Punk / metal bands from Sheff between 1986 - 1996

here's a bizarre addition to the board:

in the john peel biography, available now from poundland, there is a picture near page 47 of mr peel in his house.

on the top of a pile of records at the side of him is a copy of the magazine dregs....

which was started by a fellow band-member duncan dregs in liverpool, who was inspired to become a fanzine editor after buying my legendary crime pays fanzine!

First up - big hello to Pete and Stu and a bigger hello to MickC. I'm guessing there's a few other pseudonyms in this thread who sound familiar, but I haven't nailed them accurately yet.

Si from the Nearly Band here, awash with memories provoked by ploughing this thread and grateful for them on a wet wednesday afternoon with writer's block and deadlines looming. The Park Hill Flats gig I remember because certain members of each band actually ran away at one point after the sound check.

I'm going to spare you a litany of memories of gigs, though there were some epic stories - the coach trip to Wales, Newcastle, the near riots onstage and in the crowd, the.... er.... 'gig fuel'.

A few band names to throw into the mix that seem to have slipped thru the net thus far on the thread - The Enzymes, Nick Reynold's own 'The Masons', the Mink Babies, The Sweetie Boys (featuring our own Dave and Jez on band share detail), the Jellyheads, the Cunning Linguists (which was Crispin's first band, i believe).. and an oddly dull prog rock type trio called the Detail.

A few updates - Simon Gilman of the Midnight Choir is in London and now has his own sound recording business for the TV, advertising and movies. Jez, drum legend and later slightly clownish oxygen thief, was last heard of in Liverpool shacked up with a woman and her kid. My last exchange with him went thusly:

'Jez! P*ss off and come back and talk to me when you're straight'

'No - you come back and talk to me when I'm straight'.

Needless to say he didn't say that deliberately.

I've got various bits of Nearly Band stuff on CD, thanks to one-time manager, number one fan, backer and good guy Steve Cadman who posted me a compilation from New Zealand where he's now in music retail. If I ever get my steam-powered laptop back in full working order, i'd be happy to post some stuff. I'd really love to get hold of our cover of Sugar Sugar in some condition or another.

As for me - I'm no longer at Eastenders, had a recent disastrous stint on Torchwood and am now in regular work writing for The Bill (ah the years of research finally come to fruition) and developing new series for various TV networks. Shameless plug - my book 'Books of Magick - Life During Wartime' co-written with Neil Gaiman has almost certainly not quite been remaindered yet in all book stores and comic stores and I've got a new monthly title for DC Vertigo coming in the Fall (as those wily world dominators say) 'The Vinyl Underground'.

So cheers for the memories - let's keep them coming.

PS: Jarvis name-checks his Dolebusters days in this Months 'Word' magazine and if Mick's listening in, I'm hoping he was there in the Broadfield when a bunch of were discussing meeting up at the Goodwin fountain in the year 2000 and young Jarvis, who (as was frequent then) was on his own, butted in to ask if he could come too.

hi si!

great to hear from you. we just need nick reynolds now and we've got the set!

here's an idea for the bill:

scene: police cell, man tapping out a rythm impatiently on a bench. copper pokes his head round the door: "oi cut that out! 'oo d'ya think you are, pete bleedin' f***?!"

here's a line you could've slipped in for your last eastenders:

scene: queen vic, babs to dot cotton: "oi've 'eard more sense cammin' aht the maahths of the f*** city sh*****!"

i've got a nearly band tape in me cupboard...i'll see'f it's got sugar sugar on it!

Well, stone me!

A big hello to you too Si,

Wondered when you’d get here mate

If you want any Nearly band stuff I’ve still got tons. I made a best of CD a couple of years back that I can send you. Also a Live CD made up of tracks from leadmill, Hallamshire and Take 2 ( yes , sorry, the drunken BBC session). A good live version of Sugar Sugar features from the Hallamshire (including the “paul weller” joke. Also rehearsal stuff from Dave’s Cellar and some of the Monday afternoon sessions from my room at Barmouth Road. Got Tomo’s re- mixes (still on tape at the mo) and if you want to go really complete, how about Nearly line up of You me and Chris Brown in Judy’s garage! Gulp! Just realised, I’m an Anorak.

Let me know what you want, sent me an address to mcook0@britpost.com and give me a while to sort it. Can mp3 the lot and stick ‘em on a CD if you like then you can burn CD of favourites at your end.

Take care

(It’s good this Forum Lark innit?)

Good Lord - the 70's Nearly Band material? Pre-punk? When we accidentally wrote 'Public Image Ltd' three years before Lydon? (Not cos we were groundbreaking but cos we were crap).

I'll be in touch over the weekend I reckon with a wish list, I reckon. There aren't many tracks I don't have but there's a few gaps. I DON'T want the Take Two tape that's for sure.

For the initated, that was Nick's first 'live' recording for his radio show - we were playing with the Bland and two fatal errors were made. First Nick paid both bands up front in cash - I think it was a princely forty quid. Then, neither band wanting to hang around sober, both groups wanted to play the support slot so we played pool for it and I went 'in off the black' meaning we either stood around for three hours with forty quid burning a hole in our pockets or got drunk. No contest. Result - drunken singer demanding beer in the middle of songs, pulling woman in crowd and generally wailing like Ollie Reed.

Can anyone remember who the third band were on the Dolebusters trip to Wales? There was us and the Detail and someone else... and the FCS naturally ran on after we'd headlined and did a set anyway, i think with Lou singing.

And what about the Fishwives and The Bride Wore Black? Have they had a mention in despatches yet?

Pete - I'm ignoring you cos I'm sure your off topic :-)

PS: I got in touch with Nick Reynolds about eight years ago, when he was working for World Service. Having carried the guilt of ruining his first live band show for years, i was a bit disgruntled to find he had no idea who I was. If he's still at the BBC you could always try a punt with nick.reynolds@bbc.co.uk

1976 to be precise! Such classics as "got it of to a tee" and "eggy"

Some of the Dave's cellar stuff is worth having for the stuff that never made it live and also for hearing you and me berating the drummer, almost a hobby really and the stuff from my room includes the silly versions of "starman" and "lay lady lay" but also some good jammed stuff that may surprise you after all this time. The best live stuff is from that good hallamshire gig unfortunately the second half of the tape got wiped so only about four songs survived. Took the best stuff I could from leadmill Radio Ethiopia gig but we were plagued by cold guitars being detuned by the heat from the stage lights

Pete from "the bride.." married Joanne (human league) Still see him occasionally. Now this is the sort of trivia that may amuse Pete. Si correct me if I'm wrong, Wasn't Judys brother Clive present at the conception of the human league? and didn't it take place in the house that our garage rehearsal room belonged to?

God its just like comedy connections! There's an idea Si, get typing.

My brains failing, Fishwifes? was that Jad and Johhny etc?

The Fishwives were Paul Divine (real name) on vocal, I think Big Gil (of jack and Gil party comedy duo fame), Tank Commander Pidd and someone else on drums I think. They contributed two tracks to the Two Dozen Toucans cassette album (named after Tommo's Guinness Ad wallpaper if you remember) along with Hole in the Wall and the Bride...

Jad and Johnny's spin off from the Mink Babies was the Jellyheads.

Not sure if Clive Porter (who I'm still in touch with) was actually there at the conception of the Human League but he certainly was (and still is) close with them - I believe Phil Oakey painted their house back in the day. Sad to report the wonderful Jack Porter, (who let us use his garage and defended us to his snotty Dobcroft neighbours despite our hideous row) passed away this time last year but his funeral was a wonderful service, the casket disappearing behind the curtains to the sound of the Test Match theme.

'That Good Hallamshire Gig'???? We played thousands of them - there was only ONE good one?

PS: At the risk of hijacking this thread into Nearly Band news, we get a namecheck here too...

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?p=1865717#post1865717post1865717

the only one good one we actually recorded.

can't help with the third band in wales. The only things I can remember clearly about that day is johnny almost getting us into a fight with the locals and then later at the gi almost (unintentionally) tipping a guy out of his wheelchair on the dancefloor, needless to say he was ver ver drunk.

Yeah, seen the other thread nice of them to say we did a mean version of White Rabbit...cus we did!

I just remembered Trolleydogshag storming onto the stage to the sound of 'The Business Boys' and Ian running on grabbing the mike and going straight down on the floor, murmuring something arcane about 'eight hot knives man!!!!!' - Clearly I have no idea what he meant. Steve Mackey was there of course with his then lovely flowing locks as opposed to his later Pulp wedge.

Ian of the Trolleys was last seen by sticking bill posters for bands in London about 15 years ago.

A couple of other names popped into my head - 'Into the Storm' and 'Like Ice Like Fire'.

Some time last night I found a very feedbacky rehearsal room tape of of an untitled number by the short-lived, nay barely-formed, 'Federation of Love Orchestra'

was it the souly one? sounded a bit like "when a man loves a woman" Quentin (Dylans) on keyboard?