Bob

BOB, the indie band from the late 80s/early 90s, are back to perform one of their last ever gigs here at the John Peel Centre, Stowmarket, on 27th November. It's been nearly 30 years since BOB last toured the UK, and with the November re-release of the John Peel favourite single Convenience and the long awaited unreleased album due March 2020, the band have decided to take to the road one more time in November 2019. The show here at John Peel Centre is one of the last shows that BOB will ever perform. BOB's initial line-up was Richard Blackborow (vocals, keyboards, guitar), Simon Armstrong (guitar, vocals). Jem Morris (bass guitar), joined the duo in 1986, and, augmented with a drum machine, they recorded the band's first release, a flexi disc, released in 1986 on their own House Of Teeth label, and containing three short songs: "Prune (Your Tree)", "Groove" and "Brian Wilson's Bed". The band gave a copy to John Peel in a fortuitous encounter in the Rough Trade record shop, and he played it many times. The drum machine was replaced by Gary Connors (drums) in 1987, and this line-up recorded 1987's What a Performance EP and the first of three John Peel sessions. Blackborow stated in 1988 that the band had a diverse set of songs in their repertoire at that stage and that the songs on the EP were selected from "by doing a quick poll of our friends". Early in 1988, Gary Connors was replaced by former Jamie Wednesday drummer Dean Leggett, and the band recorded their second single, the Kirsty EP, a session for BBC Radio One's Simon Mayo, and their second John Peel session. Both singles received heavy play by John Peel. The two singles were compiled together with the earlier flexi disc as Swag Sack, which was their final recording for the Sombrero label. All later releases were on their own House Of Teeth label. In 1989, the band released the Convenience EP (which reached no.31 in John Peel's Festive Fifty at the end of the year), followed by a limited edition/fan club release containing three songs: "Esmerelda Brooklyn", "I Don't Know" and "Sink". After their third and final John Peel session, Morris was replaced by ex-Caretaker Race bassist Stephen 'Henry' Hersom, and this final line-up recorded the Stride Up EP in 1990, an LP Leave The Straight Life Behind top ten indie charts and the Tired EP in 1991, and one last single, the Nothing For Something EP in 1992. BOB became one of the victims of the demise of Rough Trade's distribution arm, which limited sales of the album and forced the band to tour for an extended period to recoup the album's costs. A feeling of disillusionment with the 'business' side of the music caused a drop in morale, and they disbanded early in 1995 after completing demos for EMI and new material set to be released as the follow up to the Leave The Straight Life Behind album. The BOB single "Convenience" was released for the first time on a digital format on the John Peel compilation box set Kats Karavan in October 2009. In February 2014, "Leave the Straight Life Behind" was re-released by British independent label 3 Loop Music as a 2CD expanded edition which included the remastered album plus a bonus CD of all the John Peel and BBC sessions, as well as extra tracks. This November see the reissue of the Convenience single on (red amber and green vinyl) by the Optic Nerve Recordings label with the long waited unreleased album set for release in March 2020. www.twitter.com/bobindieband www.facebook.com/bobindieband Support: Goddammit Jeremiah and Lili Marlene Licensed bar.