LOT 008
That Fucking Tank/Grabba Grabba Tape split

Format: 7-inch black vinyl, screenprinted sleeve

Band(s):That Fucking Tank (Leeds), Grabba Grabba Tape (Madrid)

Release date:April 2005

Run: 500 copies

Notes: 'In 2004 That Fucking Tank had been doing a lot more gigging and the EP on Jealous had been released. So it was that a few days after returning from the KY/TAV tour James, myself and Moz (then known as the world’s friendliest soundman but now probably better known as the keyboard player in Quack Quack and Pifco, drummer in The Declining Winter, Two Minute Noodles and Chops amongst others) made the long drive down to Spain for a 10-day tour. The tour itself was a bit of a fuck-up, we hadn’t booked it ourselves and poor communications between us, Ian of Jealous and the Spanish tour booker meant that a lot of the gigs were cancelled, or, as it turned out, had never been booked. Regardless we had an amazing time and met some excellent bands and people including a synth-punk duo from Madrid called Grabba Grabba Tape who would feature on the next OBA release.

Lolo of Grabba Grabba Tape had been incredibly generous in hosting us in Madrid for two days on the tour, organising two consecutive gigs, one of which Grabba Grabba Tape played at. Lolo also ran a label with his lovely girlfriend Ingrid called Gssh Gssh which seemed to have a similar approach to OBA but with more impressive screen-printing skills. We had had such a nice time hanging out with the GGT lads and Ingrid, had enjoyed their band so much and felt enough affinity between our respective ‘labels’ that a split release was almost inevitable. When we returned home to Leeds the wheels were put in motion for LOT008.

In December 2004 Tank had also been doing some more recording: a one-day session in East Leeds with Moz following the Euro tour with Poltergroom. Two of the tracks from this session ‘Andrew’ and ‘James’ became the Tank side of the split with Grabba Grabba Tape, LOT008. In a reverse of our division of responsibilities with Decavity for the Humanfly/Kill Yourself split this time we took care of the record production and Gssh Gssh did the artwork. We booked a UK tour for Tank and brought Grabba Grabba Tape over to join in the fun. They flew over and we picked them up from Heathrow Airport and assembled the 500 records in the van on the way to the first gig in London. Lolo had made a stunning job of the oversized sleeves and I have a recollection that we had hand stamped the labels to indicate whose side was whose. The copy I have doesn’t have any marks on so maybe we just left it up to the listener to work it our for themselves?'