Come My Way / 5 Miles to Jerome

The Guy Hamper Trio was formed by Billy Childish, after a chat with his friend James Taylor. Billy and James had played respectively in The Milkshakes and The Prisoners, often sharing the same bill in the early 80’s, leading to Billy’s blues ensemble The Natural Born Lovers being the support act for the early shows of The James Taylor Quartet. The Guy Hamper Trio is: Billy Childish (a.k.a. Guy Hamper) on guitar, his wife Julie on bass and Wolf on drums – who as it happens was the drummer in the original incarnation of JTQ – and of course features James Taylor on Hammond organ. They provide a bottom end, blues-influenced instrumental mayhem for those unafraid of dirt, germs and true grime. With no particular wish other than to be recognised as the best at playing badly, they refuse to obey the usual rules of combat and music. Their first 45 (Polygraph Test / Sally Sensation) was released in 2009, followed by a full-length studio album, All The Poisons In The Mud, appearing, as if by magic, in 2022, followed by six 7″ singles (via Damaged Goods and Spinout Nuggets), and also four further full-length albums. On this very record we have ‘Come My Way’, something a little different than previous, written and sung by James Taylor, with Billy, Julie and Wolf stringing and rattling away, with ‘5 Miles To Jerome’ on the flip-face, with the Trio and James on fine form. Once again, after consultation with experts in the field, it was decreed that for the enjoyment of Mods, jive experts, lost revellers, and those prone to frequent discotheques, these tracks needed to be on a 7″ single and made available throughout England, the UK, Europe, the USA, Indonesia and indeed Portsmouth.