User:Miklogfeather/Bob Leith

Robert G. Leith (born 17 April 1964) is an English musician, the drummer for the rock band Cardiacs from 1993 and Blurt from 2005 to 2008.

Life and career
Robert G. Leith was born in Buckinghamshire on 17 April 1964. Leith's father managed the local cinema and Leith was into films. He met future guitarist Mark Farrelly when they were about nine years old through Farrelly's interest in horror and death; the pair would swap horror magazines and plastic monster models which they were into around 1975. They both went to the Lord Grey Comprehensive secondary school in Bletchley where Leith started up a band called the Bleeding Lips and brought a tape he had done to Farrelly's house one night, inspiring Farrelly to hook up with future Exit-stance member Sean Finnis in the school band the Urban Guerrillas. By the end of 1978, Leith joined up with Farrelly, Finnis and another person to form a school 'supergroup' named Matt Vinyl and the Emulsions, inspired by the punk ethos. They played their first gig in the school hall. Farrelly and Finnis went on to be in several other bands together before Farrelly formed Part 1 with Leith, Chris Baker and Chris Pascoe. They each had their own influences; Leith liked early Genesis.

Part 1 were with the early death rock scene and mined a similar vein aesthetically to Rudimentary Peni. The band made their live debut in October 1980 at the Compass Club in Bletchley supporting the local band the Flying Ducks. After their second gig at the Peartree Bridge Centre went badly, they decided to look beyond the confines of Milton Keynes and recorded their first demo at The Crypt, an eight-track studio in Stevenage, in January 1981. Another demo, In the Shadow of the Cross, was recorded in spring that year and garnered attention from the thriving underground network of zines and like-minded individuals including Andy Martin of the Apostles. Part 1 released the Funeral Parade EP in October 1982 on their own Paraworm Records and played their final show in April 1983, supporting the Subhumans at Oxford Street's 100 Club, where Leith split his bass drum skin. He left soon afterwards to join the London band the Snails.

Leith formed the progressive pop band Ad Nauseam with Jon Poole in 1989, in which he was the singer and drummer. He and Poole were Cardiacs fans and followed them around on tour. The band's manager invited them into a venue to watch Cardiacs soundcheck, where they met Cardiacs drummer Dominic Luckman and gave him a cassette tape containing Ad Nauseam songs after realising they shared similar musical interests. Luckman phoned them up to tell them he had enjoyed it and played it to Tim Smith and the rest of the band who all had loved and appreciated it. Leith and Poole became friends with Luckman and got to know the rest of the band over the next few months, becoming closer and closer friends.

At Leith's first show with Ad Nauseam, Smith came to see them and Luckman guested on drums for one song. Cardiacs guitarist Bic Hayes left the band at the same time Ad Nauseam had started doing gigs and Poole called Smith asking for an audition a few days later, taking Hayes' place during the sessions of Heaven Born and Ever Bright. Afterwards Poole tried to keep Ad Nauseam going but the band was torn apart by internal arguments, power struggles and jealousy; he vowed that he would come back for Leith and get him in Cardiacs but the two didn't talk for a year. Luckman, Cardiacs' long-time drummer, was sick of the "deafening" click track required to play with tapes and departed on 20 July 1993; Poole was able to recruit Leith who joined the band in December as Luckman's replacement.

Leith played with the reformed Alternative TV in 1995 and 1996.

"Quiet as a Mouse"

95, 97, 98, 105, 106, 110–112, 115–117, 125, 126, 161–164, 168, 171, 175

Guns Partially sung the song "A Game for Bartie's Party" on The Special Garage Concerts (2005). Article about first gig with Blurt

Cardiacs stopped their activities in 2008.

Leith guested on most tracks of The Fall and Rise of... by Crayola Lectern

Spiritwo

Leith has featured in Mark Cawthra's psychedelic rock band Redbus Noface.

Rotten Shed

The 2018 Sterbus double album Real Estate/Fake Inverno features the permanent presence of Leith in a guest appearance.

Stephen Evens In 2019, Hayes put together Panixphere, a three piece band with Poole and Leith, which was initially Hayes' first band formed in 1983.

Sing to Tim

Musical style
In 2012 Mark Ferelli stated that Leith had "cut a legendary niche" for himself in his musical field. Jon Poole described Leith's drumming style as "unorthodox" to ImpattoSonoro, with his brother commenting "if I turned off the volume and only saw Bob playing without hearing him I would think he can't play!" Leith's arm is bent strangely since he broke it as a child, which is seen in his playing when he stretches out on the cymbals. Poole also said that Leith's "approach to the instrument is always at the service of the song", calling him "a great singer and a lover of special chords". Leith plays keyboard in addition to drums, writing songs from instinct as "he has no idea what notes he is playing". Eric Benac called Leith "a precise drummer possessed of a skilled musical mind" and "the missing puzzle piece" that Cardiacs needed to move forward as a power quartet.

Discography
With Part 1


 * In the Shadow of the Cross (1981)
 * Funeral Parade EP (1982)
 * Pictures of Pain (1984)

With Ad Nauseam


 * 4 Little Boys (1991)

With Ablemesh


 * "Cancel Life" (1995) – 91 weekly Physical Singles Chart 2012
 * Present Imperfect (2007)

With Cardiacs

Albums: Live albums:
 * Sing to God (1996)
 * Guns (1999)
 * Greatest Hits (2002) ("Faster Than Snakes with a Ball and a Chain")
 * The Special Garage Concerts (2005)
 * Some Fairytales From the Rotten Shed (2017 DVD)

Singles:
 * "Bellyeye" (1995)
 * "Odd Even" (1996)
 * "Manhoo" (1996)
 * Cardiacs/Camp Blackfoot (1999)
 * "Signs" (1999)
 * "Ditzy Scene" (2007)
 * "Vermin Mangle" (2020)

With Katherine in a Cupboard


 * If You Break It, It's Yours! (1997)
 * "Building Cakes" (2001, Cardiacs and Affectionate Friends)

With Leisur Hive


 * 3 Ton Edition (2004)
 * On Sectional Pad EP (2005)

With William D. Drake


 * Briny Hooves (2007)

With Blurt


 * Cut It! (2010) ("Cut It!", "Hat" and "Sweete Thames")

With Crayola Lectern


 * The Fall and Rise of... (2013)
 * Happy Endings (2018)

With Dr Brighton
 * The self titled 1995 album from Dr Brighton. (2016)

With Stephen EvEns


 * "Two Bites of Cherry" (2017)

With Sterbus


 * Real Estate / Fake Inverno (2018)
 * Solar Barbecue (2022) ("Razor Legs", "Ruben, Raja, Lieve, Nike")

With Panixphere


 * Confinement/release6 (2020)