Backseat Romeos

Scunthorpe and Grimsby

Zero Ambition / In The Night

Catalogue Number - FER 007

Label - Future Earth Records

Year Of Release - 1980

The Classics

...a brief history 

Following the fragmentation of their previous band in 1977, John Clay, Keith Newby and Rob Hampson brought in the youthful and talented Ash Aisthorpe to play bass in a new band to be called "The Classics".

 Based in Lincolnshire / South Humberside - specifically Scunthorpe and Grimsby - the first few months into 1978 were pretty tempestuous -  it became apparent after a fair number of gigs that Keith and Rob were not entirely committed to things so Ash and John split and found a new drummer in Mick Freer from Grimsby, whilst retaining the name of "The Classics". At the same time fellow Scunthonian Steve Robinson joined on Guitar and Vocals for a brief period but his time was short lived due to a preoccupation with all things American or the Rolling Stones, hardly credible leanings for a budding Punk / New Wave band.

 It wasn't long before the band became a 3 piece for a short period after Steve's departure, until they came across Shaun Ashworth from Doncaster who joined on keyboards ( Shaun later went on to tour the world with Edwin Starr ).

 This period between 1978 and 1980 saw the band at their most creative when most of the original material was written and they gigged regularly in the Yorkshire / Lincolnshire / Humberside and Nottinghamshire region where they were good crowd pullers. Early in 1980 Shaun, a talented but volatile personality left the band and The Classics became a 3 piece yet again.

 Demoing 3 songs at Fairview Studios in Hull - "Check Her Alibi", "New Generation" and "Zero Ambition", the tapes led to a single deal with Future Earth Records from Doncaster. The band went back into Fairview and recorded the single "Zero Ambition" and "In The Night" ( with Terry Wincott from Amazing Blondel of all people guesting on keyboards ) for subsequent release on 18th Oct 1980, under the new guise of "Backseat Romeos". The name change was due to another band operating under the name of the Classics.

 Over the Xmas period of 1980 John had 2 lengthy auditions with Magazine in London and was asked to go back for a full week with a view to joining the band, work commitments prevented this and the opportunity was lost, although Magazine split themselves only a few months later.

 Sadly Mick left Backseat Romeos in early 1981 and his place was taken by Trev Fearnley, Johns old drummer from Seagull days in the early 70's. This led to a rockier sound but whilst this line up was potentially the strongest the band had, things were getting tired and by late 1981 we decided to split.

Postscript :-

Where are they now ?

 Ash still lives in Grimsby and has dabbled with bands on and off over the years

 Mick still lives in Grimsby and has had little involvement in music until The Classics reformed for his 40th birthday in 2001 - the band played a few gigs and then disbanded again due to Johns other commitments

 John still lives in Scunthorpe and has played in numerous bands since, at the minute is actively involved in running his own record label - Stunted Records.

In 1999 he compiled a CD of demos, outtakes and very rough live recordings "The Classics....Backseat Romeos" from the period - maybe in the digital age this can be enhanced, who knows.

Original Songs

 Zero Ambition

In the Night

Check Her Alibi

New Generation

Backseat Romeo

UTT

Shy One

Love Story

Sign of the Times

The Cull

Just Like a Woman

Communicate

Richard

Legends of the Greeks

Hello World

Faded Memories

John Clay

18th June 2006

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