Porcaline Dolls (14.3.82 - )

David - bass
Simon - vocals, lead guitar
Tilbs - rhythm guitar
? - drummer

The Porcelain Dolls (1982) were friends from Trinity School, Carlisle. In March 1982 we had another name "Rhythm Beat" but changed later to Porcaline Dolls later on. We were not a school band but we had been in the same school year, I left school and kept in contact because of the music. Our time was short, but we rehearsed a lot and did some recordings. Our influences were “The Clash”, “The Jam” and “The Stranglers” and Rhythm and Blues.

David and Simon lived in Lowry Hill and we used to practice on a tuesday night at St Peters Church Hall on Scotland Road, Kingmoor. We played a disco/community club, in that hall which was run by the church I think it was to give something back for renting the hall. We tried to practise at Trinity School but I had left by then and I was not allowed back on the premises. We had a 21 year old drummer, a semi-professional who I remember heard our tape in the car just before the rehearsal and played nearly everything perfectly. He was a cousin of a friend (David) and had a drum kit worth 1000 pounds, a small fortune in 1982.

St. Peters church Hall

Simon had a H&H combo amp, I had a small 50w Viking Rsc.and David had a set of speakers that his dad had made (speakers put into a box). I eventually bought this box/speakers and cut it in half making a P.A. type of amp to run my Viking through with the intention of having the speakers each side of the stage; we put microphones through it as well. I eventually sold it via the newspaper for 130 pounds to David Smith, and bought a 4x12 speaker.I later got myself a 100w FAL Kestrel amp to go with the David's speakers.

FAL Kestrel amp 100w

We played a gig at Victoria's nightclub on the 15.4.82, we did a set of  6 songs as that is all the drummer Dave could remember! We had volume problems due to Victoria's licence, the electricity would cut out if it was over a certain volume so out first song was literally cut sort! We had microphone problems on the 5th song, and the 6th song was "all over the place" due to the vocals and guitar solo...not anything to do with me this time! I dedicated the 6th song to a friend "Jaws" who was going off to fight in the Falkland's War with Argentina very soon. The set list was:
1.    Mony Mony
2.    Janie Jones
3.    12 bar Blues Song
4.    Jar War
5.    Emotions
6.    Tommy Gun

David went to bass lessons and I think he was the only one who had been for lessons that I knew. I remember visiting him one day with his homework of notation, bass lines in place of chords, if you listen to the recording you can hear the bass riffs at the end.

There is a cassette recording done in the St. Peters church hall, the recording is too basic to publish I do not think it can tell us anything except that we all needed a guitar tuner! but the mix is interesting as it reminds me of The Members song "The Sounds of the Suburbs" when it says "...bass is too loud, and I can't hear the words"; also it was before the days of fuzz guitars, Simon's and mine are played clean, mine mimicking Joe Strummer's 101ers sound with the treble turned to maximum, with a continuous "click, click, click" giving a rhythm. Simon's has a dirty sound with too much reverb, and thrashing broken chords. David's bass is very deep and booming. I wrote down the numbers we did, some of the titles are missing but I think they were my songs as I recognize the chord changes...the lyrics I can not make out. I am singing some of them. The ones that were recognizable were cover version of songs from punk numbers to blues, to reggae...The Clash's "Police and Thieves"

1. Mony Mony
2. Unknown title/original song
3. Jenny Jones (The Clash)
4. Unknown title/original song
5. 12 bar Blues song
6. Emotions (my song, words and music)
7. Jah War (The Ruts)
8. Tommy gun (The Clash)
9. Unknown title/original song
10. Unknown title/original song
11. Just Sit Down and Think (my song, words and music)

It shows how little I knew as when I went up to Simon’s house to do the recording I was told that “Sometimes” was their song. Only years later did I know it was a track by The Stranglers. I never used to listen to The Stranglers, so how was I to know? I did the recording there and then, learned it on the spot. I did not have a fuzz box I plugged straight into the 4 track tape machine and went through my phaser foot pedal for the instrumental. The recording phases in and out due to the over dubbing. The drum machine having its own track leaving 3 tracks, I think we dropped Simon’s vocals out while I over dubbed the lead solo, then I went back finger picking the riff. At the end of the recording there is a bass solo with Simon singing along.

Porcelain Dolls "Sometimes" from Carlisle Punk Bands

I guess we broke up when people moved on, perhaps Simon and David were at 6th form then and when they passed their exams they went off to work? I think David left after a bad practise and we got a guy on bass called "Chopper", Darren Moor was involved and the possibility of a female singer? We practised in their garage.

I used to walk up to Lowry Hill most evenings, I had left Trinity but still had friends and went to a lot of parties there. Although it was a band and we did not play around Carlisle, I learned a lot from this band and the recording in the hall showed that I was already writing and playing original material.