“The undisputed kings of garage rock” * are back once again!
Two years on from their 2023 album Irregularis (The Great Hiatus), Thee Headcoats are back with a new record that ranks alongside the very best of their 1990s albums. We proudly present to you The Sherlock Holmes Rhythm ’n’ Beat Vernacular. Featuring 12 fab cuts (or ditties, if you prefer) recorded last year at Ranscombe Studios in Rochester.
The Sherlock Holmes Rhythm ’n’ Beat Vernacular will be released on the same day as Man-Trap, a brand-new album by Thee Headcoatees, which features the chaps on rhythm section duties.
Thee Headcoats – a short history
One of the many musical outfits led by Billy Childish, Thee Headcoats is his most prolific group to date (as far as we can tell). No small wonder, given Billy’s ceaseless creativity and busy release schedule. Thee Headcoats play tough R&B, Rock ’n’ Roll and Punk Rock influenced by the the early Kinks, Pretty Things and more importantly, The Downliners Sect, with an added sense of fun informed by Bruce, the drummer’s penchant for Deerstalker hats. Thee Headcoats established their template on their first LP Headcoats Down [Hangman, 1998], continuing with The Earls of Suavedom [Crypt, 1989] and Heavens to Murgatroyd, Even! It’s Thee Headcoats! (Already) [SubPop, 1990]. A leaner, more punk-oriented attack emerged on latter-day albums such as 1998’s The Messerschmitt Pilot’s Severed Hand, yet the boys never abandoned their commitment to raucous ’60s-informed R’n’B, sounding essentially unchanged on 2023’s reunion masterpiece Irregularis (The Great Hiatus).
Billy Childish and Bruce had already made a name for themselves as the UK’s leading exponent of no-frills punk and Rhythm ’n’ Beat with their early groups The Pop Rivets, The Milkshakes, and Thee Mighty Caesars. In 1989, they introduced a new combo, Thee Headcoats. Clad in matching Deerstalkers (which they had mistakenly dubbed “headcoats”). Thee Headcoats featured Childish on guitar and lead vocals, Allan Crockford on bass, and Bruce Brand on drum set. During his time with Thee Mighty Caesars, Childish had found a valuable partner in Tim Warren who ran Crypt Records in the USA. Crypt released several Mighty Caesars discs, followed by Thee Headcoats’ debut US album The Earls of Suavedom. Ollie Dolot took on bass duties on 1990’s The Kids Are All Square – This Is Hip! LP [Hangman].
The Mummies, Mudhoney, Nirvana and Beck were fans of Thee Mighty Caesars and were soon joined by others singing their praises. The endorsement of the latter two acts would in part lead to Sub Pop Records issuing 1990’s Heavens to Murgatroyd, Even! It’s Thee Headcoats! (Already) during which time Ollie left the group and Johnny ‘Tub’ Johnson took over on the bottom end. This seminal line up became instantly loved worldwide by all of good, and bad, taste.
A tour with Mudhoney followed. Note: Childish insisted the CD version of Heavens to Murgatroyd… be mastered from a vinyl LP in deference to anti-CD tastes.
In 1991, not one, but two musical off-shoots came into being: the first being Thee Headcoats Sect, a collaborative EP featuring one of the boys’ heroes – Don Craine, the leader of the Downliners Sect. Then Childish suggested to long term friend, and one of the singers in a previous collaboration, The Del Monas that an auxiliary group be formed, this becoming Thee Headcoatees – a female vocal group featuring Holly Golightly, Kyra LaRubia, Ludella Black and Bongo Debbie backed by Billy, Tub and Bruce.
1993 saw the release of the album The Good Times Are Killing Me [Vinyl Japan]. In 1996, the boys teamed up again with Don Craine, along with fellow Downliner Keith Grant-Evans and cut an LP, Deerstalking Men, again as Thee Headcoats Sect.
Between 1989 and 1999, Thee Headcoats would go on to record 19 albums and more than double that amount of 45s. During this same period Childish continued to make records with his other projects, including collaborative albums with Sexton Ming, The Singing Loins and calypso music with The Blackhands. 2000’s I Am the Object of Your Desire – credited to Wild Billy Childish & His Famous Headcoats – would seemingly be the group’s swan song (or not), and their “final” show was recorded for release on Childish’s Hangman label on 2001’s Live at the Dirty Water Club (though unissued to this day). Within moments of Thee Headcoats hanging up their deerstalkers Childish introduced his next combo, The Buff Medways, the name inspired by a breed of chicken once native to his hometown, helping an old friend from his days in archaeology to reintroduce this lost breed. Many projects, and various other groups followed for the dynamic trio, which would take several more chapters. In short – with the passing of Leader of the Sect, Don Craine in February 2022, Billy, Bruce and Tub called up Keith Grant Evans, top singer of the Downliners Sect, to cut a Headcoats Sect EP as atribute to Don. While they were in the recording studio Billy suggested they may as well record an LP as well and so Irregularis (The Great Hiatus) was knocked out over a couple of days, appearing in March 2023.
[With thanks to Mark Deming (AllMusic.com) & The New York Times*]
