Various Vegetables in session for Mark Radcliffe at BBC Radio 1 and recorded on November 23, 1993.
Here’s what I know about Various Vegetables – “Various Vegetables were an early-90’s pop-punk / grebo outfit from Sheffield, UK.”
It’s always frustrating when you run across a band that catches your ear; you want to share your discovery, but you don’t know very much about them. And worse, there is precious little about the band other than word about their bass player who wound up becoming heavily involved with a number of bands from the late 90s on.
Jody Wildgoose, bass player for Various Vegetables, starting when he was 14 became a wizened veteran by the time he was 16.
More about Jody Wildgoose with a few mentions of Various Vegetables to get an idea – There’s an online guide to the city of Sheffield with a local heroes section; included is ‘the busker who plays in the underpass going towards Arundel Gate’. That busker is Jody Wildgoose. A veteran at just 26, Jody cuts an enigmatic figure. He left school at 12 to play bass with his band at the time, Various Vegetables. At the age of 13, he inked his first record deal (with Warp Records offshoot label, Gift) and the band traveled up and down the country in a blue transit van supporting the likes of Pulp and Cornershop. However, by Jody’s 16th birthday they decided to hang up their hats and split up.
For the next three years, Jody would go busking everyday, except on Sundays. It was during this period that he began to hone his craft, and it is evident from the artists whose songs he would cover as to where the classic songwriting nature of his music comes from – The Beatles, The Velvet Underground, Dylan, The Stones, Costello, Marvin Gaye, Hendrix, Pink Floyd. However, it was American mavericks like Butthole Surfers and particularly lo-fi brothers Ween who inspired to him to get his own ideas down on to tape. In the late 90’s, armed with a Tascam 4-track from the mid 80’s he recorded a huge collection of songs, instrumentals and oddities. In 2004, some of these recordings were compiled together by Jody and Sketchbook to form his debut album – the critically acclaimed ‘lost’ psychedelic lo-fi tapestry, ‘Lovely White Teeth’.
Further investigation – via You Tube from 2007: Joe Fowler, Jody Wildgoose, Ben Key, Justin Wood, Bryan Day.
Back together after 14 years for 1 night.
Would love to know more – there is a live gig from Sheffield Sound City ’93, sharing the bill with Ned’s Atomic Dust Bin and recorded on April 8, 1993.
Stay tuned – in the meantime, a 14 1/2 minute live session from Various Vegetables as they appeared on Mark Radcliffe’s BBC Radio 1 program to give you some idea and to whet your appetite.
