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PLEASE NOTE THAT ALTHOUGH THIS PROFILE IS DESIGNED AND MAINTAINED BY RE:PUBLIC IMAGE PR & PUBLICITY ON THE BEHALF OF DOCTOR & THE MEDICS, THE DOCTOR WILL READ AND RESPOND TO YOUR COMMENTS AND EMAILS PERIODICALLY, SO KEEP 'EM ROLLIN' IN - Chrissy Hamlin, Re:Public Image PR & Publicity.
THE PAST:The band was formed, in order to win a £5 bet, in 1982 by ex scout leader, The Doctor and Steve Mcguire (The name "The Doctor," was assumed after the man had failed to gain entry into Medical School). More than 15 years later the Doctor is still waiting for his fiver!
At the time the Doctor was a top London DJ at his club "The Clinic," where he was single handedly responsible/ guilty for the "Psychedelic revival" of the period.
Both the club and the band where a direct reaction to the music/club scene at the time. The Doctor and McGuire had been bought up on a diet of the psychedelia of the 60's, Glam Rock, Heavy Metal and Punk and consequently found the early 80's rather dull! Hence the band evolved as an unholy and tasteless fusion of all that they loved in music (Hippy, Glam, Punk). This also
reflected itself in the music with early songs such as "Love Peace and Bananas" (A song about hippies at a festival on a beach being blown to pieces by mercenaries. It began with the refrain from "Riders on the Storm" but built to a punk frenzy!)
By 1984 the band had built up a considerable live following and were referred to by the NME as "The Live band of the year." The line up of the band had settled and would remain the same through "Spirit in the Sky" until 1988. This was:
The Doctor (Vocals)
Steve McGuire (Guitar)
Richard Searle (Bass)
Vom (Drums)
Wendi Anadin (Vocals)*
Colette Anadin (Vocals)*
*collectively known as The Anadin Brothers
From 1985-1987 the band were responsible, along with The Doctors new Club "Alice in Wonderland," (Voted night club of the year by City Limits magazine in 1987) for the legendary "Mystery trips". For these they would ferry up to 3,000 people to unknown destinations such as Chislehurst Caves (By coach from Hyde Park corner), The old Butlins at Clacton (By Special Train) and Lowestoft pear (Coach). At the venues, which would be decorated in a suitably off the wall manner, there would be all night music, live bands, light shows and performance artists. Many years later Rave magazine would credit these events as the forerunners of raves! This idea was also taken, by the band, to Japan where it made the national television news!
In many ways it is these Mystery trips that symbolised the bands attitude. People were gobsmacked at Lowestoft to see Doctor and the Medics at the door greeting people and handing them sticks of rock. This was just 2 weeks after the band had been at No.1 and as "Sounds" said "You wouldn't catch George Michael doing that!"
The band never really worried about a "career". If a record wasn't a hit they would still have a party. The enjoyment of life was always more important to them than the business. As the Doctor says if you stop enjoying it the first people to notice are the audience.
When they got to number 1 they did what, as children, they always dreamt they would do in that situation. They had one big party that took them around the world. That ethos still exists in the band and you are as likely to see the Doctor loose all his clothing and dignity or swallow dive from the P.A. stack today as you would 10 years ago.
Inevitably, with all the above activity, resultant publicity and the fact that they now possessed nuclear weapons! the band could be ignored no longer. So it came to pass that a record deal was signed in Arthur Brown's blood, with IRS Records.
The bands first release on this label was an E.P. called "Happy But Twisted," which shot to No.1 in the Indie charts. This was followed by possibly the bands finest record called "Miracle of the Age" which was produced by Andy Partridge of XTC. The bands next single was "Spirit in the Sky" which, as we all know, went to No.1 in 32 countries and sold over 1,000,000 copies world wide.
The follow ups to "Spirit in the Sky," were "Burn" and "Waterloo" which reached 23 and 45 respectively in this country. The band continued to have considerable success abroad in countries such as Japan, Germany and Italy.
At this time The Doctor co-wrote "Grimly Fiendish", a No. 21 hit for his friends The Damned. The Doctor and the Anadin Brothers sang on the No.1 Ferry Aid version of "Let it be". However by 1988 constant touring (average of 200 shows a year) and Recording (3 Albums; "Laughing at the Pieces", "I Keep Thinking It's Tuesday" and "Two Pieces of Cloth Carefully Stitched Together" along with resultant singles) had taken it's toll on certain members and Vom and Richard Searle Departed.
Vom moved to Germany in 1990 and signed a deal with RCA playing with the band "The Armageddon Dildos". He continues to play and tour with a splendid variety of bands. Once a feature of the band with his bright red hair, many will be relieved to hear that his taste in hair styles has not improved.
Richard Searle decided that everything "Was getting a bit silly," after the Doctor and Vom had attempted to throw him from his hotel room window. He moved on to a "Serious" band "Corduroy," (A band formed, strangely enough by the Doctors old School Friends Ben and Scott Adisson). During this time the remainder of the band also took a well earned rest.
Wendi Anadin left the band and inadvertently gave birth to the Doctors 3 children. Since then she has retired from the band occasionally rejoining when she feels the need.
Colette Anadin went around the world to find herself returning to discover that she had never left Camden! She also began to work as an extra/actress once appearing as a "Stiff" in Poirot! She also works as a camera double for both Gwyneth Paltrow and Joely Richards (Most recently in Maybe Baby). Apart from when she was travelling around the world, Colette has never left the band. As the Anadin Brothers she and Wendi developed a unique look and style of dancing that elevated the bands live performances to the 6th, some say the 7th, dimension!
Steve Mcguire Spread out in many directions! He began producing dance and House music with a fair degree of success and now runs "Halcyon" production, a company with a fleet of vehicles used for transporting bands and equipment around the world. In this capacity he also works as a tour manager and sound man.
The Doctor decided that after almost 10 years of running night-clubs and gigging his nervous system needed time to recover. He moved to the middle of the Brecon Beacons, well out of harms way. It was here in 1989 that he started his infamous snail farm which sadly ended in 1991 when his entire stock of 50,000 snails died with a disease similar to Flu (I kid you not). Following this, for 2 years, he had a business selling ground up snail shells as an aphrodisiac. However following prosecution from the Trading Standards he was forced to stop.
Though the band had still played concerts from 1988-91 it had been very much part time. But in 1991 grief bound and snail less the Doctor along with Steve Mcguire threw themselves back into the band. They depart from their long time relationship with their management and begin to manage themselves. In 1992, the bands 10th anniversary, they release a live album "The Adventures of Bodecea and the Beetle".
Once again the band found themselves to be frantically busy touring Britain Europe and the World. The line up at this time centred around the Doctor and McGuire. Various Anadin Bros. floated in and out of the band but Colette and Wendi remained around and always came to the fore when available.
Several drummers attempted to fill Voms shoes, but as he only takes size 6 this was a little unrealistic so they just played the drums instead.
The Band released their last studio album "Instant Heaven," in 1996 on their own "MADMAN" Record label. Though sales were poor it has received critical acclaim in many quarters being hailed as "A Psychedelic Goth Masterpiece."In 1999 the Doctor's dream of becoming a heavyweight boxer came to an end when he was not granted a licence to box on health grounds.
THE PRESENT:
Times have changed. The Doctor was invited set out into the world of live entertainment once again to do battle with the tribute bands that now dominate the pub and club venues. Subsequently he put together a new line up of the band to tour. It was a task that he took to heart.
Steve was too busy to commit himself to the band full time as would be required. However he expressed, to the Doctor, the worthy sentiment "If you can make a living from the rotting carcass of this band then do so with my blessing." Steve was right, the remains of the band had got somewhat fetid from inactivity.
However under microscopic examination signs of life could be found. Blowing upon this ember for several weeks without food, drink or change of underwear, the Medics began to rise like a Phoenix from the ashes.
The Doctor assembled a new line up for the band featuring Jon Morgans (Famed Welshman and Drummer) Carl Axon (Guitarist and Stew and Dumpling fan) John Randle (Bass player and corpse imersonator). Colette was still very much in evidence and along with Gabby Appleby (Her Sister) and Fay Jackson (Chufty to her friends) they rotated to make sure the Doctor was always accompanied by backing singers of splendour!
The Doctor assembled a new set of Covers, featuring the kind of material that fist made him abandon the DJ decks and begin warbling.
In the early 2000s the band's current line-up appeared on retro-themed British TV shows such as ITV1's Hit Me Baby One More Time and a Top of the Pops Christmas special celebrating 50 years of the UK singles chart.
In June 2006, they also appeared on Channel 4's Bring Back One Hit Wonders' and released a new EP called "Timewarped."In 2007 Liverpool published the list of all the No1 artists the city had produced and announced that in 2008 they would celebrate being the UK city that had produced the most number 1 hits with a concert at The Liverpool Arena and an album both featuring acts from Liverpool that had had a No 1 hit. The list omitted Dr and the Medics and so a campaign began to get The Doctor onto the Liverpool Wall of fame and the band are now to be included in both the concert and CD.The Doctor always said he would never be seen on stage when he was 40 and has pledged to keep to his word. As a result he will shortly take a year off and begin again when he is 41! and carry on until he is well and truly buggered!
So chances are that the Doctor's new show will be coming to a town near you in the near future. If so go along and talk to the band. They will always be friendly and talk to you if you greet them in the time honoured fashion of "Here I bought you a pint!"
THE FUTURE:
Yet to be written........Watch this space carefully!
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