| Home
About
Releases
Lyrics
Listen
Weep
|
|
Late Bar began life as a semi-aquatic bird in Birmingham, England, on alternate evenings bringing inspiration to guitarist Adam
Q Burbidge and singer Steve “Steev”
Eev, until one night in early 1987 they joined forces and clubbed it to death. Spurred on by the success of this initial collaboration, they were quick to produce the first Late Bar
recording,
Satan Ate My Fish, and even quicker to disown it.
Recruiting Jim Marshall on bass guitar led to the band’s first and last foray into metaphysics,
Don’t Know Why, and their first critical acclaim (“Shorter than the last one” - Sounds).
What fans they had gained were promptly lost again with their next
release, Angeline, as Eev recalls: “Critics said our lyrics lacked
the puerile misogyny of the rock greats."
Drummer Nigel MacKerras cemented the classic line-up of the band,
and after they were freed they found their direction again with Slime (“Even shorter” -
Melody Maker). These intial recordings became the basis for the first album,
Skate, released on the ill-fated Medical Records label in
February 1989. “I don’t know what we were thinking,”
label boss Dirk Cudgel would later lament, in his autobiography “Oh My God, What Have I Done With My Life?”.
Having stunned the critics with charity single Rock’n’Roll Midget
(unveiled at the "Keep Ronnie Rocking" benefit for
diminutive ex-Rainbow
frontman Ronnie James Dio who had fallen on hard times), the band’s writing took on a more political smell as they worked towards their second album - pungent in tracks such as
Listeria, fainter but no less unnerving in Goodbye “A”
Side.
Sensing increasing indifference from the music industry mainstream, the band also attempted to address issues faced by their
wealthier contemporaries. This included their increasing greed in the face of fading talent
(We Want It All), reserving the right to replace charismatic frontpersons with performers of inferior quality
(Why Can’t I Be Dave?), and the ill-judged litigation of megalomaniacal ex-bandleaders
(Legal Action).
“Free Earplugs” was released in July 1990, and Medical Records’
cutting-edge reputation for innovation was consolidated when, to the delight of critics and fans alike, the packaging did in fact contain a pair of earplugs.
(“Best thing they ever did!” – Rolling Stone).
Ironically, however, the chimes of stardom would also toll the bell of drinking-up time for the band. As they embarked upon further recording sessions, rumours began to circulate that members were
“bored” (Q Magazine, October 1990). Unbeknownst to the
fans, Eev’s use of cream cakes to stabilise his mood was
also spiralling out of control. The 20/20 vision of hindsight adds a new poignancy to the lyrics of
Epithelium, from the recently lost Don’t Bother EP:
“And I swear that I don't have a bun”. (Because he did.)
Shortly afterwards, I’m So Tough,
which was initially slated for inclusion on Don't Bother
but, according to Dirk Cudgel, omitted from the final cut for
reasons of "incomprehensibility", was awarded the 1991 Ivor Novello award for Song Best
Unreleased. However this accolade would come too late to save the fragile ecosystem of Late Bar from the accumulated pesticide of time.
After abandoning the incomplete recordings in April 1991 because they were “sounding too good”, already mounting indifference within the band reached what was to become
a terminal level of disinterest. Reading from the band’s suicide note to legions of stunned cattle, Adam explained: “In the end we stopped not enjoying it, we stopped hating each other - there was no reason to go on”.
“And so the towels are draped for the last time over the sticky pumps of Late Bar - not so much a Bonzo Dog Band for the modern age as a big pile of s**t.” (New Musical Express, April 1991)
Nick Jarsen Nick
Jarsen is the author of "Who? Why? - Late Bar", widely considered to be his definitive account of the
Late Bar story.
| |