The Ideal Giants - Citizen

The Ideal Giants formed in York in 1985 out of the ashes of Duchamp’s Topee, the city’s premiere ‘post-Postcard Records’ outfit. The band comprised Mark Goodall (vocals and guitar), Greg Johnson (bass and vocals) and Steve Goodall (drums) and attempted to steal the Guinness record as ‘the world’s tallest band’ from The Walker Brothers. The group was short-lived and only released two tracks on a 7” EP shared with The Fabulous Salamander (who featured Dave Wall, later of Malcolm’s Interview). The Ideal Giants were praised by The Catalogue magazine for having “a nice ear for a tune but no ear at all for production” and split just prior to the release of the record. Greg Johnson formed Lord Mongo while Mark and Steve subsequently became 2/3 of Leeds post-punk power trio Nerve Rack (88-93), and later formed lounge-core indie combo Rudolf Rocker.