Speedball formed in 1979, from the ashes of Idiot, and were one of the best of the '79 Mod Bands. They only lasted for about a year, but in that time released the excellent 'No Survivors' single. The band were comprised of Robin Beulo on Vocals and Guitar, Guy Pratt on Bass and Dave Dyke on Drums, and were managed by Roger Allen, Editor of The Surrey Vomet.

Taking a few Idiot songs with them as well as writing new ones, they had a great repertoire of songs including their traditional opening number 'Don't You Know Love By Now?', 'Ging Gang Gooley', 'Is Somebody There?', '60's Girl', 'Round and Round', 'Billy Gets What Billy Wants', 'Boys and Girls' (an older song which was eventually dropped), and the classic 'No Survivors'. They also did a cover of 'First Time' by The Boys.

Speaking to Jamming fanzine in 1979, the band spoke about some of the songs - Rob: "('Don't You Know Love') is not actually a love song as such, it's about a bloke trying to go out with a girl just for her, and not trying to have sex. But eventually he does." 'Is Somebody There ?', which Rob said was "Just a sort of prayer - most of the songs are about being mixed up." Also " 'No Survivors' is about the hypocrisy behind all the newspapers". As for 'First Time', Dave said "The one cover we do is 'First Time' by The Boys, because they're the most underrated punk band around, they should be in the Top 10 every week."

In that same year, the band released a single - 'No Survivors' c/w 'Is Somebody There?' on local Record Shop Record World's / Dirty Dick's 'No Pap' label. It was distributed by Rough Trade and did pretty well, and is certainly a key single of its era. Many local Mods could be seen around this time with 'Speedball' on the back of their parkas, and things looked promising for the band. Unfortunately after only a relatively short time together, by about 1980 they imploded and called it a day.

Robin moved to Australia and Guy has continued as a 'gun for hire' Bassist, playing with everyone from Bryan Ferry to Pink Floyd! Sadly Dave Dyke died from cancer in 2007. Detour Records collated all the bands existant recordings and released them on a CD titled 'Maximum Speed' in 2009.

Discography

'No Survivors' c/w 'Is Somebody There?' - 7" Single (Dirty Dick Productions - No Pap Records DD1 - 1979)



'The Unsung Heroes' - The Phase II Mod Collection - Features the Speedball song - 'No Survivors ' - LP/CD (PHZA-17 1988)



'Maximum Speed' - Fourteen Track Speedball Compilation - CD (Detour Records - DRCD055 CD - 2009)

'Millions Like Us: The Story of the Mod Revival 1977-1989' - Four CD Compilation - Features the Speedball song - 'No Survivors' - CD (Cherry Red Records - CRCDBOX16 - 2014)