Dancing Teeth
CompostARC041
Dancing Teeth- Shot to Pieces
- Tuesday 8.55 pm
- Disco Chair
- Elephant Song
- Tuesday 8.55 pm (Remix)
- Elephant Song (Remix)
- Legend of Darkie Blue
- Peter from the Shed
- A Few Streets Down the Road
- Dubbie Blue
- One Man Missing
- 4 Roman Coins
- Circus Face
- My Massage
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth and on the seventh day he rested and Dancing Teeth escaped from the heap of leftovers!
Having observed the fun Bristol Grammar School alumni Nick Shepherd and Mark Stewart were having in their groups, Nigel Burrough (rhythm guitar/vocalist) and childhood friend and Andy Moore (bass) recruited whiz kid lead guitar/vocalist Andy Stafford and his famous trousers to put together the Dancing Teeth named, not after the famous Monty Python sketch, but on a misprint in a 1977 Punk Rock reference book.
After auditioning a number of drummers (including X-Certs Neil Mackie), Nigel's brother Ian stood-in to enable the band to get off the ground with a first gig at the Stonehouse supporting Thin Air, although this was done without any practising; a chore deemed unnecessary in true punk style. Each member just learned his own part, turned up and played!
Eventually a permanent drummer was found in the shape of the multi-talented John Tuff, a school friend of the two Andy's, and his unrehearsed debut was again at the Stonehouse, this time in the Teeth's first headline gig, where the punters were challenged to come dressed more stupidly than the band (and mostly succeeding). In this time two 4 song demos were recorded with the legendary Steve Street at S.A.M. Studios, and great fun was had by all concerned. The demos were made available as "The Legend of Darkie Blue" and "Rubbish Cat" cassettes and these, together with the Band's unique posters for each gig, became collectors' items.
After a further dozen or so gigs in and around Bristol, including an appearance at the Sheep Worrying Festival in Bridgwater, where the band first made the acquaintance of now world renowned producer John Parish, the band began to stagnate and it was decided to bring in a keyboard player, Julie Carter, to spice things up, but Andy Moore decided he did not like this new direction and quit, with Nigel moving to bass guitar to cover the gap. The new version of Dancing Teeth played a few gigs and recorded a 3-song demo (released on cassette as "Move Fast in a Forward Direction"), again with Steve Street at S.A.M, but the magic was gone, especially as this new set-up actually practised, which was a major faux pas. The original Dancing Teeth line-up later regrouped for one final gig supporting Paul Sandrone's abortive "Common People" upstairs at the Dug Out, but that was that and the band members moved on to further projects, including Shrewd!
