About Me
"On January 1st 1984, Sarah, Steve, Jesus & Mark formed an unholy alliance, took a name from a novel by Graham Green and The Bomb Party was born.
Their 1st single "Ray Gun EP", incorporating "Harry The Babysitter" - a disturbing little number about the child care industry - achieved 'single of the week' in one music paper and was generally enthusiastically received.
With a growing reputation as a particularly and unpredictable live act the group released their 2nd EP "New Messiah" providing two classic crowd-pleasers in the title track and a two-minute explosion of energy entitled "Wasted".
With three tours of the U.K. under their belts - on with play Dead, one with Leather Nun, and one in their own right - a limited edition 7" anthem for the under-priveliged, "Life's A Bitch (When You Ain't Rich)", heralded the release of their first LP, "Drugs", which was to consolidate the roup's growing reputation. This no nonsense collections of songs, like "Kill Your Wife" and "Our Love Is Pushing Up Daisies", was again warmly received by the press. Tours of Germany, Holland and Denmark followed, culminating in a memorable appearance at the Futurama festival in Belgium.
A brief period of hibernation followed, broken only by the release of their 2nd LP "Liberace Rising" - prompting a 5-star review in Sounds - and a brief tour of Germany to break-in new member Leszek Rataj, and a new van. Leszek passed the test, but unfortunately the van had to be abandoned between Heidlberg and Cologne.
The Bomb Party's first release with the new line up, was a blistering re-working of the old bubblegum classic of the 70s, "Sugar Sugar", which featured the Voice Of The Beehive on backing vocals and production by Vic Mayall. it too, was chosen as Sounds 'single of the week'.
Following on the release of a new album "Fish" - a marriage of greater maturity and musical depth, with the energy, confidence and rock'n'roll panache that characterised their ealier work - The bomb Party again undertook a successful German Tour, culminating in a sparkling performance at the Lorelei Open-air Festival, along with New Model Army and The Jesus and Mary Chain, before a crowd of 10,000 people.
Their next single release - "Why Don't You Behave (More Like A Man And I'll Behave More Like A Woman)" - perfectly exemplified the band's growing pop sensibility and brevity."
In the Autumn/Winter of1989 they played a 13 date tour of England, plus a mini-tour of Germany, before performing what turned out to be their last ever gig, at the Mean Fiddler's Powerhaus in London, on the 17th December.
The following year they released their fourth album, "Nativity ..3",recorded in Germany without Sarah, who had other commitments. This was to be their last recording, and the band effectively ceased to exist on it's completion...
Ask any 30-something Brit-rocker with a wild, druggy stare, greasy, stringy hair, or a beat-up, puked-on leather jacket (or all three, seeing as they usually come that way) if they remember what Grebo was, and they will grin widely, stroke their scruffy chin, and say, like, Fookin hell! The Bykers, mate! or Greee-bo Guru! or Toss off, bender! or something equally British and enthusiastic. Although its reign in the pages of the UK pop weeklies of the day (NME, Sounds, Melody Maker ) was brief, Grebo was a far-reaching musical phenomenon from the late 1980s that still resonates among scuzz-freaks and psyche-metal galactic cowboys to this very day. And the music still packs a powerful, debauched punch, too. So, just what was Grebo, and is there any chance at all that you, the young, intrepid flash metal blastronaut, might be a Grebo yourself? And what does any of this have to do with the Bomb Party?
Well, the Bomb Party invented Grebo. They are the Patient Zero of the whole movement. They were dirty, cosmic, all-fucked-up, half-Satanic creeps who played narcotic, goth-dirge flash rock and wrote songs about suicide and murder and Jesus. So did lots of other bands in England back then, but the Bomb Party was the first, and most certainly, the scariest. They sounded like a bunch of fucking DEAD PEOPLE who just clawed their way out of the grave and picked up guitars. Their music sucked all the light out of the sun and spit back blinding black rainbows of murk and misery and spent shotgun shells. They were death n rollers way, way ahead of the curve.I'd Use My Fingers, But My Name's Not Ivan
Plus, they had a hot, peroxide-abusing chick, and in the credits, they claimed the album was recorded in Alaska, Easter 1986, which seemed so weird, even IN 1986, that you just had to hear what the fuck was going on. Plus, the first song was called Kill Your Wife! Nihilism and black leather has always been one of rock n rolls greatest combinations.
A lot of the songs on Drugs seem to be about the Bomb Partys friends, whether real or imagined theres the lonely, suicidal Susie of Susies Party (Susie had a party and no one came/ Ever since, shes never been the same), mad strangler Johnny, of Johnny Took Her Breath Away (Johnny took her breath away/With an electrical cable), the less than zero Johnny Nero (Johnny Nero is a twat), and even the infamous Kill Your Wife (Get a knife/Kill your wife/Get a crowbar/Kill your grandpa) is dedicated to Denis. Im sure Denis was thrilled by that.
The whole album is just one long murder ballad, really, with bad-cowboy guitar slinging, crazy, hopping-mad whiskey howls, and midnight moans of pain and ecstasy. It still sounds as lethally doped-to-the-tits now as it did in 86, and the really sadistic death rockers, like Zombie Head and Our Love is Pushing Up Daisies, are just pure evil. Drugs is authentically NASTY rock n roll, the kind of stuff you could base an interstate killing spree or a murder-suicide pact on. It is one of the most depraved rock records of the 1980s.
Suffice to say, its a must-have.
So let us just drop the needle back down on Drugs one more time, and remember those glorious days when filth was in, and death was only the beginning.
Well one mans fish is another mans crab,
I loved you for real baby, when you were dead on the slab
"Sleazegrinder,still Grebo after all these years"
