Translate

Tuesday 31 December 2013

Just checked some stats.  Didn't make 100 posts this year but this makes 64 and that smashed 2012's 32.

Upwards and onwards!

Lets get posting.

That's just about it for 2013.  Thinking about my resolutions for 2013 on 31 December 2012 I included the following in my post.

So 2013?  Well hopefully better than 2012.  As I said my odd years tend to be better than my even years so fingers crossed.  In today's i they listed the top 10 resolutions according to a seasonal survey (which probably means they did a 5 bar gates poll around the office).  Anyway, it went as follows,

1.  Read more books
2.  Save more money
3.  Lose weight
4.  Re-decorate
5.  Take better photos
6.  I want to go travelling
7.  I want to sell old stuff I don't want on eBay
8.  Buy a tablet
9.  Organise photos - print/delete/save etc.
10.Do something for charity.

not bad.  So why not?  I'll give that lot a go.  Maybe I'll even let you know how I get on.

Happy New Year

So as promised,

1.  No, I'm not sure I'm that bothered anymore either.  I know loads of people get loads of pleasure from reading but I don't really.  I find it difficult to maintain my concentration which slows me down and because it takes me so long to read a book by the time I've finished (sorry if) it I've forgotten what happened at the start.  Maybe if there was nothing else to do but I'm happy enough reading the news and thinking about stuff.

2.  I haven't had a pay rise for 3  years and the cost of living has continued to go up.  I've had holidays to Bilbao, Barcelona, Seville in Spain and London (twice), Robin Hoods Bay and my beloved End of the Road festival.  I've pretty much lived the high life (ha ha) so no.

3.  No, but I'm probably fitter now than I was at the start of the year and I 'don't think I've been ill all year so I'm going to claim that one.

4.  Yep, decorated my living room.

5.  No really, had high hopes on this one.  This one fell through, I was going to  a photography class but it folded.  I tried out a camera club (went once) but it wasn't my thing.

6.  See 2, I'm going to claim that one as well.

7.  Sold a load of records on eBay plus some of other stuff so yes.

8.  Bought a Google Nexus 7 which beats the shit out my computer for internet browsing and I use when I'm travelling so another yes.

9.  I organise my photos a bit better but I still don't edit/delete enough so no.

10.  I sponsored everybody that asked me and plenty of other stuff but I think the point was more about physically doing something so.......... alas.

So the scores on the doors is

Yes - 4
No - 6.

Oh well better luck next year.

I privately promised to release some music this year and for most of the year it looked unlikely but thanks to my old pal Richard from  Linear Obsessional Recordings I did it times 2.  In November,  Tick Tick's  My Swelling Heart was finally released to a fanfare trickle of applause and just before Christmas alongside 45 other people I remixed a track from Richard's melodeon improvisations album, Air Buttons for the album Button Box.  My offering was Jackentzat Ere.  Happy days.

I (really) didn't blog as much as I should have done but I did write up the history of Tick Tick and published it here (just go back a few pages).  I am so pleased I did it.  My friend Mark has suggested tidying it up and making it an e-book pamphlet and I might do it.  Cheers for feedback everybody.

I watched too much television.  Breaking Bad took over my life for a couple of months.  I also watched Rome which led me to re-visit the 1975/76 BBC TV series I Claudius.  Also watched the fanciful and implausible Homeland and The Americans and of course endless re-runs of The Big Bang Theory.

Ouch, lots of time wasted there!

So next year?

More walking,  me and Sham have targeted 50 again (met our target by October this year) and to continue with the gym for as long as I can stand it.

Maybe produce more music.  I need to master the software and feel the need to learn some music theory but regardless my embryonic plan is produce an EP linked to Jackentzat Ere, provisionally titled  "1, 2, 3, 4".  Not sure if I have the confidence to "release it" but if it comes off I'll make it available to anybody who is interested.

I need to save some money.  I'm going to New York in May but that's going to be my only holiday.  I never say never but at the moment even EOTR is off the agenda.  I'm going to try and have a year of austerity and limit my going out to no more than twice a month and less than 20 times over 2014. 

I know what I said about reading but I'm going to try.

My blog?  Hopefully, will still be here on 31 December 2014.  The design needs an overhaul and maybe that's what I should probably do first but whatever it will be as chaotic and badly written (I am under no illusions) but hopefully as entertaining as ever, if only to me.

Spend less time looking at Facebook.  I know one man's shit is another's caviar but it really is the digital age's answer to standing around gossiping on street corners in gangs.  Most of the time I resist but I can't deny I love the instant messaging and event notifications but come on people, get a grip, Facebook is just so banal.  It makes a Nigella Lawson cookery programme look like a fucking Stephen Hawking lecture. 

I leave this year with another nice photo from Tracy Hyman.  Although I couldn't describe it as my concert of the year, the EC show at The Westgarth in December was a great occasion full of warmth and love.  The place was bouncing and I sang along with Edwyn to lots of my faves (notably Don't Shilly Shally, Dying Day and Felicity).  A very special We are the Boro night.


Happy New Year.

Thursday 26 December 2013

Ring out the old.

Bloody hell, feeling a bit ropey today, maybe a touch of food poisoning.  I can’t see it being anything to do with drinking alcohol solidly from 3PM until after midnight -anyway we move one .  Loads of people have been posting the Best of 2013 lists and I’m going to join them. 

Best Teesside concerts – Runners up - Dark Dark Dark – Georgian Theatre Stockton and  Withered Hand – Westgarth Middlesbrough but best by a country mile  was Simone Felice at The Studio Hartlepool on 28 June.  Inexplicably there were only about 50 people there but make no mistake Simone Felice is a superstar of Americana so tough luck buster if you missed it.   The sound quality isn’t brilliant but here’s my video of the encore.

Best concert outside of Teesside – Tempted to make out  I’m all young and hip and say Parquet Courts at EOTR 2013 or go for coolest man on earth Steve Earle at The Sage or even Caitlin Rose but (fellow) old guys Television at The Sage were breathtaking.  Just the best songs.

Can’t do best single but I can do best album and I loved the country girls.  Kacey Musgraves and Holly Williams (Hank’s grand-daughter) albums were great but Caitlin Rose’s The Stand-In gets my vote.

Rescued from back catalogue – Obviously Television’s Marquee Moon went close but after seeing David Byrne at EOTR I revisited Talking Heads and I’ve been reacquainting myself with 77 to Naked since.  Obviously they’re not The Velvet Underground but again so many great songs.  Also loved The Kinks at the BBC .  Not technically back catalogue because it was only released 2013 but they’re old songs, you know what I mean.

Best local event – Hail to local promoters – Steve and Dave formerly of Rock Garden re-visited, Andy and Phil TKASG and Leon of Grass Routes but my 2013 fave was the monthly event at The MIMA.  Not sure whether it will continue into 2014 but it was a breath of fresh air in 2013.

Looking forward to in 2014 – Withered Hand’s new album, AV14 and come on Boro, eh!

Best local bands  -  Dinnernanny, General Sherman and Dressed Like Wolves (more later)

If you like Americana, country and alternative folk you must try - Daytrotter

We are ..................

Wednesday 25 December 2013

Teesside

We may be poor and it may be grim but we don't have this and I don't remember when we did?

Ssshh, keep it quiet.
Do you remember that advert on the television back in the day?  I'm totally relying on your memory here because I can't find a link but it was about an old fellar coming home from a horse show or something, having had a great day.   Everybody else went to bed and he fell asleep smoking a cigarette and it dropped out of his hand and set the house on fire.  Not sure what it was trying to say.  Was it don't smoke or don't leave old people on there own downstairs or was it just don't grow old and become a menace?

I don't smoke so I needn't worry but I have had a pretty good day.  I took Sham to her parents, spent an hour or so with them and came home.

I cooked my Christmas lunch

First course - Mussels in white wine sauce
Second course - Fillet steak/peppercorn sauce, chips, mushrooms. veg.
Pudding - Strawberry trifle (M&S, sorry Morrison's)

Washed down with a bottle of Rioja I got off  Shamila's brother for Christmas.  I already had a bottle of wine set up but I didn't want to insult Sudge.

Finally coffee and whisky and I'm now on the Budweiser (from Berwick Hills Morrison's).

It was a splendid Christmas lunch.  Cheers.

As ever there I had a plan and this year is was download the Daytrotter top 300 of 2013, put it on my iPod and tune in.  In fairness according to iTunes it is 19 hours and 30 minutes but there is enough great stuff to justify listening to it all. 

So as Steve McLaren said after we got beat 7 nil by Arsenal in 2006 (not quoted in the BBC report) "we move on".   It's going to be a long night.

How great were those times?

Merry Christmas

After an unexpected but very welcome plug by Steve Harland on Facebook I feel compelled to post and if more people join me I will post more often.  To be honest, I'm sceptical that people will be interested and I've never courted popularity but  I love the idea people of Teesside reading my blog.

By 2 January I will have been posting here and on Livejournal for 8 years.  Often about Music but also about football, cricket, politics and anything that crosses my mind.  I'm no writer but I tell stories, I have opinions and pretty much everything I write is about Teesside or written from a Teesside perspective.

Feel free to join me, I will keep an eye on my stats and if.............

We are the Boro!

Sunday 22 December 2013

Old Comments

Just been catching up with comments.  I'm too humble to expect any and I don't look out for them.

Needless to say, thanks a lot for interest .  Have replied to all the ones I spotted.


Lanterns on the Lake/Frankie and the Heartstrings

So this is Ch------s.

Always nice to dust off the Christmas dec's.  This tree's from my old Live Journal days with a little bit of twinkle from my Internet partners Google  .  Strange thoughts - feel quite sad but only happy memories (December 2007).

The new year will be upon us before we know it and I'm starting to form plans in my mind for 2014.  More later (maybe).  My 2013 social life has again revolved around live music and I've seen some great shows.  The last week hasn't been too shabby with 3 Teesside shows, a fitting end to my year.

Saturday 14 December

Any addition to the Middlesbrough Music scene is welcome but the monthly Saturday event at the MIMA has been brilliant.  

I love the MIMA?  It's a great building, it showcases prestigious modern art and plays host to other events such as the bi-annual AV festival, lest we forget AV08.  Btw,  thanks again to the much maligned Google you can still find details of my input .  I'm really looking forward to AV14.   Hopefully  the Tory disease "austere times" hasn't fucked that up for us.   

Generally the future of The MIMA looks bleak.  The council can no longer afford to run it so Teesside University are taking it over.  We'll just have to see how it goes, but I'm not convinced it will be a happy ending.

Last Saturday was definitely one of those "we are the Boro" moments I used to talk about.  They somehow got Newcastle's mighty Lanterns on the Lake and Sunderland's  Frank and the Heartstrings to come up and play with local Teesside bands Avalanche  Party and Dead New Blood for £5 all in.  

I've seen Lanterns on the Lake a few times before.   At EOTR 2011 (think), No Direction Home 2012 and supporting Explosions in the Sky at The Sage, also 2012.  There are a lot of similarities between Explosions and Lanterns.  Explosions in the Sky are acknowledged exponents of the "post rock" genre along with the likes of Mogwai and Sigur Ros and I would describe Lanterns on the Lake as "post rock lite".  Their songs have a touch of the anthemic about them but Hazel Wilde's beautiful vocals bring a delicacy understated feel to the party.  

    (photo courtesy of the extremely talented Tracy Hyman.  Needless to say I expect the great and good who read my blog to respect her intellectual property rights and not to reproduce the photo without her permission.  You can contact Tracy here)

The construction of Lanterns' songs often lead to a dramatic climax which always goes down well but there is more to them than that.  The guitarist played quiet,  not sure he intended to play so quiet but it was so refreshing nontheless  and I liked his use of a violin bow in a number of songs.  Hazel, sat at her electric piano and introduced the last song.  "Don't take this  too literally" before singing "Have yourself a merry little Christmas". 

I thought it would be good and I wasn't wrong, it was a beautiful performance.

 I'd heard good things about Frankie and the Heartstrings before I heard their debut album, the  Edwyn Collins produced Hunger but I thought it was only average.  Retro is fine but I don't like it when the references are too obvious, you might as well just watch a show band doing covers.  

From that low base they actually really surprised me at the MIMA.  They were full of energy and their engaging singer, the wonderfully named Frankie Francis was a hoot.   I couldn't take my eyes off him all the show.  Even some of the songs sounded good, I really enjoyed them.  Since Hunger I've seen the movie about the Northern Irish record shop and label Good Vibrations which  reminded me how much I loved The Undertones, Protex, The Outsiders back in the day.  Frankie and the Heartstrings very much reminded me of that era and scene and that's no bad thing in my musical universe circa late 2013.  They even have their own record shop in Sunderland!  I'm going to revisit the album.  Get ready for another Spence "hands up, I was wrong about them" about turn.

I've noticed a lot of UTB creeping in to Teesside speak and that's no bad thing.  We all love the Boro so we know exactly what "up the Boro" means but long time readers will know I talk more about "we are the Boro" moments about the unpredictability of the Boro which I think is just as meaningful.  Saturday night was one of those.

I was sure the concert would sell out the 200 capacity venue.  Saturday night, just before Christmas, only £5 in.  Indie stars,  Frankie ....... and soon to be touring Europe and North America, Lanterns on the Lake.   Sadly the MIMA was only about half full.   I sometimes despair of this town, we get what we deserve.  We are the Boro.

Another we are the Boro moment was the order of the bands.  Top billing was given to local band. Avalanche Party who were playing their first show.  Apparently they were 3 Foot Ninja and I recognised a former member of the Chapman Family.   I know I should say something about them but  I've been told before if I've got nothing good to say about bands before I shouldn't say anything.  So I won't.

I thought the whole thing was a bit embarrassing really.  I'm sure it was set up to show the importance of Avalanche Party but if you're going do that sort of thing, at least be good, eh?

Oops! 

PS

We are the Boro.

Wednesday 20 November 2013

Job Done, Tick......Tick (part 8) - The End


We decided to do another one of our walk up “can we support you type gigs”.  This time at the Newcastle House pub in Park End.  The pub has long since gone the way as lots of estate pubs in Middlesbrough (i.e. closed down and then burned down in an arson attack) but at the time of the concert it was still a thriving part of the community.   

Without an ounce of exaggeration or hyperbole I can only describe the event as Tick Tick's attempt at communal suicide.  It was a benefit/memorial concert for a young punk who'd gone missing and was presumed dead after going down to London to follow Crass.  I can't remember the name of the band playing the concert but I do remember they were a local punk band from the next estate and my neck of the woods, Berwick Hills.  We'd actually gone to their first gig, a couple of months before and walked out midway through the first song, bizarrely for a punk band, a cover of Caroline by Status Quo.  

Gary had just written 3 great new songs including one called "The Grenada Revolution" and our plan was that me, Gary and Ste would perform them at the benefit show.  He had written the lyrics down on a single piece of paper,  we would set the drum machine to sound like bullets being fired and we would simply read the lyrics out in unison. 

So  we turned up on armed just with our drum machine.  We planned to improvise the music for the other 2 songs so the other band would have to lend us their instruments.

It was sheer lunacy, the pub was packed with locals, not your usual musical crowd and although we weren’t there long we could  clearly see the atmosphere was rather subdued.   This was without doubt the most stupid thing we ever tried to do.  We hadn’t learned the songs let alone rehearse them and even by our standards it was going to be shambolic.  Thankfully lady luck smiled on us again because they wouldn’t lend us their gear or even let us do The Grenada Revolution.  I cannot stress enough  how close a shave this was, we would definitely have been lynched.
 

Tick Tick 4 must have played a few gigs but I only remember a couple.  We played a benefit concert for the Workers Revolutionary Party at Corporation Hall, Stockton supporting Blank Frank’s, Makaton Chat with Paul on drums.   

Fran Barbarian, singer from the seminal and by now defunct Barbarians (all hail) was also on the bill and we argued who should go on first.  As usual we lost.   At least there were quite a few people in the audience by the time we played and it went really well.  We were starting to use the synth to good effect (a lot down to Russ).   Not sure if we were still performing Hand over Fist but we generally just got the synth to make weird pop and crackle noises.  Russ also worked out that if you plugged the guitar through it and played notes on the keyboard you could get it to make a weird harmonic delay sound.  The Makaton Chat lads (not Blank) were fascinated by this technique.  You can probably just plug the guitar into  a pedal now but 30 odd years ago it was pretty clever stuff. 

There was a  soundboard recording of this show and the last I remember was that Russ had it.  Any comment Russ?

We were still great pals with Richard even though he’d long since left us.  He got us a gig playing at a Labour Party day time rally at Middlesbrough Town Hall Crypt.  The plan was Richard would play a set with Morgan drumming and Tick Tick would play a set.   It turned out to be another debacle.    We turned up and there was no PA.  We thought the Labour Party were going to supply the PA and they thought we were.  As if?   We spent what seemed an eternity trying to organise one.  In the end we hit lucky again.  The woman in Cleveland Music knew Morgan and trustingly lent us one.
 

It was 1982 and Margaret Thatcher had just come to power.  Sadly the whole event reflected the complete disarray the Labour Party was in.  There were stalls around the perimeter of the hall manned by middle aged men and women and a few rows of seats were set up for people in front of the stage to watch the bands.  Sadly the event wasn't very well publicised and hardly anybody came.  We weren't that bothered though we were happy enough to play to the stallholders and we were on good pay.  I think Richard got £80 to put on the gig.  The PA was buck she so he just split the money with us £40 each.  Bop bop bop.   

Richard played and sounded really good but I think we sounded awful.  It wasn't that we played badly it was just that we sounded so hollow in the empty hall.  I remember one of the stall holders pleading with us that it was too loud. 

“What, you want us to play louder?  Ok”   

That might have been the last gig but there was one more although I'm not sure about the chronology.

Ste was down the town one Saturday and spotted a fly poster in the town showing Tick Tick supporting The Sines and another band at The Empire the following night .  It was news to us.   Gary was by now studying at Sunderland Polytechnic and we had no way of contacting him so that was that, we would just have to do a no show.

It was around the time I was thinking about quitting anyway so I wasn't bothered about playing but Ste and Russ had decided they would play the gig after all.  They planned to write up 6 new tunes the afternoon before the gig and asked me if I would sing for them .  As mentioned earlier by this time I was half improvising my songs anyway so the concept didn't phase me but I said no though, I just didn’t fancy it. 

They would ask Richard then. 

Mmmm. that sounded more interesting,  go on then if they could get Paul Fowler to play I would do it.  Paul and Ste would hold the sound together so no matter how it sounded at least it wouldn’t fall apart.

Obviously with Gary missing we couldn’t call ourselves Tick Tick. As I was wearing an Argentina football shirt that day we decided to call ourselves Boys From The Pampas, as you do.  It was pre-Falklands by the way so not as provocative as it sounds.   

As usual we turned up with just our guitars (couldn’t risk the synth on a semi-improv show) and we asked The Sines if we could use their amp’s and drums.   

“No you fucking can’t” Not that I’m a bitter man but The Sines were also a band who thought they had a shot at “making it”.  I seem to remember they were originally a mod band but changed tack when the new wave of mod fizzled out.  Not sure what type of music they were playing on the night but it will have been some type of new wave.  By the way their eventual “it” moment was bringing out a flexi-disc given away with the now defunct Melody Maker.  Not bad.

No matter though the second support band loaned us their gear.  And I was right, Ste and Paul did hold it together.  Some of the songs turned out really good and eventually turned into proper songs.  From memory one of the songs later became Timpani (that makes 4).   Paul asked if we could do Mythical Bedsprings our perennial millstone.  Yeah, why not, it helped pad out the set by another 2 minutes.  Needless to say, it was exhilarating and up their with my favourites. 

So that was that.  Once again, cheers to Rich for releasing My Selling Heart which inspired me to write this up without the aid of any notes, photos or press cuttings.  Happy to do corrections and additions if anybody around remembers it better or differently.  Also a couple of people have mentioned about it being hard to read on the blog background.  Sorry.

So did we do what we planned?

Brought out a record? – Yes
Always short sets? – Yes
Did we ever compromise? – I don't think we ever did.
Thank you’s? – Not absolutely sure(I know I didn’t) but don’t think so.
Encores? – None
Exact version of Alternatives? – No.  Probably for the best.


Laugh off Cap, Elephants Stance, all of the above, we remain Tick Tick. 

We made it.

 

Tuesday 19 November 2013

Job Done, Tick......Tick (part 7)


All over, no shouting

Next up in the drum chair was Morgan Duffy who lived in the outskirts of Stockton.  He was previously drummer in our friend, Lee Gibson’s band, The The And.  We’d heard him drum and he wasn’t bad.  Happily, he also had a car and lived in a big house where we could practice (a trend I don't think we saw at the time).  And my brother Russ joined the band so we were back up to a 5 piece.  Russ was into pop music and loved the Jam, he was also an excellent guitarist having the ability to come up with great tunes and hooklines.  As mentioned earlier he actually co-wrote Mythical Bedsprings. 
He was only 16, quite a bit younger than the rest of us but he played his part.  He brought  freshness and melodies back to Tick Tick that we hadn’t had since Richard left.  One particular great tune he came up with was for lyrics written by Ste called Timpani which became a live favourite.  Russ also played an acoustic 12 string guitar which sounded great.  He played it through a normal amp which gave it a great harsh electric sound.  We talked about it later and Russ said he never liked how it sounded but I loved it. 

Morgan was a different kettle of fish to our previous passive drummers, he had attitude and always had plenty to say.  Along with Ste they argued we should introduce a few covers into our set and by now I’d lost the will to fight it.  Thankfully it never came off, we were never good enough musicians to work out the chords anyway, it wasn’t like today when you can just download the tab and off you go.  I started to get marginalised again.  Morgan suggested Ste tried to play the bass while singing leaving my keyboard basslines surplus to requirements.

I still loved performing live but the practices had become really shit, I was starting to dread them. We’d started practicing at the North Ormesby Pavillion which was great for me and Russ, it was near to where we lived and even closer to the pubs I’d started to go to with my other brother, Ian and his friends.  I just spent most of the time lying on my back day thinking let me out of here so I could go to the pub.  There was no way back,  I had little left to offer.  I could have knew gone through the motions for a bit longer but there were no gigs on the horizon and to be honest my pride had just taken one beating too many.  I told  Russ I was going to leave, he was shocked and said they would turf him out of the band if I left.  I said I didn’t think they would, he’d become too important to Tick Tick.

So I just told them I was leaving Tick Tick in the middle of band practice.  Gary looked shocked and bit bothered and obviously Russ knew about it.  Ste and Morgan didn’t really react, it was no big deal to them.  I wasn’t going to “make it”.  I told them they could still use the synth for as long as they wanted, they needed it because Russ used to play some of the songs through the synth and I just walked out and off to the Jack and Jill pub, leaving them to finish their practice.

Gary and Ste came to the pub and it was a little bit sad.  I told Gary about my unhappiness, we shook hands, that was that.


Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
We still remained friends and Russ kept me up to speed what was happening.  I wanted them to do well.  I heard some tapes and the songs sounded really good. Properly crafted songs and I thought the best since Richard had left.  Timpani sounded even better and they had a new song  “It’s A Shame” sung by Gary.  Russ described it as a country and western song.  It had a great melody and went something like (once again relying totally on memory)

“It’s a shame, it’s a shame, shame shame, shame.
People I care about, I care about too much
And when I’m sober, I write these songs”

The Gazette ran an interview with photograph of the band.  They had become indignant and angry about the lack of venues to play.  Not sure where that come from but I was just glad I wasn’t part of it.  It looked a bit contrived, maybe just an angle just to get them into the Gazette.  I’d only left the band a couple of weeks and their consternation was news to me.  If I was still in the band and we were really bothered about not playing live I’d like to think we’d have just blagged our way onto a bill somewhere or asked a pub if we could play for free.  They also published a photo, I’ve got it somewhere, if I find it I’ll slip it in.  I know some of them are a bit embarrassed by the article but I don’t know why.  They were just young and probably went into the interview naively.  Looking back, maybe none of us were quite as cool as we like to think we were. 

A couple of weeks after that Gary and Ste threw Russ and Morgan out of the band so Russ was right after all.  Gary telephoned Russ to tell them and then asked to speak to me to explain.  Musical differences were cited but I wasn’t really interested in listening what he had to say.  Russ was distraught and I was gutted for him, he was my 16 year old brother and I was always very protective of him.  Furthermore nobody had ever been thrown out of Tick Tick before.  I’ve no idea how Morgan got the bullet and in truth I'm not really interested, it wasn’t the same. Russ had been indirectly and later directly involved with Tick Tick since the start and it was a shabby way to treat him and I felt it was disrespectful towards me.  It caused a lot of problems at home.  Our house was a tough environment to grow up in,  it was obligatory to give each other a hard time but when one of us hurt we all hurt.
Obviously, lots of water under the bridge and all that but it took some time before I forgave Gary and Ste.  Musically it looked a bad decision too. Russ was good, he was genuinely innovative and he was only young, he could have adapted and would have got better as well.  I think his downfall was ironically what he was brought into Tick Tick for, his pop sensibility, Gary and Ste just didn’t want to go down that route and fair do's.

End of the Road

Gary and Ste had already lined up our friends Jeff Luke and Ronnie Burr when they threw Russ and Morgan out of the band. They also brought in Ronnie’s then girlfriend Kate O’Neill to do backing vocals and maybe keyboard.  Just as an aside girlfriends and bands?  No!!

 I never saw Gary or Ste for sometime so my knowledge of this version of the band was zilch.  The only reason I remembered them at all was because I saw a photo of them in Lee Gibson’s book “A Punk Rock Flashback” looking very eighties.  Things had moved on.  I’m not sure whether they played live and never heard any of their songs.  I don’t even know how long they lasted. 

Update – spoke to Gary and they played a concert at a nightclub in Stockton.  They had a dressing room which was a first for Tick Tick. 

Sometime after that Gary told me they had split up.  Ronnie and Ste left to join other bands.  Ironically Ste asked Russ and Morgan back.  I’d have told him to take a running jump but in fairness I don’t know how the conversation went.  I think they even adapted Timpani to go with yet another song (that makes 3). 

Update – Gary left and the band and continued on without him for a bit.  He said they had a song where they put the words of Jean  Paul Sartre to music.  Not sure whether they still called themselves Tick Tick but I’m not going back to put them in the family tree thing I did at the start.
So that’s it, all done, but that last bit's a bit of a downer isn't it?  So I've purposely saved one last batch of live show memories to finish off , just don't call it an encore.  I'll try and post them tomorrow.

Sunday 17 November 2013

Job Done, Tick......Tick (part 6)


4 Piece (The Maid’s Neck) and Peckover - live shows  

Arguably this was our tightest line-up musically.  Possibly because we introduced the keyboard and were able to tune up properly, most of the time anyway.
 
We played 2 great performances over the space of a couple of weeks.   One a triumphant return to Marton College.  There were 5 bands on and we played third.  Local punk band The Filth were on after us and some heavy metal band were top of the bill (probably because they supplied the PA).  I can’t remember their name.  But I can remember we played one of our best ever sets.  We were all in tune and went down really well.  We were still buzzing as we were walking out of the venue with our gear as reports reached us that fighting had broken out just after The Filth started and the concert was abandoned.  That was amusing enough but who was coming swaggering towards us?  This was just too good to be true.
 
“Have a good time lads?  We’re xxxxxxx, we’re the headliners”
“Yeah?”  We managed to suppress our laughter until they were out of earshot.  A great memory.
 
The daft thing is The Filth were amongst the nicest lads in the local punk scene and we went on to play quite a few gigs with them.  We played quite a lot of shows with local punk bands.  We had to if we wanted to play because they were the local music scene.   Obviously we were very different to the punks.  We dressed and spoke differently and we generally disliked their music but we never condescended.  Most of them were ok and they treated us ok.  Even if they didn’t like our music and they almost certainly didn’t they respected our attitude.
 
 I don’t remember us having that much chew but there was one occasion at The Teessider when Terry Doyle from Discharge, an old friend of Gary had to step in to save our skins from the skins! 

We played the Rock Garden for our third and final time with The Fall in November 1980 and it was brilliant.  Everything just about just turned out just as we planned.  We weren’t on the bill to play, we just decided we were going to support them. It never occurred to us that it wouldn’t happen.  Mark Smith was our hero and Grotesque (after the gramme) had just been released, my favourite Fall album.  We went down to Stockton on the afternoon and got drunk on white wine.  Can’t remember what that was about.  We got the bus to the Rock Garden and waited for The Fall to arrive. 

When they turned up I just walked up to their then reportedly formidable manager and girlfriend of Mark Smith, Kay Carroll and just  asked if we could support them.  I was drunk and full  of bravado and think I caught her on the hop.  From memory I don't think she took much persuading.  although she did initially baulk when I asked if Paul could use their drums.  Think there might have been something wrong with his car but he definitely didn't want to drive home for his drums. 

Kay Carroll said he couldn’t use their drums.

“Why not?”

“What if he does a skinnin. ?”

“What’s a skinnin?”

“You know break the skin of the drum”

“Right, a skin in”  I didn’t see that happening but I told her that if Paul did a skin in, they could drive round to Paul’s to pick up one of his drums.  Only they would have to use their van.

I swear that is how the conversation went and Kay Carroll just agreed.

“You’ll have to pay Grant Showbiz” £5 to do the sound though”

“No problem” (only £1.25 each and free in to see The Fall - result).

We even had a sound check.  I’d gone home for some reason and when I came back cuddly Radio 6 presenter Marc Riley was having a hissing fit with Ste because he didn’t know how to switch the synth on.

I walked up, switched it on and Riley walked off chuntering something under his breath. 

By the time we went on stage we’d been drinking for over 8 hours and it told.  Gary introduced the first song.  “The plough’s mightier than the pen, Hand Over Fist”  the synth came in “whoo hooo whoo hoo whoo whoo whoo hoo.  “Ha-ha-hand, o-o-ver Fist!” Whoo hooo whoo hoo whoo whoo whoo hoo and so on.  The mix of our friends, the punks and the skins lapped it up.  It was surreal.  This one’s called “Who Killed The Mystery Girls” before breaking into For the Benefit of Mrs Smith.  We were way out of tune and tried to tune up mid-set (no electric tuners in those days).  Gary asked the audience if it was in tune?  "That'll do".

 

At the end of our set Gary goaded the crowd.  “Do you want more?”

Crowd “Yeah!”

Gary “Yeah?”

Crowd “Yeah!”

“Ha Ha (laughter not as in Hand Over Fist again), hard luck”

Not sure if The Fall would have let us?  Of course, they would have, I’d have squared it with my new pal Kay, but we stuck to our guns, we didn’t do encores.

Mark Smith saw Ste at the bar and told him how much he enjoyed it as did the Rock Garden Manager.  He said  he’d pay the sound man for us.

After that?  It just all kicked off again.  Fights broke out, skinheads were punching people at random.  It was Marton College all over again.  It is remembered in Rock Garden history as a particular brutal Rock Garden night and that's saying something.  I think I remember it referred to "Hell on Earth" on a Fall fans forum.

Obviously it would have happened anyway but I don’t think us winding up of the audience helped.
Our friend, Anarcho Punk Lee Gibson taped it all for us and then interviewed Mark Smith with Gary for his fanzine.  I digitized the interview and shared it on the Internet a couple of years ago and the transcript is in Lee's book

That could have been our last show with Paul although I do remember us going to Darlington to play at a pub called The Speedwell.  He might have still been around for that one and I know it’s starting to look like I’m making this up but we travelled on the train carrying our gear.  We walked out of Darlington Railway Station only to get chased all around Darlo by some (presumably) County Durham thugs.  Thankfully we were all reasonably fit and even lugging our gear we managed to shake them off before making our way to the venue.  Pete Farrell who’d joined up with Ste to form Those Responsible met up with us.   It was a good show.  We involved the locals and let them use our gear to play at the end.   I think Pete come in a Community Transport van and thankfully gave us a lift home, phew!

We had another close shave, although this time it was only me when we played the Birds Nest pub in Hartlepool, one of only a couple of concerts we played with Peckover.  He was only a kid, probably about 15 and although he mostly kept reasonable time he had a habit of losing it when he came out of drum rolls.  We advised him not to do drum rolls but he ignored us.  With the benefit of hindsight he was just doing what Tick Tick generally did and  ignored what he was told.  In truth he just wasn’t a very good drummer. 

The show was set up by Braz and our other pals from Hartlepool.  They also had a band,  Almost Cried and I’m guessing they probably supported us.  We decided to make it a concept show.  We still had loads of our records left and decided to call it "The Tick Tick Quiz and Sale".   We played half of our set and I introduced the quiz.  There was a bloke worse for wear talking loudly at the back and I asked Workingman’s Club stylee for a bit of order. 

He took exception to this and in a clear attempt to intimidate me he came right up to me so close that I could feel his breath on my face.  I didn’t have time to think through a response so I just continued with the show and lady luck smiled on us me and he just went returned to his seat ready to take part in the quiz, probably saving my beating for later.  As luck would have it he ended up winning a record answering “Who in darts is known as the crafty cockney?” correctly.  He was never going to kick my head in after winning a copy of “The Immortalisation of Tick Tick”. 

Friday 15 November 2013

Job Done, Tick......Tick (part 5)


We booked another studio session.  We decided we were going to bring out another single (see the introduction) and Pete Farrell set it all up for us and Paul took us up in his car.  I think he might have took us all which meant there were 6 of us.  No?  That can’t have been right.  Did Pete Farrell drive?  I’m not sure now.  I’m not going to go through the whole story so here’s my bulleted memories of the day I knocked up for the EP release.  Alas, not with the physical copy but in the PDF with the download.  
  • Turning up without drums and cymbals. We were told the studio would supply the drum-kit. We didn't know Paul still had to bring cymbals. Pete Farrell looked at us as if we were idiots because we didn't know. Paul had to go back for them.
  • Fatigued With Dub originally had chaotic conversation at the start but we were persuaded by Gav to edit it out. We didn’t call him Gav by the way.
  • Car running out of petrol on way back and we got caught by police acting suspicious round Paul's house trying to get some petrol in car so he could get to Billingham Bottoms to fill up and take us home.
  • Gav telling us that the keyboard had in the past been used by Elton John.
  • Punishment of Luxury had recorded there few weeks before us and I think Tygers of Pantang. Also didn't Discharge and Tery Tranz record their records there?
  • We wanted to record My Swelling Heart live but Pete Farrell and Gav persuaded us it wasn't the way, so we tried to do it studio stylee. It sounded sterile but thankfully I kept fucking it up so after a fraught session and fish and chips for our tea, Gav let us do it live.
  • Paul's drumming. Gav's rock production. Tick Tick rocked. Respect. 
The only other thing I would mention about the day was Gary’s clarinet on Fatigued with Indolence.  The epitome of less is more,  just 3 notes, nothing more to add.
We were on a high.  We were always confident about our songs but this was a new sound, it was just so dynamic.  There were some embryonic talks about releasing the single.  We even had talks about what the cover would look like but it never happened and not long after I heard Richard had left the band.  He might have told Gary or we might have heard it second hand but he never told me, I can’t remember being that bothered either way.  I would imagine people were bending his ear about how great Drop were compared to the average Tick Tick but Richard was strong willed and single minded.  I don’t think he will have taken much notice of them.  It was more likely about creative freedom and wanting to do things his way.   
Before Tick Tick it looked like he had a promising musical career in front of him and in the fast moving music scene any window of opportunity of “making it” had gone and he’d spent the last year arsing about with some kids from council estates in East Middlesbrough.  He was very creative and must have felt restricted in Tick Tick.  Sitting here writing this and reading it back I realise how great it was to have Richard in the band.  And in the 3 decades since then Richard has single handedly kept the name of Tick Tick alive smouldering away in the ashes before fanning the flames back to life.  Salute.

Life Without Richard

Me, Gary and Ste went on a holiday to the South of France with my brother Ian and discussed what to do with the band.  We decided to change our name and settled on "The Maid’s Neck".   We decided the name on a whim using an adaptation of the Dadaist cut-up technique selecting the words at random from a Jean Genet book.  We would each sing our own songs and I would buy a synth for me to play.  Ste was insistent I should buy a Wasp synthesiser, they were all the rage.  He’d recently seen the German band D.A.F. and he liked the sound.  More importantly  than the music though was we all read the Dice Man by Luke Rhineheart and all bought into the idea of randomness, chance and making decisions on the roll of the dice or flick of a coin including dangerous options.  It certainly helped make some of our live shows interesting.

So we came back from holiday, raring to go and went down to Guitarzan at South Bank to buy a synth.  Thank the lord they didn’t have a restrictive Wasp (it made the sound of a wasp and nothing else).  Instead they offered me a Roland monophonic synth and demonstrated in with a state of the art sequencer.  It sounded brill, you could play tunes but also change the frequencies and bend the notes to create some strange effects.  Sounds nothing now but....back in the day.  “Sold to the man at the front with the new credit card” for a bargain bucket (not) £250!
We started again from scratch.   As a non-musician I had no interest in learning to play the synth like a conventional keyboard.  I just wanted to make weird and funny  sounds.  When Ste sang his songs I think I mainly just replicated the bass line but when Gary sang I was given freedom to play more randomly.  I certainly didn’t have any inclination to learn about music, £250 was commitment enough!
I stopped writing “proper” songs.   I started writing a basic framework and improvising around it in practice and in concert.  I’d seen Scritti Politti at the first Futurama festival improvise every other song they played and was interested in the challenge.  Sometimes it would come off and sometimes it didn’t, it was the chance I took.
Paul continued to drum great and our songs were good.  Our playing became looser, less conventional and more instinctive but based on a very strong and tight rhythm.  We played some great shows and some not so good (more later) but it always sounded at least ok.   
It didn’t last long though.  We heard a rumour at the Dovecot that Paul had decided to leave us to join Blank Frank’s new band Makaton Chat.  We know it was true.
As I said earlier we loved his drumming, no matter what went on in front of him, he just held it together so well and we practiced at his house and he had a car.  With the benefit of hindsight I can see why he left us though.  He was a skilful musician and wanted to progress but the biggest problem was he was just so different to us.  He came from a posh family and didn’t share our political views.  I also don’t think he appreciated our anarchic attitude to things.  Great cheerful lad though and plenty of happy memories though and after we got over the initial shock of him leaving there were no hard feelings.

Back to Tick Tick and Peckover

We decided to change our name back to Tick Tick and started thinking about getting a new drummer when one came our way, Peckover aged 15.  He put a postcard advertising himself for a band in Cleveland Music.  We rang him up and he was in, there was no need to audition.  He had all the qualifications he needed, his own drums, he told us he could drum, his dad had a car and he had somewhere for us to practice.  It was a workingman’s club long since demolished.  No idea what the club was called but it had one bar downstairs and a snooker room upstairs.  His dad was the steward and allowed us to practice amongst the handful of members sitting there having a (now not so) quiet pint.  It was brilliant we just practiced and then went up for a game of snooker.  Peckover wasn’t that good to be honest and we only played 2 shows with him (more later).  I remember at one practice we tried to explain one of Paul’s drum pattern and the poor lad just wasn’t getting it so his father took over and had a go before telling us it was impossible for a drummer to do what we were asking.  I told you Paul was a genius on the drums.

Thursday 14 November 2013

Job Done, Tick......Tick (part 4)

More Live stuff

We must have played plenty of shows with Richard as a 5 piece but I can’t remember much about them.  We certainly rocked at times largely thanks to Paul.  We played another show at the Rock Garden.  The manager offered us support slots with either Pink Military or Echo and the Bunnymen.  Not sure why because I’m pretty sure we all liked Echo but for some reason we chose Pink Military.  Can’t remember much about it other than we had our gear nicked from the back of Paul’s car and Jane Casey being lovely with us and he feeling sorry for us.  Amazingly the gear turned up the same night in a phone box not far from the Rock Garden.  The police confiscated it but we got it back a couple of days later. 

When I met up with Braz last year he recalled a really good show (his thoughts rather than my boast) at the Empire around this time.  He remembered us playing Dockland.  Alas I have no recollection of this show.  

What I can remember though is us having loads of tuning problems live.  We didn’t seem to have much trouble when we were a 3 piece but this changed when we took on the extra guitar.  Bands today have it so easy with their expensive instruments and electric tuners.  We had nothing like that.    Gary, Richard and Ste knew how to tune their guitars and to be fair they did so diligently but because they did not use a reference note it was pot luck whether we were In tune or not.

Then there were problems hearing each other, this was particularly bad for me because we rarely had monitors and because I was behind the PA it was often very difficult to hear my singing.   We now had some loud songs and often due to the limitations of the equipment the sound just all merged into one.   I remember on one occasion Gary and Richard had to share the same amp and another night at The Teessider we didn’t have an electric extension cable or 2 way adaptor plug so we (well not actually us because we didn’t have the technical know how) had to wire 2 electric cables into one plug.  It’s a miracle we didn’t blow the place up.   We just got on with it though, I think we just thought it was us.

It’s a shame I can’t remember more about the shows this version of Tick Tick. played  We were never going to be able to replicate the rocky sound of Guardian Studio and thank Christ in a way,  we didn’t want to become The Tygers of Pan Tang but at the same time we probably didn’t fulfil our potential.  We had some good songs and we were capable of playing them well.  We just didn’t do it often enough.

Wednesday 13 November 2013

Job Done, Tick......Tick (part 3)


We found a drummer, Paul Fowler and it seemed to good opportunity to bring in our friend Ste to play bass and move Richard over to guitar.  People were disappointed and I remember Sav from Basczax telling Richard we should stick with the drum machine.  They were getting more popular and Teesside was catching up although we were still the only band in the area using one.  There was an article about the Teesside music scene printed in the national pop magazine Smash Hits and we (along with our drum machine) were mentioned.  Mind calling us “Tic Tic” really took the edge off it. 
Paul and Ste brought so much to Tick Tick.  We knew Ste was a good bass player and would fit in but we didn’t know anything about Paul and I don’t think I’m over-selling this but our collective jaws dropped when we first heard him play.  Being a lover of short songs, simplicity and repetition I’ve never learned to appreciate the skills that conventional drummers need to show to prove they are great.  You know, like drum solos, long fancy breaks or changes in rhythm but Paul was fairly new to drumming and either he didn’t try to do all those fancy bits (likely) or he listened to our brief about what we wanted (unlikely).  He kept it simple but was just so inventive.  The other great things about Paul were that he had a car and a big house with a garage where we could practise and he didn’t mind and probably more to the point neither did his mam and dad.
We decided to bin most of the 3 piece songs.  They just didn’t sound right now although we did keep Examining My Fear which was transformed by Richard’s guitar, Ste’s bass and Paul’s emphatic drumming and epitomised the new Tick Tick sound.  I wrote a little ditty called Dockland

“Arm leans over ever so slightly, weight doesn’t seem to matter anymore. 
Metaphors don’t seem appropriate, the gardeners say it’s cold out here”

Ste wrote one called Items

“Number one item departs without warning leaving you slightly unprepared ..................................
Remembering it’s not cricket to mock the afflicted”

I only mention these 2 because the only other songs I can remember are on the CD and I just want to show off I can still remember some of the words.
New band members meant different relationships and dynamics in the band.  At times there were just too many opinions and we had to start taking decisions to a vote.   We never had to do this when there were just the 3 of us and I was writing less songs and starting to feel a bit uncomfortable singing Gary, Richard and Ste’s lyrics. 
We started going to the Dovecot Arts Centre to drink and socialise and got into the “Stockton scene”.  It was weird, we’d gone to The Teessider just on the outskirts of Stockton for years but we’d never really ventured into Stockton.  The Dovecot was quite a change from what we were used to.  Until then I hardly knew any middle class people but the Arts Centre was full of them.  I think we probably started going there because Paul did.  We soon got sucked in though, some more than others.  There was an assertiveness and confidence about the young people there, I later realised it was just because they were middle class and that’s how middle class kids were and still are.  There was one fellar in particular I remember.   He was into Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle and then the new wave of heavy metal came along and he liked Saxon and Def Leopard for a couple of weeks.  He was in a band around the time PIL were big.  Public Image Ltd actually were a Ltd company for financial reasons.  Needless to say he had looked into it and his band were going to become a Limited Company.  Not long later after that they split up.  He wasn’t a bad lad to be honest, just a bit stupid.
There was lots of bitching going on and I got a bit paranoid about it, I was starting to feel insecure in the band.  I didn’t play a musical instrument so if I didn’t sing ................?   I knew I wasn’t the greatest singer in the world but the quality of my singing was being questioned publicly.  I didn’t like it and although I knew there were elements of Tick Tick joining in the public debate but I generally had the support of the band.  I couldn’t complain really.
-----------------------
Sorry, serious computer problems tonight, more tomorrow.
 

Tuesday 12 November 2013

Job Done, Tick......Tick (part 2)

I was going to plough on with the history and then recall what I could about the live shows but I think I'll break it up a bit and recall some of the live shows.

So............
 
The Live Shows - 1

About September 1979 – We played 3rd on the bill to Carl Green and the Scene and Drop at The Teessider.  Richard was still in Drop and we just arranged it with him.  The first Carl Green knew about it was when we got up on stage.  We played 3 songs before Gary and I left the stage for Drop to take over.  We played Respect, Mythical Bedsprings and another song, possibly My Present.  I’m not sure if we had the drum machine at this stage.  I was really nervous singing in front of a live audience for the first time but they looked more unsettled than me when I started doing my finger whistle in Mythical Bedsprings.  It was brilliant.  We were Tick Tick, we decided we were going to do it and we did it! 

Think our next show was upstairs in The Empire (now Swatter’s Carr) supporting  Penelope Polaroid and the Horn Rims.  Don’t remember much but we definitely had rhythm.  Our drum machine had about 6 settings.  Bossa Nova, Waltz, Samba, Rhumba, Cha Cha and something else.  Gaz bought it second hand from Cleveland Music, one of the old In shops in Cleveland Centre.  You could mix the rhythms by pressing a combination of the buttons.  It really wasn’t very clever and to be honest we would have preferred a real life drummer but it helped us sound a million miles away from the rest of the bands on Teesside.
 
We must have being playing about 6 songs by now, adding maybe  Not Before Time, Life Loves Death and Attraction to our set.  Not unsurprisingly, the audience were non-plussed by our very different sound and unconventional manner.  Little (possibly no) inter song communication and definitely no “cheers, thank a lot” from us.  I remember Penelope being very generous though, praising our sound and of course she loved the drum machine.   

We played a set without the slightest irony at my house on Christmas Day in front of my Mam, Dad, brothers and 5 year old next door neighbour and I’m claiming it as a gig.   What am I on about "claiming"?  Of course it was a gig.  I just told my Mam and Dad we were going to do it.  We only had Richard’s little amp so Gary used that for his guitar so without amplifier Richard played my brother’s funny toy wind organ.  Don’t think we got right through the set and although I don't think it seemed cool at the time I think it sounds pretty cool now?

We probably played more shows at The Teessider and The Empire, certainly our stock venues but then we got a gig at Marton Sixth  Form College.  There will have been a number of bands on the bill but my strongest memory is an altercation with Drop minus Richard, who had just left them to join us permanently.  We got into row about who had to go on first to play to an almost empty hall and we lost.  To make matters worse we were told our time was up after about 4 songs (bastards we had  another 2 as well) and I made a very public point about Drop being cheeky bastards or something like that for continuing to play Richard’s songs.  Drop were furious, particularly with me.   

We played another show with them a couple of weeks later at The Teessider and their keyboard player Neil Jones wouldn’t speak to me.  Obviously 34 years later I’m really sorry. Thankfully we sort of made up last year when Drop reformed to play a concert with Vic Goddard at the Georgian Theatre. 
  
Somebody was supposed to play The Rock Garden  and cancelled at short notice and we were invited to play with Basczax, Savage Passion and (apparently – think I read it somewhere) The Sines.  I just remember a couple of male skinheads waltzing at the front of the stage and thanks to the generosity of Basczax we also got paid a might fine £25.  £8+ each and free in the Rock Garden.  Happy days. 

More to come.................