RE: Hazel Winter

["Doxtator, Edward" <edoxtator@sp...com>]

Taco Sauced:

>For someone who is lazy like me, and doesnt feel like
>looking up www.softboys.com, who are these boys?  Is
>there any connection to the Aeros?  I heard that Robyn
>Hitchcock is involved, but what else?


>From UBL.com:

The Soft Boys have turned out to be one of the most influential bands in
shaping contemporary alternative music, though few are completely familiar
with the quirky band's legacy. Formed in Cambridge, England in 1976 on the
heels of the punk revolution, the Soft Boys eschewed the three-chord
nihilism of punk and opted for a crude version of psychedelic/folk-rock
that
was well on its way out of fashion, but oddly, just on the cusp of a
resurgence.

Robyn Hitchcock recruited Cambridge musicians Morris Windsor on drums,
Andy
Metcalfe on bass, and guitarist Alan Davies, and recorded Give It to the
Soft Boys in Hitchcock's living room in 1976. Davies was soon replaced by
guitarist Kimberley Rew. The band released a single, "(I Want To Be An)
Anglepoise Lamp," followed by the Can of Bees album in 1979.

While recording the follow-up, Metcalfe left the band and was replaced by
Matthew Seligman. The new lineup started fresh and recorded Underwater
Moonlight, the album that found the band trading psychedelic jams for a
more
straight-ahead jangle-guitar-rock sound. The LP has become extremely
influential in the guitar rock canon -- the Replacements, R.E.M. and the
L.A. Paisley Underground scene all claimed it as a prime influence. The
album launched a thousand bands, but it turned out to be the Soft Boys'
swan
song. Two more recordings were released posthumously: the Two Halves for
the
Price of One EP in 1981, and some early sessions compiled on Invisible
Hits
in 1983. The first EP was re-released in 1984 as Wading Through a
Ventilator.

Windsor and Metcalfe began to collaborate with Hitchcock again in 1984 as
the Egyptians, while Seligman became an in-demand session musician and Rew
went on to form Katrina and the Waves. Hitchcock has had a prolific
post-Soft Boys recording career, sticking to the unusual style he 's
forged
and finessed since 1976, with 15 albums to his credit.
Denise Sullivan, All Music Guide

*****

The connection is this:  Around 1991 or 92 (I don't remember exactly),
Robyn
Hitchcock & The Egyptians went their seperate ways.  Andy Metcalfe joined
a
small band called Homer.  Homer had Tim Keegan on guitar.  Tim was also a
guitarist with the Aeros on the Life Model tour.  Nice bloke, Tim.  Met
him
in 1994 at the last Aeros show they did at The Double Door in Chicago.
(My
friend ended up snogging with Gerard afterwards, but that's another
story.)

In 1996 Robyn released a disc called "Moss Elixir", and Homer was the
backing band for three or four of the tracks.  By this point, Andy
Metcalfe
had left Homer, and Jake Kyle had been recruited to play bass.  Jake also
played bass live for the Aeros, and when I met him in '96, he was still
living in Bristol.  I dunno if he is today.

Tim and Robyn have had a pretty close working relationship in the past few
years-- Tim went with Robyn to the US when Robyn toured "Moss Elixir" over
here, and Tim also appears in the Robyn Hitchcock concert film,
"Storefront
Hitchcock".

Robyn toured the Jewels For Sophia album back in 1999, I think, and The
Homer Lounge (formerly Homerama, formerly Homer) was the opening act.

OK, that's what I know.

-Doc

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