Hi new to the board!!!
Thought i would start off with this.....
Does anyone know what ever happened to an early 80's Sheffield band
DIG VIS DRILL ?
I only have 1 song from them called
Im Hip Im vain
(makes some reverence to ABC & Human League in the song)
I would love to know wot ever happened to this band and any MP3 downloads would be a Welcome.
Cheers
Tony

I don't know what they're up to now, but you would probably find this book really interesting:

'Truth And Beauty - The Story of Pulp' by Mark Sturdy.

It was published last year, and at 500+ pages, it is immensely detailed, not just about Pulp, but about the early eighties Sheffield music scene. Dig Vis Drill feature a lot, and there are extensive quotes from the band's vocalist Ogy McGrath, and guitarist Nick Robinson. Both were interviewed for the book as they played with Pulp many times during that period.

If you've any interest in that period of Sheffield music, I recommend this book most heartily. There's more info here:

http://www.geocities.com/truthandbeauty.geo/

Originally posted by Tonyb
Hi new to the board!!!
Thought i would start off with this.....
Does anyone know what ever happened to an early 80's Sheffield band
DIG VIS DRILL ?
I only have 1 song from them called
Im Hip Im vain
(makes some reverence to ABC & Human League in the song)
I would love to know wot ever happened to this band and any MP3 downloads would be a Welcome.
Cheers
Tony


Did you ever find out what happened to the band Digvisdrill ??..I too would be interested to find out more...I heard that Nick Robinson the guitarist still lived in Sheffield but do not know if he has an email address...or Ogy Mcgrath the singer....If anyone can find out anything of this group I would be obliged and thankful

Alf

I used to work with Nick Robbinson in the late 80's (87/88?), the band was pretty much over then.
Around that time they did some more recording at Fon studios (off the Wicker) for a follow up single to Cranking up religion, on Native records.
I don't think it made it to a release?

From what I,ve seen in local press Nick as been sucsessful teaching and writing orogami books.

He was also on BBC 1 a year or two ago, with one of those "get rid of your rubbish" type programs.
This featured some stuff from his Dig Vis Drill day's.

while we are on this subject did anyone know if Mr Morality made any records....I know they and DigVisDrill used to tour with Pulp many moons ago as well as 'The Armchair Poet' Henry Normal. I suppose in hindsight and with the vibrato voice of Meatloaf hounding down my neck... it's a case of 'Two out of three ain't bad' (meaning Pulp and Henry Normal made it big !!) I think I shall have to have a look for that old cassette with a few Sheffield bands from that era..maybe a nice little nest egg there...Cheerie Bye all...
AustereAlf

http://www.12testing.co.uk/music/

Nick's homepage, current band, contact etc.

(search engines are really useful sometimes...!)

Originally posted by AustereAlf
Did you ever find out what happened to the band Digvisdrill ??..I too would be interested to find out more...I heard that Nick Robinson the guitarist still lived in Sheffield but do not know if he has an email address...or Ogy Mcgrath the singer....If anyone can find out anything of this group I would be obliged and thankful

Alf

Nick Robinson taught me computer studies a few yrs ago so I have his addess and tell no if you pm me



Hazel

i still see ogi occasionally, he's writing radio scripts and has a project on the go.

p.s. is that "tony broke"?

Originally posted by AustereAlf
while we are on this subject did anyone know if Mr Morality made any records....I know they and DigVisDrill used to tour with Pulp many moons ago as well as 'The Armchair Poet' Henry Normal. I suppose in hindsight and with the vibrato voice of Meatloaf hounding down my neck... it's a case of 'Two out of three ain't bad' (meaning Pulp and Henry Normal made it big !!) I think I shall have to have a look for that old cassette with a few Sheffield bands from that era..maybe a nice little nest egg there...Cheerie Bye all...
AustereAlf

don't think mr morality did make a record, although singer steve genn's brother, anthony genn, helped write robbie william's first album and played guitar for him.

i've got a mr morality demo tape and some eighties compilations with dig vis drill, pulp, henry normal etc.

Originally posted by Tonyb
Does anyone know what ever happened to an early 80's Sheffield bandDIG VIS DRILL ?

Indeed I do, having been their guitarist. Our 1st 12" made the outer reaches of the indie charts - we promoted it by burning a 6ft crucifix on fargate on easter sunday :gag:

The follow-up "Spell Survival" was recorded, then re-recorded and subjected to a variety of mixes by various Fon celebrities, but at that point, our keyboard player John got married and moved to Mansfield. Things went downhill from there on and it took Oggy about 10 years to accept that John prefered to sleep with a young woman rather than him. :) The 12" never came out - shame - it was awesome and predated Rage agin t'Machine by many a year.

John then retired from music, as did Oggy (such a waste!). Phil (backing singer had moved to France, as, I think, an English teacher(!) but I always remember him most fondly for having picked a fight with and knocked Pulps Russel over in the back of our van going to a gig in Brighton and broke his arm. Happy days. I'd loved to have played with pulp but Jarvis told me I was too good a guitarist ;)

I've been busy ever since, playing with the Comsat Angels, They Must be Russians, Touch, Silent Running, Loose Halos, Me & My Spaceman, Luger Padre but never quite reached the creative heights of the Diggies. I've got several mp3s if you're really desperate, let me know. There's a track on Martin Lillekers new book.

Currently playing with several other veterans in the Betty Black Band - indulging my fondness for combining Deep Purple riffs with off the wall crazy guitar. As well as this, I gig solo, playing ambient improvised soundscapes. Best gig so far? Tokyo university!

Info & audio clips of my original stuff at

dubyadubyadubyadot nickrobinson.info/music (this forum won't let me post URLs!)

Just picked up the 'Cranking up religion' 12" single in a Broomhill charity shop ...

There's a fairly new Myspace page for DigVisDrill by the looks of it too http://www.myspace.com/digvisdrill

i cant really remember em tbh, when were they going exactly? if i get a few tracks i wouldnt mind adding em to my sheffield punk, metal, indie bands site. although officially that only starts at 1986 :P