No not that
Vice Squad from Bristol fronted by the delectable Beki but
the Doncaster band fronted by
Phil Tasker who formed them in 1977.
left Chris Bedford; Bass guitar –
Phil
Tasker: Vocals and Chris Brooks; Guitar –
seen here playing a
‘Rock against Racism’ gig at First aid youth centre Doncaster
Phil
Tasker
…
“We started as three kids just out of school,
there was me on guitar and vocals, Chris Bedford
on bass and a guitarist called Ray Campbell. I
had been writing stuff for a while and we
started writing together and rehearsing at a
place in Woodlands. We decided to form a band
because we were excited by bands that we’d
seen, mainly at the Outlook, such as The Boys,
Generation X, Buzzcocks, Stranglers and many
more. Early influences were The Stooges, Velvet
Underground, Lou Reed, Roxy Music and Bowie,
also more locally, Be Bop Deluxe. The main
problem that we had was we had no drummer, and
without a drummer there was no drive behind the
music.
Eventually we heard about Roger Jackson and Clive Brookes,
they were still at school and had long hair but were keen to join a
band, so we got together and things seemed to gel. We started
rehearsing at a youth centre near a cemetery in Balby and worked on
original material with the odd Velvets track and a punked up version
of ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ by The Beatles. We were all from
the Intake area and had a Green Transit van called 'The Green
Bomber'.
The first gig was at The Woolpack in Doncaster in
February 78 and had a good turn out, mainly because people were so
curious about these ‘punk rockers’. It went pretty well, there
were no major incidents although we were very nervous, especially as
we were playing our own stuff and most people were used to bands
doing covers. I had moved to just doing vocals now that we had two
guitarists and we kept working on new material. Not long after, in
March, I think, we played at the Outlook supporting Sham 69, it had
been snowing and the van was playing up, I remember we had to push
it quite a lot, sliding about in winkle pickers! The gig was packed
to the roof and we were extremely nervous, I felt like I wanted to
throw up, especially as I was the front man. Of course, everyone had
come to see Sham 69; I think they had been on Top of the Pops – with one of their
famous tracks and we really felt like we were second class citizens.
I remember Jimmy Pursey not being particularly friendly, I think he
thought we were just hicks from the sticks. The gig itself didn’t
seem too bad but it all went by in a blur, I remember we were gobbed
on copiously, but that came with the territory really, all bands
whoever they were got gobbed on in those days. Of course, we relied
on friends to help hump the gear about, a bloke called Andy Fountain
used to drive the van and roadie for us. People were always asking
for freebie ties as we wore skinny ties sometimes as if they were
some kind of sales gimmick. We did a 4 week residency at Lincoln
AJ's which was also very strange but we needed the money, talk about
the city of the dead!”
Eventually we had enough material for a demo tape, and we
managed to find a recording studio at Heckmondwyke, can’t remember
the name of it, I think Be Bop Deluxe had recorded there. We
recorded five or six tracks, live in the studio, no overdubs, and it
was ok really, we were quite proud of it. Not long after recording
the demo, Ray decided to leave the band, and the master tape
disappeared with him, never to be seen again! We continued to
rehearse and did some hideous gigs at Thurnscoe Hotel and somewhere
else I can’t remember, working men’s clubs venues were not a
good idea especially after the Bill Grundy debacle with the Pistols.
There was a constant threat of violence and when one venue
had guard dogs roaming about, we were out of there quicker than you
could say Johnny Rotten!
The Adam and the
Ants gig we did was early on in 79 and Adam was conspicuous by his
absence, we never saw him in the dressing room, I think we saw him
once off stage, he was wearing a see through rain coat and national
health glasses at that particular time, and of course the Ant
followers used to have those angular lines drawn on their faces with
eye liner. I don’t think we actually spoke to Adam at all, and he
didn’t talk to us! Perhaps he stayed in a hotel; I remember it was
really cold and snowy that night, more pushing the van in the snow!
Later that year we recorded two tracks for the ‘New Wave
from the Heart’ LP, I remember we recorded the tracks live in some
guys garage studio with overdubs for guitar and backing vocals. The
record was recorded locally, with the tracks ‘Prison Girls’ and
‘Words and Pictures’. Not brilliant, but a product of
the minds of four teenagers at the time! We never met any of the
other bands but we had some weird rivalry with Subliminal Cuts for
some reason.
In the studio it was packed out with kids and there was a
really good atmosphere, everyone seemed to really enjoy the whole
experience and it felt good to end on a high. It
was a shame to have to end it really, it had been a really creative
time and we had produced some quite valid music for the short period
that punk actually existed in its true form.”
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