Old Band History

A youth by the name of `Shutty' (a.k.a David Ian Shuttleworth) was washing cars on Saturday mornings in his home town of Keighley. With the money he'd earned, he bought his first drumkit, which he set up in his brother's bedroom. No doubt hoping to emulate his heroes - AC/DC, Black Sabbath & Motörhead - he tried to rope in other musicians to form a band.

 One day in 1984, he was joined by guitarist Leigh Marklew, a KISS fan who was in the year below Shutty at Greenhead Grammar School. Along with two schoolmates, they formed a band called `Masquerade', and played their first gig in the sixth form common room. When Shutty left school and his family moved to Bradford, Marklew followed. Shutty worked as a printer (and later in telesales), while Leigh enrolled at art college. 

They would get together once a week in Shutty's parents' cellar on the Great Horton Road, playing songs by Joan Jett and the Ramones. The group had a different name every week, with `Strutter' and `Vietnamese Babies' among the most memorable. 

The line-up was completed by a lead guitarist and a bassist/vocalist, although neither lasted long. Mark Yates claimed to have been playing guitar since the age of eleven. He recalls being in a "dodgy thrash metal band" named Brute Force, who almost burned down their school hall after setting fire to their stage prop of a wooden crucifix topped off with a plastic skull. The gig was stopped when the headmaster pulled the band offstage by their ears. 

After that, Yates played in a band called the Electric Nosebleeds as well as one other "crap band". He met Leigh Marklew at art college, and joined his band on guitar, with Marklew switching over to bass. All they needed now was a singer - they placed an advert in Kerrang! (no 148):- "Spoilt Bratz require vocalist. Phil Lewis, Alice influenced. Phone Ian, Bradford 572542. Sunday 7-9pm." However, this failed to turn up a suitable candidate. 

Despite fronting a band called `Subject' when he was 15, Tony Wright had never thought about singing as a career. After leaving Carlton Bolling school in 1985, he had been through various jobs, including a stint as a car park attendant, and had resigned himself to the dole queue. Then one night in 1986, he met Mark Yates at the Wheatsheaf (a rock pub in Bradford where Mark was DJing). On hearing that Yates' band needed a singer, Wright offered his services, and after much persuasion earned himself an audition, with Mark reasoning that they were "f**king desperate". During the `audition' Tony watched Leigh Marklew sing `Teenage Kicks' by the Undertones, but wasn't asked to sing himself. A strange test of his ability, but he was in and the line-up was now complete. And the name of the band? The Spoilt Bratz! 

After a few rehearsals, the Spoilt Bratz played their debut gig at a friend's party at the Videotech in Huddersfield. To begin with, the Bratz were in it for a laugh, a joke and the odd free drink. In 1988 they cut their first two demos, Spoilt Bratz and Gasoline and Suicide, though neither made any real impact. The music could best be described as a cross between Poison and Mötley Crüe. 

In June 1989, the Spoilt Bratz booked the Slaughterhouse Studios in Driffield, East Yorkshire, to cut a more polished set of recordings for their third demo, entitled Be my Guest. It attracted the attention of Al Rhodes (then a writer with Kerrang). Al tried to sign the Bratz to his own label, Major Records. Initially he offered them a deal to do five albums, then three. He finally settled on a 12" single, but they rejected his offer anyway. However, Rhodes was so confident in the Spoilt Bratz that he packed in his label to become their manager. It was at this point that things really began to happen. 

The Spoilt Bratz quickly changed their name to the more modern sounding `Terrorvision', after a cult 1960's horror movie of the same name (in which aliens come down through a man's TV set and eat his family). They also took the band more seriously, rehearsing three or four times a week. The debut of the newly christened band took place at the Players Snooker Club in Wakefield, in front of about 18 people. This was a warm-up gig for their London show the next day (supporting U.S. band Slaughter at the Marquee). The Marquee show was organised by Chrysalis, whom in August 1990 Al Rhodes had persuaded to finance another demo tape. The tape, Prime Time TV, (which was again recorded at the Slaughterhouse studios) showed much promise, but the label passed on their option to sign Terrorvision. 

In March 1991, the band recorded another demo, Pump Action Sunshine, at the Woodland Studios in Castleford. The tape featured the first ever version of My House, and was once again distributed to record companies by Al Rhodes. The tape was heard by EMI's A&R man Nick Mander. Mander remembered Terrorvision as the Spoilt Bratz from when they had supported one of EMI's acts, The Beyond, two years before. Despite liking the band personally, he hadn't warmed to their music, but he was sufficiently impressed with their progress over the previous two years to grant them a showcase in London. The man with the power to issue a contract however, EMI A&R head Nick Gatfield, wasn't so impressed. Luckily his girlfriend liked the band, and EMI financed Terrorvision's final demo tape, recorded in the summer of 1991. 

In October 1991 Terrorvision were signed by EMI. Not wishing to concede totally to the demands of the record company, or perhaps just because EMI didn't know quite what to do with them, the band were given their own `Total Vegas Recordings' label, on which they have recorded all their releases to date.

The Story Continues...

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