Group Dogdrill
“Lovely Skin” EP
Mantra Records (Beggar’s Banquet US) 1997
A new feature, “Screamer of the Day,” here at Jukebox Heart features something that I just can’t wait to share with you. It can be one or two tracks that I just found so surprsingly irresistible that it couldn’t wait. By its very nature, it will be sporadic…you may find a string of them for ten days in a row followed by a month of nothing. Take it when you can!
So here’s the deal. Today’s Screamer is by the band Groop Dogdrill. Awesome. The band’s sound is like a sudden, horrible crash of The Cramps, Jet and The Ventures – which is fabulous on all counts. Their condensed bio is below. This CD, Lovely Skin, is a promo EP for their then-forthcoming full-length called “Half Nelson”. Not a bad track on the disc, but the two included here (click on the links below to hear) just jumped out at me.
And here’s how it arrived in my possession: Several years ago, I discovered a pawn shop in Ashland, Massachusetts that seemed to have a huge number of CDs and a constant, steady supply. The CDs were always a buck a piece, and when I realized what good stuff there was to be had, I stopped there on my way home from work a few times a week, often leaving with boxloads of stuff, both to keep and to resell. It wasn’t long before I was friends with the manager, and he’d give me first crack at every new shipment that came in, calling me into the back room and sitting me down with a boom box. Two years ago, the pawn shop closed and the manager called me up and asked if I was interested in his remaining stock, about 2000 CDs and a couple of boxes of vinyl. I said I wasn’t sure, sounded like too much moeny for me to spend all at once. “Dude, I’ll drop this shit off at your house. No charge. It’s costing me money just to keep it. If you want it, you can have it.” No brainer. It’s been two years, and I’m only just getting around to rifling through it all. So far, it looks like I’m keeping about a quarter of it; the rest I’m donating to charity. I grabbed this CD this morning, along with about ten others from the stash, and began screening them. The opening sample made me smile, and then the pounding rhythm got me totally going.
Groop Dogdrill formed in the early nineties in the northern town of Doncaster, UK – not far from legendary Sheffield – by Damien “Damo” Fowkes (bass), Pete Spiby (vocals/guitar) and Hugh “Hug” Kelly (drums). They released a number of singles and two albums in between tours of the UK, before finally splitting up in 2001.
The original name of the band was Dogdrill, until they played a show with one of my faves, The Wedding Present, in the summer of 1994. Darren Belk (friend of the band and frontman/guitarist with Beachbuggy) was playing bass guitar at the time for The Wedding Present. Dogdrill were re-named ‘Groop’ Dogdrill by Wedding Present drummer Simon Smith and they played as Groop Dogdrill from that day onwards.
They entered a ‘battle of the bands’ competition in their hometown of Doncaster, as they were unable to afford the bass gear that would allow them to start working the live circuit. The band easily won the competition (and the bass gear) and also caught the eye of a young producer called Matt Elliss at Axis Studios who offered to record a demo at the studio free of charge. Matt Elliss then passed the song onto a new label called EXP (a subsidiary of ViaCom) which was being run by Feargal Sharkey, formerly of The Undertones. The label demoed the band and released a limited edition (500) 7″ single ‘Gentleman’s Soiree’/ ‘Silver Boots’ before agreeing to record and release a full-length album, but financial difficulties forced EXP to fold before the full album was released.
The band were soon picked up by Mantra Records (part of the Beggars Banquet group) and further tours followed before the album “Half Nelson”, recorded for EXP two years earlier, was eventually released by Mantra in 1998. The album chronicled the band’s obsessions with Americana, the Rat Pack, working class humour, the seedier side of personal and sexual relationships and classic 70s movies with an ever-present combination of metal, punk, blues and rockabilly at its core.
Despite some promising success over the next few years, the band found itself facing financial stress, and, with no contract and a young family to support, the newly-married Hug made the decision to quit the band in late 2000. Damo and Pete eventually decided to continue and recruited the services of Alex Thomas for a handful of gigs and some demos in the summer of 2001. This lineup was short-lived however, and with no new contract offers the band had permanently split by the end of the year.