‘VARIOUS ARTISTS’ – ‘BORING’ BOB GROVER TRIBUTE CONCERT – THE PRINCE ALBERT, BRIGHTON 28.3.25
‘Boring’ Bob Grover (1956–2024) was a legend in these parts! Putting his “mock” grumpiness persona to one side, I’m not actually sure I’ve ever heard a bad word ever spoken about him! You can’t really say that about many folk can you. The last time I had an in depth conversation with him was at The Con Club in Lewes a few years ago and he came across as a kind, inoffensive and interesting soul, who was more than willing to give me his time and share his love of beers. I warmed to him and many did, especially those whose paths he had crossed.
Bob, who lived in the Hanover area of Brighton, passed away on Christmas Eve last year. He is best known as being the singer and guitarist of The Piranhas who plied their trade around town in long-gone venues including the Alhambra, the Vault, Jenkinson’s, the Richmond and the Northern from 1977 to 1982. The Piranhas were originally part of the Brighton punk scene, and first came to prominence when DJ John Peel began playing their single ‘I Don’t Want My Body’ single on his show.
The band are best known for their adaptation of the infectious instrumental 1950s kwela song ‘Tom Hark’, which Bob added the lyrics for and this new version by The Piranhas reached No.6 in the pop charts in 1980, with the single selling more than 250,000 copies. Bob and his chums had turned the tune into a classic and it can still be heard at sport stadiums across the country and around the world. The band famously appeared on BBC 1’s ‘Top of the Pops’ and they were again “on their way” in the charts two years later with ‘Zambezi’.
You can’t keep a good tune down and in the mid 2000’s Bob gave his blessing for a reworked version of ‘Tom Hark’ with words by Attila The Stockbroker in support of Brighton and Hove Albion’s campaign for a stadium at Falmer. The song was released by a specially formed Brighton band, Seagulls Ska, which consisted of Attila The Stockbroker and his Barnstormer band, as well as local ska outfit Too Many Crooks, actor Ralph Brown and a choir of BHAFC activists including the legendary Paul ‘Out Of Tune’ Samrah and – as ‘Tom Hark (We Want Falmer)’ – it reached No.17 in the UK singles chart. It was released by Skint Records – the football club’s sponsor at the time – and raised money for Albion’s Alive and Kicking Fund as well as awareness for the stadium campaign with a public inquiry about to begin. Grover and The Piranhas played ‘Tom Hark’ at Falmer for the first league match at the new ground in August 2011.
Five years ago we published an article about defunct Brighton label, Attrix Records, and it’s is on here where the first Piranhas releases can be found including their trio of tunes (‘Tension’,‘Virginity’ and ‘I Don’t Want My Body’) which were on the legendary ‘Vaultage ‘78’ compilation album. As well as their ‘Coloured Music’/ ‘Jilly’, and ‘Yap Yap Yap’ singles, and ‘Feel Queer When You Ain’t Here’ cropping up on an Attrix compilation cassette. Our article, which can be enjoyed HERE, also included quotes from Del Greening from Peter And The Test Tube Babies, Helen McCookerybook from Joby & the Hooligans, The Chefs and Helen & The Horns, Darris Golinski from The Golinski Brothers, and John Helmer from The Piranhas. All four of these people are here this evening and participating in the ‘Boring’ Bob Grover Tribute Concert which is being held at The Prince Albert as well as being live streamed.
Not surprisingly, it’s a busy schedule this evening with many music artists offering up their services for free and naturally this special event was sold out in super-quick time. There’s a few punk rock royalty in the audience as well including Kirk Brandon (The Pack, Theatre Of Hate & Spear Of Destiny), Pauline Murray (Penetration) and Peter Bywaters (Peter And The Test Tube Babies) to name-drop just three.
The night was kicked off just after 7pm by the Wyrd Sisters who no doubt got their name from Terry Pratchett’s sixth Discworld novel. Their ranks bolster Bon Besom from The Piranhas 4+, which was the final incarnation of the band. Bon takes care of tin whistle duties and is joined by April Showers on mandolin, who is quite a character. They are both black-clad and wearing witches’ hats. They are accompanied by accordion player Lydia Sleigh and Martin Dyno on acoustic guitar. The music is traditional Celtic folk reels and is played in a light hearted and fun way. The band were friends of ‘Boring’ Bob and used to taunt him with their folk music. This is music for elves and goblins everywhere! Check them out on ‘The Castle Stage’ at this year’s ‘Guilfest’ at Stoke Park in Guildford this July – Details HERE.
Next up it was the turn of UFX (aka Unorfadox) who are an up-beat, alternative rock band from and around Bromley Kent. They originally formed way back in 1976 and as they inform us were one of the bands that played live at the infamous Roxy club in London back in the day. Their influences in music came from far and wide and included bands such as Dr Feelgood, Budgie, Split Enz and the Punk and New Wave movement. After a hiatus of a number of decades some of the band are back together again and tonight they are Ricky Steele on drums, Ray Amos on bass guitar, Brian Jardine on vocals and newest recruit Lee Downs on guitar and like several of the acts tonight, they play us a handful of tunes. There’s a definite rock and heavy blues vibe going on with these guys as well as borderline punk. I wasn’t quite sure of their connection with ‘Boring’ Bob Grover, but the band have informed me…“Our connection with Bob Grover was that we played a few gigs with The Piranhas and we got on really well with Bob, as did everyone. Though Gary, organiser of the night and guitarist from The Piranhas told me that Bob really liked our band, he would have wanted us to be there. RIP Bob”.
At around 8:15pm John Baine makes his first step up onto The Prince Albert stage of the night. He is known as a famed punk poet, multi instrumentalist musician, songwriter, and diehard Brighton & Hove Albion fan and to you and me he is none other than Attila The Stockbroker. He knew ‘Boring’ Bob for many decades and tonight Attila read a passage titled ‘Farewell To The Vault’, which was written about those heady glue-sniffing days at the punk hangout that used to be situated beneath the Brighton Resource Centre in North Road, and it was originally a crypt beneath the old Presbyterian church. It was an interesting listen as he name dropped the forgotten Brighton punk outfits that used to rehearse and perform there, which included The Piranhas. Attila also took to the stage after the next act and continued the history lesson, which this time included more on Bob and how The Piranhas ‘Tom Hark’ came into being. The gist of what Attila told us can be found HERE.
It was now the turn of ever-smiling Helen McCookerybook to play her five song set. Helen and Bob went back a long way, right to the beginning when she was Joby & The Hooligans bassist, and then she went onto form The Chefs and after which Helen & The Horns. Helen spoke to us about Bob and told us that he was a pure gentleman and exactly how nice he was back in the day, as compared to many men on the scene who had totally different views of women being in bands. Helen began her set with ‘Temptation’ and I noted that her small LED electronic guitar tuner attached to the end of her instrument was still turned on and it was showing the notes being played during this track. Although it was left on in error, I found it fascinating to watch. Her comical singalong ditties continued with ‘So Long Elon’, ‘Things Like This Don’t Happen To People Like Me’, ‘Let’s Make Up’ (a tune recorded by The Chefs), and closed with ‘Three Cheers For Toy Town’, which was written about living in suburbia.
Continuing the comical vein – which The Piranhas were great ambassadors of – we are now in the company of Brighton based Asbo Derek and friends. For the record “Asbo Derek is a band not a bloke”, it proudly screams on their website, although not all of the usual band members are present this evening, and so vocalist Jem has called on a few favours. On stage with him for the first few songs is Helen McCookerybook on guitar, and for the remainder of the set she is replaced by Ric Blow (who we will hear more about shortly). Vic Godard is a fan of Asbo Derek, so much so that he has released their ‘Affordable Art’ LP on his own label, GNUinc Records. Also on stage is a bassist who has been depping for the band for 15 years and a drummer. Jem told us that Asbo Derek used to regularly go around ‘Boring’ Bob’s house and record tunes in his kitchenette. If you are a fan of Half Man Half Biscuit and I, Ludicrous then the Asbo Derek melodic, comedic toe-tapping, indie ditties are for you! The performance included ‘Bryan Ferry’s Ballbag’, ‘Crimp It’ (about hair) and ‘Pheasant Attack!’, which apparently is about a Bob Grover chat up line “I was attacked by a pheasant once when my boat was hauled up in Portsmouth”.
It was now the turn of The Del Strangefish Inexperience who are fronted by the one and only Derek ‘Strangefish’ Greening of Peter And The Test Tube Babies fame. Del is on lead vocals and guitar and is obviously the focal point in his cowboy hat. He is ably accompanied by Jim Phelan on guitar and backing vocals, Dom Smith on bass and ‘Caveman’ Dave O’Brien on drums.
The guys began with a trio of tunes from their ‘Clocking Out’ album which dropped last October, for which we attended and reviewed the album’s launch show – Read it HERE. The choice song of these punk rock tinged tunes this evening was ‘Weak’. After this they played a Piranhas cover from ‘The Attrix Tapes’ compilation cassette, this being ‘Things Could Be Worse’. They are joined by Attila The Stockbroker on vocals and I think Paul Mumford on saxophone for this tune.
Del recounted the days when he and Peter ‘Test Tube’ Bywaters used to hitchhike from Peacehaven to Brighton every Sunday in order to watch The Piranhas at the Alhambra. He thought that their first ever gig was supporting them at the Richmond in early 1978 and that it was the Piranhas who probably influenced him the most as Bob apparently nagged Del to play guitar. The quartet then concluded their set with ‘Elvis Is Dead’ which is found on the ‘Vaultage ‘78’ album (along with three Piranhas tunes). Tonight’s version however was a mashup with Elvis Presley’s 1970 single ‘The Wonder Of You’.
The Prince Albert stage now got rather full with the arrival of Brighton’s answer to Madness, namely Too Many Crooks, who in my opinion are better than Madness! They are a seven-piece outfit who consist of Dave Cook (guitar/vocals), Alan Perry (saxophone/vocals), Tony Fish (trumpet), Paul Mumford (baritone sax), Bradley Tullet (keys), Sean Cox (bass) and a drummer. They have earned the right of being on tonight’s bill as they recorded the ‘Tom Hark (We Want Falmer)’ single. Plus Dave Cook also informs us that his band’s logo that he is sporting on his t-shirt was actually designed for free by ‘Boring’ Bob.
Too Many Crooks are essentially a group of friends who felt that Ska music needed to be dragged kicking and screaming into this millennium if it was ever going to haul itself out of the underground, where it had been left to fester since the end of the Two-Tone Era. It goes without saying, but these lads certainly know how to get a room moving right from the very start with their self-titled anthem. They played another five tracks after this and it was a really solid performance that makes your body merrily bop along to the beat. They were certainly bringing the feel good factor to The Prince Albert this evening. Musically, I guess that they are the most like The Piranhas than any other band on the bill this evening, except the final act!
www.instagram.com/too_many_crooks
The penultimate act of the night was Dates (Ric Blow Acoustic Set) which feature Ric on guitar and vocals. He is from Lincoln but now lives in Seaford and he worked with ‘Boring’ Bob for a number of years on their ‘Dates’ project which Bob formed back in 2005 with his drinking buddies at The Greys in Southover Street, which includes guys named Owen, Steve and bar manager Ric Blow. The band released their debut album ‘First Party, Fire And Theft’ which consisted of fourteen tunes. Tonight’s set commences with the album’s closing number ‘Too Good To Be True’ which segues straight into ‘Long Time Dead’. Ric informs us that all the lyrics were penned by Bob, which for me added to the importance of the set.
Ric’s vocals don’t sound like Bob’s but more like Paul Heaton’s from The Beautiful South with a hint of James Blunt. As these Dates songs are rather old, Ric tells us that he had to relearn them and work out how to play them as a solo instead of as a band. ‘Oh God!’ from the album was up next and Ric tells us that Bob wrote it from God’s perspective. The penultimate tune was album opener ‘Fifteen Minutes Of Shame’ and this was followed by set closer ‘Into Stella Philosophy’ as in the beer.
The final act of the night was The Piranhas which consisted of former members of all incarnations of the band along with Darris Golinski (of The Golinski Brothers fame) on vocals, as a replacement for ‘Boring’ Bob. There’s eight folk on the stage, the others are founder members Johnny Helmer (guitar, vocals) who had come out of retirement for this concert, and Phil Collis aka ‘ Zoot Alors’ on saxophone. Along with Gary Browne (rhythm guitar), Mike ‘Rock’ Roberts (bass), Ken Brotherston (drums), Domonic Dring (saxophone) and Bon Besom (saxophone). The original drummer Richard Adland aka ‘Dick Slexia’ passed away in 2018, and I’m not actually sure what happened to bassist Reginald Frederick Hornsbury or Alan Bines aka Al Hambra who stood in on saxophone whilst Zoot recuperated from the effects of a car accident.
Tonight we were given eleven Piranhas compositions, which commenced with their 1979 ‘Jilly’ single, followed by ‘Boyfriend’ which is found on the original Attrix records ‘The Piranhas’ album from 1980. It did not appear on the Sire records re-release, but was on the ‘Play Kwela!’ 3-track EP, which had ‘Tom Hark’ as the lead tune. Selection three was ‘Happy Families’ which was the B-side of their 1979 ‘Yap – Yap – Yap’ single. Lead vocals for this one was handed over to Johnny Helmer. The reggae beats of ‘I Don’t Want My Body’ came next and this was the first of seven in a row from their album. Johnny was back on lead vocals for ‘Tension’ and then came some decent tremolo action from him on the slower vibed ‘Saxophone’ along with a sax break sounding not too unlike Gerry Rafferty’s ‘Baker Street’.
‘Final Straw’ saw us into the final half of the set and the drumming on this reminded me of Racey’s ‘Some Girls’. A treat was in store for us next as for the first time ever Zoot took lead vocals for ‘Green Don’t Suit Me’. After which lead vocals switched back to Johnny for crowd favourite ‘Getting Beaten Up’. Once the track had finished, the band stood still almost solemnly and some put their fingers to their lips in a “shoosh” fashion. We weren’t really sure what was happening, but then immediately outside the first floor performance room, the sound of bagpipes could be heard. The door swung open and in walked a single piper, this being Andy Breckenridge and once in the room the notes switched and suddenly we were listening to a slow starter rendition of ‘Tom Hark’. The Piranhas then joined in, notably with Bon Besom on tin whistle and the brass section from Too Many Crooks also got up to join them. There were now a dozen folk on the stage, which I think is the most I’ve ever witnessed there, if you don’t count crowd invasions!
According to the setlist pinned on the speaker in front of me there was just one more tune to go and this was ‘Cheap ‘N’ Nasty’ which was the B-side of their 1979 ‘Space Invaders’ single. With the band back to just the eight of them, they played the track and then Johnny introduced the players one by one and then Darris introduced Johnny. We then learned that Zoot had come across from New York especially for this concert. Fabulous effort sir! And at 11:39pm that was it and The Piranhas were no more!
It has been a truly wonderful event with tons of love filling the room. This was a most special event and I’m honoured to have been there. RIP Bob x
The Piranhas:
Darris Golinski – vocals
Johnny Helmer – guitar, vocals
Zoot Alors (Phil Collis) – saxophone
Gary Browne – rhythm guitar
Mike ‘Rock’ Roberts – bass
Ken Brotherston – drums
Domonic Dring – saxophone
Bon Besom – saxophone
Guests:
Andy Breckenridge – bagpipes
Alan Perry – saxophone
Tony Fish – trumpet
Paul Mumford – baritone sax
Heavenly presences:
Bob Grover (1956–2024) – lead vocals, guitar, trumpet
Dick Slexia (Richard Adland 1962–2018) – drums
The Piranhas setlist:
‘Jilly’ (from 1979 ‘Jilly’ / ‘Coloured Music’ single)
‘Boyfriend’ (from 1980 ‘The Piranhas’ Attrix records album)
‘Happy Families’ (from 1979 ‘Yap – Yap – Yap’ single)
‘I Don’t Want My Body’ (from 1980 ‘The Piranhas’ album)
‘Tension’ (from 1980 ‘The Piranhas’ album)
‘Saxophone’ (from 1980 ‘The Piranhas’ album)
‘Final Straw’ (from 1980 ‘The Piranhas’ album)
‘Green Don’t Suit Me’ (from 1980 ‘The Piranhas’ album)
‘Getting Beaten Up’ (from 1980 ‘The Piranhas’ album)
‘Tom Hark’ (from 1980 ‘The Piranhas’ album)
‘Cheap ‘N’ Nasty’ (from 1979 ‘Space Invaders’ single)
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