Shotgun, Bastard and Dribble

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Thee SPC Pt.1: Chuck

Sheffield has given the world many wondrous things: steel knives, Sean Bean and, most importantly of all, me. Thanks to THAT band there's a great deal of interest in the Sheffield music scene at the moment. Every Sheffield band worth getting excited about (and a fair few that aren't) have passed through Thee Sheffield Phonographic Corporation at some point.

Thee SPC was set up by members of Velodrome 2000, The Motherfuckers and Chuck. As well as releasing records by local bands they also put out Thee Humbug magazine. Issue 2 of which included a CD featuring early tracks by Arctic Monkeys and The Long Blondes which means it now changes hands on eBay for internet video community money.

Download Issue 1 and it's accompanying tracks

Chuck, as well as being the Daddies of the scene, make a damn fine racket themselves. Covering every genre you'd expected from a band from a landlocked city in the north of England: surf, rockabilly and blues-y rock. You can hear them supporting The Mighty Fall at The Boardwalk on Saturday or, if you're lazy, just download this:

Chuck - No, Not Ah via their website

One of the problems with instrumentals is naming them. There are two routes you can go:

1. Name it after a girl (Fur Elise, Jessica) in the forlorn hope of impressing her into bed. Beethoven wrote Fur Elise for Therese Malfatti who later turned down his marriage proposal and went for Jacob Malfatti von Rohrenbach who had a car and had been on the telly.

2. Name it after an in-joke (Eine Kleine Lift Musick, Griz's Golden Ticket).

With No, Not Ah Chuck have gone with the second. "No, not ah," was the catchphrase of Stuart 'Jerry Springer: The Opera' Lee and Richard 'Talking Cock' Herring on their mid-90's comedy show TMWRNJ (pronounced TMWRNJ).



It's not the first time they, like me, have been inspired by 90's comedy. On No One Died they sample this clip from The Day Today:



Chuck - No One Died via Thee SPC

Try as I might the universe won't let me get away from ukuleles. Here Chuck do a George Formby inspired version of their single Umm Na Nagay:

Chuck - Umm Na Nagay (Ukulele version) via their website.

For more Sheffield music check out:

Nothing But Green Lights
Sheffield Music
Shotgun, Bastard and Dribble (there will be more).

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