Side a: Watch out Side b: 1.Start again , 2.London underground UK 1980 Great punky powerpop by this London/UK based band ! Sadly i can't find informations about this group. Love this!
I'm Pete Watt, guitarist on this gem. We pressed 547 (the run overran) but only printed 500 sleeves, so that makes your copy even rarer. John Peel played it on Radio 1 January 8th, 1981, just when we were splitting up. Timing is everything!!
Sorry, rhythm guitarist on Watch Out! and London Undergound; lead on Start Again. Nick Calloway (ex-Milk, with Ed Case) was the power chorder extraordinaire. Gary Mole, aka Daktari Swets on main vox.On December 1st in 2001, something odd and unexpected happened. I got a call from a Welshman in Utrecht (!) who wanted to know if I was Pete Watt who used to play in The Form. I had to admit to being guilty as charged. He introduced himself as Steve Mitchell, and that he had had something to do with The Pooh Sticks. He’d heard The Form’s single, which a friend of his had acquired, liked it, and did I have any spare copies? I was sure this was a wind-up, with my friends in Den Haag probably being responsible: I had visions of my disbelieving voice going out over the Dutch airwaves as some on-line spoof thing. I was amused when I asked him if he’d tried to get hold of “Daktari Swets”, which was Gary’s stage name, and the one printed on the single’s sleeve, to which he replied that he’d found a family called Swets in Derbyshire: just imagine the phone conversation, “Er, do you have someone living there with the name Daktari?” Anyway, next day I ventured up into the loft to dig out the Xmas decorations, and happened on a box of the aforementioned product. There were about 30 copies. When Steve phoned me back, I agreed to send him 25, and he would pay me £5 for each one. The reason he wanted them, was that he was running an on-line ‘punk’ records store, and naturally The Form’s “WATCH OUT!” was something of a rarity. The reason his friend had a copy was that he’d inherited the sadly recently deceased John Walters’ record collection. Of course John Walters used to be John Peel’s producer at the BBC. All this means is that the copy I took up to John Peel all those years ago had ended up in Walters’ collection and hence into Steve’s mate’s mitts. I never did find out what he was asking for the single, but Steve used to compile a “virtual” album of current goodies on offer, and for February 2002 The Form were proudly included on the same “virtual” album side as a 101’ers single! The money he paid me was almost the amount I had paid to get the single pressed in the first place. Phew, rock and roll! A few years later, he got in touch again, asking if I minded the song being included on an LP he was compiling. Of course not, replied I, and he duly sent me half-a-dozen copies of the resulting vinyl. Nice one, Steve.
Hi, my name is Andy Hill, the one playing bass on this record. Some while back I was telling my current drummer about the crazy days I had playing with The Form and he asked me if there was anything out there on the www. Told him 'I dunno' so it prompted me to put in a search. I never had an uncle Bob before but he became part of the family when I found our single 'Watch Out' on another site. It has popped up in a couple of places and seems to have become a sort after record. So that makes me proud to have helped Daktari Swets, aka Gary Mole who wrote this song, turn it into a little gem. Now I find it again here and I see that you are in search of more info on The Form so I will add to what my long lost friend Pete has provided even though you posted this over 6 years ago. Well my friends don't call me instant for nothing! I joined up with this band in 1978 when they were called 'The Power Game' based in Shepherds Bush. We were a 4 piece then with Pete Watts writing most if not all the songs on guitar and Graham Smith (Big G) on drums. By the end of 1978 Rod the other guitarist left so we replaced him with Daktari Swets and Nick Calloway who both immediately transformed our sound and style. That's also when we became The Form. From that point on we became prolific song writers with just about everybody bringing new material every week. We also took on a manager and PR man who moved us from the Bush to a studio in Acton. We were getting a fair amount of attention from the music press leading to bigger crowds and better venues. It all culminated in 'Watch Out' receiving national airplay. We had a raft of songs and were due to go down to Wales to record an album as I recall. It is with great regret that we never achieved that because there were some great tracks, 'And My Worm Is Red' from Gary, Petes 'Cool Fool', Nicks '2-Way' as well as stuff I did as solo ventures and jointly with Gary. Well it's all lost in the depths of time but at least there is this remnant left in the public domain for folk to enjoy. Sorry to have waffled on a bit, guess I got carried away but I hope it has fulfilled your interest slightly. All the best, Andy Hill.
hi andy! thanks for leaving your comment and give us more infos! are the recordings survive from your LP recording session? is it possible to hear more "The Form" songs?
Hey there razor, sadly I can't give you any other recordings of The Form. I did have one other track 'The Shoulder' penned by Pete the Pick on a cassette but where it is now I don't know. I'm sure one of the lads had recorded some tracks at rehearsals but they would only be on tape. Also I seem to remember a pictorial diary being kept by someone which would be interesting for me to see as all that remains is my copy of 'Watch Out' and my memories (and those are fading too)! So apologies once again razor but thanks for your interest.
8 comments:
And like this one too.........!!
awesome record, great post, thanks, your site is great !!!!
I'm Pete Watt, guitarist on this gem. We pressed 547 (the run overran) but only printed 500 sleeves, so that makes your copy even rarer. John Peel played it on Radio 1 January 8th, 1981, just when we were splitting up. Timing is everything!!
Sorry, rhythm guitarist on Watch Out! and London Undergound; lead on Start Again. Nick Calloway (ex-Milk, with Ed Case) was the power chorder extraordinaire. Gary Mole, aka Daktari Swets on main vox.On December 1st in 2001, something odd and unexpected happened. I got a call from a Welshman in Utrecht (!) who wanted to know if I was Pete Watt who used to play in The Form. I had to admit to being guilty as charged. He introduced himself as Steve Mitchell, and that he had had something to do with The Pooh Sticks. He’d heard The Form’s single, which a friend of his had acquired, liked it, and did I have any spare copies? I was sure this was a wind-up, with my friends in Den Haag probably being responsible: I had visions of my disbelieving voice going out over the Dutch airwaves as some on-line spoof thing. I was amused when I asked him if he’d tried to get hold of “Daktari Swets”, which was Gary’s stage name, and the one printed on the single’s sleeve, to which he replied that he’d found a family called Swets in Derbyshire: just imagine the phone conversation, “Er, do you have someone living there with the name Daktari?” Anyway, next day I ventured up into the loft to dig out the Xmas decorations, and happened on a box of the aforementioned product. There were about 30 copies. When Steve phoned me back, I agreed to send him 25, and he would pay me £5 for each one. The reason he wanted them, was that he was running an on-line ‘punk’ records store, and naturally The Form’s “WATCH OUT!” was something of a rarity. The reason his friend had a copy was that he’d inherited the sadly recently deceased John Walters’ record collection. Of course John Walters used to be John Peel’s producer at the BBC. All this means is that the copy I took up to John Peel all those years ago had ended up in Walters’ collection and hence into Steve’s mate’s mitts. I never did find out what he was asking for the single, but Steve used to compile a “virtual” album of current goodies on offer, and for February 2002 The Form were proudly included on the same “virtual” album side as a 101’ers single! The money he paid me was almost the amount I had paid to get the single pressed in the first place. Phew, rock and roll! A few years later, he got in touch again, asking if I minded the song being included on an LP he was compiling. Of course not, replied I, and he duly sent me half-a-dozen copies of the resulting vinyl. Nice one, Steve.
Hi, my name is Andy Hill, the one playing bass on this record. Some while back I was telling my current drummer about the crazy days I had playing with The Form and he asked me if there was anything out there on the www. Told him 'I dunno' so it prompted me to put in a search. I never had an uncle Bob before but he became part of the family when I found our single 'Watch Out' on another site. It has popped up in a couple of places and seems to have become a sort after record. So that makes me proud to have helped Daktari Swets, aka Gary Mole who wrote this song, turn it into a little gem.
Now I find it again here and I see that you are in search of more info on The Form so I will add to what my long lost friend Pete has provided even though you posted this over 6 years ago. Well my friends don't call me instant for nothing!
I joined up with this band in 1978 when they were called 'The Power Game' based in Shepherds Bush. We were a 4 piece then with Pete Watts writing most if not all the songs on guitar and Graham Smith (Big G) on drums. By the end of 1978 Rod the other guitarist left so we replaced him with Daktari Swets and Nick Calloway who both immediately transformed our sound and style. That's also when we became The Form. From that point on we became prolific song writers with just about everybody bringing new material every week. We also took on a manager and PR man who moved us from the Bush to a studio in Acton. We were getting a fair amount of attention from the music press leading to bigger crowds and better venues. It all culminated in 'Watch Out' receiving national airplay. We had a raft of songs and were due to go down to Wales to record an album as I recall. It is with great regret that we never achieved that because there were some great tracks, 'And My Worm Is Red' from Gary, Petes 'Cool Fool', Nicks '2-Way' as well as stuff I did as solo ventures and jointly with Gary. Well it's all lost in the depths of time but at least there is this remnant left in the public domain for folk to enjoy. Sorry to have waffled on a bit, guess I got carried away but I hope it has fulfilled your interest slightly. All the best, Andy Hill.
hi andy! thanks for leaving your comment and give us more infos! are the recordings survive from your LP recording session? is it possible to hear more "The Form" songs?
Hey there razor, sadly I can't give you any other recordings of The Form. I did have one other track 'The Shoulder' penned by Pete the Pick on a cassette but where it is now I don't know. I'm sure one of the lads had recorded some tracks at rehearsals but they would only be on tape. Also I seem to remember a pictorial diary being kept by someone which would be interesting for me to see as all that remains is my copy of 'Watch Out' and my memories (and those are fading too)! So apologies once again razor but thanks for your interest.
hi andy! thanks again for more infos! it's sad that so many bands from that era have lost their recordings. cheers andy!
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