Rich Deakin writes;
"I first saw Gaye Bykers On Acid play in a cold, draughty church hall in Cheltenham. It was January 1987. They'd just started to make a splash in the British music press, thanks to some rave live reviews, and some calculated scene-making particularly on the part of Sounds journalist, and future Loaded magazine editor, James Brown. Having lumped them in with the so-called "grebo" genre along with bands like Crazyhead, Pop Will Eat Itself and Zodiac Mindwarp, Brown now says, “I can't remember how it became a 'genre' but I did help promote it a bit because it seemed there were suddenly a clutch of bands with essentially greasy long hair and a load of noisy rock who weren't metal.” That night in Cheltenham though, the Bykers were playing second fiddle to their mentors and fellow Leicester band, The Janitors. Their first release ‘Everythang’s Groovy’, backed by ‘Space Rape’ and ‘T.V. Cabbage’, had been out for two months and was still riding high in the indie charts. The single had already seared itself into my near perma-frazzled brain, and it was obvious these droogs were earning themselves something of a reputation on the live circuit too. So, suitably soused in Breaker malt liquor and wired on cheap bathtub biker amphetamines, as was often the want in those days, I made it my raggedy-arsed speed-freak duty to see what all the fuss was about for myself. I wasn’t disappointed: they turned out to be pretty much like they were on that single, a monstrous wall of thunderous rama-lama-rifferama and wah-drenched sonic mayhem – an unholy amalgam of the MC5 and Stooges colliding head on with Jimi Hendrix meeting the Sex Pistols and Hawkwind too, if you like! Mary, ever the pretty boy, was putting on his best Iggy moves, pouting and sneering like there was no tomorrow, riling the crowd and coming across like some ADHD or Tourette’s afflicted teenager with his impetuous nineteen to the dozen motor-mouthing. He certainly knew how to polarise an audience then, and those people whose jaws weren’t dropping with dumbstruck incredulity were galvanised into action and “gitting on down” or showering the stage with beer - even the occasional chair made a trajectory in that direction too. Guitarist Tony Horsfall, resplendent in a huge, oversized foam cowboy hat, wrestled his guitar to produce a demented Hendrix grappling with Ron Asheton stylee heavy fuzz distorted psychedelic wah guitar onslaught, whilst bassist Robber and drummer Kev Hyde thundered on and gamely dodged the plastic beer cups. Without wishing to do The Janitors a disservice, I don’t think many of the shell-shocked audience actually stayed to see all of their set afterwards. But just how the hell could anyone follow what we’d just witnessed anyway? Suitably shambolic, but equally mind-blowing and synapse-snapping displays of pure unbridled primal rock ‘n’ roll energy like this came to exemplify the Bykers’ live experience, and some of the recordings here, particularly the earlier ones from the 100 Club, Nottingham and the Felt Forum typify this.The rest of 1987 was a whirlwind of activity for the Bykers: they supported The Cult on tour; released another single in May; signed a deal with Virgin in June; continued to tour

extensively, and somehow even found time to make a movie! They were regularly making the front pages of the music papers too, and by the time they jetted off to New York City in July to play the Felt Forum, Madison Square Gardens, they were fully justifying the hype they were generating. Just check out the version of ‘T.V. Cabbage’ here - the sustained distortion and wah-wah on Tony’s guitar is truly fearsome. That autumn their debut album Drill Your Own Hole was released. Many people at the time, including members of the band, believed the album was overproduced and didn’t capture the true essence of what the Bykers were really about, e.g. the raw visceral immediacy of their live performances. They may have had a point, and the live versions of ‘Motorvate’ and ‘Git Down’, recorded live at The Living Room in Providence, Rhode Island, on their US tour in the spring of 1988 bear testimony to this. By this time the Bykers were also previewing new material, such as ‘Teeth’, a studio version of which would turn up on their next album Stewed To The Gills, released in February 1989. It saw them return to a more stripped down back-to-basics live sound, thanks also to the return of earlier producer Jon Langford. By the summer of 1990 the Bykers had been dropped by Virgin; had recorded and performed under the guise of an East German thrash metal band called Rektum; released a third album (the experimental Cancer Planet Mission, on their own Naked Brain label), and were about to undertake another gruelling tour of North America under their own steam. This, in no small part, contributed to the eventual demise of the band. The Tufnell Park Dome performance recorded in July 1990 shows just how far the Bykers had started to venture down techno and dance-oriented avenues, some of the results of which were also reflected on a fourth and final studio album, Pernicious Nonsense and a 12” indie /dance single under the pseudonym of S-P-A-C-E. By the end of the year though the party was just about over, tour fatigue, along with the attendant drinking and drugging, had taken their toll, and Robber in particular needed a break. Inevitably, musical differences could also have been a factor too, with various members developing other interests and pulling in different directions. The Bykers finally called it a day then, and Tony now recalls, “actually that was a sad time, I wanted to carry on, but it seemed strange to look for replacements, it just wasn't the Bykers anymore. We were who we were simply because of who we were.” Considering they were arguably always a more popular entity live than they were on record it’s amazing that an official live album hasn’t been released until now. So, short of a full-blown reunion, what better way to relive those noisome, heady, intoxicating days than by cranking up the volume and recreating “a big bad beautiful noize” of the Byker’s own making in the fetid surroundings of your own flea-pit."
Rich Deakin October 2012 http://facebook.com/rich.deakin (Rich Deakin is the author of a forthcoming book about Gaye Bykers On Acid and Crazyhead to be published by Headpress - www.worldheadpress.com)​