The Snap-On Brothers were not the only Dundee act to name themselves after a consumer product brand. Around the early 80's there was local outfit called ERASMIC SUPERFOAM, named after the commodity in this ad from the 70's.But were they the clean shaven babe magnets the ad suggests?!
Erasmic Superfoam did the best version ever of "Donkey Riding".
ReplyDeleteI wish i was middle class and plunked art school ! :(
ReplyDeleteerasmic superfoam were John Butler and Al...Staker!!???
ReplyDeleteI put them on the Dundee compilation cassette in 1984 ?
craig from scrotums has an mp3 of donkey riding maybe he can post it!
these guys were mental , played one gig with them and they had more equipment than kraftwerk ,tape loops everywhere , before digital delays !
they lost all there equiptment in a fire in there flat in the hawkhill (including my brand new flanger that al borrowed)
god knows where they are now , john was doing video stuff last time i saw him (1987) and al was trying to sell 3d tv to big companies !
"hey ho away we go ..donkey riding"
the original superfoam formed in 1981-the full title was only used in extremis-was-al straker -vocals -john butler guitar john muir bass dave thomas drums -we practiced in a matress covered flat above the tav in the old hawkhill-the first song we did was sea breeze-then some elvis then a stab at playing at being like beefheart-the first live performance was the art college revels -also featurng that beat combo -who were probably the most original band -boo hooray-based on large help from 5 gram tam fae the sinderins-erasmic superfoam drifted away from rockabilly boogie and got...well...spacy and butleresque-we got an audition for stv-we saw ourselves on the kaliedescope thingys like top of the pops-we liked it-the tristans didnt -i cant tell you one original song we did -so the tristans may have saved a lot of grief to their loyal viewers -al went to london after he split up with gwen margetson -he stayed with his brother in london -i went and had a cup of tea with him-john b married mandy-i also visited him -had a cup of coffee there -john and mandy went there ways he is probably creating something-john m is john m and dave is dave
ReplyDeleteThanks for the lowdown. Thats not the same John Muir that used to play bass in Craigie High School band, Pegasus, is it? I heard he was a lawyer now!
ReplyDeleteHi , assuming dave must have wrote that history , he would know it a lot better than me!!
ReplyDeleteforgot about dave and John is my short history ! Sorry , its all coming back !
and , Yes it was that John Muir who is a lawyer with his own practice or partnership in Dundee
Al Straker here... the original "Donkey Riding" recording was made on Gerry Mitchell's sound-on-sound equipped reel to reel recorder in 'duo mono' in the flat at Wilkies Lane above the old 'The Tavern' bar on the Hawkhill. I played the basic bass riff with Gerry and Scott joining in on guitars, Paul on drums.... then I dubbed it again the following day with me on guitar and singing, John Butler adding some bass - so like two bands panned hard left and right. Later, Superfoam recorded another very different version in Wilf Smarties' Edinbught studio and this version was the one that was on the compilation tape mentioned above.
ReplyDeleteOh - almost forgot - at the time of the Edinburgh demo tapes the band line up had Dave Fehilly playing drums, John Butler on bass and myself on vocals and guitar - a three piece...... the demo was sent around and led to a meeting with the late DJ John Peel and *almost* a recording contract with Virgin Records in London.
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