DAWN OF THE REPLICANTS BIOGRAPHY
by Alice Caitlin Morray

1996-'97: SO FAR SO SPITFIRE ep

What was I to do with myself in 1996? 16 years old. I should've been able
to turn to pop for my teenage kicks but the bands around at the time bored
the hell out of me. I wanted excitement, glamour, lyrics I could sink my
teeth into, music to make my skin flush. Dance music had given me a brief
jab of adrenaline but it soon seemed fairly vacuous. All that drum 'n' bass
cod-reggae bollocks left me cold, frankly, and I wasn't about to cram a copy
of Loaded mag in my unionjack handbag and go join those creaky old duffers,
Liam and Damon, down at the Chas 'n' Dave memorial knees-up.

But then, one night near Christmas '96, COCAINE ON THE CATWALK crackled and
buzzed through my radio, and it just blew me away. By the second chorus, I
was jumping and yelping, grinning like a banshee. What an outrageous sound:
the kind of thing the Velvets might bang out in a Columbian whorehouse
whilst knocking back absynth slammers with William Burroughs's dead wife and
Status Quo in drag. A few days later John Peel played LISA BOX (the
deranged tale of a lovestruck witch in search of wedding cake) and I knew
for sure I'd found my band.

Apparently, PAUL VICKERS and ROGER SIMIAN (two renegade hacks from the
Scottish music magazine, SUN ZOOM SPARK) had recorded a bunch of lo-fi
classics in some bedroom in Galashiels, Scotland, then scraped together
enough cash to stick out a four-song vinyl single on their own label (the SO
FAR SO SPITFIRE ep, dumb/SULK trigg-er records). There were only 500 of the
shiny little buggers available and the fools were giving them out free to
anyone with a spare stamp and a strong constitution. Yay!

The SO FAR SO SPITFIRE ep generated a fantastic amount of interest in DAWN
OF THE REPLICANTS: great reviews in NME, Single of the Week in Melody Maker
and heaps of airplay via Peel and Radcliffe. Still, it was a bit of a shock
to all of us who'd been watching from the off when we heard that the pair
had been signed up by Warners offshoot, eastwest (home of Jimmy Nail &
Simply Red) along with three shiny new Replicants: MIKE SMALL
(guitar/keyboard), GRANT PRINGLE (drums/guitar) & DONALD KYLE (bass). That
sort of thing just wasn't supposed to happen to left-field experimentalists
from obscure Scottish Borders towns. Of course, what A&R dood George
Tyekiffe had noticed was that the REPLICANTS were hardworking songsmiths
with a strong melodic sense, and that PAUL VICKERS was a wonderful lyricist
in the tradition of Tom Waits, Lennon, Shawn Ryder, Dylan & Ivor Cutler. By
the end of the year, the band had released a hat-trick of classic eps (two
of these awarded Single Of The Week in NME), and had been voted 'Best New
Band of 1997' by The Times.

1998: ONE HEAD, TWO ARMS, TWO LEGS lp

ONE HEAD, TWO ARMS, TWO LEGS was one of the most unusual & interesting debut
albums released on a major label since Patti Smith's 'Horses'. Play the
disk once through and it strikes you that DOTR draw from an insanely
eclectic bag of influences (Beach Boys, Bowie, Sonic Youth, Velvet
Underground, Roxy Music, Tom Waits, The Human League, Syd Barrett, T-Rex,
Captain Beefheart). But what is even more impressive is the maturity and
originality of the song-writing: VICKERS's confident wordplay and love of
cockeyed imagery; the band's giggling enthusiasm for great Pop with strong
melodies. The media responded well, with enthusiastic reviews in NME,
Melody Maker, various music monthlies & broadsheets. The single CANDLEFIRE
received heavy play on XFM, the Evening Session, and the John Peel show, and
when Mark Radcliffe made it Single Of The Week on his daytime Radio 1 show,
it entered the charts, bolstered by a fantastic b-side, David Holmes's
bangin' remix of SKULLCRUSHER. TV appearances soon followed: several videos
showing on MTV and ITV's saturday afternoon Chart Show; VICKERS appearing on
late night telly as a contestant on ITV's 'Pop Down The Pub'; the whole band
playing live on BBC2's 'Edinburgh Nights with Mark Lamarr' and a nomination
for the Best Newcomer Award at NME's televised awards ceremony, The Brats
(Channel 4).

DAWN OF THE REPLICANTS have always had a unique and highly entertaining
stage presence. A well-attended Spacesuits & Ballyhoo double-bill tour
with Ultrasound was followed by appearances at Glastonbury & Reading and an
evening with Spiritualized at the Astoria, London (part of the NME Brats
shows). The musicians (a ramshackle bunch of broad-shouldered Scotsmen)
soon proved themselves to be a tight and enthusiastic glam-punk band (in
sound if not in look), with a love of distortion, feedback and noise.
Luckily, for us girls, this was always tempered with pretty vocal harmonies,
intriguing guitar/keyboard embellishments and lashings of Northern humour.
Particularly from frontman, PAUL VICKERS: a loveable and highly entertaining
performer.

VICKERS comes across like some tipsy surrealist stand-up with an amusing
repertoir of personal folk-tales and a love of toyshop gadgetry whose bossy
wee sister has gotten him all glammed-up at the local Oxfam. During songs
he hollers and croons, stomping around the stage like a mid-'70s Roger
Daltrey, as he twiddles with weird & shiny electro-gadgets which emit spooky
Doctor Who noises and often have flashing lights. If we're good he'll even
shoot a plastic stomp-rocket into the audience or shower us with his
³Glitter Fountain² (oooh!): a fan which sprays tiny multi-coloured sprinkles
out over the crowd so that you spend the whole evening picking glitter out
of your bra. Sometimes the band hold contests with fun prizes.
Apparently, one lucky girl in Norwich, a few years ago, dragged home a
four-foot-tall rubber pencil. Result!

1999: WRONG TOWN, WRONG PLANET, THREE HOURS LATE lp

Now, second albums, right? They're always either sheer folly or famously
difficult. But THE REPLICANTS's follow up turned out to be a masterful
affair. Utterly wonky, of course. But it garnered an even lovelier
critical reception than its predecessor: four out of five stars in Q; four
and a half out of five in Melody Maker; high praise from magazines such as
Mojo & FHM and utter puzzlement from gossip rag, Heat. The ambitious opus
features the first time orchestral arrangements of REPLICANTS's in-house
clever-clogs, MIKE SMALL, which helped fulfil a life-long ambition of the
band's to record in Abbey Road Studios with a full orchestra. WRONG TOWN
hits you with a harder, more psychedelic rock sound overall, but still has
the decency to include the bouncy singles, RULE THE ROOST and SCIENCE
FICTION FREAK.

By the end of '99 the band's relationship with eastwest had soured. A new
managing director had taken control of the label, hellbent on HITS HITS
HITS. As he and his minions geared up for Hucknell's latest release ('Love
And The Russian Winter') THE REPLICANTS had their ears cruelly clipped and
were booted out the back door (³What the hell do you mean BIG HEFTY HOUNDS
is the next single?²). But, did you see the band crying into their pints?
Did you heck! They'd just gotten away with recording their very own 'White
Album', on a Mariah Carey budget. No worries!

2000: PLUTO MONKEY

In 2000, VICKERS and SIMIAN took a busman's holiday away from THE REPLICANTS
with their eccentric side-project, PLUTO MONKEY. Debauchery, poverty and
low-grade electronics ensued. Their year climaxed when Shifty Disco
released the LITTLE BRENDA: BLUEGRASS MISSION lp. Melody Maker declared it
to be ³a work of mad genius², and heralded the duo as the Vic and Bob of
indie due to the bizarre PLUTO live show involving VICKERS in a glitzy dress
and SIMIAN daring fans to climb up his rickety ³Step Ladders to Heaven² for
cheap kicks and mild humiliation. During a particularly chaotic performance
in Manchester, the lads bumped into classically-trained pop diva, HYPNOTIQUE
(aka Susi O'Neill, keyboard-thumper with prog-rock nutjobs, Nought) who
offered to lend her skills as a clarinetist and theremin wobbler. Yum yum!

2002: TOUCHING THE PROPELLER lp

After a year off spent plotting, planning, and panicking, normal REPLICANTS
service was resumed in 2002 with a good old-fashioned comeback, strengthened
by a new line-up, a new label and a new album. TOUCHING THE PROPELLER
arrived, glistening with a newfound optimism: ten fragrant cuts from the
undergrowth.

It was utterly panned by the media!

Haha! Only joking! The press absolutely loved it and were tickled pink to
discover that their favourite wonk-rock terrorists had returned from the
wilderness (see the attached press quotes). The first single off the album
was a cool double-a side: LEAVING TOWN / SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE. The Johnny
Cash-like LEAVING TOWN (inspired by VICKERS's move from Galashiels to the
big city) was a firm favourite with Peel. Several other shows refused to
play it because of the bad language in the closing verse. But fuck them
bastards, it had frigging balls! Just ask my Mum.

The ever-reliable Peel was on hand to dish out a session (the band's fourth
and Vickers & Simian's fifth, if you include PLUTO MONKEY). There were also
several guest appearances on BBC 6 Music, including a session for Sean
Hughs, an a-list placing for follow-up single, ROCKEFELLER CENTER, 1932, and
a few chuckles with Bruce 'Run To The Hills' Dickinson, and Tom 'Glad To Be
Gay' Robinson. ROCKEFELLER also made it onto the CD cover-mount of the
German 'Rolling Stone' and those crazy kids won their own feature in the
British fetish mag, 'Bizarre'. Naughty naughty!

2003: The New Line-up: Gigs & Recordings

The trusty old apple-core seeds - Mike Small, Roger Simian and that familiar
pip, Paul Vickers - are still present and correct, but DOTR now also
incorporates the talents of two men called Dave: cheeky bass-slapper DAVEY
COYLE and long-term knob-fiddler DAVE LITTLE (aka EL HOMBRE DOTTLE) on
drums. Girlie-glamour has been added by the afore-mentioned HYPNOTIQUE
whose wonderful clarinet, hammond organ and theremin parts are the icing on
the cake. During last winter's cute little UK tour this new line-up bubbled
with the enthusiasm of newly escaped convicts clutching free travel-passes
to Acapulco.

I don't think I could describe the new DOTR live experience any better than
Kitten Painting did in the review she wrote of the London gig in her online
'zine (http://www.kittenpainting.freeuk.com). So, here are the highlights:

"Paul's back with some new band members, including new! added! girl wearing
a gold sequinned top and playing keyboards, theremin and clarinet... So
things kick off with 'Black & White Rainbows' a fairly straight-forward
piece of quirk pop. Paul's lurching about in a duffle coat with a clipped
on old skool BBC pass. A quick nod to past splendours with a theremintastic
sludge 'n' grind version of 'Science Fiction Freak'. My heart soars with the
chorus and I remember why I was so excited that this band was back. Things
get even more exciting, when Paul announces that they have a copy of Vogue,
'The latest issue!' signed by the band to give away, but there is a price to
be paid for such bounty in the form of 'a liquid drink which I shall
prepare'. This turns out to be a banana milkshake which is lovingly blended
Live! Onstage! Icky liquid dribbling from the bottom of the blender
threatening a bizarre electric/banana rock 'n' roll death. Some silly boy in
the crowd downs the drink and wins the prize... 'Hollywood Hills' jerkily
thuds along in a demented waltz with Paul singing lustily as Miss H's
clarinet trills up and down... Pleased to see Paul still has his
glitter-fan, but now it's bigger! better! Rather than some piddly-assed fan,
he holds aloft yer proper big room fan and tips on enough glitter to keep
several hundred Blue Peter presenters happy busy the Christmas card making
season... Argh! It's a rumbling growly version of 'Rhinestone Cowboy',
glitter winking appropriately from hair and dufflecoat... It's nice to be at
a gig where everyone's really up for it and thoroughly enjoying themselves,
rather than standing there sullenly in try-too-hard threads 'cos it's the
place to be... When I hear Dawn of the Replicants I imagine the odd and
disturbing fairy tale imagery Tim Burton does so perfectly. All scratchy
shadows and nastily twisted trees with snatching fingers..."

And, now we have 13 phenomenal new DAWN OF THE REPLICANTS tracks to tingle
our senses, girls 'n' boys, in the form of the band's fourth album,
'PTERODACTYL', which was recorded in the summer and autumn of 2003 at EL
HOMBRE DOTTLE's studio, Soundstation (in Galashiels), and Chamber Studios
(Edinburgh). And, what a sound those scoundrels have produced! This is
clearly a band with an eclectic musical taste and a Paul Gambaccini-like
understanding of musical history. As usual we're served up a delicious
bubbling gumbo of musical styles.

IDIOT 45s seems to throw together fuzzy-punk, The Jam, The Police and
snatches of Cornershop's 'Brimful Of Asha'. SPINNING WHISKS (a song about
dairy products and electric whisks?) is warped glam-rock squeezed through a
Sherman Filter: a cheeky pastiche of The Rolling Stones's late '70s output
(which I imagine being sung by Muppets with glitter suits and dirty smiles).
WON'T HARM A FLY (a tale about a gangster and the moll he loves) is
beautifully melodic, reminding me very much of Tom Waits's earlier
story-songs or perhaps The Pogues's 'Fairytale Of New York'. It even has
tinkle-bells like the Velvet Underground's 'Sunday Morning' - yay! EVERYONE
IN HEAVEN IS AFRAID OF HEIGHTS is hard to classify. It seems to mine the
same terrain as Flaming Lips or Mercury Rev (being a spooky neo-prog pop
anthem) but this is far more melodic, featuring cool film-score
instrumentation: John Barry-like mandolins, a Russian male choir and Miss
HYPNOTIQUE's jaunty jazz clarinet & lush theremin sounds. WHO POISONED THE
FOOD? has similar instrumentation but also an infectious Happy Mondays
stylee rhythm track, a singalonga chorus and insane feedback guitar wails.
NEW YORK LAWNS is straight-ahead acid-fried punk-pop with handclaps and
hoo-hoos. TAKE A PIECE OF HEART is an upbeat pop shuffle that hints at
Julian Cope, Elvis Costello's Attractions, Squeeze and cool ska horns.
FEELING LIKE JACK is jazzy blues with a killer indie-jangle chorus, whilst
RICECAKE RABBIT SOUL and HOLD THE GUILLOTINE seem steeped in the raw
punk-pop grunge of Pixies, Sonic Youth and Nirvana. CUCKOO CLOCK: a love
song offering Lou Reed rhythm guitar, a cute rip-off of Bowie's 'Fame' riff,
cuckoo noises (ooops!) and Neil Sadaka backing vocals (really!). ARCTIC
SAILS is a duet in the tradition of Serge Gainsbourg or Nancy Sinatra but
is, as you'd expect, much stranger with its disco-funk groove (hints of Chic
or perhaps Krautrock?), manic saxophone bursts and a vocal delivery from
HYPNOTIQUE not too dissimilar to the Flying Lizards's take on 'Money'. And
right at the tail-end of PTERODACTYL we have BENEATH THE WAVES, a sweet
old-style string ballad orchestrated by the band's guitarist, MIKE SMALL.

See what I mean? Eclectic bastards! I love them.

First single from the album is said to be an ep (BACKSTABBING NATION)
featuring RICE CAKE RABBIT SOUL (the white-hot neo-grunge PLUTO MONKEY
'cover' that'll blow your trousers off). I'm privileged to have been
invited to the premier of Callum Reid's black and white RICE CAKE RABBIT
SOUL video at Edinburgh's Cameo Cinema (featuring a deranged looking PAUL
VICKERS hammering away at cobbled paving stones as he slugs from a liquor
bottle), and I'm sure it's going to be a firm favourite on late-night
Kerrang! TV. It's kinda like a holiday-movie of Eraserhead getting tanked
up in the Lothians, cut to some recently uncovered Pixies classic. Yummy.

Now, go listen to the album. And, remember to pay a visit to
www.dawnofthereplicants.com which you'll find stacked with plenty more juicy
fodder for hungry Replicantophiles (including free MP3s & a video).

love Alice
Fried Green Tomorrows 'zine
xxx