Chapter 7

Three Men in a Tub

3 men in a tub interview by solomonrobson

Listen to Three men in a Tub

WDR: "How did you get together as a group?"

Xero takes a swig of "Irish Coffee without the Coffee" (It's after 4am and the Damberd is finally shut and shouldn't be serving alcohol).

Xero: "Well, Gene here was around in bands and was wanting to play in other bands around about and I was playing in this band that used to argue all the time. If you think that this band argues a lot....... fucking hell you should've seen the last one - it was daggers drawn. Bloody hell fire, it was dreadful! Had a few good moments, musically, mind, but it was definitely a 'step in a direction'....Well, they all are, really, aren't they ?"

Giggles all round

Xero: " Anyway, so....couldn't stand playing in that any more, and they were all whingeing about 'didn't want to come abroad' and 'didn't want to do this' and 'didn't want to do that' and one of them didn't like playing in public...in front of people. All sorts of problems, really."

Xero: " So in the end when I'd had enough I thought 'Oh, I'll have to do sommat else', so I went round to Eric's and said 'What shall I do Eric? Fucking hell, I'm pissed off wi' this, this is no good' and he says 'What about Gene?' y'see....and I thought 'Well', I thought 'That's a good idea, I'll go and see him.' And we had a play together and it seemed like it might be a good scheme, and I'd seen him, Louis, playing with this other band, What was it called? "

Louis: "Beat and Blow"

Xero: "....in The Termite Club, and he was good, jumping around, playing his bass guitar, looked great an' all - bald head and all that, everything you'd want really...and I told Eric and Eric says well what about asking Louis you see and well I chatted to Louis and he had a doublebass an' all. Didn't have a motor though - but course I had the Black Bedford then, now that was a van !"                   

WDR: "....and Eric is the one who built the double bass ?"

Xero & Gene: " Yeah the stick bass that we don't use any more..."

WDR: " Why? "

Xero: (sighs) " One question at a time, please. ...

Er, so, anyway, I went straight home and threw the 'I Ching', right? (I'd been reading my John Cage books, see) (art note !) Anyway, it was a belter! It was the best one I've ever seen. Great, it says, do it! The Superior Man fucks off straight up to Roundhay on the bus and goes round and sees Louis and says 'Eh - How about it?'

So....now what did I do? Oh that's right I went round to Alphonse Material's and got Louis' telephone number and I rang up and he says 'Yeah, that sounds like a good wheeze' or something like that, didn't you? So we fixed a rehearsal up and I was thinking 'Oh Well, it might work, might not' and thinking ' Well you've got to do sommat, haven't you? ' and by this time of course, the other band had fallen completely apart and so we all went up to Louis's and had a play and it were great, weren't it? "

Louis and Gene (in unison): " It were, yeah."

Xero: " A really nice play and it felt really good and exciting and confident and I'd thought what should we do? So we started trying out some tunes done with the other band and some new things and everything just worked straight away with no.....well, with hardly any pissing about.... And after the first rehearsal we had enough for a gig so we thought 'Well, we'd better get one organised' so I rang up the Cardigan Arms

( this is another Tetley's pub but on Kirkstall Road) and went to see them and they said 'Yeah, you can have the upstairs room. Anyway, we advertised it a bit, stuck some posters up and put an advert in Leeds Other Paper (THIS IS NOT A PLUG!) and then there we were that Wednesday night wondering if anyone was going to come and it was CHOCK A BLOCK! You couldn't have got any more in if you'd tried. It was full! Heaving, it was. Full of people. Anyway, we played and they loved it. Ate us up! Ate us up. We did it every Wednesday for a bit - until the landlord fitted us up. He thought there were only going to be about six people there and eventually there were hundreds of 'em, and there were too many for him to cope with, and he framed us, y'know.

Xero: " He said he'd found some 'drugs' upstairs after a gig. But of course it wasn't us. Nowt to do wi' us. Might have been a client! But we don't actually believe it exists. Anyway that was the excuse for getting us out but worrit really was was that he didn't like washing all the glasses afterwards - He just liked it being quiet. And he couldn't be bothered to get a music license. So where did we go then ?"

Louis: "The Adelphi"

Xero: " That's right. We did a residency at the Adelphi (home of the 'Termite Club'on Friday nights). The first one we did at the Cardigan was called the 'Elbow Club' because you had to be hip to know about it, and this one at the Adelphi was called the 'Foot Club'......

'FooT Club' because I'd found...I'd been in this derelict factory that I know on Buslingthorpe Lane and found all of these wooden feet for making shoes. So we went down with this van full of wooden feet and gave everybody one as they came in the door. We said right you can be a member of the 'Foot Club'."

WDR: (laughing) " Is this true? No, really? "

Louis: " Yeah, it's true. We had sacks full of them. Get one as you pay. "

Xero: " There's probably still a sack full in that big cupboard upstairs at the Adelphi."

(click of Zippo lighter.....inhaling of joint.......much chortling)

Xero: " Next question!"

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