WER'E THE BAND part 3

It was at the 43 bus stop opposite Islington Town hall where we met our singer. The half assed mission statement of approaching the first interesting woman we saw and asking her to join the band bore fruit in the shape of Lee a German girl with an interesting attitude. We simply asked her if she wanted to be in a band and after some pretentious chat about the nature of our musical mission we arranged for her to come and rehearse with us. Now this is in the days before mobile phones, and an arrangement to meet was about as much as you could do.

We had been rehearsing at Halligan’s but following the fallout with Keith, who worked part time there now, we had to look elsewhere for rehearsal space. These were the wandering days. We found a place behind a record shop in Kentish town that was tantamount to a sound proofed shed, a space in the basement of a camera shop opposite the Music Machine Camden (now Koko) and in the basement of Neil’s shared House in Crouch end. We all invested in our own equipment and started to apply ourselves to the task at hand. In hindsight the arrival of Lee as our singer was a bad move. Also with hindsight we would have been better served if I had come out from behind the drums and returned to vocals. A decent drummer would have provided the glue for our experiments.

It’s not that Lee was a bad singer or that she was a bad person. She just became a bad influence. Her presence led to too much talk (or rather pontificating) and not enough action. The band stalled. Rehearsals were counter productive on a bad day and barely worthwhile on a good day. Often we would abandon all hope and pile into a car drive to Brighton and get pissed. If things were getting dull in the rehearsal room we would decide to go to Hampstead for a drink and end up downstairs at Maxwells until the early hours. Musicians block? Then it was off to The Albion then on to

Emmanuels Finchley Road

for a late one. Not the actions of serious musicians.

The thing is that we had good ideas, were serious about music but lacked the dedication needed. We also were not musically proficient enough, except Neil who was and is a proper musician. We had our moments and even bought in another female singer (whose name escapes me) who made up for lack of talent with enthusiasm.  Synthesisers were added and all sorts of avante garde ideas discussed but no real progress.

To be fair we never really got started. We spent an enormous amount of times seeing bands, going to clubs, attending parties listening to music and generally being around the music world but not enough time developing what we had. So we faded out with a whimper not a bang. Still friends though.
The DJ years beckoned.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hnY5r180XI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXiM-rgiXm8
music machine the movie

TO BE CONTINUED