The Aquatic Weasels were formed from the ashes of Wolfbane, as a one-off project to compete in the local battle-of-the-bands competition in the Salisbury Arts Centre.
Having pressured my brother into playing bass, and with Phil Urquhart as ever on drums, we quickly got together some original material together and entered as a three piece with myself doing Guitar and Vocal duties.
The Weasels were much tighter and easier to manage than Wolfbane and got to a reasonable standard quickly. We made it to the final of the competition, but memory escapes me to where we came. All was not lost however, as I managed to pick up the prize for best guitar player.
In the same competition, Widge Collins - who was to become the singer for "Lix'n'trix" the band the Aquatic Weasels turned into, picked up the prize for best vocalist.
Line Up 2
After the Battle-of-the-Bands, we decided that singing was too much for me, and gigged with local singer John Gent.
After various performances (including getting caught in a riot when exiting a pub in Bristol) we parted company with John and poached Andy Morris, the singer from anther Salisbury Band 'Zero'
However, this backfired, as they subsequentially talked me into playing for them to compensate them for not having a singer. This then manifested itself into both myself and Andy playing for both bands. Life got a bit more hectic and in actual fact I ended up doing more gigs with Zero than the Weasels.
On the upside, we did manage to record some of our original material in a studio in Swindon.
The line-up in the picture shown above right, from left to right is as follows: Walter Eddowes - Guitar, Andy Morris - Vocals, Phil Urquhart - Drums and Ted Eddowes - Bass.
Arts Centre Pictures
Here are a couple of pictures from the Salisbury Arts Centre competition.
You will notice in the picture to the left, that my brother finally got his bass back off of Graham Andrews(Wolfbane). You will also notice in the background you can see Phil's left leg (probably one of his most photogenic moments).
Highlights included frilly shirts, cowboy boots, leather trousers and that White Charvel guitar. The tremelo system had a mind of it's own, but in hindsight it was the nearest thing to a Les Paul I've owned (except an actual Les Paul).
Unfortunately, there were no proper pictures of Phil from this gig, the Salisbury Journal's photographer obviously going for the better looking members of the band. At this time, Phil was going through his Philfy Phil Motorhead I've got a dodgy tash stage - see line-up 2 above for proof.