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Popeye's Dik, from near Wrexham, were originally called Dirty Dik,
but don't tell anyone I told you so, because I think they'd rather
forget it. They first got together as a hand in January 1990, after
John McVicker and Mike Allen witnessed one-crappy-support band too
many. Thinking that they could do much better than the bands they
had seen warming up for the Guana Batz and King Kurt, they decided
to form a psycho band. John bought a microphone, Mike purchased
a double bass and Mike's girlfriend Diane Wharton was brought in
to fill the drummer's position. The bands first guitarist, Terry,
was a cousin of Mike's who had a solo work released on a single
through his own record label "Rockin' Records"
Rockin' Records was set up under the government's 'Enterprise Allowance
Scheme' and the second release was planned to have been by Popeye's
Dik The early weeks of 1990 were spent cramming in as many local
gigs and rehearsals as possible as the band set about honeing their
act into a viable product Three tracks were recorded at this time;
"Meat Hook In Your Eye", "Somebody's Gonna Get Their
Head Kicked In Tonite" and "Bye, Bye Baby" (Yes,
the Bay City Rollers' alleged classic.) In June they were booked
as the opening act for the International Blues Jamboree at Bodelwydan
Castle. Sadly, the likes of Wolfman Washington, Wilko Johnson and
BoDiddley never got to witness Popeye's Dik, because just two days
before the gig Terry decided to leave the band and pursue a career
writing and performing meaningful folk songs. So does that mean
Terry thought that Popeye's Dik songs like "Classic Casanova"
were meaningless? Secretly though, the lads think that Terry had
lost his bottle at the thought of such a large gig. Whatever the
reason, with Terry gone the plans for a record release on his label
had vanished.
Diane, who was by this time pregnant, decided to take life a bit
easier and left the band She was replaced by Lee Fletcher and a
friend of John's called Paul Davies stood in on guitar. This quartet
bopped on board a ferry to Holland and spent ten days looking for
gigs around the Netherlands. They played three, but more foreign
work followed and they played in Holland (again), Germany, Luxembourg
and Belgium.
Just as things began to get better and just as Pink & Black
Records in Manchester started to get interested in the band, Paul
and Lee left to join heavy metal bands. Mike was also getting well
and truly pissed off with life in the band and so effectively, they
disbanded.
1992 was a flacid year for the band, with the aply notable occurances
being that John recorded "Classic Casanova" and "Something
Else" at a friend's studio purely out of boredom.
1993 followed a similar pattern. In February, Dick Crippen (Tenpole
Tudor, King Kurt) approached the band bhut as the band had been
split up for some while now nothing came of it; a situation that
John still regrets.
Later in '93 after a suggestion by Alan Wilson (the Sharks) John
sent a collection of tapes to Holland's 'Rockhouse Records. Rockhouse
responded favourably and contracts were signed for a four track
CD and money changed hands. Now all that was needed was a band.
Mike Allen was no Ionger interested in playing and so John brought
psychobilly merchandiser Paul Nevin on guitar and Tom O'Carroll
on drums and bass guitar. This is the lineup that features on the
fourtrack CD "Lose Your Load" (Rockhouse).
"Lose Your Load" is a CD with several anomalies; the
obvious being that two tracks titled "Why I Walk" and
"Lonely Train" are actually covers of "The Way I
Walk" and "Lonesome Train" and are credited to John
McVicker and a writing friend C.J. O'Harre. They obviously didn't
write those songs it's a mystery to the band what happened there
(Heh, heh... absolutely no comment at least publicly- Ed.), but
they are the writers of "Classic Casanova". Another anomaly
is the fact that an old line up photograph had been used on the
CD cover illustrating the band in the Allen, Fletcher, Mc Vicker
line up.
But perhaps most interesting is the Strange occurrence of the CD
being issued in several versions distinguishable by their blue and
purple colour. The purple CD features these forward four tracks,
whilst the blue CD feature the straight four tracks by Popeyes Dik
and also several uncredited demo tracks by King Kurt. It is not
known how many had escaped before they were recalled, but it is
known to he not less than five and is presumed many times that number
(Blimey, this is a piece of delicious scandal! Where's mycopy?).
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