The Depressions

The Depressions

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Jordan: "I like Shirley Bassey, and The Depressions for half their set..." From Fair Dukes Fanzine December 1977 The Depressions. They had the punky name, punky image and looks. They had the sound and they had the backing. So what went wrong?

I can't put my finger on it something just didn't seem to ring true. One of the last bands to jump, aboard the punk bandwagon just as the wheel were coming off as one reviewer put it.

Originally a Who / Small Faces cover band from Brighton called Tonge. With the onset of punk they turned into the more punkier sounding The Depressions, secured a deal with Barn Records, got the Slade management and were tipped for big things. Straight off they got arrested for spraying their names and fined £150 each!

All of them had dyed blonde hair and the drummer wore an eye patch for some reason. (The Police later nicked this image minus the eye patch !)

	Dave Barnard - Bass Ozzy 'Crowbar' Garvey - Drums Eric 'Rico The Knife' - Guitar 'Ammer' Frank Smith - Guitar

Playing all the famous Punk clubs - The Vortex and Roxy - the boys aimed to capitalise on punk. Their releases perhaps helped to confuse: They just didn't sound punk. As The Depressions they released three singles and an album supported by a lot of PR coverage and advertisements in the music weeklies (did they only ever do one photo session as every publicity photo seems to have them in the same clothes and poses?) Disaster struck though on their tour with The Vibrators as they played Preston Poly. As they finished a fight broke out and someone died. The ensuing publicity virtually killed the band.

'Ammer' Frank Smith who had been with the band for a year left for health reasons and they recruited Tony Mayberry from Joe Cool & The Killers to replace him. At the same time they became The D.P's, lost the all blonde look, lost the punk togs and unsuccessfully tried to reinvent themselves in a more rockier style. 2 more singles and another album were released to less than critical acclaim and in February 1979 they split and that was it.

Stuart Home in 'Cranked Up Really High' reckons they spent their record company advance 'on drugs and a huge truck'. He also says their music was infinitely superior to The Stranglers and comments that Career Girl by The DP's "...unintentionally demonstrates the complexity of social stratisfication...Without wishing to deny the existence of patriarchy.." I'll stop there before I die laughing.

The Depressions jumped the punk bandwagon and were granted the opportunity to make 5 singles and 2 albums with a lot of support and money spent on them. Rightly or wrongly I just don't think they had the class or the material to deserve this. To put it in context Subway Sect made two singles - The Killjoys - one. If The Depressions has just released Messing With Your Heart their place in history would have been assured. Harsh? Tell me why I'm wrong.