The Turkey Molesters

The band who were variously known as the Bondage Boys, the Turkey Molesters, Rasputin and his Mad Monks and Relish and the Perverts started off as the editors of the first Norwich punk fanzine, Vomit. The two brothers, Con and Dan O'Donoghue were, I believe, aged about 16 at the time and Con had been suspended from school for producing the fanzine. They had decided to form their own group after coming out to interview the Toads. Up until then there had been a severe lack of punk bands in Norwich and so they had invented a ficticious group that they'd named the Electric Orgasm in order to have a local band about which to write.

The Bondage Boys, consisting of Con (Vocals) and Dan (Bass) with added guitarist Steve Fowler, played their first gig at the 3Cs (now the Charing Cross Centre, St John Maddermarket, Norwich) after only rehearsing for three days (rumour had it that they also learnt to play their guitars from scratch during this period). At this point they did not have a drummer and borrowed a rather reluctant Polo. Although they mainly performed other bands' material they had written a song called Betsy the Cow which was wonderfully dire and, I was later told, written to wind up the folk club at their local pub, the Cambridge Arms. It was never meant for serious consumption but, as far as I know, never recorded for posterity (though Steve did indicate that this gem could actually exist in recorded state somewhere). After a couple of gigs they added their own drummer in the form of Stephen Morgan (aka Joe Crow).

Their frequent name changes came about because they were so (self-admittedly) bad that they said they didn't want anyone remembering them from one gig to the next! I am not sure if they performed any gigs other than those listed on the gigs page. We tended to use them as support in order to make the Toads sound far better.

I made a recording of one of their rehearsals and the seven songs from this tape can be downloaded from the Download Songs page. The songs were: Rosalyn, The Strut, Uh! (a self-composition), Carol, C'mon Everybody, Hound Dog (3 takes - current space restrictions mean that only the third, complete take is available in downloads) and Not Fade Away. I seem to remember that they only had a partial drum kit at this stage which may account for the limited drum sound. The songs were recorded directly onto cassette so the mix is rather strange and there were also problems with the mains extension lead that was being used which accounts for the occasional buzz and click!

I have great memories of them turning up to a gig at the Premises Arts Centre with all their equipment balanced in one shopping trolley. During another memorable gig, when they supported the Toads at the Peoples nightclub, Con, the lead singer, had to stand throughout the entire gig with one foot wedged against the bass drum. This was to prevent the entire drum kit from sliding across the stage because it had lost the 'spike' that stopped such movement! How we (and they) laughed!

(New information above added thanks to Steve Fowler who contacted me back in 2003 and Dan O'Donoghue who I heard from in 2016.)