CRAZYHEAD
Well The Porkbeast first met Reverb and a 14 year old Vom about 1979-80 when their comedy punk band Ronnie Slicker and the Banditz headlined a gig at a local secondary school supported by my first band The Stazers. The Rude Boys Ball it was called. For reasons to bizarre to repeat The Stazers (average age 16) had a large Hells Angels following who all turned up late, missing us and started chanting Stazers! Stazers! Stazers! (really freaking out the school authorities). Reverb in one of his typical reckless moments asked them if they wanted a fight..unwise but hilarious! But I digress.
My memories of Crazyheads genesis begin
with me passing my driving test in early 1986. This led to me being able
to visit a seminal behind stage figure of the Leicester music scene Baz
the Postman. Baz was close to the centre of what became the Leicester
Grebo scene (although we all hated the label its stuck and is kind of
convenient). He operated a sort of 24 hour open house with amphetamines,
Mogadon, homebrew, dope and porno movies all laid on by mine host. It
was a great place to visit, relax, drink, smoke and chat at any time of
the day and night with a large and diverse group of revolving visitors.
A good place to check out what was happening, score some gear, just socialise
and chill (later GBOA were to decorate Bazs bedroom this story needs to
be told by them as it was a working art instillation worthy of a page
of its own). So it was here that I arrived to find stickman Vom looking
mightily pissed off. It transpired he and Kev Reverb had just been kicked
out of local
Velvet Underground worshiping group New Age replaced by that early 80s
shibboleth the drum machine and bass sequencer (this had been instigated
by a weird bloke called Joe somebody or other who apart from being the
most miserable cunt you could ever meet, had loads of cash, fancied himself
as a record producer and specialised in fucking up good bands). I remember
saying well the best way of putting their noses out and getting your own
back would be to start a new group up Ill play guitar if you like. Well,
from there the band that would be Crazyhead was born.
Vom and Kev had played together in a number of groups in the past, the most notable being the aforementioned Ronnie Slicker and the Bandits. A sort of comedy punk band, the Bandits were never taken seriously by anyone but were very, very good, but totally uncool. Reverbs always interesting and catchy song writing, Voms solid back-beat and the madness that was R. Slicker (geddit) made for excellent entertainment. They had a revolving selection of bass players, never settling on one. Their version of I Wanna Be Your Dog was legendary. In some ways Crazyhead were the bastard child of the Bandits.
So, myself, Reverb and Vom had a jam down at their rehearsal rooms Unit
66, the art-space cum drug den on Friday street in Leicester. Just round
the corner from Helsinkis Bar, near the local music shop and cheap booze
from Sainsburys a new rock group was born. We shared this factory unit
space with what were to become The Bomb Party and GBOA among others (rock
on Fokkerwolf!!). It went well with GBOA (I think they were Petal Frenzy
at this point) remarking that I was a decent bass player (first time I
had ever thought of playing bass). So we started auditioning lead guitarists
and settled on Fast Dick. Anderson soon joined (mainly because he looked
good rather than any particular singing talent- he was to grow into that)
and we were away. Names were a problem Crazyhead was a compromise of sorts,
we nearly became The Scissor-Men but Crazyhead it was and we debuted supporting
the Bomb Party at The Fan Club Leicester. The gig was a success and immediately
the usually hard to please Leicester clique were full of praise. More
gigs followed - one particularly mad open air event in the grounds of
a castle somewhere down south was our first outside of Leicester. I got
the gig through a mutual friend who I met in a pub, she looked like that
cat had been sick on her when we turned up! We were swearing so much on
stage that the police were called by local residents and they had to turn
it down after us, so the die was cast and Crazyhead were unleashed on
the world.
Next on our list for world domination was the need to record a demo tape for distribution to record companies. So we decamped to Barkby Road Studios - an 8 track in the middle of a truck park and inspiration for Diesel Park West ran by The Filberts/DPW guitarist Rick Wilson (of the perfect pitch and magic ears). There we recorded four songs. Buy a Gun, What Gives You The Idea That Youre So Amazing Baby and two others that escape me. It sounded good and we began mailing them off. Around this time I remember Kev showing me a fantastic spread of Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction in the Face magazine (Vom would end up drumming for them). Lets send a demo to their record company that was Food records. Well we got an immediate reply, Andy at Food liked us, he organised a gig supporting Chelsea at the Croydon underground. This went well, another was organised this time Food boss Dave Balfe (of the Teardrop Explodes and wing-nut ears fame) attended. He came backstage afterwards and offered us a deal. This was literally a few months after I had met Vom at Bazs. The whirlwind was about to start. As a side issue Ross had been in a punk band called The Disco Zombies around 1978 of whom I was a big fan (probably their only one before they decamped to London). It was a surprise to us both when we realised it!
Next on the list was our first single with the excellent title (from a marketing point of view but a good song too) What Give You the Idea That Youre So Amazing Baby? Food got on with the press and we got on with gigging. And god did we gig, we were pretty good and loved it but in the few short years we were together we gigged constantly-and we loved it you slaaaaags. This combination resulted in So Amazing flying to the top of the Indie charts as did its follow up Baby Turpentine. A front page in Sounds magazine sealed our new popular status. Round about this time we also rigged the Sounds Readers Poll which saw CH go well up the in the ratings of the people who mattered your local friendly record company fascist.
From here on it all becomes very mixed up.we were so busy, it was so exciting and so long ago but here is a melange of stuff I remember.
Lots of gigs.lots of laughslots of speedlots of dopesitting on top of a Marshall Amp from Leicester to Hamburg to do a one off gig (as the Dutch customs man said as we fell off the boat have you been drinking sirs..hell yes!) Touring with the Cult..touring with Julian Cope.Touring Europe with IGGY POP! Could it get any better?Well supporting The Ramones at Brixton Academy was closespending two months recording our first album Desert Orchid (named because Crazyhead were a flower in the desert of the music industryor after a race horse; take your pick)and two weeks on the single Time Has Taken Its Toll On You (a long time that) staying for these two months in Europes premier Gay hotel in Earls Court . This was booked by mistake, but we loved its sleazy nature so much we stayed for the two months while recording Desert Orchid. A match made in heaven actually, they thought a bunch of dope smoking weirdoes was a cool addition to their hotel --- even when we completely wrecked two rooms after the Zodiac Mindwarp album launch sinks of the wall, TVs out of the window etc. well what did you expect with a bunch of twisted old fruits like us on boardHa! HA!Ha!.radio plays/sessionstv.videos coked out of our heads on the top of a skyscraper in the City of London..(for Rags to Riches).me and Fast Dick on Top of the Pops with Voice of the Beehive.Visiting the same with Jesus Jonesmeeting Eric Clapton/Richard Thompson/David Gilmore/Neil Tennant at an EMI Christmas party. It was a fuckin Ace Time.
Some of the more structured Highlights included the many UK tours. One of the most interesting gigs we got were when we hooked up with the Foreign Office run British Council who are a sort of flag waving cultural exchange quango. Crazyhead thereby became cultural diplomats for the Queen.They sent us to Post Revolutionary Romania, (we were treated like the Beatles), Moscow and Namibia in Africa. These were wild times, the Moscow gig in particular was an incredible debauch, I shared my 13th floor room with our agent Vince and after 12 hours of Ukranian Champagne and vodka slammers things got weird.this is when the legendary roady Spike decided to go for a drunken walk around the ledge of the hotel accompanied by fast Dick13 floors upsheet! My whole room was trashed with most of it ending up out the windowthe Russians went mad but hard currency calmed them down. Romania was very moving, many innocents died in that revolution and it was still very raw. I remember sitting in a hotel room with the new minister of culture watching videoed of the security forces of the old regime butchering protesters.weird scenes. But uplifting as they loved us.they were not so keen on techno-fart band Jesus Jones however, they wanted some real Rock and Roll! Namibia was weird, a weekend in Africa, we spent as much time in the air as on the ground. Beautiful country, wild gig, broadcast all over Africa with Ziggy Marley headlining.
Well we came down from all this by eventually being dropped by EMI who rumour had it signed Food records to get hold of Jesus Jones and Diesel Park West; scuzzy punk rockers were not allowed (our AR man at EMI was the son of a Dukepublic schoolboys get all the best jobs but are as talent less as the rest of us!). An ill fated sojourn with Black Records produced the underrated Some Kind Of Fever album but the writing was on the wall. Material was drying up and my enthusiasm was waning and I left in 1990. Crazyhead struggled on with a new bass player for a couple of years but someone else needs to tell that story. Still the best time of my life and my third highest achievement. Crazyhead were a national treasure Gawd Blessem!
Dr Porkbeast,
PORK BEAST @ MY SPACE STRESSBITCH
I think it was early 91 when we spit from Black/FM Revolver records, out
manager leaving us with a debt of quarter of a million pounds in our name,
my long-term girlfriend left me, and I had so sign on again. Not a good
week. I had hardly eaten for two days but must have got some booze from
somewhere as I was hangover to fuck. I went to the local ss office to
make an emergency claim. The guy interviewing me asked if it was ok for
a trainee to be present, no problem. I didn’t like the weird stare
she was giving me, freaking out my already cracked eggshell mind. What
horror was in store for my shell shocked Psyche? Her mouth opened and
she said" Its you isn’t it, can I have your autograph please?"
The other guys, always practical and positive, were already getting it
together. We made a deal with HM Tax and excise to avoid prison and carried
on. We were doing it for love of music, sure the money had been good,
but if it had been about money we would have stayed with Food and co wrote
fm ballads with LAS top songwriters, (as Dave Balfe had suggested).Anyway
we recruited a new Bass player Christina X, who had been in local Rock
n roll billy heroes Return of the Seven. (Guitarist Fast Dick Bell and
one of our tour managers Tony Brooks were also ex ROTS). She had also
played in local all girl bands, The Shapiro’s, who had toured Europe
extensively. Ideal garage rock credentials for a band such as ours! We
would rehearse and record 2 times per week. My memory for dates and times
being what it is I may have got things mixed up but hopefully, Vom, Dick,
Reverb, Chris and Pete can add their own memories later. We kept gigging
and touring, including playing to a packed Camden Palace London twice,
once in our own right and once with Orbital to celebrate 2000 AD comics
10th birthday! Crew member and good friend Spike died in a van crash in
Germany. We did a benefit / memoriam gig with The Wonder stuff and Milltown
Bros to a packed our Demontfort Hall, Leicester. We toured Germany, also
visiting Prague in the new Czech Republic, playing to a packed house.
In Hamburg we sold out 2 nights in the local venue. (This tour was in
April 91, I remember the date because I have a dated framed black and
white photo of a dog halfway through having a shit that Reverb caught
lovingly on camera).We kept gigging and recording though with gaps, people
had jobs, families etc, I started studies in order to keep me busy. We
recorded a covers LP, live in Memphis, with our version of tracks by Michael
Jackson, Sparks, and Roxy Music and Psychedelic furs amongst others. It
never came out though there are bootlegs out there. Fast Dick Bell decided
to leave; he was busy with crew work with Black Grape and Cradle of Filth
amongst others and also moved to Derby. He was someone who left Crazyhead
who I missed a great deal as a friend and player. All was not lost however;
his replacement was another pure animal rock n roll axe wielding gonzoid
player, Pete Creed (Ex Bomb Everything).
We kept on recording and rehearsing playing the yearly Abby park festival
in Leicester to large crowds most years. We put together a Cd of over
twenty tracks from 86 right up to the 90s , called Fucked by Rock, ( a
term created by Zodiac Mindwarp to describe people fucked up by the music
industry, drugs, booze, being in a band etc eg ; Wow look at Keef Richards
in that picture, hes well fucked by rock !). This included demos recorded
with Rick ( from Diesel Park West ), which we all agree were far better
than the later, more polished tracks done with Food, and later EMI ,on
our singles and Desert Orchid. Rick came up with some interesting 60,s
vibe ideas ideas such as groovy keyboards on our version of Chers Bang
Bang (which he played), acoustic guitars on Dragon City and so on. The
version of Dragon city on Fucked by Rock however was a single never released
produced by the wonderful and talented guy whose name has slipped my mind,
who did Motorheads first LP and a lot of the Godfathers stuff.) There
are loads of other great tracks done in Reverbs Memphis studios, with
guest spots from many local musos dropping into the studio to sprinkle
on some fairy dust. The Mean fiddler promoted a tour to promote the CD
ending in a packed London show to many old fans that crawled out the woodwork.
Next we recorded the 13th floor 6 track CD , the title track based around
the exploits of Spikes life, ( The 13th floor where he , a Canadian rocker
and a Russian rockabilly walked around. on a tiny ledge outside the hotel
we stayed in Moscow, going into someone else’s room, who was slightly
surprised to say the least ! ) This CD contains some great messed up blues
bastard punk rock n roll penned by Reverb, and shows, (I believe) that
later incarnations of Crazyhead were as great as the earlier version.
That’s no disrespect to the guys that left; I just think it a shame
that Christina and Creedy on recordings never got heard by such a wide
audience. We toured the UK to promote the CD including another sell out
gig in London. We also did a support tour with the reformed Mission and
All about Eve, playing to one to two thousand people a night, wowing punters
new and old. The other bands were great people and we all shared a few
Vodkas and other bits and bobs backstage.Ok, after 1990 we hardly set
the world alight, but anyone who reads this can see we did slightly more
than struggle on for a couple of years with a new Bass player. (Other
than that final sentence I feel the early years are documented pretty
well.) I had been studying for a few years and was about to take a teaching
position in Poland, so we played our final gig at The Princess Charlotte
around xmass 2000 ( I think ) to a sell out crowd with fine support from
some local punk acts , Amphetamine dummy Djs and the mighty babble sound
system. We never really split up. It’s funny as I sit writing this
in a Cambodian Casino on the Thai/Cambodian boarder, swigging Mekong Whisky,
to think this time next year it will be around twenty years since our
first single came out. Who knows maybe some of us will meet up in the
UK and play a few shows and hey, if we end up playing to one man and a
dog, so what!
Ian Anderson Crazyhead 2006-05-11
Lank-haired dirtbags Crazyhead swept to the top of the alternative charts just months after forming.
Vom, Pork Beast, Fast Green Dick,
Anderson and, erm Kevin, conquered indie Britain with supercharged singles
What Gives You
The Idea That You're So Amazing Baby? and Baby Turpentine.
Singer Anderson was even voted sexiest man of the year by readers of Sounds, which went bust soon afterwards.
But just when everything was looking
fine, Food were gobbled up by EMI and suddenly label bosses wanted Crazyhead
to be, well,
MildlyOddHead.
Guitarist Kev Reverb said: "They
decided they didn't want us but another band, and they mucked around with
the fundamentals of
how we worked."
The too-polished first album Desert Orchid was a let down, but as their career nosedived in Britain the band stumbled into an unexpected new role as grebo diplomats.
Their agent got a call from those
stiff upper lip chaps at the British Council who were looking for cultural
envoys to play a showcase
Moscow gig.
Drummer Rob Vom said: "They
asked for Tracy Chapman or
somebody and in the space of a few seconds she persuaded them they'd be
better off with Crazyhead."I don't think they phoned asking for five
blokes from Leicester."
After Russia, Crazyhead were invited to Namibia to play the landmark independence celebrations.
Then Anderson and his partners in grime became the first Western band to unsettle Romania in the days after the revolution.
By this time Crazyhead had been
dumped by Food and switched to FM Revolver, the label famed for being
splattered with paint by
the disgruntled Stone Roses.
"We soon fancied getting some paint ourselves," is all Rob would say.
Crazyhead finally called it quits after a disastrous final tour of Europe, reforming intermittently to provide an unofficial highlight for the Abbey Park Festival.Since then Rob had a brief briefless career as a life model and is now teaching drums. He also tours with Zodiac Mindwarp, Kev runs a studio called Memphis which is plastered with pictures of Elvis and Leicester City.
Anderson studied art at university,
guitarist Dick was last seen driving comedian Sean Hughes and no-one knows
what became of
the legendary Pork Beast.
Singles discography
1988 : (What Gives You The Idea That) You're So Amazing, Baby?
1988 : Baby Turpentine
1989 : Time Has Taken Its Toll On You
1990 : Have Love Will Travel EP
Album discography
1989 : Desert Orchid
1990 : Some Kind of Fever
1995 : Grind
(i am not sure how correct the dates ofthis discog is!
I thought they had records out
in 1988)
This article is about a music genre. For an ethnic group, see Grebo.
Grebo (occasionally spelled Greebo, although that has somewhat different
connotations), was a minor UK subculture of the late 80s and early 90s,
largely based in the Midlands and around the bands Pop Will Eat Itself
(who had songs titled, "Oh Grebo I Think I Love You" and "Grebo
Guru"), Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Carter USM, The Wonder Stuff, The Levellers
and Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction. Leicester bands Crazyhead,
the Bomb Party and Gaye Bykers on Acid, as well as New Model Army, are
also sometimes associated with Grebo. The musical style of the bands was
more or less a blend of the more alternative forms of Indie rock, and
electronica (although in the case of Zodiac Mindwarp it tended more towards
hard rock/heavy metal). The grebo visual style often included dreadlocks,
partially shaved heads and high ponytails, baggy clothing, and strange
hats. In addition to being called 'greebos', those in the Grebo scene
are also called 'moshers'.
The movement, although shortlived, was a reasonable success at the time, and influenced a number of later bands. To a certain extent it was a music press invention, a scene and style named by British indie mags, specifically NME and the Melody Maker, in order to fill the period in the late 1980s before Grunge music and other forms of American Alternative rock broke through. It was labelled "The Scene that Celebrates Itself" by the Melody Maker alongside the then popular shoegazer.
Nowadays, the term is used as a derogatory term against rock music enthusiasts, who choose to dress to suit themselves and their peers. It is very commonly used by chavs in England, along with the term mosher. The term "grebo" is used by chavs to lump any fan of hard music and who dresses accordingly into one category (obviously, endless categories exist, ie goths, metalheads, punks and emos to a certain extent, and all of their sub-categories). Though other histories and meanings of the word exist. Grebo is considered an abbreviation of Greasy Bastard (first coined after an incident in a cinema in Stourbridge when Clint Mansell of Pop Will Eat Itself was told to sit down you "Greasy Bastard") . In the midlands, where the term was originated the term is often associated with people whose music interests vary much from the original genre.
The term "Greebo" appears in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, as the name of a cat. Pratchett's definition of a greebo is "Someone who wants to be a Hell's Angel, but doesn't have the style."
A continental variety of the Grebo was the bavarian Rauschnick.
'Grebo' or 'Greebo' is also commonly used in Britain, to label someone who wears baggy clothing and has long (sometimes, greasy) hair. It is commonly wrongly used as many people who are labelled 'Grebo' are actually a member of the much larger social-caste known as 'Skaters'
'Grebos' often get into fights with the infamous 'Chavs'
The term "Grebo" was originally used in England in the mid to late 1970s as the name of a line dance that Heavy Metal Rockers (and sometimes new wave kids and piss taking punks) would do en masse. Often, several "greasy heavy rockers" would line up facing eachother in two rows, and the dance basically consisted of simultaneously rocking the hips from side to side while leaning forward and crossing the arms alternately followed by punching towards the ground in time with the music (Status Quo, Slade, Rainbow etc.). The hands were usually fisted or often "flipping the bird" during the crossing part. Great dancing skill was not necessary. And PWEI didn't coin the phrase.
THE BOOK THAT INSPIRED THE NAME ?
Rare import cd
PROMO SHOTS
*_Visits with Spike._*
*_ _*
It all seems such a long time ago now, the glories
of Rome, the rocky
Passes of the Alps not to mention dubious encounters with Italian
Boarder crossing guards. There was one particular occasion I remember
With a fleeting glance of clarity, when, in the middle of a "lets
throw
A few darts at the map, and visit the places in that order tour".
Salad days indeed.
I found myself in the back line / merchandising
truck, with an
Interesting purveyor of merchandising/driver. (Now sadly deceased)
Called Spike. I donut think Spike would have minded me telling you
This, in fact was he still around today, and you were to meet him. Your
Very, very first impression would have been, Oh, Spike seems a colourful
Character. It would also be fair to say that Spike did not have the
Longest temper known to man, nor did he suffer fools gladly, to be
Brutally honest, he dint suffer them at all, but none the less, a good
Man to have in your corner. Mostly.
There were occasions where Spike shone like a
light, bright sharp and
Witty. We were at a gig in Edinburgh in the mid/late 80s part way
Through a tour, everything going smoothly etc good band, no problems
Etc. Other than boredom. We, well I, decided redesign the stage layout,
Lean all the amps over at jaunty angles collect odd pictures and
A mannequin, set them up on stage as some bizarre from of eclectic set
It was at some point that day that Spike suggested
that he had a good
Idea for something odd to go in front of the drums on the riser. So off
Spike toddles mid afternoon in Edinburgh city centre, on mission to
Obtain who knows what.
Some hours later there is frantic banging on the
stage doors with
Spike yelling some form of colloquial phrase for please could you open
The doors, and make that NOW. Doors dully opened and there is Spike with
What at first, and indeed second and third glances seems to be the front?
Fender, lights and radiator grill off a new car. "Spike, where did,
What, how did? But, Oh never mind, lets get it in now".
So up on the riser went the car thingy, one of
the LDs even wired in
Its headlights. Well we thought it looked good, as I guess did the band,
As it remained for the rest of the tour.
Some months later in the tour, Spike and me found
us
Approaching Italian customs, on a Saturday afternoon after an all night
Drive from Hamburg heading towards Rome. We must have looked great.
I seem to remember that Italian customs closed
at 5pm on Saturday and
Stayed that way until Monday morning. Not good if you have a gig in Rome
On Sunday night and it is now 4.40pm on Saturday with 150/200 big, and
I
Do mean BIG trucks lined up in front of you. All of whom are due to
Clear customs before you. Well in theory they were first.
A lesser man than Spike might have seen this as some sort of problem.
Engaging the theory of Spike (very lateral thinking needed here) we
Parked the van in the jumble of trucks and walked toward the customs
Hut. YO yelled Spike at any customs official within hearing. We are with
A band and need to get through tonight, as we are carrying All the back
Line. To/shirts jackets and CDs, hang on I will bring the truck up and
Let you check the merchandise, and maybe even let you grab a couple of
to
Shirts and CDs so off zips Spike back to the truck leaving me with a
Confused customs official, several irate
truck drivers and me with a
Handful of carnet documents. To cut a relatively
long story short, 15
CDs 10 Polo shirts and a multitude of to/shirts later we sail past all
The other trucks now doomed to a very long wait and forge on into Italy.
Spike was ideally suited to the Italian school
of driving, i.e. hand on
The horn, feet on the dash and a brick on the accelerator pedal. So onto
Rome it was then.
A pretty uneventful drive it was too, the get in
at the gig on the other
Hand.
Ah! The get in.
It wasn’t that it was a particularly hard
get in; it was just that it was
Down a very narrow lane, off a very busy road, with nowhere to turn a
Truck around. Now this would not have been a problem had Spike reversed
The truck down there in the first place, as opposed to driving it in
Engine first blocking the club doors and generally getting well stuck.
I, as was my wont at the time went into the gig to find the tour
Manager, and left Spike with the tricky problem of waiting with the
Truck until I returned with some people to help guide the reversing
Truck out onto the busy road etc.
Spike on the other hand had no intention of doing
anything so UN manly
As waiting for help to arrive. So 5 minutes later, though in fairness
to
Spike it could have been 6 minutes. We get to the loading dock (tour
Manager, myself and some local crew) to help guide the truck out. The
Truck that was no longer there. After a nana second of, Ahoy? We spot
The truck blocking the main road, and Spike having what seemed from a
Distance to be a slight altercation with an irate Italian.
As we got closer and closer we could see that
the now very irate
Italian had very careful manoeuvred his small Fiat car (he must have
Been driving sideways) completely under the rear of Spikes truck. The
TM dived in, sent Spike away for a while, bought the irate Italian a new
Ferrari/Lamborghini etc, calmed troubled waters and did the gig like the
True professionals we were supposed to be.
Every so often I think about Spike and have recollections
ranging
From fond memories to sheer sweat inducing terror. Fear not that Spike
And I had any delusions of semi-competence...I believe we achieved world
Class recognition for ineptitude...and I stand on those laurels...
Yours, closing the tent flaps,
Miss you Spike,
All the best
I hope Crazyhead will reform someday and put all their past in fighting behind them.They should sort it out to re release their back cat..
life is short ....
Robber Byker
17/05/06