The Beatles had Mal Evans, we had Bob. While Big Mal clanged an anvil on Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, petrol-head Bob did likewise with a Mercedes wheel trim on, shall we say, one of our far less popular tunes. We weren’t of course anywhere close to fame, though we gave it our best shot. Hanging out with the band kept me sane during a dark period. Then, at the turn of the century, I quit, moved to South London and forgot the guitar for a while, focusing on a career in design.
By the mid-1990s Freak Scene (with Bob) were my third official band. Though at the start of the decade my career had been on the rocks before it had ever begun, having been fired from a job at a printing firm. My crime was lateness, caused by a 24/7 partying habit. I’d dropped out of high school earlier, failing all my exams except art. I then had two years of fun and respite studying graphic design in East London. College was where we hatched futile plans for world dominance in rock music. I’d improved immensely on guitar, so quickly formed a band.
This early college band (Friction) sounded like The Stooges. Our teenage drummer mimicked Keith Moon, equally as flamboyant but with an air of criminality, having acquired his drum kit from the spoils of a burglary. He was so good on the sticks that he’d soon be poached by a rival band, who seemed to be more destined for stardom. However, by the end of the 1980s, once I’d left college and had landed a decently paid job, things for me quickly spiralled out of control.
For a while I lived in desperate poverty, barely eating properly for six months, waiting for a dole cheque. I might have ended it all and nearly did one night. I had music to focus on at least, and life soon picked up again. I moonlighted at a nightclub, designed flyers for local bars and set about putting together Freak Scene. Bob joined as a roadie, he had wheels, though a Ford Capri was hardly practical. However, everyone in the band, apart from me and Kevin (the singer), had cars. My late grandmother, who I’d had fond memories of as a child visiting them on Canvey Island, left me some inheritance money, which was enough to purchase the hottest guitar amp of the day, a Marshall Stack.
Saving on rehearsal room costs, we practiced at a garage Bob rented for tinkering with his banger racing hobby, once showing off a beaten-up Rolls Royce. Inevitably a wheel trim was to be clattered in time to our music, as a percussive party piece. Bob was a utility band member, being a handy keyboard player. The wheel trim would travel with us to every gig around England and finally found fame on a studio recording we made at The Lodge in Northampton – owned by The Enid.
There were times, as the band started to purr, when I felt we might be going places. A local radio producer walked in one day and, impressed by what she heard, got us gigs in bigger venues and local festivals. Next we signed a dodgy management deal, but at least landed a few packed-out support gigs in central London. The internet was still embryonic in the late 1990s, so we had to trawl the offices of record labels with a demo cassette, that’d be chucked on a pile, never to be heard.
Tiring of being skint, I needed to force a lifestyle change. The other guys in the band all had steady day jobs, except me. It did feel like our time had passed. We’d made big efforts to improve and push the music. I eventually found work, once again a printing firm up in Marylebone. Freak Scene continued plugging away, I continued drinking. The band came to a natural, happy ending just before the millennium. I sold my gear, bought a computer and moved to South London.
I’d not take music seriously again for the next fifteen years. My career as a designer in London’s advertising world was accelerating. I travelled the world, enjoying a vibrant social life, still boozing as ever.
However, my life changed dramatically from the mid-2010s. Though I was unaware of how this new, slow-burning upheaval would unfold and cause more subtle kinds of mental health problems. But at least I’d be physically healthier, drinking far less and creating my best music yet.