The Men They Couldn't Hang came together in 1984 after
Stefan Cushand
Phil "Swill" Odgers, mates from Shepherds Bush, were busking in the subways of Hammersmith and were asked to play at the Alternative Country festival at The Electric Ballroom in Camden along with the likes of Pogue Mahone, The Boothill Foot Tappers, Hackney Five-O, the Blubbery Hellbellies and the Skiff Skats.
For this gig, and the next 3 years, Shanne Bradley played bass (she’d formed The Nipple Erectors and subsequent Nips with Shane McGowan). Pogue Mahone’s Andrew Rankin (drums) and Jem Finer (accordion) also joined up for the evening. A few years before this Swill had been the singer with Southampton punk-pop band "Catch 22" and it wasn’t long before former band members Jon Odgers (Drummer and Swill’s brother) and Paul Simmonds (guitar, bouzouki, mandolin) completed the full time TMTCH line up.
Later that year, Phil Chevron drew The Men They Couldn't Hang to Elvis Costello's attention and ended up producing their debut single, a cover version of Eric Bogle's 'Green Fields Of France', on Costello’s own IMP's label. To everyone’s surprise this became a big hit in the Indie Charts remaining in the top 30 for 40 or so weeks and ending up in John Peel's Festive Fifties two years running!
In 1985 they released their first album "Night Of A Thousand Candles", closely followed by "How Green Is The Valley" in 1986. Among the TMTCH fans, these two album remain the most popular due to now classic Men songs like "Ironmasters", "Ghosts Of Cable Street" and "Shirt Of Blue".
Shanne Bradley left in 1987 and was replaced by Ricky McGuire, a former member of punk band the UK Subs.
The third album "Waiting For Bonaparte", released in 1988, was again bursting with great songs such as "The Colours", "Smugglers" and "Bounty Hunter", which became live favourites.
By now they had attracted the attention of the rest of Europe and by the time they released their album "Silvertown" in 1989, they were asked to play at a big festival in Estonia in front of thousands of people.
Their fifth album "Domino Club" released in 1991 showed a darker mood with the songs "Family Way" and "Great Expectations", while the single "The Lion And The Unicorn" was very reminiscent of their first three albums.
By this time cracks and uncertainty about the way forward started to show in the band's makeup and they decided to call it a day. A Farewell Tour produced the live recording "Alive, Alive-O" and filming "The Shooting" at the Town and Country Club in London (now known as The Forum).
Paul and Swill, together with Paul's equally talented brother Neil Simmonds, started a new project called Liberty Cage while Cush and Ricky played and toured extensively with Folkfinger. Jon Odgers meanwhile decided to settle down and worked for Northern Irish noise merchants Therapy? as a drum technician.
By 1996 they were missing the thrills of working together as TMTCH too much and duly reformed the band after playing the occasional gig together.
They released the album "Never Born To Follow" and the EP "Six Pack" in 1996 and 1997 respectively and toured Germany with their new sound less mandolin, bouzouki and 12-string guitar which Paul used to play.
In 1997 they were invited to play in Egypt.
Two compilation albums of their best songs were released in 1998, which were followed in 2003 by "Cherry Red Jukebox", an album with all new songs written by Paul Simmonds.
After a very successful trip to Canada to perform at the Calgary Folk Festival in summer 2008, the band started working on their new studio album.
June 2009 saw the release of “Devil On The Wind” on Robb Johnson’s indie label Irregular Records. Signing up to the indie label allowed the band the artistic freedom they had craved since their first record deal. The new album is an interesting mix between the new TMTCH sound while reflecting on earlier gems.
