2002 - I'm a Believer

 

Some time in 2002, and Mark, Ade, Rob and Guy all begin to feel middle-agedom creeping up. The rebel years behind them, established, with family and respectable jobs, panic sets in. Faded memories of drum rolls, guitar riffs and power chords of a bygone era return. The old discarded instruments are dusted off and a band is born, but without a bass player. Ray joins, swaps his guitar for a bass and they're off.

Christmas 2002 our first "gig". Ade's office is throwing a Christmas bash. We manage about 10 songs. Thank God they're drunk. Mark turns the gig into an open mike night and we get a blues harmonica player and some tipsy Spanish bird singing something Spanish. We survive - just.

 

2003 and 2004 - Pretty Vacant, sometimes Alright,  occasionally Marvellous

 

We record a few songs and play a few gigs. The Fighting Cocks in Kingston together with "Sessions", a band headed by one of Ade's employees. Not bad. Throw in a few songs at a school summer party. Chobham Cricket Club and Mark discovers that Love Shack goes down well with the ladies. A wedding and a birthday party now and again. Friends and family provide vital valuable support at gigs. Rob and Ade start the Pedals War.

 

2005 and 2006 - Reward and All These Things I've Done

 

We discover dressing-up, wigs and join Liphook Carnival. Quo's three-chord Caroline works best when you're playing on a swaying float and you need a lot of noise to drown out the generators. Fantastic fun and local fame. First of many gigs at our local, The Links Hotel in Liphook. A few more weddings and birthday parties. Continued support from friends and family. The Pedals War goes nuclear.

 

2007 - Should I Stay or Should I Go

 

Ade goes. Mark F and his Strat join the remaining four. He blends in like the old pro that he is and the set grows exponentially. We still write out elaborate gig set lists like in the the early years, but no-one takes them seriously or sticks to them. The typical gig starts with Guy counting us in... we play the first 3 songs from our set list...Mark gauges audience response...re-arranges the set ...and then it's anyone's guess what we're playing next!!! Twice at the Links, August Bank Holiday we play to over 100 Harley Davidson bikers. Glam Rock is reborn at our 70s gig and Frank'N'Furter is re-incarnated as Mark. New Year's Eve at the Links. The party starts at 9:30 and finishes at 1:00. Fantastic. The kit grows to include lights, screen, monitors and yards of leads and cables.

 

2008 - I Predict a Riot

 

January and we're playing at Richmond Hill Hotel to Rob's work crowd. We start and the monitors cut out, cables dislodged and we improvise more than usual. Despite the mayhem, we manage to turn out three songs decent enough to be put on our website as "live" recordings. Sod the monitors. Mark gets us earpieces and we play wireless. 30th birthday party at the Fox and Pelican in Grayshott. The crowd loves us (mainly women who've had too much) and we play on and on. The night's theme was London Underground and people dress up as London Underground stations. No prizes for guessing the ones in the Baker Street costumes, but Ray is trying to find Shephard's Bush?

The summer sees a flurry of gigs, some of which are open-air. In Selborne, we play to a crowd of VW campers in a field. The gig at the White Swan in Alresford gets off to a slow start but at the end of the evening the crowd won't let us finish and groupies swarm around Mark F like bees to a honey pot. Maybe we should all grow our hair long?

The year ends with a Halloween and a festive Christmas gig at one of our now regular venues, the Drum in Petersfield. Two great chances for dressing up and in both cases, Mark T rises to the occasion. We power through our new, rockier set list and pull in the punters from the street. Our festive Christmas gig whips the crowd up to a frenzy and we nearly witness our first punch-up in the audience. The landlady vaults over the bar like an Olympian athlete and sorts the guys out while we play "I Predict a Riot".  A great finish to a great year.

 

2009 - White Wedding

 

The Drum in Petersfield and the Royal Oak in Holywater are our first venue of the year. Brandishing his trademark Mohican, one of our most loyal fans, Alan, delivers an excellent rendition of Sid Vicious on bass while playing "Pretty Vacant" at our Drum gig. Fantastic and the girls loved it! We play for Rob's sis Fiona at her wedding in February with Rob switching from brother of the bride to rock star. Mark F can't perform at the Old Thorns wedding gig, so Ray puts in extra hours learning at least a few songs on guitar and just about manages to save the night. Thanks once again to Mick from Funkee Clawed for stepping in on bass. Summer approaches and it's now a Nuts tradition to play at the Whiteparish village fete and the VW festival. Ahhh... the exotic, pungent smell of summer grasses wafting through the air. Again, Mick steps in for Ray at the Nuts' first overseas gig on the Isle of Wight. And the gigs keep rolling in, a birthday here, a wedding there, set lists - paaahh - who need's 'em? We now play whatever song and in whatever order we think will get the punters going, no problem. In November, we briefly leave the dim-lit, rough and seedy gig world of local pubs to perform at a top-class, all shiny and chrome-fitted architect's office in the heart of London. We even had reserved parking spaces! The food and drink were not top-class though: low-calorie and no bitter. And we had to turn down the volume! Obviously, the sedate corporate setting wasn't for us, so we swiftly returned to home territory and finished the year at the Green Dragon in Liphook with a short, but cracking performance. We all donned our new "May Contain Nuts" T-shirts, but Mark T of course had to dazzle us with his Christmas elf costume.

2010 - Smart Dressed Man

Picture this ....a dark, wet January evening...the tranquil valley of the River Meon...suddenly the screeching sound of a Fender Strat rips through the night...yes, it's us (minus Rob) playing in support of the West Meon Boy Scouts to a packed, rocking crowd. Ray pongoes to his bass riffs in Should I Stay or Should I Go and knocks over Guy's drum kit. A nice start to a year that continues with gig after gig. A repeat performance with new songs at the Green Dragon in February and Mark T slips into his now signature costume: dinner jacket with bow tie which he casually undoes after about 2 songs. In April we play for the first time at the Rising Sun in Milland, which also sees the start of our international fame. The Argentine national polo team is present and insists on having pictures of them taken with us.

Viva Argentina! We get signed up to headline the summer fete at the Rising Sun and play in their patio. The crowd are immediately whipped into a dancing frenzy by the piercing beat of our opening song, one gallant member of the audience even doing a boogie in his wheelchair and one woman launching herself towards Mark T. We top the bill at the Whiteparish summer fete for the third consecutive year and notice how other bands have included our songs in their own set! Bad move, mates, because it's impossible to capture the sound and energetic charisma we produce when we're on stage. It also seems to be a Whiteparish custom amongst the youngsters of the village to play air guitar right in front of us? Two private gigs in the summer (we like them, they're fun and pay better), one at Bognor Regis golf club which we'll always remember for the best best man's speech ever held and another in Grayshott in a marquee on a tennis court in a big garden of a Edwardian house. Of course the food and drink was provided by a catering company, who did not quite know what Guy was talking about when he asked for 4 bitters. (He should have asked for champagne or Pimms). In the marquee were a few Moroccan rugs, cushions and a settee which Mark T decided was reason enough to dress Ray in Marrocan national dress. Ever tried playing bass in a caftan and wearing a fez? Another gig which we all  won't forget was at Mark's (not any of the band members) birthday party in Petersfield. Declared a "fancy dress party" by the host, our Mark really upped the game and arrived

with frilly shirt, large buckled shoes, culottes, curly wig and a large coat which could have belonged to one of the 3 Musketeers. It was a difficult gig to play, too often were we distracted by the appealing costumes of the many attractive ladies shuffling on the dance floor. Worst of all, the powersaw lady didn't turn up as announced, so we had to play Sex on Fire without her setting off sparks from her metal costume with a power saw. And Rob missed all the fun!