Back to 23 Skidoo

When last we left the band, Sam Mills & Tom Heslop had been dismissed & 23 Skidoo was now the trio of Fritz Catlin, Johnny & Alex Turnbull. 

 

The departure of Sam & Tom was not reported in the press. Shortly afterwards the band was added to the line-up for the WOMAD festival, held at Shepton Mallet in July. There the new Skidoo performed a ritual to 'banish' their previous incarnation. They decided not to use traditional instruments, but instead to improvise a performance with instruments made of scrap metal using multiple tape loops (at this time, 1982, literally looped sections of tape). The ritual of banishing, invocation, & healing mirrored the changes that had occurred within the group. At 11am on a sunny July 17th morning 23 Skidoo, with heads shaven & faces camouflaged, took to the stage. They were joined by David Tibet of Psychic TV on thigh bone trumpet. The bleary-eyed festival crowd, expecting a trendy funk band, were greeted by a wall of noise. Some fled, but those that remained witnessed Skidoo at their most confrontational. While expectations were shattered, Skidoo's radical mid-morning gesture was missed by the music weeklies & passed unreported at the time.

Late September/early October 23 Skidoo took part in a short package tour of Belgium, arranged by Les Disques du Crépuscule billed as Move Back-Bite Harder. Here's the 27 minute loop-based recording from Tielt on October 8th. 

 

23 Skidoo - Move Back - Bite Harder live, 1982.
all decryprion codes in comments

 

 

 

Using new material combined with recordings from the WOMAD festival & an October 22/23 recording session from Dartington College, the new Skidoo released The Culling is Coming on February 4, 1983. Carrying on the William S. Burroughs connection, each side is 23 minute long.

 

23 Skidoo - The Culling is Coming, Operation Twilight OPT23, 1983.

Side 1: A Summer Rite-11Am 17.7.82 -
Banishing
Invocation
Flashing
Stifling
Healing (for the Strong)

Side 2: Dartington Gamelan -
G-2 Contemplation
S-Matrix
G-3 Insemination
Shrine
Mahakala

 

 

The Culling met with some hard resistance from critics & fans alike & 23 Skidoo started having a bit of a hard time getting live gigs. No record labels were knocking at their door. Midway through 1983, the band had a chance meeting with Peter ‘Sketch’ Martin of the Britfunk duo Linx. Sketch was trying to move away from commercial music at the same time 23 Skidoo were trying to cozy up to a more commercial sound. The result was the single Language.

 

 

 

 

23 Skidoo/Sketch - Language, Illuminated Records ILL 3812, 1984.

Side A -
Language
Side B -
Language

 

 

 

 

The move towards more commercial music since their meeting with Sketch also resulted in the release of Coup, a tight dance version of a track the band had been playing for some time known as "Coup in the Palace". This outstanding funk single featured a classic bassline from Sketch & horns courtesy of Aswad. Coup had definite commercial potential, but the absence of a 7" version meant no radio airplay, hence, no chart hit.

 

 

 

 

23 Skidoo/Sketch - Coup, Illuminated Records ILL 2812, 1984.

Side A -
Coup
Side B -
Version (in the Palace)

 

 

 

 

However, once more the brush with commercial success & the Britfunk paranoia halted this arc of 23 Skidoo's trajectory. In August 1984 the band released Urban Gamelan. This album essentially erased any lines of acceptance from fans & critics again. For the album tracks, both singles were omitted, to be replaced with alternate takes. "Coup" resurfaced in radically different form as "Fuck You GI" & "Language" in sparse percussive form now entitled "Language Dub".

 

 

23 Skidoo - Urban Gamelan, Illuminated Records JAM 40, 1984.

Face One -
Fuck You GI (23 F.P.M.)
Fire
Misr Wakening
Jalan Jalan

Face Two -
Urban Gamelan, Part One
Sirens
Helicopters
Kongo-Do
Language Dub
Drunken Reprisal
Coup de Grace

 

 

 

 

It will be another sixteen years before the next phase of 23 Skidoo kicks in. As I sez last month: "From this point onward, 23 Skidoo morphed into another enity. That, however, is a story for another day (next month...hint...hint)".

Stay tuned dear listener,
NØ