e-mail: studio@councilhouse.co.uk

"This band is the future of music (in Dartford)" - John Newell - Sunday Nights DJ on 'RTMT 107.2FM' 1993

Council House – The true story by Piers Lying.

The revelations contained in “Large Anthony's” 1997 autobiography, “I was their friend, no really”, serialised in the Gravesend & Northfleet Observer, could have destroyed the creditability of many a lesser band, and ultimately did so! Arguably it led to the artistic differences that eventually led to break up of the band and some even say, pushed Paul (W) to the brink of becoming a Chartered Accountant.

In fact writing now some eight years later, it is perhaps hard to contemplate the sheer impact that the publication of the book had. Some say that the lawyers were successful in gagging all the participants, others have mentioned the controlling influence of their manager, Specky Youngstein, whilst most put it down to sheer indifference, perhaps we'll never know, but at the time much was made of Large Anthony's claim that he had once been the band's roadie and had even been invited out for a drink on his birthday with the boys, and Steve.

Paul (W) now a virtual recluse on his isle in the Thames Estuary, having eventually failed his accountancy exams and broken free from the control of the Rotarians, has only just began to break his silence and in his recorded interviews with myself (Piers Lying) the true story of Council House can only now be told.

In the beginning.

It was a dark and stormy night and as Paul staggered past the salad cart and out of the Harvester Restaurant, looking for a lift home, it was very much a case of any vehicle would do. Mindful of the 3 pints of larger top he'd consumed in a two-hour binge drinking session, a voice from behind the wheel of sleekish black Vauxhall Chevett, quickly brought him to his senses, “If you want a lift, I'm going your way”. Paul opened the passenger door and climbed in, little did the occupants of the car realise the musical journey that was about to begin.

Steve was a Swanley boy and whilst you can take a boy out of Swanley, you can never take the Swanley out of a boy, even if you do move him to Eynsford. A friendship of sorts quickly developed between Steve and Paul, mainly around common interests such as cars and drink, well actually mainly drink, and the inability to attract girls, however one night in a further attempt to broaden their intellectual horizons, they happened to invite a mutual acquaintance, Jay, out on a drinking session for no other reason apart that it so happened to be his 21 st birthday and therefore might cop a few free drinks. So fate intervened, for his birthday gift, Jay had been brought a drum kit and during an impromptu performance Steve dropped the bombshell that he could play the guitar, although somewhat badly, a recognisable sound of sorts could be heard. Perhaps more stunningly, Paul also announced that he too knew his way around a fret board. So guitars were hastily dusted down, amps pulled from the back of garages and a band was duly formed.

The lads quickly outgrew the confines of bedroom guitarists and looked for more suitable rehearsal space. As luck would have it, and how often does the fickle hand of fate play a role in all great rock bands, an acquaintance of the band was involved in hospital radio and adequate space was found on weekend afternoons. And so the first faltering steps of learning to play together as a band were made on August bank holiday 1991. Finally, after many hours of rehearsal the lads finally managed to get all the way through their first song, an original arrangement of the Rolling Stones “Paint it black”. The initial line up was Paul on lead guitar, Steve on base and Jay on drums. This line up was quickly discarded on the basis of musical differences, mainly Paul's inability to play any other chord apart from “C”. Shortly thereafter, Steve switched to lead, Paul to base and Jay on drums, this line up stayed for a few months predominately for the reason that Jay would not let anybody else touch his drum kit.

As the boys grew in confidence and competence they eagerly looked around for material to play, however the apparent inability to sing a note in key only intensified the bands desire to perform. Thereafter, following a drunken discussion between Steve and Paul, who had by now declared themselves the saviours of music, the drastic decision was made that if they were unable to perform anything that vaguely resembled another band's song, they would have no other choice but to write their own.

And so, Steve and Paul set about the writing task and locked themselves away one Sunday afternoon, fuelled up by nothing more than chocolate and coca-cola came up with a catchy tune based around the chord of “C” and immediately titled the song “Dartford”. This as soon followed by such classics as "Checkout Girl" and "Leather and Lace".

Steve and Paul also penned some solo classics such as “Broken Pram” and "Bexley".

Armed with these original compositions, the boys now had something to rehearse and success could now only be but a short key change away........tbc