THE CULT MANIAX

From Torrington in Devon, The Cult Maniax were Big Al (vocals), Paul (guitar), Foxy (bass), Mildew (drums). Strangely when sales of punk records started to dip in 1984, The Cult Maniax became more successful scoring big indie hits with their 'Full Of Spunk' and 'Johnny The Duck' EP's. 'American Dream', the band's third single was released in January 1983 without a picture sleeve when the printers refused to handle the supplied artwork.

THE TRAIN SPOTTERS

I've always liked Mike Read, he gave The Valves a BBC session so he must be alright. Unfortunately, Read had to give up his record collection recently when he was declared bankrupt with various scavengers auctioning bits off on ebay.

There's only one great track on each of the Train Spotters singles. Everyone knows 'High Rise' from the first, if not you'll know Read's BBC jingle. The A-side of the 2nd single sounds like something The Piranhas might have done a few years later, so obviously the great track is on the flip and is a fine piece of punky powerpop called 'Hiring The Hall'.

THE MICE

The Mice were Gary Croudace (vocals), Neville Crozier (guitar), Geoff Peel (guitar), Barry Stanford (bass), Kenny Mundye (drums). Some of the names above you might recognise from the Fruit Eating Bears. 'A Song For Europe' from 1980 was the only Mice single (audio found here), the song being a reaction to the Fruit Eating Bears infamous Eurovision appearance two years previous. From the ashes of The Mice came Flamingo Express who released a single 'Honeymoon In Spain' b/w 'Eighteen Wheels' on the Monarch label (MON-044) in July 1983.

FANCY ROSY

1977 fake punk from Germany by a Puerto Rican born singer/photo model. Rosy usually wears a bit less clothes than she's wearing above (check out the various cover shots for the Pretty Maid Company's 1976 Euro pop hit 'Pretty Maid' for example). Rosy's infamous 'toilet terror' pose resulted in 3 million poster sales, or so the bio on the back cover of this record claims. 'Punk Police' no doubt sold considerably less.

JAKPAK

Jakpak were Mick Griffin (vocals), Mick Williams (lead guitar), Tim Burbridge (rhythm guitar), Steve Jayes (bass) and Matt McIntyre (drums). Matt was one of several drummers used by Jakpak and had previously played with The New Hearts and The Gorillas. 'Soul In A Box' was released on Dart Records, a label owned by John Cousins (manager/accountant for the Bee Gees). If you follow the mp3 link you can also read a quote from Mick Griffin explaining a wrong credit on the label.

THE RED LIGHTS

Though regarded as 'inferior' to the live Roxy version by some people (see the entry in 45 Revolutions for example), for me the studio version of 'Never Wanna Leave' with added piano and harmonica is pretty much perfect. The stunning pop song on the flip 'Seventeen' deserves a mention too. Only pressed in small numbers (500 copies apparently), why hasn't this been booted or re-issued?

KING LOUIS AND THE MEMPHIS MAFFIA

Belgium, scientifically proven to have more fake punk per square mile than any other country in the world. Here's another record that justifies doing the maths.
I can't tell you much about King Louis And The Memphis Maffia other than they look like the sort of misfits that would be hanging out at Monopole Records with Bobby Ranger and The Praetors. The songwriters, T. King and C. Peeters, names appear on other scary looking things on Monopole which would be cluttering up cheap boxes from Antwerp to Charleroi. Who's brave enough to part with a Euro or two to find out how scary?

CHEEKY

Cheeky first formed in the early 70's gigging through the glam and pub rock eras playing mostly covers. There was even a spell with two female vocalists. By 1980 the band's line-up was Chris Southorn (bass/vocals), Nick Dee (lead guitar), Martin Hainsworth (rhythm guitar/vocals) and Nick Chimes (drums). Nick had recently replaced Mark Sippitts.

'Don't Mess Around' released in 1980 was Cheeky's only single, but they also backed Phil Canning on his great 'Sell Out' single from the previous year. The picture below shows Cheeky on stage at the Dog & Trumpet pub in Coventry circa 1980.

WEBSITE UPDATE

I know, it's been quiet here lately, but I've been busy with other things. Still, during any spare time I've been working on the discography on the website and have finally reached the end of the alphabet.

The discography is going to be my main focus from now on. I've now re-organised the whole thing into two sections. The main section is now for UK releases rather than UK artists, so I can now include records by non-UK artists (a few already included). The sub-section is for selected releases from Western Europe and is at a very early stage.

The audio pages are now gone, instead everything has been integrated into the various discography pages. I plan to include lots more info in the discography. Audio will also be added regularly with a lot of the old 'Trash favourites re-appearing (I'll keep you informed of this via the blog).

There is probably a lot of stuff still missing from the discography, both obscure and things from the more commercial end of the new wave. Also errors, typos, missing info etc and no doubt a few inaccurate release dates. Help is always appreciated.

A big thanks to Bruce (My Life's A Jigsaw) for the tons of info he's sent recently for letters A-M. Bruce has already started to send info for the 2nd half of the alphabet so expect a few additions to appear over the next few weeks.

Why the Jet Staxx picture above? Well, audio for 'You'll Get The Chop' (not previously on the website) has been added to the page here.