The Drones Part 2

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A John Peel session showed them able to mix it with the big boys and this was confirmed as they were one  of the few punk bands to make it to an album  releasing Further Temptations with its famous punkette sleeve. That said, an album was too perhaps a step too far with the band not having strong enough material. The album at the Press launch was given out with free dog collars though less salubrious tales of the event tell of the band going thru the model featured on the cover as it were! 

Then Valer went bust and like for so many '77 bands  time caught up with The Drones. Trying to move on they drafted in a keyboards player and sexy dancing girls. The result was described in a Sounds review of 25.2.78 as "The whole thing was a pathetic failure...Back to rock cabaret... a subtle change in the musical policy would have been far better than a change in stage act...It breaks my heart to write all this." Without the anger and energy of punk as an impetus they settled into inertia. 

The end of 1979 saw them still playing places like The Marquee but minus the keyboars and girls and unable to move forward. Signed to Fabulous (an Island subsidiary) and managed by NME writer Paul Morley they released one more single but the moment had gone They had a lost the spark but managed to limp on past 1982 before eventually calling it a day. The retrospective cd Tapes From The Attic shows them at their best and worst from their earliest recording of Search & Destroy (amazingly in November 1975!) to the lifeless Fooled & You Never Notice.

I think we've got a lot to offer the people, I really do. I mean we never give up...I'll never give up till we make it - if we make it." MJ 1977 Summer Salt 3 (Fanzine)

They never did make it but they had a f***king good go and left some classic tunes that were as good as anyone else's.

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