The Indie Rock Years

Tony Simons, lead guitar 1977-80, recalls:

The 20th Century Rock Band flourished for some years afterwards. Graham continued for another year, after which he graduated and was replaced by Glenn Vinnicombe, who looked almost identical to Graham. We surmised that Glenn was actually a clone of Graham, since his playing style was also quite similar. The new lead singer was Richard Bryant, who sounded rather posh after Mark's rough-edged New Wave style! The band went down to one guitarist, Matthew Lefroy, and acquired a new bass player Neil Walker. Simon continued on drums for another two years. I heard them play in Godalming, during Graham's last year, and they were awesome.

1982: It's a Mad, Mad World

Tony Simons, lead guitar 1977-80, recalls:

In the year 1981-82 the band made a second single, tending towards the indie rock style, called Mad World, backed by a indie/funk number called Show A Little Of My Love. The opening of Mad World was an ironic piano and vocal line, tonally adjusted to sound like an older recording, with poor dynamic range. Matthew's guitar then came crashing in with a crunch rhythm and Simon's drums entered with an impressive fill on all of the tom-toms that panned right across the stereo image. Neil's driving bass added to the sense of frenzy. The song has a sudden change of pace to a slow middle passage, with some great chord modulations and a sound reminiscent of the group's former progressive rock days. The song ended with a recap of the original frenzy.

The B-side featured some excellent funk-style bass playing by Neil Walker, who had a Rickenbacker bass guitar, which emphasized the high tones as well as the deep ones. The cross-cutting rhythm in the linking section between verses was a neat feature to listen out for. Simon managed all kinds of drum gymnastics, such as cross-rhythm beats and the famous double-whammy on the bass drum pedal. Some people say they like the B-side better than the A-side!

1983-5: Indie Electronica, Spare Brain

Andrew Murphy, electronic drums and percussion 1983-85, recalls:

I was a member of the band in the new lineup after the departure of Richard Bryant, Neil Walker and Simon Matthews the drummer. Our 1983-84 lineup was: Glenn Vinnicombe on keyboards, Andrew Murphy (me) on drums, Mike Polkinghorne (son of the famous John Polkinghorne) on bass and saxophone, Jon Mason on vocals and saxophone and Matthew Lefroy on guitar. The band had an indie-feel to it. Some thirty years later, it strikes me that we sounded most similar to the English post-punk group Magazine (no bad thing in my mind). We continued to play Mad World for a bit, but otherwise composed our own songs, with Matt and Jon doing most of the actual writing. Glenn and Matt left in the summer of 1984.

In the autumn of 1984, Jon took over keyboards in addition to his other duties. Likewise, Simon Chesters joined to take over lead guitar. Mike, who in those days really wanted to be in Kraftwerk, took the band more in the direction of electronica. I had an early Simmonds electronic drum kit, mostly because this allowed me to practise quietly with pads, rather than skins. This was controlled by a brain-box which sat behind my drum stool, which I adjusted between songs to get the right sounds from the pads. This led to Jon's sometime quip about having "left Andy's brain behind". I also wrote a couple of more poppy tunes. Jon wrote most of the songs which we all thought sounded like Split Enz, his favourite Kiwi band (he's a Kiwi himself). Having said that, they were excellent songs. We only played two or three gigs per term, so not up to the output of previous generations of the band. We still used the old sound equipment built by the late 1970s generation.

1985-1990s: Drama as the Music Fades

Andrew Murphy, electronic drums and percussion 1983-85, recalls:

I, Mike and Jon all left in 1985 and handed the band over to Dick Higgins, an accomplished songwriter and guitarist who had played in various bands in Cambridge in the preceeding years, including in Hot Persuit with myself, and was staying on for his PhD. I went back to Cambridge and saw this lineup live, playing to a good crowd and, to my delight, still using one of my songs! I think Simon stayed in the band. I played in many bands before and after C20th but I've got to say this was the tightest and probably most talented band I've ever been in.

Tony Simons, lead guitar 1977-80, recalls:

We don't really know much detail about what happened to the group line-up from the mid-1980s until the end of the 1990s. It appears that the old 20th Century Rock Band gradually faded out, as members graduated without being replaced by new blood. In the early 1990s, the society could not recruit sufficient musicians, so decided instead to branch out into drama. This was inspired by work written by the Riding Lights Theatre Company at York by Murray Watts (ex-Emmanuel College), Paul Burbridge and others. In the later 1990s, musicians were recruited again.

2000: The End of a Century

Tony Simons, lead guitar 1977-80, recalls:

In 2000, I received an invitation from Phil Hasnip (the chap in the red T-shirt, below), a one-time president of the society, to a 20th Century reunion in Cambridge. The photo below shows who came to the reunion (I am in the striped T-shirt on the back row). The society was still flourishing, although with the approaching millenium, they had decided to rename the society simply as Ark, since the contemporary feel of the old name was about to become an anachronism! The interest in both music and drama had continued. In the summer of 2000, there were two different bands, one was an Indie Rock band and the other was an Acid Jazz group! Clearly, the musical talent had returned in spades.

Anyhow, it was great to see that the flame had been carried on down the generations. At the reunion, I realised that there were people there who hadn't even been born when I graduated from the group! We met before lunchtime near Scudamore's Punts and hired a few, then we punted all the way up river to Grantchester, "doing the bridges" on the way. This involves leaping off the front of a punt, hauling oneself over each low, wrought iron footbridge and leaping back onto the rear of the punt before it passes completely under the bridge in question. This reminded me of the days when Dave Hobson (bassist, 1976-1979) was crazy enough to do the Silver Street road bridge, down-river! Once on Grantchester Meadows, we spread out a nice picnic and were entertained by the Drama Group who performed a couple of sketches, including the Whole Gospel in a Minute. Afterwards, we returned to Cambridge and over a pizza supper we were treated to a concert by The Sixth Hour, which was the Indie Rock Band. Little did we appreciate that we were reaching the end of an era.

The last known incarnation of the society was known by the name Ark Cambridge, which took over from the folk I had met at the 2000 reunion. This society seems to have survived up until around 2006, after which I can find no further evidence of the group's activity. The last records of the group's collective activity can be found by clicking on their fish-in-a-circle icon at the top of this page (or the C20th Today link in the margin).

It is not clear why the society quietly folded after 2006, after fifty glorious years of continuous witness and history. Maybe the job of refreshing and renewing Christian music was considered done? Maybe there were now so many contemporary groups in existence carrying the message to the people that it was no longer seen as such a revolutionary thing to do? I can't help but suspect that we will need a new generation to form 21st Century and take up the challenge for a new millenium! If you're a Christian student at Cambridge, and also a contemporary musician, why not?