The Lurkers Sunderland Lees Club 1978
The Lurkers were part of the first wave of punk bands. They were big fans of The Ramones, The New York Dolls and the US Garage scene, and you could tell this from their music. This gig featured the original line-up of Howard Wall on vocals and Pete Stride on guitar. The Lurkers had just released their first album Fullham Fallout, and had hit the lower regions of the chart with their first three singles. Lees Club stood in Park Lane Sunderland, and was pretty empty for this gig. The two songs I remember most of all from the night were the Lurkers’ catchy fourth single “I Don’t Need To Tell Her” which they played on Top of the Pops (look it up on YouTube; it still looks pretty cool) and the B side of the same single “Pills” which is a Bo Diddley song, also covered by the New York Dolls. It was a pretty good raw punk gig. Support came from the Straw Dogs, a local band who featured Olga, and were soon to morph into The Toy Dolls. The Toy Dolls, of course, dedicated a song “She Goes to Finos” to this very night club (Lees Club was to become Finos a year or so later). The Lurkers exist to this day, featuring a line-up based around bass player Arturo Bassick, who was an original member of the band, but had left by the time I saw them in 1978. I saw the current line-up of the Lurkers a couple of years ago, when they supported the Buzzcocks at Newcastle Academy. Pretty cool yellow card ticket, and a bargain at £1.25.
Archive for the ‘Lurkers’ Category
4 Sep
Vintagerock's Weblog. 