User:Vincentterenceberkeley/sandbox

{{Infobox musical artist
 * name           = Pink Peg Slax


 * image_size     =
 * alias          =
 * origin         = Leeds, England
 * genre          = Rockabilly, Cow punk, indie
 * years_active   = 1980–1988
 * label          = Batfish Incorporated, Half-Cut Records, Ediesta Records, Raucous Records, Cherry Red
 * associated_acts =
 * website        = https://www.markwilsonsaloonsongs.com/
 * current_members = Mark Wilson, Francis Wilson, Graham Wardle

{{Infobox musical artist }}
 * name             = Pink Peg Slax
 * image            =
 * genre            = Rockabilly, Country and Western, Hillbilly, Rock'n'Roll, Cow Punk,

Pink Peg Slax are a rockabilly band from Leeds, England. Founded in 1980, the band wrote their own material and were part of the 80s UK indie scene, rather than the contemporaneous neo-rockabilly scene centred in London and the South-East of the country. Their anarchic approach made them briefly favourites of BBC Radio One cult DJ John Peel, and their gigs and records were favourably reviewed in the UK music press. The NME’s James Brown opined “If Elvis had been a Marx Brother, he would have invented Pink Peg Slax." John Peel called their music “Cajun-tinged jive-a-billy”. Despite recording several BBC Radio One sessions and getting day-time BBC Radio One airplay during 1984-87, none of the band’s records sold well, probably due to their disruptive approach, which antagonised the indie scene by being authentically rockabilly, and the rockabilly scene by being authentically indie. Their irreverent attitude also puzzled major record companies and the band were never signed to a major label. Pink Peg Slax appear on the 2023 Cherry Red Records release Where Were You? [ref], a history of the Leed music scene in the 1980s, ironically with the only song on the 3-album set about the Leeds Music scene (Boy From Leeds). The band formed as The New Fauves at the University of Leeds in 1979, (the original Fauves were a punk band from Newcastle, England). The New Fauves were Pete Barker on lead guitar, Tim Strafford-Taylor on bass, Mark Wilson on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, and various drummers. The band played garage-influenced songs written mainly by guitarist Pete Barker. However, Pete’s love of classic rock’n’roll guitarists Cliff Gallup and Eddie Cochran, Mark’s love of Elvis and Tim’s love of Trash (he introduced the band to The Cramps, Hasil Adkins and The Sonics) meant rockabilly was always the style they were destined for, and they moved more towards an R&B sound. There was a febrile, fertile and sometimes incestuous post-punk music scene in Leeds from 1977 onwards, with its nexus being the Fine Art Departments at the University of Leeds and Leeds Polytechnic; their Student Union bars, and pubs The Fenton and The Faversham, which adjoined the two campuses. Members of The Mekons,The Gang of Four and The Delta 5 all caroused there. The New Fauves played gigs on and around the campus and at Leed’s famed punk venue the F-Club but they gained momentum when their friend, Mekons drummer Jon Langford, agreed to join on drums for a one-off rockabilly gig. This was the 1980 Summer Ball at Charles Morris Hall, and the sum of £80 was on offer. They decided to rename the band “Pink Peg Slax” for one night after the Eddie Cochran song “Pink-Peg Slacks”. It was never intended to be permanent. The band put in a drunken performance supporting Darts and some University Union officials present had the nascent Slax banned from playing at the Union’s venues. They charmed their way out of this, however, and as well as the Union the Slax were soon playing venues like the Warehouse in Leeds, where they supported Bow Wow Wow, then managed by Malcom McClaren. Later in November 1980 The Slax recorded their first songs in Ram Studios in Armley, Leeds, joined by novice sax-player Big Les. The songs were Rotting Robin, (I’m Just A Big) Cigarette Stub, So What (I Just Need You) and Foul Fowl, the latter being inspired by a scene in David Lynch’s Eraserhead. Mark Wilson and Pete Barker were invited to join the Mekons as occasional members and in November 1980 they travelled to London to record a BBC Radio One John Peel Session at Broadcasting House. Mark wrote the tune for one of the songs on the way down in the van (“The East Is Red”) and recorded it, playing lead guitar and singing. Pete played Bass, Jon played drums and reknowned producer Bob Sargeant joined in on piano. Mark Wilson’s enthusiastic celebrations in the BBC bar resulted him being barred from the premises. Neither Pete nor Mark were aware that they were being paid by the BBC to do the session, or that songwriting royalties were due when the session was broadcast twice in January 1981. The session was broadcast twice in January, 1981, with Peel expressing dislike at the Mekon’s momentary lurch into rockabilly. Pink Peg Slax continued to play in and around Leeds, minus Big Les, occasionally crashing other bands’ performances and playing their instruments. They supported Rocky Sharpe and the Replays at Leeds Polytechnic and, at their last gig as students they were supported by an early incarnation of The Sisters of Mercy. Mark and Pete also did gigs with The Mekons and Pete played guitar on various Mekons recordings in 1981. Graduation from Leeds University in July 1981 caused a hiatus in Pink Peg Slax’ activities and it wasn’t until January 1982 that the band came together again in Leeds, this time as a trio without drums with a more lyrical, less rock-y sound. Bass player Tim Strafford-Taylor was living at the same address in Leeds (Leicester Grove) as Soft Cell’s Marc Almond and played bass on the B-side of Say Hello, Wave Goodbye. In the spring of 1982 the trio became avid and well-paid buskers in York (busking being illegal in Leeds at this time), and having honed a very tight act, recorded a live session for BBC Radio Leeds in April 1982. The band then took their instruments to the Cote D’Azure and their busking attracted large audiences in the streets of Juan-Les-Pins and Antibes. Eventually in autumn 1982 Pink Peg Slax went into Ken Giles’ studio in Bridlington, this time with Mark’s brother Richard on drums, and recorded 6-7 Park Row, Scared Man, Li’l Jean and So What (I Just Need You). Nothing was ever done with these tapes but they confirmed to the band that they were a tight act and could sound good on record. The band played regularly as a trio at Le Phonographique in the Merrion Centre, Leeds, a basement nightclub which became a nexus for the Goth scene in Leeds. Mark Wilson’s solo career as Vince Berkeley was beginning to take off, dinner-suitedly crooning 40 Sinatra standards with a fairly sophisticated jazz guitar backing. Pioneering Leeds promoter John Keenan took an interest and put Mark on at the 2nd Futurama festival in North Wales, and he received favourable reviews in the UK music press. He played a few gigs opening University gigs for Mari Wilson (no relation), then riding high in the UK charts, and Alexei Sayle, the BBC’s anarchic stand-up “alternative” comic. Towards the end of 1982, Tim Strafford-Taylor decided that a proper rockabilly approach required a proper rockabilly instrument, and he acquired a double bass from Scheerer’s Music Shop and quickly mastered the slap-bass technique made famous by the band’s bass hero, Elvis’ original double bassist, Bill Black. Pete Barker was spending more time at his home base in Newcastle, and to continue as a rockabilly trio, the band asked a frequent fan of the band’s appearances at Le Phonographique, Ant Hanlon, to join on drums. In point of fact, Ant only actually possessed a snare drum. This he set up on a tall stand and whacked it, standing up, with wild abandon and blood-curdling screams. He also brought enormous enthusiasm, an exhuberant personality and access to a vast collection of rare rockabilly records. Ant was studying at Leeds Polytechnic and he managed to get the band a few gigs doing supports at the Ents Hall, which was probably the best venue in Leeds in the 1980s. Pink Peg Slax also did a residency at Central Park in Leeds in early 1983. Their progress was, however, interrupted in 1983 when Mark Wilson began touring his solo act (appearing as Vince Berkeley) nationwide as support to popstar Mari Wilson and The Wilsations, covering the main theatres and venues in Great Britain, finishing at the London Palladium. Mark was being managed by legendary, prolific Leeds Promoter John Keenan, who also got him a tour opening for Alexei Sayle, who regularly appeared in the hit TV comedy The Young Ones on the BBC, again at the nation’s major venues. While the Slax were continuing to appear at colleges they were getting a reputation around Leeds as a lively, fun, rocking trio. Unlike other rockabilly acts, the Slax wrote their own stuff, sometimes lampooning the “straight” rocking fraternity in songs like The Whip Hotel, which was about the notorious old pub in the centre of Leeds which was the de facto HQ for Leeds Teddy Boys (and girls), Rockabillies and Rockers. After headlining the Grove Music Festival in August 1983, John Keenan was sufficiently interested to put the band on at the 3rd annual Futurama festival at the Queen’s Hall in Leeds in September 1983. With their single snare drum and cymbal, a double-bass amplified with a gaffer’d-on vocal mic and a tiny 10 watt guitar amp, the Slax doubted their set-up would fill the enormous venue, but the huge PA did the heavy lifting and their appearance was covered in the Sunday Times and the national music press. Aware they needed a product to move the band on, the Slax returned to KG Studios in Bridlington in November 1983. Simon Denigh, who’d been in Charles Morris Hall, Leeds University,with Mark Wilson, generously agreed to put out a single on his Batfish Incorporated label, which was an outlet for Denbigh’s band The Batfish Boys (itself a side-project to Denbigh’s other band, The March Violets). Denbigh even provided some of the artwork for the record sleeve. Batfish Incorporated operated under the aegis of Red Rhino Records, the York-based Indie label that was part of The Cartel independent record shop distribution group (the band had agonised about going ahead with Denbigh’s offer since a local record shop owner had offered to both manage them and pay for the single’s recording and promotion). “Dripping (My Love For You)” was released in March, 1984. Pink Peg Slax had chosen to produce the single themselves, and despite its lightweight sound, it immediately found favour with BBC Radio’s legendary DJ John Peel. The Slax secured a gig at Leeds Polytechnic opening for Peel’s Roadshow, and gave him a white-label copy, which he immediately played. A few months later, John Walters, Peel’s producer, rang up and offered the Slax a ‘Peel Session’. In the meantime, the Slax were transforming their sound and scope by adding Martin Foakes on violin (fiddle). Both Mark Wilson and Tim Strafford-Taylor were listening assiduously to Hank Williams and noting the connections between country music and rockabilly music, and the good-time hoe-down feel this allowed them to explore. Martin was a classically trained and qualified musician on piano and violin and had sung in the St. Paul’s Cathedral Choir in London. On the straight-up rockabilly songs, Martin beefed-up the sound on acoustic guitar, and if a live venue had a piano (in an age where electronic keyboards were still expensive), he played it. Around this time the band began using pseudonyms, for both stylistic and practical purposes. Tim became Chet; Ant Hanlon became Abner Cavanagh and Martin Foakes became Martin Le Fou. The first Peel session was recorded at the BBC’s Maida Vale Studio 4 in London, just a stone’s throw from Abbey Road Studios, and a place of equal prestige. The band brought their mates along to speed up the recording of the choir-like backing vocals, and also to bump-up the fee, which was paid per musician. The songs recorded were Bippo Bippo (Bop Man Bop), Self Pitying Stan, Cajun Feast and Lonely Afternoon. Produced by Mott The Hoople’s drummer Dale Griffin, It was broadcast 3 times. By now Pink Peg Slax had signed a manufacturing, publishing and distribution deal with Red Rhino Records in York, and they needed a new offering. John Peel urged the band to release “Bippo” from their session as a single, but as the BBC’s fee for using their master tapes was prohibitive, the Slax decided to record another of the session’s tracks “Self-Pitying Stan” as their next release. Tim remembered the Soft Cell record he’d worked on being produced at The Box, so the Slax trooped off to Heckmondwike to record it. Red Rhino agreed to the band’s own imprint, Half-Cut Records, being used as a label. Prior to “Stan” being released, John Walters was on the phone again, offering a live session at the Institute for Contemporary Arts as part of the Harp Lager-sponsored Rock Weeks events. Peel had personally chosen all the bands, with all the performances recorded for broadcast on his or Janice Long's programmes. The advance publicity for the event proclaimed, "John Peel is putting the fun back into being pretentious." Pink Peg Slax performed Cajun Feast, Bippo, Bippo (Bop, Man, Bop) and new songs Hole In My Shoe and Buzz-Saw Fiddle. The session was broadcast on 3 December, 1984, a few weeks after Self-Pitying Stan hit the shops and the independent charts. Both 45rpm singles had garnered respectable reviews in the three main UK music papers, and “Stan” was played on early-evening BBC Radio One, but the band’s sales were dogged by their refusal to compromise with either the indie market or the rockabilly market. Despite regular contacts with the major labels, none went beyond encouragement and kind words. Through 1985 the band kept gigging round colleges and universities and in the capital and they kept in touch with John Peel. In July that year the Slax were back at Maida Vale Studio 4 to record their second Peel Session. The songs were I Saw The Light, Ooh My Little Momma, Buzz Saw Fiddle and Excuses At A Dollar A Throw. The Slax also chose to record a cover, I Saw The Light, one of the highlights of their live set. Red Rhino and its publisher, Screaming Red Music, were keen for the band to release an album, and Pink Peg Slax had been writing steadily, so that they were able to record 14 songs for their debut album, Belting Out A Tuna. Mark Wilson was becoming obsessed with cuisine and cooking, and culinary references peppered his songs; TV celebrity chef Keith Floyd shared the band’s musical culinary/rock’n’roll obsessions, and provided suitable sleeve notes. The band decided to use Off Beat Studios in Kirkstall, Leeds, because it was cheap, good, had a great engineer in Tony Bonner and was opposite a great Tetley’s pub. To maximise the Cajun feel of several numbers, the Slax brought in Mike Hirst, who had a genuine single-row Cajun accordion. Martin Foakes supplemented his fiddle work with piano and mandolin. Clive Webb (appearing as Colin Modérne) provided authentic Jerry Lee Lewis-style pumping piano. Released in spring, 1986, the songs on Belting Out A Tuna were: Dripping (My Love For You) Buzz Saw Fiddle I'm Ready Rollicking By The Left Ooh My Little Momma A Cote De Ma Cherie Eat More Meat Bippo Bippo (Bop Man Bop) Cajun Feast Hole In My Shoe La Folie Winey Wine Boy From Leeds Old Pierre. Again the record received good reviews in the UK national music press, and following a guerilla-style visit to Radio One’s producers, some afternoon and early evening airplay. Unlike other rockabilly bands and even some of the other Indie bands, the Slax records were on sale in major music shops, thanks to The Cartel and Rough Trade, and you could find them under “P” in HMW, Virgin, Tower Records and Our Price, as well as the independent record shops. Despite the nationwide gigs, national radio, national music press and the odd TV appearance, however, the major labels remained uninterested. Keen to capitalise on live appearances with John Peel, The Pogues and a short tour supporting The Mission (Goth drinking pals from The Faversham in Leeds), Pink Peg Slax returned to The Box at Heckmondwike to record a 45rpm 4-track 12 inch EP, The Sound of the Meanwood Valley. It featured the band in various locations round Leeds with the sleeve divided into four “7 inch singles” picture-sleeves. The songs covered a deaf railwayman, a drunken pig, an attack on the bass player, Tim, and a dial-an-excuse service. Track listing: Wally, Can You Hear Me Excuses At A Dollar A Throw Scarred Love Porky Pig The record was well-received in the national music press on release in late 1986 and for once sold well. After recording the EP, Martin Foakes left the band to pursue his outdoor coaching career. In the meantime, Simon Clay had joined the band on rhythm guitar and backing vocals. Simon used the name Simon Anderson (in honour of his idol, Gerry Anderson, the puppeteer) but also liked to be known as Dream. He brought musicality, ideas and lunacy to Pink Peg Slax (though the proportions of these qualities occasionally varied). Mark Wilson had known Andy Kershaw when they were both at the University of Leeds, and when the latter became a Radio One DJ with an emphasis on “roots” music, the Slax decided to pursue this connection. When they met at a Slax gig at the Astoria in Leeds in 1986, Mark convinced him to give the band a session on his evening show. Kershaw, unfortunately, did not favour the Maida Vale studio used by Peel, and the Slax were surprised to be sent to Yellow 2 Studios in Stockport, Greater Manchester. Unaware of the gilded history of the place (as well as being used by The Smiths at the time, it was where owners 10cc had recorded their massive hit records and was also used by Paul McCartney and Neil Sedaka), the Slax found an unsympathetic engineer and producer and unfamiliar equipment. To make things worse, the band was under-rehearsed and the dixieland jazz quartet Mark had brought along got hopelessly drunk in the pub next door while the engineers tried to fix the atrocious sound. The producer refused to use the ramshackle brass tracks on the broadcast session, and the day ended with unpleasantness on both sides, as well as domestic violence amongst the jazz band and its spouses. Kershaw broadcast the session at the end of 1986 and like most people, was underwhelmed by it. The songs committed to tape were: Our Spark Became A Dud Chastity Chet Such A Fool Doin’ The Hoochie-Coochie (With Gus and Sue) Mark Wilson wrote the songs. While the Slax enjoyed all their gigs at clubs, colleges and universities around the land (and the extensive carousing that accompanied them) in March 1987 they rejoiced when they joined a UK tour with original 1950s American rock’n’roller, Sleepy La Beef. Sleepy wore a ten gallon hat, stood nearly 7ft tall, weighed close to 20 stones and dressed completely in black. He’d played with Chuck Berry, met Elvis and Gene Vincent in the 50s and did over 300 gigs every year. Sleepy was a walking encyclopaedia of rock’n’roll guitar, and Mark Wilson’s playing made vast strides simply by watching him night after night. The next month the Slax actually backed Sleepy at London pub rock fixture the Sir George Robey. They brought both double bass and electric bass and asked him to choose. He wanted both. In late 1987 Red Rhino asked the band to come up with a new album. Pink Peg Slax were keen to expunge the memory of the disastrous Kershaw Session and again re-recorded a couple of BBC session tracks in the far more relaxed setting of Off Beat Studios in Leeds. On the album, 12 Songs Never Recorded by FRANK SINATRA, the Slax changed direction slightly by including blues and calypso numbers, and bringing in sax and layers of percussion. Martin Foakes also returned with his fiddle and Clive Webb brought more “pumping piano”. The joke about vicarious use of a (much) more famous personage (inspired by a 50s MAD Magazine article) continued onto the front sleeve, with a rendition by Nigel Winfield (who illustrated all the band’s records after “Dripping”) of Pink Peg Slax being embraced by Ol’ Blue Eyes himself. The record came out on Rhino’s favoured Ediesta label. 12 Songs Never Recorded by FRANK SINATRA Suddenly I Feel I'm Getting Old We Can Still Be Friends Such A Fool Mr Fiddle Arkansas Mountain Man The Last Cigarette The Big Body Le Fou's Blues Our Spark/Became A DudOne Hand Loose Just Trust Me Liquid Paradise The band sent a cassette of the unreleased album to Ozzie Muennig in Munster, West Germany, who promoted a tour of major German cities and towns, including a foray into Austria. Simon Anderson was so smitten by Cologne that he moved there permanently in the early 1990s, but the Slax all loved the audiences, the scenery, the money, the accomodation, the food, but above all, the beer. Pink Peg Slax were doing more and more gigs and getting better UK press, so were delighted to return to West Germany in May 1988 where they were promoted on a month-long tour by Michael Bohl of West Berlin, now with Martin Henderson (ex-Skeletal Family, ex-Batfish Boys) on drums The gigs were bigger this time and they shared the bill and the tour bus with The Waltons, a country/hillbilly trio from West Berlin. However, major success had eluded Pink Peg Slax and Mark Wilson decided he needed a proper job. He went back to college in late 1988 to study computing, and worked as an IT consultant from 1993 until the present date. Tim Strafford-Taylor left Leeds and the band in 1990, also working as an IT consultant. They were both re-united on the same IT project in 2003 and in 2007 did some gigs together with Ant Hanlon returning on drums. In 2012 the band digitised their back catalogue and BBC sessions to produce a “best of” CD, Rock-A-Beery Boogie, which was released on Raucous Records. Self-Pitying Stan Buzz-Saw Fiddle Dripping (My Love For You) Suddenly I Feel I'm Getting Old Cajun Feast A Cote De Ma Cherie Eat More Meat Porky Pig Arkansas Mountain Man Hole In My Shoe We Can Still Be Friends Boy From Leeds Such A Fool Liquid Paradise Our Spark Became A Dud Excuses (At A Dollar A Throw) The Last Cigarette Lil' Jean The Big Body Bippo Bippo (Bop, Man, Bop) Old Pierre Ooh My Lil' Momma

By the time of the CD’s release, Mark’s son Francis Wilson was playing rhythm guitar, and eventually joined the band on double bass. Pete Barker, the original Slax lead guitarist, re-joined the band for regular gigs and Pink Peg Slax recorded their first wholly new release, Evil Evil Evil Nice Nice Nice, with Graham Wardle on drums. Martin Foakes also provided fiddle on Autumn, Headingley. A streaming release only, E3N3 was the first Pink Peg Slax commercial release (via CD Baby) to feature punk rock (Bunt Ruane). It was recorded at Valley Wood Studios, Leeds.

Your Hair’s Too High Bunt Ruane Drive Real Good Kid Soccer

Mark wrote the songs.

Pink Peg Slax still play occasionally in Leeds, and the three founder members are still friends.They still get barred from places.

Pink Peg Slax is a rockabilly band from Leeds, Yorkshire. The band wrote their own material and were part of the 80s UK indie scene, and not the contemporaneous neo-rockabilly scene centred in London and the South-East of the country. Their anarchic approach made them briefly favourites of UK cult DJ John Peel, and " If Elvis had been a Marx Brother, he would have invented Pink Peg Slax" wrote James Brown in NME. Despite multiple BBC Radio One sessions and evening radio airplay during 1984-87, and favourable music press record reviews, the band did not sell lots of records and their disruptive appproach (the indie scene by playing authentic rockabilly, and the rockabilly scene by being indie) puzzled major record companies.

With a name derived from an obscure Eddie Cochran rocker,

Pink Peg Slax were ostensibly part of the 80s rockabilly revival, but the band also attempted to subvert both the indie scene by playing authentic rockabilly, and the rockabilly scene by being indie.

Pink Peg Slax provided the necessary knowing wink to counter the scowl on the face of indie music in the mid-80s. The Smiths released Meat Is Murder; the Slax released Eat More Meat. The only band ever to offer James Cagney impressions as serious musical output on night-time Radio One, Pink Peg Slax busked their way onto C4's The Tube, annoyed legions of Goths by supporting The Mission on tour and wrote songs about drunken pigs, deaf railwaymen, murderous Frenchmen and Holsten Export.

The band had formed as The New Fauves in 1979 (themselves an offshoot from The Fauves) Borne out of punk, parts of the original Slax line-up had been in the Mekons, the Sisters of Mercy and The Gang of Four. Celebrated by John Peel and Andy Kershaw (4 Radio 1 sessions), the NME (3 singles and 2 albums gained 5-star reviews) and TV chef Keith Floyd (who wrote sleeve notes and put their songs on his shows), Pink Peg Slax knocked out 100% original tunes in a stye John Peel called "cajun-tinged jive-a-billy".

Despite the band's jokey mien, the songs had frequent themes of death, decay and crapulence and several were inspired by the works of M.R. James, Guy De Maupassant and David Lynch.

Pink Peg Slax played hundreds of gigs around the UK and Europe, sometimes with the John Peel Roadshow. At one such engagement at Wetherby High School (as part of the Wetherby Arts Week) Peel remonstrated with frontman and songwriter Vince Berkeley for spitting back at audience members. Vince once thanked an audience of fairground workers for not being "gippos", told an indifferent audience in Dusseldorf to "go away and make some chemicals" and occasionally kicked or threatened audience members he felt were disrespecting the band. And yet the band's Roman Catholicism led to an album review in The Universe, the premier UK eligious weekly.