Novacain + Freewheeler + Chapter 13 / Joseph's Well, Leeds

The summer of 2000 started off quite well. Lazy days playing Trivial Pursuit in the Well merged into lazy nights getting drunk in the Well. Ace. I was STOKED to have finished my second year of uni and, despite my reservations about our current set, was feeling optimistic about the future of Novacain. 

The day after our (disappointing) gig at the Rocket, the band turned up at my house to record a bunch of acoustic songs using an 8-track recorder Mike had just bought. We worked until 4am and got around ten tracks down, including a great new song of Leigh's called "Heads Will Roll" and a version of "Until The Sun Bleeds", a tune written the previous summer and originally called "Gildersome Green" after the location of our rather bizarre gig supporting Emerald and a bunch of OAPs reenacting the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

Novacain - Until The Sun Bleeds

Another one of our never-played-live acoustic tracks. "Until The Sun Bleeds" was written by Mike and Leigh in summer 1999 and was originally titled "Gildersome Green". As with many of our songs, we tried to get a full band arrangement for several weeks before sacking it off. When we came to record some acoustic tracks at my house in Wood Lane, Leigh wrote some different lyrics and we again talked about adding it to the set. But that never happened. Obvs.

Not only did the acoustic songs sound good, Leigh had also written a fantastic new tune called "Quick Release" which we worked on at practice in the week after recording. It had a catchy melody and I was really chuffed with my lead guitar parts. I was listening to a lot of Idlewild at the time and I thought "Quick Release" sounded a bit like a '100 Broken Windows' outtake. I also thought it was the best thing we'd ever done.

Novacain - Quick Release (Unmixed Studio Recording)

Listening back now, I'm not sure "Quick Release" sounds too much like Idlewild, but it's still decent. This version was recorded at Woodman Studios in Elland and was never finished so it's missing backing vocals and hasn't been mixed. "Quick Release" was the last song entirely written by Leigh to find its way into our regular set. He penned some really good tunes during the next few years but we were obsessed with 'getting a sound' so we, perhaps rather stupidly, decided to leave them on the back burner while we concentrated on writing songs together at practice.

Since we played Woodkirk Valley in April, a guy called Nick had started putting on regular gigs at the venue under the 'Strychnine Lounge' banner. He asked if we wanted to play a show in mid-July and we accepted. I wasn't a huge fan of Woodkirk Valley but I was looking forward to playing "Quick Release" for the first time and, as we had a month or so to prepare, I thought we might even be able to write another song in a similar vein.

That was the plan anyway. I'd been feeling pretty crappy for most of June and missed a couple of rehearsals as a result. At the start of the month I'd nearly thrown up in my friend's car when we decided to take a road trip to Knowsley Safari Park. I had a temperature, felt dizzy and was generally a bit of a mess. We pulled over at a service station so I could lay down on the grass. HILARIOUSLY the grass gave me a bit of a rash on my arms which my friend Becca declared must be a sign of meningitis. I rang my mate Chris's Mum ("Hello, is that... Chris's Mum?") for some advice, as she was a nurse, but she couldn't be entirely sure there was nothing wrong from the other end of the phone. So, rather than seeing exotic animals, we spent the afternoon in A&E at Rochdale Infirmary at her suggestion. Awesome. By the time I'd been given the all clear it was too late to do anything other than return to Leeds. I felt a bit better the following day and assumed I'd just picked up a 24 hour bug. 

Over the next few weeks I continued to feel intermittently rubbish but shrugged the symptoms off as a hangover/flu. Eventually I went to the doctor, who failed to ease my worries by doing an enormous number of tests and mentioning cancer (!) The tests came back negative but the doctor kept bringing up the 'c' word and, by this time, I was struggling to keep any food down. I ended up pulling out of the Woodkirk Valley gig and spending four weeks in bed. I'm only 5" 8' and have never been particularly big, but by August I'd dropped to 7 and a half stone, the same as I weighed when I started High School a decade earlier.

Meanwhile Novacain performed at the 'Strychnine Lounge' show without me, playing "Quick Release" and another new song (initially called "Tin Man", but later renamed "The Way She Talks") for the first time. Mum and Dad were as baffled as the doctors by my illness, and I think they thought it might be a psychological thing. Perhaps in an attempt to get me out of bed, they went to the gig at Woodkirk Valley which was more than a little weird. I wanted the band to play well but was also worried that they might think they didn't need me anymore.

Novacain sans Cave. From left to right: Sug, Leigh, Win (behind Leigh), Mike.

The gig went so well that the band were asked back two weeks later. Not only did this add to my fears that I might be surplus to requirements, the gig was with Parisman and I was worried that Leigh in particular would be arsey on the night given their less than stellar treatment of us when we last supported them at the Rose & Crown, Golcar in late '99. I was a massive fan of the band and hoped we could play more gigs with them in the future. In the event the second Woodkirk Valley show didn't go particularly well, but at least there was no trouble with Parisman. Leigh rang me afterwards and said that Mike's guitar had cut out several times and Sug had played the wrong bass line for one of the songs. It meant a lot that the band had kept in touch while I'd been ill and made it easier for me play with them again when I finally started feeling better.

An aside:

Annoyingly both Woodkirk Valley shows were reviewed for the Leeds Music Scene website. So, at this point in our CAREER, we had a pretty bad review of our gig at the Rocket in June 2000 and two really good reviews of shows I didn't play at. Fabulous.  

We'd booked a gig at Joseph's Well on 16th August earlier in the summer and I wanted to play if possible. The doctor still wasn't sure what was wrong but I felt well enough to go to practice for the first time the week before the show. I turned up for the last hour of rehearsals and played through "Quick Release" and a few of the older tunes, with the rest of Novacain. Although they looked shocked at how much weight I'd lost, the band were really supportive and keen to point out that we could drop the song they'd written without me, "The Way She Talks", if I wasn't keen. I'm not sure what would have actually happened if I'd said I didn't like it, but luckily "The Way She Talks" was a decent little track (even if it didn't follow the alt-rock direction I'd naïvely hoped we were going in with "Quick Release"), and I managed to cobble together some lead lines in the next few practice sessions.

Novacain - The Way She Talks (Unmixed Studio Recording)
Originally called "Tin Man", "The Way She Talks" was put together quickly by the rest of Novacain during my illness as a way to pad the set out. Mike brandished his DigiTech Whammy pedal during the middle section. Again, this version was record at Woodman and not completed.

I was really nervous about playing again after what seemed like a whole epoch away from the band. Thankfully my bezzer Chem was back in Leeds to meet up with some people from her course and she came down to the Well after soundcheck to provide much needed moral support. Because we were chatting I didn't really notice that the Well was so dead until Sug came to get me when Chapter 13 started their set. The gig room in Joseph's Well isn't that big, but it looks VAST when it's empty. It was empty. In fact me and Suggy were the only ones there for a good five minutes until the rest of Novacain made an appearance. It was the first time I'd seen Chapter 13 and, although they weren't particularly tight as a band, they were still reasonable. They played Radiohead-esque stuff with a touch of grunge and also cited Novacain as an influence, which I found very odd indeed.

By the time we went on stage the Well was... still empty. I think Freewheeler pulled out of the gig and the promoter didn't bother booking another support which can't have helped, nor can the fact it was a Wednesday night in the middle of the summer holidays. To be honest, given my nerves, I was glad that the place was so quiet. I completely fluffed my parts at first but calmed down by our third song, "Stick To What You Know". I'd been waiting all summer to debut "Quick Release" and I played so hard that I cut my finger open and bled all over my guitar and the stage. Not that I noticed as I was so into the music. I was ABUZZ with excitement as we closed the set with "End Of The World", as were the audience. All eleven of them.

By summer 2000 things were starting to pick up at the Well, with regular gigs, five days a week. Along with our old friends Tsuba and Pazuzu (who presumably didn't need a support band with a mouthy lead guitarist for their show on the 5th), Leeds heavyweights like Phluid and Orka had made the Well their new home following the closure of the Duchess.

After the show we lazily packed our gear away and chatted. Dad's mate Andy told Leigh that he thought he looked like Jim Morrison. Which sparked a rush to the bar to order whatever Andy was drinking. We then got into a drunken conversation about religion, death and the existence of ghosts. Leigh claimed that, if he died first, he'd come back to haunt us all by shaking our bedroom curtains and singing "End Of The World". Be afraid. Be very afraid.

The New Doors. Left to right: Me, Jim Morrison, Winny (behind Jim), Mike, Sug.

Set list (Novacain)

1. The Way She Talks
2. Sibling
3. Stick To What You Know
4. Back Row Exit
5. Step To It
6. Quick Release
7. Gibbsy's Street
8. End Of The World