Two decades on, ‘Slim is still gigging - albeit these days, only handful of times each year rather than the relentless three or four gigs a week of its heyday. The gig was such fun the boys decided it wouldn't hurt to reunite for the odd gig now and then. After three years of silence, the fearsome beast that was 'Slim raised its head again for a big birthday celebration. They sold the van and the PA and came off the road.Ģ002 brought the band's 20th anniversary and a return to the fray. The boys decided to quit while they were still ahead. (Boy George was at Number One!!!) Punters' lives and tastes had moved on and the number of gig-goers who actually 'got' what 'Slim were about was dwindling. By 1999, the musical world had changed, however. Oh, and four drummers.present incumbent Don Moore is the longest-serving by a huge margin, after almost three decades. The small audience wasn't entirely sure what to make of it, a few muttering into their beer that this band was a flash in the pan, a decidedly short-term proposition.įast-forward to 1999.Automatic Slim had proved the doubters wrong.3,000-odd gigs around the UK and continental Europe, sharing stages with some of the biggest names in the business, four albums, a string of singles, tens of thousands of miles on the tour-bus clock. No prizes, then, for guessing what the music was that night - tunes from the songbook of the Feelgoods, Wilko, George Thorogood, Mickey Jupp and Nick Lowe, played fast and furious and with commitment, energy and a cast-iron determination to entertain. The band - Tim Aves (vocals/harmonica), Ian Cundy (guitar/vocals), Howard J Bills (bass/vocals)and original drummer Chris Love - were all self-confessed Dr Feelgood nuts. Novemwas the date on the very first poster to bear the name AUTOMATIC SLIM. The venue was a small and entirely unprepossessing place just outside Basildon called the Treble Chance, behind a disused gravel pit enjoyed chiefly by the jet-skiing fraternity and the town's more inventive flytippers. The world was a rather younger and more innocent - and so were the principal players in this story. Automatic Slim - 40+ years of fun and games,

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