Goodstaff: Fake Hero

Fake Hero by Goodstaff. Goodstaff were Silverton’s finest post-punk extreme sports band of the late nineties and early noughties. Goodstaff were an awesome live band. Besides creating a most joyous hullabaloo on stage, they were visually one of the most interesting bands of their time and sounded unlike any other act in the south west. Many of their songs were about subjects such as snowboarding and the winter sports lifestyle and some of their songs were used on snowboarding videos. Frontman Ross Martin was the main songwriter and provides all the guitars and main vocals that you can hear, including some rather interesting and unusual stomp-box effects. He played his guitar slung so low you would think that his knuckles must drag along the ground when he walked. Mik E played the keys, sang backing vocals and provided a lot of stage presence and psychotic uber-geek strangeness and digital waveform finery. Goodstaff had one of the finest rhythm sections around. John Thornhill was an awesome drummer and highly visual, especially during Superstitious White or Black which was mostly in seven time. Ant Barron on five-string bass also had a great stage presence with his facial hair and piercings and numerous coloured contact lenses. He also provided backing vocals and acted superbly as a dry foil to Ross’s on-stage wit. Despite a couple of years of success playing the south of England and developing a formidable reputation for their live shows, which had a much bigger and far more powerful sound than these recordings, the band ground to a halt when Ross failed to return from a snowboarding holiday in New Zealand. As far as we know, he is still there. Tracks 1-5 recorded at CrazyCat Studios Exeter. Mixed by Rick November 1999. Copyright © Ross Martin and Goodstaff 1999. Tracks 6-8 recorded and mixed at Torna-K’s studios. Engineered by J.Burrough. Mastered by Dave Bliss. Copyright © Ross Martin and Goodstaff 2000. 6635 Records. More details can be found at peoplesound.com See also: http://www.wudrecords.co.uk/archives http://www.wudrecords.co.uk/archives/goodstaff https://twitter.com/WudRecords