FORGOTTEN BANDS : AUNT MAY
This has been a really tough article to write. Mainly
because Aunt May seem to have been erased from history!
Before Marilyn Manson, before Wednesday 13 and in the
wilderness of mid 1980s leather clad metal and poodle hair rock were Aunt
May.
Simply put and I described them at the time, Aunt May were
Alice Cooper on a £10 budget – and pretty good fun they were too.
Aunt May himself was the Alice Cooper type singer – real name
Chris Pavlou and he was the star of the show, but his gruesome band helped out
providing a heavy backdrop.
From what I can remember of their music, it was like a cross
between The Misfits and Alice Cooper. Frankenstein Drag Queens would have loved
them. Hell, for all I know Wednesday 13 already discovered them and is a fan.
Aunt May him/herself!
The classic line up was :
Aunt May – vocals
Peter Munday – Guitar
Brian Munday – Keyboards
Lance The Creature – Drums
Lee Van Stephenson – Bass
I caught the band live a few times in London and their live
show as mentioned above was very theatric – but on a budget. Some of the antics
I recall include – Pulling or spearing a baby doll out of a pram and
then ripping its head off and floods of spaghetti in tomato sauce would pour
out. And most notably, Aunt May himself would be staked in a coffin (complete
with blood spurting out) and then of course be resurrected.
The only song I can recall is “I Wanna Be In a Horror Movie”.
Much to my surprise, many years later, Aunt May himself
appeared on TV talent show ‘Stars in Your Eyes’ as Alice Cooper. He had the
budget and stageshow he’d probably always dreamed of as Aunt May… sadly can’t
find any video of this of You Tube.
Recorded output was little – two songs on the ‘Rock Pretty’
compilation album – ‘Respect The Dead’ and ‘Flesh Of The Devil’.
However buried dark in the depths of the internet is a demo
of a song called ‘Inside Out’ from a two track demo called ‘Nervous Disposition’.
It looks like Aunt May reformed briefly in 1994 as Aunt May’s
Masquerade to record a single Kosen Rufu / Back To Basics and again in 2006 to
play a 25th anniversary show in South London.
**
Review by RAY ZELL from 1988
AUNT MAY – GREYHOUND, FULHAM
“I KNOW we stink. . ,
and we love it!” says a brave Auntie as he’s affronted with sparse applause and
occasional hecklin’.
It’s hardly marked ‘top secret’ that Aunt May wants to be
Alice Cooper. He wears Wrathchild’s discarded stack-heels, studded cod-piece
an’ fishnet stockings, which is a biiiiiiiiig mistake with those knees! He
spits spaghetti and looks as dangerous. disgustin’ and demented as. . . someone
spittin’ spaghetti.
One of his guitarists is chained up, shoved in a sack an’
left writhin’ centre stage while Auntie, in snorkel and flippers whips the
trussed musician.
And he fronts a ….hmm… ‘competent’ 4 piece band with a
seeerious lack of hair, who look as at home playin’ with auntie a goldfish in a
budgie cage!
Aunt May is either desperate for any kind of attention or
he’s finally cracked. And the old bugger tries so damn hard, devil bless him!
But that special formula he’s so clumsily groping for is, as ever, bubbling
merrily away well out of his grubby reach.
The only real ‘shock’ of the night was of the shockingly
obvious variety, as they awarded themselves an encore and played.. .three
guesses.. ‘School’s Out’, which culminated in an onstage custard-pie fight.
Well. . . at least someone had a good time!
But! But! But! My little fruit-bats, as goddamn bloody awful
as the gig was, I did tip my rock ‘n’ roll hat to the Rocky Horror reject as,
when dealing with one drunken nuisance, he let loose:
Darlin’, I’m more man than you’ll ever be, and more woman
than you’ll ever have!”
Cute. Obviously rehearsed… but cute.
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