Cud rich and strange
- •
85868788899091 929394 95
And so it begins.
(above) William (seriously bad haircut), Elvis Belt and Carl, Leeds Poly, 1985
14 Jun 1985
The first CUD gig.
Except that we have been advertised as CND.
Clubterranean was the alternative night at Leeds Polytechnic (now the better-dressed Metropolitan Uni). Bitzen, Batzen, Botzer also suffered from the terror of the typo. They are Ritzen Ratzen Rotzer, the elder band from the Poly Fine Art department. (Ritzen were one of a long line of Leeds Poly Fine Art acts that look back to Soft Cell, Fad Gadget and even Frankie Vaughn.)
Hand-crafted poster, above.
Through bothering, we both got ourselves on the bottom of the bill below a rockabilly band, but this was a different CUD to the CUD known and adored internationally. This was Elvis Belt (Dave Read) vocals/guitar, Alan Thomas (guitar), Carl Puttnam (bass), William Potter (drums), Nicola Hill (salad spoons) and Susan Johnstone (recorder) who, through the strength of a demo cassette, had secured a gig before they had a band… or songs.
[Dave claims to still
- •
A Buyers Guide to Cud
Recently on 6Music, Steve Lamacq asked for suggestions of near misses by obscure 90s indie bands to play on his show. On the whole the suggestions were rather prosaic and uninspiring until one lady suggested they play some Cud. This wasn’t just a mild-mannered ‘hey, remember these guys?’ request, this was a full-on obsessive fan outright demanding that ‘Leeds cuddliest combo’ (though oddly, none of the band members were born in Leeds) be given some small amount of recognition. It was rather fitting really, as Cuds fanbase, although modest in number remain unswervingly loyal to the point of fanaticism. If you were a Cud fan back then, chances are you’re still a Cud fan now.
I have to shamefully confess to being ignorant of Cud during their heyday. I only discovered them when I was an impoverished student in Wigan, flipping through the racks of a now long-disappeared second hand music market stall. There I stumbled across a rather odd CD titled Asquarius, which featured raised hands on the front and a four-piece group featuring a guy who looked for all the wo
- •
CUD were initially lauded for their quirky Peel session cover of ‘You Sexy Thing’ in 1987. They soon built up a huge live following and buffed up their repertoire with a string of unstraight pop beauties, best exemplified by the 1990 album ‘Leggy Mambo’. This led to a major-label deal with A&M in 1991, front-page NME coverage, massive sellout gigs and proper Top 30 hits, ‘Rich and Strange’ and ‘Purple Love Balloon’.
Misunderstood by record companies and press, CUD packed away their guitars and sticks in 1995 but, bolstered by a greatest hits anthology (‘Rich and Strange’) in 2006, they agreed to tread the boards again, with a further reunion following in 2012 (now with original guitarist and key songwriter Mike Dunphy) and continue to find an army of ‘Space CUDets’ still eager to sing along, dance like fruitcakes and invade their stage.
Genres
AlternativeIndie RockRockCopyright ©hayduty.pages.dev 2025