By Bob Klanac
(Betamaxx Members, Left to Right: Jaq Inglis, drums, Sookie Mei, bass, backing vocals, Mark Ordas, guitar, backing vocals, Kathy Quayle, vocals, Simon Goodwin, keyboard, vocals.)
About six years ago, a friend of Simon Goodwin gave him a nudge with the idea of starting a Velvet Underground cover band.
Fresh out of the London theatre scene, Goodwin shrugged and started putting together what became Venus in Furs. It was fun, but after a few jam sessions, they put the band on hold. Soon after, an invitation to play at a friend’s summer party brought them back together.
A funny thing happened at the party. The crowd loved them. And the band was wowed by the response.
“I was surprised,” Goodwin laughs. “We just played some private parties, but we were just goofing around.”
It was all just goofing around until Goodwin and others in the band realized they had something.
Bassist Sookie Mei recalls that at some point, “We were just like, jamming in someone’s basement and then decided to try and make it go as a band. And we ended up expanding the repertoire to be more 70s and 80s stuff.”
Goodwin adds that “It’s a lot of work to go through from pulling together some songs for a party to being able to do a full night’s material in a bar.”
(Photo Credit: Paul Latorre.)
But work they did, going from a year as a four-piece to a five-piece before adding trained theatre performer Kathy Quayle as their frontwoman. As a singer, Quayle is incandescent, her limbs flying in time to the music with every moment rehearsed and every moment real. She is the visual lynchpin that, to borrow a quip from The Big Lebowski, ties the band together.
Before Quayle grabbed the lead microphone, Goodwin admits, “It was kind of difficult for me to be the only singer to carry out the whole thing.”
“So, having Kathy come and take a bit of a share of the vocals? It’s awesome, she’s awesome. And everyone loves her.”
Mei doubles down on what Quayle brought to the band. “It’s great to have a front woman who’s not behind an instrument, you know, who’s engaged more with the audience. And she’s dynamic, and great to look at, you know?”
So now they had a band, but given that their repertoire had drifted from its Velvets roots, they had to come up with a different name. They had started with Venus in Furs as their nom de plume, but the focus had shifted, and they needed to find another name to hang on their shingle.
Mei recalls they came up with a ton of band names, and all of them were taken already.
“We were trying to think of something that conveyed the 80s, with a nostalgic feel, but also cool. So, we decided on Betamaxx with the extra X.”
“That was one of the ones we thought wasn’t taken, but then it turned out there’s actually a DJ out of Poland and a band in Southern California that had the same name!”
Mei laughs and adds, “So we’re just not original, which is fitting for a cover band!”
Betamaxx’s focus on 80’s music wasn’t accidental. Not entirely.
Goodwin admits, “I kind of pushed it that way.”
“Well, because we were doing, like, late 70s, early 80s songs, I kind of said, well, let’s, let’s do a new wave thing because there’s no one else really doing it. I looked around, and there was only one other band covering that niche.”
“Besides, it was the music of our youth for the most part. And the band very happily went along with it.”
So, with a set list of three, the newly dubbed Betamaxx set out to do some gigging around town.
“I think the first was the Richmond Hotel about three or four years ago,” recalls Goodwin, “and we’ve just kind of grown since then.”
Goodwin understates things a tad. Betamaxx shows at the Richmond are wonderfully intimate, with a roiling crowd of dancers pushing the edge of the dance floor until even those at the crowded tables are bouncing along with the relentless beat.
“Yeah, I am surprised,” admits Goodwin. “It’s lovely, you know. We just kind of, you know, found a niche as I suggested, and uh, you know, there’s a lot of people that are in our kind of age range.”
Betamaxx is a generational rallying call, a gathering of the tribes, people who have their lives back after some years of establishing a career or family.
The band explores big hits by The Cure, the B-52s, and obscure one-hit wonders by Alphaville (Forever Young) and Peter Schilling (Major Tom), former 80s earworms that hit the nostalgia note before they hit the cerebellum. You all know these songs, whether as an obsessive fan or just having been an 80s kid.
Mei agrees, adding, “I believe people love the music of their youth, and the 80s were a huge decade for music. People of all ages seem to enjoy 80s music.”
“We’ve got people our age and older who love it. We’ve even got young 20-somethings who are into Betamaxx, and it’s the 80s music that is the key. The second thing is, we’ve got a really great band.”
According to Goodwin, it’s not just a coincidence that they’ve grown as a band. It’s also an attention to detail that he’s pushed on the band.
“We work really hard to sound like the recordings, the original recordings, because I think people really respond to that quality. I think that helps.”
Mei notes that their success has been recognized in a somewhat tangible fashion, given that Betamaxx snapped up the Best Cover Band honours at last year’s Forest City London Music Awards.
“Yeah,” she says sheepishly, “we’ve definitely risen up to London greatness!”
Mei muses, “You know, it’s wonderful to look out into the audience and see people from all different walks of life. You know, we’ve got young people, we’ve got various people identifying with different genders, and you know, working class, white collar workers, or whatever.”
As for what’s next, Goodwin concedes that with the band all having day jobs, it’s really more about the fun than the money.
“People have asked us if we’d like to go to Windsor or wherever, but we’re not really interested,” he says flatly.
“We just kind of take gigs of convenience or anything we feel like we want to play.”
This summer, those gigs include Pride London’s mainstage, Ribfest and an upcoming slot at Old South’s Wortley Roadhouse.
“We’re also doing a Hamilton Road block party and something for the Forest City Music London awards as well,” Goodwin explains. “So, we’ve got a lot of little kind of showcase shows like that over the summer. And that’s right up our alley. That’s exactly the kind of stuff we want to do.”
Upcoming Betamaxx Shows:
July 4: Wortley Roadhouse, 9pm-1am
July 18: Hamilton Rd Block Party, 2-3pm
July 19: Pride Festival, Victoria Park, (Date and time TBD)
July 31: Ribfest, Victoria Park, 7:30-9pm
Sept 26:Richmond Tavern, 3-6pm
Follow Betamaxx on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/share/1BTKY5MTRv/
By Bob Klanac
Bob Klanac is a London-based music journalist who has penned hundreds of reviews and interviews. He was a juror for the Polaris Music Prize, a member of the Slaight Family Polaris Heritage Prize Jury and a Juno Awards juror. Bob has also penned two books, Promo Man about London’s late music legend Nick Panaseiko and Shooting Stars, Telling Tales, about photographer to the stars photo-journalist John Rowlands.
The Beat Magazine 2025 