A Punk Rock History of Demolition with images and reviews

Demolition

The Wigan Casino Gig | Lancashire Evening Telegraph 1977

Pete Sandford tells the story of Demolition: Myself, Matt Emulsion (Steve Holmes) and Split Belsen (Paul Davies) were all regulars at the Lodestar - a pub/ nightclub/ music venue in Ribchester, just outside Blackburn. Saturday nights were always heavily based around Roxy Music, Bowie, Dr Feelgood etc but everyone was always open-minded to new stuff & it wasn't long before the first punk records were getting played there.

The Pistols played there in 1976 before they had a record deal. I remember being there in the bar at the other end of the building & reading a poster for this oddly named band the 'Sex Pistols' who were playing that night. I'd never heard of them so decided to give them a miss!!! Later I heard they'd been so bad that Andy Grimshaw who had booked them, said he wasn't going to pay them! After a bit of a fracas he did pay up. Once I heard New Rose and some early Pistols sessions, I was hooked and it was when I went to the Clash gig at the Electric Circus that I spotted Split in the audience. He had no way of getting home and I had a car so I gave him a lift home & over the next couple of weeks we got together with Matt to form Demolition in May 1977. We first got together in Paul's (Split) mums living room where he just churned out a few chords.

"Another regular at the Lodestar back then was Neil Arthur who went on to form Blancmange in 1979. I got the shades I'm wearing in the photo from him. He made them himself out of bent acrylic. They were dark blue, wraparound & soooo cool! I think I still have them somewhere."

Lancashire Evening Telegraph 1977

We were driving back to Manchester to see a gig soon after and struggling to come up with a cool name when we went past a building site & I spotted a warning sign saying DEMOLITION. That was it - job done! I don't know where Jim the drummer came from, I think Paul put a 'wanted ad' up in Reidy's music shop in Blackburn & Jim was the only one to reply. His mum used to bring him down to rehearsals at the Lodestar then sit outside in her car until we'd finished! The only words I can recall ever saying to him were hit the fu**ing things., I think he was into drumming rather than the music if that makes sense.

Split was our main songwriter with such classics as No Feelings, Gangrene, Swastika Girl, Heart Failure, Factory Floor and about another 15 I cant remember. In The Lancashire Evening Telegraph they were quoted as having Dave Goodman interested and them wanting to release a double A sided single with No Feelings and Heart Failure.

"I'm a factory whore on the factory floor
Can't take no more of this factory chore."

Everyone we played with was really great - Boomtown Rats, The Boys, Eater, Adverts, 999, etc. No-one was playing the 'rock star' thing, not even Mr Geldof! Actually, the Rats played their first English gig at the Lodestar one Thursday night. I was there and they were very good but must have been operating at a loss as they got paid £40 between the seven of them, roadies, petrol, hotel etc! Two weeks later they released 'Lookin After Number One' as their first single and were back to headline with us as support act - our very first gig.

I just remembered, there was one more local band - Ian 'Odgie' Hodges and Alan Deaves were another couple of regulars at the Lodestar. They formed The Worst around the same time as we were getting going and went on to play a fair few gigs around Manchester. They were great blokes. They came to our first gig supporting the Boomtown Rats and afterwards said I'd make a good bass player for their band. I'd only been playing for about 3 weeks so my style was minimalist to say the least! I can see why it would have suited The Worst, what with Odgie's real Chad Valley drum kit etc.

Steve Holmes (Matt Emulsion) - Vocals
Paul Davies (Split Belsen) - Guitar
Pete Sandford - Bass
Jim - Drums

Amazingly the Demolition blagged their way onto what would have been their biggest gig was in front of 3500 people at Wigan Casino at a Rock Against Racism gig. It was when the Pistols were touring under various different names and the turnout was phenomenal. The story of this and how it turned out is here.

Advert for the not to be single. Deviation Street fanzine No2

The demise of Demolition came as Split thought he deserved most of the credit in the band. I as lead singer was getting all the attention and he didn't really see eye to eye with Pete on bass. The end came shortly after we went down to a recording studio in Coventry where we recorded our first single No Feelings & Gangrene a double A side. What happened to the tape god only knows but it never happened as Pete gave Split a good hiding after discovering him practising Demolition songs with a local band with Split on vocals...an ego had landed.... it was brilliant while it lasted....

Above article courtesy of Steve Holmes