OOC: A little shout out to Laurelles, who inspired me to get off my ass and finish this by reading his epic RP.
A crowd can be heard chanting "TOWEL TOWEL TOWEL TOWEL" before the picture fades in from black. An open air show, Sanitary Towel have just finished their triumphant set, and Scott H and Turtle are hand in hand, bowing to the crowd at the front of the stage, Scott takes a step back and launches his towel out to the masses as the screen freezes.Turtle (voice over) - Aye, we were under a lot o' pressure ye ken? They just fuckin' loved it, know what ah mean? This next record had to be jist as gid, if no better!
The scene was a wintry central Scotland, the city of Stirling was awash with snow and ice when the two main songwriters of Sanitary Towel returned from their well earned break. Following a succession of sell out tours and a couple of amazingly successful charity festivals, it was time for the band to focus on what mattered again, keeping the record label happy.Turtle - We didna actually care that much for writing and recordin' ye know? Ye could see it yersel, we were all aboot the live arena...Ah mean jist look at aw the fun we had oan the stage night after night. If truth be told we only went back into the studio to keep Negative Records records of oor back.
Priest - Negative Records CEO - Oh, Sanitary Towel...yeah what a handful those guys were. We had a strange situation there, in that when you have a bunch of guys with such energy, talent and appeal, you can't really afford to go pissing them off. That's why ST played so many long assed tours before they wrote a second album
But eventually, the time came to give them a size 12 up the ass, and I'm glad we did, to this day I'm glad of it *wry smile*
For the months of December, through February that year, Turtle and Scott completely disappeared from the public eye. No one heard from them, no one knew what was going on, and the record company were being decidedly tight lippedTurtle - Can ah be totally honest wi you mate? leans in* The truth is, we were shite-in oorselves at that point! Honest to fuckin God we wur. Me and Scott shared an appartment in Stirling at that time, and for fuck sake we tried to write stuff, but it just wid not fuckin work!
Santi Gomez (ex Blood of Wecz) - *smiles* I remember fielding like a million phonecalls from Scott back at that time. He was like this high flying motherfucker at the time, you know ST were really going places, but they were genuinely scared... Of what?...Well failure man, obviously. They had put so much pressure on themselves by waiting so long for a second album, and it almost had to be perfect.
Ryan Lee - Scott would make a habit of calling at like 4 in the morning, he'd be fucking frantic...*puts on silly imitation voice* "Ryan man, fuckin help! We're in shit here...they keep asking us about the record...and well, we've got fuck all....I've lied to the Record company like 7 times this week". I laughed at him, but it must have been hard!
Little did the public, or their employers for that matter know, but Sanitary Towel were severely struggling. Band meetings, it was later discovered, were being held in secret locations, to keep away from prying eyes of Negative Records staff, and Turtle and Scott were even reported to have pleaded with other members of Sanitary Towel to give them some ideas for songwriting...just when it looked like the whole thing was drying up however, something was around the corner, something that would literally irrigate the whole process...
Turtle - *nervous shifty look* - Um, we had agreed at the time to never reveal what our "muse" eventually was, and I've never told the tale o that night tae anyone in the media before ye ken?...Eh...awright then, since it's a celebration eh the boy's life!
The night when it aw came togither was lookin like aw the other dry nights of writin...we had some booze and some smokes and we sat there, starin at the four walls, lookin for any signs in the paint that might inspire us. The only thing diffrint on this night, was that we hud wine. We usually drunk like beer or whisky, but we hud two bottles of wine for some reason. Luckily, we had no bottle opener, and we nipped to the wee wine shoppy around the corner to get one. Well as you do when you're a twenty one year old lad, we bought more wine "just in case you know"...it must've been aw Scott's idea...Ah'm a gid laddie, haha.
I remember that Scott got totally wasted on the first like two bottles eh wine...he was such a funny lad when he was drunk, as we often were, but this night, wi the wine. Well he fell asleep ye see, which was hilarious...we like drew on his face and shit it wis a gid laugh you know. Then aw eh a sudden he woke up from his sleep, like fuckin wide awake, jumped up and grabbed the nearest guitar...he played this wee neat chord thingy (ah'm no a guitarist like), and I wis like aye, keep gaun wee man! Anyhow, before ah knew whit was gaun on he had wrote like seven songs, he even wrote the lyrics.
Do you feel that the alcohol had any bearing on the actual sound or was it just the inspiration you needed to bring out what was there?Turtle - Oh, Ah'm sure it had a bearing son! Like ah say, Scott wrote nearly aw the songs, and it was wierd for him to write lyrics...but from the second he woke up fae the sleep that night, there was this glint in his eye, and there was a mischevious grin spread from ear to ear. The wine was a sure factor eh the fact that the record was a lot more...fun...more of a laugh than "The Bleeding".
Two days later, Sanitary Towel were to disappear into the hastily put together Dime Studios in Edinburgh. The band were still tight lipped over the new CD and refused to speak to such prestigious mags such as NME, Kerrang!, and Q, preferring to let their music, eventually, do the speaking.
Finally, in the May of that year, a triumphant Sanitary Towel emerged from the shadows of alomost a year in the dark, and invited MTV2 into their hotel for a brief, but straight chat about the new CD. *a video archive footage (ooc: the image below) shows Sanitary Towel around a couch, looking relaxed and refreshed. Scott H, far left, addresses the camera*
Scott H - You're watchin' MTV2, we are Sanitary Towel! My name is Scott, and I'm here to tell you about our new CD. The new album from ST will be called "Always", and it will be f(beeeep)ing amazing! So get your hands on it on June 1st!
Ryan Lee - I saw my old friend on the TV that night...and straight away I saw something different. Scott was a changed man. In the past he had been lively on stage, that was his arena...but here he was on TV, taking the lead and addressing the nation...this was the point I feel, he moved up a gear...did it pay off? It certainly fucking did for me anyway hahaha
On May 20th, Sanitary Towel were to release via their website the artwork for "Always". Fans hit the website so hard and in such unprecedented levels that it crashed and stayed down for several days. This left thousands unable to see what the new album looked like, and gave Kerrang! The exclusive on the Thursday of that week, much to their delight.*Picture (C) K!* Sanitary Towel's potentially offensive album cover.
Priest - Oh God, that gave us nightmates! People were phoning and emailing all day to complain that their kids were asking for this CD and it had a "horrid" front cover. The cover wasn't even anything great, but it made people think of privacy, and blood, and they hated that...so we went with it anyway.
Come May 30th a huge hype had begun to surge for the new ST record. many people queued outside stores for the release the next day, buoyed on by the amazing reviews it had been receiving in previous weeks
Holy shit! This just made punk fun again! All hail the new kings of punk! - Q - *****
I don't know where this came from, but get it quick, ST are gonna be fucking huge. This is epic! - NME *****
Sanitary Towel were a rather unassuming band, until now! This is quite simply the best punk album in history... - Kerrang! KKKKK
Suddenly, ST were the talk of the town, they were on everyone's lips, and by close of play the following Sunday, they got the news that rocked them to their core *BBC Radio1 Chart show archive footage*
Fearne Cotton - And this week's number one album, selling more than the rest of the top ten combined...it's Sanitary Towel!! and it's "Always"...have you seen the cover...it's just...
Turtle - For me there was mixed feelings at that point. I had set out to be part of a punk band, no a pop band. Ah mean, ah knew that the record was amazing, as a straight up punk record it was still amazing, Ah'm no gonnae suggest that Scott wrote a pop record. It was just embraced amazingly...but for me I didn't like it that much, the attention that was.
From there on in, as Turtle shirked away from the attention, Scott H was to become the enigmatic character that would tipify the rest of his life. Scott took to the limelight like a duck to water, as he fought to keep the band at the heady heights they reached on merit alone.Priest - Scott was like a godsend to us at that time. I had various meetings with Turtle in which he told me that he didnt like the attention they were getting. I fought for him to keep his frontman ego up, but he wasn't keen, and that's when Scott stepped in.
*Archived footage from Synthesis TV, Scott H interview just after album release*
Scott H - I dunno how people are gonna take to me you know man! I mean, I aint the frontman, I dont have a fucking clue how to deal with the media. But I is gonna roll with the flow mofo! We'll see what happens! haha!!
Ryan Lee - As I said, around this time, Scott became a whole different fucking machine. The guy was suddenly a magnet for attention...maybe that was the issue though.
It became almost common knowledge soon after that Sanitary Towel were in turmoil behind the scenes, but not before an amazing 14 week stint at number one in the album chart, and (the start of) a huge European Tour.
In July, they set off for Germany with their tails high, and played some amazing shows, night after night wowing audiences in the mainland European continent with huge performances each night. Turtle seemed to be back to himself when they got on stage, but one other guy was causing more of a stir than ever.Turtle - It was a wierd situation. looking back now it was nothing, but at the time I couldn't stick it. The frontman role was mine, but Scott started to get ahead of himself. I'd finish a song and before I could say anything, he'd have grabbed a mic and was egging the crowd on in cheering contests and shit...eventually, we both had to just have it out, and I'm sorry to this day that we never really patched it up...
As the tour rolled through France, one night in Cannes was to really signal the beginning of the end for ST. A fan who had won backstage tickets for the gig, reported that she had seen ST enjoying a few beers in the VIP area, before Scott accidentally bumped into Turtle, spilling beer on his back. Before she knew what was happening, Turtle pinned the smaller man against the wall, and was just seconds from knocking him out, when bouncers stepped in and calmed it down. Turtle was heard screaming "Think your the big man do ye?? This was ma band ye wee fanny!" He refused to comment further after this incident was brought up.
For weeks after the press got hold of this info, the speculation was rife surrounding ST. Turtle was quoted amost universally as saying that e was fed up with the limelight, and the common train of thought was that he would leave ST and allow Scott to step in as the frontman he was really turning into.
On the other hand, a stolen phone alleged to contain voicemail messages from Scott H to Ryan Lee was doing the rounds. In the messages, the voice believed to be Scott was saying the following:"Scott H" - Hey, Ry, its me again, in fucking Italy somewhere man...I'm fucking sick of that fat cunt man! I want out, you still got the dream man...living it heavy? Gimme a call dude!
Dave Peters - Synth mag - This was a huge thing back then. Everyone knew that Scott was going to be a frontman of ST when Turtle had had enough, and that day was fast approaching. Then when this came out, it was all over, just like that.
On the 17th September in Madrid, Spain, as quickly as fame and real power had been given to ST, it was all snatched away. Turtle, now calling himself "Kooz" had called a press conference to take place before the Sanitary Towel concert that night. At the conference he told the music media that it was all over. Sanitary Towel was no more. "Me and my band are pissed off that he was conspiring to leave behind our backs," Kooz spat at the journalists with venom, "so he can just fuck off! I give you my new band (it was Sanitary Towel just without Scott), NOT CALLED MARY"
Not Called Mary, as they were now calling themselves, promptly got on the bus and left Spain, leaving thousands of fans heartbroken, and one guitarist and band member alone on the kerb...Scott cut a dejected figure on MTV2 that night as he tried to explain it all...but bigger things were still to come.Ryan Lee - What they did to Scott was disgusting! I couldnt ever forgive them for doing that...but it worked out in the end pretty fuckin well for us! Was the voicemail really from Scott to me? Well, only one person alive knows the answer to that...*smiles* and I aint gonna tell ya, haha...
The camera fades to black and the credits roll as a huge Blood of Wecz solo plays over them.
NEXT TIME - Icons in the making, and friends reunited!