Are We On

This is a compilation from June 1989 including our gig at Leeds Irish Centre on 13.6.89 supporting The Beautiful South on their first tour. Dave didn't do the tour with us because he didn't have enough time to learn the songs. Some people in Hull didn't like the fact that we got the tour with T.B.S. and the negative reaction we got from some of the audience at Leeds were from this contingent, hence "See you in Hull, lads". During The Little Death I snapped a string and ran offstage leaving Trev and Mr R to carry on, I grabbed a guitar backstage, tuned it to our tuning and ran back on to finish the song. I wanted to try and include more stuff from the tour but the quality of the recordings were not good enough.

1. Trying To Remember The Words
2. Mystery Train
3. Dead Flowers
4. King Alcohol
5. The Little Death
6. Are We On
7. Radio Morris
8. Groovy
9. Launderette Love
10. The Little Death
11. I Feel Crap

http://www.archive.org/details/AreWeOn

The Rubber Band

This is a compilation of stuff from April and May 1989. After Gary Burroughs left we asked our friend Dave Smelt who was a guitarist and singer if he would play bass so he started playing with us.

http://www.archive.org/details/TheRubberBand

Boiled For Three Minutes

Recorded on 12.3.89.
We tried doing a slow version of The Death Of MF and it took a while to stand up by itself, this is the best version I could find.
Bobs' Blues was named after Robert Johnson, a brilliant blues artist, the words are taken from some of his songs.
So, things were going great, as previously stated, with this version on the group. Of course it couldn't last. Gary decided he wanted to leave after this rehearsal. I can't remember the reasons now but he always had his weekend club gig and it always came first. I was pretty sick of his casual attitude as well.
So that was the end of that.

1. Boiled For Three Minutes
2. Sweet Home Chicago
3. The Death Of MF
4. Part Of The Thing
5. The Little Death
6. I Got It
7. Bobs' Blues

http://www.archive.org/details/BoiledForThreeMinutes

Just Call Me Norman

Recorded on 21.2.89. As previously mentioned, things were getting really good with the music in terms of the group coming together. A great rhythmical tightness was evolving and the songs were being deconstructed and reconstucted as we played them. The improvisatations were going in many different directions at once. It couldn't last.

1. Poor Boys Dead And Gone
2. Constipation
3. Just Call Me Norman
4. Launderette Love
5. A Bit Of Tinkley Bonk

http://www.archive.org/details/JustCallMeNorman

Slum Pig

Recorded on 12.2.89. My criteria for choosing what to select and what to reject from these rehearsals are as follows. You will find multiple versions of the same songs on this blog but if it is a good version or there is something different about it I have used it. There are numerous improvisations on the tapes and if I like one and it works I have used it. I have started giving them titles rather than just putting 'improvisation'. If there was any talking or craziness that added to the atmosphere of a particular seesion I have included that too. Slum Pig could have been worked up into a song, it still might be one day, who knows.

1. The Road Is Rocky
2. Past Aural Sympathy
3. Slum Pig
4. Me And My Chauffeur
5. Backwards In Front

http://www.archive.org/details/SlumPig

The End Of The Tether

These two rehearsals were recorded on 5/7.2.89.
We broke a lot of guitar strings on the acoustics because we were playing so intensely.
Gary didn't know what the date was or when or whether his album session with 'The Northern Legend' was happening.
He didn't make it to the rehearsal on Tues the 7th. That wasn't unusual.
Gary was getting near The End Of His Tether. The feeling was getting to be mutual.
There was belching on both nights.
C'mon Honey, Ride My Pony.

1. This Ambulace (Part)
2. Borborygmos
3. Broken String Symphony
4. Old Teacakes
5. The End Of The Tether
6. Poor Boys Dead And Gone
7. Slurping And Belching
8. Ride My Pony.

http://www.archive.org/details/TheEndOfTheTether

Anal Perversions Of The DonkeyMan.

This was recorded on 31.1.89. It was a Sunday Afternoon and we had a copy of the Sunday Sport 'newspaper'. I say it in inverted commas because there was no actual news in it. It was full of bizarre stories purporting to be true when most of them were obviously made-up. It was also full of adverts for sex chat-lines. All the crazy stuff and filth that we were reading out came from there but I might have made Anal Perversions Of The DonkeyMan up. There was a lot of improvised music as well and Gary sang a lot on this which was unusual. The Donkey stuff just came out of the blue and we went with it. As I mentioned in the previous post things were really starting to come together musically as a group. As I was remastering this tape I put echo on a lot of it because it added to the atmosphere of it all.

Paul Moller- guitar, vocals, readings
Trevor Simpson - guitar, readings
Mr Rudeforth - tapes, radio, funny joke, laffing
Gary Burroughs - snare drum, vocals, readings

1. Come On
2. Microwave Joke
3. Don't Brown My Meat
4. Where's Your Donkey Gone
5. The Twitchers
6. Hard Heart To Break
7. Pert
8. The Mare's Lemon
9. Lot's Of Things
10. Don't You Whip My Donkey
11. Anal Perversions Of The DonkeyMan

http://www.archive.org/details/DonkeyMan

False Teeth, A Bald Head, Glasses...

This was recorded on 17.1.89. Things were starting to get good in terms of getting somewhere with the music as a group. I don't mean commercially, we had only done two gigs and not many people even knew of our existence, we were very underground. We had been playing with this line-up for a year and it was starting to come together in terms of as a group getting to grips with what we were doing musically. We were starting to play with the music and not just play it. It is an exciting time in the development of a group.
The Bit On The Bike involved a piece of equipment which had Trevs' bike mounted on rollers as an excercise device, Gary got on the bike and started giving it rock and we commented.
There were some old blokes who used to drink in our local and they were really funny. We were in there boozing one day and one of them came up to us on his way back from the toilet. He Said - "False Teeth, A Bald Head, Glasses and A Soft Cock." "Old Age lads." "Fully Stiff With An Inch Of Slack In The Middle." Then he walked off.
Once Mr. Rudeforth and I were decorating for someone and were stood outside having a break, an old man was shuffling down the street, as he got to the gate he stopped. He turned to us and said "Women! They Want Hanging!". Then he shuffled off. You never forget things like that.

1. False Teeth
2. This Ambulance
3. Bit On't Bike
4. Long Time Gone
5. Bald Head

http://www.archive.org/details/FalseTeethABaldHeadGlasses