Past Members: Fergus Crockford
Fabian Eason
Dave Crossley
Steven Martin
Willy Graham
Steve Mallaghan
Richard Joseph (deceased)
Andrew Macfarlane
Jacqui Roughley
Alan Roughley
Gerald Gilbert
Alasdair Blaazer
John (JJ) Johnson
Pat Smith
Fill Mills
Mark Ryder
Dominic Blaazer
Dave Colton
Kenny Bishop
Joanne
Liz Cook
Chrissie Lane
Andy Bibby
Louise Dick
Influences
Roxy Music, The Cramps, Richard Dadd, The Divine Dali, Brian Eno, Bauhaus, Rema-Rema, Joy Division, all the good Post Punk stuff from 1978-80 (Section 25, Pragvec), Man Ray, Shriekback...
Stretch a wobbly thin red line of ectoplasm between the fecund hop gardens of Kent and
the Pirate Pubs of Wapping Wall, season with the estuarine whiff of the Medway Punk Scene (Dickens would have approved), shake in more than a few long hot summers and allow to stand for around 20 years...
The Skinbat Scramble are a post-punk random prog goth electro art school psychedelic band, who first dimly showed up on broken radar in the late 1970s. We recorded (in various spindrifting configurations) a prolific number of songs between 1981 and 2004, and performed at various London venues.
Our past recorded work varies from full-on produced studio extravaganzas to field recordings in various living rooms and live tapes. The quality of work varies from "sublime" to "magnificent folly" via "ahead of their time". The archives (Vols 1-5) are available on CD, fully remastered, in spiffy digital quality with smashing covers, booklets and all that. We are pretty confident that the new output will more than match this yardstick. After a layoff of some years, they recommenced various covert ops in this promising new century (including releasing the well-received double archive CD "VOLUME 5"); operations began again in earnest in 2007, after three key members of the last (1986) gigging version of the Skinbat Scramble (Mark Nicky and Gary) found themselves sprinkled amongst the onstage lineup of The Old Dolphin Brigade. Handshakes ensued, Piers Eason was chained to the drum stool and Carl Gent the ODB leader added guitar. Magic flew around. A new robust set of performances began with a private showing at the Forum on 21st October 2007. The four pronged attack of writing, rehearsal, recording and gigging began straight away; Imogen was added on bass, freeing Mark to return to his guitar duties; the band convened at the Granary Studios, Lamberhurst during 2008, and the NEW ALBUM, "REMAINS", was released in early February 2009.
Bright young things can check us out at our facebook site, or at our own website www.skinbatscramble.co.uk - which has more pictures'n'stuff. Various offshoots and adjuncts to the Skinbats are still active in various (dis)guises throughout the South east:
Head on over to the Alien Piers Organisation website, in order to securely buy the Scramble CDs or check out related whosits and whatnots galore. Or something.
We now have two albums on iTunes: Volumes 2 & 3, with "REMAINS" to follow in early 2009...
Richard Joseph, died, 4/3/2007
It is with great sadness that the Skinbat Scramble acknowledges the death of its former contributor, Richard Joseph. Richard was a member/contributor of the Scramble for one night only, in 1986, when he lugged his monitor and sequencer/keyboard round to the flat in Wyfold Road Sarzi was living in at the time and programmed into it Eagu's bassline from "Eternity, Indecision and Death" and the riff from
"Personality Pirates". The resulting tracks, mixed on the spot to a Revox using a Fuzz Face and two Copicats, became the proto-dance classics "The Train Music, Parts 1, 2 and 3" (which tracks Fabian and Steven of the Glo-Pilots used to dance to when they were 5 years old). Richard earliest band was Contemporary Music Unit and he wrote the memorably named "Doctor Am I Normal?" for an album called (or by) Space Cabaret in the early 70s. Later in that decade he was one of the casualties of the music business when Prog-rock contracts were wildly axed in the rush to sign anything Punk. He never said what was the name of the group he was the singer for, only intimating that the band was along the lines of such classic cultivated melodic rock outfits such as Metro and/or Racing Cars. After that setback, Richard eventually applied his musicality to the fledgling Computer Games industry via his ability as a keysman, becoming quite simply the BEST games music programmer there was (to those with discerning ears). Amongst his admirers and collaborators in that industry were Richard Leinfellner of EA, and Rupert Bowater of Binary Vision.
It is a typical feature of the Skinbat Scramble that someone whose tenure within it was so brief could yet be such a central figure in its psyche. Richard brought old-school musicality to bear in advanced electronics (for their day) with his customary professionalism, leaving in its unassuming wake an indelible mark upon the post punk amateurs and itinerant art students that made up the rebellious racontic rabble that inhabited Elephant Studios and Sleazy's in Wapping (ie. the Skinbat Scramble). Indeed, "The Train Music" sequence wasn't even released until 17 years after its commission so disorganised was the Skinbat Scramble as a musical entity. It was typical of Richard's comet-like coming and going that he received a copy of the CD with the polite request that anything further done with the tracks be sent to him (specifically, he was referring to Fabian's dance remix/edit of "The Train Music Part 2", to date, not released), only to disappear once more into the firmament from which he came. Richard was an intelligent, kind and considerate man, and we miss him already, just as we have always missed him. God Bless. The Angels are feeding back their electric harps leant in salute against celestial amps. Goodbye RJ.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Joseph
and it plays havoc with the flash. Did your tags get through? I didn't realise I had to give approval and don't remember doing it. Very innovative set from you!
hi guys, thanks for the link-up, yes, we're really looking forward to it..! hopefully the weather will be good.. please come and say hi. are you guys playing..? peace, and best wishes, AURORA
IT..S DECEMBER. AS WE..RE GETTING CLOSER TO CHRISTMAS & NEW YEAR WE WANT TO BRING YOU SOME GIFTS, TWO NEW UPLOADED TRACKS, ‘OVER AND OUT’ & ‘SANITY CHECK’, WITH GENEROUS CONTRIBUTIONS FROM
