The Perseverers (lost tapes)
1998. I was all set to trade my itinerant life for a move to Rome; Craig was living the domestic idyll on a housing estate in Luton. The glamour was short-lived, though, and with our respective relationships suddenly crashed and burnt, we both found ourselves back in the comforting bosom of The Midlands – periods of rehabilitation courtesy of Yarker’s Batchelorium. At the tail end of that year, Craig Stephens and I syphoned our collective angst into the blender hoping for some cheap creative therapy. A loose pastiche of early ’70s classic The Persuaders (with well-heeled renegade Roger Moore paired up with street-wise Tony Curtis) was envisaged as the perfect retro-chic vehicle for our re-invented selves: The Perseverers.
For a decade those master-tapes languished in a dusty drawer. But now, finally, they have been digitised for universal consumption. Flying Down to Malta, Fine Art and the brooding existentialism of Extension 526; all meditations on the unending quest for meaningfulness. A fourth video, Casanova Beat, was considered either too violent or too rubbish for inclusion.
We played one live gig, at Jaki & Viki’s birthday bash. We partied like it was 1999, which it indeed was. The dream became real. We quickly got girlfriends. And had a break from the music industry – for 9 years. Thanks to The Kitchen Garden Cafe in King’s Heath, The Perseverers have returned to host a couple of Retort evenings in the past year and there is the promise of some new material soon.
Filed under: the perseverers | 1 Comment
Tags: craig stephens, extension 526, fine art, flying down to malta, kitchen garden cafe, retort, the perseverers, the persuaders, the retort cabaret
Categories
GraeRose Twitterfeed
- RT @WorldBollard: Welcome to Bollard World. A place where dreams come true. #WorldBollardAssociation https://t.co/QKRRHFGKkj 3 weeks ago
- RT @DerekNisbet10: #2 @SamFrankieFox @acraigster @Graerose @BungsPA🎶🎹 1 month ago
- RT @birdmail: Listen back to last night’s performance.... talkingbirds.mixlr.com/recordings/196… 1 month ago
- A glimpse into the great work @ShopFrontCov - run by Julia & Chris @theatreabsolute. Beautifully put together by… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 2 months ago
- RT @BCT_Touring: @CreativeBCuk is offering micro commissions of £500 - £2000 for projects to deliver creative activities in a warm and comf… 2 months ago
There’s some valuable archive footage from Midlands Today (or possibly a Central TV arts roundup programme) of The Perseverers playing in Coventry’s now destroyed Odeon cinema. I think it might be an extract of Fine Art. I’ll root around for it.