ASK MOTHER

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Ask Mother formed from the ashes of Seymour Hill based band Chaos sometime around Easter 1977. Incidentally, Chaos bassist Robin Holmes would later turn up as a member of The Androids. The band were Willie Foster (guitar), Paul Quigley “Quigles” (guitar), Clifford Gill “Click” (drums), Andre Stitt “Boots” (vocals) and Trevor Wray 'God' (bass).

Ask Mother were quite prolific at writing and playing their own material. Song titles included: Slug Troops, Kick It Out, Loose Yer Head, Stagnant, Twinkle, First Come Last, Strange News from A Lost Friend, D'ya Wanna Know A Secret, Blind Boy, Below/Beneath, Angel of Royal Avenue, Swing On the End, Prevention Act, Let Dreams Lie, Lemmings, God It's Good To Be a Stranger, Zones, Slow Blizzard, Now You're 27, Look Who's Following You Around Again, Where's Yer Mind At Wee Doll and Black Mountain High. They did supplement their live set with some covers and for this they plundered back catalogues by bands such as Lou Reed “Waiting For the Man”  Iggy & The Stooges “No Fun”, “Heartbreak Hotel” [John Cale version], “Shakin Street” MC5 to name just a few.

Come June 1977 'God' had quit the band to be replaced by a nice young man from Lisburn known as 'The Suit'. Bizarrely, shortly afterwards Quigles was given the boot too! His replacement was Geoff Shannon. This more stable line-up played their debut gig at the McMordie Hall as part of the Queen's Fringe Festival on Monday 14th November 1977. The gig didn't go too well however with their set cut short and the band forcibly removed from the stage and some equipment was smashed during the ensuing mini riot. Andre Stitt recalls the band’s memorable debut gig “It was mad. As soon as we got on the stage the crowd went wild. It was like they were stoked and ready to go and I wanted to wind it up. I was spray painting this plastic sheet during a cover of The Stooges 'No Fun' pretending to wank over it. Then I pissed on the plastic sheet. Willy the guitar player had this punkett girl simulating fellatio with his guitar. It just went completely bonkers and out of control. I don't recall how many numbers we got through. Maybe 3 songs before the crowd started throwing chairs and stuff and not just at us, but at each other! Then we started this feedback, deafening, and Willie smashed his guitar and I was shouting abuse as Geoff Shannon [he was our stand in guitarist at that time, Geoff went on to form The Lids] was shouting and playing his guitar behind his head. I've no ideas why he was doing that. Click our drummer then did a Keith Moon and kicked his drums over and dived into the crowd. Our bass player who we called 'The Suit' [honestly I never knew his name] just stood still playing bass throughout. Next I knew the stage was invaded by security and we were shoved into the back stage area and there was a big shouting thing going on with the Queens University staff and bottles being smashed I don't remember how we got out of there. We all had a few cups of tea beforehand...so...”

Undeterred Ask Mother continued to gig and played the Art College, Belfast the following month. Further gigs followed in 1978 and they built up a strong following around the Lisburn area by playing Lisburn venues such as the Hayloft Bar and the, Assembly Rooms where support came from Belfast band Ruefrex. They also played regularly at The Harp Bar during the summer of 1978. 

In May '78, after a couple of gigs at the Harp Bar, Geoff left to form The Lids and he was replaced a month later by 'Harpo' on lead guitar, with Roger H. being added to the line-up on backing vocals and saxophone. The new look Ask Mother began to concentrate more on original songs and resumed gigging in August. At the end of that month they went into Downtown Radio studios and recorded four songs “Twinkle”, “Blind Boy”, “Do You Wanna Know A Secret”, and “Let Dreams Lie” for a proposed 4-track EP to be released by IT Records. After hearing nothing more from Cliff Moore, owner of IT Records, the band visited his shop in Portadown and a fight broke out. Needless to say plans for the EP were scuppered. Andre Stitt again “I remember being in the IT shop in Portadown and having a fight. We'd been drinking and were a bit pissed off because we had been promised a record and the record guy wanted something more 'poppy'. We told him we wanted to do a new song called 'Stagnant' about a girl who gets gangbanged by UDA hoods. Anyway he tried to get us out of his shop and there was a fight”.

Tensions were high among band member come the end of 1978 and after much bad feeling and one too many drunken fights, Harpo quit the band along with Roger H.  A week later saw Quigles reinstated as lead guitarist. However, things still weren’t harmonious in the Ask Mother camp. 'The Suit' got a little too spaced out one night and scarpered with a substantial amount of equipment and money, and then Boots was admitted to Shaftesbury Square Hospital to 'dry out'.

The band did however manage to regain their equipment and acquire the services of a new bass player Bob Strong. They also set up base at The Mansion - a big country house in Dunmurry on the outskirts of Belfast. Andre Stitt recalls their new found home affectionately “It was a fantastic place. It was a really big country mansion that some housing association wanted to convert but couldn't afford to do it. So we lived there free as long we looked after the place. We had a big practice room and shared equipment with The Androids, some of whom lived there too. We had a joint practice room there and we'd just play live in the house and in the grounds. We had lots of punk parties and lots of drugs sent to us by a source in England. We'd be speeding for weeks on end, it was a bit mental but also incredibly creative. The house eventually got burned down. We had some wild times playing together and the parties were endless. The Androids bass player Robin was one of my best mates growing up. Sadly he died of a heroin overdose in the early eighties””.

This led to the new line-up of Willie Foster (guitar), Quigles (lead guitar), Click (drums), Boots (vocals) and Bob Strong (bass) and in early 1979 they went into Wizard studios in Belfast and recorded 3 tracks for a proposed 7” EP on the  Good Vibrations Records Record label. Sadly nothing ever came of the Good Vibrations recordings despite the project getting as far as a sleeve being designed. The tracks “Prevention Act”, “Zones” and “Let Dreams Lie” remain unreleased to the present day. Bob Strong left the band shortly after the Wizard studios recording in early 1979 and Trevor 'The Kissing Bandit' Wray joined on bass. Trevor played with the band until their in the winter of 1979.

The band had continued gigging but eventually split up playing their final gig at the Pound, in Belfast bringing down the curtain on one of the more colourful bands on the Belfast scene. “Boots” Andre on their demise “We were all a bit fed up. I was getting into industrial sound and Willy whom I did most of the songwriting with had had enough. He left and joined the new Ruefrex and that was it”

Life after ask Mother saw Andre leave Belfast, move to London where he got involved with post-punk industrial noise bands. He has had an amazing career as a performance artist ever since, touring, making work and having exhibitions all over the world. There have been quite a few books written about his work and he still makes music, playing occasional live gigs with his band The Panacea Society who have had several albums released on a Texas based label out of San Antonio. Andre is also a Professor of Performance and Interdisciplinary Art at Cardiff Metropolitan University where he now resides.

I’ll leave the final word with Andre “That time in Belfast was very special. The punk scene in Belfast really brought us all together, broke down the sectarian divides... hanging out at the Harp Bar, Good Vibes or Rocky Mungos, seeing all the other bands do their stuff. It was a real privilege to be a part of that. It really didn't matter that most of us weren't really that good. It was more about being together and forming our own community; that somehow allowed us to transcend all the crap that was going down during the Troubles, even it was only for a brief moment. It certainly ignited something in me that I retain and carry within me to this day”.


 

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