Armed And Ready – Kerrang! 1982 MIKE SMITH
SURPRISINGLY, with a fabola handle like DEEP JOY the band have nothinkosio in comosia witho the talents of Professor Stanley Unwin (which is a shame because I bet he writes some ace lyrics). Nah, actually they’re a powerhouse quartet from Not-tingham who possess a sound not un-like Motorhead’s in the noise toy stakes though the twin guitar attack of Dave Rickett and Phil ‘Fudge’ Leigh does give them a little more depth and scope than the Terrible Trio.
Formed early in ’79 by the brothers Rickett (Richard on drums) and Phil Leigh, who had played together in various local bands, they needed a bass player and so put an ad in a local paper which attracted a reply from Dave “Kos” Clayton.
‘I can remember seeing this adver-tisement in the wrong section of the paper” he says. It was under Births. Deaths and Marriages’ or something and. as it seemed interesting. I answered it.
With Dave also doubling up on voc-als, the band spent a year rehearsing so as to give as good a show as possible when they made their debut, which came in May ’80 on the back of a lorry at a charity gig. Rich recalls:
“It was a good gig, but we were play-ing outside and the wind was incredibly strong. We literally had to tie things to the stage to stop them blowing away. ”
More recently they’ve completed a session for Graham Neale’s rock show on Radio Trent and they’re soon to re-turn to the studios to lay down some tracks.