In the Begining

The Godfathers rose from the ashes of the Sid Presley Experience.


SPE lasted from late 1983 through early 1985, released a few singles, and was a rising underground band, but it is said that they liked to brawl more than they liked to play. SPE featured the Coyne brothers along with guitarist Del Bartle and drummer Kev Murphy. After the breakup, Del and Kev went on to form the band Unholy Trinity, which released a record called Rise to The Occassion (1985 UK). That album contains a few tracks that SPE used to perform live, but that were never officially released.

After the breakup, the Coynes' new band did a short American tour under the SPE moniker, but due to fights over the name, changed the name to the Godfathers. The lineup was: Peter Coyne on vocals, Chris Coyne on bass, Kris Dollimore (lead) and Mike Gibson on guitar, and George Mazur on drums.

1985 saw the Godfathers release a number of singles on their own independent Corporate Image label - including This Damn Nation and I Want Everything. The songs on these singles were compiled on 1986's Hit by Hit, put out by Link Records. A cover of John Lennon's 'Cold Turkey' is often called the gem of the collection. ('Cold Turkey', along with the originals 'I Want You' and 'Can't Leave Her Alone', dated from the SPE era.)

The rise of the Godfathers continued after being signed to Epic Records. "Birth, School, Work, Death" in 1987 led off their major label release of the same name, and was a high charting single in England. The song was also a nominee in 1988 for MTV's Video Music Awards for "Best New Artist In A Video". (They lost to Gun'N'Roses "Welcome to the Jungle"). 'Cause I Said So' was also released as a single off the album. 'Love Is Dead' is another of my favorites on that album.

1989 saw the release of "More Songs About Love and Hate", which featured the college-radio hit "She Gives Me Love". To me, this album also solidified the band as a certifiable institution - hard driving rock done their own way, and done well. Exhibit 1: The single for I'm Lost And Then I'm Found, also off this album.

  

DID YOU KNOW?

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(40 things you may have never asked about The Godfathers)

  1. It is a commonly held misconception that The Godfathers all come from London - only Peter and Chris Coyne were actually born and grew up in the Elephant & Castle Walworth area of South London. Kris Dollimore hails from the Isle Of Sheppey in Kent, while Mike Gibson from Barrow-In-Furness, Lancashire and George Mazur, who was born and bred in Bradford in Yorkshire, represent the North of England.

  2. In 1988 giant soft drinks company Pepsi secretly negotiated the use of The Godfathers music and the slogan ‘Birth, School, Work, Pepsi’ in a worldwide advertising campaign. Sadly, only days before signing the contract, the American advertising executive responsible for setting up the deal suffered a fatal stroke and the money-spinning plan was shelved.

  3. Flamboyant movie star Johnny Depp is a long-time fan of The Godfathers. When he was introduced to Kris at his club The Viper Room in LA (Kris was playing guitar for Adam Ant, on The King of The Wild Frontier’s own ‘Wonderful’ tour in 1995) he remarked: “Hey man, why did you leave The Godfathers? They were a fucking great band!”

  4. Both Coyne brothers Peter and Chris claim to have seen UFOs. Mysterious, unexplainable lights in the sky were witnessed moving at great speed over the Stonehenge Festival in 1983, where The Sid Presley Experience had just made their debut live performance. On another occasion in 1995, while driving up the M4 to Wales for the recording of the final Godfathers’ album ‘Afterlife’, the band’s car was followed for quite a stretch of the way by a spinning, glowing, multi-coloured ball of light. Rumours of an intergalactic Godfathers fan club have been vastly exaggerated.

  5. The line “I felt torture / I felt pain / Just like that film with Michael Caine” in the lyrics of “Birth, School, Work, Death” draws from the brainwash/torture sequence in the classic sixties anti-Bond spy movie ‘The Ipcress File’ starring Michael Caine. His Harry Palmer character covertly stabs a nail into his hand to remind himself of what is real. Coincidentally, Sir Michael Caine was raised as Maurice Micklewhite in the very same Walworth area near Elephant & Castle in South London where Peter & Chris hail from.

  6. A few months before they even met to form the band Mike, George and the Coyne brothers all attended the same gig by The Ramones at the Lyceum in early ’85 in London. The Godfathers later covered ‘the bruvvers’ punk anthem ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ to great response on numerous live outings including once in front of a suitably impressed Joey Ramone at a storming gig at New York Ritz in ‘89. The Godfathers also toured Europe for three weeks in ‘88 with The Ramones and The Stranglers. To further bond the ‘family’ tie, Kris joined Dee Dee Ramone and the great Johnny Thunders in 1990 on sessions for ex-Dead Boys frontman Stiv Bators’ solo album ‘Last Race’.

  7. Another London personality who loved The Godfathers was no other than Brixton born David Bowie; he took time out of his busy schedule in ‘88 to witness them performing live on a festival bill with Motorhead & The Damned in Switzerland and then again at The Palace in Los Angeles in ‘89. In Geneva The Godfathers had concluded an electrifying set with a brutal cover of John Lennon’s heroin withdrawal anthem ‘Cold Turkey’ and Bowie came to congratulate them accompanied by previous Iggy Pop band rhythm section brothers Hunt and Tony Sales along with guitarist Reeves Gabrels. They had just formed what would become their ‘group’ project Tin Machine and were all highly inspired by The Godfathers’ live sonic attack. By their sartorial choice it later became obvious that they hadn’t appreciated only the music. Hilariously the next year Epic Records had arranged for a famed photographer to take pictures of The Godfathers with Bowie at The Palace in LA, only to find later that he’d left the lens cap on for the whole session! Thanks to a member of the road crew one lonely surviving shot of the merry reunion stands to testament. At the after-concert party to celebrate George’s birthday, Bowie asked The Godfathers to sign to the new record label he was currently setting up. The Godfathers respectfully declined, explaining the terms of their Epic contract. Nevertheless the birthday celebrations grew so spirited that The Thin White Duke ended up being carried away in a merry, inebriated daze, slurring his goodbyes to the band as two burly minders dragged him home.

  8. The Godfathers played their first ever Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre at The Sir George Robey, North London at the beginning of their second UK tour on February 14th 1986. This was the first and last time Peter has used a Thompson sub-machine gun onstage, firing round after round of blanks over the audience’s heads during a killer cover of The Sid Presley Experience classic instrumental ‘Public Enemy Number One.’

  9. As well as regularly playing Lennon’s ‘Cold Turkey’ live The Godfathers have over the years also paid tribute to The Sex Pistols covering ‘Anarchy In The UK’ and ‘Pretty Vacant’, ‘How Does It Feel To Feel’ (The Creation), ‘Roadrunner’ (Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers), ‘Wipeout’ (The Surfaris), ‘Bad Boy’ (Larry Williams), ‘Sun Arise’ (Rolf Harris/Alice Cooper), ‘Boredom’ (Buzzcocks), ‘Firewater’ (Astronauts),‘All Or Nothing’ (Small Faces), ‘The Jean Genie’ (David Bowie), ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ (Iggy & The Stooges), ‘Public Enemy Number One’ & ‘Hup Two Three Four’ (Sid Presley Experience) and ‘I Can Only Give You Everything’ & ‘Gloria’ (Van Morrison & Them) and uncharacteristically The Beastie Boys’ ‘Fight For Your Right To Party’.

  10. While on tour in Germany in ‘88 The Godfathers received a present of a tin of sweets and candies in the shape of spiders, snakes, mice and skulls and other scary goodies from loyal fan Alice Cooper.

  11. The speaking voice audible on the coda to The Godfathers’ version of ‘Sun Arise’ on ‘Hit By Hit’ belongs to none other than Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and was taken from a speech that the band taped from the radio while busy recording in June ‘86. “To speak out and to act against injustice and oppression. To speak up and to act for justice, for goodness, for humanity, for life, for joy, for peace, for compassion, for caring, for sharing.”

  12. In 1989 Epic Records America distributed 200 white label copies of The Godfathers’ ‘I’m Lost And Then I’m Found’ single stamped only with the slogan “The World’s Greatest Rock & Roll Band.” Several stations in the States, believing it to be promotional copies of the forthcoming new single by The Rolling Stones announced it as such and gave it considerable radio airplay.

  13. The Strangest Boy’ track from the ‘Birth, School, Work, Death’ album is a tongue-in-cheek tribute to mighty Mancunians The Smiths & their esteemed vocalist Morrissey who later invited The Godfathers to support him on his imminent 25 date US arena tour in 1991. Although extremely flattered by Mozzer’s kind offer the band declined in favour of their first ever tour of Australia already scheduled for that December. Morrissey eventually only ended up playing only about 5 dates of the tour, pulling out of the remaining dates to beat a hasty retreat back home. Meanwhile The Godfathers’ three-week debut tour of Oz was sensationally received and also proved to be Mike’s penultimate tour with the band.

  14. During a lengthy American tour in ‘88, enjoying a rare day off while in Nashville, The Godfathers recorded a demo of ‘Walking Talking Johnny Cash Blues’ at a studio owned by the legendary Man in Black himself. Their tour bus driver Big Jim on pedal steel guitar augmented The Godfathers on the session. This early recording of the song was rejected by the band in favour of the later Vic Maile produced version found on ‘More Songs About Love And Hate’ while the Nashville rendition has to date never been released.

  15. Prior to forming The Sid Presley Experience in the early Eighties with his brother Chris, Peter worked for a couple of years as a journalist – writing album & live reviews for Record Mirror and conducting interviews for ZigZag and other influential music publications of the day.

  16. The Godfathers are all great fans of soundtracks and right from early on in their recording career while on their Corporate Image label days they recorded two instrumental tracks: their eponymous twang-tastic, rocking tribute to James Bond theme composer John Barry and the spaghetti western epic ‘Gone To Texas’ in homage to Italian maestro Ennio Morricone. Another instrumental track titled ‘Think’ was demoed prior to the ‘Birth, School, Work, Death’ sessions in ‘87, but was later rejected by the band and never released.

  17. Legendary ‘Oliver!’ composer Lionel Bart gave The Godfathers two thumbs up when he was played the track ‘If I Only Had Time’ from ‘Birth, School, Work, Death’ in his hospital bed in 1987. The song lyrics consist of quotes taken entirely from British tabloid headings of the time (“A million mums are hooked on valium…A generation raised on poverty…Cary Grant’s on LSD…We’re living under a false economy”) while the recurring line “Things ain’t what they used to be” –was a nod to Bart’s own ‘Fings Ain’t Wot They Used To Be’.

  18. . When The Butthole Surfers first toured the UK in 1986, half of the band ended up staying at Mike’s Stoke Newington flat in North London.

  19. While on tour in Paris in ‘88, Chris was introduced to French President Francois Mitterand - who was conducting a backstage tour of the Arts complex that The Godfathers were playing that night. A few years later Chris also had the pleasure to meet Irish President Mary Robinson.

  20. Names rejected for the title of The Godfathers’ debut Corporate Image compilation ‘Hit By Hit’ were ‘Meet To The Beat Of The Godfathers’, ‘Capi Di Tutti I Capi’ and ‘Beats And Pieces’. The latter was eventually used as the title for a 5-track promo compilation issued by Sony to accompany the band’s first (and so far only) Australian tour in December 1991.

  21. Peter was originally inspired to write the lyrics to ‘Birth, School, Work, Death’ after reading a book about legendary British comedian Tony Hancock who had dreamed of making a comedy about the journey of one man’s life “from the first plip, to the last plop”. The much-loved comic unfortunately never completed the project, eventually committing suicide in Sydney in 1968.

  22. Stranded guitarist Kris once had to be rescued by an RAF Chinook helicopter from a snow engulfed Isle Of Sheppey in early ’87 so that he could join The Godfathers for the start of their fourth UK tour.

  23. From 1996 to 2000 George played drums in a house band on Italian TV variety show Sarabanda, backing such stars as Boz Scaggs, Anastasia, Spice Girls Geri Halliwell & Mel C. and Italian diva Patti Pravo.

  24. Way before becoming a full-time musician Mike honed his trade as an experimental confectioner at Rowntree’s Chocolates in York. At the time he also played guitar with a local punk band called The Choc City Rejects.

  25. In October 2000 Peter appeared briefly as a contestant on the British edition of the popular quiz show ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’

  26. Throbbing Gristle/Psychic TV main-man & Art Terrorist Supremo Genesis P. Orridge was an early champion of The Godfathers, often extolling the virtues of the band to fans and the press. At his personal invitation The Godfathers supported Psychic TV alongside Primal Scream & The Shamen at London’s Town & Country Club in October ‘86. George also once had to spend an evening looking for Genesis’ pet boa constrictor as it escaped while he was babysitting Genesis & Paula’s kids.

  27. The Godfathers covered one of their favourite numbers The Creation’s Mod-Psychedelic ‘67 classic ‘How Does It Feel To Feel’ on their 1991 ‘Unreal World’ album. Co-writer & Creation guitarist Eddie Phillips voiced his approval of The Godfathers’ version to Peter commenting: “the only thing that’s wrong with it is that the guitars are all in tune.”

  28. In 2004 both Kris & Peter featured alongside bassist Mark Wrangham and punk rock legend Rat Scabies of The Damned on drums in a short-lived uber-group called The Germans. They only played 7 gigs in the UK and never released any official recordings – however a rare 4 track demo recorded during their brief time together featuring their titanic version of Kraftwerk’s ‘Autobahn’, along with ‘War Machine’, ‘We Don’t Want Your Love’ & ‘Safe’ remains a much-sought after item.

  29. Mullet-haired singer Jon Bon Jovi wore a distinctive Godfathers’ T-shirt in the his video for ‘Bad Medicine’ and again on the cover of the sleeve of Bon Jovi’s ‘Lay Your Hands On Me’ hit single in 1988. As the item had been customized with real diamonds sewn onto the sleeves, it probably amounted to the most expensive Godfathers T-shirt in history.

  30. In August ’85, after consulting weighty reference book ‘Halliwell’s Film Guide’ for inspiration, The Godfathers came up with the definitive name for the band

  31. The very last time the classic, original line-up of The Godfathers (Coyne, Coyne, Dollimore, Gibson & Mazur) played together was at The Town & Country club, London on December 14th ‘89. Their first concert (billed as The Sid Presley Experience) was held at The Embassy club, London in June ‘85.

  32. Cynthia ‘Plaster Caster’ Albritton, leader of the notorious Plaster Caster groupies who famously specialized in immortalizing rock stars’ erect penises in plaster, offered to capture Peter’s appendage for posterity after a concert at Chicago’s Cabaret Metro in ‘89. Peter politely refused to join the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page in Cynthia’s rather unusual mantle-piece collection.

  33. Sixties British film beauty Carol White’s real-life story was the inspiration for The Godfathers’ ‘Believe In Yourself’ from the ‘Unreal World’ album. White, star of Ken Loach’s ‘Poor Cow’ and the ground-breaking ‘Cathy Come Home’, after becoming severely addicted to drink and drugs had sought psychiatric help and her therapist had cut off her access to the outside world while showing her positive messages like “You Can Do It”, “Believe in Yourself” and the like. The radical treatment was temporarily successful and Carol ended marrying her mentor.

  34. Mick Jagger’s younger brother Chris once turned up backstage at The Godfathers’ George Robey concert in North London in ‘86 trying to sell the band some guitars.

  35. The Pixies’ mighty rhythm section of Kim Deal & David Lovering went to see The Godfathers play live regularly and joined the band at parties on several occasions during many an American tour. Kim later went on to enjoy solo success with her own outfit The Breeders, famed for the magnificent ‘Cannonball’ single.

  36. Creation Records impresario Alan McGee, responsible for a myriad indie bands from The Jesus And The Mary Chain to Oasis, once played support to The Godfathers with his own band Biff Bang Pow in Hamburg, Germany in 1986.

  37. The title track of The Godfathers’ 1995 ‘Afterlife’ album is a heart-felt tribute to the Coyne brothers’ father Stephen, who died when the band were in the middle of sessions for the record. Chris can be heard playing his Dad’s accordion on the outro of the song and ‘Afterlife’ is (to date) the last composition that Peter & Chris Coyne ever wrote for the group.

  38. The lyric “Someone to love / Someone to talk to / Something to do / Something to look forward to” from ‘I Want Everything’ on ‘Hit By Hit’ was taken from Elvis Presley’s response at a rare 1970’s press conference when asked about his personal philosophy on life. ‘Instant Coffee/ Instant Sex” from the same song comes from The Beatles when they were questioned about what they liked best about the modern world as they prepared to conquer America in 1964.

  39. INXS front man Michael Hutchence paid respect to The Godfathers in New York in 1988, revealing that he wished he’d written ‘Birth, School, Work, Death’.

  40. The Godfathers invited shock-comedian/magician Jerry Sadowitz to open for them at their Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre at The Town And Country Club, London in 1988, long before he achieved nationwide infamy. Jerry later also appeared as Ebenezer Goode in the video for The Shamen’s number one single of the same name.

  41. ...and finally: in one of the most bizarre rock couplings of all time Oxford’s finest Radiohead once supported The Godfathers in a broadcast for radio station Coleur 3 in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1994.
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