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The Aphrodisiacs
New website = new story
The Aphrodisiacs
Experimental, Electronica, dance, rock from Motherwell Scotland
The band are Stephen McFall, Kevin Carlin & John Cairns
I've at last got round to typing out the history of the band, it's a
daunting task as most of the stuff we do gets lost in a haze of madness.
I'll give it a go. The Aphrodisiacs existed in a couple of forms prior to
2002, to imagine what we sounded like then picture a band trying to be
Mogwai with a shit Casio keyboard thrown in for good measure. First of all
Why the name?
Well aye wish aye could make a cool story but the truth is
aye was listening to a talk show one night on the radio and they where
discussing Aphrodisiacs and how they acted as a stimulant and stuff. I
thought it would be really cool to be an aphrodisiac, so there ye go!
Anyhow 2002 saw the start of the band as it is this now. The three of
us
would spend Saturday nights getting drunk together so we thought it would
make sense to try and make some tunes while we done this . The first song
we ever recorded was "This is a Campaign" in April, it took one night to
record on a Zoom Palmtop studio ( c below 1). it's a tiny piece of gear!
It was really good fun recording the song, while one of us laid down a
guitar track, the other two where battling it on Super Mario Cart on the
SNES. We played the recording to a couple of our friends who where really
positive about the song so I decided we should aim high and sent a one
track cdr to the one person we wanted to hear it, Mr John Peel. About a
week later ( forgetting totally that I'd sent anyone a copy of the song) I
got a phone call from the man himself saying he wanted to play the song in
the show. It was really hard to believe but we listened in to his next
show to see if he would play the song. The first time Peel played one of
our songs is probably one of the best moments we've experienced, it was
total madness! Aye remember being totally stunned that the first song we
had ever wrote and recorded together was getting played on UK nation-wide
radio. The other thing was we hadn't even played a gig! I'll get the
original recording up on t he site to let everyone hear, its my favourite
recording that we've ever done. We sent a couple more tunes we recorded (
Against the grain + Sordid secrets) down to the show in June 02, shortly
into July we had been invited down to record a session for the show! We
where booked to record the session on Sunday 1st September 02. We'd still
never played a gig. The journey for the Peel session was really special,
it was the most fun you could possibly have. We where 19/20 respectively
and we went down with the soul intention of getting fucked, we succeeded.
Now we didn't have much in terms of gear, we didn't have transport so we
kinda had to wing it. The three of us and our good friend Martin Lennox
set off for our first trip to London on Sat 30th Aug to record a Peel
session, and we had to get the bloody train. Onto the train we bundled :
1 x large H&H guitar amp
1x Fender guitar amp
3 x Guitars
1 x bass
1 x Korg MS 10 wrapped in a blanket
Booze for journey
Note the lack of bass amp, drum kit.. You know the things you usually
associate with a band. We had fuck all, what we did have in abundance was
the determination to succeed despite the lack of gear. We where all pretty
drunk when we arrived at Kings Cross, we had to make it to Paddington to
find our digs. aye remember us trying to squash all of our gear into a
black cab but little else. We where staying at the Atlantic Paddington
"Hotel", ma baws it was a hotel! It's a total dive but it was only costing
£15 each a night. We totally destroyed the room we where staying at, we
thought we we're gonna get kicked out at one point in the middle of night
( aye don't know why we where only dancing about on the hotel roof,
blasting music out of a stereo at 3am, running about the corridors,
throwing stuff out the window to see what made the biggest noise - a 3
litre pint of milk is the answer to the last conundrum). On the Sunday we
made it to the glorious studios in Maida Vale, its was freakin beautiful.
I'd never recorded in a studio but Maida Vale must be the best studio in
the UK. the desk is like something out of the millennium falcon. We
recorded four tunes :
Against the grain, Backbone of society, This Is A Campaign, Sordid secrets
The session went out on air on Radio 1 on 25th September. Fantastic. The
real hard work did not start until after this when we wanted to play gigs
and stuff. We had a lot of work to do. Played our first gig in the 13th
note in oct 02 which we really enjoyed, think we played in Edinburgh
before the end of the year but aye really cant remember. The session got
repeated again on Tuesday 10th December 02 which was a real surprise for
us.. We where in Glasgow doing a live session for Glasgow student station
Sub City on the same night. The biggest surprise for 02 ( and probably to
date) was when we heard 'This is a Campaign' had been voted into the
festive fifty at no49.. we where absolutely stunned. Aye still cant ma
head round the fact we made it into the chart for 02, its pretty nuts.
That was probably one of the most satisfying moments to date and the one
thing that meant a lot the three of us. 2003 was one of those years where
not a lot happ ened, we had a bit of growing up to do but it was a year
where aye think we still made a lot of progress. In January we recorded
our adaptation of the Robert Burns love poem . Red Red Rose. for Radio 1 (
I'll try it get a mp3 of this online soon). That was cool as the other
Scottish bands to contribute where Belle and Sebastian, delgados and
ballboy. In march 03 we got asked to play some gigs with ballboy which we
really enjoyed in King Tuts and the Edinburgh Venue. Summer 03 is pretty
vague, think we recorded the demo's of The Tomorrow People and 15 Pillars
of Despair about that time. In August we played the worst gig ever in
banner mans in Edinburgh, we actually went on stage to a room where not
one single person was in, even the sound guy had fucked off! Eventually Ed
fro SL Records walked into the room, for a while we where playing only to
him and his 2 friends which was pretty bizarre. The same month we played a
gig with Terra Diablo which was an enjoyable night. The latter part of 03
was fairly quite, we recorded a demo version of "If you want me" which
gained some airplay at the time. At the beginning of this year we decided
we really wanted to make something happen and we where gonna work hardly
to ensure that we.d be successful. Played a couple of gigs in Stereo
(good), QMU (shit). We where Beatbreakers on Beat 106 in April which was a
good experience. We recorded two new songs in this month, "Ghost in the
shell" + "The hour is late but please consider" which convinced SL to
release our album. We recorded this during the month of May in a house in
Motherwell, it was abit frustrating as we really wanted to go into a
studio to record it properly but it just wasn't to be at the time. We
finished the album in a three weeks. It was pretty easy to pick the title
of the album as it had been called "This is a Campaign" from day one, the
title is perhaps more relevant today than it ever has been. With the album
recorded we could get on with playing some gigs over the Summer this year,
had a good time in Stereo, Dr Drakes, Bongo Club and enjoyed ourselves
when we played for the first time in London in August . Also in August we
recorded our second session for John Peel. We where more organised this
time! Two years is a long time and we where more composed this time and
more professional (but just as determined). Drove a van down to London
this time, even had a drum kit with us. We didn't drink the night before
the session this time so we where as fresh as possible for the session
which we recorded on Thursday 23rd August. We recorded four tunes :
TerraHawk , The Tomorrow People, The hour is late but please consider &
Pulp's Do you remember the first time.
The session was broadcast on Tuesday 5th October 2004.
October 26th 2004 - this indeed was a very sad day as news filtered
through that Mr Peel had died on holiday in Peru. Well its now the end of
the end the year and I still don't know what to really say about this.
Peel introduced us all to our favourite bands. I used to listen to his
show every now and then up until the delgados got voted in at no1 in the
festive fifty in 1999, after that I was hooked to his show. The list of
bands he broke to the world could fill pages ; Pulp, the Smiths, Pink
Floyd, velvet underground, joy division, nirvana etc. Despite discovering
many a major band it was his enthusiasm for new music which could not be
rivalled by anyone and is why so many loved the man :
"People say, what's gonna be the next big thing?" Peel once said.
"But the pleasure for me is in not knowing. I like to be taken by surprise
myself."
On the 28th of oct we played in the barfly with the " next big thing"
which was supposedly called do me bad things. Think the darkness and
erm... well that's about it! They are on the same label, had one decent
song and had about 10 members. Pish .pish .pish .I actually really enjoyed
the other "support" bands ( I hate that word! I also hate bands that write
in there bio the more well known bands that they have played with in the
past. I've never understood how this reflects on how good a band is : ie,
just because a band played a gig with say Franz Ferdinand 2 years ago that
means what exactly? - fuck all!). Anyway, I'm diversing a bit here, De
Rosa and O.B.E were very good which made the night slightly more
enjoyable.
Remember November? Well, not really! We started
rehearsing once a week which is an absolute turn up for the books. Think
we really felt the benefits of rehearsing regularly fairly quickly. It
sounds silly when I'm writing this but its surprising what happens when
you actually practice! Nothing else really happened in this month so we'll
move swiftly on........
December - The tunnocks tour, the
aphrodisiacs take to the road..........
"I bin away a country mile,
Now I'm returnin' showin' off a smile. I met all the girls and loved
myself a few, Ended by surprise like everything else I've been through. It
opened up my eyes and now I'm... One toke over the line sweet Jesus One
toke over the line "
One Toke Over The Line, Brewer & Shipley
What a song, what a song. Its kinda the song we put on whenever we're on a
journey somewhere to get ourselves going, so in December it was never off
the tranny in ma car. That was of course because we finally got ourselves
out of Motherwell and tried playing in various places around Scotland, it
was very enjoyable. Still going to have a to sort out an aphro love wagon
at some point to transport our gear more easily but we're getting there
slowly. For this trip it was just my car packed to the gunnels with all
our equipment. We were surprisingly organised, we had cd's to sell at the
gig ( at freakin last!) and some biscuits courtesy of our sponsors
tunnocks ( we were armed with 48 caramel wafers, 48 caramel logs and 36
teacakes ). Fist destination on our trip was Newcastle. It was an
interesting gig if nothing else. The venue was nice enough ( Night 1 : the
Cumberland arms in byker) although the PA was slightly small, Much like
the turnout but lack of numbers is noth ing which we cant handle. At
this gig we played with the worst band ever, and I have no hesitation in
writing that statement because a. the chances of anyone related to the
band reading this is none because they wouldn't know new music if jumped
up and slapped them on the dish b. they were a bunch of cowboys! Actual
freakin cowboys dressed in all the gear! Ye'll never guess what they
opened with ---- a beastie boys cover, except the words were " YOU GOTTA
FIGHT, DUM DUM, FOR YOUR RIGHT, DUM DUM ... TO HOE DOWN !" ... aye shit ye
not, ye could'nae make this stuff up! The person who booked us for the gig
was really nice to us however ( a recurring theme throughout our trip it
must be said as everyone we met was really nice and helpful) which stopped
the gig being a disaster.
One disturbing fact did arise - did you know that byker grove is
NOT filmed in Byker. Wits that all about? Its alright though , apparently
they are home to the only in city farm in Newcastle, whoopee doo.
( Cds sold -1 ! ,Busy ? - not really , Alcohol consumption -
minimum, Venue - 6/10 )
Straight after the gig we drove up to Edinburgh to crash at ed's.
Negotiating the A1 between Newcastle and Edinburgh is some challenge,
especially when it is really misty and you can barely see two feet in
front of you. That was hard going, we had Pink Floyd on the cd played (
Pulse) which got us through it
Night 2 - Edinburgh bongo Club -
Here @ bongo club with swimmer one, the magnificents, dirty hospital,
Hoboken & luxury car.
We were really looking forward to this night
as it is one of the best line-ups which we have been involved in and were
really looking forward to seeing the other bands. We were on first but it
wasn't too bad as that wasn't until half ten or something. Missed luxury
car and buboken as we had to watch the cd merchandise stall, got a copy of
the Hoboken album which is very good. We had to abandon the cd stall to
drop the car off so we could get drunk so we put up our "Gone Fishing
sign" and made our move. Really good night was had by all, swimmer one had
some technical difficulties but came through in the end which was good to
see as they had put a lot of hard work into organising the whole night.
The magnificents were fantastic ( no chance I'm writing magnificent as
every reviewer has probably used that at some point), really high tempo
tunes, ideal when you out to have a good night. There a chance they might
be remixing one of our tunes next year so keep a listen out for th at as
it could be pretty special. Last up were Dirty hospital who also seemed
to have some tech difficulties. The ex-bis boys were very good though and
kept me dancing all the way home................
( Cds sold -2/3 ,Busy ? - at its peak it was packed, Alcohol
consumption - more than merry!, Venue - 9/10, bongo club is tremendous )
Night 3 - St Andrews student union with Motormark.
Slightly
hungover from a shenanigans the previous night we made the short journey
up the coast to ST Andrews. Had a bit of difficulty finding the place but
got there eventually. it's a really nice union they have up there ( better
than the QMU me thinks), spent the hours before the gig in the bar playing
pool ( nice big American pool style tables - just what the doctor
ordered). The gig was fuckin superb if we don't say so ourselves, really
enjoyed the gig, enjoyed the sound and the aphrodisiacs actually hit a bit
of live form ( huraah I hear you cry). It was satisfying as we had put a
lot of practice in over the last couple of months and I think it showed
its head in st Andrews. So the gig went well, off stage things went out of
control a bit ( nothing ever runs smoothly ) . Two of our friends ( Mr
Lennox - mad man from London trip 1 and accomplice MR Shug) came up for a
bender. Aye think everyone from Motherwell has the same problem when they
go somewhere new ---- they a re just so happy to be out of the place
that they just want to get really drunk and cause chaos in the new town.
And chaos did inevitably followed. Subject A launched a teacake at a
watching punter and got swiftly ejected by bouncers. Subject B got drunk
and ended up lost 20 miles away in Cooper. And That's the short story. (A
big thank you to John and co for putting us up for the night in their
living room - thank you and sorry for the nonsense!)
( Cds sold 2 or 3, Busy - very nice crowd, Alcohol consumption -
pished as a fart, Venue - 9/10 lovely location)
Night 4 - Dr drakes
, Aberdeen with the 55s
Caught the arsenal- chelsea game before we
went up to Aberdeen which was good. Feeling really rough on way up. It was
a fairly quite Sunday night , not busy at all. We'll keep on trying up in
Aberdeen though as it's a city we really like and the promoters at drakes
have always been really nice to us. We'll crack it yet! We played alright
but it is hard to get going when the venue is pretty empty. Undeterred
spirits are still high. Staying at the Aberdeen youth hostel which was
very nice. Got back there about 12 but released we weren't tired so we got
a taxi to find a pub. Ended up somewhere which was open to 2am and drinks
were 1.50 for any drink, ya dancer! In just over an hour we rattled 6 jack
Daniels and 3 blue sours each in attempt to catch the bus to land of
drunks, nae joy. Practically ran back to the hostel which got us tired.
(Cds sold - 2 , Busy - naw, Alcohol consumption - a late burst for glory,
Venue - 8/10 aye like drakes)
Night 5 - Rep theatre, Dundee with the A forest and little Moscow
By the time we drove down to Dundee we're shattered. This gig
malarkey is actually pretty hard going. Its not the playing gigs which is
difficult, that's the easy bit. it's the waiting and waiting and waiting
before the gig which does ye in. We got down to Dundee about 3.30pm, load
in was about 7:30pm. That's a long time tae hang about. Found ourselves a
yellow card pub for some scran and began the wait. Got to the rep theatre
and it was very clean and fancy looking, when you first get there ye
wonder where the hell the bands are gonna play as the place is full of
diners eating their dinner. AT half seven the tables are meant to get
cleared but there is a couple of old dears who refuse to budge, its going
on 9pm before they get lobbed out, sherry in hand of course. Fast set up
doesn't give little moscow a sound check but they were enjoyable none the
less. The a forest were also very good. Need to give ourselves ashake
before we play, think we were alright but we can play m uch much better.
Looking forward to our own bed at this point so we make a swift exit and
drive home to Motherwell, home bout 3am, it had been a long
day...........
( Cds sold 5/6 , Busy - yes , Alcohol consumption -
hee haw, Venue 8/10 )
Night 6 - A night off
Night 7 - SL
Records Party - Glasgow, Rockers
Surprisingly good venue. The main
thing that comes to mind about rockers. I hadnae held great hopes for the
place at all but the sound was spot on. A good first night was had by all.
Was nice to play with the other SL bands who we had played with through
2004 as well. The starlets were awesome as always. If ye havn't seen them
play live get yer arse out and see them play, buy their 2 albums while
your at it as well as it will be one of the wiser decisions you'll ever
make...
Cds sold - not got a clue!, Busy - no bad, Alcohol
consumption - nay, party time next night in Edinburgh, Venue - a
surprising 8.
Now the party really begins. A chocka line-up to work through, think it
ran peanut, 55s, degrassi , Gordon ballboy, ourselves then the starlets.
That a lot of bands to work through! Really enjoyable night, was dancing
by the end of it so must have been good! Really enjoyed watching everyones
set, I thought they all were in form for this one. A nice end for the run
of gigs.
Cds sold - dunno, Busy - aye but wittled down after 12, Alcohol
consumption - wearing cowboy hats at 4am - wit dae you think?, Venue -
solid 9
And we thought 49 was a beautiful number, how good does 45 sound?
Bounced in last night pretty drunk and went straight on the computer to
find out if we were in the festive fifty for 2004. I hadnae really thought
about it at all but aye kinda realised after a couple of beers in the pub
that the show was on the radio that night. And there it is, wedged nicely
between Bloc Party - 'Little Thoughts' and Mountain Goats - 'Your Belgian
Things' (LP- We Shall All Be Healed) - (4AD) - no 45 Aphrodisiacs - If U
want me ------------- YA DANCER!
That really means a lot to us. 45 in the uk chart ( 35, 25, 15?) means
nothing compared to that. You know in the last couple of months we've
seemed to be labelled with the tag of "one of the last ever peel sessions"
which we've not really been comfortable with because that only occurred
out of the tragic circumstances of the latter days of October. Being in
last ever festive fifty however?? Well people can write that all the want
because we can live with that. We've now had two festive fifty
placings..... Phenomenal. Thank you very much if you voted for us, it
means the world to us.
And that was kinda us. Played the is this music? Christmas party just
before Christmas surprisingly enough which was a good night, they raised a
couple of hundred bucks for the big issue which was good. Hopefully get ma
hands on some pictures for the photo section. Alamos were very good, check
em out. And that's kinda us for 2004. In reflection its been a guid year,
we've really enjoyed ourselves. Here's to a good 05, expect more gigs (
London for starters in February), more songs ( some new one's mibees at
the start of the year) and more work by us .... Help us do enough.
This is A Campaign
Aphro love
XxXxX
"with the right communication, we.ll awake this sleeping nation"
1. The zoom ps-02 studio on which we recorded the demo of this is a
campaign.............................................
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