On 30 December 1982, Damian Cowell ("Humphrey B. Flaubert" – drums and lead vocals), Jack Holt ("Jock Cheese" – guitar, bass and backing vocals) and Eugene Cester ("Eugene de la Hot Croix Bun" – keyboards and backing vocals), recorded a nine-song session called "Great Truckin' Songs of the Renaissance" under the name This Is Serious Mum at the home of friend Peter Minack ("Ron Hitler-Barassi"). Cowell and Cester were members of a group called I Can Run, which slowly evolved into This Is Serious Mum.