The
Bleeding Pyles were all from Southend and its environs, and existed between
1979 and 1981. The Band had emerged from Drummer Steve Pegrum's earlier
outfit, Cut Throat and The Razors. Many members came and went during the
bands existence, but Steve Pegrum and Spencer Blake were it's core members.
It was with the aforementioned Cut Throat and The Razors that the story
started. Steve: "I'd loved punk ever since seeing 'So it Goes', and
after buying all the Clash, Pistols, Adverts releases etc punk took over
my life - Revolver cemented it and I just had to get a band together.
In 1979 I got a rudimentary drum kit, and within a week of having it put
Cut Throat and The Razors together. I was Cut Throat, and the Razors were
Chris Davies and Graham Godfrey. We managed to work up a couple of good
numbers - 'GBH', and 'Saliva' but the band didn't do too much."
Wishing to take things more seriously, Steve got another kit in 1980 and
looked into putting a new band together. Initially Graham from The Razors
helped out, and they tried a few auditions using the infamous 'Daves'
rehearsal studio in Southend. Nicholas Stocks briefly stood in the vocal
limelight until a more 'permanent' line up was put together, comprising
Lee Lobb from Canvey on Vocals, Spencer Blake from Leigh on Guitar, Mike
'Spiderman' Heddon on Bass and Steve Pegrum on Drums. This line up made
a glorious racket on a frequent basis at the aforementioned Dave's Rehearsal
Studio in Central Southend, even managing to occasionally formulate a
tune out of the sonic cacophony that often constituted a Pyles practice.
Such tunes were reworkings of the aforementioned 'GBH' and 'Saliva', plus
new songs 'Thalidomide', 'Army Recruitment', 'Boot Boys' and 'Holocaust'.
The
band started to look into playing, and managed a performance at The Focus
Centre on the 08.09.80, although Spencer didn't make it for some reason
and a member of local band 'Vice Squad' (not the Vice Squad!) stood in
on guitar. The band continued writing and engaging in their 'glorious
racket', but Spencer and Steve were blown away by a Discharge gig they
saw at The Music Machine later that year, and as a result reevaluated
their take on things. Energised by this new, harsher sound, The Pyles
entered 1981 with a changing line up, and Paul Lawson, a friend from the
local punk scene, and regular at punk club Barons at The Elms, came in
on Guitar, Spencer switched to Vocals and a new Bassist, Mick Grant, was
recruited via an add in a local music shop, The Golden Disc.
This
was Spring 1981 and the first rehearsals were incredible. Steve: "After
struggling and trying to get a band together for so long, it was very
heartening to finally get to the stage where it all started coming together."
He continues "From the first couple of rehearsals we had 'Blind People'
and 'Receiver Deceiver' and things just clicked really quickly."
Soon working up a set of numbers that would include many future Kronstadt
classics, the band booked at gig at Thorpedene Community Centre on the
19.08.81, got their friends The Get to support, flyered Nasty's, Graffiti
and just about every punk friendly shop in the area and managed to generate
a lot of interest. Because of the venues location, it did cause some consternation
amongst the local residents and in the press, but things passed peaceably
and a great time was had by all.
Towards
the end of the summer, the summer of '81, the band began looking into
getting some of their songs down on tape, and had a look at Elephant Studios
in London and booked it for later in the year. In the interim though,
Pyles Bassist Mick Grant decided to leave the band to pursue his religious
aspirations, and Spencers friend Andy Fisher was drafted in on Bass. With
so many potent new songs being written, and to reflect the general consensus
in the band to start taking things a lot more seriously, a new name was
chosen - The Kronstadt Uprising - and so it was later that year that the
band recorded the first KU demo and played their first gig as The Kronstadt
Uprising at Focus on the 07.12.81.
Unfortunately,
the earlier versions of the Pyles never got to record any of their songs
in a studio, although genuinely frightening rehearsal cassettes are known
to exist! Of the early line ups, Graham Godfrey went on to play Lead Guitar
in Christian Rock band Spirit Level, Mike Heddon would go on to play Bass
in The Beers-In Brothers, and Lee Lobb would go on to acting. Interestingly,
there was a bit of an historical Pyles-KU interfacing going on at a CND
Benefit at the Cliffs Pavilion on the 02.10.81, when Steve Pegrum, Paul
Lawson and Andy Fisher quickly plugged in and played a couple of numbers.
Spencer Blake hadn't come down, so Steves friend Gary Smith (and future
KU singer) sang on the songs instead. Spencer, Paul and Steve would go
on to the Kronstadt as already noted, and mentions should be made for
people passing through the Pyles world via the infamous sessions at Daves.
These would include Drac, Toad from Chelmsford, Tracey, Martin Nicolini
and many others.
As mentioned in
the Deciballs chapter, in the spirit of punk, many bands would often form,
write a couple of numbers, jump and plug in at a gig, play a few numbers,
maybe do a few more gigs then promptly disappear again. Such bands might
have included The Sickies, Squark, The Menstruating Vaginas and many others.
Thus it was that the ripples of punk spread far and wide, but whenever
those ripples hit the shore, if it was 1980 you could be guaranteed to
hear either 'Belsen Was a Gas' or 'Warhead' being played by some band
emanating through the battered walls of Daves rehearsal studio...
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