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Dirt was formed in year 1980. Name Dirt came out as a result of the way people treated punks. Punk at that time wasn't trendy or a fashion as it is today. It was seen as ugly and threatening, people attacked you verbally and physically, they were even refused service in bars and restaurants etc.
There are some rumours that Deno and Gary met at the Institute for Mental Health, but that's just a rumour. They we're friends, they lived in same local and used to go home on the same bus. Their personalities were so extreme that people who worked with them ended up suffering on numerous occassions, that's why there was so many different members through out the band history.
Their early gigs were chaotic and exciting, they couldn't get gigs at proper venues, so they had to find their own places. In one occassion they hired a church hall as if it were for a wedding reception. Got bands to play with them, it was D.I.Y., the audience were similar people to them, the gigs were seen as meetings places for like minded people. People even produced their own fliers and distributed them. All their early gigs were arranged by themselves. They hired halls, chose the bands, named the door price and kept the peace.
Crass had been touring with the Poison Girls for numbers of years and at some point in 1981 the 2 bands decided to stop playing together. So Crass was looking for a band to tour with and they decided to tour with Dirt, cus their style and lyrics complemented what Crass were perceived as. Then Crass put out the first Dirt's EP "Object Refuse Reject Abuse" as part of their label as a thanks for being what they were.
Lyrics came from within, from things around them, that happened to them. Garry wrote songs about war/ bombs/ politics and Deno wrote about more personal issues.
Their logo The Skull was painted by an artist and Dirt's best friend Leo.
They weren't comfortable with the "preaching" aspect, so they'd performed stupid dance routines and cover versions like Elthon Johns "crocodile rock". Some people liked it and some thought they were clinically insane.
In 1982 they released "Never Mind Dirt-Here's the Bollocks", it is a live record cus it was a quicker and cheaper way of getting their material across, but it turned out most of the quitar tracks were missing and had to be re-recorded in the studio.
Lou played quitar for Dirt and Flux of Pink Indians for a while, but after the Bollocks album she left Dirt. Then Fox and Vomit had had enough. The band had pretty much exhausted itself by this point. They felt they had done a lot, grown a lot etc. The antics of Gary and Deno had caused a lot of rifts between them and those around them. So they took a break/announced the split.
Fox met Honey Bane, got married had a kid then sadly died of an epileptic fit. His brother Vomit played in a few non-political local bands, then formed a Hawkwind style band and played a couple of gigs with Dirt (when they emerged again).
"Mother/Ripper" 7'' was never released due to production problems and disagreements, but can be found on the "Black&White" LP/CD.
The band reformed in 1984 with a totally different line-up, with Stuart (Special Duties) on drumms and Paul on quitar. The name stayed the same cus lyrics/music had always been written by Garry and Deno.
"Just an Error" was released on their own label. After the LP was released Stuart, Paul and Richard left the band. Then the band took a long break in 1986 until it was revived in 1992 with Mick on bass, Karen on quitar and Stef on drumms.
"Feast or Famine" was released as a cassette, reason that it was on cassette is that it was only a demo.
When they had USA tour with Hellkrusher and Final Warning their drummer Stick was refused entry into the USA, so Dirt recruited Julian (drummer from New York). Karen decided to quit after the 1st USA tour and Cecille took over her place as a bass player.
Their next release was a live LP "Drunks in Rusty Transits" (D.I.R.T. became an acronym for Drunks In Rusty Transits).
A week before their next tour Deno decideed she's got enough, so Gary phoned Stacey (from Mankind?) and convinced her to fly to UK for a 6 week tour. After that tour Dirt came to an end.
Gary later formed Stratford Mercenaries with Steve Ignorant (from Crass).
