Various line ups including: Russ Russian (vocal, "simple but effective" guitar parts), Nick "Nick Blackburn" Blackburn (keyboards), Stuart Kirk-Spriggs (bass guitar "in the slapped and plucked styles"), Steven Wright (drums and percussion - but not in that order), Trevor Dooley (saxophone, guitar), Nigel Manning (saxophones), Nick Robinson (guitar), Paul Widger (guitar), Hayden Boyes-Weston (drums), Martin Lacey (aka Martin XRussian -guitar); Tony Vella (guitar and stylophone); Chris Whitehead (keyboards); Dave Mayall (slides); Carl O'Connor (bass and bagpipes) and Steve Nall (films).
.... any other information gratefully received.
I have begun to transfer vinyl to mp3 and the track selection will vary, but I need digital copies of the Red Square ep and anything before Don't Try to Cure Yourself for a fuller picture. Someone out there has songs recorded live - I'd like to include those here too!
Also - I need info of gigs, line ups and any other info to add if you wish to contact me through this medium!!
Cheers
Stuart
hi stuart, happy to transfer the following ... "nagasaki's children" 7" ep, "don't try to cure yourself" 7" single, "devotion" 12" single, "where have i seen you" (sampler track), tmbr 12" album, tmbr live at nowsoc 26/6/78 (nowsoc greatest hits vol 1 - cassette), tmbr demo cassette (input sheffield 24/10/81). i've added some scans to the tmbr myspace group too
"ooooh those russians" sang boney m, and who are we to argue. great band, great tunes, great gigs ... i'm sure you appeared in a play at the crucible (posibly the studio) back in the day? btw, i've got a load of the early stuff i can digitise if need be .....
I was Chris Russian. I lived in a bedsit on Wilkinson Street in Sheffield. Martin and Tony lived in the same house.
I got to know Tony by responding to a free ad he'd placed in NME. A chap called Ray, we rechristened him Jah Slug due to his unreliability and slothful nature, was the singer. We called ourselves The Lost, but we never gigged because we had no songs and couldn't think of any.
I was not in the very first TMBR lineup, but I played gigs as a trio with Russ and Tony as far as I can remember. I borrowed some keyboards from a chap called Tony Dale who lived near my Mum and Dad for a gig in a bar at the Uni. Sadly I stood my beer on the side and it fell off onto the keys rendering the instrument silent. Despite Tony and Russ doing Nellie The Elephant, nothing could be done to get so much as a squeak out of the stricken organ, so the gig was abandoned. I also sang lead on a song or two and played guitar. Martin leant me his for a bit.
Hope this info helps build a comprehensive picture of a band that epitomised everything Sheffield.
They certainly are... Just had a module on film genre, focussing on gangster movies, which is apparently Tom Ryall's strong point...
Also, Gerry 'The Gesticulator' Coubro's still there.. Can I ask though, did he like still gesture wildly with his hands for every word he said back in the day when he was teaching you guys??
