The Eater Story

Eater Story Part 2

Eater Story Part 1

Eater performed a mixture of originals and covers for instance changing Alice Cooper's 'Eighteen' to 'Fifteen'. They were signed to The Label which was Dave Goodman's label (he was the Pistols early soundman and recorded their early demos). They thought Johnny Rotten was too old !!

"We're the only bands that can really relate to the kids, even the Pistols...they're old enough to be our dads." Brian Chevette SG6 Jan '77

Andy Blade writes in the sleeve of Compleat Eater "We managed to 'obtain'...guitars, learned a few chords and promptly set about writing tunes to our ever growing bundles of lyrics. All of them basically speeded up variations of Velvet Underground songs...We were quickly signed up and released our first single Outside View in March 1977. The next eighteen months were a complete blur of teenage over-indulgence, juvenile decadence, and completely arrogant ego tripping. Brilliant ! "

I don't remember much positive press for them in the music weeklies and for some because of their age they were seen as a novelty act. Worse than that, like The Stranglers, they seem to have been short changed by those learned self appointed punk historians.

"Most of Eater's material was pretty dumb...at least they didn't overstay their welcome." Mark P 'And God Created Punk'

"Youth by itself is not enough" Jon Savage 'England's Dreaming'

Both comments in my view are crap. Eater made some fantastic tunes and unlike Generation X didn't need a manufactured image or cries of Youth Youth Youth. They were what it was all about; excitement and having a laugh.

Brian with Soo Catwoman

Andy, Brian & Capt Sensible

The most prescient comment about Eater, and which could be applied to any punk band of the time was this one in Sniffin' Glue 6 January '77 by Steve Mick in his piece on Eater. "Up to now they have had it easy, thanks to all the other groups like the Sex Pistols who have paved the way for them...At the, moment it seems the only way the band will change is technically 'cause they've already said all they can and are burning themselves out in their own self destruction."

Sadly Eater never made it out of the punk rut. From 3 singles and an album in '77 they released 1 live ep and a single in '78, lost Brian Chevette and found themselves still playing the same places they had started playing some 18 months earlier. Music had moved on without them and that was that. Eater split up in January 1979.

In my view one of THE best bands to emerge from the UK punk explosion.