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The Uncle Devil Show

Have you seen my panel game?

About Me

Glasgow's finest; the exemplary pop trio, THE UNCLE DEVIL SHOW, released their long awaited debut album, A TERRIBLE BEAUTY, on the independent guitar-driven P3 Music records label in 2004. In this milieu of ineptitude and ephemeral oddities, one finds oneself craving honest-to-goodness quality - which is why it's such a natural gas to welcome THE UNCLE DEVIL SHOW to the world stage.

The pop business evolves at a hurly-burly rate in today's jet age, no-time-for-tiffin world. If you haven't been to a nightspot for some time, don't be surprised should you venture out and discover to your horror that there's now a gentleman with not one but two gramophones where the bandstand used to be. And they can't even play the discs properly anymore; they keep on scratching them, putting them on at inappropriate speeds, even somehow contriving to play them back-to-front, in God's name.
The bands name was inspired by 'The Uncle Devil Show', a 10-minute episode that originally aired on US television in 1985 as part of the The New Twilight Zone TV series. The plot focused on a boy, whose parents, unaware the hallucinogenic video he is watching, conjures up bizarre magic tricks that transform them into lizards, and his dog into a four-eyed freak of nature. Langton Herring, Jason Barr and Terrence are more than just another bunch of trendsetters aiming their pop arrows at the sun. Even though all three are Scotch, they bring a universal message of intolerance and insularity which transcends all barriers.
Not everyone digs the way they wear their hair - but then not everyone unused to a life of dignified manual labour knows how to dig properly. THE UNCLE DEVIL SHOW does. These handsome rakes are the aces of spades. They're hoes who are seriously bitchin'. They're earthy sods, and this is sweet soil music. Mulch ado about something!


Don't actually believe what you're hearing? ExamineTHE UNCLE DEVIL SHOW'S 'witty and succinct' lyrics letter by letter at lyricwiki (warning: some of the letters are French)
Buy the simply spiffing UDS album A TERRIBLE BEAUTY from Amazon UK
Buy the truly awesome UDS album A TERRIBLE BEAUTY from Amazon USA
Radio Scotland snippet

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 8/21/2006
Band Website: p3music.com/uds/index.html
Band Members: The Uncle Devil Show are:
Langton Herring - Singing, guitars, keyboards, pipe.
Jason Barr - Singing, bass, guitars, keyboards, tyre.
Terrence - Singing, drums, percussion, model train.
LANGTON HERRING, six-string swinger and singer, was born among the prancing horses, garish clowns and plummeting trapeze artists of the circus, cueing a lifelong fear of sawdust. Langton was a "meals on wheels" driver for the elderly before he formed his first punk band, Shipmans Sweeties (which served as a primer until he moved on to The Uncle Devil Show).Show business is nevertheless the lifeblood of Langton's blood, and an early trip to Las Vegas fuelled his muse when he stooped to retrieve a silver dollar which fell from Robert Goulet's pocket as the moustachioed maestro made to mop his brow with a kerchief after a strident rendition of the theme from Gay Purr-ee."I take it out and rub it whenever I want to write a new pops," explains Langton, "and the magic never fails to work."A long successful career is 'in the pocket' for Langton and the boys, to 'coin' a phrase: Just ask the record-buyers of 3004, if you're still around then and the atom bomb hasn't got you.
It's always 'conviviality o'clock' round at the modish Mayfair batchelor cell owner-occupied by boho bass-ace JASON BARR - but one room is strictly out of bounds. "It's the room where I keep my house of cards," reveals Jason in a cloud of cheroot smoke. "I started constructing it on an otherwise nondescript Saturday afternoon in 1975 and it just ... grew ..."Jasons' only other proper band was Oddfellows, a barber shop quartet. 1995-99. These days, now that Jason is occupied at the sharp end of the disc parade with THE UNCLE DEVIL SHOW, he has very little time to add another storey to the mountainous edifice - but the sanctity of the construction so far is cunningly preserved."It's coated in a skin of Cossack hairspray and the room is sealed with yards of duct tape retrieved from the site of a hostage situation," notes Jason. "Furthermore, my guests are requested to remove their shoes and clothing and to slither across the parquet wearing oxygen rebreathers, so as to quash the likelihood of rogue vibrations."Sounds rad, Jason. But what does the future hold for THE UNCLE DEVIL SHOW's most decadent daddy? "It's in the cards," comments Jason without even the merest hint of a smile.
TERRENCE plays the drum set - but the block-rockin' Tiki Lounge beats of THE UNCLE DEVIL SHOW are inspired by a rather unexpected source. "It's the sound of a Standard Class 5 4-6-0 steam train rattling over a set of points," sighs Terrence: "The most romantic, stirring, assonant confluence of polyrhythms known to man - if not woman, admittedly."In fact, prior to being pressed into service with THE UNCLE DEVIL SHOW I used to collect jars of steam - collecting engine numbers was far too prosaic for me - and then of course a moving picture called Trainspotting came out and it was absolutely chock-full of commode-mouthed vulgarians, which rather soiled the whole ethos for me."Nevertheless, steam enthusiast Terrence is 'well-chuffed' with THE UNCLE DEVIL SHOW and welcomes the opportunity to 'express' his 'tender' side: "I wouldn't want our fans to think that an interest in locomotives negates the possibility of a meaningful relationship. It's not as though I can't sustain an erection without uncomfortable thrice-weekly injections of phentolamine into the base of the penis."
Influences: Gilbert O'Sullivan, Kofi Annan, cats, Rolos, "Hotel California", Jimmy Saville, Irn-Bru, King Kong, The Bates Motel, "Ace of Spades", pigeons, Michael Barrymore, sequins, David Boyer, Pritt-Stick, Gucci, rainbow coloured trikes, The Twilight Zone.
Sounds Like: A train in a tunnel filled with Rolos.
Record Label: P3 Music
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

Know the Show: a series of Inept Innerviews  part 3  Here's Langton! (about feckin time)

What ho, chaps and chappinas, renowned UDS expert and raconteur Eldridge Cumberland here.  Been away so long I hardly know the place, but you have no idea what a load of bloody oompahs that was. ...
Posted by The Uncle Devil Show on Sat, 24 Feb 2007 09:02:00 PST

Know the Show: a series of Inept Innerviews  part 2  Terrence speaks!

Bon soir El Cumberland, j'arrive.   I've awoken from my slumber but I feel the rest of the world is still asleep!   Actually, I've just finished the last in the DVD series of "Goodnight Swee...
Posted by The Uncle Devil Show on Thu, 23 Nov 2006 07:22:00 PST

Know the Show: a series of Inept Innerviews  part 1 in which Jason applies the thumb cuffs

Dear readers   Renowned UDS expert and raconteur Eldridge Cumberland has recently been in contact with the Uncle Devil Show, after more years than you can shake a trouser stick at. How fondly we ...
Posted by The Uncle Devil Show on Mon, 30 Oct 2006 11:26:00 PST

The Herald interview: Spring 2004

By Lorraine Wilson   Jason Barr has left the building. By far the tallest of the Uncle Devil Show members, he has been banned from all interviews due to his predilection for foul and abusive lang...
Posted by The Uncle Devil Show on Mon, 09 Oct 2006 01:40:00 PST

The Scotsman review: 2nd April 2004

By Fiona Shepherd Since the dawn of time, menfolk dwelling in the West of Scotland have jangled their guitars in order to attract a mate. More than a pervasive trend, this is Glaswegian mankind obeyin...
Posted by The Uncle Devil Show on Fri, 22 Sep 2006 12:36:00 PST

Captured Competition

UDS skins man Terrence's heart-throbbiness often leaves the rest of us speechless. But surely - not youse guys.  Not all of youse.  Someone must be able to articulate the terrible beauty of ...
Posted by The Uncle Devil Show on Mon, 18 Sep 2006 02:41:00 PST

Beat Gear Cavern review: Summer 2004

by Frank Agnello The best album I've heard this year isn't even out where I live (the US) yet.  I doubt if it's been noticed much at all in the UK, where it has been released. The Uncle Devil S...
Posted by The Uncle Devil Show on Sun, 17 Sep 2006 03:44:00 PST

Shindig! review: September 2004

by Andy Morten I had a feeling A Terrible Beauty wasn't going to be a regular album and boy, was I right. The meticulously constructed Strangeloves pastiche sleeve and the fact that those three guys a...
Posted by The Uncle Devil Show on Tue, 22 Aug 2006 08:32:00 PST

Track list

CD - A Terrible Beauty - The Uncle Devil Show  The Debut Album released 29 March 2004 Tracks: 01. Leonardo's Bicycle02. Gilbert O'Sullivan 03. Tambourine 04. Bimbo in the Limo 05. Plus ça Change ...
Posted by The Uncle Devil Show on Sat, 26 Aug 2006 10:18:00 PST