quick time plug in

                                                                            (vocal and instrumental group)

Welcome to the Outside Toilet web site, official homepage of Harrow’s original underground pop group - before punk, before grunge. The Who and Stockhausen  meet Geno Washington among others. Rock, blues, metal, reggae, soul, pop, harmony, electronics, lights, psychedelics, freakbeat and pyrotechnics with go-go dancers the Chain (Sue & Kathy).  

the Outside Toilet- you booked them at  your peril!                                 

JUST RELEASED!  (April 2009)

PSYCHEDELIC SCHLEMIELS VOL3   CD

Contains the two previously unreleased tracks by The Outside Toilet mentioned in Recordings below plus various other bands from the late 1960s.

Available from     www.systemrecords.co.uk/various-artists-psychedelic-schlemiels-p-995892.html

                      http://www.heyday-mo.com/catalog/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=5974

and other mail order suppliers.

       the Outside Toilet   were :-

          Tim Moore - Bass/vocals

      the Chain were :-

          Sue Winter

         Kathy Watson

History      back to index

Armed with a red Hofner Colorama, a semi-acoustic Harmony with a pickup screwed to it and a set of sticks, Hokey, Buz, and drummer,  Dave Knight undertook a number of gigs under the name of Sounds Revolting.

It didn’t really sound too good (two guitars & a mike through a 15watt amplifier with one 12" speaker.) With the addition Buz’s brother, Tim, on home made bass in 1966, this spectacular line up became the Outside Toilet by late 1967, the name suggested by new-boy drummer Bob Aylott  who also introduced to the group lights, electronics and a box of funny hats, masks, wigs, crockery etc. He looked and played like Keith Moon and was instrumental in pushing the band on to bigger and better things. Thus the group soon got moving in 1968 playing all kinds of gigs from Saturday morning pictures (remember them?) to the front room of a neighbour’s house.

The O.T. soon became a well-oiled machine on the church hall youth club and minor disco circuit around the Harrow area. the Chain joined them for many of these gigs from the early part of 1968, dancing in front of the group.

The stage set-up

Unlike their local and even national contemporaries, the O.T. had their own ideas about stagecraft.  They wore long old fashioned dressing gowns and the stage was covered with props like the plastic torso of a woman (Fiona), a dummy head and various plastic legs.  Their other props included cardboard amps which were either jumped on or kicked off the stage at a suitable point in the show or later blown up with theatrical maroons (electrically detonated charges - could be pretty loud!). Rubber rats, a watering can and an old violin were also blown up at various times.  The stage was lit by a lightshow which developed into a fully blown psychedelic show with projectors, slides, oil and strobe lights, (used at a wedding gig?).  Remember this was middle class suburbia not San Francisco.

The show

The show usually started with a bang - literally - somewhere in the first number. This usually woke up members of the audience not familiar with the group who then blasted on though their versions of pop numbers and into a medley at which point they were joined onstage by the Chain . The act came to a climax with puffs of flash powder, destruction of cardboard amps, explosions and a reworking of Rachmaninov’s Piano study in Cmin complete with early synthesiser sounds.

The music  back to index

Like the lightshow, the music was constantly changing. It could be early R&B covers done to a Ginger Baker beat one minute, then a Ska version of a Beatles' song the next (no white band played reggae or ska at this time). From the Shadows to Hendrix and on to the electronics of early Pink Floyd, and pastiches of the classics.

The audiences

Were equally varied. Mainly they liked to dance, but they enjoyed a spectacle too ...........and they got one. They were a lot of young people enjoying harmless fun plus the usual subversive element which would include boys with an unhealthy interest in amateur plumbing and testing fire extinguishers (unsupervised testing that was!) They could also be very appreciative. The first time we switched a fuzz box on - the crowd went crazy! The first time we used a strobe light the same thing happened. When we played the opening bars of  Cream’s ‘I’m So Glad’ at one venue, we were greeted with a rapturous ‘knowing applause’ as though we were  Cream ! One couldn’t help but smile.

The gigs

Were in places that often smelt of disinfectant and were run by  jobsworths who were very suspicious of us and the name of the band. Unfortunately most of the venues weren’t licensed so those with a taste had to smuggle their own poisons inside and hope they weren‘t spotted - "That’s not hard liquor your drinking is it? "  Sometimes gigs would develop into full blown mayhem and the local constabulary would be called in to calm things down. Chairs would be thrown, hand basins removed from the walls etc.  Occasionally we’d get banned from a place after a particularly rowdy evening. "We’ve never had any trouble like this before," remarked one organiser after a disturbance that resulted in the hall being emptied half way through the evening.  Headmasters in the area became aware of the name and refused the requests of persistent pupils who wanted the band to play at their school (for shock value?), safer acts landing the gig.

The local papers  back to index

Always short of copy plus the fact that we had a friend working on the Harrow Observer, they featured us from time to time. The Chain had their own feature and large photos in one edition. Another clip once mentioned some local busybody complaining about graffiti outside one particular venue and remarking "Yes and they’ve even had a group playing there calling itself  "The Outside Toilet" of all things!" Shock horror! Fast forward him into the nineties and what would he have made of ‘tagging’ on tube trains?

Open air ‘festivals’

We did two. The 1968 Harrow Show only it wasn’t a pop festival but rather more like a church fete complete with attendant vicars and tea.

We had a proper stage however were the only act on and went down surprisingly well in the middle of the afternoon to a seated audience.  A cine of a few minutes performance still exists. (In 1972 they had a genuine pop festival on the same site headlined by Brinsley Schwarz).

The other one was in 1971 for the Liberal Party in the grounds of Yeiwsley Grange. Again we were the only act on and there is some good cine of the band setting up! (It was too dark to film by the time we started to play).

Firsts

One year or so before Keith Richard used a commercially available "fuzz" box on record for the first time, Buz  had already discovered that sound by overdriving a very small damaged loudspeaker by a relatively powerful valve amplifier- a sound that has never been equaled today -even by modern signal processing !

A year or so before Led Zeppelin were formed Buz was also using a violin  bow to play his guitar - a practise that much later became associated with Jimmy Page.

Recordings   back to index

There were various attempts to record the band live before 1970 but none of them have survived. They band did however record a backing track allegedly for a shoe commercial for Sandie Shaw written by Gavin Beauvais, at Central Studios in Denmark Street in the summer of 1968 entitled appropriately ‘Shiny shoes (what a nice colour!)’. It’s not known whether this still exists. An Emidisk acetate featuring covers of Spirit’s ‘Line on you’ and the Moody Blues’ ‘Legend of a mind ‘ recorded in 1970, survives.

                          Pop   Videos

None actually, apart from the clips mentioned in Open air ‘festivals’ above.

Gig list were you there?  back to index

This is about as comprehensive as we can get it .

6th July St. John’s Church Hall, Kenton ) Hokey, Buz

                                                            ) + Dave Knight

18th July The Bell, Hendon                   ) drums

1965

20th November St.Anselm’s, Harrow Weald - Dave Knight-drums

1966

15th October St. John’s Church Hall, Kenton - Dave Knight-drums No Buz, Andrew Bowley instead

1967

21st January St. John’s Church Hall, Kenton - Dave Knight-drums

25th February Bernay’s Institute, Stanmore - Dave Knight-drums

No Buz Dave Jefferson instead

7th October The Hopbine, North Wembley.-Bob Aylott -drums Wedding

28th October St. John’s Church Hall, Kenton

2nd December St. John’s Church Hall, Kenton

30th December St. John’s Church Hall, Kenton

9th February The Warwick, East Barnet

10th February St. John’s Church Hall, Kenton 

11th February Guy Hayward’s, Harrow

16th February Bernay’s Institute, Stanmore

24th February St. John’s Church Hall, Kenton 

9th March Guy Hayward’s, Harrow,  afternoon and evening

20th April ABC Cinema, Rayners Lane -morning

27th April ABC Cinema, Rayners Lane- morning

27th April Roxeth Youth Centre + Jynx, South Harrow

Church Hall, Hindes road, Harrow

4th May White Lion, Edgware

11th May Guy Hayward’s, Harrow

17th May Bernay’s Institute, Stanmore

25th May Guy Hayward’s, Harrow

8th June Guy Hayward’s, Harrow

14th June Salvatorian College, Wealdstone -The Roland Review including Jynx + Aesop's Fables

13th July Victoria Hall, Harrow

20th July The Harrow Carnival -Headstone Park, North Harrow

St.Alban’s church, North Harrow

Private party Hillview Avenue, North Harrow

The Clay Pigeon, Eastcote

20th September Bernay’s Institute, Stanmore

21st September Wedding, Churchill Hall, Kenton

22nd November Bernay’s Institute, Stanmore

14th December WRAF Club, Notting Hill

21st December Stanmore Youth Club, Bernay's Institute, Stanmore

28th December Memorial Hall, Harrow Weald, Harrow

8th February Harrow Commune, Rayners Lane + Marsupilami

14th February St. Nicholas School, Northwood Hills

8th March St. John’s Church Hall, Kenton

11th April Hoover Social Club, North Wembley

3rd May St. John’s Church Hall, Kenton 

7th June St.Anselm’s Church Hall, Harrow on the Hill

12th September St.Anselm’s Church Hall, Hatch End

13th September Suzanne’s Riding School, Harrow Weald

26th September Bernay’s Institute, Stanmore

22nd November St. John’s Church Hall, Kenton

29th November St.Anselm’s Church Hall, Hatch End

5th December The Clay Pigeon, Eastcote

1970

31st January St. John’s Church Hall, Kenton

13th February The Clay Pigeon, Eastcote

7th March John Lyons’ School, Harrow on the Hill

4th April St. John’s Church Hall, Kenton

22nd May John Lyons’ School, Harrow on the Hill

6th June St. John’s Church Hall, Kenton

10th July Mount Stewart School, Kenton

1st August Harrow Show, Headstone Park, North Harrow

4th Sept Whitchurch Institute, Edgware

18th Sept G.E.C Social Club, North Wembley

3rd October Churchill Hall, Kenton + Wally Buckland Inc.

16th October St.Anselm’s Church Hall, Hatch End

31st October Cedar’s Youth Centre, Hatch End

14th November St.Anselm’s Church Hall, Hatch End + Cadmium Lake

5th December Alyth’s Youth Club, Finchley 

1971

22nd January G.E.C Social Club, North Wembley

23rd January St.Anselm’s Church Hall, Hatch End + Sourpuss

30th January Wye College, Wye, Kent

12th February Harrow Technical College, Harrow + Clear Blue Sky + Styvar Manor

20th February Eastcote Methodists, Eastcote

6th March Minys, Bessborough Synagogue, Harrow

13th March Alyth’s Youth Club, Finchley 

19th March Roxborough Hotel, Harrow-(Private party)

27th March Cedar’s Youth Centre, Hatch End

22th April Drac's Club, Case is Altered, Wealdstone + Blunt Sponge

17th July Yiewsley Grange, Yiewsley -cined

26th July Princess Theatre, Clacton on Sea + Warhorse

11th September USAF Alconbury Air Base, Alconbury, Huntingdon + Joyce Bond Review

9th September Wye College, Wye, Kent

30th October Tithe Farm House, South Harrow + Sourpuss

29th November Brunel University, Uxbridge

30th November The White Hart, Willesden

10th December Wye College, Wye, Kent

11th December Finchley Reform Synagogue, North Finchley -stereo taped

1972

2nd January Bessborough Synagogue, Harrow

15th January Alyth’s Youth Club, Finchley

29th January RAF Conningsby, Lincolnshire

12th February Spar Club, Cheltenham

6th March Minys, Bessborough Synagogue, Harrow

8th March Rugby F.C. Brunel University, Uxbridge

18th March North Harrow Young Conservative, Rest Hotel, Kenton

24th March St.George's Hospital 

25th March North Finchley Reform Synagogue, North Finchley

13th May Young Conservatives at Red Cross Centre, Croxley Green

20th May Wye College, Wye, Kent

9th September Mount Vernon Hospital, Northwood

the Outside Toilet (1967-1972)

                                                    Coming soon !   the Outside Toilet  Live album !

                                                    This web site was designed and written by Hokey Wolf .

                                                    Thanks for contributions and advice from Buz and Tim Moore and 

                                                    Bob Aylott.

                                                    copyright 2000

                                                    Any comments or queries please e-mail

                                                   hokey@theoutsidetoilet.com

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