Famous Potatoes Bits & Pieces

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Famous Potatoes Bits & Pieces

So what do we all do when we're not playing with the Famous Potatoes?

Richard's a full-time potter, with a studio and workshop in Old Leigh - visit his web site www.richardbaxter.com for details of his work.
Keith and Tony are teachers - at two different schools in Southend-on-Sea.
Paul, after a long career "in paint", is now using his protective coatings expertise as a site inspector for Warrington Fire.
Nigel writes and organises worldwide conferences for PennWell, a media and information company in Upshire, near Waltham Abbey.
Melanie is the Chief Executive of Speakability, a national charity that supports and empowers people with aphasia to overcome the barriers they face.
The Prof works mornings as administrator at Wesley Methodist Church, Leigh-on-Sea, and the rest of the time does various musical things including piano accompaniment and producing books of folk carols (see McDowell Musical Services).
Charlie is the right-hand man at Gage Postal Books, beloved of the FPots, most of whom who used to work for the late Laurie Gage's Secondhand Bookshop in their teens, and he also does various musical things the rest of the time (see Dunhill and Skelton on MySpace).

Richard and Charlie are also in Acadian Driftwood cajun band.

No, Richard wasn't a Puritan church leader, no, Keith isn't a film and TV actor (nor did he drum with Skyclad, 3 Colours Red and Therapy?), no, the Prof didn't sing in the Temperance Seven (nor is he the chief executive of Nacro), no, Paul isn't a Professor of Economics at Oxford University, and no, Charlie isn't a writer for TV comedy shows. They're all people with the same name trying to masquerade as the mighty Potatoes.

Getting married? Want ...
A wedding photographer? Contact Charlie on 01702 715292
A wedding organist or printed orders of service? Contact the Prof on 01702 474255
Wedding presents? Contact Richard on 01702 470490
And, of course, a band to play at your wedding reception? Contact the Prof on 01702 474255
We'll do you a special deal if you want an all-inclusive package...

Check out Bruce Springsteen's 2006 album We Shall Overcome - The Seeger Sessions, featuring accordion, fiddle, trombone, sax, banjo, cheesy organ, and songs such as Old Dan Tucker and Buffalo Gals, both of which we've been doing for years. Not only that, but the accordion riffs and many other features sound uncannily like us. Has Bruce been secretly listening to the Potatoes? (Another Essex connection... the guitar player's name is Frank Bruno!)

In the Guinness Who's Who of Folk Music, the Famous Potatoes appear immediately after Fairport Convention... perhaps the only time these two bands have been mentioned in such close proximity?

The Famous Potatoes feature in two books by Donald Clarke - "The Rise and Fall of Popular Music", which tells John Peel to stop playing such boring music and listen to clodhoppers like the Famous Potatoes! (sorry John, nothing to do with us, and alas, there's no chance of hearing any more of your wonderful stuff...) - and the 1998 2nd edition of the Penguin Encyclopaedia of Popular Music, listed under Pub Rock (!) If you ever read this, Donald, join us for a quiz sometime at the Robert Catesby, Wells-next-the-Sea, and we'll all buy you an Adnams.

John Peel is alleged to have played "Chicken Reel Stomp Pt. 2", the second B-side of our one and only single - he must have listened to us at least once...

Simon Mayo certainly did play "Famous Potatoes" on many occasions - he used it as the background music for at least two seasons of the "Where's Bob's Bin" slot when he did the Radio 1 Breakfast Show. (No, I don't suppose anyone else remembers it, either.) Mr Mayo still crops up from time to time; he was on stage when the Prof fell off it at a fringe event at the Greenbelt Festival, August 2001, and he's chaired the quiz at Greenbelt from 2003 onwards at which Prof has been "Colin Sell at the accordion". There's hard evidence that Mike Read played our stuff on the radio as well. Andy Kershaw's excellent recommendation when he played "All The Way To Galway (http://www.avistic.demon.co.uk/playlists/1999/46.txt)" features prominently on our front page, and now he's had us appearing in session as well - more than 30 minutes of Potato stuff in one show on national radio!

One of Richard's special commission pots, a ceramic drum, was used on Lisa Stansfield's single "All Woman" in 1991 which reached no. 20 in the charts. (Obviously someone's still listening to it - a discussion on that song's lyrics, originally in the Independent, was reported in the G2 section of the Guardian of 20 September 2001) More of his ceramic musical instruments are featured in the new Leonardo da Vinci exhibition (starting 14 September 2006) at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Once upon a time when we used to put out fanzines (sent out to over 200 of our fans every 2-3 months between 1984 and 1990), someone sent us a "2000 A.D." comic which featured a storyline with the Famous Potatoes in it (absolutely straight up, no messing about, I kid you not). It's long since gone missing - anyone know anything more about this? Click here to visit our fanzine archive...

And on a similar tack, in the Christmas 1985 edition of "Jackie", a question appeared wanting to know which of the following weren't a real pop group: a) Blue Aeroplanes; b) Dumpy's Rusty Nuts; c) The Armadillo Greenhouse; d) The Famous Potatoes; e) The Mighty Lemon Drops. The correct answer was c), proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Famous Potatoes are a real pop group.

And not forgetting the mighty Viz magazine, we were no. 1 in their charts one issue under the memorable headline "Good News For Vegetables". We have a letter from the renowned Chris Donald apologising (in his inimitable four-letter way) for mislaying our contribution and promising to stick us in the next issue. And he did.

Two of the band's sisters were international athletes - Sue Collier appeared many times in an England vest at cross-country, and Betty McDowell represented Northern Ireland at long jump in the Commonwealth Games.

The Famous Potatoes are proud to be sponsors of: (a) Mr. Govett's Belgian, a rare and threatened variety of potato, on behalf of the Henry Doubleday Research Association's "Adopt a Veg"; we have been contacted by someone in the USA who has actually grown and tasted Mr G's B - apparently it's very good; (b) the Leigh Art Trail, a neither rare nor threatened, but excellent event taking place each June, in which the public are invited to visit many sites with displays from artists based in Leigh-on-Sea - all free admission and with collections for charity, and a book ("Leigh Art") featuring many of the artists and an intro from Phill Jupitus reminiscing about the famous Leigh-on-Sea smell.

Immediately after the band had decided on the name of their record label - Sweet Soil Music - the Prof got a job in a branch called SSM. Spooky.

Two minor changes between the first and second edition of the (formerly Guinness) Directory of Popular Music: star ratings for our albums (Dig unrated, as they probably can't get a copy: nor can anyone else! it went "out of print" before even any of the Folk Pistols' cassettes; It Was Good... ***; The Sound... ***; Born In A Barn ****), and Tony Littman's now apparently called "Please Sir".

Chicken Reel Stomp: Click to download a MIDI file of this classic. It's a "piano roll" version created by the Prof, not the one on record (see "Product") but it's the same arrangement and in the same spirit! (Copyright Info: Chicken Reel Stomp is traditional, arranged by The Famous Potatoes, © 1984. This MIDI version is © 1998 by Paul McDowell. All rights reserved.)

Keith Baxter is a proud member of Washboards International.

Dire Straits - Romeo and Juliet; Meatloaf - Bat Out Of Hell; Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains the Same; Famous Potatoes - Famous Potatoes. Yes, this comprises someone's all time favourites. Strange but true. Check out the Usenet for details. I shall say no more.

Some Famous Potatoes links to other Web sites: Greenbelt, Britlinks, the Grand Ceilidh Club; Southend Online. Visit Hawkeye & Hoe's Chicken Shack (old bluegrass playin' friends of ours, with a site featuring a burping chicken!)
Know of any more sites? Mail the Prof!

We all enjoyed our appearance on the Generation Game, but were very pleased when the BBC announced that Jim Davidson would no longer be hosting the show (21 March 2002).

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This page was last updated on 8 June 2010