The Ants Council
The Grasshopper’s Green Herbarian Band
It is with great excitement that we are able to inform you that The Grasshopper's Green Herbarian Band (that some of you will know from Syd's song 'Octopus') are going to be reforming specially for The City Wakes production.
The Grasshopper’s Green Herbarian Band (1958 1967)
The beginning
It was of course in October 1959 that Jonny Grasshopper, Derek Bugg and Dave ‘Scratcher’ Cricket first exploded onto the British music scene, with their smash hit ‘Six-legged Shuffle’. The sound was heavily reminiscent of traditional skiffle fused with the influence of their church background and immersion in English folk. Jonny and Derek had first met aged 14 at their local church youth band based at St Paul’s Church on Hills Road, Cambridge. Jonny played the banjo to Derek’s tambourine, and although they mainly provided the accompaniment to hymns and religious songs, the effect that the time with the band had on their later work should not be underestimated. It was really where the young ‘Hoppers were to learn their trade as musicians, and echoes of the anthemic metre and liturgical lyric of hymns was to creep into even their more psychedelic recordings such as the inimitable ‘In Us Confide’.
Early years in Cambridge
At 16, Jonny and Derek began to distance themselves from the church scene, discovering a freer form of expression and a nascent Cambridge music scene that centred on jam sessions at The Mill and The Portland Arms. It was here in early 1958 that the friends met Dave ‘Scratcher’ Cricket, a talented bassist of the genus gryllus who was some two years older but looking for an opportunity to make some music with other hip young insects. The trio would meet up weekly to enjoy watching older local jazz musicians jamming, notably Sid Barrett, the drummer who was to give his name to Roger Keith Barrett, and well-known keys player Twinkle Malone. Their shared passion for improvisation as well as their rich musical backgrounds (Scratcher and Jonny’s fathers had both competed in the Cicada solo chirping competitions of the early fifties) meant that forming a band was the most natural path for the trio to take. After some deliberation over instrumentation, it was decided that Jonny Grasshopper would lead the band on guitar, vocals and,
periodically fiddle, hurdy-gurdy, comb and paper and rear-legged chirp, whilst Derek would develop the percussion skills that he had learnt with the church band and Scratcher would stick to bass, both double and electric. Always prone to eccentricity, Scratcher, a field cricket, proposed that the threesome should practice in the open air, by the Mill Pond or on the Grantchester Meadows. Somewhat compelled by a lack of any other performance space options, but equally seduced by the idea of allowing the Cambridge countryside to affect their song-writing, Jonny and Derek agreed. Dave Gilmour, who grew up by the meadows, has often said that he could hear the sounds of those early sessions as a lad playing in his back garden. It is also believed that a thirteen-year old Roger Barrett encountered the band as he trundled back from Grantchester on his bicycle, and that this chance meeting was something of a musical epiphany that encouraged the budding painter to focus his efforts on learning to play the guitar. It is important to note however that Roger Waters strongly denies this story, claiming that neither he nor Syd had ever met the legends that were to become the biggest insect band in recorded history before their rise to fame in the mid-sixties. Whatever the truth, it is nevertheless undeniable that the ‘Hoppers sound and their Cambridge roots were to have a profound effect on the early Floyd work. In fact, the video for Arnold Lane can be seen to draw directly on the ‘Hoppers video for In Us Confide, in which the zany threesome are seen to be running haphazardly around the Botanic Gardens in Cambridge (?).
The move to London
Jonny Grasshopper, though undoubtedly a most consummate musician, quickly realised that he did not possess the business acumen necessary to propel the trio to stardom, and appointed Robert ‘Bob’ Mantis to the post.
Bob Mantis, pictured here in 1959, reclines on a branch in the Botanic Gardens.
Mantis had a great eye for publicity, and having heard about the great rock ‘n’ roll scene in Hamburg that was to launch The Beatles career, sent the group over to Germany for a six month stint on the student club circuit. It was there that Jonny penned ‘Six-legged shuffle’, ‘Don’t Bug Me (I’m only trying to sing)’ and ‘Aphid Rock’ which together formed the unforgettable Chrysalis EP, followed swiftly by the LP of the same name and released upon their return to London. Melody Maker called it “the most important debut in rock history”, eclipsing even Elvis Presley’s Sun Records recording sessions, and they ran the story under the classic headline THE PUPATING’S OVER: THE GRASSHOPPERS EMERGE FROM THE CHRYSALIS.
The big time
The early sixties were dominated by the ‘Hoppers upbeat, folk-infused sound, and at one point, in April 1964, three of their tracks occupied the top spots of the Top Forty hit parade. They successfully broke the American market later that summer, taking the Billboard 100 by storm with their seminal LP Entophilia and staying at number 1 for seventeen weeks straight with the classic double A-side ‘Shake Your Antennae’ and ‘Make Way for the May Nymphs’.
In Us Confide was the smash third album that marked a real sea-change in the song writing style of Grasshopper, Cricket and Bugg. Labelled by many music journalists “the record that invented psychedelia”, the 1965 offering was to be hugely influential on Syd Barrett and the recently formed Pink Floyd, reportedly prompting them to cover ‘(I’m a) King Bee’, the 1957 Slim Harpo blues track, in homage to the hottest insects in London.
1966 was to be their year they were at the height of their fame and everybody wanted a piece of the action. Riding high on the back of the success of In Us Confide, all three members were regularly snapped at London’s hippest night spots, and Bugg was even rumoured to be dating Twiggy, the stick-insect thin supermodel who was known as ‘The Face of ‘66’. Geoff Hurst was later to declare with a certain wry humour that if it weasn’t for The Grasshopper’s Green Herbarian Band, England would not have won the World Cup that summer. “To be honest, it was the uplifting sound of the crowd chanting ‘In Us Confide’ that made that third foal happen in the 98th minute. The atmosphere was electric, and the linesman who called it a goal was clearly a ‘Hoppers fan too!”
The post-1966 decline
A live acoustic session at Maida Vale Studios followed in August, leading to the beautifully stripped down sounds of The Grasshoppers: Unbugged EP, but when it came to promoting the release, it was clear that the strain of the band’s success was beginning to take its toll. Jonny refused to do any TV interviews, and was famously quoted as claiming, “We’re bigger than Arachnids right now”.
Mantis, by now topping the Arthropods 100 rich list, became concerned about the boys’ growing lethargy, fully aware of the potentially disastrous consequences that a break-up would have on his own career. A cancelled Earl’s Court appearance coupled with their increasingly erratic attendance at interviews fuelled rumours about the band’s well-being. Bugg, ever the dandy of the band, embarked upon a string of high profile affairs and eventually hooked up with Jimi Hendrix and his entourage on a tour of Britain in early 1967. His party lifestyle became an embarrassment for Mantis, who labelled him a liability and hired various session musicians to take his place at the last few gigs the ‘Hoppers did over the winter of 66/67. Meanwhile, the quirky Scratcher was the first member to make a definitive move away from the group, electing to join a meditative hippy commune in the Scottish Highlands that grew oversized organic vegetables. He is later believed to have retired to the Isle of Skye with a tree cricket called Sandra, and had several larvae, whilst Bugg revived his career after a lengthy stint in rehab by providing the voiceover for the popular long-running children’s cartoon, Eric the Earwig and Friends, from 1979 to 1990.
Tragedy strikes
Jonny was the only one whose disappearance from the limelight went entirely undocumented. One day he had been the iconic poster boy of London’s swinging sixties, and the next he faded entirely into obscurity. On March 12th, 1967, Bob Mantis made the tragic announcement that shook the world. The night before, he had found Jonny unconscious on the bathroom floor of his Ritz suite surrounded by sleeping tablets, and attempts by paramedics to resuscitate him had come too late. Grasshopper was not survived by any family members, and Mantis became the sole executor of his estate according to a short clause that had been added latterly to his will. No photos were ever published of that fateful evening, and Jonny was soon written off by many as just another rock ‘n’ roll casualty. Appearances, however are not always as they seem…
The Tuareg exile
It was long believed by die-hard ‘Hoppers fans that Jonny’s death had been faked, and that he was really in hiding, preferring solitude to the relentless glare of the public eye. It has recently emerged in fact, with Jonny’s return to Britain in preparation for The City Wakes comeback show, that he spent some 20 years living with the Tuareg people of Saharan Africa. Disenchanted with the pace of life in London, Jonny embarked upon a pilgrimage to spend time with his learned cousins, a swarm of short-horned locusts who lived alongside the nomadic Tuareg in harmony. Initially intended to be a brief, restful migration, the pilgrimage soon turned into a new way of life for the beleaguered star; it was there that he discovered Islam and the belief in Kel Asuf, the spirits of nature, as well as becoming profoundly immersed in indigenous Takamba music and Afro-Berber rhythms.
The exact date that Jonny’s exile period began remains the single most contentious fact in all recent biographies of the group. Most believe that he left in early 1967, and that Mantis publicised his supposed ‘suicide’ in order to capitalise on his absence, whilst others maintain that he was sporadically spotted in and around London and Cambridge right up until 1975. The debate has centred on the inconsistent testimonies of his many contemporaries and acquaintances living through the heady late sixties in London, and the rather mysterious case of The Peaple’s 1967 release, Capt. Cicadella’s Insect Circus Band.
Sightings
Saul McHearty, lead guitarist with The Peaple, is adamant that Jonny Grasshopper could not have been present at the recording of the band’s opus. Greg (Clap hands) Happison is less convinced, stating in an interview in ’69 that “you know, truth be known, everybody played on that record, and among the sitar players, session guitarists, London Philharmonic orchestra and whoever else, I wouldn’t be surprised if Jonny put in an appearance. He was like that, just always kinda in the right place at the right time. If he wasn’t, it certainly seemed like he was, in spirit, y’know.” A slightly more lucid account is given by producer Dill Louse, who described seeing a mysterious insect who looked “like a grasshopper, only, sort of, different, more…I dunno…locusty”, loitering outside Abbey Road during the final mixing in May 1967.
The City Wakes would like to appeal to anyone who believes they may have seen, or come into contact with, Jonny during the period of 1966 1975 to come forward. Jonny himself has remained vague on the subject, mumbling recently in an exclusive interview that “those years were so happening, that with all the groovy stuff going on no one really had time to keep a diary. Me and Keith Richards met once at an early Stones gig near Cambridge I remember…maybe he can tell you more?”
The demise of Mantis
In November 1991, Robert P. Mantis, owner of the rights to the Grasshopper fortune and by now an ageing international playboy wanted for numerous financial crimes including extortion and tax evasion, briefly became world news once more. His luxury yacht, The Lady Bird, was reportedly found abandoned near the Bermuda Triangle, and Mantis’ body was later discovered when it washed up onto the coast on Caribbean island Anguilla. A verdict of accidental drowning was made at a low-key inquest held in Florida, and he was buried in the state cemetery. With no living relatives, and the miraculous re-emergence of Jonny Grasshopper, it seems that the original members of the group will once again be in receipt of royalties.
