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\u00a0\u201cIt wasn\u2019t about fashion, being part of a musical trend or money. It was soul.\u00a0 Thee Hypnotics may not have bought us houses in the sun… but we made REAL music. I still meet fans on my travels today who have been inspired by us… We were genuine.\u201d \u00a0\u00ad\u2013 Jim Jones<\/em>.<\/p>\n Witnessing Thee Hypnotics at the tail end of the \u201980s was a revelation. Echoing the spirit of the Detroit Rock Revolution of The MC5 and The Stooges they were completely mesmerising to both see and hear: oozing androgynous sexuality (not unlike Mick Jagger in Performance<\/em> or the pre-booze Jim Morrison) theirs was a sound and style that was both singular and appealing, completely bereft of the dull attitude of 1989. This wasn\u2019t another bedsitter indie band or aging punk act. It was a youthful alternative.<\/p>\n What ended as the ultimate rock \u2019n\u2019 roll tragedy, a journey full of near misses, derailments and death began with childhood friends discovering music together. Jim Jones and Ray Hanson are both part Irish Londoners whose parents escaped the city sprawl in the \u201970s to raise their families in the Home Counties. Growing up in the village of Prestwood, near Great Missenden in Buckingham the two lads met at the local Catholic Church. As the rougher country boys were only interested in fighting and football Jim and Ray began to ingratiate themselves with older teenagers due to their shared love of music.\u00a0 \u201cI used to like The Sweet , Slade and T Rex and then got really in the Stones in my early teens,\u201d explains Ray, who to this day resembles a dandy Ronnie Wood and kohl eyed Johnny Thunders. All preened hair, trinkets and bourbon. \u00a0\u201cOlder punks from the area,\u201d he continues \u201cwere best friends with our mate\u2019s big sisters and they introduced us to Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker, The Stooges and the Dolls.\u201d\u00a0 Jones interjects, \u201cThere were one particular couple, Ali and Carlton, who were like surrogate parents. They taught us of the romance of Johnny Thunders being a loser, and how cool this guy was. We admired \u2018the outsider\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n The Road To Playing<\/strong><\/p>\n By their mid-teens Jim and Ray had learnt guitar and were messing around in the school music room. \u201cI started singing first and Jim was the guitarist,\u201d Ray remembers. \u201cI sung \u2018Hippy, Hippy Shake\u2019 out of tune with Jim and our friend Bruce playing guitar, Graham Flynn on bass and Dave Davis on drums.\u201d (Many years later after the split of Thee Hypnotics Jim Jones would play in Black Moses with Graham Flynn.) Ray was already perfecting the blues, noting down how Hendrix did things and practicing hard. And although at odds with their surroundings the eager teens threw themselves into music heart and soul. The earliest Jones and Hanson acts were called The Lady Killers and The Swamps.\u00a0 \u201cWe later had a band called The Kroon,\u201d says Jim, \u201cwhich was just Ray and I both on guitars. T Rex, The Cramps and that glam kind of stuff drove us on. There was a little scene in Aylesbury in about 1985 that we started getting involved with and played at The Uptown Coffee Bar where older punks and psychobillys hung around.\u201d <\/em>Ray laughs, \u201cContemporary music was our enemy. We were nothing to do with that shit at all… Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet…. Arggghhh!\u201d The newly launched Channel 4\u2019s alternative music show The Tube<\/em> did however broadcast the world the lads dreamt of \u201cWe were excited all week hearing that Iggy Pop was going to be on,\u201d smiles Ray. \u201cSeeing him with his silver hair doing \u2018Sweet 16\u2019 on was<\/em> amazing.\u201d \u201cAnd,\u201d adds Jim, \u201cThe Lords Of The New Church, The Cramps and Tom Waits being on was great too. This was far too cool for TV.\u201d Having mastered their craft enough to play a bigger and better band was then formed.<\/p>\n The Trash Cadillacs<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe Trash Cadillacs played a lot at The Student\u2019s Union Bar at High Wycombe,\u201d explains Ray. High Wycombe was a far larger town on the way into London. More industrial, multi-cultural and druggy it was a stepping stone from the country to the smoke. \u201cThat was the very beginning of what went on to become Thee Hypnotics really,\u201d says Jim. \u201cWe were move slavish and did covers of things like \u2018I Wanna Be Your Dog\u2019, The Cramps, The New York Dolls, maybe a Ramones song, some Pebbles<\/em> covers like \u2018Action Woman\u2019, but the feeling was there.\u201d<\/p>\n Thee Hypnotics<\/strong><\/p>\n The first gig as Thee Hypnotics was on March the 6th<\/sup> 1986 at Chesham, supporting Episode Four (who would later go on to become East Village). Martin Kelly from the band (and also later a MD of Heavenly Records) was mightily impressed by their charged stage act and spread the word far and wide. His band were far more jingle-jangle indie, but he clearly knew a good thing when he heard it.<\/p>\n Honing their songwriting, playing and set at drummer\u2019s Mark Thompson\u2019s granddad\u2019s large house by the river in Cookham, Bourne End the free rehearsal time saw the newly named band flourish. \u201cThat was such a great place to have,\u201d remembers Ray. \u201cWe had this outhouse to rehearse in. We could go and do some trips, then just go in next door, switch on the amps and then jam away.\u201d Consisting of Jim, Ray and Mark, their bassist was an older guy from High Wycombe. \u201cChris Dennis,\u201d explains Jim, \u201c[was] a renowned High Wycombe junkie who we knew was a great guitar player. We\u2019d see him in The Nags Head. The landlord of the pub (which was a great venue where Johnny Thunders and the Pistols had played) would tell us that Chris was a naughty boy. Being a junkie seemed great to us though. He was the real deal! He was like Keef!\u201d Though Jim had been to college and was by now training as an apprentice electrician Ray had remained part of Thatcher\u2019s youth, and preferred to remain unemployed whilst chasing his dream.\u00a0 \u201cI was constantly getting in trouble for passing out all the time at work,\u201d laughs Jim. \u201cSmoking weed with them at Bourne End until 4am and then trundling off to work as Ray slept. It was exhausting. Looking back at it now though, that was a good year of hanging out, rehearsing and working up the music. The first couple of Jimi Hendrix albums were big on the listening front, as were The Cramps, The Stooges, The MC5, Blue Cheer…. these were things we all had in common. We would do teenage shit, smoke weed, do a few trips and dig the music. I didn\u2019t keep the job long either.\u201d Concurrently a guy called Carlton who was their friend Bruce\u2019s older sister\u2019s boyfriend was running an R&B club in High Wycombe at a pub called The Bird In Hand. Here the lads would soak up Elmore James along with visits to the locally renowned northern soul club at The Concord. Their decidedly dark, druggy rock \u2019n\u2019 roll aesthetic grew further through discovering the raw passion of black music.<\/p>\n \u201dWe got our first London gig through Martin Kelly,\u201d Jim recalls of the time when they first started to make an impact, \u201c[and he] introduced us to this guy called Morris who was running Dingwalls. Morris got us a gig with Tav Falco & The Panther Burns, which we couldn\u2019t believe. \u2018Wow! This is fuckin\u2019 brilliant\u2019 we thought as he was connected to Alex Chilton and The Cramps. We went on stage and did this great gig and it was on the back of that we met Aaron, who worked at Vinyl Solution. He immediately approached us about putting out the first single.\u201d<\/p>\n Love In Vein<\/strong><\/p>\n The debut 45 set the mantle for Thee Hypnotics being remembered as a seriously dirty, raunchy Detroit-styled rock band that could actually equal their influences. Housed in a sleeve taken by Dave Arnoff, who had also photographed The Scientists and The Cramps, the picture caught the downtrodden Stooges\u2019 appeal the band so sought to emulate. Ray with standoff-ish folded arms, wearing gold framed aviators, a leather jacket, black shirt and iron cross medallion, a tousled haired Jim leers into the lens and Chris Dennis and Mark Thompson stand at the back looking like thugs from a \u201960s biker flick. The bold white Hypnotics logo above their head with the resplendent garage band \u201cThee\u201d perched on top in a small unassuming narrow font added a feral simplicity to the design. It looked suitably old. The back cover in truest MC5 homage featured a \u201968 shot of The Black Panthers whilst the label centre housed the band\u2019s own White Panther emblem. Justifiably this was a labour of love and a record that firmly stated the band\u2019s intentions. It was released on a very small label set up by Aaron from the prestigious Vinyl Solution record shop from the Portebello Road.\u00a0 Jim explains: \u201cWe were living in High Wycombe in a house together but we spent a lot of time hanging out at Notting Hill, where the label was based. They\u2019d also done a seven inch with The Hard Ons too. Aaron said, \u2018I\u2019d made up a label for The Hard Ons so I\u2019ll make up one for you too.\u2019 He came up with Hipsville, which was fine with us as we thought it was very garage band sounding.\u201d In the Top 40 acid house was breaking and filling the Top 10. Meanwhile crap from Michael Bolton, The Pet Shop Boys, Kylie & Jason and Bros also filled the charts. At #1 that Christmas was the dire Christian hit \u2018Mistletoe And Wine\u2019 by Cliff Richard. Thee Hypnotics certainly had no chance at all in the pop world, and it was still a few years before grunge would take hold. Even the indie music charts were filled with dross. Hi Energy synth duo Erasure were actually doing better than the \u201cjangle bands\u201d. Only The Wedding Present reached #1. It was on all accounts a terrible year for lovers of visceral rock \u2019n\u2019 roll and garage-rock, but underneath the surface a counter-culture of sorts was taking place. If any bands were in line with Thee Hypnotics it was the similarly drug laced drone bands The Spacemen Three and Loop that would have matched their ethos the most, but small town acts like The Beatpack (who played with Thee Hypnotics in Hastings) and Scottish bands The Thanes and The Offhooks were the ones that most adhered to their own rules. It was the very same couldn\u2019t care less purism that Thee Hypnotics gave off. Yet for every \u201960s garage band there were very few harder edged late \u201960s bands… and Thee Hypnotics were the best. Mark Thompson told Freakbeat <\/em>fanzine in \u201989 that the cuts were originally recorded as demos in \u201987 when they were getting gigs on the London circuit. By the time the tracks were eventually mixed down eight months later the songs did not really represent what they were doing. Nevertheless, for a record released in \u201987 it exudes snot nosed garage-punk\/rockerama. Fan of the band Jane Maben recollects the impact Thee Hypnotics made on her as a teenager:\u00a0 \u201cI first witnessed them at The Clarendon in \u201988 with their first bassist.\u00a0 Up until this night I had happily gone along every Friday night to see the various \u201960s styled garage bands that were around at the\u00a0time, which were promoted by Mike\u00a0Spenser.\u00a0\u00a0The Pebbles<\/em> comps suddenly crumbled into dust for me… I wanted the hard stuff, not just rock but a\u00a0heavier hybrid of the blues… The Hypnotics were my age…. at long last there was something for MY generation! Rat Scabies had seen Thee Hypnotics play a number of times as support to both The Damned and spin off \u201960s garage parody Naz Nomad & The Nightmares and was smitten by these young upstarts who reminded him of the groups he had followed in his formative years.( Later in the band\u2019s career Scabies would deputise for them on drums when needed.)<\/p>\n First manager Steve Langdon (whom Ray describes as a hippy into Thai Chi who was obsessed by Hawkwind) drummed up interest from a number of labels. \u201cIt was an all dayer [where we got signed],\u201d says Jim of the beginning of their ascent into glory, \u201cand Junior Manson Slags played, along with another eight bands. By the time we got on the PA was fucked and as a result we were shit! Oddly Beggars Banquet came over after and told us we had a deal. We were like, \u2018After that? You should see us when we\u2019re firing on all cylinders!\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cLangdon had basically been shopping us around,\u201d he continues, \u201cand quite a few people were interested. When we went ahead and did the deal I remember Rat seeming really let down. \u2018Oh man,\u2019 he said. \u2018I was going to do this, this and this. You could have done better.\u2019 Steve knew Rat was interested and perhaps kept him out of the picture thinking we\u2019d be sold away by someone else.\u201d The Situation Two subsidiary of Beggars Banquet was still a decent sized label for a young band (with bigger acts like The Cult) and it seemed possible that Thee Hypnotics may just make it. Although at that time it certainly was not on their minds.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a general sense of bands doing stuff that was outside fashion, even by indie terms,\u201d says Jim of the musical climate they were now part of. \u201cThese were bands that were pretty grungey. All through our career they tried to lump us in with certain things and \u201cgrebo\u201d was the first. Bands like Pop Will Eat Itself and Crazyhead.\u201d (Thee Hypnotics\u2019 first major UK tour was in support to grebo kings Gaye Bikers On Acid.) \u201cAnd then it went to The Spaceman Three and Loop thing,\u201d Jim continues \u201cand then grunge. It was always you\u2019re this, this and this\u2026. But Beggars Banquet did see something different as they had us and The Fuzztones.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/1-Trash-Cadillacs.jpg\")
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\nThey rucked up on stage to the sounds of The MC5 and slung\u00a0 Stars and Stripes flags over the speakers. They had me from THAT\u00a0moment, even before they launched their glorious ear-violating\u00a0assault! It was THE BEST performance I had ever witnessed…. they just had ‘IT’! All my favourites\u00a0rolled into one…. MC5, Stooges, Blue Cheer, Stones.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Page-11.jpg\")
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