Dr. Phibes & The House Of Wax Equations

2:48p.m., Sun 26 Oct 2008

Nick & Gareth play Hazy Lazy Hologram discuss Dr. Phibes in episode 1 of their podcast.

The Wharf in the Aspley end of Huddersfield had been putting bands on for a few years. The landlord there, Pete, was (I think) a metal fan from Bradford and that was the kind of bands you could see there each week on a Monday night. The first gig I saw there was around 1989 with Zed headlining, supported by a local band called Web. I was 16 but not drinking, I think the landlord probably turned a blind eye to me and a couple of other kids paying our pound and coming in to listen to the bands. Of course, as our confidence grew we'd turn up on other nights, get an older accomplice to buy us a pint of 98p Tetleys and then hide in a corner in the pool room to drink it.

Friday nights were disco night, altho disco was probably a bit of misnomer - they'd play punk and rap records - the songs I remember most vividly are Teenage Kicks and NWA's Fuck The Police. It seems weird to think now that punk and rap were presented side-by-side, nowadays they seem to be polar opposites.

I'd seen a handful of Northern pub-rock bands like Thrilled Skinny, Goober Patrol and More Rhubarb Faster there, and missed some better ones like Senseless Things, The Sect and Snuff before I saw Dr. Phibes & The House Of Wax Equations. They were meant to be supporting another Liverpudlian band called The Walking Seeds who'd not turned up, with the rumour being that their van had broken down somewhere on the M62. As a consequence the entrance fee was slashed to 75p and Dr. Phibes were allowed and encouraged to play a longer set.

For a start, they didn't look like any of the other bands that would typically play The Wharf. They had a huge drum kit, with a tiny fella (Keith York) behind if somewhere. The bassist (Lee Belsham) was a tall angular white geezer with thick dreads, he wore his bass guitar really high up, like a classically trained funk musician. And the singing guitarist (Howard King Jr.) a huge black dude with short, messy dreadlocks, he was so huge his guitar looked unreasonably small, he flailed about to the music, his eyes rolling back into his head. The sound was by turns big, languid, dreamy and then a driving, chiming rock. They were also unusual in that they seldom stopped playing, songs drifted into soundscapes and back into songs, the band members making eye contact and physical cues to guide the improvisation.

With the freedom to play a long set I suppose they may have been improvising more than usual and they played any encore they might have had prepared before leaving the stage. Rapturous applause brought them back to the stage whereby they had a quick discussion about what to play and then stumbled and struggled through a version of The Who's "Can't Explain" - the singer missing his cues and making lyrics up, much to the amusement of his band members. It was a truly memorable gig.

After that I bought their first album by mail order, maybe directly from the record label - they'd started their own label called "50 Seel Street", allegedly after the address of either their rehearsal room or shared home.

The first album was called Whirlpool, track listing:

1 Eye Am The Sky (7:57)
2 Marshmallow Madness (7:17)
3 Mr Phantasy (5:40)
4 Mirrors (4:46)
5 When Push Comes To Shove (4:08)
6 Dovetail (4:41)
7 Dreaming (Insomnia) (6:14)
8 Sugarblast (6:25) (which was also released as a single on 12" vinyl only)
9 Eye Am The Sky (3:21)

The second album, Hypnotwister:

1 Burning Cross (7:43)
2 Deadpan Control Freak (6:58) (released as a single)
3 Real World (5:16)
4 Anti-Clockwise (6:46)
5 Moment Of Truth (9:37)
6 Misdiagnosedive (5:15) (single release)
7 Hazy Lazy Hologram (7:13) (single release)
8 Jugular Junkie (4:46)
9 Bearhug (9:53)

There's a version of The Doors "LA Woman" on Youtube at the time of writing, which I guess is a b-side somewhere.

There's also a rare split EP featuring tracks recorded for Mark Radcliffe's "Hit The North" Radio show. Dr. Phibes contribute tracks that sit alongside offerings from Leatherface, Scorpio Rising & The Boo Radleys. I've only ever seen this as a CD sleeve in Dead Wax Records in Huddersfield - when I tried to buy it it seemed the actual CD was missing :( There's also a version of The Rolling Stones "2,000 Light Years From Home" on one of those tribute compilations that Imaginary Records released. Good luck finding copies of either of these, cos I think you'll need it!

After that gig at The Wharf I saw them a few more times:

The Top Spot Snooker Club
Next door to the Wharf, the support band may have been The Hover Chairs. Dr. Phibes were late on (and off) stage and I had to walk part of the way home. I was mean to my girlfriend that night. I still feel bad about it.

In a tent at Reading 1991
They were sandwiched between The Pooh Sticks and an odd trad-jazz band.

Glastonbury 1992
On The NME Stage in the afternoon. They performed a song about cats which was never, to my knowledge, released, Howard used a broom handle to play some side guitar parts.

The Krazy Klub (? it might have been called Sloanes) in Liverpool, 1994ish.
Supporting Bully Rag - a metal/ragga band. This was when the second album "Hypnotwister" had come out. On the first album there'd been a little note on the back of the album sleeve that said "No overdubs, no shit" which I thought was cool, but listening to the second album I was disappointed to hear extra percussion which I guess meant that they'd embraced multi-tracked recording.... but seeing them that night in Liverpool, Keith was playing everything live! He's probably one of the best drummers I've ever seen play live.

I also have vague memories of reading gig reviews in the music press whereby the band supported Killing Joke and, most odd of all, James at a gig on the shore of Lake Lucerne, Switzerland. My mind may be playing tricks with me on that one though, it sounds improbable doesn't it? There were also gigs with The Boo Radleys, Fishbone and All About Eve.

You can read elsewhere on t'internet that the band drifted apart in 1995, that Lee had ME, that Howard was incarcerated for attacking a member of his family and that Keith went on to be in Bivouac as well as play in sessions for The Lightning Seeds, Ladytron, Bentley Rhythm Ace and Pitchshifter among others.

- gareth

Dr. Phibes links

• Album reviews from psychedelic-music.net
• Biog from Wikipedia
• www.myspace.com/drphibesthehouseofwaxequations
• BecauseMidwayStillArentComingBack.blogspot.com
• Tunes on YouTube, courtesy of fabianlabian