“I was at Glasgow School of Art with Peter Capaldi and we formed a band, the Bastards from Hell, with Roddy Murray in late 1978. We asked a friend, Iain McCaig, to play drums.
Peter played guitar and sang, Roddy played guitar and bass, and I played bass and sang. We did swap around a bit as it was beyond both mine and Peter’s musical abilities to sing and play at the same time. It was early, raw rock’n’roll with strong influences of Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, Buddy Holly and late 70s punk. We finished gigs off with [the Sex Pistols’] Pretty Vacant.
The gig photo [left] was taken by Peter’s friend Graham (I think), but I still have the contact sheet printed from his negatives. After this show – I think we were supporting Steel Pulse that night – we changed our name to the Dreamboys, and I played two more gigs with them in early 1979 (see the poster I designed, above).
Then, tragedy! Peter and Roddy decided I was ‘too scruffy’, ‘not stylish enough’ and ‘didn’t practise enough, either’ and I was unceremoniously kicked out of the band. They were right, by the way, on all three scores – I didn’t take it seriously. Temple Clark took my place and Robert Livsey took over on drums before Craig Ferguson: under that lineup, the Dreamboys released a single, Bela Lugosi’s Birthday.
The Bastards from Hell played a reunion gig for a Glasgow Art School talent show in 1980 and Peter and Roddy kindly let me take lead vocals for two songs, The Twelfth of Never and Roddy’s We Eat Babies.
We came last.”
~
John Rogan to The Guardian in:
‘Had I known U2 would be big, I might have taken another roll’: the stories behind your long-lost gig photos
And to add Iain McCaig was mentioned by Peter in his A Mighty Big If interview as the guy at art school who got told off for always drawing space crafts and aliens and went on to work for George Lucas as a storyboard artist.