This is the first in a series of three posts looking back at my former band The Screenbeats / The Shake / The Immediate which was active from circa 2003 until 2011. There’ll be some never-seen-before photos and video footage, amusing anecdotes and hopefully these articles will provide some sort of glimpse into what life was like for a group navigating the choppy waters of the DIY music scene in the mid-noughties.
15 years ago this summer…
My old band The Screenbeats (also previously known as The Immediate and The Shake) recorded what would become our first proper release on Rowed Out Records, ‘Troubled Scene’ at Gizzard Studios, Hackney Wick with the ace analogue engineer Ed Deegan who had previously worked with our favourites The Cribs, Holly Golightly, The Fall and later, Michael Kiwanuka. We recorded the EP whilst the 2006 World Cup was taking place and made ourselves comfortable in a nearby East London industrial estate pub on the Saturday afternoon to watch England play Portugal, strongly encouraging Ed to come and join us. England only went and got knocked out on penalties and we then had to return to the studio to finish the day’s session at 7.30pm with us all of us feeling somewhat deflated…
Halcyon days at Gizzard Studios, Hackney Wick. 2005-6.
14 years ago…
We launched the more adventurous and soulful follow-up EP ‘Pounds Signs & Foreign Villains’ (also recorded at Gizzard Studios with Ed), with an actually-quite-busy show at the famous Dublin Castle in Camden Town. I started the morning in Southampton where I was working for the summer at a language school, took the train up to Cardiff to sit an exam during the day and then made my way to North London for the gig that evening, before taking the night train back to Southampton afterwards. One of the more restful days…
Onstage at The Dublin Castle, Camden Town. August 2007.
13 years ago…
We decamped to South Wales for an eventful weekend (we stayed at my flat in Cardiff) over the Easter period and recorded a set of songs with Gethin Pearson (Kele Okereke, Charlie XCX, Crystal Fighters, Badly Drawn Boy) in Pontypool, including an early version of ‘Hanging On’ and what we felt was our strongest song yet, ‘Super 8’. Gethin now has his own residential studio and you can find out more about his work on Big Life Management’s site here.
Also, 13 years ago…
We filmed a video for ‘Super 8’ in Dinas Powys in the Vale of Glamorgan with Cardiff-based film-makers Skin and Sledge. The video sadly disappeared from YouTube a few years ago but happily, and with Skin’s help posting the master copy to me, it’s now back online in all its glory once again. Hopefully in perpetuity this time.
The Screenbeats – ‘Super 8’
I had met Skin and Sledge in The Mackintosh pub in Cathays, Cardiff (and later Clwb Ifor Bach) – as is often the case with the most productive of meetings. They were a good laugh and kindly offered to storyboard and shoot a video for us free of charge – they enjoyed the creative process and it was something for their portfolio too.
Stills from the ‘Super 8’ video shoot. June 14th 2008.
We shot the video on 14th June 2008, the day after my final university summer ball so I was suitably rough around the edges that morning. However, we were blessed with a warm, sunny day (not always the case in Wales) and Skin and Sledge’s concept of a ‘Mexican vampire party’ turned out to be something of a masterstroke. It was a long day of filming and our drummer at the time couldn’t make it but we still were happy with the end results. We filmed the closing scenes of the video in my shared flat in Cardiff and when a group friends turned up ahead of a night out later that evening, they were suitably bemused by the black plastic sheets taped to the walls and the people walking around in supposed traditional ‘Mexican’ dress.
The Screenbeats; a potted history
I was in this band from the age of 16 until I was nearly 24. The first time I met singer Faye and bassist Roger we had to sit outside the Newbury pub we were in and they smuggled pints of beer out to me on the sly (the legal drinking age in the UK is 18). We had three names; starting life as The Immediate, then becoming The Shake and finally settling on The Screenbeats after being threatened with legal action on not one, but two separate occasions. An Irish band called The Immediate had been picked up by Fierce Panda Records in 2005 and we received a letter from their lawyer ordering us to change our name as both bands had started to get some radio airplay and it was making things confusing for journalists and DJs alike. We had been using the name for over two years but we didn’t have the funds or legal expertise to challenge them so acquiesced. The same thing then happened two years later when an American band called Shakes got signed to a major label and their legal team got in touch. We chose to change our name to The Screenbeats as we were pretty sure it was unique and there wouldn’t be another band with the same name.
Two of the earliest photos of The Immediate / The Shake. Waterside Centre and Northcroft, both Newbury. October 2004 and July 2005 (photo: Newbury Weekly News).
The band’s core nucleus was distinctive, soulful vocalist Faye, ever-reliable bassist Roger whose melodic playing became a key part of our sound and myself on guitar (excitable, something of a liability at times but I think I also brought a certain energy). We had as many permanent drummers as we did names; my schoolmate and supremely-talented jazz percussionist Joost (2004 – 2007), the self-confessed vegan ‘posi-punk’ Alex (2007-8) and our final drummer Praag (2008 – 2011) who brought a degree of calmness and sophistication to proceedings. We also had two notable temporary drummers – the inimitable Newbury character Nick and South East Londoner Haydn, my pal from university.
In the beginning; Row 1; various promo shoots – all taken in Newbury, 2004. Row 2; the cover art to our first demo CD as The Immediate (2004) featuring an early version of ‘All The Rage’. Our first ever London gig at Southern K, Kilburn in July 2004. Row 3; live at Newbury Corn Exchange, November 2004. Our new ‘The Shake’ branding and logo following our enforced 2005 name change.
We played over 300 gigs with our various line-ups from every corner of London to Southampton to Cardiff to Leicester to Birmingham to Bristol (and everywhere in-between). There are too many stories and capers to recall them all but being in the band was very much an education for all of us. We learned how to occupy ourselves for hours in between our soundcheck and stage time, not to mention the long journeys – either by train or in Rog’s trusty van. “What would you do for a five-album record deal?” and “speak in pirate language for an hour” were just two of our favourite ways of passing the time. There was also great excitement when we once spotted the late magician Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee at a motorway petrol station on our way home from a gig at The Sunflower Lounge in Birmingham too. From memory, I think Joost snuck a photo through the passenger window as we drove away…
We also met all manner of people vaguely connected to the music business; from the absolute diamonds (you hold onto these people), to the well-intentioned but hapless, to the absolute scumbags. The second-ever London show we played in 2004 at Sound, Leicester Square springs to mind as an example for the latter; we had sold 50 tickets at £10 each and the promoter still kept all of the proceeds. We even had to use the venue’s guitar amp (we weren’t allowed to bring our own due to space constraints on the stage) and this stopped working halfway through our set meaning we had an impromptu midway interlude. You live and you learn from these experiences though and it’s amazing how many of these people – the good and bad – I would meet again during my career in my 20s.
More in my next follow-up post about the very best and very worst gigging experiences we had and some other tales about life on the road.
A selection of photos from the early days of the band including a raucous party at The Colony Club, Greenham (complete with stage invasion), The Halfmoon in Putney, the Farringdon Betsey Trotwood, Newbury Northcroft and Joost’s farewell gig with us at The Late Lounge in Newbury. All December 2004 – January 2007.