Honk Records

Brontosaurus (view the minisite)

It was 1996 when Crawford Baxter, Buck Saunders and Conner Hammel first stumbled across each other in a dental surgery in Weston Super Mare. Although Crawford and Buck were just embarking on corrective surgery for ‘crowded teeth’, Conner was months down the line and could offer light at the end of the tunnel.

The band spent their early years as a wedding outfit, mixing funk and soul covers with some of their own music, such as ‘Pig’ – which often offended the less liberated wedding goers. Brontosaurus got the hang of performing when drunk on free beer and enlisted sax legend Phil Tufnel and bass connoisseur Hilton Grove to help them out when they performed live.

The album, ‘The Monkey and the Whale’ was completed in 2006 and contains material written in many debauched, late-night sessions over the decade, prior to recording.

A narrative story following Ron’s quest to discover whether or not a monkey has ever touched a whale, weaves it’s way through the album and was superbly executed by Zak "Hairy?" Watts.

The band tasted the sweet smell of success when they were commissioned by AQA to write a song called ‘Is AQA man or machine?’ which featured on a pretty crap compilation album. Music lovers were given the opportunity to vote for their favourite track, with the winning band hauling in a cash reward of £5000.

Despite producing the only good song on the album, Brontosaurus lost out to an awful song by some other band. The band weren’t bitter but the rejection did shake the confidence of the musicians and led to a brief mental breakdown of Connor Hammel. During his time in Park Royal Mental Health Centre, London he received regular visits from Buck and Crawford who helped get him back on track and discharged in the spring of 2008.

Brontosaurus have now ditched the wedding circuit and are now focusing on 40th birthday party celebrations and their current booking is looming ever closer in 2013 – the year after London writes history by hosting the Olympic Games.

Talk of the second album is met with averted eye contact and general twitching. Material has been written but whether the band can survive and tolerate each other during the recording process is yet to be decided.



Dec 2006 The Monkey and the Whale	Nov 2008 Is AQA Man or Machine?	Brontosaurus t-shirt

Brontosaurus single "Is AQA man or machine?"
with previously
unreleased b-side

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BRONTOSAURUS MINISITE