After a brief intermission Return To
Contents Page
After a few local gigs it soon became apparent
that the band needed a reality check and so the long painful process of
learning to play the instruments began. Lice was a natural drummer and so
didn't need lessons, he was a cross between animal from the Muppets and rat
scabies from the damned, not in his playing, he just looked like a cross
between them!
As they became more comfortable with their
instruments certain influences began to show. Years later when listening to
some very dodgy tapes we both commented on how the very early stuff sounded a
bit 'joy divisionish.......' strange as there was never a conscious
decision to sound like anyone.
The Sirens next outing was some time later and
slightly more melodic affair. Hugh being the biggest creative influence had
begun to pen songs of his own but the core of the early set was cover versions;
One Two X U, by Wire, So Messed Up by the Damned and I Feel Alright by the
Stooges, went down well I seem to remember.
I think the band suffered because we
refused to play to the lowest common denominator and play a set full of other
people’s classics. Whether that was right or wrong or whether it harmed our
chances of gathering a following I cant really say but I for one would much
rather play our own songs (with an odd cover thrown in) than I would play a
whole set of covers. That’s not to say I don’t admire anyone who gets up and
plays live but I would still like to play new songs rather than other peoples.
It was probably a mixture of this and the fact
that we seemed to be going nowhere that finally led to the three of the original
members jumping ship. We went on for a bit after that and actually recorded
some good tracks in a studio in
I was always very self conscious on
stage as well; I remember several occasions when I would just swear at the
audience non stop in between songs, out of nervousness I think. There were
other gigs when I would drink loads to give myself a bit of Dutch courage; on
one occasion I drank a couple of pints and it had no effect, the time for the
gig was getting closer so I went on to double Jack Daniels and Cokes, after a
couple of those I still felt really nervous and so I went back and had two or
three more (I forget really) suffice to say that by the time of the gig I
wasn’t nervous at all, I was completely incapacitated and just fell on the
floor as the band entered the stage. I was out of it for a good couple of hours
but do seem to remember that Hughie did a sterling job playing guitar and
singing.
It was great fun doing what we did and I loved the anarchic half assed
fashion we went about things, sadly it didn’t last, for many reasons we decided
to call it a day. So last November, after a gap of over twenty years, Hughie
rang me up and said would I like to get together to make an album, I didn’t
have to think twice and have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of rehearsing and
the time in the studio. This time we have found a professional to produce and
engineer us and he is also a really nice guy. He was the sound man for David
Bowie’s last tour! I always tell everyone that when talking about our new
album.
Well that’s where we are no. We are
just about to start rehearsing for a new album, what fun!
Rich
Sage x Return To Contents Page