Back when Hardsparrow was still just an unfortunate Ebay account name, I went by the name of The Brass Warrior and played bass in a band called Brides Of Kong. An unashamedly sleazy combo with little respect for genre-barriers, social taboos, or sensible song titles.
I'd spend long tube journeys to practises in Acton writing daft lyrics to make the other band members laugh. Some of these are still in their repertoire, and mine. I Drew Skeletons being an obvious example.
I'd already been writing and recording songs, but writing without the pressure to achieve anything other than making some other grown men giggle around the crisp machine in Survival Studios was a big breakthrough for me, and I wasted little time in transposing this discovery to my acoustic stuff.. the dubious comedy world of Hardsparrow was, for better or worse, born.
After illness forced me to abandon London town, I was replaced on low notes by Silent Dave, and the Kong - Dave, Mungo, Ant, and Dr. Vodka Martini - are still forging their unique badger-like trail on the London gig scene. You can catch them at the 12 Bar later this month, and you can now also download their first album, The Simian Songbook, from their Bandcamp page, here.
Other than Skeletons, I wroted the lyrics for Wildman, and came up with a couple of the other song titles.. Mungo did the rest, word-wise, and everyone chipped in musically. One of the most interesting things for me, personally, is to hear how far some of these songs developed from the original sketchy tunes we used to jam (ah, happy memories!), to the well-oiled machine that constitutes current Kong.
I can only hope that the world will one day also get to hear the Kong version of Hacienda of the Snake-Legged Dead, or the mythical lost Dog Smell of Griffin sessions.. hey, we all need a dream. In the meantime, don't be a wrong 'un and get some Kong in your life.
I Drew Skeletons by Hardsparrow
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