The Official History Of 10$HEAD Or so they'll have you belive! The 'Head's first incarnation was spewed forth from the rancorous and plague-ridden cesspools of the Gryphon School, Sherborne round about the start of 1995, under the name of Necropolis. Founder members Jethro Dunn (Jeff) and Glen White, united by a love of bay-area thrash and a shared bus route to school recruited all the other metallers in the year - Alex Hodges and Simon Arblaster and a band was created. Since Glen was already a drummer, and Ginger (Alex, pronounced ging-er) and I already had guitars and could almost play them, it was decided that Si, who had originally been drafted as a prospective singer, should play bass. After a few months Si got a bass for christmas and learnt to play the verse to 'Polly' by Nirvana. Necropolis was born. You may have noticed that the above line-up did not include a vocalist. Sadly Necropolis did not notice this and played their first show at the Sherborne Half Moon Jazz Club, supporting Ingo Arse Cruiser, without one. There was a mic on stage so I attempted vocals for 'For Whom The Bell Tolls' and 'Enter Sandman' by Metallica and Si sung on 'Pea' by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I think we played a couple more 'songs' of our own, but I forget what. It must have been hilarious to watch and embarassin for us if we'ed given a fuck, but we were making noise and since the audience were a bunch of indie twats anyway we were glad to have pissed them off for half an hour. Things continued along this line for a while, with the band slowly becoming less and less shit. Necropolis recruited friend and psychotic-drinking-binge partner Garry Hughes (Shoes) on vocals when we discoved he could make a noise like a maternally outraged gorilla with his throat. The new line-up returned to the Jazz club once more complete with a giant industrial fan stage set, banner and lights for our own headline show with Tailgate supporting, but despite early crowds our thunder was stolen by a fight outside the abbey and everyone fucked off. The other notable show of that line-up was a fully rigged Battle of the Bands at the Gryphon School. We were by far the tightest, most together and original band there, but we failed to impress the panel of teachers with the lyrics to 'No God' (you can fuck your lord!) and our neighbour-rattling volume. The contest was eventually won by Tailgate who were by far a better band than us, but over the age limit of the competition. Oh well. By this time we were aware that another Necropolis existed, and moreover were a bunch of church-burning, grave defiling psychos, so we decided to back down and change our name, which was shit anyway. 'Full Metal Jacket' was the film of the moment, so we called ourselves 10$ Head. The dollar sign goes after the 10, not before. We know that it's grammatically incorect but we prefer it. So our eponymous debut demo was recorded during the summer of 1998, comprising the tracks 'Madness', 'Dark Voices', 'See-Through Head', 'No God' and 'Circle of Blood'. However, Ginger was planning to go to university in September so the search was on for a replacement. I'm sure ginger will not be offended when I say that this was no big deal, since although a good friend with scary amounts of energy he really was a sucky guitarist so the opportunity was there for a musical upgrade. Two people replyed to our numerous ads for a new guitarist. One of them was a twat, the other was Mike Long. Mike was skinny, bespectacled and wearing a sleevless WASP vest. He clearly didn't give a rat's ass about imgae or being 'cool', and had his own car and best of a spiky black Jackson V guitar from which he proceeded to peel a bunch of shred-like solos. 'Metal' Mike was in, and a few months later the 'Head were ready to rock once more. The bands first ever Yeovil show in the King's Arms in January 1999 will live in the memory of those who were there as minuits after the picture below was taken, a pissed skinhead launched himself from the bar and through the drumkit before attacking Si. Fortunatley our friend Hammy had his brother Charlie and Ally there to kick the Skinhead's skinny head in and turf him out on to the street. 10$ Head had started a buzz, and followed up with more Yeovil shows, several with the equally fledgling Exit Wound and Yeovil veterans Stress Engine. That summer we recorded a new demo, 'Self Brutilation'. With a bigger budget and a better, more experienced band, 'Self Brutilation' was a huge leap forward, but was overshadowed by the impending departure of drummer and co-founder Glen. With the new demo garnering good reviews from fanzines, described by one as "Sepultura on base", but without a drummer and unable to find a worthy replacement the 'Head were stuck. Pissed off with percussionists, the band opted for a drum machine. Honestly, we really thought we could pull it off; the programmed tracks did sound great and allowed to play much faster and with greater accuracy than ever before and led us in a much darker and heavier direction as shown on that year's demo the mis-spelt 'Henford Chainstore Massacre' which again was a musical leap forward. However, we quickly cam to find that in the live arena a drum machine really couldn't cut it and after a year and a half of disasterous gigs we decided to retain what was left of our reputation and ditch the machine. Six years in and the band was pissed off and on the edge of breaking up. Knowing that we had to return to a live set-up, we temporarily drafted in Guy from Exit Wound on drums while we sorted out what we wanted to do. The solution soon presented itself - Si had been a drummer when much younger and with Guy's kit a my house, he couldn't resist it. The dude was a natural and was soon blast-beating and double-kicking away, and we were wondering why we hadn't thought of it sooner - Si would play drums and we'd get a new bassist. Soon after I met James Stagg at on the the superb two-dayers that Yeovil scene godfathers Unit 16 used to put on at the Ski-Lodge. The drunken Stagg said that he'd be our bass player, although he didn't mention at the time that he'd never played bass before in his life. But we'd been there before - we started that way and we saw that James had the energy and enthusiasm to kickstart the 'Heads faltering pulse. The new line-up's first show was at the Ski Lodge supporting Labrat. Despite brown trousering it, Staggy unleashed his now famous stomp and Jason Newstead-esque facial gurnings. More shows followed, but not being ones to stick with a line-up the Head decided to fuck with the formula a little more, so I dropped guitar to pair up with Shoes for a two way vocal Death Attack - the perfect match for the new breed of uglier, nastier, faster songs the band were gestating; Break The Curse, Drop and Subhuman marked a new level of aggression and complexity. This line-up continued in thrashtastic fashion until May this year when Shoes' often faltering metal finally ran out and the pussy quit to spend time with his car. A replacement was quickly found in Bobby "The Bulkster" Howitt of Yeovil metallers Bloodline. A long time fan of the Head it was kinda like when Ripper Owens joined Judas Priest only without the stadium tours, piles of money, cocaine, groupies and dodgy leather undergarments. After forcibly imprinting the songs in Bobbys brain using a combination of Chinese water torture and electrodes, the new look 10$Head played their first show in Taunton at the end of May with Exit Wound and, well, frankly we destroyed. Well a couple years later and after some crushing shows in yeovil, bridgewater and taunton plus a crushing live 3 track cd "Battle Control Online" and a brutal as fuck studio recorded 3 track demo "The Art Of Darkness" it became clear that soon Bobby would be moving to Exeter. So with one of the most difficult decisions Bobby ever made he quit 10$HEAD. The rest of the band decided to call it a day and that they couldnt carry on without him. The decision was made that we would do one last show. We played our last ever gig in flicks Yeovil with Gutworm and Byzantine. 10$HEAD played a fuckin brutal set most probably the best set they have ever played. I think it was one of those we have to prove it to ourselves kinda thing. But the one thing you have to ask yourselves, after all this is it really the end???

Source : http://www.myspace.com/tendollarhead