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THE STORY SO FAR
On
23rd Of January 1994, a group of six young men stepped on to the stage of the
Fenton, Leeds ready to make rock n roll history. Six men unaware of the legendary
performance they were about to deliver to the massive crowd of friends, relatives
and curious onlookers none of whom could be prepared for what they would be
about to witness. A gig that would be talked about for decades to come and would
be compared to The Ramones, Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, Bad Religion, The Clash,
Megadeth and The Pogues for its unparalleled glory. It's a legendary tale that
started just a few short months before, at a pretty shite gig by a bunch of
posers going by the name of shovel.
After
that gig which took place in some hole we can't remember the name of, we sat
drinking with some of Shovel one of whom mentioned that they didn't have a
support act for their next gig. With a little hesitation we volunteered. We
were well aware of the fact that we had only had a handful of practices and
only 10 minutes worth of songs, but we knew that we were destined for greatness,
so we threw ourselves wholeheartedly into preparing for the gig. Almost immediately,
Odie our Rhythm Guitarist left leaving just Martin and Sweeney on vocals,
Fadd on bass, Ste Evans on Drums, Evo Evans on Guitar and John also on Guitar
who happened to be the only one of us who knew how to play anything. Even
he was struggling with the complexities of classics such as Colt Ceevers and
Uncle Nuclear. The unit was completed by Chris Stones who became our manager
in exchange for buying us a double adapter for Sweeney's 30w amp to go with
the one and a half mics, two and a half crap guitars with not enough strings
to go round, and 3 pans and a tea tray. We were also fed and watered by Mother
Stones.
As
the gig drew closer we grew in confidence, certain we were starting out on
the road to super stardom. We were aware that our guitarists couldn't play,
violent tensions were rising between our two singers and our drummer was barely
able to hold the drum sticks let alone a beat, but we soldiered on and come
the day before the gig we knew we were ready nothing could stop us now Except…
On the morning of the gig we made our first and perhaps greatest mistake…
We started drinking. We kept drinking and we were already pretty much fucked
by the time we arrived at the pub, afraid we would be late for the gig we
got to The Fenton about six hours early. The beer kept flowing and the audience
kept arriving until the Landlady noticed that the pub was full of 15 year
olds. Like a well-fed gazelle, Fadd leapt to the rescue and confused matters,
but John's mum, a strong-minded Irish woman told the Landlord, in no uncertain
terms that we were playing! With one crisis averted another raised its ugly
head… the sound check. In front of the already packed room we launched into
Colt Ceevers and were immediately stopped by one of Shovel and told we were
fine, we started to suspect that perhaps our confidence was misguided. At
about 9.45 we took to the stage and after Martin's invitation for the crowd
to spit at us (which they did with pin point accuracy, one globule hitting
Martin right in the face) we started. We'd only been on stage 10 minutes and
we had done every thing we knew including a bloody awful cover of Blurs, Park
Life and Queens, We Will Rock You.
A
few years past and things died down a little bit, but nobody suspected what
was just around the corner. In 1997 Sweeney was reacquainted with a nice young
fella called Lee, who said he could play guitar and liked a bit of punk. Sweeney
liked the sound of this... somebody who could play an instrument would bring
a whole new dimension to the bands sound. Lee stuck around and slowly started
to progress and became one of the most notorious axemen in the Leeds area. Around
about the same sort of time Sweeney started working in The Corn Exchange selling
his own artwork. Having established the first link in the chain Sweeney knew
the next step was to find a Bass player.
Sweeney
began to search high and low, looking for a suitable character to fill the
role. He met a bloke called Gnome who worked in a Skateboard shop in The Corn
Exchange. Sweeney asked him if he wanted to join as Bassist, Gnome said he
wanted to, but his best mate Stivy had previous experience and Gnome thought
he was the best man for the job. It was on that day that things started to
slowly grow, but nobody knew things could grow so much. Stivy seemed to fit
in quite well, a portly; "Wakey" chap with a Mr T style Mohican.
He liked his punk so that was that. Lee knew some old bloke who had a drum
kit so the 4 got together and starting practising at "Old Chapel"
in Leeds.It
was around this time that Sweeney started "Gabba Gabba", a Punk
& Ska night at Le Phono (the place where goth started, apparently). On
most nights he had some bands playing and it seemed like the perfect opportunity
to have the first glimpse of a new more positive, tuneful line up. Little
did people know that this would be one of the most, unpredictable, fucked
up Punk Rock gigs in history. Playing only a handful of covers, "The
Dead Pets" soldiered on. The audience looked on in disbelief as they
tried to comprehend what they had just seen. Fortunately on this occasion
there was no spitting or fisticuffs on stage, there was, however a feeling
of pride and achievement as everybody realised this was only the beginning
of the next chapter of The Dead Pets saga.
After
a few practises we realised that we had met a top class bunch of blokes who
all liked drinking, smoking and having a laugh. Spending a few long Sunday's,
hungover and stinking like shit, we started to knock out a few covers and even
wrote a few tunes of our own. The line up was now decided Sweeney-Vocals, Lee-Lead
Guitar, Little Dave-Rhythm Guitar, Stivy-Bass, Stew -Bass and Matt-Drums. Dog
on a Rope sorted us out with a gig supporting them at the Brudenell Social Club,
as usual we got pissed up and stumbled on to the stage. Little Dave knocked
his pint all over somebody's guitar leads and we sort of played something, we
could hardly recognise the songs our selves and Lee thought he was in The Who
and jumped on the drum kit in a Townsend stylee. The crusty punks looked at
us as if to say what the fuck do you lot think you're playing at. Sweeney then
got started on by a Rangers fan because he had on a Celtic Shirt, and then we
fucked off home. After that eventful gig we carried on practising and came up
with a few more tunes. We kept gigging around the Leeds area and Sweeney hooked
up with an old mate of his from The Pig and Whistle in Leeds. A bloke who went
by the name of Neil, he'd just got a job as Landlord at the Packhorse on Woodhouse
Lane in Leeds. Neil is a top fella and let us practise there for free. This
was cool because we didn't have to pay to practise and we had a bar downstairs
and a chippy just around the corner. We did a few more gigs mainly in The Packhorse,
which was handy because all of our gear was upstairs anyway. Sweeney introduced
us to a bloke he'd met at "Gabba Gabba" called Stash. Stash was from Hartlepool
and could play the trumpet from his days in a Colliery band. He was well into
his Old Skool Punk so that was sound. We kept on kicking him up the arse and
trying to drag him to practise, but Stash was stuck in his flat in Bradford
dropping far too much acid. Eventually we persuaded him to practise and the
line up was added to again. Around this time we got in touch with an old mate
of Stew's, who had his own recording studio built in his house. This bloke went
by the name of Gav, and was sound as a pound. He recorded the original versions
of Tokyo Crush, Uncle Festa and King Alfred, for next to fuck all. At last we
had something down on tape.
The
band was getting bigger, we were a 7 piece now and Stash had become a firm member
and an Olympic class piss head. We carried on practising and did some more gigs
mostly in Bradford and Leeds. During this time we played with some great bands
like Dog on a Rope, The Write Offs, Lowlife, Ex-Cathedra, Freaks Union, Homebrew,
Citizen Fish and many more. A bloke we knew called Pozz started helping us out
with transport because he had a big Transit Van. Pozz managed to sort us out
with a gig playing with Bad Manners at The Duchess in Leeds. This was fucking
beauty and the best gig we'd played yet. We got a good response and felt as
if we were finally starting to get somewhere. It was shortly after this gig
that Matt- the Drummer decided that he didn't want to be in the band anymore.
This was due to a difference of opinion, over a china cymbal, but we're still
good mates and Stivy and Matt now live in the same house. Things were still
sound, we were all still up for it, the only problem was that we had no drummer….…oh……..shite!!
After a fair few months of looking for another drummer we decided that we needed
somebody, anybody to keep a beat. It was getting a bit crap trying to practise
without any drummer and so our progress toward superstardom slowed down to a
crawl. In a desperate attempt to keep the momentum going Sweeney invested in
a Drum Machine, which thankfully was never used, the search for a Drummer continued.
This seemed to take forever, and we were all getting a bit pissed off, until
we had a bit of luck. It was on Christmas Eve at Bradford Rio's or New Years
Eve, I can't remember which because it was Christmas and we were fucked. We
were introduced to a bloke called Rob who was a drummer and had his own kit.
We got on well and he decided to come to a practise to see how it went. Rob
fit in really well and could drum really well so it worked. A few practises
later we had a pretty tight set and were ready to gig. Unfortunately, we only
got to do a couple of gigs with Rob but he drummed on the original Demo versions
of Tokyo Crush and Uncle Festa. Rob had trouble getting to practises and gigs
because he worked in a restaurant, as a chef. This meant that a decision had
to be made. We still see Rob sometimes and get on really well. Yet again though,
we were left without a drummer.
Things
were back to square one, no drummer, no Punk Rock. This did not deter The Dead
Pets though and we soldiered on. This was something we had started to get used
to. ( continuous knock backs ) We knew we were going to get there eventually,
but a drummer who likes Punk Rock, drinking and smoking is fucking hard to find
in Leeds or Bradford. Through all of this, we still went out on this piss regularly,
and asked around in pubs or clubs, even asking other bands if we could borrow
their drummers for some gigs. Stivy and Gnome came to the rescue and introduced
us to a young skater lad called Pete, from Wakey. Even though Pete was a bit
younger than most of us, he was keen as fuck. It turned out he used to be the
drummer in a Swing band and still had a kit. We gave him a listen to our demo
tape and showed him a video of the last gig that we'd done with Rob. After talking
to Pete for a bit we realised that he was into our stuff, and he seemed like
a top bloke so we grabbed him while we could. Yet again we practised until the
set was back up to scratch and set about gigging again. During this time we
worked on a few new songs, which worked well, and some of them are still in
our set now. We did some really good gigs with Pete, we played with a lot of
the same bands we've always played with, but also had the chance to play with
The Xplosions, Mutt and few others. We supported The Business at Bradford Rio's,
which was fucking beauty, even though Stew had to play with a Dislocated knee.
It was hard to sort out practises because Pete was working weekends and Little
Dave started to realise he wasn't into it as much as he used to be. In the end,
Dave decided that he should leave because it was probably best, and unfortunately
we parted with both of them around the same time. What we really needed was
a line up of full time members that were committed to the band, so we could
get tight enough to play at least one half decent gig, whilst being pissed.
It
was around the same sort of time that we spoke to a lad called Jimbo from Freaks
Union. Things had started to quieten down a bit for Freaks, and we asked Jimbo
if he fancied coming over from Hull for a practise. We always knew that we'd
like to have him in the band, and when he said yes we were well chuffed. Jimbo
fit in to The Dead Pets straight away and things started to improve. We started
to come up with new ideas and we just needed somebody to drum. Sweeney met a
big Scottish bloke from Leeds Music College called Alex. Alex had toured with
bands for years and was well into Celtic music, Rock n' Roll and Punk. After
having a few practises we sounded tighter and we managed to blag the help of
3 sax players called Tim, Parky and Aarif. Tim and Parky served behind the bar
in The Packhorse and Aarif was one of their mates. This line-up didn't last
for long because people had other commitments. We did do a gig with The Selecter
though, which went really well. I think we scared them a bit though! Stew was
Jimbo's younger brother and plays Bass in Freaks Union and The Mike Ward Allstars.
He also drums in Whizzwood. We thought that he was perfect for the job, and
we managed to persuade him to come for a practise. As soon as we plugged in
and started to play we realised we had the right combination. After couple of
practises we did a gig. We ventured out of Leeds to a peculiar little pub in
Thirsk, called The Lord Nelson. Everything seemed to go right and we played
a blinder. After the gig Jamie, Katie and Bob, all x-members of The Writeoffs
asked us if they could join the band. This would give us 2 Saxophone players
and a keyboard player, we'd met them before and knew they were all sound as
fuck. The Dead Pets never look a gift horse in the mouth, and we were gob smacked
that they'd asked, so we said yes. It took 1 practise and we knew that we had
the new improved version of The Dead Pets. The line up was complete, Sweeney
(Vocals), Stash (Vocals, Trumpet), Lee (Guitar), Jimbo (Guitar), Stivy (Bass),
Stewart Kinloch (Bass), Stew (Drums), Katie (Saxophone), Bob (Saxophone), Jamie
(Keyboards). We quickly made up for lost time, but 7 years is a lot to catch
up on. Through hard work and determination we are now ready to take on the world.
Stay tuned for Episode 2!










So
we decided to play all our set again. This is when things really started to
go wrong. No one had realised that the only one of us who was any where near
talented, happened to be plugged into a fucked amp which could not be heard
and Evo our other Guitarist who spent the first half of the gig unplugged was
now plugged into our one good amp which drowned out the rest of us. Unfortunately,
at this point in time he had started to feel the effect of a full days heavy
drinking and so sounded like he didn't have a fucking clue what he was doing
(which unfortunately was true most of the time when he was sober, so pissed
out of his head he sounded like a colossal turd.) A used Tampax was thrown up
followed by Martin spitting in Fadds face, shortly after this Sweeney decided
he'd had enough and left the stage for a smoke. When he eventually returned
he started to chant rhythmically " this is fucking shit this is fucking shit,
Martin You're a Wanka." Martin asked him politely to shut up but Sweeney refused
and Martin launched across the stage and pounced on Sweeney. A pretty pitiful
fight started with Martin been thrown into the P.A. and Sweeney displaying his
rather nice underwear much to the surprise of the awestruck crowd.
Eventually this died down and we kept on going all except our drummer who had
fallen asleep mid song and could not be awakened. We finished our set for the
second time and decided the crowd had suffered enough. To a rapturous applause
we left the stage and entered infamy. The classic Dead Pets line up would never
perform together again, Sweeney would keep the dream alive however eventually
putting together a new line up of eager young punks striving to recreate the
magic of that first gig, but the original line up would remain firm friends
and generally annoy each other for the rest of their lives. After a while everyone
except Sweeney had decided becoming punk rock legends was not for them, Sweeney
was still up for it though and kept promoting and trying to get gigs for the
now one man band, and the occasional mate down the pub.


A
few more gigs followed, of equal promise. A few months passed and things started
to get a bit messy. The old bloke who played drums made two mistakes, one
was being a dickhead and the other was ripping Sweeney's mum off with a shoddy
decorating job. As well as this he couldn't really keep a decent beat, so
like all people who dare to stab The Dead Pets in the back, we fucked him
off and planned our vengeance. "Gabba Gabba" continued and became
a good meeting place for drunks and deviants of all shapes and sizes. Chris
"Peter Bower Records" Bower and Mike and Angela were some of these.
Some of these characters would be hand picked to become future members of
the band. It was also the place that we first met bands such as Dog on a Rope,
Lowlife, Freaks Union, The Write Offs, Newtown Grunts, and Ex-Cathedra.
Sweeney
met Stew, a regular at "Gabba Gabba", who was playing in a band
called "Slick 50" that hailed from Bradford. After a few months
Slick 50 split and Stew was ready for some proper Punk Rock action. He had
just started playing with another couple of blokes, Little Dave from Greengates,
and Matt from Otley. Sweeney invited the 3 round to his house in Leeds and
drank, smoked and watched shit mind numbing T.V. until the early hours of
the morning. When they awoke the next day, the haze started to clear and they
realised that they were destined to be in the The Dead Pets. With this thought
in mind, they drank and smoked some more. The next time they met was in the
"Voltage" practise rooms in Bradford. This was the first time that
the newly picked Dead Pets would play together.





