Sink did a big 9 week, joint-headline tour of Europe (including dates in the UK) with our bestest buddies from Washington DC, Shudder To Think. They had just released Tenspot on Dischord and would record Funeral At The Movies at Southern in London directly after the tour. Shudder were my favourite band at the time and I think I got to see them 53 times that summer. Wonderful stuff. The line-up of Craig Wedren, Chris Matthews, Stuart Hill & Mike Russell will always be my favourite version of Shudder and it was cool watching them every night and seeing them write and develop some of the Funeral songs as the tour progressed.

As for Sink; we had just released Old Man Snake & The Fat, Black Pig on Decoy and were excited to be back in Europe and on tour. Outside of the UK you were expected to play longer sets and so we embraced this with our own fairly eclectic take on “life after hardcore”. A few chuggy, Fugazi-inspred numbers, some poppy, Replacements nods, as few fast ones as we could get away with and some covers we couldn’t really play. No two nights were the same and we had a lot of our own material and plenty of covers to choose from. This was probably the height of our embracing of The Blues and in that I hope you’ll be indulgent with us. Everyone should spend a couple of years looking into where the whole of  popular music came from and discovering the Blues greats. We did and we thoroughly enjoyed it…it was just unfortunate for our audience that we tended to play a lot of what we were listening to at the time. So on this tour we ‘gifted’ the crowd with dodgy, post-punk versions of white-boy blues that we loved, but which looking back, probably aren’t even 10% as good as we thought at the time. Fuck it, we had a ball.

We always enjoyed playing at the AJZ, a squat in Bielefeld, and Bobo, the booker there, was a great guy who seemed to like the band and helped us out a fair bit. Also on hand was our very good friend, Alfred Bradford, who took these great photos. Incidentally, Alfred had brought along US band The Dambuilders who were also touring at the time. We said hi to each other on the night, but didn’t really hang out. Ironic then that 3 years later, Chocolate, would tour Europe supporting The Dambuildes on their Islington Porn Tapes tour and that their drummer, Kevin March, would end up playing for the final line-up of Shudder To Think. Small world.

Anyway, what follows is the whole gig. It’s very much warts and all. If you’re a Sink fan then you’ll probably enjoy it, if you’ve not heard Sink before then I wouldn’t recommend this as your introdution to the band; there are bum notes aplenty and the mix isn’t always great (the sound man seems to like his reverb and his delay effects). That said, the versions of Angel Turns Blue and Big Red Car are pretty damn good

• Ed Wenn - Vocal & guitar
• John Ruscoe - Guitar & backing vocals
• Paul Duncan - Bass & backing vocals
• James Kermack - Drums & backing vocals

 

 Boogie Man: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Buddha #1: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Talking At The Evening: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Buddha #4: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Mr Passion: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 This Time: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Amanush & Squirrels: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Pepper: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Angel Turns Blue: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Won't Sell My Guitar: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 The Letter (The Box Tops): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 For What It's Worth (The Buffalo Springfield): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Seams: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 On The Tracks: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Buddha #3: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Echo: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Big Red Car: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Ticket Office Blues: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Paint It Black (Rolling Stones): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Whole Lotta Love (Led Zepellin): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Daddy Cool (Boney M): Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Points of interest:

• * This was the only time we ever played The Letter (a huge 60’s hit for The Box Tops).
• * Boogie Man and Ticket Office Blues were written by us, but were never released.
• * Amanush was recorded on a Peel session and came out on Aston’s first Boss Tuneage compliation, Floor 81, but it really should have been on Vega-Tables. It was Paul’s song in the main, but was ‘a bit punk’ for where I wanted the band to be at the time (and I was a Nazi) so it got left off the album. These days I like it a lot.
• * Craig from Shudder jumped up onstage and sang Whole Lotta Love with us…we should have got him to do it every night because he had the voice for it. It hadn’t even occurred to me that he’d be interested and I hadn’t made the connection at that point between his voice and the classic rock singers like Robert Plant.

About years ago Graham kindly transferred an old Sink live vid from VHS to DVD for me. The plan was to rip it and get some of the better moments up online. 5 years later and I’ve only just managed the first 2 songs I don’t think there’s any other video of Sink on t’Internet so I hope you enjoy them.

It was a weird gig audience-wise so the performance is fairly low-key (in other words I was sulking!), but it does mean that we actually played the songs pretty well for the most part. The camera was closest to John so you can hear his guitar way louder than mine…again, not a bad thing.

The clip jumps about for the first few seconds, but then settles down.

Here’s another old Sink radio interview that I dug up a few months ago. This one’s even more nonsensical than the last one, but it’s of interest because this time I’m joined by our irrepressible drummer, Kermack. If memory serves, we’d played our fave venue in Aalborg (Denmark) the night before, but the van had broken down the next morning so we’d not been able to go over to Sweden to play our next scheduled gig in Malmo. The promoters at the venue in Aalborg kindly offered us a second night at their place because there was already a gig booked; we were happy to not have to shell out for a night in a hotel & I assume we were fed and watered if not paid. So anyway, Kermack & I were invited onto the local radio station to get the word out about the last minute gig. Present in the studio at the time were members of some of the other bands due to play that night.

Oh yeah, Kermack & I were also are ‘forced’ to perform what is probably the definitive acapella/punk crossover version of the “It Ain’t Half Hot Mum” theme tune right at the end…..Erm, enjoy!

 

 Radio Aalborg Interview 1990: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Quite a lot to catch up on and not a lot of time to do it in. Here’s the first bit though anyway. The acoustic gig at Lou’s Callyfest went off well in then end although it was a fairly terrifying experience all told. What doesn’t doesn’t kill you makes you stronger etc. etc. Definitely a character building experience, but one that will stand me in good stead for the future I’m sure. Here’s a clip of me playing ‘Shivers’ at the gig. The guitar intro is missing, but Jacqui caught the rest of the song. I was super nervous so the song’s pretty fast; also I had to stick the guitar through an amp and not the PA which is why it’s a bit tinny sounding.

Ed sings “Shivers” from Ed Wenn on Vimeo.

….and for those of you who are unfamiliar with the original version of the song, here it is:

 

 Shivers: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Time for a quick summary of upcoming gigs…and a note to self about getting some sort of calendar sorted out for this website. Noted.

• 5th August: Billy No Mates at The Old Angel Inn, Nottingham supporting SNFU - More info
• 15th August: Billy No Mates at the Kanalrock Festival in Oslo, Norway- More info
• 22nd August: Acoustic gig at the Cally Fest, Caledonian Road, London- More info
• 27th August: Special gig playing some punk covers (+ probably a few Sink songs) at The Portland Arms, Cambridge. N.B. I know we’re billed as ‘acoustic opener TBC’ on the venue’s website, but we’ve agreed with promoter, DS, that we can do a 30 minute band set instead. The plan at the moment is that I’ll be on guitar with Rich Matthews (from K-Line) on bass and his mate, Tom, on drums - More info

Also in the pipeline, but currently unconfirmed, are acoustic gigs at the Fighting Cocks in Kingston and a venue in Sittingbourne, Kent; both supporting Duncan Redmonds. Moreinfo on those gigs as I get it.