Lyndon Nutkins: vocals, bass, guitar
Raychel Higgs: vocals, keyboards
Dan Hobbs: vocals, guitar
Tony Lack: vocals, bass
Lee Watkins: drums
Headcleaner turned out to be the shortest-lived band I was in. We formed late in 2002, and four or five months later, we were no more. But it was a blast from start to finish.
I had met Raychel Higgs a few years earlier, when we had worked together in insurance. We were from the same home town, both really into music and had loads more in common. She was lively, fun, and very talented, and we were always swapping tapes – we introduced each other to all kinds of music. When I left the company for a new career in web design, we stayed in touch.
Dan Hobbs, meanwhile, was an old friend of Raychel’s. They had been in a band called, I think, Only One Kenobi. I had first come into contact with Dan via a group e-mail, where some “reply to all” banter had got out of hand and annoyed me enough to send a terse reply to all concerned, asking them to exercise some proper e-mail etiquette. Dan just found this hilariously funny, and carried on emailing me, regardless. Over time I came to discover that he was a lovely guy who had written literally dozens of songs and never recorded any of them.
One day, quite out of the blue, I got a call from Raychel. She had played my Weekend World demo to Dan and their bassist Tony, and suggested that we all get together one night for a jam. I was utterly blown away that the rest of the group already knew my songs, even down to the harmony sections, and we blasted through a few numbers from my own set as well as some of their older material.
It was altogether a breath of fresh air, and over the next few weeks, in Tony’s basement, we continued working through the songs. It wasn’t long before we needed a drummer, and I rang Lee from idiopathy to see if he fancied the job.
With Raychel and Dan I once again achieved a formidable three-part harmony section. Although Raych sang lead on many of the numbers, she wasn’t overkeen to be the frontperson for the band, so I took lead duties on my own songs, as did Tony. Dan had an incredible vocal range, with the highest male falsetto I have ever heard, and harmonised naturally. Meanwhile, Lee brought tremendous energy to the group, and, as a rhythm unit, had great synergy with Tony.
One night, we decided to book a rehearsal at a proper studio. Raychel made the call, made the booking and was asked for a band name. We didn’t have one! She hurriedly looked around the studio before alighting her eyes on an old TDK head cleaner cassette and announced, “Headcleaner”, before missing a beat and burying her face in her hand. I can still see her face now. But the name stuck, for now at least.
A couple of months later, rehearsed and, with an original group composition (“Obsession”) under our belt, we played a gig at Club Riga (now the Fickle Pickle Club) supporting my musical heroes Calico. I brought along my friend Joe as sound engineer, so our sound was in safe hands, and the gig was well received. It felt amazing to have produced our first song as a group, and to have a gig under our belt. Three of us even went snowboarding in France together the following month!
Then, Raychel announced suddenly she was moving out of the area. Her energy was irreplaceable, and we all knew it. When we got back from France, somehow we never ever saw Tony again – I wonder from time to time what happened to him – and Headcleaner, like Worst Case Scenario, disappeared after one gig. But we had a hell of a time getting there.
I would later produce some demos for Dan, to get some of his unrecorded songs down. One of these, “State Of My Mind”, was a country number where Dan sang some incredible harmony vocals with himself and I played percussion on various items around the house, with Dan following me around with a microphone.
Over the next fifteen years I would continue to collaborate with Dan and friends on a series of memorable charity gigs called “Unplugged and Rewired”, which raised some good money for cancer charities.
But that was it for Headcleaner, and with a new career in graphic design to work on and my mum developing Alzheimers, I allowed myself to gently slip away from making music. A few years passed, and then along came another unexpected invite to join another band…