WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF
SKURVY THE CLOWN!!!

"You'll never do it"

It started on a dare. Chuckles and I were on the steps of the fine arts building at Brevard Community College (BCC) hanging out with the arty crowd that gathered there between classes. We kept talking about putting together a Punk band, just for shits and giggles. We already jammed with this friend of ours named Gregg who more or less paid us to be in his band. Not much mind you, but there are worse ways to make less money. So, one day we were talking about this purported punk band, and the guitar player for Chukles band at the time, said, "You'll never do it and even if you do, you will never get a gig." He was referring to the few weeks I had left before my contract with the Navy was to take effect. In that moment, Skurvy was born. The name came later, but the attitude took hold.

What's in a name?

We had this bass player named Jason Walker, whom no one remembers fondly, jamming with us at Gregg's house. He became our defacto bass player. Too much effort to look elsewhere. He didn't add much to the band except a few songs and worked really well as our verbal punching bag. We had been kicking around names for a few days and nothing stood out. Gregg had suggested Pogo the Clown, after John Wayne Gacy, but it didn't feel right, despite all the children stashed in the crawl space at Gregg's house.

Now, neither one of can recall exactly who said it first, but we both laughed. Deep full bodied laughs when one of us said "Skurvy the Clown". Chuckles and I were at the Kentucky Fried Chicken drive thru in Merritt Island where I was attempting unsuccessfully to hook up with a girl who worked there.

Oddly, enough, we're all pretty sick of telling that story, so if you ask, don't be surprised if the questions not deferred to another band member who'll say, "Chuckles tells it better than I do."

Earth Day/We sound like old REM

Ten days after the dare, we had a show! Earth Day at BCC. I found the guy who was in charge of organizing it and got us tacked onto the bill at the last minute. I lied I said we did some songs about the environment, that we sounded like old REM and a little like early U2. We were the last ones to go on. Everybody got a twenty minute set. We played ten songs. The set list was as follows: