December 13th 1989 – Leicester University
I don’t remember the two support bands much, nothing at all about Rumble Fish, although I’m pretty sure Huge Big Massive were another Leicester band (as were Diesel Park West) and maybe shoe gazer type music (I apologise if I’ve just done them a complete dis-service, someone help me)
What a great band Diesel Park West were. They are on my list of great bands who should have been bigger!!
They had been around for a while and had just released Shakespeare Alabama“ in mid 1989 but as a born and bred Leicester band, had played a fair few local gigs, so there were chances to see them earlier!
Somewhere deep in my memory, I feel I had seen them before, maybe at the Abbey Park Festival on year? Those festivals tended to be our escape with a drink or two, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to write much up on those on this site (memory fades)
This was their first album release, but their first single was “When The Hoodoo Comes” released in 1987, but re-released in support of this album.
We didn’t have many great bands out of Leicester at this time, so there did seem to be quite a push for these guys to make it. The key band member was John Butler, playing a mix of pop, rock melodies. Many wrote it was a sixties edge, which I never really understood.
The rest of the band was, Rich Barton on guitar and vocals, Ian Michie on bass and Rob Morris on drums.
Diesel Park West didn’t really conform with the styles around at the time and as such, never really fell into the fairly standard music categories (remember we are still pre-internet and the big record companies did what they liked!).
Great songs to listen out for are “Jackie’s Still Sad” (about Jackie Onassis), “Like Princes Do” (my favourite and one I remember as a first memory) and “All The Myths On Sunday”
They were quite prolific with 7 or 8 albums, but ultimately remained at cult level following……..I don’t think that was ever a disappointment to them, but I would have loved them to make it.
Oh, and note John was a true “leftie”, you still don’t see many proper left handed guitar players (in fact all of the band were left handed!)
There’s some great interviews on their website and I’d recommend buying a few albums too!
The great news is that they are still going even now (2020), so it’s not too late to enjoy them and new music.
Set List
Not known, but probably most of their only album “Shakespeare Alabama”
- Like Princes Do
- All The Myths On Sunday
- Bell Of Hope
- Out Of Nowhere
- The Waking Hour
- When The Hoodoo Comes
- Opportunity Crazy
- Jackie’s Still Sad
- Here I Stand
- A House Divided
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