Lucy were an English punk band featuring Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen.
The first line-up of this band in 1976 featured lead vocalist Paul Mewse, guitarist Phil Collen, bassist Peter Ferris and drummer Len Foster. This line-up recorded a demo tape at De Lane Lea studios but no singles, the highlight being an appearance at the Marquee Club in Wardour Street supporting Nutz from Liverpool.
The second line-up of this band introduced Pete Webb on bass and recorded and released two singles.
After Lucy, Phil Collen went on to the band Tush. Phil Collen and Pete Webb later played together in the band Dumb Blondes. Reportedly, Pete Webb later rehearsed with Girl briefly, between the time of Mark Megary and Simon Laffy, but never recorded or played live with them. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
If you think of Southend you probably think of Eddie and The Hot Rods, Dr Feelgood and that whole Canvey Island R'n'B thang. But think again. The spirit of The Stooges and MC5 was alive down there too, and when The Sex Pistols arrived to give music a much needed kick up the butt Southend soon had The Machines as well (though not to be confused with the similar sounding Machines from Coventry).
Formed in 1977 by guitarist Nick Paul they played The Roxy and Vortex in the twilight of those venues popularity and even blew The Damned off stage one gig at the City Of London Polytechnic. In all fairness though The Machines were not major league players, but they had the spirit and drive, like so many, for one maybe two singles.
In fact The Machines produced one single on Wax Records in April 1978 - the 'True Life EP' A searing slice of punk that is both essential and collectable. The back sleeve reads 'Recorded in 1/2 hour at 8 quid an hour' Classic punk stylee! Like so many others the band also received zilch for their efforts. [SOURCE: PUNK 77]
The Valves were a punk rock band from Edinburgh, Scotland. One of the early British punk bands, they were chronicled in Henrik Poulsen's book "77: The Year of Punk and New Wave", and featured Dave Robertson as 'Dee Robot' on vocals, G. Dair / Teddy Dair a.k.a. Gordon Dair on drums, Gordon Scott or 'Pada' on bass guitar and Ronnie Mackinnon on guitar.
The Valves released three singles and then broke up in 1979. They reformed for a one-off gig in Edinburgh 21 December 2013. In 2015, Ronnie, Pada and Gordon joined up with Joe Donkin, of The Cheetahs and Gordon Mackinnon, on keyboards. They are currently touring under The Valves name, playing material from The Valves, The Cheetahs and new material. Dave/Dee now lives in Belgium. In 2020, they self released a retrospective LP, entitled 'Better Late...' of material from 1977/78 and live versions of the singles from the reunion gig. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
X.S. Energy
was a fine band from Lincoln producing two singles on Dead Good Records. The first one, '18 / Jennys Alright / Horrorscope' (1978) and the second from 1979 'Use You / Imaginary'. The latter is the pick: midtempo punk riffery with catchy chorus. Pop punkish with sung, as opposed to shouted or sneered, vocals. Worth getting.
Members: Freddie Voltage (Guitar/Vocals), Max Headroom (Lead Guitar/Vocals), Nicky Teen (Bass/Vocals), and Mark Up (Drums). [SOURCE: PUNK 77]
The slightly bent guitar rock of L.A.'s Carnival Art took its lessons from the demented Pixies. Consisting of Michael P. Tak (vocals, guitar), Ed (guitar, vocals), Brian Bell (bass, vocals), and Keith Fallis (drums), Carnival Art released their debut LP, 'Like Nobody Business', in 1989, followed by 'Thrumdrone', in 1991. Signed to Beggars Banquet, Carnival Art weren't heavy metal enough to jump on the grunge bandwagon in the early ‘90s, and they were too weird to for pop audiences; caught in limbo, the band recorded three albums of off-kilter alternative music that were ignored and then faded into obscurity. Carnival Art broke up soon after their third full-length, 'Welcome to Vas Llegas', and a subsequent EP, 'Blue Food and Black Sparks'. A cover of "Cold Ethyl" appeared on an Alice Cooper tribute CD a year later, but Bell had already formed his own group, The Spacetwins, by then; he later joined Weezer. In 1994, Tak recorded 'Pretty Little Lonely' as Michael Petak. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Ripe was an alternative rock/shoegaze band from Melbourne, Australia. They released two albums, 'Filterfeed' in 1990 on Polyester Records and 'The Plastic Hassle' in 1993 on Beggars Banquet. They split up shortly after 'The Plastic Hassle'. Two of the members, Mark Murphy and Katie Dixon, formed a new band, Moondriven. In 2006, Mark and Katie reformed under the Ripe name with some additional members. They released an EP, 'Galaxies And Stars', on Timberyard Records and did some touring. However they disbanded again in 2007. [SOURCE: THE VOGUE]
One of the first supergroups from post-punk Great Britain, Electronic is the on-off project formed by New Order's Bernard Sumner and Johnny Marr, former guitarist of The Smiths. The duo released "Getting Away with It" in December 1989, with both Sumner and Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys on vocals. The single just missed the Top Ten in England, but was the end of Electronic for over two years; Sumner and Tennant returned to their respective groups while Marr played on albums by The The and Billy Bragg.
Electronic's sophomore single "Get the Message" finally appeared in April 1991, and an eponymous debut album followed in June. The non-album single "Disappointed" was released just over a year later. Sumner then returned to New Order to record their sixth album 'Republic', while Marr returned to his sideman role with The The and The Pretenders. The duo reunited to record again -this time with help from former Kraftwerk member Karl Bartos- and released 'Raise the Pressure' in July 1996. Newly signed to the Koch label, Electronic issued their third full-length 'Twisted Tenderness' four years later. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Revenge was New Order bassist Peter Hook's critically maligned and commercially rebuffed side project. Exhibiting a sleazy image -the band's first album 'One True Passion' featured provocative shots of scantily clad women- and a noisier sound than New Order, Revenge was Hook's attempt to divest himself from his accomplishments with Joy Division and New Order. However, Revenge didn't have Joy Division's grim intensity and intellectual depth or New Order's smooth amalgam of rock and disco; instead, the group was unfocused and self-indulgent. The throb of Hook's trademark basslines -so distinguishable on Joy Division and New Order records- was nixed for less tuneful grooves. Formed in the late '80s by Hook, Dave Hicks (guitar), and Chris "CJ" Jones (keyboards), Revenge debuted with a live performance at a London bondage party in January 1990. 'One True Passion' was also released that year. Seeking controversy, the video for "Pineapple Face" was banned because Hook adorned his neck with a chastity belt. Hicks was eventually replaced by the band's touring bassist, David Potts, and the band recorded the EP 'Gun World Porn' in 1992. As with its predecessor, 'Gun World Porn' was ripped to shreds in the press. After Revenge broke up in 1992, Hook returned to New Order. In 1997, Hook collaborated again with Potts as Monaco. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
While in their late teens, Blackpool's The Pose formed to perform punk covers. Chris Anderton (guitars), Tony Ashworth (drums), Chris Shea (vocals), and Paul Swindles (bass) met each other in school and started playing gigs with a clutch of Buzzcocks and Clash songs in their repertoire. Within a year, they started writing their own material and decided to change their name to Tunnelvision.
After writing a few songs, Shea exited, leaving Anderton to take over on vocals. Eventually enlisting Andrew Leeming to take over on guitar, a gig with their friends,Section 25, in September of 1980 impressed Factory bigwigs Rob Gretton and Tony Wilson. Agreeing to release a single on their label, the band set about recording a four-song demo before cutting their official debut release. (Just after recording it, Swindles left for a proper job. He was replaced by Ian Butterworth.) Infamous producer and Factory associate Martin Hannett remixed two of the demo's songs, which became Tunnelvision's lone single, 'Watching the Hydroplanes'. As with most post-Joy Division records issued in the early '80s by Factory, the single was cast off as being second-rate Joy Division.
Yet another four-song demo was recorded before Leeming departed. Drummer Ashworth ditched his drum kit for a guitar, and the trio continued playing live dates with a drum machine. Opting to try things out with another live drummer, the band called it quits after one rehearsal as a quartet. Former members splintered off into other short-lived bands, including Vee VV (Anderton, Butterworth) and Cat Noise (Shea, Swindles). In 1998, Les Temps Modernes released 'Guessing the Way', a compilation of the band's single, two demos, and live material. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Marcel Neville King (4 Jan 1958 - 5 Oct 1995) was the youngest member with soul/funk/disco outfit Sweet Sensation. Formed in Manchester in 1971 (as Sensation) the octet won the New Faces talent competition and their second single release "Sad Sweet Dreamer" topped the UK charts in September 1974. Sweet Sensation disbanded soon after failing the British finals for the Eurovision Song Contest.
In 1984 King teamed up with Donald Johnson (of A Certain Ratio) and Bernard Sumner (of New Order) to release one of Factory's finest moments -the one-off single 'Reach For Love / Keep On Dancing' (FAC 92). A massive dancefloor filler in The Hacienda "Reach For Love" unfortunately never gained commercial success.
Marcel King died in 1995 from brain haemorrhage.
Manchester funk-jazz-pop group Kalima, named after a late-'70s Elvin Jones song, didn't come out of nowhere when the band began in October 1983 -in fact, Kalima didn't really begin at all. Instead it was the new name for the group Swamp Children, who had already recorded an album and some singles for Factory before the decision for a less dourly suggestive name was made. Otherwise the group's lineup remained initially unchanged -singer Ann Quigley, bass player Tony Quigley, guitarist John Kirkham, sax player Cliff Saffer, and drummer Martin Moscrop. Moscrop recruited two of his fellow A Certain Ratio bandmates to assist -pianist Andy Connell and bass/vibes player Jeremy Kerr- while percussion player Chris Hornerman also joined the band, resulting in a seemingly unwieldy but still cohesive enough lineup that made its initial mark with a couple of singles and then the 'Night Time Shadows' album.
The group's distinctly non-stereotypically '80s Manchester sound -not classically post-punk on the one hand, not the slowly congealing indie-dance approach on the other- left the band to a small but passionate following and respect if not resultant commercial success. Moscrop and his fellow ACR members left the group in 1986, eventually replaced by saxophonist Matthew Taylor, flautist Bernard Moss and drummer David Higgins; with Saffer also out while Warren Sharples took over on bass, this lineup then recorded a self-titled, more brass-driven effort in 1988. 'Feeling Fine' followed in 1990, featuring another revamped lineup -drum/percussion section Higgins and Hornerman were replaced by Andy Boothman and Iain Alexander- and continuing critical attention but no commercial breakthrough. In between these two albums was 'Firefly', a 1989 catchall collection of earlier singles and tracks, including some Swamp Children songs. After 'Feeling Fine' and the attendant single "Shine" appeared, Kalima went into hibernation for over a decade, reappearing with a self-released album, 'In Spirit', in 2001, collecting some unreleased and rarer tracks but otherwise featuring new recordings of a stripped-down, three-person lineup of the Quigley siblings and Kirkham, the only three members in every incarnation of the group. A couple of years later the LTM label began a comprehensive reissue program of both Swamp Children and Kalima's Factory work. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
A neglected part of the Factory Records scene, the Stockholm Monsters are a key link between the bristly art-funk of A Certain Ratio and the good-foot indie dance vibe of Happy Mondays and the other Manchester bands of the late '80s. Often seen merely as New Order proteges (Peter Hook produced all but one of their records) and victims of both record company indifference and unnecessary potshots by the cynical British music press, the Stockholm Monsters deserved better treatment than they usually got.
Formed by teenage brothers Tony and Karl France (vocals/guitar and bass/keyboards, respectively) and fraternal twins Lita and Shan Hira (keyboards and drums, respectively), the Stockholm Monsters gathered in suburban Manchester in 1980, signing to local indie powerhouse Factory Records the following year. Just before the release of their first single, the Martin Hannett-produced "Fairy Tales," 17-year-old trumpet player Lindsay Anderson joined the band. Although "Fairy Tales" was a minor success, hitting the middle reaches of the U.K. indie charts, the Hook-produced follow-up, "Happy Ever After," was a sales disappointment.
Following another lineup change, with Lita Hira being replaced by guitarist John Rhodes and Anderson adding keyboards to her trumpet duties, the Stockholm Monsters released a fine EP, 'Miss Moonlight', in 1983. Unfortunately, despite Hook's continued involvement, Factory Records apparently lost interest in the group and shunted them to their Belgian subsidiary label Factory Benelux, then seen as the label's dumping ground for vanity projects and failed experiments. (Ironically, many post-punk connoisseurs now find Factory Benelux releases more interesting than most of the proper Factory releases of the era, the mother label having largely turned into a straight dance imprint after the massive success of New Order's "Blue Monday" 12".) The Stockholm Monsters' sole long-player, 'Alma Mater', came out in September 1984. A low-key record blending jangly guitars and skittering electronic percussion, 'Alma Mater' bridges the gap between the British indie pop and dance scenes of the era much in the same way that New Order would on their next couple of albums. Half a decade later, of course, The Stone Roses and others would take this hybrid to the top of the charts and the forefront of the British national consciousness.
Armed with a deliberately provocative title and a cover photo of a nude pubescent girl, the aggressive and experimental 12" single "How Corrupt Is Rough Trade" charted higher than anything the Stockholm Monsters had released since their first single. Anderson left the group shortly after its release, and it was assumed that the Stockholm Monsters were finished. Surprisingly, a final single was released two years later, but its appearance suggested turmoil in the band's ranks. At the same time that the Peter Hook-produced version of "Party Line" came out on Factory in the U.K., the Italian label Materiali Sonori released a much different mix with a new set of B-sides, with the band getting the production credit. The band split for good shortly thereafter, with Shan Hira becoming a noted producer and studio owner in Manchester, working with The Fall, The Chameleons, and others. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
The Buzz of Delight was an American band consisting of Matthew Sweet and David Pierce, which was active from 1983 to 1985. Matthew Sweet grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska. He was musical from an early age, and as a teenager made 4-track cassettes of songs he wrote. Sweet was an early fan of R.E.M., as well as their first producer, Mitch Easter. He had R.E.M.'s first single, "Radio Free Europe", and loved its B-side, "Sitting Still". He met the band when they played a small concert in Lincoln in September 1982, when he was still in high school. He gave a cassette of songs he had been working on to R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe. R.E.M. put Sweet in touch with Easter, and the two became pen pals. Stipe, as well as his sister Lynda Stipe and friend Linda Hopper -who were both in the band Oh-OK- all liked Sweet's cassette of songs, and the three of them sent him postcards suggesting that he come to perform in the town where they lived, Athens, Georgia. Athens was famous for its flourishing music scene, which Sweet had read about in New York Rocker magazine. Easter also recommended that Sweet move to Athens, which he did after graduating from high school. Soon after he arrived, he became a member of Oh-OK, and he played on their E.P. 'Furthermore What'. After its release, the band's drummer, David Pierce, was fired from the band. While still a member of Oh-Ok, Sweet formed a new band with Pierce, called The Buzz of Delight. The band's name came from a conversation between Linda Hopper and Michael Stipe; in her kitchen in Athens, she told Stipe that "the buzz of the lights was freaking [her] out", to which he replied, "The buzz of delight?" [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
Best known as a co-founder (with Chris Miller, aka Rat Scabies) of the punk band The Damned, Raymond Burns, aka Captain Sensible, is one of the most beguiling and talented individuals to emerge from the punk era. Ironically, he never sought a separate career from that of The Damned, but success with a series of singles, coupled with extended periods of inactivity by the band, made it a foregone conclusion that he would become a star in his own right. In the early '80s, Captain Sensible put together a group of his own called King, which lasted all of three months before breaking up. He later sang on the single "Jet Boy Jet Girl" and appeared on Johnny Moped's 'Cycledelic' album. He was signed to A&M as a solo artist, and had a number one British hit with the old musical number "Happy Talk." He followed it up with an original, "Glad It's All Over," an antiwar song about the Falklands; for a time, he was also hooked up with Robyn Hitchcock. By this time, his status as a member of The Damned made him a regular topic of coverage in the British music press, and he became well-known for various beliefs, including devoted vegetarianism and an opposition to war, which he presented in bitingly satirical fashion.
Captain Sensible proved more charming than any other veteran of the punk scene. His 1985 vegetarian-oriented single "Wot! No Meat?" was a success, and over the years he also recorded a series of albums, 'The Power of Love' (1983), 'Revolution Now' (1989), and 'The Universe of Geoffrey Brown' (1993), that were good sellers and critical favorites, though only in England -in an era in which The Damned were little more than a cult act on the other side of the Atlantic, Captain Sensible barely registered on anyone's radar screen in America. He and his band -Paul Gray on bass, Malcolm Dixon on organ and synthesizer, and Garrie Dreadful on drums- became famous for the reckless abandon and prodigious musicianship of their live shows, which were spiced by the Captain's savage wit. In 1994 he released 'Live at the Milky Way', the best album of his solo career and one of the finest live albums of the era, followed by 'Meathead' in 1995 and 'Mad Cows & Englishmen' in 1996. With his reputation secured in particular by 'Live at the Milky Way', Captain Sensible remained a fan favorite even while once again joining the ranks of The Damned in the 21st century, appearing on such Damned discs as 2001's 'Grave Disorder' and 2008's 'So, Who's Paranoid?' [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Root Boy Slim (July 9, 1944 – June 8, 1993) was the stage name assumed by American musician Foster MacKenzie III. He was born in Asheville, North Carolina but raised in Washington, D.C.'s Maryland suburbs. He was an exceptionally bright child with parents who were able to afford a series of costly prep schools, and he attended Yale University. He returned to Maryland upon receiving his bachelor's degree and was diagnosed with schizophrenia following an LSD-induced psychotic episode. In the 1970s, he formed his own alternative rock band (including musicians such as tenor saxophonist Ron Holloway) and an ensemble titled Crying Out Loud.
At the height of the U.K.-imported punk movement, the United States answered with its own Root Boy Slim & the Sex Change Band. Along with support singers The Rootettes, Root Boy Slim was both a tongue-in-cheek parody of the generally unkempt punk rock scene and the leader of a fairly well-received and established blues bar combo. Their renown up and down the Atlantic seaboard was nothing short of a guide to low-brow humor and the "frat boy" lifestyle as espoused by the likes of 1978's "Animal House". Throw in a heapin' helpin' of proto-redneck sensibilities and voila. The band cultivated a dedicated fan base, largely confined to the Washington metropolitan area. MacKenzie died in his sleep in his home in Orlando, Florida at age 48 and is buried in Fletcher, North Carolina. He was inducted into the Washington Area Music Association Hall of Fame in 2004. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA]
Miracle Legion were a Connecticut-based band that immediately sprang to life on the heels of a post-R.E.M. guitar rock boom, chiefly because lead singer Mark Mulcahy's voice bore an uncanny resemblance to Michael Stipe's, and the arpeggio guitar structures were akin to Peter Buck's. But the band -Ray Neal (guitar), Jeff Wiederschall (drums), and Steven West (bass), and later just Mulcahy and Neal- ultimately became unique in its own right. 'The Backyard EP', released by the small Incas Records label in 1984, was an immediate college radio hit, and the band rode high on its popularity for some time. It took until 1987 to get 'Surprise Surprise Surprise' out on Rough Trade, and they were unable to capitalize on the initial buzz; the tone was no longer so sprightly. The follow-up, 1988's 'Glad', was a collection of originals and some live tracks recorded with Pere Ubu. By 1989, Mulcahy and Neal were working as a duo and released a savvy acoustic album titled 'Me and Mr. Ray' on Rough Trade. Having abandoned the R.E.M. sound, the band found its own direction as a country-rock duo. 'Drenched' arrived in 1992, followed by 'Portrait of a Damaged Family' in 1997, the latter of which was released on Mulcahy's own Mezzotint Records. In 1999 Mulcahy released a solo album, 'Fathering', as well as music for Nickelodeon's "The Adventures of Pete & Pete". He continued to record solo into the 2000s, putting out the 'I Just Shot Myself in the Foot Again EP' (2000) and the full-lengths 'Smilesunset' (2001) and 'In Pursuit of Your Happiness' (2005). In 2016, Miracle Legion staged a reunion tour, and recordings from two of the dates were compiled into a live album, 2017's 'Annulment'. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
Die Hornissen
was a German rock band from Köln formed by Detlev Kühne (Quick Culture, Slinky Gym School) and Walter Dahn (Die Partei,
Dig Down Deep,
Slinky Gym School,
The Jewellers), painter, photographer and sound artist. From age 17 he studied in Düsseldorf with Joseph Beuys and then was one of the main figures of "Die Jungen Wilden" (young wilds) movement in the eighties.
They released the album 'Zwei Jahre / Two Years' (1984) and the 7" 'Pale Blue Eyes / Hallo! Hallo?' (1982), both on the 46 Records label. In 2004 Walter Dahn, under the Hornissen moniker, relased the CD 'Honig Und Dreck'.
Before forming V2 SchneiderJürgen Schweighart's first musical project was the band Blindgänger that spawned an EP called 'Rabenschwarz' from 1981.
Blingänger were:
Jochen Hägle, Georg Huber, Rainer Schober, Mani Elfinger and Jürgen Schweighart.
Georg became the German Brian Eno as Zeitblom, working internationally
with people like Fred Frith, Einstürzende Neubauten and Yoko Ono.
[SOURCE: V2 SCHNEIDER.COM]
Pyrolator is the solo guise of German synth experimenter Kurt Dahlke, best known as a member of the groundbreaking post-punk/synth pop band Der Plan. Like that group, Pyrolator was chiefly inspired by the synthetic sleekness of Kraftwerk and the dissident surrealism of The Residents, fitting squarely into the emerging German new wave movement. However, Dahlke also drew from the experimental side of post-punk, employing proto-industrial beats and tape collages for a distinctly off-kilter brand of electronic pop.
Dahlke began his career as a charter member of D.A.F., helping to found the Atatak label that issued their first album, but left that group very early on to pursue other projects. He quickly formed Der Plan with Frank Fenstermacher and Moritz "RRR" Reichelt, but actually beat his new band to the punch by issuing 'Inland', his debut album as Pyrolator, on Atatak in 1979. Using found environmental sounds and implicit social commentary in place of lyrics, 'Inland' received positive reviews in Germany and earned Pyrolator a cult following.
'
The 1981 follow-up, 'Ausland', was even more acclaimed, expanding Dahlke's audience, and gained some positive notice in England as well. Third album 'Wunderland' appeared in 1984, the same year Dahlke teamed up with A.K. Klosowski for the groundbreaking sampling experiment 'Home Taping Is Killing Music'. Meanwhile, Dahlke continued to record extensively with Der Plan, and also served as a producer for numerous other German artists. His fourth album as Pyrolator arrived in the form of 1987's 'Traumland', although he did team up with Linda Sharrock and Frank Samba for 'Every 2nd', a collaborative album of music for the German Olympic pavilion at the 1988 Seoul Games. A similarly conceived single, "Ficcion Disco," appeared in 1992.
Dahlke stayed with Der Plan into the mid-'90s and also continued his production work. When Der Plan disbanded, Dahlke and Frank Fenstermacher reteamed under the name A Certain Frank, issuing the first of several albums in 1996. Still involved with Atatak, Dahlke also served as producer and remixer for contemporary electronica artists, including Kreidler, To Rococo Rot, and Stereo Total, among others. He also became involved with Burkina Electric, and in 2011 released his fifth Pyrolator album, 'Neuland', which had more of a straightforward, minimal techno sound than his previous output. Following a few limited split 12" singles, Pyrolator released 'Con-Struct', an album containing reworkings of material by the late Conrad Schnitzler, in 2015. [SOURCE: ALLMUSIC]
