A alternative version of the history of these three little stories can be read here but these three little stories kinda cover the truth about my first proper band (not the Vampire as stated in another blog) DIH which was a mis mash between Jack Kerouac and the Aphex Twin.
These were all wrote between 2000 and 2001.
They nearly got published in a journal. Forget why it never happened.
There is notes for at least three other knocking around which never got wrote.
After reading this, I think they will.
Thanks to Keith for the blog title too
Andy
First Gig It is a common myth about my band, DIH that our first gig ended up with us getting bottled off stage. On that gig, we had arrived late and with only three songs wrote. I had arrived that morning with a fistful of poetry and rants for a week-end away visiting Keith and arrived at his house only to discover Keith had a huge black eye and no band. ‘What the hell happened to you’ I asked. ‘We had a major disagreement’ Keith said ‘My band’ ‘No kidding’ I thought. ‘And we were meant to be doing a gig’ He finished. ‘And I guessed they don’t want to do it’ He smiled mournfully ‘They’ve paid us a bit of money too’ ‘Yeah’ I said ‘I guess you’ll up shit creek’ ‘Do you fancy it? I love your poems’ A wiser man would have politly said no, but I kind off fancied it straight away for some strange reason so I said with a wide smile ‘Why not? You only live once’ Over that afternoon in question, we jammed out three short songs with Keith playing distorted guitars and break beats over my poems which already fragmented enough back then were more confused after that. ‘What sort of bands are we playing alongside?’ I asked just before we left. ‘Nothing that sparkling’ He carried on ‘ A couple of the usual sub standard Indie bollocks and wannabes’ ‘We’ll go down like a lead balloon’ I said surprised half smiling. When the first bottle flew, my first touch was to duck and when the pint then followed, I ran like fuck. Like I said, I played by touch. I simply ran like a ghost. And the myth is that was only the start.
Spoken instead of Sung Another common myth about DIH was our work-rate. Nowadays with the internet and stuff, it is so much easier just to zip over a mp3 over to each other, but when we got going in 2000 properly, I’d only just bought my first mobile the other year and didn’t actually buy my 1st PC until the following year, so when Keith rang me up a few months after our first attempted gig and said ‘I think we should record a album’ – I’ll let you guess what my reaction was. At that moment in my life, I was still at best very much a fledging writer who had just finished off his second year at university and had began to realise the hard way I guess that my writing wasn’t quite as shit hot as I thought it was back then and certainly after our first gig was certainly nervous. ‘Have faith, play by touch’ Keith said to me once I told him what my reservations were ‘Besides which, it’s only a bit of fun. Doesn’t mean anybody has to hear it’ The recording was planned for a month or so later, which gave me a opportunity to gather my lyrics together and I arrived at Keith’s with something like 24or 25 poems or possible songs. ‘How high can you sing?’ was among Keith’s first questions when we were locked in his studio or his bedroom depending how you viewed it. ‘I’ve never tried’ I answered somewhat surprised. ‘Okay, let me re-word that’ He carried on’ I know you can do poetry, god knows you’ve told me all about the poetry readings. Singing is just another way of projecting your voice’ I nodded. I was still very surprised with what he said before. I added ‘I’m still not convinced’ ‘Just look at it like this’ He carried on ‘It is just a matter of breathing’ before he carried for a few minutes outlining what I should try. ‘I’m not a professional’ I said and took a deep breath. Halfway through the second stanza, he asked me to stop ‘I see what you mean’ and so henceforth why DIH became a spoken word noise band instead of sang.
2nd Gig It always tickles me our 2nd gig was rougher than our first. You would think with a album produced and mixed, our 2nd gig would be a bit more orgasnised than our first. Sadly things didn’t get any better. Keith was deep in rehearsals with the programming of his DAT machine when I arrived early for once and instead of shouting yo just waved like a conductor and I sat down somewhat surprised. Sadly things didn’t get any better. I’d arrived with my notebook filled with the lyrics to all of the songs on the album and even a suggested playing order. Keith’s first question however after a few minutes wasn’t anything like what order do you want to start playing tracks in, but rather ‘Written anything new?’ Surprised, I nodded ‘Of course’ To which he carried on with major enthusiasm ‘Wicked! I’ve got this cracking new tune I want to play you – perhaps you may have some words suitable’ ‘Go on’ I mouthed smiling and he started up with his guitar, then the bass and the drums. Three minutes later, he finished and said ‘What do you think?’ It was good from what I had heard before in fact, I would say really really good. But I had no idea what words would go with it. ‘I really like it’ I answered eventually ‘Can’t think of any words suitable for it thou’ ‘Oh well’ Keith smiled ‘You could always chant DIH during the quiet bits’ ‘What like a Buddhism monk? I smiled in response but it was fine. Without either of us discussing it, we had our introduction tune. Something we could play for two or ten minutes depending on how much the audience digged it. The audience digged it alright, but that was when the problems started. First of us, we arrived on time for the venue and as we got out I whispered ‘Jesus, this looks like a bit of a dive’ Keith smiled ‘It’s a good laugh, this place’ I said seriously looking at the sign of the pub ‘The hanged man’ before smiling “Hopefully they won’t hang us” It didn’t take us long to set up our equipment and I was halfway through testing our sound when I saw te first of our audience walk in. They had long hair and biker jackets, with words scribbled across the back of their ripped denim that I couldn’t read. There was some local I guess local thrash band on before us, which I could hear form backstage sounded like they went down really well. We were next. We were next up with our breakbeats and mumbled madness. ‘I ain’t sure about this’ I said from outside the stage as I looked as another group of people walked in. ‘Nah, we’ll be fine’ He smiled ‘Look – there’s another gang off people come in specially to watch us’ ‘There’s probably more chance they’ve come here to kick the crap out of the rest of them’ I was dead right too much to my surprise. It was Satan’s slaves who walked in, and I only found out afterwards it was Hell’s Angls that were in there. We didn’t even finish our second song. I’d never run so fast in my life. Well, not since the first gig.
