Shagrat (band) - Career

Career

At Strawberry Studios in Stockport, they recorded a session, produced by Wallis's father, of which three tracks are known to survive, "Boo! I Said Freeze", "Peppermint Flickstick" and "Steel Abortion". Having been previously scheduled to appear at the May 1970 Hollywood Music Festival in Newcastle-under-Lyme, the band finally undertook their first gig, at the Phun City Festival near Worthing, Sussex on 24–26 July 1970. The band played a 30-45 minute set, including all the songs from the Strawberry Studios session. The gig had certainly got the band off to a good start, but problems set in immediately afterwards. Phil Lenoir left (Took claimed that they never saw him again after the festival) as did Tim Taylor, leaving Shagrat in search of a new rhythm section.

A new drummer was recruited, Chicken Shack's Dave Bidwell, while Took switched to bass guitar. They continued to rehearse together in preparation for several live dates which had been booked and they received approaches from several record labels. In the end what finally terminated Shagrat as a performing entity was the fact that Took was the band's only full-time member. Bidwell was one of three Chicken Shack members who, during 1970, transferred to Savoy Brown. Wallis meanwhile joined Blodwyn Pig and later UFO.

With gig bookings looming, and Took not wishing to cancel, his only option was to play those gigs by himself, which is what he did. Wallis and Bidwell would in early 1971 assist Took in the recording of a set of acoustic demos, of which four have surfaced - Amanda, Strange Sister, Still Yawning Stillborn and Beautiful Deceiver. The trio also rehearsed for possible live performances as an acoustic band, which Wallis recalls involved Bidwell "pounding (the) fuck out of a telephone book"