Assuming that you understand all the local references scattered throughout this site would be just the kind of small-minded insularity that so often defeats the whole purpose of having a world wide web. More importantly, throwing this site open to the understanding of the world at large should further ease our passage to global domination.
So puzzle no longer, gentle reader; all your questions are answered here.
If there's anything you think we've missed out, then mail us, and we'll put the situation to rights before you can say 'Oy!'
encyclopaedia
see Doc, the
Oddly named Birmingham rehearsal studio which has been home to The Regulars since January 1998. Diary entry for 15 March 1999 explains: It's tucked obscurely into a small industrial estate on a disquieting side street by Dudley Road hospital. Like most rehearsal studios, it's not exactly a luxurious environment. Some of the lights don't work. It smells a bit bad. Microphone stands teeter alarmingly. And recently the Lucozade has run out. The sound we get isn't flawless. But it never gets worse than at any other studio in Birmingham, and usually it's a fair bit better. This is the main reason we go there. Oh, and it's cheap as well.
Free, annual Birmingham festival which has been running over three days in September since its inception in 1998. At the 1999 event The Regulars played two sets at two different venues in one day - one electric and one acoustic.
Band in the vanguard of Birmingham's experimental sound. Singer and guitarist Perry founded the group with the intention to sound like My Bloody Valentine meets Kraftwerk. Debut single 'Screen' released late 1997 on Earworm; more since; airplay by Peely and good write-ups in the inkies. At times almost heart-stoppingly beautiful.
A truly comprehensive portrait of the legend that is Banner is sadly not feasible here, limited as we are to 20Mb of webspace. A man of limitless talents, he switches from IT consultant to guitar maestro to Michael Caine impersonator as effortlessly as he does from centre-half to centre-forward. It is said that the true nature of Banner can never be wholly apprehended within the limitations of the human intellect. After following The Regulars since their inception, 'the Big Lebanski' joined the band as bass player in May 2001.
Birmingham label launched in 1998 by Dr Alan with debut single by Jameson, 'Silverado'. Released The Regulars' Lie down and fight in July 2000. Hurrah!
Spiritual and geographical home of The Regulars, for the most part. Three or four miles west of the centre of Birmingham, it straddles the city's boundary with the Black Country. Not as scary as some parts and not as up its own arse as Moseley can sometimes be.
Planned extension to Midlands motorway system, to give the area its very own version of the fume-spewing circle of death commonly known as the M25. Labour said they'd scrap it if they came to power. They were lying. The trees are coming down as we speak. But the people aren't having it.
Area immediately west and north of Birmingham incorporating: Dudley; Smethwick; Stourbridge; Walsall; West Bromwich; Wolverhampton; sundry diminutive towns too numerous and dreary to list; various appalling 'industrial units' and 'retail parks'; many horrible roads; and lots of huge patches of earth with fences around them. But we love it.
Perennial BBC magazine programme for middle-class children. Well, did you ever go horse-riding after watching it?
Half-mile-long road linking Birmingham city centre with the Hagley Road (A456), the main route west out of town. Notable for large number of clubs and 'bars' (as opposed to pubs) characterised by bad music, unbelievable prices, and a large clientele that communicates too loudly, drinks too much, and wears too little.
Classic PC-based football management simulation. Circa 1997, a long-running game on version 2 formed the backdrop for much bonding between Stu, Pete and Chopper, not to mention late arrival Mr Richard Banner. You bloody gorgeous bugger.
Adjective adding emphasis, e.g. chuffing tonkered = very drunk.
Frighteningly talented guitarist with the now sadly demised Grimsby outfit The Nannas, and also my best mate since the age of four. But don't tell him I said he was talented.
Process whereby firkinised pubs are removed from the Firkin chain, which is being slowly dismantled as of 2001. In some cases the pub recovers its former name; but in none is it as good afterwards as it was before the whole bloody stupid process started. Why can't they just bloody well leave things alone?
Photographer, author, impresario, criminal psychologist , tall person and all-round good egg, Dr Alan is the man behind: We Brought Our Friends: Birmingham's Experimental Bands in Words and Pictures, a fanzine that grew into a book; Bearos Records, the label responsible for debut singles by Jameson, The Starries, and us too. And probably lots else besides.
Preferred drinking-house of The Regulars. Significant in band history as the setting for Stu's invitation to Chopper to join while they were drunk and pissed up on booze.
The mysterious bonding power that prompts percussionists in different bands to chat freely on first sight and lend each other pedals and stools and things.
Department of Social Security. Has become an important tool in government strategy to brutally enforce the work ethic, by penalising dissenters and disseminating pro-work propaganda.
Feedback. As in the guitar noise, not the statement to an individual or individuals of an opinion on their work.
Name of the Hibernian, a venue on Pershore Road, Birmingham, between its firkinisation in the mid-1990s and defirkinisation in 2001. Served as a fine example of how firkinisation can spoil a perfectly good pub (along with the Pot of Beer - for a while the dreadful Faculty & Firkin). Now improved but not fully restored to its pre-firkin glory days.
The conversion of an existing, perfectly nice and acceptable, ordinary alehouse into an appalling identikit chain pub. Initially named after the once-ubiquitous Firkin chain, which went into retreat in 2001 (see defirkinisation)
Probably the leading small venue (capacity: 150) on the Birmingham scene, and host to some of the finest moments so far in The Regulars' glittering career. Also popular just for drinking; at its worst, the rapid spread of firkinisation is an abominable scourge, but judged on its merits the Flapper is a decent pub - one of the few left in the whole city centre.
see Stu.
Part of the BBC's long-running Saturday afternoon sports programme Grandstand, and an integral element of the upbringing and culture of not only The Regulars but the entire nation of which they are a part. Mark Lawrenson may be uncharismatic and oddly camp, with a tremendous gift for stating the obvious, but the viewing remains oddly essential, and the weekend is still all but ruined if you miss it.
Home town of Pete and Chris. Population approximately 90,000. Stands isolated, other than its adjoining Cleethorpes, on the coast of Lincolnshire. Was once the world's premier fishing port; now Europe's premier producer of frozen pizza and stuff like that.
(1) Football club supported by Pete and Chris. Scorned by ignorant football bandwagoneers and arrogant supporters of wealthy clubs, yet recognised and applauded by true lovers of the game for defying obscurity with a pure and beautiful passing style. Sometimes.
(2) Main railway station in Grimsby. There are also New Clee and Grimsby Docks, but trains only stop at them about every four years.
As opposed to Groover, this often-misspelt Birmingham three-piece purvey long, atmospheric post-rock grooves. I reckon Simon should sing a bit more, cause he's got a nice voice. More than one recent release on Bearos has completely sold out.
Leafy suburb of north-west Birmingham; not to be confused with Handsworth. Location of Stu and Pete's first meeting in the latter's undergraduate days; as of September 2000, temporary home to Chopper in his 'mature freshman' year..
Smart Brum band that gave the Bearos label its first release in 1998 with the 'Silverado' single. More recent triple-pack seven-inch Somewhere Forever Inside has proved their position as purveyors of punchy and powerful pop. They're really good live as well.
Fairly large park just behind the Dog, popular with The Regulars as venue for Sunday kickabouts in the summertime. Do feel free to join us.
Deeply, deeply fashionable 'bohemian' district of Birmingham about two miles south of the city centre. Home to popular small venue the Jug of Ale and an intense concentration of outrageous sideburns.
Much-lamented Grimsby band whose imaginative, idiosyncratic songwriting and engaging stage presence won them a lot of friends not just at home but also on the two occasions they played Birmingham. Bassist Simon 'Napalm' Naylor left to spend more time with his family just as drummer Mick 'Choo-Choo' Chase left to write a book and farm pigs.
Best-ever presenter - get down, Shep! - of Blue Peter (qv).
One of Brum's very finest bands of recent years, Novak split in 1999, but in a cool, pop, 'the time is just right' sort of way. They were twinkly, melodic, innovative and wholly charming; and once gave out free mince pies at one of their gigs. The Regulars calamitously supported them once at the Jug of Ale; but former members happily received a better impression at a Regs gig in early 2000.
Manchester group fairly popular in the mid-1990s but a sad signal of the once-great Creation Records' artistic decline. Also responsible for a lot of bad hair and a great quantity of piss-poor imitators who will never get further than the end of their back yard. Not that I'm bitter or anything.
Almost unheard-of dissident Yugoslav exile author, tragically overlooked every year for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Among Popovich's most profound and moving works are the ambitious, visionary lyricism of Your Job - How To Get It, How To Keep It (1996) and the seminal satire on Nineties culture Teach Yourself Winning At Job Interviews (1994).
Scary ring road skirting Birmingham city centre.
Brum's once-magnificent bazaar of cheap, excellent and diverse second-hand clothing. Supplied a lot of Pete's stage wear. Lost its allure in the late 90s as prices rose and stallholders bought into homogenised 'ironic' student culture. Then lost its home in 1999 with 'redevelopment' of the area and now languishing in what was once the Bull Ring bus station.
Top-quality daytime TV programme in which two chefs are both given a bag of ingredients and 20 minutes to cook something. One of the great pleasures of a day without work. (Big-budget peak-time spin-off Celebrity Ready, Steady, Cook is considered by aficionados to be a deplorable sell-out).
The guitar hero's guitar, and instrument of Chopper's dreams, finally purchased by our man in May 2000.
Birmingham's famous phallic landmark and enduring emblem of hideous 1960s urban planning, now regarded with considerable affection by Brummies regretting the antiseptic corporate facelift now under way in the city centre.
One of the vast army of former rhythm guitarists with The Regulars, Sarah's finest hour was at a Birmingham University gig in June 1997 after which she got so battered that she fell asleep on a pool table. Nice one. (Rumours that a game of pool was actually under way at the time are currently being investigated.)
Greatest record label ever in the history of the world anywhere ever. So there.
Rising stars of the Brum scene with a pristine sound that owes less to their milieu than to the passion and vision that seems to drive their songwriting. Have played with the Regs several times.1999 saw a well-received Peel session and the release of the anthemic 'Step Number One' on the Fierce Panda Dope is Important EP.
(1) Percy Bysshe (1792-1822), English Romantic poet of considerable visionary genius. Would have loved The Regulars.
(2) Former rhythm guitarist and second vocalist in The Regulars, and rising star in the ceramics game; performed at the debut gig in November 1996.
entry requested by Alec Stevens
The Ship, God rest its soul, was a pub on the Queensway (qv) that played fab music, and had three or four floors over which to play it. There were always loads of fights though, and the place got closed down. The music disappeared from the scene and is still being looked for to this day.
Terrifying area of Blair Witch-type wilderness located in county of that name, with very narrow, identical country roads and no lights for miles; very easy for indie guitar bands to get lost in on their way back from recording demo tapes.
Nightclub fairly convenient for getting to from the Flapper, and especially popular with Chopper. Stu and Chris go there too.
Endearingly avuncular presenter of BBC's long-running science magazine programme Tomorrow's World. Comes into his own on election night coverage with his elaborate swingometer antics.
Loyal friend and supporter of The Regulars, loved by all who know him. Famously broke the tense silence that followed a late-night domestic performance of Yesterday's birthday girl with the words: "That's deep, that is, Pete". Broke through the hysterical applause that followed the only ever live performance of Yesterday's birthday girl with the words: "Pete Green, you sex machine".
Don't be put off by the name. One of those attractively dingy, go-down-some-stairs-as-you-come-in type joints, Sputnik is a nice pub in Birmingham city centre (if that's not a contradiction in terms), currently vying with the Flapper for The Regulars' Friday affections. It's very small.
Four pleasant young gentlemen who work, drink and then go completely berserk on stage while they play musical tunes. One of our favourite local bands, they've supported Idlewild a few times, released singles on Bearos and had loads of good write-ups. Fame, fortune and incalculable debauchery are doubtless just around the corner. Live performance at its best.
Stu
Mr Stuart Ian Fletcher, charismatic, baggy-trousered, Baggie-supporting
bassist and founder member of The Regulars. Left the band in 2001 for
reasons less than lucidly explicated. Good on slides and fills. Finest
work included October we take it back, the
funky stuff on Once you get past Habrough
and the legendary shouty backing vocals on Lie down
and fight.
Tempest, the best record shop in Birmingham, especially for indie vinyl, and a one-time meeting-place for the Unscene community. Also very generous to The Regulars in providing space for posters and flyers.
Drunk.
Term coined to described The Regulars by Steve (aka Toady), once of Tempo, in his We Brought Our Friends interview. He wanted a word that conveyed the band's capacity to produce both cutie la-la-la melodies and great big fuck-off guitar noise.
University of Central England, Birmingham's ex-polytechnic. Perceived as poor relation to the city's two older universities but a much nicer place to study, really. Alma mater of Pete (1992-95). Chopper began the same BA there, in English language and literature, in 2000.
Go on Open! Kick that Oxbridge arse!
Series of three Birmingham gigs in January 1998, organised by Perry out of Avrocar and Richard from Bloodbath Picnic Heroine. Term additionally refers collectively to the bands involved, who also included Stray Dog City (now Odeama, though I'm sure it's not spelt like that), Jameson, The Regulars, Rocketscience (now Magnetophone) and Kosmische, who were brilliant and possibly just about to get signed when they split up.
The closest weekend to February 14, and cue for much commercial exploitation based on fatally flawed notions of romance. The Regulars know all about love, you see; and Valentine's weekend has nothing to do with it.
Spectacular guitar sound pioneered by Chopper and Paul and used by the former on Above the party.
(1) Abbreviation for West Bromwich, a small town in the Black Country.
(2) Abbreviation for West Bromwich Albion, football team supported by Banner, and also Stu, who considered himself a jinx as they lose whenever he watches them. What he failed to address is that they also lose quite a lot when he doesn't watch them.
Jackie, Rob and Eddie, the people who put on gigs at the Flapper and hence play a tremendous role in supporting the local scene.