Artery were compelling watching. Mick and the Artery frontman loved to shock us with their entwinements on stage. The temptation is to be ironic about the shocked thing but I think I was a n bit shocked at the time.
They were not slavish seekers of the hip which was engaging. I base this on the fact that they would seek out occasionally a band called Long Lankin that played monstered traditional music. Lankin played gigs alongside the Sheffield indie new wavers when it could – the tension was magnificent on occasion. Free form sax over a Breton clog dance sorted the adults from the children. But the Artery boys came along from time to time. their support began after Long Lankin played on the same bill as them sometime in the late 70s I think. i was in Long Lankin if you hadn't guessed. I was Trevor Dooley in those days.
Trev, I remember you running round the stage at the Leadmill opening weekend, desperately trying to find a mic which was on. I have a recording of it somewhere, and you can hear the sax quietly in the background until you found Ceri's (??) vocal mic!
Do you remember the write up of Artery, Long Lankin and Earth Tales in the Union magazine, Darts? Half a page on Artery, then 'Long Lankin were folk, and Earth Tales were awful'! I joined Earth Tales in 1979 and we still play now.