That's the funniest thing ever!
1987, I was in a punk band called Mental Abuse. We heard of some charity gig going on a few towns over from us so we decided to turn up unanounced and see if we can blag our way on the stage for a few songs. We were booked into a studio the next day to do a 3 track demo.
Our drummer knew the guy doing the sound so we were in and showed to a back room to leave our gear till it was time to play. We were all cranked out of our heads on drink and whatever else. Our singer spots a 24 pack slab of beer, litre of vodka & litre of whisky. Before anyone can say anything he's got it all in the back of the van.
We're back stage ready to go on and the compare dude goes up to the mic and says something about a raffle....... yeah...our singer had the raffle prizes in our van. I dunno if it was the guilt or the nerves but we all got the heads down and played a stormer 20 minute set, tighter than we'd ever been. Never did get found out about stealing the prizes.
That night after the gig we got driven home giving the singer pelters for putting us on the spot but at the same time delighted at the drink we had. We're back at mine and the beer and vodka's all gone, everyone's in a mess. The singer wants to open the whisky and I'm arguing with him we should keep it for the studio the next day
So we're out side throwing punches at each other over the stolen whisky. He knocks me on my arse beside a parked car and tries to put the boot in me but because he's so pissed with the drink he completly misses me and cracks his shin off the bumper of the car. I have to get up and help him back inside, the whisky gets drank and we all crash out
Next day we're on the way to the studio, we're traveling light, drummer has a pair of sticks, I've got a guitar, bass player a bass and the singer a badly bruised shin
We turn up, get asked where our amps are....big argument breaks out. So the engineer has seen the state of us and turns the session over to his understudy, Duncan Cameron who went on to produce the likes of Teenage Fanclub, Texas and many others. The guy has alapiecia(sp?) not a single hair on his body. So he's been dubbed Kojak form the offset.
He's got us set up with the bass straight into the desk, I'm in a booth pluged into a bass amp that's cranked all the way to try and give me a bit of distortion. I've got my headphones cranked all the way up and all I can hear is me cause of the amp so I'm looking out the window at the drummer trying to visualy follow the song.
We keep fucking up and going out to cuff more joints thinking we'll get more focused.
27 takes later at the first song he calls us all into the control room. He goes, I think you should all come back when you're a bit straighter. The bass player turns to him and says, aye good idea...we'll come back when your eyebrows grow in
we're all on the floor in knots of laughter as he gets up and walks out. So the main man comes back in and suggests we take a break for half an hour and sit outside then try again cause we've already paid up front.
We did that and Duncan came back in and recorded 3 killer tracks for us (ok, we thought they were killer at the time cause we'd never been in a studio before). Probably the best 2 day bender I can remember from my teenage days (daze?)
Here's the song we nailed on the 28th take.
CONDEMNED Hi-Fi
CONDEMNED Download
It was recorded to 24 track 2inch tape by Duncan Cameron when he was a teaboy in a modest wee studio outside Glasgow. I manaded to save this song from a cassette tape about 8 years ago through a soundblaster onto the hard drive. It's been melted down to mp3 and the wav file is long gone.....take it for what it is
Great thread by the way
