Spider And The Rosehips
Spider And The Rosehips
Hello, my name is Spider, I've been
Rosehips free now for over a decade,
this is my story.
During the punk rock wars, in which
I fought & died, no band affected me
like the Rosehips. My bowels haven't closed since.
Like most people of my age, the old memory isn't what it was. Beer & other
substances played far too big a part back then. I, for my sins, roadied for
the Flatmates for a few years until I became too busy making music myself
(or was it to save Martin from a nervous breakdown??). During this time
Rocker & Martin used to put on gigs @ the Tropic Club in Bristol. The
Bunker, as their night was known, put on the best in indie music at the
time. This was the C86 brigade: Shop Assistants, Soup Dragons, Razorcuts et
al. The supports for these gigs were always up & comers of varying talent.
For every good support ( the Clouds, Sea Urchins) there were 2 bad ones
(most forgotten, but Bubblegum Splash do spring to mind, sorry chaps!) It was
on one of these nights that I became acquainted with the Rosehips. Actually
the Bunker was "on tour" that night and the gig was at the Thekla, but
you
get the picture, small room, bar at one end, racket at the other, me in the
middle.
Norwich 1987
Ant, Rocker and Martin Whitehead
The Rosehips didn't come off like
the usual weedy indie band, they played
proper fast, not student wimp fast. They looked like they had just got up,
no Chelsea boots & floppy haircuts or that stupid John Lennon hat. The songs
were short, the band looked like it was fun to be up there, apart from
Yoland, who looked bored to death and wanted to kill someone with a
recorder. It all felt just right. Anyway they were good, but I got too
drunk, and when I met them later I just told them they were wankers and
passed out.
Several months passed, I didn't
come into contact with them until The
Flatmates played a few more gigs, Rosehips supporting. I knew that Martin had
signed them to Subway for the price of a good takeaway and was looking
forward to blagging the single. Anyway, did the gigs, got to know them
better, thought they weren't wankers anymore (not that I did, drunks are sad
abusive creatures...).
North Staffs Polytechnic 1988
It was around this time I met Yan
the fan. Yan provided me with lifts to
gigs (until then I was either crushed behind
Rocker's drums in his car or I
hitched to the gigs, all just to set up amps and such, dedication I'll tell
you...) Yan was also Mr Motivator, excellent company both drinking &
otherwise, and an all round good egg. He seemed to know people everywhere.
" We'll leave early for Cambridge so we can meet up for drinks with an old
friend on the way, then tomorrow we can meet up with another friend for
drinks on the way to London" and so on.
Jan and Rocker - Manchester Boardwalk 1988
It was with Yan that I started going to
Rosehips gigs that didn't involve
the Flatmates. I sort of slipped into the
roadie roll without anyone
noticing, not even me! One night in London
Ant & myself forced Talulah Gosh
to end their set early just to stop us
shouting out for Slayer & Black
Sabbath songs. I then started to do the
sound for them, managing to get
complaints from locals about being too
loud, and P.A companies for blowing
up their stuff ( didn't quite know what I
was doing for a while....)
including one night at Newcastle-under-Lyme
arts centre when the P.A man
buggered off leaving nobody to do the sound
until I showed up and did 5
bands. Didn't blow up anything, but Flame
On (local band, good hardcore)
only had one side of the P.A going for
their set due to leads being pulled
out, so I just turned it up full to
compensate ( dead technical me).
Rosehips gigs always followed a set
pattern. Get to the gig and immediately
find out where the local chippy or curry
house is, so there's no food mither
later (Mark 1 was christened Tubby Round by
me at this point, so prolific
was his eating), do the soundcheck, annoy
promoter into getting us places to
crash, drink loads, eat, drink more, do
gig, drink, annoy headline band, buy
takeouts or steal headline bands rider,
drink, sleep. Most of the time it
was floor space, but occasionally there was
a bed which was usually given up
to Yoland but not always. Glenn or Ant
drove so they sometimes had to get a
good nights sleep.
Bristol Demos 1988
I even managed to sing with them
live. We managed to practice a song up in
either Glenn or Mark's bedroom called "living on a prayer" no, not Bon
Jovi's
song but it was a pisstake. It sounded more like Terry & Gerry meeting the
Ramones but Brighton was duly given the benefit the following night, to a
bemused horde of students. As noted elsewhere a gig supporting the Wedding
Present at Plymouth was the best gig, nice P.A to blow up, big stage for all
of them to run around, except Yoland, who I was still calling by another
name, even though she'd been Yoland for ages. Didn't do it after that night
either, she's bloody heavy handed for a girl....
Anyway the gig sounded great, they played brilliantly and blew the Wedding
Present off stage. By this time Rocker, Mark 2 & Pete were all on board, so
the tale is almost finished.
Norwich 1987
I was gigging a lot in my own band
by now, so the gigs I did for them were
few and far between. We still kept in touch, swapping punk rock and the such
like. I then heard they'd split up and Rocker gave me a copy of Bloodstained
Fur to ease the pain. A long way from indie upstarts to anti-vivisection
subversive punk rock you might think, but then a good grounding in U.S
hardcore will do that for you. I always thought that they were more than the
scene they were lumped in with, too fast, too rockin', too don't give a fuck
for indie.
1988
There you have it, my clouded
memory of it all. We did have our differences
of course, we will never agree on mushy peas for instance, or cider for that
matter. I wouldn't have it any other way - they're just puddin' daft
northerners and I'm a bloody wurzel from the west country....oil & water....
I loved the band, the people, the gigs, the crack. As they say, it's all
good.
Home Page The Rosehips I Was A Teenage Rosehip
Discography Final Gig Review Pete and the Rosehips
Secret Records Compilation review