Pass the Earplugs
Red Hot in Alex is a fictional band featured in my novel Rathbone Kydd- sex’n’drugs’n’quantum stuff – but there was once a band of that name, and I was the vocalist. You can read about my past life as a would-be rock star here – The Rock’n’Roll Years. You can hear some Red Hot in Alex demo recordings, below: they might not be as bad as you’d imagine! Further down the page you will find a WASP demo and The Rock Star Gallery. Think 1970s …
About The Songs – They were all recorded in a 24-track studio in Aldershot, Hampshire, England, in 1980. All the vocals were done in one take (ye gads, I’m that good!), as we were running out of time and had about one hour left before we were to be thrown out of the studio. We returned the following week to mix and produce the tracks.
(GIVE ME) MORE MONEY – Composed by K J Bennett (me), although at the time I was known by my nickname, Fido. I wrote this when I first moved to London in 1979 and had no cash. I never learned to read or write music, so the music was written by humming loudly at my fellow band members, hitting piano keys in rehearsal studios and pointing at the frets on Valdis’ bass guitar and saying, “Pluck that twice: FASTER!!!”
KNOCK ME OFF MY FEET – Composed by K J Bennett & Valdis Muncis. Most of this was by Valdis; I added the chorus. I was the butt of many jibes for my pronunciation of the word LINEN, which come out as LENNON.
SINISTER STREET – Composed by K J Bennett & Valdis Muncis. Again, an original idea by Valdis, I added some melody and a bit of chorus, and ironed out some clunky lyrics.
Before Red Hot in Alex, there was WASP – not the famous American band, but one formed in Exeter in the the mid 1970s. One of the first things we did was call ourselves Just Coke. Secondly, we recorded a demo in a converted garage that housed a basic four-track studio and not much space. Steve Pearce was (and still is) a prolific songwriter. He had a tune he wanted to record, but no lyrics, so I wrote some on a scrap of paper, dedicating at least 15 minutes (maybe less, we were on a limited time budget) to the task. In retrospect they are a tad juvenile. A song of young love gone sour. Girl walks out on boy; boy is distraught; boy exacts his revenge by insulting her face and make-up. We had no title, so after a few valuable minutes of saying, “This song is … Erm, this is… Er …, umm … this is …” the title was born. It became THIS IS.
The Rock Star Gallery
Below is a gallery of images from over the years. Many are of unknown authorship, some are by me, others (the ‘gangster’ images that I appear in) are by my daughter.
About K J Bennett (Intro Page) | Early Years to Teens 1957 – 1981 | The Rock’n’Roll Years 1971 – 1981 | All Growed Up | Musical Endeavours – Pass the Earplugs
