"Welcome to Kozzie Fonz Rootski"

I've been calling myself Kozzie since I was 17 back in 1980. When I joined facebook in 2010 I noticed there was a rapper on there with my name (spelt the same way) so I compromised and added Fonz to distinguish ourselves, although I wish he'd call himself Koz instead.

I was in a band called The Ticket Inspectors with the late great Steve Treatment in London from 1989 until 1994. The highlight being a gig at the Golden Moon Cafe at Glastonbury festival 1993. We played 6 gigs in total. Another highlight is a cover version of The Monkees classic, Stepping Stone.

You can hear or buy a download of the Ticket Inspectors studio recordings HERE.

I'm currently working on new project called Leviathan 27 and our first album will be called "BUGGER!"

Albums
I recorded two demo albums near Castle Douglas in Scotland with Mr.C Howard later called Hi-Fi Bob (not him from The Shamen!) . There were originally 14 tracks on each album. 26 of my own songs and 2 by Donovan and Roger Miller. Hi-Fi Bob was a brilliant all-rounder, multi-instrumentalist and sound engineer.

The Strike with The Clash

Previous bands

My first band was called The Strike since we were mainly Clash influenced. We played one gig in Maryhill, Glasgow sometime in 1980 or '81. We were that bad that we were cut off after several minutes, lol. Me on bass, Mick Torrance on guitar, Gesko on vocals and Weg on drums.

My second band was in Angel Islington, London called GTV or Guts of Dead Televisions. Just Pete Gas and I to begin with then Richard Gallon joined. A truly cacophonous, experimental avante-garde noise outfit if ever there was one. We all played bass, shopping trolley, fire extinguisher, anything reachable and that made a noise. Good fun in the squatting scene 1986.

My third band shortly after was called Cardinal Sin and the Speeding Vicars. Richard Gallon and I joined up with Fiona on Sax and I've forgotten the guitarist's name, sorry. Although I surprisingly played mainly drums, we swapped instruments around on a few songs which was like playing musical chairs without the chairs. Played 2 squat gigs in 1987.

My fourth band was The Ticket Inspectors (phase 1) from late 1989 when I met Steve Treatment in our workplace, Govindas restaurant, Soho, London. He introduced me to his student friend Helen Webster, a classically trained flautist, and I introduced them to Bongo Chris (Bramble) a potter and former Glasgow School of Art student who used to play percussion in Glasgow reggae band, Man At The Window.
We didn't play any gigs but did some recording of mainly Steve's songs, "Switch On At Six" being my token contribution at the time.

My fifth band was called Temple, an alternative rock band, some of whom worked at Temple, London. Daryl from New York on guitar as was Roger from Northern Ireland. Miles on vocals and can't remember the drummer's name, sorry. We played a good first gig and a flop of a second at The Sir George Robey, Finsbury Park. This was a benefit gig for striking ambulance crews and featured several bands including Mark Perry's Long Decline and the legendary punk poet, John Cooper Clarke.

The Ticket Inspectors (phase 2) was my last band.
I brought in an old mate from Glaschu, guitarist Robert McVean, to supplement Steve's guitar playing. I also brought in Hogweed and her Portuguese boyfriend, Pedro, who, as fate would have it was also a flautist. Hogweed from Switzerland (later Phil as in Phil Collins) was easily the best drummer I had ever worked with and a woman too. A rare breed. Hogweed left the band before our last gig at Glastonbury so Pedro took her place and I brought in my girlfriend, Suzie Currell, on fiddle.

Other musicians I've worked with
Paul Stallard was in The Strike but can't remember if he played our one and only gig. Anyway, we collaborated on a verse of a song which he titled Thatcher's Little Batch in 1981. I recently updated what is a great reggae song.

George 'The Mod' MacAulay. George was a neighbour of mine in the west end of Glaschu and gave me some bass lessons in 1981. He later played bass in bands, The Colostomy Bags and The Humpff Family. He Passed away in 2004. Missed but not forgotten.

Johnny Kazule gave me some guitar lessons in 1981-82

Bruno gave me some lessons from 1981. He worked on 2 ska songs with me circa 1998, Doctor Strangelove and Last Bus to Skaville. Bruno was also one of the original band members of west end legends Capone and the Bullets. He once astounded me when he turned a guitar into a sitar. Very talented. Sadly passed away recently. Missed but not forgotten.

Arek from Szczecin, Pol-ska, gave me some guitar lessons in 1981.

More recently, recorded one of my newer uncompleted songs "I Wanna Trip" with Craig 'Haggis' McFarlane circa 2013. Haggis is an excellent piper and hope to work with him on some tracks

Another massive influence on me in my formative years were Crass, so much so that i abandoned any notions of playing in a band and put all my energies into helping the Peace movement. I ended up living at Faslane Peace Camp from October 1982 to July 1983 and briefly in 1984. Unfortunately, I lost all my fotos of a festival (mainly near the south gate) there on 20th March 1983 which happened to be my 20th birthday.

Special thanx to a good egg, Jim Perry, who helped me with this website. He was a sound engineer at live Yes gigs when they were at their peak back in '73 and will help with the BUGGER project.

Also to Allan Henry who very kindly supplied me with CD's (including a Ticket Inspectors one), fotos, postcards and stories of Steve's last years. Allan plays in a band called the The NoMen and runs the Topplers Records label

Also to Chuck Warner who runs Hyped To Death records. He released Steve Treatment and Ticket Inspectors material in the USA.

www.hyped2death.com

 

And finally to the following musicians not mentioned on the live recording of "Switch On At Six" somewhere in Islington, London, circa 1994.

Jason Cook on drums (was in Trenchfever and The Blaggers I.T.A. Still is i think

Chris Bramble on percussion

Dharma Dave on acoustic guitar

and Ambrose the sound engineer. Another sadly missed but not forgotten.

 

All for now. Watch this space.