85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95
22 Nov 1985
CUD return. This time it’s personnel: Elvis Belt (vocals/guitar), Carl Puttnam (bass) and William Potter (drums), except, for one song, ‘Flick Knife Fearless’ when William shouted.
We were third on the bill upstairs at The Royal Park, Headingley. The headline act were a crowd-pleasing rock covers band, The Children, seen about on posters for the University’s Prog Rock Society events. This three-piece were comprised of two Americans and one Geordie, a Michael Dunphy (bass).
Carl owned the bass guitar, but had a determination to finish playing the bassline whether or not it took the band less or more time to play their parts. Carl was therefore gradually relegated to the position of singer. Luckily, he turned out rather well.
13 Feb 1986
The cabaret. Yet again, an act named CUD would take a hiatus until someone offered us a gig.
In this case it was Elvis’s girlfriend Julia Kelly who organised a Cabaret at the Royal Park.
I have refrained from including the photos of rehearsals with William in basque and tights singing ‘Mein Herr’ with Elvis Belt. The compere arrives late and delays the event.
William and Carl perform early on, as a duo, the Planet Wobblers, with guitar, drum machine and synth. During the set William kicked up a cable and the house lights went off for 20 minutes. Oops. Luckily, electricity was restored for the finalé.
CUD were now a five piece – Carl Puttnam (vocals), Carl’s friend from London, John Adair (guitar), William Potter (bass) and a Mr Stephen Goodwin making his debut on drums.
(Steve made it into the clique by being the boyfriend of a Fine Artist. It’s WHO you know!)
The set included ‘You’re The Boss’, ‘Art!’, A Song Called This’, ‘A Song Called That’ (an early endless version of ‘Mind the Gap’), a cover of the Mekons’ ‘Where Were You’ and Hot Chocolate’s ‘You Sexy Thing’, which went down well.
The cabaret made a profit of £50. Don’t know if any went to charidee.
|
Back at college, Carl and William were collaborating on videos and election campaigns. We borrowed camera equipment and went to film bands such as the Membranes, Age of Chance and Bogshed. The election song for Carl’s campaign for Student Union Vice President (Entertainments) was particularly memorable). Alas, for the last year 1986-7, the dream ticket of William as Social Secretary and Carl as Services Secretary failed to be when Carl got ousted from the Fine Art course for a year for failing to cover enough canvas. He never did complete it. He found something better to do. |
S
John Hyatt, the singer in the Three Johns (with the Mekons’ Jon Langford) was a lecturer on the Fine Art course. In March, with John’s help, Elvis, Carl and William recorded a mix of ‘You’re the Boss’ on the course’s portastudio, with vocal perfomances from both Elvis and Carl. Elvis’s guitar playing was excellent, but, he had started to play with a new band, Chairman Cow (more bovine references!) and would never play with CUD again.
| 16 May 1986 The Thin-Sliced Revue at the Adelphi, Leeds. With no chance of CUD reconvening, Planet Wobblers, Carl (vocals) and William (guitar/programming) performed again (Set: ‘Art!’/’Flick Knife Fearless’/You’re the Boss’/’Cha-ch’a (pissing about on top of an old cha-cha record)/ ‘A Song called that’). A friend, Sonya Hundal, stood on stage to fill the space, with her fuzzed guitar turned down to minus one. Also on the bill were the Psoriosis Brothers, featuring Martin Baker (vocals), Elvis Belt (guitars) and Steve Goodwin (drums). Carl’s singing had much improved. After the show, two potential guitarists offered their services: Tristram Williams (a future CUD bongo player) and, since the rest of The Children had buggered off back to the States, Mike Dunphy. Mike said he could play bass. But, despite William’s efforts on distorted guitar, he insisted he was the bass player and that a guitarist was needed. |
 |
Mike said he could do that too, so Carl and William accepted him into the fold and a new CUD was formed. Mike then swiftly ordered a cheap mail-order guitar and started learning how to play it.
CUD 