Description
Artist – The Guy Hamper Trio (feat. James Taylor)
Release – Cowboys Are Square / It’s So Hard To Be Happy 7″
Cowboys Are Square
Side 1
It’s So Hard To Be Happy
Label – Spinout Nuggets
Cat No. – SN097
Release date – 28th July 2023
The Guy Hamper Trio was formed by Billy Childish, after a chat with his friend James Taylor (Hammond organ).
They had played respectively in The Milkshakes and The Prisoners, often sharing the same bill in the early 80’s. And indeed, Billy’s blues ensemble: The Natural Born Lovers were the support act for the early shows of The James Taylor Quartet.
The Guy Hamper Trio is: Billy Childish on guitar, his wife Julie on bass and Wolf on drums – who as it happens was the drummer in the original incarnation of JTQ – and of course features James Taylor on Hammond organ.
The Guy Hamper Trio provide a bottom end, Blues-influenced instrumental mayhem for those unafraid of dirt, germs and true grime. With no particular wish other than to be recognised as the best at playing badly, they refuse to obey the usual rules of combat and music.
Since their first 45 release (Polygraph Test / Sally Sensation) in 2009, a full-length studio album, ‘All The Poisons In The Mud’, appeared, as if by magic in 2022, via Damaged Goods, followed by a twin-spin 7” earlier this year on Spinout Nuggets, and now a new full-length album via Hangman Records, titled ‘Man In The Mouth Of A Cave’.
This fully-loaded twin-spin single includes two tracks from the new album; ‘Cowboys Are Square’ and ‘It’s So Hard To Be Happy’, both tracks originally performed and released in vocalised renditions by two leading Billy Childish ensembles.
Once again, after consultation with experts in the field, it was decreed that these tracks needed to be on a 7” single, for the enjoyment of the Mods, jive experts, lost revellers and those prone to frequent discotheques throughout England, the UK, Europe, the USA, Indonesia and indeed Portsmouth!
Limited to 500 copies, the ninety-seventh release on Spinout Nuggets, it will be available via the label and all very good record outlets.
Line Up:
Guy Hamper – Guitar, Vocals
Juju Hamper – Bass
Wolf Howard – Drums
James Taylor – Hammond Organ
Notes:
Recorded at Ranscombe Studios, Rochester, Kent.
Produced by ‘Spook’ Loveday.
Engineered by Jim Riley.
Published by Another Music.