The IV Horsemen are a jam/recording band formed at Corrugated Sheet Studios, Manchester in 1987, it has always been a family band, along with founder member Adders (Matt Adcock Music)
Curiously, being called the IV Horsemen belied the fact that they actually started as a trio.
(actually produced on some very state of the art ASIC CAD package at my summer job in 1988!)
It began with acoustic guitars, and went electric as soon as we could muster up any equipment, transistorised or valve that could make some kind of sound. The early backline consisted of a vintage Linear Conchord valve amp, and a German “ghettoblaster” which had 2 inputs which would allow use as an amp – guitar on the left mic. input, bass on the mic. right. It was nicknamed the “Schlafhofen” a corruption/ conjunction of the controls in German Schlaf / Hohen. Adders comes from a family tradition of musicians, with a strong interest in music making equipment. In the early days this centred on product lines and brands available at Tandy’s (defunct UK version of Radio Shack)
Mike Guitars (Left), Adders Bass (Right) or vice versa! Usually played on 10!
The drumming apparatus consisted of a vintage bass drum, a hi-hat, and a couple of bongos. The rest was home made – sticks, and old paint buckets with bagged rice for the snare. Adders started on bass , and it was soon clear he was a multi instrumentalist, and very soon was able to swap around between bass or drums, or keyboards, although those came much later. Mike played a cheap Les Paul copy, and early recordings we can hear the “Schlafhohen” being overdriven as Mike heavily used pentatonic runs, as every budding lead guitarist does in the early days. Mike handled vocals, in a spoken style reminiscent of Hugh Cornwell / Mark E Smith, with observant, sometime ascerbic lyrics tackling contemporary topics. Wittily written, these often had a wry consumer rights slant to them. An upright vacuum cleaner generally served as a means to gaffer tape a tape recorder mic into the necessary position for vocal renditions.
There was a strong Stranglers “Men In Black” period influence to early material. Mike also wrote a multi part suite dedicated to the deeds of the said horseriders. Early cover versions included homage to Hanging Around.
It was always a vehicle for musical advancement, in later years by learning cover versions. Paul learnt his very first drum beats here. In summer 1988 they briefly became the V Horsemen, along with Jim (from Hanging Around) for a couple of jams too.
As time went on, their equipment improved, as did their playing. Mike and Adders produced demos together in the late 80s, and have reconvened in the last decade or so. The Adders family continue their careers in music.
The IV Horsemen continue to convene whenever geographically convenient. New members added to the line up are the next generation, aka our offspring, who have picked up the instrumental mantle. So it continues to provide a highway to all directions musical. Although usually routed towards Hard Rock and Metal destinations. Recent jams have included ZZ Top, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin as well as the ever present Iron Maiden and Rush covers, including Xanadu.