The Enemy (Derby)

Hailing from Derby, THE ENEMY first formed in early 1980 though it wasn’t until mid 81 that they settled on a stable line up of vocalist Mark Woodhouse, guitarist Steve Mellors, bassist Steve O’Donnell and drummer Mark Herrington. Scraping together what money they could they recorded their debut single “50,000 Dead” at Derby’s Old Cottage Studios and released it on their own Tin Tin label. The record was distributed by Fresh Records who introduced the band to the newly formed Fall Out label. Fall Out co-boss Steve Brown suggested the band come to London and sign to the label for a one off single but when they got to the ’smoke’ they found the contract was for three singles and one LP!They became the first band to sign to the label and released the single “Fallen Hero” early in 1982, the single coming with a free lyric sheet. The usual round of loss making gigs were undertaken by the band before they released their second Fall Out single “Punk’s Alive/Picadilly Sidetracks/Twist and Turn”, the last named track being a version of the old SLAUGHTER & THE DOGS classic. By the time the band began recordings for their debut LP Steve Mallors had been replaced by Kevin Lamb who made his first appearance with the band on the “Last Rites” single. This was followed in early 1983 by the LP “Gateway to hell”, which contained 13 tracks of powerful Punk protest songs that inclued new versions of “50,000 Dead” and “Societies Fools”. Leading magazine “Punk Lives” said at the time that ‘you need this album more than you might realise’ and over the years since its release it still stands out as one of early 80’s Punk’s finest moments. Soon after "Gateway to Hell" was released, Mark Herrington was replaced by Dave Hill on drums.By 1984 the band had moved to Mansfield based label Rot Records and released the single “Last But Not least”. They were joined in the studio and for the live recording by Russell Maw as the guest 5th member of The Enemy. They also released a half live studio LP “Last but not least” which, fittingly enough, proved to be the last the world would hear of The Enemy.Biography by Mark Brennan