Pneumania formally known as ‘Snow White and the sic Punks’, were formed early in 1979 in Luton UK by founding members and nihilists, Steve Spon and The Captain (not Sensible!). They had just converted a basement in a soon to be demolished terraced house in Luton, into a rehearsal room and went on a hunt for a Vocalist and Bass player.
Their search led them to the ‘Grapevine’ public house that was the ‘hub’ of the thriving Luton Punk scene. Amongst the throng of ‘spikey-tops’ and ‘Seditionary’ clothed regulars, one girl stood out from the crowd. Her name turned out to be Gaynor and although she had never sung before, she gladly accepted an offer to come along to a jam session in view of forming a Band.
Gaynor had spent the last year or so, charging tourists along Kings Road in Chelsea for taking her picture. With her bleached white ‘Jack Frost’ haircut and stunning punk fashion clothing she wouldn’t fail to catch the eye, but the ‘real deal’ about Gaynor was in spirit she was a seminal punk Goddess. It wouldn’t matter if in a musical sense whether she could sing or not, what she had to say would be more important.
Initially, Captain who formally played guitars ( and was currently playing Bass with the ‘Jets’!) would now be on drums. Spon who formally played keyboards, would now be on guitar. For the first few sessions this was the line-up and although ragged round the edges, within the first month there was a sound developing and a hand full of songs were coming together.
Recruiting the right Bass Player however, was proving a problem. Cue Steve the Voice, who had been on the sidelines for a little while. An ex Art student with his ‘nose on the streets’ who couldn’t play a note wanted to give it a go. With initial reservations he was given a chance to prove himself on bass, which after a while he did! For the early part of 1979 the new band thrashed away in the basement and got together a set of tunes.
A name for the band was chosen, ‘Snow White and the sic Punks’ and before long the first ‘Live gig’ was on the horizon. This provided a dilemma for ‘The Captain’ as the ‘Jets’ whom he played bass for as well, were on the same bill! This wouldn’t go down very well with the Jets. To get round this the Captain played the first ‘Snow White and the sic Punks’ gig completely wrapped up ‘Mummy’ style in bandages, so as not to be noticed by the Jets. Half way through the gig the bandages inevitably started to come adrift eventually leading to severe embarrassment on the Captains behalf. After this, the Captain decided to move into management, vacating the Drum kit.
The first gig was at Luton’s Barnfield College was historical in the sense that this was where the Idea of ‘The Split Single’ was first thought out, with ‘The Resistors’ (UK Decay). Putting aside ‘Captains’ embarrassment, it turned out to be a really ‘stunning’ gig. However, ‘Snow White and the sic Punks’ were now in need of a drummer.
Cue Nigel Dark, a friend of Steve the Voices, Nigel was an accomplished drummer with a grounding in Jazz as well as ‘Nihilism’. Within a few rehearsal sessions Nigel had fully integrated himself into the sound and it was at this point that ‘Snow White and the sic Punks’ would now change their name to ‘Pneumania’... TBC..