Eyeless in Gaza

 

Eyeless in Gaza

BAND INDEX

Eyeless in Gaza http://www.eyelessingaza.com/eigbio.html



From Pete Chambers - Godiva Rocks

"When Martyn Bates and Peter Becker came together they created something unique.

Martyn had been the vocalist in mark 1 of the Reluctant Stereotypes. When their quirky jazzy sound began to be replaced by with the Coventry ska sound, a rather unchuffed Martyn left and a rather happy Paul King joined (later of the chart topping band King).

Martyn who had been experimenting with industrial sounds teamed up with the like-minded Peter in 1980. Eyeless in Gaza were named after a novel by Aldous Huxley, and were to make many an inroad into the indie charts. Their coming together was a dynamic that would create a range of breathtakingly original music. Always with one foot in the ambient bucket but never afraid to test the water of other genres. What set them apart was Martyn's unique voice, used as an instrument rather than just a vocal, it melded perfectly with the searing atmospheric keyboards and Becker's pumping bass lines."

Their first single was Kodak Ghosts run Amok and their classic album was Photographs as Memories on Cherry Red which Pete Chambers feels is one of the finest debut albums ever!

Songs include From A to B / Seven Years / Speech Rapid Fire .

Second album Caught in Flux 1981 / Pale hands I Loved So Well 1982 / Drumming the Beating Heart 1982. Back from the Rains 1986.

They disbanded 1987.

Becker joined In Embrace with drummer Joby Palmer and Bates went solo - quite prolifically.

COMMENT - from Rupert Lloydell of Stride Publications " I worked in Coventry in 1980 and used to be up there for a couple more years visiting a girlfriend in Leamington most weekends. I’m still in touch with Martyn from Eyeless in Gaza [i published a lyric book of his, and of Eyeless through my Stride imprint], Martin Bowes from Attrition and Alan Rider from Stress. I was big on zines and gigs at the General Wolfe and Lanchester Poly. Stride tapes are long gone, as indeed is Stride books. i just keep the online magazine going at the moment, and my own work [mainly published by Shearsman] + some anthologies edited. [both Martin Bowes /Attrition and Alan Rider from Stress have reissued the tracks the put on stride tapes BTW – Alan got in touch a couple years back to see if i still had the original booklet artwork. & i did!]. I saw Eyeless’ second gig at the Wolfe, as well as lots of awful heavy metal bands!"

Alan Rider's new site for Adventures in Reality Zine etc is http://adventuresinreality.co.uk/


Comment from Trev Teasdel " Although i left Coventry in October 1980 about the time Rupert Loydell, i came across Rupert and his work with Stride magazine from my new base in Teesside. In fact i booked Rupert and a contingent of poets from Stride magazine for the New Poetry Scene, Dovecot Arts Centre in Stockton Tees which I co ran with Ann Wainwright - editor of Poetic Licence, in 1984. One of the Stride flyers Rupert sent me has adverts for Attrition and Stress cassettes.


Much more info on their site here http://www.eyelessingaza.com/eigbio.html

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Still Air

Dance of Hours.