GAYE
BYKERS
ON ACID
by Mike Gitter
Terrorism can be advanced through art
only if it threatens action. Britishers Gaye
Bykers on Acid are practicioners of aesthetic
terrorism, striking at the hearts and minds
of the clench-fisted bastions of musical and
social conservatism.
"We want to see how far we can push
things," reveals boyishly good-looking
vocalist Mary Golighty. "There's a sick
morality that comes from people who are
possibly more twisted and corrupt than we
ever are, and that's what we're pushing
against," says the blond vocalist. Though
their name connotes Road Warrior cycle
gangs, the Gaye Bykers are far from a group
of leather clad, gay bar toughs. Instead, they
are charming, witty and intelligent. "Gaye:
is an old English word meaning happy. Our
name is a fun name, but we do want to stir
things up a bit," says Mary, who is neither
female nor gay. Bikers? Three of them used
to ride, but all have since had their licenses
revoked for various offenses.
Borrowing from Monty Python, Dr. Who,
Star Trek, Motorhead, The Evil Dead,
American hardcore, indulgences in drugs,
drink and other sorts of foolishness, Golighty
and the Bykers bring to mind Sex Pistols
campaigns of sheer outrageousness.
Whether or not they are crass opportunists.
seeking to make a name for themselves.
through cultural terrorism (e.g. a name that
"proper" British society would consider
entirely distasteful), the fact remains that the
outfit is starting to make quite a stir among
Anglophiles worldwide.
"From the beginning we've been doing
things on our own terms," boasts Golighty.
"We realized that if we wanted to say what
was on our minds to a large audience, we
would have to be on a bigger label that would
be willing to work with us. Industry sucks.
but you can't totally avoid it."
The Bykers, formed in 1985 with Mary,
dreadlocked guitarist Tony, bassist Reynolds
and drummer Dr. Robber" Jeckyll
(discovered on a Welsh mountainside farm-
ing mushrooms), came to prominence with
the release of their debut 12" Ep
"Everythang's Groovy" (In Tape), which also
included the tracks "TV. Cabbage" and
"Space Rape," a witty protest against the
U.S. Star Wars project with many references
to Star Trek. Due in part to their outrageous
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monicker, as well as the success of
"Everythang's Groovy" on dance and in-
dependent charts, the band followed up with
a second Ep entitled "Nosedive Karma" (In
Tape). They have now branched out into the
world of video and film with the recently
released "Drill Your Own Hole," a 45-minute
video commentary on the music industry
itself. The Bykers have become successful
enough to set up their own production
company, ominously known as The Purple
Fluid Exchange, which currently employs
forty people to work on various aspects of
the Gaye Bykers' live gigs and future video
productions.
"We're living in a video generation,"
explains Golighty of the band's utilization of
the visual medium. "We're living in the age
of MTV...MTV get off the air," quips
Golighty. "If you put something exciting in
front of kids, they're going to get interested
in it. Unfortunately, with the existing medium,
most of the stuff that they do put on is utter
shit. It's very banal."
Incorporating ideas and Influences as
diverse as Walt Disney's Tron, Mad
Max/Road Warrior, Ken Kesey's Electric Kool-
Aid Acid Test and Monty Python, "Drill Your
Own Hole" roughly follows the plot of Hunter
S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las
Vegas as the Bykers, emerging from a
washing machine in a wasteland, find
themselves inside a video game. "We're part
of the video game and Caesar's Palace in
Las Vegas is the final goal," says Golighty.
"We're caught up in the industry, and
Caesar's is the epitome of that industry, the
crass end of the industry with people sitting
around tables as they're watching you and
eating their dinner. It's a parody along the
same lines as Sid Vicious singing "My Way"
in The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle. We're
attacking the British music industry in the
film. When we signed to Virgin we felt we
would have to play a lot of the industry's
games, which is why we set the film inside
a video game much like Tron."
At 23, Golighty considers himself suc-
cessful, having risen to the top of Britain's
art-school-brat, musical clique. All products
of a middle-class upbringing. Golighty and
crew firmly root themselves in both British
and American punk traditions while refus-
ing to entrench themselves in any set style.
"Before we started this band, we were fans
of a lot of anarcho-punk stuff, such as Con-
flict. Hawkwind and the Dead Kennedys,"
reveals Golighty. "The problem with a lot of
punk bands is that they're preaching at the
converted, and you've got to be able to reach
beyond that and get other people involved
with punk's school of thought."
Far from the typical thrashers and
snarlers, the Bykers elaborate on punk's
anarchistic, defiant attitude by blending a
variety of styles in a post-Motorhead dance
beat growl. "I think punk has been marketed
and watered down to a point where it's safe.
There are still a lot of bands around who are
fairly fresh and original. I just saw Scream
when they were over in London, and I
thought they were great. I also like the
Buttholes, Big Black and noisier stuff. I don't
see punk so much as an effective force for
change as a product of a time and place,
and I don't really think that exists anymore.
Punk in '77 or '78 was all-embracing with
punks in every school and on the streets.
Here in America, the punk movement seems
to be very underground. English people will
I say that punk's dead, anyway, since in a
3,000 person venue you used to have gigs
with bands like the Clash or the Jam that
would totally pack out the place. Now bands
like that are playing venues of maximum 300
capacity."
Tagged as frontrunners in the "Grebo"
school of British rock, the Gaye Bykers are
often lumped in with the likes of Zodiac Mind-
warp and Pop Will Eat Itself because of their
sheer outrageousness and musical ecclec-
ticism. "I hate the fact that the British press
sets a pigeonhole for you to neatly jump in-
to," chagrins Golighty, "but if I have to give
a definition, a Grebo is an obnoxious, dirty
little kid. someone who doesn't care about
anything. And we certainly care about a lot
of things."
Unhappy with the UK music press.
Golighty feels that British music journalism
has quite literally failed in presenting any real
issues of public interest. The press, he feels,
has instead opted for a "sound of the
moment" aesthetic. "The press in England
is really wimping out on issues and is only
satisfying the demands of their publishers.
They don't pick up on the seriousness of
what we're doing. If there wasn't any
seriousness, we probably wouldn't be doing
it since we're all basically lazy individuals.
The British press creates movements and
tags and carries them around for about six
months, which is lazy journalism on their
behalf. Papers like the the New Musical Ex-
press, which were always pretty radical, are
now being told from above that they should
only address certain issues and cover cer-
tain topics and this ultimately makes them
come off as being stupid on a very unfunny
level. The art director at NME got sacked for
suggesting that they run the "Frankenchrist"
poster in a piece about the Dead Kennedys
and their problems with freedom of speech.
That tells you just how free the English press
really is. They ran a series on Jimmy Swag-
gart and his new Evangelists because so-
meone high up in the British press in a group
called the "Responsible Society," who are
pretty much like the PMRC, wanted it. They
are actually involved with the company that
publishes the NME and because of them,
the press is wimping out. Another thing
about the NME and all those papers is that
they won't print the word "fuck," which is
the most widely used term in British speech.
It's a morality that doesn't make sense."
You know the stereo isn't safe, but watch.
out for the telly as "Drill Your Own Hole"
becomes domestically available later this
year. These artistic stormtroopers will hap-
pily burn psychedelic rubber in their all-out
media blitz across American stages, speak-
ers and VCRs in their mega-feedback attack
on conservative culture as we know it!