The Search for Xerxes

DIGITAL (WAV)

£7.99

Johnny Moped's “lost album” from 1990, finally gets a reissue!

I like this album, Johnny hates it. But why? I think it’s more “Johnny Moped” than any other album out there. What other album has entirely penned JM songs/ditties like ‘Soldiers’ and ‘Moped crash’ plus ad-libs and all the other little interludes in between the tracks that are pure “Moped”.

Johnny thinks it sounds like a “disco” album, which it does in places, but, hey-ho, it was 1989 and it was the age of Stock, Aitken and Waterman.

At the time there had been no Moped band since 1985-ish and certainly Slimy hadn’t been in the band since the early ‘80s. Also, there was only one album out there, Cycledelic so there was a lot of songs destined for a follow up album that never happened and it looked like we were going to be a one album band.

So, with so much unreleased material and a chronic lack of “mopedisum” I decided to embark on a little project…

This album came out in 1990 on Deltic records but the deal was that I had to produce a finished master tape that could go straight to the cutting room and be pressed, so I borrowed a 4-track Teac and a Roland sampler and Roland drum machine and got to work.

Some of the tracks sound like they were recorded in someone’s bedroom, that’s because they were, but Captain recorded some great stuff on his 8-track where I had recorded Johnny “live” and handed over a tape for him to work with (‘I’m a Spasm’, ‘Soldiers’, ‘Cut across Shorty’). Also, he provided some decent backing vocals on other tracks (‘Corpse Boogie’, ‘Hiawatha’).

Here’s a rundown of the tracks...

I Believed Her Lies - Written by Fred Berk, it would have been a shame to have lost this in the mists of time, so this was an attempt to get it on vinyl however, being one of the band’s favourite stage songs, it’s been released since on subsequent Moped albums.

Edwina - Ah… Edwina Currie. Blimey, who else could sing a love song to Edwina Currie and get away with it? (OK, I admit it, I made Johnny do it!)

Every Dream Came True - Another written by Fred that was (as Johnny says on the record) the follow up to ‘Darlin’ Let’s Have Another Baby’.

Corpse Boogie - This is a true story. There was a band called Corpse that Johnny “was in for a little while” and they weren’t the best musicians in the world. This song sounded great on stage with four guitarists all playing a one-note guitar solo in the middle on bended knees!

Cut Across Shorty - Johnny sings and plays guitar at the same time. A task that proved a little tricky as he wasn’t so familiar with the chords. But Captain provides some inspired accompaniment. (There are some outtakes on the CD)

I Wanna Die - Written by Slimy for the second album so an attempt to preserve it here (with some rather nasally, snotty, backing vocals) and this is still a live favourite today.

Zogaloogajergabrox - Back in the day we (Captain, Johnny, Xerxes, Phil Burns) would sit around and write nonsense lyrics. I found some of them and cobbled this together.

Sad Sack - A rather strange ditty about the Harvey comics cartoon character Sad Sack. Johnny was into reading his comics.

Soldiers - Ah, now… best track on the album? Possibly... Johnny plays guitar and sings, whole thing is improvised, Captain and Rachel Bor provide accompaniment. There’s an alternate version at the end of the CD version.

Save the Baby Seals - Written by Slimy this was destined for second album and is still a stage favourite (that’s four songs now in total on this album that were never going to be heard that have proved to be all-time favourites!)

Moped Crash - Totally Moped. Three raps, one on a moped (which has appeared before), one at a gig talking about hippies, and one recorded in my shed during a Saturday afternoon jam where Johnny imagines he’s just been involved in a Moped Crash.

I’m a Spasm - The idea is Slimy’s, and he is playing guitar, but Johnny was armed with “I’m a spasm, I’m a spasm, spasm, spasm, baby” as a set of lyrics and all the rest is down to Johnny! Captain’s accompaniment really makes it… should have been a single.

Hiawatha - Written mainly by Fred Berk (but maybe Slimy had some input, you’d think I’d know by now! apologies if I’ve got it wrong...) and, blimey, another favourite, that’s five!

Soldiers (Alternate Version) - An outtake where Captain plays guitar instead of Johnny. I added the atmospherics.

The album came out in 1990 and to promote it we put the band back together... in a different format.

The Johnny Moped Big Band did a series of gigs where we started with two guitarists, bass drums and Johnny for three songs and then swapped to different musicians during ‘Wild Breed’ for another three songs. Then we’d bring the whole lot together for the rest of the set.

The photos on the back cover are taken from the “live at the Cartoon” video. Notice Johnny’s original Moped jacket had long gone missing, and he was wearing a grey tasselly “thing” I made for him. He didn’t like it at all, so I donated my own studded leather jacket and he’s worn it ever since.

The front cover is studio shots taken of Johnny for the album that were never used at the time (how did we end of with such a bad drawing of him instead on the original album?!)

So… this has been lovingly re-mastered by Jez Larder after Captain managed to retrieve most of the material from the very old DAT tapes. Some of the “interludes” were missing, and I’ve had to get them off the vinyl (see if you can spot ‘em!).

Enjoy!

Dave Berk May 2022

LP TRACKLISTING

1 – I Believed Her Lies

2 – Edwina

3 – Every Dream Came True

4 – Corpse Boogie

5 – Cut Across Shorty

6 – I Wanna Die

7 – Zogaloogajergabrox

8 – Sad Sack

9 – Soldiers

10 – Save The Baby Seals

11 – Moped Crash

12 – I'm a Spasm

13 – Hiawatha

14 – Soldiers (Alternate Version)

CD TRACKLISTING