Thursday, June 20, 2024

TUBbH


ORIGINS: Baulkham Hills, NSW
GENRE: Punk. Alternative
YEARS ACTIVE: 1994-1999
 
MEMBERS:
  • Jono Barwick - Vocals (1994), Bass
  • Adrian Griffin - Drums 
  • Abram McEvoy - Guitar (1994-1997)
  • Alistair Merriman - Vocals (1995)
  • Morgan Coxell - Vocals (1995-1997)
  • Krazy Dave - Vocals (1998-1999)
  • Stu Smy - Guitar (1997-1998)
  • Chris Maxwell - Guitar (1999)
RELEASES: 
  • Live (1994)
    • 1. Sodomised by the Angry Croissant
    • 2. Slated Cupboard Doors
    • 3. What


  • You've Come to the Wrong House (1994) - Download Here.
    • 1. Look to the Future
    • 2. Cereal
    • 3. Brain Dead
    • 4. Wizz Fizz
    • 5. Not Until You're Dead
    • 6. Sludge Fudge
    • 7. Funk Fresh Homey Jock Crew
    • 8. Isolation
    • 9. Fear of Handcuffs
    • 10. Expanding Contracting
    • 11. Majic
    • 12. Le Donut Satanique
    • 13. Soul Eaters
    • 14. Security Guard Song

  • No Thought at All?! (1995) - Download Here.
    • 1. Funkey Fresh Homey Jock Crew
    • 2. Sell Out
    • 3. Dribbling Euphemisms of a Takeaway Food Item
    • 4. Injecting Stupidity
    • 5. If You Skate You Won't Grow Up to Be a Garbageman
    • 6. Asparagus
    • 7. Suburban Gangsta
    • 8. Boomshanka (actually 'In My Eyes' - a Minor Threat cover)

  • Self-Titled Demo (1997) - Download Here.
    • 1. Fuck the Cause
    • 2. Pigs Might Fly
    • 3. The Price is Right
    • 4. You Shouldn't Have

  • Self-Titled Album (1998) - Download Here.
    • 1. Look to the Future
    • 2. Injecting Stupidity
    • 3. Mockery of Hypocrisy
    • 4. Suburban Gangsta
    • 5. Floppy Flaccid
    • 6. Vinnie Bin Raid
    • 7. Wardrobe
    • 8. TV As God
SUMMARY: Starting in March/April 1994, Abram and Barwick combined the sound of Baby Jesus Hitler with the songwriting talents of new band members to create TUBbH. They were soon playing a range of all ages shows, pubs, and parties, and built up a strong following via their involvement with Hornsby PCYC shows. The band rotated through 4 singers over their time, with bassist and founding band member Barwick initially providing vocals before focusing on just bass. TUBbH played several high profile shows in support of bigger acts and appeared on the youth-music TV show Ground Zero on Channel 10. Things eventually came to an end in 1999 with the two consistent band members (Barwick and Griffin) deciding to go their separate ways.
 
SHOWS: 


ORAL HISTORY:
ADRIAN: Jono and I were good friends at school but kinda hung out in different circles. He had his band Baby Jesus Hitler and I went to see the a few times at places like the Cow Shed and Hornsby PCYC. I mentioned that I would like to play for them at some point and not that long after Tubbh started as pretty much the same band as Baby Jesus Hitler but with me on drums (that old trick!)
Adrian Griffin (Drums), Noise Levels Correspondence, 2024
 
JONO: The band’s first rehearsal was basically a rehashing of songs by my previous band, Baby Jesus Hitler. After an hour or so we decided there would have to be a name change and the first word to pop into Adrian’s head was tub, Abram countered with a double B and I clarified the stupidity with the silent H. And so the name was decided. Many rumours were perpetuated for those two extra letters but it was not an acronym for Those Useless Bastards from Baulkham Hills nor did the extra letters stand for Baulkham Hills (our home suburb).  
Jono Barwick (Bass), Noise Levels Correspondence, 2024
 
JONO: Our first gig was at the infamous 'Haunted Castle' (the Lewisham Hotel) on a Wednesday night. A momentous occasion indeed, Adrian forgot his tom mount and had to gaffer-tape his tom to a mike stand. The world also found out how bad a singer I was and several of our friends found out about my fascination with food and bondage. All in all a classy night!
Jono Barwick (Bass), Noise Levels Correspondence, 2024
 
ADRIAN: My earliest memory of Tubbh shows is probably the Hornsby ones when we'd play with bands like Savage Cabbage and Stalin's Organ and heaps of others. The shows themselves were good because you'd have a bunch of different styles of music but with a common DIY thread. Everyone, including myself, got to hear new and different music and it wasn't just a bunch of bands in the same genre. Then at the next rehearsal we'd be inspired and write riffs like what we'd heard at those shows. I think we went down well. The early party shows were fun, people would get pretty loose.
Adrian Griffin (Drums), Noise Levels Correspondence, 2024


JONO: Recording our first demo, You've Come to the Wrong House, at Zen Studios was a marathon effort. In five hours we recorded three Baby Jesus Hitler-era songs live to DAT for prosperity’s sake and then 14 songs for the actual demo. We also mixed the whole thing and left with our own shiny DAT copy. We had Adrian’s mate Wayne Parry come in and drop some sax on our token ska track and generally had more fun than can be described. We got 100 copies printed on cassette with the dodgiest artwork ever seen (I draw as well as I sing). It took us a few months but we sold them all to friends and fans alike. We also did our first city gig shortly after with Mad Circle (now Mindsnare) and Gilgamesh at Feedback above Newtown station. (Big thanks to Tim Manton for getting us that show). Our friend Fran from Stalin’s Organ got two of the songs off the demo -Braindead and Inhale/Exhale - onto the Core Sessions 2 compilation.
Jono Barwick (Bass), Noise Levels Correspondence, 2024
 
ADRIAN: We'd recorded some really rough demos with a boombox to cassette at rehearsal and then the first proper recording we did 14 songs at the old Zen Studios in 5 hours (from load-in to final mix!)
Adrian Griffin (Drums), Noise Levels Correspondence, 2024
 
JONO: One night whilst at at my friend Michelle’s house for a bit of drunken debauchery, my friend Alistair Merriman mentioned how much he liked us and how he knew all the words to the songs, so of course we got him to sing for us. He was a shy little bugger but rocked the mic all the same. After he'd been in the band about four months we recorded our second demo, No Thought At All?!, at Noisegate Studio... Unfortunately, soon after we recorded the demo, Alistair decided to move to Melbourne.  
Jono Barwick (Bass), Noise Levels Correspondence, 2024
 
 
ADRIAN: We got to support some great bands. One gig that stands out was in Parramatta with The Superjesus and Shihad. We also played on a Channel 10 show called Ground Zero. Jackie O was working there before she was known as Jackie O. I'm not sure how it came about but I assume Jono tee'd it up somehow. We played one or two songs.  
Adrian Griffin (Drums), Noise Levels Correspondence, 2024
 
JONO: Morgan wasn't a bad singer but the reliability factor wasn't really there! At this stage we had hit our peak with support slots for Frenzal Rhomb and Tumbleweed and other great bands of the time. Things were looking good but they were also looking bad - with Abe showing less and less interest everyday. He still didn't actually own an amp after 4 years of playing in the band. So, as difficult as it was, we had to ask him to leave. Abe was replaced by the notorious Crestwood High westie Stu Smy. This dude was and still is the shred master. Six weeks and maybe 10 rehearsals later we made Stu play his first gig - in front of about 500 people! He ruled it through the help of his many pieces of paper with the arrangements written on them. This was definitely our best line up and we played our biggest shows at this time, including an all ages show that we headlined to about 600 people. At this point it was time for demo number 3. Only four songs, but they're probably our best four. We sold almost all of the first hundred in three weeks and did our first and only T-shirt run, which also sold out in double time. 
Jono Barwick (Bass), Noise Levels Correspondence, 2024
 
JONO: We were invited to put some songs on a compilation 7" box set so we once again headed into into trusty Noisegate to lay down two new songs, 'Vinnie Bin Raid' and 'With Drugs Like These Who Needs Friends?' I sang on the latter as it was a very personal song. If you listen closely when I sing the chorus you can here when I almost laugh because Stu held up a sign saying Motorhead as I was laying down the vocals. Unfortunately by the time this came out we had kicked Morgan out (or maybe he left?) He definitely wasn't at band practise since we passed his car on the way to a gig and he yelled out to use, "Have a good night", and drove off never to be seen again.  
Jono Barwick (Bass), Noise Levels Correspondence, 2024
 
 
JONO: With so many lineup changes we were beginning to lose focus. We finally decided to record our debut CD after a couple of successful shows left us with money with burn. This experience was a little unpleasant - Adrian and I had been fighting, and Stu was not digging Dave's voice. So, after laying down the music, we re-listened to it before we did the vocals and said 'fuck it', and started all over again. It sounded better but it was definitely Mike's fucking masterpiece, not ours. 
Jono Barwick (Bass), Noise Levels Correspondence, 2024
 
JONO: After the album, Stu said he no longer wanted to continue in the band, so we enlisted Chris Maxwell. He was a longtime friend and had long time given up playing guitar but who cared, he was still good. We did an album release show at the Annandale in August, 1998. We sold 3 copies that night - huge!
Jono Barwick (Bass), Noise Levels Correspondence, 2024
 
CHRIS: I've been good friends with Jono and Adrian since early high school and went to many TUBbH gigs for years before joining the band. I'd been playing guitar since I was 12 and I used to also go to TUBbH rehearsals basically just to hang out. My joining came just after helping record the album - I helped with some lyrics and did some backing vocals. I later recorded a few songs playing guitar after this, with Dave as singer, but these recordings were never officially released. 
Chris Maxwell (Guitar), Noise Levels Correspondence, 2024
 
CHRIS: My first show was alongside Stuart, who was lead guitarist, and my most memorable gig was my first one where I was the only guitarist, when Stuart abruptly left before our biggest gig ever - supporting Sprung Monkey from the US. There was a crowd of around 5000 people and Stuart said at the last minute that he wasn't coming. That was when he decided to leave. We had to do the whole show without any of the lead sections as I wasn't a lead or solo kind of player. I didn't know any of his more technical parts but we were heading in a heavier riff-based direction by then, where there was less need for solos.
Chris Maxwell (Guitar), Noise Levels Correspondence, 2024

ADRIAN: Towards the end I think we were all just a bit over it. Jono and I disagreed on things, our guitarist hated playing live, and I joined Quadbox, which I don't think went down too well with the band. We just kinda dissolved. 
Adrian Griffin (Drums), Noise Levels Correspondence, 2024
 
CHRIS: My last show was probably the one where a drunk guy turned off my distortion pedal mid-song and there was nearly a fight. I didn't want to play gigs much after that. And to be honest, the band was slowly coming apart by that stage. I was always nervous playing live and never really enjoyed it. 
Chris Maxwell (Guitar), Noise Levels Correspondence, 2024
 
 
Promo for TUBbH, newspaper, 1999
 , 199
JONO: Things began to fall apart with personal issues for certain members, as well as clashing egos. Also, my brother Mike was killed in a hit-and-run, causing me a wee bit of distress and TUBbH-wise, it didn't help one iota. After many arguments and carrying-on, Adrian and I decided the best thing to do was break up. We got Stu back and did two final shows - an Over 18s at the Iron Duke, and then our very final show at the Harvey Lowe pavilion at Castle Hill. The funny thing about this show was that the support bands were The Shirkers (my new band) and Quadbox (Adrian's new band) so, as well as being the end of an era, it was also an introduction to what we were going to do next. 
Jono Barwick (Bass), Noise Levels Correspondence, 2024
 
ADRIAN: We reformed for Jono's 35th birthday - a bunch of bands including Tubbh played at The Lansdowne. We've all stayed friends since the band ended, there was no bad blood at all. The reunion show was heaps of fun. We hadn't seen Stu the guitarist for years, so that was cool.  
Adrian Griffin (Drums), Noise Levels Correspondence, 2024

RELATED BANDS: The Shirkers, Quadbox, Baby Jesus Hitler, Domestic Clone Unit, Degeneracy, Hell City Glamours, Cruelty's Fun, Garrottes, The Flames of Love, AgagueFor, Salacius Crumb, Smash Alley, As If, 28 Days, Lo!, Burial Pit, Salmon Hater, Degeneracy 
 
EXTERNAL LINKS: The TUBbH bandcamp.
 




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