Trev Teasdel and Don't Talk Wet c 1973/4
By 1972, I was beginning to play floor spots in folk clubs and the Umbrella with a bunch of unusual songs. By 1973 I often played in between sets of Fission or the derivatives of the Mick Green Green Blues band - venues such as the Navigation, Hand in Heart and later in at Streetpress gigs in Birmingham.
I was basically solo but I was often joined by members of Fission Johnny Adams (acoustic guitar), Simon Lovegrove (Percussion), Ant Callaghan (percussion and backing vocals), Mick Green (harmonica) / guitar) - or various combinations depending on the gig. Often we would jam in the city centre, or the Cathedral grounds - sometimes with just Johnny Adams (later of Squad). Later in 1974 / 5 it would be with Phil Knapper (guitar / vocals) (older brother of Stu Knapper of Riot Act) and Andy Cairns (who played in an early Jazz rock outfit with Horace Panter c 1975). At one folk club it was with Trilogy's Row Brewster on bongos with his Latin rhythms. At the Hobo Workshop it was with Johnny Alderson or Colin Cripps on some occasions. All loose and impromptu - not a fixed band.
The name came from a line in one of Dave 'Byron' Reed's poems. So if I was going to be joined by any the musicians - I'd call us Trev Teasdel and Don't Talk Wet. It was mentioned on the Broadgate Gnome music site 2003, Godiva Rocks 2004 and in Hobo magazine (1973)
Hobo Ad 1973 Issue 2
"Wanted for Don't Talk Wet
Trev, writer of songs, requires musicians- flutes, guitars, mandolins, violins - anything interesting."
At the start of Hobo magazine John Bargeant AKA Bo of Rougestar promotions began to represent me. He made available his PA with reverb and provided stylaphone accompaniment (the kind Bowie used on Space oddity) and took me in a taxi to gigs in Birmingham. He put an ad in the first issue of Hobo. In second edition small ads I advertised for musicians, flute, mandolin, guitar - anything interesting. However the work of Hobo took over and although I continued to write and perform, much of my energy went into promoting local bands and artists in Coventry and developing the Hobo Workshop venue. Bo left to become the sound engineer with Khayyam on their European tour. Through Hobo, I also did a bit of recording in the home studio of Sasp'rilla c 1974 on an Akai Reel to Reel. I don't have any of the recordings.
Undeterred Trevor answered an advert in Melody Maker advertising for
songwriters for Album material. Their office was located in Greek St. (where many of the famous folkies had played - Bert Jansch etc.). I went down by train with my jumbo Eko Guitar on my back and one of those seventies style mono cassette players with a bunch of songs recorded The sound was awful, full of tape hiss. The guy nonetheless sat through some of them and loved the lyrics. He advised me to get a band behind me to do the songs and then return and suggested I listen to the charts (at that time full of bubblegum bands!). I was more into albums at that stage - the charts was full of pap as far as I was concerned. Although there were a attempts at forming a band - one with Bob Rhodes and Colin Armstrong at the Hobo Workshop, one with Andy Cairns and Phil Knapper and a later one one with Andy Cairns and Selecter's roadie / van driver who played bass in 1980 can't remember his name off hand - there was a female singer too - a Pentangle style band around my songs but with a cover of Cruel Sister, but nothing held together and I was kept busy with Hobo and the workshop.
On the Move to Teesside in 1980 I met up with Steve Gillgallon and Stephen Ingledew and we formed what I called
Trev and the Collective Unconcious. This again was a loose arrangement but with a more concentrated effort of working on my songs. Although I played solo we rarely played live mostly worked on my songs and recorded various versions on cassette and later on a four track portastudio (some of which feature on My my Space and will be included on the forthcoming Songs From the Coventry Underground on the Gnome label. In fact most of the recordings on that album come from the Coventry days, with some being later recorded on Teesside in the 80's.
My main thrust was a songwriter rather than band member. Early in the seventies before I played guitar, I wanted be a kind of Pete Sinfield to a band. I wrote stuff for some of Mojo Morgan's various bands and indeed Mojo put music to an early song of mine - The Elusive Metallic Idol. Pete Waterman put music to an earlier version of A Lotta Rain is Fallin' and teamed me up with Coconut Mat / Martin Barter. Later, on learning guitar I went down the singer songwriter road for a while.
My song writing was prolific in many styles, never aiming to be consciously
commercial but my creativity began to spill out in diverse forms from the mid seventies, playing the roles of Editor, organiser of venues, promoter, performing poet, festival organiser, creative writing tutor, creative and educational development worker and more recently digital archivist. The songs on the new album some of the many form the Coventry Underground days, recorded mostly on cassette (reprocessed
through software) and a few on portastudio. There are stories about the Coventry music scene behind many of them. They are often first draft and informal recordings (warts and all). Not the kind that most people would put out I guess but I like the rough 'bootleg' feel to it in contrast with the current digital perfection and voicecodas etc.
Trev's sites are Trev on My Space or Songs of Trev Teasdel (Vox) or on Gnome Fest (developing) Trev on Gnome Fest
Some of these songs are on the album but not Somemower AKA Down Our Street and the Medieval Rock practise run here with Andy Cairns.
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