There are so many tales in the fabric of the music industry relating to the trajectory of bands. Random events such as timing, changes in personnel and dumb luck can all contribute to how successful or not a band can be. I am sure we can all name bands who fall into the ‘how the hell did they become so big’ or the alternate ‘what might have been’ category.
As I have undertaken many visits to Nottingham over the years, I began to become familiar with many of my brother’s friends. One such pair was Paul Arnall and Sarah Simmonds. Paul was the instigator in the forming of the band Fatal Charm in 1978 and was the lead guitarist and vocalist before Sarah joined as lead vocalist to allow Paul to concentrate more fully on song writing duties. Their music is tricky to quantify but they could arguably be viewed in the post-punk dream pop category.
They began to garner attention and as a result were enlisted for numerous Radio 1 sessions with Bob Harris, Janice Long and Annie Nightingale amongst others. They also appeared on the legendary Channel 4 Tube programme in 1983 and were a support act to Ultravox and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.
However, the volatile nature of the music business at that point in time resulted in numerous record contract breakdowns and a poorly promoted debut album in 1985. They were eventually signed to RCA and as result morphed into a newly named band State of Grace who existed from 1991 to 1998 and had a more ambient sound.
The net result of the combined events above meant that the band never broke through into the mainstream. They subsequently reformed as Fatal Charm in 2012 and commencing playing some local gigs again.
Their venue of choice was the Trent Navigation pub, home to the Navigation brewery. The hostelry has lived up to its name over the years looking after the navvies who used to work in the canals. It is now run by the Great Northern Inns group and is a homely establishment located on Wilford Street and any pub that has a specific pie night is good enough for me!
I saw them there twice in quick succession in June and September 2012. You could tell they retained a touch of class with Sarah’s plaintive vocals and Paul’s accomplished guitar work and they attracted a decent crowd each time. They rather oddly passed around a collection for their appearance fee, something which I have never witnessed before. There was talk at one point of arranging a gig in Preston at the Continental but that never came to fruition.
As you may have gleaned by now, I am always hunting down new venues and a place called Doghouse Studios caught my eye. They are located on Alfred St North not too far from the Arboretum. They are a recording studio, but they also house a fully equipped stage for video and photographic shoots and have two record labels. They also occasionally had live gigs.
On 16/11/13 we went to see a band called the Others who were a guerrilla rock band led by the intimidating figure of Dominic Masters. They played many so-called ‘guerilla gigs’ at quirky locations such as the Hammersmith & City Line tube, on the dodgems at Leeds Festival and on the Abbey Lane crossing in London town. They were signed by Alan McGee’s Poptones Label in 2004. They had a loyal fanbase coined ‘the 853 Kamikaze Stage Diving Division’.
It was an interesting venue with a distinct space for the bands and they proceeded to produce a noisy rambunctious set.