The Incredible Kidda Band -
Pilsner Publicity – Biography 1978(?) by Mike Davies
Coventry is not a city renowned for taste: witness the cathedral. Nor is Coventry a city renowned for musical appreciation of its populace. If the Rolling Stones played Coventry they’d probably bomb out. So it’s a constant surprise to discover how many good bands are currently emerging from the concrete wasteland. To survive Coventry’s dismal lethargy you’ve got to be good…to call yourself The Incredible Kidda Band you’ve got to be even better. With a name like that you can’t afford to let your standards slip.
The Incredible Kidda Band have been together now for just over a year and in that time they’ve managed to build up a strong local following in and around Coventry and to secure a record deal with Psycho Records. Now, with a growing army of fans and a rave review in Melody maker from top record producer Tony Visconti, The Incredible Kidda Band have decided that it is time to go fully professional and spread their talents across the rest of the country. After all who wants to stay in Coventry when a universe beckons?
The band have had problems with being tagged as punk but hearing them live and listening to the single Everybody Knows/No nerve, is enough to convince that what they’re really about is being a 70’s pop band and both giving and getting FUN from their music (do you remember when it was still a ‘good thing’ to actually enjoy music? - thank the New Wave for actually bringing that back to life!!). On stage they mix up a set of cover versions and their own material although they’re working to a set of 90% original material and with numbers like ‘Fighting my way back’ and ‘Don’t take me to the cleaners’, it’s obvious that they’ll soon be in a position of their stuff being done by others.
So who are the Incredible Kidda Band? OK, it’s note-taking time. The band line up as follows:
Kidder: Vocals. He’s looking for ’fame, fortune and a week’s holiday in Butlins’. Apart from a brief flirtation with Sparky Plug and the Sockets (on drums) this is his first band. Also makes a good substitute for a teddy bear for girls who like that sort of thing.
Dave Lister: Guitar. He’s been playing in local bands for quite a while which has certainly made him an anchor in the band. He reckons that the Incredible Kidda Band are the best bet to give him ‘fast women and loose cars’. Huh!
John Rollason: Guitar: he prefers to forget his early career and proudly asserts that he’s been playing guitar seriously for ‘about 3 days’. Mind you he’s been practising for six years.
Les Rollason: Bass: Not surprisingly the brother of John, he cites his main influence as Moira Anderson. He met up with the rest of the band in a sleazy bar in Atherstone. Bad luck still dogs him.
Paul Gardner: Drums: A man who wields a mean pair of sticks – chopsticks that is.
Alan Hammonds: lead vocals: Brother of Kidda and main writer of the band. What the connection is I’m not sure. This is his first band although he has worked at Sketchley cleaners for a while (hence the song ‘Don’t take me to the cleaners’) but this is a non-sequitor. Brazen and confident he’s the bands leading personality, which is why he doesn’t get to do many interviews. He describes the bands sound as ‘rough rock’. Ask him what is so special about the band and he’ll tell you ‘we’ve just got that something extra special…. me! You think he’s joking?
All the band hail from Coventry (although Alan isn’t ashamed to admit he comes from County Durham) and are all aged in their early 20’s. Apparently the entire band grew up in the same street but beyond the occasional fight and gang warfare they never really met each other until they formed the Incredible Kidda Band. Incredible.
So that’s the Incredible Kidda Band for you. With a name like that they deserve to make it. I kidda you not.
The Incredible Kidda Band -
March Music - Biography 1979 by Ric Lee
The Kidda Band consists of Alan Hammonds (Lead vocal and songwriter), his brother Kidder who lends his nickname to the band (Second vocals/keyboards), John Rollason (guitar/vocals) and his brother Les (bass), Dave ‘Legs’Lister (guitar/vocals) and Paul Gardner (drums). All of the band lives in Nuneaton except Paul who hails from Rugby.
Alan (23) was originally a dustman and has the dubious honour of being one time boyfriend of the local police chief. At a recent gig he started a riot and offended women’s’ libbers in the audience by stating his preference for ‘feminine’ women. The group’s songwriter, he ‘starts with a title’ usually to do with a personal experience and ‘the rest of the song follows from there’. His musical influences are The Rolling Stones and Marc Bolan.
Kidder (21) must have been the youngest coal miner in the country, but now prefers to try his hand at gold mining rather than working down a pit. He is most famous for having won the Cadburys Chocolate Competition for painting at school for these consecutive years! His musical influences are ELO and Eric Clapton.
Les (21) was on the dole for so long at one period that he started to receive invites to the office parties. This terminated quickly when he started accepting the invites!! His musical influences are Slade and the Alex Harvey Band.
Dave (23) was the smallest juggernaut driver in England and spent the early part of his life as a pendant on his mother’s charm bracelet. Influences are Brian Robertson of Thin Lizzy and Diana Ross.
Paul (23) was a local council worker for the Health Department and spent many years ‘up to his neck in it…’ in the sewers of Rugby. His influences are Cozy Powell and Status Quo.
John (23), the Kidda Bands’ answer to Robert Redford, is probably the most volatile and dynamic guitarist to arrive on the music scene since ‘supersonic’ Syd Little.
Note: Ric Lee was formerly drummer with Ten Years After and became manager of the Kidda Band for a short time in the 1980s. See http://www.tenyearsafternow.com/ricbio.html
The Incredible Kidda Band - Oak Agency - Press Release 197(9)? by John Motsyn
There was a time that they used to be known as The Incredible Kidda Band, but that was too much like stating the obvious; hence the shortening.
This six piece band from Nuneaton have been steadily making a name for themselves around the club circuit, and with their recent signing to Carrere Records it seems a fair bet that they're going to expand that reputation on a national level.
The twin guitar sounds provide a hard driving front line neatly emphasized by the no-holds-barred ryhthm section. Then there's the two lead vocal attack of Alan and Kidder Hammonds punching out both their own sterling numbers.
It's hard to label the band without either simplifying or cross-categorising, but if you imagined the early R&B of the Rolling Stones and spiced it up with some fierce driving rock in the mould of The Motors or The Boomtown Rats then you'd possibly have a reasonable guideline.
In their early days the band went the rounds playing the Top 40 New Wave hits such as the Boomtown Rats and Thin Lizzy, but with a sackful of their own material under their belts.
The non-originals began to be gradually phased out and such raw, but potentially classic hits in the shape of "Asleep at the wheel", "Sign on the dotted line" and the gripping "Fighting my way Back" began to make their tentative appearances.
These days their own sound has become a lot more confident and the material has multiplied tenfold.
For hard rocking R&B New Wave drive there are few bands that can provide material to match up to the standard of numbers like "There's a thief about", "I gotta get outta of here" and "She's a 50" or turn in the shades of bitter emotion on the slower tracks like " I want you to want me (like I want you)" and ''You belong to me''.
Then there is the sense of sheer fun in the subtle "Saturday Night Fever" and the instant appeal of "Radio Caroline".
Any choice you make you make will bring total satisfaction.
The band enjoy themselves on stage and their high standard of music and material ensures that the feeling is reciprocated. See them live and listen out for the forthcoming single and you're bound to agree that these days the word "Incredible" goes without saying.
Note: John Mostyn was the bands booking agent for a number of years in the 1980s. He later became manager of The (English) Beat and Fine Young Cannibals.
The Incredible Kidda Band -Biography 197(8) by John Davis
The Incredible Kidda Band? - Yes Incredible - Incredible that six guys can work, travel, eat, sleep, live and breathe together for a year and a half without someone losing their head or interest - incredible at a time when disco's dominate the music scene that the doors are closed within one hour at many venues.
Incredible - that a usually staid press can give rave reviews about an unknown band.
Incredible - that fans who enjoy the music will follow wherever and whenever.
The Incredible Kidda Band generate energy to transform todays desperately bored youth into an army of excitement.
The obvious common denominator amons six individuals is their music, mostly written by lead vocalist Alan Hammonds who originates from the North East and is fast being tagged as the new Jagger of this decade. The No.1 thinker and worrier whose only other interests are girls and human psychology.
Keeping the music in the family is Kidder Hammonds who provides the strong harmony lines which gives the band that polished front line sound, being the electrician in the band he lists his interests as sound projection, girls and learning to shave.
The strong musical lines come from guitarists Dave Lister and John Rollason. Dave has a guitar sound that leaves people with mouths open in admiration, the quiet guy of the band and a mechanic, lists his interests as fast cars, girls and travelling.
John provides the driving ryhthm which makes the audience "get up and boogie", he has previously worked with rated Midlands bands, but on reflection says they lacked the Kidda magic. His interests are English architecture, trying to glve up smoking and, of course, girls.
Bass player is Les Rollason, Johns brother, who joined the band in an emergency and never left, interested in woodwork and keeping fit - mainly with girls.
Drummer Graham "Dick" Millington completes the band - keeps you laughing. When things get rough, his only interest in life is drums and sometimes girls.
The army of fans grows daily with national acceptance a matter of time - give the band a whirl and join the legions.