JB's, Dudley 22.12.96

I remember little, to be honest. I'd come to see The Wildhearts and I talked most of the way through Groop Dogdrill's set. Scandalous, I know, but their energy did stick in my head, along with the singer's neat trick of having a microphone taped to his mouth. And so the name stayed in my head too, despite a certain couple coming up with Team Catspanner as a derogatory whatkindofanameisthat? statement. I think they were actually just called Dogdrill at one point, if that sheds any light on the matter. No? Oh well, I do try. So, when, one fine afternoon, I walked into Selectadisc in Nottingham and saw a Groop Dogdrill single, I snapped it up and dashed back to my little flat, pinning my ears back for maximum sensitivity. You can see what my ears told me in the single reviews section. If you really want to.

Phoenix Festival 19.7.97

Groop Dogdrill were one of only a few bands that we knew we were going to enjoy today, so we got to the Doc Marten tent expecting to be entertained. With us was a considerable collection of Wildhearts T-shirts. Groop Dogdrill launched straight into Gracelands, with a strange bloke (someone tell me who he was...) who came and sang the opening line. Which was very kind of him. The next ten minutes or so were filled with ear-damaging riffs and earth-moving drums, coupled with the near insanity of some of the vocal-sounds. Great stuff... a short pause to say hi, and they were off again, beating the silence into oblivion with crunch after crunch of the noisiest rock 'n' roll the earth has seen. Or heard. We got Gentleman's Soiree, Oily Rag, Jackie O, plus the 'please wait while I wrap this insulating tape around my head' trick again. Indecently good, I thought, and the crowd seemed to agree.

Nottingham Rock City 28.7.97

Unavoidably, I spent the time while Groop Dogdrill were on sitting by the steps at Rock City, so I didn't actually SEE them. I could HEAR them, though, so I was at least grateful for that. Mustn't grumble etc. Oily Rag is what I remember most from the set, but then I was highly drunk, and can barely remember anything from when The Wildhearts were on after them... and I was right at the front for that!

Groop Dogdrill play Rock City again on the 4th October, so I'll make sure I'm there then.

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