Both Jimmy and the Ferrets and Dave’s band were on the bill, and punk was beginning to come out its closet. They became regulars on the South London gig circuit, around the same time as The Jam, another Surrey band with similar influences.įollowing a show at a local venue, the Walton Hop, Dave Parsons met Jimmy Pursey for the first time.
BEST SHAM 69 ALBUM MOD
By the mid-seventies, Parsons, still at school, formed his own band who, in his own words, “fell into being kind of a mod band.” He joined his first band aged fourteen and quickly became used to rehearsing and on occasion, gigging. There was a musical element in his family, as his father had played in orchestras. His view of his hometown was not always reverent – “Unless you wanna fight there’s nothing to do.”ĭave Parsons had first picked up guitar aged twelve, having got a grounding in music by playing the violin a couple of years before. A Ramones fan, in 1975 he formed a band, called Jimmy and the Ferrets, with local lads Neil Harris, John Goodfornothing (AKA John Goode), both on guitar, Albie Slider on bass and Andy Nightingale (AKA Billy Bostick) on drums. His formative years in the locality included work as a barrow boy at an East End market and at Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium. James Timothy (Jimmy) Pursey was born in Hersham in 1955. Jimmy Pursey and Dave Parsons, the song-writing partnership behind these gems, deserve far more credit as tunesmiths than they have received over the years. Frustrating or what?īy then they had left a legacy of working-class anthems so loved that no punk band has come close to equalling them. And during 1977-1979 three albums were released loaded up with punk rock anthems, including five top twenty hits.Īnd then … they split. In fact, Sham 69 came from the same place as their public. Written in a language the public could understand. They had songs the public could relate to. And with our Uncles who spent Saturday afternoons on the football terraces. However, one band, more than anyone else, connected with me and my young gang of schoolmates.
SHAM 69 (Photo by Erica Echenberg/Redferns) The Ruts produced a line of classic singles until Malcom Owen’s untimely death. UK Subs introduced the warrior spirit epitomised by Charlie Harper, joined by a band of soldiers ready to wave the punk flag for many years to come.
Thankfully, a good number of acts were ready, willing and able to do exactly that.īuzzcocks injected a more personal flavour to the music. These fans still wanted to jump around, singalong and spend their hard-earnt cash on punk rock bands who gave them what they wanted. They were entirely happy with loud, brash music with shedloads of energy, attitude and identity. However, what about the fans? Many didn’t want their bands to ‘evolve’. It was as if the new punk rock music was no longer enough anymore for some of the first wave of punk bands. The Clash only really made one punk album and by Give ‘em Enough Rope were already moving into new territories. The Pistols inevitably imploded and Lydon went straight into Public Image Ltd the result was undefinable – and was therefore exactly the essence what punk should be. In so far as it really was anything the band wanted to do. However, when the landscape settled after punk’s opening salvo, what was left? The Slits produced the most free-spirited of punk of albums in Cut. The Stooges led the way out of garage rock with distortion and Iggy, The Ramones played rock n roll at breakneck speed, The Clash, The Damned and the Sex Pistols played muscular Faces-style stuff sprayed with swagger, anger and tons of in yer face attitude. However, punk’s early pioneers operated with basic chord structures and arrangements. Musically punk rock should have been be anything anyone wanted it to be. ❉ Paul Matts on the punk rock anthems of Jimmy Pursey and Dave Parsons.Īfter the initial whirlwind of the first wave on punk rock there was one question.
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