The Hotel Complex formed out of the band Happy Refugees following the release of their debut album, 'Last Chance Saloon' (Gymnasium Records, 1983).
The Hotel Complex formed out of the band Happy Refugees following the release of their debut album, 'Last Chance Saloon' (Gymnasium Records, 1983). In North London they got cold, drunk, watched TV, wrote songs, film music, and went out to play. And yes, John Peel played them on the radio. They recorded an album, 'A Frozen Chicken Lives', (Gymnasium Records, 1985). But a petty thief lout stole all their cash, multiple channels on the studio mixing desk failed to work, and one song got pressed twice on the vinyl. 'A Frozen Chicken Lives' got strewn across landfill sites in the North Midlands. Clive on bass, Kev on drums, and Nick on piano, they continued to record with Happy Refugees, releasing albums in 2011, 2015 and 2020, also playing live in the UK and New York. But, The Hotel Complex are not finished. In 2025, they dive into their own crate, and discover a two-inch tape under Clive's mum's bed. They re-record parts of it, and re-mix the lot! Now scrubbed up and brimming with relevance, Spinout Nuggets are proud to (re)release 'Have These Things Been Happening To You?', a no holds barred, swaggering splurge of defiant English pop, spoiling for attention. Six obstreperous songs about:
things - fur wrapped cars with jacked up wheels, Russian tank attacks, frightening shoes, dodgy deals in back street motor pools, flares (are back and so is hanging), rock n' roll phenomenon, a year of beans, Irish jokes, Dulux haircuts, the Pools Panel;
and people dead and gone - black shirt men, Oswald Mosley, Winston Churchill, sweet little Babushka, the sausage police, screaming lamé girls, fresh faced boys bodies swinging, and a nod from Jesus Christ. Limited to 300 copies on vinyl (also on CD).
