Perry
Jackson - Vocals
/ Gary Clarke - Guitar / Paul
Dee - Bass
/ John Dee - Drums
 |
...The
Story...
|
The
Deciballs were from the Hadleigh area of Southend, and existed between 1978
- 1979. Many members came and went, but core members were Gary Clark on
Guitar, Paul Dee on Bass and John Dee on Drums. Vince Hibbit is known to
have played Bass in them at one point also, and it is thought that Ralph
(ex-Spurts) was also a member..The band only played a handful of gigs including one at Eastwood High School For Boys with The Psychopaths and The Spurts, and another at King John's Hall in Hadleigh with the same line up. Speaking in 2005, Andi Schurer said of that gig "They split that night when Gary decided to smash his guitar, and the clubs windows."
A permutation of the Deciballs did make it into the recording studio though, sharing the time with The Psychopaths, and the Deciballs line up was Perry Grim on Vocals, Gary Clark on Guitar, Paul 'Blue' Dunn from Speedball on Bass, and John Dee on Drums. Songs recorded included 'Sloppy', 'GBH' and 'MacDonalds'. Another Deciballs song - 'Solitary' was recorded with a different Deciballs line up at a different time, but details are sketchy, although it is known that Perry recorded the vocal to 'Solitary' in one take
After the gig mentioned earlier at King John's Hall, the band pretty much split up, and Gary formed The Decibels with Andi Schurer and Pete Melling from The Psychos, and John and Paul Dee started The Shocks. Ralph went on to The School Bullies and Vints went on to play Drums in The Sinyx.
It is worth noting here, that many other Southend Punk bands, caught up in the spirit of the times, might form, choose a name, get up and plug in as a support at a gig or so, and split up within a week, with ever interchangeable casts of characters on the various instruments, from the local punk scene. It is near impossible to document all these bands, but names such as The Nomads, Exhibit B, Captain Strange, Salems Deviants, The Systems, Empire Backfire etc spring to mind.
Discography
'Southend Punk Volume One' - Features The Deciballs song 'Solitary' - CD (Angels in Exile Records AIECD 004) - 2020