The Transmitters

The Transmitters were a British art rock/post-punk band active during the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. Mixing elements of punk, jazz and psychedelia, the band were critical favourites throughout their lifetime and played support slots for a wide variety of underground and mainstream bands, although this did not translate into substantial commercial success. The Transmitters are also notable for featuring future members of Loop Guru and Transglobal Underground and for sharing two members with cult pop band Furniture, as well as a guest stint by Glaxo Babies vocalist Rob Chapman. Their sound was compared to (among others) The Fall, XTC, Gang of Four, This Heat and Magazine. 

 

The band formed in Ealing, West London in 1977. The original line-up was John Quinn (vocals – also known as "John Clegg", "John Grimes" or "John X"), Sam Dodson (guitar, aka "Sam Dodds"), Simon "Sid" Wells (bass), Amanda de Grey (keyboards), Jim Chase (drums) and Dexter O'Brian (lyrics – real name Christopher McHallem). Guitarists Steve Walsh (Manicured Noise) and John Guillani (from O'Brian's other band The Decorators) also stood in as live members at various times. The band's debut single was 'Party', released on Ebony Records in 1978. This was followed in the same year by the album '24 Hours'. On 29 December 1978, the band played a concert at the Electric Ballroom, Camden, supporting The Police. On 15 February 1979, they supported an early line-up of The Human League at the Nashville Rooms, West London. (Other bands played with during this period include Scritti Politti, The Birthday Party, Dolly Mixture, The Slits, Alternative TV, The Fall and Blurt.) 

 

During 1979, Dodson (along with de Grey and Wells) sometimes performed in The Good Missionaries – the art rock band led by Mark Perry, which had evolved out of Perry's previous band Alternative TV. Perry occasionally returned the favour by playing with The Transmitters. 

 

Gaining the attention and approval of DJ John Peel, the band recorded a Peel Session in 1979, following which Dexter O'Brian left the band. (Under his real name of Christopher McHallem, he would retrain as an actor and spend three years in the BBC soap opera "EastEnders", playing the character "Rod Norman" between 1987 and 1990, before branching out into screenwriting.) In September 1979, The Transmitters released two singles within the same month. The first was their last release on Ebony Records, 'Nowhere Train'. The second of the September singles was the four track EP 'Still Hunting for the Ugly Man' (on new label Step-Forward Records) which reached Number 2 in the Our Price New Wave Charts. The Transmitters played a pro-National Abortion Campaign benefit gig at the Hope & Anchor, Islington, London on 28 October 1979. The Transmitters broke up in 1980. 

 

Soon after the split a new Ealing-based band emerged, called Transmitters Presumed Dead. As the name implied this was a merger between members of Transmitters (Dodson, Wells and Chase) and members of the similarly defunct band Missing Presumed Dead (Mikel Lee and Dave Baby). Tim Whelan (one of the two singers of Furniture) was recruited to sing lead vocals. Transmitters Presumed Dead soon transformed into the second Transmitters line-up of Sam Dodson (guitar), Sid Wells (bass), Dave Baby (saxophone) and Julian Treasure (drums, ex Fish Turned Human) with Mikel Lee leaving and Rob Chapman (lead vocals, ex Glaxo Babies) replacing Tim Whelan. This band recorded a second Peel Session in 1981, as well as releasing the second Transmitters album -'And We Call That Leisure Time'- on Bristols' Heartbeat Records later in the year. (In parallel, Mikel Lee (guitar, vocals), Julian Treasure (drums), Tim Whelan (guitar, vocals) and Ian Hawkridge (bass) came together as a reinvented Missing Presumed Dead, gigging and recording their own John Peel Session in the same year which was produced by Bob Sargent and included a strong version of the original Transmitters song "0.5 Alive".) 

 

The line-up of The Transmitters continued to change over the years. Baby, Wells and Treasure all left at various points during the 1980s; Treasure was replaced by the returning Jim Chase, and Whelan also returned to the line-up (replacing Chapman). Several more musicians passed through The Transmitters during this period –including guitarist Vince Cutcliffe and keyboard player Bob Sargeant (aka "the Hand of Borgus Wheems"). Live performances were augmented by several other "floating" members –Joe Sax and theremin player John Woodley.

 

 In 1985, a Transmitters song called "Sheep Farming" became the first song to be remixed by a new worldbeat outfit called Loop Guru (which happened to be led by head Transmitter Sam Dodson). The band's final line-up (between 1987 and 1989) was Dodson, Whelan, Chase, James McQueen (bass), Dave "Mud-Demon" Muddyman (keyboards/accordion/sampler, ex-Birdloom) and Whelan's Furniture colleague Hamilton "Hami" Lee (drums, sampler). This line-up recorded tracks for a third Transmitters album which was not released during the band's lifetime. This music finally saw the light of day as 'Count Your Blessings (1987/89)', which was released as a free download album in 2006 by Portuguese digital record label You Are Not Stealing Records. The Transmitters released a 12-inch single, 'The Mechanic', on yet another label (9CC/Craving Co Productions) in 1989.  The band split up for the second time later in 1989. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]