What a fucking shambles!
Formed by Ming and Mr Symes and a bloke known as the Hamburgler.
The Hamburgler was quickly discarded for wearing sleeveless t-shirts and having a fretless bass guitar.
The revised line up consisted of Ming along with Mr Symes, Mr Herbert and Spud, a threesome previously known as the June Patriots, a band remembered by many for terrorising the Bromley Musicians Collective in the late 80's.
The band soon recruited Mr Kirkwood, a flange happy guitarist who popped up from deepest, darkest Orpington one day armed with a few Syd Barrett LP's and some fine charity shop shirts.
Highlights and lowlights included:
1) Making a twelve foot high paper mache spoon as a stage prop which was too big to transport anywhere so it just rotted at the bottom of Ming's garden and became a home for many a maggot and millipede.
2) Being constantly harassed by Bromley Police when driving home from rehearsals and on one occasion being arrested for being in possession of a vegetarian vitamin pill.
3) Joining the South East London Musicians Collective to get the first gig and no band actually wanting to play a gig with MBT because the demo was so er...let's just say challenging.
4) Helping to influence Woodwharf rehearsal studios, home of muso mercenary Jools Holland and Squeeze to close it's doors to unsigned acts (the bands finest achievement in my book).
5) Gift wrapping most of the band equipment in a silver Renault one night and leaving it outside Chistlehurst Station for any takers, someone did.
6) Making more bongs than songs.
7) Filling the George Robey venue with so much dry ice at one gig the band couldn't find the way onto the stage. Spinal Tap eat your heart out!
The songs were brutal and uncompromising, two chord Velvet Underground meets ...(I'm still working on it).
In truth MBT played like their hands were tied behind their backs most of the time.
Drowning in Guinness and choking in a class B smog Ming's lyrics seemed to indicate that at the time he thought smoking dope was the answer to everything. How wrong can you be? We all now know of course that Kestrel Super was the answer to everything and probably still is. Serve very chilled with a top for lightweights.
Some of the bands favourite bands at the time were The Fall, Joy Division, Butthole Surfers, Spacemen 3, Killdozer and Dumpy's 'bloody' Rusty Nuts. For fucks sake Spud! Did MBT ever sound like any of these? I doubt it.
The most untogether and infernal racket ever to take to the Lewisham Labour Club milk crates.
They actually let MBT play there more than once I think, had they no hearing? astonishing.
The band disintegrated sometime in 1991 in very poorly communicated circumstances as various members drifted around and apart in South East London in a distinctly murky dole fuelled post bong haze.
Thankfully what was MBT are all drinking pals again now and long may it continue.
Ming scribbles for this band are below (cringe) warts'n'all from the childish spite and bitterness of Far Too Gone and Self Confessed Hypocrite to the complete idiocy of M O R. Still searching for a couple of missing numbers and they'll probably never be found now, a relief to many for sure. Lyrics for 'Fat Soul Boy' and 'Vegetable' do not appear as Mr Kirkwood was responsible for the former and the latter was instrumental mostly being based around a drugs helpline telephone recording about LSD.
Oooh yeah, MBT were soooo hard and controversial maaaaaan, er....yeah.
Mexican Black Tar were:
Julian S lead guitar
Herbert bass
Spud drum rolls
Mr Kirkwood vocals and guitar
Ming The Mong vocals and guitar
Scribbles:
Monsters Of Rock
Creeping Psycho Stain
Reality Probe
Blythering Wino
Allergic To People
Self Confessed Hypocrite
No Fucking 'el
Fat Soul Boy
Sods Law
Far Too Gone
Vegetable
Hamble's Horror Show
Milk Jug
Pointless hindsight musing at the bottom of the page
Favourite throw(n) away MBT line: 'My Peter Dominic cheap lager, I give it all to you'
and the least: 'We've got attitude and we've got problem'