Uber-mulletts

Mike's wedding again, with wind-blown super-mulletts. Left to right Jon Cox, Jon Handley, Catherine Parker, Anthony, Phil G and Steve Cox. Red ties were obviously very fashionable too.

Posted by Anthony

Mullets and fags

Mike's wedding again. Lot of hair in those days, and none of us were ever seen without a fag in our hands. Left to right: Bill Palastre (now a respected senior nurse up Bath way), Steve Cox, Catherine Parker, Mike Parker, Steve Booth, Jon Cox

Posted by Anthony

Jon Smith

Jon at Mike's wedding.

Posted by Anthony

Hello John, got a new motor!

A little bit outside the timeframe, but still the same folk. Mike Applebee was the first of us to get married, though I can't remember what year it was, I think about 1982. I bought my first tie for this gig. Here I am at Mike's wedding trying to sell something to Steve Cox - Jon Smith and Phil G in the background.

Posted by Anthony

Long hair

A fine head of hair, if I do say so myself. Definitely in my hippy phase, about 1978. Weird thing was I was far more into punk music than hippy music (though I did like prog rock too).

Posted by Anthony

Euphoria

My first band was called Euphoria, originally me and 'Big' Chris Gibbs, later joined by two other guys whose name I can't remember. We never gigged under that name, though later Chris and I played together in PSI, who did at least perform in public and even released an EP. This is us at my folks house, shortly before the police turned up (again) to tell us to turn the noise down. 1979.

Posted by Anthony

Nancemellin

Jon was a farmer's son, and occasionally there were parties in one of their barns.

These were legendary in their drunkeness, though the more extreme pics have yet to be unearthed and scanned in. I have fond memeories of Caroline, the girlfriend of Jon's older brother Brenton who let us all snog her repeatedly. That's the Cornish for you. Here are Steve and Jon, roughly 1978.

Posted by Anthony

Flight 77 Rock Carlyon Bay

More photos taken by Robin Burns around 1981/82 at a guess. This was a local band night at Carlyon Bay and the biggest stage we ever played on. All that room to run around in and yet we were tethered to our effects pedals by puny 10ft guitar leads. At this gig we met our future sound man Colin Hannah who had just come back from touring with the likes of Shirley Bassey and U2. I think there might be some crude video footage of this gig somewhere.


We had a pretty good time on this stage and loved having a huge sound blasting through a 4.5K rig. I remember hearing my bass sound bounce off the back wall and shake the stage during the sound check...what a great feeling that was.


Shame about the Macsalvors white jump suits...I can't remember who's idea that was but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Posted by Steve

Flexitoys Smashing Night!

Not much to add to that really (click on press cutting for full sized view you can actually read).
Posted by Steve

Hair cut at last!

Partly as a result of getting in so much trouble, I cut my hair shortly after the last pic. Big improvement I think we can all agree. Here I am in 1980 on the Pyramid Stage, which I used to put up and take down and generally roadie on around the free festivals.

Posted by Anthony

PSI

Straying away from Cornwall a tiny bit, but just to show Steve wasn't the only rocker. Anthony played in various bands, mostly crap ones, but the one I was most proud of was PSI, sort of acid-rock. This pic was taken by Jon Smith at a very stressful gig in London, as Kings Cross skinheads had threatened to 'do' us if we played. What actually happened instead was the drugs squad, though subsequently we did have trouble with the skinheads, bless 'em. Seemed to get in trouble a lot in those days, probably because my dress sense still left a lot to be desired. Check that headband!
Posted by Anthony

St. Agnes fashion

Anthony outside his step-mums about 1979 just after coming back from Berlin. Frankly, its a miracle I ever got a girlfriend with that fashion sense, never mind one who would go round Europe with me.

Posted by Anthony

Rock 'n' Roll Part II

Love Among The Ruins press shot taken near Marazion circa 83/84 apparently. Dave, Paul and Steve. Another great pic.
Posted by Anthony

Love Among The Ruins

And after Flight 77 came....Love Among the Ruins, though I think that may have been a name change rather than anything else. Great photo, apparently taken at Roche (near the Eden Project) out in the wilds, somewhere circa 83/84. Bit outside the Droof Boys time period, but interesting to see the progression. Left to right, Steve Cox, Paul Eustice, Dave Sweet. Great expressions, lads! And the amiable Dave looking particularly mean!
Posted by Anthony

Yes, these promo photos were taken by a student from Filton College we got to know. We spent a couple of days in Cornwall roaming about finding locations to take them. That's Roche Rock with it's little hermit's chapel on top in the background. We also went to Tintagel and Carn Brea if I remember. Zero points for spotting the similarity to the U2 Joshua Tree period photos. Very eighties.
Posted by Steve

Flight 77

And after Flexi Toys came....Flight 77! This very professional looking picture was apparently taken in front of Dave's garage by the West Briton Newspaper, Redruth's version of the NME (not really), perhaps in 82/83. At the back is the drummer whose name I can't remember and Steve Cox, who I am fairly certain was on bass then, and at the front Paul Eustice (guitar) on the left and an unusually moody looking Dave Sweet (vocals) on the right. Must have been the look in those days, as Dave normally looks very...sweet. They all had very nice hair...
Posted by Anthony

The drummer was called Mike Tremethick and he was a very good drummer. His Stuart Copeland style Rototom fills were pretty awesome. After a quick Google I found out he's still playing in a band called 'Area 51'. You can read about him here. Flexitoys and Flight 77 even get a mention.

I can't remember why the West Briton took our photo but we did get another entry in The Falmouth Packet after our first gig at the Penventon. See the post: 'Smashing Night'.
Posted by Steve

FlexiToys

After The Imports, was...FlexiToys. Here they are at the Penventon Hotel, Apollo Nightclub sometime in 1981 (according to Paul Eustice) doing a sound check before the Art School Dance. Paul Eustice left, Steve Cox middle, both playing guitar, and I'm not sure who's playing bass on the right, though it looks a lot like Dave Sweet. My memory of those days is a bit rusty. No drummer?

Posted by Anthony

Yes indeed. This was a sound check before the first of several Art School Dances we performed at. I can tell you that we were actually playing a cover of 'Sultans of Swing' by Dire Straits as I was playing rhythm guitar to Paul E's lead. I can also confirm that it is Dave Sweet on bass and the drummer (out of shot) was Mike Tremethick as seen in the West Briton aand Falmouth Packet photos above. Little did we know that one of us was going to end up in hospital later on that night...

The photo was taken by a guy called Robin Burns who's mother used to live next door to Mike Applebee's mum in Tregajorran. Robin was also at the Art College with us and this was developed in the Art School photo labs. I also bought Robin's Honda CB 175 off him whilst at college and that served me well for several years.

Sadly Robin died in an accident several years later after he emigrated to the USA and joined the US Lifeguard.
Posted by Steve