Farewell to Brewer St...

This Monday saw our UK record company finally moving out of their premises in Brewer St, Soho. Soho is like a village that landed in the middle of London. Or more to the point, it's like a village that London surrounded, because that part of London is pretty old. But I digress...

Dorado, our record company, had been operating out of their Brewer St premises for sixteen years. The office was a few doors away from the pub pictured above. Though the Brewer St office has now closed, the label is alive and well - you can see what they're up to here.

Monday afternoon found me retreading a familiar path, from Waterloo Station, through London's sunny streets, to Dorado HQ. On the way I had to walk through Trafalgar Square. Strangely, at that exact moment, so did Prince Charles. This was of great inconvenience, as around 1,000 tourists were rubber necking the jug-eared heir to the throne. Though he does make nice sausages, I'll give him that. And cakes. Again, I digress...

I arrived at 5'ish, to a haze of skunk smoke, copious amounts of ice cold beer, a sea of cardboard boxes, towering piles of vinyl, CDs and other paraphernalia. Other artists signed to the label soon turned up, and before long a right old knees-up was taking place.

By mid-evening I was pleasantly toasted and cruising back to Surrey in a cab, chockablock full of Moke goodies. Rummaging through the stock rooms of the label has unearthed CD singles & albums, 7" & 12" vinyl singles, posters, 1,000 Moke cigarette lighters, live recordings of concerts, unreleased studio material...oh and all the master tapes too.

Result!

The question is, what to do with all this stuff next...


a l e x m o k e

The Bounder...

Man...we had a bounder. Or more specifically, we had The Bounder...THE Bounder. It looked very similar to the one in the picture above, but ours was pimped. And I mean PIMPED! The Moke Bounder had another set of wheels towards the back, a satellite dish that you cranked up with a handle linked to a huge television, fridges, a kitchen, a shower, toilet...and best of all, electric steps that popped out at the touch of a button. We eschewed the black paint job and went instead for pure beige. Classic, sleek, sexy...cool.

We first met The Bounder in Florida. It had been driven out to the East coast by our driver for the next twelve weeks, Hans. The man was, and hopefully still is, a legend.

Over the course of that tour, The Bounder took a bit of a kicking. We regularly overlooked to retract the electric steps. What would alert you to this was a horrific metallic scraping sound, which would only happen when the vehicle turned right. This could be ten, twenty minutes into a journey.

The satellite dish? Navigating a low bridge at high speed took care of that one. The huge wing mirrors? Casualty No. 1, entering a checkpoint at Disney in Anaheim, CA. Casualties Nos. 2, 3, 4... - I don't remember where, but what's important to understand is that there were multiple casualties.

We also ripped the roof off and crashed the fucker on a daily basis, usually at the back, which when you look at the design of the vehicle is understandable. Approximately one third of The Bounder's length was behind the rear wheels. You'd go to swing out of a parking space, and destroy the back of the bus AND a street sign in one fell swoop.

Inside, The Bounder was a palace when we took possession. Check it...




...just like Dolly Parton's living room. By the time the tour ended in Houston, Texas, it had also been destroyed. Following the incident with the roof, water had leaked in, helpfully all over the 1,000 or so Moke T-shirts we were carrying at the time. We chain smoked throughout the 600 mile daily drives, and in the tradition of all considerate rock bands, entertained well wishers in the vehicle following a show, instead of our hotel rooms. Hot rocks, spillages, general bon viveurie took care of the soft furnishings and interior decor. And due to the lack of a boot (GB) / trunk (USA), flightcases rolled over the floor on a daily basis had ripped the lino to shreds.

The final straw was when we travelled to a show somewhere in the mid-west. As we drove through a densely wooded area, a sprightly deer suddenly leaped, gazelle-like, into the road in front of The Bounder. I was riding shotgun at the time, and as we hurtled towards it, the deer's head turned - we locked eyes. What followed was that special moment, where animal and man are in perfect harmony. We understood each other completely.

"Maybe, just maybe, this isn't going to happen...?"

Then...

THWACK!
CRUNCH!
BUDOOMP!

May it's enormous great bulk R.I.P. And I'm talking about The Bounder, as well as the stupid deer.

a l e x m o k e

Analogue...

As you're now probably aware, the webiste is back up and running in some capacity, though some pages remain under construction. In particular the media section. Oh the media section! There are countless video clips, photographs, demos, B-sides, live recordings and interviews for the band to sift through in order to work out what's fit for public consumption.

What's causing some delay is that Moke operated in an analogue world. The past six years has seen the digital revolution consume the media industries, which doesn't half make life easy NOW. But back then...phew! As you can imagine, trying to find a four-track cassette player is proving...interesting, though I think we're getting there.

Watch this space...

a l e x m o k e

Back again...

Welcome one and all to the allsinging, dirtydancing, hardrocking M O K E B L O G, part of the newly revamped moke.com

Through various portals, and for some time now, people have been sending messages and asking questions...

Why did Moke come to an end?
Where are the band now?
How can we buy CDs?
Will downloads ever be available?
What about a live album?
Are there plans to release any new material?

The relaunch of moke.com plans to address all of these issues. And so many more.

Until next time…

a l e x m o k e

p.s - thanks to Dougorama for the excellent photo used above. You can see more of his rather snazzy work here.