Spike's Space

Reptile Ranch split up late in 1980 bringing to an end Z Block's DIY ambitions.

I joined a couple of projects, the first was a short-lived band with Steve Penrose under the name Hymn #33 (Steve and I were both the sons of non-conformist preachers).

The other project involved playing Lewis Mottram's guitar parts in a band that slowly evolved into Table Table. The project was initially designed to build on the material Lewis had recorded with Debbie 'Debris' Pritchard under the name 'Current Obsessions'. Lewis' compositions were very 'theoretical' (most of the stuff we recorded at this time involved bass lines using every note in the chromatic scale with no repeats). He blew my mind with many of his conceptual pieces - one of these, occupied a large part of his basement flat and consisted of 2 interconnected 2 metre diameter wheels covered with manuscript with wires connecting bars from one wheel to bars on the other - cosmic.

Dean 'Radish' joined on a percussion kit made from pots and pans and his partner, Heidi, soon swelled the band numbers as a second percussionist. The band recorded one album that was never released - it took an age to record (not helped by the presence of some Rasta friends from Cardiff's 'Docks' community on the mixing desk, Collie and Navvy - Debbie spent probably 70% of the recording sessions lying on the studio floor, stoned out of her tree). We played some interesting gigs to bemused audiences (with Collie and Navvy mixing) before falling out over the range of material - the 13 note thing was starting to sound a bit 'samey' and felt artistically limiting.

I'd had access to Lewis' studio for the odd session and had recorded rough versions of 4 songs for an intended solo project; Nostalgia (with Dave Hoddell), Dependence, Houses (see right) and another track I can't remember.

Table Table then effectively kicked Lewis out of his own band! Ouch. We went on to record a cassette LP 'Under a Table Table' - a reference to Thatcher's advice to the UK population in the event of a nuclear attack. The 4-piece band then moved into a house in Splott (bad move) - it had worked for Z Block (sort of) but Table Table members were from very different backgrounds with very different attitudes to life and politics. With the added tension of me being in the then very successful Weekend, things eventually came to a head and we split around the summer of 83.

The next year was spent looking for a new musical direction. I recorded a demo with Alison for Rough Trade. At the end of the Table Table project, I'd started teaching people to play violins and cello to form a kind of punk string quartet and somehow created a floating team of players who would form a very fluid Bomb & Dagger. This fluid band scenario meant that we rarely played with the same line-up twice. The sets we played were a schizophrenic mix of political pop and african-inspired dance beats with lots of improvisation. Practically every one of the nearly 40 musicians who joined Bomb & Dagger went on to initiate their own music projects - in that sense, it really injected a new lease of life into the Cardiff music scene, particularly the jazz scene and, despite the heavy agit prop nature of the material, the band became one of the most popular and respected bands in south Wales through the 80s.

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