Dalekcheese

Former Drummer for TCoS

**Dalekcheese** (also sometimes known as Dalek Cheese) was the former drummer for TCoS.

Not a lot is known about Dalekcheese's life pre-TCoS. One of the greatest unanswered questions is why she wore a large piece of cheese on her head, something that remained constant throughout a number of Dalek casing wardrobe changes. When the notion of forming the band was being thrown around, with Danoftardis already committed to the project, Deborah J still mulling over whether she wanted to drop her solo work to join, and the possibility of hiring such a musical talent as The Sparrow still little more than a distant dream, Dalekcheese offered her services as "box-stick-hitter". Music executives at DWT records decided this was as close to a drummer as they were likely to get and so hired Dalekcheese.

Contemporary reviews of Dalekcheese's percussion work during her time in the band were perfectly acceptable, with Daily Vortex music critic Bundesrat describing the drumming in the Abzorbaloff album as "Adequate". Radio host Daleks Jones (no relation) of Clom FM said "there is technically drumming happening" on playing the 2019 hit Spamming the Boards.

Dalekcheese was best known during her time with the band for frequently making mischief in interviews, along with Deborah J and Danoftardis, she would regularly derail press meetings with baffling non-sequitars and nonsense, as well as occassionally bringing unfinished artwork and draft ideas and presenting them as if they were imminent releases. The camaraderie and one-upmanship between Cheese, J and Oftardis in these early days led to some of the bands most well known and quoted public moments, the three becoming known in fan circles as "The Three Amigos", a title that became the inspiration for one of the band's EPs.

It was also through these public interactions that the bands greatest foe was encountered - Merlin. Merlin took great exception to the bands irreverent actions and particularly had a dislike of Dalekcheese. This feud would escalate to an outright war of words, with the band and the general public at large getting behind cheese in support. Merlin memorably declared that everyone in the world hated TCoS and found Dalekcheese objectionable, and that all of the many many people in disagreement with that sentiment were spamming. Eventually, when unable to find a single person to agree with him, Merlin rather bizarrely threatened to call the police on the band for harassment, at which point he was issued a cease and desist order and banned from DWT Towers, to much rejoicing of all.

Unfortunately, not long after this coming together to defeat a common adversary, tensions began to rise between the band members. As Dalekcheese continued to become increasingly erratic and unpredictable, there ended up being multiple fallings out within the band. Reaching its peak when Deborah J quite seriously contemplated leaving the project for a time, ultimately the remaining members of the group decided that Dalekcheese's behaviour was not going to be inductive to the longevity of the band and with some reluctance she departed, part-way through production of the EP Banned on the Run, which had been commissioned to commemorate the group's defeat of Merlin.

TCoS brought in Doctor Gamer as replacement drummer, something Dalekcheese was quite vocally against at the time, finding it distasteful how rapidly the band moved on without her, and unhappy seeing the continued exploits of the group while not being able to participate in them. Some time after Dalekcheese left the group, Deborah eventually patched up her relationship with the former-drummer, however tensions with other band members left over from Dalekcheese's messy and unpleasant departure have prevented her ever being invited back in either a guest or a full-time position. Despite this, her likeness was featured on the cover art for Sgt Skaro's Lonely Tracks club cult - an image that collected together almost everyone who was associated with the group.

Dalekcheese may have left under something of a cloud but she nonetheless played an instrumental part in the forming of Britain's biggest band, and her contributions to their work in their formative first year cannot and should not be overlooked.