Up until February 1985 the bands activities consisted entirely of writing songs. Only a few of these are worthy of any note; namely "No Time" by Paul, "Journeying" by Andy, Paul and Chris (a song heavily influenced by "Locomotion" by "O.M.D."), and "The Storm" by Paul. In February 1985 Andy and Chris began an unsuccessful attempt at recording what was called "Reverberations". These were a mish mash of ideas involving drum rhythms and various other simple instruments.
These "Reverberations" usually ended up consisting of
a five minute drum solo played on biscuit tins and other assorted "percussion",
bearing more than a passing resemblance to world war three. These efforts
were hampered by several factors namely total lack of musical knowledge,
lack of musical instruments and a lack of decent recording gear. The only
surviving "Reverberations" are numbers 44 and 45. Chris says, "We
must have done about twenty of these, all of which ended up sounding like
nothing you've ever heard before!".
 |
| Pictured above is the band at Sladeys 18th birthday party playing a benefit gig for the team leaders coming of age and drinking lots of his dads beer to boot. From left to right, Bev,Nick, Spursie, Gardner, Wainy, Briscoe and Sladey. Later that night, Sladey was to go on to form a bonding relationship with his kitchen sink after drinking a couple of litres of beer. Briscoe was to regress to a past life and sit in the corner like a gnome. |
By the end of the "Reverberations" period the instruments in use were as follows:- a standard lamp, an alarm clock, a maraca, a Casio VL-tone and an out of tune acoustic guitar. The guitar was the only real instrument that the band possessed.
The summer of 1985 saw the introduction of an instrument that was to change the direction of the band. This instrument was a Vox Les Paul copy guitar and an overdrive pedal. He says, "I'd been learning to play the guitar for a while, so I thought it would wise to buy a electric guitar. Originally, we set out to be a keyboard based band. When the guitar was bought, it brought a whole new perspective to the band." Also purchased at this time was a Commodore 64 computer which introduced the band to sequencing in a very primitive way. Andy says, "We used the Commodore on some of our "Reverberations", using a very primitive sequencing program. We'd input some numbers that represented musical notes and let it play them over and over. The only trouble was that we didn't know which numbers represented what so the tunes were usually very random."
Gone were the days of the earthquake drum solos, replacing them were simple chord sequences played on the guitar. These were occasionally played through an overdrive unit which helped to fill out the sound. In these heady days the classic track "Find The Sun" was written by Paul with music put to it by Chris. He says, "It was a repetitive three-chord trick in G. Although it may have been simple, it was a start". Also at this time, Andy and Chris wrote a classic called "Men in White", described by Chris as a total thrash song!
Christmas 1985 was an exciting time in the development of the band's sound and its pool of musical ability broadened dramatically. Andrew was the recipient of a Casio MT-52 keyboard. Andy says, "It was one of those that had those pre-set rhythms and sounds. We thought it was really good but, looking back it was really a pile of crap!". This dramatic increase in the ability of the band to make music was greatly helped by the addition of a fourth member, Craige Bevil, who was a trained pianist. His skill was to prove invaluable in the recording of "Find The Sun". Craige was taking piano lessons at the time so it was only natural that he should take over as keyboard player.
Andy recalls, "At the time, I didn't want him to join because I wanted to be the keyboard player. Only trouble was that I didn't have a clue about music at the time so I had to give in and say nothing to the band. I think it was probably a good move, although, Craige is not the most inventive keyboard player! He's going to kill me for this!" Chris recollects "Craige couldn't play without his music written down, but at least it freed Andy to concentrate on his singing".
The band was further enhanced by the addition of a bass and drum machine, both acquired by Paul in February 1986. The bass guitar was a Japanese Antoria and the drum machine was a specdrum, an add-on for the spectrum computer. The drum machine proved exceptionally useful, since previously there was no one in the band who owned a drum kit. The bass helped to give a fuller sound without recourse to the use of excessive overdrive. Andy says "The Specdrum was the cheapest drum machine on the market at that time. I remember seeing on it demonstrated on a kids Saturday morning programme. I thought it was really good, although the hi-hat was a bit loud. It was small and compact so we didn't have the hassle of setting a drum kit up, not that anyone owned one of course!"
The line-up at the beginning of 1986 was as follows:- Andy Briscoe - vocals, Craige Bevil - keyboards, Chris Slade - guitars and Paul Shipley on bass. In February 1986 this line up recorded "Find the Sun" and "Watching You" another song with lyrics from Paul and music by Chris. He says, "Watching You was another three-chord trick only in a different key from Find the Sun." The songs were recorded in one take, using Craige's stereo system. Andy says, "In both songs the guitar and keyboard were playing the same things, except Paul who was playing something totally different, mainly because his bass was out of tune! We still have a recording of these two along with a load of other golden oldies!" The recording of these was done with the help of Ian Spurs, a college mate of the band. He proved invaluable by starting the drum machine when no-one else could do it. Even though he didn't join the band, his help was always valued. Other songs written at this time were "All These Responsible People" by Andy and "The Prophet" by Chris. Unfortunately, no music was ever written for these songs.
The 15th March 1986 saw the introduction of a second guitarist by the name of Nick Ross. Nick was a friend of Craige's and had got to know him through playing Badminton at a local Sports Hall. Andy says, "I remember seeing Nick for the first time and thinking Jesus, and I thought I was quiet. I don't think he spoke all night! The following week Nick handed in his first contribution to the band, "Kiss or Love" which was later recorded. The song was recorded in one take using Craige's stereo system. Chris reminisces "The original recording is still lying in the archives and reveals the true state of our playing at the time. The song was quite well written but is marred by a very fuzzy and out of tune lead guitar. An interesting thing was that the keyboard was flanged to hell and back and Andy and Nick were both singing the lyrics at roughly the same time so it sounded better". Andy recalls "We just weren't inventive at the time. As in our previous two songs the keyboard followed the guitar and played the chords all the way through. Like I said Craige isn't the most inventive keyboard player".
Later on Nick helped Paul to write one of the most original songs done by the band "Rock 'n' Roll man". The song was pretty shambolic by any standards because all the instruments were playing the same notes at the same time. Andy recalls "We thought that we could never write a drum rhythm to go to the song so we wrote one that completely followed the rhythm of the other instruments, it was rubbish". This song never really reached completion, although it was recorded several times. The main problem with it was it was so different from the normal run-of-the-mill song that it was nearly impossible to put drums to it. Eventually the only thing that was doing anything different from the rest of the band was the keyboard which played a little ditty. This ditty was not written by Craige, of course, but by Andy. The first recording of this song was not quite as effective as it could have been due to a rather over flanged guitar being very prominent. Later versions were to rectify this problem, one version of the song even included all the non singers of the band having a go at the vocals with hilarious results
During this period it was noticed that the band was incapable of writing as a unit, although Nick and Craige wrote on their own and Paul, Andy and Chris wrote as a team. We attempted to write a song as a band at a practice at Craige's house but nothing came of it.
On the 25th of April Paul bought a Marshall amplifier and speaker which helped the whole band enormously since it had four inputs. In the month of May the full potential of Craige's stereo system as a recording tool was realised and with it the idea of making a mixer was spawned. The construction of the mixer was to be attempted by Chris and Paul but due to cost constraints and other factors it was a complete and utter failure. It was nicknamed "The Hedgehog" due to the number of potentiometers protruding from it!
The period between May and June was a very unproductive one in terms of song-writing, due to A-levels. However during May a second bass player, Terry Gardner, a friend from school and sixth form, joined after much discussion. Terry says of the band "The first time I heard them they sounded far too wimpy, they just didn't play hard enough". This arrangement was fraught with problems namely that the two bass players were prone to arguments. "We knew that Paul and Terry did not get on too well, but we also knew that Terry was a good bass player. At the same time we did not want to get rid of Paul who was already our main lyricist. To say the least it was pretty weird having two bass players playing at the same time". This line up recorded a new song "Please Stay" which was written and inadequately explained by Nick. The song was recorded in two takes, the first take was the music for the backing track and the second was the vocals and the lead guitar. The backing track featured the ubiquitous flanged keyboard and dry rhythm guitar, but it had a novel approach to the bass; there was two of them! The second track had out of tune lead guitar and vocals.
The end of this period also saw the introduction of the Yamaha DX7, which was a bit of an improvement over the home keyboards previously used.
Due to the bands reticent nature, singers were in short
supply so a new member David Wainwright was drafted in. The fact that he
was an ex-chorister swayed the bands opinion in favour of including him
since a band without a singer is pretty useless. He helped in the re-recording
of "Please Stay" and "Rock and Roll Man". Paul had previously tried to
(g)rope in a female singer but she wasn't having any of it to say the least.
By September however things had taken a down turn, both Terry and David left the band and the rest of the band had decided to call it a day. "I think we split up because we weren't getting anywhere really" says Andy and Chris says "I don't think Craige was too keen on practising for no purpose especially as his next door neighbour was getting the hump with all the noise from the late night sessions". After a few weeks had elapsed since the split, Andy Chris and Paul decided to try and write some songs together, and it was at this time that one of the bands best ever songs was written. This song was called the "Rainmaker". Andy recalls "I remember me and Chris went Paul's place one afternoon and Paul played us a bass line, which consisted of D and C. We jiggled around with it all afternoon until we worked out chords for the chorus and a melody for the guitar and keyboard. We thought it was really good and it was the first time we had written a complete song together". Chris continues "When we went round to Paul's we had no idea what was going to happen, we just thought that we might write a rough version, just a couple of chords and a basic lyric but we wrote all the words and music and arrived at a song which isn't very much different from what it is today". The song was recorded that night for the first time. The original version of this song featured an extended solo fade out from Chris which, as was pointed out by several people was highly reminiscent of Dire Straits "Sultans of Swing". This was probably not intentional, but at the same time not too surprising as it was one of the songs that the band was covering.
At about this time Nick and Craige joined forces with
another band in the town and played a gig (or two). The rest of the band
did not know of this at the time. Bev recalls "Things were not going
too well with the band. 
We
basically were shite and could'nt play a note and were going nowhere fast
but we were having a good time. I had been playing with Baz for a couple
of years as a solo sort of project and Baz decided to put together a band
and invited me and Nick along. We thought that the band had bit the dust
since nobody was practicing anymore. They then find out we were playing
in another band and some of the members were well fucked off. It was like
we had shagged their chicks (although none of us had one). The next thing
I know the bastards had drafted in another guitarist and Briscoe was on
the keyboard and they were playing Dire Straits covers. On realising this,
we quickly resumed our positions in the band to try and arrest the rot,
but Carter was a massive Dire Straits fan and they had installed him as
lead singer and lead guitarist, which is a powerful position to be in.
This was the turning point for the band; no longer were Volatile Springs
playing original highly catchy tunes, but instead we were rocking to the
strains of the "Walk of Life". A sad day indeed for Britpop and the Hartlepool
music scene in general".
Pictured on the right is one of the band members demonstrating one of the advanced recording techniques employed in the Attic (Bev's bedroom) recording studio that was used to capture that original Volatile Spring sound.
In October Paul recruited a third guitarist, Jeffrey Carter, who also sang. Andy says "I vaguely knew him from school, he was a bit of a big-head. I didn't know that he played the guitar". His arrival forced a reformation, and changed the direction of the band from being rather an aimless band doing original material with very limited appeal to a band doing covers and looking for a gig. As Chris remembers "His appearance coerced the band to get its act together in terms of playing and practising". By this time the name had been changed to Volatile Springs and its line up was as follows:-
On November 15th a practice gig was arranged for Craige's sisters birthday party (although she did not know about it!). "We set our gear up in the back room in the afternoon. We did lots of sound checks and we thought that we sounded OK. When Craige's sister turned up she told us to move all of our gear in to the front room which was a bit of a hassle. Nevertheless we got our sound together again. I was quite pleased when it didn't go ahead". Chris reminisces "I was helping Craige to keep order in the house and as I was walking around, the reaction that I was getting from our prospective audience was quite favourable because they had found out that we were going to do some Dire Straits covers. Other than that what I remember about the thing was that I was walking around with a bottle of brandy to calm my nerves, it didn't help much!".
The gig was scrapped after the police broke up the party. The party was broken up because there were gatecrashers out side the door, and one of them threw a brick through the window and also the next-door neighbour complained of the noise. Soon after the gig at the sixth form fell through because the promoter was afraid of being let down.
Soon after the abandoned gig, Andy threw in the towel and decided that he was not going to sing or be a member of the band any more. The band carried on for about a month or so without Andy. When the sixth form gig fell through the band finally called it a day.
The period from the end of 1986 to summer 1987 was fairly unproductive for song-writing although a few of the songs that were to be the mainstay of the bands later years being written at this time. An example is "The Witching Hour". Also a major purchase was made in the form of a drum kit, which hopefully made live music more of a possibility, as the drum machine was proving to be a limiting factor.
On December 18th 1987 the band played their first live engagement at St. Oswalds church hall. The occasion was the kiddies Christmas party and disco. The band used the disco's PA system even though the DJ had not been told that anyone would be playing live music that night. The audience were not very receptive to the music, they would much rather have been dancing to the likes of Kylie Minogue and Rick Astley!
The band was augmented by Andrew Brazil on vocals and
Barney on drums on a few of the songs.
In June 1988 a momentous event which changed the course
of the bands development took place. The band purchased a four track tape
recorder. Everyone put some money towards it with the exception of Paul
who could neither see the point of it or afford it. Unfortunately the four
track did not prove to be as reliable as expected, in fact it was totally
unreliable, being out of commission for at least as long as it was usable
in the first year of its existence.
During the summer of 1988 the lack of venues for the band to practise in was frustrating their efforts to be the tightest, most well rehearsed band this side of the universe so they managed to wangle their way into the school hall at the Sixth Form, a venue fit for their supergroup status.
The venue proved to be suitable for several reasons. Firstly
it was well out of the way so no other bands were able to spy on the greatest
music machine of all time (and it wouldn't annoy the neighbours). Secondly
it was nice and large so there was no difficulty fitting all the members
of the band in with all their gear, and finally there was a very nice natural
reverb in the hall which lent a much needed air of sophistication to the
sound.
The spring and summer of '89 was memorable for the reason
that it saw the reappearance of David Wainwright in the role of guitarist.
The practise sessions, known as the Blakelock Road sessions, were held
at the school house next to the Sixth form college. They were notable for
their cramped conditions and the emergence of at least one great song "Little
Teaser".
The band was mainly involved in doing covers at this time, things like "Summer of '69" and "The Boys are Back in Town", but a few original songs were started. These were "It Always Rains on Me" and "Only Time Will Tell".
At about this time Gary Watson decided that he was going to be the manager and get the band some gigs. This was accomplished quite quickly and came as rather a surprise to several members of the band who knew nothing of it. Unfortunately for Craige and Chris the gigs that were lined up came at a rather inconvenient time, in the middle of their second year exams at university. For this reason and also because David decided that the band were not ready to play live yet, the gigs had to be cancelled.
The band finally split up for what appears to be the last time in the summer of 1989. Reasons cited for this divorce was Nicks lack of interest in the band and a general lack of purpose.
The band has never officially reformed since then but in September 1990 the Norfolk Close sessions took place. A few of the old classics were revived and one song written at the beginning of the bands career was resurrected, "No Time". At the same time the band tried unsuccessfully to jump on the Manchester dance bandwagon with the newly acquired wah-wah pedal very prominent in the mix.
During the Norfolk Close sessions help was gratefully received from John Horner who helped with some lyrics for "The Witching Hour". Towards the end of the Norfolk Close sessions the four track showed alarming tendencies to drift out of tune slightly, and this was particularly noticeable on the recording of "The Rainmaker" so the sessions were abandoned.
After a few weeks the four track was tried again and it appeared to be functioning perfectly, this remains a source of confusion as no one had done anything to fix it.
Early in November a chance remark by Terry Gardner led to the formation of a three piece band. This band consisted of Terry, Andrew and Chris. As only Andrew could sing, and even he could not sing while playing, a search was launched for a singer. Eventually Terry asked a woman that he knew at Stockton and Billingham college and she agreed to sing reluctantly. She first attended a practise on the 23rd November. The practises did not go well as she seemed to be very slow to pick songs up. In the end she left after an incident on December 3rd, in which her paranoia got the better of her.
The incident referred to was as follows:- at the practise on 3rd December Andrew brought the four track along in order to show Christine how "The Rainmaker" and "Little Teaser" went, and on the spur of the moment we decided to record "Up Around The Bend" while Christine was singing. When she heard the sound of her voice on the tape she was terrified that someone would hear it (other than the rest of the band that is) and she refused to do anything until it was erased. After an hour and five cigarettes we agreed to erase it, being unable to persuade her that no one would hear it except us. When she was satisfied that it was erased she left and did not return, saying "I can't get on with an attitude like that".
During the month of December, Paul recorded a version of "Rainmaker" with his girlfriend Alison singing. Everyone that heard it said it was good, although some expressed reservations about it being suitable for her voice.
Early in December, at the scheduled band practise, Andrew broke all of his drum skins and decided that he did not want to replace them and since that date there has been no band practices although songs have still been written and recorded on the four track. At the time of writing, 16th February, it looks as though the band has breathed it's last. The following people have at some time been members of, or had something to do with, the band:-
Copyright Volatile Springs 1990.