PRESS
VIVE LE ROCK
So how did Crazyhead come about in the first place?
Crazyhead started when Drummer Rob Vomit (AKA Vom) and Guitarist Reverb were thrown out and replaced by machines in their old Paisley Underground band New Age (who hoped to crack the charts with fashionable Shiny Pop Pap). The next day Vom met Basshog Porkbeast around the legendary Baz the Postman’s 24-hour open party house in Leicester (a notorious hangout for us and the Gaye Bykers on Acid plus a revolving selection of groovy fuckers). They decided to start another band if only to spite New Age. We turned up at Unit 66, a sort of art/rock/squat/drug den run by a collective of New Age Travellers and Gaye Bykers on Acid and rocked out. To cut a long story short, that was the first Crazyhead rehearsal. Reverb wrote the songs and we jammed out our mutual worship of Punk, 60s Garage, Psychedelia and full on rock and roll addictions. Anderson was recruited pretty quick along with Fast Dick on Lead. And we were off like a rocket! We loved it and rehearsed every day we could for 3 months before our debut gig with the Mighty Goth Acid Punkers The Bomb Party. We were signed three months later.
You signed with the now legendary indie label Food Records and released the first ever album on them. How did that happen?
It was Food Records that signed us after we saw a Zodiac Mindwarp Face Magazine feature they had organised. We liked the attitude and single so sent Food a demo. They came to see us supporting Chelsea in Croyden and signed us there and then. They also signed Voice of the Beehive, Jesus Jones and Blur. Food had the nous, the money and the clout to promote us. We started seriously touring, released our first two singles What Gives You the Idea You’re So Amazing Baby and Baby Turpentine. They rocketed up the Indie Charts to number 2 and Sounds Magazine Cover stars twice and in all the other Press. We were a hit. Later Food was bought by EMI and our Album and further singles were on Food/Parlophone joining our label mates the Beatles lol. All the time we were touring like mad, lots of great sweaty gigs on our own and supporting the Ramones, Iggy Pop, The Cult and Julian Cope among others. We released two albums Desert Orchid and Some Kind of Fever, lots of singles, US and European tours TV. It was a gas.
Which of your records are you most proud of?
The first two 12 inch singles So Amazing and Baby Turpentine show us as at our raw best. Have Love Will Travel is a crowd favourite and was recorded almost live - second take! Album tracks like Cardinal Phink and Some Kind of Fever show our more crafted side while our B sides like Rub the Buddha, Bang Bang and Out On a Limb show off our bastard psychedelic garage punk aesthetic.
And what was all this Grebo stuff that you were associated with?
It was a genre label created by Pop Will Eat Itself and James brown at the NME. They grouped a few bands from the Midlands and Crazyhead, Bomb Party and Gaye Bykers from Leicester and called it a movement. We had only guitars and a rock attitude in common really although us and the Bykers came out of the same LA (Leicester Area) scene. It got us lots of press but we were really a long-haired garage punk bastard blues band and never called ourselves Grebo.
And what was the biggest highlight for Crazyhead first time around?
The addictive buzz of live shows. From Dudley JBs to New York and Moscow via Windhoek and Leicester. Amazing gigs. We did a set of concerts just before the fall of the Berlin Wall in Communist Moscow, Post-Revolutionary Romania and Namibia all for the British Council that were pretty unique and an experience that has stayed with all of us. We witnessed history.
A few of you briefly played together as Swamp Delta who VLR very much liked. What made you answer the call to kick start the old bike again?
Swamp Delta came about after Anderson returned to Blighty from many years in South East Asia and announced the return of Crazyhead without actually asking any of the others! Well why not? Reverb and Vom traced the original members, but at the time the reunion fell through. Porky and Robber Byker decided the old bands would never reform so started Swamp Delta instead, doing new and old songs from our back catalogue. Anderson, Vom and Blink Cyclone joined. Our first gig was at Bearded Theory Festival after one full band rehearsal (Ian was abroad) and it went down a storm! Talk about a mad plan. We released a critically well received album Sick Liver Blues and the next step led to both Gaye Bykers on Acid and Crazyhead reforming. So, it was a cool band that the audiences loved. Vom and Reverb were also gigging and releasing albums with their band the Marinuccis.
What can we expect on your forthcoming tour and appearance at Indie festival?
We all have the wonderful Grant Holby Indie Daze promotor to thank for Crazyhead’s reunion. Porkbeast went with Robber to last year’s Festival where Gaye Bykers reformed to play and he offered us the same deal. Fast Dick has retired to a Hebridean monastery so we recruited his original replacement from the 90s Pete Creed so it’s an all original line-up. We also have a string of low key dates around the Midlands and north to warm up and stretch this autumn. We can promise no nonsense Urban Bastard Blues that is as good as the old days.
Crazyhead live have more power than an Amphetamined Rhino.
We can’t wait!
FIGHTING BOREDOM
Crazyhead
Mystery Action
The Donkey
Leicester
15th September 2017
Crazyhead were brilliant, bastard garage punk rock’n’roll, with a handful of killer singles and albums they were for me the best of the lumped together Grebo bands of the last half of the eighties. Full of attitude they played their last gig eighteen years ago and disappeared. Now they are back and Fighting Boredom were right there with them.
The Donkey is full. I’ve heard this is sold out and it doesn’t suprise me. Somewhere there is merch for sale but I’ve no idea where. In the corner a dude is spinning seven inch vinyl and the sleazy rockabilly rebel music is perfect for this mass of old juvenile delinquents.
Mystery Action have voodoo bones and cards in their top hats, the singer has the Baron’s face on and laughs like a man possessed. The drummer has a tiny leopard spotted kit and a perfect quiff, which is all you need really. The fact that he kicks seven shades of shit out of the drums and makes this band rock roll and shake all over is beside the point. Michelle dubs them the Psychobilly Flintstones which fits bloody well. They play covers, and what covers man, Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, the forgotten sons of our British Rock’n’Roll, they have a pinch of rockabilly and a touch of twang. Then they go into the Cramps, which just works, they are doing this for themselves, they smile and slink out massive swathes of fuzz. When the drums start on the Dolls Stranded in the Jungle it’s bloody perfect. All I need is my battered leather jacket and bleached hair and I’m a kid again. They give these old old songs what they need, a dose of lazy, messed up slapdash glory, they were never ever played for musical excellence; they were played for the kids and tonight that’s us once more.
The place is even fuller now. I’m jammed against a table trying to write in my note book and the band aren’t even on stage yet. They climb up looking nervous, this is a pretty big deal remember. They look older but the mischief in their eyes is still there. Anderson takes the mic and they go. The twin guitars give that garage swagger, the drums are hit even harder and faster that Mystery Action and Porkbeast is resplendent in a chrome storm troopers helmet and cheap sunglasses throwing every rock move he can. But it’s Anderson that made the difference back then and still does now. When he leans into the mic as Time Has Taken It’s Toll On You blasts out all around him in his trademark sunglasses and long hair and taps his head as he sings it hits me just how bloody good they were and that they still have it. He’s a bloody madman in complete control, he looks perfect and everything is focused on him.
Honestly, my notes disintegrate into meaningles scribble as I move to that beat and just watch one of my teenage favourite bands tear up their back catalogue once more, Baby Turpentine still slays me and the last song is obviously ‘What Gives You The Idea That You’re So Amazing Baby’. This is garage punk seasoned to perfection, the sound of a band finding themselves again for those of us that desperately needed it.
The encore is the sixties garage groove of Have Love Will Travel and the immortal Stooges TV Eye. Both of which batter hell out of the audience. There are huge grins wherever I look, this is their band back at the Donkey where they belong. They thank us, the dj puts the Heartbreakers Born to Lose on and it’s perfect.
Crazyhead had their moment and rose to it with abandon and the spirit of Rock’n’Roll mayhem and now they are back again.Tonight they looked like they were having the time of their lives. Join them before they go again.
–
Crazyhead tour dates are on their Facebook page. They also have a Bandcamp page.
All words by Adrian Bloxham.