Me and The Cud Band

1:19p.m., Mon 3 Nov 2008

We played Cud's version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" in Episode 4, a track from the anti-poll tax compilation album, 'Alvin Lives (In Leeds)'.

Cud first came to my attention via good old-fashioned viral marketing; some kid at my school was spending his lunch hour wandering around empty classes and scrawling the Cud logo on unattended blackboards - the distinctive U featuring three udders.

Shortly after that I went to a house party. They had a record player but only two records: Velvet Underground's "Loaded" and Cud's "When In Rome, Kill Me", so we drank cider and listened to those records over and over. I liked that Cud's record (the first side anyway) was strung together with this barely intelligible narrative. I liked the spindly, fragile guitar lines, the complex lyrics, the booming, operatic vocals and the double-tracked drums. Sonically, it sounded unlike anything I'd heard up to that point, but the tracks were still infectiously catchy 2 minute pop songs.

The photo on the back sleeve revealed that they were an art school band (with a game show host on bass) an arty, arch, bohemian, smartly dressed and knowing art school band. When you're in a good, forgiving mood, these are the coolest bands. (When you're in a bad mood these bands are the most punchable).

Disappointingly, but also thrillingly, the band were completely different live. The fragile guitar lines, intricate arrangement and double-tracked drums had gone :( But the band this incredible energy. The crowd went bonkers and invaded the stage. I saw them live half a dozen times and I've yet to go to gigs that are that much fun.

I followed the CUD band's career until the end. Another couple of album releases on independent label Imaginary and then two albums on major label A&M. The records after When In Rome never really did it for me. There was always something missing somehow. There were brilliant songs on there, but none of the records really captured the true essence and energy of the band. There's tracks that are notable exceptions, but none of those albums maintain momentum for the entire running time - I learned to love these records despite their shortcomings. The final album, Showbiz, is I think, the best production and it's a record that manages to bottle the band's live energy - but by this time major record label 'advice' had shorn off way too many rough edges that made Cud so lovable.

A&M had encouraged the band to write "lyrically simple pop songs". The band were, presumably, non-plussed. Lyrically simple and Cud don't go. This was a band, after all that had songs featuring the words chiaroscuro, tabernacle, Aquascutum, reverie and Pythagoras - words that are a real bugger to crow-bar into a line that scans. The song that vocalist Carl Puttnam cited this as his favourite Cud song was "Epicurean's Answer". Sample lyric:

The stoic frowns and knits his brow,
The censor wants to stop us,
The critic hates my guileless prose,
My simple modern opus,
My cheerful, unaffected style,
Is everyman in his humour,
My candid pen narrates his joys,
Refusing to philosophise,
Epicurean, Epicurean, Epicurean, Epicure-ran.

"Lyrically simple pop" it ain't.

A modicum of commercial success did come Cud's way when the 'Rich & Strange' single went top 30 and 'Neurotica', the taster single off the final album managed to scrape into the 40th slot of the chart. But that was that.

It's live that Cud really stick in my memory though - at Glastonbury, in a tent at a Heineken-sponsored festival in Leeds, at Liverpool University in a double-headline gig with The Family Cat, and, more most of all, at gigs at Huddersfield Uni (especially that first time, in the Great Hall, with Sinister Groove supporting).

In 1999, years after they split, Cud somehow became an obsession. I'd quit my job to retrain and pursue a new career in the online industry. The very first website I ever built was a Cud fansite because, I suppose, I could pretty much write the content right out of my head and graphically-speaking it was juts a case of scanning in some album art. Along with a steadily growing handful of Online Space Cudets at Yahoo Groups we teased out the post-Cud history of each member and shared MP3s of rare and not-so rare tracks (but, to be honest, at that time, most of the back catalogue was rare!). The fact that such little info about the recent history of the Cudsters was available made the story interesting: Drummer Steve was a trained chef (unconfirmed rumour), Guitarist Mike was a park ranger (unconfirmed rumour) and he managed a band called Cube (confirmed!), singer Carl hosted a pop quiz, had appeared as an extra in Emmerdale, as a Smartie for a TV ad, had written a novel, recorded a demo and worked in a branch of Oddbins (all mostly unconfirmed).

Bassist William surfaced on the list and answered a lot of our questions with good humour. And when Carl Puttnam finally surfaced (under the shadowy guise of 'Gabriel Tonka') and played a Christmas gig in London to a packed and enthusiastic 12 Bar, it was like 'mission accomplished' for me. Like the website had done it's work. There was a little further to go, but when it was announced that talks were underway to re-release the albums on CD, well, that truly was mission accomplished. There was no more mysteries to be solved, no more missing info to piece together, no more lyrics to transcribe, no more Melody Maker articles to type up, no more long-lost tracks (although I'm still missing Carl's demo stuff which I had on CD, but lost in a house move).

The band re-formed officially (with three-quarters of the authentic line-up) in 2006. Having witnessed a disastrous Ned's Atomic Dustbin re-union show I feared the worst. But the band were on-form and the gig, at The Islington Academy, was a joy. I've seen a slew of gigs at this venue, but no other band there has matched Cud for audience reaction. I gave up the website, it's now in the hands of Cud bassist William Potter. I've purged my obsession. I don't even own the re-released albums with the extra tracks - tracks I never even heard. And I turned down two offers of tickets to shows on the final, final tour this year. So although I own every original issue (xcept the Slack Time 12") and although I have a rare framed Asquarius poster (limited edition given away free with early issues of the album on vinyl) hanging in my spare room and although the lyrics are burned into my brain leaving it like a knackered old VDU... despite all that... I've kicked the Cud obsession.

Cud Linkage:

• The Space CUDets Yahoo Group
• Cud discography, courtesy of John Relph
• cudband.com
• Cud @ Wikipedia
• myspace.com/cudband
• Bassist William Potter's site
• Episode 4 of our Podcast: "Comedy Covers & Rambling Asides"