Radio Norfolk and Beyond

Music & Bands

Between 1980 and 1982 Dave Smith and I recorded songs in my 'home studio' (my bedroom!) along with another friend, Neil Harvey. Several of these songs were broadcast by Radio Norfolk's Wally Webb (especially the one we wrote about him!). They were:

The Attack of the Fifty Foot Flying Blue Slugmen (Smith/Viner)
Creating Modern Music (Viner)
Goodbye (Viner)
In the Night (Viner)
On and On (Viner)
Only One (Viner)
Psycho Santa (Harvey/Smith)
Shadow in the Alley (Viner)
The Wally Webb Song (Smith)

During 1981 we put out a tape called Kilamadgargoyle (see the next page) whose title was a spoof on Kilimanjaro which had just been released by the Teardrop Explodes. It contained 28 songs from the Toads, Broadside Outcasts, Silent Noise, Turkey Molesters etc. Many were attributed to totally ficticious bands! It was favourably reviewed by the local Evening News and, although several were given away, it managed to sell not a single copy!

In 1994, while at UEA (University of East Anglia) taking a computing degree, I met Pete O'Connor and we did a bit of recording on his Fostex 4-track cassette recorder which I then borrowed for a while (and then bought off him) to record some more of my own stuff. During this time I also experimented with using computer-based sequencers. Amongst the songs from this period were:

I Will Return (1994)
Image (1996)
William, Clear Up Yer Room (1999)

In 2002 I was working for Norwich Union (now Aviva) and a message was passed around the organisation that the BBC's Look East were putting together a program to celebrate 25 years since punk rock and wanted to interview a few people who were punks back in the day. When I mentioned that I'd actually played in a punk band they wanted to interview me so, finally after 25 years, a Toads song finally made it onto TV! The interview was rubbish, of course! I do have a copy of the video

In July 2006 local paper the Eastern Daily Press decided to a 30 year celebration (well, punk had started in 1976). They tracked me down via this web site and interviewed me at home and took a few silly pictures in my back garden. Here is a scan of the 2-page spread they produced (see the Toads site for a larger print of part of this):

Between 2010 and 2018 I played guitar with a local folk band, Stookey Blue who play for parties, ceilidhs etc. More recently I've been providing a bit of background guitar for another local musician called Fiery Fred and his Fabulous Fiddle!