The Gutter Brothers


Oh I had to mention them eventually.

The Gutter Brothers are, or were, a superb band. They played a bizarre mix of skiffle, blues, country, and rock. The lead singer was called Rudebelly and played a washboard with a wire brush until his knuckled were bleeding. The bass player played tea-chest bass. They were around from around 1984 to 1993 and had the best stage presence of any band I've ever seen. Rudebelly has one of the most fantastic voices I have ever heard, seriously.

If you could get into their music (and it isn't too hard), then you would see a superb gig for next to no money.

I first heard a tape of them probably in 1989 or 1990. My best friend had seen them and bought a tape and copied it to forcibly give to me. I loved it. I played it my then girlfriend. She loved it.

We were on our way back from Sheffield to Manchester one late night probably mid-year 1990 when the song "Fat Cadillac" by the GBs played on the stereo (on tape of course - not much radio airplay for such an unknown band back then). It ends with a screech of tyres as the fictional caddy comedically crashes into the beginning of the next song (actually maybe the end of that side of the tape). A moment later the rear tyre blew out and the car crashed into the uphill side of the steep hill we were on. It rolled several times down the road! Freaky!

I heard the GBs were playing a free festival in Chorlton Park Manchester in 1991 (I think) and we went along. By about 12pm all the goat curry stalls and hippy necklace stalls were closing up and going home - the weather was abysmal. It rained and rained and rained. The GBs came on stage to a field of about five people (including myself and my then girlfriend) who were all damn and pissed off. They ROCKED OUR ARSES OFF. Within two songs, everyone was dancing and more people had appeared. The sun came out and the clouds went to bother someone else (honestly!). And I bumped into my cousin, who had come to Manchester to see them but had neglected to tell me - I just walked into her. How weird is that?

I saw them again a year or so later in a pub in Leeds. I have never been in such a packed room FULL of dancing people. They were on the chairs, on the tables, it was amazing.

The Gutter Brothers reached a peak when they were asked to write the theme music to a TV show "Gone to the dogs" in 1991. They release a CD entitled "Gone to the dogs". Not long afterwards they decided enough was enough and split up. Tony (Rudebelly) wanted to return home to New Orleans and have a family.

All was quiet.

Until probably 2002 when I was idly surfing the web and noticed that the Genesis cover band I was reading about had a familiar name in the line up - strike that - TWO familiar names! I somehow managed to acquire an email address and got in touch with the guitarist, Chris. Amazingly he was the guitarist from the Gutter Brothers and told me the whole story of how they came to split up etc. He mentioned that he was mastering some old stuff to CD and I should keep in touch because he could send me something.

Exciting, but I sort of forgot. A year or so later I asked again. Chris gave me the sad news that Dennis, the tea-chest bass player for the band, had passed away on Christmas Eve 2002. Dennis wrote a lot (most) of the material for the band and despite having been in and out of the Gutter Brothers several times had formed the backbone of the most successful lineup. Sad.

I contacted Chris again a few months ago when I was finally getting the Gutter Brothers tape onto CD. I must say it is a tedious job and very difficult to get good results just from an audio tape. Chris responded that I should stop immediately - he was sat in front of a mixing desk with the original master tapes doing exactly the same thing!!! He then made my day by telling me about a reunion gig, on December 27th, at the Old Fiddler in London.

Were we there or were we there?! The gig was tremendous, despite the obvious exception. Rudebelly was as playful as ever, a real showman, and everyone played fantastically. The band obviously really really enjoyed themselves. Best of all was the news of the release of "the tape" on CD, and a promise that they would do it again sometime, maybe once or twice a year.

Fabulous.

Posted: Fri - January 9, 2004 at 10:11 PM      

©