During their brief existence from 1981 to 1983, the San Francisco trio B Team was one of the most popular bands in Northern California's early post punk scene. The band released two EP's - 1981's First Product and 1983's Buy American - that both received heavy airplay from college radio stations nationwide. Featured exposure of the First Product EP on John Peel's radio show also earned the band a following in the UK. Though B Team rarely played outside of the Bay Area - a pair of shows supporting The Au Pairs at L.A's Whiskey A Go Go and a series of gigs in the Pacific Northwest with Vancouver's 5440 being the exception - they were a regular and high drawing fixture on the San Francisco club circuit. In addition to headlining, they opened for a list of touring acts that is a virtual who's who of the international post punk scene at that time, including The Birthday Party, Echo and the Bunnymen, Killing Joke, The Psychedelic Furs, The Bush Tetras, Depeche Mode, OMD, Pigbag, The Stranglers, Nina Hagen, Au Pairs and more. A pair of co-billed shows with SF's legendary Flipper were also a local scene event at the time. The usual creative tensions, exacerbated by the loss - with the company's sudden demise - of a freshly inked distribution deal with Faulty Records, lead to the band's breakup in 1983.
