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The Maws of Doom
Punk band from Jonathan Coe's 2001 novel The Rotters' Club. They are formed about five minutes into the very first rehearsal of another band, the prog rock outfit Gandalf's Pikestaff, effectively killing off that group. The book includes a Rock Family Tree in the style of Pete Frame which ended up far shorter than the founders of Gandalf's Pikestaff had imagined.
It was the drummer who sounded the first note of rebellion. After tinkling away on his ride cymbal for what must have seemed an eternity, as part of an extended instrumental passage that was meant to evoke the idea of zillions of far-off galaxies springing into life, he suddenly announced, ‘Fuck this for a game of soldiers’, and started to lay down a ferocious backbeat in 4/4. Recognizing his cue, the guitarist whacked up his volume and embarked upon a riotous three-chord thrash over which the lead vocalist, an aggressive little character called Stubbs, began to improvise what the charitable might describe as a melody.
A variation of this scene also appears in the three-part TV mini series based on the novel, The Rotters' Club (2005), episode 2: “The Maws of Doom”.
