On Saturday 18 August 1990 came the gig to cap them all. The band that might have been the last to play the Purple Pussycat in Finchley, regulars at the Dublin Castle in Camden town, the incomparable:
The Measures a.k.a The Imperial Measures. They are (left to right) Simon Plent, Trevor Clarke and Brian McIlvenny. Trev and Brian have been mentioned before. To tell the truth I couldn't honestly say that I knew Simon. I only ever met him when we went to see the Measures. The three of them were a band way back in the late 70's long before I ever met Brian or Trev. At that time their band was called The Vamps. Brian's version of events is that just before they went to their respective colleges they got into a studio and cut a 7'' 3 track EP on red vinyl. They sent it to Mike Reid who had the breakfast show on Radio 1 and a few weeks later he made it his record of the week. The problem was that by the time he did that the band had effectively split up. The record had an instruction on it to ring a telephone number if you wanted to get hold of a copy and it seems Brian's mum's phone was ringing off the hook!
If they hadn't all just gone their separate ways who knows what might have been? I think Brian told me that they had 300 records pressed. Brian's mum obviously didn't sell them all because Brian gave me a copy. I've got it in my iTunes now. I must apologise here for stealing the artwork from the web page I found for both my iTunes coverflow and this posting. The url for the site is http://www.detour-records.co.uk/vamps.htm.
I'm a bit hazy about where the Measures gig was that day. I think it might have been in a rehearsal space in Hornsey somewhere. On this occasion the band was a foursome. They had recently recruited a keyboards player. I wasn't sure about this addition. I'm sure there was nothing wrong with the technique but I just thought the keyboards sounded a bit thin or "shrill". I like a "fatter" sound. I do remember that I had bought a crate of Efes Pilsen (Turkish lager) for general consumption and the band performed a tight set including some of their standards for an invited audience. I've got a tape of most of it - recorded on my then new Walkman and it is my intention to transfer it into my iTunes at some point. Simon was the lead vocalist with Trev and Brian supporting but there were a couple of numbers including "Sleeping In My Suit" and "I'm A Hog For You" where Trev took the lead vocals. I think they were my favourites.
After this special concert I think we went back to my flat and finished off the Efes Pilsen.
