About Peter & the Test Tube Babies

Original Line-up:
Trev • drums
Derek • guitar
Chris • guitar
Peter • vocals

Vaultage 78 Review
"The band don't want to reveal their surnames because there could be trouble over their track on the Brighton compilation album Vaultage 78, callled ‘Elvis is Dead’.

Peter admits it is in bad taste and says: "We don't want any Teds ccoming round to beat us up. It’s just a joke really. We’re a fun band. We do take ourselves seriously but we just want to make people laugh."

A young band, they left Tideway School, Newhaven, last year where they were all in the same class. They started playing a year ago.
Says Peter: "We started off as a laugh in my garage. The name came from a little kid we know who wanted us to do a song about test tube babies. But we don't always stick to it. The other week I said we were Peter and the Pints of Lager!" Let’s hope the Teds arent too hard on them..."

"Brighton, England punk survivors Peter and the Test Tube Babies formed in 1978; soon debuting on the Vaultage 78 compilation, the group -- singer Peter Bywaters, guitarist Derek "Del" Greening, bassist Chris "Trapper" Marchant and drummer Nicholas "Ogs" Loizides -- nevertheless did not issue their first proper single "Banned from the Pubs" until 1982, firmly establishing their tongue-in-cheek approach with the follow-up "Run Like Hell."

Subsequent singles including "Zombie Creeping Flesh" and "The Jinx" preceded the 1983 release of the Test Tubes' first full-length effort, Pissed and Proud; The Mating Sounds of South American Frogs appeared just weeks later, topping the UK indie charts.

1986's Soberphobia was the Test Tubes' first American release, but the group was silent for the remainder of the decade, finally resurfacing in the early 1990s with little-heard efforts including Cringe and The $Hit Factory. Eighteen years after the group's inception, co-founders Trapper and Ogs left the lineup following the completion of 1995's Supermodels; bassist A.D. and drummer Rum signed on for 1998's Alien Pubduction, followed

followed two years later by The Final Nail."
Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide

Lifted by me from Peter's blog 5th Nov 2006:
"It's been a bit of a stressful month to be honest. What with moving house and having shit loads of work plus being offline it's no wonder my mind has been elsewhere. It should have been focused on the bastard speed camera in Croydon.

Consequently I've now got a speeding offence hanging over me. As I only passed my test in February this could be a disaster. Can't blame anyone else but myself though! Shouldn’t have been fucking speeding.

Worked on quite a few gigs recently, the best of which was Flaming Lips at the Brighton Centre. Wasn't too impressed by Pink last night. Really looking forward to Rancid and The Unseen next Monday at the Dome. What the fuck was England playing at last month in Croatia? I'd hoped that the negative gutless football displayed under Sven was a thing of the past. Apparently not. However, speaking of football brings me back to the man/woman and wanker awards for October.
More shit soon. Peter."

...and a recent word from the man himself...



Peter | June 2008
Good morning sir, what an absolutely excellent site!  I salute you on your research and presentation. When I have a bit more time I will have a dig around in the loft and see if there is anything I can send you.

This could well turn out to be our only Brighton gig this year to celebrate our 30th anniversary! Come down to The Engine Rooms (one of the only venues locally to almost feel like the old Art College Basement AND it sells real ale) on Sat 5th of July and judge for yourself whether there is still life in these old dogs.

Oh and by the way I can't shed any more light on WHO burnt down the Resource Centre but I can tell you we were the last ever band to play there.

As I remember it was a Rock Against Sexism gig. To be honest it was not without incident (as were most of our gigs those days) and this was not helped by a few guys who got onstage to conduct a willy measuring contest! Hardly the time and place!

Anyway I had had to pay a deposit and when I returned the next morning with the key hoping to get it back I was met by many fire engines, fireman, various local musicians trying to salvage their gear and some very irate Centre workers.

We lost quite a bit of equipment that was stored in our arch downstairs but more importantly Brighton lost a lot more. The end of an era. See ya. Peter

Matt Holland | July 2008
The Test Tubes were the only Brighton punk band who had any bollocks, though they've changed their style since them days. Cheers, Matt.

Have some fun by going to their PTTB Official website: www.testtubebabies.co.uk




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