Early eighties Punk/DIY as featured on Chuck Warner's Messthetics label. Now re-released and copied from the original single.

5 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Punk, ROCK: Surf Rock



Details:
When Colin Smith and I borrowed an old battered guitar from Dave the Barman at Dundee College of Education in 1978, the Scrotum Poles was born. Colin got the name from the book âThe Choirboysâ and we set about mastering the few chords we needed to write a song as other peopleâs songs were way too difficult. The first, âThis is Loveâ was E A and G (a bit tricky that one). Quickly followed by âPillarsâ and âVictims of Vietnamâ all essentially the same chords with the wonderful addition of Aminor â the best chord in the world.

Auchmithie Calling (1979) was a tape only release (only 100 made) with the addition in the band of Steve Grimmond, Matho and Ronnie Lawson. The band split soon after â over âtechnical differencesâ â none of us could play particularly well but after a Troggs style âdubba dubba dubba chaâ argument with Matho and a âI canât believe you didnât plug the guitar inâ moment with Ronnie Lawson, the trio went on to be joined by Glen Connell on drums.

The band wrote and recorded prolifically, mostly on two track tapes and simple mics, and some reputation was built up around Dundee. âPick the Cats Eyes Outâ â our first good song â was written by Colin to a set of lyrics on the back of a âBread Poultice and the Running Soresâ song list, and the band played to a Thompson Twins crowd, an Exploited crowd (donât ask but we were covered in gob and our set list was set on fire....) and headlined in bars, colleges and Beach Halls around the county.

We raised about five hundred quid from friends to do the single Revelation (1980) and at the Ship Inn in Broughty Ferry, Dundee, we squabbled over what songs would be on the single, and, in typical democratic fashion we each chose a track and tried to knock them down to two. We failed, adding a last track, âRadio Tayâ at the last moment when we were in Wilf Smartiesâ studio in Edinburgh. We wrote the words for it in the studio.

Colin travelled down driving overnight with Ricky Ross of Deacon Blue to get it mixed in London, and we were so poor that we got the sleeve photocopied and stuck them together in my mumâs kitchen.

The single was quite well received, Rough Trade took a hundred, Pinnacle, Revolver and the other one took about fifty each and we sold a few hundred through local shops and at gigs. Fast records in Edinburgh wouldnât take any because they thought it was a bit âamateurishâ.

The band were beginning to take a more serious tone by then and the pop songs went in favour of the darker, more difficult stuff. Tensions began to surface between the band members and the band split up after a very well attended and emotional final gig at the Tayside Bar, Dundee. Last song ever played was âMemoriesâ and there was no encore.

And what of now? Our singles are being sold for between £80 and $200 on ebay, people are writing nice things about us in forums all over the world. Just a little band who were not that bad.

Craig Methven 2006.