Bradford Rios All-dayer - Saturday, November 3rd, 2001 - The Bands

Peter and the Test Tube Babies

Test Tubes band photo, Friday 21st July 2000 @ The Dome, Morecambe

If you went to last year's concert then you'll know that the Test Tubes produced a very fine performance indeed on the day, more remarkable still for the fact that Peter had been working for me all throughout the show .. what a hero eh ! Needless to say, I am very pleased to have them playing at the top of this year's bill, perhaps we can make this gig at Bradford into an annual pilgrimage for the band, we'll see.

This year has been one of the Test Tubes' quietest for quite a while, not so many gigs barring a big tour of France (which the band really enjoyed) and a few one-off dates here and there. I hope that the band will used the extra time to get another album under way but knowing the Test Tube as we do, I'll not hold my breath !

Broken Bones

Christ where do you start when writing about Broken Bones, their history is so complex ? Ok, let me try the following approach. It all started when I was a lad (honest !). There was this Punk band from Stoke-On-Trent called 'Discharge' (ever heard of them ?), and they were a great influence on my thoughts at the time with their full-on doom laden onslaught. The band made a number of influential records and then for reasons best known to themselves, their original guitarist Bones (aka. Anthony Roberts), left the band. Personally, I don't think that Discharge ever recovered from this but that's just my opinion. Bones didn't waste any time at all and before you knew it, 'Broken Bones' had sprung into life. The line-up of this band were (I think) Bones (Guitar), Baz (Drums), Paul Hoddy (Bass) and Nobby (Vocals). The band made several records between 1983-1984 which serve as their best known works, 'IOU', 'Decapitated', (both singles of course) and the LP 'Dem Bones'. The onslaught didn't stop there either, 'Seeing through my eyes' (with its very unusual cover) followed in 1985, 'Never Say Die' (1986) and then the polished Rab Fae Beith produced 12" EP of 1987 'Trader In Death' .. a very intense record indeed. There had already been some line-up changes within the band by this point and gradually, the band changed beyond recognition, both personnel and direction-wise as described below.

The Bones released another LP (split between some studio tracks and a live set), this particular release, charmingly titled F.O.A.D as it was, didn't really set me on fire and worse was to follow. You see Broken Bones were never a purely Punk sounding band, they were always definitely on the metally side and in those days (the late Eighties being the pinnacle of the so-called Thrash Metal scene), it wasn't entirely a surprise as to what happened next. Suddenly in 1989 the band released a new LP 'Losing Control'. Gone were Nobby, Oddy and Baz and instead Broken Bones had turned into a full-blown Thrash Metal crew. Now, whilst Losing Control was a perfectly competent LP of the genre, it wasn't exactly what I had either expected (or wanted to hear !) and the bands' (then) final release, 'Stitched Up' came across to me as a not so well produced mish-mash of songs which (frankly) ground in circles. It seemed to me that this was the end to the talent of Bones, the man whose playing had generated so many influential songs, both in Broken Bones and Discharge, indeed, where could you go exactly after all this ? The cause seemed lost.

Around about the end of 1997, I became aware of the existence of a band called 'Chokehold', this consisted (as far as I am aware) of a mixture of Broken Bones players from the older and final line-ups. To the best of my knowledge, we now had Bones (guitar), Paul Hoddy (Bass), Quiv (vocals) and Dave Bridgewood (Drums). I am not sure about Dave's history but of course Quiv was the singer on the 'last two Broken Bones LPs. I remember asking an old work colleague (who had seen Chokehold play in Manchester), what the band sounded like .. "Like Broken Bones" was the answer and I wondered what they would do. I didn't hear much about them after that until relatively recently when Paul Hoddy explained to me that the band were persuaded by their prospective record company (Rhythm Vicar) to record what was to have been Chokehold's debut LP under the Broken Bones moniker. After some deliberation, the lads decided to give it a go and 'Without Conscience' (featured) is what resulted.

Now, the band have been out of circulation for a long time and many reformations of old bands haven't exactly inspired me to think that it was worth their effort .. the original fire is often lost or at the very least, considerably dampened down. Add to that some very mixed reviews of the Bones' gigs last year and perhaps I could be forgiven for being suspicious. So you might ask, what exactly does the LP sound like ? As it happens, I think on the whole it's pretty good. There's a couple of songs that it could probably do without but there are some very good ones indeed on it. I knew that it was never going to sound like 'Dem Bones' and it doesn't for the most part but what stands out is that there are a number of old sounds creeping in, particularly in some of the guitar solos. The first track '8 Second seizure' nearly knocks you backwards after its couple of seconds of quiet introduction and I can sincerely say that I hope that they open up with it. As I said, there are a couple of unashamedly metally tracks which I don't care for and then there are tracks like the excellent 'Co.uk' which (almost) takes you straight back to the sound of Discharge's 'Hear Nothing .. ' LP. The production is extremely good (far exceeding that of the early Broken Bones releases) and though perhaps Quiv's style isn't going to be everyone's tastes, he really puts his all into it, I think that he'll make a good frontman indeed. This LP really needed to be one that counted for the band and it's a damn good effort. There's also the added poignant ending sequence recorded by Paul Hoddy and his daughter, I'll not spoil it by telling you what it's about but it certainly rings true with me.

And live in November ? I think that by the bands' admission, the hit and miss of previous shows was due to years of lay-off, by the time they'll get to Bradford they will have had plenty of time to get it together. Paul tells me that they've been playing a lot of their older stuff and believe me, the opening sequence to 'Decapitated' still gets my heart racing when I hear it. Add to that, the bonus of a few Discharge numbers thrown in for good measure and I feel very happy indeed that I've got them playing at Bradford, welcome back Broken Bones !

Beerzone

As I have said before, there's no forgetting the singer of the Beerzone, the irrepressible Iain Kilgallon. I have only seen the band once before, and this was a couple of years ago at the Victoria Inn in Derby. The band have a sizeable catalogue of bouncy and catchy tunes and by any standard, work pretty hard to promote them. It's a first for them at the Rio and I'm sure that they'll go down very well indeed. If nothing else, I'm sure it'll be a boost for Iain to be halfway back towards his homeland !

M.D.M

Inevitably M.D.M get marked out because of their female singer, the delightful Mandy Shaw. However, the Vice Squad comparisons are just ridiculous, does that make every Punk band with a male singer like the UK Subs ? I think not ! I had wanted to put M.D.M on at last year's event but at the time, the bill was well and truly full, however as luck would have it, some vacancies arose and I was able to get the band to play at the very last minute and they certainly didn't disappoint me. It is a nice payback that I can put them on properly this time round.

M.D.M - United We Stand album cover

One of the best things that you could hear as a promoter is the comment from someone that they really enjoyed seeing a band that you have put on and that they would never have known about them if they hadn't seen them at your gig. Despite M.D.M's considerable longetvity, I have heard this very thing said several times which in a funny way I guess, is a good thing because it at least means that a good band has finally gotten some proper exposure. I have some footage of them from last year's gig at The Rio and they come across very well indeed.

While I have no doubts about the bands' live capabilities, of their own admission, their past LPs perhaps haven't backed this up. This is certainly not because of the songs themselves, but as is usual with so many Punk records, the production lets the side down. In what was a beautiful piece of timing therefore, all these ghosts were laid to rest by the release of the groups excellent new LP 'United We Stand' (featured) .. just in time for HITS 2001 at Morecambe.

The bouncy nature of the opening anthem 'Mere Dead Men' sets the way for anLP that finely showcases complete newies such as 'F+M' whilst consolidating the memorable numbers that I have heard played many times live .. 'Centre Of Attention' and 'Destiny'. M.D.M have honed a style combining an older strain of Punk with a good Rock'n'Roll feel to it. The bands' music encompasses good singalong choruses with a bass-drum driven beat which I am more than partial to, the polished nature of the production capping things off nicely.

The lyrics of the LP have a lot of reflection on the modern music scene within them. Why should one have to justify one's musical tastes ? I like classical music, metal, jazz, folk and anything else that takes my fancy .. so why the hell should I have to apologise for loving Punk Rock the way I do ? Cue the lines in '1984' and 'Mere Dead Men' If there was no longer Punk Rock then ok I wouldn't die but I would certainly feel that something big was missing in my life. The best Punk bands are the ones with the best lyrics, people should have a look at some of the later lyrics penned by Colin from GBH before they criticise the music. Here's something equally good for the critics .. the closing lines to 'Destiny'.

"I'm riding high on life's big adventure, sailing through uncharted seas, going where the wind will blow us, no-one knows our destiny"

Ponder that the next time you swallow the latest mind altering drug and listen to monontonous dance beats all night long .. Carry on M.D.M !!

MDM @ Morecambe, Friday July 6th, 2001

Pink Torpedoes

I first saw the Pink Torpedoes supporting GBH at a local venue last year. The band stood out really well compared to the usual type of support band that you get. Having bought their debut album 'Womb Raider', this hardly comes as a surprise, the band have a good repetoire of songs of all paces, the catalogue is maybe not huge, but it's certainly memorable. The featured album cover is from a live album that they recorded in Blackpool mid-way last year. The live set includes some new numbers with very catchy riffs indeed .. the beginning of 'Time to be alone' to mention but one good example, it's my pleasure to get them on the stage at Bradford later this year.

Lowlife

Last but by no means least come Lowlife. Hailing from Bradford as they do, it's good to get a local band on the bill. Whereas last year's show had a fairly pedestrian start, this particular opening band will be going full at it if their debut LP (featured) is anything to go by. Singer Beaker seems a bit of a character and as hardcore bands go, Lowlife have a pretty good sense of humour, cue many drinking oriented songs about getting laced. The rear pic to the album shows the band on a communal visit to a urinal .. and needless to say there's lots of toilet humour on the LP too !

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