Absolutely storming set by one of the more underated bands of the era.
Recorded in the crowd at the Adams Arms pub, a stones throw away from the Post Office Tower, this was a great gig…
I absolutely adored the (sometimes) chaotic performances by this band, the lyrics were a match for The Mob in my opinion, and the vinyl output (one 12″ and two 7″ singles on three record labels) are among my favorites of the 1983 -1986 period.
All Flowers In The Dustbin material is available on this site (including the ‘lost’ LP that was never released) if you use the search function.
Flowers In The Dustbin featured Gerard on the vocals, Gerard today is working hard behind the scenes as the KYPP computer genius (you would not expect myself or Tony Puppy to know what the hell we are doing without some kind of guidance would you?). Gerard also uses the name George Berger for his various literary offerings, ‘The Story Of Crass’ being the most recent book, available via Omnibus Press, a well researched read indeed, and worthy of having on your shelves at home.
I used to write to Gerard a fair bit, and always looked forward to his replies which (like Andy Martin’s letters) were works of art. The amount of time spent on each letter written by Gerard (and Andy Martin) must have been a fair bit longer than my five minute scrawls that I had sent in the first place…Thanks to Gerard (and Andy Martin) for making ME write with a little more care. Sometimes little things are important too!
Flowers In The Dustbin website
betab
July 26, 2008 at 9:57 pmCheers. I’ve sadly lost the very cherished letter Gerard sent me when I was going thro’ a very bad patch and wrote out of the blue to the persons behind the very wonderful ‘freaks run wild’…
It did have a truly inspiring effect and enabled me to have the courage to get out of a bad situation. Many thanks are due.
Carl
July 28, 2008 at 8:51 amI was like a little boy on Christmas Morning when I logged on.. Some more Mob stuff and this from Flowers. Superb.
Very uplifting band as “betab” above can testify.
The song “Bridge Across Forever” should have sold millions and is in my best songs ever which is important to me if nothing else.
luggy
July 28, 2008 at 11:53 amWas probably at this gig as well, went to a few there. Is anyone else having problems with the download link on this one?
Gerard, whatever happened to Martin (with the weird-shaped cock!) that you used to live with in Orpington? Got in touch with Jak (Joy of Propaganda) recently & he was asking about Zina, don’t suppose that you managed to track her down.
Carl
July 28, 2008 at 1:04 pmLuggy, no problem here getting it to download and I am a bit of a “eejit” when it comes to downloading.
Thankfully !!, I cant offer any help with the whereabouts of Martin and the weird shape cock ( Good name for a band tho !! )
Nic
July 28, 2008 at 1:33 pmLuggy – I wondered: how is Jak (Joy of Propaganda) doing?
He put out a compilation tape back in 1982 called ‘Chapter 3’ which featured the first appearance of Napalm Death…
so I would like to thank him for that…
🙂
luggy
July 28, 2008 at 1:35 pmI don’t know why this link is a problem, the others work o.k. This one just reloads the page when I click the link. If I post the link into a download manager, it just downloads about 25kb then stops. I’ll try it from work tomorrow.
luggy
July 28, 2008 at 1:44 pmNic, Jak’s in my MySpace friends list but is away at the moment so you can’t contact him.
Think he’s o.k., he’s living in Cornwall these days. It was great to hear from him, have fond memories of the Telford punk scene. I remember the local rozzers being after him for publishing an article on squatting that I wrote for Joy of Propaganda!
gerard
July 28, 2008 at 6:40 pmThanks for the kind words folks.
I’m not sure what happened to Martin – someone told me he was living in Whitechapel but we lost touch years ago.
I’m afraid I didn’t track Zina down either.
I was very fond of the Telford punk scene too – really friendly and unpretentious people. Good times. I’ve also been in touch with Ming & Snack from Telford in the last couple of years.
luggy
July 29, 2008 at 11:31 amCheers Gerard, say hello to Ming & Sarah next time that you’re in touch.
chas
July 29, 2008 at 6:16 pmThanks for putting this up – it brought back memories, although not of this gig. The only time I remember playing the Adams Arms was when John Apostle was supposed to provide a drumkit and spent the whole evening slumped in the stairwell giving me ever-less-convincing (and completely false) assurances that “it’sh coming shoon”. I don’t remember this one at all – must have been a good night. If you listen carefully (well not that carefully) you can tell that the guitarist and drummer have learnt the individual bits of the songs but not how often to play them – I think Si and Bill had only been with us a few weeks and we never let little things like not knowing the songs (or how to tune a bass guitar) get in the way.
Telford was always a good visit – the guy I remember most was Jay Butt – beermat-wearing cartoonist – can’t imagine him surviving to middle age somehow.
luggy
July 29, 2008 at 6:55 pmJay was a great character, apparently he moved to Ireland a few years ago.
He was in a band called The Oranj ‘n’ Yella Kurtain Railz (spelling?), his entire flat was painted orange and yellow. It wasn’t much fun to be there with a hangover!
gerard
July 29, 2008 at 7:58 pmI remember going to the Adams Arms once and there were a group of maybe 15 deaf people all taking the piss out of us (cos of the way we looked) in sign language!
Yes, Jay was a great bloke too, a real one off. I remember he also did a fanzine that was orange ink on yellow paper. And the band had a song: “We are the mysterons / captain scarlet is a bastard / captain scarlet is a bastard” or something like that.
chas
July 29, 2008 at 10:51 pmNow until you mentioned that I’d completely forgotten that I have a compilation album of Telford bands containing 3 Orinj + Yella Kurtain Raylz (note definitive spelling!) tracks: ‘I wish I had as much dole money as the queen’, ‘we are the mysterons’ and ‘man from the garage’. must check it out sometime, not sure I ever managed to listen to it all……
gerard
July 29, 2008 at 11:20 pmNow *there’s* a band that deserves posting up some stuff on the site!
I remember the ‘dole money’ song too, though my clearly defective memory thought it was by the Living Legends.
I also remember Jay having two alien / devil horns sticking out of the crown of his head and a flat cap with two holes in to let them through 🙂 Pernk!
Am I the only person who remembers Jak as ‘Jako’?
Tony Puppy
July 30, 2008 at 12:21 amIt’s downloaded okay for me just now Mr Luggy.
The Flowers were always a good live band. This is a treat.
gerard
July 30, 2008 at 12:34 amBorn however from the Steroids:
http://www.flowersinthedustbin.co.uk/mp3/godsavethequeenehjohn.mp3
Nic
July 30, 2008 at 4:59 amTelford always seemed to have developed its own scene free from the pressures that the ‘big city’ generates, and consequently seemed like more fun…It doesn;t however seem to be documented anywhere (at least on the nookienet)…
I was thinking about the Star Hotel in Shifnal a while back – out in the ‘middle-of-nowhere’ but a full Punk jukebox and loads of gigs. The Mob played there…
Jay did the magazine Telfart Tribyoon (and later the Icha-Bod-Poo comic)…
The Orinj n Yella Kurtain Raylz later became the Mizrubul Bar Stewards: we (Napalm Death) played with them a couple of times in 1985, once at an open-air amphitheatre in Telford where I managed to snap all the strings on my bass and blow up Chumbawamba’s bass amp (they – obviously – weren’t happy)….we had our Liberty Caps on though, so it all seemed highly amusing (ah, reckless youth!)…
I’ve got a copy of the Telford compilation LP: quite an ‘amateurish’ effort, but full of energy. The Limited Talent songs are fun…
Sample lyric: “She’s really dressed in green: know what I mean? I wish I got as much dole money as the Queen”…
Yeah – how about putting up some Steroids? ‘2.2 and a Mortgage’, ‘Burn the Flag’ and the cover of ‘No Brains’ for starters…
John
July 30, 2008 at 9:11 amChas that drumkit should be here any minute
gerard
July 30, 2008 at 9:54 amMaybe the next time John is in England, there should be a symbolic delivery of a drumkit to the Adams Arms.
Better late than never!
luggy
July 30, 2008 at 10:20 amGot it now, Tony, had some weird glitch on my home P.C.
I used to have that compilation as well, long lost now though. The Telford scene was great, very creative & D.I.Y. I remember that it was a lot easier to get housed by the council up there which gave them a bit of stability to get stuff done.
A lot of lovely people lived up there, seemed to integrate a lot better with the so-called ‘straight’ people than we did in London.
Special mention to Dean who put The Mob & many assorted friends up when they played there.
Chas
July 30, 2008 at 1:18 pmcheers John, that’s a big relief
Telford – any word on what happened to Billy the actor?
Mike
July 31, 2008 at 10:09 amChas/Gerard@ re:Martin,does this mean the infamous Beard Tape will make an appearance on this site??!
jakoh (jak / jop)
August 1, 2008 at 11:47 pmGreetings one and all,
how bloody weird it was to read this !
Your right though, Telford was a fun, if not some what chaotic, place to be in the 80’s well most of the time, and there was a hell of a lot of diy anarcho punky things going on and a lot of sound people, a good scene in all. Loads of bands, fanzines and we even managed to get together our own club … the Gemini where we held Thursday (Dole day) gigs for local bands and such unknowns (then) as Subhumans, Flux etc.
Concerning Jay Butt as Luggy stated he was last seen in the mid 90’s stopping of with me in Cornwall before he heading for Ireland , I received one letter from him in which he said he was doing sign painting for pubs, heard nothing since then though but he seemed happy enough at the time.
So he did make it to the middle years, and by then he had even given up smoking, which by all accounts was a miracle.
Luckly by this time he had also seen the error of his ways and stopped supporting the bloody Labor party :-0
As far as I can remember the lyrics to Dole Money went something like this – I drummed (actually cardboard boxed) for the orinj and yella’s for a year or so.
—————————————
Wish I had as much dole money as the queen,
Wish I had as much dole money as the queen,
Wish I had as much dole money as the queen,
cause money isent green if you know what I mean,
Wish I had as much dole money as the queen,
She doesn’t have to borrow money of her mum, and shes got servants to wipe her bum,
She gets all here holidays for free and all I get is 15 pound and 25p,
Oh I Wish I had as much dole money as the queen,
Wish I had as much dole money as the queen,
cause money isent green if you know what I mean,
Cause I wish I had as much dole money as the queen … la la
—————————————
hi Gerard, it was both jakoh and jak, for some reason people dropped the ‘o’,
how and what are Ming and Sarah doing, if you contact them again send them a big hug from me will ya.
If any of you could mp3 the Telford compilation album (Shoot The Hostages) and send me it, I would be well grateful …
I shall use it to offend the cultured ears and sensibilities of my not so angst ridden teenagers 🙂
bloody hell Nic, have you still got a copy of that tape, didn’t it have a blue cover with some sort of baby thing on it ?
Well time for more coffeeeeee,
nice to catch up with you all,
jakoh
Oh yea captain scarlet is still a bastard
Nic
August 2, 2008 at 2:15 pmI wish I still had a copy of the taope, jakoh – unfortunately it’s vanished over the years…
Did it have the Stoned Rayzens on it as well?
Who were some of the other Telford bands? I seem to remember groups like Illicit, Shit, A Partly Decomposed Camel Carcass…
If I remember, the first line of ‘Dole Money’ was “Never done a day’s work in my life…” – that must ring true for a lot of the ex-soap dodgers that come on here…
😉
I remember when the dole up here had an experiment where you only had to sign on once every 8 weeks – happy days…
Ming has a website:
http://www.mingdenasty.co.uk/
I’ve got the Telford comp LP, but can’t promise I’ll get it MP3-ed…If I do, I’ll send it to Pengy for upload to this here site…
(I’m going to go up to the record room now and hunt it down)
jakoh
August 2, 2008 at 4:00 pmHi Nic,
nice to hear from you,
the Rayzens were proberbly on that tape as they usally appereaed in a lot of what I got up to back then due to the fact we all lived in the same little village in the late 70’s (Newport) and moved into Telford together.
If my dodgey memory is working right I think that The Dinner Ladies were also on it and some Brazillian punk stuff … and possibly some @narcho Welsh band ?
Your also right about the first line to dole money …
Never done a days work in my life, neither has the duke of ediburghs with she gets all here holidays for free and all I get 15 pound and 25p … etc etc
Shit, was Jay, Scitty, Fay and me, we formed after the kurtains split, then Jay went on to do the Miserable bar stewards.
Snake and Kev from Camel Carcass are also down here in Cornwall.
We all moved ‘on the road’ and ended up stopping down here – Cornwall has that effect on you.
Snake is a postman in Truro and Kev makes sheds and challets down around Hayle now – me I do tree surgery, amougst over things.
Other bands I can remember … The Bored (of Shifinal), No Exscuse, Ltd Talent and er, emm, thats it for the moment … I werent joking about the dodgy memory … a legacy from the wonderous days of glue sniffing :-O
Cheers for the link to Ming, I will give here a mail later on, do you remember the name of Ming and Sarahs band ?
It would be cool if you do find that comp and get it together to mp3 it, as mentioned else where, there aint much of an archive of the Telford punk days on line and it might lead to more of the Telfarts getting linked up.
YOU’VE got a record room ? bloody hell how many records ?
Alas I traded all mine for a quantity of ‘dodgy substances’ before I left telford.
Back in the present, I really like what you are up to now, your sounds on myspace are ‘sweet’ …
later
jakoh
http://virtual-cortex.deviantart.com/
jakoh
August 3, 2008 at 9:56 amHi,
thought this might spark some interest, this is the only item that survives in my hands from the 80’s Telford era.
If I remember the two girls where friends of yours Gerard ? or some how connected to FITD.
http://virtual-cortex.deviantart.com/art/Our-history-1980-S-Punx-93644986
How crusty ?
luggy
August 3, 2008 at 6:33 pmJak, scanned in 3 photos of you outside New North Road:
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z196/micklug/Jak1.jpg
Bit blurry but hope you like them. I can’t remember the names of the two girls. Think they were from Northampton & used to hitch around the country a lot following the likes of U. K. Decay.
jakoh
August 3, 2008 at 6:48 pmcheers Luggy,
the girl on the right with the long bleached hair is Annette, your right she was a big UK decay fan and friend of Pete from Anti-sect if I remember rightly.
We did a bit of gigging/hitching together which was always fun, as she used to carry a 6″ blade with her to deter the wondering hands of the rude !
Not sure who the other girl is though.
gerard
August 4, 2008 at 2:26 pmHi Jakoh
I don’t think I know who those girls are though my memory is terrible and they look sort of familiar.
Ming ands Sarah’s band was called Curse Of Eve.
luggy
August 4, 2008 at 2:44 pmJak
I remember Annette hiding her knife down her boots, the pair of them used to swing their studded belts around their heads at gigs, it was dangerous to get too close to them while they were dancing!
jakoh
August 4, 2008 at 10:20 pmHi Gerard,
of course Curse of Eve 🙂 cheers.
To right Luggy, I went to a few UKDK gigs with them, a mosh pit is nowhere as frightening as the flying belts.
If your about Nic, I just had a visit from a mate who went to uni with you, bizarre coincidence, Jason Whittaker – now Dr and Blake scholar.
He says hi, though possibly thinks you may not remember him.
Chas
August 5, 2008 at 8:25 amI think the girl on the left is Mindy – an early FITD fan and old schoolmate – no idea what happened to her after about 1984 though.
Nic
August 6, 2008 at 1:05 pmJakoh: Good to know all is well with you – and down in Cornwall too! Nice one…
An old friend of mine (ex-member of Doom and Extreme Noise Terror) runs a souvenir shop in Tintagel (apparently Fudge sales are down this summer)…
I do remember Jason – Blake scholar: excellent…
Say hello from me…
I had a listen to the Telfart LP the other night…
I wondered: my copy hasn’t got a cover – it only has a duplicated insert (with tracklisting and band line-ups) inside a clear plastic cover. Is this rigfht? Or did some have a ‘proper’ cover?
Mizrubul Bar Stewards had a couple of tracks on the ‘Party Pooping Punk Provocations’ compilation LP released by Xcentric Noise (Hull) in 1985…
Re the ‘Chapter 3’ tape…
I’d forgotten all about The Dinner Ladies! Thanks for the memory prod…
Would the Welsh band have been The Chromosomes (the band featuring Dean Poole who went on to be in the Living Legends) with tracks like ‘Rot All Rulers’?
Haha…My better half and I have quite a lot of records (let alone all the other things we collect!), so the back bedroom is used for storing them…
🙂
I recently threw out my video collection (nearly 2000 movies) which was a real wrench but had to be done (taking up too much space)…
I’m glad you found something to tune into in the sounds on the myspace page…
If you’d like to hear more, here is a link to a recent mix I made for a radio show in London which you can download:
http://www.cyrk.org/activecancellation270708.html