1989
Gary decided he was at the end of his tether and had enough and wanted to leave, which he did in April. A week or so later we got offered the support slot on the first Beautiful South tour in June. We got slaughtered on Rebel Yell bourbon and said yeeeesssss. Mark had met Paul Heaton on a film course in 1983 or '84. We were at a loose end after the pub one night and he suggested going round to see these people that he'd met who were interesting. We were sat around a big table talking and I wanted a spliff, so being polite I asked did they mind if I rolled one. There was some female present and the reaction from the four residents of the house was as if I had asked if she would suck my todger! Paul played trombone for a few minutes at the Wellington Club Mato Chup extravaganza in 1984 and then The Housemartins took off and I didn't see him for a few years. He had spotted our cassette tape in a shop window and realised we were still at it so when he bumped into Mr. Rudeforth at The Silhouette Club he offered us the gig. Gary came running back asking where 'we' were going, when 'we' were doing it etc. I told him to fuck-right-off. We started playing with Dave Smelt on bass (he was a guitarist really) but wouldn't be ready for the tour so he took a rain-check. About this time I asked Grant Ardis if he would like to join us, he nearly had in 1984. I had played with Grant in the first real group I was in - Section 60 which arose from the ashes of a band called Mental Block - and rated him as one of the best drummers I had ever heard. The deal with Grant turned out to be that his buddy Nicky Hogg wanted to play bass and I thought ok what-the-hell let's give it a go but the upcoming tour was most important. We had a meeting in the pub with The B.S. and I cheekily said that we would help them out on this tour if we could do the next one with the full electric band, amazingly enough they agreed. So we (Trev, Mr. Rudeforth and Myself) went on tour in June as the Beautiful South support band and someone wrote a letter in to the music press calling us 'the worst group in the world', yes indeed! After we got back there was a sessionette with Trev, Nicky, Grant and myself, we started with Mystery Train, the old Junior Parker number and from the first note there was something there. Dave Smelt switched to guitar and vocals for a couple of weeks but it didn't work out. What Katy Did Next consisting of Myself - guitar, vocals, Trevor Simpson - slide guitar, Mr. Rudeforth - tapes, Nicky Hogg - bass, vocal, and Grant Ardis - drums, vocal, began rehearsing and did a few warm-up gigs for the next tour. The gigs were engagements that Nicky had booked for his club group but we honoured them instead. On one gig at the Beer, Beef and Buggery boozer on Hessle Road during the first number the landlord came running up, pointed at Mr. R. (who was playing a tape of an old preacher giving it rock) and shouted "Either he stops or you all get off, now!" He paid us off during the interval. At another pub we completely cleared the room but still got paid as it was the landlords' night off. We went on tour with The B. S. again in Oct/Nov, with a couple of rescheduled dates in Ireland in December.
