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Yesterdays news is still today's truth!

They only tell us what they want us to know.....An Anti Austerity Demo gathered outside the BBC headquarters in London the other weekend, ...


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MAKE SENSE OF THE SENSELESS ! / QUESTION THE QUESTIONABLE ! / SHOUT ABOVE THE NOISE !

Saturday 13 September 2008



I should really write a lot more than I’m gonna for this post; cos I got to know the band, after meeting Spike the singer and Guy the guitarist at a few Gunslingers gigs, they said they played in a band called The Queer Boys, a name given to them by the Irish builders they had laboured for, imagine Keith Richards and Rod Stewart turning on a building site; mixing up cement and carrying bricks about, and you’ll get the picture, funnily enough you’ll also get the bands sound, a dirty Faces/Stones bar room boogie. Saw the band loads of times in the pubs and clubs of London and on various support tours with the likes of Tenpole Tudor, One The Juggler, The Cherry Bombs, often squeezed into their van wedged between the amps and drums for a lift there, or a lift back. I eventually ended up roadieing for them for a couple of tours, and one offs, like their Reading Festival appearance in 87 I think, same year Meatloaf and Bonnie Tyler were bottled off at. My roadieing skills were rather limited as I couldn’t drive or tune a guitar, but I blagged it. By now in order to get signed by a record label they had to change their name; The Queer Boys wasn’t acceptable, so they became The Pretty Girls after a couple of independent single releases, several major music biz players became interested in managing the band, including Sharon Osbourne, in the days when she looked like yer mum and dressed like yer nan, The Quire Boys as the band were now called signed up with her for some amount of money, enough to hire a big fuck off tour bus for the last few dates in Scotland of the tour, and go to Los Angeles to record their debut album A Little Bit Of What You Fancy, they took me along for the ride. I spent six weeks in Los Angeles and watched all the bands rough edges get smoothed away by one time Steve Harley and Faces Guitarist Jim Creegan, in order to get the product ready for the market. Thousands of miles from home, I didn’t feel that I fitted in with Sharons plans for the band. I was their mate, not a roadie, she expected me to drive the band about, and loads of other shit I knew nothing about, that wouldn’t have been a problem, apart from the problem that I couldn’t drive, the band had told her that I could in order to blag my trip out there, to share in their success. I felt my ability was being questioned, especially after Spike had a drunken accident and hurt his arm when I had been ordered to “look after him tonight.” Then boredom began to set in, especially hearing the same song being rehearsed for eight hours a day with the producer suggesting different chord changes, timings etc songs I once liked began to sound not so good. After six weeks the band hadn’t even got into the recording studio, and I’d had enough, I missed home and their new found rock’n’roll lifestyle just wasn’t punk rock enough for me, so I wished ’em luck and flew home; It wasn’t a bit of what I fancied. Anyway as I said at the beginning, I should really have written a bit more, but hey here’s what yer after; a four track live promo tape issued by the band to try and generate music biz interest in them when they were still Queer!

7 comments:

John Liedown said...

Ok. The penny drops. Nice story. Seen the pics now I know the background. Went to see them in Cardiff once while knocking round with this glam type girl. Entertaining enough as it goes. I wont tell you about the time I was dragged along too see Extreme....
J

aikin said...

I used to have A Little Bit Of What You Fancy on cassette, but had no idea of the band's history. Cool post - and thanks for the older music.

Anonymous said...

Wow. Great story Nuzz. And a very accurate description of a pre ‘Osborne’s’ Sharron!
Can’t say I’m familiar with the Queer Boys era of the Quire Boy’s, so it will be interesting to hear.

pipeline

Anonymous said...

Cheers for that Nuzz. Blast from the past (thanks for reminding me about those dates in Scotland (freezing my arse off after the show at Aberdeen Station; having my leather jacket (& Sony pro) nicked from a busy & open dressing room in Edinburgh; being threatened by a knife wielding bootlegger after I'd grassed him up to Chief. Halcyon days...

As a pressie, here's the Lords at Reading in 86 (you've probably got it anyway): https://www.yousendit.com/download/bVlCOGNRdWNUME9Ga1E9PQ

Anonymous said...

(pressed post before reading it back). Threatened in Glasgow...

It was never the same after Sharon got on board. No Ginger, no you, no Cozy

Nuzz Prowlin' Wolf said...

Yeah Ginger and Cozy, never mind a Wild Heart, Ginger was a real wild card while he was in the QB's, it was why Sharon got rid of him, and Cozy just loved to drum, not Mr Rock'n'Roll, but when he did, he was a funny fucker, and Chief was a character Mr Rock'n'Roll, he went down in my estimations after I read about him ripping off Thunders, I've got a live Babysitters and Pretty Girls tape to post at some point, when they toured with the Cherry Bombz. Cheers for The Lords link, I didn't have a copy of that , nice one, cheers anon. Met some nice people on those QB tours, some arseholes as well, but that's life.

hampz said...

CAN YOU PLEASE RE-POST THIS...... PLEASE.