Gaye Bikers On Acid
Formed in Leicester, in 1985 the Gaye Bykers on Acid came to fame with our first independent release “Everythang’s Groovy” which reached the UK indie top 10. The Bykers followed our initial success with the “Nosedive Karma EP”, which topped the independent charts. The band were one of the first to fuse rocking riffs with Hip Hop beats and along with Pop Will Eat Itself became a part of the “Grebo” movement and in turn became front page news. With incendiary live shows, including a now infamous appearance at the Glastonbury festival the fan base grew. Ahead of our time, or just out of our minds, the Bykers were flavour of the month, which led the band to sign a deal with Virgin records, with whom we made 2 albums “Drill your own Hole”, which was also the soundtrack to a movie of the same name and the critically acclaimed “Stewed to the Gills”. The Bykers then went stateside, playing with the Cult at Madison Square Garden, where we impressed a watching Joey Ramone, who offered us a support slot on the Ramones upcoming European tour. Appearing at the new look Reading, Roskilde and the infamous Treworgey Festivals the Bykers continued to spread their own brand of mayhem wherever we went. After being ripped off by our unscrupulous management and being shown the door by Virgin, the band continued in full party mode, starting our own label “Naked Brain” and released 2 more albums “Cancer Planet Mission” and “Pernicious Nonsense” and the more dance influenced S.P.A.C.E. EP. The band continued to evolve musically exploring new styles. Touring the UK, US and Europe, it was this hedonistic and hectic schedule that eventually led the band to finally self-destruct in 1990… Mary went on to join Industrial pioneers Pigface, had chart success with Apollo 440 and more recently joining the new look PWEI. Kev resurfaced as G.R.O.W.T.H and later the Shed, Guitarist Tony relocated to Tokyo and continues to produce Electro acoustic tunes under the name of Tony Byker. Robber became a Techno DJ and Bass for hire playing with Surfing Bernard. The original line up reformed in 2016 to play the indie daze festival buoyed by the positive response they decided to carry on. Tony Byker the original guitarist is now living in Tokyo and his place has now been taken, after a small stint by Tom Stanley by Adam and the Ants guitarist Will Crewdson. (AKA Billy boy Byker) Otherwise, the line-up is still Robber, Kev & Mary Byker. In the words of Cher, the band continue to turn back time and play all their favourites and singles plus a selection of tunes from all of their releases…
“If you can remember it the first time around you probably weren’t there!”
