The Name

I've been told These Animal Men take their name from Julius Caesar's description of the unruly British. I've never found that direct quote, however it seems that the Romans were fond of describing barbarians they encountered in these terms, for example: "...the rude mass, the animal men, who were incapable of higher things." Charming.

The TAM 10 Commandments:

The 10 rules TAM put out on an early press release and on the sleeves of a few early CD's:

TAM Released Covers Of:

Glenn Cambell - Witchita Line Man, B side of Life Support Machine, CD 2.
MC5 - Sister Anne, B side of Light Emitting Electrical Wave, CD

And Have Been Covered By:

Carter USM - Speeed King, B-side of Carter's Let's Get Tattoos CD 2.
Bently Rhythm Ace - Life Support Machine (BRA Go to Town), B side of Life Support Machine CD 2.
Freebie & the Bean Blip - Life Support Machine, B side of Life Support Machine CD 2.
Matt Willis & Andy Herron - Light Emitting Electrical Wave (Mandy's Mix), B side of Light Emitting Electrical Wave CD 2.
These Animal Men (!) - Light Emitting Electrical Wave (Mutronic Mix), B side of Light Emitting Electrical Wave CD 2.

The Signatures

Look like those on the cover opposite (Thanks Jay):

Vinyl Run-off Etchings

Never noticed these until people on the mailing list started up about them: (Thanks to Paul Scanlan & Inga Ruby.)

Sound of Youth: Side A: "get your hair cut!"
Too sussed?: Side A: "thousands of people have said we're punk...." Side B: "....and we're not any of them."
(Come On, Join) The High Society : Side A: "How can we fail...." Side B: "....when we look so good?"

Flyers:

See the flyers page in the pics section for the flyers and postcard archive.

Book:

Transatlantic Flight. Available using a postcard inside Taxi For These Animal Men CD, to people on their mailing list at the time, or Ltd edition alongside the record (FLATMLP14). It's a cool book with pictures and prose drawn from 1994 showcase gig trip to the states. Words: Paul Moody, Pictures: Martyn Goodacre. There is a page of pictures from the book in the pictures section.

T-Shirts:

Bet there's more out there - send me a pic if you have one. (Thanks to Stephen McK for some of these.)

Fierce Panda

The scene known as New Wave Of New Wave, which involved cheerily punkoid bands like S*M*A*S*H and These Animal Men. The only reason fierce panda was invented was to release an EP called ‘Shagging In The Streets’ as a tribute to that very scene.

The quote opposite is from co-founder Simon Williams when asked "What motivated you to start fierce panda?":

A Play:

There is a play called "Smoke Behind Mirrors: These Animal Men" by Daniel Bain. I've not read it, but it is apparently a reference to the band and not the quote.

Domain Names:

theseanimalmen.co.uk
The net wasn't really widely used when TAM were around, so when I started this site in 1999 I was able to buy the name - & since it's not defamatory and there's no commercial exploitation I don't think anyone will complain...

theseanimalmen.com
Used to point to The Raft at Virgin Records, which now sadly has no linked info on TAM. Renewed or bought in May 2000 by EMI (probably as Mo Solid Gold were getting attention) but then allowed to lapse - so I bought it :o)