Red Balune began in March 1976 when Geoff Leigh(ex Henry Cow) and Cathy Williams were invited to stage four music performance events at Bristol Arts Centre. Gradually the project became something larger , branching out into different strands - the Albert Park Brass Band - up to 30 musicians, many from the Bristol Musician's Co-op, playing everything from the songs of Kurt Weill to free jazz, performing at political rallies and outside events. Geoff and Cathy also worked with Share Community Theatre, a charity dedicated to working with disabled and dysfunctional people in the area. Has anyone else out there ever gigged with ex-bankrobbers ?
In December 1977, a Dutch tour was set up, on the eve of which Colin McClure (bass) and Rob Musgrove (drums) replaced the original rhythm section. The 3-week tour was an unrehearsed affair, and on the second gig the quartet was augmented by Dutch keyboardists Henk Weltevreden and Leo de Pagter, and tour organizer Loek van Saus even joined in. After ten days, Red Balune was further augmented by trombonist Anne-Marie Roeloffs and American Chris Wangro. By the end of the tour they were arriving at gigs with 10 or 12 performers in tow ! In January 1978, recording sessions began for an album, which was never finished. But the "acid punk" single "Spider In Love" c/w "Capitalist Kid", allegedly recorded "as a joke" during the band's lunch break, created quite a stir when it was released, and remains a seminal underground classic. In April 1978 the band decided to move en masse to Holland. But the internal dynamics were becoming more and more unstable, and in September 1978, Leigh decided to move to Belgium.

Kontakt Microphone Orchestra and Geoff Liegh 7" on same label(MCCB) coming very soon ! Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.