My Exciting Life In ROCK (part 3): 11/3/1991 - The Spreadeagle, Leicester

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We now enter a bright new era of COMPLETE FACTUAL ACCURACY for My Exciting Life In ROCK, as I have this particular gig on TAPE. Not that any of the previous entries were anything BUT diligently researched and precise, of course, this one will just be even MORE so.

The gig itself was, of course, at The Casbah, the comedy/variety club which I hosted and booked the acts for. We had a rigorous, exacting audition policy - if someone said that perhaps they might not mind playing too much we GRABBED them and FORCED them to play. We were DESPERATE, so suggesting my own "band" to play wasn't THAT cheeky.

I say "band" because there were only the two of us, without even the DRUM MACHINE which we hankered after. This was shortly BEFORE Carter USM became well known but, I must admit, long AFTER we'd both bought several I,Ludicrous records. Also we only had two songs of our own. We DID have several cover versions, and they were extremely ELECTIC - "How Does It Feel" by The Creation, "First There Is A Mountain" by Donovan, "Freakscene" by Dinosaur Junior - but all seemed to contain a difficult bit that we couldn't play, so thought it best to stick to songs that, by DESIGN, contained only songs that we could usually play from the start to finish.

The gig started with a big introduction from the comperes, me and Simon, during which i pretended, HUMOROUSLY, NOT to be in the band, BIGGING us up as being "Very nice" and "good" and, for some reason, "their mothers are proud of them". Why I thought this was a good way of recommending a ROCK BAND i do not know.

Still, imagine the HILARITY when I strapped on my bass guitar and revealed that - AHA! - it was ME again! Actually, listening to the tape, that DID get a laugh - they must have been easier to GET back in the early 90's. I introduced our first song at EXTREME HIGH SPEED describing it as "an old Masters Of Nothing song", as if anyone would have cared and saying "Go Neil!"

Neil did indeed GO, and I distinctly remember him pulling his "OH YEAH! ROCK AND ROLL!" face as he STORMED through "Rather Spooky" which was INDEED an old Masters Of Nothing song. Listening now it sounds DEAD GOOD - I mean, OK, it's pretty much the same thing all the way through and a LOT of it is is going "Rather Spooky" but it still sounds dead exciting, especially the bit in the middle where we both shout "LIMBO DANCING! LIMBO DANCING!"

During the performance I noticed that two people had come into the room without paying, as the girl who was meant to be doing the door was watching US instead. And who can blame her? The tape records me announcing "Two people came in without paying - Jacqui, get them!" before very quickly introducing our big HIT, "She's A Spaceman". Neil didn't get a word in edgeways - well, just ONE word. I asked him if he was ready, he said "Yes", and we were off. The next day I would explain to him that it would be a good idea if he could perhaps say a few words in between songs. Over the next few years this request would come back to haunt me again and again and AGAIN.

We RIPPED into the song which, again, sounds TERRIBLY exciting, if a little repetitive, and then that was it! VOON had played their first song and, surely, nothing would ever be the same again?

I had little time to reflect on this, I had an HILARIOUS sketch to perform about The Children's Film Foundation during which, AMAZINGLY, we claimed that it was a bit rubbish. KRAZY STUFF!

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