Rock and Roll Stories #80 - The perfect mix or too much egg in the pudding

Our next gig

Ever since day 1 of the False Dots, I've been on a mission to have the perfect band. This doesn't mean I wanted Jimi Hendrix, Debbie Harry, Keith Moon et all in the band. I wanted the perfect band to play the noise that was going around my head. That is a very different thing. When we started, it was very much a case of simply getting anyone we could to get going. In a strange sort of way, that was the perfect band for where we were. It meant we could develop our ideas of what a band should be and find our own direction, without someone who "knew the ropes" corralling us in a  direction we didn't want to go, before we actually knew what we wanted.

It took over a year to get to the point where I felt we were sort of ready to be unleashed on the world. We got Alan Warner of The Foundations down, as we wanted to record and sought his advice as to whether we were ready. Alan suggested we get a new drummer who could play in time and suggested a mate, Dav Davies. When Dav joined, we suddenly started to sound like the noise in my head. Recording in 1980 was expensive, but we were ambitious. Our first demo was good, but the band started to fracture. Pete, the co founder left, I recruited a new guitarist, Craig and Paul Hircombe moved to bass. Pete then decided he was coming back and so took over on vocals. On the day of our first gig, he didn't bother to show. It was a baptism of fire, but was the best thing that could happen. We felt that having got through that, we could get through anything. A second demo was done, it was a massive step up. However, all it really did was inform me of what we could do. Paul Hircombe got it. Craig didn't, but he'd go along with it. 

After our tour of Sweden, we decided that we'd try and get a deal. Paul suggested that we get a female singer and a better drummer. We did. The band sounded amazing, but it really wasn't the sound in my head anyomore. It was sort of a bit like Blondie, but I'd learned a lesson. If you want a specific sound, then you need the right person, not just one who could do the job. The singer departed with Craig and the drummer. I had decided to simplify the sound, strip it back and I met Venessa Sagoe, who was an amazing singer. We got Adam Francis on drums, he was a very metronmic drummer, no frills. Ideal for what I wanted. We then added keyboard player Chris Potts. The band was exactly what I had wanted.  They could play anything, Venessa was a brilliant performer. It had taken four years, but we'd got there. I thought we had the perfect mix, but something happened that I hadn't really expected. I found it was getting harder to bring new ideas and songs to the band and get them to be played how I felt they should. We were an amazing band, but as the new members settled in, they wanted more and more of a say over everything. This was not unreasonable, but I felt that not everything they were suggesting was particularly helpful or good. I think the moment when it became difficult was when Chris joined. He was a superb musician, but he had a different vision to me of what a band should be, Neither of us was wrong, but Chris lacked the drive to run a band, but he had lots of things he was not happy with. As he was a great musician, it became harder and harder to argue my case. In hindsight, I realise that before he joined, we had a perfect mix.I thought Chris was the final ingredient, but in truth, it was just a bit too much sugar in the mix. The problem was that Chris was too much of a perfectionist. I am not. Chris would be upset if the band played bum notes at gigs. I didn't care so long as we went down a storm, 

What happened was we lost momentum. Because Chris was a perfectionist, everyone started to question everything. Although Chris was technically right that the songs could be better, we'd played a sol out Dingwalls just before he joined and blown the doors off it. The highlight of the set was Action Shock that was just two chords repeated all of the way through. It's secret was that it was simple. It took me a very long time to realise that our secret weapon was always the simplicity. It worked for the Ramones, it worked for us. Whenever we tried to make things more musically complicated or cleverer, it became dull. 

The experience with Chris was difficult for me. He was a lovely bloke, did a great job and was absolutely committed to making The False Dots a better band. However it changed the dynamic and although we were musically better, we lost momentum and within six months it had all fallen apart. I must add that at the time Chris joined, we also took on a manager, who did nothing and caused all sorts of issues. It also didn't help that I was sharing a house with Venessa and Bill and I am the worlds worst housemate. By the time we split, they were well and truly sick of me. But creatively, the change of dynamic made it impossible to write and develop songs in the way we had. Since the start of the band, the way we've developed songs has been the same. I'd sketch out some chords and the lyrics and we'd play them through as a band. Once we had a basic structure, we'd work on refining them. Chris thought we should work them our before we played them as a band and get all manner of fancy bits in. Recently, I was given a video of the band playing live at The Bald Faced Stag in Burnt Oak. It was the full set. As we were playing a local pub, there were a few covers, the songs we'd been playing for ages and a couple of the new songs we'd written with Chris. I was struck by the fact that although the songs were more complicated, they lacked the hooks and energy that the older songs had. Perhaps the most interesting thing of all was that I simply had no memory of them at all.  I have always believed that the 1984 version of The False Dots was brilliant and should have been signed. I think getting Chris in at the time was the right thing, it was a tragedy we couldn't make it work. Watching the video of Venessa performing only reinforces that. Here is Action Shock with her at the Bald Faced Stag. 

Fast forward to 2026. The False Dots are still going. We are now a five piece band. This time last year, we added Derek Treadwell. Derek plays percussion and does backing vocals. It adds a new dimension to the sound. I've always believed that percussion is a secret weapon. A tambourine or wood block can lift a chorus, and having a bit more vocal welly on choruses makes a huge difference. Since I took over main vocal duties from Allen Ashley in 2021, I've become increasingly more aware that it is restricting playing guitar and singing. It is hard to be as expressive as I'd like to be as a singer. I have thought about either getting another guitarist, or getting a bassist and switching Fil back to guitar. However, I am also well aware of the risks of putting too much egg in the pudding.

My advice to any young bands and musicians, who think they need to "develop their sound" by adding extra band members is to ask yourself whether the band has momentum and if you are still finding inspiration. If you are, then be very wary of disrupting it. The False Dots played at Nambucca last week. We played a brand new song called Cut Priced Hedonism. I am rather happy with it! Mind you, it would probably sound better with Chris's keyboards on!