David Price and the Galactic Symposium Featuring The Extraordinary David Price

A Nottingham group from 1979 who produced a cassette and a vinyl 7″ of classic top 40 covers in an unconventional style and gigged locally until the early eighties. The single, two covers of Pink Floyds Money & YMCA, achieved some notoriety when played on John Peels radio show a number of times. It also has the honour of being found in “John Peel’s Record Box” when he passed away. This box also included another Nottingham band, local punk heroes Some Chicken.

Line up:
Tim Minnitt: vocals
David Price: guitar
Simon “Sy” Husbands: drummer
Ben Ross: bass
Michael Cosman: saxophone

Simon Husbands: “Dave Kerry was an occasional member of the GS, we had floating members who might be there for one show: people included Charles Husbands and Carole Russell and Pete Constance, all appeared in the live band at one occasion or another”.

Listen to “Money” being on John Peel’s Radio 1 show in 1979.

They self released a single which made its way to John Peel’s radio show. He loved it and it had many plays over the years. There are rumours that Galactic Symposium turned down a “Peel Session”.
Sy: “The rumour of the Peel session is just that. We were never offered a session because no one knew who we were – we were very mysterious about leaking identities!”

“The single was released by us, but we used a Vague Records catalog # to give it credibility. Vague was operated by Steve Baker who managed Art Failure – their single was VAG001, I think ours was VAG002. Steve was at school with us”.

Tim: “The Galactic Symposium was a group of ex-High School pupils whose approach to music was somewhat at odds with the recognised convention. Each of us attempted to do something musically for which we were completely unsuited. I was the singer, David Price was on guitar, Simon Husbands was the drummer, Ben Ross played bass and Michael Cosman was on saxophone (no thanks to John Coltrane). We made a record ‘YMCA’ c/w ‘Money’ which was released on Vague Records and is now worth actual money (it wasn’t then). It was played on two successive nights (I believe) on John Peel’s ‘Top Gear’ show. There’s a strange picture of us on some obscure website but no others. We played several gigs, the most momentous of which was on the Nottingham Castle bandstand as part of the Nottingham Festival of 1981 I think. The official name of the group was David Price and the Galactic Symposium”.

Sy: “we had a Sunday lunchtime residency at a pub in Birmingham called the barrel organ. I believe we played there four weeks only, and the residency ended when the number of people in the audience numbered 0!”

Tim Minnit, who, along with Dave Brett, started and wrote for the “Way Ahead” magazine in the 1970’s was in the group as lead vocalist. David Price also wrote for Way Ahead magazine.

Simon Husbands had played with local Nottingham group “Mensch” in 1971/77 and Gwaihir / Zero-iD in the late 70’s eventually joining English Electric and Blue Train in the 80’s. “The Galactic Symposium played at the Boat Club once, supporting another local band, Art Failure. We also played the Castle bandstand, as well as the Market Square”.

1979

The Galactic Symposium recorded at Paddy Flynn’s Rainbow studio’s in Nottingham and released a cassette with a limited run of about one hundred copies in 1979 with the following tracks.

Money
Alright Now
Hey Jude
Y.M.C.A.
House of the Rising Sun
Albatross
Sunshine of Your Love
Paranoid
Whole Lotta Love
Love Like a Man

David Price: lead guitar – Has played in no other band, has classical piano experience, a fervent desire to be a star, and no guitar experience at all.*

Ben Ross: keyboards – Has played in local bands since he was 16 when his parents bought him his first drum kit. Has ambitions to become a star and to play the keyboards (of which he has no experience) with both hands.

Tim Minnitt: vocals – has done nothing. Has ambitions to do something one day, as long as it doesn’t involve singing.

Sy Husbands: drums. Has played in local bands since Ben Ross’s parents bought Ben his first drum kit. Has ambitions to be better than Rick Wakeman. Has no drumming experience whatsoever.

Dave Kerry: bass – lives in Mansfield. No other ambitions. One day hopes to own a bass guitar. Has no bass guitar experience at all.

Guest musicians on the album were Paddy Flynn (drums on ‘Love Like a Man’); Peter Shepherd (backing vocals) and Michael Cosman who played the amazing sax solos on ‘Y.M.C.A. and ‘Money’.

In 2005 a record label in the Netherlands released the recordings on a 12″ vinyl.

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They played a gig supporting “The Drug Squad” at “The Outlaws” on Trent Bridge, a gig I think I was at. Although when I asked Fred Roper about it the other night he couldn’t even remember much even about The Drug Squad so who knows. 2023.

1981

1982

1983

1984

They gigged until the mid eighties.

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