My thoughts go to Thee Vicars and Chris' family and friends during this time.

Such a tragic event.

Sincere Condolences.

Sad . Seemed nice and certainly a great guitarist with a unique mani(a)c style .

He's gonna be missed . 

Our sincerest condolences.

Hey, that was wild--or should I say groovy?--had no idea The Troggs did anything that late.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f58ZUwHobDo

FAVORITES THAT i DON'T HAVE  - The Troggs "Just A Little Too Much" , RAW records , maybe '78?   The REAL Garage Punk , The Johnny Burnette/Ricky Nelson  classic gets the Troggs treatment. RAW also released the outstanding "Showbiz" single by The Downliners Sect.

NOW , i FORGET....i THINK THAT LINE CD HAD RON WOOD , NOT EDDIE PHILLIPS , ON THE COVER. BUT , BACK IN THE PRE - CD DAYS , THERE WERE A FEW EURO COMPS WITH GOOD COLOR PICS.
 
John Battles said:

MY EX HAD ONE OR TWO ORIGINAL PS 45s (I have "Makin' Time" , but w/o a picture sleeve.)AND COPIED ONE FOR ME....BUT , I GUESS I NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT THE SCARCITY OF REALLY GOOD PHOTOS.   FOR YEARS , ALL I HAD WAS A LINE COMPILATION FROM GERMANY , WITH A VERY GOOD COLOR PIC. THAT , AND THE RAW 45 REISSUE W/THE PS.

THE UGLY THINGS FEATURE , FROM SEVERAL YEARS AGO , HAD GREAT PHOTOS FROM EVERY LINEUP OF THE GROUP (BARRING THE REFORMATION , IN ,WHAT? '93?, AND AFTER.).

Not that i'm encouraging anyone to use any of them without checking it with Mike.

MY EX HAD ONE OR TWO ORIGINAL PS 45s (I have "Makin' Time" , but w/o a picture sleeve.)AND COPIED ONE FOR ME....BUT , I GUESS I NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT THE SCARCITY OF REALLY GOOD PHOTOS.   FOR YEARS , ALL I HAD WAS A LINE COMPILATION FROM GERMANY , WITH A VERY GOOD COLOR PIC. THAT , AND THE RAW 45 REISSUE W/THE PS.

THE UGLY THINGS FEATURE , FROM SEVERAL YEARS AGO , HAD GREAT PHOTOS FROM EVERY LINEUP OF THE GROUP (BARRING THE REFORMATION , IN ,WHAT? '93?, AND AFTER.).

Not that i'm encouraging anyone to use any of them without checking it with Mike.

I made the cover. Do you know how hard it is to find quality images of the Band? Impossible. Even my comp cds have pretty crap photos.

John Battles said:

THULL ,  Thank you. I wonder who did this clever retooling of,was it "If I Stay Too Long" pic sleeve? It was'nt used to promote the gig , originally . I did one flyer and Steve Krakow from Galactic Zoodissier (New issue out . BIFF , BANG , POW ! Buy this monster , NOW !) did another. You can see mine on my profile , plus , some pics from that two - night mind melter. Actually , I need to put some more up there......

....Well , I think , the bottom line is , Spenser has been around for a long time , since the Pub Rock days.....I saw Wreckless Eric once , and , he said , before going solo , he auditioned for "A Garage band , Standells , Chocolate Watchband covers... with an American singer". I asked him , later , if he was talking about Mike Spenser . "YEH !  HOW DID YOU KNOW?". I said , well , I can't think of too many other American singers  who might have been trying to start a Garage band in Britain when there was even less call for one than there was , even here in the states. But , I asked Eric if this band (Presumably an embryonic version of The Cannibals that did'nt take off.) was before or after Mike's stint with The (Count) Bishops , to which he replied , "Mike Spenser was in the Count Bishops?!"

I THINK , POSSIBLY , SPENSER ALSO WARRANTED A DOCUMENTARY , FOR CARRYING ON , REGARDLESS OF DEMAND. HE DID'NT BECOME , LIKE BILLY CHILDISH , HUGE IN AMERICA, OR EVEN P.PAUL FENECH , GRADUALLY POPULAR IN AMERICA. HE'S AN AMERICAN WHO CARVED A LITTLE NICHE IN ENGLAND....

Nice find Kop, I'm sure that was a small part of it. I don't think it's ever been shown again here and was probably never shown in the States?? The length might not be 30 minutes but it was a lot longer than that, if my old memory serves!

kopper said:

Not sure if this is what you're after or not (it's not even three minutes long, much less thirty!)...

Oh yeah, here he is!

http://garagepunk.ning.com/profile/MikeSpenser

Maybe if he's got a copy of it he could post it in our Video section (hint, hint)!

Mark George Harrison said:

Had a look through some of it earlier then found him on here! Have sent a friend request so maybe he can shed some light on it.

Had a look through some of it earlier then found him on here! Have sent a friend request so maybe he can shed some light on it.

Some interesting things on Mike Spenser's YouTube channel, too:

http://www.youtube.com/user/mikespenser1

Not sure if this is what you're after or not (it's not even three minutes long, much less thirty!)...

Many years ago I caught a documentary, about 30 minutes long, about Mike Spenser. To say it was a shock is an understatement as the Cannibals were never big in the UK and MS was, to most, an unknown. I never thought to record it at the time and have never seen it repeated. I've been through Youtube as well and there's nothing there either. 

Does anyone else remember seeing it or does anyone have a copy?

The July 29th Show. R.I.P. Sherman Helmsley.

http://cjamlog1.cjam.ca/mp3dirnew/381-The_Trip-20120729-0030-t1343518200.mp3

The Setlist:

Shop Assistants - no contest. Never lucky enough to see them live, but did see short-lived spin-off band The Motorcycle Boy supporting the Mary Chain in '87. Anyone ever see them?

Thanks for the help. In the "We Never Learn" book, he does mention that it was a "brief" beef, implying that it didn't last too long or cause any major problems, considering the people in both bands/camps were amicably hanging out together (to some extent) at each other's shows (according to the book).

I was just curious about the story, considering how influential the members of each band are in our little arena of crusty rock.

This was discussed on the Bomp List many moons ago:

http://bomplist.soybomb.net/2000/04/msg00605.html

I seem to remember that basically the Gibson Bros. had sampled a piece of an A-Bones' record and that caused a ruckus. No credit was supposedly given, etc. Or maybe they'd made some rude noise after the 'Bones sample (and *still* not given credit or paid for the use or something like that.)  The Norton folks objected to the use, at any rate and the Gibsons obviously didn't like being given crap for it. Or, at least, that's the little I remember about it.

There's a thread on the Terminal Boredom board which explains a little more: http://terminal-boredom.com/forums/index.php?topic=24544.0 and I seem to recall (although based on somewhat hazily-remembered conversations with Howland and Evans) that it was all sorted out somewhere along the line.

It's good to see so much interest in these kind of bands as it's the sort of stuff we've been playing on our shows, as well as the more 60s inspired garage stuff that seems to get far more coverage. Check out Church of Thee PVC here and our other non GaragePunk Radio show Polyvinyl Craftsmen that features much of the same plus music from loads of other genres too. 

You can also check out:

Thee Holy Ghosts (http://theholyghosts.bandcamp.com/)

Dusty Mush (http://dustymush.bandcamp.com/)

Strange Hands (http://strangehands.bandcamp.com/)

Definitely The Moonhearts, I was listening to their LP yesterday and it really does have a Black Lips sound.

There's one chance left to listen to my July show - at midnight  tonight (UK time) - featuring the ususal mix of psych, garage, electronica and everything else I can lay my hands on.

New August show starts streaming on 1st August (surprisingly), with 3 tracks from the latest Garage Punk Hideout comp, a preview of the Liverpool International Psychedlic Festival, and loads of new stuff, including ace Cambodian psych-pop, drone-y bluegrass and some lovely dub, as well as a couple of vintage rock n roll moments.

Give me a shout if you like what you hear - pete@dandelionradio.com

I'd seen most , not all , of this performance , but , the quality , here , is so good , it's scary. I scored a copy of "Jams" on a VHS comp of Beat Club clips 20+ years ago , but , before You Tube , the other songs never seemed to surface. You never would have guessed this was a band on it's way out . They had a second chance in Europe in '72 , but even that newfound attention could'nt save their careers.