Whats This Heads Down Mindless Boogie About Nothing
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Whats This Heads Down Mindless Boogie About Nothing
Photograph courtesy: Tamworth Herald
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Musical Type/Genre: Goth
Formed: 1989
Dugi
Paul
John
Y.A.Maha
Kriss
Tamworth Herald – 03/02/89
A band with that tasty name of ‘What’s This Head Down Mindless Boogie About Nothing’ are on the lookout for a male or female singer into Foetus, Fields of the Nephilim and the Cocteaus.
Tamworth Herald – 07/04/89
What’s This Heads Down Mindless Boogie have finally found themselves a singer and as such have put themselves in the Festival frame. They conclude this bit of info by stating ‘given half the chance, Chemikill will be the next Wolfsbane because they are so good’. Now THAT makes you want to have a look on Sunday doesn’t it!
Tamworth Herald – 25/05/89
What’s This Headsdown Mindless Boogie About Nothing and Stench are among the latest bands to send demos to the Herald for review. Unfortunately space (in the paper and between my ears) is limited so we would ask people to be patient about seeing these reviews.
Tamworth Herald – 16/06/89
WHAT’S THIS HEADS-DOWN MINDLESS BOOGIE ABOUT NOTHING – First Testament
I SPENT the first hearing of this tape wondering what abbreviation of this impossibly long name I could use for the review. All I could come up with was W.T.H.D.M.B.A.N or The What’s so I decided instead to give the music some more serious consideration.
Musically the band are easily comparable to New Order in their use of keyboards and their drummer, Mr. Y.A. Maha sounds suspiciously inhuman. The haunting vocals are well suited to this style and the whole sound is refreshingly different to the huge number of rock and indie pop bands which the Tamworth area produces.
It is all spoilt however, by the awful recording of this tape. I look forward to seeing Mindless (another abbrev.) playing live eventually but feel that this style of music works best in a studio. The added noise on this recording makes the band almost in the background and gives the impression that it was recorded in a garage.
S.A.
Tamworth Herald – 30/06/89
Two relatively new bands – Litany of Fear and Whats This Heads Down Mindless Boogie About Nothing – get warmed up for the festival with a double header on Sunday night.. ‘What’s This’ are a new Tamworth goth band who list Fields of the Nephilim at their main sound-a-like/source. It’s a big night for Dugi, Paul, John, Y.A.Maha and Kriss so get along and enjoy them. Heading the duo will be Litany of Fear who describe their sounds as ‘psycho-goth-thrash-alternative’ and by all accounts have a wham-bham sound which should appeal to all Tamworth’s spiky tops. Seems like a good old-fashioned LOUD bash – and a fun one at that.
Tamworth Herald – 07/04/89
What’s This Heads Down Mindless Boogie have finally found themselves a singer and as such have put themselves in the Festival frame. They conclude this bit of info by stating ‘given half the chance, Chemikill will be the next Wolfsbane because they are so good’. Now THAT makes you want to have a look on Sunday doesn’t it!
Tamworth Herald – 25/05/89
What’s This Headsdown Mindless Boogie About Nothing and Stench are among the latest bands to send demos to the Herald for review. Unfortunately space (in the paper and between my ears) is limited so we would ask people to be patient about seeing these reviews.
Tamworth Herald – 16/06/89
WHAT’S THIS HEADS-DOWN MINDLESS BOOGIE ABOUT NOTHING – First Testament
I SPENT the first hearing of this tape wondering what abbreviation of this impossibly long name I could use for the review. All I could come up with was W.T.H.D.M.B.A.N or The What’s so I decided instead to give the music some more serious consideration.
Musically the band are easily comparable to New Order in their use of keyboards and their drummer, Mr. Y.A. Maha sounds suspiciously inhuman. The haunting vocals are well suited to this style and the whole sound is refreshingly different to the huge number of rock and indie pop bands which the Tamworth area produces.
It is all spoilt however, by the awful recording of this tape. I look forward to seeing Mindless (another abbrev.) playing live eventually but feel that this style of music works best in a studio. The added noise on this recording makes the band almost in the background and gives the impression that it was recorded in a garage.
S.A.
Two relatively new bands – Litany of Fear and Whats This Heads Down Mindless Boogie About Nothing – get warmed up for the festival with a double header on Sunday night.. ‘What’s This’ are a new Tamworth goth band who list Fields of the Nephilim at their main sound-a-like/source. It’s a big night for Dugi, Paul, John, Y.A.Maha and Kriss so get along and enjoy them. Heading the duo will be Litany of Fear who describe their sounds as ‘psycho-goth-thrash-alternative’ and by all accounts have a wham-bham sound which should appeal to all Tamworth’s spiky tops. Seems like a good old-fashioned LOUD bash – and a fun one at that.
Tamworth Herald – 07/07/89
The Tamworth Rock Festival 1989 gets the best possible launch this weekend with three excellent concerts at the Arts Centre.
Gigs will take place tonight (Friday), Saturday and Sunday night as a tempting appetiser for next week end’s outdoor Caste Grounds bash.
Stars aplenty will take to the Arts Centre stage this weekend to spur the festival and you will be able to get your eyes, ears and noses around the likes of Spiral Fish, Whats This Heads Down, Shock Culture, The New Puritans and new additions Armchair Thrash.
Throw in several more great bands and also the highly mysterious Wilsons and you have a triple sandwich of indoor festival shows which should bring a smile to everybodys face.
So what can you see this weekend.
Here’s the menu…
The Rock Festival’s Arts Centre weekend gets off to a great start with five scheduled bands lining up for duty. The groups who will appear in an order to be finalised tonight are Stranglerites Limited Edition, the Norman Yates outfit Lincoln Dirty Duncan, blue combo The Jim Crows Blues Company, new Nephilim squad Whats This Heads Down Mindless Boogie About Nothing and late additions Armchair Thrash. The Thrashites have been pulled in because of doubts about the appearance of the Duncans and the Crows Co. but whatever happens there is going to be some cracking music on show. Armchair Thrash for those who don’t know are a DHSS spin-off who made a startling debut some months ago. So, a fine five band line-up is due. It costs just £1 and as the line-up will not be known until the night you must get there as near to the 8pm start as possible. The Festival starts tonight, so miss it not.
The second night of the indoor festival features four very varied bands. From the more alternative side of life we can welcome Shock Culture and Banshee-ites Curious Oyster, from the rockier end of the spectrum we can welcome Atherstonians Spirit of the Gypsy Khan and from the more indie direction our can see the glory of the coming of The New Puritans. This is an excellent four band line-up and once again it makes the £1 admission fee somewhat laughable. All door fees again go to the overall festival fund so get along and boogie.
The most unusual of the three nights featuring as it does two rather mysterious bands – The Wilsons and Spiral Fish alongside alternative wham-bammers Litany of Fear. Describing The Wilsons should be be an unnecessary for those of you who know anything about anything but let’s just say to discover who they are you need to go on a manhunt. Spiral Fish are also well worth keeping a (spiral) eye on and completing a fine line-up is the weird and wacky Litany of Fear.
As this gig has been organised by The Wilsons as part of the fest, the entry fee had not been confirmed at time of going to press but it is unlikely to break anyone and the gig is VERY likely to delight you all.
That’s the full line-up then for this weekend’s Rock Festival nights. Remember all these gigs are official Rock Festival shows so we want to see massive crowds on each occasion to really set off the festival with a bang. Hopefully festival t-shirts and programmes will be on sale and there will be a party feels at each show. The outdoor event is only eight days away now so a roaring send of this weekend will put us all in great stead for the best festival ever.
THIS is the definitive line-up for the Tamworth 1989 Rock Festival, which we will be plugging until the event takes place.
Friday July 7 (Tamworth Arts Centre)
Whats This Heads Down Mindless Boogie About Nothing, Limited Edition, Lincoln Dirty Duncan and The Jim Crows Blues Company, Armchair Thrash. Entry £1 – starts 8pm.
Saturday July 8 (Tamworth Arts Centre)
Shock Culture, Spirit of the Gypsy Khan, The New Puritans and Curious Oyster. Entry £1 – starts 8pm.
Sunday July 9 (Tamworth Arts Centre)
Special Show – The Wilsons, Litany of Fear, Spiral Fish. Starts 8pm
Friday July 14 (Tamworth Arts Centre)
Flowers in the Attic, Chemikill, Eight Ball Joe, Bash Out The Odd. Entry £1 – starts 8pm.
Saturday July 15 (Tamworth Castle Grounds)
The Cuddly Spiders, Never Say Die, Stench, A5, The Soil Brothers, The DHSS, The Searching, Divine Intervention, King Wodericks and The Yogots, Fetch Eddie. Entry is free, concert lasts between 11am-8pm.
Sunday July 16 (Tamworth Castle Grounds)
Nightshade, Psychedelicatessen. Emma Gibbs, Rape In Yellow, Scream Dream, Catch 23, Kraze, The First Conspiracy, Big Noise, Spiral Eye. Entry is free, concert lasts between 11am-8pm.
Tamworth Herald – 14/07/89
Whats This Heads Down Mindless Boogie About Nothing – Festival Party (Friday)
What indeed? Doom-laden depressive New Order-type weirdness, that’s what! This stuff usually sends me to sleep, but they went down well with the punters, did a competent “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and the singer was fun to look at. Review – Martin Warrillow.
Sam Holliday footnote – Coolest lead singer in Tamworth contender?
Tamworth Herald – 01/09/89
ONE of the area’s best new bands team up on Sunday night with one of the area’s best older acts for a powerful Arts Centre double-header.
Scream Dream, now with enthusiastic new frontsman Ian Greatrex, will join forces with the powerful What’s This Heads Down Mindless Boogie About Nothing (hereby referred to simply as Mindless!) for a show that promises to delight everyone who slots into a variety of music departments on the alternative fringe.
Scream Dream who say their sound is a mixture of metal and goth music, have been wooing audiences throughout the Midlands and this is the first time their new line-up will hit the ‘home ground’ of the Tamworth Arts Centre. Ted, Paul, Niz and Dave now have the added strength of singer Ian, perhaps better known to some of you by his former name which I am not allowed to print but has something to do with a major cult Sixties series which included Spock, Kirk and the odd Klingon.
Joining forces with Star Trek’s team (damn, it slipped out!) will be the Mindless crew who impressed everyone with their raunchy Sisters-apparel at the festival earlier this year.
Together it makes for a very powerful duo, and with a possible third special guest act on view, it promises to be a nice night out for Sunday evening revellers.
It starts at 8pm, and costs £1.50 on the door. See you there.
Tamworth Herald – 08/09/89
All Reviews by SAM HOLLIDAY
What’s This Heads Down Mindless Boogie About Nothing – Tamworth Arts Centre
We’ve all heard those jokes. What do you call a man who hangs around with musicians – a drummer. You know that kind of joke, the sort that makes out that drummers are the dumbest thing to hit the stage since Kylie Minogue. Well I would like to make a major defence of drummers after hearing yet another drum machine and computer go AWOL. This perfectly ear-pleasing show was nearly completely ruined by the fact that the drum machine decided it wanted to go ‘solo’ and for the most part had no connection with the noise the other musos were trying to produce. It tried hard to wreck the whole show but thankfully it failed. This is a very useful band indeed, whose mixture of early Sisters moods and mid-day New Order riffs makes for a very likeable and powerful combination. ‘Legion’, ‘Savage in The Wild’ and something about a hill were stand-outs of a set which triumphed through adversity and revealed that Dugi is a supreme frontman with a gritty growling voice and that the band are a cohesive and determined breath of bad air on the music scene. Oh and thanks for the rock boys.
Tamworth Herald – 27/10/89
GOTHIC splendour returns to the Arts Centre on Sunday for a doom-laden night that brings together two bands who walk on the black side of life.
Litany of Fear, an aggressive goth survivalist crew will be making their first appearance in the Town since the Fest and they will be joined by new Tamworth favourites What’s This Heads Down Mindless boogie About Nothing.
Originally it was hoped that Flowers in the Attic could complete the scenario but they have now pulled out fuelling still further the rumour that they have disappeared in an alcohol blitz.
But fear not, the two bands still left on the line up are guaranteed to delight the mass of area ‘blacksmiths’. What’s This Heads Down Mindless boogie About Nothing will be playing their first show with their newly revised line-up and they are confident that their blackest of black goth sounds have improved and matured enormously since recent local bashes. Get set to get gothed.
 Headlining on Sunday will be Litany of Fear a band who What’s This’ bassist Jon describes as ‘brilliant’. Since supporting both Wolfsbane and Spiral Eye in the summer, Litany of Fear have progressed at a fast rate of knots and they believe their sound is more powerful than ever. The band, who feature our very own Ken Urwin (a local music veteran who was once (almost) a Classified Ads fan!) are also set for gigs in Coventry, Leicester and Stafford shortly so catch them now before someone else takes the praise for discovering their glories.
Two bands then (although another may be added to replace Flowers) and just £1.50 on the door. Sunday night goth fun – miss it at your peril.
Tamworth Herald – 10/11/89
Freelance correspondent ROBERT HODDLE kindly supplied me with reviews of these two gigs last week. Our thanks to him and on with the show(s)…
Whats This Heads Down Mindless Boogie About Nothing/Litany of Fear (Tamworth Arts Centre)
I group these two together because I can’t distinguish between them. They are both quite entertaining admittedly and both have a strong, heavy sound but all this death, gloom and despair business was used up years ago. This is nearly 1990 and surely there are more stimulating sounds out there than this ‘goth’ business. The music was left standing by the smoke machine.
Sam Holliday’s comment: Watch it Robert, these Heads Down chappies are a mean bunch!!!
All reviews by ROBERT HODDLE
Tamworth Herald – 24/11/89
Dear Sam,
Not having seen the whole ‘Whats this…’ set at the recent Arts Centre gig I did not feel that I would be able to give a fair review of the evening’s entertainment, however, having read last week’s Herald, I would make the following comments:
1. Mr. Robert Hoddle should learn the difference between a REVIEW and a biased opinion.
2. Mr. Hoddle was unable to distinguish between What’s This and Litany of Fear in what must be compared to a heavy metal fan not being able to distinguish between Jason Donovan and Rick Astley. It is clear that Mr. Hoddle is not a ‘goth’ fan so what was he doing as the gig in question?
3. Even if musically the group were a …both groups have a very different form of presentation, both verbally and physically, surely as a freelance correspondent Mr. Hoddle should have taken in the whole package!?!?!
4. When Mr. Hoddle was ignoring the ‘whole package’ did he also ignore the audience, who being one myself, did not think that all this ‘death, gloom and despair business was used up years ago’. In future when Mr. Hoddle makes such sweeping statements could he at least have some solid facts behind him.
5. Would Mr. Hoddle also bear in mind that everyone is entitled to their own musical taste and that his few words in a newspaper is not going to make everyone change to his taste!!!
Let’s hope in future What’s This Heads Down Mindless Boogie About Nothing and Litany of Fear get the fair and INDEPENDENT reviews that both groups deserve. Criticism is constructive, biased criticism is just a waste of space.
Yours,
Karen Woodall
Amington
Tamworth Herald – 15/12/89
WE have plenty of pre-Christmas shows to tell you about this week so feast your eyes on the collection of goodies below and get set for plenty of smiles in the next few days…
Tonight (Friday) – Tamworth Arts Centre
A hastily arranged show this which sees Whats This Heads Down Mindless Boogie About Nothing team up with Shock Culture for a Friday night bonanza. With the possible addition of Special Mystery Guests this promises to be a tempting alternative to Friday night pub crawling and it starts at 8pm.
Sunday Night – Tamworth Arts Centre
You are cordially invited to the Bignewyogotsherbert Christmas Show which offers you four top quality local bands and the possibility of a few carols! As the rather long title may suggest the four bands you can see are The Big Noise, The New Puritans, King Woderick and The Yogots and The Sherbert Trees all of whom have more fizz and bubbles than a bucket full of coke. It costs a mere £1.50 and apparently fancy dress is optional. I’m not sure about the Christmas Carols but I am sure this will be a heap of fun gig-goers!
Monday Night – The Castle Hotel
Another happy collection of mirth and music is in view as the meaty, beaty big and bouncy Also Smith and Jones spearhead ‘A Silent Night’. As well as enjoying the Smithies, you can laugh to the likes of Frank Skinner, Terry Cavelle, Shaun Percival and the amazing Jed ‘Everton nil’ Moore. Music is also provided by former Strap on Jack men, True Grit and Nick Lowe and all told this promises to be a riotous night of debauchery. It’s at the Castle Hotel remember and it should set Christmas off with a bang.
Monday Night – The Mean Fiddler, London
Catch 23 return to their London base again on Monday as part of the Best Band of the Year series. The boys will be taking a horde of their t-shirted fanatics again and if you want to see if there are any seats left ring. Could be a big night for the band this so here’s hoping for real festive cheer!
Whats This Heads Down Mindless Boogie About Nothing
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