Many years ago I interviewed Richard Ramage from The Anyways. He mentioned a band he was in called Here Comes Everybody…
The Anyways wasn’t my first band. I’d done cover versions in a school band, then had a one-gig punk incarnation in 1978 (Dick Terminal and the Deathbeds, no less). Things really got going when I joined a local Oxford band called Discontinued Lines, which morphed into Ward 10 in the early 80s. After the demise of that, Pete Lock (the drummer from those two bands) and I got together with Angus Stevenson, Peter Momtchiloff and Valerie Howell – Here Comes Everybody was the result. It was kind of a springboard for Angus joining Razorcuts, Peter M forming Talulah Gosh with Amelia Fletcher, and Pete L and me starting up The Anyways. As for recordings, I believe there might be one track by Here Comes Everybody on a MySpace site if you can still find it! There is also some footage in Jon Spira’s 2009 Oxford music film, Anyone Can Play Guitar.
Clearly they had named themselves after The Wake’s album “Here Comes Everybody”. Richard even says that that record changed everything.
I had tried to find their Myspace page with no luck. I haven’t been able to listen to any recordings by the band. But then last year Pete Lock, the drummer, got in touch with me.
He had been in The Relationships (just like Richard), The Black Cillas and was friends with The Clamheads and Borgnine. The great thing was that he shared a Youtube account that had three live songs by Here Comes Everybody!
They all date from 1985 and were recorded in autumn of that year at the Pegasus Theatre in Oxford. They are “Hattie’s House“, “My Grey Heaven” and “The Chiming“.
Yes, the band hailed from Oxford and was sort of a supergroup, right?
I had asked Pete if he was keen to do an interview, but he felt more of a team player in the bands. So maybe I should ask Richard. It’s been a while since we have emailed though…
The other good thing about Pete Lock was that he shared a CD with me called “Here Comes Everybody: A City Father’s Collection”. This CD was a compilation of Oxford bands that came out in 2008. There’s a catalog number JMP091058.
The first track on this compilation is “Here Comes Everybody” by Here Comes Everybody. This song was recorded on a Portastudio 244 and was written by Peter Momtchiloff in 1986.
The band didn’t release anything sadly. This is the only song that was released. And it was 20 years after the facts.
One detail that I can add thanks to the CD booklet is what each member played. So Richard Ramage was on vocals and guitar, Angus Stevenson was on lead guitar, Peter Momtchiloff was on bass, Valerie Howell on vocals and Pete Lock on drums.
The one thing that I am trying to track down is the “Anyone Can Play Guitar” rockumentary about the Oxford scene that was directed bby Jon Spira. Anyone has a link to it?
That’s all I have about this really cool band. Would have been fantastic to see them live. Would be great to listen to more recordings (if they exist!). I know very little but still, I am very curious. Maybe some of my Oxford friends remember them?
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