With two gigs under our belt, Warlock and I wanted to go into the studio and record four tracks, the obvious choice was to record at The Square where they had the facilities and staff to help. We chose Chris Fallon a particularly good recording engineer and a hardcore reggae fan, I was still undecided with how we wanted to sound but I figured Chris would be a perfect choice. We could only afford to record on 8 track and decided which four songs to record. There was the omnipresent concern with Si's bass playing and I think I even considered doing it myself but the other half of me wanted him to fit in and progress with the band.

March 7th we went into the studio, as mentioned Chris being a reggae fan got me thinking that we could go for a reggae-ish production rather than the obvious punk sound. I never really liked that loud guitars at the expense of the other instruments approach and relied on Chris to do his magic. Warlock had never recorded in the studio but he got the drums down within a couple of takes. Si did good but listening to the playback I realised he only played down strokes on the bass, Chris managed to manipulate the sound so it didn't sound so clunky then I went for my live sound for the guitar. We had the choice of two guitars or backing vocals, we chose backing vocals, however my guitar sounded shitty largely due to my battered amp. We completed the recording in 6 hours and Chris was left to mix it, we got the mix back in a week and my guitar sounded awful. Thankfully there are some great musicians and recording engineers within The Square so I approached Ant Chapman, Collapsed Lung fame, to re-mix it. His opinion was we need to re-record the guitar so we went back into the studio but this time I went for a trebly sharp guitar sound as opposed to a distorted effect. We was happy with the results and decided to release it on cassette titled Punktual Dysfunctional  EP. On reflection it still wasn't the sound we wanted but at least we had a studio recording to send to zines and get gigs. The highlight for me with this demo is the totally insane drum pattern Warlock does on A Town Called Drab, and that's what made him the best drummer I have ever played with. The opening drums on Viva Shoplifting is kind of joke between Warlock and I and relates to an afternoon of listening to reggae intros. England's Atrocities was a song never to be captured correctly in the studio, in the end we dropped the song entirely. Yes I did interpret Lowlife by PiL with the bass line. Fucked If I Know was nearly Fucked In Harlow and represented our earliest material.

We received some good reviews from zines, were we got compared to Sex Pistols, The Cortinas, PiL, Subhumans, Eater, Crass, Flux Of Pink Indians, Zoundz, and Rudimentary Peni all of which I could see elements in some of them artists but otherwise I didn't agree. My favourite slagging was we sounded like "35 year old football hooligans". Over to you Warlock

I have included both versions of the first demo, the 1st mix was never released and the second mix became Punktual Dysfunctional EP

Demo 07.03.1996

England's Atrocities
A Town Called Drab
Viva Shoplifting
Fucked If I Know

Download demo: http://www118.zippyshare.com/v/18STl1O7/file.html

Download Punktual Dysfunctional EP: http://www33.zippyshare.com/v/CxKrZlGT/file.html

1996

Warlock & Si

                                                  

Warlock, Pete Doff & Si

                                                             

A new year and a new impetus, we rehearsed weekly in order to be better gig ready. Progress with Si was still painfully slow but we worked hard at adding more songs to our set.

Warlock & I were unlikely band mates, he is football mad (Sunderland his home town) and I hate sports. We had a shared love of Motorhead, Clash, Sex Pistols, Stiff Little Fingers, Rich Kids and The Ruts to name a few. Our music friendship crossed over into Antibodies, I would listen to his drumming find moments where I could punctuate on guitar, all the while Warlock is doing the same with his drums to my guitar. We bonded musically and now the sky is the limit with our limited skills but we was already thinking about a new bassist..

We got offered a support slot at The Square in January, we accepted as we wanted to get beyond four songs...we did seven!

I don't recall much about this gig, other than a character called Toby, infamous pisshead, was playing up...again. I don't think I was anywhere near as nervous as I was for the first gig. Si's lack of bass prowess was becoming an issue, it was holding us back and we felt he wasn't progressing. I must add Si is a fantastic bloke, great sense of humour and fun to be around. I may also add that Warlock & I were hardly musicians but none the less we needed a bassist to fit in...this would haunt us to our dying day.

I was using a Boss Metalizer pedal through a 100 watt H & H combo from the beginning. The amp had been with me since 1985 and I believe it was made in the 1970s, it had a hard life. The guitar I played was on loan from a mate, a very nice Tokai Telecaster. I was always in two minds about my guitar sound, I loved the distorted buzzsaw sound but I also adored the trebly scratchy sound.

On the gig tape the vocals are low fortunately/ unfortunately, I wont include what I consider poor quality recordings.

SET

Fucked If I Know
Shut Up!
Watch The Hypocrites (originally by Twinkle Brothers)
I Ruin Everything
Viva Shoplifting
England's Atrocities
You're Dead Already

We continued as a two piece whilst looking for a bassist, eventually we got thrown out of the scout hut. Warlock was allowed to use the scout hut for free to practice on his drums then I turn up with all my equipment and become a drain on the national grid thus the scoutmaster was somewhat unhappy with the electricity bill.

We was at our local venue The Square one night and we watched a dreadful covers band however I was interested in the bassist, a great guy called Si. Its worth noting at this point both Warlock and I were amateur players but with a passion for punk rock n roll. Si joined us and it soon become evident that he wasn't a very good bassist and was a different level of shit compared to Warlock and I. I overlooked Si's short comings on the bass and was happy to finally have the three piece Punk band I always wanted. We soldiered on with Si however it was taking a long time to get him to get up to speed on a song. I was wanting to build a 12-14 song set to play live, but tutoring Si slowed us down. I was always wanting to do new songs and this become Warlocks burden however with Si's lack of ability this wasn't going to happen.

By the end of summer 1995 things were slowly coming together again I overlooked my bassist frustration hoping to be gig ready for 1996.

Martin Kollusion, who promoted a regular Punk night at The Square, was interested to put us on as a support band in the near future. He offered us a gig on December 1st to which we stupidly agreed to, we only had four songs ready at this time due to afore mentioned bassist.

The evening of the gig Warlock & I was driving back to Harlow when he tells me he has never played live before, I told him I had never sang before in public. We listened to Rocket From The Crypt in his XR2 shitting ourselves, judging by the smell I would say Warlock more than myself as I had played live many times with Obscene Toys, Premature Death, Thee Primebeats and Seedjoy.

Me & Warlock pretending not to be scared The Square Dec 1st 1995

                                  

I did warn Martin, the promoter, that we could only play four songs and then to my joy my friend Paul Epworth, now renowned producer, was doing live sound. This was a night of firsts, but importantly for me was Iain Murray becoming Warlock. When we arrived for sound check the headlining band kindly let us use their drum kit which had scaffold around it. Seeing Iain behind the kit I named him Warlock like Frankenstein I think I created a monster! I don't particularly remember that much about the gig now, thankfully it was recorded and I can tell by my voice I'm shitting it. What I do remember was saying to Paul as I passed the soundboard "give it some Lee Perry" he didn't disappoint. Armed with only four songs we took the stage and blasted through them, I was continuingly having to show Si where the notes were on each song and I couldn't fully relax knowing that he may fuck up. It felt shitty only having four songs to play but at least we got out there and done it warts and all.

Locally the Punk scene in Harlow was very much the American skate punk style and we really didn't fit it in, I never really wanted to be a style or sub genre I guess I was trying to achieve Ramones deluxe. I believe we were misunderstood largely, I never wanted to be 77, Anarcho, UK82 etc my influences go beyond Punk as does Warlocks. I preferred Punk as opposed to Punk Rock. Lyrically it was merely seeing the world with humour & anger as well as piss take and contradictions.

I have always had the belief that the next song will be best, I would say that these four songs we played live are not our best but I think we was still trying to find our groove. We hadn't found our sound as yet.

SET

Fucked If I Know

Shut Up!

England's Atrocities

You're Dead Already

Download 1st Gig: http://www115.zippyshare.com/v/cOOA8Dum/file.html

I was gobsmacked when Warlock, after giving him a tape of my home demos, agreed to work with me and was keen to get started. We soon began rehearsing together in a local scout hut. I would play guitar to Warlocks drums, the better performances I would record on my 4 track and once home I would record the bass, guitar and vocals. Initially we worked on a selection of my demos but as we progressed we began writing together . Warlocks roots were from Rock/Heavy Metal and he brought his own distinct and dynamic approach to the songs whereas I came from a Punk angle and somehow we gelled creating the Antibodies sound.

For download there is a selection of songs recorded on 4 track in the very early days of Antibodies summer 1995.

Sweaty Scout Hut Sessions 1995

Pro-Lies
Fucked If I Know
Shut Up!
You're Dead Already
Nerve Gas Disco
SpastiKKKa

Download: http://www84.zippyshare.com/v/cesnZVKi/file.html

I have created this blog for my band Antibodies, a Punk band based in Harlow, Essex. We existed from 1995 to 2016. My intentions are to upload free music and document our history.

In 1993 I decided that I wanted to form a Punk band but I couldn't find any willing people to join. Armed with a TEAC 4 track portastudio I began recording what would become over 200 demos, this period was a prolific time for song writing. Once I had the song written I would record the drums using a manual drum machine followed by bass, guitars and finally vocals. How I wasn't lynched by my neighbours is still a mystery.

 I met future drummer & musical collaborator Iain Murray AKA Warlock in 1994 when I helped a friend out by playing bass for a band he was trying to get together. Warlock was the drummer but we didn't really talk, I was merely helping out until they could find a bassist, eventually I stopped going as I wasn't enjoying it and I was trying to get my own thing together at the time.

I bumped into Warlock whilst in the town some months later and enquired to what he was doing, I explained I wanted to form a Punk band. Surprisingly he said he was up for it, so I rushed home and recorded some of my songs on my 4 track portastudio.  I played the best I possibly could in order to interest him. I had been recording demos for over a year at this point mainly to give out and hopefully recruit a bassist & drummer all to no avail.

The songs here for download are a sample of the material I was writing & recording in this period. I was intending to call the band Semtex Halo at this point. I have added an acoustic demo from this period which I recorded to take the piss out of a friend who claimed a real song should be able to be performed on an acoustic as well as a band, plus the fashion for Unplugged sets at that time.

See link below for free download of Pete Doffs Home Demos 1994-5

1. I Am Nothin'
2. High Street Belsen
3. Banana Block Rock
4. Fatal
5. Slum
6. For Fucks Sake
7. Kill Fuck Destroy (acoustic demo)

http://www51.zippyshare.com/v/A6BNfsot/file.html