Chewing Gum For The Ears : Gigs, Performances, Busks

It’s been through backcopies of music media stalwarts such as Melody Maker, Sounds, and the NME that I’ve been able to put together a far-from-complete list of gigs the sixtet gave to the masses. Wherever I’ve been able to acquire gig reviews from the press I’ve interspersed them in the list, leaving aside the usual journo hyperbole, pithy critique, and self-aggrandisement, honing in Scud-like on what’s really important – tracks played, cover versions, audience reaction, and the like.

There seem to be a couple of common factors running through the various live reviews that I’ve read. In Davey Henderson, the band had an animated frontman, brimful of confidence, unfazed by the pressures of live performance and a hankering for the limelight. Despite the singer’s claim that “… we sound cheap and raw, and that’s what we like”, the gig reviews below in the main reveal a tight musical unit with plenty of chutzpah and showmanship.

DH spoke elsewhere of the band’s intentions for Win performances : “… with our live show, we want to use films and colour seperation techniques and things. Too many groups do the same and pretend that they are being terribly meaningful. We obviously aren’t. If the way that the images go together puts over a certain suggestion to someone then that’s fine but it’s certainly not deliberately profound. We’re going to have commercials instead of talking between songs”.

From Melody Maker : “On stage, (Henderson) … is a complete hussy, a shameless cross between Bono and Engelbert Humperdinck, combining the intensity of one with the overt hamminess of the other”. Davey also says of himself : “I’m arch on stage? Well, that’s me all over”.

The same Melody Maker journo accuses the singer of campness on stage. Davey splutters back, “Camp? What’s the matter with being camp? There’s a female side to everybody. We just enjoy ourselves. It’s like in America, when the waiter puts a plate on the table, he says, ‘Enjoy’. We enjoy everything. It’s hard work sometimes”.

The interview continues :
God, Dave, you’re a ham. “Yes, but you wouldn’t believe what the hamminess is covering up! I wouldn’t care to reveal it. It’s just me not wanting to be myself. Ninety per cent of Americans can afford to go to analysts. Being on stage, being hammy, just gets me away from being a normal person”.
Would you go to an analyst? “No. In fact, I see myself as the Steve Davis on pop”.
Why? “I’m boring”.
Sure? “Yeah. We’re just shy boys playing pop music”.

It's interesting to note that in a period when other acts were covering the gems of Bolan’s back catalogue (Power Station’s “Get It On”, Baby Ford’s “Children Of The Revolution”, the Undertone’s “Jeepster”, Siouxsie’s “20th Century Boy”, and the nightmare-on-wax that is Naomi Campbell’s interpretation of “Ride A White Swan”), Win opted for “Truck On (Tyke)”, a track from the supposed arse-end of the diminutive one's career, when it would have been beneficial to go with more recognisable numbers. It is likely that they also played at some point Bolan’s “The Slider”, one of the B-sides on the “Shampoo Tears” 12”.

Al Crawford, the main man at the review site www.awrc.com, had this to offer on the sporadic nature of Win's performances : "I think they had a tendency to perform unexpectedly. Like the last show I heard about had them coming on after the scheduled act at one of the Edinburgh clubs".

One other nugget of info has it that the band would routinely play advertising jingles between songs. Confirmed ‘messages-from-our-sponsors’ include Fairy Liquid (“For hands that do dishes that feel as soft as your skin, mild green … Fairy Liquid!”) and Martini (“Anytime, anyplace, anywhere! There’s a wonderful drink you can share! It’s the right place, it’s the right time, that’s Martini!”).

(…. Talking of adverts here’s DH’s response to being asked what his favourite TV ads were : “”The Coke ‘I’d Like To Teach The World To Sing’, Fairy Liquid’s ‘Hands That Do Dishes’, the Martini one … imagine being the person that wrote that! The thing always looked so out of date but the tune’s been there the whole way through, even though they keep on playing around with it. It’ll go on forever. I wouldn’t have minded writing the Flake one either”.

Russel B astutely reads a lot of subtext into the ad for a certain crumbliest, flakiest confection : “I saw this Flake advert the other day that I remembered seeing when I was really young, the one with the woman walking down the railway tracks. I only noticed when I saw it this time that she spends most of the time with one hand between her legs and the other shoving this phallic thing in her mouth. It must have influenced so deeply subconciously when I was little. All I used to remember was that she was by a railway track. I’d have like to have written the Pearl And Dean music, that’s got a good tune” . …)

Here’s Davey Henderson's frankly mental idea of on what lines a gig should have proceeded along : “Win should ideally have 30 humans on stage dressed in pink riot gear and have a musical director”. Let’s just think for a moment what that would actually be like … .

One other nugget of info gleaned was that the concerts around the time of the first album had videos splashed across the stage backdrops, presumably the actual single promos or the homemade material referred to in a Melody Maker article (See the “Hollywood Baby Too” section).

Here are the gigs and sundry live reviews that I’ve managed to locate so far (songs after the venue and date are songs played at the respective performance that are mentioned in the review).

1986

(Record Mirror 11/01/86 : gig review of Club Eden)

Davey Henderson is the frontman every group would like to flaunt. He subconciously plays the role of the cheeky, wide-eyed, vulnerable little boy, oozing charisma from every pore. Little girls will scream at the little man, make no mistake. “Shampoo Tears” and “Super Popoid Groove” are the best of the rest. “This is “Freebird””, jokes davey, introducing one of the non-runners. It might just have been but, ooh, variety is the spice of life. Win have enough perversity and soooper popoid grooves to allow themselves the odd indulgence. “In Heaven, everything is fine”. In Win, things ain’t far wrong”.

Note the comment in marking YGTP as being on it’s third release, and also that of Ian Stoddart being described as ‘chunky’!

(Record Mirror 24/05/86 : gig review of The Wag)

The reviewer for this gig was in a particularly critical mood. “Occasionally the coolest commodity this side of an Arctic sojourn, Davey Henderson’s laconic cockiness melted at an alarming rate tonight. The boy was alternately flat, hoarse, and unfunny, guitars were hopelessly out of tune and Win were at least three goals down before half time. The opener “Empty Holsters” – slow, tacky and graced by that laidback growl of a vocal – promised much but was followed by little of the habitual and wicked winning ways. “UnAmerican Broadcasting”’s biting brazenness hardly had its teeth sharpened before grinding to an embarrassing halt mid-tune. The normally irrepressible Davey persevered though, introducing “Beautiful Sky” as “a great wee song, one of the best you’ve heard in ages”. Fortunately it was as close to a truism as Davey Henderson ever comes, even if the sky in question was somewhat cloudy on this airing. The musty cover of Bolan’s “The Slider” was painful enough without the added insult of being introduced as “Fuck Me Slowly”. Er, thanks but no thanks. The Spartan wit was failing miserably. The stomping pomp-pop of “You’ve Got The Power” salvaged a few traces of the wilful Win we know and love(!). The song is still the finest example of a song with a latent message in its anti-heroin stance. The current single “Shampoo Tears” is clearly Jimmy Tarbuck to the former’s Tony Hancock. One can succumb to its cloying refrains and not considerable plus points though, given time. Less slop, more pop please”.

1987

(Melody Maker 18/04/87 : to promote “Super Popoid Groove” and the album, Win played the following dates between April 24th and April 30th. In the same article they apologised for their non appearance at the Edinburgh Usher Hall AIDS benefit gig, because there wasn’t any time available for the band to soundcheck and hence the band decided pull out of the gig rather than work with a sub-standard live sound)

(Record Mirror 16/05/87 : gig review of the Queen Margaret Union)

A negative review, where the reviewer accuses the band of losing their greatest asset – their sound – commenting that “all the bite, urgency and power which raised songs like ‘Un–American Broadcasting’ and ‘You’ve Got The Power’ beyond cult dancefloor status has gone. Win sounded like they were playing in the next room. They should have sounded like they were kicking you in the teeth”. He continues “The brutal impact of these numbers, however, is dissipated by a sound lacking in purpose or power”.

“What comes across alarmingly clear is the band’s distaste for pop, their chosen path. … Win possess – and display – cynicism and maybe even contempt for what they do. In particular, vocalist / guitarist David Henderson … demonstrates his intense love/hate relationship with pop a little too openly. In essence, Win are a toned up, honed down celebration of the trash ethic. In their appreciation of all things tacky and tasteless, they couldn’t have chosen a better medium than pop”.

He finishes with the upbeat assessment that “Win now seem determined for super popoid success and, as a combination of degredation, defiance and design, are more interesting than most”.

(10/07/06 : gig review of The Venue, Aberdeen)

I've yet to see any gig reviews by music hacks for this happening but here's one sent in by regular reader Rod Kennedy who was actually there back in the day.

"Anyway I was at the Aberdeen Gig in April 87 at the Venue, from what I remember they played "You've got the Power" (no-brainer there obviously), "Shampoo tears", "Super popoid groove", "Un-american broadcasting" and I'm pretty sure......"It may be a Beautiful sky tonight..........." was also played. There was quite a weird mix of people there too, from the Venue usuals(punks/goths/pschyco-billy's) to some Aberdeen soccer casuals / trendy's ........and to be honest they were quite dissapointing live too, definitely a good studio band though. It was also on a Sunday and there was either a Bank Holiday or local holiday the following day. ....... as for the concert, maybe it was on one of their bad ones but it certainly was a bit disappointing, don't know if its my mind playing tricks on me but I seem to remember the silver Bubble jacket being worn by them on the night though it could be my memory remembering their very few appearances on TV".

(??/??/87 : gig review of Coasters, Edinburgh)

In a promo for the LP of "Uh! Tears Baby (A Trash Icon)", there were included a number of photocopies of various Win reviews in the British music press, amongst which was the following gig review. I can't be sure that this is the same gig as the one in Coasters on April 27th, but the track selection and year would seem to indicate that it's 90% to be the same one. Interestingly, there are two new (at the time of writing) cover versions mentioned).

The time of this gig was in the aftermath of the end of Alan Horne's tenure at Swamplands. In the crowd that night were various members of the Edinburgh scene, including Paul Haig, some "Tube" people, and large numbers of London Records persons, presumably to check out the mettle of their latest charges.

"In Heaven (Lady In The Radiator Song)" was delivered " ... virtually acapella", with "Unamerican Broadcasting" being described " ... brutally vibrant ... which sees the sprung dancefloor rippling like LA in an earthquake. This is good, the distorted, Bolan-esque vocals ripping and gouging at the ears, while a modified, pumped-up version of that ole scratchy guitar sound gnaws at your flesh like a hundred weasels".

"Amps howl with feedback, and Davey, stroppy in black silk kimono, grins dourly. "We've got to turn down ... that's a pity. I was getting a good wank off that". Then he spits on the floor".

"A giant video of American evangelist Jerry Falwell shadows the whole scene, and the disruptive, angry passion of Win only occasionally stutters into petulance. There are a lot of wasted, frustrated years in this performance".

"There are also some genuinely great songs. "You've Got The Power" has hit-single-that-wasn't written all over it, a maddeningly insistent chorus reverberating long after exposure to the tune. "Slider" points out a historical debt, while "Shampoo Tears" and "Beautiful Sky" close the set with a rush of ugly, beautiful noises".

"Davey, by this time, is into being the leader of the gang, won't leave the stage, and marshals his men back on for the encore. "This is an old Beatles song ... "Revolution"," he sneers. Then it's into the old Fire Engines classic "Candy Skin", in simplistic perfection, rough as hell, in time and not a bit out of period. Win threaten to be great, yet their essentially, powerful music is menaced in turn by a creeping cynicism. You can see it in Henderson's eyes, hear it in the song intros. The abscene of success will not make this man's heart grow fonder. Win need to move fast if they're to capitalise on the gains already made, and some genuine, unsoured joy wouldn't go amiss. The glittering prizes (still) await".

(Melody Maker 16/05/87 : gig review at the Camden Palace)

An upbeat review when the writer bemoans Win’s failure to reach the dizzy pop heights they obviously aspired to : “Perhaps Win are the ultimate hoax. An April fool in mid-May. The plan is to assault the marketplace, tumbling Brillo boxes with tiny pearls of gelignite, interspersing the bouncy-councy “Shampoo Tears” and “Hollywood Baby Too” with unforgettable market-jingles like mild green Fairy Liquid and Martini time, be able to compete on that celestial level, and then twist the tale out of shape and purpose. Yeah, preach the religion of consumerism and NOT sell any records!”.

“The previous pussy-footing of “Un-American Broadcasting” and the loose-limbed lullabye of “It May Be A Beautiful Sky Tonight But It’s Only A Shelter For A World At Risk” … has been toughened with the sabre-toothed rattling from steel-boned-funk, delicate and deadly”.

“Bolan’s corkscrew hair sprinkles dandruff (or perhaps glitter) on those choruses that are so right, so contagious, yet like all the best flirts Win are not frightened to reveal the sources of their sorcery”.

“The band arrived on stage to the cut ‘n’ crackle of “Raging Bull” and those fateful lines “I could have been a contender…”. Yup. Winpop is a tale of star-cross’d lovers; Win search for a lost hook, a lost innocence, a lost audience. … Their perfect strategy is doomed to succeed, but so what?”

1988

(Record Mirror 29/10/88 : gig review of Strathclyde University)

Sadly some of the student crowd were not as up for this gig as the reviewer was. “Win leader, Davey Henderson, talks to his audience. Trouble is he seems to talk a strange language, rarely understood by the average student of pop. Containing a couple of ex-Fire Engines, for those with long memories, and having recuperated from a spell with London Records, the super popoid groovesters have confidently trekked across town to be with Mr Branson’s label. They’re what you might call radical popsters, singing about censorship, chocolate and phone cards (apparently) and are a kinda sorta band with a kinda sorta sound a wee bit too hard for the general consumer but still fabulous nevertheless. Just listen to “You’ve Got The Power”, if you can get hold of a copy, or the next single “What’ll You Do Til Sunday Baby”, the latter succumbing to a definite Marc Bolan influence, as does much of their material. Sadly, Win were a bit too clever for this crowd. One student was later heard to comment on the floppy-headed Davey boy. “That guy was out of his gob, just noise”. But after a few listens to this kind of stuff you might easily pick up a whole new way of thinking … and talking. Freaky”.

(Sounds 05/11/88 : to promote “What’ll You Do ‘Til Sunday Baby?”, Win played the following dates. There is also an advert that gives these same dates, entitled “SINGING SONGS OF PRAISE AT”, and a mention of the following week’s single “What’ll You Do ‘Til Sunday Baby?”)

(Sounds 19/11/88 : gig review of Dingwalls)

A very positive gig review with the reviewer saying that, “Tonight was a secret preview of the new album”. He begins : “(Win) … are the immaculate pop conception that Morley and his pseudo pop theorists at ZTT should have killed for; the perfect followup to Frankie. Unfortunately, they’re not big enough to play the Hammy Odeon, so their blazing hooklines, melodies and pumping positivity are sacrificed to that bastard Dingwalls PA”. Apparently the set’s “You’ve Got The Power” was “revamped”, and the “Freaky Trigger” previews mentioned above were “impressive” – the impression was given that other FT tracks were played too. “Shampoo Tears” was talked of but it wasn’t made clear if had been performed on the night. “Singer Davey Henderson resembles a little Ibrox yob travelling across pop’s flourishing turf like a Scottish football fan on a Wembley away-day. On “How Do You Do” he pillages Prince’s “Paisley Park” to good effect; inside Henderson’s bountiful jock strap are a host of devilish goodies and an eccentric showman. Win are The Real Thing. And with songs like “Cover The Sea”, they’re capable not only of teaching the whole world to sing but getting the bastards to sing along as well. All they need to find now is an audience”.

(NME 3/12/88 : Win confirmed as special guests on The Proclaimers December tour).

There is a posting at the Freaky Trigger forum back in October '02 concerning the Barrowlands gig :

"The Proclaimers at Glasgow Barrowlands December 1988. It was a Friday after a by-election in Govan in which Jim Sillars of the SNP amazed everyone by snatching a safe Labour seat (contested by Bobby Gillespies dad) away from under their noses. The most partisan crowd I've ever been in in my life with an atmosphere somewhere between carnival, riot and an old time gospel meeting. Plus, Win were the support act. Davey Henderson knowing that they were on a hiding to nothing were fantastic and fantastically pissed off. Angry angular punk funk, more bristly than their sugar coated records had ever hinted at".

1989

(Melody Maker 11/02/89 : gig review of the Marquee)

A positive gig review for the Marquee, London (with no date given). Here’s an excerpt : “They look good, for starters. They’ve draped the equipment with fairy lights, they’re wearing rather garish shirts to match and they do a lot of wriggling around and pointing at each other. Sound silly? It works. Win are basically a very clever, sparkling pop band who are not ashamed to show a little enthusiasm and, y’know, rock out. Where their vinyl offerings were perfectly crafted but sometimes too shrill and mechanical, they become warmer, brighter and more human live”.

Gigs of unknown date

First up, details of a secret gig of unknown date! : once again, I've come across a photocopied gig review from an unknown music periodical that was included with a promo for the LP of "Uh! Tears Baby (A Trash Icon)". No date is given, only the venue, that of the Hoochie Coochie Club in Edinburgh. Reading through the article, I would hazard a guess at some time in 1987 (James King is descibed as "recently rejected" from Swamplands, but maybe was signed later), though it's possibly much earlier (between 1984 and 1985) due to the following comment : "The guy who was coming up from London to see us couldn't make it" - the city or the record label?

The band played a short set of four songs (as was the pratice of the Fire Engines) : "Unamerican Broadcasting", "You've Got The Power", "It May Be A Beautiful Sky Tonight But It's Only A Shelter For A World At Risk", and the baffling "When I'm Sad". This is probably a misheard or misinterpreted title by the journo, though there remain the tantalising possibility of an unknown and unrecorded Win song, a cover version, or a working title for another song that eventually appeared on the first album.

The review starts off revealing that this is a "... hush hush secret gig". The writer comments that the band only played four songs because "... they couldn't be bothered playing for longer"! She continues : "Win probably have more great songs where these four came from. The weakest is "Unamerican Broadcasting" followed by "You've Got The Power", falling somewhere between sinewy dance and thrash pop. But Henderson's voice lacks nothing of the crunch and causticity of the past, and it grinds along on top of the hopping glam rock of "When I'm Sad". Topping, capping and superceding it all is a great pop tune with a very, very long title - "It May Be A Beautiful Sky Tonight But It's Only A Shelter For A World At Risk" - combining all the best worlds of pop, rock and soul in one endearingly simple tune. Win may be posturing, cynical, egotistical and revolting indie label Edinburgh trendies, but they have good songs. So they're winning, just".

...and here's the second live performance of unknown date (84-87) and music magazine source. This one is at the Central London Poly, and the writer gives a great summation of the frontman's schizo musical personas : "Davey does four impersonations tonight and does them all well. His Bolan's brilliant, his hiccoughing babytalk babbling like static through a hissing PA. His Lou Reed's real sweet too, nonchalent and bitter with a glimmer of self-parody. His James Chance is on a tight rein, straining for mayhem and his James Brown's sacriligeous, about as muscular and taut as any Scots fight fans are ever likely to get".

Though enamoured of the band's attitude, the reviewer is less so taken with their aptitude and back catalogue : "Like all great and all crap bands, Win have only got one song and they do two of them twice tonight but the real killer is that the distance between the mighty St Vitus dance of "Unamerican Broadcasting" and the plodding "You've Got The Power" is the disintegration of a radical jive into a rut. And perhaps worse ... is that not a lot here has developed beyond Heaven 17's "Fascist Groove Thang", it's timelocked and arm-wrestled into something disturbingly solid, something, therefore less disturbing than the skittish violence of the Fire Engines. It wasn't just nostalgia that secreted the adrenalin faster when Henderson cheekily clipped out the opening chords of "Candyskin" and then let it go than when he laboured with love through "Super Popeye Groove". It was the anticipation of possibilities rather than the assumption of probabilities. It was a sense of surprise".

The Freaky Trigger site has a forum (found at ilm.co.uk) which is fully searchable going back years. A search through a while back through up this choice cutlet from a poster back in 2002 about a gig in a rare gig in England outside the Big Smoke :

"I once saw Win playing the Sheffield Leadmill on the "Freaky Trigger" tour (oddly enough) and about five songs in, Davey Henderson stopped midsong, said "All our machines have broken down, we can't go on" and the band trouped off, never to be seen again. At least that's how I remember it. Didn't even offer a refund or an apology either. Shame. I mentally noted never to rely so much on machinery for a gig".

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