Seeing as me old mate Leftbass put one of his old songs on here, after much mental wrangle I thought I'd do the same. (Sorry Dave)
This is mp3'd from a 25 year old cassette tape I managed to get off our old drummer Owen. The start is fucked up as it had to be removed due to tape damage. Anyway this is our first band Gypsy and it's one of our own songs called Runaway Nightmare, it was recorded at Steve Daggett's Important Studios in Newcastle back in January 1983. It features John, vocals, Lippy, guitar (main solo) Garry Todd, guitar (Appalling outro solo), Me, bass and backing vocals, Owen, drums & backing vocals.
This song got us our only ever radio airplay.

Anyway laugh, cry, cringe or do wotever you wanna do, this was our contribution to rock music back in the early '80's.
We were only in our early 20's.

Ps Dave. If you have a better quality version than this would you post so I can get a copy? Ta!

Soon as I heard it I remembered it. Nice to see something Unravelled Involved going up finally. John (part Coverdale part Andy Capp! :) ) has a great blues voice for a guy so young and I wish he'd pushed it more than his lager consumption ( me and him the same there). The Lip sounds on top form here (as he should cos he's a great player), bass and drums sound tight as a Nun's chuff and Mr Daggett's (apparently he used to be a member of Lindisfarne? The band not the island!) mix is very nice...we did a track called 'Liar' there and it was 4 x better than the Neat blowjob!

This might lead me to post 'Liar' and some other shite from that 'Newboulds' butchery studio in Sunderland where Ellis's boots got stuck on me feet (being 3 sizes too small BUT THEY WERE PERSIAN!!!) and Malla shit in a bag!

John (part Coverdale part Andy Capp! :) ) has a great blues voice for a guy so young and I wish he'd pushed it more than his lager consumption
IMO John should never have sang with an electric band Chris, he had constant vocal problems,
we had to tune to 430 and that still killed him.
Acoustically was different I remember him sitting with an acoustic in High Grange community centre singing
Rod Stewart's First Cut Is The Deepest & Don McLean's Vincent, it was excellent!

430 is a good key mate...just ask Spasm!!! :woot: (sorry John, it was begging for it)

So you can play then? :lol: Good song, and the tape survived fairly well. Enjoyed it, tho I thought that outro was never going to end :wtf: You got any more knocking around?

Nag Steve two songs where recorded on that day, but the other song (Tonight) was wrote by the other guitarist. (Todd The Turd) At the time he was Y&T daft, to be honest it sounded fuck all like Y&T and it was a total piece of shit! I didn't enjoy chipping in to pay for that! In fact I didn't even play on it, (thank fuck) cos at that time I'd only been playing seriously for around 7 months and I didn't have the stamina for the Iron Maiden type rhythm (Very Y&T) :lol:.
There was another demo of two songs (Singapore Girl & Janie) recorded about a year later at the same place, but if I remember rightly the final mix was quite muffled. I don't have them, Lippy might.

you've managed to clean that up well mate, sounds great. It will get plenty of air play now.:)

you've managed to clean that up well mate, sounds great.
I never did owt with it Steve

Yeah great to hear the old stuff once again Pete. Dave doin' the business there no problem. I vaguely remember failing to impress GT when I kind of auditioned for this mob. I dont think I had owned my bass long let alone being able to play it well enough. Like you said the heavy stuff was too much at that time. :bowdown:

I never did owt with it Steve
sounds better than the tape, not as hissy, anyway sounds great

Thanks Pete,I have lost all the stuff we did with Gypsy and Hot Blooded so it's amazing to hear it again.I rememeber the session very well,as it was my first taste of a studio so I was bloody nervious,I remember shaking when I was in the booth putting down the solo:) .Turned out o.k.though,I re-recorded this track with my York band,this one is far better.Owen's drumming was first class and Pete's bass playing,as always,was brilliant,I think me and Pete wrote the basics of this song between us.Gary put his stuff into it,which worked out well as he was good at clean picking,but his guitar solo didn't butter my muffin at the time,sounded too much like fleetwood mac for me.:lol:

I re-recorded this track with my York band,this one is far better.Owen's drumming was first class and Pete's bass playing,as always,was brilliant,I think me and Pete wrote the basics of this song between us.Gary put his stuff into it,which worked out well as he was good at clean picking,but his guitar solo didn't butter my muffin at the time,sounded too much like fleetwood mac for me.:lol:
Let's hear it then dave! Oh aye oi where's me royalties?

Lost that bugger as well:lol: What are royalties:lol: :lol:

What are royalties:lol: :lol: :lol: Exactly!

Janie, again from Owen's tape, this was recorded a year later with the same line up that recorded Runaway Nightmare. I love this song! Sadly though it's spoilt by Garry Todd's horrendous err solo. How the fuck did we let him get away without a good kicking for doing that Dave?

great music and also great soundquality for a 25 year old tape:rock: :rock:

Seriously enjoyed listening to those, especially Janie, great song! How come Lippy didn't get the solo spot in this then?

Because I was young and Stupid,and a bit of a push over:lol:

Seriously enjoyed listening to those, especially Janie, great song! How come Lippy didn't get the solo spot in this then?

Cheers mate! :thumb:

I remember after the experience of doing the first demo's we'd realised that there was a lot of time to be spent in the nearby pub especially for us who'd put our parts down, so we were prepared for drinking. That solo was probably recorded with only him and the sound bloke in the studio.

Because I was young and Stupid,and a bit of a push over:lol: The last thing you were was stupid mate.

430 is a good key mate...just ask Spasm!!! :woot: (sorry John, it was begging for it)

S'alright mate ... Eb was always a good key!


Pete, Dave ... I REMEMBER this ... AND me girlfriend telling me to get me finger out, cos' Dave had got better than me!!

Sounds ACE fellas ... watch out, or I'll post Baby Wants Fire (again!) :tard:

Liked that one too, you guys were (are) damm good! As for the solo, its not too late to give the guy a boot :notme: Does he still play?




watch out, or I'll post Baby Wants Fire (again!) :tard:

Do it Capt'n, I for one have not heard it :thumb:

Does he still play? Apparently he's playing the clubs with his wife, he strums, she sings. Don't really care to be honest mate. in honesty he was only tollerated by our band because he owned a transit van. :lol:

S'alright mate ... Eb was always a good key!


Maybe I should qualify that by adding "Eb" was ALSO a good key ... not just "always" ... heh! :notme:

Utmost respect for you guys, thanks for sharing this.
I was only 3 years old when you made this, but this sort of music has shaped my music perception of today.

Great stuff...really some cracking bands around our area at that time...although i was a bit older (Knocking around with Mick Tucker from school)...I missed out on a lot of the younger bands sadly..Great stuff!..lets have the dust knocked off a few more of the "Teesside lost tapes"..cheers
Mac :boobies:

loved it m8, quality 80's rock.
still sounding cool.

:boobies: great stuff :woot:

stay cool
:) bully

They went down a hell of a lot better than I expected they would.
Cheers to all who've commented and took time to listen. :thumb:

Thanks for posting this stuff Unraveled:)

I really enjoyed listening to the song and the quality of recording was excellent, hey!! what was wrong with your solo it sounded fine for 83 that was the type of blend outro solo everyone was doing.So now i know you are a guitar player at heart and can play to boot:bowdown:
This has been very educational i am starting to piece together how Lippy, Left Bass, You, Spasm,Wah, all know each other and how the Smoggy's all fit together from the old days.

You know i would have listened to this song in my car in 83 it sounded very British (def lep) to me.The vocals were well done as well as the backing vocal's and overall mix.
How did i miss this when you first posted it?, i will have to be more carefull in the future and look at all the post's i guess.Anyway you and the boy's sounded great and that tape is something you should be very proud of it's a hell of allot better than anything i have from the 80's or anyone else i know.


Thanks again for turnning me onto this post Unraveled.

Park

P.S Owen was your drummer?....thought Owen sold to Manchester Utd £8m

Thanks for posting this stuff Unraveled:)

I really enjoyed listening to the song and the quality of recording was excellent, hey!! what was wrong with your solo it sounded fine for 83 that was the type of blend outro solo everyone was doing.So now i know you are a guitar player at heart and can play to boot:bowdown:
This has been very educational i am starting to piece together how Lippy, Left Bass, You, Spasm,Wah, all know each other and how the Smoggy's all fit together from the old days.

You know i would have listened to this song in my car in 83 it sounded very British (def lep) to me.The vocals were well done as well as the backing vocal's and overall mix.
How did i miss this when you first posted it?, i will have to be more carefull in the future and look at all the post's i guess.Anyway you and the boy's sounded great and that tape is something you should be very proud of it's a hell of allot better than anything i have from the 80's or anyone else i know.


Thanks again for turnning me onto this post Unraveled.

Park

P.S Owen was your drummer?....thought Owen sold to Manchester Utd £8m
Mate you must re re-read the original post I did no solo's just the bass and bv's on both songs

Thx for posting these songs, bro!!!!! I love listening to recordings from "back in the day"!!!!:woot: They sound gr8!!!:bowdown:

Spennymoor '83. I'm almost sure we were supporting Black Rose, as I seem to remember Wah taping our whole gig through the mixing desk.
This is the final song of our 45 minute set, John's voice is fucked by this point, and my bass seems non existant throughout. Originally we had the whole gig but a certain guitarist (Todd) borrowed the tape and decided to press the erase button at every point where he heard he'd hit a wrong note, slipped out of tune or sang out of key. Sad though cos there was a decent cover of Wishing Well & a blinding cover of UFO's Too Hot To Handle, where Lippy pulled off Schenker's solo's with great aplomb. Anyway Owen's snare work at the end is awesome. IMO He was second only to Black Rose's Malla in the local rock scene.

MY god man where are you getting this stuff from!!:) I would like to say I didn't play the solo on that:lol: Got any more mate?:thumb:

MY god man where are you getting this stuff from!!:) I would like to say I didn't play the solo on that:lol: Got any more mate?:thumb:
That's it mate I'm afraid. I was hoping to find Singapore Girl but there's no sign of it. :(
There's Just the Hot Blooded song Shout It Out added to the other thread mate.
Everything has been from a cassette tape Owen had stashed (and forgotten about) in his loft. :thumb:

Man these tracks sure did go good with this nice cold beer:woot: I gotta say you guys ran a tight ass ship back then.Fantastic stuff!.Thanks for sharing,i felt like i was there while you all were jammin:bowdown:

cheers fellas:hug:

Thanks for the listen Mandy, I'm glad it never made you spit your beer :lol:

Loved listening to these mate! I don't get HM really but the studio stuff here was good and tight and the live stuff was full of energy. You should always be proud of achievements like this.