UK Decay

[werewolf]

Scot's Bobby
For those who may wonder whom the character depicted on the inside of the Split Single cover
inlay, named as ‘Scots Bobby’ is, here is a little background albeit from hazy memories.

‘Scots Bobby’ real name Robert Caldwell, originally hailed from Greenock in Scotland.
He and his band decided to move nearer to London in the mid 70’s, to seek ‘fame and fortune’.
Ending up in Luton (of course!) being only a short drive to the city but a lot cheaper to live,
quickly established themselves on the local circuit.
In about 1977 the original band split and with the emerging Punk and New Wave movements
Scots Bobby decided to throw his ‘lot’ in with the new trend. Towards the end of 77 a certain
‘Steve Spon’, joined the band on keyboards and the new band changed their name to ‘K-OS’.
Later, St. Alban’s ‘Tanya-Hyde’ and Luton’s ‘the Captain joined the band on vocals and bass
guitar.
After a shambolic gig supporting Sham 69 in Bishop’s Stortford in 1978, the band split up.
'Captain' and 'Spon' eventually formed a new band (Sno White – later Pneumania) and
converted the basement at 130 Wellington Street into a rehearsal room. Scotch Bobby
became a ‘solo artist’; singing and playing the guitar, as well as retaining close links with the
emerging Punk scene in Luton.

He played several of the early punk gigs in 1978/79, it would be interesting to try and recall
some of those events. At the same time he maintained close links with some of Luton’s older
and more established musicians, notably ‘Kat Kool and the Kool Kats’ and the emerging
Paul Young, whom he recorded demo’s with!
He is pictured above on the Split Single inlay blow-up, where he is ‘thanked’ by the 2 bands
and Plastic Records for his help and support
Scots Bobby had a positive and friendly disposition and provided a lot of technical and moral
support for the two bands and the early Luton punk scene.
Sadly, he seems to have disappeared by 1980 although has been seen from time to time
and at least up until the early 90’s was still living in town.
On the left pic Scot’s Bobby is seen rehearsing at the 130 Wellington St. practice room and
on the right he is pictured on the pavement just outside of the front door of ‘130’.
He also contributed to the ‘Suss’ fanzine, notably the ‘Incredible Skin - ED’ cartoons.

Does anyone know of his whereabouts, or can anyon fill us in with any more info?

If so, please let us know; ‘Post Reply’ below.

W.W.

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[paulrabjohn]

sorry but don't know any more to the scots bobby tale ; this is all news to me.

however.......i do have a single by tanya hyde on waldos records (who were a sort of watford/st.albans label , had stuff like the bears and the tea set). didn't realise she was linked to the uk decay / pneumania family tree ; i'm guessing this record must have been some time later?

p

[werewolf]

re Tanya hyde

[zinzan]

Who was "Captain" and are scottsbobby and dave siddely one and the same?
What happened to "croaky Steve" and why are ukdk still remembered in St. Albans as bad lads?

[werewolf]

Re: Old daze

[zinzan]

Well thank a bunch for all the history!
Can't remember much about it all as too young at the time.
My Dad swears he remembers locking up ukdecay for the night in thre St Albans poloice cells. He's been retired a few years now.
He was desk-Sargeant at the time.
He remembers it quite clearly as one of his funniest moments in the Force.
Apparently a cop were nearly castrated by a nutter that bit them on the balls at the rail statiuon.
There was some kind of riot led by Abbo, who got away with it but others were charged with Disorderly behaviour or something similar.
They wanted to get them for more but couldn't pin much on them.
He remembers Captain cause he bullshitted them with stories of a flying skinhead squad brawlling at an Indian restaurant. Sounds pretty mad, was it aleways like that?