THE LUCID DREAM - Outside Lookin 'In
Vocalist: Dave Battersby
Guitar: Ant Walker
Keyboards: Craig 'Spadge' Sparey
Drums: Andrew 'Smurf' Mirfin
Bass: Andrew Watkins
The beginnings of The Lucid Dream began back in March 1990. An Elegant Chaos, the group that featured Ant (vocals & guitar), Dave (bassist) and Spadge (rhythm guitar / keyboards), had called it a day after drummer Stu Paveley had left. The three remaining members decided that a new group should be formed with Dave now moving from Bass to Vocals with Ant now concentrating solely on lead guitar. Stu got a friend Andrew Mirfin, also a drummer, to audition for the new-line up and within a week he was in. He was soon to be awarded the nickname Smurf. Meanwhile a friend of Dave's knew of a bassist who might be interested in joining. Andy Watkins auditioned, proved to be a solid bass player and he was the final piece of the jigsaw that was needed. The Lucid Dream was now complete.
The summer and autumn of 1990 saw the Lucid's rehearse solidly and the group decided to record a demo tape on Ant's Tascam eight track porta studio at their rehearsal studio's in Time Out in Gloucester which they wanted to do before performing live. By October the tape had been finished and featured the tracks I'm On Fire, Fear And Surprise, Shattered Illusion, Aural, Outside Lookin' In and The Perfect Lie. Then on the 22nd November 1990 the group played it's first gig in Gloucester. The next few months saw The Lucid Dream perform locally in the Gloucester area and honing their set. Dave meanwhile was in constant touch with a friend Jake Brockman who he had got to known over several years from following Echo and the Bunnymen. Jake was the 'fifth' member of the Bunnymen and combined roadie duties with also being the bands live on stage keyboard player. Jake had heard The Lucid Dream demo tape and had heard about the bands plans to record a debut single. "Jake had told me that the Bunnymen were just setting up their own studio at their warehouse in Porter Street in Liverpool and were looking for a band to go in and record to act as guinea pigs! Well we didn’t have to be asked twice. During February and March 1991 we laid down demo’s on Ant’s Tascam Porta-Studio of the tracks we intended to use, ‘Laughing Eyes’, ‘Dippy’ and ‘Outside Lookin’ In’." recalls Dave.
So The Lucid Dream headed up to Liverpool and taking in two visits in April and May recorded and mixed the three tracks that were to become the 'Dippy' 12 EP with not only Jake producing but also legendary Bunnymen guitarist Will Sergeant. The group continued to play around the West Country and in the summer of 1990 a UK cassette only label Acid Tapes (catalogue number TAB078) released the band's first demo tape which had Swedish psych band My Favourite Martians on the reverse. Things were gathering momentum.
Above: Ant (right) in the Bunnymen's studio in Liverpool with Jake (left)
and Will (middle)
When mixing had finished on the 'Dippy' EP, Will and Jake had told the group that they were starting up a new label Euphoric Records and wanted to know if The Lucid Dream would like the 12" coming out on the label. Needless to say the group jumped at the chance and within months and playing only their eleventh gig the Lucid's kicked off the Euphoric Records opening night party which was headlined by the Bunnymen in Liverpool in front of a 500 strong crowd in the Bunnymen's Porter Street Warehouse. The Lucid's went down a storm and as they finished an excited Pete Wylie came rushing backstage insisting the group go back on for an encore!
The Lucid's were then invited to go as support to Echo and the Bunnymen on the southern leg of their November / December 1991 UK tour (Carlisle group The Twiggs would do the northern dates). The tour was a huge success with The Lucid's enthralling all and it ended with them playing in front of a sell out crowd at the Borderline in London.
The tour had seen the bands profile growing from strenth to strength and without doubt things were looking good for the Gloucestershire group. The 'Dippy' EP on Euphoric was released to coincide with tour and was given the catalogue number E9999T. The set went down a storm and some would say this was The Lucid Dream at their best, live on stage. Live favourites such as 'Object Of Reality', 'Love', 'The Perfect Lie' and 'Laughing Eyes' were all greeted raptously by all that saw them as was the 60's garage track 'Going All The Way' and a short sharp cover of Pink Floyd's 'Interstellar Overdrive'.
The tour however, which had seen the band's line up augmented by rhythm guitarist John Page saw at it's end the departure of bassist Andy Watkins. With an important home county gig coming up in Cheltenham in the new year Bunnymen bassist Les Pattinson over to step in and fill the void, however the gig was cancelled at the Shaftesbury Hall venue by the noise abaitment society! The Lucid's recruited a new bassist Dean Locke who performed on the forthcoming 'Live At The Wig Out Club' demo's but Locke did not quite fit in and soon left. April 2nd 1992 the band headlined at The Robey in London (only the bands twenty-sixth gig) with Dave playing bass but this proved to be the bands final performance and after several set backs in June 1992 the band called it a day. Momentum had been lost and it had all fallen apart! Who knows how big this band could have become if lady luck had looked down them.
Unfortunately some of their best tracks never made it on to vinyl but luckily were demoed and will appear on the 'Object Of Reality' CD on Elephant Stone Records in 2012.
Ant and Dave were to go on and form Reverb and have several releases out including the 'Melting Into You' 7" which reached number 5 in the Indie charts in 1995 the same week as 'Wonderwall' by Oasis went in at number one. In more recent years the duo received healthy airplay on the BBC from the late John Peel and in March 2003 recorded a session for his show as the experimental group The Land Of Nod. Both Reverb and The Land Of Nod had a whole host of releases on UK label Ochre Records and both had compilations released on Elephant Stone in the USA so it's kind of fitting that The Lucid Dream compilation will come out on Elephant Stone as well.
