The Fingolstones Firemen

The current line up is:

Rob (Daz) Shields, vocals and Lee (Norbert) Richards, vocals and every instrument.

We have just finished our 4th album.

The Fingolstones Firemen were formed in 1986 by 3 mates, Mark Dawson (DOBBA), David Benson (BOOGA) and Lee Richards (NORBERT).

Only Dobba had any real musical talent as he could actually play the guitar. Initially vocal duties were shared by Norbert and Booga. Their songs were usually based around their friends in the Arsehole Club. Which was not (contrary to popular myth) a society of secret homosexuals but was actually the name given to the group of friends they used to hang around with (boys and girls). The name was given to them by an associate who couldn't break the inner circle and in a fit of pique called them all a bunch of areseholes.

Booga did not last long and left the band after the first few tracks. During the recording Dobba laid down a solo track and also recorded a song with Richard Gibbs (JEEVES). Jeeves stint in the band only lasted the one song before he went off to do missionary work somewhere in the back of beyond.

All the songs were recorded on an old tape recorder in Dobbas bedroom and thus the sound quality by modern standards is poor. The songs do still have a certain nostalgia to them though, as long as you were there at the time, otherwise they are meaningless. In 1987 they released their first album "Buddies" on C90 cassette and literally no one bought it. It wasn't actually for sale but no one even wanted a free copy.

After leaving school in 1987 Dobba went off to university and Norbert entered the world of work. It was therefore another 5 years before they released their second album "Captain Whistles Lonely Farts Club Band". The album was actually recorded between 1990 and 1992.

New members joined, Rob Shields (DAZ) and Andy Fox (The Charmer). By this time in their lives The Arsehole Club was long gone and the the new songs tended to be more about The Possee. The Possee were a group of Layabouts and Ne'er Do Wells that Norbert now hung around with. Both Daz and The Charmer were members of The Possee.

This new lineup showed promise but the recording sessions were marred by drunkeness and some of the results were poor and could have been much much better. Eventually Daz and The Charmer were booted out and Booga rejoined for the last 3 tracks in the album. These are often said to be the best ever recorded by the original line up.

16 years passed by after the release of Captain Whistle, which again they couldn't even give away. Then in 2008 Norbert decided to reform the band. Dobba was by now a busy husband and father and passed on the opportunity to rejoin, whilst Booga who was never that keen in the first place also passed. The Charmer was a waste of space to begin with so wasn't even asked. Jeeves had probably been eaten by Cannibals so that just left Daz who jumped at the chance.

Over the next year 12 songs were laid down and released as the album "Fingolstones For Sale" As with previous efforts they couldn't give it away. This was despite the fact that musically the band had never sounded better. Due to modern technology the songs featured every instrument you could think of, although to be fair the singing was still rank.

The new album again followed the same theme of the previous one in that the songs were mainly about the Possee, although there was an Arsehole Club one thrown in for good measure plus a couple of non specific ones (to try and appeal to a broader market).

Despite the relative flop of Fingolstones For Sale Daz and Norbert re-entered the studio at the end of 2009 and began recording the new album "The Fingolstones Sell Out". This album is now complete but track 2 has been removed from this site for legal reasons. tracks 10 and 11 also see the return of founder member Dobba to the band after an abscence of 18 years.

You must be joking, although we did once get offered a gig in a pub after one of our (few) fans played some of our songs in there. We had to turn it down though as we didn't have the bottle.

A broad spectrum really, everything fromn Led Zeppelin to The Macc Lads.

Oh the usual, guitar, bass, drums, keys, horns, synth (oh alright then a laptop)