3 Johns

This Leeds, Yorkshire pop punk band, formed on Royal BIG DAY in 1981, set themselves a characteristic precedent when you are refused permission to try out a ‘Funk The Wedding’ gig because these were drunk. The line-up highlighted John Brennan (ex-25 Rifles; bass), John Langford (ex-Mekons; electric guitar) and John Hyatt (ex-Sheeny AS WELL AS THE Goys, Another Color; vocals). They fulfilled in Leeds while these were at university, although individually they’re from Wales, Belfast and Wolverhampton. A drum machine was found in choice to a supplementary member, although, ironically, all three music artists had been skilled percussionists. They agreed upon to CNT Information in 1982 and released two singles, among which, ‘British Light Boy Engineer’, was a reworking of a vintage Mekons amount. The lyrical concentrate of the tune attacked hypocritical behaviour towards South Africa and apartheid, as well as the group had been quickly specified as left-wing rockers, albeit large drinking types: ‘We all possess socialist convictions and certainly that comes through… but we’re not really a socialist music group. We’re several socialists who are within a music group. It’s an excellent distinction but a significant one’. They quickly produced their popularity via frenetic and comic concert events, even executing a edition of Madonna’s ‘Like A Virgin’. A legacy of great singles filled the independent graphs, including ‘Green Headed Insect’, ‘Guys Like Monkeys’ and ‘Perform The Square Thing’. 1985’s ‘Loss of life Of A Western european’ was a fresh Musical Express One FROM THE Week, although by misfortune it surfaced within the aftermath from the Heysel soccer tragedy and therefore accomplished no airplay. Regrettably, there was inadequate success to permit the music group to stop their day careers. Langford gained his living like a part-time visual designer for medical Education Support, and Hyatt (who designed the music group’s addresses) was a instructor of ARTWORK at Leeds Polytechnic. Their debut recording, Atom Drum Bop, bore the story ‘Rock and roll ‘n’ Move versus Thaatchiism’, and included efforts from schoolgirl Kate Morath on oboe. They caused Adrian Sherwood on 1987’s By no means And Usually, while 1988’s The Loss of life Of Everything AND MUCH MORE was summed up by one critic as ‘untidy, snappy, guttural’. From then on came an extended break within their musical endeavours: ‘We essentially stopped operating after our last gig in Dec 1988. We’d carried out a US tour that was a total catastrophe and we didn’t talk with each other from then on, we had been all too occupied having infants and points’. Hyatt created a skill exhibition at Liverpool’s Tate Gallery, and Langford continuing to utilize the Mekons. They came back with Eat Your Sons in 1990, an idea album coping with, of all points, cannibalism.