Blog Archive: August 2025

How To Be In A Pop Group by Alan Jenkins
For many years now I have been considering writing a book about how to be in a band. The young people of today are obviously far too polite to ask my advice on how to do this, but I'm sure they're quietly desperate to hear my words of wisdom about how to get a band together, what you should do in a recording studio, how not to play gigs and so on and so forth.

Luckily for them, me, and the universe at large, I now know that there is no need for me to do so because Alan Jenkins has already done it with his book How To Be In A Pop Group!

This is a re-issue of the book/big fanzine he published nigh on THIRTY FIVE YEARS AGO, and so some of it is probably out of date, although for someone like me who was first IN Pop Groups at that time it feels utterly modern and of the moment, especially when it talks about the old hippies who used to turn up with their old PA systems at gigs. It is basically a very funny RANT/loving mickey-take about what it's like being IN a band, so there's lots of great stuff about how to settle arguments between band members, how many guitar solos you should have, how rehearsals work etc etc.

There's also an ADDENDUM at the end where 21st Century Alan offers some advice about extra things like streaming that have come along since it was first published, but the real joy in the book for me is the way it captures what it was really like to be in bands around that time - you can almost smell the mildewed rehearsal room carpets!

Part of the reason it resonates so much with me is because Alan was, and indeed IS, a legendary figure on the East Midlands music scene, playing in loads of different bands, releasing amazing indie records, and running his own studio in Leicester for a while too. I particularly remember him as somebody my housemate and bandmate DOCTOR KNEEL used to quote all the time, and so really I guess I am an example of someone whose entire life in Pop Groups has been based on the information contained within. INDEED I think if I had sat down to write my book about it then it would have been EERILY SIMILAR to this one because I basically absorbed all of its teachings while playing in the band VOON in the early to mid nineties.

It was thus BLOODY WONDERFUL to be able to buy an actual copy of it for myself, and one day after receiving it I have DEVOURED over half of it already. It really is a very funny and very lovely book which I HIGHLY recommend to anyone who has any memories of being in those sort of bands in the twentieth century and, hopefully, for anyone who wants to do the same now. As Alan says multiple times in the book, you're unlikely to make any money but if you follow his guidelines you will have a lot of fun, and I can certainly attest to with that!

posted 8/8/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Post-Tour Ruminations
The summer tour for Data and Doctor Doom is over, which means it must be time for some post-tour RUMINATIONS. Luckily for us all, I have SEVERAL!

The first is on the nature of Fringe Festivals, which basically appear to be exactly the same as they were a decade ago when Steve and I were buzzing around doing them. As far as I can gather they are still run by CRAZY LOONS who flipping love fringe festivals, so much so that they have basically MARRIED them. They are also still admministered on the ground by similarly-styled volunteers who are pretty much uniformly LOVELY and EXCITED to be doing it. The only slight change is that the festivals now seem to be slightly better organised, especially in terms of letting you know about ticket sales. Over the past couple of months I have come to LOVE this, going onto either the specific festival's own system OR, more usually, the mightily named Eventotron (which loads of them use) to see if anybody's bought any more tickets in the past couple of hours. I'm already missing it!

It's also been lovely being thrown back into the bizarre mix of shows that you end up playing with at these events. There's loads of the usual stand-up comedian doing their Standard Hours about things they're pretending have happened to them, but you also get extremely enthusiastic Improv Troupes (who always seem to have met on a COURSE and loved it so much they carried on), vast casts of musicals featuring someone's uncle who still hasn't grasped how dancing works, musicians trying to string a bunch of songs together into a THEME (imagine!), prop comedians, people doing PUNS, people explaining things while being frightened of microphones, and many many other types of enthusiasts who have taken the bold and brave decision to get up in front of people and SHOW OFF just for the LOVE of it. I salute them all, and indeed hope to be included as one of them, as they are BLOODY GRATE!

Doing loads of gigs in the same short period of time has also reminded me that it is a) fun b) KNACKERING to do so. There's something jolly exciting about having a particular bag that is always PACKED (or in my case that you THINK is always packed but is sometimes missing crucial elements) that you can just pick up and take with you for a SHOW. There's also something BITTERSWEET about the bit after a show when you really want to hang around for longer but have to rush out to get a TRANE, and then the MILD BLUES the next day when you've still got a bit of the BUZZ of it all zinging around in your heart but no show to go to.

Doing a SPECIFIC show also has its own magic - it's lovely to go and do a gig where you don't know exactly what you're going to be doing until you write the setlist (NB or in my case don't know exactly what you're doing at the time, but that's another matter), but doing the SAME show each day is strange and wonderful because you get to know WHERE in the show you are, and feel the small differences in how it works between you and the audience each time. With this one the show has changed A LOT on pretty much every performance, so I've also had the DELIGHT of seeing what works and what doesn't, trying out new stuff each time to tinker around and try and make it (EVEN) better.

That tinkering around has been VERY THORT PROVOKING too - going to see Mr D Munro a few weeks ago was a PROFOUND EXPERIENCE for me, as he not only came up with lots of GRATE IDEAS that I was able to integrate into the show but also came up with lots of other GRATE IDEAS that I definitely did NOT. Talking through it with someone who is an EXPERT on stand-up comedy and how to make it work made me realise that I am definitely NOT doing stand-up comedy, and helped crystalise for me some of the reasons I don't LIKE a lot of it. It's something about the authenticity of it all - with lots of stand-up, particularly the "confessional" style, I get the queasy feeling that the comedian is trying to form an emotional relationship with me as an audience member through things that are not actually true. I don't mind it when it's someone clearly In Character, any more than I do when I (being fancy) see a PLAY, but there's a line that gets crossed when the comedian appears to be LYING to me for their own gain that turns me off.

Of course, "not enjoying stand-up comedians telling untrue personal stories" may sit alongside "getting upset when plans change" and "not liking noisy shopping centres" that have CERTAIN OTHER CAUSES, but still, it all made me think A LOT about who I am when I am ON STAGE, even when that stage is a corner of a room above a pub. DEEP, yeah?

Most of all though the whole experience reminded me how much I like going out and meeting PALS. In earlier times I leaned into this aspect of it all so much that I ended up doing 50-70 gigs a year, most of which were to small rooms of people who I could probably just as easily have gone for a CURRY with instead. It's been a while since I did all now though, which made it even lovelier to zoom around with an excuse to see lovely people I hadn't seen for ages, even if it did mean having to dash off to catch a train afterwards!

posted 6/8/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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The Tour Finale
I was back out on The Road on Sunday, for the GRAND FINALE of this leg of the Data and Doctor Doom show at The Hen & Chickens in That London as part of the Camden Fringe. This is not the end of the show by any means - I've got a whole OTHER tour booked for later in the year and I'm on the lookout for more next year too - but it's definitely the end of THIS bit!

I'd been told that I'd need to have a TECH person for this one, and The Sliders On My Sound Desk agreed to take on the role, on condition of being provided with a high-visibility tabard bearing the words DOOM CREW front and back. Thus it was the two of us who rolled up at the venue just before noon for our tech rehearsal. I must admit I was a bit ANXIOUS about all this - doing THEATRE gigs involves a lot more Setting Things Up than you usually find in rooms above a pub - but everyone at the pub and venue were FLIPPING LOVELY, notably James who showed us round all of the gear. I felt significantly less anxious after all that!

A few hours later we were BACK with time to spare before SHOWTIME and were amazed to discover THE MYLANDS waiting for us, having come down unannounced from distant Peterborough. We had a natter with them, a delightful chat swapping stories with the theatre manager, and then soon it was time to head upstairs, where myself and The Lights On My Lighting Rig went into action like a finely honed TEAM to get everything ready.

The audience came in, my tech crew dimmed and then brought the lights back up like someone who had been working tech desks for years, and then I was ON for what turned out to be an ALMOST ENTIRELY COMPETENT performance of the show! There were a couple of wobbles - notably when I looked at my watch, thought "Oh, this is fine!" and them immediately thought "But hang on, I'm supposed to be OUT after an hour, not just finishing - PANIC!" - but otherwise there were surprisingly FEW errors and (for me) surprisingly MANY laughs! Cor, people were up for some chuckles, it was fab!

It was a highly enjoyable show to DO, and then even more so when the lights came expertly up and I realised there were LOADS of pals in the audience, including many what I hadn't seen for YEARS. There were hugs, there were beers and there was basically a FINE OLD TIME had by one and all. As I say, it was a brilliant way to bring this particular segment to an end. The only problem is it's made me want to do it loads more now!

posted 5/8/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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Dancing In The Lesbian Bar
As my fellow listeners to the This Are Johnny Domino podcast will be aware, there is a thing called the PRF Monthly Tribute Series where every month a bunch of musical types do cover versions of a specific artiste's songs. At the end of the month they vote for the best one and then the winner chooses who they'll cover the next month.

This has been going on for AGES, and in recent times has become of interest to People I Know Who Used To Be In Bands In Derby In The 1990s, a bunch of whom have started taking part on a regular basis. This is a beautiful things as the People I Know Who Used To Be In Bands In Derby In The 1990s are a high quality group of people both in terms of personhood AND musicianship, so there's always something GRATE to listen to.

July's topic was Jonathan Richman, and so Mr FA Machine (one of the all-time TOP People I Know Who Used To Be In Bands In Derby In The 1990s) suggested that we submit the version of I Was Dancing In The Lesbian Bar that he and I recorded many many years ago. The RULES of the game are that the cover version has to have been recorded during the month of the competition, so we wouldn't be eligible for winning or anything, but he suggested it would be a nice way to get it out into the world, and I CONCURRED. We originally recorded it for an indie tribute compilation album which - almost inevitably for indie tribute compilation albuns - never came out, so the only place it's ever been heard is the compilation Like A Braunstone Cowboy which was given out free to newsletter subscribers to celebrate our 100th issue. Crumbs, that was 12 years ago!

Anyway, the upshot of all of this is that you can now finally listen to our version of Mr J Richman's immortal classic anytime you'd like to - I think it's Quite Good, especially Frankie's GTR SOLO, but you can judge for yourself BELOW!



posted 1/8/2025 by MJ Hibbett
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