An Introduction to Brouhaha

Brouhaha were a fab band, and my memories of our times together are very fond, if vague. We're talking late seventies, early eighties here, the dim and distant past. Bill Docherty, the guitarist, was the finest musician I have ever known. He could play like Robert Fripp without even thinking, and could conjure riffs out of thin air. I'm ashamed to admit that the name of the singer eludes me - I think he was called John. Like Bill, he hailed from Glasgow. I was friendly with a large bunch of Glaswegians at the time, and a fine group of people they were.

Chris was the drummer, a Londoner like myself, and various other musicians flitted in and out of the picture. In our early days, Wal played clarinet and Trevor played guitar. I was the bassist, an instrument I came to late, but loved to play. Early gigs involved long tribal jams around songs called, for example "We're the Fackawi" and the Velvet's "Sister Ray". More than one of these gigs involved much bleeding of the guitar/bass players fingers, and one memorable gig involved carrying a PA and an assortment of guitars across an ice-covered Stoke Newington.

I have very few physical reminders of Brouhaha. I have one tape that we recorded in Herne Bay, under extreme circumstances (therein lies another blog), and a couple of pictures taken at the famed 101 Club gig in Clapham - the only gig I've ever done where the crowd actually went completely mad and bounced up and down a bit. I hesitate to say it, but maybe we changed some lives out there, as I even found a mention of this gig on the website of one of the Jasmine Minks, a band who became better known than Brouhaha:

The Night the Jasmine Minks Got Their Name

This is a Picture of me immediately after the gig:











This is Brouahaha in full flight, showing (left to right) Chris the drummer, me on bass, and Tom on clarinet. Unfortunately I have no pictures of Bill the guitarist or John (?) the singer.













Miraculously, I do have an actual ticket from this gig!












Impressive eh? Not to mention good value. So, enough of the waffle, now you can hear some for yourself. This track was recorded in Herne Bay and played on John Peel (although I missed it). It is sampled from a tape that I've had for a quarter of a century, and that I must have played hundreds of times. Amazingly, it doesn't sound too distorted and awful. I love the freeform percussion and the bassline on this song.

The Reason (She Looks So Happy)

That's enough history for one night, children. In our next exciting episode I will be discussing (and illustrating) the completion of the compost bin, and the completion of our shed.