Cosmic Vibes
Musical Genre/Type: Pop Supergroup!
Formed: 1990 Split: 1990
Instruments/Vocals: The Cosmic Vibes (Dordon)
Drums: RX8
Rockin Razor Packet (Robert Frymus) - guitar, keyboards, vocals. Adonis Parker (Duncan Cropper) - guitar, vocals. Gayzah Sklar (Gary Brain) - bass. Uncle Funky (Paul Hudson) - bass, drum programming, vocals. W.C. Sticks McCoy (Christian Kennedy) - keyboard, vocals. Harry Turd (Matthew James) - sound engineer and producer.
Due to the nature of us being a supergroup the band would swap instruments depending on who wrote which part for a particular song, e.g. Swordfish Wizzard Pt 1 had Rockin Razor Packet on keyboards, Gayzah Sklar on bass and W.C Sticks McCoy on vocals. On Swordfish Wizzard Pt2, W.C Sticks McCoy played keyboards, Rockin Razor Packet sang, Uncle Funky played bass and Adonis Parker played Wah guitar. We felt that our creativity was unhampered by the constrictions that bands suffer from when they have clearly defined roles.
The Cosmic Vibes was a supergroup created from The New Puritans, The Sherbet Trees, and Blood Ox. We would practice at Harry Turd’s house in the summer of 1990 and using his supreme sonic skills we were to lay down some of the most thrilling pop music ever to come from the Tamworth area. The summer was hot and one day we dragged all our equipment out into his garden, stripped down to our boxer shorts and played our merry hearts out like young gods. Oh happy days! The production values were very high as most of us at the time accepted feedback as an occupational hazard and something that went hand in hand with rock and roll. Harry Turd changed all that and by carefully controlling the levels and recording onto an expensive tape deck produced a demo that astounded and impressed all who thought we were just a bunch of youngsters with no discernable talent.
Swordfish Wizzard Pt1 (The Cosmic Vibes)
Swordfish Wizzard Pt2 (The Cosmic Vibes)
Cow Sir! (The Cosmic Vibes)
Cosmic Peach (The Cosmic Vibes)
Hey Babe! (The Cosmic Vibes)
When I created the CD version of the demo some years back I had to devise a way of letting the listener know who did what on each track. I created a matrix with songs listed and instruments played with a letter denoting who played what. It got quite complicated. I'm not going to do that here. As I mentioned earlier we all swapped over instruments and because of that each song was completely different and quite original.
The best of the bunch (in my humble opinion) is Swordfish Wizzard Pt1 which has some fantastic keyboard riffs played by Rockin Razor Packet and a hypnotic Sisters of Mercy influenced bass line from Gayzah Sklar. Hey Babe! has W.C Sticks McCoy playing the Casio keyboard, Rockin Razor Packet playing some subtle lead and topped off with some cheeky lyrics by Uncle Funky doing his best Barry White impression. Finally Cow Sir! had W.C Sticks McCoy getting mellow with a lovely accordion sound out of his old analogue synth with some very psychedelic crooning from Uncle Funky but the band kind of spoilt it by dragging the blasted song out for ten minutes. If I could re-record it today I would gladly slash it down to three minutes to make it perfect. Oh well if we had the benefit of hindsight many of the wonderful bands listed on this website would still be going strong.
First Gig: Polesworth Sixth Form - June 1990
Last Gig: Tamworth Arts Centre - June 22 1990
The gig at Polesworth Sixth Form was us supporting the mighty Blood Ox, a thrash metal band whose only memorable song for me was the wonderfully titled "Too Young To Be Bent". This outing was just a warm up for our one-off Arts Centre gig. We played the Arts Centre on a Friday night during the Glastonbury Weekend of 1990. The town’s usual crowd were not there. Our one saving grace was that we were the support to Mark Hynds’ answer to Lee Revelle's Euphoria Disco. It was called Slam!
The Cosmic Vibes were wrongly billed as "The Sonic Vibes" by Sam Holiday, though he did write "…the much talked about (but never before seen)…". I had been hyping the band up around Tamworth since its first inception some months ago and had been hyping it up as a supergroup which, of course, in my mind it was. We borrowed our schools strobe light for our light show and we had it on continuously for two songs until the bulb blew. We sounded terrible, some of the band were drunk, I had a car crash driving back home to get a cable I had forgotten. I left the car where it was and got my Mom to drive me back to the Arts Centre (the show must go on!) and that was that. We played the world’s worst version of Another Brick in the Wall Pt2 and promptly split up. A shame really. The whole gig was recorded onto video tape that I keep safe waiting for the day when my kids ask "Dad, what did you get up to when you were 18?"
One positive thing came out of the gig. I got talking to Justin Ring some years later and he told me he saw The Cosmic Vibes gig and it inspired him to form his own supergroup, "The Rosemary Bevan Fan Club" I was really chuffed at this because years ago I had seen their gig at the Arts Centre (a ramshackle affair with a particularly in-form Rikk Quay as part of the group) and absolutely loved them, so I was really pleased that we had influenced this fine band.
Title: As Cosmic as the Holocaust
Format: Demo CD
Label: Rampant Death Pussy Records
Track List
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Swordfish Wizzard Pt1 |
Cosmic Peach |
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Swordfish Wizzard Pt2 |
Hey Babe! |
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Cow Sir! |
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Both gigs were video recorded and all the songs and alternate takes were recorded too. I have the original video tapes, Harry Turd always kept the original audio. The demo never went on general release, in fact there is only myself and Uncle Funky who have copies of the CDs.
Thanks to: Christian Kennedy (Harlowe Thrombey)
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