(c’85-’91) Tony Nunn (guitar), John Ewens (trumpet/b. vocals), Luke Simmons (drums), Jim Smith (bass), Graham Wood (guitar), and Richard Wood (vocals).
The Milky Bar Kids became the Byfleet based The 68 Floods, following a cease and desist letter from Nestle’s legal department, in early ’85. Named after the Byfleet/Woking/Guildford floods of ’68 they recorded seven demos, including 1989’s ‘Track Down’. They gigged all over the UK from Devon to Northamptonshire, including appearances at Thetford Live Aid ’87 and the 16th Greenbelt at Castle Ashby in August ’89.
In ’86, Andrew Brown was the band’s vocalist and featured on the cassette EP they release in March that year, which also carried his self-penned ‘Ego Overload’, along with the band’s take on Bryan Adams’ ‘Summer of ’69’, ‘No Love Tonight’ – which reportedly would not have been amiss on a Five O’Clock High EP – and ‘Going for a Ride in my Car’. The 68 Floods were the 6th band on at Showcase ’88, held at Centre Halls, Woking in Sept ’88. By this time singer Brown had been replaced by Richard Wood and drummer Steve King was replaced by Simmons, in all there had been nine line-up changes in just under three years. Once noted, by one Soundscene pundit, for “the amount of apathy…coming from the speakers” The 68 Floods came 4th in the Soundscene demo review of ’88. Around this time the band released the four track – ‘Sunshine Day’, ‘Another Girl (Another Sing)’, ‘My Biggest Weakness’ and ‘It’s Not For Me’ – cassette EP, titled ‘Flood-tide’ and produced by Tim Laws.
In August ’89 Phil Gibby pronounced them, along with Backlash, winners of the Cliff Richard award for longevity in his ‘Farewell Honors’. ’89 also saw the release of the ‘Down the Lane’ demo cassette and the aforementioned ‘Track Down’. This carried seven tracks, including: ‘Letter to Angel’, ‘I’m Feelin’ Free’, ‘I Just Wanna Rock n’ Roll’, ‘Stand Alongside’, and ‘No Time to Waste’. On the fringes of Greenbelt in ’89, they performed a cover of Lone Justice’s ‘I Found Love’ and ‘I Fought The Law’ originally by The Crickets (post Buddy Holly’s 1959 death). Their track ‘Letter To Angel’ was #7 in Soundscene’s Top Ten Local Songs 1990. A favorite with Elizabeth Lofting, wife of Woking’s incumbent mayor in ’91, the band raised 150 quid from a whip-round at a Cricketers, Westfield gig in April ’91 for the Mayor’s Hospice Appeal. Calling it a day in Dec’ 91 the band closed out their long run in January 1992 with a final gig at The Cricketers. “And then,” to quote Graham Wood, “despite nobody having shown any interest, we reformed not long after and carried on for another 20 years !”
Tracks:
Sunshine Day
Gallery:
Our Soundscene 