of what went on to become Thee Hypnotics really,” says Jim. “We were more slavish and did covers of things like ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’, The Cramps, The New York Dolls, maybe a Ramones song, some Pebbles covers like ‘Action Woman’. But the feeling was there.”
Thee Hypnotics
The first gig as Thee Hypnotics was on March 6th ’86 at Chesham, supporting Episode Four (who would later go on to become East Village). Martin Kelly from the band (and also later an MD of Heavenly Records) was mightily impressed by their charged stage show and spread the word far and wide. His band was far more jingle-jangle indie, but he clearly knew a good thing when he heard it.
Honing their songwriting, playing and set at drummer’s Mark Thompson’s granddad’s large house by the river in Cookham, Bourne End, the free rehearsal time saw the newly named band flourish. “That was such a great place to have,” remembers Ray. “We had this outhouse to rehearse in. We could go and do some trips, then just go in next door, switch on the amps and then jam away.” Consisting of Jim, Ray and Mark, their bassist was an older guy from High Wycombe. “Chris Dennis,” explains Jim, “[was] a renowned High Wycombe junkie who we knew was a great guitar player. We’d see him in The Nags Head. The landlord of the pub (which was a great venue where Johnny Thunders and the Pistols had played) would tell us that Chris was a naughty boy. Being a junkie seemed great to us though. He was the real deal! He was like Keef!” Though Jim had been to college and was by now training as an apprentice electrician, Ray had remained part of Thatcher’s youth, and preferred to remain unemployed whilst chasing his dream. “I was constantly getting in trouble for passing out all the time at work,” laughs Jim. “Smoking weed with them at Bourne End until 4AM and then trundling off to work as Ray slept. It was exhausting. Looking back at it now though, that was a good year of hanging out, rehearsing and working up the music. The first couple of Jimi Hendrix albums were big on the listening front, as were The Cramps, The Stooges, The MC5, Blue Cheer.... these were things we all had in common. We would do teenage shit: smoke weed, do a few trips and dig the music. I didn’t keep the job long either.” Concurrently a guy called Carlton who was their friend Bruce’s older sister’s boyfriend was running an R&B club in High Wycombe at a pub called The Bird In Hand. Here the lads would soak up Elmore James along with visits to the locally renowned northern soul club at The Concord. Their decidedly dark, druggy rock ’n’ roll aesthetic grew
The proto-type Hypnotics heading in a new direction.
further through discovering the raw passion of black music.
”We got our first London gig through Martin Kelly,” Jim recalls of the time when they first started to make an impact, “[and he] introduced us to this guy called Morris who was running Dingwalls. Morris got us a gig with Tav Falco & The Panther Burns, which we couldn’t believe. ‘Wow! This is fuckin’ brilliant’, we thought as he was connected to Alex Chilton and The Cramps. We went on stage and did this great gig and it was on the
“I was constantly getting in trouble for passing out all the time at work. We would do teenage shit: smoke weed, do a few trips and dig the music. I didn’t keep the job long either.”
back of that we met Aaron, who worked at Vinyl Solution. He immediately approached us about putting out the first single.”
Love In Vein
The debut 45 set the benchmark for Thee Hypnotics being remembered as a seriously dirty, raunchy Detroit-styled rock band that could actually equal their influences. Housed in a sleeve by Dave Arnoff, who had also photographed The Scientists and The Cramps, the picture caught the downtrodden Stooges’ appeal the band so sought to emulate. Ray with standoff-ish folded arms, wearing gold framed aviators, a leather jacket, black shirt and iron cross medallion, a tousle-haired Jim leers into the lens and Chris Dennis and Mark Thompson stand at the back looking like thugs from a ’60s biker flick. The bold white Hypnotics logo above their head with the resplendent garage band prefix
“Thee” perched on top in a small unassuming narrow font added a feral simplicity to the design. It looked suitably old. The back cover in truest MC5 homage featured a ’68 shot of The Black Panthers whilst the label centre housed the band’s own White Panther emblem. Justifiably this was a labour of love and a record that firmly stated the band’s intentions.
It was released on a very small label set up by Aaron from the prestigious Vinyl Solution record shop from the Portobello Road. Jim explains: “We were living in High Wycombe in a house together but we spent a lot of time hanging out at Notting Hill, where the label was based. They’d also done a seven- inch with The Hard Ons too. Aaron said, ‘I’d made up a label for The Hard Ons so I’ll make up one for you too.’ He came up with Hipsville, which was fine with us as we thought it was very garage band sounding.”
In the Top 40 acid house was breaking and filling the Top 10. Meanwhile crap from Michael Bolton, The Pet Shop Boys, Kylie & Jason and Bros also filled the charts. At #1 that Christmas was the dire ‘Mistletoe And Wine’ by Cliff Richard. Thee Hypnotics certainly had no chance at all in the pop
65
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140