Lol Elliot and Martin Newell, who together formed the legendary lo-fi band The Cleaners From Venus, met in the small town of Wivenhoe, southeast England at the turn of 1980s. Newell, a rock ringer and part-time kitchen porter who'd left his band the previous summer, and Elliot, a drummer and former hippy traveler, had much in common. They shared a love of sunny 1960s pop music, punk rock and musical comedy. Neither Elliot nor Newell cared much for any kind of musical rule book; both were dismayed by the new right-wing politics which had taken over their country and both were in their twenties with time on their hands and were keen to create something new.