Jolly Dwarfs
Vocalist and frontman Troy Forrest,
Bass guitarist Rob Summerfield,
Drummer Sean Murphy
Lead guitarist Ray Gower,
"The early incarnation of The Jolly Dwarfs was formed by myself (Rob Summerfield) and Ray Gower. Ray, always a decent guitarist, had previously been in Sons of Darkness, a goth influenced band, who flickered brightly but briefly in the early eighties. Seizing my chance, I brought a bass and spent a couple of years with Ray writing material in our houses waiting for the elusive "right" other collaborators to emerge.
We were regulars in The Bulls Head pub and right under our nose was Troy Forrest, a real character with the ear for a good tune. He began doing vocals for a well known heavy group called Chainsaw. Me and Ray quickly realised his potential as a charismatic front man. We cheekily wrote a couple of songs with his voice in my mind. Then we sprung the bait, we were rehearsing after the pub on Sunday's and there was beer aplenty if he fancied a go at vocals.
Like the spider to the fly, we were in business and a handful of songs emerged from the boozy Sabbath sessions, mainly at Stoke Park school. But we needed a drummer, and in the Bull our patches crossed with Sean Murphy, a Jam fan who played drums. We were in business. Rehearsals intensified and more songs were born, enough for a gig.
The live debut was naturally at the Bulls Head. We were cocky sods and had tee-shirts printed before our first concert. They sold out and the gig was rammed too, a chaotic affair with awful sound. But it was like an event, we hyped it up and it worked. After that, more gigs followed and also two pretty well received demos, although professional studios gasped as our beer supplies matched the size of our equipment.
By now, we had got some press attention and this led to a defining moment. A drunken interview with Coventry Evening Telegraph journalist Chris Wilson, led to an article about, "The band who refuse to let music interfere with their drinking". It did not go down well with the City's authorities. The police labelled us, "Irresponsible." The Telegraph ran the story.
Suddenly, we were local famous, if not notorious, you couldn't buy such publicity. Initially this was a good thing. But it became harder to get gigs with us having a decent following and venues suddenly paranoid, that they would be playing host to load of drunken hooligans. We ploughed on, playing anywhere that would have us, even travelling to Great Yarmouth for the chance to play.
Then we hit a spell of bad luck. Our van, the graffiti covered Dwarfmoblie, was stolen, as were our speakers. Internal tensions surfaced, the live shows dried up. In another interview with the Telegraph, we verbally attacked Coventry's hierarchy including the outdoor drinking ban in the City Centre. It led to brewery giants M and B banning us from playing from all their pubs in the area. Which was most of them.
We imploded. Troy announced our spilt, memorably citing alcoholic differences. He went on to front several bands to some acclaim, most notably punksters, Betty Swollocks. Ray now writes his own lush sixties' influenced material. Sean still plays and is also a successful businessman, ironic as The Dwarfs made every mistake in the music business handbook. I do writing and still compose songs. But we all have fond memories of a madcap second half of the eighties.'
For a time, our star blazed bright. We never got to put out material out on a label. A love of Black Label and the killer quote saw to that. But in a special time where Coventry even won the FA Cup, we were part of the artistic landscape or should that be piss artistic landscape. The GhostTown was awaking. We raised a glass and hopefully the bar, for bands that do what they do, not giving a damn about image or consequence. I'll drink to that."
From the Coventry Telegraph 9 Jan 2007
"Dwarfs were more merry than jolly
THERE'S nothing new about a rock band courting controversy of course, but there's one Coventry band that made a whole career out of it.
THERE'S nothing new about a rock band courting controversy of course, but there's one Coventry band that made a whole career out of it. I speak about the one and only Jolly Dwarfs. Now you may be forgiven in thinking that the problem laid with their distinctly unPC name.
Well that wasn't it. No, The Jolly Dwarfs' problem floated at the bottom of a glass.
Vocalist and frontman Troy Forrest, bass guitarist Rob Summerfield, drummer Sean Murphy and lead guitarist Ray Gower, made up this potent force. They played hard and partied hard; problem was they did both at the same time.
The band was formed by Ray and Rob, who spent years as a duo, doing very little. They decided to "steal" vocalist Troy Forrest from heavy rock band Chainsaw using a bribe of free beer for every rehearsal. It worked, and with the inclusion of Sean a little while later the band were ready to face their fans.
"We became the most unorganised drunken band in Coventry," Troy admits. "We played just about every venue in the city." It's worth mentioning at this juncture, that the Jolly Dwarfs were not a joke band - okay they never took themselves too seriously, but these guys could play and play well. This was a full-on rock band consisting of four guys who liked a drink.
By early 1988 they began picking up a reputation of being a boozy band that could pull in the crowds. That reputation was about to go into critical mass, when Troy announced in the Coventry Telegraph's Street Talk column that they "never let the music interfere with their drinking". "I have at least 10 pints of lager before a show," Troy boasted. He went on: "At one concert I was so drunk I fell of the stage."
He revealed that even their recording sessions were much the same: "We arrived at the studio with a crate of Breaker lager, it cost us #115 for the recording session and in the end we didn't even bother to send the tape off to the record companies. "We are a drunk rock band playing for drunks and our motto is 'carry-on with a carry-out'."
It definitely lit the blue touch paper. Two days later the Coventry Telegraph printed an article that ran with the headline 'Drinking boasts are slammed by police'. Senior police officer Bill Guest acting head of Coventry police condemned the Jolly Dwarfs attitude as 'stupid and irresponsible'. He went on to say: "Obviously it's a stupid publicity stunt, but it's something that many of their fans could think is okay."
He claimed that the band's comments were at odds with the police', magistrates' and community leaders' efforts to rid Coventry of violence and other alcohol-related problems of the time. He said: "Many youngsters do copy their idols. "Comments of this sort can encourage them to think drinking a lot is something to be admired."
In response The Jolly Dwarfs said they were shocked by the comments, and only wanted to have fun: "We are not violent or a nuisance to anyone," they said. Once the story hit, the band's reputation as a hard-drinking band tended to over-shadow the great music they were very capable of creating. Yes the JDs could cut it with any band of the time. Troy, as well as being a great vocalist also had a natural humour about him.
His one-liners often had the audience in stitches. Less enthralling for the audience, however, was his frequent mid-song departures from the stage to either buy a drink or answer the call of nature. This wasn't your average local band. The tit-for-tat comments continued when the band announced that they would never play Coventry again as a protest to the city centre drinking ban.
Singer Troy told the Telegraph: "We've been disillusioned with this city for a long time now. It's a pitiful place to try to do anything creative like our music. "When the authorities imposed the ban last year (1988), it really brought home to us just how paranoid and paternalistic things had got." They planned to play one last Coventry gig at The Bulls Head in Binley Road, that was just outside the city centre-drinking ban.
More column inches were created when the then manager of the Bulls Head, Paul Lyons, banned the band from playing at the pub, stating that he refused to be associated with the band, and that he supported what the police and the council were doing.
Even the head of Mitchells and Butlers got involved and called the band "Bloody stupid and irresponsible". The band hit back as to be expected, saying: "It just hammers home what we said in the first place about the conservative attitude that exists in Coventry. That's exactly why we are leaving."
They finally managed to play the gig at The Lady Godiva, but the publicity had taken its toll and a month later the band disintegrated. Guitarist Ray went off to form Going Nowhere Fast and Troy joined new venture Shady Deal. The Jolly Dwarfs story is a good lesson to any new up and-coming rock band. That is; a little adverse-publicity is a good thing, too much, however, and you'll be spending most of your time making newspaper headlines rather than making music.
Basically everything's fine in moderation - anyway mine's a short." http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/lifestyle/nostalgia/dwarfs-were-more-merry-jolly-3117032
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