Piece below in the words of the group’s member – Andy Semple, Cockermouth
Someone I Can Talk To 1978 – 2024 – Soundtrack of Our Lives
In 1978 four 20 year olds from Annan started a punk group – The Limps. Andrew, Derek, Norman and Tam became Andy Septic, Dee Dee Tee, Chuck Abnormal and Tam Limp. We chose the band name as Chuck had a job tattie picking and walked accordingly as a result. There was a further obstacle in that apart from me (Andy Septic) no one could play anything. Nae bother. Chuck picked up the bass once I told him third fret top string then fifth (repeat); he was a quick learner. Tam was the arty one, a student at Carlisle Art College, so his vocals and stage presence were a given. Dee Dee neither owned a set of drums or had ever been near one. Nae bother. He bought some Drumsticks from Dias in Carlisle and so began his literally blistering punk journey.
And that journey first took us to Mick’s Club in Carlisle. Our first gig was immortalised in the following review in the Carlisle Evening News and Star.
“Anything New Wave might have weakened the impact potential of The Limps, the opening band from Annan. On reflection, even a Salvation Army band could have done that. The drummer played as though his hands and feet were tied together; the bassist as though rigor mortis had set in. Guitarist Andy Septic appeared to have some idea of chords, but didn’t have a hope with the back up of a drummer who gleefully admitted later that, until a week before, the only practice he’d had was on Tupperware tubs and biscuit tins. They played about six songs and repeated two of them” – Carlisle Evening News and Star Newspaper, 25 February 1978.
With that wind behind our sails we decided to make a record. In Collaboration with our Carlisle friends and their band No Support. I cant remember exactly how much we paid to get it done at Fairview Studios in Hull. Could have been a hundred quid and its safe to say we never recovered our loss as sales turned out to be in the same vein as our first review: discouraging.
The first Limps/No Support EP (Opposite Sides) was released on our own label, Match Box Classics. And a copy was sent to John Peel at Radio One. And he never played it. Nae bother, we made another EP again at Fairview in Hull. And sent John Peel a copy. This time – he played it!! I have the recording from my radio cassette and John Peel said
“Last year I got an EP featuring the Limps and No Support, who straddle the Scottish/English border I cant remember which side which lives on but that’s the way I understand it anyway. Now they’ve got a second one out on the Matchbox Classics label. And from it these are The Limps and Someone I can Talk To”- John Peel, BBC Radio 1 autumn 1978.
Despite that accolade sales were still in the single digits but we were now on the crest of our own creative wave and went on to make one other EP – “8 from 80” in that very year alongside No Support and other Carlisle bands The Toolbox Murderers, Kirsty and the Husbands and Veldt.
And then we went our separate ways, to Cardiff, Kendal, Middlesborough and Earlston. The Tupperware went back in Ella’s cupboard and Dee Dee’s mam could fill them with tattie scones once again.
Forty years go by
On 23 July 2023 Chuck rang me. He lives in Cardiff now and also works quite a lot in the USA. “An American film director wants permission to use a Limps song in his new film. He says the song is “an unambiguous plea for companionship”
So I checked out two things: that Chuck had not been on the drink and most importantly I checked IMDb and found that, yes, Adam Rehmeier was an award winning director from Nebraska.
Then Chuck sent me a Whatsapp message;
“Dear Andy, Chuck, Dee Dee, Tam,
My name is Adam Rehmeier, writer/director of the upcoming film SNACK SHACK, a coming of age film set in early 90’s Nebraska City, NE, that revolves around two teenage best friends, running the concession stand at the local swimming pool. The film is based on my own childhood, and like all coming of age films, the soundtrack is super important and super hand-curated for optimal flow and emotion.
In full transparency, I did not hear Someone I Can Talk To until five or six years ago, but during the writing portion of the film – deep in the depths of Covid – it became an absolute daily play. As I shaped the ending of the film, I found it to be the only track that could instantly evoke the type of emotion I wanted the audience to feel as they walk out of the theatre.
It would mean the world to me to include this track in the film.
Thank you very much.
Adam Reheimer
I asked Chuck to send my reply
Adam what a joy it is that you have a place in your heart for a piece of music that four young Scottish school friends put together, with no grand plan that on another continent someone decades later would put in a film.
New York Times Critic’s Pick 14 March 2024
“Snack Shack” Review: The Kids Are Alright. Performances from the two main characters elevate this boisterous teen comedy to the level of raunchy art.
Other online reviews say “go see this film”!”, “Wow! What a pleasant surprise best movie I’ve seen in a long time”. IMDb says “Snack Shack is a well-done movie. Charming in its nostalgia and warming in its character development”
And that last review shall be on the Limps banner as we march our way on to Spotify and Apple playlists for as Adam promised our song plays at the end of the film and people go out of the “theatre” with our song in their ears and I’d like to think, their hearts. And as the credits roll up comes
“Someone I Can Talk To”
Written by Andrew Semple
Performed by The Limps
Courtesy of Matchbox Classics Records
We all got together at the new year to celebrate and it was really, really, good to have someone I can talk to again.
Andy Semple
Cockermouth March 2024.
