Mayonnaise
3 - Blue Moon of Kansas
4 - The Insect
5 - Sentimental Fool
6 - You Were Better When You Were Crap
7 - After a Particularly Uplifting Sermon...
8 - I Am Mr. Bennett
9 - Work That Body!
10 - When the Power Falls
11 - Fly in the Ointment
12 - He Writes the Songs
13 - Worm
14 - Sentimental Fool
15 - Beat Me Black & Blue
16 - Do the Frug
17 - Make My Flesh Crawl
18 - Do You Use Your Brain?
19 - Everybody's Got to Change
20 - Horrible Glam Thing
21 - Surfing On My Mind
22 - State of Pigs
23 - Vale of Tears
24 - John Piss-take
25 - Business Biscuits etc.


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The Dovers - 8-Ball 8-Ball Martin De Sey (1991) C90

There were three people in the Dovers for a couple of years - myself living in Chatham with Carl and Alan living in Bermondsey. Alan was the other (admittedly more accomplished) guitarist. I understand that Carl and Alan had fairly frequent rehearsals, and I vaguely remember one wherein they renamed themselves U3 with Alan rebranding himself as the Corner to record Where the Streets Have Rude Names, amongst others. Carl and I would rehearse when he came down to Chatham, but all three of us were so rarely in the same room that I wasn't even sure there were any recordings of the Dovers as a trio; but there is and here they are, accompanied by my favourite picture of Alan - taken at the Camberwell Grove Tavern, 15th of May, 1993, in case anyone's counting. He was playing the barbecue pit as a piano whilst channelling Jimmy Durante. If you've been following this shit I'm sure you've seen more than enough of Carl and myself, and it really was an exceptional rendering of the Schnozzola.

Anyway, I left Chatham in 1989 and moved to Coventry, then moved back down south to Lewisham in 1990, having decided the move north had been a bit of a mistake. The Dovers hadn't really been a thing during that time, at least not with me as a member, so once Carl and I were back in the same part of the country we kind of picked up where we'd left off. Well, maybe not quite - gigs were harder to come by in London and Carl had bought a four-track portastudio, allowing us to record material of slightly more tuneful composition, or at least less like someone dropping concrete blocks on your foot. I think this was the first full tape of this material, mostly improvised live onto a couple of the four tracks, then tarted up with additional instrumentation.

A couple of these made it onto The World of the Dovers, which would have been the "album" had I got my arse into gear, although these are earlier mixes. 8-Ball 8-Ball Martin De Sey came about when Carl nicked the tiny notebook I always used to carry around in which I wrote addresses and telephone numbers, so what you hear is him working his way through from A to Z insulting everyone; so if you and I had any significant form of contact with each other during the eighties, Carl has probably insulted you by name in this song, but it probably wasn't anything personal unless you're Steve Coots. All of this stuff was recorded at Carl's flat in Maydew House, Bermondsey. The first ten tracks were just Carl and myself and date from early 1991, it says here. The remainder I have down as being from 1989-ish and all feature Alan on guitar with me playing keyboard, specifically a Casio SK1 novelty sampler. All of this stuff could probably have been mixed with a little more going on in the bass department, but I don't seem to be able to do anything with my editing software which you'd call an improvement, so please adjust your listening equipment accordingly.

Normally at this juncture I would apologise for the quality of the material, but not this time because it still sounds fucking great to me.

You're welcome.

Download the eighteen tracks by clicking on this link.

Tracks:
1 - If You Wanna Get On
2 - Fuck Off Pigs
3 - Charles Manson
4 - Armchair Maniac
5 - 8-Ball 8-Ball Martin De Sey (A to D)
6 - 8-Ball 8-Ball Martin De Sey (D to W)
7 - Chas 'n' Dave's Authentic Cockney Disco (second version)
8 - Chief (original mix)
9 - Disney!
10 - Chas 'n' Dave's Authentic Cockney Disco (first version)
11 - Be My Valentine (prelude)
12 - Be My Valentine
13 - Rochester Bridge
14 - Born on the Street
15 - Punishment
16 - Consider the Bat
17 - Enjoy
18 - Semtex

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Spinning Pygmies - Spinning Pygmies IV (1987) C60

Spinning Mbilikimo walikuwa Carl na mimi mwenyewe kujaribu kuweka kwamba Jumla ya Big uchawi kwenda kufuatia kuondoka kwa Chris, and for youse thick fuckers who never made the effort to familiarise yourselves with Swahili, most of the relevant details may be gleaned by perusing previous postings of Spinning Pygmies material, as can be found by referring to the index, as linked at the foot of this blog entry.

The first five tracks represent a rehearsal at Hollytree House in Otham, some time during the summer of 1987 it says here - presumably the rehearsal which convinced us it wasn't working and would probably forever remain an unlistenable racket and therefore the final Spinning Pygmies rehearsal. Saxophone was played by Mark Smith, Carl sang, and I think Garreth and myself alternated on guitar and Casio SK1 keyboard. I probably haven't bothered listening to this thing since we recorded it, although three decades later it sounds a bit like Faust to me, or one of those bands. If it doesn't sound like Faust to you then that's your problem.

The rest was just me filling up the tape. The story behind the sixth track can probably be deduced by referring to this excerpt from my memoirs. It's not a great recording but if you wack the volume up and listen close you can probably just about hear some sounds of excitement and the phrase as my producer said to me... Tracks eleven and twelve were Carl and myself at my flat in Chatham during autumn 1987, which is where the rest of the tape was recorded, or at least filled up (and we had probably taken to calling ourselves the Dovers by that point). The last three tracks are myself and Martin de Sey, whom I knew from college but who had moved into the bedsit directly below mine. I can't even remember if he'd formally joined the band or just fancied a kick about, but anyway he'd been drafted in to play bass for us at a gig at the Sunset Strip, so this was presumably just the two of us working things out in advance. I know the singing sounds incongruously mild for the material, but neither Martin nor myself were gunna be on the mic on the night innit.

Download the eighteen tracks by clicking on this link.

Tracks:
1 - Slip Inside Me
2 - Where Have All the Good Times Gone?
3 - Something New Around
4 - Less of the Gun
5 - Good & Gothic
6 - Amanda B******* Being Shagged by Man Resembling Ronnie Corbett
7 - Daughters of Darkness
8 - Carry On at Your Convenience
9 - Twelve Bar
10 - Silence Network 7
11 - Less is More
12 - Never Be Without Your Hand-Truck
13 - Misery List
14 - You Bastard
15 - I Wanna Be (a Punk)
16 - I Wanna Be Your Dog
17 - Precinct
18 - No Lip

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Dovers - Hammersmith and Chatham (1988) C90

The Blue Lagoon was a popular Chatham venue in the basement of an American style diner owned by Mr and Mrs. Amin and run by their son Prez, bassist for the Martini Slutz and a later incarnation of Envy, and all around great guy. The above photo, taken by Andy Fraser of the Martini Slutz and - more recently - Unlucky Fried Kitten, clearly shows Prez undertaking some guest vocals with the Dovers, who were Carl Glover and myself. This gig was at the Blue Lagoon, although I don't think it's the one on this tape which was in March, and those look suspiciously like Christmas decorations up on the wall behind Carl. Someone other than Carl performs guest yelping on the final track of the Blue Lagoon set on this tape, but I've a feeling it may have been me. The above photograph might not have anything to do with this tape beyond it showing the same venue and people. I have no idea. Regarding the bands and venue, this is still more information than you'll find in this history of music in the Medway towns which somehow manages to mention Tim Webster just once, despite being over five-hundred pages in length.

Anyway, both of these gigs were supporting Envy and the Uninvited Guests, so I suppose you could call it a tour if you really felt like it. Collectively, we (not necessarily including the Dovers) had enough of a following to van a load of fans up to London in a minibus, so this tape comprises the mid-week warm up and then our collective attempt to crack the capital. It's probably not the greatest live recording ever, but it's not like I'm expecting payment for it, so whatever. Carl attempted to liven up the Blue Lagoon gig by staging a competition with whoever managed to cheer the loudest winning an album autographed by not only the Dovers but also Prez. The album was Tiffany's debut featuring the hits Danny and I Think We're Alone Now. I recall Sarah Cook winning the album, but it doesn't sound like she did on the tape, so I've no idea.

You can also hear Eleanor Ronchi talking to Prez at the beginning of the Hammersmith gig, which is nice, at least for me. I fancied Eleanor something rotten, but it just wasn't to be. Oh well.

I should write a book about this shit. 

Download the fourteen songs and related booing by clicking on this link.

Tracks:

Blue Lagoon, Chatham 20/3/88
1 - He Believes
2 - A.I.D.X.
3 - The Insect
4 - Louie Louie
5 - Beat Me Black & Blue
6 - Misery List

The Clarendon, Hammersmith 24/3/88
7 - He Believes
8 - A.I.D.X.
9 - The Insect
10 - Louie Louie
11 - B.L.A.C.Clowns
12 - Are You My Mother?
13 - Beat Me Black & Blue
14 - Hail Fellow Well Met
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More Dovers Stuff...

Every Sunday I stand before the shelf of about three hundred cassette tapes thus far liberated from the slightly larger collection still at my mum's place back in England, then pick a couple of tapes to digitise - usually something by the Pre-War Busconductors which no-one reading this is ever likely to hear, and something for this blog based on whoever hasn't had a tape on here for download in the last couple of weeks - just to mix it up a bit and keep things moving, alternating between lost classics and the stuff no-one but me cares about. This week I picked a Dovers tape and noticed that it contained half of a gig in addition to the usual rehearsal material. The second half of the same gig had been recorded on a different tape in the name of maximising space and avoiding ownership of too many cassettes with just a few things recorded on the beginning of side one. It seemed a bit mad to present a recording of a gig in separate instalments, so I've digitised the lot and rationalised the material into the equivalent of three cassettes (as listed below).

Download the tapes by clicking on the titles and following the links:

The Dovers - Rehearsals 7 & 8 (1988) C90.

Both rehearsals at my miserable bedsit in Glencoe Road, Chatham and recorded quietly so as to avoid enraging the stinking alcoholic in the next bedsit. Tracks 1 to 11 date from Sunday the 10th of January, 1988, and I think the rest were Saturday the 16th of January with this bloke called Andy Bibby sat watching, smoking my snouts, drinking my tea, and probably chuckling away in the background. One of these tracks slags off a load of Medway bands, but I'm not going to tell you which one so you'll just have to download it and listen to the lot if you care that much. Fatback is the Link Wray song, obviously.

Tracks:
1 - Callin' My Boots Dave
2 - Wanna Buy Me Some Boots
3 - Beat Me Black & Blue
4 - The Insect
5 - Misery List
6 - Batman's Personal Friend
7 - Wanna Buy Me Some Boots
8 - Callin' My Boots Dave
9 - Fatback
10 - Mammy
11 - Come Off Everybody
12 - Brown House Music
13 - Piece of Meat
14 - Pizza to Go
15 - Come Off Everybody
16 - Beat Me Black & Blue

The Dovers - Rehearsals 9 & 10 (1988) C90.

Our numbers expanded seeing as we had a gig coming up. Chris, our drummer from Total Big, was available once again to bash the skins, plus Martin de Sey was now living in the gloomy bedsit directly beneath mine, so it seemed like it might be fun to have him play bass. Martin was a founding member of the Cravats and had previously been in To The Max with Carl and Chris - and also Smilin' Paul Mercer of Apricot Brigade and Envy if anyone is interested. This rehearsal (the first eighteen tracks) was in the garage of Chris's dad's house in Kemsley on Sunday the 17th of January, 1988. I'm not sure about the date of the remaining three tracks, except that we were back down to just Carl and myself in the wake of the Sunset Strip gig and Carl had obviously just got hold of his Yamaha REX-50 effects thing. Many Years Ago is a cover of a Sexton Ming song - whom both of us worshipped as a God at the time - and I'm Not Telling You was just us mucking about with the riff from I'm Telling You by the Sceptres, which was Martin's previous band.

Tracks:
1 - I Wanna Be Your Dog
2 - He Believes 
3 - Hail Fellow Well Met
4 - Batman's Personal Friend
5 - Top of the Pops
6 - A.I.D.X.
7 - Louie Louie
8 - I'm Not Telling You
9 - Pizza to Go I
10 - Pizza to Go II
11 - Are You My Mother? I
12 - Are You My Mother? II
13 - The Breakthrough I
14 - The Breakthrough II
15 - The Insect
16 - Big Girl's Blouse
17 - Rock Sandwich
18 - Silver Machine
19 - Many Years Ago
20 - The Insect
21 - The Breakthrough (extended) 

The Dovers - Live Sunset Strip 27.1.88 (1988) C46.

It was billed as a duos evening, and we had been asked because we were ordinarily a duo. Typically there were four people in the band by the time the gig happened, although Martin had stepped in to replace Alan Mason who hadn't been able to make it after all. Alan had also been supposed to play with us at a gig at the Half Moon in Putney (or wherever it was) on Thursday the 14th of January, except that one had fallen through. Anyway, we played but not very well, or at least nothing like as "good" as it had been at the rehearsal. The other acts were Whistling Vic and Rocking Richard - featuring former Dentist Ian who particularly impressed me by puffing away on his pipe whilst drumming; and then Billy Childish and Russ Wilkins who put on a fucking astonishing performance - just two men with guitars, bellowing away and stamping their size fifteens to keep the rhythm. It was amazing.

I'm not sure who is singing on the final track. I suppose it's Carl, although there are mutterings about getting in a guest vocalist just before the track starts. We had talked about getting Andy Fraser of the Martini Slutz and Unlucky Fried Kitten in - which is probably why he's mentioned on the poster - but he reckons he was fitting a carpet at his mum's place that evening, amongst other things. Maybe it was Prez. Maybe it was me.

Tracks:
1 - (introduction)
2 - Hail Fellow Well Met
3 - He Believes 
4 - Beat Me Black & Blue 
5 - I Wanna Be Your Dog
6 - Keep Your Dreams A'Burning
7 - The Insect
8 - A.I.D.X.
9 - Are You My Mother? 
10 - I Wanna Be Your Dog

Return to Index

F*** F****** - Enjoy! (1991) C60

So as to save time, please refer to the entry for 1988's Stupid C15 for all the relevant explanations, excuses, apologies, and secret origin - although don't bother downloading it (assuming you haven't already done so) as the whole thing turns up as the first six tracks on the album, and as I noticed whilst digitising the thing, these versions are of marginally better quality for some reason.

Excepting the stuff from Stupid, some of this was recorded on a four-track portastudio albeit still with the same basically careless approach as the earlier stuff. Some of these are almost okay, for what they are, although I must admit there are a few I remembered as being better, but never mind.

By 1990 I was living in Lewisham and had a job with Royal Mail. I was also still reading a lot of comic books, which is reflected in this material. Terminator, for example, is directly inspired by a specific Skip Williamson strip from the old undergrounds, and the influences of Crumb, Bill Griffith, Drew Friedman and others will probably be obvious to anyone who knows their work. IQ3 is a cover of an Anthropod Lithontriptic Band song, Anthropod Lithontriptic Band being Graham from the Pre-War Busconductors; and The Arthur Young Workbench is an old Sexton Ming number. Mrs. Sullivan expresses my frustration with a Mrs. Sullivan to whom I delivered mail in my job as a postman, and who was a whining old battle axe. This being over twenty-five years ago, I guess she's dead now, so it looks like I had the last laugh after all.

The cover image was from a birthday card my grandmother sent me that very same year, even though I was in the second half of my twenties, and the title Enjoy! comes from a game played by Carl Glover and myself one afternoon, each drawing imaginary album covers for popular artists of the time in an effort to shock the other into either hysterics or stunned silence. Carl won the game by proposing a new Kylie Minogue collection entitled Enjoy!, the cover of which would be a close up of a ringpiece. You probably had to be there. The title and general spirit of Bad Time Blues also came from the same game.

Download the twenty-seven tracks and cover by clicking on this link.

Tracks:
1 - I Don't Wanna Have to Hurt You, Baby
2 - Beat You Up
3 - Stupid
4 - Terminator
5 - Rockin' Amoeba
6 - Violence
7 - You Won't Like It
8 - We Watch Our Favourite Shows
9 - Neck Tie Party
10 - Stupid (live)
11 - Bad Grades
12 - Badder Than All the Rest
13 - IQ3
14 - Shoot Thy Neighbour
15 - Transylvania
16 - Comic Books
17 - Bust Your Ass
18 - In the Summertime
19 - Beer Drinking Competition
20 - Mrs. Sullivan
21 - Bad Time Blues
22 - Disco Stomp
23 - I, Robot
24 - The Arthur Young Workbench
25 - Too Much Fun

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Spinning Pygmies - Spinning Pygmies III (1987) C90

Here we go. You probably know the score by now with this stuff. If not, please refer to previous posting of Spinning Pygmies material as can be found listed in the index. This was our fourth rehearsal, now just myself and Carl fucking about at my place - Hollytree House, Otham, Kent as shown above - almost certainly in my room which would have been the nearest one on the ground floor with the window open. We had a guitar, a Roland Cube with its fuzz thing, some bits of drum kit, and my Casio SK1 keyboard. We made stuff up and recorded it on a tape recorder, if you can imagine that. I'd say this stuff is only really likely to be of interest if you were actually in the band, but fuck it - I personally find it all very listenable now, although I suppose I would say that.

Fuck it. No-one's forcing you to download the thing.

Download the twenty-seven tracks and inlay card by clicking on this link.

Tracks:
1 - Burning Black & Blue I
2 - Burning Black & Blue II
3 - Why Did Chris Move?
4 - Runciter Swing
5 - Oi! Rides Again
6 - Piece of Meat
7 - Cheesey Cheesey
8 - Ain't No Light
9 - Do the Frug
10 - Check Out Your Pants
11 - He Writes the Songs
12 - Louie Louie I
13 - Sister Ray
14 - Hey Joe
15 - Are You My Mother?
16 - ChogI!
17 - What Elvis Said to Me
18 - Hubba Hubba Frug
19 - Kiss Me Blind
20 - Against the Law
21 - Hold Your Hand
22 - Louie Louie II
23 - Strawberry Feels Fever
24 - Magical Mystery Tor Johnson
25 - Here He Comes Again
26 - A Little Hell from My Friends
27 - Prince Chow Mein

Return to Index

The Dovers - Rehearsal 6 / Live Sunset Strip 23.12.87 (1987) C90

The Dovers should be familiar to anyone following this blog, but if not, please refer to previous entries as can be found via the link to the index at the foot of this one. Prez of the Blue Lagoon in Chatham High Street foolishly allowed us to play at his venue, the Sunset Strip which was in the basement of the Blue Lagoon - although it could be that the Blue Lagoon was the club in the basement of the Sunset Strip. I can never remember which way around it was. One was a hamburger joint and the other was a music club, but they can't knowingly have named it the Sunset Strip Club, surely? The gig was two days before Christmas and we were supporting Tim Webster's Johnny Gash and Sexton Ming's Mindreaders - although I have a feeling Tim's bunch may have pulled out because I can only remember the Mindreaders and that they played a cover of Devo's Uncontrollable Urge, which earned brownie points with me. This was our second gig as the Dovers, and Carl managed to coax Chris - who had been our drummer in Total Big - back up from the coast for the occasion (although admittedly he was probably back up to see his folks as well, it being Christmas), so we had the rehearsal at Chris's place in Kemsley on Sunday the 20th of December, 1987, and then played the gig on the Wednesday night, and it's all on this tape.

Medway types might care to listen closely to the live tracks (23 through to 32) so as to spot either themselves or people they knew. Prez can be heard a couple of times, and I think that's Paul Mercer shouting out a request for Smash It Up, and that bloke out of Screaming for the President was there too. Konstruktivists fans may already be familiar with Glenn's guest appearance on this version of He Believes as it was included on another tape which can be downloaded from this blog, but here it is in full with the sound of a disco at the end, just in case you really need it.

Oh - also the above letter somehow lured Judith Mullarkey from the Chatham Standard along to our gig, so obviously she was there, and she seemed to like it which was nice:

  

Download the thirty-two tracks, inlay card, poster and press cutting by clicking here.

Tracks:
1 - The Insect
2 - A.I.D.X.
3 - Beat Me Black & Blue I
4 - Batman's Personal Friend I
5 - Fatback
6 - He Believes
7 - I'm Not Losing Sleep
8 - Hail Fellow Well Met
9 - Misery List
10 - Old Blue
11 - Are You My Mother?
12 - Pizza to Go I
13 - Pizza to Go II
14 - The Insect
15 - Beat Me Black & Blue II
16 - Batman's Personal Friend II
17 - Louie Louie
18 - Sister Ray
19 - Madonna
20 - Pizza to Go III
21 - Here He Comes Again
22 - Havin' a Laugh
23 - Hail Fellow Well Met
24 - Are You My Mother?
25 - Misery List
26 - The Insect
27 - Pizza to Go
28 - Louie Louie
29 - Sister Ray
30 - Hey Joe
31 - A Fucking Merry Christmas
32 - He Believes (featuring NKVD)

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