I wrote a post just the other day highlighting Dave Skooter Farm's long overdue profile in Sideburn 37. The East Lancs polymath has been a guiding light, or perhaps guiding lava lamp with dodgy wiring, for Sideburn and me personally since before Sideburn was even the germ of an idea in my head. Dave is in numerous bands, some dormant, some active. They include Terror Claws, The Shook-Ups and The Stags. The latter are Sideburn's de facto house band. The played at our first ever event, the Sideburn 5 launch in Wigan, in March 2010. The one and only 7in vinyl single on Sideburn records was Roller Derby by The Stags. They played our genre-defining Rollerburn show and members of The Stags compered the very first Dirt Quake, too.
Below is Dave's brief report from a recent Stags show, where they played under the pseudonym, Topsy Whitehouse And The Sex-Fuzz. That's him below on Vox teardrop bass. I haven't consulted anyone on this, but I'm putting a line in the sand now, without any consultation with the band members themselves, saying, barring prison sentences or hospitalisations, Sideburn is going to have a Christmas party and The Stags are going to play it. More details to follow.
Over to Dave. GI
It’s a tradition that the Wigan contingent contribute in some form or other to the annual HIPSVILLE weekender, a spectacular if not a little sectarian (in a good way) music event that is focused on 60s Garage, R’n’B, Punk and Rock ’n’ Roll.
In its seventh year, these days it is held in the almost derelict seaside town of Margate, which is a perfect setting. Each year is a different theme, in the past it has been space, horror and jungle. This year was ‘London Soho.’
We were invited to play with The Stags and we tried hard to think laterally in regard to the theme. After throwing out organist Spencer Chess’s suggestion of dressing as giant cigarettes we settled upon ‘Topsy Whitehouse and the Sex-Fuzz’, a parody of UK 70s campaigner Mary Whitehouse who protested against the ‘Permissive Society’, backed by the London ‘Vice Squad’ whose HQ was based in the famous Soho red light district.
After almost two decades of existence, The Stags are continually striving to find new ways of delivering the same old schtick, creating a party atmosphere while throwing caution to the wind (believe me, there was plenty of that this year). To quote guitarist Conway Castle, “Some of the bands can be a bit ‘West End’...whereas The Stags are more ‘Arse End’."
With the addition of 20-year-old Max Battenberg on drums and 18-year-old Nacho Sheeze on saxophone, the young bucks are pulling us up by the jockstraps with their youthful exuberance.
Photos by Pitcher Photography, Zig-Pix and Dave Winter