The Burnage Bugs

L-R Brian, Joe, Bob, Pete, Kev?

Line-up

• Brian Marks - vocals/flute
• Bob Reader - tenorsax/flute
• Pete Brewer - guitar
• Joe Wroe - bass
• Kev Jackson - drums

Bob Reader also played with Mobius Loop. He later became head of music at Manchester High School for girls. He was a keen musical arranger and worked with a variety of jazz ensembles.

Brian also played with The Grit Band which became one of Manchester's top metal groups.

Joe Wroe moved to Germany and joined top German group Kin Ping Meh. He still resides there.

Memories

Trawling through the ever-entertaining pages of Manchesterbeat,com, I chanced upon the photo and info about the "Burnage Bugs". In the photograph, which I cannot remember being taken, I am the one with the droopy moustache and dodgy faux-fur anorak.

I remember the band but cannot recall ever having gigged under that name, as Brian left pretty quickly and we (Kev, Pete, Robert and myself) enlisted a mezzo-soprano folkie called Kath Bolland and continued with the same musical direction which, to put it mildly, was somewhat strange.

The name became"Mobius Loop".

We could have been accused of trying to perfect the art of pretention. One number was called "Following Red Glow Tail Lights To The City Of Glass" and was an attempt to tell the story of the Spanish Civil War in 20 minutes with double that number of timing changes. The eclectic mix of styles was staggering.

Kev the drummer was a fan of abstract jazz and, as a well-known poet, was also responsible for the lyrics.

Robert was a follower of Dick Heckstall-Smith with a cornucopia of saxophones, flutes,etc.

Pete Brewer, who passed away much too young, idolised Tommy Iommi.

Kath had a clear ringing folk voice and seemed bemused by the whole thing.

And I, confused as usual, could not decide if I should try to be Chris Squires or Alan Lancaster.

We did quite a few gigs and got good receptions but when "Sleep", another band who were not known to be shy of pretention (anyone remember "Childe Roland" the rock opera?) came along and asked me to replace Harry Ferk I jumped ship, thinking at last to have found a band with a direction, soon we headed to Germany and ultimate implosion.

Kev is still writing poetry and has had some stuff published, well worth looking into. I found some demo-tapes recently and there are some very good bits but not for easy listening.

One small anecdote could show the problems within "Mobius Loop" - when our roady, Al Grinrod, had problems getting his Commer up the hill to the "Blue Ball" (near Todmorden?) the creative guys in the band voted who had to get out and push, the winners were Kath and I. Says it all really!

I have a photo somewhere and will try to send it as soon as I can find it. 

Alan Joe Wroe - 9/12/12