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The Lucid Dream were a UK rural psychedlic garage rock group from the beginning of the 1990's, whose live shows enthralled all those who saw them. This site has been created to tie in with the forthcoming retrospective album release in America.

The Living End - 1986

THE LIVING END


Vocals: Ant Walker
Bass: Dave Battersby
Rhythm Guitar / Keyboards: Craig 'Spadge' Sparey
Lead Guitar: Derek Rutherford
Drums: Colin 'Goggy' Anderson

In April 1986 Spadge and myself did form our first band. Spadge worked with Colin Anderson (drummer in Touching Display) at ICI in Brockworth, whilst we both knew Derek Rutherford who played lead guitar in a R & B outfit The Mind Boggles. Derek worked at British Telecom as did a few friends of Spadges and mine who we played Sunday League Football with. So with Spadge on Rhythm Guitar and myself on Bass we began rehearsing at Time Out Studios which was located in one of the old Victorian warehouses in the Docks area of Gloucester. We had decided to call the band ‘The Living End’ named after a Jesus & Mary Chain track and rehearsed without a singer. We started rehearsing a whole host of tracks by New Order, Joy Division and The Bunnymen but also ‘Hup Two Three Four’ by the Sid Presley Experience and ‘Teenage Kicks’ by The Undertones. After a few rehearsals Colin the drummer (also known as ‘Goggy’) got a couple of friends he knew from Brockworth (Johnny Ewers and Nolin) to audition. They weren’t really what we were looking for. Down the corridor Ant Walker who also played guitar in Touching Display was rehearsing with a another group he was trying to get off the ground at the time with his then girlfriend Sue. Ant lived in Brockworth and knew Colin, Nolin and Johnny and it wasn’t long before he was having a go at the vocals as well. He was what we were after, he was interested and so we gave it a go and rehearsed throughout the late spring early Summer of 1986.
It took months of rehearsing at ‘Time Out’ in one of the old Warehouse’s in the docks in Gloucester. One of our earliest rehearsals on 13th April 1986 saw us rehearse instrumental versions of ‘Hup Two Three Four’ (by the Sid Presley Experience) and ‘Leave Me Alone’ (by New Order). By  the 17th May Ant was on board on vocals and we started to have a rough idea of a possible short set. We ended that rehearsal by playing a five track set that consisted of ‘Hup Two Three Four’, ‘Teenage Kicks’ (The Undertones), ‘Leave Me Alone’, ‘Shadowplay’ (Joy Division) and ‘Rescue’ (Echo and the Bunnymen). We continued to rehearse this set roughly once a week for the rest of May and June.

It wasn’t long before we’d give it a go and play our first gig which was going to be Spadge and myself performing our first ever gig! My good friend Shane was now in a band called Take The Fall along with guitar / vocalist Dean Gifford (of Touching Display) who’d I bought my bass off! They had a gig at The Shed in Stroud on a Sunday night, 6th July 1986 and we got the support slot. We finally decided on our set and it was a five track set of covers. We kicked off with ‘Hup, Two, Three Four’ (by the Sid Presley Experience) which was followed by ‘Teenage Kicks’ (The Undertones), ‘Shadowplay’ (Joy Division), ‘Rescue’ (Echo and the Bunnymen) and ended with ‘They Walked In Line’ (Joy Division). The five of us crammed on to the small stage nervous and excited trying to look cool and we were off! The gig seemed to last all of five minutes in front of no more than twenty to thirty punters and it was great. We even had shouts of ‘more, more, more’ so we raced through another version of ‘Hup, Two, Three, Four’ as our encore. I was on an all time high. I loved ever minute of it. After listening to music and attending gigs for years Spadge and myself had finally done it and played a gig! 

The Living End Gig 1 – The Shed, Stroud 6th July 1986
(supporting ‘Take The Fall’)
Set: Hup, Two, Three Four / Teenage Kicks / Shadowplay / Rescue / They Walked In Line Encore: Hup, Two, Three Four


                              Left to Right: Spadge, Colin (hidden), Ant, Derek and Dave

The Living End had initially been formed to play just one gig but we decided to carry on rehearsing and try and blag a couple more as after all, it had gone better than expected. Soon we began trying a few different tracks which initially were without Colin on drums and with Ant’s drum machine at ‘Time Out’. On August 28th 1986 these included ‘Lonesome Tonight’ and ‘Dreams Never End’ by New Order, ‘Do It Clean’ by the Bunnymen and ‘Lies’ by The Skeletal Family. This was a track I’d never heard before!.
It took next to no time for Colin to pick up from where he left off and by 18th September’s rehearsal we ran through a seven track set that was ‘Hup Two Three Four’, ‘Leave Me Alone’, Rescue’, ‘Shadowplay’, ‘Dreams Never End’, Do It Clean’ and ‘They Walked In Line’.

The Citizen’s were a Gloucester group with practically all their members coming from Brockworth and most had been in a band called The Trout Faced Few. The Citizens and The Trout Faced Few leant heavily on Manchester post-punk outfit The Fall for their inspiration! We were asked to support them (well more like Colin was) at a couple of gigs they had lined up at the end of September beginning of October. These would now most definitely be the last gigs The Living End would perform! The first was on an old cargo barge called The Barge Semington that floated in Gloucester Docks. The gig was on the 28th September 1986!. I recall Ant, Spadge and myself getting slightly merry in the British Flag pub before hand and Colin racing in to say ‘C’mon you guys, we are on in five minutes’!. We played a good rehearsed set to a good crowd in the Barge. We must of started late as there was no time for an encore! A week later on the 5th of October we performed exactly the same set to an ok crowd at The Shed in Stroud but this time had enough time (and applause I guess) to race through ‘Hup Two Three Four’ again! The only embarrassing memory of this gig was Derek (who as I mentioned was in a R & B group ‘The Mind Boggles’), playing the cringe able un-cool ‘Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree’, a 70’s pop track by a man / wife couple called Dawn in between tracks during the set! If looks could kill! Funnily enough a few months later in a Gloucester fanzine called ‘Slipped Disc’ in March 1987 someone reviewed a The Mind Boggles gig and said that ‘the lead vocalist guitarist bore a similar resemblance to the guitarist in the tragic Living End but it can’t be the same bloke – impossible’. Tragic! What! Ah well! So that was finally the end for The Living End.

The Living End Gig 2 – The Barge Semington, Gloucester, 28th September 1986
(supporting ‘The Citizens’)
Set: Hup, Two, Three Four / Leave Me Alone / Rescue / Shadowplay / Dreams Never End / Do It Clean / They Walked In Line

The Living End Gig 3 – The Shed, Stroud, 5th October 1986
(supporting ‘The Citizens’)
Set: Hup, Two, Three Four / Leave Me Alone / Rescue / Shadowplay / Dreams Never End / Do It Clean / They Walked In Line Encore: Hup, Two, Three Four

After the third and last The Living End gig on the 5th October 1986 Ant, Spadge and myself decided to stick together and properly form a band writing our own material. Ant had the head start in the writing stakes being more musically adept and he would take up playing lead guitar as well as vocal duties with Spadge backing him up on rhythm guitar and myself on bass guitar. Gradually both Spadge and myself began to contribute as well with ideas. We decided that we would use a drum machine (well if the Bunnymen started off then why couldn’t we!). I already had one, a Korg DDM-110 which I christened ‘Happy’!.

We needed a name for the group. We were all Cope fans. We threw a few names into the hat and in the end decided on An Elegant Chaos, a track off Copey’s debut album ‘World Shut Your Mouth’.

by Bassist Dave Battersby
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