The Members

The first wave of UK punk spawned an enormous number of bands in a very short space of time and with an incredible amount of diversity. Some groups became icons of the genre and the history books have been very kind to them. Others just made one or two records which are considered classics and then sunk with neither trace nor fanfare.

Many of the original artists are still active today and continue to be functioning at the grass roots end of the music. They can be found travelling around the UK and beyond, crammed into a family car or some beat-up white van. It is easy to think that those who released key records of the original punk era would be getting their due reward for their past efforts. If only life was as easy as that.

The Members were responsible for unleashing two of the very best singles from those heady days. "The Sound Of The Suburbs" and "Solitary Confinement" both sound just as crucial today as when they were first released in 1978. Everything about these two songs is flawless, from the insightful and timeless lyrics; the perfect combination of energy and melodic arrangements; as well as the strong production. If you want to get an idea of what it was like to grow up in the late 1970s with all its alienation and marginalisation then you should listen closely to these two records.

However, when you read the punk history books you will notice that The Members don’t get much of a mention or a lot of plaudits. Maybe it is partly because they didn’t have the strong urban guerrilla chic of The Clash; the ripped clothing of the Sex Pistols or the total chaos of The Damned. Image played an enormous role in how punk was defined but for me it is always ultimately about the music itself. The records, from the obscure to the acknowledged classics, tell a more honest and accurate story than the documentation of fashions and the mere sloganising.

Now slimmed down to a small but powerful trio, The Members are still out there gigging at home and abroad. There’s no hype or media machine behind them, just a lot of hard work done by the band themselves and the support of their modest but appreciative fanbase. Vocalist Nicky Tesco is not with them anymore due to illness but original members JC Carroll (the key songwriter and guitarist) and bassist Chris Payne do an admirable job on singing duties. It seems unlikely but on the drums they have the greatest punk rock drummer of all time Rat Scabies, formerly with The Damned.

I caught up with the band in Hebden Bridge where they could be found playing in a small pub to a modest crowd. Despite the rudimentary set-up (no monitors, broken amps, unmiked drums etc), they sounded remarkably potent and bashed out a set of classics alongside some new numbers. Rat’s drumming adds a slighter harder edge to the proceedings and it was wonderful to observe him at his kit, creating that trademark wall of sound that defined the sound of The Damned. Encores consisted of versions of Kraftwerk’s "The Model" au reggae-style (with a middle section of Augustus Pablo's Cassava Piece rhythm), Larry Wallis’s immortal "Police Car" and the Velvet Underground’s "I’m Waiting For The Man". For me though the undoubted highlights were "The Sound Of The Suburbs" and "Solitary Confinement". Hearing just those two songs live would be satisfaction enough.

Fortunately, I got to spend quite a bit of time with them including a next day photoshoot but more about that next time. For now, here are some live pictures from the gig.