Amy Catches up with Dave Diamond from The Voo-Dooms & The Primitive Club

The Voo-Dooms - Photo by Grant Unstead

Amy caught up with Dave Prince (aka Dave Diamond), drummer with The Voo-Dooms to find out more on the band and the growing success of their Primitive Club nights.

Q: Tell me about The Trash-O-Men and The Primitive Club! How did you get started?

A: Since 2016 I had been discussing with my wife Susie about opening my own 1950's/1960's club night to showcase bands that have either not played London for some time, or for an exclusive show with two DJs playing records to keep everyone dancing to the early hours! We had already been looking at Clapham Junction as a possible location in those early days and around West London too, then the following year we started to consider The Dublin Castle or The Fidler's Elbow in Camden. At the tail end of 2017 I really started looking at putting on a club once again and started to realise that this project was not something that I could do on my own; it was around this time that myself and my best mate Mike were starting to form The Voo-Dooms and after going over the idea with him, we decided to join forces and run a 1960's beat, garage and twist night.

Dave Diamond, Eric Baconstrip & Bruce Brand - Photo by Susie Prince

Dave & Mick, The Trash-0-Men - Photo by Susie Prince

The Primitive Club name is from my style of drumming and the old drums that I collect and Mike came up with the pseudonym The Trash~O~Men to use when we are putting on the event nights. I then decided to bite the bullet and contacted The Fiddlers Elbow in Camden in 2018 and booked three dates for 2019. For our opening night on 17th August 2019 we wanted to go for an explosive headliner; King Salami & The Cumberland Three. Then we chose The Hurricanes, an exclusive band to play London for the first time, and as our band The Voo-Dooms were now up and running, it was a natural choice to have us as openers for our debut night. We used a We-Got-Tickets advanced ticket booking link and sold 80 tickets and then on the day over 70 more which made the night a sell out with some coming as far as Germany and France just for the night! The first 25 through the door got a free limited edition Primitive club badge and the place was buzzing for the whole night. All three bands were amazing and the finale was King Salami & Cumberland Three ending with their version of "Tainted Love" which sent the audience into raptures. It was so fab to see Bruce 'Bash' Brand and Eric Baconstrip DJing together for the first time in over 15 years and CK Smith spinning some fab tunes til 2am! The night was captured by our official photographer Jeff Pitcher and at the end of the night the 100 leaflets we had printed to advertise our next event in November had all gone!

The Masonics - Photo by Sara Louise Bowrey

The King & The Prince - Photo by Susie Prince

For The Primitive Club #2 on November 2nd we booked The Masonics as our headliners with Ludella Black, and for our support we chose Thee Girl Fridays for their debut London Show. I had been speaking to the band at Beatwave in 2018 and said how fabulous they were and that they had to play London soon, so it was ironic when I messaged them the following year to book the band for The Primitive Club! Then we had our resident band The Voo-Dooms to kick off the night and DJs Lee 'Grimmers' Grimshaw from the Spinout Show and CK Smith to end the night playing back to back top tunes. Due to the huge success of the opening night we booked Steven Tagg Randall from The Archivist of London to capture everything on video and Sara Louise Bowrey as our official photographer. It was so amazing to see people coming through the door right when we opened at 7:30pm, and by the time The Voo-Dooms kicked off the night there were already nearly 100 in attendance. Once again all three bands stormed it with Thee Girl Fridays throwing big knickers into the audience and The Masonics with Ludella Black crowning yet another very successful high octane night! The Primitive Club #3 we billed as The Leap Year Twist Night; we had 80's garage legends The X-Men headlining, The Go-Go Cult and The Voo-Dooms and our DJs were Lee Grimshaw and Bruce 'Bash' Brand. There was a real buzz in the audience once again and this time many 80's legends had turned up on the night, including Nick Garrard (The Meteors manager), Mike Spencer (The Cannibals), Bal Croce (The Sting-Rays), and Miles, the original X-Men guitarist. Yet another electrifying night with all the bands receiving an encore and playing their socks off! At the end of the night Bal joined The X-Men on stage for an impromtu version of the Kenny and the Kasuals track "Come On"; the crowd went wild jumping and twisting! It was an amazing experience and such a phenomenal end to yet another fab night at The Primitive Club.

The Primitive Club - Photo by Jeff Pitcher

Q: You've played host to a diverse range of bands and DJ's - what kind of audience are coming to your gigs?

A: So far we've had a very diverse audience, with Beatsters, Twisters, Rock 'n' Rollers, Surf lovers, 60's Groovers, Hipsters, music lovers, Garage, Trash and European music lovers from France, Spain and Germany. Even some original musicians from the 80's have turned up to all three gigs so far which has been amazing to see. Also, it has been great to see all the bands after their show staying and watching the other bands, chatting to everyone who has attended the night and then dancing the night away once the DJs start spinning their tunes! Obviously, current events are making things very tough for promoters.

Q: What do you hope to return with when the lockdown restrictions are lifted? 

A: All being well our future nights will be:

1st August: our debut Primitive Bop #1 with headliners Carlos & The Bandidos, The Danny McVey Trio with Lil Di and Demon Barber DJs.

22nd August Primitive #5 with The No-Things (exclusive London show), Paul Groovy & The Pop Art Experience (Exclusive first London show since 1986!) & The Voo- Dooms.

21st November Primitive #6 with The Wildebeests (exclusive London show) and Kings of Hong Kong (Exclusive London show) and The Voo-Dooms...and then we will be looking at dates for 2021!

Unfortunately, due to the current Corona Virus situation, we have had to CANCEL the 30th May: Primitive #4 with The Courettes.

King Salami & The Cumberland 3 - Photo by Jeff Pitcher

Q: And while we're here, what's the latest from the wonderful world of The Voo- Dooms?

Dan Whaley (Dustaphonics, Charles Napiers, Shockwaves etc.) has joined the band on lead guitar this year and we have just finished recording six original tracks at Jim Riley's Ranscombe Studios that are due for release on Lee Grimshaw's Spinout Nuggets label in June, and then we are really looking forward to our next gig and playing live once again. Stay safe everyone, thank you to all the bands, DJs, Primitive Club team and to everyone for all the support during the past year and remember Trashin' n' Twistin' in London town at The Primitive Club - stay tuned folks! 

- Amy K-B, May 2020

Primitive Club signed poster

Photographers: Grant Unstead, Jeff Pitcher, Sara Louise Bowrey & Susie Prince. For further information on The Voo-Dooms you can check out their official Facebook site here, and to keep up to date on the Primitive Club please check out the site here. Please also do take the time to click on the highlighted links above to support the featured bands, photographers and labels etc.

The Go Go Cult "Head Hunter" - New Limited Edition 10" Vinyl Mini-Album Out Now!

The Go Go Cult, those mysterious masked voodoo rockin' shamans from errr...Reading...have just released a superb six track mini-album on hot pink 10" Vinyl entitled "Head Hunter" via the Western Star Recording Company. This will be the band's third release on the label and you can order it from here. The sleeve has a great 3D cover and the first 100 copies will include a free pair of 3D glasses, so get in there quick to avoid giving yourself a headache. The hypnotic driving rhythms and tales of Gods, Volcanoes and Head Hunters will transport you Zelig-style to a wealth of old 50's sleazy B-Movies of exotic jungles full of cannibals, creepy crawlies and damsels in distress. The Go Go Cult take all those raw and swampy Blues sounds of The Cramps, The Gun Club and Link Wray and mix them all up with a dose of The Meteors, The Tall Boys and that mid-1980's Psychobilly and Garage Rock scene then distill them into a thoroughly volatile concoction entirely of their own recipe.

The Go Go Cult photographed by Paul Slattery

Check out The Go Go Cult's official web-site here for news on upcoming gigs and future releases. You can also read a review of the band from their gig at The Dome in Tufnell Park supporting The Fuzztones in the Retro Man Blog archive here, along with some photos by legendary Rock Photographer Paul Slattery, who coincidentally photographed The Cramps in their early days too.

Oh! Gunquit - "Eat Yuppies and Dance" New Album Out Now on Dirty Water Records + Live at Hipsville & Dirty Water Club

Oh!Gunquit photographed at the Dirty Water Club by Paul Slattery

One of the highlights of the whole Hipsville weekend for me was getting to see Oh! Gunquit again, and this time with their complete line-up. When I first saw them play at one of Mr A’s Weirdsville club nights at the Fiddler's Elbow, which was reviewed on the Blog here, the band started off the gig as just a three piece. Vocalist Tina, Guitarist Simon and Drummer Alex took the stage with Bassist Veronica joining in half way through the set. This time round they had the full complement from the start with Kieran on Sax and I was really looking forward to seeing the band in all their glory. As this year’s Hipsville was “Horror” themed, Oh! Gunquit appeared decked out in Addams Family fancy dress, Tina’s familiar shock of multi-coloured hair was covered by a black Morticia Addams wig and drummer Alex was completely hidden by a long “Cousin It” wig and shades. Simon had spooky white skull-like face paint and Veronica was dressed up as Wednesday Addams which all added to the excellent party atmosphere that is so typical of the Hipsville Weekenders.

Oh! Gunquit at Hipsville - Photo by Steve Worrall

Despite Oh! Gunquit only just releasing their excellent debut album “Eat Yuppies and Dance” on Dirty Water Records, the sets at both Hipsville and the Dirty Water Club gig the following Saturday night, featured quite a few new and as yet unreleased songs. All of them point to an exciting follow-up, particularly "Fireball" with its slinky, sassy Spy movie theme riffing. "Nomads of The Lost" was another number that could easily be in the running as a potential new single, but anyway, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. “Eat Yuppies and Dance” is definitely my favourite album of the year so far, it’s one of those perfectly conceived albums where everything from the cover artwork to the production to the track-listing to the songs themselves are damn well faultless. It’s probably the diversity in the album that is most impressive, something that might not be so apparent from their live show, where it’s probably the colourful full-on visual assault that hits you hardest. However, on the album the songs really come into their own and deliver in impressive style.

Oh! Gunquit photographed at the Dirty Water Club by Paul Slattery

The refreshing thing about Oh! Gunquit is that despite the odd reference points such as The Cramps, The B-52’s or the swampy Voodoo Blues of The Gun Club, these are only fleetingly touched on and then they are gone, nothing is laboured and nothing is predictable. There’s also an extremely danceable edginess to their sound that conjures up early Talking Heads and the lo-fi Post-Punk funk of The Au-Pairs, The Slits and The Raincoats but basically, it all just sounds so incredibly fresh and dynamic. There really is nothing else quite like Oh! Gunquit. The opening song at both shows is a new one "Smiling Snake" that starts off with some great tribal drumming by Alex. Another non-album track "Cindy's Got a Tiger" with it's audience participation hand-clapping makes an appearance too but of course most of the stand-out tracks from "Eat Yuppies..." are all present and correct. "Bad Bad Milk" is a sublime stomper with Simon and Tina sharing lead vocals.

Oh! Gunquit photographed at the Dirty Water Club by Paul Slattery

Tina is all-action, she’s a unique performer and not just because she’s the only person I’ve seen to play the trumpet and hula-hoop at the same time, she also happens to have one of the best voices around. What I really like about the Weirdsville and Hipsville gigs I’ve been to recently is that they often feature bands with a really strong, charismatic female presence. I’m thinking of acts that I’ve seen in the past couple of months such as The Jackets, Autoramas, Kinoco Hotel and Thee Jezebels for example just off the top of my head. There’s a real diversity that reminds me of the early Punk days of The Slits, Poly Styrene, Gaye Advert, Fay Fife and Siouxsie. I love Simon’s trebly, spindly cinematic guitar riffs and there’s a great chemistry between him and Tina particularly when they trade vocals. Kieran’s sax playing, augmented by Tina’s trumpet on a few numbers, adds another dimension, while the rhythm section of Veronica and Alex keep it all rumbling along perfectly.

Tina from Oh! Gunquit photographed at the Dirty Water Club by Paul Slattery

Oh! Gunquit will be appearing at “Stay Sick” in Brighton on Saturday June 13th, for more details please check this link. “Eat Yuppies And Dance” is out on Vinyl, CD or download and is available from the Dirty Water Records store here. Thanks to Paul at Dirty Water Records and to Paul Slattery for the photos. For more photos of Hipsville and the Dirty Water Club gig please head on over to the Retro Man Facebook page and, if you're not already following, hit "Like" and "Get Notifications" for access to the photo albums. There are videos at the Retro Man Blog YouTube Channel too.

Oh! Gunquit photographed at the Dirty Water Club by Paul Slattery