Time Bandits

1st Tamworth Rock Festival - 13th April 1979 - Tamworth Castle Pleasure Grounds

29/08/83
Tamworth Rock Festival
Sitting Pretty
Those Attractive Magnets
Hardware
Royal Family
Omen 2
Time Bandits
Tamworth Castle Grounds

This band never rehearsed, borrowed gear and only played one gig. We sat in the Tavern got pissed, dropped some acid and decided to play the very first Tamworth Rock Festival. Even the landlord came down with us. Unbelievably, we were the last band on and I remember: “Will the Time Bandits please come to the stage” being announced as all three of us were being sick in some rose bushes next to the castle. Eventually we got there and proceeded to light a three foot joint, made from card and paper and started our first number:- 'Don’t Bogart That Joint My Friend, Pass It Over To Me'. The police who were in the bandstand were not amused. We got through an improvised set and went down well as we were well known on the music scene at the time.

Sadly, Richard, otherwise known as 'Buey' died over a year ago. We all have fond memories of him and he is deeply missed. Love and Peace to him.

Gray Smith

Tamworth Herald – 21/03/86
Musicbox – Succeeding with talent and mouth
I HAVE recently been filing all my old MUSICBOX columns from the past three years or so and as one of those academic exercises, I decided to see just who has been the most featured band in the column over that time.

People often accuse me of bias in various directions but I think the ‘top ten’ of mentions shows that I have managed to cover the whole spectrum of local music from the ‘lightest’ to the ‘heaviest’.

This was not a scientific exercise, I merely flicked through the columns and noted the names of bands whenever I saw them. So a ‘mention’ could be just one line or a full feature. Anyway here’s the top ten from 1983.

1. The Dream Factory (60 mentions), 2. Sitting Pretty (57), 3. Breaking Point (53), 4. Wolfsbane (52), 5. BHX (51), 6. Love On Board (49), 7. One On One (37), 8. The Magnets (32), 9. Sacred Oath (25) and The Cradle (25), 10. The Royal Family (20).

Outside of this batch as a matter of interest were Terroa, Dance Stance, A5 and Caprice. At the other end of the scale there were local bands whose name were featured only once such as Alibi, The Fashionable Gents, Bambu Curtain and The Time Bandits.