Steve Took's Horns was not just another of Steve Took's many projects in his gloriously ill-fated (and too often overlooked) solo career, it was also the first band together of Trevor Thoms and Ermano Ghisio- Erba, or as ICU fans would know them, Judge Trev and Dino Ferari.

The group recorded a session of three brilliant studio tracks in November '77 before going on to perform a gig on 18th June 1978 at the Roundhouse, as part of "Nik Turner's Bohemian Love-In", which Trev recalls as being "a lacklustre gig. Technically it was okay, but the spirit didn't come out, it didn't impress people."

Although paying audience member have more positive memories, to trained observers, especially potential backers, the set would have told them everything they felt they knew about Steve Took already. For Steve himself, it was a depressing enough experience for him to pull the plug on the band shortly after they came offstage.

However the potency and talent within the band had made too much of an impression on those close to Steve Took's Horns for the story to end there. A fresh carcass will always lure scavengers and sure enough, Nik Turner, having first drafted Ermano/Dino into Sphynx for a live festival LP recorded that August, went on in 1979 to incorporate the Trev/Dino partnership into the new Inner City Unit.

That someone had salvaged his old band and turned it into a thriving unit was not lost on Steve – ICU band-mate Steve Pond recalls Took turning up to group rehearsals trying to blag his way into getting work with the band.

This approach was not entirely unsuccessful as Took bagged himself guest slots performing his material at ICU's early shows at "Meanwhile Gardens," over by the Westway in Notting Hill Gate an old musical haunt for Took and indeed many hippy and later punk acts throughout the 70's and well into the 80s.

Even more prominent was the Took's guest vocal on ICU's cover of Slow Down at their gig at Camden Palace, formerly the Music Machine, on 16th June 1980, the bootleg tape of which was (until the recent uncovering of a tape of one of ICU/SPT's Meanwhile Gardens gigs) the only traced live recording of Steve post-Tyrannosaurus Rex.

INNER CITY UNIT - STEVE TOOK GUESTING CAMDEN PALACE16TH JUNE 1980
TOOK 'RANT' TRANSCRIPT
No sound files yet as it's still on tape.