Buster

Teenagers Peter Leay (guitar/vocals), Kevin Roberts (bass) and Les Brians (drums) met at comprehensive school in Wallasey, Liverpool, and formed a band called The New Attraction with Rob Fennah (vocals/guitar) from nearby Greasby.

They auditioned for both Opportunity Knocks and New Faces and failed to get accepted for either show.

Undaunted, they continued to play in pubs, clubs and holiday camps until they were spotted by manager Alan Richards.

Richards made some demo tapes with them and – now renamed Buster – they signed to RCA in 1976 and were instantly teamed up with the songwriting duo of Ronnie Scott and Steve Wolfe (best known for Bonnie Tyler’s It’s A Heartache).

The band’s impressive debut single, Sunday, released in June 1976, barely scraped the bottom of the British charts (#49 for one week before dropping out of sight forever) and that was the most chart action Buster ever saw in their home country.

In Japan, however, they went on to be massively successful for the next couple of years until the band apparently disappeared for good after some frantic record releasing in the land of the rising sun.

In their wake, Buster left a few albums and a handful of singles containing pleasing late 70s teenybop fluff with barely concealed heavy rock tendencies (they covered Steppenwolf‘s Born To Be Wild on their first LP) and their often self-penned 7″ B-sides were on occasion experimental instrumentals.

Japan-only singles like She Ain’t My Baby and Beautiful Child tended to be just excellent straight-ahead rockers.

Rob Fennah and his brother Alan, formed a record company in Liverpool in 1993 called Pulse Records and Productions.

Rob Fennah 
Vocals, guitar
Peter Leay 
Lead guitar, vocals
Kevin Roberts 
Bass
Les Brians 

Video

Drums