Before Punk came along, Edinburgh art college students Alan Forbes and John Callis were in R&B covers band The Knutsford Dominators. Their 1976 venture, The Rezillos, was…
Browsing: New Wave
Glen Matlock left The Sex Pistols because he was tired of posing, didn’t hate boring old farts enough (he admitted to liking Paul McCartney which…
By the summer of 1976, Richard Hell (born Richard Myers) had formed and then quit arguably the two most exciting bands of the original CBGB’s scene – Television and The…
The Rumour comprised former members of British pub rock bands Brinsley Schwarz, Ducks Deluxe and Bontemps Roulez. Formed in 1975, they initially performed and recorded…
Few early-80s pop stars can be said to have carried off the vile fashion of the period with any success, let alone the self-confessed ‘fat…
Bowie-influenced Scottish punk band Johnny & The Self Abusers changed their name to Simple Minds for New Wave fame and glimmered through the early 80’s by adding Krautrock and Eurodisco…
Starting out as a trio called The Strutters, singer/songwriter Mark Kjeldsen along with rhythm section Bobby Irwin and Ron François re-branded themselves as The Sinceros,…
Siouxsie Sioux (real name Susan Janet Ballion) grew up in Chislehurst, Kent. When punk rock hit the UK she was part of the now-legendary ‘Bromley Contingent’ -…
These Leeds second-wavers (named after a track from 1968’s Songs Of Leonard Cohen) formed in 1980 and became the sour face of Goth four years…
They were an odd couple: Dave Ball broodingly poking his keyboards in the background while out front, Marc Almond – all black eyeliner and utter…
In September 1976, having just left school in Islington, North London, Gary Kemp formed power pop band The Makers with friends Tony Hadley, John Keeble, Steve Norman…
Though short-lived, The Specials Mk I were punk’s multi-racial idealism made flesh. The group came together almost by osmosis, gathering together the remnants of several…
New Zealand’s most successful music export, Split Enz, began in Auckland in 1972 when Tim Finn and Phil Judd formed an acoustic band called Split…
This eight-piece new wave band from Chislehurst (Kent) provided a messy mix of punk thrash, novelty songs, and covers of standards such as Roy Orbison’s Pretty…
Formed in Deptford, South London, Squeeze came to prominence in the late ’70s, riding on the new wave created by the punk movement. The core…
British jazz-pop combo Swing Out Sister came out of Manchester in 1985. They began life as a trio of Andy Connell, Martin Jackson (formerly of…
After leaving Split Enz, guitarist/singer/songwriter Phil Judd left behind his previous arty-pretensions in favour of a straight-forward punky three piece, with Dwayne “Bones” Hillman (bass)…
Talk Talk began their career in 1981 as a synth-pop new wave band who looked pretty and sounded slick and shuffled gawkily around the New Romantic fringes -…
David Byrne and fellow Rhode Island School of Design students Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz formed a trio in 1974. After rejecting names such as…
The Teardrop Explodes formed in 1978 with original members Julian Cope (real name Kevin Stapleton) on vocals and bass, Mick Finkler on guitar, Paul Simpson…