Early Recordings

Mike Taysum

Early experiments at recording, 1977-1981. Quite a few tapes with interesting bits here and there. Goes up to my buying a simple drum machine in late 1981.

Still needs to be compiled down. One day maybe.

The Photos

My first band, 1977-1978, with Simon Sprackling (vocals), Nigel Odell * (vocals), Rob Boswell (drums) and my brother John (bass). We did two and a half gigs. The first was quite good, the second we got kicked off stage and the third we cleared the dance floor by the end of the second song.

One tape survives (28/02/1978) but I find it difficult to listen to. My guitar playing is just crap, and as for my vocals ** on "Oh! Darling" ...

01 House Of The Rising Sun (7:18)

02 Bye Bye Johnnie (5:59)

03 Interludings (3:38)

04 Around And Around (4:36)

05 (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction (4:13)

06 Oh! Darling (3:23)**

07 Back In The USSR (2:29)

08 Just Another Corpse (5:35)*

09 Ultra Gross (2:57)

10 Brown Sugar (3:34)

Mike & John

Jam sessions with brother John, 1979-1981. A few tapes, some with Nigel Jones joining in. Will need plenty of editing to make it listenable.

Mike & Nigel

Jam sessions with Nigel Jones, 1982-1983. Quite a few tapes that are still to be edited into an album. John is on some of the tracks.

Includes the track "Bruisin'", one of my favourites. It was originally recorded on a reel-to-reel and that tape still needs to be digitised.

AOT

From my time with Bristol's Arts Opportunity Theatre, 1982-3, where I played with numerous wonderful musicians, singers, dancers and actors.

One recording which has resurfaced is the Jendayi Serwah song 'Feel It' which is being released by Reggae Archive Records on 15 November 2019.

There's plenty more about AOT on the website, which I also look after. Well, some poor soul had to do it. (click on the picture below). The ukulele performance is from many years later.

The Break In A Country

Solo multi-track recordings from February 1983. I had a long weekend off and the use of my next door neighbour's Revox. I wanted to play something different from the reggae of AOT, so I recorded nine Rolling Stones covers with a country feel.

I need to get the master tape digitised.

01 I Got The Blues (2:30)

02 If You Really Want To Be My Friend (6:24)

03 Stray Cat Blues (4:06)

04 Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker) (5:43)

05 Tops (4:02)

06 Down In The Hole (3:53)

07 Luxury (4:50)

08 Dead Flowers (4:43)

09 Time Waits For No One (7:10)

Camera

Mainly self-penned solo multi-track recordings from 1982-1986.

Some nice bits including the title track which does have rather a lot of hiss. Fortunately as you get older, that matters far less.

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