Thee Strawberry Mynde were born in
Tall Paul's (vocals & guitar) front room in Hartlepool back in 1997 with
Bazza (bass) & Neil Athey (guitar) in the 1st line up. The band were united in their love of raw 60s garage music and were all big fans of the Pebbles & Nuggets compilation albums. Athey soon left to join The Mojo's and a year was spent recording some raw garage toons, mostly
Tall Paul originals like 'Journey Thru Tyme', 'You'll Find Out', 'Zombie Swamp', 'Walking Around', 'Ain't Done Nuthin' Wrong', 'My Baby's Not Coming Back', ''Her Eyes Behind The Sun' and 'Little Honey' along with a few covers thrown in - 'My Flash On You' (Love), 'Little Olive' (Electric Prunes), 'Don't Break My Laws' (Thee Mighty Caesars) and 'Ballad Of You, Me & Pooneil' (Jefferson Airplane).
After a year the line up was expanded with Jason Radley (vocals & guitar) and Ian Lowes (drums). A recording session took place at Oblivion Studios in Stockton-On-Tees on 26th July 1998 were Thee Strawberry Mynde recorded 4 tunes - 2 of
Paul's 'She Set's The Scene' & 'The Difference' and 2 penned by Jason 'She Left So Low' and 'Shine'.
A week or so later on 5th August the bands first live gig took place just round the corner from the recording studios at The Falchion. After that gigs followed in Middlesbrough at Liberties and The Temple, The Falchion (again) and 2 gigs at The Studio in Hartlepool. The last gig at The Studio was in November 1998 to a sell out crowd at a do put on by Hartlepool scooter club. By this time the bands set list had been expanded and featured such original tracks as 'Hullabaloo', 'Word Girl', 'Willful Missings' along with covers of 'I Feel A Whole Lot Better' (The Byrds), ''1-2-5' (The Haunted), 'Somebody To Love' (Jefferson Airplane), 'Sometimes Good Guys Don't Wear White' (The Standells) and 'Strychnine' (The Sonics). This turned out to be the last gig that
Bazza played with the band. At the start of 1999 the bands demo was reviewed in the Melody Maker but by that time Thee Strawberry Mynde were no more and
Paul, Jason & Ian were doing gigs under the new name of Gravity.
However, fast forward 10 years since Thee Strawberry Mynde formed to 7th October 2007. On a wet & cold Sunday afternoon
Bazza is with his girlfriend
Charlie coming back from the Transpoter Bridge after showing her the sights of Middlesbrough,
Charlie was well impressed
Anyway, on Albert Road who should be walking towards them but
Tall Paul and his girlfriend. A chance meeting as
Tall Paul &
Bazza hadn't seen or spoken to each other since the end of 1998. The two spoke for a bit and as they said their goodbyes
Bazza passed
Paul a contact card.
A few weeks passed before
Tall Paul got in contact via email. Turns out that neither were up to anything band wise but both were hungry to get back to creating some garage mayhem and maybe doing the odd gig or two.
Tall Paul has been busy writing a few new tunes & getting his Tele resurrected while
Bazza has been brushing off the dust from his Phantom bass. A Journey Thru Tyme? Stay tuned as the story is far from over ...
