Ten Skulls is an English Progressive Rock band formed in London, in 1980, noted for their incredibly long and uniquely-styled concerts, and wide range of musical styles (they've played anything from Psychedelic to Industrial to Black and Death Metal).

History

Early days (1980-1981)

Sean Neshor, and the brothers, Michael and Flynn Rogerson met in April of 1980, at a Pink Floyd concert, as the band was supporting The Wall. They were avid fans of the progressive band, and all three dreamed of following in their footsteps. However, they were also fans of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and never missed a show from Iron Maiden, Angel Witch, Def Leppard, Motorhead, Diamond Head. They would regularly hitch rides to nearby towns where these bands would play. Of course, not one Pink Floyd show since 1975 in the UK was missed by Neshor and the Rogerson brothers.
Naturally, they hooked up, and all three had a passion for the guitar, so all three agreed that they would be guitarists. They drew straws on who would be the Lead Guitarist, and the other two would play Rhythm, and Sean drew the shortest straw. They agreed that they would jam and practice for three more months, and then they would proceed to finding a drummer and a bassist. They jammed for more, and finally met again in December of 1980. Luckily, a friend of Sean was Kenneth Gibson, who had "a real knack for scaring the shit out of his neighbours with his drumming", as the guitarist put it, so of course they got Gibson in the band as the Drummer.
Meanwhile, Michael and Flynn were charged with the responsability of getting a bassist. They met with Harold Mason, at a club, where he was a sound technician. They were amazed at the future bassist's technical genius and asked him if he could learn to play the bass to which he responded that he already knew how to play the instrument. In a heartbeat, he became the band's Bass Player.
On December the 31st, they met for the first time in this formula, as they went to Sean's house to throw the New Years' party, and jam until the 10th of January. They didn't leave the house until late January, 1981, thanks to Sean being overstocked with alcohol and various snack foods, and also the band's girlfriends, of course.

The Four Gigs of the Apocalypse (1981)

With the roles set, and a year's jamming behind them, Lead Guitarist Sean Neshor, Rhythm Guitarists Michael and Flynn Rogerson, Bassist Harold Mason, and Drummer Kenneth Gibson played their first gigs in London, in September of 1981 (after, of course, seeing the last Pink Floyd concert from their The Wall tour in June). They played only four, but they were enough to get people to notice them. In their first gig, they played for 4 whole hours, Sean taking no breaks, from 10 PM to 2 AM the next day.
"Sean was so nervous and so eager to get the band noticed, that when we thought we played enough, by the end of the first hour, we went among the crowd of about 20-30 people, and started to mingle, party and drink our arses off, but Sean stayed there and played and jammed by himself on stage. This was good, 'cos people were watching him and we could get pissed without even getting noticed; I remember we stole three bottles of vodka from the bar that night. An hour later, we said 'Let's check out on Sean...' so we went, and the bugger is still playin' on stage. We thought 'Well, fuck it, he's not stealing our fame!', and we joined him. We played Floyd covers for another two hours, and then we passed out on stage, and I remember we woke up the next day in a ditch near the club at about 8 PM. It was brilliant, we wanted more!" - Michael Rogerson
Ten Skulls' concerts begin generally with a long and grandious Pink Floyd cover (in the 80s, they used Money as the intro, and in the 90s, Echoes, and since 2000, they play the first half of Shine on You Crazy Diamond as the intro, and the other half as the outtro) and the band just jams, going into a regular song after a bit of jamming. They also frequently weave a song in another one, which have nothing to do with eachother. For example, at a concert, they played Metallica's Battery and half-way, started playing Pink Floyd's In the Flesh.

In the Demo? (1981)

After they played their fourth gig in October of 1981, they decided to try and record five demo tracks, and titled the EP "In the Demo?", and obvious refference to Pink Floyd's In the Flesh?
No label took the risk to add them to their bandlist, but, fortunately for the band, and unfortunately for her, Sean's great aunt died, leaving him with over £500,000. The band quickly chose to fructify this and bribed a few more clubs to offer them more gigs, but ended up playing ten nights in a row at one club, from December the 15th to the 25th.
"I remember, that night, on the last gig for that year, we started playing Money, which we decided would be our opening song, and about 50 people ran into the club, wondering 'what the hell was going on, has the Floyd been secretly playing at this club'? They were curious, and stayed, and we noticed this, and played some more Floyd covers: Confortably Numb, Run Like Hell, Hey You, Another Brick in the Wall parts I and II, with Happiest Days of Our Lives inbetween, Dogs, Have a Cigar, Brain Damage and more, I think... Quickly enough, those 50 turned into 200, which the club was certainly not equipped to handle, I can't even describe to you how people tried to get in and make their way to the stage. Then, we spiced things up by going metal, and the place exploded, literally. It seemed as though liquor was pouring from the ceiling, everyone was fighting everyone. Hell, the entire band woke up the next day at about 10 in the morning, under a mountain of at least 100 people in a ditch somewhere in the East End. Everyone was sore everywhere..." - Sean Neshor