Swedish TV
Subterraneans
drummer
Etheridge
Lockjaw Jones
1st
and
Lead Git-tar
player
Bob
Bitchin'
were known
in the hours of
daylight as
John "Pluckan"
Murray
and Alex
John (AJK)
Kennedy
respectively.
Along with Alex
John's fellow
Newvalleyite
Rod
"Prof" Macrae,
they were the
key members
of complex
Newvalley
post-punk art
rock combo
Swedish
TV,
whose career ran
kind of in
parallel with
the
Subterraneans.
Swedish
TV (Left to
Right) : John
"Pluckan"
Murray, Rod
"Prof" Macrae,
Neil "Huggan"
Huggan and Alex
John "AJK"
Kennedy - in
their 1983 star
vehicle "Les
Mauvaises
Jeunes" directed
by Ken
Livingstone.
Pre-Swedish TV :AJK (left) and Pluckan (right) in dodgy school combo SAS (c.1979/80). AJK: "Photos were taken at a band ree-hersal in one of the
springfield south huts after school one day about two centuries
ago. I think this was when the band was called SAS - We even had T
shirts printed in the sports shop with SAS on them — one of which has recently
surfaced from the dark time vaults of Bob Bitchin' (i.e. found it under an old
arnish boiler suit and pair of wellies in the back of the
wardrobe). The line up was (subject to change on
a weekly or daily basis depending on who had fallen out with who)
James Reid (Drums & vocals), Derick 'Goosey'
Maciver (Lead Gee-tar, Vocals), John 'Plukan'
Murray (Bass, Vocals and genuine musical ability) and Alexander J Kennedy
(Ree-dum Gee-tar,shades, "Vocals" and Silly hats)".. Pictures by a very very young Murdo Macleod
John
tells the
Swedish TV story
here:
"...The band was
formed by Rod,
AJK and
Neil Huggan
and
they had written
a lot of the
songs that
appear on
Lump of
Rock (1982) before
I came along. I
knew AJK from
school where we
had formed some
sort of band
with
David Heaton,
we called
ourselves
Dark
Waters
but we never did
anything because
at that stage we
couldn't really
play any of our
instruments.
I was hanging
about with the
guys and ended
up playing the
drums because
that's what was
missing and
there was no one
else to do it.
David Heaton had
left to join the
RAF
by then. It's a
shame really
because he would
have been quite
good with the
band. I saw
rumours of an
STV-reunion
(undoutedly made
up by Ken
Livingstone -
ed) on the
Guireans website
after Heaton and
AJK had been
seen talking at
the Nicolson
school
reunion in 2003 but
Heaton was never
in STV.
Lump of Rock was
recorded in Tong
Studio and we
were very
pleased with it
- I think it
still stands up
today apart from
the two
ridiculous
tracks that I
insisted on
recording, I'll
leave you to
guess.
Huggan left the
band after that
and I switched
to bass - AJK
and I would
spend nights
working on the
music and when
Rod came home
from uni. he
would add the
words, that's
why the songs
became a lot
more convoluted
than on Lump of
Rock. We were
always hampered
by not having a
drummer - we'd
tried a few
people,
Wee Willie Reid
from
Grimshader but
he only wanted
to play covers,
Angie
Bomb
from Bad
Reputation
but
they wanted him
back,
Alan Dick
-
yes,well….didn't
last long.
We recorded some
new songs
(Swedish
EP (1984?) )
in Tong with a
primitive drum
machine and we
hated what it
sounded like.
The arrangements
were pretty
fancy and the
songs were good
but we just
could not get
the kick-ass
rocky sound we
wanted with that
f***ing drum
machine.
<<Stills from the Royal gig - still waiting for these from Roddy H>>
Swedish TV Live
at the Royal 5
September 1985 -
(L-R) Martin
Overend, John
Murray, Roddy
Huggan, Roddy
Huggan Again,
Rod Macrae, Alex
John Kennedy
Our only live
gigs were
The
Royal
where we had
Roddy
Huggan
(aka
Memphis Louie
Studebaker)
on drums which
was great and
Martin
"Tartan-Overcoat-Bendover"
Overend
on keyboards,
and the Scout
Hall
Midges of Rock
1983
thing. I think
it was just
three of us
there and we did
a
Stranglers
cover to pacify
Rod and a
Tull
cover to pacify
me. AJK listened
to such sh*tey
pop-music that
he was never
asked to suggest
covers.
We had some
really good
songs we never
recorded,
although one or
two of them
appear on
'The Royal
Bootleg',
it would be good
to dust them off
some time."
| See
Also |
| Swedish TV Bootleg CDs
: |
In 2010, some casual reminiscing by Leodhasach exiles in Glasgow -
Spingfield Road clinical synth genius Omer Ahmed and Anderson
Road conceptual peformance greengrocer Ms Barbara "Babs" Macgregor
- led Leroi Z Coondawg to bite the bullet and transfer his old STV
tapes to CD. The result was 2 disks: - "Swedish CD" - a compilation of "Swedish EP", "Lump of Rock", and 5 rehearsal tracks
Some day a proper re-issue of STV's material may appear, "Sad Day We Left the Croft" style. But this'll have to do until then.
Drop an e-mail to theguireans@hotmail.co.uk if you want a free copy. |
Swedish TV Bootleg Mp3 : |
| Former (late period) STV drummer Roddy Huggan has remastered "Unsung Heroes" from "Swedish CD". Click here for a listen. |
|
Swedish TV on
film |
| Les
Mauvaises Jeunes
(1983), Sandwick
Super-8 auteur
Ken
Livingstone's
attempt to create a masterpiece of
French Nouvelle
Vague cinema set in Stornoway. Starring
Swedish TV and
centred around their track "Nous
Sommes Merde"
from "A
Lump of Rock".
The
story
of this
video
can be found on
the Guireans'
website and you
can also see a
number of
stills.
Unfortunately it's currently lost. Ken still looks in his garage
occasionally for the Super-8 footage but has so far failed to locate
it. It'll be straight up on YouTube if it ever appears. |
|
Swedish TV
Tribute Band |
| At the Midges
of Rock 2003,
the first such
festival held
since 1983, the
token "proper"
(ie non-AGOFR) act on the bill
were "Swedish
Transvestite", a
Swedish TV
tribute band
comprising Roddy
Huggan. See the
MOR 2003
page on the
Guireans'
website
for details. |
|
Swedish TV
Spinoff |
| Rod "Prof"
Macrae's more recent
musical project
is
Stumbletwist,
comprising
himself. In 2001
Stumbletwist
released "All
of My
Garmonbozia",
recorded on
Rod's travels
from his
previous
residence in
Wako, Japan, via
the croft in
Newvalley to his
current place in Indianapolis.
Check out Stumbletwist's
cryptic and
impenetrable website at
http://stumbletwist.freehosting.net
and their entry
in
http://www.garageband.com/artist/stumbletwist.
Nobody else on
garageband.com
claims to be
influenced by
Swedish TV. |
| Swedish TV
media moguls |
|
AJK
is now the voice
of Stornoway
Airport, having
previously been a top DJ
and smoothie ad
voice-over
merchant at
Isles FM. John is
a producer with BBC
Radio nan
Gaidheal working on
top Gaelic
rock show
Rapal and
plenty more
besides |
| Swedish TV Utopian Futurist |
| Original bass
player Neil
Huggan is
now a town
planner in
Inverness. However he
says it wasn't his fault because it was
already there
when he arrived. |