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Bio Part III - Memphis Louie an the Rockin' Firebirds of Death

The Rockin Firebirds of Death : L-R Leroi Z Coondawg, Memphis Louie Studebaker, Etheridge Lockjaw Jones Ist, Levi Mac 'an Sheonaidh Rickenbacker, Bob Bitchin's Right Elbow

The Summer of 85 was Emil-free, as the Shrink had gone off to ride the freight cars a’hoboin’ around North America before beginning an exchange year in Vancouver. With all these songs, the rest of the band were keen to go ahead and do something, so Meantime frontman Roddy Huggan was recruited to cover vocals and harmonica.

The Subterraneans had been so much identified with Emil and his unique style that the band reckoned that they’d better adopt a different name for the purposes of gigging with Roddy. After several days of fretting, Leroi had a dream one night and awoke with the name “Memphis Louie an The Rockin’ Firebirds of Death” written on the bedside table. Consequently Roddy, as frontman, had to become Memphis Louie Studebaker.

Etheridge, a diehard Jethro Tull fan on the side, was a member of the Stornoway Folk Club, an organisation otherwise made up almost exclusively of people from south of the border – and I ain’t talking Hearachs - in possession of facial hair and lucrative employment with the local authority. When the folkies decided to have a “Rhythm and Blues Night” upstairs in the County Hotel, Etheridge managed to secure a slot for the band. A full 2 guitar, bass and drums set wasn’t permitted, so Etheridge played the hi-hat again (or did he?). The performance was slightly out of tune and not up to practice quality.

At this point Zink Sputnik decided he’d had enough and called it a day. He hadn’t been happy with the Firebirds’ musical style for a while and the lacklustre gig in the County was the last straw. Unfortunately, just as Zink headed away for the bus to Gress, Bob Bitchin’ appeared and announced that the band had a second slot to play that night, down at a charity ceilidh in the Royal.

Despite the lack of a rhythm guitarist and constant heckling from the late Parkend Scribe (still blacked up after doing his politically correct comedy act earlier in the evening), the Royal set was pretty good and got quite a response. Leroi was feeling smug at the bar afterwards when an emotional young lady came up and asked him “Hey, cove, what’sh the name of your band?”. Leroi told her. “Well, you didn’t play Freebird and you’re f***ing sh*te”. Right.

Zink was replaced on rhythm guitar almost immediately by Neil “The Hippy” Shaw, a pal of Memphis Louie’s from Back, who adopted the band handle “Levi Mac ‘an Sheonaidh Rickenbacker” for reasons best known to himself. Levi was pretty familiar with a lot of the material and very keen, so the band kept practising in the hope of getting a gig or two more before the Summer was out.

Memphis Louie's reliance on a sheet of paper for the words attracts undisguised contempt from music professional Etheridge. The Synthesizer and the music stand, by the way, weren't nothin to do with the Firebirds.

There’s a pretty good quality practice tape made up from these sessions, once again recorded on Leroi’s ghetto blaster. Most of these practices in the Summer of 85 took place down at Tong Studios, Leroi’s garage being out of bounds by now because of the racket.

Levi, as his original nickname might suggest, was a bit of a peace campaigner on the side, and as a consequence was involved with the organisation of a benefit gig in September 85 for “Hebrides CND” at the Royal Hotel. This wasn’t everybody in the band’s cup of herbal tea, notably Leroi who was actively seeking employment in the nuclear missile industry by this time, but a gig was a gig and it was probably going to be the last chance to play before college restarted.

On the night (5/9/85), it transpired that the acts who actually showed were a great combination: Swedish TV, The Meantime and Memphis Louie an The Rockin’ Firebirds of Death. It might not mean much now, but in 85 these were the only active rock bands in the island who were trying to do something original(ish). Swedish TV’s material was nearly all their own, The Meantime played a mix of originals and quality punk and post-punk covers, and any covers that Memphis Louie played might as well have been originals given their age and obscurity. In its limited mid-80s way it was the Leodhasach equivalent of seeing Elvis, Jerry Lee and Johnny Cash on the one bill at the height of their powers. Or the Stooges, the MC5 and err... You know what I mean.

Somebody was dancing so it can't have been that bad...

No-one in the bands had managed to tape the occasion, but luckily there were a couple of drunken bootleggers there with a dodgy cassette player and even dodgier batteries - Ejected Dark Visit drummer Alan Dick and his pal Roddy “Actor” Morrison can be heard throughout the tape they made, the witty badinage deteriorating to “That’s my cymbal they’re playing… yay … f***…” as the night wears on.

The Firebirds closed the night with the 13th Floor Elevators’ “You’re Gonna Miss Me” (by which time the tape had run out), and that was it. Etheridge Lockjaw Jones 1st decided that it was time to go out on a high note, Leroi and Memphis Louie were off to college, and the Rockin’ Firebirds of Death were no more.

So that was the end of the Subterraneans’ line – 21 August 1981 to 5 September 1985. RIP?

Well, not quite. Near enough everybody in the band went off and did other musical stuff afterwards, although none of it was ever anything like as good. Check out the Spinoffs and Links pages to see what happened later.