The Chefs Lost Album Recovered By Damaged Goods Records

From the ashes of the thriving underground punk scene in Brighton in 1979, a band of songwriters called The Smartees emerged. They never made any records but after their demise one of the guitarists, Carl Evans, approached bass player Helen McCookerybook (Joby & the Hooligans) to ask her if she’d like to write some songs with him. He’d already set one of her poems, Food, to music, and they played their first gig with just three songs, Food, Sweetie and Boasting, each of which lasted just over two minutes. The Chefs original drummer, Rod Bloor, contributed the seeds of the song Records & Tea before returning to his native Manchester. Soon, augmented by James McCallum on additional guitar and Russell Greenwood (The Parrots) on drums, the songwriting duo started recording for local label Attrix Records, firstly two tracks on their Vaultage 79 compilation, followed by the Sweetie EP and then 24 Hours which was championed by BBC Radio 1’s John Peel, who invited them to do a session.

A residency at The Moonlight Club in West Hampstead, London, tempted them all to relocate to the big city, and a move to Graduate Records who re-released 24 Hours. Graduate Records also commissioned the album tracks included here, which were languishing in the band attic and have not been released until now. The band split up in 1982, heading in different musical directions: Helen switched to guitar and formed Helen & The Horns, Carl formed Yip Yip Coyote, Russell joined John Hegley’s Popticians, and James left the music industry. Damaged Goods Records have now announced that they will release a double album from The Chefs titled Records & Tea: The Best of The Chefs & Lost Second Album.

“In our short three years we’d spent hundreds of hours writing and rehearsing our songs, recorded three sessions for the BBC, appeared on two compilations, piqued the interest of top pop producer Pete Waterman, and played countless gigs around the UK. We thought we’d been together for thousands of years!”