What You See Is What You Are - Here and Now & Alternative TV - Deptford Fun City Records - 1978

REST IN PEACE Keith Dobson AKA Kif Kif Le Batteur who sadly left this world on the 14th July 2025.

When I was waking up that morning, I randomly, and for no apparent reason whatsoever, thought clearly of Kif Kif, but while I was thinking of him, while I getting out of my bed, I was thinking that it was lovely that he was still alive. I am not trying to be ghoulish, and I am not making any of this up, it's true. Around half a day later I read some saddening posts on Facebook, that Kif Kif has passed on. This is a great loss. Although I only got to meet him on a handful of occasions, I was a huge supporter of his life's work.

I first heard Here & Now, rather predictably after hearing the Alternative TV live album, released on Deptford Fun City records.

When World Domination Enterprises hit my orbit in the mid-eighties, I soon got to see the band, in fact I saw World Domination Enterprises several times from the mid-eighties. The first time was at the Fulham Greyhound with Blyth Power and Patrik Fitzgerald I think.

World Domination were immensely good with their lo-fi-bass heavy-gutter-punk-blues played excruciatingly loud. The 7" single; 'Asbestos Lead Asbestos' was an absolutely brilliant starting point for the band.

I looked backwards into Kif Kif's musical journey and I landed on Kif Kif's pre-World Domination Enterprises band, simply called 012. I bought the 012 album which was released on Flicknife Records and I was chuffed to hear the original version of 'Asbestos Lead Asbestos', slowed down and reggae-fied. Marvellous. The sleeve artwork for the 012 album was done by Wilf, who had done all the artwork on the records released by The Mob, the Mob being one of my favourite bands growing up.

I dug further and got a little bit down the Fuck Off Records / Weird Noise Tapes rabbit hole, buying various lo-fi cassettes, albums (Androids of Mu is a good starting point), and 7" singles including the 'Weird Noise' EP which featured 012, as well as a song by the Sell Outs. I was later surprised to learn hat The Sell Outs had Mark from the Mob, Steve Lake from Zounds and JB all as members of that band. The song that the Sell Outs showcase on this EP is to put it gently, not great, but that was the whole point of the song so...

A lot of these cassette tapes and records (as well as a load of my already purchased Alternative TV / Mark Perry 7" records) were recorded at Street Level studios, a recording studio which was the beating heart of all weird music in the seventies and eighties. The studio was co-owned by Kif Kif and Grant Showbiz.

Keith was a visionary and unbeknown to him, he was also an inspiration to me personally. May Kif Kif fly high and meet up again with his soul-force, his lover throughout the decades (also sadly passed on in 2007) Suze Da Blooze.

The words below regarding this free tour with Alternative TV by Keith 'Tha Missile', bassist and sometime vocalist for Here & Now, part of a large history of Here and Now on the psychedelicbabymag blog.

Here and Now, was co-founded in London by Keith Dobson and José Gross and Franco in March 1974. By 1975 the line-up featured Dobson/Kif Kif Le Batteur (drums/vocals), Steffe Sharpstrings (guitar), Paul “Twink” Noble (synths) and Keith 'Tha Missile' (bass/vocals).

Q/ Tell us about the split with Alternative TV, ‘What You See… Is What You Are’.

A/ Well, we’d just done a tour with Mark Perry’s Alternative TV, and he’d just set up an indie label – Deptford Fun City – with Rough Trade – one of the bigger indie labels at the time, so between us, we thought it’d be nice to mark the event with an album – one side ATV, and one side us. But there’d been some confusion over tail-in and tail-out on the master tapes at the pressing plant, so the first thousand copies had Here & Now pressed backwards! We managed to recall half of them, but the other 500 had already been sold, so they’re now record collectors’ prized possessions! The tour was an experiment – a collaboration between the two bands, one Space Punk, and one out and out Punk, both of whom had enormous respect for each other – but to begin with, the audiences just didn’t get it – the hippies would leave the hall while ATV were on, and the more punky ones would leave when Here & Now were on, but gradually, the penny dropped – these were both really good bands, and by the end of the tour, both crowds were staying to watch both bands, so I guess you could say it was a success – there was a cross-pollination between both bands and audiences – which was what we’d been hoping for all along… But a great little album!

Q/ Were there any bands that haven’t really recorded much, but are worth mentioning?

A/ So many. If you mean bands who supported us, there are a few who spring to mind. Poisoned Electric Head, Zounds, Wizards of Twiddly, Dangerous Girls, The Astronauts, The Mob, Danny and the Dressmakers (Graham who went on to form 808 State) and One Eyed God to name but a few.