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THE LIDS BIOGRAPHY. 

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Operation Demetrius on the 9th of August 1971, became known as interment day when the British army interned over 340 people without trial. On that day, the local population tried to confuse the army by slamming metal bin lids on the ground. It also happened to be my mother's birthday . I made a joke saying '' Hey mum listen, they are celebrating your birthday'' , Little did i know what was actually going down. The memory always stuck in my mind and later in 1978 when the band where pondering over a name we collectively after some deliberation decided on the name THE LIDS. I had already been playing in a few bands prior to 1978 and was getting pretty good on guitar. One day as i was walking along Cromwell road in Belfast and i heard the sound of someone playing drums. I immediately and with some trepidation knocked on the door and was greeted by a guy called Paul Kelly. ''I like your style'' was my opening line and Paul invited me in. We later organised a jam session with some of the other musicians that he was playing with. That session went on for quite some time until the paramilitaries came in and told us to stop. I believe we must have been drowning out their riot !! . From that initial session emerged the four chore members of THE LIDS. Myself - Geoff Shannon vocals/ guitar, Paddy Donelly - bass, Peter North R.I.P. - guitar , Paul Kelly - Drums.

The Lids practised extensively for many months in a rural location and proceeded to get a few gigs in Belfast. These where at the Pound and the Harp bar. The only two venues in the city to open their doors to Punk and New Wave acts playing original material to a young vibrant audience. The response to these early shows was encouraging and the band gradually built up a very varied fan base. We were not a main stream punk band and from the outset described our music as ''New Wave''. Our gigs as a consequence attracted a motley crew of bikers,(The Chosen Few),students,gays,music lovers, punks and drunks to name but a few. Musically we were influenced by what was happening in America at the time with bands like Talking Heads and the Ramones and we covered some of their songs in our set,which was, mostly all original compositions.

 Terri Hooley who had started the Good Vibrations Record Label and Record shop in Great Victoria Street in downtown Belfast also began to promote gigs for new young bands. I had known Terri for quite a number of years so i approached him with a view to having him release some of our material. He agreed and we had our first recording experience at the now legendary Wizard Studios in central Belfast. At this session Terri gave us 15 pounds for refreshments and we recorded the tracks 'Helicopter' and ' I Don't Want You' as a potential single. Unfortunately these tracks never got released.' Helicopter' being deemed as lyrically sensitive for time as a terrorist war was raging all around the streets of N. Ireland . Only now after 40 years are we getting the to hear this very Rare Rare'' Punk / New Wave anthem'' as it has been described. Until now 'Helicopter' has never been released as a single. In 1994 Anagram Records released 'I Don't Want You' on their Good Vibrations Singles Collection CD.

 The Lids continued to gig regularly at the Harp Bar the main venue for the 'Punk and New Wave' scene in N. Ireland. we formed a habit of playing our songs a lot faster down there and it seemed to work. It was energy and youth at its very best. The Harp Bar was the only venue in Ireland at the time to put on a strip tease show , i never got to witness it. I always remember at the Punk gigs the plastic bags and the smell of glue which lingered from the toilets. A choice of poison for some but mostly it was alcohol. Peter North, our guitarist once transported the band equipment down to the Harp Bar in a double decker bus.!!  Peter was working for the council at the time as a play bus driver. The bus was the same height and length as the front of the bar. It caused a bit of a problem that night and the military came into the bar several times to inquire about the 'suspicious' vehicle parked out front. At the time buses were regularly hijacked and burnt out and used as road blocks. If you can imagine the journey home,at the end of the night, through the deserted streets of Belfast with fans that had hitched a ride home, hanging out the windows singing..

 There was a section in the bands show towards the end of the performance when i threw torn up local newspapers in the air, like confetti, we later had an industrial fan to help it fly everywhere. The bouncer in the Harp Bar told me not to do it again because the cleaner ladies were upset, anyway in the heat of the moment i let loose with the paper, it was i good effect. Consequently the bouncer made me pick up every piece before i left. The band got to know the owner of the Harp Bar quite well and he let us practise there regularly. The famous Pound music club down by the river Lagan became our second home , it was managed by Chris Roddy and his late father, R.I.P , We all had been going there for years before  THE LIDS and i always yearned to play on that old busted up stage. I believe it it was originally old stables for the street tram horses. Anyway we ended up playing on that old stage many times. There was very few venues in Belfast, it was a desert after seven o'clock because of the ''Troubles''. At night the army closed barriers to seal the city centre so most of the gigs that evolved outside these security zones. Round the corner from the Harp Bar was a pub called the Dunbar which became a regular venue.

 THE LIDS main gigs in the North of Ireland was Queens university all the various balls they had during the year are own shows and also supporting major acts from overseas. Also appearing at the Ulster University formerly the Polytechnic, Coleriane University, Spuds in Portstewart , Kellly's in Portrush and of coarse the aforementioned The Pound, The Harp Bar and The Dunbar. We played many gigs in all the smaller venues in most provincial towns. In one of these small towns we had the hilarious situation in that we had been booked by an agent thinking we were a Country and Western band . Apparently a'' Lid'' Is a hat in Country and Western circles so our name being THE LIDS led to that mistake. After playing a couple of numbers we realised that it was a bad situation. The proprietor abruptly came on stage slipped me a cancellation fee and told us to leave quietly before we got killed. In the South of Ireland we played the famous Baggot Inn, Zero's off O'Connell Street, the universities and technical colleges around Dublin . Playing also the west coast in Sligo and Galway. Coming back late at night it was not unusual to be the only van around Belfast city centre we would be stopped and questioned by the police and army on a regular basis. I have to make a grateful mention about are driver Johnny Weiry who did not drink and looked after us relentlessly for many years. We all liked to party on through the night. If we wanted to analyse a gig or just chill we stopped of at the Hatfield Bar on the Ormo Road Belfast , if you knew the secret tap on the hatch you could acquire a drink or two.

 We recorded a lot of material 1978 and 1981 in Wizard Studios with sound engineer Davy Smith, even listened to the famous track by the Undertones called '' Teenage Kicks '' before it was released. The tape as it was in those days rolled back from a track we were recording to the tail end of ''Teenage Kicks'' we thought'' not bad '' Ha Ha !! . Little did we know it was to be a major hit. The Lids were always striving for a contract with a major record company and we sent off many tapes and photographs only to get polite replies that our music was not what they were looking for at present. Air play was all important and we featured many times on radio Downtown on the Davy Simms show, with sessions recorded in their studios. Davy later moved to the BBC Ulster and he gave us airplay and interview slots. On southern Irish stations we got airplay on RTE with the Dave Fanning show. Local news papers and the Hot press from southern Ireland promoted our shows and gave us regular press releases and interviews.

 I suppose we tried lots of frills to enhance the main line up,initially a piano player Essey Turner R. I. P, and then Simon Loyd on saxophone. Simon went on to play with an English band called '' Icicle Works ''. We tried some backing vocals two girls from the Art College Anita ? and Cathy Shevelin. I counted up how many people played for the Lids for short periods and it came to about thirty.

 At this stage tensions and frustrations seemed to be rising between the four of us. It was on the cards that we would split up and we did. Our last gigs with this line up was supporting Tom Robinson with his band ''Sector 27'' in the Harp Bar for two nights. We ended this first phase of the Lids drinking champagne with Tom Robinson's Band in the Europa Hotel the most bombed hotel in the world was it's label at the time and still is..

 We parted company and went our separate ways. I proceeded to form some line ups keeping the name THE LIDS and using a lot of musicians from other bands that had split up, or just people that were available. The list of musicians is numerous but nothing seemed to gel or indeed work very well. Eventually myself and the drummer Paul Kelly from the original band got together and we made a plan for a new unit, which would concentrate on recording and playing larger venues. Paul introduced me to Don McNeely R. I .P. formerly the bass player with ''Pretty Boy Floyd and the Gems''. Supplemented by Coner Shields on guitar and Dr. Chris Legget on piano/synth. This line up sounded good and we practised extensively. We mainly played in the North of Ireland in the Universities. One concert springs to mind that we headlined in Queens University Belfast it was a fund raising gig for the victims of the civil war in Nicaragua. Chris the piano player was a trainee doctor in the near by City Hospital, his bleeper would go off when he was on call and it being his duty we would lose the piano player.

 In 1983/84 we decided to record some of the material i had written using a studio owned by a fabulous guitarist called Lawrence Thomson R.I.P. It was located in a small warehouse in Newtownards near Belfast, initially we recorded four tracks, ''Walkie Talkie'', '' My Secret Place '', ''Heavy People'' and ''In My House''. As well as doing a great job on production we used the late Lawrence Thomson on session guitar with the view to having him eventually join the band. The next recording session we recorded '' Africa'' and ''It's a Kiss'' . The track ''Africa'' was inspired by the Ethiopian famine situation which also later prompted Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to organise the Live Aid concert in July 1985. The track is still lyrically relevant to the recent events in North Africa over the last decade .

 Myself and Paul Kelly the drummer went over to London for a few weeks with the intentions for striking a deal with a major record company. Armed with a few band photographs and our six recorded new tracks we had interviews with talent scouts for some major companies. We were congratulated on our playing abilities but it was not the type of music happening on the mainland at that time. If nothing else it was great fun getting out of Belfast for a spell. Paul and myself partied away the days and if nothing else it taught us that we required management and a set of professional photographs, videos where out of reach for most bands in those days,

 Generally the band'' THE LIDS'' had gone as far as we could manage, we had not been shy about taking on a few political themes and world events. ''We walked calmly through the turmoil and came out the other side'', All i can say is the paramilitaries were having their war but i think the ''Punks'' ''New Wave'' bands and fans of music, not forgetting the venue owners and promoters won the battle. For that i am proud to have been part off and witnessed that era. I hope you will like the album.                 

 

Geoff Shannon. 

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