Sick Squid Digital Reissue

Twenty-two years after its release, Good Question Derek's seminal* album Sick Squid is currently in the process of being reissued in digital format via all your favourite online outlets.  Watch this space for news of a release date.

*in all senses of the word

ReverbNation

Let's have a push at getting GQD in the ReverbNation charts, for no reason at all!

Tickets Now On Sale

A limited number of tickets are now available for advance purchase at a cost of £4 each to guarantee your entry to this historic, one-off gig. Any unsold tickets will be available to buy on the door at a cost of £5 each (the venue only holds 120 people so tickets are expected to be in short supply!) In order to purchase your tickets in advance please email us at tickets@goodquestionderek.co.uk stating your name and the number of tickets you require. We will then email you back with details of how to pay (by bank transfer) and upon receipt of the money you will receive an email receipt to confirm that the tickets will be left on the door at the venue.

Special One-Off Reunion Gig

A special one-off reunion gig has been arranged for:

Saturday June 19th 2010 at 8:30pm

The Actress & Bishop

Ludgate Hill

Birmingham

B3 1EH

£4 advance / £5 door

Email us for advanced tickets.

Another Reunion Gig

I'm going to try to organise another reunion gig for summer 2010 to celebrate my big four-O birthday. Watch this space...

Chirpy

Nothing Going On Here

Nothing to see here folks...

...move along please!

Updated Website

The GQD website has had a revamp!!! Same tired old content, new fresh look!!!

Check out www.goodquestionderek.co.uk

Separated At Birth

Left: Midge "Baldrick" Ferguson
Right: Tony "Midge" Robinson

Facebook

I have set up a Good Question Derek group in the "grown up" social networking site, Facebook. You need to be a Facebook member to join but it's free!

Jules' New Band

Check out Jules drumming for Huski.

New (Very Old) Video

Thanks to Andy Taylor's brother James for posting footage of Good Question Derek playing at the Monmouth Festival in 1992. We all look so young!

New Website

We now have a new website that draws together all the Good Question Derek stuff on the Internet. Check it out at www.goodquestionderek.co.uk!

Caption Competition

Midge has taken up running in an attempt to keep/get fit. I think this picture clearly shows that he has all the gear (knee support, sports watch, leg compression bandage, expensive trainers, bottle of water, Jim'll Fix It medal, banana penis) but no idea!

(Click the picture to enlarge it)

Please send your captions to us either by email or via the comments link at the bottom of this posting. The best captions will appear in a future article.

GQD World Tour

I have been recently chatting by email to a few old friends of the band (spurred on by the interest created by this web site) and a large number of them seem to be located overseas.

This made me remember a story we heard a few years ago about our manager's sister who was doing some charity work in Ethiopia and travelling through the country in the back of a truck with other charity workers when the conversation turned to favourite bands. One the other workers said their fave bands included Good Question Derek to which the reply of course was "my brother manages them!" What a small world!

Anyway, that got me thinking about asking our friends all over the world to send us photos of our CD cover next to famous landmarks or sign posts near where they live...

Instructions

• If you don't already have a copy of the CD, simply click on the image here and print it out.
• Take a photo of the CD cover with a sign post or landmark clearly visible in the background.
• Email the picture to us by clicking here. Don't forget to include a bit about how you know of Good Question Derek and where the photo was taken.

Any images we will receive will be posted on this web site!

Free Downloads

At last those nice people at Last.fm have fixed their download system meaning that you can now download everything that Good Question Derek ever recorded FREE OF CHARGE! (You may have to set up a Last.fm account to download the music but it’s free and the site is great anyway!)

Click here to fill your boots with GQD classics such as You Only Love Me Cos I’m Loaded or Shit You’re Ugly!
While you’re filling your iPods with your old favourites check out some of the previously unreleased stuff such as the Ugly Dance Remix or songs that we recorded for the very first episode of the BBC’s Dalziel & Pascoe.

If you bought one of our records, tapes or CDs back in the late 80’s or early 90’s and don’t feel that you’ve already gained £6 worth of pleasure from the music before it has become freely available on the Internet please contact our complaints department here.

Reunion Gig Photos

Thanks to Simon Wintle who send a load more pictures of the gig on 29 April 2006 (see below). I have uploaded them to Flickr and included a few here (click on each picture to see them full size).














Some things never change (like the crate of Stella on the stage - although Marty P is drinking water).
Poof.








<- It takes a lot of practice to move your hand this fast!!!

Midge & Jules ->

<- Look at the concentration on my face(and the surprise on Marty P's).

<- How quickly am I moving?? "I'd Like To Love You (But You're Not My Type)"

GQD's myspace site

Every modern beat combo seems to have a myspace site, so I've created ours at www.myspace.com/goodquestionderek . It doesn't have any more information than this blog site but it does allow you to download a few songs (I understand that the download functionality of Last.fm is still not sorted). Why not join myspace.com and become one of our friends?

****Update***Update***Update***Update***Update****
As Microsoft are jumping on the personal web space band waggon I thought it'd be a good idea to create a GQD site on their Live Spaces website. Check it out here. Again, there's not a great deal more than is available here but I thought I may as well continue the GQD campaign to dominate the web!!!

Old Photos Part 1: The Danny Baker Show

Every now and then I'll post some old photos of the band.

These pictures were taken in the green room when we recorded the pilot to The Danny Baker Show at BBC TV Centre in London. Videos of the songs we performed on the show can be see in an earlier post. On the day of filming we gave Danny Baker a copy of the Sick Squid CD and a week or two later he played Ugly on his Radio One Saturday morning show (or at least he played up to the end of the first chorus before he realised there was swearing in it)!




Nice trousers Marty P!

And what sort of face is Midge pulling??

These ladies were the world's tallest twins.

It's Cheggers the loveable alchy!!

Where Are They Now? Part 3: Bob Yates (Bob The Chemist/Bob The Toy Tester)

Not a great picture I know (it's blurry and he's not even facing the camera) but this is the only image that exists (in our archives anyway) of the mysterious man we called Bob The Chemist (or Bob The Toy Tester).

During the early 90's Good Question Derek played a large number of gigs in and around the Reading metropolis. Starting with the debauchery that was Fat Jacks (at the Old Bell in Grazely Green) the band were soon spotted by a local promoter called Haydn Wood (aka PC God - but that's another story for later in this Blog). Haydn's Sound Foundation organisation promoted the band in the Berkshire area for a number of years and we played literally 100's of gigs in pubs and clubs from Reading to Wokingham and everywhere in between (Winnersh).

One thing (or person) was always present at these gigs. There standing at the front, licking his lips in an amphetamine induced frenzy was Bob The Chemist. Several gigs after we first noticed the speed freak Jules approached him and ascertained that his name was Rob and he worked in a chemist (how else did he get this much speed) and hence Bob The Chemist was born. It was only a couple of years later that we found out that the whole chemist thing was some confusion within Jules' mind (as many things are) and in fact Rob worked in a laboratory testing toys to destruction.

Bob became a good friend of the band and help us out many times at these Reading gigs however none of us know where he is now!

If you know Bob, or are Bob - contact us and let's set the story straight!

Barenaked Ladies

I have recently been reading Paul Myers' authorised biography, Barenaked Ladies: Public Stunts, Private Stories and was struck by the similarities and connections between The Barenaked Ladies and Good Question Derek.

I first became aware of The Barenaked Ladies around 1992 when a sound engineer at a gig we were playing in Bracknell said that we sounded like them. The next day I bought their newly released first album, Gordon and played it to the rest of the band. We were all struck by the similarity of mixing lighter songs with bitter-sweet ones together with the fact that we also sounded a bit like them!!!

Another obvious similarity was apparent in the first song of that album, Hello City. Toward the end of the song the chorus changes to that of Happy Hour by The Housemartins. The Housemartins were a major influence on both Marty P and myself, and during our gigs we often played a few of their songs (Happy Hour, Me And The Farmer or The Mighty Ship, including one performance in front of The Housemartins' former bassist Norman Cook aka Fat Man Slim).

One of my favourite albums during my formative teen years was The Ups and Downs by Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy. Duffy had formed Duran Duran with Nick Tayor whilst attending Birmingham Polytechnic (where Good Question Derek was formed) before leaving to pursue a solo career. By the time I went to Birmingham Poly in 1988 Duffy had formed, and I was listening to, The Lilac Time. Another teenager greatly influenced by Duffy and The Lilac Time was Steven Page of Barenaked Ladies. This influence lead to Page writing to Duffy and the two forming a friendship resulting in Duffy writing a number of songs with Page for the Barenaked Ladies and even members of BNL appearing on stage with The Lilac Time and on several songs on their Lilac6 album.

The Barenaked Ladies' bassist Jim Creeggan and his brother Andy (a former Barenaked Lady) share a musical influence with Midge. All three were influenced by the dark side of heavy rock and share an interest in Rush, AC/DC and Van Halen.

Another connection with The Barenaked Ladies comes via another Canadian band, Moxy Fruvous. A tutor of Midge's mentioned to him "if you like Barenaked Ladies, check out Moxy Fruvous". Again, I bought their first album Bargainville and this too became one of my favourites and a definite influence. A year or 2 later we played at Aston University on the same night as Moxy Fruvous and gave them a copy of our Sick Squid CD. A few days later Midge and I went see them perform again, this time at JB's in Dudley) and were blown away to be mentioned during one of their songs - they had listened to the CD and had liked what they heard! The connection with Barenaked Ladies is that they were friends with the members of Moxy Fruvous (through the Toronto music scene) and Moxy Fruvous appear on If I Had $1,000,000 on the Gordon album. What a small world!

I guess when you mix the influences of The Housemartins, Stephen Duffy, Moxy Fruvous, Rush, AC/DC and Van Halen you get a band that sounds a bit like Good Question Derek and The Barenaked Ladies!!! If you have never heard The Barenaked Ladies (or never heard anything other than their only major UK hit "One Week") then I suggest you check out their first album Gordon, or to hear what (perhaps) Good Question Derek would have sounded like in 2000 (with Dan Was producing) check out the excellent Maroon.

Where are they now? Part 2: Sean Busby-Little (The Buzzard)

Some-time roadie, guitar technician, PA engineer and housemate to members of Good Question Derek, Sean Busby-Little (not a made up name) had the perfect body-weight to height ratio for powerboat racing (or at least that's what the guy told him who sold Sean his power boat to him).

He was brought up by a pack of wolves in Somerset and spent his early years performing circus tricks for pennies and scraps of food. Sean was the first person any of us knew to have one of them there newfangled mobile telephones and always carried an extra overnight bag wherever we went for his spare battery and charger.

If you know Sean, or are Sean – contact us and let’s set the story straight!

***Update****Update****Update****Update****Update***

16 August 2006
As Marty P quite rightly pointed out in the comments to this post, a simple Google search revealed that Sean was indeed Front Of House Sound Engineer on the last Bob Geldolf tour (what a come down for Sean)! A bit more Googling found a mobile number for Sean and a swap of text messages lead to trading emails and we're now back in touch!

As well as sound engineering, Sean confirmed that "I live in sunny Cornwall now in Newquay. My fiance and I have a restaurant here, check out the website."

Separated At Birth (Part 1)

Midge Ferguson
The axe-wielding,
BBC loving baldilocks.

Tony Robinson

The turnip loving archeologist

with cunning ideas.

General Banter

Use this section to leave comments that are not relevant to any of the other sections (i.e. General Banter). Simply click on the "comments" link below to add some banter or look at what others have been talking about. You don't necessary need to be a Blogger user but please leave your name so that we know who you are!

I have started this off with a bit of sample banter...

Midge's 50th Birthday

To celebrate Midge's 60th birthday he arranged for Good Question Derek to reunite to play a special one off gig at his rugby club's end of season party on Saturday 29th April 2006. For those of you that were there you will know that it was a great opportunity to catch up with some old faces (and to avoid some others), for those of you that couldn't make it, tough luck!

As the band hadn't played together for 9 years (and in fact Jules and I hadn't really had any contact since Marty P's wedding in 1999) we needed a bit of practice. I couldn't even remember which end of a Bass Guitar to blow! We had 2 practices in a studio in Oxford and one practice, on the day of the gig, at Rich Bitch studios in Birmingham (where we used to practice in the olden days). It's good to see that some things never change - Jules was late, I forgot every song (despite having it all written down) and Midge's amp quickly turned up to 11!

The gig itself went really well and everyone seemed to have a good time (well, at least we did).

If you have any photos of the event please email them to gqd@davethomas.me.uk and I will post them here.

GQD Videos

Train Spotter
Recorded at Mentorn Midlands for "Hit The Town"


Ugly
Recorded at BBC TV Centre for "The Danny Baker Show"


Country Roads
Recorded at BBC TV Centre for "The Danny Baker Show"

GQD Music

Good Question Derek released 8 demos on tapes, records and a CD together with a session recorded for BBC Pebble Mill which was used on the very first episode of Dalziel & Pascoe. All of these recordings (except the very first "Splendid" tape containing "Hold On" and "Time") were mastered onto Digital Audio Tape (DAT). A few years ago Marty P transferred as many of these tracks to mp3 as possible before his DAT player gave up the ghost (the tracks missing from this transfer are "Life Of Riley" from the "Dalziel & Pascoe session" together with "4 O'Clock In The Morning" and "Keeping Up With The Joneses" from "Cook Our Socks").

It became apparent at the reunion gig that a lot of people were interested in hearing the music again so after living on a CD Rom for several years I finally got round to making the music available to listen to over the Internet on Last.fm.

I am lead to believe that eventually the tracks will be available to download through Last.fm but in the meantime you can stream them to your PC or even listen to them through the Last.fm Player (in Radio Control search for Good Question Derek under Similar Artist Radio).

Click on the cover below to be taken directly to the tracks on each demo...



...or click here to listen to 2 unreleased remixes.

About Good Question Derek

Brought together by a suitcase of heinous chemicals, strong continental lager and a mutual admiration for Elton Wellesby, Good Question Derek formed at Birmingham Polytechnic in 1989 and consisted of:

• Martin "MartyP" Porter - vocals
• Midge Ferguson - guitars
• Jules "Farquar-Peers" Harley - drums and backing vocals
• "Chirpy" Dave Thomas - bass

After various world tours of the Birmingham, Reading and Shetland Isle areas the band split in 1997 citing apathy as their driving force. After a successful reunion for Take That (one of the band's strongest musical influences) Good Question Derek reunited for a one-off special show in April 2006.

About this blog....

This is a place for the friends of Good Question Derek to keep in touch. It will also contain music, pictures, videos and links relating to the band. Feel free to comment on any of the postings, suggest changes, slag Jules off ;-) or just create general banter...