Low Red Moon

ギター弾いてる時だけは、なんか無敵になった気分でさ！！

1980s Horsham Bands Or Singers

Acts based in Horsham or nearby during the 1980s, often of an indie persuasion.

Piers Hernu – Before The Bomb (1985)

An ambient synth diversion performed by Piers Hernu on Roland Juno 106 and Korg MS10 at the DIMLight Production, "One Night At Collyer’s", the local Sixth Form College in Horsham. It was captured on a knackered old Revox A77 with Sound Associates editing modification.

Other turns on the bill, as effusively reviewed by David Hatto for the Soundwave column in the West Sussex County Times, were: Christine, ‘quite acceptable’; Destiny, ‘tightest on the night’; Fixed Vision, ‘capable enough’; and Strange Brew, ‘a little unrehearsed’.

Though tacked on the Awesome From Horsham Playlist Piers was actually from Billingshurst way.

DEF – Creative Wallpaper For The Modern Interior (1982)

Early 80s Drumatix and home made synth music from the puntastically named DEF today in the Awesome From Horsham series.

For Jammie Git this is where it all started. Back in 1980 he was known as Kevin Truggle who along with Mutt Monrow and Rat Gonad were part of a musicians collective called The Krud Organization. This track credited to H.P.R was possibly released under the band name of D.E.F (Deutsche Englische Freundschaft), a homage to the mighty D.A.F. James Calderwood

Collyers College

A lean period for original music in Horsham was already setting in by the time Champagnes nightclub was knocked down in July of 1989 but losing the town’s only decent music venue and one which attracted charting indie bands lost the focus for a revival and meant that later recoveries remained largely insular.

Brighton moving up through the divisions of the Country’s artistic centres also made it harder for bands from Horsham to play there and losing Turn It Up in the merger that created Southern Counties Radio meant the chances of building a following and catching the attention of promoters was considerably reduced. But for now we soldiered on.

A photocopy of a microfiche of a photograph in the West Sussex County Times in 1989 from a photoshoot I have no memory of.
Some Gits, Yesteryear

Yours for £2.50: Midwich Cuckoos, Still Life, The Gits, Spiralhead and The Loveless. And a good turn out at The College Of Richard Collyer by all accounts. Well, the one available account.

I spy an extended metaphor.

Third band of the evening were The Gits, who upped the termperature with a blistering set that ducked and dived, jabbed and hooked. A knockout display of hard pop, The Gits went into the ring full of confidence and won in the first round. Know what I mean ‘Arry?

Next of the regulars.

Spiralhead, the Hawkwind of the eighties.

I think we’ll leave that there.

photocopy of a microfiched photograph from the West Sussex County Times of The Loveless

From start to finish The Loveless were angry, entertaining and utterly professional. Vocalist Adrian De’ath put everything into the gig, the strength of his voice matched only by the strength of the songs.

All in all a great gig, but what of the future? Let’s hope a suitable venue can be found in the town for live music or all this could be a thing of the past which would be a great pity.

Gareth Williams

It was.

The Bat And The Ball And The Festival

Last Day Of The Tour

A small festival in Wisborough Green on the common next to the Bat & Ball pub headlined by China Crisis. We were on very early on which was probably not the best thing given the gig in Brighton the night before and reflected in the review.

…billed as Pure Pop For Pop People they certainly lived up to their reputation with a combination of bass, lead and drum machine providing a bubbling, sometimes joyous, backing to Jim Calderwood’s varied vocal talents (sometimes too varied – maybe a Friday night hangover?).

Ben’s bass amp packed up early on but the monitor engineer was remarkably on the ball and he whacked more through the monitors in no time so thank you unknown sound engineer and may your favourite crisps always be on special offer.

A photocopy of a microfiched photograph from the West Sussex County Times of Adrian De'Ath of The LovelessNote Eyes followed who I’m sure I know something about but it’s not coming to me.

Next on, The Loveless, continuing their new hard-line tactics with a set fit to blow away the senses. Haywire guitar breaks, booming bass lines, thumping drum beats and hard-hitting vocals made this a performance unworthy of their afternoon slot which at this stage of the day poorly attended – if you weren’t there hard luck!

Trying to find any information about or recordings by the band haven’t been helped by a popular Irish beat combo later using the name for an album.

…Bitter, James Harris, Perfect Shade, No Stiletto Shoes, ska stalwarts The Hot Knives, Star Rats, and finally China Crisis who,

…produced a polished and professional sound throughout their set backed up with very ‘nice’ sounding vocals, however this did not disguise the fact that it lacked substance and feeling.

I’m not in a position to comment as we cleared off for a pleasant pint at The Limeburners after the indie turns had done their bit.