The New Improved Reprobate. 16 years on…
From Mick creating the Reprobate MySpace page some 18 months ago, tracking down Si, Steerzy and myself, the inclusion of Wickerman on Terrorizer issue 181’s unsigned band CD was an amazing feat..
Firstly I was amazed that we had a track on there.. way back in 92/93 we only had money for tapes, and frankly only a few people I knew had CD players… money was tight!! So to see our song ON a CD was more than I ever expected after all this time.. and then we only go and win the competition.. I was amazed, dumfounded, speechless that we won… At this point im thinking… ‘well it’d be great to get back together and see if we can knock a few tunes out…but they all have families and we all have jobs and lives to get on with.. see what happens’..
CUT TO THIS…
The culmination of endless emails, texts, conversations, we are all able and free to meet up on 25th September, with all our gear for a practice in the same building we used back in the day.. This is also a month shy of 20 years since I joined Mick (SMJ), Gary and John in Midnight Realm, the forerunner of Reprobate.
My day starts after five hours sleep, a bowl of porridge, two mugs of tea and a quick pack of a weekend bag… Remember BASS GUITAR… notes of all the tracks I’ve been doing… toothbrush...
Into the centre of London, heading for the Bass Cellar to pick up a hard case.
Jump on the train to Sheffield. It takes two hours. The train is great; I can eat, watch the world whiz by and catch a few zzzzz’s.
Get into Sheffield, have a nice meander through the city up (literally, Sheffield is the hilliest city in England) to the practice room... Now here is a road I haven’t walked down since I left the band in 1993… The Dog and Partridge pub at the top looks no different, and as I walk down Bailey St that hasn’t changed much either... A new block of flats now sits opposite the practice room, but that’s it…
I sit and wait for a few minutes, taking in the scene, enjoying the sun and speak to an old Sheffield mate on the phone… and then a car pulls up...
I see the impish grin of Steerzy looking at me through the windscreen as I finish the phone call to Rich…
Steerzy hasn’t changed, 16 years… neither has his missus… both looking well... we have a good chat and open up the studio.
Great to hear Steerzy’s guitar rip open a hole in my ears again... get my bass sorted through his laptop and I pull out the notes I’ve been writing of our tracks.
We start going through Judas Cradle first, Steerzy remembers the riffs that I just couldn’t work out by listening... the old recordings are very bottom end heavy... we knock that out, I remember the whiz bang techno bits, Steerzy remembers the riffs... excellent... this could work…..
We go through Wickerman, easy….. Canto 7… this is how you play the intro... then its this... then this... shit this is weird… we can play it still!
We decide on a celebratory pint or two…... the Dog and Partridge hasn’t changed on the inside either as we stand at the bar… I haven’t lived in Sheffield for 10 years, its good to see something that HAS stood still.
Back at the practice room I speak to Mick and Si who are ‘twenty minutes away’….. We play a bit more then a large hairy person puts his head round the door… Si…!! Good to see ya… (I saw him in Feb this year… but back at the practice room.. this is it!) How you doing Si… (who also hasn’t changed a bit.. just slightly heavier, but still wearing the same jacket). We all greet and are then joined by Mick…
WHHHAAAA how YOU doing??? 16 years…. More greets… hugs..
ALL back together… no Gary… Mick tried to find him but he seems to be gone forever.. But us four back together… Reprobate re-united…
We unload Mick’s kit, they drive off to their hotel to refresh their batteries, sort out the SON of SMJ… and meet us back for a meal.
Top meal… good company, assorted wives, girlfriends, children..
We split off after, Si and family, Steerzy’s wife and offspring, Mick and family off to sleep; me and Steerzy go back to the practice room via a beer shop to do some more ‘working this shit out.. .’
A few ciders and beers later, after working out a few more tracks, we call it a night at one am.
10am the next morning I get to the practice room and re-remember how fookin heavy some bass cabs are… The one I'm using is insanely heavy.. But that probably means it sounds good... Me, Steerzy and Si get all the gear up two flights of steps, drums and all, just in time for Mick to show up and say we look sweaty... Having carried all the gear up, we are…
As we stand outside Steerzy points out the two Reprobate logos painted on the walls of the old room we used. They’re still there!
We get set up, my bass sounds awesome... Mick’s shiny new Zillies look shiny, and are loud as ****!
Si plugs his mic into his PA and shouts
WIIICCCKKKKEEEERRRRMMMAAAAAAAANNNNN!!!!!.. I turn and say ‘you’ve been waiting sixteen years to do that again’…. He had…
We rip into Wickerman… B……..D#......G……D… B…. wow that sounds good.. and that’s the intro done.. we progress through the song, glad me and Steerzy worked on tracks last night.. Mick just needs to hit things and Si shouts… this is working…
Fourth run through is the one where we don’t screw up or get lost… its come together.. a track after 16 years. And it sounds GOOD! Mick remembers how hot he gets. ‘Sweaty Bastard…’.
Jon shows up about 1pm… Waaaahhh how you doing Jon?? I haven’t seen him in all this time… we all knew Jon way back when he played in Systematic Insanity in the room below at Bailey Street, he’s a great addition to the band, proven very quickly as he picks up Wickerman in no time… Sixth attempt and the New Improved Reprobate is born!!
We run through Judas Cradle, Body Scaffold, and do Hammer Into Anvil, a track written and recorded after I left in 93, but a real favourite of mine. Killer track.. Fairly easy to play, although for some reason recorded in C# (Steerzy says they might have wandered in the tuning!)… so now its transcribed down to B.
I play bits of List of Answered Prayer and Tranquilities Abortion, ‘the lyrics are crap…’ grumbles the Ego…. ‘well write some new ones then’ I reply. We do bits of Canto 7, and break for food.
Unfortunately Jon cant make the evening session, a deadline in the real world. I turn up at half six, Steerzy is there thirty seconds before and we have a drink and pick up our guitars.. I’m still not sure if Mick or Si are coming down.. my head was still spinning from the afternoon…Si turns up, his voice now an octave lower than this afternoon, vocal chords ripped to shreds.
So we go through Canto 7, it playing on MP3 through the stack while I play along.. Steerzy working out how to play the leads again… Mick shows up, beers at the ready for an evening of practice.
We go through Anvil again, and again… until we get it right.. I remember I’ve brought my video camera and quickly set up to record a track… we get a minute in and someones phone is ringing… ‘…..just ignore it’ I quelp… I keeps ringing.. and finally gets answered..
And so ends the first rehearsal of the Reborn Reprobate…. We are happy, doing way more than some imagined…. though I knew it’d come back to us.
We cart the gear down stairs to the studio… I like gravity.. it really helps in the moving of large heavy guitar cabs… Micks drums weigh nothing in comparison.
To all those who have read this…
Thank you…
Your support and interest has manifested in this re-formation.
We are practicing.. Watch this space…
Bassist Butters
September 2009
Peace