Senseless Things - Andi In A Karmann E.P (Unreleased) - What Goes On Records - 1990

Описание: REST IN PEACE Mark Keds, vocalist and one of the guitarists of The Senseless Things.

Mark, and the rest of the band, were all lovely kids when I knew them in the latter years of the 1980's, and early 1990's, spending a bit of time with them at parties, gigs and so forth. I got a lovely Christmas card from Mark and the band when I was very ill in December 1989 when he visited me at the Royal Free Hospital after my brain bleed which was a wonderful gesture... He was performing at, or going to see a band, at the White Horse pub nearby. Can't remember which as I was wired out on barbs for those weeks in the hospital ward!

The Senseless Things during that time were performing gigs so regularly, notching up hundreds of gigs a year and driving hundreds of miles up and down motorways.

The Senseless Things worked hard like the the other bands in their musical orbit, Snuff and Mega City Four.

Mark was only fifty years old. A very sad and tragic moment for his friends and his family.

The record uploaded today, 'Andi In A Karmann' was never released, as the record label, What Goes On Records, went bust before the project was finalised. Thankfully there were several white label test pressings pressed up, a copy of which I am lucky to own.

The text below is taken from the NME website.

Senseless Things’ Mark Keds has died, former bandmate Ben Harding has confirmed.

The singer and guitarist was 50 years old. A cause of death has yet to be confirmed.

“It is with the heaviest of hearts that we have to tell you that, sadly, Mark – our singer, friend and main songwriter – is no longer with us,” Harding wrote in a Facebook group dedicated to the band.

“It’s no secret that he had struggled on and off with drug abuse and a pretty chaotic lifestyle for a long while, and his health suffered substantially over the years due to this. While this had sometimes created friction within the on-off workings of Senseless Things and his other projects, we choose to remember the friend, the brother and the talent we’ve lost today.”

Harding went on to say that Keds (real name Mark Myers) was “truly passionate about his musical calling” and cited his greatest talent as “exploring the everyday fucked-upness and absolute, unbounded joy of one-to-one relationships; of love, lust, loss, anger, grief and the ecstasy of the ordinary”.

“We love you, Mark,” he wrote. “It seems cliched to say ‘gone too soon’, but damn, it’s true. He was only 50. It’s no fucking age to die. Our love and thoughts go out to his friends, his family, his loved ones and the ones who loved him.” You can read Harding’s tribute in full here.

Senseless Things formed in London in 1986 and released five albums before they split in 1995. They reunited in 2007 for a one-off show in London – their first in over 12 years – and held two further shows in 2017. Around the latter gigs, they also released ‘Lost Honey’, their first new material in 22 years.

Recently, Keds was performing with his band Deadcuts, which he formed in 2012, and was previously a member of The Wildhearts. He also had a credit on The Libertines’ single ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’, which used a line from the single ‘Hey! Kitten’, which was released by Jolt, one of his many other projects.

What Goes On Records was an in-house label for Shigaku Trading Co. that specialized in releasing records by Australian, American, and Swedish ‘Garage’ bands. Shigaku originally was founded as the UK office of Dutch East Trading Co, parent company of Homestead Records among other labels. Bands that What Goes On Records released records by include; The Replacements, Died Pretty, Bitch Magnet, Celibate Rifles, Eastern Dark, Soul Asylum, Yo La Tengo, The Telescopes, Das Damen amongst dozens more. The label lasted from the mid 1980’s until 1991 when Shigaku went into administration.

Pete Keeley of What Goes On Records left this message on the day that he passed on;

“RIP Mark Keds. So sad to hear that Mark Keds has died. He was a lovely bloke. We signed The Senseless Things to What Goes On when I was there, and we were about to release their debut EP for our record label, ‘Andi In A Karmann’, when sadly we went bust. Mark was a pleasure to work with, with an infectious energy. Always used to bump into him at gigs in London, and have a chat and a beer, and we had a lot of friends in common. Really sad to hear he has gone. Very sad news. Thoughts are with his band mates, friends, and family.”