Remember grebo? A shortlived cross between goth and grunge, the genre found a natural home in Liverpool’s Planet X club.
I had to run this one, because it mentions elections and we’ve got one coming up in the UK. (And if you’re in the UK, you really should follow political journalist Ian Dunt’s Substack).
Incidentally, the 1987 general election (Thursday 11 June), was the third consecutive win for the Conservatives aka Tories. I’d prefer not to remember that.
GAYE BYKERS ON ACID
MELODY MAKER, June 20, 1987
Planet X, Liverpool
YOU'VE got to laugh. On the eve of an election, what can you take seriously? More Noise?
Gaye Bykers On Acid's intro tape is Tom Jones singing "It's Not Unusual", and they're not really, just different enough from certain people to be popular with certain other people, and amusing enough to be another sign of the cynical times. Their exit tape is Tom Jones singing "Delilah". They can't be serious. Any more than they're serious when they come on and shout "paaarty" and go off saying "you've been a lovely audience Liverpool" and in between introduce separate musicians (it should be The Gaye Bykers Orchestra for real authenticity) and shout "let's hear you say yeah".
Well, some people are taking it seriously, or at least their bodies are. There's a health club across the road from Planet X that costs £200 a year to join. You can get the same result from two hours in here. It's the sort of place where it's not easy to get a full view of the band if you're less than five foot five and unwilling to get danced on. What I could see was a bit of hair and leather, as expected. But not as much as expected. Young innocent faces. Nothing that bears much resemblance to the name. As expected.
This group are offensive only to the inner ear. Hurtful only to guitars, which swirl and scream and batter and laugh in a controlled incompetence. Music that's crawled from under a pebble, in the shadow of the greats (Dolls, Stooges, Cave, Morrison). You can't take it seriously, when they take in vain the names of other greats - Roy Orbison, Tom Jones - that have even less to do with what's going on here..
And a song about Star Trek that's several times better than the one in the charts makes a false start, and they tell us to boo, and ponder professionalism. "It's the ambition of these boys to be playing Vegas in five years' time." I think they're serious.
Listen to Gaye Bykers on Acid
Here’s a taste of the band from their 1988 European tour.
Now, Crazyhead - they were a band!