THE
SPANNERS
In 1990 Brian Smedley brought his
politically satirical music into a common project alongside some other Bridgwater
songwriters and ‘clang!’ we had the SPANNERS.
Smedley
(guitar/accordion/vocals) also wrote folk satire with vocalist/harmonica player Mac
McCausland-collaborations such as ‘I like a Glass of Beer Now and Then’ and
‘New Age Boogie Man’
(‘I used
to drive a chevrolet and a long white cadillac, but now I’ve a citreon 2CV with
stickers on the back’) and girl next door pop whimsy with singer Alexia Vernon
‘When Teddy’s Gone’,’Emilio Estevez (,I think you’re really
nice)’ and ‘I’m in Love (but you’re in Dagenham Essex)’ whilst
bass player Matt Bartlett introduced a new style of folk/ska/pop to the band with his own
compositions ‘’Never Can See The Light’ and ‘My Girl From
France’.
Some of
the early musical highlights included ‘Flags With the Middles Ripped
Out’-written at the time of the Collapse of the Berlin Wall (‘the Red stars
gone from Budapest, Ceacescus got 3 holes in his vest’) and ‘Stalin Was a
Really Nice Bloke’ (He could have done things better-like not killed so many
people…’)
The name
The Spanners came from the groups working class heroes the Spinners who, similarly, wore
chunky sweaters and came from Liverpool unlike the Spanners-but would almost definitely
have appreciated the ear-fingered singing style of Mac McCausland.. And his beard.
The band
recorded a cassette album in Spring 1990 ‘I like a Glass of Beer Now and Then’
(live at the Arts Centre) on the Sheep Worrying label (the cover featured Karl Marx in a
chunky sweater) and gigged extensively through the early 90’s with Kevin
Freeman on drums but by the mid 90’s had fractured into different projects after
Vernon left the band to go to University. The most successful offshoot,THE VISITORS
, featured the now blossoming talent of Bartlett as singer frontman and included Smedley
on 6 string bass, Freeman on drums and later Vernon back in on backing vocals.
One of the
last songs written by the band was ‘Don’t be so Bloody Miserable’
(‘John Lennon could be writing songs today, if he hadn’t had half his body blown
away..Mull of Kintyre, Mary had a little lamb, did you ever think mark Chapman might have
shot the wrong man’)
Smedley,Bartlett and McCausland got together in 1998 with Gary’ Pub Prat of the
Year’ Di Campo on bongoes, to tour the Czech Republic and played the Paul Robeson 100th
Anniversary festival at the Pyramid Theatre Prague.
