Somewhere after Glam Rock faded and the early days of Punk Rock (1976), two young, creative and talented artists (Les Sharcott & Terry Gilbert) met at Victoria High School. The synergy and energy of their respective talents exploded into a songwriting and recording frenzy that had never been seen in the sleepy city of Victoria, B.C. Canada.
Recordings and songwriting began in 1977 where Terry Gilbert would play his "Teenie Genie" organ and Les would accompany on guitar and bass tracks. Early recordings sound very much like Pink Floyd and The Doors.
In 1978 the two artists fell right into the "New Wave" sound and were predominately influenced by the British Artists signed & Indie musicians from the Stiff Records scene.
By 1979 Les & Terry had been joined with drummer Duane Franklin to form the core of London Drewgs. A series of musicians came and went during this period. John Mears (The Keys), James Ross (The Keys/Low Fun), Chuck Simms, Kaz, Maurice, Snied Nort, Demetrie Albernoff and Tad Peachie. Terry Gilbert played keyboards during this time.
Over 100 original songs were written by Les & Terry in 1979-1980, an amazing feat for any local band. A multitude of tape submissions to many record companies resulted in a stack of reject letters. Terry was asked to leave the band a few times in 1980 due to women and a terrible gambling problem.
Issues for Terry came to a head in August 1980 when he had to confront an emormous Mah Jong gambling debt incurred in Victoria's notorious "Fan Tan Alley" area of Chinatown. In order to pay for his debt, Terry agreed to allow a "Tong" member (Jon Li Wii) to use 4 original songs to satisfy the debt.
Much to the band's surprise, the songs were feature in the Asian adult film "Three Chinamen & A Bed". The movie was less that successful (Terry and the band never saw it) and no royalties were ever paid for music supplied. Terry would later imortalize Mr. Jon Li Wii in the song, "Where The Rats Come From", long before Mr Wii invented his successful computer game.
In 1981 Terry left London Drewgs to pursue a solo career which involved the release of the single, "Call Me In The Night/What You're Doing". The single charted in Brooklyn, San Francisco, Tokyo, Perth, and Prague. Airplay was limited to overseas listeners.
Terry recorded his first full length album, "In The Combat Zone" in 1982 however it was never released. Terry left the music scene in late 1982 later to resurface in 2007 and work with engineer/writer/producer Les Sharcott once again.
And what of the other "Drewgs"???? Les continued to write music, record and produce some of Victoria's best Indie bands of the early 1980's. Working with talented musicians such as Tew Laller and Al Ell (Automatic Shock). Les went on to work in music production for film (award winning) and recorded many songs and sound bites for Expo 86.
Dunane Franklin played with numerous Victoria bands most notable 64 Funny Cars. James Ross moved to Japan and does voiceover work for PC Games.
Listen to the full CD Twisted Droogist and then order your very own copy at the V1 Music Myspace page. Watch for rarities from the Dark Archives on this Official London Drewgs Myspace Page.
sending your page some love!
thanks for finding us! so glad to meet you!
we have a new rockin' tune up on our page "Rock-n-Roll Star" ....come check it out and let us know what ya think!
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best wishes always, and please stay in touch!
*big hug* luv.jm./megan
Thanks for the add. Hey Les, I think you engineered/produced some recordings I was involved with back in '86. We were called Bedspins, Kev Lee from Infamous Scientists was in the band, it was in Esquimalt somewhere. Ring a bell at all ?
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