Post by neilcrud on Feb 26, 2007 11:08:54 GMT
4Q Diaries - Part 5
Neil Crud
Neil Crud
On holiday in Folkestone, Kent 1983 (age 16)
Neil Crud – born 22 November 1966, moved from the drug filled alleyways of Rhyl to Colwyn Bay in late 1985. Having been a follower of punk since 1978 as an 11 year old, Neil harboured the ambition of wanting to play in a band. He and school mates, Paul ‘Yosser’ Tomlinson and David Jones formed the band Racket, although band is a loose term as none had any instruments. They adopted stage names, Neil became Oxide Terror (or Oxo), Paul- Sid Sly and David- Yobbo. Racket’s only performance was at a Denbigh High School Eisteddfod competition where they performed an accapello version of Sham 69’s Rip Off and came equal last in the heats. Similar ‘bands’ emerged through Neil’s early teenage years, with The Kidneys and The Ruptered Kidneys. Although The Kidneys did manage one rehearsal (Neil played bass). Realising he was better at writing than being a musician he launched Crud fanzine in 1986 with Edi Filmstar and Wayne The Bastard, both of whom became less involved as the ‘zine developed. In May 1987 he helped form 4Q who made up for limited musical ability by performing raucous shows, earning bans nationwide. Neil’s publicity machine hyped up the band’s bad image to the extent where the press believed and printed every word. Concurrently the Crud zine was itself hitting the headlines for various reasons and it all came to a head in spring 1990. Neil was arrested and charged on three counts under the Obscene Publications Act over material that appeared in the eighth and final issue of Crud. The police were also following 4Q to shows and harassing fans and venues alike. The charges were dropped twelve months later, but the trick had worked and Neil decided that both projects had run their natural course.
A summer break saw Neil return in Sept’90 under two guises with ex-4Q guitarist Robin Hemuss; they had a dance project called Lemon Meringue Gang and naively travelled to London’s record companies armed with poorly copied cassettes, but more importantly the pair had also started the Sons of Selina. Both were ‘working’ projects and Neil had also agreed to join Welsh punk band Pyw Dall, but instead opted for the Psychosexual Sex Terrestrials (PSST), rehearsing a couple of times with them until June 1991 when he decided to spend the rest of the year travelling through Europe.
Returning in February 1992, Neil and Robin had also devised the Jon Bon 10p routine ‘for a laugh’ and they would open up for PSST, Neil was also now a full time member of the band before being sacked in June’92 on the eve of the release of the band’s debut single.
Sons of Selina then became a full time job and they released a self-financed single Anxiety which rec’d lots of Radio One airplay before they were signed by Delerium Recs and released a further 2 singles and 2 albums. Sons of Selina were a very lazy band, which was their downfall, performing only 12 gigs in their 6 year career, the band never really split, they just haven’t done anything since 1999.
Neil was the subject of a short retrospective look at his career on BBC Choice digital TV show In Full View (Nov99) and then recorded 5-minute slots in a ten-part cult programme, Sleeping Dogs, of which only one was broadcast. In Jul01 he relaunched the Secrets of Sound label and began producing an EP for Pocket Venus, and subsequently began managing the band in Jan02. The label released a further single for the band a year later before Neil ran out of money and enthusiasm for dealing with one band full time.
Crud and Cumi sharing an intimate moment
Having set up an online database of all things Crud related in 1999 he soon realised there was a huge amount of people and bands connected with 4Q, Crud, Sons of Selina, PSST etc. and the link2wales website was born. Initially it only covered North Wales (hence the huge amount of entries of artistes), but within 18 months South Wales was added and then Liverpool.
Few people have asked the question why Liverpool is included on a Welsh bands website – but Neil maintains that the city is merely a suburb of Wales anyway!
In January 2004 Radio Wales DJ Adam Walton, invited Neil to appear once a month on his show to air archived material from the days when alternative music in Wales remained in people’s bedrooms and not on the radio. Neil was subsequently invited to cover for Adam’s holiday leave and presented three full shows in 2004 and 2005. The monthly slots ran until November 2005, although link2wales does broadcast a twice monthly (usually!) one hour no-holds-barred show online.
By Summer 2005 Mr Crud had joined Paul Sutherland as 1000 Words Productions, creating videos and live footage for bands such as The Alarm, The Boyfriends, Gene Loves Jezebel, Spear of Destiny, Homespun and Isor amongst others, but business and working issues forced Neil to quit by the following summer.