RIP John Hicks

Last month an ex-member of Flesh D-Vice died aged 39 from a huge epileptic fit. John Hicks joined the band and played bass in one of the post Gerald Dwyer carnations of the band. In the comments in the Flesh D-vice video I posted not that long ago, John wrote:

"They've been playin on and off throughout the years without Gerald... and Dwayne sometimes.... I was bass player for a bit and Steve Andrews (Vas Deferens) was singer when I played with em. I Think they currently play as a 3 piece (Brent, Eug, Dwayne) with Eug handling vox. Still a fuckin mighty live show..."

Before moving to Wellington, John was a prolific Palmerston North musician. He played in many punk bands. John either sang, played bass or drums. At one of the early Stomach music centre shows he drummed and sang for a shortlived band called Death Bastard Scum Crawler (DBSC). John was in my Sixth Form history class for about a week way back in 1986.
The previous year his brother, Jeremy was in my French class. I remember John wearing a Peter and The Test Tube Babies patch and some girl commenting that he could do a bath. I found this on John's blog.

9) Nostagic - a song which reminds you of when you were younger.
Jinx by Peter And The Test Tube Babies, off The Mating Sounds Of South American Frogs. I had janola'd jeans, I had Doc Martens, I had no hair and usually a black eye. No one had died yet, no marriages or friendships were dissolved, there seemed to be an endless Flagon of Beer in my hand, all the girls wore fishnets and leather minis....*sigh*

Over the years I saw a few of John's bands. Some time in the late 90's State of Hate playing at the Wild Horse Saloon with Hideously Disfigured stands out in my memory as I remember John moaning from the stage about the paying Palmerston North punters all standing at the back with their arms crossed. A week before or so they'd played New Plymouth to a more appreciative audience.

A few of John's bands: Snus, State of Hate (The long haired drummer, Ham was previously in Wildfire, who were more of a glam metal band. Ham commited suicide which prompted the Manawatu Evening Standard to run a full page spread on youth suicide) and Sick66.