Someone is looking for the Catburgers!
I was most surprised today to discover that the top search phrase leading people to this blog over the last few weeks has been "the catburgers." This is the name of the indie band I was in back in the late '80s (I sang and played guitar).
I can't imagine who might be looking for my old band, unless it is some kids in North Berwick who heard about the band through my son.
Whoever it might be, I'll take advantage of this opportunity to post up some mp3s from the good old days, both recorded in 1987. I just realised that's 20 years ago! Time for a reunion tour of the states... anyway here are "Children's TV" and "First Day of Spring" for your entertainment:
[audio:childrens-tv.mp3]
[audio:first-day-of-spring.mp3]
After all, you have to keep your visitors happy don't you?
I can't imagine who might be looking for my old band, unless it is some kids in North Berwick who heard about the band through my son.
Whoever it might be, I'll take advantage of this opportunity to post up some mp3s from the good old days, both recorded in 1987. I just realised that's 20 years ago! Time for a reunion tour of the states... anyway here are "Children's TV" and "First Day of Spring" for your entertainment:
[audio:childrens-tv.mp3]
[audio:first-day-of-spring.mp3]
After all, you have to keep your visitors happy don't you?
A nice couple of clips, Robert – very cheery and optimistic for the grim 80s. Is that someone playing a glockenspiel in the intro of “Children’s TV?” Now, that's what I call retro. I like the spirited, nihilistic drumming in “First Day of Spring” (from 0:57 – 1:02).
ReplyDeleteCheers Alan. I'll be sure to tell Jeff that his drumming was spirited and nihilistic when I next see him :)
ReplyDeleteIt was indeed a glockenspiel. Funny things happen in studios sometimes.
omg mr jones this is classic, is that you singing?? hehe! you have to let the class hear this on tuessday! most definatly
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff. I also used to play in a band in the early 80's but we were rubbish ! unlike your clips I think we have some recordings somewhere done in someone's kitchen with a fostex 4 track. I really hope they don't resurface.
ReplyDeleteReally like the melodies - a reunion tour of East Lothian maybe?
Not a Portastudio Bill? A friend of mine had one of those back when we were at high school. I'm sure we have recordings of us playing "Transmission" by Joy Division over and over again - happy days (though not for my parents who had to endure the racket!).
ReplyDeleteKat - I'm not sure the school would consider it an effective use of our time in class to listen to old recordings of Mr Jones's band!
As opposed to line rider and youaremighty?? mhmmm!!
ReplyDeleteah...yes...well... line rider is physics, which is closely related to maths, and youaremighty is a valuable tool to boost the self esteem of students. Does that sound convincing? No? Well maybe we could give it a quick blast :)
ReplyDeleteThis is great - you really have to play it to the class, really boosted my revision output this evening! An explantion of where you got the name "catburgers" from though would be reassuring.
ReplyDeleteI remember The Catburgers!! They supported the TV Personalities if I remember rightly. They were around the same time as Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes, The Fizzbombs etc. Was Angus McPake in The Catburgers? He was in just about every other Edinburgh band at that time!
ReplyDeleteHi Michael - your memory serves you well - we did indeed support the TVPs on several occasions. Happy days. We must surely have met - the scene was pretty small?
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, Angus was almost in the Catburgers - he drummed at a few rehearsals before we talked Jeff into drumming for us. I had a great time in the Edinburgh indie scene '86 to '88 - played lots of gigs, saw loads of great bands and DJ'ed at Speed 3.
The "scene" was very small indeed, everyone was in everybody elses band or was that Elsie's band?. If Angus wasn't in it then Margarita almost certainly was. I was in and out of the Desperadoes, not biblically, more times than I care to mention.
ReplyDeleteHi Mr Jones!
ReplyDeleteThis Is Brilliant! I was just looking for some artwork or something to put on my i tunes with your CD, saw a Yamaha 12 string and saw Fergus Written Below! I agree with Bill Stephen, you should tour East Lothian (apologies for insisting that you play at the scout hall, they are a bad audience and I wont do it again!)
PS You really should post "Darkness Before the Dawn", its Brilliant!
Hello
ReplyDeleteI think I've still got some pic's that I took of the Catburgers at the Onion Cellar (Jesse Garon ones as well)
Was there also a song called "The Acid Tree" - I seem to remember that, then again me memory isn't what it used to be
Hi Ross - is that tall Ross that I knew from those days? Yes, we had a song called "The Acid Tree". It was recorded along with "Holiday House" and "Diving for the Brick" at a session produced by the legendary Jowe Head in London. The tracks never saw the light of day - Dan from the TVPs paid for the recording (or at least he said he was going to!) but this was around the time that he started going badly down hill.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see photos from the Onion Cellar days.
Coincidentally, I was at Jeff Duffy's mum's funeral today [Jeff was our drummer and ran the Onion Cellar]. Time marches on :-(
Hello
ReplyDeleteI am tall and did go to most of the Onion Cellar gigs (and Speed 3 when they moved to the Venue) - those were the days - loads of great gigs to go to each week. I'll get the photos scanned in and post them up for you to see. I'm sure there are a few of the ones with Jeff, Stu Cant and yourself (Can't remember the full name of the band but it was something and the Hasbeens..... there was a tape of that one but Stu has it now and no-one gets to hear it)
Cheers
Ross
Hi Ross. Ah yes, those were the days indeed. Jeff's band was officially called the Mysterons, but amongst ourselves we always referred to ourselves as "Jeff and the Hasbeens" I think. We also insisted on referring to his songs by the titles of the songs by other artists that we reckoned he had ripped off!
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see the photos.
Hello again
ReplyDeleteHere are the Catburgers pics from the Onion Cellar (8 in total), I've scanned them in from the negatives, there are 4 pics of the Mysterons as well - more of those to follow.......... found all sorts in there, the Vultures, Jesse Garon, The Fizzbombs, Shop Assistants, The Dragsters - those certainly were the days
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70555359@N00/sets/72157604143718095/
Cheers
Ross
Brilliant Ross! I can't believe how skinny I was back then.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean .... I sent Stu Cant some of the Mysterons ones and he was commenting on the darkness of his hair. I've started a Blog page and I'm going to put a few more sets up if you interested in seeing any of the other ones.
ReplyDeleteIt's at http://fixedgrin.blogspot.com/
The Catburgers are the first entry on it
Cheers
Ross
i am looking for Keith Burns who was I think in some line up of The Catburgers, apologies if I have misremembered. Drew blank on his legendary Rush tribute band and only got the guys I didn't know from Political Asylum where he was definitely the drummer. He moved out of edinburgh to east lothian a few years ago and I have lost his address. Sorry if this means nothing to you.
ReplyDeleteAre the postings really from your students or are people kidding?
cheers
Martin
Hi Martin. Keith was indeed in the Catburgers, and is playing on the two tracks above. His Rush tribute band is call "Tobes of Hades" - you'll be able to get in touch with him via their Web site.
ReplyDeleteThey are real students:-)
Robert
Hi there. Don't know if you listen to Gideon Coe, on 6 Music, but he's been doing a bit of a theme on 'Obscure Classics' of late. I suggested this week, amongst others, 'Holiday House'. I have a dreadful tape-hiss infested copy of it, on a trusty, dusty C90, which still plays....
ReplyDeleteI heard it on 'Beat Patrol'/'Rock on Scotland', presented by the great Peter Easton, on Radio Scotland and loved it instantly. My over-zealousness with the pause button on the tape deck meant that I only just caught the name of the band and the title of the track and that's all I have ever known about either.
By some dint of fate, a small web forum I occasionally contribute had me posting a snippet about lost tracks on cassettes and a reply lead me to this blog. If there's any way of posting 'Holiday House', I'd be mighty pleased.
Great to see something about the band at last.....
Even better, if I can get a downloadable/hard copy of it.........
ReplyDeleteLove 'Children's TV' and 'The First Day of Spring' aswell...... :-)
Hi Richard! How strange and wonderful that you remember Holiday House after all these years :-)
ReplyDeleteI remember it being played on Radio Scotland, and of course imagined that this meant certain stardom for The Catburgers.
I don't seem to have a copy of it. We recorded it in London in 1987 at a session that should have been paid for by Dan Treacy of the Television Personalities. As it turned out, Dan never showed up, but Jowe Head looked after us and helped out in the studio.
By the time we finally got hold of the reel to reel from the session, it was in a hopeless mess (rescued off the floor of Dan's flat) so the best we might have is a good cassette. I'll ask around the other band members and see what we can come up with. I do have a rough demo done in 1986, but I'd like to explore all other options before unleashing it upon the world!
I have about a dozen other Catburgers tracks, which I'll happily send you if you want.
That would be very welcome, I think you might have my e-mail address when I logged in, if not, let me know.
ReplyDeleteCheers.
I do have it Richard. I spoke to Jeff the drummer yesterday, and he has one of the original tape copies made at the studio. He's going to send it to me so I can digitise it.
ReplyDeleteFantastic - looking forward to hearing all this stuff late 80s Scottish Indie lives on!
ReplyDeleteNow, if I can just find out if the Hucksters ever did anything except 'Seventh Sense', I'll be sorted......
I don't know the Hucksters - perhaps you could furnish me with a sample :-)
ReplyDeleteVinyl mini album, I'll see what I can do. Motherwell/ Hamilton based I think
ReplyDeleteHi Robert, I could have sworn I did do 1 gig with the Catburgers -allthough I cant think where ()'Queen Margaret's? - I certainly felt a part of the band for a brief few months/weeks - until you realised just how poor my drumming really was. Recently bought a drum kit in fact so, if that US reunion tour (or should it be re-onion tour) ever comes off, and nobody else wants to play feel free to get in touch.
ReplyDeleteIn case you (or anybody else) is at all interested I'm currently still playing with the Thanes and true to form I'm in several other bands too.
Nice to see Ross's pictures from the onion cellar - perhaps he could post the Desperados/Fizzbombs ones on flikr sometime too.
Cheers
Angus
Hi Angus. We certainly played Queen Margaret's, so maybe you did do a gig. I'm delighted that you would put The Catburgers on the extensive list of bands you've been in!
ReplyDeleteWas your drumming that bad? It was definitely an improvement over Andy, the Socialist worker pavement artist. He had loads of enthusiasm but we all had to pause when he went for a drum break and start again when he began the next bar after an indeterminate amount of time had passed. Wonder where he is now. You out there Andy?
I haven't seen The Thanes since Mal emigrated to Spain. Are you still gigging in Edinburgh?
I don't rememeber that band in the 80's!!
ReplyDeleteLucy xx
Hi Angus - I've managed to eventually get the Fizzbombs pics scanned in - 2 sets from the Onion Cellar and 1 from the Venue, I've added in the sign on the line video as well but if you want that removed let me know and I'll take it down
ReplyDeletehttp://fixedgrin.blogspot.com/2009/01/fizzbombs...
Can't believe that was over 20 years ago
Cheers
Ross
With regard to Richard Weir's post about The Hucksters I can confirm that they were from Wishaw. Discography as follows;
ReplyDelete7" vinyl single "Way of the feeling" b/w "Good Confusion
Vinyl Mini LP - "Seventh Sense" (remastered version on now available on itunes)
LP "Hot Coals for Supper"
Check out their webpage at www.myspace.com/hucksters
Happy hunting Richard.
Cheers
Phil
Sorry that last post should have read "...are from Wishaw". The guys are still writing and recording great stuff.
ReplyDeletecheers
Phil
Hello again
ReplyDeleteEventually managed to get more Onion Cellar photo's scanned in from the negatives (a bit scratched after all this time) 0 2 Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes sets
http://fixedgrin.blogspot.com/2010/10/jesse-garon-desperadoes-andrew-tully.html
Cheers
Ross
Robert, I've just come across this blog while looking for The Catburgers. I notice you had the mp3s posted but they're no longer available. Any chance you could send me a copy of each? I was after "First Day of Spring" because Stuart Cant put it on a tape years ago and I loved it and I had an urge to hear it again.
ReplyDeleteI saw One Thousand Violins twice at the Onion Cellar. Firstly in September 86, supported by The Fizzbombs, and then in February 1987 supported by Stayrkase, The Mysterons and Sherbet Tambourines. Happy days.
Cheers, Misery Guts (jocknroll [at] gmail [dot] com)
Google soundcloud catburger and you'll find everything I have.
ReplyDelete