DEATH WESTERN AND THE BIG BANG
CAT SCRATCH FEVER....
Being a peculiar Liverpool cult band in the mid 1990s.....Featuring Paul Kappa as Dr. Hank B. Death..... a frock coated ,Colt Navy totin' guitar player, ripping Country and Eastern apart, with his faithful pals Tox and Two-Gun Tennessee Slim
Cat Scratch Fever. A disease that you can catch. A cursory search of the web shows that Cat Scratch Fever is quite nasty, and that's even before making reference to Ted Nugent.
Two ex members of Liverpool group 'The Lawnmower' Tony Doyle (The Accelerators, Simply Red, Bo Jelly) and D.A. Dolman ( The Moondogs, The Beach Bastards) asked Paul Kappa (The Blimey Brothers, The Cathedral, Candy Store Rock, Up and Running) in the late summer of 1992 if he would join with them in a musical appreciation of all things Sun Session. It was for a couple of gigs, and just for a kick. They played The Casablanca Club on Hope St. Liverpool and the reaction was so good they did it again and again and again, until in 1998, after more than 1800 gigs, Paul quit the band.
In those six years, they appeared at Glastonbury (1997) and Cropredy (1998), incidentally Paul's last ever gig with the band. They appeared on MTV (big deal!) ITV, and Channel One cable!!! They were regulars with Mark Lamaar on his afternoon show on GLR, brodcast from Baker St. in London.
This line up of Cat Scratch Fever broke up in 1998, after what would be most pleasantly described as 'personal differences', or, put plainly that Dolman and Kappa didn't like each other very much! Oh, the politics of making music. The two albums and off-shoot singles and EPs recorded were 'Death Western' and 'The Big Bang!'
The first album 'Death Western' was begun in April 1994, and was recorded in Rick Rock's 'Wand Studios' in a basement underneath a decrepit fish and chip shop, last decorated on VE day, and with fish stocks from the same era. Often the boys would eat their suppers there, warmed by undertable heating; surely one of the Seven Wonders of East Acton. Dolman and Doyle both contracted food poisoning and were forced to play the regular Wednesday gig in Guinans on Slater Street, Liverpool sitting down, and running to the toilet often.
The record producer was Dean Ross, who had been in an experimental line up of one of Robert Plant's many bands, and also produced Betty Boo (who?). He was a friend of label boss Rick Rock out of Kansas City, and immediately recognised that the plucky power rockabilly trio from Liverpool couldn't really play in time together, and so the year long recording process began, slowly, then more slowly. What resulted was the release, after a frustrating waiting game and two years of:
'Death Western' released by London label 'Way Out West' whose proprietor was one Rick Rock... drummer with Sham 69 and the Automatics, later with The Bootleg Beatles.
This Cd features 'Ace Of spades' by Motorhead featuring Elton John's steel guitar player B.J. Cole and Led Zeppelin's little known 'Hot Dog' sat side by side with the triplicate harmonies of Roy Rodgers and the Sons of the Pioneers,on the 1930s track 'When Payday Rolls Around' with strong influences from Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, Johnny Cash , Earl scruggs and Bashful Brother Oswald. Self penned tracks such as 'the Ballad of Claudia', owe much to the spaghetti Western genre, with lyrics derived from Eastwood directed classics 'Unforgiven', and 'The Outlaw Josey Wales', owing much to the mid-sixties stylings of Italian omposer Ennio Morricone. 'Miss sally' is a red- necked rant at a trailer trash girl, 'Louise' is a hard- blues, influenced by Howlin' wolf and Bo Diddley. 'I never Knew What Hit Me' is an odd tune,with Eastern influences about freakish events in the Kosovan war,featuring tabla player Kuljit Bahrmra and which, like 1000 miles appears re-recorded on 'Living @ the End Of the World'. 'The Krystal Phoenix' is a ballad featuring the Duke String Quartet and Bobby Valentino on solo violin, and tells a story of a blue collar worker in Texas who returns home early one day to catch his wife Krystal 'inflagrante delecto' with an unknown trucker.Other tracks are written by bassist Tony Doyle, such as the Western Swing styled '12 bars That made a fool out Of me', Johnny Cash inspired 'Gunslinger', and 'Dead Man's Hand' about Jack McCall who killed Wild Bill Hickock after a poker game and the hand of cards (aces and eights)he held became known as the 'Dead Man's hand'
Don't miss!!!!! Later on in this series (written by the Late Dr. Hank B. Death), the story of 'The Big Bang!'.....and other modern miracles!!
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