Dave

I play guitar in The Straps .. The band was formed in 1977 when i was 15 in Battersea, South London with my mate Steve Macintosh (guitar) Howard Jackson (Vocals) Green (Bass) Brad Day (Drums). We played our first gig with the UK Subs in 1978 @ the Park Tavern Pub in Streatham & went on to play quite a few more gigs with the UK Subs & Kirk Brandons "The Pack" throughout 1978/79. Jock (John Grant) took over on vocals late 1978 from Howard & then Green died of an overdose, Andi Sex Gang took over on Bass Guitar & played his first gig with us @ The Latchmere Pub in Battersea. The band relocated to Brixton (squatting) where we recruited new band members Stan Stammers (Bass) from "The Epileptics" & Luke Rendle (Drums) from "Crisis" Andy Forbes joined a short while later on 2nd Guitar. We played loads of gigs around London including Camden Music Machine, Marquee & Hammersmith Odeon with SLF in 1979.In 1980 Stan & Luke left to join "Theatre Of Hate" with Kirk Brandon & Andy Forbes left to join "The Wall". We then asked Simon & John Werner of "The Pack" to join The Straps, we also recruited Jim Walker (donut) from "Public Image" on Drums. The Straps then undertook a full UK Tour with "The Damned" in Nov/Dec of 1980 on the "Blackout Tour" getting rave reviews & often outdoing The Damned on stage much to their annoyance. We released our first single in January 1981 called "Just Can..t Take Anymore/New Age" on Jim..s label Donut Records. We headlined loads of the major venues around the London Area, like The Marquee, The 100 Club & Camden Music Machine where we often pulled crowds of up to 1500 people. We had the highest attendence of the year at The Marquee on 06 Jan 1981 after pulling a crowd of 700 people on a Tuesday night. The official capacity was only 450, it was chaos in there & you couldn..t move. Even the Stray Cats, Boy George, Captain Sensible (who joined us onstage for a version of New Rose), T O H, SLF, Chelsea etc were in the crowd.In 1982 we released a second single called Brixton/No Liquor & also our first album which sold well & has now become a collectors item. It was a bit of a rushed affair as it was recorded in just over 6 hours. It had Pete Davies (UK Subs) & Rat Scabies on drums as well as Andi Sex Gang on backing vocals. After a couple of more line up changes including the comedian "Lee Evans" on Drums. We split up in early 1983 after recording a 3rd single which was never released.We were asked to reform in 1993 for the "Fuck Reading" gig @ Brixton Academy with Sham 69 & that was the last of The Straps until December 2004 when i got a call asking if we wanted to play with The Rezillos at London..s Astoria 2 with only 10 days notice. We recruited 3 new band members & the gig was amazing with about 300 "Straps" fans turning up. Not bad seeing that we hadn..t played a gig for 11 years.Since the Rezillos gig we have had a "Straps Punk Collection" Cd released by Captain Oi & played the 2005 "Wasted" Festival in Morecambe, "Wasted" 2005 Xmas gigs in Wolverhampton & London Astoria, "Wasted" 2006 in Blackpool & we..re also booked for "Rebellion" 2007 in Blackpool. We played "Punk Aid" 2006 @ the 100 Club with Sham 69 We have been headlining various gigs around London pulling decent crowds, but we find it hard to play regular gigs as we all live in different parts of the country & can..t get together as often as we..d like to.We have finally recorded a new album, 25 years after the first one was released & it..s due for release in the summer of 2007.Line Up: 2007Jock Strap .. vocals Dave Reeves .. guitar Mark Hobbs .. bass Stu Phillips .. guitar Raffeye .. drums ... I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4/A