The Generation X-Rated Era Part 1

Before, between and beyond

(1997 to 2000)

This band has its characters, Neil (the wolf) Holden is a character, Dan Clark sure is a character and there has been several others throughout the years who have been characters.. It what makes a band the individual characters, you have to have that as well as some musical ability, otherwise its going to come across quite soulless. Long before we before we brought the bad back home, way before we marched to our own beat, way earlier than when we played the wildest card and was on the bottom line, there were three characters Bob Corner, Wally P. Parkinson and myself Sam Woods of a period I call “Generation X-Rated era”

In 1997 we had been going just under a year, but Bob and I were between drummers and gave Wally a try out. We we’re massively into the Psychobilly/Neo Rockabilly bands like The Quakes and The Long Tall Texans among many more and wanted to go for that similar sound. He and Bob had played together in a band called The Muskrats back in the late 80’s and remained close friends long after they gave that up in their native Wigan. I think we had about 2 practices before he decided he didn’t like me directing him. So he quit for the first time. We ended up settling for another mutual friend ‘Fido’ instead.

Now Fido was a makeshift drummer. A Morrissey fan who had only just gotten into the rocking scene a year or two earlier. But he’d somehow managed to keep a steady simple beat and got us up and running as a regular live band. He knew how to work a PA system having been a local DJ too. Slowly but gradually we would progress into the following year to which mine and his relationship sort of deteriorated. It didn’t help when the three of us went away to Hemsby one weekend and stayed in a chalet, I blasted him with a fire extinguisher as he slept. He shot out of bed cursing before hurling my drunken self into the fridge of the chalet we were all staying in. (very immature I know) but Fido’s reaction made it all the more amusing at the time. I can relate to why he lost any respect for me and he would gradually become a more and more unreliable band member as a result. Bob not wanting to take sides no matter who was right or wrong, would just yell at us both to stop bickering. Onstage Fido had developed a stage confidence as the band grew. He would set fire to his cymbals (an act he stole off the Hicksville Bombers) and would climb on top of his bass drum while wearing a silly phantom mask and called himself ‘Captain Fido’. We had created a monster…a show drummer. He thought that he was indispensable and as far as I’m concerned the moment you start believing that, you’re finished. No fucker is indispensable.

Our sound was changing all the time and by 1999 we already had new songs like the Quakes inspired ‘Triangular kind of love’ (a live favourite for a good few since its 1998 live debut, Bobs especially) ‘She’s a Siren’ and ‘Panic Button!’ hammered into the live set and ‘Lost in the spell of love’ along with Bob’s Long Tall Texans like number ‘What did I do wrong?’ which after a few years old, had gotten better with age.

That year I really started to broaden my horizons musically. I got the debut Living End album and that was a real game changer. I stopped listening to just Rockabilly and Psychobilly and started listening to everything, Inspiration seemed endless.

I was already well into The Clash, then I went from The Living End to Green Day to Rancid and discovering loads of new punk bands of that decade I hadn’t bothered with before. Possibilities seemed endless with this new musical awakening and Bob was on board with me too. It was great to see a bunch of teenagers jump up and down to ‘Panic Button’ at Telford’s Warehouse in Chester when we played there that summer. I saved up and bought myself a new Silver Jet Gretsch guitar which I would go on to write and record all the up and coming new materiel with and has been a mainstay ever since.

I brought ‘Happy Pillz’ to band practice. Bob loved it and Fido threw his sticks down and said ‘Its all getting too Green Day for me’.

It seemed clear to me then that we needed a new drummer. One who could play his bass drum and not fucking climb on it for one, someone who was into what I’m coming up with and would most of all turn up. Bob was in agreement but he had his own agenda for wanting Fido out. Fido it appeared had been sniffing around Bob’s ex girlfriend and that didn’t fare well at all within the ranks. Whether or not anything was going between them I couldn’t say. I didn’t care either, but was encouraged all the more by Bob who wanted him gone for that reason alone.

So how do you deal with one monster? Replace it another. So we thought we’d give Wally another go and Vice-Verser on his behalf. Now let me tell you about Wally. He stands a good 6 foot 5, looks like he’s just he’s just killed his own mother but really is soft as shite underneath, a grumpy sod mind you. If Frankenstein could have created a monster in the form of a Psychobilly, it would most definitely look like Wally. He was a strange creature of habit, often I would

share a room with Wally when on the road if Bob bought his partner at the time along and would sleep with covers over his head with his quiff sticking out. It was like something out of a cartoon.

Our first gigs with him someone in the crowd would shout “Where’s Fido?!” and we would reply “Wally over here has eaten him” I certainly wasn't going to blast Wal with no fire extinguisher.

We still had gigs to complete so we had to finish them off with Fido before we would shoehorn Wally in. The only issue we had was who would do the sacking. I should have opted to do it myself, as it didn’t make any difference. Bob agreed to do so only not give him his own reasons for wanting him out. He just rang and told him (on his birthday too, I might add) that I wanted him out for being unreliable. Bob would often shift the dirty work over to me as time rolled on. It became like a reflex. I suppose I could have rang him myself and told him "Bob wants you out because he thinks your screwing his ex..... and you're a cunt!"

Either way it needed to be done and it was for the best.

We had gained a lot of experience since we last jammed with Wally 3 years earlier and had enough songs in our canon now. We gave Wally a tape before hand, which he claimed not to have listened to but somehow that very first practice it all seemed to come together. It was like a breath of fresh air.

We were a new band all of a sudden, twice the band we were and we couldn’t wait to get out there and give it to them. I brought ‘Spider on the wall’ and ‘The Sky’s the Limit’ (both having a Living End influence) to the practice room and they just wrote themselves there and then. The older songs had new life breathed into them. Bob came up with the backing vocal “Eh Oh” idea on ‘The Sky’ We decided to try and capture us in this moment as soon as possible. From this day on I realised we had potential to go far but wheels could fall off at any given moment, knowing the personalities in the unit.

I contacted Alan Wilson of The Sharks, who were one of my favourite bands and had a good decade of producing experience behind him. We brought him up and cut 3 tracks in Studio 2000 which was based inside a collage building in Leigh. I arrived with Alan there early Saturday morning and introduced him to Bob first and then Wally who proceeded to let out a silent but deadly fart. Alan asked ‘Who’s farted?’ Wally chirped up ‘It was me!’ in his Scooby do like tone as if it would be his proudest moment. A great way to make a first impression and away we went. Alan was brilliant with us, really encouraging and into what we we’re doing.

Those three songs emerged as the Happy Pillz E.P, which we put ourselves and via an MP3 site Rebel Sounds.

The year was really taking off already and we barely stopped for breath. To highlight a few we played London for the first time at The Red Eye in Islington, the Psychobilly Alldayer in Leicester at Easter weekend and The New York Rumble festival in October, which we had built up to all year as well as many local pub gigs here and there. We had managed to build a good network of friends and allies in bands like Dog Toffee from Manchester, The Handy Jackoff’s from, Northwich, Cheshire and AK Riot from Kendal, Cumbria. We suddenly started going everywhere.

To be continued.....

The Generation X-Rated Era: 2000-2005

(before, amidst and beyond)

This band has its characters, Neil (the wolf) Holden is a character, Dan Clark sure is and there has been several others throughout the years.. It what makes a band does the individual characters, you have to have that as well as some musical ability, otherwise its going to come across soulless.

Long before we before we brought the bad back home, way before we marched to our own beat, way earlier than when we played the wildest card and was on the bottom line, there were three characters Bob Corner, Wally P. Parkinson and myself of a period I call “Generation X-Rated era”

In 1997 we had been going just under a year, but Bob and I were between drummers and gave Wally a try out. We we’re massively into the Psychobilly/Neo Rockabilly bands like The Quakes and The Long Tall Texans among many more and wanted to go for that similar sound. He and Bob had played together in a band called The Muskrats back in the late 80’s and remained close friends long after they gave that up in their native Wigan. I think we had about 2 practices before he decided he didn’t like me directing him. So he quit for the first time. We ended up settling for another mutual friend ‘Fido’ instead.

Now Fido was a makeshift drummer. A Morrissey fan who had only just gotten into the rockin scene a year or two earlier. But he’d somehow managed to keep a steady simple beat and got us up and running as a regular live band. He knew how to work a PA system having been a local DJ too. Slowly but gradually we would progress into the following year to which mine and his relationship sort of deteriorated. It didn’t help when the three of us went away to Hemsby one weekend and stayed in a chalet, I blasted him with a fire extinguisher as he slept. He shot out of bed cursing before hurling my drunken self into the fridge of the chalet we were all staying in. (very immature I know) but Fido’s reaction made it all the more amusing at the time. I can relate to why he lost any respect for me and he would gradually become a more and more unreliable band member as a result. Bob not wanting to take sides no matter who was right or wrong, would just yell at us both to stop bickering. Onstage Fido had developed a stage confidence as the band grew. He would set fire to his cymbals (an act he stole off the Hicksville Bombers) and would climb on top of his bass drum while wearing a silly phantom mask and called himself ‘Captain Fido’. We had created a monster…a show drummer. He thought that he was indispensable and as far as I’m concerned the moment you start believing that, you’re finished. No fucker is indispensable!

Our sound was changing all the time and by 1999 we already had new songs like the Quakes inspired ‘Triangular kind of love’ (a live favourite for a good few since its 1998 live debut, Bobs especially) ‘She’s a Siren’ and ‘Panic Button!’ hammered into the live set and ‘Lost in the spell of love’ along with Bob’s Long Tall Texans inspired ‘What did I do wrong?’ which after a few years old, had gotten better with age.

That year I really started to broaden my horizons musically. I bought the new debut Living End album and that really changed my musical outlook. I stopped listening to just Rockabilly and Psychobilly and started listening to everything, Inspiration seemed endless.

I was already well into The Clash, then I went from The Living End to Green Day to Rancid and discovering loads of new punk bands of that decade I hadn’t bothered with before. Possibilities seemed endless with this new musical awakening and Bob was on board with me too. It was great to see a bunch of teenagers jump up and down to ‘Panic Button’ at Telford’s Warehouse in Chester when we played there that summer.

I brought ‘Happy Pillz’ to band practice. Bob loved it and Fido threw his sticks down and said ‘Its all getting too Green Day for me’

It seemed clear to me then that we needed a new drummer. One who could play his bass drum and not fucking climb on it for one, someone who was into what I’m coming up with and would most of all turn up. Bob was in agreement but he had his own agenda for wanting Fido out. Fido it appeared had been sniffing around Bob’s ex girlfriend and that didn’t fare well at all within the ranks. Whether or not anything was going between them I couldn’t say. I didn’t care either, but was encouraged all the more by Bob who wanted him gone for that reason more than any other.

So how do you deal with one monster? Replace it another. So we thought we’d give Wally another go and Vice-Verser on his behalf. Now let me tell you about Wally. He stands a good 6 foot 5, looks like he’s just he’s just killed his own mother but really is soft as shite underneath, a grumpy sod mind you. If Frankenstein could have created a monster in the form of a Psychobilly, it would most definitely look like Wally. would shout “Where’s Fido?!” and we would reply “Wally over here has eaten him”

We still had gigs to complete so we had to finish them off with Fido before we shoehorn Wally in. The only issue we had was who would do the sacking. I should have opted to do it myself, as it didn’t make any difference. Bob agreed to do so only not give him his own reasons for wanting him out. He just rang and told him (on his birthday too, I might add) that I wanted him out for being unreliable. Bob would often shift the dirty work over to me as time rolled on. It became like a reflex. I suppose I could have rang him myself and told him "Bob wants you out because he thinks your screwing his ex' perience since we last jammed with Wally 3 years earlier and had enough songs in our canon now. We gave Wally a tape before hand, which he claimed not to have listened to but somehow that very first practice it all seemed to come together. It was like a breath of fresh air.

We were a new band all of a sudden, twice the band we were and we couldn’t wait to get out there and give it to them. I brought ‘Spider on the wall’ and ‘The Sky’s the Limit’ (both having a Living End influence) to the practice room and they just wrote themselves there and then. The older songs had new life breathed into them. Bob came up with the backing vocal “Ey Oh” idea on ‘The Sky’ We decided to try and capture us in this moment as soon as possible. From this day on I realised we had potential to go far but wheels could fall off at any given moment, knowing the personalities in the unit.

In Wally’s first few gigs with us, someone in the crowd would shout “Where’s Fido?!” and we would reply “Wally over here has eaten him”

I contacted Alan Wilson of The Sharks, who were one of my favourite bands and had a good decade of producing experience behind him. We brought him up and cut 3 tracks in Studio 2000 which was based inside a collage building in Leigh. I arrived with Alan there early Saturday morning and introduced him to Bob first and then Wally who proceeded to let out a silent but deadly fart. Alan asked ‘Who’s farted?’ Wally chirped up ‘It was me!’ in his Scooby do like tone as if it would be his proudest moment. A great way to make a first impression and away we went. Alan was brilliant with us, really encouraging and into what we we’re doing.

Those three songs emerged as the Happy Pillz E.P, which we put ourselves and via an MP3 site Rebel Sounds.

The year was really taking off already and we barely stopped for breath. To highlight a few we played London for the first time at The Red Eye in Islington, the Psychobilly Alldayer in Leicester at Easter weekend and The New York Rumble festival in October, which we had built up to all year as well as many local pub gigs here and there. We had managed to build a good network of friends and allies in bands like Dog Toffee from Manchester, The Handy Jackoff’s from, Northwich, Cheshire and AK Riot from Kendal, Cumbria. We suddenly