YAK were formed following the collapse of cult band Acid Fantasy who toured in & around, but mostly in, Toot Hill village hall in Essex between '78 & '81. Although "the Fantasy" never made it big, never in fact gigging at all, it is interesting to note that following the demolition of the said village hall, a themed housing estate has now been constructed on the site - albeit on a different theme.
The Drummer, Ralph Seabag-Montefiore was determined to move on, and soon got together with old school chum and ex-Blohm und Voss guitarist Robin Hodder. The keyboard player from the Fantasy was contacted, & together with bassist Simon Snell from Theydon Bois, the 4 piece took shape.
Playing was initially at the River Way rehearsal studios in Loughton. However after Ralph's mother's neighbours complained, operations were moved to a detached property on York Hill - on the proviso that Robin's parents were out. A few recordings exist of the early rehearsals at York Hill, and these have been carefully archived away for quality reasons. These early recordings are now available to the specialist YAK connoisseur reasonably priced from Ruskin Studios, Northampton although a medical certificate will be required before these can be purchased.
The music was initially a mix of rolling stones covers, well one anyway, the first few bars of several Santana tracks & ruthless jamming mainly in the key of A ...& occasionally D minor. Then the YAK ideas and riffs started to emerge. These were a radical departure from the till then standard time signatures, as musical ideas in 7/8, 5/4 & 3/4 time emerged. The bands followers, mainly Nigel Astell & Andy Nettleton were enthralled by the new sounds - so much so that they were later moved to relocate respectively to America & Arabia.
Rehearsals were regular, occurring every few weeks in Loughton & even on two occasions in a remote cottage in the depths of the Suffolk countryside - incidentally the cottage has since been re-developed into a housing estate.
Finally in 1984 after about 4 or 5 "YAK" ideas had been practised to some degree the band split after a bitter row over whether it really was necessary - let alone practical - to play in 37/8 time. In protest, Robin retreated to his college town of Northampton where he lives now. Sy Snell moved to Walthamstow and Ralph disappeared from my contact for many years. Thanks however to the internet and the investigative IT excellence of Mr Snell, Ralph has been re-discovered living in Nottingham.
During the meanwhilst, I have tried to keep the kept the "YAK" concept alive, and have over the past 20 or so years made a number of multi-tracked taped recordings of most of the Yak musical ideas, with the long term ambition of one day actually finishing them off & releasing them on CD - ha ha
Martin Morgan Feb 2004
