SEE TEMPLATE FROM WHAT THE SLEEVES WERE PRINTED FROM

What Is The Cure / Anything Goes / East Coast Kids

Catalogue Number - HREP 004

Label - Humber Records

Year Of Release - 1979

Quantity Pressed - 500

‘The Sea Wall At Cleethorpes'

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One interesting point about this band is that "The story goes....When Dracula first came to Britain, he arrived by a boat and boarded at Grimsby". Now take a look at the spelling of the Bass players last name...Spooky eh?

The What: Mick Taylor, guitar & vocals; Dave Alucard, bass; Phil Trotsky, drums

 Who were The What?  No band ever played a gig as The What and the ‘East Coast Kids’ EP was, seemingly, their only record release.  The truth is, that the creators of The What’s East Coast Kids EP were the members of Exit, South Humberside’s first Punk Rock band to form, play gigs, release a record, get broadcast on BBC radio, split up, and then re-form a couple of years later.  Between 1978 and 1986, Exit played dozens of gigs and released three records.

            Exit formed in July 1977 at Cleethorpes Winter Gardens on the night of a gig by The Boys, after which, Mick and Dave ligged with the band in their dressing room where The Boys’ bassist Kid Reid, on his Fender Mustang, gave Dave his 1^st bass guitar lesson

Exit’s debut gig in November 1978 ended in a riot with the band attacked by the audience and their equipment smashed up.  Death threats were made against Exit in the days that followed and they had to cancel their second gig and play the next one anonymously as The Christmas Trees. 

The riot made news headlines in the north of England and resulted in a trial of six attackers at Lincoln Crown Court.  The presiding judge said Exit had given “a disgusting performance” and that “it was a disgusting incident which is all too prevalent”.  The publicity resulted in a series of BBC radio interviews with the band, plus a BBC Radio Humberside recording session in March 1979 and the subsequent broadcast of three songs.  Mick explains:  “On the day of the recording we were in the middle of a song when a BBC sound engineer burst in from the studio next door and told us to stop making so much ‘noise’.  It was a Saturday afternoon and the ‘noise’ from our drums was drowning out the live football commentary being broadcast from the engineer’s studio; he was panicking about all the listeners turning off their radios in disgust.” 

 Thanks to the high profile media publicity sparked off by the riot and the BBC session and broadcasts, Exit’s 10 gigs in 1978 to 1979 were played to full houses.  Their biggest gig, to an audience of 500, was in February 1979 supporting The Damned at Cleethorpes Winter Gardens - the night that Captain Sensible’s famous red beret ‘trademark’ image was born.  Mick explains: “Whilst we were performing our support spot, the Captain ran on stage and swiped my Scouts of America red beret from my head.  When The Damned came onstage to do their spot, the Captain performed wearing my red beret.  Afterwards, the Captain was reluctant to hand it back, so in the car park, Exit launched a snowball attack on The Damned which evolved into a blood-curdling struggle to try and retrieve my precious red beret.  A couple of months later, The Captain appeared on the record sleeve of ‘Love Song’, The Damned’s first big hit, followed by their first appearance on Top Of The Pops wearing the red beret that was henceforth to be his famous ‘trademark’.” 

 In the summer of 1979 Exit recorded 8 songs at Humber Recording Studios.  From this came the band’s debut single, the ‘East Coast Kids’ EP by The What, released in September 1979.  350 copies of the original 500 pressings were bought by Lincoln’s Dead Good Records and distributed by Rough Trade & Small Wonder.  Remarkably, several months later, 50 copies sold in Norway gained it a chart entry at Number 16 in their ‘Alternative’ charts!  Dave says, "We thought we could hitch a lift on a trawler and pop across the North Sea to Norway and do a couple of gigs."  

 At Exit’s final 1970s gig, in October 1979, the band was still appearing onstage billed as Exit whilst simultaneously promoting their debut single as the ‘East Coast Kids’ EP by The What.  “Everybody asks us why we suddenly changed our name from Exit to The What,” says Mick.  “Two days before our EP was due to be pressed, with 'Exit' printed on the label, I came across two records in my collection: The 'Yodelling' EP by The Exits (from Stoke-on-Trent) and 'The Fashion Plague' by The Exits (from Battersea, London).  Convinced that we, as Exit, would get confused with these two bands called The Exits, I panicked.  Dialling a telephone number stamped on one of their record sleeves, I introduced myself as a member of Exit from Humberside and announced that our EP was going to be much more successful than theirs, so in future, they’d have to change their name from The Exits to something else.  The person on the other end of the line went berserk and threatened legal action if we dared to release our EP as Exit.  With two days to think of a new name, Dave and I made a snap decision, rooted in the summer of ‘79’s ‘Mod’ revival.  “Hope I die before I get old” is the lyric from ‘My Generation’ by The Who; and 'What Is The Cure?' is all about my fear of growing old – and so, as a playful tribute to The Who, we called ourselves The What.  And we got a big thrill seeing The What EP sold alphabetically next to The Who in the Virgin Megastore on London’s Oxford Street!”   

After Exit folded (or The What – well, please yourself!) Mick and Dave reunited in 1980 to record and gig as The Funeral Service.  The original Exit trio re-formed in 1981, soon becoming a four-piece with two guitars, Moog synth and a rare 1960s Tiesco organ.  Their second single, ‘Planetoid Passion’ was recorded in 1982 at the famous Cargo Studios, Rochdale, released in 1983 on Mick’s ‘Red Beret’ label and distributed by Pinnacle and The Cartel.  In 1984, Exit released their third single ‘The Bite of Winter’ on the ‘Red Beret’ label.

The first release as "Exit" from 1983 after reverting back to this name.

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