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The Stevie Band

 
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RichStuff



Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 3
Location: London

PostPosted: Sun Aug 20, 2006 6:21 pm    Post subject: The Stevie Band Reply with quote

Does anyone else remember 'The Stevie Band' the punk 'supergroup' that played at various UK Decay/Pneumania gigs in 1979 (including the Town Hall gig on 17th Aug 79). I seem to remember it consisted of any one on the bill that night who's name was Steve. I'm pretty certain it usually included Abbo and Spon (during his Pneumania days?) and probably Steve Harle(?).

They played their own 'arrangements' of songs such as 'Coo Ca Choo', 'YMCA' and 'Born to Kill(?)'.

How many times did they play? Who was actually in the band? and what other songs did they play?

RichL
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werewolf
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Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Posts: 1240
Location: Luton UK

PostPosted: Sun Aug 20, 2006 10:52 pm    Post subject: Stevie Band or 'The Gang of Steve's' Reply with quote

Stevie Band or 'The Gang of Steve's'
RichL wrote:
Does anyone else remember 'The Stevie Band' the punk 'supergroup' that played at various UK Decay/Pneumania gigs in 1979 (including the Town Hall gig on 17th Aug 79). I seem to remember it consisted of any one on the bill that night who's name was Steve. I'm pretty certain it usually included Abbo and Spon (during his Pneumania days?) and probably Steve Harle(?).

They played their own 'arrangements' of songs such as 'Coo Ca Choo', 'YMCA' and 'Born to Kill(?)'.

How many times did they play? Who was actually in the band? and what other songs did they play?

RichL


What we know about the Stevie Band or 'The Gang of Steve's'

The 'Stevie Band or 'The Gang of Steve's' as they were sometimes
known, originally comprised of 2 members each from UK Decay and
Pnuemania and yes they were all called Steve!
That was Steve Harle (UK Decay) on drums, Steve the Voice
(Pneumania) on Bass guitar, Steve Spon (at that time, Pnemania!)
on guitar and of course Steve 'Abbo' (UK Decay) on vocals and guitar.
There may have been other 'Steve's guesting from time to time but
the aforementioned core played a series of gigs in Luton around the
summer of 1979. Notably they played a couple of times at the 'King
Richard 3rd' on London rd and the 'Sugar Loaf' in New town as for the
town hall I can't remember but certainly probable!
The 'Stevie Band or 'The Gang of Steve’s’ petered out around the
time Steve Spon left Pneumania to join UK Decay in the Autumn of
79. The Stevie Band or 'The Gang of Steve’s’ were originally formed
as the two bands started working closer together around the early
summer of that year and it was realised that half of the membership
of the combined bands, had the name of Steve. Echo's of 'Monty
Python's Ozy sketch with 'Bruce' being replaced by 'Steve'.
Conveniently the instruments played by the 4 Steve's from the two
bands fitted the exact criteria for a new band- hence the idea that
started out as a light hearted joke gained momentum, the new band
filled in as an opener for Pneumania and UKDK at some of their
Luton show's.

The Stevie Band or 'The Gang of Steve's' were a complete contrast to
the usual style associated with Decay and Pneumania playing the
'cheesiest' pap cover's for the time. As well as the songs mentioned
by richL above, there was 'Ring my Bell' and a self penned reggae/Dub
lampoon called 'Humpty Dumpty in Babylon'.

In a way although a ‘fun’ band (I don’t know about the ‘supergroup’ status
expressed above lol) the ‘Stevie Band acted as a kind of springboard
that led to Steve Spon eventually joining UK Decay.
Furthermore it was probably a good learning process in the art of
theatrics and entertainment for the guys some of which, no doubt
may have rubbed of in UK Decay’s soon to be new line-up!

W.W.
Twisted Evil Twisted Evil
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RichStuff



Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 3
Location: London

PostPosted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 10:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the info Werewolf.

For the record, my notes have them playing at the following gigs (and yes i am anal enough to have written down every band i've seen since 1978)[apart from my weird period during the mid 80's Exclamation ].

17/08/79 Town Hall
22/08/79 Grapevine
27/08/79 Marsh Farm
28/09/79 Luton Tech

Another question i have is who is 'scots bobby'?(or something like that)? i have him down as supporting Uk Decay at a few gigs around the same time.

RichL
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werewolf
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Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Posts: 1240
Location: Luton UK

PostPosted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 7:07 pm    Post subject: re Scots Bobby Reply with quote

re Scots Bobby
RichStuff wrote:
Another question i have is who is 'scots bobby'?(or something like that)? i have him down as supporting Uk Decay at a few gigs around the same time.


Thanks for that info!
There's a vague rehearsal tape/cassette somewhere with a couple
of numbers by The Stevie Band, including the wonderfully titled
'Humpty Dumpty in Babylon'. If it can be found and the quality is
reasonable enough, we shall stream a short excerpt from it.

A breif background to Scots Bobby can be found here

W.W.
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