The Shabbymen

The Shabbymen  

‘I’m Looking, She’s Cooking’ c/w ‘(Gimme More) Coupons’

Truncheon Records  Whack004. Released October 5^th 1975

Otter Buntley (Vocals), The Whizz (Guitar), Charlie Nuts (Bass), Chaps M’Chops (Drums), Pete Laskie (Harmonica),

Back in the old days, before the smoking ban, people loved being indoors smoking and drinking and listening to live music. The perfect place for all three? A pub. Kings of the pub rock scene? The Shabbymen.

Remembers drummer Chaps M’Chops: “Every street in Britain had a pub filled with smoke, cheap beer and the sound of rock music. We could all smoke and drink to our heart’s content, go home smelling like burnt tramps, and then cough our lungs up onto a late night tray of chips, peas and gravy. It was fucking magic.”

Coming from a small island in the Tyne estuary, every member of The Shabbymen was a hardcore smoker by the age of seven. “During school playtime we’d pile into the assembly hall, play skiffle and smoke sixty or seventy fags before the bell rang. You could buy cigs in the tuck shop. Everyone smoked, even my dog”.

Rehearsing hard for three years and about 67,000 cigarettes, when the band finally reached London pub gig goers didn’t know what hit them. “There’d be a wall of smoke. Then the music would kick in. Otter and The Whizz would stare at the crowd, each with three fags on the go. People freaked out”.

In their nicotine stained suits The Shabbymen blazed a smoky trail across the music scene. Their first album “Coughin’ Dodger” was sponsored by Imperial Tobacco and featured the definitive Shabbymen track ‘I’m Looking, She’s Cooking’.

Standing on the front porch, light another fag

Gotta get a move on, take another drag

The lights are goin’ down, the cooker’s getting hot

I love the way you bake your pie, babe you got me hot

I’m lookin’, She’s cookin’

I’m bakin’, she’s shakin’

I’m thrillin’, she’s grillin’

She rattles my pans

And shakes up my glands