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During the Red Aligatorz (The Virginia Vagabonds) period Ellie and I were involved with another band that was very different to the structured music of Rockabilly. “The International Dole Cheques” were anarchistic in structure, chaotic and held together as long as the snake-bite cider lasted.
The line-up was:
Dung – guitar, vocals
Ellie – vocals, drums (cardboard boxes, plastic buckets, beer barrels)
Myself – guitar, ukelele
This recording was done in London when The Gatorz were playing/living down there. It might seem very exciting to live in the capital city with everything going on around you, but in reality it is very boring. We were there to play music but the music only happened at night and perhaps 3 or 4 times a week. The other times we sat around, or did our own thing. Ellie used to strum a 5 string banjo or play slide guitar; Swanny was teaching himself Bluegrass banjo; and I was teaching myself Classical guitar and Northumbrian Smallpipe music.
While Swanny would pass the time playing records, Ellie and I would strum a guitar or have a drink or two… these sessions often happened after a gig and went into the early hours when people of Whickham Road (Brockley) were trying to get to sleep. “Shut the f–ck up” often filtered down to us from a bedroom window…
The Dole Cheques´s music was a mixture of anything…there was not any set style, a lot of it was our own scribbles, and some of it was borrowed. This recording is mostly a tipsy collection of other people´s songs.
1 Come with me… is not the real title, but it was by a band called The Holy Modal Rounders, am not sure if it originally by them, but I heard it on their LP, or when they became a duo, something like that anyway.
2 The Wild Rover…is an Irish folk song, well known the world over and one Ellie liked to sing.
3 I’ve Got a Sperm Stain…one of Ellie’s compositions, a classic in my opinion.
4 Ugly…The Dole Cheques were moddled upon a busking band called “The Vulcan’s”. I had seen them busking in Italy, and later in Amsterdam in ’83; and they blew me away by their energy and crowd control. Half concert half theatre, comic and entertaining, they made a lasting impression. Ellie and I saw them play in London years later and later still, we busked with them in Convent Garden (I have never been so knackered after playing a short set with them). Ugly is one of their songs. I never knew all the words I used to make them up, but the chorus is theirs.
5 They Say this is a Democracy…written by Dung (Every Smile’s a Lie), who was a member of The Dole Cheques.
6 A Blues Ditty…a poor attempt at a Blues improvisation.
7 The Rolling Pin Song… written by myself. Inspired by The Vulcan’s.
8 Crawling King Snake…by The Doors.
This cassette disappeared for a long time, but it re-emerged via Ellie, many thanks for giving this the light of day again. Probably recorded in 1987.
