Nottingham prog rock band. Early to mid 1970’s.

Originally formed at school in 1971 it was the brainchild of Simon Husbands. I chatted to Simon to get a little history.

“I am originally from West Bridgford, and when I was six my parents made me join the church choir and I did a stint of 10 years in church choirs. I don’t know where I get my musical abilities from but it certainly wasn’t from my parents! We had an old piano I used to mess around on but started getting really serious after hearing Roxy Music in 1972!”

“When I was a kid, I lived on Melton Rd in West Bridgford, #174 to be precise! I was a chorister at St. Giles church, off Rectory Rd. After a couple of years singing there, I became a chorister at Saint Peters church in Nottingham, the music teacher at the High School was the director of music there and he thought I could sing! I carried on singing there until I left school when I was 16”.

“When we started playing together with Mencsh, we were all still at school and we did play a few private parties, I remember one particular gig we played at the Broadway theatre in the lace market. It’s a shame we didn’t record anything. The only recording I have is a really really bad recording of probably the first song that I ever wrote, that the other two guys in the band, as a surprise, made into a vinyl record. Just one pressing! I recently discovered it and I’m trying to turn it into something halfway decent”.

“Actually for a little while, I lived in a house on Mona Road. I’m sure you know it! That was primarily during the Gwaihir years. And of course, I knew quite a few people who went to Rushcliffe school. I wonder if you knew any of the same people? I dated a girl called Philippa Wood for a while, she went to Rushcliffe, her good friend who used to hang around with was Sam Ellis or Sarah Ellis, one of my old school chums from the high school ended up going there, Andy Bennett. Andy Monk played with Art Failure for a while. He was a Nottingham High School boy, like me”.

“Wayne Evans, Paul Arnall – they were heroes of mine as I was getting into music. I saw them all play. I was so excited the first time Wayne Evans ever said hello to me! I used to bump into Paul quite a lot in my final years in Nottingham, he’s a nice chap. Between ’94 and ’97 I lived in the house on the corner of Millicent road and Loughborough Rd. I like W Bridgford very much!”

As a three piece band they performed their own music which was all written by Simon Husbands. They had a similar sound to 70’s prog rock giants Yes and Genesis. Their first proper gig was at the Imperial on St James’s Street in 1976 and their second was at the Boat by the river Trent. Both gigs had their glitches and mistakes and that didn’t endear them to the audience but as Dave Price added, writing in Way Ahead magazine Issue 2, they did get a residency at the Imperial.:

Line up *1: 1976
Simon “Sy” Husbands: Keyboards, Vocals
Simon Ross: Drums
Jeremy Grice: Bass

Simon Ross eventually became known as Ben Ross. “Simon is his first name but because he and I we’re always hanging out together somebody made a decision to start calling him Ben, I think it was because we were in the same scout troop!”

They added a guitarist Kevin Glenville which helped out with the solo instrumentation prevalent in their music. Paul Sneap later replaced Jeremy Grice on bass guitar.

Line up *2:
Simon Husbands: Keyboards, Vocals
Simon Ross: Drums
Jeremy Grice: Bass
Kevin Glenville : Guitar

Line up *3:
Simon Husbands: Keyboards, Vocals
Simon Ross: Drums
Paul Sneap: Bass
Kevin Glenville : Guitar

Some songs they performed were:

All the Fun of the Fair
A Life for a Life
As Clouds Float By
The Abortion
Hapless, Hairless Harry Has His Hairpiece Hijacked
Automobile Fondling

Friend Russel Denson wrote some of the lyrics for “A Life for a Life”.
“The Abortion” was a twenty minute “piece de resistance” and with silly songs like “Hapless, Hairless Harry Has His Hairpiece Hijacked” & “Automobile Fondling” it all added up to a great evenings entertainment.

Eventually, Mensch called it a day, and Simon Husbands started playing with another Nottingham band called Gwaihir.

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SIMON HUSBANDS

Band history:
Mensch – 1971/77
Gwaihir – 1978/79
Galactic Symposium – 1979/84
Zero-iD – 1979/80
English electric – 1980/85
Blue Train – 1986/92

Simon Husbands later moved to the USA and is the owner of a piano technology business working with Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, Owl City, Arctic Fire Jack White, Of Monsters and Men and others. He is also a DJ at KFAI in Minnesota.

Simon is still making music. He released an album called “Pop” in 2020. It is on all the regular platforms and here is a YouTube playlist