It Makes No Never Mind
Back in the late 80s, my musical world revolved mainly around comedy goths Fields of the Nephilim - a perfect complement to the bleak brownness of the north of Scotland where I grew up. While I was walking around in my long coat and scarecrow hat and scaring old biddies in libraries, on my radar appeared another band which was particularly popular amongst my friends - it was called Swamptrash. They seemed to be local, playing choice venues such as Inverness's Ice Rink and Carlton Hotel. At 15, I was too young to go and see them, and in any case I never heard what they sounded like, until...

Fast forward to the summer of 1991, I'm sitting in someone's rusty Mini Metro in Whithorn, southwest Scotland - where you can stand on the burnt stumps of The Wicker Man's legs, trivia fans - and the tinny car stereo is playing an equally tinny but very fast psycho bluegrass version of Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire. It's fantastic and it's by Swamptrash. I instantly resolve to buy everything they've released when I get home.

Except I can't bloody find anything, can I? It must be a band that doesn't exist. The only two good record shops in Scotland at this time are One Up in Aberdeen (over 100 miles away) and Fopp in Edinburgh (which may as well be on Mars) - no hope of me going to either of them on my bike. Instead, I went to university in Bournemouth, which was free of both bluegrass and floury goths, but full of crusty prog fans and fey types timidly waiting for the advent of shoegaze. The unlikely twin attack of Slowdive and Ozric Tentacles soon made me forget about Swamptrash.

Until about a year later when in a record shop in Poole, among the bargain bin faves (World of James Last, Engelbert Humperdinck, Mantovani, Bros) I found a vinyl copy of Swamptrash's only album, It Makes No Never Mind. I've never ever seen another copy of it, but any time I get asked for my top 10 albums (argh!) it's straight in there - a great frantic Deliverance swamp stomp of an album. I played it to anyone who'd listen (nearly two people) and eventually bought myself a guitar, a banjo and a mandolin on the back of it. Good times. A friend and I wrote some songs and recorded them on 4-track (eventually some of them made it to Myspace where the same nearly two people listened to them).

15 years later, January 2007, I'm in France looking after my mum who is suffering from bowel cancer and, it turns out, has 7 weeks left. Mostly I'm kept sane by b3ta(!) but feeling pretty shit. 7th January, I get a message on my Myspace page. It's from Harry Horse, children's author, political cartoonist and the singer, banjo player and driving force behind Swamptrash. It says:

I love your music and found it through a recommendation. I was the founder member of Swamptrash and see that you have been kind enough to remember a lost band..Thanks..
The music I make now is very similar to what you do and comes under the name Horseyboots.
The old music is on myspace.com/swamptrashtheband and the new stuff is on it's way.
Please accept my link and let the good times roll...
Happy New Year stranger...
best wishes
Harry Horse



Three days later Harry Horse was dead - he had killed his dog and cat, his wife (who was crippled with MS) and eventually himself.

I don't bother with lyrics and meaning, as a rule, but there's a Swamptrash song (Bone) with lyrics that run thus:


Husband and wife and an empty dish
Down to the water to take a fish
Husband says
Au revoir, ma petite fille, au revoir
I won't be coming back to hold you anymore

( Mighty Nibus who dares gins | @nibus, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 11:33, 3 replies)

Fields Of The Nephilim? Comedy Goths??!!

Occasionally over-indulgent [Elysium], but they're through that now...

As for Harry Horse, I recognise the name as he was a good friend of Mark Burgess of The Chameleons, and also a very talented artist, as you say...RIP
(caescarna Hell's Roomba, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 12:40, closed)

Harry Horse...
My kids love the rabbit children's books that he wrote...tis a sad tale very well written...thank you...
(Betty Spencer did a whoopsie on the carpet on, Fri 29 Jan 2010, 13:06, closed)

You missed a shop
"Avalanche" was pretty good. I bet they'd have had some Swamptrash. I've seen Shooglenifty (loads of ex-ST members) loads of times and wish I could find some old Swamptrash.

I hadn't realised Harry Horse had been in ST, "Last of the Polar Bears" is one of my son's favourite books.
( SteamedCleaner, Mon 1 Feb 2010, 17:41, closed)