| Formed
in 1976 and hailing from Birmingham The Suburban Studs were one of
the first bands to be signed to an independent, the punky sounding
Pogo Records, and marketed through the major label WEA Records. In their
time they released 2 singles and even an album within a year, a feat not
reached by many a punk band of the time. Originally featuring the sax
antics of Steve Heart the instrument was felt to be inappropriate to their
sound and he
left to join the Neon Hearts.
Eddy Zipps (vocals, guitar)
Keith Owen (guitar)
Paul
Morton (bass)
Steve Pool (drums).
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The Suburban Studs were active live throughout 1976, they played their first
London gig at the 100 Club on the 31st August '76 supporting the Sex Pistols
and the Clash, a quote of a Sounds review by John Ingham appears the Clash
book "Last Gang In Town"
where he describes their set as
'a
laughable mixture of tacky jumpsuits, tacky make-up, tacky props and tacky
music'. The Studs also headlined over
the Clash on the 27th of October '76 at Barbarellas in Birmingham, this time
complete with haircuts and a more punk image, though still playing the same
dated glam set as they did at the 100 Club.
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Gigs at
the usual suspects like the Marquee, Roxy and Barbarellas and tours even supporting the
likes of AC/DC did nothing to break the band. Not even a John Peel session
broadcast in December 1977 or appearing in a punk rock special on ATV helped.
The marketing from WEA
also failed to
materialise short of a couple of small ads for the album and single. The WEA
connection did however land them on the double
Live At The Hope And
Anchor album with
a live version of 'I Hate School' along with The Stranglers,
999, X Ray Spex & The Saints among others. |
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Sounds 17.12.77 |
Mediocre album reviews
in the music weeklies didn't help either. PR was reduced to occasional gossip including the singer
being subject to random punk violence which
was prevalent at the time and the shenanigans of their fans when two girls
at their Thames Poly gig flashed their breasts on stage, daubed graffiti and
set off fire extinguishers.
With no sales the
band just fell off the punk map.
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Record Mirror 1.2.78 |
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