A Thirst for more - as Portsmouth band celebrate 25 years of debut From Mouth To Skin with Wedgewood Rooms gig

They had released a run of well-received singles, their debut album From Mouth To Skin was made album of the month in Rock Sound magazine, heavy-metal bible Kerrang! gave them several favourable reviews, and they got to tour the US.

But as is so often the way, things fell apart before they reached their second album. While the members have had various further exploits in music – notably bassist Steve Marsh has been with Unbelievable hitmakers EMF since 2012 – they’ve not all played together since.

Now the original lineup has reunited to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their debut – and are playing a special gig to mark it. They have also finished off that elusive second album, and a new single, Shadow Man, came out on Monday (September 21) to tease its release.

Nostalgia bites

Frontman Chris Perrin explains why they decided to mark the occasion.

"It is a comeback in a sense, but at the moment there are no plans beyond the anniversary show.

“This was the lineup from when we were all in our late teens, but when you’re in your mid-40s, approaching your 50s, life is very different isn't it?"

For Chris, who has children – as do some of his bandmates – who are now also into music, he notes: “It's quite humbling. It's quite sobering that at some point soon they're going to be approaching the age that I was when all this started for me. It's kind of bringing the circle back to completion.”

And he adds: “We're not a band where we were so well known and we've got such a status that other people would be knocking on our door (to mark the anniversary).

"But by starting this ball rolling, what we've actually realised, and it's been a beautiful experience, the amount of people that have been in touch as word-of-mouth has got around, to say just how much our record meant to them.

"You're talking about a generation that would have been in their late teens, early 20s, and that is a massive time of your life, isn't it? We were lucky enough at that point in our lives to be creative and to have a small degree of success, which meant we got to do it professionally.

“We got to travel the world, and before the age of the internet we got to put stuff out the old-school way, touring, actually filming videos on location – all of that good stuff, which becomes the fabric for the rest of your life.

"What we've realised is there's just a massive kind of ache – I certainly feel it within people our age, where there's this huge amount of nostalgia – and nostalgia bites.

“This is kind of a window back into that period of our lives where everything was innocent and free, and it was just about connecting with people at that age. It's a chance to give to give back to that beautiful scene in Portsmouth back in the late ’90s where (popular pub venue) the Horseshoe was really vibrant and The Wedgewood Rooms was booked every night with bands.”

That tricky second album

There was talk of rereleasing From Mouth... on vinyl, but because of its length, it would have needed to be a double-album, which proved too costly.

Instead, Chris explains: “To mark the anniversary, the record label Zip (who released From Mouth... originally) have come back and they want to release what would have been our second record – we had it pretty much ready to go, it was about 80 per cent there.

"So to celebrate and honour 25 years of From Mouth To Skin, we're going to release what would have been the second album and that's going to be a vinyl release.”

The new album, Patchwork Happiness is coming out digitally on Monday, September 28, but there will be limited edition vinyl copies available at the Wedge gig. The vinyl edition also – ironically – contains a second disc full of rare demos, B-sides and live performances.

"I've written new Thirst material for the first time in 20 years, so that will be on the record, and it'll be a bunch of songs that people may remember from the live shows but never got put out.

"It's about sort of closing that chapter off.

"And along with the vinyl you'll get the modern digital download which will include a whole load of other rarities.

"It's about making it special. A CD is nice and it's convenient, but we never had a vinyl record.”

Muscle memory

As Chris enthuses about working again with drummer Mark Denney, guitarist Rich Tamblyn and bassist Steve Marsh, he adds: “It's just nice to be involved in that creative part of me, which for many years has not been present.”

Chris alludes to dark times: "I just completely and utterly lost all connection to creativity – it's safe to say my soul was on the floor.

"When I first started music, the bands I was into, they kind of said to me in order to be a valid musician you need to come from a broken home, you need to have drug issues, you need to be homeless, blah, blah.

"These things all happened to me in the last two or three years and they are not cool, and they're not conducive to making music, so this is coming out the other side of quite a dark time.

"Revisiting that album and relearning the songs just to play live, it's almost like my 20-year-old self had written songs which have ended up being like life-rings to me now.

“And these songs, they're sort of rescuing me, and they're putting me back into who I used to be. My 20-year-old self wouldn't have known this, but some of the things I wrote about back then, now have saved me 30 years on.”

But there is pride in what the band achieved: “It's a fantastic record. I hadn't listened to it for a long time, but there's so many things I'd forgotten about, there's so many hidden layers to it, and I'm just so proud of it.

“And to hear how many people say how much it meant to them, and how it defined that period of their lives, I know that's a bit of a cliche with music, but it's nice to be told that your record has that impact on people, and this show will be a real chance for everybody to get together again.

"More than just us playing for an hour, it'll be a room full of people and it's going to be a real celebration."

On getting the band back together again, Chris notes: “It's amazing how easy it's actually been. I think I said to people, ‘why don't we just have a rehearsal, just for old time's sake?’

"The reharsal, a lot of it was muscle memory, and a lot of it was like, we've played those songs so many times, it came together so quickly, that side of it, getting together and making the music again has probably the easiest part of it.

"The hardest part has been managing everything you have to do outside of making music now – all of the social media stuff, the PR, the admin stuff, which back then we had support with. We had a manager and we had a label and we had PR people and everything!

"But in terms of the actual core energy, it's still there between the four of us, so it's been a very, very enjoyable experience making those songs come to life again.”

What you need to know

Thirst are at The Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea, on Saturday, September 26.

The new album, Patchwork Happiness will be available to buy on vinyl at the gig.

They are supported by Freestone and Sonne, with DJ Lemon of Chaos and It’s A Sin spinning the tunes.

Doors 7pm. Tickets £14.

For tickets go to: wedgewood-rooms.co.uk.