The Insect Circus

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The Grasshopper's Green Herbarian Band:
The True Story

The beginning

It was of course in October 1959 that Jonny Grasshopper, Derek Bugg and Dave ‘Scratcher’ Cricket first exploded onto the British music scene, with their smash hit ‘Six-legged Shuffle’. The sound was heavily reminiscent of traditional skiffle fused with the influence of their church background and immersion in English folk. Jonny and Derek had first met aged 14 at their local church youth band at St Paul’s Church on Hills Road, Cambridge. Jonny played the banjo to Derek’s tambourine, and although they mainly provided the accompaniment to hymns and religious songs, the effect that this period had on their later work should not be underestimated. The St Paul’s Band was really where the young ‘Hoppers were to learn their trade as musicians, and echoes of the anthemic metre and liturgical lyric of hymns was to creep into even their more psychedelic recordings such as the inimitable ‘In Us Confide’.

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Early years in Cambridge

At 16, Jonny and Derek began to distance themselves from the church scene, discovering a nascent Cambridge music scene that centred on jam sessions at The Mill and The Portland Arms. It was at The Portland Arms in early 1958 that the friends met Dave ‘Scratcher’ Cricket, a talented bassist of the Genus Gryllus. Dave was some two years older but looking for an opportunity to make some music with other hip young insects. The trio would meet up weekly to enjoy older local jazz musicians jamming, notably Sid Barrett, the drummer who was to give his name to Roger Keith Barrett, and well-known keys player Twinkle Malone. Their shared passion for improvisation as well as their rich musical backgrounds (Scratcher and Jonny’s fathers had both competed in the Cicada Solo Chirping Competitions of the early fifties) meant that forming a band was the most natural path for the trio to take. After some deliberation over instrumentation, it was decided that Jonny Grasshopper would lead the band on guitar, vocals and, periodically, fiddle, hurdy-gurdy, and rear-legged chirp, whilst Derek would develop the percussion skills that he had learnt with the church band, and Scratcher would stick to bass, both double and electric. Always prone to eccentricity, Scratcher, a field cricket, proposed that the threesome should practice in the open air, by the Mill Pond or on Grantchester Meadows. Somewhat compelled by a lack of any other performance space, but equally seduced by the idea of allowing the Cambridge countryside to affect their song-writing, Jonny and Derek agreed. Dave Gilmour, who grew up by the Meadows, has often said that he could hear the sounds of those early sessions when he played in his back garden as a lad. It is also believed that a thirteen-year old Roger Barrett encountered the band as he trundled back from Grantchester on his bicycle, and that this chance meeting was something of a musical epiphany which encouraged the budding painter to focus his efforts on learning to play the guitar. Whatever the truth, it is nevertheless undeniable that the ‘Hoppers sound and their Cambridge roots were to have a profound effect on early Floyd work. In fact, the video for Arnold Layne can be seen to draw directly on the ‘Hoppers video for In Us Confide – the ‘Hoppers’ creation sees the zany threesome running haphazardly around the Botanic Gardens in Cambridge.

Hamburg

Jonny Grasshopper, though undoubtedly a most consummate musician, quickly realised that he did not possess the business acumen necessary to propel the trio to stardom. And, after a long search, Robert ‘Bob’ Mantis was appointed to the post.


Bob Mantis, pictured here in 1959, reclines on a branch in the Botanic Gardens.

Mantis had an eye for publicity, and having heard about the great rock ‘n’ roll scene in Hamburg that was to launch The Beatles career, sent the group over to Germany for a six month stint on the student club circuit. It was there that Jonny penned ‘Six-legged Shuffle’, ‘Don’t Bug Me (I’m only trying to sing)’ and ‘Aphid Rock’ which together formed the unforgettable Chrysalis EP. An LP of the same name swiftly followed, with the two records together being dubbed “the most important debut in rock history” (Melody Maker). Under the headline THE PUPATING’S OVER: THE GRASSHOPPERS EMERGE FROM THE CHRYSALIS, the famous music magazine suggested that the ‘Hoppers’ achievement eclipsed even Elvis Presley’s Sun Records recording sessions.

The early ‘60s

The early sixties were dominated by the ‘Hoppers upbeat, folk-infused sound, and at one point, in April 1964, three of their tracks occupied the top spots of the Top Forty hit parade. They successfully broke the American market later that summer, taking the Billboard 100 by storm with their seminal LP Entophilia and staying at Number 1 for seventeen weeks straight with the classic double A-side ‘Shake Your Antennae’ and ‘Make Way for the May Nymphs’.
Despite their already huge success, In Us Confide, the smash third album, marked a real sea-change in the song writing style of Grasshopper, Cricket and Bugg. Labelled by many music journalists “the record that invented psychedelia”, the 1965 offering was to be a huge influence on Syd Barrett and the recently formed Pink Floyd, reportedly prompting them to cover ‘(I’m a) King Bee’, the 1957 Slim Harpo blues track, in homage to the hottest insects in London.

The band’s success in 1965 continued apace. 1966 was to be the ‘Hoppers’ year – they were at the height of their fame and everybody wanted a piece of the action. Riding high on the back of the success of In Us Confide, all three members were regularly snapped at London’s hippest night spots, and Bugg was even rumoured to be dating Twiggy, the stick-insect thin supermodel who was known as ‘The Face of ‘66’. Geoff Hurst was later to declare with a certain wry humour that if it wasn’t for The Grasshopper’s Green Herbarian Band, England would not have won the World Cup that summer. “To be honest, it was the uplifting sound of the crowd chanting ‘In Us Confide’ that made that third goal happen in the 98th minute. The atmosphere was electric, and the linesman who called it a goal was clearly a ‘Hoppers fan too!”

The post-1966 decline

A live acoustic session at Maida Vale Studios in August 1966 lead to the beautifully stripped down sounds of The Grasshoppers: Unbugged EP, but when it came to promoting the release, it was clear that the strain of the band’s success was beginning to take its toll. Jonny refused to do any TV interviews, and was famously quoted as claiming, “We’re bigger than Arachnids right now”.

Mantis, by now topping the Arthropods 100 rich list, became concerned about the boys’ growing lethargy, fully aware of the potentially disastrous consequences that a break-up would have on his own career. A cancelled Earl’s Court appearance coupled with their increasingly erratic attendance at interviews fuelled rumours about the band’s well-being. Bugg, ever the dandy of the band, embarked upon a string of high profile affairs and eventually hooked up with Jimi Hendrix and his entourage on a tour of Britain in early 1967. His party lifestyle became an embarrassment for Mantis, who labelled him a liability and hired various session musicians to take his place at the last few gigs the ‘Hoppers did over the winter of 66/67. After a lengthy stint in rehab, Bugg eventually revived his career by providing the voiceover for the popular long-running children’s cartoon, Eric the Earwig and Friends, from 1979 to 1990. Before this, however, it was the quirky Scratcher who was the first to make a definitive move away from the band, electing to join a meditative hippy commune in the Scottish Highlands that grew oversized organic vegetables. He is later believed to have retired to the Isle of Skye with a tree cricket called Sandra, and had several larvae

Tragedy strikes

Jonny was the only band member whose disappearance from the limelight went entirely undocumented. One day he had been the iconic poster boy of London’s swinging sixties, and the next he faded entirely into obscurity. On March 12th, 1967, Bob Mantis made the tragic announcement that shook the world. The night before, he had found Jonny unconscious on the bathroom floor of his Ritz suite surrounded by sleeping tablets, and attempts by paramedics to resuscitate him had come too late. Grasshopper was not survived by any family members, and Mantis became the sole executor of his estate according to a short clause that had been added latterly to his will. No photos were ever published of that fateful evening, and Jonny was soon written off by many as just another rock ‘n’ roll casualty. Appearances, however are not always as they seem…

The Tuareg exile

It was long believed by die-hard ‘Hoppers fans that Jonny’s death had been faked, and that he was really in hiding, preferring solitude to the relentless glare of the public eye. These suspicions proved well-founded, with Jonny’s return to Britain for The City Wakes comeback show. Shortly after his reappearance, Jonny wrote an article for Q in which he claimed to have spent the last 20 years living with the Tuareg people of Saharan Africa. Disenchanted with the pace of life in London, he had embarked upon a pilgrimage to spend time with his learned cousins, a swarm of short-horned locusts who live in harmony alongside the nomadic Tuareg. Initially intended to be a brief, restful migration, the pilgrimage had soon turned into a new way of life for the beleaguered star; it was here that he discovered Islam and the belief in Kel Asuf, the spirits of nature, as well as becoming profoundly immersed in indigenous Takamba music and Afro-Berber rhythms.

The exact date that Jonny’s exile period began remains the single most contentious fact in all recent biographies of the group. Most believe that he left in early 1967, and that Mantis publicised his supposed ‘suicide’ in order to capitalise on his absence. Others maintain that he was sporadically spotted in and around London and Cambridge right up until 1975. The debate has centred on the inconsistent testimonies of his many contemporaries and acquaintances living through the heady late sixties in London, and the rather mysterious case of The Peaple’s 1967 release, Capt. Cicadella’s Insect Circus Band.

Sightings

Saul McHearty, lead guitarist with The Peaple, is adamant that Jonny Grasshopper could not have been present at the recording of the band’s opus. Greg (Clap Hands) Happison is less convinced, stating in an interview in ’69 that “you know, truth be known, everybody played on that record, and among the sitar players, session guitarists, London Philharmonic Orchestra and whoever else, I wouldn’t be surprised if Jonny put in an appearance. He was like that, just always kinda in the right place at the right time. If he wasn’t, it certainly seemed like he was, in spirit, y’know.” A slightly more lucid account is given by producer Dill Louse, who described seeing a mysterious insect who looked “like a grasshopper, only, sort of, different, more…I dunno…locusty”, loitering outside Abbey Road during the final mixing in May 1967.

The City Wakes would like to appeal to anyone who believes they may have seen, or come into contact with, Jonny during the period of 1966 – 1975 to come forward. Jonny himself has remained vague on the exact date of his departure from Britain, side-stepping the question when asked by Q: “those years were so happening, that with all the groovy stuff going on no one really had time to keep a diary. Me and Keith Richards met once at an early Stones gig near Cambridge I remember…maybe he can tell you more?”

The demise of Mantis

In November 1991, Robert P. Mantis, owner of the rights to the Grasshopper fortune and by now an ageing international playboy wanted for numerous financial crimes (including extortion and tax evasion), briefly became world news once more. His luxury yacht, The Lady Bird, was reportedly found abandoned near the Bermuda Triangle, and Mantis’ body was later discovered when it washed up onto the coast of Caribbean island Anguilla. A verdict of accidental drowning was recorded at a low-key inquest held in Florida, and he was buried in the state cemetery. With no living relatives, and the miraculous re-emergence of Jonny Grasshopper, it seems that the original members of the group will once again be in receipt of royalties.