Entertainment For Lively Minds
"Ah, Mr. Ferocious..."
When punk broke out, I was hanging out in Ealing a lot.
The Queen of the Suburbs was entering her decline at the end of the '70s, but was still mostly firmly middle-class. This meant that the quality of the local punks was rather weekendy, half-hearted and polite. Hair was a little longer, trousers a little more flared than the brand leaders and - and here's my point - the punk pseudonyms of local band-members were brilliantly naff.
Few could muster the courage to call themselves something truly outrageous. One local hero called himself Auntie Pus, which seemed, at best, to be hedging his bets. Another chap, genuinely skin-headed and quite threatening to a 14 year old, sported a light brown gaberdine mac he'd written over in biro and called himself Johnny πr2 (pi-r-squared). Other memorable characters included Alan Bum and Dennis Racket, which still makes me chuckle 35 years on. The town's best bands were acts like The Decorators and The Transmitters who were more like Velvets, Television or Gang Of Four than the Pistols/Clash end of things. Not generally so political, as you might imagine.
Anyway, I was just wondering what the Word massive's memories of their local scenes might throw up. Any great dubious pseudonyms? Any bands who should have been better known? Maybe we could compile a CD of great lost local heroes.
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Watford punks
In the early 80s there was a punk band gigging around the Watford area called The Fragments Of Mountbatten, a name which suggested a determination to provoke. (I’ve just checked, and Lord Mountbatten was murdered in 1979, so public outrage was still fresh.)
I never saw them play, but I remember being mildly shocked by their posters. I wonder what happened to them?
Aaah, early '80s Watford.
Cassio College, Blake's Wine Bar, The Welly, cheap acid. Don't remember a whole lot else...
Don't forget Baileys nightclub
Formerly the Top Rank, latterly Paradise Lost.
Way ahead
There was a bloke called Nigel around our way who always refered to himself as "The Nige". Nige is bad enough but THE Nige.Maybe he was a Dyslexic Keith Emerson fan.This was late 70s
As for my punk credentials ,I'm more second Wave. I went to school with Tezz and Rainy aka Discharge.Good lads but not the brightest.
Clive Pig and The Hopeful Chinamen
were gigantic in St. Albans and their single, "Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen" (with a terrific Waldo-designed cover) was played by John Peel.
Clive Pig!
That's a great record. A forgotten classic. Definitely one for the list
Brighton Had
a thriving Punk/New Wave scene, The Piranhas probably the best known at the time, though Peter & The Test Tube Babies are still around,playing a couple of "F**k The Royal Wedding" gigs at the end of the month.
By the time the Piranhas made it to TOTP, their rough edges had been smoothed out by record company types and producers What made them so exciting was gone. I saw them a couple of times and they were one of the best live acts around.
Dicke Slexia • drums
Reginald Frederick Hornsbury • bass
John Helmer • vocals, lead guitar
Bob Grover • vocals, guitar
Zoot Alors • saxophone
Those happy days of anarchy are celebrated here: http://www.punkbrighton.co.uk/index.html
Wasn't his full name...
..."Boring" Bob Grover? And didn't they play gigs in police uniforms?
It Was
Boring Bob Grover - I don't remember the uniforms, which isn't to say they weren't wearing them when I saw them...
Any pub near Hanover street
will contain one or more members of the Piranhas.
Brighton also had Betrayed.in-house band at the Old Vic,lead by Concorde 2 doorman, The Perv. This band also had two Leather clad dancers,one who later went on to be an MP's wife.
forgot to mention Peter and the Test Tube babies' spin-off band "Walnut and the Wankers!
Up in Edinburgh...
...the mighty Rezillos had loads of them of course
Fay Fife
Luke Warm
HiFi Harris
Gayle Warning
William Mysterious
Simon Templar
Then there was the Valves with Dee Robot, Pada, Ronnie & Gordon Valve...
Scars - Paul Research
Flowers - Hlray
Worst of the lot, however, were Another Pretty Face led by the ridiculously named Mike Scott...
Then there were Boots For Dancing, The Ettes, The Cubs...
Not forgetting
Matt Vinyl and the Decorators.
I recently attended a pal's 50th birthday celebrations and reminisced over old times with two of The Ettes. Amongst the entertainment was that ridiculous Mr Scott playing a set that consisted of Pretty Vacant,Anarchy In The UK,All The Boys Love Carrie and erm Jumping Jack Flash.Lenny Van Helsing was in fine form too.
My favourite was The Adverts' 'Laurie Driver'
although 'Chuck Biscuits' had a certain self-conscious wackiness about it.
I'm still chuckling at Alan Bum.
That's a proper punk name.
Al Bum
Would Al Single have been punkier? Or Si Ingle.
Basildon in Essex
Being between Southend/Canvey and the East End Basildon had a lot of Feelgood-type blues/R&B bands, but a few punks thrived.
The School Bullies was the main one, featuring perry Bamonte who wnet on to play with the Cure, but I can also remember there was somebody called Vic Bostik. I'm not sure now if he was an artist or entrepreneur.
The one constant of the school hall/scout hut gig circuit in the late 70's Basildon area was a large, bald, scary bloke known only as swivelhead who was often to be found in the tiny audiences.
Rick Vile and Paul Nasty
Straight-laced Eastbourne was rocked to the core by the graffiti wave carried out by these two in 1977. Their speciality was writing their noms de brosse on Government buildings - you could still see their handiwork on Old Town Public Library well into the Nineties.
After a volley of Something Must Be Done letters to the Herald, Dibble finally stirred and tracked down the anarchic duo. In retrospect it was probably a mistake to use their real first names and initials, and the fact that the only two punks in town at that time were nice well-bred Grammar School boys called Richard and Paul may have helped the constabulary narrow the search.
Growing up in a sleepy
market town in North Staffordshire in the late 70's early 80's, meant the sight of a punk rocker was a rare thing indeed. To be honest it was all more Heavy Metal (anyone remember Demon??). I can't actually recall a punk band forming in the town, couple of new wave/synth/goth bands maybe, at a push.
Nearest I can remember is Stoke on Trent's finest Discharge. In fact I can remember going on a coach trip to London, to see a local band playing a showcase gig at somewhere or other. Me and a mate got on the coach at the first pick up point and bagged the back seats, second pick up point was in Hanley outside Clay Record Shop, our smug little faces dropped when we saw 2 members of Discharge and a few more of their mates jump on the bus and make their way towards the back, we spent the first hour saying nothing and sh****ng ourselves, but by the end of the journey we had discovered that this lad with a huge mohican, was in fact the singer, and was if memory serves was calvin and he was a rather nice bloke
My favourite late 70s name
culled from the review pages of Sounds was Ken Liversausage with a charming ditty called Goosebury Puss. A quick Google tells me he was from Aylesbury and can be found on a compilation with the amusingly monikered Peter Out and the Faders. Anyone remember either of these?