Red Shark - A Fishy Story
It was the hot sleazy summer of '83 - long times of depravity and excess - that saw the spawning of Red Shark - Steve, Robin, Derek and Jackie. The remains of Incubus; defunct after the departure of Sean, joined up with Keith (new guitar in hand) and the vulturous Medlock to comprise the Mk1 line-up. After few gigs in and out of town, October '84 saw a new slimline Red Shark with Jackie and Medlock (keyboards and vocals) swimming off to fresher waters. From then on a general tightening up took place along with a broadening of the Red Shark sound. Although the OTT electric thrashout still lives on (re. 'Thorn In My Side') the band adapted a southern bluesy feel to some of their songs. The next major change was as recent as Nov. '85, which heralded the arrival of sax player Brian. This is the second cassette release by Red Shark, the first 'The Return Of Red Shark', now being something of a collectors item, also marked the first venture of Ian and Claire's Bite Back! enterprise, which is now a growing concern in Portsmouth. The tracks on this tape - except for side two, tracks 1 & 3 - were recorded in summer '85. The original intention was to select two of these for release on the Bite Back! EP 'Sour Mash' (BB!006). Encouraged by growing support, the band re-entered Martyn's studio - now armed with digital mastering equipment. Four more tracks were rattled off - two for this tape, two for the EP. Red Shark are renowned for their lack of resources (money, amps, common sense etc.) and would like to thank everybody who has helped/is helping towards their continuing existence.
The music is a great mix of psyche and indie, with their take on the Velvet's 'I Can't Stand It' being a highlight. They also cover Billie Holiday's 'Fine And Mellow', but the rest of the songs are all original material, and as this tape has been a favourite of mine for the past 30 odd years, I thought I'd post it to share this great music from a band who really should have been picked up by an indie label at the time. They still have a live myspace page but it doesn't look like it's been updated for a while, and I'd be very surprised if they still existed in any form, but you never know.
Track listing
01 Buddhist Chant
02 I Saw The Devil
03 They'll Never Know
04 The Money Goes Further
05 I Can't Stand It
06 Thorn In My Side
07 Fine And Mellow
