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Jan Parker - Security Risk.
The band formed beginning of 78, we met under The Eros in Piccadilly. The
boys were all nineteen and I was eighteen. Our first gig was a Rock Against
Racism street party in Stockwell a few weeks later. We played on the back of
a lorry as support to The Subs.
The band was named after the heavy handedness of bouncers who used to beat
merry shit out of fans at gigs back then, and in particular reference to the
near riot that occurred at a clash gig in 1977, where fans ripped out the
seats and trashed the venue after some ruction with the security guys at the
gig.This was a first
band venture for all of us except Chris who was always in several bands. We
were heavily influenced by Blondie, X-ray Spex, Siouxsie, Penetration and
later the Rezillos. We loved the Clash, The Damned and The Subs. We were
really pop/punk and were happiest trashing old sixties s covers. Bobby’s
Girl was a favourite with the Whitton crew fans. |
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Jan Parker:
vocals
Tony Conway: guitar
Andy Godfrey: Bass
Paul Kent: Drums
Chris (?): keyboards (he joined a year later) |
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Personally, I got into Punk whilst hanging out at The Lacy Lady nightclub
in Ilford. It seems that everyone that went there become someone in the
media. (I was a good friend with the Kemp brothers in 75 and 76. they went
every Friday and Saturday night). We were listening to soul and funk at
the club but throwing ourselves around and wearing ripped up clothes back
in 75.We were deeply interested in anything ‘alternative’ (we loved the
programme ‘The Prisoner’ but there was no music to go with what we were
feeling, until, in (I think) late 76 The Dammed played their first gig at
the Lacy Lady. We were all completely blown away.
Songs I remember from our
set were Action Man, Deep Freeze, Sign Us Up, Hypocrite, Last Train at
Night, Hanging Around, White Christmas (all year round), The whole of the
then current UK Subs set, Bobby’s Girl, Flying Saucer Attack (Rezillos) |
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We never made a record because the deals we were offered at the time were
all a rip off and I wouldn’t sign up for a one percent cut. Even the
majors were ripping people off and we were hanging out for a proper deal.
We toyed with the idea of recording our own record but we were all on the
dole and broke. Also at about that time there was a flood of independently
released stuff by bands and I remember that the Indie record distribution
market fell to bits, leaving bands with thousands of records in suitcases
to take to the dump! |
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Images courtesy
of Mick Mercer
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