Well, you asked for it ....
The day after Christmas 1986, a new musical force came into being in
London's leafy suburb of Twickenham, a force that was known as Peyote
Fly the Chillum Egg. Formed in a hurry to play at a friend's party,
most members had been playing their instruments for less than a year, and
the noise they made was atrocious (mainly piss-poor Hawkwind covers that
turned into an excuse for a jam halfway through, also a few pub-rock classics).
However, the line-up included all four Caustic members, who had only known
each other vaguely beforehand, as well as Paul on 'wibbly-wobbly noises'
(meaning that he'd just got a Roland SH-09 synth for Christmas, and was
therefore in a position to provide the final word(?) in Hawkwind-sounding
authenticity). This line up continued playing parties and getting marginally
better at what they did. Some time during 1987 Paul left and Rob joined
on flute. At Rob's suggestion, the somewhat unmemorable name was dropped
in favour of the cunningly acronymious Light and Sound Department.
In time, Rob too left, but this didn't halt the band's meteoric rise. Soon,
they were writing their own songs (some which were not all bad), and they
even played a few proper gigs, supporting bands such as Los Bastados
and The Senseless Things at Richmond College and the Clarendon,
Hammersmith (which was demolished in their honour one week later). However,
by this time Dan had been accepted for a three-year degree course in far-away
Bristol. Even a change of name to The Toxic Avengers could not avert
this disaster. What was to have been this line-up's last gig together never
occurred - the party aboard the Subterranean Enterprise where they
should have played was raided by the police before any of the bands got
to play. In Autumn 1988 Dan left for Bristol and, although the band continued
for a while, with Arthur on bass and new members Ruan on guitar and Matt
on vocals, things gradually petered out. Thus ends the first chapter of
the Caustic story. |
Interlude. In London, Arthur formed bands of his own - Bumarap
and Safe as Milk, and for a while played guitar in The Skies.
John drummed for The Revs. David suffered the infamous exploding
head incident, and spent some time as the guest of aliens somewhere off-planet.
In Bristol, Dan played a few gigs with The Vibronoughts, and when
he finally returned to London he teamed up with a group of jazz musicians
for jam sessions. All four went their own ways, but stayed in contact from
time to time. |
In 1993, Arthur and Dan got drunk together after listening to old Light
and Sound Department tapes and reminiscing. It was true; some of those
old songs weren't all bad. As John had recently left The Revs and
Dave had been seen emerging from a beam of light somewhere near the A316
Chertsey Road, they decided to get the 'lads' together again. New songs
were written, drinks were bought, pleas were made, and finally the greatest
spacepunk outfit this side of Neasden were reunited, this time under the
moniker Gulch. However, things were different this time. Being somewhat
publicity shy (not to mention a bunch of prima-donnas) the band did not
play in public until they had been practicing for another year. Also, gone
were all the cover versions. Somehow, they never seemed to come out as
intended, and writing your own material came more naturally, particularly
to Arthur (a self-taught musical genius). When the band did finally play
again, it was at a party at Dan's house in Hounslow. The response was phenomenal
- not least from the police, who had received complaints from as far as
two miles away! However, a combination of laziness and nervousness meant
that the band still spend most of their time in the studio, learning new
songs, deciding they were no good, throwing them out again and learning
more new songs. In November 1995, re-christened once again as Caustic,
they decided they were finally ready to step up their plans for suburban
domination. A series of well-received gigs followed in the small venues
of London, plus a virtual residency in the cramped back-room of The
Red Lion, Teddington on Thursday nights. Now, they await only the completion
of another demo-tape before seeking a wider audience in larger venues. |
Did I miss anything? I don't think so. |
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If you have any comments, please mail dan@sumption.org. Thank you.