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Of all things, a UK record label (Damaged Records) is releasing VINYL of the Beef People EP, combined with the unreleased tracks, which are great.

The owner, a cool chap named Welly, asked us to do a short interview. His questions and my answers are here:

Beef People interview for Damaged Records – Michael W. Dean’s answers

1. Where and when band formed, and how it came about? Founding members? Reasons for the name?

Formed in 1984 the Blue Ridge School in Dyke, Virginia.

(I think it was 1984, I wasn’t there at the start. Jack? Is this correct?)

Founding members: Brian Childers – throat Willy MacLean – bass Rob Buckingham – guitar Jack Massey – drums

I joined the band replacing Rob Buckingham on guitar, so I’m not the guy to ask about the very inception. But the line up was always the same as above, except I took over on guitar shortly before the EP came out. I was in the band less than nine months, then they broke up. It was one of those hardcore bands that were great, short lived, did an EP and dissolved….As it probably should be, based on a lot of reunions I’ve witnessed lately with sad old men who used to be my heroes more than 20 years ago.

The band name “The Beef People” came from “We’re the Beef People” the motto of a now-defunct supermarket chain in the American south called Winn Dixie. Our EP “Music for Men” was named after a choral sheet music series that the guys had in their music class at their boarding school.

Rob left the band when he got kicked out of school for sneaking a girl into his room. I had been kicked out of my own boarding school for calling the headmaster a “fat, bald, overtly Christian old fart”, so I immediately felt an affinity to the guy I was replacing.

2. Details on early gigs and early demo recordings?

The band played less than a dozen gigs as I remember (not counting a few gigs they played at their boarding school before I joined). Most were under attended, maybe between 15 and 50 people. Remember, this was Virginia in the early 80s.

I remember one gig for about 30 people in a place that held 800. Everyone was in the back of the room, and it felt like we were playing to the Grand Canyon. After a couple songs, I said over the mic, “I’m not playing another note until everyone in this room joins us on stage.” They all did. The stage suddenly became the whole concert, people were only a few feet away, and it got really intimate and fun. Brian had some electric hair trimmers and gave 25 cent haircuts (“money back guarantee!”) to about a third of the audience between songs. He also shaved my head, while I was doing a guitar solo. I was getting a slight electric shock in my scalp as he did it. It felt really exciting, and I didn’t need to sleep much for a few weeks after.

Our biggest gig was for about 100 people, when we opened for Battalion of Saints.

3. First record release, with any interesting stories or nuggets of information connected to it?

The only release was the EP, “Music for Men”, recorded in 1986. We recorded and mixed the EP, and the additional songs that Welly is now putting out along with the songs from the EP, in one session, in about 8 hours total (including a few overdubs), at Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, Virginia, in Don Zientara’s basement. Don engineered the record. John Beers put the EP out on his label, “Catch Trout Records”.

4. Tours, with details of where and who with, with anything that you may remember from them? The Beef People never toured. They were seniors at the Blue Ridge School in Dyke, Virginia, and broke up when they graduated. I was three years older, and drove from Charlottesville, Virginia (about an hour away) to rehearse.

All of our gigs were in Charlottesville.

The singer, Brian Childers, later played bass some and sang some on one tour in my band Bomb (from San Francisco), in 1989.

5. Record labels you dealt with, how the deals came about, and how they treated you?

We only did that one record on Catch Trout, and John Beers treated us really well. He paid for the record, gave us lots of copies, pressed 1000 copies, sent out a lot of promo copies, got it into stores nationwide, and probably lost money doing so. John loves music, and that’s why he had a label. He was never in it for the money.

Someone else put one of the songs out on a compilation, I forget what it was called, don’t think they had permission, and it doesn’t bother me at all.

6. Subsequent record releases, with dates and details or any story of interest?

None, none and none. Until now. Thank you, Welly!

7. Dynamics of relationships of band members. Any personality clashes or great friendships? Good or bad situations?

We all got along great in the Beef People, as far as every time I was with them. Brian and I clashed in Bomb a few times because I was a junkie by then. That’s why he quit Bomb. I’m sober now, many years.

8. Reasons for band break-up with dates and details? Band graduated from school. Not much details past that.

9. Proudest moment or achievement connected to the band? What are your thoughts on it looking back?

It was all a blast. I’m really proud of the guys, my time in the band, and love how well the music has held up after 23 years.

10. Any kind of reformation happened or due to happen? If so, details please.

Nope. Singer died. I’d sooner dig up my dead grandfather, prop him up on the couch and watch a baseball game with him than play a Beef People gig without Brian.

(Brian’s obituary that I wrote is attached. It’s from the March 2008 issue of Maximum Rock ‘n’ Roll magazine. Feel free to reprint. I own it, and anyway, they reprint a lot of stuff without permission, say it’s “fair use under copyright law”, and they’re probably right.)

11. Any other bands or projects the members have worked on then or since?

I’m married, live in the suburbs, have lots of cats, make films and write books. I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my life. My current CV is here: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/3220

– Michael W. Dean, Los Angeles

This entry was posted by Michael W. Dean on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 10:16 pm and is filed under Gear porn, MWD's Cool Stuff, Other people's cool stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.