Bogshed

History

The band formed in early 1984 and comprised Phil Hartley (vocals), Mark McQuaid (guitar), Mike Bryson (bass guitar), and Tris King (drums). Bryson also produced the cover art for the band's releases. The name came from a misheard line in a song, with Hartley explaining "I like the way that the mouth moves when you say Bog Shed". They were helped initially by The Membranes, leading to several performances in London, and the band's first release was the Let Them Eat Bogshed EP on John Robb's Vinyl Drip label in 1985. By the time of this release, the band had already played around 35 concerts and, according to Hartley, written between 80 and 100 songs.

Not really sounding like anyone before or since, they had much in common with some of the bands on the Ron Johnson label. Bryson explained their approach to songwriting: "We start out being totally out of order and out of key and we turn things like that into a pop song. Most people try to do it the other way round." They released two albums and several singles as well as recording five Peel Sessions, before splitting in 1987. Two of these sessions, from 1986, were issued on the Tried and Tested Public Speaker EP in January 1987, described by Liz Evans in Underground as "a mixture of throbbing, jogging rhythm and a bleating voice which rolls those words around and spits them out with plenty of spleen and bile".

Bogshed appeared on NME's C86 compilation. The term shambling was coined by John Peel to describe their sound although the term later became more commonly used to describe bands such as The Pastels.

Mike Bryson currently records under the name of Forkeyes. A split mini-album 'Vier Mit Vier', with tracks by electronic musician Marcus H (Soiled) and Forkeyes will be released on Elm Lodge Records.

Phil Hartley died on 11 October 2006.

Tris King died on 21 December 2008.

Discography

(chart placings shown are from the UK Independent Chart)

Singles

1. "Panties Please"
2. "Spencer Travis"
3. "Fat Lad Exam Failure"
4. "Slave Girls"
5. "City Girls"
6. "Hand Me Down Father"

1. "Morning Sir"
2. "The Story of Bogshed"

1. "Tried And Tested Public Speaker"
2. "Champion Love Shoes"
3. "Little Grafter"
4. "Morning Sir"
5. "Fastest Legs"
6. "Adventure Of Dog"

1. "Excellent Girl"
2. "True Rope"

Albums

1. "Mechanical Nun"
2. "Run To The Temple"
3. "Adventure Of Dog"
4. "Tommy Steele Record"
5. "Jobless Youngsters"
6. "Tried To Hide But Forced To Howl"
7. "Packed Lunch To School"
8. "Summer In My Lunchtime"
9. "The Fastest Legs"
10. "Oily Stack"
11. "Hell Bent On Death"
12. "Thunderballs"
13. "Can't Be Beat"
14. "Little Car"

1. "Raise The Girl"
2. "Geoff's Big Problem"
3. "Old Dog New Dance"
4. "No To Lemon Mash"
5. "I'm The Instrument"
6. "Opportunatist Knocks"
7. "People Equal Greedy"
8. "Sing A Little Tune"
9. "C'Mon Everybody"
10. "Uncle Death Grip"
11. "Spring"
12. "Loaf"