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Mike 'Spic' knew some people moving into a house in Redland, they needed a sixth. I was that girl, although I seriously doubted my sanity on first meeting Neil and Richard (at least I combed my hair on a regular basis), but Matthew was quite cute. They'd moved in together to form a band and after much deliberation and Pils quaffing in The Kensington, became
The
Electric Guitars
(below). The house was a pigsty, the basement a rehearsal room and the kitchen a health and safety hazard. (Why Gary Clail broke in and nicked our baked beans is a mystery to this day.) Proverbially 'starving in their garret' these boys produced a new genre of music and stage presence that took Bristol by storm.
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| At some point the innovative Video Bar, down the Dug Out became Rockfords Restaurant and who better to staff it than Bristols wannabes. Amongst others Mandy Joseph (Art Objects
Muse) Mandy Stewart (Scream and Dance), Mike Smith, (Joe
Public (below), Circus Circus
(below
Joe Public) and Ian Mullard (Circus Circus) cooked and waited between gigs. Yours truly
not content with the decks downstairs, and the griddle upstairs promoted bands on Wednesday nights, Pete Brandt's
- Slow Twitch Fibres amongst them.
We cooked and partied, Green Rooms, The Stonehouse and later Carwardines. Out of towners came proving we were with the groove Echo And The
Bunnymen, Paul Young's Q Tips, U2 at Redland Teacher Training College. Sometime along the way I DJ'd at Trinity Hall, supporting the likes of The Cramps and The Thompson Twins.
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Wavelength metamorphisised into The Bristol Recorder, brainchild of Martin
Elbourne, Jonathan Arthur and Thos Brooman (right) (sometime drummer, now WOMAD overlord). Where other Independents had failed trying to promote more than one up-and-coming band at a time, a clever gimmick (then) of incorporating an ad filled magazine between the covers, aimed to fund this compilation album of local bands.
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The high quality music became staple diet at my Monday night Dug Out slot, returning
the compliment, Recorder 2 mentioned the Dug Out to be 'excellent when Jill at
controls. '(Spelling forgiven). By the time Recorder 3 appeared, the eighties had begun to take hold and with it a crisis of confidence in the local scene. Major record companies ate
'indies' for breakfast , the recorder used The Thompson Twins to boost sales and potential Bristol Sounds were swallowed by way of Tax loss. Pigbag made Top of the Pops, but that didn't have the knock on effect that Massive Attack has had today.
I moved to London and partied with Shane McGowan , The Higsons and tried to set up an Independent record company with Speedy Keen (Thunderclap Newman), our showcase act Cold Fish dumping us for the first Major that made them an offer, never to be heard of
again.. (Pete Howard re-emerged with Nick Shepherd in The Clash, who incidently have a lot to thank me for, I was obviously the catalyst!)
Returning to Bristol with big city ideas.I promoted new bands (Brilliant Corners) at the new function bar Upstairs (above the Dug Out), tried the 'Club one
nighter, 'The Dug Down Too Far' ahead of my time, band management
(Tootin' Crocodiles) and gradually gave up DJ'ing. No way was I getting into that scratching business and ruining my
vinyl.
(Anyway some geezers calling themselves The Wild Bunch seemed to have that all sewn up).
When the lights went on that night at The Tabernacle, the 8o's survivors were revealed and in the corner was a forty year old woman beating herself over the head for giving up DJ'ing at a giddy peak of eight quid a night.
(Gill Loats APRIL 2000)
PS. Call me old fashioned, but I can't help but think that there are comparisons to be made with the innovations that the DIY culture of the 70's/early 80's created and the present day Website possibilities. Keep Sugar Shack free of the big boys and remind Richard Branson that what worried him on Bristol Recorder 1 was 'to decide whether an organisation as large as his(1000 employees then) has any chance of retaining whatever integrity and idealism it started with'.
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