Machines Talk.

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 KILLER B’S  

You can’t keep a good musician down.

Guitarist, singer, band leader Chris Thompson just goes from strength to strength – as the focal point of THE KILLER Bs, Chris proves that yet again he’s a songwriter and player to be reckoned with.

A veteran of some of the greatest British bands of the past 30 years it’s good to see Thompson still has the energy, the desire and the hunger to play live and write memorable songs, as a series of recent support spots to Wilko Johnson has readily proven.

Thompson fell in love with rock’n’roll at an early age – he lived in North America as a kid soaking up the likes of Little Richard and Sam Cooke. When he got back to the UK his teenage years were spent watching bands like the Stones at Richmond Athletic Club and Eel Pie Island. It wasn’t long before he was playing guitar himself in the clubs mainly as a solo act, and enjoyed the mentorship of legendary acoustic blues guitarist Wizz Jones.

At the end of the 70s, Chris met guitarist Bill Carter. It was to be the start of a long and very fruitful partnership that would last for the better part of a decade. It was the punk era but the pair shared a love of British rhythm’n’blues bands and Chicago blues and put together a quintet, the Small Brothers – with Chris switching to the bass. A mainstay of the vibrant London pub circuit, the band recorded one single for Albion Records, which though good, never quite caught the wildness of their live performances.

In 1981 Thompson and Carter happened across singer, harmonica player and nascent filmmaker Tony Moon who opened them up to other influences particularly Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band. An offer to record for Stiff Records offshoot SSH4 resulted in a well-received EP and recruiting drummer John Kingham, they christened themselves, Motor Boys Motor (after the title of an old Joe Strummer song). The band went on the road touring the 
UK, Germany and Norway. As well as a couple of excellent BBC sessions, the band cut a fabulous self-titled LP for Albion – a mighty collision of influences as diverse as Beefheart and Dr Feelgood, the record exuded a brutal power, zany sense of humour and fierce, oft times political intelligence but it somehow fell between the cracks – too weird for the pub rock brigade and too traditionally rock’n’roll for the avant-gard crowd, though lauded by their staunch band of admirers.

When Moon decided to quit Chris and Bill had a re-think and pulling on board old mate drummer Kenny Harris (from the Small Brothers), they stripped down their sound, wrote a bunch of new material and re-emerged as the Screaming Blue Messiahs. Cutting an EP for Ted Caroll’s Ace Records, Good and Gone, this power trio suddenly caught on in a big way. The summer of 1984 saw them plastered all over the front covers of weekly papers, the NME and Sounds, and so began a dizzy ascent to fame and fortune.

Signed by Elektra/Warners, the band went on to release an expanded version of Good and Gone, and three superb albums, Gun Shy, Bikini Red, and Totally Religious and a series of singles that culminated in Top 20 success in 1988 with ‘I Wanna Be a Flintstone’ that saw them on Top of the Pops and mainstays of MTV. Combining blues, rockabilly, rhythm’n’blues, punk and even country and fusing it with an obsession with American pop culture, the Messiahs were an exhilarating experience at a time when rock was in short supply. As a live act they were second to none – exciting, unpredictable, dangerous, musical and pure dynamite! They toured extensively across the UK, Europe and North American before calling it a day in 1990 amidst a mire of managerial and financial problems.

Chris was soon back treading the boards – and back playing his first love, the guitar. Under various guises such as Head, Hive & the Honey, Dynamo Hum and latterly The Killer Bs Thompson has continued to work his mojo and his magic. The past 15 years has seen him back playing, recording and releasing records with a lot of old familiar faces including Tony Moon, Kenny Harris and producer Pat Collier.

Currently fronting a trio with long-time collaborator, bassist Ricky McGuire (The Men They Couldn’t hang) and drummer, Dave Morgan, 2013 sees the Killer B’s as potent and original as ever.  A fabulous lead player, and even better slide player, Thompson is also a songwriter to be reckoned with, who follows his instincts and has recently written a slew of great new songs such as the memorable ditty about a transsexual policeman, ‘Fascinating Bob’. The current band, whilst still very rooted in the blues, is not afraid to take on other forms like soul and even late 60s psychedelic hard rock, that makes for a diverse and irresistible repertoire.

With the release of a Screaming Blue Messiahs ‘BBC Sessions’ on Hux Records, the time is right for Thompson to make hay whilst the sun shines and crown an already remarkable career many can only dream of.

Nigel Cross



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