The Monks ~ UK

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After a four-year stint as the rhythm section for respected English trad rockers, the Strawbs and a subsequent four-album run as Hudson-Ford, John Ford and Richard Hudson emerged in this utterly unexpected incarnation with Terry Cassidy combined together with Clive Pearce on drums (Hud was then playing bass, leaving John free to play guitar), as the '70s closed with punk at its apex, The Monks signed by EMI, changed with the times.
Unlike truly ticked-off punkers such as the Sex Pistols, they played it for a lark on their debut Bad Habits, which featured a leggy, cigarette-smoking, stocking-revealing nun on the cover. Reveling in their Englishness, they jabbed mirthfully at headbangers and ska-fanciers alike with spot-on spoofs including "Drugs in My Pocket," "Spotty Face" and of course "Johnny B. Rotten."
Surprising even themselves, they watched as "Nice Legs Shame About Her Face" climbed to No. 19, borrowing the rhythmic strum Lou Reed perfected with Velvet Underground. Former drummer Hudson was playing bass by now, allowing bassist Ford to be the band's guitarist. Terry Cassidy had full band member status as the writer or co-writer of half of the album's 12 tracks. Chris Pearce allowed Hudson to get out from behind the drum kit.
Turning in another direction and alter ego, they had a fling with 1930s-style music as High Society in 1980. They returned to the ersatz punk of the Monks with Suspended Animation with the addition of Brian Willoughby on guitar and Chris Parren ..boards for a only-in-Canada release on Polygram, later reissued on CD in 1997 by Cyberdisk.
Aside from the UK & US, The band were huge in Canada, playing stadium gigs as big as the Strawbs ever achieve, with Suspended Animation went from Gold to Platinum in Canada, as Nice Legs, too. Band Pix coming soon as we dig them outta the vault !
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