Post by neilcrud on Feb 26, 2007 19:16:41 GMT
4Q Diaries
Budgie & Cumi (Oct – Nov 1987)
Budgie & Cumi (Oct – Nov 1987)
4Q with Budgie on vocals at The Bee, Rhyl 1.10.87
With Budgie nowhere near ready and probably never going to make the grade, 4Q put him on stage anyway at their next show; a return to The Bee Hotel in Rhyl.
On paper he seemed the ideal replacement for Edi. Budgie was featured in the Daily Mirror when he married his since estranged wife Hazel in his full punk regalia and ginger mohican, and she wore a black wedding dress. Three weeks of advertising all over North Wales coupled with all the publicity from the previous performance, 4Q descended on the seaside resort for what was only our sixth gig.
Anakonda, playing their final gig were going to change their name to The Kindred for some reason before splitting up. They played their usual set of abysmal cover versions apart from that alright-ish self penned song called You Shit which did turn a few heads.
Between the two bands I got up on stage with Anakonda's guitarist, Nic and their born-again christian drummer Huw, to do a version of Paranoid and an excellent version of The Cramps' Can Your Pussy Do The Dog, this actual recording is available on The Very Breast Of 4Q cassette and is worth buying just for this song alone.
Budgie simply wasn't ready for this gig, he didn't know the words and was more of a bass player than a singer; and it showed. Regardless of this, the audience took the show in their stride and started throwing pints of beer at the band. Soon realising that this was expensive, some started fetching water from the toilets and hurling it at us.
I couldn't see the crowd properly as the stage lights shone right in my face, but even though I was extremely drunk I remember every time I looked up a pint of water would hit me in the face.
Cumi; ‘I was 4Q’s number one fan then and to show my appreciation by turning a fire extinguisher on them.’
The live cassette of that gig has a part where Wayne grabs the mic to say,
‘Cumi’s gonna fucking die for this.’
The stage was awash with liquid and I expected a massive electric shock at any time. The show, a forlorn performance with virtually no structure ended in a mess of feedback and drums being kicked everywhere. The landlord of The Bee Hotel tried to get money off us for the loss of 'nearly 50 beer glasses' which he claimed were left smashed all over the floor. Marc Mucus who briefly played guitar at the Bangor Albion gig walked out saying he'll never watch 4Q again. My then ex-girlfriend, who I refer to as The Secretary described a 'disappointed' feeling after seeing the show. Another spectator, Aaron Broster said,
'4Q made the Sex Pistols look like the Philharmonic Orchestra.'
Performances were prompting headlines and letters of complaint to the newspapers; the plan was working. One disgruntled ‘music lover’ penned this letter after seeing that gig in Rhyl on 1 October 1987:
NORTH WALES WEEKLY NEWS (OCT87)
Seeing that everyone is having a go at them, I pen this letter after witnessing the infamous 4Q 'in concert' at the Bee Hotel in Rhyl.
I was very, very disappointed. 4Q were supported by a band called Anakonda and both groups were awful. It's enough to turn you to Demis Roussos.
There is currently far too much publicity being given to untalented bands by the local press (i.e. 4Q) and I hope this letter puts the final nail in the coffin and ends the 4Q coverage.
Anakonda were just a cacophonous barrage of boredomness. The bass guitarist had no idea how to play the instrument and the rest of the group were painfully out of time. They tried to play semi-punk cover versions and failed dismally.
4Q despite having the most foul mouthed and disgusting bunch of followers in the audience were even worse.
Vocalist Budgie really lived up to his his name, twittering the lyrics instead of clearly mouthing them, I've heard Daffy Duck sing better. The rest of the band are average musicians but seemed too drunk to even bother playing in tune.
At the end, guitarist, Nigel Crud [sic] stayed on stage and shouted at the audience. One of his comments summed it all up; 'We were great, and you know it. We must have been, we're from Colwyn Bay and any band from the Bay is great.'
Pathetic, just pathetic.
We played another show in Dulas Hall, Llandulas the following night with some scallies called The Sticklebacks.
'They were fucking shit.'
Exclaimed Paul Puke after enduring a song called Stickleback Rap – ‘We don’t like minnows, stickleback rap rap rap.’
Our set was very short thanks to the organiser who ran on after two songs and said we could do only one more song, so using a bit of tact I launched the band in Not Now Not Never - which was our most tuneful track; it worked, the crowd reacted and started dancing.
Then with a medallion on his open chested shirt the DJ said;
'Wow! Thanks very much the 4Q's.' and Budgie said;
'Thanks very much this is Dope Fiend.'
A song which was brought to life when a drunk got up on stage, stripped bare naked then masturbated and danced with the band! We managed to squeeze another song in before being pulled off, then it turned out that The Sticklebacks went back to play a second set (of the same three songs). Paul Puke went bananas and said he was quitting the band as he's never been so humiliated as to let 'a pile of shit go back on after us.'
He soon calmed down when they were pulled off after five minutes
It also turned out to be Budgie's final gig with us, but not before a few more dismal rehearsals.
I was getting more and more disillusioned and began reheasing with a heavy rock covers band called NRG formed by Anakonda's Nic Allen and Huw, with JJ on bass.
By the end of October it had been decided that Budgie should leave 4Q, but myself, Wayne and Paul didn't know how to tell him, after all, he was a good mate.
Wayne remembers the immediate post-Edi time with very little affection,
‘The gigs with Budgie singing were awful, I remember rehearsing in Neil’s flat with him, they were terrible. The most interesting thing was Budgie putting his hand through the window whilst rehearsing at the Friendship Club!’
He needed stitches, he was only trying to open it ‘cause it was hot in there and he must’ve slipped. I remember him coming over to me while we were playing a song and he shouted that he was just nipping to the hospital. ‘oh, OK’ I said and we carried on playing! It was a couple of minutes before it sunk in that he’d actually gashed his wrist pretty badly and we downed our instruments and rushed to his assistance.
It was inevitably left to myself to dish out the bad news to Budgie and I didn't have the heart to say it outright, as I knew what being in a punk band meant to him, albeit a shit punk band. So I told him we'd split up. I knew he'd suss out pretty soon as we were so well publicised that you couldn't miss reading about 4Q in the papers or seeing a poster.
I was also getting stick off fans for spending too much time rehearsing with NRG, and by now Paul Puke had also taken on drumming duties with them, thus leaving Wayne out in the cold. Some suggested that I sang for 4Q and we got a guitarist in, and Anakonda's Nic Allen was approached. He first reaction was,
'Wow! Playing for 4Q!'
But then he remembered all the gob and beer being flung at his precious guitar when supporting us and resounded a 'No.'
By early November 1987 I was trying to cajole Paul into accepting Cumi as the new lead singer but Paul was undecided,
‘Oh it’ll be great with Cumi singing.’
Then it was, ‘I think we will be fine as a three piece.’
I knew Paul was wary of Cumi's very forward approach, although only sixteen years old Cumi was very cocky compared to Paul's quite timid personality.
November 12th 1987, 4Q return to Bangor, this time once again diluted to a three piece to play in Trax. The 5 weeks prior to this gig had been a band low. Me and Paul (the founders) found refuge in NRG. Wayne being the odd one out didn't like this arrangement, he never said so himself, but his girlfriend made it quite clear.
Tonight’s gig was one of those awful affairs that’ll be looked back with fondness!
NRG were all right for a laugh, Nic on guitar and JJ on bass saw myself and Paul in a unique position, playing live with real music! We went through a repertoire of AC/DC covers.
The Lungs - consisting of Alan from Y Fflaps on guitar and vocals played a thunderous set that got a bit monotonous due to its length. The last two songs were good though.
Then 4Q, or 3Q. Visions of another Corwen and another ban were looming as that was the last time the three of us got on stage together in this form, but it wasn't to be. Maybe the last five weeks had taken the stuffing out of us. My guitar had lost a string before I picked it up and not being the type to carry spare strings with me I borrowed the Lungs' guitar instead. We were subdued and you only knew it was 4Q playing because the music was awful, worse than the early gigs. Were we purposely playing that bad?
Even a boisterous audience couldn't really perk us up, there was a moment when Cumi got the whole crowd in stitches by shouting,
'Neil you're just a fucking bloody tampax.'
But I simply replied; 'Tampax?'
There was even tension between Neil and Wayne which had never been seen before, when Wayne said,
'Get a load of the wanker on guitar in Trax,' only he meant it.
The night though was saved when the band encored with The Scraps song Alcoloos and five or six punters including Cumi got up to sing it. 4Q immediately went into Nein Werk and Cumi remained on stage to sing it. The cast had been set and Cumi was installed as 4Q's new vocalist.
I always get my own way in the end.
The end of the show still had a bad feeling between the band though, Cumi replying to abuse being hurled at him from Wayne's girlfriend shouted,
'Fuck off Michelle you fucking scrotum.'
Which had Wayne briefly squaring up to him. At the end of the song Paul was so annoyed at our lack of musicianship that he performed the final drum roll by stabbing his sticks through all the drum skins and kicking the kit across the stage.
The Set list was : Dope Fiend, I Hate TV, Jerks, 1984, We Want You, Not Now Not Never, Systemisation, The Night We Burnt Corwen Down, Video Party, Anarchy In The UK // Alcoloos, Nein Werk
Paul turned up the following morning at The Prem to say he was quitting after last night's gig. It took a lot of pep talk and I played snippets of the recording to him picking out the (very few) plus points. Paul went away with his self esteem back intact and the band solidly rehearsed with Cumi in preparation for our next gig; another visit to Bangor in eight days' time.
The gig was a return to The Albion along with Holyhead's Destroy Babylon who used to be Alternative Attack. Their singing drummer Spike Smith had a stint with The English Dogs in the mid-eighties touring the UK.
4Q went on first and Cumi was evidently nervous and looked very young! But we were slowly, but painfully shaping a set together. And you could see this marked the beginning of the end for NRG who followed on that night as I had my baby back.
There was a bit of a scuffle outside our van later on when some members of Bangor City FC's 'Warfare Squad' tried to get into it, with a defiant roadie taking punches and not allowing the assailants passage, but hey, that’s what roadies are for!
We than then headed for Leeds Duchess of York to play with spacerock outfit Bastard, a group that would have a profound effect on myself and eventually have influence over my musical direction in Sons of Selina. Bastard's bassist, Ron Tree would eventually join Hawkwind and we’d meet up again some twelve years later when the two bands were on the same bill.
The performance we put in at the Duchess was a surprise, we almost sounded like musicians! Even if the bass played something different to the guitar and the latter was out of tune. The sound engineer did a good job and added effects at choice moments
Cumi relished the moment and his backing didn't let him down, Paul even went walk-about playing his cymbals while running around the kit. The usual sheep jokes were thrown at us and we responded with appropriate abuse.
This gig was a yard stick as far as 4Q performances were concerned, we were trying to keep the chaos but take away the violent aggression.
With no gigs booked until February 1988, I decided to release the recording of the Duchess gig on cassette in the form of '4Q 1, Leeds 0'
Weekly News – What’s On page
Two tapes for review this week, The first from everyone's favourite anarchists, Colwyn Bay's tbrash merchants 4Q.
The 11 track tape - 4Q 1, Leeds -O, was recorded two weeks ago when the group supported B*st*rd in Leeds.
Although you could not call 4Q's fuzzy guitar and frenzied drums melodic I like the tape, though it will not appeal to non-punks. Best songs are Nein Werk, We Want You and Jerks (dedicated to Su Pollard). The tape has a lot of self knocking humour, although the frequent quips often get on your nerves.
The tape is available at £1.80 from Neil Crud, 8 Ellesmere Road, Colwyn Bay. There is also a 90 mihute video, recorded last month with NRG and Destroy Babylon out, price £10,
A 4Q European tour with French band The Scraps. has been postponed until the New Year until the French group find a new drummer.
11.12.87 – Pioneer – Band Stand page
Jostling the local sales of the prerenial "hits, hits, hits” albums, this Christmas could be a batch of released from Colwyn Bay punks 4Q.
Everyone's favourite little anarchic nephew will be calmouring for a copy of 4Q live in Leeds, (watch out the Who!), 4Q live in Bangor or 4Q live in Corwen. As an added extra stocking filler sample the delights of the ‘Very Worst of 4Q!' All are recorded on cassette tapes. I got my present early from the band in the form of a copy of the forementioned Leeds set which features such gems as ‘Alcohol', 'Not now, not never', and 'Dope fiend' The Leeds collection has the added bonus of actually being recorded through mixing desk.
The band pride themselves on their ability to gain maximum publicity for their products locally, yet have only played one gig in Colwyn Bay. The band also have a video of themselves playing live in Bangor alongside metal covers band NRG.
Musically the band have little to offer, but full marks for their determination and enthusiasm.
All cassette tapes are priced £1.20, and the video a mere £8, available from 'House of Crud', 8 Ellesmere Road, Colwyn Bay.
17.12.87 – Pioneer – Band Stand page
The anger and venom of punk
I have read for tbe umpteenth time, about the punk band 4Q. The last time tbey were mentioned, it was a review of some tapes that they have for sale.
It seems that since they aren't allowed to play in the Bay they are determined to get their songs across to the local people.
Their music reflects their lyrics - full of anger and venom and it has much more to offer than mentioned by Chris White the previous week where it was stated that 4Q had little to offer on the musical side of things.
If this is so why on earth would they be in a group? This band has lots of fresh and powerful tunes which may be simple by some people standards, but often the simpler the tune the more direct and catchy it can be.
I think 4Q are full of potential and I eagerly await the day - not too far away I hope - that they are noticed by a recording company and given the opportunity to show the public what Colwyn Bay has to offer
LEE ROBERTS, 9 St David's Road, Old Colwyn.
Catchy tunes?
If anyone has the right to criticise a band for their music it should at least be aomeone who has properly listened to what they have to offer before doing so.
I am of course referring to Chris White's review of "4Q's Live in Leeds" tape in the Pioneer last week.
I called at the given address to buy the tape and learnt it waa only £1, the 20p is for postage.
Chris White got it half right - 4Q'a determination and enthusiasm is really courageous and anyone who has seen them will back me up. What Chris got wrong was about the band having little to offer musically. I found the songs very catchy and exciting and I hope anyone reading the review takes my advice and purchases a copy of the tape.
Justin Jones, 79 Greenfield Road, Colwyn Bay.
Editor’s Note
Thank you for your comments. The reason 4Q have been mentioned for the umpteenth time is they are one of the few local bands who like to keep the public informed of their moves through regular press releases. As for the group not playing in the town why didn't the organise their own gig at a public venue? Lots of other local bands do this.
Any band who sends in product for review should expect both praise and/or criticism from their prospective reviewer. I felt the band had little to offer musically, because, apart from the drummer they had a very limited ability on their respective instruments but given time and practice could get their `angry' messages across by using a better sense of dynamics in their music. As for melody forget it. A harsh, abrasive approach seems to be their forte.
As for catchy tunes that's a matter of personal taste.
Contract? I agree it would be great if a record company gave the band an opportunity to show the public what they can do.
Whether the band claim to be original or not they seem to have a lot of fun doing what they do and have bags of enthusiasm - something a lot of other local groups could do with, perhaps the `Spirit of `76' does live in North Wales!
C.W.