PENGUINS GO POP
Last updated: 18-05-2020More Info Required
- 2 Penguins And An Elephant
Basic Information
- Norwich, Norfolk, Uk
- 80s Pop
L1986 - E1990
E2013 -
Musicians
Vocals, Percussion, Conga: Richard Penguin aka Richard Fryer
Guitar, Bass, Fiddle, Keys: John Hough
Guitar, Bass: Mark Scoop Wyatt
Guitar: Claude Alberts (2)Andy Butler am
Keys: Stephen J Bennett (2)Audrey Mcintyre am (3)Philip Lewis-Jones 14-15 (4)Liz Moore 16-
Bass: Tim Vialls am (2)Pete Moore 16-
Drums: Andy Mickleburgh am (2)Dave Dowdeswell-Allaway 15-17 (3)Dave Clark 18-20
"Penguins Go Pop were formed in the late 80s by myself (Fryer), Hough and 'Scoop' Wyatt. Around that time we shared a house in Little Armes Street, Nch and recorded our early demos at Mark's Scoop studios. We soon added drummer Mickleburgh and guitarist Alberts and began playing live. Myself, Mark and Andy became the three constant members with at different times people such as Bennett and Mcintyre playing keyboards, Butler playing the guitar and Vialls playing bass. Hough and Albert's would also return after leaving at different points. We built up a small dedicated following for our quirky, offbeat, lyrical songs and after disbanding played a couple of reunion shows.
I now run my own press, promotions, and bookings agency working with musicians. I write a music column and broadcast a radio show, and until early 2012 ran a live music night in a cafe in Norwich. Mark recently returned to live in Norwich, and Andy M travels the world in between working in Norwich. John has been living in mid-Wales since the early 90s but sadly Claude died of a heart problem in the early 2000s. Stephen works at UEA and still plays music, Andy B is a respected loop guitarist, Tim lives in Exeter and nobody is quite sure where Audrey is.
In July 2011 for fun I got together with Mark and Graeme Plant (ex of The Elephants) and played 3 of my song's acoustically under the name 2 Penguins & An Elephant at my Acoustic and Eclectic night, and repeated this at the third birthday of the nights in January 2012." RF 28/10/2013
"The band reforms in ?? 2013 with Penguin, Wyatt, Mickleburgh & Lewis Jones and Butler. Sadly Butler and Lewis-Jones left in 2015 to pursue their own separate musical ventures and at that point, I was unsure as was Mark as to whether we might continue.
I then wondered what had happened to a friend from a few years before keyboardist/violinist/saxophonist etc Liz Moore and got in touch. She mentioned that her bass-playing brother Pete was keen to start playing again and they joined in January of 2016 and they have been brilliant. Not only that we finally released our album '20th Century Pop' in 2018, mostly containing quirky songs with humorous stories I had written from when the band we were first together and songs and that I had written with John Bygrave as King Penguin. We received some nice reviews and airplay and between January 2016 to January 2020 played in the region of 40 concerts.
Andy M played the drums on the album but decided that he only wanted to play occasional gigs. Dave Dowdeswell-Allaway came in and did a great job between 2015 and 2017 and then equally Dave Clark from 2018 to 2020 until the COVID era lockdown kicked in. Currently, both I and Mark are separately writing new songs and when we all eventually emerge we are looking forward to working on songs for a follow-up album. We will be back!" RF 29/04/2020
addition: John Bygrave and i did release the ep 'How an Astronaut Feels' in 2002 that was recorded at his Flying pig studio (more information required)
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Releases | ||||
Cover | Title | Studio | Label | YoR |
20TH CENTURY POP | C2019 |