GALLON DRUNK - BEDLAM - Version 3

Описание: This third version of the video for the 1992 single remained unused for promotional purposes at the time and has never been screened before. It was presumed lost until recently and now gets a belated airing over 22 years later.

THE ROOT OF THE GROOVE

Gallon Drunk have at times been compared to, and influenced by, The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, PIL, Suicide, and of course, The Birthday Party. This lineage can also include any number of obscure and relatively forgotten (to the world at large, anyway) 60's garage bands from the Britain and the US, but the true progenitor of this primal blues and R&B based rock and roll is undoubtedly one Elias McDaniel - aka Bo Diddley.

When it came to innovation and originality, Bo was way out in front. An enthusiastic experimenter with electronics, he built his own 'cigar box' guitar, developed tone and attack effects and bowdlerised speakers by slashing and piercing the cones to produce a dirty, menacing sound. He also found a place for women musicians in his band, often attired in ball gowns for gigs, at a time when their role on stage was almost exclusively defined either as backing singers or all round eye-candy; usually both.

From the early days Bo worked with a crack selection of backing musicians, amongst them his long-time friend, the maraca player Jerome Green. The distinctive sound of Green's maracas permeate Bo's early recordings like lettering through a stick of rock. Maracas performed the same function on these tunes as the tambourine did on the great Motown records, the click track that's the root of the groove. For those unfamiliar with his work, check out anything Bo Diddley recorded between the mid 1950's and mid 1960's and disappointment won't be an issue.

The maracas were the antithesis of Rick Wakeman's doodling on a multi battery of keyboards whilst historic characters in fancy dress skimmed around an ice rink.

The early Gallon Drunk sound was infused with maraca player Joe Byfield's similar Latin influenced shuffling which ideally complemented the rolling bass, syncopated drumming and the savage, primordial feedback of the combined brainbiter guitar/wailing keyboard assault which resulted in an aural frenzy of nerve jangling proportions when let loose in the smoky, squalid venues of early 90's England.

Joe quit as Gallon Drunk's maraca player in the mid 1990's and returned to non-musical pursuits although he did make occasional appearance with the band for live performances over the next few years.

email: [email protected]