"Are you Rog?". I replied Yep.
"Did you used to play in a band called The False Dots?". I replued "Yep I stll do"
"Did you put something up about video of a gig at the Bald Faced Stagg in Burnt Oak and wanting to see it, on Facebook". I replied "Yep I did".
"I've got a copy. I got it on DVD do you want to see it". I replied "I'd love to".
And so it was that for the first time ever, yesterday, I saw the video of The False Dots gig at the Bald Faced Stag, on the 30th June 1984. Our singer at the time was the rather amazing Venessa Sagoe. The line up was in blistering form and it was the fourth gig in a residency at The Bald Faced Stag, and a few days before we played a "Big Gig" at The Pindar of Wakefield in Kings Cross (now The Water Rats). The Bald Faced Stag in Burnt Oak was one of Barnet's most notorious pubs. Most of the hoodlums in Burnt Oak used it as their watering hole. Half of them had worked for my Dad at MacMetals. The guvenor liked us and paid us well for playing. At the previous gig, a chap called Tony Byrne, from Colindale CND approached us and asked if we'd like to make the next gig a benefit for CND. In return, he said he'd make a video of the event. These days everyone can make videos with their phones, back then, it was a massive thing. The idea of a whole gig being videod was really exciting.
My only concern was that the guvenor of the pub at the time was ex Army. How would he react to a CND benefit in his pub? He was delighted, as he knew that the pub would be busy. We got our mates, in a rythme and blues band called No Biscuits to support us. They were pretty full on and we knew it would be a good night. We played a great set and got a good reception. It was like a home fixture for us. After the gig, I rang Tony to get hold of a copy of the video. He was very cagey. Something had gone wrong and he'd missed half of the set. He was highly embarrassed. We never got to see it. Until yesterday.
What was even more annoying was that Tony showed it to the local paper to get some press for his cause. Even more annoying was the fact that the video editor had incorrectly labelled the band "The Full Stops" on the video, according to the press report. After a couple of weeks of nagging I gave up. By the end of the summer, that iteration of The False Dots had split up. Venessa had joined another band, I was in hospital in aserious poor health, following a burst stomach ulcer. I had split up with my partner and things couldn't be more miserable. I had no interest in seeing the video. It had been fun whilst it lasted, but in bands, you look forward, not backwards. And so the video got forgotten. When you are twenty one years old, you do stuff and move on. But when you are sixty two, you take a different view. I was looking through my bands scrapbook and saw this article and wondered. Did the video still exist? So I put a post up on Facebook and Veg, the drummer of No Biscuits got in touch.
So after all those years, what is it like? Well here is a snippet. This is Action shock, which is the only song from that era that we do.
The first thing that struck me was that that sound quality is excellent for a video of that era. I assume that the video maker took a live feed from the PA desk. The band also sounded excellent to my ears. Venessa was an exceptional singer and you really can hear that. Perhaps the most interesting thing for me, and it was somewhat emotional at times, was seeing all of our friends. Some, such as our bassplayer Paul Hircombe, have sadly passed away. Some, such as Venessa, keyboard player Chris Potts and drummer Adam Francis, I've not seen since that era. There are all manner of interesting faces in the audience, many of whom I knew casuaully and have no idea what they are doing now. I am sure Burnt Oak residents will see plenty of faces they know!
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this is that the band is still going. It has changed and developed over the years. The year after this video was made, our current drummer Graham Ramsey joined the band. Bassist Paul Hircombe was a member until 2009, when he moved to Portsmouth, passing away from cancer three years later. Paul was replaced on bass guitar by Fil Ross, who had originally joined in 2000 on guitar and vocals. Of the songs in the set, we did several covers. There were also songs that I had no recollection of. Venessa should have been a massive star. I watched the whol 45 minutes and she didn't miss a note or a cue. She was a fantastic singer.
But things move on. The song I chose to feature (and I will post a couple more) was Action Shock. I've told the story of the song before. It has become a very important song in the False Dots set and until recently was always the song we closed the set with. It wouldn't have even seen the light of day, had it not been for Venessa. As I recounted in the blog
Like most of the lyrics and poems I write, it then got stuck in my shoebox, put in the sock draw and left. In 1983, Vanessa Sagoe, joined the band. She asked to see any lyrics I had. She loved the song. She asked if I had any music for it. Myself and Paul Hircombe then composed a very basic two chord pattern. We played it and Vanessa simply took the song and that was that. We never bothered to develop it any further musically, because Vanessa's delivery was so powerful.
And so to 2025, forty one years after this video was made. What has changed? Well as I mentioned, too many friends are no longer with us. The Bald Faced Stag has also been knocked down. Burnt Oak, which was once the home of numerous pubs, only has a small Irish bar for the local boozers. The only place left for a band like The False Dots to do a gig is the Burnt Oak Services club. Even the Bus numbers changed from Burnt Oak, with the 114 replacing the 140 and the 302 replacing the 52. Many landmarks, which seemed timeless have gone. Edgware General hospital is no more, with a sort of downgraded hospital with no A&E in its place. The mighty Coop department store has also long gone. The Tesco's next door, the banks have departed. The Market shut its doors and the Betta Cafe is no more. My nephew watched the video and noted that everyone is smoking inside. Our keyboard player performs the whole gig with a ciggie in his mouth. If you want to know what the Bald Faced Stag was like in 1984, I doubt that there will be another video of it. It occurs to me that this video is actually a really precious piece of local history, a window into a lost world.
I was chatting with a mate in the Services club last night. He is a successful businessman and he asked me what I'd got out of being in the band.The great things I've got are too many to list. I met my wife at a gig, many of my best mates are musicians I've met through the band, I've had an absolute blast and occasionally a gem like this turns up, that blows my mind! He then said "No, do you actually earn any money out of the band?". In truth, no. These days, if we cover our bar bill, petrol and have enough to buy a kebab on the way home, it is a good night financially. When we recorded this video we actually got paid decent money for gigs. We'd get paid £250 for a gig at the Stag and we'd get free beer and a plate of sandwiches. Within a couple of years, it became almost impossible for a band playing original material to get a paid gig in London. When I wrote the chorus of Action Shock "Life, Mine's not for sale" I didn't realise how true those words would ring.
Anyway, just for your fun, here is a live version of Action Shock that our current line up made at London Talent Week last December. It's a rather different version. I'd love to hear Venessa sing it with us one day. Who knows, I never thought I'd see this video, life turns up funny things!
See the band peform Action Shock live at The Dublin Castle on Sunday 25th May
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