Follow up to debut album ‘All the Rage’, post punk three piece Heed Case release new album ‘Mongo’ on Friday 31st October 2025.
Heed Case are former Angelic Upstart guitarist on vocals Newts Newton, bass Si Cadelik and drums Mr Dusty. They squeeze between the bubbling volcanic crack where The Fall and Killing Joke lie.
And who doesn’t love a solid thunderous drum intro? Infectious album track ‘ADHD’ crunches and buzzes in yer ear…. ‘Impulsive can’t sit still, Destructive, too many pills, Can’t sit still for meditation, too much pressure and medication’.
The sheer anthemic guitar calls out…. ‘Cast adrift in a sea of challenges with a feeling of being left to drown. Frantically waving to be rescued. But all the lifeboats have run aground’.
Where did the album title come from?
‘The title ‘Mongo’ comes from a phrase the three of us use to describe our autism and adhd. Example, I have to everything in order. You open a cupboard in my kitchen and all the tins face forward and stacked alphabetically. Instead of saying “Oh that’s just a trait of autism, I’m neurodivergent don’t you know”. I’d simply say that’s just my mongo!’
‘However, it’s original source came from Si’s bass audition. I’d asked people to learn two tracks video themselves playing them and send it within 5 days. Si was the only one who followed the instructions to the letter – his mongo made sure of that.’
‘But when I watched the video he was concentrating so hard he was quite stiff and cumbersome. So much so that he reminded me of Mongo from the film ‘Blazing Saddles’. Hence Mongo became a word our traits and mannerisms associated with being neurodivergent.’
You are open about various medical conditions within the band….
’The broad theme of ‘All the Rage’ was about narcissism and entitlement in modern society. For ‘Mongo’ we chose to write about our experiences of living with autism and adhd whilst using different samples and FX to create soundscapes that reflected what the inside of our head often feels like – at times fecking scary!’
‘The song ‘Manic’ for example, is about how dealing with everyday tasks often feels like being hit with a tornado. A visual representation would be the swirl of colours you see when Henry the mild mannered janitors car, turns him into Hong Kong Phooey in the TV cartoon – and that’s what we tried to recreate with the audio.’
‘You may notice that the guitar isn’t as prominent through the tracks, its being used more as a texture rather than a traditional role in a guitar band. ‘All the Rage’ was a transitional album, ‘Mongo’ goes further down that road towards our aim of broadening our horizons beyond the punk genre.’
With the album in the bag are any live dates planned?
‘Yes, we’ve already played about 17 gigs thus far, including Rebellion Festival, Punk on the Peninsula, Punk & Disorderly Festivals and our last gig was at the Dublin Castle in Camden a few weeks ago. We’ve got a few more coming up and adding dates all the time as we want to keep busy’.
New 10 track album ‘Mongo’ release date Friday 31st October on all platforms, vinyl & CD format.
How’s it gaan? After sharing stories first posted here in 2018 about the New Wave of British Heavy Metal there’s been a welcome spike in views from Poland, Slovakia and the Netherlands.
NWOBHM has always been popular since the first posts in 2017 which featured Fist, Raven, Mythra, Satan, Hollow Ground and Tygers of Pan Tang, plus stories from Impulse Studio big wig David Woods and producer Steve Thompson who brought the hammer down on seminal recordings on the Neat label. Also posted are stories from Durham’s Guardian Studio, although producer Terry Gavaghan has remained elusive. So far.
While new interviews are being lined up to take the site to the end of 2024, November has featured a compilation of stories from this year – and here’s another batch.
First up is a regular to the site, songwriter & vocalist Emma ‘Velvet Tones of Teesside’ Wilson. Emma first appeared back in 2019 talking about her influences in music…
‘Aretha Now’ and ‘Aretha Sings the Blues’ were both records that shaped my development as a singer. I used to sit for hours listening to the songs on vinyl’.
Emma kick started 2024 being pictured on the cover of Blues Matters magazine featuring her new album ‘Memphis Calling’ recorded in Sam Phillips studio, USA.
‘The studio breathes, it has an immense presence. The live room is awesome, beautifully designed. I let my emotions out on the recording’.
100 year old actress and entertainer Helen Russell sadly passed away this year. She will be missed. In May, Helen featured on the site looking back at the start of her career.
‘We didn’t have a phone in the house so I’d take calls on the local public telephone box outside to tell me where I was playing that night. Sometimes it meant getting a bus to Newcastle and then catching another to Stanley in County Durham, or Ashington in Northumberland, then heading back after 10pm – all the time humping my guitar and other equipment. I had no helpers.’
‘When guitar groups became popular in the ‘60s I had to stop dancing on stage because of all the leads and wires. That’s when I took up the guitar and later started writing my own songs.’
Another regular to the site is songwriter and former Neat records producer Steve Thompson, he got in touch in May.
‘I was 24 year old at the time and just quit a waged job to live on fresh air and follow a dream. I was either very brave, very stupid, or both. I quickly began knocking out songs and pitching them all over the place. I knew I needed some action or I was going to starve’.
‘One day I was at the dentist in Wallsend. I’d been called upstairs to the surgery when the receptionist called me back down. It was my publisher on the phone they tracked me down to tell me ‘Hurry Home just entered the charts at 63’. You could’ve knocked me down with a feather, that was the break I was looking for’.
‘From there on in incredible things happened it climbed the charts over a period of three months and peaked at 17. Here I am top 20, I had arrived! Then all sorts of things started to happen, the lyrics were printed in pop magazine Smash Hits, all the airplay on Radio One, name checks from DJ Mike Read on the Breakfast show, and of course Top of the Pops. All this was happening but I was still broke’.
In February former entertainer Peter Embleton recalled his time in clubland.
‘I had a marvellous time working the North East, the greatest training ground for anyone, my job was to put on a show not just be a singer of songs’.
‘As well as all over the North East I worked in Australia and the cruise lines, I was voted male vocalist of the year twice in the ‘80s in the National Club Mirror awards’.
‘I look at some of the talent now and feel sorry that they never experienced the Saturday night atmosphere of say the King Street club in North Shields. The club full at 7pm, great musicians to play for you led by the inimitable Micky Watson, what a buzz.’
‘Yes of course there were poor nights when it didn’t all go according to plan, but hey the good times by far outweighed the bad times. I feel lucky to have experienced the golden age of clubland, there were some brilliant acts and musicians’.
How’s the stats so far this year? Numbers from the UK and USA with regular hits from the European block of Spain, Italy and Germany plus a sudden spike from Ireland.
So, it’s big thanks to readers taking the total views over 410,000 since knocking out the first post in February 2017 which was an interview with one of the original New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands Mythra.
This post features another batch of North East stories from this year with links to the full interviews at the end. First up are Hartlepool based VaingloriousUK who got in touch in July.
‘We began seeking out, tidying up and uploading historic – and sometimes hysterical – video footage of music associated with the North East. The VainGloriousUK channel currently has up to 170 videos uploaded’.
‘One of these was the appearance of Brian Johnson’s first group Geordie. Recently we learned that our copy appears to be the only one still in existence when we were contacted about it being used in a forthcoming documentary about Brian’.
‘Most musicians are flattered that we care so much about their music, some are a bit wary about how their historical musical legacy may now be viewed – what you thought was important at 16 is not the same when you are 66!’
North Tyneside Actor & Theatre Producer Alison Stanley got in touch and talked about her latest project ‘Tits Up’.
‘A couple of years ago a young friend of mine was diagnosed with breast cancer, people think it’s older people who develop this disease, so I wanted to raise awareness of this’.
‘Last year I found a lump and experienced the process of going to the breast clinic. Fortunately, my lump wasn’t anything of concern but it did make me think’.
‘Even though I was fine I began questioning my own mortality and spent nights wondering what would happen if I had cancer? What would’ve happened to my son who is autistic?’
‘I went along to Live Well with Cancer in North Shields where the ladies were kind enough to share their stories with me.’
In June we had a severe Heed Case – musicians Newts Newton (ex Angelic Upstarts guitarist) and Si Cadelik (Northumbrian Psych rock bassist) filled yer in about their new album.
‘The new album explores gaslighting, narcissism and entitlement. All three elements feature heavily in populism and identity politics. Social media allows this to flourish, elbowing aside balance, objectivity and critical thinking. This emboldens extremists and those who seek to radicalise people with their brand of hateful rhetoric’.
‘Rather than tackle the causes of problems, the trend is to scapegoat. This should be a worry and concern for everyone, not just two people in a band. One day, that scapegoat might be you!’
‘We’ve been involved in music since our late teens, so that’s approximately 40 years and counting. In some ways it feels like forever, in others, like only yesterday’.
In July playwright Tom Kelly talked about writing a number of musicals including the work of Tyne Dock born author Catherine Cookson.
‘Tom & Catherine had its premier at South Shields Customs House, it was really exciting. All the team were really nervous on the opening night but when the overture began, we all felt it was going to be a success. And it was. It had a ‘sold out’ run. A measure of its success was that me mam wanted to go every night! And she was not a theatre-goer. She loved ‘Tom & Catherine.’
‘The play was first produced in 1999, and again 2001. In 2006 there was an outdoor performance at Bents Park, South Shields in which Jade Thirlwall (Little Mix) appeared, and most recently in 2019’.
After a career lecturing in Psychology for over 30 years, Eileen is now retired from Sunderland College. Throughout the years she has researched her ancestry and in turn became absorbed with local history.
My ancestors were Sunderland keel men in the 1600s, there were a few miners among them but mainly trades associated with the River Wear. My grandmother played the organ at her local church and her sisters sang in a local concert party. When she retired my mother went to evening classes and taught herself piano, she also wrote pantomimes and songs for the local community centre. When she was in her ‘80s she organised singing groups at her local ‘natter’ club.
About 15 years ago I started collecting Wearside folk songs from the 1800s. For me words are the most important thing. I don’t like the music overpowering what the song is about because the most important thing is what the song is telling you. I prefer unaccompanied singing and the harmonies.
I used to sing at events with the Tyneside Maritime Chorus which was run by folk singer/songwriter Benny Graham. We mainly sang songs from Tyneside like Keep Yer Feet Still Geordie Hinny and TheBlaydon Races which are widely known. This set me off wondering whether there were any equivalent songs from Wearside apart from The Lambton Worm – although that was originally written for a Tyneside pantomime.
Sunderland Antiquarian Society which has been going since 1899, has a lovely archive mostly donations from local people. I research there and the local studies library in Sunderland.
The first song I found was The Old Wife’s Lament to the Keel Men of the Wear and it was all around historical events about the keel men and it was written in dialect. That set me on the road to researching the history that went with the song and there’s a bit where it talks about them fighting the French. But did the French ever invade the North East coast?
I found an article about the Battle of Hendon in 1799 where local volunteers staged a mock invasion because they thought a French invasion was imminent. The song has historical references but some humour also.
There a lot of songs about death and tragedy, mining disasters and shipwrecks but there are songs that tell light hearted stories. The Durham Militia pokes fun at things, it’s like the 1800s version of Dad’s Army, with lyrics like ‘You’ll march away like heroes – just to make the lasses stare’ and suggesting that the only battles they will fight will be in the pub.
During covid I gave a presentation online to the Traditional Song Forum about my research and was asked to write a paper which was published in a book of folk song research in 2022 entitled Thirsty Work and Other Legacies of Folk Song.
Ed Pickford, Ingrid & Barrie Temple, Tony Wilson performing at the Stumble Inn Folk & Acoustic Afternoon, Sunderland, February 2024.
The folk world is a small world, you get to see the same faces at the clubs and you get to know people from all over the North East. I first went to folk clubs in the late 60s and early 70s when virtually every pub had a folk club. I also used to go to The Bay in Seaburn to see bands like The Who, Free, Jethro Tull, there were loads coming to Sunderland then.
In about 2000 my husband and I began to go regularly to folk clubs in the area such as South Shields, Birtley, Tynefolk in Ryton and The Welly Folk Club in Wolviston.
When you say you live in the North East to other folk people they are jealous because of the amount of clubs and events up here. If you are prepared to travel half an hour you can go to a folk club most nights of the week.
There are venues like The Central Bar in Gateshead, South Shields Jack Clark Park, Croxdale in Durham, the Collingwood Arms and The Bridge in Newcastle which has been going 60 years. Saltburn, Whitby and Hartlepool also have annual folk festivals.
Keith Gregson performing at the Stumble Inn Folk & Acoustic Afternoon, March 2024
I also arrange a monthly folk afternoon at The Stumble Inn on Chester Road, Sunderland. We get around 30 – 50 people coming to our sing around and we are keeping the tradition going because in the 60s the pub was formerly The Royalty and had a very popular folk and blues club called The Glebe.
The pub is near Sunderland University metro so we have people coming in from Newcastle, Cullercoats and South Shields. Some come from further afield like Chester le Street and Teesside. Being on from 1-4pm people are happy to travel on public transport at that time – on the night they are not so keen.
Our folk gatherings at The Stumble Inn are on the 4th Tuesday of the month. All are welcome to sing a song, play a tune or just listen to the songs its very informal and free. We are based downstairs so the room is easier to access with your pints of beer and musical instruments.
We have singers from all over the region like Barrie and Ingrid Temple, Ed Pickford, Tony Wilson, Anne Lamb, Keith Gregson, Brian Hunt, Ken Hamer and others who all perform in a range of styles.
It’s an old genre but people still write songs now in the folk tradition about current events keeping the music alive. Music and song are so fundamental to our lives.
‘There’s been nationally recognised music scenes in Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, Glasgow and Bristol but there hasn’t been one in the North East. So, I thought there’s a story to be told’.
Retired former Nissan worker Ian Fawdon decided to write a book about his passion. ‘Too Far North’ features over 30 interviews with musicians talking about what it means to be a musician from the North East.
‘I started talking to musicians like The Kane Gang and Lindisfarne drummer Ray Laidlaw, they were all fantastic to interview. White Heat frontman Bob Smeaton was a great storyteller and I found the Heavy Metal section really inspiring’.
‘John Gallagher from Raven and John Roach from Mythra were so enthusiastic – after all these years. When I met Robb Weir from Tygers of Pan Tang I took their first single to the interview I bought in 1980 to get autographed. Robb was more shocked than me!’
‘I start off looking at the 60s and The Animals. I talked to people from then, it was a really vibrant scene. Then I look at the folk scene and Lindisfarne, then punk and New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Then the Kitchenware record label and Sunderland bands Field Music and the Futureheads and finish off by bringing it up to date with Nadine Shah’.
‘Did I come across any unexpected stories? When putting this book together good management really stood out it really made a difference. Tom Noble at Tygers of Pan Tang went to MCA and got them a four album deal. Fist got an album deal but didn’t do as well’.
‘I talked to Keith Armstrong, owner of Kitchenware Records a really interesting guy. Until they came along there was only one choice for bands and that was to go to London. Kitchenware thought no, you don’t have to move we can do it up here. That for me was a refreshing attitude’.
‘They had four bands – Prefab Sprout, Kane Gang, Hurrah and Martin Stephenson and the Daintees. Keith got them all really good deals. Kitchenware still managed the bands but were licensed to the major companies’.
‘Prefab Sprout had already recorded a single and were selling them in HMV when Keith heard them. He went to CBS for Prefab and they asked him how much he wanted. ‘£100,000’ he replied. They made a quick phone call to their boss and agreed the price. He said he had ‘no idea where that number came from!’
‘He later went on to Editors and Jake Bugg. Keith could spot talent and he always hoped that each band recognised that he was doing his best for them’.
Lindisfarne at Newcastle City Hall.
‘Further interviews with Keith revealed that around 1982 there wasn’t much happening in Newcastle. ‘There was me and a couple of mates looking to start something. There was Viz, Trent House bar and a club called World Head Quarters. We wanted to put bands on in the town, there was plenty Heavy Metal gigs but nothing else’.
‘We got a few bands from Scotland like Aztec Camera and a few other nights started up. Our favourite band was New Order so we thought of getting them’. They phoned the manager up and he demanded cash on arrival, which they agreed to. Tickets sold quickly so they transferred the gig to Newcastle Mayfair, that sold out and set them up’.
‘The New Order gig money was enough to record singles in a London studio for Hurrah, and Martin Stephenson and the Daintees. One day Keith Armstrong, who was manager at Newcastle HMV, had Martin Stephenson’s Daintees busking outside the shop. But they were getting some grief so Keith asked them to play inside. He liked some of the tunes – that’s where he asked them about going down to London to record’.
‘Just every now and again you get people from the North East who have that drive, that ambition, and Keith was like that. He was just a young lad at the time, in his early 20s and a manager of a record shop’ said Ian.
‘Keith told me that he got hold of Malcom Gerrie who was the top boss at The Tube and said to him ‘you’re not doing much on the North East why not do something on Kitchenware?’ It wasn’t long till a segment on Kitchenware records was broadcast on The Tube. Keith was pushy with enough belief in the North East. He’s still active now and has Soul Kitchen Recordings and gets young talent from the North East to put records out’.
‘If you are looking for a sad story in the book I did an interview where I did feel sorry for those concerned. There is a lot of tales of woe. One of the bands in the punk section were from Durham, called Neon. I really liked them, they were so arty and interesting and played a lot in the North East. One of the famous gigs at the Guildhall in Newcastle was with Angelic Upstarts and Punishment of Luxury where a massive fight broke out’.
‘Punishment got signed by United Artists who were also sniffing around Neon. In an interview Tim Jones (vocals, Neon) told me there was a guy called Martin Rushent (Buzzcocks, Stranglers, Human League). He was a big name producer starting up a new label. He asked Neon to ‘come down to our independent label and we’ll put your single out give you plenty of attention’.
‘They went with them and started touring but the van was breaking down, the PA was knackered, there was just no money. They went to the studio where Martin was recording XTC and told him about the situation, he replied ‘What do you expect me to do about it?’
The band were devastated and not long after split up. Tim was shocked at the treatment and said ‘at first someone gave us the dream, then just dropped us. How could he treat a bunch of 18 year old kids like that? It seems we got picked up then they got bored of us’.
‘You want a funny story? Maybe not comical but the book has a number of incidents that occur around musicians and gigs. This one included top Hollywood film director Spike Lee’.
‘Believe it or not Spike has a brother who is a massive Prefab Sprout fan. A few year ago Spike wanted to develop a fairy tale animation based on the music of Paddy McAloon. Everything was going alright until they met in London and Spike had changed his mind because he had fallen out with his brother’.
‘Hurrah got the gig supporting U2 and found themselves in a big venue in Birmingham where they didn’t understand the scale. Their little curly guitar leads wouldn’t stretch across the huge stage’.
‘They also told me they didn’t play the game. After gigs they didn’t go in the green room to rub shoulders with other bands and music biz people. They’d stay in their dressing room turn the light off and shout at each other while throwing their rider about, which was usually fruit. At one gig The Edge and Larry from U2 opened the door to someone shouting ‘bananas’!’
‘I spoke to Brian Bond and he told me Punishment of Luxury were on a European tour and the last gig was in Holland. The stage manager said why not do something special? So, on their last song Jellyfish he got a bucket of raw fish and threw it at the audience – who threw it straight back all over the guitars and amps. Brian said it was the worst thing he had done on stage he couldn’t believe he had done it and had to apologise to the band’.
Ian adds ‘I wrote the 400 odd page book in a positive fashion, I didn’t include stories about drugs and not everyone’s favourite is in but I favoured the North East bands, always loved them and saw plenty when I was younger’.
‘Too Far North’ on Tyne Bridge Publishing is out now for further information contact >
ALIKIVI : NORTH EAST UK CULTURE 