sound of the suburbs

Backtracking to yesterdays post I get the feeling that I have short changed Tymon Dogg, and I'm sure that many of you are not quite sure who he is. Probably most famous due to his friendship with Joe Strummer that dates from the the early 70's in squatting and busking London, rumour has it that it was Tymon that was resonsible for Captain Joe's stabbing style of guitar playing which led to his adoption of the name Strummer. By the time the two met Tymon had already had several brushes with the industry, he had almost been signed by the Beatles Apple label though this never quite came about, in part due to the fab four splitting and putting their label on ice. This experience was followed by him being picked up by the Moody Blues newly formed label, though the promised album was never to materialise, maybe older readers can remember seeing him support the Moody Blues? His first album 'Outlaw Number One' dates from 1976 and owes its existence to a heavy handed arrest while busking in the London underground, the resulting £300 compensation paid for the recording and pressing of the only 500 copies of the album to exist, so if you own this it's a real rarity. A second album 'Battle Of Wills' was released through Rough Trade in 1982. This period was when he first came to my attention with his contribution to the Clash triple album 'Sandinista', the violin led country influenced 'Loose This Skin' was the song that made you wake up before the album went really silly with children singing 'Career Opportunities'! It was to be four years before another album bore his name 1986's 'New Age Songs' had been recorded with his wife Helen Cherry. His fourth and latest album, 'Relentless', saw day as recently as 1989, a compact 14 song set in under 35 minutes, this is probably the album where his folk instincts are pushed to the front along with his enthusiastic style of violin playing and very distinctive voice as can be witnessed on 'Sides'. He has also played on 'Combat Rock' by the Clash and 'Short Back And Sides' by Ian Hunter amongst others.
His recent years were spent as one of the main Mescaleros who along side Joe Strummer co wrote a good number of the bands songs. His most recent activity has been with his new project the Quikening and can be seen playing the occasional gig (London/Hastings), there is an EP, 'Guantanamo', due for release in of 2007 that can be pre-ordered here.
I think it goes without saying that his four albums are all hard to find, it is therefore to their credit that the webmasters behind his site are providing a real public service and have the four albums available here as high quality 320kbps downloads along with two live performances of 'Loose This Skin' recorded with the Mescaleros in 2002. Definitely to be consumed without moderation!