END OF CAMPAIGN
A huge vote of thanks to all you pledgers – you’ve done a fabulous job and even though we didn’t reach the figure needed to remake the Sharkmobile, your pledges will enable us to promote our new tour and album.
Thanks to the Crowdfunder campaign the increased awareness of the band’s revival and social media profile has been extremely positive. This has been a sideways issue we hadn’t considered until our project was underway.
SHARKS current line-up is Chris Spedding, Steve (Snips) Parsons, Paul Cook, Nick Judd and Toshi Ogawa. If you would like to keep in touch with SHARKS please check our facebook page, for tour details etc.
1 day left
Last minute film footage - if you don't pledge now we'll send these guys round!
Sharks In Your House from GBGG Productions LLC on Vimeo.
Shaky Kane update
We're loving the way things are going with the artwork, it's looking great, can't wait to see it finished.
Only two days left to crowdfund - thanks for your top class pledging.
5 DAYS TO GO news
Firstly and most importantly our continued and grateful thanks to all those who have pledged and are still pledging.
You may recall – WE WANT OUR CAR BACK! And with assistance from Rockstars Cars we plan to reconstruct it in exact detail, but instead of ocean blue this one will be blood red – and here’s a glimpse into the future with a photoshopped pic from the past! SHARKS
Update six - FINS and TEETH
With only 6 days to go, our two new rewards, offer you the chance to own a piece of the legendary Sharkmobile. Specialist company Rockstars Cars have agreed to mould, to scale fibre glass reconstructions of both the teeth from the front grill of the original car and the distinctive fin from the roof (based on photos of the original Pontiac Le Mans).
The teeth will be offered at £500 per tooth (limited edition of 12) and the roof fin will need a pledge of £1,800.00 (limited edition of 5)
No home would be complete without at least one of these pop art memorabilia masterpieces.
Each item will be signed by both Spedding and Snips
And if Damien Hirst wants to make an impression at his local Tesco carpark…
…the car is still available
Car Crash Tapes artwork
Preview of Shaky Kane’s artwork for SHARKS limited offer Car Crash Tapes - album exclusive to our Crowdfunder project, which is in its last week!
Project update 4: 6th August
Almost FIN, as the French people say. Only 9 days to go but this final period will be the real test of our campaign and help determine the future of the band.
The sideways effect of this campaign has been significant: awareness of a Sharks revival is growing daily and with your valuable pledges we have thankfully raised enough money to reimburse the manufacturing costs of all our pledge rewards and Crowdfunder’s well-earned percentage.
BUT
As we stand that leaves just over £600 in the kitty to promote the new Sharks album Killers of the Deep and unfortunately decent record pluggers/PR specialists are not cheap to hire. Team Sharks want to give the new album everything it needs to survive and prosper in a competitive arena. It deserves to be heard.
Undaunted we plunge into the end of the campaign with new rewards offers and an amusing video featuring Chris and Steve telling you about the offer to have them play at your home in return for a £500 pledge. There have only been 2 takers out there so far for the ‘home visit’ and we consider this to be our premium offer.
Unless, of course, somebody wants to buy an outrageous pop art masterpiece car.
One of our brand new pledge rewards is the File Under Subconscious album recorded in the 90’s which features TV/Film themes written and produced by Steve. The guest soloists include guitarists Zoot Horn Rollo, Mick Taylor and Guy Barker (the man with the golden horn) plus one Chris Spedding. It’s a wild and whacky piece of work and we finally managed to find the last 70 copies which will be signed by Steve and Chris and be available for a £10 pledge from today.
Bargain.
Further new rewards will be announced on Monday and further visual delights will be bulletined throughout the week.
Over at the crossroads a Sharkmobile is waiting like a cool metal ghost.
Be in it to the finish!
Tim Pope Sharks film treatment - Return of the Japanese Shark Gods
Project update: Monday 1st August
We are beginning week 3 on the goodfoot as James Brown advises and many thanks to those of you who have already pledged. There is still a long way to go, but with help from friends, media and lots of hard work from Team Sharks we are starting to see daylight on our secondary goal of having a decent promotional budget for the album.
Of course we are still hoping that someone will buy the car outright. The chance to recreate and eventually own a pop art masterpiece from 1973 doesn’t come along everyday – Charles Saatchi are you listening?
One of week two’s highlights was a request from someone who wanted to know if they could film Spedding and Snips playing in their home (one of the most interesting rewards and an offer never to be repeated) so that they could have the film played at their funeral.
We were delighted to say yes, it would be an honour.
‘Great is he who pleasures this difficult life’ Austin Osman Spare
Speaking of great artists, Shaky Kane is now hard at work creating a masterpiece for the cover of the Crowdfunder exclusive Car Crash Tapes album, 3 teasers of tracks from the new Killer of the Deep album are hosted on Sharks official website along with a sneak peek at Tim Pope’s hilarious treatment for the documentary film and behind the scenes Team Sharks are Tweeting like the dawn chorus.
There is still enough time to get on board the imaginary Sharkmobile as it gradually becomes a reality.
Be in it or be square.
14 days to go
Project update: Monday 25 July
First of all - a big thank you to everyone who's pledged and shared the page so far!
Despite the best efforts of Team Sharks, with terrific help from Trebuchet Magazine, Penny Black Music, Paul Gorman, Alleycats Film, Viva La Rock and Rockstars Cars, and everyone who’s backed us so far, at the moment it doesn’t look like we’ll reach our full target.
Unless someone rich and inspired (Charles Saatchi are you listening?) buys the car outright we are unlikely to raise enough money to bring it back to life.
But all is not lost!
If we don’t have the car to draw attention to the band’s new album and UK gigs then we definitely need a promotion budget for press, radio and TV. It would be great to see the new line-up on the ‘Later… with Jools Holland’ show for instance but there are hundreds of bands (old and new) out there all competing for a tiny number of mainstream media slots, and quality promotion needs a healthy budget.
So…
…there are still 3 weeks to go. If you want to believe in the impossible like we do, then check out our exclusive (and time limited) pledge rewards and tell everyone you know that fins have been spotted breaking through the water.
With or without the car make no mistake: Sharks are back.
Who are Sharks? And what is a Sharkmobile?
Sharks is a rock band formed by Free bassist Andy Fraser and legendary guitarist Chris Spedding in 1973. They were signed to Island records, promoted as a Supergroup and travelled in a customized Pontiac Le Mans. It was a thing of strange beauty in the beige world of the early nineteen seventies.
Then Chris Spedding crashed it into a tree on an icy road while driving back from a gig in Cleethorpes.
After that things went downhill.
Andy Fraser left the band straight after the crash. His replacement Busta Cherry Jones was also a brilliant bass player and stage performer. Both men have now passed away.
The band’s second line up attracted greedy managers, ridiculous platform shoes and avaricious groupies while performing some of the most thrilling live shows of the pre-punk era which impressed and influenced members of both The Clash and The Sex Pistols.
"My favourite bands before I joined The Clash were Mott the Hoople and Sharks" - Mick Jones
A successful American tour was followed by a another break up, leaving only Spedding and singer Steve ‘Snips’ Parsons who recruited a new rhythm section and began work on a 3rd album. It was produced by yet another great bass player: John Entwistle of The Who. But Island had had enough, only 7 tracks were completed before the record company pulled the plug. After 2 tumultuous years Sharks were dead in the water.
Until now.
Why we need your help.
42 years later the band has reformed with original members Chris Spedding (72) and Steve Parsons (65). They are complemented by Nick Judd, keyboard player from the second line up, Toshi Ogawa on bass and Paul Cook (from the Professionals and the Sex Pistols) on drums.
With the help of friends and fans they have recorded an incredible new album with startling cover art by comic book genius Shaky Kane.
It will be released in September 2016 and supported by a UK tour. Legendary director Tim Pope (in association with Alley Cats Film and TV production company) is filming the band as they cross over from the analogue to the digital age for a documentary feature film entitled Return of the Japanese Shark Gods.
Now they want their car back.
In association with Rockstars Cars they are planning to reconstruct the vehicle in exact detail but instead of ocean blue this car will be blood red! It will cost between 22 and 25 thousand pounds to buy and lovingly customize.
You can even buy the car outright as part of our offer scheme.
Our rewards - exclusive album offer
In order to raise this amount Sharks have assembled an exciting and unique package of gifts and offers for donors.
Many of the offers are based around an exclusive limited edition album titled 'The Car Crash Tapes' featuring 7 never-before-released Sharks tracks produced by John Entwistle of The Who. You can listen to a sample track here.
Along with these newly mastered tracks the album will also contain rare live recordings from 1974 and will have a cover image of the crashed Sharkmobile with its teeth in a tree by comic book wizard Shaky Kane. The tour poster will also feature artwork by Shaky Kane (based on the above image).
Chris and Steve along with Team Sharks (blessings to you all) have been working hard under the radar for 9 months to bring Sharks back to life. A brand new Sharkmobile with Chris Spedding at the wheel would be a totem for the success of the current line-up, the return of an iconic vehicle to the custom car world, be a magnet for social media and a wonderful thing to behold.
You might wonder if such a vehicle could be a severe danger to roadside trees, but Chris’s driving skills have improved considerably since he crashed the original car back in 1974. Fingers firmly crossed!
About Rockstars Cars
The Rockstars Cars Project is an archive, soon-to-be book and documentary about Rockstars and their cars, that also undertakes projects with real cars!
Rockstars Cars have completed 40+ interviews solely on the subject of Rockstars and their cars. The photo archive now stands at over 16,000 and is growing daily. Many of the images are from the artists' private collections, including old cine film of their cars from beginning of their careers.
Interviews so far include Andy Fraser (who talks at length about the Sharks car) Suzi Quatro, Tony Iommi, Marky Ramone, Ginger Baker, Nick Mason, Andy Fairweather Low, Terry Reid, Frank Allen, Rick Buckler, Alan Whitehead, Chas Hodges, Frank Allen, John Coghlan from Quo, as well as Don Powell and Dave Hill from Slade to name a few. Please see the website for some rough unedited clips, and as you will see, you don’t have to be a pure enthusiast to participate.
The first introduction into Rockstarscars in 3D was a Beatles inspired piece, and there are more in the pipeline, so keep in touch with them on Facebook and Twitter @RockstarsCars.
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