Nottingham group 1983-87

Thanks to Mark Sansom for the history, images and audio. Mark had already served with The Bollards followed by The Party.

Love under cover. Recorded in a studio (name now long forgotten) situated in the basement of the Music Inn, Alfreton Road (late 1986). Produced by Boris Carlin of ABK (line up 5).

Games of Love. Recorded in a small demo studio located at the rear of Gregory’s Roses Garden Centre, Stapleford (spring 1984). This track features Linda (vocals), Mik Walker (fretless bass) and Martyn Staves (keyboards). With its extended guitar outro, this song became a live favourite and remained in the set throughout the band’s entire gigging career (line up 3).

Chants: History

Please cast your minds back to the dark and troubled days of the Thatcher government, the Brixton Riots, the Falklands Conflict, the Miner’s Strike, charts dominated by Wham, Spandau Ballet, Stock/Aitken/Waterman & Culture Club, roads infested with Austin Allegros and the hideous mullet hair do ….. yes, Britain in the 1980s. If the truth be told, this was neither a time nor place even the most nostalgic dreamer would wish to re-visit. Nonetheless, the decade primarily renown for little taste, and style massively outstripping substance, was the backdrop to the story of the Nottingham based band, Chants.  

It all began in the late summer of 1982 and over the course of the next few months involved a cast of what seemed like hundreds of different musicians. Following the demise of his previous band (Sitting Ducks), Sherwood based guitarist / song writer Paul Hewitt began the daunting search for a group of musicians to bond, rehearse and ultimately perform a batch of his new songs. Via musician contacts and adverts placed in the Nottingham Evening Post, a number of potential rock star wannabees were soon reeled in and auditions commenced in the damp, claustrophobic, smoke filled basement of Sherwood’s Barking Spiders rehearsal studio, where precariously balanced amplifiers, drum kits, mic stands and banks of keyboards seemingly took on lives of their own ….. from memory, the ‘state of the art’ soundproofing appeared to consist of several uneven layers of foam rubber sheets, haphazardly scattered across the damp floor, concealed and thereby made even more dangerous by a thin coating of moth eaten blankets draped over the top! It was like trying to stand and balance the equipment on top of a gargantuan portion of quivering jelly!

Despite the never ending metaphorical ‘revolving door’ of bass players, drummers, singers and keyboard players, an initial stable(ish) line up of Paul Hewitt (rhythm guitar), Melody (vocals), Pat Gallagher (bass), John Thomas (drums), Martyn Staves (ex Small Print – keyboards) and Mark Sansom (ex The Bollards – lead guitar) managed to hold it together just about long enough to perform a couple of low key local gigs under the name of Skin Game. Inevitably this line up was destined to survive only as long as Sven Goran Eriksson’s short tenure as the Notts County Supremo but astonishingly, by Autumn 1983, the core of the band had essentially been tethered together. Further hiring and (probable underhand) firing ensued but with the addition of multi- instrumentalist Mik Walker (ex The Innocent – fretless bass) and Clarendon drama student Cheryl Woodward (vocals), the first official line up of Chants was born. By this time Paul had penned prodigious quantities of new material and with the band fully rehearsed, gigs at the Newshouse, Charlie’s Barn and the Gregory Hotel quickly followed. Now on a roll (albeit with yet another new singer, Amanda Smith) in spring 1984 studio time was booked and a number of tracks were demo-ed. Produced and engineered by Mik & Mike Gregory, the musical side was considered quite satisfactory, however, the completed recordings only served to highlight the need for a more powerful & experienced singer. So finally, after a great deal of persuasion, the much in demand local chanteuse Linda Dawson was cajoled into joining the fledgling band. With Linda’s amazing vocals added to the musical mix the songs finally came to life. However, despite hitting a creative peak at this point, Mik and Martyn decided their musical ambitions lay elsewhere and the remaining quartet of Paul, John, Linda and Mark concluded that a shift in direction would be required if they were to make any further progress. Consequently, the keyboards were abandoned and the decision was made to concentrate on a rockier approach, with greater emphasis on guitars, vocals and harmonies. Initially the amiable John Vaites was taken on to play bass but much to the disappointment of the others, after only a couple of gigs he opted out. In an attempt to claw back the lost momentum, Linda’s sister Julie (backing vocals / dancer) and Chesterfield’s Rob Eagle (bass guitar) were swiftly recruited …… and thus commenced the most hectic & successful period of Chants ‘career’. By the early summer of 1985 the final pieces of the jigsaw were locked in place and work immediately began on cementing a new Sunday night residency at Chesterfield’s White Swan music venue (nestling in the shadow of the famous twisted church spire). The following months saw them shoehorn in further recordings at Derby’s Square-Dance Studio, Mansfield’s Everbimes Studio plus a session for the Radio Trent ‘Rock Show'(i), broadcast over two consecutive weeks in January 1986. This exposure, plus numerous gigs with fellow contemporary Nottingham bands such as Splash, Dawn Trader, Old School, Sally Barker, Andy, Boris and Keith and the Lipstick Killers saw them gain a strong, loyal following, guaranteeing fantastic partisan support wherever they played. In addition to the weekly residencies, Chants somehow managed to find time to headline all the main local venues of the day, including The Running Horse, Nottingham Polytechnic, Nottingham University, The Palais, Albany Mint Bar, The Mardi Gras, Russell’s Bar and various festivals (including the annual June Arts Festival, held under the imposing orange trysail in Nottingham’s Old Market Square).

Of course (it being the exuberant 1980’s) it was deemed mandatory to enhance the performances by way of scintillating light shows – mention and thanks must therefore be made to the lighting guys, Dave (moonlighting from his job as Old School’s drummer) and Will, who always provided brilliant and sympathetic atmospheres when the band took to the stage. Indeed, the local press picked up on this when they first reviewed the band…… “With smoke screens and flashing lights it was fingers crossed, hoping that gimmicks wouldn’t outshine musical ability. Fortunately, there was no room for a doubting Thomas, this pop rock band won my heart and made yours truly green with envy” – Derbyshire Times. Not that it was ever taken too seriously ….. every opportunity was taken to glam up. The 1985 Halloween gig in particular was a not so subtle combination of The Rocky Horror Show meets Carry On Screaming. Macabre make up and classic gothic horror costumes were compulsory for band and audience alike, with the over enthusiastic crowd invading, and ultimately taking over the stage. For the mainly male dominated audiences it was no real surprise that the riotous encores (with the girls now dressed in French Maids outfits) became the most eagerly anticipated section of the latter shows!

Unfortunately, the heavy workload of 1986 eventually took its toll. Balancing day jobs, relationships, university courses and other musical commitments inevitably became too much and the curtains finally came down on the band in the early months of 1987. The last performance was rather fittingly held at their spiritual home, a packed to the rafters White Swan, with the band leaving the stage to an impromptu audience sing along of ‘We’ll Meet Again’.

So, there you go, a brief summary of the people, life & times of Chants. There’s no need to delve into any nerdy ‘anorak’ stuff concerning what type of amps, drums and guitars were used nor indeed any analysis of the chord sequences/ vocal harmony intervals used in Paul’s songs, but, hey, you can listen to the recordings and try and figure out all that nonsense yourselves. Chants never changed the world, but as a little piece of social / local music history it’s probably worth documenting the story, indeed, in the words of Keith Reid ……”Write it down, it might be read, nothing’s better left unsaid.”

(i) John Shaw and Mark Spivey were the affable presenters of the `Radio Trent Rock Show’ at the time of the session. The band had to be on their toes as the four chosen songs were effectively recorded live in a single, three hour session (and that included setting up and dismantling the equipment!!). If anyone made a mistake there was no option but to go back to the beginning and start again from scratch…… it was all recorded directly to tape back then!!

Postscript – Shortly after the demise of Chants, Paul and Mark went on to form Hector’s House, the most stable line up being; Chrissie Nash (vocals), Simon Harrison (bass guitar) and Trevor Harold (drums). They played a few small scale gigs around Nottingham before calling it a day in 1990. Linda latterly went on to tour the world as a backing singer in Mickey Finn’s T-Rex, John toured the UK as part of the Paul Weller tribute band, The Modfathers and since 2008 Mark has toured the UK with the Kinks tribute band, The Kinx.

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Two more songs:

Who’s to blame? – YouTube link Recorded as part of the 1986 Radio Trent Session – produced and engineered by John Moon (line up 5).

Out of Time – YouTube link The first track recorded by the final Chants line up (5) at Mansfield’s Everbimes studio (sometime in 1985).

Who did what and (roughly) when –

Chants 1 (1983-1984)
Paul Hewitt – guitar, vocals
John Thomas – drums
Mik Walker – fretless bass
Cheryl Woodward – vocals
Mark Sansom – lead guitar
Martyn Staves – keyboards

Chants 2 (1984)
Paul Hewitt – guitar, vocals
John Thomas – drums
Mik Walker – fretless bass
Amanda Smith – vocals
Mark Sansom – lead guitar
Martyn Staves – keyboards

Chants 3 (1984)
Paul Hewitt – guitar, vocals
John Thomas – drums
Mik Walker – fretless bass
Linda Dawson – vocals
Mark Sansom – lead guitar
Martyn Staves – keyboards

Chants 4 (1985)
Paul Hewitt – guitar, vocals
John Thomas – drums
John Vaites – bass guitar
Linda Dawson – vocals
Mark Sansom – lead guitar

Chants 5 (1985-1987)
Paul Hewitt – guitar, vocals
John Thomas – drums
Rob Eagle – bass guitar
Linda Dawson – vocals
Mark Sansom – lead guitar
Julie Dawson – vocals

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