The Highliners
our true story . . . . .
We gave up our day jobs, made and bought some instruments, bought an old volkswagon camper van painted it Highliner Pink (see pic) . . . . .
< nice pic Vorn that looks better than the real van. Ed >
and left London for the south of France to learn how to play, and check out the beaches (see pic) . . . .
Playing some of our own songs and covers of our favourites, we were described by some press as a cross between Benny Hill, The Ramones and The Cramps with some Monty Python thrown in. At night we played in bars and clubs and employed unusual advertising to entice the tourists (see pic) . . . .
and if we were not on the beaches we sometimes had fun busking in St Tropez (see pic) . . . .
At the end of that long hot summer, and with tans like a Greek Adonos, we had learnt how to create good fun rock n roll type songs usually in the key of G, and all with three chords or less.
We had some great shows and parties on the beaches and in the sea, and although we remained in St Tropez for the whole summer, the best times ended when drummer Tim Potter had to return to England.
Until the time Tim could rejoin us different people took up his drum seat, however;
We returned to England without a drummer.
Passing through Dover, we kidnapped a drummer "Andy the 1st" from
a petrol station and went to live for the winter in a remote village in the
middle of England.
Despite good locks and high fencing he managed to escape . . . .
And er, we were without a drummer.
This lasted until later the same morning when, mysteriously, we found another drummer living in the cellar.
Mick Mysterious drummed in the style of Slim Jim from The Stray Cats, and we played many gigs around the middle of England, including three gigs with King Kurt until one day . . . .mysteriously . . . .
Anyway. We returned to London without a drummer;
And were introduced to Ginger.
Ginger had been the drummer for The Meteors and The Ricochets in the early years and was now ready for us, insisting that we all wear The Highliners Pink shorts.
After the exciting audition, which we passed, Ginger introduced us to the Klub Foot and Pyschobilly drumming big style and that's where you may have been introduced to us.
Saturday July 4th 1987
After signing to ABC Records the singles Double Shot of My Baby's Love and Henry The Wasp were released along with a video which helped get into the singles charts and on MTV and the UK singles TV show Top of The Pops (see video link under Music), We recorded our first album at an overseas rural retreat (in Wales), appeared on a variety of TV programmes however, (and unfortunately) the record company went into liquidation and it was some two years before the album was eventually released by Razor Records.
Meanwhile,
we were kept busy on the live circuit playing gigs at many places........
(Our Agent quickly booked tours far away from him in countries we had to fly
too)
Rather like Spinal Tap - without the explosions - The Highliners have seen many drummers come and go, and come back again and go away again. Some like Rick Buckler (from The Jam) stand in for a few months, and some (like Ginger) last much longer.
Foe a while The Highliners have taken a sabbatical. Until recently.
That's a brief summery of the early years,
Now, Tim is back!
The Line up is,
As always;
Luke on vocals;
and Stretch on bass;
The Girls' favourite, Tim Potter behind the drum kit,
Leading the guitar attack is Southend Dave (from Vulture Squadron, Deathskulls and many other bands)
With solid sax, courtesy of Bournemouth's famous Pronghorn, provided by Lamma.
If you have a question, send us an email, tell us what you want to know, and we will try to include it.
Eventually.
Love,
The Highliners
