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Here is the full story of
Hertford's most exciting band!
Instone’s Belly were formed in 1987 by Adrian Parker and Martin Smith while
both of them were still at school in Hertford, England. Adrian had already
recorded a number of albums (straight onto tape with the worst imaginable sound
quality) under the name of AJ The DJ. Martin had contributed some lyrics for
the final AJ The DJ album, Quiet In The Stand and the pair
decided to try a musical collaboration.
Their first recording was a single
called It’s Christmas Time Again which was released (not
surprisingly) in time for Christmas 1987. The single attracted plenty of
attention at their school and led the duo to record an album quickly. Both
Adrian and Martin contributed vocals and keyboards on the record and finally
their first album was released. However, an earlier version of the record was
scrapped after the band decided there were just too many songs on it! The
Instone’s Belly debut was titled Fat and contained two absolute
classics in He’s Very Fat and Looks Like A Rabbit To Me.
The songs were largely about unpopular kids at school, unpopular teachers and,
of course, hamsters! These furry rodents would remain an inspiration to the
band and popped up on Fat in songs such as Hamster On A Van
De Graaf Generator and Hamsters Don’t Die.
A follow-up album was soon written
but Adrian and Martin felt that the band’s sound need fleshing out with some
rock guitars! Therefore, they set about recruiting a guitarist with a similar
level of musical expertise to their own. A bizarre character called Dangerous
Danny Clift fit the bill as he had recently purchased a cheap guitar and had
absolutely no idea what to do with it! Martin also purchased a new instrument
(a shiny Yamaha keyboard from Argos in Harlow!) This combination of the Yamaha’s
cheesy rhythms and Clift’s atonal guitar howlings would shape the sound of the
new record.
Instone’ Belly’s second album was called Where Is Roy Masters?
and attracted even more plaudits than its predecessor. Some of the best songs
included Zanussi Man, Cute and Colin The
Council Worker. However, Dangerous Danny’s avant-garde guitar work was
not to everyone’s taste and his infamous solo on Cute prompted
one young fan to remark to his older sister, "What’s that horrible
noise?"! Where Is Roy Masters? consolidated Instone’s
Belly’s position as Hertford’s premier quirky pop group and the band decided to
record a remix album featuring new versions of songs from Fat and
Where Is Roy Masters? as well as a few new tracks. However,
another new member was about to join the Belly gang and change their sound
forever!
Whilst recording the remix album, Belly
Dancing, Martin and Adrian had decided that some real musical knowledge
was required, particularly as Dangerous Danny was living up to his sobriquet
and proving to be something of an unstable studio presence! After some
fruitless collaboration with classically trained pianist Rupert Ridgewell, the
band found the answer to their problems in the shape of Paul Mansfield. He was
also a beginner when it came to guitar licks but was already outshining
Dangerous’s contributions to the album. It was Mansfield’s dexterous playing
that enlivened the album’s best new track, I Don’t Like You Mr. Botha.
This song also featured the band’s most obvious political commentary to date.
Several live gigs around their home town were arranged during this period and
Instone’s Belly’s performances at The Parker Garage, Simon’s House and Ian’s
Patio grew to become legendary! They were often augmented by additional
musicians on stage including guitarist Jon E Davis, bass player John Cooper and
keyboardist Rachel Parker (Adrian’s sister). This was particularly necessary as
Martin was now handling a temperamental drum machine as well as a bank of
cheesy home keyboards! One of these gigs (in Adrian’s spare room) was recorded
and formed the basis for a live album entitled Bootleg Belly.
Following on from the remix album, this led to claims of creative bankruptcy
from some fans and it has to be said that the sound quality is truly appalling!
The constant strain of playing live also resulted in Dangerous quitting the
band during this period. Despite all these traumas, however, the best was still
to come for the Belly in the shape of their incredible fifth album, Bellyphone
Music.
The band members had all now left school and finally made the adventurous,
revolutionary album they had always promised. The basic line up of Parker,
Smith and Mansfield was added to by occasional appearances by guest musicians
such as John Cooper and Freya on Fiesta Beat and Rachel Parker on
I Love My Shirt. Other classic tracks on the album included The
C Chord, Great Big Guinea Pig, Boot To The Head
and (John) Where’s Your Head Gone?.
Although no official announcement
was made, everything went ominously quiet from the Belly camp in the months
following the release of Bellyphone Music. The band recorded
under various pseudonyms such as This Power, 91 Uses Of A Live Cat and Chegwin
Potato but did not release any material of great substance. Eventually the solo
albums started to appear as the nineties dawned. Smith was the first out of the
blocks with a couple of very fine albums including Some Like It Burnt.
Now recording as Toaster Smith, he produced one song which stands up to the
finest Instone’s Belly creations. Imaginary Planet fired up the
whole band when they heard it and led to them getting back together for a
one-off live appearance at the Greenbelt Festival. Parker, Smith and Mansfield
performed Imaginary Planet and it went down a storm amid a
raucous set which featured much improvisation and banging on frying pans!
Adrian Parker released a number of
solo albums in the mid-nineties including Wigbert Rides Again and
Mou. The latter contained his finest solo moment Vincent
Price Has Gone To Paradise. Around this time the three key players in
the Belly story reformed under the name of The Bongo Brothers and released the Bongo
Brothers EP which seemed to see the band back to their best, albeit
under a new name. However, the expected album never materialized and the only
new material since then came when Adrian and Paul joined forces as Six White
Boomers and produced an album called The Crawl From Hell which
featured a degree of sound quality and musicianship seldom heard on previous
releases. Sex Pants and the band’s cover of John Denver’s (Take
Me Home) Country Roads were particularly impressive!
However, as the new millennium
dawned, plans were afoot for the reformation of Instone's Belly. Thanks to the
wonders of the internet, the band were able to communicate easily again and
began to discuss the possibility of writing and recording some new songs. A new
album moved a step nearer when the band purchased a digital 8 track mini-studio
upon which to create their masterpieces. After a seemingly never ending recording
process, the band finally released a new album called Mavis Looks Like A
Tiger Today in the summer of 2001. The songs reflected a slick new
sound but captured that old Belly magic perfectly. These songs are still being
promoted and are available for free download from this web site so the whole
story of the album cannot yet be told. However, the highlight to date came when
Peter's Pony won the Battle of the Bands on Hertbeat FM and
Instone's Belly received their first ever official airplay. Who would have
thought they could come so far back in 1987? They are not finished yet, though,
and are due to start recording another album in the near future.
Go to the LATEST NEWS section of this web site for the most recent gossip on IB.