Early
days...
Me and Toby and Pete, were at school together in Wythenshawe and had been
jamming Slade T Rex and Bowie songs in Toby's kitchen. Occasionally I'd
nip over to Mike Rossi's house and get chords for Bowie songs as Mike was
a big Ronson fan and we'd talk about forming bands. Mike said he was doing
something with Wayne so me Toby and Pete formed Wild Ram and Mike and
Wayne formed the Dogs so where ever the Dogs played we'd get a gig a
couple of weeks later and we would all go and watch each others sets and
nick bits that would appear in our next shows. So a bit of friendly
rivalry built up between us with the Dogs always being one step in front.
When Vini Riley joined us we started to do some Iggy Pop with tracks from
Raw Power.
I think we moved ahead of them there, until they landed the support slot
with the Pistols and we ended up being there roadies for the night just to
be part of it. So after that gig we decided to have a stronger name after
I'd been bottled on the head side stage and someone had punched Pete
giving him a nosebleed so we came up with Ed Banger and the Nosebleeds
(1976)
Bandwagoners...
After spilling our blood for the punk cause damn right we regarded
ourselves as true punks but we still got labelled bandwagon jumpers.
Virtually every band after the Pistols suffered the same but in a sense
everybody but the Pistols were bandwagon jumpers you know what I mean.
Places to play..
Early on there was the Oaks who had on Johnny Thunders, New York Dolls,
the Banshees, Wayne County, the Dogs and EB & the Nosebleeds. Then Rafters
on Oxford Rd and the Electric Circus opened up and Manchester Poly started
putting on punk bands. A lot of punks hung out at the Ranch club -a real
mix of punks , drag queens and other fetish groups pretty cool eh! There
was a tendency for gangs of disco cavemen to hang about outside to give
the freaks a good kicking unfortunately I got kicked half to death one
night and another bottle smashed on my head. I was beginning to regret
being called Ed Banger. still got the lump on my head to this day. A real
momento of 70s punk, top man. I was into having a good time so I never
stopped to analyse anything but looking back it was a real cool time to be
around all those happening bands.
Camaradrerie...
I was always close to the Dogs and all the other bands got on with each
other as we'd all gig together in Manchester. The Buzzcocks were the
outsiders being from Bolton and a bit arty farty.
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Playing The Roxy
London..
I remember it being a classic toilet gig ,the smell of vomit, weed, glue,
and graffiti everywhere - perfect - we got there late for the gig.
As it was just a single doorway entrance on some side street, we must have
passed it 5 times or more so when we eventually got in Sham 69 were on
stage Mr Pursey doing one of his legendary rants between songs to about
ten people. Most of them were other bands waiting to go on there was a
definite feeling of sleaze in the air with the sight of two leather clad
mini skirted punketts sticking there tongues down each others throats in
the middle of the dance floor - superb. There was some top dub reggae
played by the dj between bands and by the time we went on there was
another twenty odd people in the place which made look quite full with the
venue being the size of the average front room. So we blasted through our
set at double speed with Mr Pursey leading the crowd in community pogoing
finishing the set with a frantic version of
Music School
and proceeding to the bar to get steamed with our new found friends.
Overall a right dump of a place but an important place in punk history.
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Slaughter & The Dogs..
They were on the crest of a wave when I joined them, about to go top 50
with Ready Now
and a sell-out tour a head of them. Then Wayne jumped ship for love in the
afternoon so it didn't seem to be a sinking ship to me. My first gig was
at the Lyceum in London after two hurried rehearsals and it went down a
storm. As I remember maybe there was few people miffed at Wayne departure
but I never encountered any animosity form the Dogs army; in fact they all
made me feel quite at home they were just glad the Dogs were going to
carry on. Obviously the next album was going to quite important and as it
turn out a real bummer punk wise due to us being on a bit of a rockstar
trip. If only the lads had listened to me when I suggested putting out a
tape of one of our rehearsals which was fast and raw. I even came up with
the title DJM
Rabid Dogs, but
what blew it was when I said think of all the nights out on the piss we
could have instead of spending a fortune in the studio. I don't think the
company would have had it but in hind sight it would have been just what
the fans would have wanted. The album cost 15,000 to record that's about
1500 top nights out we blew on a pile of shite, but we made up for that
with the single
I'm The One
and had a sell out tour booked of the back of it when Mike decided to
disappear to New York. So I went back to Manchester and reformed Ed
Banger. The trouble with the Dogs was there was no continuity. On there
first major tour, after just one date Brian Granthem did a runner, then
after that Wayne disappeared a couple of times and finally Mike did one to
New York, so they all had a go at cutting there own throats. |
What did you bring
to the Dogs
What I brought to the music was not much on that album. I didn't really
have time to settle in before we were in the studios with the songs mostly
wrote by Mike and Howard. It wasn't to the second single
I'm The One
where we hit on the right formula and I got a bit of say in the writing,
by which time Mike decided to wander off. But I had a great time with them
and we all got on really well so it was worth the trip. I bumped into Mike
and Wayne a few years ago in a rehearsal studio in Stockport, when they
were getting ready for Holidays In The Sun, Wayne was his moody self and
Mike was a friendly as ever but you could feel the tension between them
both. But maybe that's why that combination works so well they're both
fighting to be number one and they spur each other on. So good luck to
them and long may it continue.
Favourite Slaughter
song...
Yeah bootboys was one of my favourites, a cartoon drawing of yob culture.
The chorus I sang was ""where have all the bootboys gone hammy jacko bugs
and john"" ""where have all the bootboys gone it looks like I'm the only
one"" the one""
Nosebleeds end
Me and Vini Riley didn't like the way the band was being run so we opted
out and started our solo projects. There was a whole set full of
Nosebleeds songs ready to record but we never got there. There's a tape
knocking about of a live session we did for Piccadilly Radio in Manchester
and there's a video we did with a video workshop with live footage and
interviews about the rise and fall of the Nosebleeds. Someone should put
it out.
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From
the Rise and Fall of the Nosebleeds Video |
Stephen
Morrissey and Billy Duffy ( The Smiths and The Cult)
I wasn't aware of them following us about, but they might well have. Yeah
they did one gig at the Mayflower Club in Manchester before deciding
it was a waste of time trying to follow in mine and Vinys footsteps.
Obviously a talent less bunch of no hopers who would only notch up 10s of
millions of sales pathetic. They were considered for Slaughter but were
found not to be up to it ha ha. The Sweethearts yes they definitely were a
right pair.
Memories
Having a pint with the Pistols backstage at the Lesser Free Trade Hall
talking about Man City getting bottled and Johnny Rotten being a concerned
citizen saying I'd better get some stitches in that and Jonesy saying
bollocks to that have another beer cool. Giving Tony Wilson a hard time
live on Granada TV when we did
Music School
on a local show. Kicking Paul Morley (70s NME tosser) in the mush when he
tried to heckle us at the Electric Circus. Getting completely blitzed with
the rest of the boys in Slaughter before we were due to do live recording
and video shoot. The company dragged us in the next day and told us 'that
piss up cost you five grand we hope you enjoyed it', then they said they
had the tapes destroyed. We went down the pub and had another little drink. |
Giving Tony Wilson a hard time! |
Who did you rate
and not rate?
There wasn't anybody I didn't like. The pistols were the best. I always
found the more performance based bands more to my liking -Johnny Thunders,
New York Dolls, Wayne County, John Cooper Clarke and the Dogs. As I said I
liked everybody that was about at that time. The Clash, Sham, Banshees, V2,
The Drones, The Buzzcocks, The Fall etc.........
Worst time and best
times
Worst gig was pre Slaughter at the Lyceum as Ed Banger supporting
Penetration where for some reason the audience took an instant dislike to
us. (after I'd said ""your all a bunch of southern softies"" - we
disappeared under a hail of cans and bottles) so after driving all that
way down there for an 8 bars set, the van then broke down on the way home.
Spent the night freezing our bollocks off by the side of the road. Then
it took most of the next day to get the van fixed. On top of that it cost
a small fortune for the repairs and we'd not been paid for the gig. So
yeah that rates as a pretty shite gig. Best gig - Lyceum again with
Slaughter. After only two days rehearsal we did a stormer of a gig from my
point of view which went down a treat to a packed house. After what had
gone on at my previous visit, it was quite a turn around!
Looking back..
Fantastic memories - it was a special moment in time and to have been part
of it was pretty damn cool man! Punk is still going strong today so its
stood the test of time. Bandwagon jumpers like Tony Wilson saying punk was
dead in 79 proves what a complete tosser he is, but lets not end on that
note so lets say " Carry on punk!".
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