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.

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Sorry, serious computer problems tonight, more tomorrow.