One of the things I kind of liked about a lot of the UK hardcore bands in the late 80s was how so many of them seemed to come from these small non-descript type of towns much like my own, this certainly wasn’t some scene based around some fashionable metropolis like London or Manchester, sure there were bands that came from those places but it wasn’t like they were these mecca’s that people looked to for direction as the centre of some happening musical scene.
I’ve already mentioned how Dan/Sofahead came from Darlington and HDQ/Leatherface were from Sunderland. There were also The Stupids and various associated bands – Sink, Perfect Daze, Bad Dress Sense etc – based around Ipswich and The Instigators/Civilised Society were from the Huddersfield/Dewsbury area.
One of the other places that was home to a little group of brilliant punk bands was Leamington Spa. When I was at university I had a friend who came from there and from what she said it sounded like a fairly typical small town sort of scene.
The Depraved, Joyce McKinney Experience and Visions of Change were all from there and had shared various members – The Varukers, a UK82 type of group, also happened to come from there – and were all great groups.
Here are the two Deparved albums – ‘Come On Down’ and ‘Stupidity Maketh The Man’ and the second of the two Visions of Change albums – ‘My Mind’s Eye’ (I always meant to buy the first one as it was in my local record shop for months but kept putting it off until of course I missed my chance and have never seen it since – if anyone could help me out getting a copy of it, it would be much appreciated).
No Joyce McKinney Experience though as a full discography is available from Boss Tuneage and well worth getting – similar to Dan/Sofahead type stuff.
http://rapidshare.com/files/117092071/depraved1.rar
August 28, 2008 at 10:38 am |
Man, I had both Depraved LP’s & were amongst the first I got from a mailorder (It was either Manic Ears or COR), but I don’t know what happened to them. I probably traded them with some Yank a year or two down the line as I was more into the faster stuff by then & considered them to be a bit “wimpy.” Stupidity Maketh The Man, indeed!
September 2, 2008 at 3:22 pm |
[...] They came from the Liverpool/Wigan area, which kind of sticks to the tradition of these bands coming from out of the way places that I mentioned before. [...]
June 2, 2009 at 1:34 am |
Hey Adamski – The vocalist of THE DEPRAVED – Ian Murphy (who was also the vocalist in VISIONS OF CHANGE come to that) is now fronting a new band – SECTION 13 which has just released its debut CD – ‘A Demonstration’ – on Boss Tuneage Recs. There’ll be an interview with Ian on the Scanner site soon too!! I think Boss Tuneage is planning to re-release both THE DEPRAVED and VISIONS OF CHANGE too – keep an eye out for that.
July 28, 2009 at 6:27 am |
Oicott played with Section 13 in Wales, on our tour with Career Suicide. S13 were astonishing (no label pun intended!), reminded me of how great UK h/c can be without any of the metal, mosh or emo influences overpowering it, great band………
August 31, 2009 at 12:53 pm |
Hiya
I’m trying to get in touch again with people/bands that played/visited our Smurfpunx-gigs in the 80s and early 90s:
Joyce McKinney Experiece, Visions of Change, Jailcell recipes, HDQ, etc.
(have a look at the concert-list)
Can you mail me or if you know those people ask them to get in touch