Rob Shrug - vocals
Richard Pink - gtr
Oli Heffernan - token youth gtr
Kevin Wall - grumbling bass
Richard O'Brien - drums
Sarah O'Brien - keys
(Nathan Stephenson - (in panto)
(Ben Muriel - Occasional percussion - occasionally)
Influences
The Fall for me. But lots of punk and post punk bands. Super Furry Animals, Swell Maps, The Nightingales, Marc Riley (and the Creepers), Thrilled Skinny, Gang of Four, Punishment of Luxury, The Damned, Joy Divison/New Order, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Ajay - Donkey/Bent Moustache, The Flaps, The Three Johns, Junior Elvis, Velvet Underground, The Stranglers, Half Man Half Biscuit, No Means No, The Ex, Wat Tyler, Sebadoh, The Membranes, Alice Donut, Thatcher on Acid, Dan, Chumbawamba especially for their dancing! Wilko Johnson, Sensational Alex Harvey Band. To be honest you drink it all in and hopefully spill out something fairly original and suitably worthwhile.
Sounds Like
I don't know. Early Fall gone wrong. There's some Half Man Half Biscuit lunacy and word play in there as well. Inspiral carpet keyboard swirl. We take the anti love song and no guitar solo punk ethos and make a career out of it. We'd like to think people would SHRUG their shoulders here. But then again we would wouldn't we?
1.Doggerland (Thrilled Skinny) 2.Last Train From Station Town 3.Wheres Stevie Gone? 4.Magic Ket! 5.Quango Fandango
Buy now for £4 (inc P&P);
Shrug were formed by Robert Nichols, Richard Pink and sometimes Robert March in the summer of 1985 or thereabouts. October 2005 was the 20th anniversary of our first ever gig, upstairs at The Albert, Middlesbrough. We celebrated that 20th birthday week with a support slot for The Fall (lifetime ambition) and a headline gig for John Peel Day in Stockton's Georgian Theatre. Some week.
We started out with no drummers, then co-opted a drum machine which wouldn't keep time! We being Kev Wall, Richard and Rob Nichols. Sarah O'Brien soon played keyboards for us. Eventually we bit the bullet and brought in some percussion, double trouble, with future Space Raider Gary Bradford and Richie O'Brien.
We released an EP Nevil Wanless in 1988 - and album Septober Octember Nowonder a year later, rushing it out for a German tour - which included a gig in East Berlin and featured 3 drummers, Weg Hornby at 6ft 7" the tallest of our drummers. Carl Sims and earlier Michael "Monk" Sanderson also plied the sticks. Carl sticking (bad joke!) around till 1999.
It's as a live band that most people know us. Whether it was for the 3 drummers drumming. Or me haring around the stage in loads of stupid costumes and masks or just that dynamic orange 60s organ. Oh and there's always the horses head!
There were several more singles, Beardo Weirdo, Building Society and (Return) Mission From Todd and tours abroad in Holland, France, Belgium. A high speed van crash. Not good. Tours with Sebadoh and The Ex. TV appearances, and all sorts of stuff. Richard left, replaced by Dale and then Nathan. And the drummers eventually worked their way back down to one.
We gradually wound down and Kevin grew older. No I'm lying the rest of us grew older, Kevin has a picture in the attic. Then in 2005 we got invited back, Richard rejoined and now we're back with plans for gigs and who knows recordings etc. Should be fun.
You can see a couple of very old interviews with us and a couple of tv appearances from about 18 years ago!! Type in "Crackpan" and "Shrug" on Youtube
Beardo Weirdo Live @ The Hat Factory, Luton 2007
Donna And The Daleks (Tyne Tees 1989)
Sir Walter Raleigh's Fast Food Takeover (BBC 1989)
After a 6 month lay off Thee Strawberry Mynde are back with a gig in Ferryhill this Sunday (see details below).
Ferryhill Is United is a community festival hosted by Show Racism The Red Card & Dean Banks residents association. The festival takes place on Sunday 5th July 2009 at Ferryhill Business & Enterprice College, Merrington Road, Ferryhill, DL17 8RW.
The festival kicks off at 11am and will bring the community together to celebrate diversity and show that there's no place for racism in County Durham. There will be loads of activities for all ages including: Youth football tournament, sports & art workshops, fairground & climbing wall, live music including Sounds Of The World & Thee Strawberry Mynde.
thanks for that. I remember the pralines I saw them when they played at the high school disco. Our old bass player had connections with them and omniblob existed in those days. Scary i have been playing with them for 5 years and we have done some great things and greater things to come. Stuat (drummer)
Hey Rob! Hows things? Have Shrug got any gigs coming up? Did you get the CDs I sent last week? Things are quiet with Thee Strawberry Mynde at the moment but we will be playing a Show Racism The Red card event in Ferryhill this July.
Hey Rob and the remainder of Shrug! Hope your all well or atleast in yourselves. We've got a gig this friday upstairs at Doc Browns alongside the notorious avant-art-punk czech party crashers Pellethead. And murky garage swamp things Russell and The Wolves.
Dear Shrug, I'm unlikely to be getting married anytime soon, if indeed ever at all. Would you please make it highly unlikely to play at my unlikely to occur anyway reception?
BILGE PUMP have been playing their idio(t)syncratic rock for over 15 years. As well as songs appearing on 7" and compilations, Bilge have released two tape only albums and have another two albums on Nottingham's Gringo Records. Popular with the late JOHN PEEL (i.e. the best DJ ever) they recorded two Peel sessions and got plenty of airtime on his Radio 1 show.
Two piece indie rockers from Leeds, PIFCO, comprises Steve on guitar and vocals, and Mary on drums and keyboards. They write prolifically and have a CD album out on Run Of The Mill Records. Radio 1's Huw Stephens played it on his show and decided it was his album of the week. Not bad.
Hey Rob I know it's late notice but we have a gig out the back of The Nags Head in Lazenby (which some refer to as the far away) With support from the naughty Stonefly Nymph there set starts at a quarter past 8PM. And our set starts for 9PM. It would be great to see you there I know it's late notice but I noticed boro are playing away today so if your still in boro and you've got nothing planned tonight might be worth dropping in?
On Saturday 17th January 2009 The Mourning After & Thee Strawberry Mynde are playing live at The Studio, Tower Street, Hartlepool, TS24 7HQ. Tickets are £6.
Thee Strawberry Mynde will be recording their set that night using the venues 24 track studio and (if all goes well) releasing the live album later on in the year.
A few people came to see us last night for the 1st time on the strength of your review in Fridays Evening Gazette. So a big thanks to you Rob, much appreciated :-)
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