Back in June 1979 Rick Richards and myself, after the demise
of Swan’s Corner, decided to put a band together (of course). I was mere months
away from acquiring my Strat, so for now stayed on bass, having not yet sold my
Fender Mustang to Jimi Giro. We persuaded drummer Dave Usher and guitarist Paul
Quinn to have a go and off we went. The band agreed on the name Jellyfish, as
we included the Punilux song of the same name in the set. This line-up played
two Saturday lunchtime gigs at the Welly in Middlesbrough. Also in the set, I
recall, was “Cool for Cats.” We also played there the following week, but for
some reason the drummer this time was John Searle. We also had ex-Punilux
guitarist, Malacabala, guesting with us. Not a lot happened after that.
Fast forward 40 years. October 2019, Rick and myself, along
with George Stead and Joe Brown, go to see Punishment of Luxury at the
Westgarth. Hughie was supposed to have been there as well, but double-booked
himself. I had a daft idea, shortly afterwards, to put a Punilux tribute band
together. I mentioned this to Rick. He suggested re-forming Jellyfish* and
doing just that. We recruited Joe, Hughie and George and managed a couple of
promising rehearsals before Hughie threw the towel in. We were just in the
process of re-grouping and had started to write some original material when the
lockdown happened.
So here we are.
*Regarding the band name. Jellyfish was always favourite. I
know there was an American band in the 90’s called Jellyfish. Very good they
were too. But we had the name first, and the other band aren’t around anymore,
so we were sticking with it. Then I became aware of another band called
Jellyfish Boy. So, to avoid confusion, a new name is required. Nobody has come
up with a definitive name yet, so for now, we are Smack Swarm Bloom.
