This aspect of our history is categorised by the various pubs hired for the Sausage Machine residencies...

OK,what would you do ,1989, unemployed, playing in a band desperate to play gigs and you come across a pub basement in North London that lets your band organise your own gig on a weekend night? In my case,you get all your interested friends around you to help and you speak to the few bands you’ve come across in your gig travels so far and you tell the Landlord you’ve in fact got a club going on a regular basis.

The pub was the Whte Horse in Hampstead, the opening bands were the likes of the Dentists, the Grooveyard, the Gally Slaves, the Chairs etc .Although the name seems to have become more and more poignant as the years have passed I have to admit the inspiration (if that is applicable here) ,was due to a refreshments van at Wormwood Scrubs on a Sunday where my Sunday soccer team was playing! 1989 ended for us with a run of weekly gigs (it had been fortnightly until then) to be a kind of "best of" so far and because it had become very apparent quite early on that people actually wanted and expected us to be organising it every week.

Its success and longievity may be down to a number of things but certain things I know helped us. For a start we didn't set out to make a penny out of this, the finances would simply be to actually be able to pay bands in a period when many clubs were operating a pay to play style of operation and we had experienced this first hand. We wanted to book bands that we knew and bands that we enjoyed and with our non profit set up this of course gave us absolutely free reign to dabble and experiment to our hearts content (of course within the confines of keeping the room reasonably full of drinkers).

Being a group of friends relocated from Portsmouth also the club was also set up with almost a "long lost local" feel to it and rapidly become a great place for people to be able to come knowing that there would be familiar and friendly faces around.This is one aspect of a so called Scene that can be most enjoyable and valuable especially if not too cliquey and is supportive of the weird and wonderful musics showing up each week.

The 4 years at the White Horse were fantastic generally and many great (and many not so great) bands passed through. I feel we also had almost a sister venue operating in Camden at the same time & with the same ethic,vibe and spirit of adventure - the Falcon, run by Roger Cowell (owner of the sadly demised EVE Recordings too). Some of the sort of "Waves" we both went through and reatured in these times were:-

• Camden Lurch - Silverfish, Faith Healers, Milk, Sun Carriage, God Machine
  
  
• Super-gig punk scene -Mega City 4,Senseless Things,Snuff and countless visiting US hardcore bands (Doughboys,NoFX,)
  
  
• Baggy -avoided to a degree as while all eyes of the press were on Manchester I think we strived to expose the underground a little but I do remember a rather average Inspiral Carpets showing up (this was early days for them) and the super-baggy Mock Turtles over selling the place.
  
  
• Riot Grrlll - short lived it may have been but exciting it sure was.Top bands Huggy Bear, Voodoo Queens, Mambo Taxi, Bikini Kill, Pussycat Trash amongst many, many others strange as it felt at the time I'm glad we did the Girls only night with Huggy Bear and bikini kill with female door staff, bar staff and sound engineer - I heard it was good !.
  
  
• Shoe Gazing- a truly unkind term but i think anyone who was there knows what I'm talking about. Bands who'd be offended by their inclusion but shouldn't be because they all had their moments were Lush (of course),Ride (first London date), Boo Radleys, Moose, Slowdive.

These names spark off memories of some special nights for different reasons. Suede,all in flares and with a Drum Machine! And then a year later doing a fan club only gig. The witty,wonderful and hard-rocking Teenage Fanclub.

In the middle of all this a number of things also happened. We expanded the club to sometimes two, three and even four nights on some weeks (not entirely succesfully I believe as keeping things a little special is all part of it as well).

A second venue at the legendary Moonlight Club in West Hampstead - a great room but not such a good location and the oldest promoter problem there is - a duff Landlord.

In the year at the Moonlight there were some great gigs; Soft Boys reunion -memorable for me as a great fan especially as we got the complete Kimberley Rew line-up together.

It was the serious punk, hardcore and staight edge gigs that were our staple at the time and our downfall .....I think, along with the White Horse it is a pleasant enough pub now!

But would we continue on our exit from the closed down White Horse? Well within a week we were entertaining the ever wonderful God is My Co-pilot at a cool new room upstairs at the Laurel Tree in Camden Town - a well known Gay pub with Pet Shop Boys fueled disco upstairs.We seemed to be welcomed for our brief stay but it never quite felt like home.

The search for a more suitable home lead (after several months absence) to a fine sized pub near Euston called the Russel Arms. I had come across it as Jo-ellen our one-time press officer at the label had put party’s on there featuring both Stereolab and Gallon Drunk. A new backroom had been added and to this day I do believe it is a great venue.

The first time I saw them and about their second gig in the country - Tortoise- and quite fantastic.nights continued in much the same way as before - a two night residency by Ash was particularly absurd and Gorkys Zygotic Mynci practically became the house band in this period -

There have also along the way been some pretty memorable one - off events featuring our favourite band.The two nights to celebrate our 4th birthday at the White Horse featured PJ Harvey , Stereolab, Gallon Drunk and Moose. An all day event run in conjunction with the ever wonderful PIAO organisation of Chris and Loretta at Kings Cross featured Gorkys, Long Fin Killie and Prolapse, amongst others - imitating the previous years wonderful PIAO (Pay In Advance Only!!!!!) festival at Hammersmith - which itself I feel owed alot to the festivals of US labels Teenbeat, K, Discord, Kill Rock Stars and Simple Machines.

Too Pure Sausage Machine Christmas Bash at the Irish Centre featuring Moonshake, Cornershop, Pram, Stereolab, Disco Inferno and Gorkeys.....again. This was an event I think we were pretty proud of having found an unusual and excellent venue and really "gone for it " with the line-up. Clever juggling meant we had two stages running alternately and ended with Pram joining Stereolab in a "drone-out" but on different stages! I was also pleased that we incorporated short films courtesy of the Halloween society into our extravagant evening.

Sausage Machine's two Camden Crawl appearances: Firstly in a Scout Hut with Donkey and Bis and then in WKD club with Beth Orton, Uresei Yatsura and co -both great events for us and Camden Crawl mastermind Lisa (check out her fabulous Love Train series of releases!) Sadly I believe last year the Crawl lost it's way a little and although we had a "fringe " event at the Fa;con with Plone, Add N to X and the Germans Holosud playing (what a line-up!) people did not know about it or come along,the vibe was missing a little bit - I'm sure this will be sorted out again in the future .

The Albany,Grt.Portland St,certainly a fine location but I don’t think we ever quite settled there.I can remember fine Quickspace and Yo La Tengo shows and the birth of too pure’s Jack/World of Jack club night and a rather hilarious/sad appearance by Courtney Love with Thinking Fellars.

r most recent haunt and current home, the Hope & Anchor felt like a homecoming right from the start.It was what the White Horse gigs were based on after all and for me personally it had come full circle as the Hope & Anchor was a regular haunt of mine on first arriving in London in 82 - rockin with the vibe of a psychobilly and garage punk revival then.97 at the Hope and Anchor has proved probably the most successful yet (big thanks here to arrival of Marcus Sausage) and we seem to have carved out a real niche for ourselves.

As we all know Post - rock has been plentiful:UI ,Bowery Electric,Kreidler ,Ganger , have all played excellent gigs along with a real new wave of experimental guitar and electronica bands.We have had several succesful ventures into more of a DJ world with Clear Records,Language and now our friends the Merry Pranksters who brought the Rumpus Room down twice.Punk rock of course still features as demonstrated by the residency that Guided Missile recordings virtually set up and then there is the fab secret shows we’ve been lucky enough to host.

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - actually recorded by Mute for possible release and a finale that fused the whole venue!
Folk Implosion - and a Lou Barlow letting his hair down and enjoying it
Shellac - Just the stage set up was awesome - how many bands do you know face their monitors at the audience?

All the more miserable then that we have,yet again ,been asked to move on by the Brewery.Never fear though for there are enough ideas going down at Sausage HQ for me to be certain that we’ll be back with a bang.Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have ideas or proposals for things for us to get involved with .

The Live album recorded at the Sausage Machine at the White Horse. "Now that’s disgusting music" - I'm afraid the title is a private joke but may well have been experienced by anyone who has been to a houseparty and tried to get some "decent"sounds on the hi-fi. I can't remember what was removed and what was playing but the hosts cry of "what's that disgusting music" was most memorable and easily adapted to someone elses advertising campaign.

The idea was almost self contained and really not the intentional start of a record label (OK OK we did ask the healers to do a single too) but mine and Richards savings and bank loan were really just to make this album happen.

@ nights ,17th March and 21st April - a bloody massive mobile ,8 full sets , mixing time at Southern for all the bands - I think the bands understood why we couldn't pay much!

The line-up was our first choice and simply represented the Sausage Machine scene. Bands that had just been through and started their rise and those that were just about to have a go.

It has been considered on a number of occassions to try and repeat this but I think it would only be a copy and I think all of us involved would rather try something new and a new challenge.

We have recently set out on a quest to find ourselves a proper permanent home for the club where we are not at the mercy of a landlord or Brewery or where in fact we can channel some of the bar procedes into music much like I have seen in Europe and the States.I also think you should keep your ear to the ground next year for the first full blown Sausage Machine festival - It’ll be good I asure you!