Brompton Cocktail live at the Onion Cellar – 3 November 1986

I had the privilege to play at the Onion Cellar with Brompton Cocktail, opening for the Close Lobsters. In all fairness, I must admit that the reception was rather cold…. Almost everybody hated us. You may judge for yourself by the lack of applauses 😉

At the time, we were heavily influenced by The Cramps, The Rezillos, B movies and Hammer films. I gess this trad rock universe didn’t mix happily with the C86 crowd.

On the same night, The Catburgers and The Close Lobsters played great sets, so it was a fairly enjoyable evening.

Our drummer was Fritz Van Helsing of many bands, our singer was Pip Boydell, both now sadly passed on. Our guitarist was Michael G Jackson. I played bass.

But what is a Brompton Cocktail may you ask?
It is an oral mixture of morphine and cocaine helping patients in agony with advanced disease, named after the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, England, where the formulation of this mixture was standardized in the late 1920s for patients with cancer.

Weren’t we naughty at the time? We were young(ish), foolish, and we had a great time!

Hope you’ll enjoy our set, so many years later 😉

Note: The photographs were taken in and around our rehearsal room in Niddry Street (Edinburgh).

Set list:
• James Bond
• Shape of Things to Come
• Sally
• King Rat
• Monster Movies
• City of Nightmares
• Do the Scorpion
• Downtown
• Girl from America
• Let’s all Sin
• Everybody wants to be a Cat
• Slither
• The Children of the Living Dead
• Lagartija Nick