Tilt Araiza
Tilt writes half of the lyrics for the band. The other half conisists of phrases lifted from old advertizing slogans; the Gettysburg Address; the works of Shakespeare; Mexican comedy shows; odd, old ends stol'n forth of holy writ and any other shiny cultural artefact that attracts Tilt's magpie mind.
Tilt became a singer by accident. When Andrew cut some acoustic guitar demos, Tilt laid down a few guide-vocals to help the then unchosen singer with the tricky scansion of his lyrics. His guide vocals were praised by many of those who heard the demos, so he was persuaded to undertake half of the vocal duties in the studio. He is yet to be persuaded to sing live.
Hal Blaine, Meg White, Mo Tucker, Ringo Starr. They're all drummers. So is Tilt. He just a little rustier.
Andrew Hickey
Andrew writes the bulk of the band's music. While he has written the occasional lyric, he usually defers to Tilt, who he refers to as 'a really verbal cat'. A man of many words, most of them 'ug', Andrew prefers to concentrate on trying to write pop songs that feature no guitar, bass, keyboards or drums. We're not quite sure why he does this. When we asked him, he said 'ug'.
In his spare time, Andrew occasionally works on the comic Dumb Angel, but hasn't had time recently. He also works on academic papers on decision theory, statistics, neural networks and nutrition. He spends most of his spare time reading comics, because he wishes to improve himself intellectually.
Miriam Miller
Miriam is the band's lead singer. The National Pep's Freddie Mercury, she sings, dances, and makes merry fun all over the stage while the rest of the band hide behind their instruments, larger members of the band or, in extreme cases, both.
Miriam is currently unable to perform at some of the National Pep's gigs, but she doesn't let that stop her, and her videoed performances are still a major part of the band's live show when she can't be there in person.
Miriam's hobbies include laughing at trendy haircuts, speaking an insular argot, spelling "5ive" as fiveive and wondering why people don't notice the mittens in her photo. Her star-sign is Peristalsis.
Holly Matthies
The band's Probyn Gregory, Holly plays whatever instrument the rest of the band can't manage at the time. She occasionally uses the fact that she has never played most of them before against us, but we ignore her and she copes.
Hailing from exotic Minnesota, Holly moved to Manchester for the weather, where she currently lives with her pet.
Chris Browning
The band's most recent recruit, Chris became involved with the band due to a mutual love of the Bonzo Dog Band, the Marx Brothers, the Beach Boys and Half Man Half Biscuit. Once Andrew became aware that Chris could also actually play an instrument his fate was assured.
Chris adds keyboard bass and backing vocals, and the encyclopedic knowledge of old episodes of Last Of The Summer Wine without which no band is truly complete.
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